Samhain 968AD, Hogwarts Castle

These were dangerous times. None were safe from sporadic violence. Any displays of magic especially by a child led the Christian majority to burn the whole family as 'servants of the devil'. Many children born of squibs had suffered this horrific fate. Four noble families had set up the school in the broch on An Linne Dhubh by the ancient dark forest.

Long had the four founders of Hogwarts School looked for a way to protect the children and the refugees that had settled in the nearby village of Hogsmeade. It had been Rowena who had discovered a druidic ritual in the Scrolls of Merlin, a way to construct wards based on the protection of the underworld.

Salazar smoothed the hair on his youngest son's head. His dark hair was braided with flowers picked by Helga herself not half and hour ago. Somairhle stood tall and thin, eighteen and proud to have been chosen as Champion for the school, his sacrifice would mean generations would be safe and protected.

Godric had gone on a quest to recover the Ancient Cauldron of the Last Druids, hidden in the fortress of mythical Camelot. Brave of heart and a true hero, he had passed through the protections of Merlin to return to his home, older and wiser.

Rowena and Helga had prepared Salazar's son with a deep cleansing, dressed him in finest cloth, woven by the first year girls. The boy himself was pure and had been chosen from all those of age by the sorting hat. The boy's choosing was fitting as his mother, Salazar's second wife, had followed the Old Ways and taught her only son to worship nature and the divine spirits.

The cauldron had been filled with water from the sacred spring. Now all chanted for the protection of the Great Goddess herself, Morrigan.

A sacrifice, a pure soul, would seal the wards. Salazar picked up the knife and led his son to the cauldron. He cut along the boy's white skin on his inner arms. The blood collected in a bronze bowl. The youth made no sound. He had already said his goodbyes. Salazar stood silent and resolute as his son climbed into the cauldron, the water was the mirror of the underworld. No water was displaced as the boy lowered himself, until the last of his hair disappeared under the glass-like surface.

Magic charged the air as Salazar painted the wards stones with his son's blood. The wind picked up and howled. A single raven flew down and sat on the edge of the cauldron. All could feel the change, as the wards sealed. Wards stronger than those wrought by the goblin kings. The castle was protected from all harm. The children safe.

The grey haired mage did not wail his grief for his lost son, but turned from his friends and walked away from his former home.

Rowena was the first to speak... "I will miss you always gentle Somairhle, greatest of us all, Champion of Hogwarts."

Helga then turned and filled a goblet from the cauldron to sip the sacred water. She froze as a vision over took her conscious mind and the Spirits of the Underworld spoke through her. "A millenia will pass, the wards will break. A champion will arise to destroy the faithless darkness, the destroyer of souls. Hope in eternity... Morrigan awaits her hero."