And now, you good little readers, here is THE CHAPTER YOU'VE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR!! in more ways than one. I'm so sorry that I haven't updated, but I was taking my SATs, and I landed the title role in a huge play, and I've been up to my ears in work since christmas. But here it is at last, the long awaited... (dun, dun, dun!)

INTRODUCTION OF THE FOUNDERS!!!

Hooray!

So sit back, relax and enjoy

The Founders Four
A Harry Potter Fan Fiction
By JadedofMara

Chapter Eleven: With Magic

Something was very, very wrong.

Severus Snape—Professor of Hogwarts, Head of Slytherin House, youngest Potions Master on record, Master Occlumens, Master Legilimens, Death Eater, Order of the Phoenix spy, and quite annoyed—had absolutely no idea what was going on. Certainly, he had informed all his Slytherins of the change in the usual term schedule like a good, tame little Potions Master, but he, like all the teachers, was still totally unaware of just whom they would be 'welcoming with open arms', as the Headmaster so boldly put it meet at the staff meeting. Although…

Severus cast a glance down the High table to the Gryffindor end. To judge by the way those three meddlesome Marauders were staring impatiently at the door, silent for once save the intermittent interjections of the Black mongrel, the professors of Dueling, Transfiguration and Defense at least knew something more than the rest of the school. The female Potter, Lupin and Black appeared to know nothing as they, like the rest of the professors, were staring curiously at the Headmaster, though they occasionally shot concerned glances at their strangely silent spouses. For once, though Severus was loath to admit it, the Marauders seemed to have something of the right idea. The students and the other teachers certainly weren't going to get much information by staring at the eye-shocking orange and blue of the Headmasters robes. Decisive in his course of action, Severus settled into an expressionless mask, his eyes on the tall oak doors at the far end of the hall, ears waiting for the Headmaster's words.

Severus barely had to wait at all. The school clock tower rang out six, and the Headmaster got to his feet, raising his arms to quiet the already soundless Hall. Though still staring at the door, Severus knew from past experience that Dumbledore was beaming maddeningly at his pupils.

"Welcome, Hogwarts, to this feast," said Dumbledore, his voice a strange combination of formal and childishly giddy. "I know that this is highly unusual, but please bear with me as I'm sure you will all be simply delighted. As I'm sure your teachers have informed you, we will have guests in Hogwarts this year. How long they will stay is undetermined as yet, but I am sure that you all will find every minute of their stay extraordinary, and will be very sad when they leave."

Mutterings broke out among the students. Dumbledore paused dramatically, and though his face remained impassive, Severus frowned deeply. Dumbledore was really presuming quite a bit in his introduction of these inexplicable outsiders. If Severus wasn't so curious as to whom Dumbledore would be willing to so vastly break routine for, he would have found 'every minute of their stay' quite ordinary, just out of spite.

"This year," Dumbledore continued now, stilling the hall. "Hogwarts will play host to four very important people. They arrived here quite unexpectedly last night, as I'm sure most of you noticed, and will be staying among us until they can find a way to return to their home. But for now, that is all quite unimportant." Dumbledore raised an arm toward the doors at the far end of the hall, and every head snapped to them. "It is my great and deepest honor to present…"

The doors swung open slowly to reveal a young woman standing in the very center of the door way, magic plunging around her like a storm-tossed sea. Her basic clothing was very simple; a bright canary-yellow dress. The left sleeve of the woman's dress was long and form fitting, tapering to a point above her middle finger and allowing wedding rings to show. The right sleeve went to the elbow and then fell in strips of yellow and black down to just past her hips, exposing strange black lines upon her hand and wrist. She wore a twisted rope belt about her waist, from which her wand and a long, wicked-looking obsidian blade hung. All this was covered by a black satin cloak, and the young woman's long red hair spilled down her back, a few chance strands braided with a black ribbon. At her side, a badger stood, fur brushed and silky, head adorned by a circlet of topaz and onyx.

"Milady Helga Hufflepuff!"

Severus actually heard a pin drop.

If he were not a Master Occlumens, Severus would have fallen out of his chair. More than a few of the younger year Hufflepuffs actually did. His mind was completely blank, Severus could do nothing but stare as the young Hufflepuff as she walked calmly up the aisle between her own table and that of Ravenclaw, her long black knife glinting evilly in the candlelight.

Everything about her, from her fierce chestnut eyes to her warrior's posture screamed that Lady Hufflepuff had clearly been misrepresented in the histories. Far from the kindly, plum and pleasing person typically depicted, the lithe, sprightly young girl who moved smoothly up the hall was anything but weak and talentless.

Severus felt a stream of warmth and comfort watching her, emotions that his Occlumency enabled him to realize were not his own. Severus raised an eyebrow at that. A practicing Empath was a rare thing to find, especially in someone who the Wizarding world thought they knew so well. But as Severus knew even in the bare seconds he had seen the young Hufflepuff, the Wizarding world knew absolutely nothing.

Lady Hufflepuff had, by this time, reached the end of the hall and she came to a stop before her long House table, stooping to gather her badger into her arms. The small group of sixth year boys that had sat at the teacher's end of the Hufflepuff table since their first year goggled at her. She smiled lightly, sending out a wash of friendliness, and gave them a little wave.

Dumbledore once again raised his arm to the doors at the back of the hall. "I give to you our next visitor!"

This time, only one door swung open, a regal woman of impressive stature stepping nobly through. Her hair, honey-toned and curled in ringlets, framed a face with warm brown eyes that shown with wisdom and compassion and sparkled with youth. She wore a long, flowing gown, starting with royal blue at the low, swooping neckline and fading all the way to white at the hem. The sleeves, slit to the shoulder but bound together by spaced links of bronze, were full and long, almost brushing the floor, lined in bronze silk. Obviously goblin wrought, hair-thin bronze, made into to a kind of material, formed a girdle about her waist. An icy blue cloak, strewn with threads of bronze and matching slippers completed the ensemble. This dignified woman wore a blue falconer's glove over her left hand, and, bound to the bronze bracelet around her wrist with a matching chain and anklet, a large white prey bird of some sort stood midway up her arm, golden eyes squinting at the students. Severus knew instinctively that this woman, whose magic coursed through the room like gale-force wind, could not possibly be any other than

"Lady Rowena Ravenclaw!"

The hall burst into curious mutterings as Ravenclaw swept majestically up the hall, her cloak flowing smoothly behind her, and Severus let out a small breath, clamping down his Occlumency shields. It wouldn't do to get his hopes up over something so obviously too good to be true, he warned himself sternly. Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff could have been out on holiday and were sent to the future with to medieval bellhops from the local five star hotel for all he knew. Gryffindor might not even have come, which would be a blessing to be sure.

Severus shook himself from the train of thought, casting his gaze to the other teachers as a distraction. Pomona Sprout of Hufflepuff, completely ignoring Ravenclaw, had eyes only for the youthful Founder of her House, and Filius Flitwick was equally disregarding Hufflepuff, gazing almost rapturously at the young Ravenclaw. The teachers who were not Heads of any House were still in a state of shock, with the obvious exceptions of McGonagall and Dumbledore and the strange omissions of Black and Lupin. The Marauders, all of them, looked excited beyond words, though Potter still seemed a little suspicious.

Dumbledore cleared his throat as Ravenclaw came to a stop before her House table and shared a grin with Hufflepuff. "And now our next guest!"

For a third time, the doors swung open, this time for a man, and before he even stepped into the light, Severus knew instantly who this person was. There was something about the way he carried himself—not with the usual Gryffindor arrogance, but with something a little more subtle—and the way his magic blazed through the air like a wildfire that marked him as Godric. But then, the huge red and gold Griffin that preceded him was a bit of a giveaway as well.

When Gryffindor stepped into the light of the Great Hall, several things happened all at the same time. Severus flinched, squeezing his eyes shut against the veritable glow of Gryffindor's red and gold outfit; the table along the far right edge of the Hall burst into a chant of 'GOD-RIC! GRYFF-IN-DOR!'; and James Potter—oo, would Severus nail him for this later—fell out of his chair in full view of the school and landed with a splat.

Were it not for Legilimency and stoic Slytherin pride, Severus would have asphyxiated from laughter. As it was, he allowed a grin to creep onto his face as Potter crawled back up into his chair, red-faced, staring dumbstruck at Gryffindor.

Granted, the man was impressive, though certainly not worth falling out of a chair over, especially now that the shock of the founders had passed. Once Severus adjusted to the blatant glare of Gryffindorishness, he too turned an observant eye on the man. Gryffindor was tall, easily more than six feet, with long auburn hair pulled away from his face, and a mustache that gave his slightly scarred visage a look of perpetual amusement, even when he wasn't smiling at all. From the moment the chanting of his name began, however, his face alit with a brilliant grin, his deep brown eyes sparkling in his glee. Gryffindor's cloak was red, of course, over eye-shocking gold robes that seemed ablaze with their own luminescence. Around his waist there was a thick belt of gold richer in color than his robes, and attached to this, visible through an obviously-goblin-wrought sheath—for no other smiths could achieve such finery—was the famous gold and ruby Sword of Gryffindor.

Severus' mind instantly jumped into overdrive. While the more rational side of his mind counseled himself to avoid getting his hopes up lest the Founders had been mysteriously transported forward after the split, the rest of him was positively dying for Dumbledore to introduce the last visitor. The chance to meet, to speak with, to work with Salazar Slytherin—the Salazar Slytherin—was far too fantastic to be real, and yet it simply had to be.

Gryffindor, reaching the end of the hall, reached out and pulled Ravenclaw into a full passionate kiss. The Gryffindors, particularly Longbottom, Finnegan and Thomas, cheered even harder. When they broke away, Ravenclaw blushed a beautiful rose tone and Gryffindor winked roguishly at his students.

"As there is no need to introduce Lord Gryffindor," cried Dumbledore above the wild cheers of the overenthusiastic Lions. "I give you, last but certainly not least, Lady Hufflepuff's husband!"

The chanting and cheering cut off abruptly, and a few upper year Slytherins jumped to their feet in outrage. All around the hall, people were frowning, and muttering angrily under their breaths. While not very popular, Slytherin was a founder and if his absence meant the loss of the full set, Hogwarts would protest. Severus wasn't paying attention. He fumed, raged, seethed, and boiled with fury. How could the Wizarding world's most impossible dream have come true and left Slytherin behind in the past? Goody-two-shoes Gryffindor, and his conniving cohorts Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw simply couldn't be allowed to influence the Wizarding world without Slytherin there to balance them out. It wasn't right! Severus glowered at the hall, and particularly the tall oak doors as if he could make Slytherin appear behind them.

Dumbledore, for some odd reason, was grinning.

The tall oaken doors banged open with a wave of magic that ruffled the hair of those sitting closest to the entry way, revealing a single figure completely silhouetted by the torchlight of the passage behind him. An aura with force such as Severus had never felt slammed into him, pushing him back into his seat. Severus stared. This man, Hufflepuff's husband, was the most powerful wizard Severus had ever seen, and yet not a single drop of his magic seeped into the air around him. All his strength was carefully concealed by Occlumency.

Severus reached out with Legilimency to brush by the man's shields, and instantly probed closer. Most people's natural shields were like tiny wooden garden spikes, just enough to keep thoughts from spilling out of their minds. Dumbledore's and Voldemort's minds were protected by a barbed wire fence surrounded by chimeras of Legilimency. Severus had heard his shield compared to a muggle high-voltage fence with Hungarian Horntails on the perimeter, ready to attack the shields of another at a moments notice. But this man's mind was Hogwarts, encircled by a thousand full grown Basilisks.

Voldemort suddenly looked like an open encyclopedia.

Severus hadn't recovered from the shock of the man's strength when he stepped into the light of the great hall and everything was blown from Severus' mind.

Hufflepuff's husband was short with longish black hair that brushed against his glimmering emerald eyes. The man was swathed from head to foot in deep forest green, his cloak glimmering with a thousand strands of silver twisting and turning on the fabric. A short silver sword gleamed sheathless on his hip, and a pure white snake lay lazily draped over his shoulders.

Slytherin. Severus had never been more sure of anything in his whole life.

Gasps swept the hall like a sudden breeze. The snake hung around Slytherin's shoulders hissed loudly through the silence, and Slytherin laughed, low and throaty. The sound echoed, and the hairs on the back of Severus' neck stood up.

"Vail, Oo sshahsseex ssien kairgleek, Sshyssayen. Nahk vyss pahlk nahrssee drangahn kah ool pait zeerthh ssahssohxtei," he said quietly, and Severus let out a low breath of amazement. When Voldemort spoke Parsletongue, it was all hisses and spits and wheezing. But Slytherin, the Serpent Lord himself, made the language of the snakes sound beautiful, like a song or a gust of wind. Severus had never heard Parsletongue spoken that way.

The snake hissed something vehemently, jerking its head away from Slytherin's as they glided down the hall, and causing more than a few Hufflepuffs to edge away in fear. Slytherin laughed again.

By this time, Slytherin had reached the end of the walk between the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff tables, and, stepping close to Hufflepuff, he bowed low over her hand, pressing a kiss to the wedding rings glimmering on her finger. Another zephyr of gasps and whispers blew through the hall.

The four newcomers and their familiars moved together in the center of the room.

"Witches and wizards," Dumbledore announced from behind them, arms raised. "Boys and girls. Allow me to give you the Founders of Hogwarts!"

And the crowd went wild.

There will be a "Q&A" for the Founders in an upcoming chappy. Drop a reveiw with any questions you would like to see the students of Hogwarts pose to their founders! Each House is allowed five questions directed to that Houses Founder, so be sure to tell me who the question is for!

Thanks!

~Jaded