(1991)
(General POV)
When Savrin woke up from his sleep, he vaguely remembered something about there being children tied up in his little house, so after sighing deeply he heaved himself into a sitting position. Looking around the room, three of the children were still in their same positions that he remembered them being in, but the one that had been tied and stuck to the wall was no longer there.
Looking over at the table, Savrin saw the young boy writing furiously on a parchment of paper. Silently moving over, Savrin peaked over the boy's shoulder and read,
'The Last Will and Testament of Salazar Slytherin,
I have only just been brought back into the world of the living, and already I believe my end draws near.'
"How did you get untied?" Savrin asked, causing the child to nearly jump out of his skin as he fell to the floor. "Don't do that!" The boy shouted angrily, then suddenly he seemed to go pale. "It's you! Demon!" He cried as he rose to his feet. "I might not have a wand, but I'm not going to just lay down and let you kill me!" He said, sounding more confident than he looked.
"I might be more intimidated if you weren't a little child with no clothes. Honestly, there is nothing impressive about you." Savrin stated tiredly with a frown on his face. "Now, could you explain to me what exactly happened last night and why you all are in those forms?"
The boy now known as Salazar was not impressed with his words, in fact, he seemed quite angry. "Are you out of your mind?! You created these bodies before you put us inside them, then you began to torture us! Are you telling me you don't remember doing any of that?!" Salazar asked, sounding quite furious.
"But why would I give you forms?" Savrin asked, still unsure why he would do such a thing. "Funny enough, it never came up!" Salazar said in annoyance, his fear from before all but gone. Apparently he thought he was safe for some reason. He wasn't.
"Be careful how you speak to me, worm. Unless you want to go back to being a pincushion." Savrin said, silencing the little boy. Ignoring Salazar for the moment, Savrin walked over to the cauldron where the little blonde girl was sitting with wide terrified eyes.
Removing the gag from her mouth, Savrin asked, "Why are you in the cauldron?"
Frowning at him, the little girl spoke, "I told you I was good at making potions, then you said you were going to turn me into a potion. You never said which one, but you did make me drink a green liquid before you sprinkled a handful of purple dust on me. When I tried to get away you tied me up, and when I begged you to stop you told me I wasn't following the recipe."
Thinking about all the recipes he knew of, none of them matched what she was talking about. At least none that required the use of a little child. 'I wonder what I was trying to do…' He thought, actually curious as he moved over to the fireplace that looked as though it hadn't been lit.
Removing the apple from the little girl's mouth, Savrin asked, "And what about you? What happened to you?" She seemed like she wanted to say a lot of things, but wisely kept them to herself as she took a breath to calm herself down.
"You said something about wanting a midnight snack." She finally said, making Savrin hum in thought. 'That's actually kind of funny.' He chuckled mentally, figuring he was probably just messing with her.
"How preposterous. You're way too scrawny to eat, and I'd wager I'd be picking most of you from my teeth." Savrin said to the little girl who he was certain was Rowena Ravenclaw. Moving on to the final child, Savrin looked up to the red-haired boy hanging from the ceiling.
"What about you Godric? Why are you hanging from the ceiling?" He asked before the gag in the boy's mouth seemingly disappeared. "You called me a… piñata, whatever that is, then made me eat some delicious sweets. You kept muttering how you were going to get them back, but you seemed to forget about me when you began throwing stuff at Salazar." Godric said, giving him another piece of the puzzle.
After thinking about it for a minute, Savrin came to his own conclusion about the night's events. 'Potions, dinner, and entertainment. Sounds about right.' He concluded.
With a wave of his hands, the four children were all unbound and placed in the center of the room before blankets seemed to appear out of nowhere and wrap around them to hide their naked forms.
"Though I still don't understand why I would create bodies for each of you, what's done is done. Anyway, I told the spirit of the castle I would return you all to her, so I guess I'll just go drop you off there. Since it's been a thousand years since you last walked this world, I'm sure there will be lots for you all to learn." Savrin concluded, finding that to be the most logical thing to do.
"Oh thank you!" Helga cried joyfully, relieved that he wasn't going to do everything he told them he was going to do to them when he was drunk.
"A THOUSAND YEARS?!" Godric shouted in surprise, completely shocked that his magic had lasted this long. "How old do you think we are?" Rowena asked the other three as she looked down at herself, then back to the others, ignoring the bit about how long it had been since they had died.
"You are all eleven years old." Savrin said before the children could all hazard a guess to their age. "Why that age in particular, and not fully grown?" She asked in puzzlement.
"That is the required age one must be to attend Hogwarts." He answered honestly. There was no further explanation, and the five of them just stood there, staring at one another. Truth was, he didn't know why he had made them children and not adults, but he knew there was no point in trying to follow the logic of himself when he was drunk.
There had been a few cases like that back in Genesis, and for the life of himself he never could understand the things he got up to after drinking too much.
"Regardless of our age, we can go and live at Hogwarts. We could even attend it to see how much the world has changed over the thousand years since we last walked the earth." Rowena stated, coming to terms with their predicament far better than Savrin would have thought.
The other three children had no objections, and everyone looked to Savrin. Mentally shrugging at the four of them, Savrin waved his hand again and the blankets covering the children began to morph and change for a few seconds, and moments later the four children were now wearing proper clothes.
"Come on, CHILDREN. It's time to go to school." Savrin said with a chuckle as he emphasized the word, 'children', enjoying the moment for what it was.
After a not-so-short stroll through the forest, Savrin and the children appeared at the gates of Hogwarts. "Would you look at that! I told you that my tower looked best from this side, and it has held strong even after a thousand years!" Godric boasted as he pointed towards one of the taller towers of the castle.
"Even a buffoon can put a brick in the right spot." Salazar argued, stating simply that there had been nothing strategic about his reasoning other than the fact that it looked nice where he had placed it.
"You're just jealous that MY house has a view, while yours is stuck underground!" Godric stated, smiling triumphantly at the scowl from Salazar.
"If I recall correctly, don't the dungeons have a view from under the lake as well?" Rowena chimed in, pointing out something that could stir conflict between the two. "Stop it, Rowena! I already lived one life with you antagonizing their rivalry, and I don't think I could survive another!" Helga spoke loudly as she glared at her friend.
It was true, in the past whenever Godric and Salazar got into one of their 'friendly' disputes, she would have to be the mediator between the two whenever it got violent, which was the case for most of the time.
"Do not grow old, no matter how long you live. Never cease to stand like curious children before the great mystery into which we were born." Savrin said, drawing the attention of the children.
"You mean you're encouraging them to act like children?" Helga asked curiously, then before she even got an answer she wondered why she was asking the demon in front of her anything.
"Children see the world differently than adults. Their imagination allows them to think up new ideas that could very well change how we see the world, whereas adults have already been taught what they think is right and they stick to it. Finding someone who brings out your competitive side and makes you strive to be better than them is a gift. So yes, I am encouraging them to act like children." Savrin answered with a far away look in his eyes as though he was thinking hard about something else.
Everyone just stood there in the awkward silence for a minute before he shook his head and came back to reality. "Anyway, let's get going. There's got to be a place I can drop you off." Savrin said as he began moving towards the castle with the four children in tow.
The small group wandered around for a bit until they found someone who they assumed was a teacher. "Excuse me. Could you please tell me where I drop these children off to? Or maybe could you just take them for me?" Savrin asked the old witch who was dressed in dark green robes and wearing a large pointed black hat.
"What are you talking about? The school year just ended." The old woman said before looking down at the four children. "Yes, I know that. They're orphans. I'm dropping them off for you to take care of." Savrin said, unsure why she was staring at him like that. It was obvious that they weren't his children based on appearances alone, so what was so difficult about this.
"Hogwarts is a school, not a daycare. I would suggest taking them to an orphanage." She told him, though she at least sounded a little apologetic.
"Hogwarts is a safe haven for all those born with magic no matter what age!" Helga stated loudly, practically outraged at what the woman was saying. "Who runs the general housing for the children who are not yet attending classes?" Godric asked, wondering if maybe they had changed the rules a bit.
It had after all been a thousand years since it's creation, so quite a bit could have changed. Hell, maybe there was a proper orphanage built for magical children that was run by the Ministry for Magic.
"General Housing? That part of the castle was removed more than three hundred years ago. The school no longer cares for anyone seeking asylum, that's what the Ministry is for." She told them, sounding a little surprised that the children would be speaking to her of something that hadn't been around for centuries.
The four children all shared looks with each other before Rowena stepped forward and asked, "So this Ministry is responsible for those underage that are born with magic? Where would we find an orphanage?"
Of all the answers they were expecting, the one they got was not one of them. "There are no orphanages in the wizarding world. If you wish to go to one, I'm afraid you will have to go to one run by the muggles."
------
In London atop the Euston Tower, Savrin stood gazing over the city down below. Beside him were four children, each of them staring in awe at the sight before them.
"How many muggles do you think live here?" Godric asked in wonder as he surveyed the city. "There are more than 57 million people in this country, and about 6.7 million of them live in this city. In the world, there are more than 5 billion people, less than a million of which are witches and wizards." Savrin voiced with a tired sigh.
Turning to look at the four children who were staring at him, he continued, "Magic in this world is on the decline, and at the rate it's going it has less than a thousand years, sooner still if the witches and wizards keep trying to put the muggles under heel. Sure they might succeed for a little while, but humans are persistent, if nothing else, and they'll never accept being slaves for long. Eventually, they will rise up with their technology and this world will crumble to dust."
Silence lasted for a minute before Savrin began to laugh. "Do you want to know the funny part? The decline is all coming from Britain." He spoke before throwing his head back and laughing even harder.
The four children watching him all took a few steps away from him, looking fearful as they listened to the way his laughter turned deep and dark. They all flinched slightly when he suddenly stopped laughing and snapped his gaze towards them with narrowed eyes.
"What's the lives of three thousand versus a million?! The state of a county versus the world?!" He asked as his eyes began to change color.
"All it would take is to butcher each and every one of them! Correcting their flawed logic would be simple after that! Start over from the beginning!" The magic in the air was practically suffocating the four children as they fell to their knees as the pressure slammed into them.
"There must be some other way! Please!" Helga begged him, but Savrin didn't seem to hear her. "We can fix this!" Salazar suddenly spoke up, speaking for the first time since they left Hogwarts as he got to his feet despite the pressure of magic around him.
"Oh? And how exactly do you plan to do that?" He asked, finding it amusing how they, people he literally brought back from the dead, were trying to save the lives of people they didn't even know.
"We did it once before, and we can do it again!" Godric stated confidently as he got to his feet and stood beside Salazar. "They're right! We can fix this!" Rowena added as she too got to her feet, Helga followed suit right after with a look of determination.
Staring at them, Savrin almost wanted to laugh again. He didn't know anyone in this world and he was more than willing to kill whoever he needed to in order to keep magic alive, thus keeping himself alive, and then there were these four.
They may as well be in the same situation, given how they didn't know a single person, and most if not anyone who shared their blood was probably long dead, yet they wanted to save their home.
"I'll never understand you humans. Your neighbors and fellow countrymen would kill you for a meal, yet you want to risk everything to save them." He didn't sound impressed, but at least he hadn't rejected the idea.
"I'll make you a deal. You have a decade to get magic once more on the rise in Britain. If you can help the other countries in the process, even better. However… If, in ten years, magic is still on the decline, I will erase every witch and wizard in the country down to the last infant! Do we have a deal?" He said as he extended his hand towards them.
The four of them shared a look with one another before Salazar stepped forward and shook his hand. "It's a deal!" He agreed. A crack of thunder signaled the deal as Savrin smiled widely.
"It will be amusing to see how children who don't know anything about the world intend to save it!" He laughed as a spiraling vortex pulled them all inside of it, leaving echoing laughter for those 124 meters down below to hear.
-----
(1 month later)
(August 7, 1991)
"I found it!" Rowena shouted excitedly as she pointed to a page from a thick book.
"That makes four then. I think they are all we're going to find just by flipping through these books. Unless we were actually there, we're not going to get any more." Godric said as he brought over a large book they had been using to record their findings.
"Where's Sally?" Godric asked after he handed the book to Rowena, who immediately began to write down the information, the book it was found in, and what page it was found on so she could refer back to it to prove their allegations to Savrin.
"You know Salazar hates that name, Godric! Anyway, he's upstairs in his room." Helga said before she went to look at the new information Rowena had found.
Not paying his two friends any more attention, Godric made his way upstairs until he made it to Salazar's room. Finding the door slightly ajar, he pushed it open and stepped inside the room.
"Are you still brooding? It's been a week already, Sally, get over it!" Godric said to Salazar who was laying on his bed and staring at the ceiling. "Get out, Godric!" Salazar snapped angrily, not in the mood to hear his friend speak.
Rather than listen to him, Godric stepped further into the room before taking a seat at the desk beside the bed.
"I know you, Salazar, we all do. It could have happened to any one of us and there is nothing we can do about it. The fact that one of your descendants started a war-" Godric was interrupted when a fist came barreling towards his head, causing him to move from the chair to get out of the way.
"I don't want to hear it!" Salazar shouted angrily as he got to his feet with his fists balled at his sides.
"Yeah, well we don't always get whatever we want!" Godric said as he stepped towards him with his arms raised. Seeing his approach, Salazar stepped forward to meet him, only to have his legs swept out from beneath him before he knew what was happening, and an instant later he found himself on his stomach with his left arm twisted behind his back, and a hand holding his head to the floor.
"LISTEN TO ME! It's. Not. Your. Fault. It's not your fault, Salazar! You had a reason for what you did, this guy didn't! It could have been one of my descendants to cause a war, and the fact that it was one of yours is in no way your fault. The fact that he used his connection to you to gain followers is also not your fault. We don't control these things, so get over it!" Godric stated angrily before he jumped back to his feet as he let Salazar free.
"You read the same thing I did, Godric. It's because of his connection to me that so many people joined him! What did I do that would make people think I would have any hand in harming witches and wizards?!" Salazar was devastated.
All he ever wanted in life was to help witches and wizards be able to live a better life than the one they had. Sure, along the way he did some things that were… questionable, but he had done nothing that should have given people the impression that he hated any witch or wizard. Granted they didn't have the memories from after their real bodies had imbued the magic into the castle, so whatever they had done after that was a mystery even to them.
The two of them stood there for a few minutes in silence before Salazar suddenly punched Godric in the shoulder. "That's for almost breaking my arm!" Salazar growled before he began to leave the room, Godric smiling as he followed along after.
'Same old, Sally.' He thought. He could have dodged the hit, but sometimes Salazar just needed to hit something to cool off. If it had to be him, so be it. He would take as many hits as needed to help his friends.
Once they were all downstairs and somewhat cooled off, Savrin appeared in the middle of the room, slightly surprising them all due to his sudden appearance. Of course they were somewhat used to his coming and going like that since he did it often, but it was still surprising.
"Alright then, let's see what you've learned so far." He said as he made the book with all of their notes float over to his waiting hands.
"There are four major events that caused a heavy decline in magic over the last thousand years, three of which have happened in this last century. The first event happened with the creation of Hogwarts." Rowena started, drawing not just Savrin's interest, but the other's interest as well.
"Hogwarts? I thought it was when the Purebloods took power?" Godric asked, not knowing what the hell Rowena was talking about. The other two also shared his thoughts because they both nodded in agreement.
"Let me explain. Do you remember after Hogwarts was established, and we created the Board of Governors?" Rowena asked, getting nods from the other three children.
The Hogwarts Board of Governors was a group of twelve wizards or witches who oversaw the running of the school. The appointment and suspension of a Headmaster was decided by the governors. They were also obligated to take action if a parent sought redress on any school-related issue.
The governors had authority over the staff and could inspect the school to see how it functioned on a daily basis and even shut down the school entirely if they felt it was necessary. They were responsible for the well-being of the school as well as ensuring Hogwarts remained one of the finest schools of magic in the world.
The governors held considerable influence over the school, and ranked above the faculty of Hogwarts, who were required to accommodate the governors when they visited in an official capacity.
They had free access to the grounds, and had the power to conduct inspections at the school, during which they would ask teachers and students questions about school life and related matters to determine the quality of the students' education.
"Well, we chose representatives from the strongest wizarding families at the time to represent the school after we were gone. At the time they were just powerful witches and wizards with powerful children. By giving them the position of a governor, we gave them a name that every child attending Hogwarts would come to know and respect. We created the Purebloods." Rowena explained, making the other's eyes widen.
"We gave them the power over who learned magic and who didn't. We literally gave them power." She added sourly, a little outraged that she was partly responsible for what was happening.
"No! I knew most of them personally! There is no way they would have gone against our wishes for the school!" Godric stated, not believing that his friends would betray him in such a way.
"Maybe it wasn't them. They passed the seats to their descendants, and they used it to their own advantage." Salazar said, bringing a sudden chill to the room as they all processed his words. They already knew how descendants could spiral out of control, so it was very possible that the children of their friends used everything to their advantage.
"So essentially what you're saying is, the Purebloods are a problem?" Savrin asked when it looked like none of them were going to speak. Shaking her head to clear her thoughts, Rowena composed herself before nodding her head.
"Yes. They oppress any muggleborn witch or wizard that is brought into our world. The pureblood families hold all the power in magical Britain and they refuse to give up an ounce of power. They have completely forgotten why they were given the titles of Lord, and now simply flaunt themselves to feel superior." She said angrily before she hung her head.
"Do you know how many muggleborns who have graduated Hogwarts leave Britain?" She asked tiredly. "More than 70 percent."
That was a surprise for sure. Looking over the notes, Savrin saw where she had gotten her information from, and after digging through the records on the table that he had "borrowed" from the Ministry, he frowned in thought.
"It seems that after failing to rise up in the Ministry, they leave to find a better life elsewhere. According to this, some of them leave the wizarding world entirely." He said, quite surprised at this new information. After all, who would pass up the opportunity to use unimaginable power?
Apparently those who felt they could rise higher than a simple janitor in the Ministry. Hell, from these numbers, a good portion of the halfbloods were leaving Magical Britain as well.
"It seems the Ministry is a bit more corrupt than I had imagined. I guess I'll have to cut out the infestation sooner than I thought." Savrin said to himself, though the others still heard it.
"The second event has already taken care of itself, but it was still a dark time for the wizarding world. From 1926 to 1945, a dark wizard named Gellert Grindelwald tried to change the world as a whole by enslaving the muggles and having them serve those with magic. He was defeated in a duel in 1945 by Albus Dumbledore. After finding no record of his death, It took a bit of digging, but apparently Grindelwald isn't actually dead, but is being held in an Austrian prison called Nurmengard." Rowena explained, pointing out some events for Savrin to take notice of.
After finding everything fit exactly as she had described, Savrin made a mental note to find Nurmengard Castle and kill Grindelwald. The thought of the man making the same mistake as the mages on Genesis was unnerving, and Savrin would rather end any notion of these idiots from trying to subjugate the muggles.
"The third event took place when Albus Dumbledore became the Supreme Mugwump of the ICW, or the International Confederation of Wizards, and the Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot. Becoming Headmaster of Hogwarts was also a turning point, but the other two have given him more power over the world." Rowena said, frowning slightly as she thought about the man in charge of her school.
"I see what you mean." Savrin agreed as he flipped through their notes. They had recorded everything they could find since Dumbledore came into power that he had a hand in, and to say the man was a disease was an understatement. Out of all the laws the man had a hand in, less than 10 percent of them were actually helpful.
"What is this about banning dark magic and rituals? What is dark magic anyway?" Salazar chimed in, rather curious about the new form of magic.
"Dark magic, or rather, the Dark Arts is a term that refers to any type of magic that is mainly used to cause harm, exert control over, or even kill people and creatures." Rowena repeated from the book. Everyone, Savrin included, remained quiet for a minute as they digested that information.
"The world is going to hell, I swear!" Godric stated in a huff as he threw his arms into the air. It was amusing to watch an eleven year old child act this way, and Savrin was already planning to seal this memory so he could watch it later.
"Besides the laws that he had passed, it seems he is also restricting knowledge. When Hogwarts was first founded, we taught any and every subject relating to magic, but from what I've managed to find out, the whole world itself is lacking in some forms of study. Also, Hogwarts has stopped teaching some of the classes, but they were only stopped after he took over as Headmaster. I can't say he was solely responsible for the removal of rituals, but he definitely had a hand in it." Rowena explained, making the others all frown, though Godric looked especially angry.
"With all the inbreeding and lack of rituals, it's no wonder more and more squibs are being born." Savrin said plainly as he read from the book.
Back on Genesis there was a time when rituals to strengthen one's magic had become almost obsolete due to most people being more powerful than any other beings in the world, but after a string of children were born who could not use magic, a research was sanctioned by the most powerful families and the results proved the inbreeding was harming their magic, but that certain rituals could negate most of the downsides.
"I say we get rid of this, Albus Dumbledore! It sounds like he's ruining our school!" Godric stated, and the other three instantly shouted agreement, even Helga who was by far the most reserved of the bunch.
"We'll discuss it at length later. For now, what is your next point?" Savrin said, wanting to get back on topic.
"The final event took place when a man dubbed as 'Lord Voldemort' rallied the purebloods to rid the world of muggleborns." Rowena said silently, looking at Salazar out of the corner of her eyes.
"Ah yes! I read about him in the paper awhile back. I've known wizards to fight each other to the death in duels or in wars over lands and resources, but this has got to be the first time I've read about wizards hunting other wizards simply for the fact that they were also wizards that didn't share their own blood. Quite idiotic if you ask me." Savrin said, knowing quite a bit about 'Lord Voldemort' and his Death Eaters.
"I still can't believe he died trying to kill a baby! I mean, how powerful could he have been?!" Helga asked, finding the whole matter to be completely ridiculous.
"I am curious how this child who was barely a year old managed to defeat a full grown wizard, and how he survived the Killing Curse. I think we should look into this, Harry Potter." Salazar said, speaking quietly as he read about how his descendant attacked a child and was killed by said child, though not before he killed the boy's parents.
"There are books written about him. We'll have to give them a look to see what he's been up to over the years." Rowena said, not against the idea of looking into the facts about what really happened that night and how the boy survived.
"All good information, with facts to back them up! Now, what is going to be your first step to correct these errors?" Savrin asked the four children who all shared a look before nodding their heads as they came to an agreement.
More than amused at the look he saw in their eyes, Savrin couldn't help but chuckle. 'And so it begins.'
A.N. This is the last chapter I will be posting until NEXT Sunday. Not this upcoming Sunday, but the following. I don't know if I will be posting once a week like I usually did for my other books, but I will try. I make no promises though, so if I miss a week, then deal with it. Also, if there are any tags that I missed or something, then it's not my fault. Webnovel wouldn't let me add anymore than what I have for some reason. Regardless, it should be fine for now, but if it becomes a big deal in the future, I'm sure I won't care then either. Anyway, I hope you all Enjoy this new story! As always, let me know what you think. Or don't. I won't lose any sleep over it.