Chapter 9: Sorting Ceremony

(September 1, 1991)

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  (General POV)

  The room was dead silent as Godric stepped out of line and moved towards the four legged stool. Sitting down, he smirked towards the students already seated before the hat dropped down upon his head.

  "What the-?" A small voice said in his head, which only caused Godric's smile to broaden. 'Lector! It's me, Godric!' He shouted mentally, knowing the hat would hear him.

  "So that monster sitting at the head table really did bring you back. How quaint." The hat which Godric had dubbed as Lector said, sounding less surprised about the whole ordeal than Godric would have thought.

  'Oh, yes! Savrin might look like that old goat Dumbledore, but he's terrifying. Best you come with me after this instead of going back with him. Who knows what he'll do to you.' Godric told the hat.

  "I think you're right. Still, I can't say I'm not looking forward to finding out what he does in the coming years." The hat told him, and Godric wondered if Lector was developing a sadistic personality.

  "If you don't stop thinking bad things about me, I'll put you in Slytherin." The hat told him, making Godric's smile fall from his lips.

  "You wouldn't dare!" He shouted loudly so the whole Hall heard him, however he didn't seem to care. "If you put me in Slytherin I'll turn you pink!" He shouted louder, not caring that the entire hall was focused intently onto him.

  "Listen here you stupid hat! If you put that moron in my house, I'll set you on fire!" Salazar shouted from the crowd of students still waiting to be sorted. "Shut up, Salazar! Or I'll put you in Gryffindor!" The hat argued back, earning a burst of laughter from Helga and Rowena.

  *Clunk!*

*Clunk!*

*Clunk!*

*Clunk!*

  Before Godric or Salazar had a chance to retort, there were four *Clunking* sounds, followed by four cries of pain. Godric was holding the top of his head where the fist had struck him, though somehow whoever had hit him had avoided hitting his hat. He wanted to figure out how to do that.

  "Do you really want to waste my time or get this ceremony finished?" Dumbledore's voice rang out, though the four who had been struck heard someone else's voice entirely.

  Being cowed into submission, Godric held himself back from shouting out of turn before mentally he said, 'Just put us in our own houses, Lector. It's best to not get too happy while we're sitting in front of the whole school.' Godric told the hat, who begrudgingly agreed.

  "Very well then. GRYFFINDOR!" The hat cried out, however hardly anyone clapped or cheered. The room was still recovering from the weird altercation they had just witnessed, and were too focused on it to pay attention to what the hat said.

  The room was just recovering when McGonagall called out, "Hufflepuff, Helga!" Everyone watched with such intensity as the little blonde girl strode to the stool, that one would think she was the most famous witch alive.

  As soon as the hat was placed upon her head, it spoke, "Ah, tis good to have you back Lady Helga." "It's good to be back, Lector. I'm pleased to see that you are still watching over the students of our fair school." She told the hat, who only hummed in agreement before it cried out, "HUFFLEPUFF!"

  Like they had been for Godric, the students weren't that loud or happy when Helga had been sorted, though they did focus intently on her as she went to the Hufflepuff table and sat with the other first years. Things somewhat returned to normal as normal students began to be sorted once more, at least until McGonagall called for, "Potter, Harry!"

  Many people were whispering and pointing as he made his way to the stool, but Godric who was seated at the Gryffindor table was studying the boy closely, and not just his appearance, but the way he held himself, the way he walked, the way he reacted to the pointing and whispering.

  'If he has ever done any intentional magic in his life before, then I'm Sally's twin brother.' Godric thought, not the least bit impressed with the boy before his eyes.

  "GRYFFINDOR!" The hat cried, breaking Godric out of his musings. Unlike his or Helga's sorting, the Gryffindor table erupted with cheering, and Godric couldn't help but wonder why these idiots cared so much about Harry being sorted into their house.

  'Maybe they're all fans of his.' Godric concluded as he turned his attention back to the rest of the sorting ceremony.

When it came time for Rowena to be sorted, the hat had barely touched her head before it cried out, "RAVENCLAW!" There was some applause and cheering from the Ravenclaw table, but Godric didn't really care about that. Rather, he noticed something that caught his eyes.

  Rowena looked to be on the verge of tears as she strode for her table, her eyes staring straight ahead and not blinking in the slightest. Given how slowly she was walking, Godric thought it looked like she was walking towards her death.

  Looking to where her gaze had been, Godric saw a transparent woman floating just above the Ravenclaw table. He was almost taken aback by her appearance because she looked like a replica of Rowena's younger self from back in his time. Compared to Rowena who was now a child moving towards the table, it could have been her future self.

  "Oh." He whispered to himself after he finally realized just who it was that he was seeing. It took him a few minutes to realize that the ghost was Rowena's daughter Helena, and that if he had figured it out, then there was no way Rowena herself hadn't.

  Godric had no idea what to do in such a scenario, but he did know that now was not the time. He would wait until after the feast to find Rowena, and hopefully discuss it with her in private. Besides, judging by how the ghost was staring at Rowena, it seemed that there was going to be more than one reunion tonight.

  Finally it was the moment when McGonagall called out, "Slytherin, Salazar!" The entire hall quieted down as the young dark-haired boy stepped forward and sat down on the stool.

  "Ah, Salazar. A pleasure to have you back." The hat spoke to him, though Salazar could tell that was mostly a lie.

'Oh shut up, Lector. Just put me in my house.' He thought, not the least bit interested in talking with this stupid looking hat.

  "Careful Salazar. You were always great at getting into other people's minds, but shielding your own was never one of your strong suits. I know what you fear, and I and I alone have the answers to what really happened back then. You would do well to not repeat the mistakes of the past." The hat said, and for a moment Salazar wanted nothing more than to ask the hat what it meant. However, before he got the chance, the hat cried out, "SLYTHERIN!"

  Removing the hat from his head, Salazar stared at it for a moment before he placed it back onto the stool and strode towards the Slytherin table. "Are you really related to Slytherin?" A little boy asked, though Salazar was too lost in thought to pay the kid any sort of attention. 'Stupid hat!' He growled internally as he absently wondered how combustible it was.

  It didn't take much longer after he had been sorted before all of the children had been sorted into one of the four houses of Hogwarts and McGonagall took the stool away. She would have taken the hat too, but the moment Zabini, Blaise had been sorted into Slytherin, the damn hat flew through the air and landed on Godric's head, much to the shock of everyone in the school.

  However before any of the teachers could say anything, "Dumbledore" waved down their concern and told them all that it was perfectly alright. Besides, Godric did throw the pointed black hat he had gotten in Diagon Alley onto the stool McGonagall had been carrying away, so it's not like the school was out a hat.

  With everyone now sorted, "Dumbledore" got to his feet and spread his arms out as though he was a king addressing his subjects. "Welcome, welcome to a new year at Hogwarts! Before we begin our banquet, I would like to share a few words that a great witch shared once with the world that forever changed it long ago. I hope that by sharing them once again, the world might be able to rise up to the challenge." The headmaster said as he looked out over the students sitting at the tables.

  Salazar had no idea what Savrin was going to say, and he knew that if he was telling them something that he hoped they would learn from, he knew it was in his best interest to pay attention.

  "We do not need magic to change the world, we carry all the power we need inside ourselves already: we have the power to imagine better." He finished, then sat back to his seat as the food suddenly appeared on the tables.

  Ignoring the food in front of him and the people squawking next to him, Salazar thought over those words. 'What does he mean, we do not need magic? Our whole goal is to increase magic!' Salazar thought, not understanding the point Savrin was trying to make. Still, he could glean something from it. 'We have the power to imagine better.' He told himself, knowing that they could in fact accomplish their goal.

  Absently without his notice, Salazar began to dish himself some food and shovel it into his mouth without realizing it. Only when the food disappeared and the taste of cinnamon touched his tongue did he snap out of it, and that's when he saw the table filled with deserts.

  'These are pretty good.' He told himself as he dished more and more onto his plate. Glancing across the room to the furthest table from his own, Salazar saw Godric joking and laughing with other children, and he could only sigh. 'Of course he gets along with children. He has the mentality of one.' He mocked his friend, then polished off what was left of his dessert.

  Once all the tables cleared themselves, everyone looked to the head table where "Dumbledore" was standing once more. "Now that we've all filled our bellies, I have a few start-of-term notices to give you. First-years should note that the forest in the grounds is forbidden to all students. I have also been asked by the caretaker, Mr. Filch, to remind you all that no magic should be used between classes in the corridors."

  Here the headmaster paused as he glanced at said caretaker, and though most of the students and teachers might have missed it, Salazar and Godric did not. 'It seems we might be looking for a new caretaker by the end of the year.' Godric thought, getting a "hmmm" from his hat.

  "Quidditch trials will be held in the second week of term. Anyone interested in playing for their house teams should contact Madam Hooch." The headmaster said, and at once excited whispers and murmurs filled the room. Godric wondered what the hell Quidditch was, but he supposed he would find that out later. He waited until the room quieted again, so he could listen to anything else Savrin had to tell them.

  "And finally, I must tell you that starting this year, the third-floor corridor on the right-hand side is being set up for students who wish to test what they've learned throughout their time here at Hogwarts, to be used in real world application. No one is forbidden from entry, and even the teachers are permitted to enter to test their abilities. One thing of note about the trials, there will be rewards suitable to how far you reach. The trials will begin on the first Saturday of October, which I believe is the 5th, so until they are fully prepared, I ask each and every one of you to avoid the third floor corridor."

  If people were murmuring about Quidditch, the room was basically in an uproar about the trials, and none were shouting more so than the teachers. Evidently it seemed, Savrin had not seen fit to tell any of them about the trials he had set up.

  'I wonder what the rewards will be…' Godric mused to himself as he waited for the room to quiet once more. It took a little longer for the room to settle down, but that was mostly because the teachers were all treating "Dumbledore" as though he had gone mad. 'If only they knew.' Godric chuckled darkly.

"More will be explained in the coming weeks about the trials, but for now, let us get onto the last order of business before we head off to bed. The school song." The headmaster said, his words bringing Godric upright in his seat.

'School song? We have a school song?!' He asked his hat, who only seemed to chuckle inside his head. On the other side of the room, Salazar was having a similar reaction, only there was no one for him to talk to.

  Everyone watched as the headmaster raised his hand into the air and golden words appeared before their very eyes. Looking at the words that were floating high above their heads, Salazar's right eye began to twitch, and he absently wondered, or rather, he hoped that this was some idiotic prank.

  His hopes were dashed the second everyone began to sing, all out of tune, he thought, and he could only cover his ears as he let his head hit the table. 'What. The. Fuck?! These idiots call this music?! I could make a better noise by hitting two rocks together!' He cursed internally.

  When the song finally finished, Salazar let out what felt like the millionth sigh of the day. Looking over to the other tables, he saw the expressions on the faces of his two friends and Godric, and he was at least happy to see that they somewhat shared his views.

  Helga looked to have an expression of shock and horror on her face, which was understandable given what they had just gone through. Rowena looked sad as she stared at a wall, which Salazar interpreted as disappointment in how far the school had fallen. Godric on the other hand, well… his facial expression blank, which was at least better than if the fool had enjoyed that song.

  With the feast now over and done with, the students followed their house-prefects to their dormitories, which meant that Salazar was going to the dungeons. It was funny, he had chosen the dungeons for his house because it was probably the last place in the castle that an attacking force would go.

  His reasoning was to have it be the last line of defense should the castle ever get attacked, but after a thousand years of nothing happening, he guessed that might be pointless, especially now that Savrin was around. With that monster here, any defenses they had for the school were most likely pointless, and as long as he was here, Salazar doubted the school had anything to fear from an attacking force.

  Soon enough they arrived at a large stretch of a damp stone wall, at which point the prefect spoke, "Purity." As soon as he spoke the word, a concealed stone door slid to the side, revealing a rectangular hole in the wall.

  Turning to look at them, the prefect said, "That's the password for this week. It changes every Sunday morning, and when it does the new password will appear on your bedroom door until noon, at which point it will disappear. If you don't learn it then, you'll have to get it from someone who does know it."

  After that they were all led into the common room, which was dimly lit and had a gruesome sort of feeling compared to the Treehouse that Salazar had lived in for the last month, and it was difficult to not complain about the change.

"Welcome to Slytherin. The girls' rooms are down that hall, and the boy's rooms are down that hall." A tall dark-haired boy said, and Salazar noticed that he too was wearing a prefect badge.

  "Before you head off for the night, I need to explain a few things. First of all, my name is Damian Alton, I'm a pure-blood, and I'm also your prefect. If you have any questions or concerns, you bring them to me. Now, as you might already know, or should know, anything that happens in Slytherin, stays in Slytherin. We protect one another, especially outside the dungeons. We will always present a strong and united front to the rest of the school, even if we have personal grudges with one another." Damian explained as he looked to the first-years Slytherins, and even a few of the older students as well.

  "One of the most important rules in Slytherin is that we don't get caught doing shady things. That's not to say you can't have some fun with the other houses, just don't get caught. We've won the house cup for the last seven years, and we don't plan on breaking that streak anytime soon, so if you plan on doing something that will lose us house points, make sure you can come up with a good enough excuse to not lose points. Our head of house, Professor Snape, does an admirable job of looking the other way on certain matters, so if you feel like you need help in certain areas, you can trust him to help, or at least trust him enough to turn a blind-eye, especially where Gryffindor is concerned." Damian and the older students all seemed to get a laugh at that, but Salazar didn't find it very funny. On the contrary, he was angry.

  Rather than do anything at the moment, Salazar remained silent as he listened to a few of the older students shout out some of the things they could do to get away with certain things, then after who knew how long, they were finally allowed to go to their beds.

  As he turned to go down the corridor towards his room, Salazar saw a thin man with sallow skin, a large, hooked nose, and was wearing flowing black robes which made him resemble an overgrown bat. He had shoulder-length, greasy black hair which framed his face in curtains, curling lips and dark, penetrating eyes that resembled tunnels. Salazar saw the older man talking to Damian, and he could only guess that this was his head of house. 

  'He looks as creepy as I thought. Who in their right mind would want him anywhere near children?' Salazar thought to himself as he forced himself to look away from the man and move down the corridor to his room.

Finding the door with his name on it, he let himself inside before locking it behind him, then added a few spells to the door for good measure. 'I wonder if Savrin will let me stay in the treehouse and just walk to school in the mornings?' He questioned, then cast a few spells to clean himself and brushed his teeth before he climbed into the crummy looking bed, then closed his eyes.

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  (Moments after the Sorting)

  As the students were gathering to head to their House dormitories with their prefects, Godric slipped through the crowd of children and moved quickly to the Ravenclaw table to where Rowena was still staring blankly at the wall. Putting a hand on her shoulder, he saw that he snapped her out of her trance.

"Rowena I'm… I'm sorry." He said as she turned to look at him. They just stared at one another for a few seconds before a tear trailed down her cheek, then she whispered, "She looks so young. She didn't get the chance to have a life before it was taken from her."

Godric wasn't sure what to say to that, mostly because he had never really met any of the little bastards that he had apparently sired in his old life. Never was he attached to them, nor did he get the chance to love them. Not like Rowena did with Helena.

  Not giving Rowena a chance, Godric pulled her in close to him and wrapped his arms around her. "It'll be alright. No matter what happens, you have us here to help you. Besides, maybe you could use this chance to talk to her. I don't know how it will go, but speaking to her will be a lot better than avoiding her." Godric said, hoping to comfort his friend who was clearly hurting.

The two stood there for as long as they could before the prefects came and ushered them away. As they broke apart, Godric said, "I'll see you in the morning at breakfast." Then he followed along with the rest of his House.

  Wiping the tears from her eyes, Rowena followed along with her own House until they got to Ravenclaw tower where they had to answer a riddle correctly to get in. She vaguely remembered making that little function in her past life, but her mind was too engrossed on the matter of ghosts to really pay attention to it.

Even as the prefect discussed the dormitory and how their class schedule would be delivered the following morning at breakfast, she was only partially following along. She scanned the tower, looking for something, but try as she might, she couldn't find what she was looking for. Eventually they were all shown to their rooms, which she found out she would be sharing with five other girls.

  Finding the four poster bed with her trunk in front of it, Rowena looked over the clean silken blue and bronze blanket draped over it, and it was then that memories flooded her mind of why she picked those colors for her house. The face of a little girl proudly holding up a painting depicting her wearing a blue dress with bronze laces came to mind, and Rowena felt as though her insides were twisting.

Even as Lisa, one of the other girls tried to speak to her, Rowena ignored them, bidding them all a goodnight, she climbed into bed before pulling the curtains around her. Waving her wand, she silenced her bed from the rest of the room so she wouldn't hear them talking to one another, but also so none of her new roommates would hear her crying.

  Rowena wasn't sure what time it was in the night, but she awoke to a room blanketed in darkness. She realized that she must have cried herself to sleep, but how long it had been, she didn't know. Given how it was still dark outside, she realized it hadn't been too long, but it had been long enough that the other girls in the room had all turned in and had fallen asleep.

Rolling over onto her back, Rowena was about to close her eyes and go back to sleep, but as she looked up at the ceiling, she saw a face staring back at her. Letting out a gasp, her breath caught in her throat as she realized who it was that was staring down at her. Slowly, Rowena pushed herself up into a sitting position, her eyes never leaving the ones staring back at her.

  "Helena." She said quietly after sitting cross-legged in the middle of the bed. She watched with watery eyes as the ghost of her daughter floated down and sat across from her. "Mother?" The ghost asked, sounding unsure of her words.

Nodding once, Rowena reached out to grab hold of Helena's hand, when to her dismay, her hand passed right through her hands, reminding her of the fact that her daughter was dead. The two of them sat there in silence for a time, with Helena staring at Rowena and Rowena staring at Helena's hands.

Eventually the silence was broken when Helena asked, "How are you here?" Rowena wanted to ask her the same thing, but she wasn't sure she could listen to the tale of how her daughter died so young. She wanted to ask her daughter if she knew how she herself died, as she had no memories of her death, but she wasn't sure she wanted to know that either.

As for telling Helena about Savrin, she wanted to tell her, she wanted to tell her everything, but she knew she couldn't tell her the truth. At least not the whole truth.

"Helga, Salazar, Godric, and I were all brought back to complete a certain task by a certain entity. Our goal is to save the magical world within ten years or… everyone dies." She said, hoping that would be enough. Of course she knew it wouldn't be, but she hoped Helena would understand that she couldn't tell her everything, at least until she got permission from Savrin. Who knew what the demonic entity would do if he found out.

  "How? How will they all die without your help?" Helena pressed on, wanting to know more. "It's been almost a thousand years since we last saw one another. I'd rather not talk about that. Please, Helena. Tell me about you." Rowena said, trying to change the subject. Though visibly not pleased, Helena did drop the matter, for now at least.

"It's been nine-hundred and fifty-one years since we last saw one another, not a thousand." Helena said, her words making Rowena frown. "Is that when I died?" She couldn't help but ask.

Quirking her head to the side, Helena asked, "You mean you don't know how you died?" It sounded strange to not know how one died, especially because Helena remembered it quite vividly.

"Not really, no. I remember many things, but some things elude me. I'm not even sure when it is that I died because I wasn't that old in my last memories." Rowena answered sadly.

  "You fell fatally ill. No one really knows what it was that took you from the world, but it made you very sick. Helga couldn't cure whatever ailed you, and Godric and Salazar couldn't find a cure even after searching for months. You might have been able to hold on a bit longer, but a broken heart pushed you over the edge." Helena said, then looked somewhat guilty. At least, she wore the same look she had when she was a little girl and she had done something she shouldn't have.

Realizing that Helena was not liking where the line of questioning was going, Rowena changed it. "How long have you been wandering the castle?" She asked, hoping that the answer wouldn't make her more sad than she already was.

"Nine-hundred and forty-nine years. I died a year after you, but I didn't make it back to Hogwarts as a ghost until a year later. Godric was headmaster at the time, and he let me call Hogwarts my home." Helena answered plainly.

  Rowena spent the next few hours asking questions, however Helena answered very few of them. When the sunlight came in through the window, it was Helena that decided to be done talking, however before she left, she said, "I'll see you again later."

Realizing that she had spent most of the night talking to the ghost of her daughter, Rowena checked the time, finding it to be late enough that there was no point in going back to sleep, so she grabbed her clothes and got ready for her first day of school.

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  Godric entered the Great Hall at breakfast, finding that he was one of the first people to arrive. Aside from himself, there were two older Slytherin students sitting at their table, and three Ravenclaw students at their table. Two of them were older girls, maybe in their fifth or sixth year, but the third one was all too familiar. Moving to the Ravenclaw table instead of the Gryffindor table, Godric sat down beside Rowena.

"How are you feeling?" He asked as he swiped a piece of buttered toast off her plate. "I'm alright." She answered quietly, ignoring the fact that he was helping himself to her food.

"I spoke with her. She told me some things, but she definitely has secrets that she isn't willing to share with me." Rowena said, not sounding as sad as Godric would have thought. "Give it some time, I'm sure she'll open up to you." He told her.

  Godric didn't press Rowena for the information that she might have learned in the night, and he was content to simply make idle chatter that took her mind off the night's events. Soon enough, Helga arrived, and like Godric, chose to sit at the Ravenclaw table with Rowena and Godric instead of her own table. Salazar was the last of the group to arrive, and when he moved to sit with them at the Ravenclaw table, that was when they noticed that most people in the Great Hall were staring at them.

Reaching a hand up to touch his head, Salazar let out a sigh before saying, "My hair is still here, so why is everyone staring?" The other three had no idea why the rest of the school was staring, at least until a little boy with platinum blonde hair left the Slytherin table and approached them.

"Serpents don't sit with wastrels and duffers." The little boy said. Getting quickly to his feet, Godric grabbed the boy by the collar of his robes and lifted him a foot off the ground before growling, "Who are you calling a wastrel?!"

At the table beside them, Salazar leaned in to Rowena and whispered, "At least he knows which one he is."

  Before things had a chance to escalate, the sound of someone clearing their throat echoed over the now silent room. Still holding the blonde ponce in the air, Godric turned his head to see the deputy Headmistress of Hogwarts and the head of his house standing before them, a disappointing look on her face.

"Mister Gryffindor. Unhand mister Malfoy this instance!" The stern woman ordered. Looking back to the boy he held slightly above his head, Godric pondered whether or not to listen to his Head of House, but ultimately he decided that it didn't matter. He could always get the kid later.

Dropping the boy, who was apparently named Malfoy to the floor, Godric turned to sit back at the table when McGonagall cleared her throat once more.

"This is a school for learning, not rough-housing. That will be five points from Gryffindor." McGonagall said, making Godric frown in thought. However, instead of him speaking up, it was Helga.

"What about Malfoy? He started it. He insulted both Godric and I by calling us Wastrels and duffers." The little girl said, earning a frown from the old woman.

"I see." She said before she turned her sharp stare to Malfoy, who looked like he wanted to be anywhere but where he was. "Actions have consequences, and you best learn that right now mister  Malfoy. Ten points will be taken from Slytherin." McGonagall stated, then walked back to the head table.

  Just before Malfoy turned to leave, he looked directly at Helga before whispering, "You'll regret that you filthy little mudblood." Then moved quickly away before anyone could do anything.

"What does that mean? Mudblood? I know it's supposed to be insulting, but I've never heard it before." Godric asked the others, who in turn all shrugged their shoulders.

Like him, they too were ignorant of most things in this day and age, at least things that didn't relate to politics or Death Eaters. They were more well versed than most when it came to those subjects because they had been researching them non-stop since they were brought back.

  As they continued eating, their House Prefects came by and gave them all their timetables for the semester. Looking at it, Godric sighed as he spoke, "Most of my classes are grouped up with Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw. It won't be until Friday that Sally and I have a class together, and it's Potions. How come that's the only class our two Houses share together?"

Salazar seemed to smile at the news, taking it better than the others. As much as he liked Godric, it was going to be nice to get away from him for a while. "I don't know, Godric. Maybe you could talk to Savrin and have him change things up a bit." Helga said, her words making Salazar frown.

"Why must you ruin my life?" He asked, earning confused looks from all of them.

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  At lunchtime the four of them were all sitting together once again, only this time they were at the Hufflepuff table, and like before, many of the other students were looking at them weirdly. Ignoring the rest of the school, Godric was telling Salazar all about the kids he was being forced to share a room with.

"-And from what Percy told me, I'll be sharing a room with them for all seven years of school!" Godric complained, not finding the idea of roommates to be appealing in the least. Especially not little boys.

  "That's tragic. I'm living in a dimly lit room all to myself." Salazar said, not sounding the least bit remorseful to Godric's plight. "Do you know what this means?! I'll never be able to bring a girl to my bed!" Godric whisper-shouted to Salazar, who actually quirked a brow at that.

  "You're a grown ass man in a child's body. Are you telling me you're going to try and bed the girls going to school here?" Salazar asked, earning himself a scoff from Godric.

  "I'm not saying I'm going to try and sleep with them anytime soon. We're eleven in case you haven't noticed. I'm too underdeveloped for a girl to want to get with me, and to be perfectly honest, I don't have the urges to get with them at the moment, but in a few years time then I don't see the harm in it. This is our reality, Salazar. Like it or not, we can't go back, and to be perfectly honest, I'm okay with that. Besides, are you telling me you're going to remain alone for the rest of your life? If that's the case, our options are limited to Helga and Rowena, and I doubt they'd ever get with me, let alone you." Godric explained, for once making some bit of sense and making Salazar left without a response.

  Savrin had already shattered their views on how magic worked, and the world as well if they were being honest, so having his views opened up about women by Godric was hardly the biggest shock to Salazar. He hadn't really given it too much thought since it was always hard to imagine his love-life without her in his life, but he guessed that was a different life entirely now.

  'Would it be so wrong to let myself find happiness again?' He asked himself, however before he could find an answer, the conversation between Helga and Rowena met his ears.

"Who would you get with if you had to? Godric or Salazar?" Rowena asked Helga, whose face turned crimson. "I'll not be getting with either of them, thank you very much! I for one completely agree with Godric. Our lives started over, and I see no reason why we can't live new lives!" Helga stated, doing her best to not answer the question.

Smiling mischievously, Rowena leaned in and whispered in Helga's ear so neither Salazar or Godric could hear her. "If I had to, I'd pick Godric. He's not as handsome as Salazar, but think of how experienced he is. The things he could do to you…" She stopped talking when it looked like Helga was going to pop, given how she looked comparable to a tomato at the moment.

  "Excuse us." A voice said, drawing the attention of all four of them. Turning to see who it was, they saw three Hufflepuff girls standing together. "Hey, it's you three!" Godric said happily.

Turning back to the others he said, "This is Susan Bones, Hannah Abbot, and Sally Smith. I met them on the train." Godric's words earned him glares from both Helga and Rowena, both of them thinking that he was already trying to seduce innocent girls.

"If you so much as lay one finger on any of them, I'll cut it off!" Helga stated, surprising the three girls because they had no idea what got Helga so upset. "Ugh! Why must you think the worst of me? I have never forced myself on anyone, so get it through your thick head!" Godric told them, done with the subject.

  "Anyway… we were wondering if we could sit with you all?" Susan asked, sounding a little unsure if it was a good idea to sit with them after all. "Please do!" Helga said, agreeing on behalf of the whole group. The three girls were her roommates, and last night she had spoken with them for almost two hours before they had all gone to sleep, so she knew them fairly well, just not as well as Godric apparently.

The three girls sat on the side of the table with Helga and Rowena with Godric and Salazar sitting opposite of them, which seemed to be okay for everyone.

"So… what brings you to our neck of the woods? You miss me?" Godric couldn't help but ask jokingly. "With every spell so far!" Sally said quickly, causing the rest of the group to stare blankly at her. Evidently she didn't like Godric very much.

"Oh, I can tell you and I are going to get along swimmingly." Salazar said, showing a rare smile. "Of course you would say that. You two have the same name." Godric teased, though he got no reaction from either of the two.

  -----------

  Lunch hadn't been so bad with the new additions to their group, and they all had gotten along well enough that they decided to sit together during dinner as well. For some reason their group still received stares from most of the school, making Godric wonder if it would ever be natural to see a member of each of the four houses sitting together at the tables and having a good time.

Deciding that it wouldn't hurt to branch out their little group, Godric decided that the following morning, he would add a member from his own house.

  "-quit spacing out, Godric! You said you would show me how to change the matchstick." Hannah said, snapping Godric out of his musings. "Hmm? Oh yeah. My apologies." He said once he realized where he was.

The morning Transfiguration class between Hufflepuff and Gryffindor, Godric had been the top student, turning his matchstick silver with the first wave of his wand, then he went above and beyond by turning it gold with elegant engravings on it, though one had to look very closely at it to see them.

McGonagall had been impressed to say the least, and had rewarded him with ten points for turning the matchstick into a needle, and another five points for the gold design.

  Helga had turned the matchstick into a needle too, but despite her skill in Transfiguration, she wasn't anywhere close to Godric's level, which was why Hannah had asked Godric for help, and not seeing the harm, he agreed.

  --------

  Come the following morning, Gryffindor and Hufflepuff were once more sharing a transfiguration class, though unlike the previous morning, McGonagall was not waiting for them disguised as a cat on her desk, however she did feel the need to repeat her speech from yesterday because apparently some people didn't understand just how dangerous the magic was.

  "Transfiguration is some of the most complex and dangerous magic you will learn at Hogwarts. Anyone messing around in my class will leave and not come back. You have been warned for the last time." She said sternly as she stared pointedly at a brown-haired Gryffindor boy in the back of the class.

She went on to repeat most of yesterday's class, even going so far as to demonstrate turning her desk into a pig and back again.

"Now, let us once again try turning the matchstick into a needle." She said, then turned her attention to Godric. "Mister Gryffindor, as you and miss Hufflepuff have already completed this lesson, you two can take this opportunity to study if you want." She said, then went back to monitoring the rest of the class.

  "She's not a bad teacher, but she needs to go into a bit more depth on the visualizing and the intent of the magic. Transfiguration isn't just wand waving and saying a few words." Godric told Helga, who couldn't help but nod in agreement.

"I did it!" A cry of excitement got their attention and they both looked over to see Hannah jumping in joy. "Excellent work, Miss Abbot. Five points to Hufflepuff." McGonagall cheered, proud that another student had completed the task, and on only the second day.

Godric was reading through his book when someone tapped him on the shoulder. Turning to see who it was, he saw Susan standing nervously behind him.

"Umm, could you give me a few pointers? Whatever you said really helped Hannah, so maybe could you help me?" She asked hopefully. Not seeing the need of refusing her, Godric closed his book before moving to go sit with her.

  "Okay, here is what I want you to do. Don't think of it as turning a matchstick into a needle, but returning a needle back to its original form. It has always been a needle, but someone turned it into a matchstick. Got it?" He asked, and after thinking hard for a few seconds, Susan nodded her head.

"Good. Now, before you wave your wand, imagine exactly how you want it to look. Don't picture turning it silver or shaping the matchstick to look like a needle, imagine a needle clearly in your mind. Are you following so far?" Godric instructed again, and after a minute of staring at the matchstick, Susan nodded her head again.

"Alright, visualize it clearly in your mind, then wave your wand." Godric instructed. Doing exactly as she was told, Susan envisioned a perfect needle in her mind, it's color, shape, size, weight, material, everything, then she waved her wand. She had to remember to breathe a few seconds after waving her wand, because there on the desk in front of her, was a perfect needle.

"I did it?" She asked, sounding as though she didn't believe that she was the one to have actually turned the matchstick into the needle. "Yup. You did good." Godric said, praising her for her work. She had actually done fairly well because she had managed it on her first try after his instruction. It had taken Hannah four tries.

  "Well done, Miss Bones! Five points to Hufflepuff!" McGonagall cheered, having noticed the needle on the table in front of her. "I did it!" Susan cried joyfully as she ran over and hugged Hannah.

"Thank you, Godric. You're the best!" She told him after she had finished celebrating. "You were the one who did it, not me. Just make sure you do more visualizing on what you want instead of the words to the spell." He told her before he went back to his chair.

'It's funny how awed children are at doing magic for the first time.' Godric thought, enjoying the sight of how happy Hannah and Susan were at doing something as basic at turning a matchstick into a needle. Hell, when he had done magic intentionally for the first time as a kid, he remembered smiling like a lunatic for the rest of the day.

However that was more than a lifetime ago now, and something so simple didn't get him excited anymore. Fighting a dragon with a tree however, now that was impressive, and he still had no intention of letting Salazar forget it.

  Godric had been thinking about past battles where he had won using Transfiguration when he realized someone was standing directly in front of him. Looking up, he saw that it was Sally. She looked nervous, and it seemed like she wanted to be anywhere but right in front of him at that moment.

Still, he watched her take a deep breath before she finally asked, "Godric, could you please help me?" Rather than mock or ridicule her, Godric smiled happily before he got to his feet.

"Of course." He told her, then walked back to her table before telling her the same thing he had told the others. He was a teacher first and foremost in his mind, and he wasn't about to degrade someone for asking for help. He would do that later when she least expected it.

  When the class ended, only Hannah, Susan, and Sally had all managed to turn their matchsticks into needles, though some of the other students were close to completing it. One such person was Hermione Granger, a young Gryffindor witch who was doing fairly well on her own, but she just couldn't get it to turn completely into a needle.

As she watched the three girls turn their matchsticks into needles, and saw how they thanked the red-haired boy from her own house for his help, she was more than a little miffed. Magic had been surprisingly easy for her up until now, and it irked her that she wasn't getting it right away. She was even doing exactly as the book had told her, but still it wasn't working.

  'If only I had the same opportunity as them.' She thought as she enviously stared at the group of friends.

  --------

  "You've got to be kidding me. This bumbling idiot can't possibly be a teacher." Salazar said dryly after listening to Quirrell go five minutes and not be able to finish a line.

Salazar had nothing against stuttering, hell, he knew a great witch who stuttered back in the day who frankly scared the shit out of him sometimes, but this fool teaching them either had the worst case of stuttering he had ever seen, or he was faking it.

  On top of the fact that he was scared of his own shadow, and would oftentimes jump into the air for no reason, Salazar thought Quirrell belonged in a looney bin.

  "Do you believe the story about him being attacked by a vampire?" Rowena asked Salazar, who was doing his best to ignore the teacher and focus solely on reading the book in front of him.

  "If he's ever been within a hundred miles of a vampire in his life, I'm King of England." Salazar said, not buying the story in the slightest. "You know, I'll bet Savrin would get rid of him if we told him about how useless of a teacher this guy is." Rowena said, and for the first time since the lesson began, Salazar looked up from his book.

"And who would replace him? In case you forgot, we need to find replacements before we get rid of anyone, otherwise the Ministry can stick their noses into the school." Salazar said, reminding Rowena of that little tidbit of information.

  "No teacher at all would be better than this guy, and besides, wouldn't having a retired Auror who has had real world experience dealing with creatures be ideal in teaching about the Dark Arts?" Rowena asked, to which Salazar actually hummed in thought.

  "That's not a bad idea, but we'll still have to-" Salazar was interrupted when Quirrell let out a shriek of fright upon seeing a bug on the wall. "We'll ask him about it later." Salazar said, then went back to reading his book.

  --------

  They had Herbology, Astronomy and Charms over the next few days, and even History of Magic that was taught by a ghost, but other than Charms, neither Godric nor Salazar really liked the classes. Hell, not even Rowena liked some of the classes, and she was as big of a nerd as one could be.

  Herbology wasn't bad, but Godric could barely take care of himself, let alone a plant, and Salazar preferred creatures to leafy green things. Still, they both paid attention to the information that could very well save their lives or help them end someone else's lives. Salazar could map out the stars fairly well in Astronomy, but Godric was a different matter altogether. He did not enjoy staying up late to stare at the stars with kids.

  Once Friday morning rolled around, Godric found himself sitting next to Salazar, Helga, Rowena, the three Hufflepuff girls, and their newest addition, Neville Longbottom at the far end of the Hufflepuff table closest to the teachers at breakfast time.

Neville had been scared when he first joined the group, but he was slowly coming to be more relaxed around them. Sure he pretty much shrank into himself whenever Salazar or Rowena spoke to him, but he was getting more and more used to them as the first week of the year had passed.

  "We got a double potions class today with each other." Godric told Salazar after looking at their class schedule. "Ugh! That means you two finally get to experience Snape, that slimy ponce!" Helga growled, which shocked the three boys at the table while Rowena and the other Hufflepuff girls simply nodded their heads in understanding.

  "What did he do to piss you off?" Godric couldn't help but ask. Helga was the most patient and understanding person Godric and Salazar had ever met, so if she was mad at someone, they clearly had to have done something wrong.

  "He treats everyone like dirt, and his idea of teaching is to write instructions on a board then walk around the classroom until someone makes a mistake, then he yells at them!" Helga spat out angrily, then took long slow deep breaths to calm herself down.

  "It's true. And even if you follow his instructions, he still finds a way to yell at you." Rowena said, then explained, "A boy in my house, Terry Boot and I made a perfect potion in class yesterday to cure boils, and Snape broke the vial on the floor, then gave us both a zero for the class." Rowena seemed livid at the story, and if the not so subtle glare she shot at Snape was any indication, she loathed the man.

  "You know what I think? I think it's time the potions teacher got his due." Godric mumbled darkly with a weird expression on his face that sent chills down Helga's spine, then got to his feet before he ran out of the Great Hall.

  "Do you think it's a good idea to let him do what he wants?" Helga whispered worriedly to Rowena. "No, but if he's going to kill anyone with his pranks, I wouldn't mind if it was Snape." She whispered back, not showing an ounce of pity for their potions instructor. Susan, Hannah, and Sally all nodded their heads in agreement, feeling that any bad thing that happened to Snape was warranted. Neville on the other hand, looked scared out of his mind.

  "Remember the last time he had that expression on his face, he created that nuisance who terrorized the castle." Helga said, reminding Salazar and Rowena of the Poltergeist that still roamed the castle to this day.

Remembering the moronic terror that Godric had unleashed upon the school, Rowena and Salazar shared a look before the both whispered, "Peeves."