Roommates

Five

A Trip Into The Past

Blaise sat out in the garden and looked at what was planted. There seemed to be a lot of rose bushes. Everywhere you looked, there was a bush. The garden was alive with their scent.

"Too many roses," he muttered, and tried to rip them out. Its branches wove themselves around his arms, thorns poking into his skin menacingly. "Okay, okay," he told the bush. "I get it. You're the Founder's bushes and you're supposed to stay here." The bush slowly unwound itself, and went back to being pretty.

He breathed in the scent of a rose that was dominant in the theme of the garden and all of a sudden was thrown into the silvery water of the fountain. Before he hit the water, he felt a thorny vine unwrap from his leg.

He wasn't in the garden anymore; he was in the Great Hall. He stood up and looked around. There, off to his left, were the Founders. They were arguing about something.

"Pensieve," Blaise mumbled, and walked over to the Founders to hear what they were talking about. He recognized it from when he fell into his grandfather's.

"What I don't see is why they have to be in the rose garden," Helga said crossly. "It's my garden, and I've spent a few fair years cultivating those bushes into what they are now."

"But it's the only place that no one would think to go," Rowena said. "And it's protected against the students getting in, so they wouldn't know."

"I don't see why we can't just make it a thing and hide it somewhere," Salazar mumbled.

"Oh, right, like your idea for us to leave a basilisk in the school is a good one," Godric retorted. "I'm glad the rest of us nixed that idea." He turned to Helga and Rowena. "If it makes you feel better, Helga, we'll just make them be roses. A particular rose, but a rose nonetheless. You could even pick which one it is, just remember that it needs to be a dominant theme in the garden."

Helga looked at each of her co-Founders. "I don't suppose that there's any other choice," she said, frowning.

"No!" Salazar, Godric, and Rowena said simultaneously.

"Fine. They can be roses," Helga conceded.

"Thank you, Helga, my dear," Rowena said. "You won't regret it. Now, what protection spell should we put on the-- What is it, Mr. Reid?" She asked a small strawberry-blond boy who had dashed up suddenly to her.

"Well, I was wondering, Professor Ravenclaw..." The boy's voice faded as Blaise was catapulted out of the Pensieve and back into the garden as the memory faded. Obviously the pensieve had been enchanted to only allow a person to see one memory each time they viewed it.

He stood dazed for a few moments before walking over to the blood red rose that showed most in the garden's pattern. "What are you?" he murmured, stroking a petal on one of the full-blown blooms. He could have sworn that it moved to feel more of his finger.

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Hermione was sitting at the desk when Blaise came into her room after knocking briskly without waiting for an answer, and pulled a stool up next to her desk and sat down.

"Yes?" she asked Blaise.

"Guess what just happened," he said, still a bit stunned.

"I don't know."

"C'mon, guess!"

"No, I'm terrible at guessing."

"Fine. I was out in the garden, trying to get some space for something other than roses, and these red roses pushed me into the fountain, which turns out to be a Pensieve..." He went on and explained, Hermione becoming more and more fascinated.

When he finished, she sat there for a moment. "Wow. We should investigate," she said, digging through the desk for anything that mentioned a Pensieve.

"Congratulations," Godric said. Hermione and Blaise looked up. "You've picked up a piece of the puzzle."

"What?" Hermione said.

"Huh?" Blaise asked.

Godric frowned, and looked off into the distance. "I'm afraid I can't really tell you anything. But have you ever thought of trying things more than once? I mean, just because it works once means that it can't possibly work twice, can it?"

Hermione blinked at him. "Does that mean that we should try to access the Pensieve in the fountain?" she asked slowly.

"Perhaps," Godric said. "But I can't really tell you anything. You should think for yourselves, you know."

Blaise blinked. "I'm slightly confused," he said to Hermione. "I mean, I just fell in a Pensieve, for--" He swore, and Hermione, out of habit, reminded him not to swear. "I'll swear if I want to, damn it!" he exclaimed, irritated, shocked and confused.

"Listen, Zabini," Hermione said, fixing him with a look, "this is rather confusing. You have just burst into my room claiming to have 'fallen' into a Pensieve. I find that hard to believe at the moment. Perhaps after a few moments of thought will sort it out."

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They stood in the garden and looked around.

"I can't believe you convinced me to do this," Hermione muttered.

She went over to a rose bush and tried to pluck a rose. The bush wrapped a thorny branch around her ankle and tipped her into the fountain. She heard Blaise falling into it after her.

When they stood up again, they were in the garden again, but this time the Founders were there.

"Well," Helga said, standing up and brushing dirt off her apron. "It's done. We've installed them."

"What about maintenance?" Salazar asked. "How will we maintain these things when we're dead?" He waved a hand at the red roses.

"Well that's why we made sure that they won't need maintenance for about a thousand years," Rowena said.

"But when they do?" Salazar went on. "What will happen then?"

"Well," Godric said, "we're going to have to make sure that we have a smart Headmaster, then."

"No," Helga said, glancing at the roses. "They say that they need two people, preferably students, for some reason, to tune them. They say that they'll know when they need it and tell us somehow."

"Wait a second," Salazar said. "'They' say?"

"Somehow, I guess since we enchanted them, and since I'm more in tune with plants than the rest of you, I can hear their... plant voices."

"I always knew she was crazy," Salazar muttered. Godric flicked him.

"Shut it 'Zar," Godric said. "This is important."

The memory suddenly faded, and Hermione and Blaise were thrown back into the garden of their time.

"Well," Hermione said, kneeling by the plants. "That was interesting."

"To be sure," Blaise replied. "And I'm not sure that I want to experience it again."

"Neither am I." Hermione touched a bloom and sniffed it. "They smell like regular roses to me. It's hard to believe that they're somehow magical."

"That's odd for roses," Blaise remarked. "They're beautiful, that's for certain, but mostly are used for decoration and protection. You never see them in whatever this is. And it certainly isn't a decoration spell. But it isn't a protection spell either, or not one of the common ones, at least. The whole 'delicate and deadly' aspect of flowers. Only when they're enchanted are they deadly, though. Mostly when you plant them next to a wall, it's to make sure burglars don't get in."

"Ah," Hermione said, getting off and brushing the dust on her pants off. "Well, let's go look in Ravenclaw's library."

They went indoors and went down a corridor to a large pinewood door that had a 'Library' sign hung on it. Hermione reached out and pushed the door open to reveal a library that, though not as big as the Student's, it was middle-sized. She walked in and went over to a shelf.

"Miss is looking for a book?" asked a squeaky voice below her left elbow. Hermione glanced down and saw a small House-Elf with a rectangular nose looking up at her, clutching a book.

"Yes," Hermione said. "What's your name? And could you tell me who was the last person to use this library before I look in any books, though?"

The House-Elf sniffed. "Professor Ravenclaw, Miss," the House-Elf replied. "And my name is Bookie."

"Bookie?" Blaise put in leaning against the bookshelf and smirking.

Hermione ignored him. "What do you mean, 'Professor Ravenclaw'?" she said. "I thought that it was a policy for the Headmasters to have the Heads of House in the Founder's chambers. How could I be the first since Ravenclaw?"

Bookie sniffed. "The library doesn't respond to every Head that tramples through this place." She glanced around. "Things that the Founders made have a mind of their own sometimes, Miss," she said. "They... take a liking --or a disliking-- to people. When Riddle was Head Boy you can be sure that the library wouldn't let him anywhere near it."

"Interesting," Hermione murmured. "Now, can you show me where Rowena's journals are? And the other Founder's, if you've got them."

Bookie nodded and led her and Blaise to a small bookshelf at the back of the library. "Here are the notebooks that Professor Ravenclaw kept," she said. "Read them if it pleases you, Miss, but please don't take them from the library."

As Hermione looked down at the cover of the book, Bookie left. It was engraved so: The Notes and Ideas of Rowena Ravenclaw, Head of the Ravenclaw House at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. "She was certainly interesting," Hermione muttered to Blaise.

Blaise shrugged. "If you founded Hogwarts, wouldn't your ego go up a bit?" he asked, looking over her shoulder at the book.

"True." Hermione opened the book on a random page.

Godric and Salazar are arguing again. If they keep up this behavior, we shall never get anything set into the Castle before the original spell sets. Those two are most bothersome, I must admit.

Helga and I have sworn on ever developing a relationship beyond friends with either of them. We are now considering a nunnery for us and a monk's life for them. It would be interesting, I think, to see Godric trying to recite the Psalms backwards and forwards. I do not think he even knows one forwards.

I have been thinking of how to develop the spell so that it works on roses. The original copy of it isn't meant for animate objects, it's meant for statuary, but I think I can re-format it so that it works on roses. That's why my suggestion was the statue of Godric holding the Hogwarts seal, with all the animals at his feet. But no one else agreed with me.

Salazar thought it should be that dratted Hat. Well, since I was the one to suggest the Hat for Sorting after we're "gone", I know that the Hat cannot be adapted to any other spell. Otherwise it would cease to perform its main function: to be an annoying singing hat and sort students.

Hermione tried to leaf through the rest of the entries. "It won't let me," she said, annoyed. "Bookie!" The House-Elf appeared in front of her. "Why won't this book let me read anything else but this entry, do you know?"

Bookie peered at the book. "It seems," the House-Elf said, placing a finger on the book's spine, "that it has an enchantment on it, Miss."

"What kind of enchantment?" Blaise asked, irritably.

"Sir will excuse Bookie for not knowing the extent of this spell," apologized Bookie. "But it seems to have a time-release spell on it."

"'Time-release'?" Hermione asked. "What does that mean?" Blaise glanced at her, surprised. "We haven't got to that yet in Advanced Charms," she explained.

Bookie and Blaise hid snickers. "Time-release spells are when there's a spell on something to let it show its contents one piece at a time. Professor Ravenclaw was very fond of it, in case Professors Gryffindor or Slytherin took to reading her private things." Bookie glanced at the book. "It seems that this one is particularly strong. Other than that, I don't think I can say anything else about it. For now."

Hermione and Blaise looked at one another, sighing, before replacing the book and leaving the library.

"Well, that was exciting," Blaise said dryly. Hermione looked at him. "We go in there, find an incredibly promising book, and it won't let us read more than one bloody entry."

"Hmm," Hermione replied.

"I'll speak as I want too," he replied. They turned a corner into an unfamiliar room. "What the..." He trailed off, glancing around him. "Where are we?"

They had entered a room decorated with blue and bronze. As soon as Blaise asked where they were, a small kiosk popped up in front of them. Parts of the map on the kiosk, which was large, were undecipherable. Others were clear. They recognized the library, their rooms, the living room and the garden. The label that was stuck on this room was 'Ravenclaw's Study'.