Hogwarts with the Marauders (II) [OLD]

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE - Finding the People That Should Have Done the Founding

The Marauders exchanged an awed look. Bennet had, in fact, lead them to the right place. The girls silently hoped the boy hadn't died while doing it. The boys, of course, couldn't care less.

They all hurried down the black corridors, saving each other when one of their number tripped or almost fell into a ditch. Peter was hobbling along as best he could on his definitely-twisted ankle. It wasn't until they were in the middle of the tunnel that the voice rang out again.

"Hello?"

"We're coming!" called back Remus.

"Wait," James ordered, suddenly stopping, his face grave. Now, when James Potter took something seriously, it was known by all that what would come was very bad indeed. "Where's Liam?"

Lily slapped her forehead. With all the adventures they had had with just the six of them, they completely forgot about Liam, who had been tagging along until probably when Bennet showed them to the tree.

"Maybe he went back home to Liz?" Sirius offered quietly, though they all doubted it.

"Oh, I'll never forgive myself if something's happened to him - he's the one that saved us all!" Alessia cried, her hands on her pale cheeks. She considered and added, "Well, me mostly, but we all would have died anyway, probably painfully."

"That's right, the Grim Reaper!" Lily moaned, tears flowing down her face again. "Dear Merlin, we've really messed up history, now. Bathilda Bagshot will have to write a whole knew book! She's the one who wrote Hogwarts: A History. Oh my, let's see now: We basically put the Grim Reaper in exile, lost the founders of Hogwarts, probably going to screw up the founding date, we messed up the coat of arms-" She shot Remus and Sirius a look, as if saying, Yes, I noticed, you blithering idiots. "and we probably forgot something else!"

"Lily, it'll be fine." James said, comfortingly, in a way he never had before. He strolled over to where Lily was standing and wrapped his arms around her. She did not complain, just continued to steadily cry. "We'll catch up to you guys, go ahead."

The others didn't need telling twice. The arms of Sirius' watch were threatening to touch ten-thirty.

"We really ought to have tried finding the people-that-should-have-done-the-founding-"

"Founders." Remus supplied as they ran.

"-A long time ago." Sirius continued, ignoring Remus. "If we had done it this morning we would have been able to - Merlin's beard!"

Sirius decided to replace his usual swearwords with a more appropriate phrase in front of probably four of the greatest wizards in history, because, there they were. Rowena Ravenclaw, Salazar Slytherin, Helga Hufflepuff and Godric Gryffindor, all looking like they had seen much better days.

"Who are you?" asked Hufflepuff weakly, her short brown hair all puffed out and messy while her face was covered in small cuts and bruises.

The beautiful Ravenclaw looked almost the same, except her long, waist-length hair was falling into her face, and with her hands tied behind her back, she couldn't do anything about it. The founders' feet were tied as well.

Gryffindor, they now saw, was muttering under his breath, "Accio wands! Accio wands! Oh, sweet Merlin, ACCIO WANDS." Slytherin was sitting next to him, shaking his head in hoplessness and softly muttering, "Accio wands..." just to please his friend.

"We've come to save you." Alessia said softly.

"What....?" Peter now saw, as did the rest of the Marauders, the founders' wands, laying on a particularly wide dent in the cave wall, big enough to hold four wands. It was taunting. He swiftly limped over and retrieved them. "Who's is who's?"

"Mine is vine." Ravenclaw spoke up in a scratchy, yet melodic, voice.

Peter hurried to hand out each wand to their respective founder. Gryffindor was the first with his witts about him, smiling widely as he waved his wand. The Marauders expected some brilliant magic to happen before their eyes, but nothing of the sort did.

"They're enchanted." Gryffindor muttered lamely. "How are we going to get out?"

"Could you children go out and get help from the villagers?" Hufflepuff suggested.

Sirius let go of Alessia's hand, which he had been holding, and sauntered over to Hufflepuff with a forced smile on his face. He crouched down next to the woman and looked like he was about to say something gentle, and explain the situation.

"There's no time!" Sirius bellowed in the poor lady's face. "You need to found Hogwarts in the remaining two hours of today or Lily'll have a stroke and James will never speak to any of us again!"

The Founders looked at each other, clearly thinking Sirius was in need of a hearing aid.

"What's Hogwarts?" asked Ravenclaw paitently.

And it all went downhill from there.