The Founders Four

Chapter 08: A peek into the past

Rowena and Godric went to the Gryffindor quarters; whilst Salazar and Helga went towards the Hufflepuff quarters as they were not sure what would the state of Salazar's chambers be after so many years of neglect. With the other founders' quarters it would not be a problem as House elves were permitted to enter their chambers but Salazar had not allowed that due to the volatility of his potions.

A few hours later, Salazar swung his legs over the side of the bed. The cold stone floor greeted Salazar's feet, and he pulled them back up with a wince. All the spells and enchantments he and Helga had used on their chambers were brittle, having disintegrated over time. The slightest use of any of them destroyed what was left. Although the house elves had kept the chambers clean and the furniture was still in order, the elves could not re-apply the spells. He wouldn't dare to reapply the wards in the middle of the night anyway.

He did not want to think about the state of his chambers, if this was the situation of Helga's chambers.

Nevertheless, getting his Holly wand from the bedside table he conjured himself some slippers. Pulling on his robe, he silently went out into the main hall of the chambers. He cast his glance around the room. It oozed with Helga's personality. One wall was full of sketches of different animals and birds; another wall had portraits of all four founders on the inauguration day of Hogwarts; along with that there was also a portrait of Helga and him on their wedding day. On the opposite side of that was a fireplace and the remaining wall contained book shelves filled with books on healing, different creatures, books written in different languages and the methods of divination.

He looked up at the ceiling of the chambers and smiled at the birds flying about the shadowed ceiling. Helga always loved to watch the sky filled with birds. That was the reason that she had cast this spell all around her chambers. He remembered the time when after their marriage, he had cast the same spell on their bedroom to give her a surprise. He clearly remembered the shocked look on Helga's face when she saw that. She had loved the additional touch he had put in the spell, so now the ceiling in his bed chambers was a replica of the weather outside. He remembered how excited Helga was and how she had run to get Rowena and Godric to see that. After seeing his spell work Rowena had almost pleaded him to show her the spell and together all four founders had done the exact same thing to the Great Hall. The spell was still active in the Great Hall due to the power of all four founders behind it.

He then jabbed his wand at a seemingly innocuous bit of wall before him, and muttered "To the Training Area, please."

In a flash of light, he was whisked away, and found himself, as suddenly as he had left, within the Founder's Training Room. This was one of the features that all founders had in their chambers for ease of access to the training room.

Salazar stepped off the transportation stones and into the training room proper, rolling his head and stretching his arms.

The Training Area, as they called it, was really much more than merely a room for keeping fit. It was only accessible through the Founder's private chambers. There were four separate rooms.

The first was the main room where Salazar currently was. The colors of the four Houses each adorned a separate wall of the big, square central room. Each wall had a large recessed area with a personal Pensieve, a large desk and specialized work station tailored to the abilities and Masteries of each Founder. Godric's nook had instruments for weapons creation. Helga's niche was lined in shelves filled with Healer's instruments, as Rowena's shelves were filled with rare texts and ancient scrolls. Salazar's alcove included a full potions lab.

The next room was accessible from a doorway between Godric and Salazar's tables. This was where the founders practiced dueling with each other. This room was warded so that no stray spells would harm the onlookers and it had a dueling stage in the center of the hall. It also had a separate area from where people could watch the duel. It was sometimes used by the ladies or some of the other professors, when they wanted to watch the four take on each other.