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Post by vicky ! on Apr 14, 2012 21:18:10 GMT
Over a thousand years ago, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry was founded by Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw and Salazar Slytherin. After several years of teaching all they knew to the students that came to learn at the castle, they agreed that they did not wish for their involvement in the school to end with their death. The method through which they would make this possible took some time to calculate and perfect. Initially, Slytherin suggested for them each to make a horcrux but this was immediately rejected by his colleagues for the darkness it would require of them. Hufflepuff's renowned kindness inspired the idea of an 'anti-Horcrux' and Ravenclaw began working out whether such an idea could work.
After several months of studying and formulating possibilities, she finally developed an enchantment that would, if her assumptions were correct, enable them to return physically to the castle when their presence was required. Where a horcrux required an act of evil to split the soul, the founders' 'anti-Horcrux required the opposite - an act of love to effectively replicate the soul. Their creation of Hogwarts to help young witches and wizards was the perfect act and so using this, the four founders cast an enchantment upon themselves and one of their possessions - Godric his goblin silver sword, Helga her golden pendant, Rowena her mother's necklace and Salazar his father's staff. These were then placed in catacombs far beneath the castle in which the founders themselves would eventually be laid to rest. Only a small crest-shaped indentation in the wall suggested there was anything of interest to be found there.
As each of the founders passed away, their consciousness was shifted into the portraits that would also play a crucial part in their resurrection. The doors to their offices were locked and rendered inaccessible until the four of them returned to the castle. For hundreds of years, small troubles came upon those living and working in the castle but each one was tackled without anything but spoken advice from the founders. It was only with the rise of Lord Voldemort that they began to wonder if they time had come for them to return but their concerns were soothed by Albus Dumbledore's competence and confidence. Though things appeared as though they would inevitably go downhill, he had planned the route to ensure everyone ended up where they needed to be.
Though they had known of the plans concerning Dumbledore's death, they had not predicted just how bad things would get with him out of the way. Nevertheless, they trusted in his word and trusted in Harry Potter to rid the world of Tom Riddle and his Death Eaters. He did just that but not before Hogwarts crumbled around the founders, knowing it was too late for them to intervene and consequently having to helplessly watch the battle ensure within the school. When the fighting was over, the dead mourned and the injured healed, all four founders agreed that never again would they leave it so late to realise that they were needed. Though only Harry could defeat the Dark Lord indefinitely, they could have prevented the deaths of so many loved ones.
Around twenty years later after the castle had been restored, darkness began to creep back into the school. Just as the school year came to an end, Headmistress Katherine Dalton was completing some last minute paperwork to send to the Ministry of Magic before returning home to the summer. She had not been expecting a Dementor to appear in her office and attack her, unable to defend herself after discovering too late that her wand had somehow been taken. Her empty shell was not found until the following September when a Ministry official came to collect the papers she hadn't had the chance to send. With the students returning to the castle in a matter of hours, she needed to be replaced extremely quickly.
Though she had initially refused to run the school and could only be persuaded to take the position of Head of Gryffindor, Hermione Malfoy was concerned more than any of her colleagues for the safety of the students though that is not to say that they weren't also worried. She stepped forward to become Headmistress until she could be convinced that the students were safe, at which point she would resign from the position and return to ordinary teaching. Despite the Minister of Magic instructing her not to tell the school what had happened to her predecessor until such a time that they knew the reason for her attack and more importantly who had orchestrated it, Hermione informed the entire staff and student body of Professor Dalton's fate immediately after the end of the Sorting Ceremony.
This had not been part of the Nex Domino's plans. Unhappy with how things were in the wizarding world, they had formed a private group with the aim of revolutionising the political climate. Their first move had been to secure the position of headteacher at Hogwarts and Jonathan Styx had been previously placed in the school as a professor so as to snap up the post when they conducted the attack on Katherine. As approaching the Minister before the attack was public knowledge would have announced his involvement, he waited for the perfect moment to ask where she was but by the time such an opportunity presented itself, Hermione had already replaced her.
For a month and a half, the Nex Domino left her to run the school while they commenced with rescheduling their plans. No matter what suggestions were made, there was only possible option - they had to get rid of her like they had done her predecessor. She was far too smart to be caught out by another Dementor and so they opted to abduct her instead. Styx lured her out in the evening to aid him in retrieving a student he'd seen walking into the Forbidden Forest, claiming to have no knowledge of what to do in the event that they were attacked by one of the many creatures living within it, and there she was ambushed and taken.
With both Dalton and Malfoy out of the way, the path was clear for Jonathan to become headmaster and he was given the position with little hesitation after none of the other professors volunteered to do so. The Nex Domino was now firmly in place at Hogwarts, with Jonathan's son Nathaniel among the ranks and teaching Care of Magical Creatures. He had also successfully persuaded a vampire named Evelyn to return to Britain from her current position at Salem to teach History of Magic and join their cause.
If the attack on Katherine Dalton hadn't alarmed the founders then the Hermione Malfoy's abduction less than three months later certainly had them concerned. Each of them selected a student within their house that demonstrated the traits they admired and appeared to them in a dream. They were informed of the enchantment and given instructions on how to action it, as well as a small piece of the Hogwarts crest. When all four pieces were joined together, they would combine into a full crest and open the catacombs.
Upon reaching the final resting place of the founders, though Godric's sword and Salazar's body and wand were absent, each of the students was presented with three doors that stood between them and the required objects. The doors acted as a challenge to the student to ensure the founders had chosen correctly, with each one requiring the demonstrations of one of the traits they had been selected for having. Once all four had retrieved the wand and object of their corresponding founder, they returned to the headmaster's office and released them from their portrait prisoners.
Over the weeks leading up to this however, the time came for the founders' plans to go wrong rather than the Nex Domino's. One of the students confided in Nathaniel, trusting him more than his father but they had not known that he was just as undeserving of their trust. He alerted the Nex Domino at once who launched themselves into a public opposition of the resurrection and their cause was widely supported. They were far from alone in their belief that the dead should remain dead and expressed their displeasure with the plans. Naturally, there were those other than the founders that were concerned by the fate of the past two headmistresses and if the four greatest witches and wizards of their age thought they could solve the problem then they saw no reason why they shouldn't be allowed to do so.
So where will you fit in to all this? Will you join the founders in protecting the students of Hogwarts or will you stand by the Nex Domino against the resurrection? If they truly meant well, would they not have returned when Hogwarts needed them most? Surely there must be dark magic behind their enchantment? When the supposed threat has been eliminated, will they return to their portraits as they should do?
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