The Five Greatest Wizards of their Time

Chapter Eight: The Invisibility Cloak

"Is that all that was written?" asked Godric, still eyeing the Invisibility Cloak clutched in Alexander's hands.

"Yes. Do you have any idea who may have sent it to me?" asked Alexander, carefully setting down the note and examining the cloak.

"Well it wasn't me. I've never seen an Invisibility Cloak in my whole life, and trust me, I've lived a quite an eventful life."

"Hmm. Should I have it sent to the Ministry of Magic to be inspected?" asked Alexander, slipping into the cloak, "Just to be sure it may not have any curses or jinxes?"

"There would be no need for that. Invisibility Cloaks are far much more advanced in magic than anything we can know about. The magic and enchantments placed into them are well beyond my knowledge of wizardry. It is not possible to even place the simplest curses onto Invisibility Cloaks because of how powerful they are. What does intrigue me is why a cloak like this would fall into your possession, and who could possibly own an Invisibility Cloak," replied Godric.

"So, what are we to do now?" asked Alexander, only his head floating around in the air.

"There is currently nothing to go on I'm afraid. What we can do, however, is keep this to ourselves. If the workers and the rest of the Great Five were to discover about your prize, it would become anarchy in Hogwarts, with people killing each other. Hide that cloak somewhere in which I, or anyone else cannot find it, but only you," ended Godric, "Make sure you hide it well."

Another four weeks passed by, and slowly, but steadily, the workers returned from their holidays, and Hogwarts was back under construction. Progress was hard to make while many workers were diverted from their original tasks by removing and getting rid of snow that blanketed the rooftops and corridors of Hogwarts. Not only that, but it was harder to stay warm at night while the temperature dropped constantly, and there were not enough supplies coming in from the nearby wizarding village. Godric rarely saw his colleagues in the castle. Salazar seemed to be staying near the dungeons, installing new pipes and setting up cauldrons, potions, and thousands of books for the classes that would be taught. Rowena was hidden in near the Ravenclaw common room, trying to arrange the classrooms, the most difficult one being the future Divination room. Helga, meanwhile, had to keep setting up different work and break schedules for the workers. She seemed to be getting very few hours of sleep.

Godric had the pleasure of assisting Madam Fordose in the hospital wing, as tens of workers kept coming in everyday. His wand was almost always in his hand as he had to keep a fire going for those who were coming down with a cold, and had to use different spells for those who had frostbite on their feet and hands. Nothing seemed to be going as planned, and before Godric knew it, at the end of January, Hogwarts was almost two weeks behind construction, and already at least a hundred workers had to be sent back to muggle villages to be tended by the apothecaries.

"Have we at least gotten the plank boards for the teachers' lounge?" asked Salazar, pointing to a list of words on parchment paper.

"The order never came! The cart carrying those supplies broke down halfway up the hill, and the planks are hidden under a meter of snow! We can't even trace the tracks that the wheels made!" answered Timothy, holding what seemed to be a ruler.

"Never mind the teachers' lounge, what about the rugs and couches that I ordered from London?" asked Rowena, "They need to be brought to the Divination room before they tarnish in the weather!"

"I'm afraid we were too late. It snowed another few centimeters in London last night, and the furniture is soaked. We need to get a few more galleons to have them repaired and sent again," answered Timothy, unrolling parchment and reading from a line, "Helga, you wrote that tomorrow we need to place a path of gravel that would lead to the Quidditch field?"