“Lunchtiiiime!” Helga Hufflepuff’s voice rang out through the unfinished halls of Hogwarts. “Come on, you lot!”
Mere seconds later, Rowena Ravenclaw and Godric Gryffindor appeared in what was to become the Great Hall and stood admiring their accomplishments. Such a school had only been dreamt of before now, but as the two young witches and wizard, along with their comrade Salazar Slytherin, were soon to make it a reality.
“It smells delicious, Helga,” Godric complimented, inching his nose ever closer to the steaming shepherd’s pie. “You’re such a wonderful cook.”
“Thanks, but it’s your turn next, you know,” she said with a wink.
Godric tried to think of a quick comeback to defer her, something about how he could never prepare food as well as she does, or that her motherly and caring demeanor naturally lends itself to looking after the rest of them. Or maybe he could pass his turn off to Salazar…
“Don’t even think about it, Godric,” Rowena teased. “I know what you’re scheming, and don’t you dare try to weasel your way out your fair share of work.”
“Bollocks, lady! How do you do that?” Godric now vowed to himself to never muse private thoughts in front of Rowena if he wished to keep them private. Rowena always denied it, but stunts like that convinced him that she must have had great seer ancestors whose abilities ran through her blood.
Rowena just smiled and swished her long chestnut hair away from her face and continued helping Helga set the table for lunch. Godric seated himself in his usual spot, waiting for the witches to turn their backs so he could take a quick nibble.
Unfortunately for him, Helga was a stickler for fairness and proper manners, and so kept a watchful eye over their lunches. She slapped Godric’s hand away from the food and stared sternly down at him.
“You, sir, will wait until everyone is here,” Helga demanded.
“Well where in the bloody hell is he?” Godric griped. The rumbling of his empty stomach was agonizing and all-consuming. His patience was at its end. “SALAZAAAAAR!”
Helga stitched her brow thoughtfully before speaking quietly to Rowena, “You don’t think… He’s missed several meals in the past few days. You don’t think he’s sick, do you?”
“SALAZAAAAAR!” Godric screamed again.
“Honestly!” Rowena scolded, restraining herself from slapping the back of his head. “If you want him here so badly, go and find him!”
Godric needn’t be told twice before marching purposefully out of the Great Hall. Now that his impatience had evolved to anger, he doubted it should take three minutes to find the fourth, even in so large a castle.
His footsteps clanked on the stone floors, sounding as cold and harsh as he now felt towards the other wizard. Controlling his temper was not one of Godric’s strengths, especially when it came to dealing with Salazar. The two of them never saw eye-to-eye on many issues regarding their project to build Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry; these differences of opinion and belief were slowly widening the rift in their professional relationship.
Just as Godric was rehearsing his diatribe and ready to scream out Salazar’s name for the third time, the tall and sinewy wizard appeared from around a corner. He was out of breath and his cloak billowed behind him in the wake of air that rushed past.
“What’s the hurry, Sal? Finally decide you’re hungry enough to grace us with your presence?” Godric asked bitterly.
“It’s Salazar.” He made no eye contact and answered no questions as he walked swiftly to the Great Hall. Godric followed behind and taunted the detached, selfish wizard with guilt for being late and disrespectful to their fellow founders.
They entered the opening where massive wooden doors would soon be mounted and took their seats around the oval-shaped table. It appeared small in comparison to the grandeur size of the room, but each of the founders could overlook the oddness and envision much larger tables in a hall teeming with students. With Godric’s strength, Rowena’s intelligence, and Helga’s work ethic, the three of them expected the castle to be completed before the year was over. And though he never liked to admit it, Godric did admire Salazar’s ambition and knew that the fourth founder’s contributions to the school were vital to making it successful.
That’s probably why Godric was so visibly miffed that Salazar kept disappearing when there was still so much work left to be done. Helga had made a rigorous timetable for all the construction and spell work that needed to be done in order to satisfy Hogwarts' projected completion date, yet Salazar’s recent disregard for teamwork was making the plan nearly impossible to follow.
“Good to see you, Salazar,” Helga greeted with a warm smile.
“Hey, Sal,” said Rowena
“It’s Salazar.”
He didn’t bother to thank Helga for cooking before diving in to the expertly prepared meal, but she handled herself nobly and ignored the breech of propriety.
“Have you been working hard?” she asked, genuinely interested. “We were getting worried about you, thought you might be sick. It’s been a while since we’ve seen you…”
Salazar just shook his head and kept his eyes fixated to the bowl in front of him.
“Yeah, Sal, where’ve you been?” Godric asked menacingly. “We have a timetable to keep, you know. You’re part of this whether you like it anymore or not. We can’t sacrifice our duty to this project just because you want harsher rules for attendance. I don’t care how much you skulk about it. Everyone with magical ability gets in and nothing is going to change that, least of all you.”
Rowena and Helga stared open-jawed at the exchange, dumbfounded that the strain between Salazar and Godric had become so resentful. Salazar seemed not to have vexed himself over Godric’s feelings, however, and exited the room without so much as a flinch.
Weeks and weeks passed in which the founders worked harder than ever to build their dreams”except Salazar, who had virtually disappeared from Godric’s sights altogether. He could tolerate both Rowena and Helga whenever the need arose, but went to great means to avoid Godric, even if it meant skipping meals.
Godric couldn’t have been more pleased to have the unbearably sour wizard out of his hair and away from the Hogwarts plans. He knew Salazar was in the castle somewhere, presumably finishing whatever tasks Helga had delegated to him, and that was enough. What he didn’t know about Salazar’s solitary doings was much more frightening.
On a night when the air was cold and the clouds were heavy, Godric lay down in a feather bed in his self-named Gryffindor Tower and gazed out the window. Intermittent snowflakes glided down like fallen angels, reluctant to hit the ground but unable to prevent it. Whether it was the hypnotizing affect of the snow or the result of the sheer exhaustion that came from the final stages of constructing Hogwarts, Godric slipped into a welcome unconsciousness.
Barely an hour had Godric been asleep when he began to stir. Brilliant colors of red and green flooded his mind’s eye and disturbing images flew in to haunt him. Suddenly he was not sleeping anymore, but wide awake in his dream and running from panic itself. Out of the dense, intangible fog came another blotch of green light, while a black and red slinky figure wound its way around the green.
A sense of evil and foreboding filled Godric’s subconscious, and he was stuck in this nightmarish hell. Trapped in his own imagination, Godric raced through his dream world to escape the sounds of screaming children that chilled his bones. Everywhere he turned was another dead end in an underground labyrinth of terror; the rounded walls reminded him of a tunnel of which there seemed no opening in sight.
He felt the rats crawling over his feet, their rabid squeaks being almost as horrifying as the faint hissing noise that echoed through the tunnel. Godric awoke at the precise moment a scaly texture slithered against his leg and leapt from his bed.
Gasping for breath Godric fumbled for his wand in the dark, illuminated the night air and raced off to find Rowena. The bitter cold stung his flesh as he ran but he hardly noticed or cared. Whatever was going on inside Godric’s head had been too real to ignore and too consuming to think of anything else.
“Rowena!” Godric yelled in the dark. “Get up! It’s terrible!”
“Bloody hell, leave me alone,” Rowena mumbled wearily. She was a heavy sleeper and hated to be woken.
“This is serious! Children will die! We’ve got to do something now!”
Godric was now standing beside her bed, shaking her shoulders without restraint. Had Rowena been better able to control her exhausted arm muscles, she would have slugged him across the face.
“You just had an nightmare, Godric. Go back to bed and we’ll talk about this in the morning,” Rowena assured.
“No, no, no, this can’t wait! He’s up to something sinister! I know it!”
Rowena rolled over to face Godric, though she had to shield her eyes from the light of his wand. “Who is?”
“Salazar!”
“Oh, come of it. He’s founding a school, for Merlin’s sake! How could he ever do something that would harm children?”
“I wouldn’t put it past him,” Godric replied solemnly.
Rowena sat up in her bed, pulling the covers up to keep her warm. “Listen, whatever you dreamed about, whatever you saw, you have to remember it was just a dream. You know those things aren’t real. It’s an insult to intelligence to believe that dreams are premonitions with actual validity. There’s nothing to worry about, I promise.”
“But…”
“Go back to sleep, and the four of us will discuss this in the morning.”
Godric said goodnight and left Rowena to her worriless sleep, but he absolutely could not forget what he saw and felt. His visions, those powerful emotions, the screaming…those were not some twisted, underlying thoughts of his own creation. No, those came from a much more malevolent source ” and Godric was going to find it.
He continued on through the midnight black corridors of his nearly finished school, unaware of exactly where Salazar’s resting place was located. It must be on the opposite end of Hogwarts, Godric reasoned, because the two never crossed paths. But on his way to find Salazar’s chamber, the hissing noise returned.
“Who’s there?” asked Godric, with a quivering voice. He spun his lit wand around in all directions, searching for the sound.
Seconds later a dark figure appeared from behind a corner and spoke in a language Godric had never heard before. The hissing noise immediately ceased and Salazar lit his own wand to reveal a devilish grin.
“So you’ve found me. To what do I owe this intrusion?” Salazar asked venomously.
“I know. I know you’re hiding something.”
Salazar laughed and arched his threatening eyebrows. “Aren’t we all hiding something, dear Godric? You show me yours, and I’ll show you mine.”
“I don’t bargain with Dark wizards, but since you asked…” Godric trailed off his sentence and conjured his jewel-encrusted sword, pointing it directly at Salazar. “Now tell me what it is so I can destroy it.”
Again Salazar laughed something frightening and laced his fingers casually in front of him. “I’m afraid it’s not that simple. My creation is not meant for you.”
“For who, then? Innocent children?” Godric accused, swiftly placing the blade of his sword against Salazar’s exposed neck.
“Perhaps,” answered the unfazed wizard.
Godric pressed his sword harder into Salazar’s skin so that a thin trickle of blood ran down to his collarbone. “Leave. If you ever return to Hogwarts I swear by the crest of Gryffindor I will kill you.”
Salazar knew that even if he could reach his wand, his head would be severed before he could use it. The only option left now was to obey Godric and leave the school he had put in so much effort to create. His departure was not a loss, though, for his own little project had already been completed before his banishment.
Godric spoke to Helga and Rowena the next morning about his dream and encounter with Salazar and received a mixture of emotions. Rowena had been horrified that Godric’s nightmare prompted such rash action as threatening and banishing someone who had once been their trusted founding partner, and Helga was absolutely worried stiff about the thought that something so evil could be lurking about the halls of their brand new school.
None of the three remaining founders ever saw Salazar Slytherin again, but credited his contributions to the school by allowing his name the same recognition as their own.
In the few short months before the school officially opened to its first class, they searched every inch of Hogwarts several times over looking for a secret tunnel. None was ever found, but precautions were taken by telling the first headmaster every detail; it was then the headmaster’s duty to pass the information along to every new generation upon his retirement.
It was this tunnel ” the Chamber of Secrets that few headmasters and headmistresses even believed existed ” that remained undetected for hundreds of years. It was this tunnel that Harry Potter would find, centuries after Godric’s dream and failure to destroy the evil that lived inside it himself.
Fin.