Harry Potter- Founders fic outline
I'm posting this here so some of the curious from the Amazon forums can check it out if they like. It will be a long time before it's ready for FFN.
Godric Gryffindor
b. ca 903 or 904, Exmoor; family property later to be incorporated into Godric's Hollow. Mother Godith, d. ca early March 914 of contagion (dragon pox or spattergroit?), kinswoman to Eorl Eadric, himself of Wessex; father Griffin, a transplanted Welshman; d. summer 913 (?) see AS Chron re: raids by Danes upon Welsh and Cornish/ Exmoor coasts. His golden griffin pendant was left with Godith.
Story: Upon the death of his mother, Godric, aged about 11, is waylaid on his way to Eadric's seat by one Wulfric and his companions. He is left in a cold river to drown after using magic against them, and his possessions are ransacked; immediately after, he is rescued by Ragnuk, a goblin, in exchange for his food bag. He is left at the gate of Aelfwine, a man of Eadric's (a thane? Check: proto- feudal structure under Alfred, Edward, Athelstan.) Outside of his family, Aelfwine's wife Edithna provides Godric's first instruction in magic. (Historical note: might meet Aethelflaed during this period, possibly at court, possibly as she travels from one building- site to another. Might have to be in Mercia. NB: Thundering English Rose or straightforward character?)
Eventually Wulfric is uncovered as a thief, being betrayed by possession of Godric's griffin, but he being highly placed, Aelfwine finds it convenient (or is assigned) to travel overseas for a time. Godric accompanies him to Brittany, then to Neustria/ Normandy where he meets Orm, the father of Ranulf Ormsson Le Strange; here he is first called "Gryffindor" by the Franks and Bretons with whom Ganga- Hrolf's people are already mixing. For the first time he is exposed to Breton, Frankish, Norse, Friesian and Flemish wizards and warlocks, and begins to earn a reputation for dueling (find a word in current usage. Old Latin root, may be okay.) For the first time he begins to hear of a mysterious old wizard, powerful and subtle, who ultimately came from Espana or Asturia (or India?) but has traveled farther over the world than practically anyone living, and who has the ability to speak to snakes. Orm, now surnamed Le Strange, has married a daughter of this Salazar's as his second wife, though so recently that they are only now expecting their first child. (He has several other offspring by his deceased first wife, including Ranulf who will be the ancestor of Rodolphus Lestrange.) She becomes Godric's tutor, exposing him to the Avada Kedavra curse, which Salazar has brought from India (or possibly even inventing it.) [Orm and Merope Le Strange are the parents of Ranulf, one of the first scholars and then a tutor at Hogwarts, and future head of Slytherin House after the departure of Salazar Slytherin. Ranulf could be played by a young Timothy Dalton. As a Norman miles, he is known for great skill at arms and a fierce and touchy temper; as a warlock, he is a formidable champion and one of very few who could beat Gryffindor if he tried. Knighthood is not yet what it will be, but nonetheless he has great respect and absolute loyalty for the Church, his Duke, and the King, and later transfers this loyalty to Godric and Hogwarts. He takes his duties as a Hogwarts teacher very seriously, refusing to allow scholars in his care to be permanently harmed, an attitude seen as a weakness by most of his Muggle peers and superiors. Ironically, of course, he will murder Helena Ravenclaw and kill himself, becoming the Bloody Baron.]
Godric returns to Wessex in time, having learnt much about both magic and ordinary combat, having a reputation for excelling at both. He gains a position in Eadric's household, marries Aelfwine's youngest daughter Edwina and settles down in his family's territory, enlarged by land received from Eadric. As his children grow during the 920's and 930's, Godric makes several journeys each year to Athelstan's court and the attendant meetings of both the Witangamot and Wizengamot, and further afield to Mercia and Northumbria; it is during this period that he first meets Helga Haraldsdottir and her house- elves, Loki and Aelfsi. She is an alewife of mostly Danish ancestry who discovered the need for local witches and wizards to have early instruction, and actually runs a school of sorts, always with more pupils than can be easily be managed; but she has a genius for organization and a commitment to never turn anyone away. However, she lacks facilities, and her students can only really come during high summer, before harvest; she does have a few apprentices, who stay with her year- round and help with the tavern, where her cooking and other homely magics are practiced. (She lives in the Danelaw, perhaps near Lincoln? She has interests in York as well, perhaps family.)
In 937 Godric, now about 33, is called to muster for an incursion of Welsh, Norse, and Scots; eventually the enemy is brought to battle at Brunaburg (Egil Skallagrimson's Saga, AS Chron.) Unbeknownst to Gryffindor, a Pictish witch has come with the enemy; he deduces her presence but cannot come to grips with her, and she escapes as Wessex wins.
Godric is wounded in the encounter, and goes home to recuperate. For the rest of Athelstan's reign, and that of Edmund and Edred he begins to shift his role from champion and warlock to occasional advisor, being forced by circumstance into the role of expert on goblins. He earns the goodwill of the goblins through diplomatic solutions to disagreements, reestablishing contact with Ragnuk. The goblins are perpetually exploring and excavating vaults and living space below London, later incorporated into Gringott's Bank and its unseen goblin community. Diagon Alley is in existence, though not completely sequestered, and Ollivander's has been in business for over five centuries. During this time he meets the abbot of Glastonbury, Dunstan, known as a silversmith, once tainted by a charge of black magic. However, King Edwig exiles Dunstan to the Continent. One of his companions in Flanders is a young friar, Fidelius, also a wizard, given to the Church as a boy in hopes that monastic life would suppress his magic. During this reign Godric forsakes the royal Court, traveling once every few years to the Danelaw or to Cornwall, but mostly seeing his children married and established. Upon the death of his wife he must decide what he must do; he does not wish to remarry immediately, his lands are largely run by his eldest son, yet as a wizard he is barely into middle age.
When Edgar ascends the throne, Godric presents himself and is soon proven a wise and reliable counsellor, though others wonder at his apparent youth. Edgar unites Wessex, Kent, Mercia, Northumberland, and East Anglia into one kingdom, for the first time called England; he recalls Dunstan in 957, who is later installed as Archbishop of Canterbury in 960. Edgar embarks on a massive campaign to restore and expand education through the Church and the monasteries, and is more cosmopolitan than his predecessors, allowing foreign influences to flourish, tying England to the Continent.
As this happens, Godric conceives the notion of a school for witches and wizards and warlocks, an expanded version of Helga's efforts, based in one facility like a monastic school. He approaches her on the subject; she is enthusiastic, wishing to bring in the mother of Helena, one of her apprentices. Godric is no less enthusiastic when, in an effort to win the approval and support of the Wizengamot, he hears of a reclusive wizard in the East Anglian fens, who can speak to snakes. Godric goes in search of the wizard (by this time accompanied by his talking hat, made as a companion for long trips.) Godric and Salazar Slytherin strike up a deep, if improbable, friendship; Slytherin eventually, after some thought, not only supports the idea of a school, but is instrumental in thinking out and solving many of the inherent and potential problems, particularly engineering issues.
They travel to York to meet Helga and Rowena Ravenclaw. Rowena is pureblood, of mixed Pictish and Scottish descent (she might be well- played by Helen Mirren, save that her picture on JKR's website is dark- haired.) She is clever and witty, and an involuntary seer; a rare prophetic fit leaves her exhausted, but confirms the future existence of the school. There is also some secret that Helga and Helena know about her; not until the morning of Slytherin's departure, years hence, do the others discover that she is also an Animagus, an eagle.
She is the heiress to land in the Highlands, a loch with a few farms and lots of forest centered around a rocky outcrop called the Hogwart by the locals. There is a broch, a tower, atop the rock. Wild boar roam the area; Rowena eventually relates that her grandfather was rejected as a suitor for her grandmother, told not to return until the wild boars should fly; her grandfather being a wizard skilled in Transfiguration, he regarded it as a challenge and before the year was out had herded two winged wild boars into her great- grandfather's dun; they did some damage as they flew away in a panic, but her grandfather won his suit.
The location is unusual in that the population is entirely magical. It had been a refuge for magic- users ever since the Scots and the Norse invaded, and much of the game in the forest is magical. The centaurs are already present in small numbers, their range much wider than in later centuries.
Rowena's over- achievement as a witch is balanced by a lack of social skills in certain areas. Only the best scholars can keep up with her. Much as they may love each other, she and her daughter Helena do not ever get along. Helena has above- average ability and eventually manages to transform into a raven at will; but she is a much slower learner than her mother can effectively teach, and has a strong independent streak. Therefore Helena was sent to Helga, who befriended them both; Helga is the closest friend Rowena has ever had, and in many ways is the mother that Helena needs. [At some point it will be disclosed that Rowena was the witch who injured/ made it possible for Godric to be injured at Brunaburgh.]
Eventually, plans are made. Until the school is built the Founders will live nearby. Rowena grants land and a license to Hengist of Woodcroft, a brewer of Helga's acquaintance, who leaves as the others prepare to move north. Godric gains the support of the Wizengamot; King Edgar and Archbishop Dunstan also approve, Dunstan promising to assign a chaplain once the school is ready; although the school is well out of England, it is recognized as a necessity for the whole island of Britain.
Late one spring afternoon, Hengist and Rowena watch three brooms descend to Hengist's new establishment, already a popular stop for the nearby farmers and herdsmen and hunters in the evenings. In honor of the event the tavern becomes known as the Three Broomsticks; eventually the brooms themselves are placed on display there, surviving until the building burns (for the first time) some centuries later.
Land is marked out. A large, flat pasture is cleared and fenced in for horses and riding, as any freeman with a horse still has military obligations to his family's lord and will have to learn to ride and train and fight. The school is placed atop the rock; the broch is incorporated into the vast stone array, which is less than a quarter of what Hogwarts will be in a thousand years. Godric and Rowena plan towers; Helga plans for the kitchen to be in solid rock, in case of accident, and plans her own comfortable quarters gouged out of the rock for ease of heating and cooling and access to the kitchens, her especial province. Immediately above the kitchens on the surface will be placed a refectory, a common dining hall to double as a lecture hall. The other large building is a chapel, its sanctuary also doubling as a classroom; there are also plans for a permanent library and scriptorium.
Far deeper than Helga's den is Slytherin's territory. Using natural crevices and caves, he extends his delving under the lake itself, allowing its green light to illuminate his domain. He also engages in a secret project in addition to his declared aim, to give the school a plumbing and drainage system to outdo anything the Romans could build.
Godric Gryffindor begins the largest aboveground project, a great square tower that will not actually be finished for centuries more; but Rowena builds a smaller tower. It becomes the tallest structure in Alba, and is finished well before she dies. Just below the roof is an arcade or cloister, a stone- floored room beneath the peaked roof, open to the elements on all sides and considered the most beautiful part of the school. The ancient broch is outside the building site, across a gully, and becomes the first owlery. Walls are added, and gates, for even the English reforms of Edgar will not last forever, and this is not England; the Scots and Norse may well conquer the tolerant and magical Pictish house of Alpin someday, or some other force decide to exterminate magic- users. Access to the school is by a narrow stone and timber bridge, or by boat to a cave and up a steep path, both easily defended.
As the school grows, so also begins a village, around the Three Broomsticks. Land is cleared and ploughed to plant crops for the school; Rowena grants plots to wizarding families from all over the islands for the purpose, and they and their children provide many of the first students. The village eventually is named Hogsmeade and is one of the earliest such places in Scotland, and remaining the only purely magical village in the Isles even after the Statute of Secrecy.
Building the facilities is the least of the problems. Finding and recruiting students and staff, getting them to Hogwarts, and then teaching them are enormous challenges. Getting students of all ages, skill levels, and social classes to refrain from conflict, violence and trickery is a constant problem. Slytherin's preference is to divide students by blood; Rowena's, to house each teacher's resident student favorites in dormitories in their own houses, herself taking the most skilled and clever; Helga's, to accept all students regardless of qualification other than magical talent; Gryffindor's, to use his talking hat to sort the students into each Founder's House, himself preferring the boldest.
More advanced pupils, witches and warlocks and wizards, are used as tutors. Salazar Slytherin chooses his step- grandson Ranulf Ormsson Le Strange as his assistant and Head of his House. Archbishop Dunstan sends his own secretary, Father Fidelius, to serve as chaplain; he is quickly chosen to help with Helga's students and is popular throughout the school for his genial, modest personality and firm defense of the Muggle- born, being one himself. Helga, who has taken on responsibilities as de facto cook, infirmarian, and housekeeper, distressingly cannot spare the time to interact with her own pupils for some time; Fidelius takes up the slack. Helena, as she grows, serves her mother's house by living with the students; Rowena lives apart, high in the tower, absorbed in her researches and needing more quiet than a Head of House can normally achieve.
Gryffindor alone has the time, energy, and inclination to fully serve as Head of his own Gryffindor House. Until the morning when Slytherin leaves, he does not consider the need for an assistant seriously.
The Houses begin to take on their characters. Helga has adopted a badger (or vice versa?) and named it Hufflepuff; her students gleefully seize upon the badger as their symbol, and adopt Helga's favorite color- yellow- and the practical black of Fidelius' habit, as their colors.
Rowena Ravenclaw is flattered to find that her House has chosen her own favorite color, blue, with a black raven for their badge. As she lives in seclusion except for teaching, she has little idea of the devotion her students bear her, whatever the rest of the school may think of her.
Salazar Slytherin chooses a silver serpent on green for his house's device; he has used the snake for so long that no one among his students contests the issue. His symbol was, in fact, in use long before the first students came to his House.
Godric's students adopt the device from his shield, a single golden lion on a red field, similar to the arms of the dukes of Normandy where he spent so much time as a boy. (Note that this does come before formal heraldry, in which such designs are hereditary. NB: is his patronus a lion or a griffin?)
Deciding how to admit and organize the students is only one of many challenges. There are highborn pupils, who must not neglect the arts of both war and management; the lower classes seldom have those dual obligations, and can devote themselves to their studies, if they can be distracted from the lake, the tavern, and their brooms. Following Fidelius' suggestion, each of the Founders takes on the responsibilities of Headmaster or Headmistress by turn, once the school has been sufficiently settled. Rowena's lot comes first, then Helga's; the organization improves noticeably with one person in charge, but at the end of Godric's term- the morning that Salazar Slytherin is to take over- Fidelius is murdered.
The agitated ghost of Fidelius warns Godric of the basilisk and of the temple to Salazar, later to be called the Chamber of Secrets. As the school is being evacuated, Slytherin attempts to block the students at the bridge. He duels and curses Godric, who withstands the attack, and Slytherin is disarmed by Rowena, returning from Hogsmeade with Helga. When it becomes apparent that the death of Fidelius has turned even Ranulf against him, Salazar Slytherin leaves the school.
Slytherin's temple becomes legend. Fidelius cannot directly find his way back because of a powerful Confundis charm, but the other three Founders find a way down, with the help of Ragnuk, called in by Godric. They recover Fidelius' body and see the evidence of the hatching of a basilisk, but detect no trace of the serpent; they seal the Chamber as best they can and block the route they found. It is decided not to leave any written record in hopes that the Chamber can be permanently isolated, and the basilisk starved; but they fear it is in vain, although the Chamber remains lost for centuries, until the neo- Gothic sink in a new lavatory is built using part of Slytherin's original drainage system, over eight hundred years later. (The solid iron door and ladder were installed by Tom Riddle in the 1940's, the wooden originals being long lost. The articulated serpent lock, however, was incorporated into the new door.) Ghosts are barred from the lower reaches of the drains that lead to the Chamber; hence Fidelius cannot go back, and Myrtle never finds a route to it, despite being confined to the sewers.)
Eventually life returns to normal. Fidelius becomes the first school ghost, still acting as chaplain until the Wizengamot finds a replacement. Bequests to the school have included the services of House- Elves, so that Helga is free to do more teaching; Rowena devotes more time to her obsession, the increase of wisdom by magical means; Godric serves as Headmaster, always keeping his crippled left hand gloved, and choosing Madoc of Mon to assist him. Ranulf, now a widower entering middle age, has his eye on Helena Ravenclaw, but his attentions as a suitor are not welcome. Things proceed thus for some years, until age begins to take its toll.
Rowena begins to wear a diadem in her hair. It is very fine and simple in design, and only the other Founders and staff and the most advanced pupils recognize it as a powerful magical artifact. Rowena begins to spend more time with her students, who are very devoted to her, and she becomes known not only for her magical skill but now even more for her wisdom.
During this time Godric's attitude toward goblins bears unexpected fruit. A year after Gryffindor has negotiated a peace between goblins and the London wizarding community, Ragnuk publicly presents him with a goblin- made sword during a session of the Wizengamot. It looks neither like the GrandPre illustration nor the CoS movie one; rather, it looks like a tenth- century Saxon or Danish sword, with Gryffindor's mother's rubies set in the hilt; quite a bit more early- medieval than the movie version. Ragnuk, knowing exactly what he does, presents it to the Headmaster of Hogwarts School, the position currently held by Godric Gryffindor, and for the benefit of Gryffindor's House; a point of etiquette that slips by almost all of the magical community, but at which the other goblins are shocked, for it means that the sword will not pass back to Ragnuk or his kin on Godric's death. Ragnuk, who made it, feels that the sword is a symbol that goblins can learn enough of others' ways to keep peace, just as Gryffindor learned their ways, and Ragnuk the ways of humans. In succeeding generations this point is lost to all concerned except the Sorting Hat, which Godric wears to the meeting.
Godric returns to Hogwarts some weeks later to find things in an uproar. Helena Ravenclaw has absconded with Rowena's diadem, although only Rowena knows the extent of the loss. Rowena, appearing very weak, confides in Helga that the diadem bestowed wisdom at the expense of addiction: she had unknowingly become dependent upon it, and the shock of losing both it and Helena has made her ill. She is willing to allow Helena her freedom; but Ranulf Le Strange left to track her down as soon as it became clear that Rowena was seriously ill. He still has designs on her, but is the only wizard available with the skill to find her if she wants to stay hidden.
Rowena recovers gradually, but never completely. She seldom descends from the gallery atop Ravenclaw Tower, being unable to manage the stairs easily any longer, even assisted by magic; when she does venture forth, it is usually as an eagle, and never for long. Life at the school adjusts to the practical loss of one Head of House and the absence of another; Ranulf Ormsson's own son Miles Le Strange, a younger child and a clerk, returns to Hogwarts to fill his father's position. Ravenclaw House chooses Rhys ap Dafydd to assist Rowena; Godric Gryffindor finally delegates more of his responsibilities to Madoc, and to Edward of Gloucester.
Over a year passes before Helena's fate is known. One night the school is roused by Rowena's hysterical screams. Brother Fidelius is the first to see Helena's ghost, trying to console her mother. It is Fidelius who sorts out the story of the murder, although the full tale is kept among the Founders. Ranulf returns also, confining himself to the dungeons for decades, almost never seen and never speaking until every person he knew at Hogwarts has died.
Not long after, Rowena Ravenclaw dies in the gallery of Ravenclaw Tower, having been bedridden there for weeks. She is buried within sight of the school, atop the mountain overlooking the loch, a haunt of eagles. Her grave is a granite coffin, magically sealed and hidden, as she wished; it has never been found since.
With her death, most of the administration and teaching at Hogwarts passes to the next generation. New construction is planned, including a Great Hall to replace the refectory; the Sorting Hat divides students into their Houses; the Headmaster is chosen from among the Heads of Houses or senior staff; the Three Broomsticks has become the center of Hogsmeade, a new village (towns are a rarity in rural Scotland.) Helga stays at the school until her death from old age, and is buried in the churchyard in Hogsmeade. Godric retires then to his old home, now a village called Godric's Hollow, living among his children and grandchildren. He dies and is buried there in the floor in front of the altar of the new stone church.
Salazar Slytherin's fate is never discovered, but he never returns to the school. Most think that he returned to the East Anglian fens, although none know for certain whether he left the island entirely or not. There was never word of him among his family in Normandy.
Godric Gryffindor
b. ca 903 or 904, Exmoor; family property later to be incorporated into Godric's Hollow. Mother Godith, d. ca early March 914 of contagion (dragon pox or spattergroit?), kinswoman to Eorl Eadric, himself of Wessex; father Griffin, a transplanted Welshman; d. summer 913 (?) see AS Chron re: raids by Danes upon Welsh and Cornish/ Exmoor coasts. His golden griffin pendant was left with Godith.
Story: Upon the death of his mother, Godric, aged about 11, is waylaid on his way to Eadric's seat by one Wulfric and his companions. He is left in a cold river to drown after using magic against them, and his possessions are ransacked; immediately after, he is rescued by Ragnuk, a goblin, in exchange for his food bag. He is left at the gate of Aelfwine, a man of Eadric's (a thane? Check: proto- feudal structure under Alfred, Edward, Athelstan.) Outside of his family, Aelfwine's wife Edithna provides Godric's first instruction in magic. (Historical note: might meet Aethelflaed during this period, possibly at court, possibly as she travels from one building- site to another. Might have to be in Mercia. NB: Thundering English Rose or straightforward character?)
Eventually Wulfric is uncovered as a thief, being betrayed by possession of Godric's griffin, but he being highly placed, Aelfwine finds it convenient (or is assigned) to travel overseas for a time. Godric accompanies him to Brittany, then to Neustria/ Normandy where he meets Orm, the father of Ranulf Ormsson Le Strange; here he is first called "Gryffindor" by the Franks and Bretons with whom Ganga- Hrolf's people are already mixing. For the first time he is exposed to Breton, Frankish, Norse, Friesian and Flemish wizards and warlocks, and begins to earn a reputation for dueling (find a word in current usage. Old Latin root, may be okay.) For the first time he begins to hear of a mysterious old wizard, powerful and subtle, who ultimately came from Espana or Asturia (or India?) but has traveled farther over the world than practically anyone living, and who has the ability to speak to snakes. Orm, now surnamed Le Strange, has married a daughter of this Salazar's as his second wife, though so recently that they are only now expecting their first child. (He has several other offspring by his deceased first wife, including Ranulf who will be the ancestor of Rodolphus Lestrange.) She becomes Godric's tutor, exposing him to the Avada Kedavra curse, which Salazar has brought from India (or possibly even inventing it.) [Orm and Merope Le Strange are the parents of Ranulf, one of the first scholars and then a tutor at Hogwarts, and future head of Slytherin House after the departure of Salazar Slytherin. Ranulf could be played by a young Timothy Dalton. As a Norman miles, he is known for great skill at arms and a fierce and touchy temper; as a warlock, he is a formidable champion and one of very few who could beat Gryffindor if he tried. Knighthood is not yet what it will be, but nonetheless he has great respect and absolute loyalty for the Church, his Duke, and the King, and later transfers this loyalty to Godric and Hogwarts. He takes his duties as a Hogwarts teacher very seriously, refusing to allow scholars in his care to be permanently harmed, an attitude seen as a weakness by most of his Muggle peers and superiors. Ironically, of course, he will murder Helena Ravenclaw and kill himself, becoming the Bloody Baron.]
Godric returns to Wessex in time, having learnt much about both magic and ordinary combat, having a reputation for excelling at both. He gains a position in Eadric's household, marries Aelfwine's youngest daughter Edwina and settles down in his family's territory, enlarged by land received from Eadric. As his children grow during the 920's and 930's, Godric makes several journeys each year to Athelstan's court and the attendant meetings of both the Witangamot and Wizengamot, and further afield to Mercia and Northumbria; it is during this period that he first meets Helga Haraldsdottir and her house- elves, Loki and Aelfsi. She is an alewife of mostly Danish ancestry who discovered the need for local witches and wizards to have early instruction, and actually runs a school of sorts, always with more pupils than can be easily be managed; but she has a genius for organization and a commitment to never turn anyone away. However, she lacks facilities, and her students can only really come during high summer, before harvest; she does have a few apprentices, who stay with her year- round and help with the tavern, where her cooking and other homely magics are practiced. (She lives in the Danelaw, perhaps near Lincoln? She has interests in York as well, perhaps family.)
In 937 Godric, now about 33, is called to muster for an incursion of Welsh, Norse, and Scots; eventually the enemy is brought to battle at Brunaburg (Egil Skallagrimson's Saga, AS Chron.) Unbeknownst to Gryffindor, a Pictish witch has come with the enemy; he deduces her presence but cannot come to grips with her, and she escapes as Wessex wins.
Godric is wounded in the encounter, and goes home to recuperate. For the rest of Athelstan's reign, and that of Edmund and Edred he begins to shift his role from champion and warlock to occasional advisor, being forced by circumstance into the role of expert on goblins. He earns the goodwill of the goblins through diplomatic solutions to disagreements, reestablishing contact with Ragnuk. The goblins are perpetually exploring and excavating vaults and living space below London, later incorporated into Gringott's Bank and its unseen goblin community. Diagon Alley is in existence, though not completely sequestered, and Ollivander's has been in business for over five centuries. During this time he meets the abbot of Glastonbury, Dunstan, known as a silversmith, once tainted by a charge of black magic. However, King Edwig exiles Dunstan to the Continent. One of his companions in Flanders is a young friar, Fidelius, also a wizard, given to the Church as a boy in hopes that monastic life would suppress his magic. During this reign Godric forsakes the royal Court, traveling once every few years to the Danelaw or to Cornwall, but mostly seeing his children married and established. Upon the death of his wife he must decide what he must do; he does not wish to remarry immediately, his lands are largely run by his eldest son, yet as a wizard he is barely into middle age.
When Edgar ascends the throne, Godric presents himself and is soon proven a wise and reliable counsellor, though others wonder at his apparent youth. Edgar unites Wessex, Kent, Mercia, Northumberland, and East Anglia into one kingdom, for the first time called England; he recalls Dunstan in 957, who is later installed as Archbishop of Canterbury in 960. Edgar embarks on a massive campaign to restore and expand education through the Church and the monasteries, and is more cosmopolitan than his predecessors, allowing foreign influences to flourish, tying England to the Continent.
As this happens, Godric conceives the notion of a school for witches and wizards and warlocks, an expanded version of Helga's efforts, based in one facility like a monastic school. He approaches her on the subject; she is enthusiastic, wishing to bring in the mother of Helena, one of her apprentices. Godric is no less enthusiastic when, in an effort to win the approval and support of the Wizengamot, he hears of a reclusive wizard in the East Anglian fens, who can speak to snakes. Godric goes in search of the wizard (by this time accompanied by his talking hat, made as a companion for long trips.) Godric and Salazar Slytherin strike up a deep, if improbable, friendship; Slytherin eventually, after some thought, not only supports the idea of a school, but is instrumental in thinking out and solving many of the inherent and potential problems, particularly engineering issues.
They travel to York to meet Helga and Rowena Ravenclaw. Rowena is pureblood, of mixed Pictish and Scottish descent (she might be well- played by Helen Mirren, save that her picture on JKR's website is dark- haired.) She is clever and witty, and an involuntary seer; a rare prophetic fit leaves her exhausted, but confirms the future existence of the school. There is also some secret that Helga and Helena know about her; not until the morning of Slytherin's departure, years hence, do the others discover that she is also an Animagus, an eagle.
She is the heiress to land in the Highlands, a loch with a few farms and lots of forest centered around a rocky outcrop called the Hogwart by the locals. There is a broch, a tower, atop the rock. Wild boar roam the area; Rowena eventually relates that her grandfather was rejected as a suitor for her grandmother, told not to return until the wild boars should fly; her grandfather being a wizard skilled in Transfiguration, he regarded it as a challenge and before the year was out had herded two winged wild boars into her great- grandfather's dun; they did some damage as they flew away in a panic, but her grandfather won his suit.
The location is unusual in that the population is entirely magical. It had been a refuge for magic- users ever since the Scots and the Norse invaded, and much of the game in the forest is magical. The centaurs are already present in small numbers, their range much wider than in later centuries.
Rowena's over- achievement as a witch is balanced by a lack of social skills in certain areas. Only the best scholars can keep up with her. Much as they may love each other, she and her daughter Helena do not ever get along. Helena has above- average ability and eventually manages to transform into a raven at will; but she is a much slower learner than her mother can effectively teach, and has a strong independent streak. Therefore Helena was sent to Helga, who befriended them both; Helga is the closest friend Rowena has ever had, and in many ways is the mother that Helena needs. [At some point it will be disclosed that Rowena was the witch who injured/ made it possible for Godric to be injured at Brunaburgh.]
Eventually, plans are made. Until the school is built the Founders will live nearby. Rowena grants land and a license to Hengist of Woodcroft, a brewer of Helga's acquaintance, who leaves as the others prepare to move north. Godric gains the support of the Wizengamot; King Edgar and Archbishop Dunstan also approve, Dunstan promising to assign a chaplain once the school is ready; although the school is well out of England, it is recognized as a necessity for the whole island of Britain.
Late one spring afternoon, Hengist and Rowena watch three brooms descend to Hengist's new establishment, already a popular stop for the nearby farmers and herdsmen and hunters in the evenings. In honor of the event the tavern becomes known as the Three Broomsticks; eventually the brooms themselves are placed on display there, surviving until the building burns (for the first time) some centuries later.
Land is marked out. A large, flat pasture is cleared and fenced in for horses and riding, as any freeman with a horse still has military obligations to his family's lord and will have to learn to ride and train and fight. The school is placed atop the rock; the broch is incorporated into the vast stone array, which is less than a quarter of what Hogwarts will be in a thousand years. Godric and Rowena plan towers; Helga plans for the kitchen to be in solid rock, in case of accident, and plans her own comfortable quarters gouged out of the rock for ease of heating and cooling and access to the kitchens, her especial province. Immediately above the kitchens on the surface will be placed a refectory, a common dining hall to double as a lecture hall. The other large building is a chapel, its sanctuary also doubling as a classroom; there are also plans for a permanent library and scriptorium.
Far deeper than Helga's den is Slytherin's territory. Using natural crevices and caves, he extends his delving under the lake itself, allowing its green light to illuminate his domain. He also engages in a secret project in addition to his declared aim, to give the school a plumbing and drainage system to outdo anything the Romans could build.
Godric Gryffindor begins the largest aboveground project, a great square tower that will not actually be finished for centuries more; but Rowena builds a smaller tower. It becomes the tallest structure in Alba, and is finished well before she dies. Just below the roof is an arcade or cloister, a stone- floored room beneath the peaked roof, open to the elements on all sides and considered the most beautiful part of the school. The ancient broch is outside the building site, across a gully, and becomes the first owlery. Walls are added, and gates, for even the English reforms of Edgar will not last forever, and this is not England; the Scots and Norse may well conquer the tolerant and magical Pictish house of Alpin someday, or some other force decide to exterminate magic- users. Access to the school is by a narrow stone and timber bridge, or by boat to a cave and up a steep path, both easily defended.
As the school grows, so also begins a village, around the Three Broomsticks. Land is cleared and ploughed to plant crops for the school; Rowena grants plots to wizarding families from all over the islands for the purpose, and they and their children provide many of the first students. The village eventually is named Hogsmeade and is one of the earliest such places in Scotland, and remaining the only purely magical village in the Isles even after the Statute of Secrecy.
Building the facilities is the least of the problems. Finding and recruiting students and staff, getting them to Hogwarts, and then teaching them are enormous challenges. Getting students of all ages, skill levels, and social classes to refrain from conflict, violence and trickery is a constant problem. Slytherin's preference is to divide students by blood; Rowena's, to house each teacher's resident student favorites in dormitories in their own houses, herself taking the most skilled and clever; Helga's, to accept all students regardless of qualification other than magical talent; Gryffindor's, to use his talking hat to sort the students into each Founder's House, himself preferring the boldest.
More advanced pupils, witches and warlocks and wizards, are used as tutors. Salazar Slytherin chooses his step- grandson Ranulf Ormsson Le Strange as his assistant and Head of his House. Archbishop Dunstan sends his own secretary, Father Fidelius, to serve as chaplain; he is quickly chosen to help with Helga's students and is popular throughout the school for his genial, modest personality and firm defense of the Muggle- born, being one himself. Helga, who has taken on responsibilities as de facto cook, infirmarian, and housekeeper, distressingly cannot spare the time to interact with her own pupils for some time; Fidelius takes up the slack. Helena, as she grows, serves her mother's house by living with the students; Rowena lives apart, high in the tower, absorbed in her researches and needing more quiet than a Head of House can normally achieve.
Gryffindor alone has the time, energy, and inclination to fully serve as Head of his own Gryffindor House. Until the morning when Slytherin leaves, he does not consider the need for an assistant seriously.
The Houses begin to take on their characters. Helga has adopted a badger (or vice versa?) and named it Hufflepuff; her students gleefully seize upon the badger as their symbol, and adopt Helga's favorite color- yellow- and the practical black of Fidelius' habit, as their colors.
Rowena Ravenclaw is flattered to find that her House has chosen her own favorite color, blue, with a black raven for their badge. As she lives in seclusion except for teaching, she has little idea of the devotion her students bear her, whatever the rest of the school may think of her.
Salazar Slytherin chooses a silver serpent on green for his house's device; he has used the snake for so long that no one among his students contests the issue. His symbol was, in fact, in use long before the first students came to his House.
Godric's students adopt the device from his shield, a single golden lion on a red field, similar to the arms of the dukes of Normandy where he spent so much time as a boy. (Note that this does come before formal heraldry, in which such designs are hereditary. NB: is his patronus a lion or a griffin?)
Deciding how to admit and organize the students is only one of many challenges. There are highborn pupils, who must not neglect the arts of both war and management; the lower classes seldom have those dual obligations, and can devote themselves to their studies, if they can be distracted from the lake, the tavern, and their brooms. Following Fidelius' suggestion, each of the Founders takes on the responsibilities of Headmaster or Headmistress by turn, once the school has been sufficiently settled. Rowena's lot comes first, then Helga's; the organization improves noticeably with one person in charge, but at the end of Godric's term- the morning that Salazar Slytherin is to take over- Fidelius is murdered.
The agitated ghost of Fidelius warns Godric of the basilisk and of the temple to Salazar, later to be called the Chamber of Secrets. As the school is being evacuated, Slytherin attempts to block the students at the bridge. He duels and curses Godric, who withstands the attack, and Slytherin is disarmed by Rowena, returning from Hogsmeade with Helga. When it becomes apparent that the death of Fidelius has turned even Ranulf against him, Salazar Slytherin leaves the school.
Slytherin's temple becomes legend. Fidelius cannot directly find his way back because of a powerful Confundis charm, but the other three Founders find a way down, with the help of Ragnuk, called in by Godric. They recover Fidelius' body and see the evidence of the hatching of a basilisk, but detect no trace of the serpent; they seal the Chamber as best they can and block the route they found. It is decided not to leave any written record in hopes that the Chamber can be permanently isolated, and the basilisk starved; but they fear it is in vain, although the Chamber remains lost for centuries, until the neo- Gothic sink in a new lavatory is built using part of Slytherin's original drainage system, over eight hundred years later. (The solid iron door and ladder were installed by Tom Riddle in the 1940's, the wooden originals being long lost. The articulated serpent lock, however, was incorporated into the new door.) Ghosts are barred from the lower reaches of the drains that lead to the Chamber; hence Fidelius cannot go back, and Myrtle never finds a route to it, despite being confined to the sewers.)
Eventually life returns to normal. Fidelius becomes the first school ghost, still acting as chaplain until the Wizengamot finds a replacement. Bequests to the school have included the services of House- Elves, so that Helga is free to do more teaching; Rowena devotes more time to her obsession, the increase of wisdom by magical means; Godric serves as Headmaster, always keeping his crippled left hand gloved, and choosing Madoc of Mon to assist him. Ranulf, now a widower entering middle age, has his eye on Helena Ravenclaw, but his attentions as a suitor are not welcome. Things proceed thus for some years, until age begins to take its toll.
Rowena begins to wear a diadem in her hair. It is very fine and simple in design, and only the other Founders and staff and the most advanced pupils recognize it as a powerful magical artifact. Rowena begins to spend more time with her students, who are very devoted to her, and she becomes known not only for her magical skill but now even more for her wisdom.
During this time Godric's attitude toward goblins bears unexpected fruit. A year after Gryffindor has negotiated a peace between goblins and the London wizarding community, Ragnuk publicly presents him with a goblin- made sword during a session of the Wizengamot. It looks neither like the GrandPre illustration nor the CoS movie one; rather, it looks like a tenth- century Saxon or Danish sword, with Gryffindor's mother's rubies set in the hilt; quite a bit more early- medieval than the movie version. Ragnuk, knowing exactly what he does, presents it to the Headmaster of Hogwarts School, the position currently held by Godric Gryffindor, and for the benefit of Gryffindor's House; a point of etiquette that slips by almost all of the magical community, but at which the other goblins are shocked, for it means that the sword will not pass back to Ragnuk or his kin on Godric's death. Ragnuk, who made it, feels that the sword is a symbol that goblins can learn enough of others' ways to keep peace, just as Gryffindor learned their ways, and Ragnuk the ways of humans. In succeeding generations this point is lost to all concerned except the Sorting Hat, which Godric wears to the meeting.
Godric returns to Hogwarts some weeks later to find things in an uproar. Helena Ravenclaw has absconded with Rowena's diadem, although only Rowena knows the extent of the loss. Rowena, appearing very weak, confides in Helga that the diadem bestowed wisdom at the expense of addiction: she had unknowingly become dependent upon it, and the shock of losing both it and Helena has made her ill. She is willing to allow Helena her freedom; but Ranulf Le Strange left to track her down as soon as it became clear that Rowena was seriously ill. He still has designs on her, but is the only wizard available with the skill to find her if she wants to stay hidden.
Rowena recovers gradually, but never completely. She seldom descends from the gallery atop Ravenclaw Tower, being unable to manage the stairs easily any longer, even assisted by magic; when she does venture forth, it is usually as an eagle, and never for long. Life at the school adjusts to the practical loss of one Head of House and the absence of another; Ranulf Ormsson's own son Miles Le Strange, a younger child and a clerk, returns to Hogwarts to fill his father's position. Ravenclaw House chooses Rhys ap Dafydd to assist Rowena; Godric Gryffindor finally delegates more of his responsibilities to Madoc, and to Edward of Gloucester.
Over a year passes before Helena's fate is known. One night the school is roused by Rowena's hysterical screams. Brother Fidelius is the first to see Helena's ghost, trying to console her mother. It is Fidelius who sorts out the story of the murder, although the full tale is kept among the Founders. Ranulf returns also, confining himself to the dungeons for decades, almost never seen and never speaking until every person he knew at Hogwarts has died.
Not long after, Rowena Ravenclaw dies in the gallery of Ravenclaw Tower, having been bedridden there for weeks. She is buried within sight of the school, atop the mountain overlooking the loch, a haunt of eagles. Her grave is a granite coffin, magically sealed and hidden, as she wished; it has never been found since.
With her death, most of the administration and teaching at Hogwarts passes to the next generation. New construction is planned, including a Great Hall to replace the refectory; the Sorting Hat divides students into their Houses; the Headmaster is chosen from among the Heads of Houses or senior staff; the Three Broomsticks has become the center of Hogsmeade, a new village (towns are a rarity in rural Scotland.) Helga stays at the school until her death from old age, and is buried in the churchyard in Hogsmeade. Godric retires then to his old home, now a village called Godric's Hollow, living among his children and grandchildren. He dies and is buried there in the floor in front of the altar of the new stone church.
Salazar Slytherin's fate is never discovered, but he never returns to the school. Most think that he returned to the East Anglian fens, although none know for certain whether he left the island entirely or not. There was never word of him among his family in Normandy.