The Founders' Unexpected Trip

The Founders' Unexpected Trip ...

Prologue

Godric Gryffindor looked out of his bedroom window. Through this portal he could see Salazar Slytherin flying high above the grassy field, laughing at Rowena Ravenclaw's futile attempts to teach her friend, Helga Hufflepuff, how to ride a broom. This wasn't all together an unexpected sight. Slytherin had been trying to hide his intense infatuation with Helga by teasing her and being meaner to her than he was with the others. Let's just say the only one that didn't notice his passion for the kind-hearted, sweet tempered, and gentle girl, was the object of his attention, Helga.

The four students attended the English Academy for the Magical Arts. The school was slowly, but surely, becoming to small for the growing population of wizards in England. The young Lord Godric was the heir to a large, roomy, and, not to mention, magical castle. He, Rowena, his long time girlfriend, Salazar, and Helga planned to start a larger and better equipped school at Godric's roomy inheritance, after they graduated the next year. Both Salazar and Rowena had their own inheritance, but since it was Godric's idea, they were to use his estates.

The young man arose tiredly from his bed in the room that he shared with the other fifteen or so boys from his year. He pulled on his jacket and picked up his broomstick as he left his quarters. Treading carefully on the stairs he bumped into the headmistress of the Academy, Lady Gertrude. He smiled at the aging woman and stepped aside to let her pass.

"Always the gentleman, aren't we, Godric? I'm glad the classes in decorum will at least turn out one well-mannered lord," the lady commented. "Not like that Slytherin boy!"

Godric smiled again as she rustled past in her wide silk skirts. He continued down the stairs with his usual good manners.

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Rowena looked towards the small manor that was her school when she heard the sound of the old garden door creaking open. She smiled at her sweetheart as he came out to help her teach Helga and fend off Slytherin's insults. Helga dusted the grass off her flowing skirts, then, picked up the school broom that she had borrowed. Salazar, spotting his erstwhile roommate, dived dangerously close to the standing boy's head, and grabbed for his hair.

"Stop it!" Rowena raged at the laughing young man soaring through the air. "Slytherin, stop it! Alright, you asked for it, you scrounging, under-achieving bit of noble filth!" As the dark-haired, fiery-tempered girl was saying these words, she hopped on her broom and, kicking off viciously, began tearing through the sky after the quickly fleeing young man.

Laughing, Godric and Helga backed away to avoid being hit by the speed demons their friends had turned into. Godric finally decided to rescue his roommate from his fiery girlfriend. Kicking off, he shouted back to Helga, "I reckon they won't always be at such opposite ends. What do you suppose, my dear?"

That got Helga laughing, as his broom rose above her and her best friend's boyfriend caught Rowena by the waist and successfully swept her off her broom. Gliding gently back to earth, he kissed her fiercely, abating her fiery temper for the moment. Salazar looked hungrily at Helga while she watched the romantic interaction of her two friends.

Laughing good humouredly, Rowena spoke to her beloved curtly. "I hope this is not the way you stop all young women's anger, for that might give me reason to be jealous!" Godric's only response was to kiss her again and assure of his affections.

"Rowena, my love, how could I have feelings for any other woman while you remain in my heart and mind! Also, I fear what your jealousy would do to my supposed 'other women'!" The foursome walked into the Academy while enjoying the truce in the aftermath of romance.

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At lunch the students sat at one, huge, round table. The headmistress had the only decorated chair; all others were plain, classy mahogany wood. That day the food was the cook's specialty: lamb stew with a side of seasoned vegetables fresh from the garden.

As the other students began eating voraciously, Helga Hufflepuff posed a question to her friends. "I wonder," the quiet spoken young woman murmured, "if there is a way to travel in to the future, bodily?"

"Well," began Salazar around a mouthful of lamb, "I suppose the four of us could figure out a way, if you really wanted to do time exploration." Helga flushed at his rare thoughtfulness.

"Salazar, the only reason you are saying the is because you already figured out a way to do it!" Rowena exclaimed, outraged at her former ignorance. "I know you too well not to suspect this!" Salazar looked abashed that she could think such a thing of him, though everyone knew it to be a ruse.

"Well!" interrupted Helga excitedly, her face a mask of unleashed joy. "Could you, Salazar? Did you figure it out? Oh, it would be so wonderful!" The young man visibly flushed, dropping his cover of cruelty. He muttered under his breath that he had figured out how to travel through time. Godric asked his best mate if they could plan a short trip on during the upcoming break in studies with the arrival of spring. At this suggestion, the four students bent their heads together to find the proper time and place to commence the spell that would take them through time.

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