THE FIFTH FOUNDER ⚡️ [h.p./founders era]

Three

"I'm glad you've finally woken." Helga grinned, motioning for me to sit at the table with them. "The children should be arriving in a few minutes."

"The children?" I asked. My daughter's face appeared in my mind, so sudden and so unannounced. I tried to force myself to push her out of my head, but she haunted me everywhere I went.

"Yes! We run a secret school of witchcraft and wizardry. How else are magical children in England going to learn how to control themselves?" Helga replied as if the answer was obvious. I could do nothing but stare at my lap, wishing I had found the answer to her last question sooner.

Helga must have noticed my expression because she grabbed my hand and nodded at me with a smile. "You can observe today. I'm sure the children would love a visitor."

"Oh!" Helga jumped up, startling me a bit. She reminded me a puppy with her lovable demeanor and erratic movements. "Are you hungry? I have been practicing some cooking charms."

To my amusement, I remembered her telling me about her cooking skills when she first woke me. She must have been proud of her progress.

"She is quite good at them." Godric nodded in my direction. His gaze was warm and welcoming, much like Helga's. My instinct was to trust him, and I did.

Scoffing, Salazar stood as he spoke, "I taught her everything she knows."

"Let me have my moments." Helga replied dryly, and for a moment I thought she was angry with him, but then there was an unexplainable exchange between the two. I could have sworn that I saw red blots start to appear on Helga's cheeks as she turned her back to us.

"If you all will excuse me, I must go prepare for my lesson." Salazar left the kitchen with a pleased smirk on his face.

After breakfast, I offered to help Helga clean the kitchen, but the room was spotless with the wave of her wand. I had forgotten how convenient magic could be, especially since I had not used it for years.

Godric left soon after Salazar, which left Helga, Rowena, and me. The three of us walked down to the stables together. Rowena explained that instead of horses, the stables housed classrooms in disguise.

Each of the stables were charmed to look small on the outside, but they could easily contain twenty children on the inside. Some stables held writing desks, others held cauldrons, and one stable contained bookshelves from floor to ceiling.

The books were records of each student and the research that had been acquired throughout the past few years. The four teachers as well as some of the older students conducted many experiments to further the use of magic. Rowena recorded all of it and stored her writings in the stable. The stable was kept locked at all times and could only be opened by one of the four teachers.

I was most intrigued by the wand stable. This stable was used to hide and protect muggleborn students' wands. In order to keep their school and their students safe, muggleborn students were not permitted to take their wands home, in fear that their muggle parents might find the wands.

"Hello." A youthful, cheery voice came from behind me. "Are you a new student?"

I turned around to see a small girl in front of me. She could not have been any older than eleven years of age. I greeted her with a smile as I watched her take a wand from one of the shelves.

"No, I am a friend of Helga's. I'm here to observe." I answered as more children entered the small room to find their respective wands. "I must find her now. But it was lovely to meet you."

"You too." She returned my smile before I exited the stall.

"Ah, there you are!" I heard Helga's voice as soon as I was out of the stall. I turned toward her direction as she was nearing me with her usual bright manner. "My class room is rather tight today, as I am in charge of all of the younger students as well as the muggleborns. But Rowena has agreed to let you observe her lesson today. She's in the first stall on the left."

When I entered Rowena's classroom, her students were already seated and ready to begin their lesson. Each of the children looked to be around eleven or twelve and all of them were eagerly watching Rowena as she stood at the front of the stall. She smiled and nodded at me as I snuck in. I stayed in the back of the room and leaned against the wall, curious to what she would be teaching the students.

"Good morning all. I am pleased to see all of you here on time and ready to begin." Rowena started and began to pass out white feathers to each student. "Today we are going to learn a basic levitating charm. Watch carefully."

Rowena placed one of the feathers on the ground in front of her. Then, she swished and flicked her wand at the feather as she recited, "Wingardium Leviosa." Suddenly, the feather lifted into the air and followed wherever Rowena commanded it to. The students watched in amazement at the flying object, and almost immediately, some of them were trying the charm themselves.

None of students could master the charm on their first try, but that did not discourage the students from trying. I watched in amusement as students began carelessly waving around their wands instead of the correct movement.

Slowly, one student learned to master the charm, and his feather floated throughout the stall as he wished. Rowena congratulated him with a proud smile as he brought the feather back down to the desk, and he began to help other students with the charm.

Soon, nearly all of the feathers were gliding around the room as the students giggled triumphantly at their success.

In that moment, I realized that this was the future of magic, and I wanted to be a part of it.