Story of the Founders

As time passed, rumors about Professor Elding became more and more exaggerated. Some claimed he's definitely on par with Dumbledore, and as he is still young, he might surpass the old Headmaster. 

Anticipation in the hearts of the first year students also grew with these rumours. Other professors are also good in their subject, and they had a lot of fun in the classes. But the first two year syllabus at Hogwarts is heavily concentrated on theory. Even the funniest Professor Flitwick's classes became a little dull.

If the rumours are to be believed, entire lessons of Professor Elding's are practical, no matter which year it is. He gave the theory and reading tasks as homework.

Finally, Thursday came. The first year Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs came into the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom. 

As the bell rang, everyone settled on their seats and Professor Elding appeared. 

"Good morning, students. My name is Stille Elding, your professor for the Defence Against the Dark Arts class. Let us start our lesson with a story that all of us should know. The story of Hogwarts."

Stille once again repeated the move, which made him famous, blowing out white fog. Students lost their vision.

A few moments later, he started the story and the fog cleared.

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"Godric Gryffindor was a wanderer. He travelled throughout the kingdom and helped the poor and persecuted, whether they were muggles or magicians.

During his early years, he once saved a goblin village from the werewolves. Among them was a silversmith who later became known as Ragnuk the First. As a gift of gratitude, he made Gryffindor a silver sword using ancient goblin techniques.

With a sword in one hand and a wand in another, he continued his journeys and made a name for himself as a "Wandering Knight." He met Salazar Slytherin at that time.

Slytherin was the heir of a noble magical family, the House of Slytherin. At those ages, wizards and witches were often persecuted. He went out to travel and unite the strength of other magical families against muggles.

He also tried to persuade Gryffindor to support this cause, but he refused. According to Gryffindor, wizards were weak and scattered. Only when they are strong enough can they start a war.

As a result, Gryffindor and Slytherin joined hands to establish an academy for witches and wizards. They knew it would be hard for just the two of them to accomplish it, so they looked for partners.

Rumours had it that a powerful and wise witch lived in the tower that reached the heavens.

The duo went on a quest to find that witch. After years of travelling, they finally saw that tower. It stood on a high mountain, appearing aloof. The weird thing was that it had no entrance on the land.

They couldn't fly, as brooms were not invited yet. Slytherin thought of a method. They had to use their magic to create a spectacle to draw the attention of the witch.

Gryffindor agreed and proposed to have a friendly duel.

Their fight created the effect they wanted. A raven flew out of the tower and landed on a nearby tree. Noticing magical fluctuations around it, they stopped the duel and came towards it.

Rowena transformed into her human form and asked them what they were doing here.

They told her the rumours they heard about her and invited her to open a magical school with them. Rowena didn't agree right away, but she said she would travel with them and think about it.

They agreed to her condition and continued their journey. There were rumours about another talented witch who managed to win the heart of a noble with her cooking skills.

On their way, they met with many people who needed help. Also, Slytherin acted arrogant and dismissive; when people were in danger, he always helped them.

Gryffindor and he had many disagreements, however. When they met raiders, Slytherin tried to kill them and said it was the price for them disrupting other people's lives. Gryffindor didn't agree with him. He said they should be given a chance to repent; they should be arrested and left to the officials to deal with.

At these times, Rowena acted as a mediator. She proposed that some violent raiders who sought to kill others or were already killed should be dealt the same hand. If they only did it out of necessity, like having their harvest destroyed or stolen by other people, then they should be given a chance.

As she had excellent talent for legilimency and the muggles had no defence in their minds, it was really easy for her.

Gryffindor and Slytherin liked her method. As such, the first bonds of trust started forming between them.

Helga Hufflepuff was a servant girl. She was a talented cook. The mayor of the city first fell in love with her food and made her his personal chef and maid. After spending time with her, he saw her kind and caring nature and fell in love with her.

When the trio found her, she was living her peaceful life with him. Their kids were already teenagers.

When they told her their intentions of creating a magic school for the children, Hufflepuff was touched by their kind intentions. Though she knew the shrewd Slytherin was planning something, and Ravenclaw, who was obsessed with knowledge, seemed to be trying to open a place to learn and create more knowledge, she agreed to help them.

As long as she was there to balance them, the future wouldn't be as bleak.

She said farewell to her husband and children. They continued their journey, looking for a place far away from any magical or muggle settlements.

At last, they found a huge forest with ancient trees. After passing through the forest, there was a lake with a cliff beside it. They decided to build the school here.

When it comes to the construction of Hogwarts, there are many controversies. Some people say it wasn't built this big at the start; some parts were added when the number of children increased over the years. Others say the founders built the whole castle, and it was never full.

Building Hogwarts didn't pose much of a problem, as they were the best witches and wizards of their age. The true challenge lay in finding the students.

The quill of acceptance and the book of admittance was created after a few years of suffering. At first, they travelled around, looking for kids with magical talent. With their sensitivity to magic, this task wasn't hard, just time-consuming. 

The actual problem was getting permission from parents to let their children study at a faraway place for a decade. Muggle parents were easier to convince, as many were eager to get rid of them. But magical families often refused.

Before, there was no school of magic in Britain. Wizard families trained their children, some wizards and witches travelled around and took in apprentices to pass their knowledge on. 

The establishment of the first magical school spread wide and far in magical Britain. Many conservative parties disapproved of this act. They demanded the founders to close this school and stop destroying traditions. 

After not getting what they wanted, they became furious and started to threaten them. Some strong witches and wizards started calling them to duels. Gryffindor and Slytherin accepted all these duels, and unsurprisingly, won all of them. For a period of time, they faced many assassination attempts; people even tried to find the school and destroy it.

Hard days passed. The first graduates of Hogwarts came out of the school to the wide world. Two of them even made a name for themselves for being the most talented wizard and witch of the era. They were known as Merlin and Morgan le Fay.

Morgan didn't like the status quo with muggles. She started collecting followers to go against the King and set up a new kingdom, where magic users will be treated as noble people.

Merlin didn't agree with Morgan. He wanted to stop this pointless bloodshed. He became an ally of King Arthur and went against Lady Morgan. 

At the end, Merlin achieved victory by severely injuring Lady Morgan in the duel. A pact was signed between him and King Arthur, who vowed to make every person forget about magic. Everyone who talked about magic was announced as a criminal.

This act of Merlin truly saved many lives, but Slytherin took it as an offence. Merlin was his first student. By going against Morgan, and subsequently all witches and wizards with her, he was accused of betrayal by them.

Slytherin also became suspicious of everyone and demanded his friends immediately expel all muggleborn students. His pureblood policy originates from this.

Many of you are familiar with the events that come after this. They had a quarrel, and Slytherin left the school.

A few years later, Helena, Rowena's daughter, stole her mother's diadem. The thing was, Ravenclaw was experimenting with binding a magical object to the soul using this diadem. When it was taken away from her, her soul was damaged, and she became bedridden for a long time.

When it got worse, she asked Slytherin's apprentice to fetch her daughter to see her for the last time. Helena refused to believe him, thinking it was her mother's trap to retrieve the diadem. Slytherin's apprentice was hot-tempered, so he accidentally killed her.

When Rowena heard of the incident, she couldn't bear it anymore and died.

Her last words were, "Pride destroyed me."

Gryffindor was deeply saddened by her death. Coupled with his friend Slytherin leaving them, this became the last blow. He told Helena that he was too tired and wanted to stop here. Bidding farewell to Hogwarts and to their dreams and sweet memories, he settled in a place that later became known as Godric's Hollow.

Hufflepuff managed Hogwarts for a few more years. At last, she also said she was too tired and left the school in Merlin's care, who came back to school as a professor when Slytherin left."

Students watched the lonely back of an old man who stood alone at the highest tower of Hogwarts. The scene around them dissolved, changing into the familiar classroom.

"This is the true story of the Four Founders and Hogwarts." Concluded Stille with a sigh.

"I only want you to understand one thing: life isn't fair. We can't always reach the goal we set for ourselves, and it's fine. You win something, you lose another. That's how the world works.

Apart from that, know the origin of the sacred place you are in. This place is the hard work of many great people, they used their life and blood to take it along the river of time. 

The last thing I want you to know is, being in other houses doesn't mean you should be enemies. The founders were best friends despite their different personalities and opposing views. 

As long as you try, you can always find the common ground.

 Starting this year, I'll try to come up with joint activities to facilitate unity and the sense of being comrades among different houses. I hope you will actively participate in them and put the family grudges aside."

"Now, we'll learn a couple of basic spells you will need in your daily life. Then, I'll give you a task to complete in 15 minutes in the illusion."

The solemn environment caused by the tragedy of the Founders was instantly lifted, as some people cheered when he said 'illusion'.

"The spells I want you to learn are Lumos, Nox, Incendio, and Aguamenti. They are fairly easy and can be learned in a short period of time, but will provide immense benefits when you are in the wild.

Like this, for the next 10 minutes, Stille taught them the spells that he managed to do before even getting his wand. It was a mystery to him that not a single person (except for Hermione Granger, who could already do the Lumos) attempted them before this lesson.

In 10 minutes, everyone could do it—at least in a few tries. So, Professor Elding announced their task:

"I randomly paired all the students. You will appear in a marsh alone. Your task is to find your companion. After finding them, you can walk around with your companion and look for traces of animals. The team with the highest number of findings will win a special prize. If the trace you found is valid, a marble will appear in the air around you. So, don't think about cheating.

Prepare yourselves for thrilling adventure."