Birth of a Nightmare Man

Chapter Twenty-Three

When Hogwarts opened in late summer, the first thing the students noticed was that the castle sometimes seemed alive ("the stairs keep moving!"), Rowena Ravenclaw allowed no food or drinks whatsoever near books, Godric and Salazar could be seen duelling in the hallways and there was a strange man coming and going.

The castle was now filled with over a hundred students, ranging from eleven years old to almost seventeen. Some knew magic very well, and some hardly knew a single spell, or how to brew the simplest of potions. The four friends were so far the only professors and were kept busy with teaching, each of them teaching more than one subject.

Before the first snow fell however, there was a new woman in Rowena's public library. She cheerfully introduced herself as Ywgraine and added:

"I really like books and if I ever get a book that has been damaged by one of you, I'll skin you alive and string you up by your thumbs in the dungeons. Got it?"

"As if the professors will allow it," one student replied.

"You're rather snooty, aren't you?" she said. "By the way, here's the parchment that says I can."

He paled a lot when he saw all four founders' signatures that yes, Ywgraine was allowed to hang the students up by their thumbs in the dungeons, and if she skinned them alive before-hand they probably deserved it.

And then, for some reason, she looked at the parchment and said:

"I think master is a bit of a bad influence on them. But then again, he wouldn't just skin you. He'd make sure you get tortured for a lot longer than that."

After that, the students made sure to never hurt a book, but Ywgraine also became a rather popular face because she wasn't a real professor, and she joked a lot. As the students had come to Hogwarts, they were all sorted into Slytherin, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff or Gryffindor depending on their qualities that apparently a hat decided.

"One of Godric's finer moments," was what Salazar said.

"Better than your idea of blood sacrifice," Godric pointed out.

"Alright, maybe that was a bit much."

The students, even those in Slytherin, were glad that some of Salazar's suggestions weren't really taken seriously by the other three because honestly? The blood sacrifice thing was one of the milder things he came up with.

However, the strange man. This was sometimes the students loved to discuss, especially since their introduction to him was at supper shortly after the beginning of the school and he hadn't just walked into the hall. No, he had skidded down the stairs, nearly fallen over a tiny Hufflepuff girl and then made a straight run for Godric who shrieked and fled the hall.

No one offered an explanation, although Rowena and Helga had a hard time containing their laughter and all Salazar said was:

"I told him not to do it. One does not to it against the lord, and does Godric listen? No, it'd kill him to listen. Literally."

The strange man, named the lord when no other name was given, appeared a few days later, this time talking normally with Godric as if they had never had an argument. Then he made both Rowena and Salazar blush and stutter, and laughed a sort of laugh that could've been kind if it wasn't for that background tone that said, nope, not kind at all. But he wasn't mean to the four founders.