Sleeping Beauty
Once, a rich old wizard and his wife had an enormous party to celebrate the birth of their baby daughter, Adela. After a huge feast, the wizard stood up to make a speech. He talked about how happy he was to finally be a father, for he and his wife had been waiting for many years to have a child, and made his guests laugh by telling the story of how he learnt to look after his daughter by himself when his wife was called away. Then it was time for the guests to give their presents to the tiny baby.
The last to come forward with their gifts were Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw and Godric Gryffindor, three of the founders of Hogwarts School.
First, kind Hufflepuff announced, “My gift to the baby is beauty and happiness, may she enjoy her life to the full.” She waved her wand over the baby girl and smiled as she giggled under the spell.
The guests cheered and clapped, and Rowena Ravenclaw stepped forward. “My gift is knowledge and wisdom. May she be one of the brightest witches of all time!”
The old wizard smiled so much that tears came to his eyes. Then, as Gryffindor was about to give his gift, a loud Crack! shook the room. Salazar Slytherin appeared, his bottle-green robes flying around his legs in an invisible wind.
“Where’s my invitation?” he asked, outraged at not being invited to such an event, his looming figure advancing towards the child.
“Someone must’ve “ er “ forgotten to deliver it,” the wizard mumbled, an anxious look on his face. He had decided not to invite Slytherin as the four founders had been fighting a lot recently; Salazar had even been forced to leave the school. He didn’t want to cause an argument at his daughter’s party and so, left him off of the Guest list.
“Never mind,” Slytherin said, a chilling smirk growing on his face. “Is it time for presents already? My present for your daughter is that on her fifteenth birthday she will prick her finger on a spindle and die!” And with that, he Disapparated, leaving the party distraught over the dreadful curse. The old woman began to cry uncontrollably.
Gryffindor stepped forward. “I haven’t given my gift yet,” he said softly. “I can’t undo Salazar’s curse, but I can change it. My gift to your daughter is that instead of dying on her fifteenth birthday, she will fall into a deep sleep for a hundred years.”
Years passed and all went well. The baby girl grew up into a young witch, pretty, happy and clever. The old wizard and witch no longer thought about the curse, after having all of the spindles in their village destroyed. On her eleventh birthday, Adela received a letter inviting her to study at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, where she would be protected by the kind founders who had blessed her when she was born.
But on the very day of her fifteenth birthday, she found herself lost on one of Hogwarts’ many moving staircases. At the top of the staircase she found a door that she had never seen before, with a further stairway on the other side. At the top was a tiny room, with a single window telling her that she was somewhere on the east side of the castle. The room was bare except for an old wooden telescope, a chair and a spinning wheel.
Now Adela had been warned of the terrible curse that had been put upon her and turned to leave the room, but found a giant serpent blocking the doorway. She stumbled backwards and pricked her finger on the spindle, falling down to the floor.
Later that day, Gryffindor found the girl asleep in the room and carried her back down to the Great Hall where the other professors were waiting, not daring to hope for the best. When Godric entered, Adela in his arms, Hufflepuff began to cry.
“We’ll build her a tower in the grounds,” she said through her tears, for the young girl's parents had died shortly after she had gone to Hogwarts, “where she can stay until she wakes up.”
And so it was that a great stone tower was built in the middle of the Hogwarts grounds, where she could lay undisturbed for a hundred years.
Time slowly passed and the forest grew around the tower. Soon, the founders left Hogwarts and the tower slipped into legend. Students came and went through the castle, never coming near the forest or the secret slumbering chamber within. Until a hundred years later, a handsome young wizard explored the forest, driven by the story of a beautiful witch in an enchanted sleep.
At first, he could see no way to the centre. Thick vines had grown around the path and he had to use his wand to hack a way through. He could hardly believe his eyes when he found the silent tower, abandoned yet perfect as if frozen in time. Little clabberts and bowtruckles scuttled across the clearing, tending to small flowerbeds like proud little gardeners, and running for cover as the wizard came near. He could feel the magic tingling in the air as he walked towards the tower in the middle of the space.
He came to the half-open door and stepped inside, taking in his surroundings as he went. Walking slowly up the spiral-staircase, he looked at the portraits that dressed the walls, each with a slumbering subject who woke as he walked past. Then he found himself in a golden room, standing beside the sleeping girl.
“Sleeping Beauty,” he murmured to himself as he crouched beside her. He couldn’t resist. He bent down and kissed her lightly on the lips.
At once, Adela opened her eyes. Finding the wizard still bent over her, she smiled her first smile in one hundred years and thanked him for waking her at last.
In that moment, the wizard knew that he would never be happier than he was with her and made his choice.
“Will you marry me?” he asked quietly, his eyes never leaving hers.
“Yes!” she cried and kissed him happily.
When the headmaster of Hogwarts heard their tale, he ordered an enormous feast to celebrate, and the witch and wizard were married and lived happily ever after.
Wizarding Tales for Bedtime by Roxy Black
Chapter Notes: Sleeping Beauty is a classic tale of true love and evil curses. This version is based on the story by Charles Perrault, but of course, it has been... 'updated' and rewritten to fit with Septimus Weasley's style. Enjoy.