(no subject)
Written for the Dream challenge at hp100, but the challenge was updated before I could post. The master Founders list is here.
Title: Necessity and Invention
Word Count: 100
Characters/Pairings: Helga Hufflepuff/OMC
Basil Hufflepuff had been good at asking inconvenient questions. Then he'd been bitten by a werewolf, and work as a Dark creature hunter and duelist had become scarce.
He still had the knack, though. He generally asked things like what on earth they needed a school for.
Helga had stock answers. "Because it's necessary," she'd say, which was truthful. "It's good advertisement for my plants," she'd add.
Of course, she didn't say "Because maybe, if you can teach someone else how to duel, you'll stop acting all bloody tragic about not being allowed anymore."
He never did work it out.
Title: Revenge Fantasies
Word Count: 100
Characters: Helga Hufflepuff
Helga dreamt of monsters. She dreamt of revenge.
She dreamt, mainly, of plants.
She wasn't a vengeful person, really -- when life was being unpleasant, she just threw herself into her work.
It rather showed in the thousands of little red Venus Mantrap seedlings she had carefully raised to adulthood. The Venomous Tentacula, as well, had a certain predatory charm.
But the Whomping Willows were her masterpiece. Immense, flexible branches, mobilized instantly to crush an enemy's skull, to choke the life out of an invader, to shake a trespasser to pieces.
She cried when they had to be cut down.
Title: Subtext? Buttsex?
Word Count: 100
Characters: Rowena Ravenclaw; Aeneas/Patroclus
Author's Notes: Aeneas/Patroclus is what Rowena ships. I do not know why. My characters often baffle me.
The real world terrified Rowena. How could so many people be oblivious to the joys of Homer? The overblown additions of Virgil? The unspoken love of Aeneas and Patroclus?
She resolved to teach people to read, write and do charms. In Greek, if possible, but French and Latin would do in a pinch.
(...perhaps it wasn't that obvious.)
The Muggle servants thought she'd lost her mind when she'd suggested reading.
(Achilles was a bastard anyway.)
So she stuck to wizards and witches. And then came the school.
She was terribly disappointed when nobody agreed with her interpretation of the Iliad.
Title: Ghosts
Word Count: 100
Characters: Rowena Ravenclaw
Rowena didn't sleep well.
First it'd been nightmares about hellfire and brimstone. Neither were real, so they shouldn't bother her. But they did.
After her husband died, it had been losing her magic again, and her husband coming to haunt her. Ghosts, she resolved, were also not real, and anyone who suggested otherwise was shouted at.
Then it'd been the Inferi -- the ones they'd had to fight during the interlude with the vampire.
Lately it'd been a sort of terrifying mishmosh of all three.
Guilt was a bitch. Before she went to sleep, she tried to concentrate on puppies.
Title: There's No I In Teamwork!
Word Count: 100
Characters: Salazar Slytherin
Since his father had been killed, Lord Slytherin had been trying to regain the Chiefdom of the Wizards' Council.
So when the current Chief's estranged daughter Rowena was looking for a place to start a school, how could he say no? She had an herbologist -- the one who'd done his castle's defenses -- and had nearly managed to get a transfigurator.
Maybe he could get one of them onto the Council?
He could kill Ophelia. Rowena would inherit automatically. No, too risky. They might not be that estranged.
Well, he'd just have to meet them. They sounded very useful.
Title: Politics, However...
Word Count: 100
Characters: Salazar Slytherin
From afar, Salazar's endless political war with Council Chief Ophelia Aeaeae was yet another ridiculous political impracticality. It was difficult to decide which was the lesser of evils.
He meant well. He had reasons.
His father, fallen mysteriously ill when Ophelia was visiting. His sister Arantxa, who'd written depressing poetry, but couldn't have jumped, and must have been pushed. (Her betrothed had married Ophelia.) His wife Ceridwen, who had gone out to try and reason with the goblins against his will -- and with the Council Chief's help.
Like all politicians, Salazar was selfish. He was, after all, only human.
Title: Spontaneous Human Combustion and the Science of Transfiguration
Word Count: 100
Characters: Godric Gryffindor
Godric's usual method of learning transfiguration was trial and error. He tried. Something burst into flames, indicating an error.
He got to be quite good at it. He knew when something would burst into flames, and when it would change into what he needed it to be.
But only the mad attempted to become Animagi. And none had succeeded since some time before the Roman Empire had become Holy. Trial and error wouldn't work if you could only try it once before you spontaneously combusted. He needed time. He needed money. He needed books. He needed food.
Then came Hogwarts.
Title: Abject Terror
Word Count: 100
Characters: Godric Gryffindor
Godric had never actually known what he was doing.
He liked the children. The teaching was far more rewarding than what he'd been doing before. And the room and board was definitely a step up.
But what was he doing? He was totally, blitheringly incompetent. Why were they saying he was the best transfigurator in Europe? Were they mad? Or just being nice?
And suddenly, at his desk, he came to a terrifying realization. They were right.
"God save us all," he muttered, and went back to marking papers, in hopes that someday one of his students would best him.
Title: Necessity and Invention
Word Count: 100
Characters/Pairings: Helga Hufflepuff/OMC
Basil Hufflepuff had been good at asking inconvenient questions. Then he'd been bitten by a werewolf, and work as a Dark creature hunter and duelist had become scarce.
He still had the knack, though. He generally asked things like what on earth they needed a school for.
Helga had stock answers. "Because it's necessary," she'd say, which was truthful. "It's good advertisement for my plants," she'd add.
Of course, she didn't say "Because maybe, if you can teach someone else how to duel, you'll stop acting all bloody tragic about not being allowed anymore."
He never did work it out.
Title: Revenge Fantasies
Word Count: 100
Characters: Helga Hufflepuff
Helga dreamt of monsters. She dreamt of revenge.
She dreamt, mainly, of plants.
She wasn't a vengeful person, really -- when life was being unpleasant, she just threw herself into her work.
It rather showed in the thousands of little red Venus Mantrap seedlings she had carefully raised to adulthood. The Venomous Tentacula, as well, had a certain predatory charm.
But the Whomping Willows were her masterpiece. Immense, flexible branches, mobilized instantly to crush an enemy's skull, to choke the life out of an invader, to shake a trespasser to pieces.
She cried when they had to be cut down.
Title: Subtext? Buttsex?
Word Count: 100
Characters: Rowena Ravenclaw; Aeneas/Patroclus
Author's Notes: Aeneas/Patroclus is what Rowena ships. I do not know why. My characters often baffle me.
The real world terrified Rowena. How could so many people be oblivious to the joys of Homer? The overblown additions of Virgil? The unspoken love of Aeneas and Patroclus?
She resolved to teach people to read, write and do charms. In Greek, if possible, but French and Latin would do in a pinch.
(...perhaps it wasn't that obvious.)
The Muggle servants thought she'd lost her mind when she'd suggested reading.
(Achilles was a bastard anyway.)
So she stuck to wizards and witches. And then came the school.
She was terribly disappointed when nobody agreed with her interpretation of the Iliad.
Title: Ghosts
Word Count: 100
Characters: Rowena Ravenclaw
Rowena didn't sleep well.
First it'd been nightmares about hellfire and brimstone. Neither were real, so they shouldn't bother her. But they did.
After her husband died, it had been losing her magic again, and her husband coming to haunt her. Ghosts, she resolved, were also not real, and anyone who suggested otherwise was shouted at.
Then it'd been the Inferi -- the ones they'd had to fight during the interlude with the vampire.
Lately it'd been a sort of terrifying mishmosh of all three.
Guilt was a bitch. Before she went to sleep, she tried to concentrate on puppies.
Title: There's No I In Teamwork!
Word Count: 100
Characters: Salazar Slytherin
Since his father had been killed, Lord Slytherin had been trying to regain the Chiefdom of the Wizards' Council.
So when the current Chief's estranged daughter Rowena was looking for a place to start a school, how could he say no? She had an herbologist -- the one who'd done his castle's defenses -- and had nearly managed to get a transfigurator.
Maybe he could get one of them onto the Council?
He could kill Ophelia. Rowena would inherit automatically. No, too risky. They might not be that estranged.
Well, he'd just have to meet them. They sounded very useful.
Title: Politics, However...
Word Count: 100
Characters: Salazar Slytherin
From afar, Salazar's endless political war with Council Chief Ophelia Aeaeae was yet another ridiculous political impracticality. It was difficult to decide which was the lesser of evils.
He meant well. He had reasons.
His father, fallen mysteriously ill when Ophelia was visiting. His sister Arantxa, who'd written depressing poetry, but couldn't have jumped, and must have been pushed. (Her betrothed had married Ophelia.) His wife Ceridwen, who had gone out to try and reason with the goblins against his will -- and with the Council Chief's help.
Like all politicians, Salazar was selfish. He was, after all, only human.
Title: Spontaneous Human Combustion and the Science of Transfiguration
Word Count: 100
Characters: Godric Gryffindor
Godric's usual method of learning transfiguration was trial and error. He tried. Something burst into flames, indicating an error.
He got to be quite good at it. He knew when something would burst into flames, and when it would change into what he needed it to be.
But only the mad attempted to become Animagi. And none had succeeded since some time before the Roman Empire had become Holy. Trial and error wouldn't work if you could only try it once before you spontaneously combusted. He needed time. He needed money. He needed books. He needed food.
Then came Hogwarts.
Title: Abject Terror
Word Count: 100
Characters: Godric Gryffindor
Godric had never actually known what he was doing.
He liked the children. The teaching was far more rewarding than what he'd been doing before. And the room and board was definitely a step up.
But what was he doing? He was totally, blitheringly incompetent. Why were they saying he was the best transfigurator in Europe? Were they mad? Or just being nice?
And suddenly, at his desk, he came to a terrifying realization. They were right.
"God save us all," he muttered, and went back to marking papers, in hopes that someday one of his students would best him.