Chapter 26: Cleanup

(Godric POV)

 Upon entering the trial room for the Second Year, Godric was met with an almost identical pedestal as the one in the First-Year trial room, with the same numbers counting down from one hour. However, unlike what he remembered, where the two buttons that read "Practical" and "Theoretical", now there was an additional button that read, "Challenger Mode".

Curious about the new option, Godric selected it for this use, at which point a screen appeared before him.

[STATE YOUR NAME OR ALIAS YOU WISH LISTED]

Unsure what the screen meant about the alias, Godric simply spoke out, "Godric Gryffindor." As soon as he spoke his name, the screen before him changed, showing the lists of courses one could take.

[SELECT THE COURSE YOU WISH TO CHALLENGE]

The words appeared in front of his eyes before they disappeared, letting him look at the list of familiar courses that the Second-Years were learning.

 Pressing the button with "Charms" written on it, Godric waited for further instruction, which came only seconds after choosing his course.

[ANSWER THE QUESTIONS TO THE BEST OF YOUR KNOWLEDGE AND SOLVE THE PUZZLES TO THE BEST OF YOUR ABILITY. YOU HAVE FIFTY-FIVE MINUTES TO COMPLETE THE CHALLENGE. GOOD LUCK.]

As soon as he finished reading the words, the room shifted to a stage. Just like the First-Year trial, he had to perform spells and use them to solve puzzles, but every time he completed a puzzle he would be asked questions about the spells he used, and what he could have done to have performed better.

There wasn't anything he thought he could have done to do better, so he never bothered to say that he could have. When the time limit was up, the room shifted back to where the pedestal was, and showing on the screen was a list, only it wasn't his grade, reward, or the list of courses. Rather, instead it showed a list of names with their house symbols next to them. 

Some of the names were familiar, the second name to the top of the list was particularly familiar, however the top name he didn't know at all. Annoyingly, Godric saw that his name wasn't the top of the list, but rather third, meaning two other people had most likely scored better than him.

 1: Athena (Ravenclaw)

2: Salazar Slytherin (Slytherin)

3: Godric Gryffindor (Gryffindor)

4: Greatest Wizard Ever (Ravenclaw

5: Princess Sparkles (Ravenclaw)

6: Stargazer (Ravenclaw)

7: Savrin's Lovechild (Ravenclaw)

8: India's Princess (Ravenclaw)

9: Bookmaster (Ravenclaw)

10: Terry Boot (Ravenclaw)

 The list only showed ten names, which either meant it only showed the top ten students who had taken the trial or there were only ten students who had actually taken the trial so far, which was doubtful.

'How in the hell did Sally score better than me?' Godric couldn't help but ask himself, finding it particularly insulting that Salazar had one-upped him. 'I'll beat him!' He thought after a few seconds of sulking, vowing to himself that before the Christmas holidays his name would be above Salazar's in every subject.

Reading over the top name, Godric only had to think about it for all of five seconds before he figured out who it belonged to. He knew for a fact that there was no one in Ravenclaw whose name was Athena, and he also knew that there was only one person in Second-Year Ravenclaw who was as smart as he was, or in this case, smarter than he was.

"I wonder why she picked Athena? We're not Greek." He mumbled under his breath before he continued to scan the names on the list. 'Savrin's Lovechild? Seriously? What poor child thought of that name?' Godric couldn't help but think after reading over the list of names one more time before he dismissed it and moved on to the next screen.

 [Score- 92%]

[Grade- O)

[Rewards- 54 CP]

 Seeing what was on the screen, Godric couldn't help but raise an eyebrow in confusion. "What is this 'CP' that I got as a reward?" Godric asked aloud, hoping AURA would answer his question. Thankfully the screen changed, showing a brief answer to his question.

 [CP IS THE SHORTENED NAME FOR CONTRIBUTION POINTS. THESE POINTS ARE ONLY VALUABLE INSIDE HOGWARTS, BUT CAN BE USED TO PURCHASE A NUMBER OF THINGS FOR ONESELF OR FOR OTHERS. FOR INSTANCE, ONE CAN PURCHASE HOUSE POINTS THAT WERE PREVIOUSLY TAKEN AWAY BY A TEACHER, HOWEVER THEY CANNOT PURCHASE MORE HOUSE POINTS THAN THE INDIVIDUAL PERSONALLY LOST IN ORDER TO WIN THE HOUSE CUP. WITH CP, A STUDENT CAN BUY POTIONS FROM THE SCHOOL, EXTRA RESOURCES FOR MAKING POTIONS, SPECIFIC PLANTS, BOOKS, SCHOOL UNIFORMS, ACCESSORIES, AND A NUMBER OF OTHER THINGS THAT WILL BE INTRODUCED TO THE SCHOOL IN THE FUTURE.]

 The explanation had Godric intrigued, and he couldn't help but want to question Savrin about what kind of things he could do with these points in the future. "How do I keep track of how many CP I have and how can I spend it? Also, is there an expiration date for CP?" Godric asked aloud, wanting to get some answers to things that might be pressing at the moment.

 [YOUR CP AMOUNT IS STORED IN SCHOOL RECORDS, AND THE SCHOOL WILL UPDATE YOUR AMOUNT DEPENDING ON WHETHER YOU SPEND OR RECEIVE CP. YOU CAN SPEND CP BY GOING TO THE ROOM AT THE END OF THE HALL OUTSIDE OF THE TRIAL ROOMS. A STUDENT'S CP WILL REMAIN WITH THEM FROM FIRST-TO-SEVENTH YEAR, BUT UPON BOARDING THE TRAIN AFTER THEIR SEVENTH-YEAR, ANY REMAINING POINTS WILL BE DELETED.]

"How do you determine how many points to give me?" Godric asked, curious about the grading system this time around. 

[EVERY STUDENT WILL RECEIVE ONE POINT UPON COMPLETING THE TRIALS, HOWEVER A STUDENT MUST ATLEAST GET 70% TO RECEIVE A PASSING GRADE, WHICH WILL AWARD THEM 10 CP. FOR EVERY PERCENT ABOVE 70 THE STUDENT WILL BE AWARDED 2 CP.]

 Godric liked the fact that he was given answers for everything he wanted to know, and was glad that he wasn't being rushed into spending his CP when he had no idea what it was that he wanted. Thankfully there wasn't anything else he wanted to ask AURA before the room lit up and he suddenly found himself standing outside the trial room.

Godric was tempted to go to the end of the room and check out what he could possibly spend his points on, but instead he opted to head towards the Great Hall where he hoped Salazar and the others were. Sure enough, after a few minutes of walking he found everyone sitting where he had left them, only now Salazar and Harry had joined them.

"Wood finally let you go, eh?" Godric said to Harry, who seemed to frown at the mention of their Quidditch captain. "A few minutes ago, actually. I thought he was going to smother me." Harry said as he quickly looked around the room for the man in question.

 "So, Godric. How was the trial?" Salazar asked smugly, almost as if he knew he had scored better than Godric. "Shut it, Sally. You might have scored better than me this time, but I'm going to beat you." Godric told him, earning a smirk from his friend.

"In your dreams you might, but this is reality. You need to wake up and smell the roses." Salazar taunted, egging Godric on. "Oh stop it you two! If you want to behave like children, go do it outside where I don't have to hear you!" Helga scolded them, clearly not in the mood to put up with them at the moment.

"Why don't you go somewhere else if you don't want to listen to us? There's two of us and one of you, so you should be the one to go." Godric said in defense of himself, earning a scowl from Helga and a few laughs from everyone else.

"Godric, sometimes I wonder how old you actually are." Rowena said while laughing, finding the whole argument to be quite entertaining. "Says the woman who named herself 'Athena'. Seriously, what was the point in that?" Godric questioned, forgetting about the argument from only seconds ago because he was actually curious to know the answer.

 "Just a little fun, really. She is the Goddess of Wisdom after all, and I thought it would be more fun than using my real name. Besides, I didn't feel as though I needed to put my real name down for all to see." She said, laughing slightly as she noticed the questioning looks on everyone else's faces.

"In case you don't know, people like to put others down when they themselves aren't doing too well. Though Ravenclaw students tend to be more intellectual than most other students, none of us flaunt it over anyone else. We don't need the headaches that come with being the smartest, so most of us opted to use alias'. Even if people clue in to who we are, they can't say we are bragging because we used false names." Rowena explained, hoping to shed some light on why she did what she did. 

Deciding that her answer was acceptable, Godric turned to Harry and Salazar before asking if they wanted to go play some games. Surprisingly, Salazar agreed and the three of them were heading out of the room.

"Don't get into any trouble!" Helga called after them. "We still have to clean the castle tomorrow!" She finished, reminding Salazar and Godric that they would be sorting through the Room of Requirement with Savrin in the morning.

 ---------

 (General POV)

 Two hours before the Sun even thought of coming over the horizon, Godric, Salazar, Rowena and Helga were all standing on the seventh floor in the left corridor of Hogwarts Castle.

"Barnabas the Barmy wasn't nearly as barmy as we are. Even he wouldn't be awake at this ungodly hour." Godric said tiredly as he looked at the idiotic tapestry depicting the attempt of Barnabas the Barmy to teach trolls ballet.

"You know how the saying goes. 'The early Horcrux hunters fuck over their moronic descendants while everyone else remains unaware.' At least in this case anyway." Salazar said, looking a little too awake for Godric's liking.

Leaning close to Helga, Godric whispered, "Do you think Salazar is alright? He looks far too happy." "How should I know? None of you are exactly right in the head." Helga said, not the least bit interested in how happy Salazar seemed or how uncomfortable it made Godric. All she wanted to do was go back to sleep, so the sooner they could go through the contents of the room, the sooner she could do that.

 "Ah, good. You're all here." Savrin's voice echoed around them as he seemed to materialize between them. "Let's get right to it then, shall we?" Savrin said as he waved his hand towards the wall, immediately causing a doorway to open up before them.

"How did you do that?! That should be impossible!" Rowena declared as she looked between Savrin and the doorway. "Calm your non-existent tits, Rowena. I didn't do anything. She did." Savrin chuckled as he pointed to the doorway where Elysia had suddenly appeared.

"Sometimes the greatest trick isn't using magic at all but making everyone think you did." Savrin laughed as he strode into the room, the four children following suit only a second later.

 "What the-! What the fuck is all of this junk?!" Godric asked once he got a good look at the mountains of furniture and items strewn about the massive room that looked to be as big as the castle itself.

"Spare chairs and tables, and anything students lost over the years that they had forgotten about. The staff also stored props and other items they used to teach in here, and over time most of it too was forgotten." Elysia answered simply as she followed along behind Savrin.

"But, why is there so much stuff? The spare furniture alone is pointless. We're wizards! We can conjure this stuff with the wave of our wands!" Godric said, still not understanding why any witch or wizard even humored the idea of needing to store these items.

"Not everyone is as good at Transfiguration as we are." Helga said, trying to excuse the garbage piling up in the room. "Then they shouldn't be teaching at this school." Salazar chimed in, fully siding with Godric on this.

 They all bickered back and forth for a few minutes before they finally reached the center of the room where Savrin had stopped.

"Alright then. Godric, you take that section over there. Rowena, there. Helga, there. And Salazar, you sort through that section. I want every item that contains even the faintest trace of magic placed here in the center of the room. Other than that, get rid of anything that the school can't use or anything useless." Savrin instructed them all, then quickly added, "And no, Salazar, you cannot get rid of Godric."

Savrin had seen Salazar raising his wand towards Godric and had decided to nip this in the butt before Salazar could waste time by doing something to Godric that would cause more bickering.

 Looking as though Savrin had just killed his pet, Salazar turned his attention to his section of the room before he waved his wand at the nearest chair and made it turn into dust. Godric glared at Salazar for a good ten seconds before he too got to work clearing out the room.

For the next hour things were going by rather slowly. Though Godric would have liked to just disintegrate everything in his section of the room in one go, he had to check over each and every item to make sure they weren't enchanted in any way so he had to do everything one item at a time. He had just cleared out a pile of chairs when he noticed a small chest on the floor, hidden behind where the chairs had been.

Seeing how extravagant the chest looked, he summoned it over to him before reaching down and opening the lid. His eyes sparkled brightly as soon as he saw the glittering gold, and he couldn't stop himself from reaching inside the chest and grabbing a fistful of the coins.

 Scarcely had he raised the coins out of the chest when he noticed the coins still in the chest begin to shake and rattle, then suddenly they began flying out of the chest as though they were being summoned. That thought had barely appeared in his mind before he looked to the center of the room where Savrin was standing with his hand outstretched towards him.

Feeling as though he was being robbed, Godric turned his attention back to the chest to close it up to keep the gold inside of it, when he noticed the chest was gone and so too was the gold that had previously been clutched between his fingers. "God damn it!" Godric cursed, then angrily went back to what he was doing before, no longer excited about finding treasure.

 They had all been sorting through the room for a little over three hours before Helga's voice echoed around the room. "I found it!" She cried as she ran towards Savrin with the diadem raised high above her head. "Finally." Godric said to himself as disintegrated the chair he was levitating then walked over to where the others were gathering around Savrin.

"Is it- Is it a Horcrux?" Rowena asked as she looked to the diadem that had been the cause for so much pain in her life. Granted, it was the reason she had been able to achieve so many great things in her life, so it's not like she regretted ever wearing the damn thing.

"I'm afraid so." Savrin answered as he looked over the intricately designed piece of jewelry. "Who made this?" He asked after a minute of looking it over. "I don't know who forged the diadem itself. It was a gift from some girl I helped back then. Salazar helped me enchant it to open the mind, and Godric helped me enchant it to protect the mind. That was of course after we became friends." Rowena answered honestly, though a bit sadly.

 "I trust you have learned your lesson from last time, and you won't be creating another one of these? Though it helps while wearing it, ultimately it is a crutch, one that will reduce your mental faculties when not wearing it." Savrin informed them all, earning nods of understanding from them.

"Good. Now, continue cleaning up this room." Savrin ordered as he moved back to his chair so he could peruse the number of enchanted items the four of them had found for him. "But- We found the Horcrux! Aren't we done?" Godric asked desperately. He was sick of this boring task, wanting instead to go out and fly around on his broom.

"Indeed you did, but this room is still filthy. I want it spotless before the day is done." Savrin informed them, then waved them back to their corners while he continued doing whatever it was he was doing. Rather than uselessly complain, Godric did as he was told, knowing there was no arguing with Savrin.

 It was almost dinner time before they finally cleared up the last piece of junk, which just went to show how much crap they had to deal with. "Okay, the room is clean. Can we go now?" Godric asked Savrin, who was surrounded by a mountain of books, chests filled with gold and silver coins, and random items that had magic permeating through them.

"Yes. But be forewarned, at the end of each year, you four will be cleaning this room just as you have done today, though I hope to return most of the items to their proper owners instead of getting rid of them." Savrin said, earning a groan of annoyance from Godric as he moved towards the door.

"Oh, Salazar, please stay for a moment. I have something I wish to discuss with you." Savrin added, halting Salazar who was only a step behind Godric.

 As soon as the others left the room, the door closed, leaving Savrin and Salazar alone. "A few days ago I came upon another of Voldemort's Horcruxes, and like the one we found today, it too once belonged to one of you four. Care to hazard a guess as to who?" Savrin asked, his words bringing Salazar up short.

"Me?" Salazar asked dumbly, not expecting anything about this conversation. "I'm afraid so. Tell me, Salazar, does this hold any sentimental value to you?" Savrin said as he made a golden locket appear in the air between them.

Seeing the locket, Salazar's eyes widened in shock and his mouth fell open.

"Though the crest isn't exactly like the one Hogwarts uses for Slytherin house, one can't help but make the comparison. Not to mention the green emeralds lining the front here, and the slight snake-like characteristics that look slightly faded here, I can't help but think, 'Serpent' or in this case, Salazar." Savrin explained, though if he heard him, Salazar didn't show it.

 "It belonged to my father, and his father before him. It has been passed down from father to son in my family for as long as I can remember. I never had a son, so I passed it down to my daughter when she first started school here at Hogwarts. I remember seeing it every time I saw her, but I don't know what became of it after that. I don't have any memory of her getting married or dying or passing it on to any children." Salazar summarized, his eyes never leaving the golden locket.

"So I take it, would you like this back after I remove the Horcrux from it?" Savrin asked, causing Salazar to finally turn his attention to him. "More than anything." Was all Salazar said before he turned and left the room.

Savrin could see the pain in his eyes upon seeing the locket, which is why he didn't stick around longer after seeing it. 'People get attached to the strangest things.' Savrin thought, though he wasn't judging. After all, he too was attached to some things that would drive most men mad at the sight of them. 

 --------

 (Savrin POV)

 Once Savrin was finished removing the curses from the items, he destroyed most of them simply because there was no use for them, however he kept a few items for the school. Just a few paintings, sets of armor, and some old wands that were long forgotten.

Most of the books were the standard copies that littered the school library, so Savrin took them there so Madam Pince could sort them out. There were of course some books that had curses on them and looked to have spells that weren't appropriate for children, so he kept those few books in his own private storage space. He would look over them later and see if there was anything in them that was worth keeping around in this world.

 All the money and gems he had found would be put into the school Vault, not the vault in Gringotts that the Board of Governors and the Ministry had access to, but the vault he created himself in his office.

Though he could have kept everything worth keeping in his storage dimension, he thought it was a good idea to create something like this for Elysia. She was the only being outside of himself that could access the vault, something which she greatly appreciated. He made sure to keep it stocked with random crap like galleons, sickles, knuts, candy, books, clothes, and anything else she might use for a reward for the trials.

Of course she also used the vault for her own pleasure, as Savrin had caught her playing dress-up with some of the uniforms, something which seemed to embarrass the spirit to no end. She had avoided coming back to the vault for a week after the incident, and when she did finally show back up, she had pretended as though it never happened. She was weird that way, but Savrin didn't bother to question it.

 Inside his office, Savrin was sitting at his desk as he looked down at the words appearing on the page of Tom Riddle's diary.

[My dear, Draco. I don't see how it is important to know why the sky is blue. I also don't think the moon is a big wheel of cheese.]

Savrin laughed to himself after reading that, finding it funnier and funnier the more he wrote to Tom Riddle. Just to see how it would go, he began to write in the Diary every morning, asking Tom stupid questions like, 'What should I eat for breakfast today, my lord?' or 'Is it strange to wear socks with sandals?' and other idiotic questions.

Savrin could tell Tom was not interested in the questions, but most of the time he tried to answer as best he could to keep his 'puppet' in line, however there were times, like now for instance, when Tom's annoyance was practically bleeding through the pages.

 [Can troll farts really kill people?] Savrin wrote back, asking probably his hundredth random question of the night.

[I have no idea. Why don't you go find a troll and test it out.] Tom wrote back, this time not trying to hide his annoyance whatsoever.

[Here is a joke for you, my Lord. Three goblins walk into a pub-] Savrin started to write, only to have his words disappear before he could write them and be replaced with, [I DON'T CARE! STOP WITH THESE USELESS QUESTIONS, YOU SIMPLETON!]

Savrin laughed heartily, quite enjoying himself. Still, he thought that was enough fun for one night and decided to be done writing with Tom. Besides, if he waited a night or two to write back, Tom might try to get back into his good graces and spill some information without meaning to.

 "Hello Headmaster." Elysia said as she walked through the door, quite literally as the door itself remained closed. "Well this is a surprise. To what do I owe the pleasure of your company?" Savrin asked cheerfully, trying his best to make the spirit feel a little more comfortable around him.

"I- I have a favor to ask of you." She said, actually surprising Savrin. She rarely if ever came to him asking for something, and the times she had had been when she was begging him to not kill Salazar in the bathrooms, and when she had begged him to bring the spirits of the four founders back to her safely. Really, she only ever asked him for things on the behalf of others, so he was intrigued about what she wanted.

"Asking is free." He told her, giving her the go ahead to continue with her request.