Harry Potter: Arcane Instability

(September 6, 1991)

---------

(General POV)

Inside the potions classroom in the dungeon, Salazar was just getting to his seat when Godric ran into the room almost out of breath, then moved quickly over to sit beside him. "Alright, what did you do this time?" Salazar couldn't help but ask, knowing it was better to be prepared for whatever Godric had done than to remain ignorant.

"Me? Don't be silly, Sally. You know I'd never do anything to break the rules." Godric said with the kindest smile he could muster. "The fact that you can say that with a straight face confirms that you have no morals." Salazar said, not believing Godric in the slightest.

Not long after Godric had sat down did the door burst open and Snape entered the room with his robes billowing behind him, which was weird considering there was no wind in the room at all. The man was every bit as slimy as Helga had described, and Godric absently wondered if the guy used some weird potion in his hair to make it look like that.

The first thing he did after arriving in the classroom was take the names of all those present, but as he called the names on the list, he seemed to stop when he got to Harry Potter. Despite having lived with the kid for almost an entire week, Godric hadn't spoken much with the boy, but that was mostly because he didn't particularly have anything nice to say, at least not while that goofy freckled red-head was around him.

Godric had only talked with the youngest Weasley for a few minutes, but by the end of it he was forcing himself to walk away before he strangled him. Apparently the little urchin had a lot to say about Godric hanging out with Salazar and the others, and seemed to think he was somehow a traitor to his house for doing so. Godric had to restrain himself on more than one occasion from turning the little ponce into toilet paper.

Never before had he met such a biased little urchin, whose favourite topic was dissing Slytherin house, something which Godric took offence to. He had snapped madly at Ron in the common room, and after that, well, not many people in his house bothered to try and associate with him all that much, which was fine with him.

If they were going to treat the people in other houses that way just because they were in different houses, he didn't want to associate with them in the first place. He hadn't actually bothered telling Salazar and the others about that, but he guessed they would find out in due time.

Anyway, after calling out Harry's name, Snape seemed to let his gaze linger on Harry whenever he let his eyes roam across the room. Soon enough, Harry began to really experience Snape's pettiness when the potion's teacher began to ask him questions that he simply did not know the answer to, hell, even Godric didn't know the answer to one of the questions, but in his defense it had been so long since he himself learned potions. Then again, he had read most of the book Savrin had written on potions, so maybe the potion wasn't important or Snape just had his ingredients wrong.

When Snape took away points from Gryffindor for Harry suggesting that the bushy-haired girl known as Hermione knew the answer to his questions, Godric was half tempted to jinx the overgrown bully, but then decided better about it. There wasn't much time left until the plan would be kicked into action, and Godric was nothing if not patient. When he wanted to be of course.

After being put into groups of two and told to make the boil cure that Rowena had mentioned to them earlier, Salazar and Godric didn't follow Snape's recipe on the board, but followed Savrin's boil cure from the book he had written.

Godric had made the cure for boils so much back in the day because pranking people with boils was so popular, he probably could have made it with his eyes closed. Still, they were using Savrin's recipe because it was faster, simpler, and didn't waste as many ingredients, so both he and Salazar had to put their full attention onto it.

They had just finished pouring samples of the potion into two vials when a loud hissing sound filled the dungeon. "Is this you?" Salazar asked Godric in a whisper as he spun around to check where the noise was coming from. "No. Mine doesn't start until the end of class." Godric whispered back quickly.

Both of them had their wands drawn before anyone else even turned to see what was happening, so when they saw the mangled twisted cauldron leaking a disgusting substance on the floor, both reacted at once.

Godric levitated Seamus Finnigan and Neville Longbottom, who were basically standing in the potion into the air and out of the potions way. Salazar meanwhile waved his wand and gathered the potion into a floating ball so it couldn't touch anyone else.

Looking around, Godric saw that the only person who had been affected by the potion was Neville, but he had only gotten a bit of it on his feet, which wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been. Still, the boy was crying out in pain, but he would be alright as soon as someone treated the burns on his feet and got rid of the boils that were already starting to form.

"Idiot boy!" Snape reprimanded Neville rather than try to do anything to help, and his arrival was way later than it should have been for a teacher whose job was supposed to be to watch over them. The only kind thing he did was have Seamus Finnigan help Neville to the hospital wing, and once the two were gone, he rounded on Harry, and shockingly, Godric.

After shouting at Harry for not keeping an eye on Neville's potion, he rounded on Godric. "Who told you to draw your wand?! You could have done more harm than good, and I expect you to ask for permission the next time you raise your wand in front of me!" Snape shouted, then had the balls to take away points from both Harry and Godric.

'Yup! I'm sure of it! I hate him!' Godric growled internally, and he couldn't help but slowly count down the seconds to when class was over.

When there was only ten minutes left of Potions class, Godric tapped Salazar on the shoulder, and gave him a side-eyed smirk, which told Salazar that now was probably the time to stick close to Godric, or run for cover. He chose option one.

Slowly the two of them absently cleaned their potions tools as they focused on Snape. Godric seemed to be counting down in his head, because with each passing second, Salazar was sure his smile got bigger and bigger.

When the clock in the room hit 2:30, the floor seemed to shake side to side, causing everyone to stop what they were doing and look around. Snape, looking livid, strode for the door. The moment light from outside the room could be seen, the door burst open and slammed into Snape, hitting him in the head and sending him sprawling to the floor in a daze.

While he was on the floor, the thing that slammed into the door entered the room, and everyone was left dumbfounded by the weird- floating green ghost.

"Feezies fizies foezies fumzies, it looks as though you're a little clumsys." The green ghost said, then waved its hand, causing a sticky gray substance to latch onto Snape's left leg. "Let's help you up!" The ghost said happily, then shot off into the air, dragging Snape behind it, and it wasn't being gentle either.

Godric could swear that if Snape wasn't braindead, he for sure had a concussion from how many times he had been flung into the walls, not to mention how many times he had probably hit his head when he got dragged up the stairs.

A few of the Slytherins tried to draw their wands, but they were stopped by Salazar when he repeated Snape's words to them. "Remember what he said. We can't draw our wands without his permission. We would probably do more harm than good to him if we tried to help." Salazar had said, causing most of the students, especially the Slytherins, to look at him as though he had grown a second head.

After all of the students ran out of the room to chase after their potions professor, Godric and Salazar who had remained behind, slowly got to their feet, and after Godric placed something in one of the drawers of Snape's desk, they slowly moved along to see what happened to the waste of a teacher.

"So." Said Salazar after a few minutes of walking in silence. "You somehow managed to turn Peeves into that green thing and convinced him to help you?" Again there was a few minutes of silence before Godric finally answered, "Something like that, yeah."

The two of them made their way outside to the edge of the black lake, where they saw their classmates gathered around and looking out into the water. "Huh… I don't think I told him to throw Snape into the lake." Godric mumbled just loud enough for Salazar to hear.

"Have you ever once given clear instructions with no room for error or misinterpretation?" Salazar couldn't help but ask. "What fun is that?" Godric asked seriously, sounding as though he really didn't understand the question. "You're hopeless." Salazar said.

Both of them just stood there for a few minutes until McGonagall came running out of the castle with Hermione trailing behind her. "What a spoilsport. I never would have guessed a member of my own house would help someone like that." Godric complained.

"To be fair, your house isn't exactly known for their brains." Salazar chuckled humorously. "Like you can talk. Have you seen those two lumps of clay in your House that are always following Malfoy? They've got one brain cell between them." Godric said, reminding Salazar of Crabbe and Goyle, Draco Malfoy's moronic minions.

"Those two don't count! Your stupid hat messed up when he put them in my house!" Salazar barked angrily, his joy from before all but gone.

"Not true. Lector doesn't make mistakes. Remember how when we were enchanting it, you only wanted children from magical families in your house because you lacked the patience to explain things to muggleborn." Godric explained, and Salazar wanted nothing more than to rip that damned hat off Godric's head and throw it in the lake too.

It took awhile for McGonagall to fish Snape out of the lake, then she immediately took him to Madam Pomfrey in the Hospital wing. Judging by how much blood covered his body and by how his arms and legs were bent at weird angles, Godric hoped the school would be rid of Snape for a few days at the very least.

As for the green ghost that had attacked Snape, well, everyone saw it dive into the lake seconds after Snape, and it hadn't resurfaced since. "Dumbledore" had come out to the lake, looked pointedly at Godric, then told everyone that there was nothing to worry about, and that it had been a one time thing, making most every student, minus all of the Slytherins except for Salazar groan in sadness. Apparently they hoped to see that exact same thing happen again.

"Well, he didn't punish me, so that's a good sign." Godric said to Salazar, who couldn't help but agree. "Do you think he already knew about Snape being a lousy teacher? Surely he's going to do something about him, right?" Salazar asked, actually getting a thoughtful "hmmm" from Godric.

"If he doesn't, we will. Once the year is out, Snape's fair game, and Savrin will have no choice but to find a replacement potions teacher." Godric finally said, and in one of the rare moments that he made a plan, Salazar fully agreed with him.

-------

On Wednesday the following week, Godric and Salazar were both sitting at the head of the Ravenclaw table at lunchtime, waiting for Helga and Rowena to show up for lunch. When the petite little blonde girl walked into the room, trailed closely by the taller dark-haired girl, Salazar nudged Godric's shoulder and pointed towards them.

Seeing the look of absolute fury on Helga's face, Godric thought quickly to try and remember if he had done anything that might make her mad at him. Finding nothing, he got to his feet and moved so he was on the opposite side of the table, hiding behind Salazar.

"YOU- YOU- YOU IDIOTS!" She creamed, drawing the attention of most of the room. "I'm sure you're right, but why this time?!" Godric asked quickly. He at least wanted to know what he did before he got lectured, plus if he knew how she found out, it would help him to better next time.

"What did I do?" Salazar asked confusedly. To his knowledge, he hadn't helped Godric with any of his pranks since they were brought back by Savrin. "We just had our first flying lesson today, and guess what we had to ride on?!" Helga asked, almost daring them to utter the answer.

Looking at each other, both Salazar and Godric wore confused faces. They had no idea what witches or wizards flew on, and they hadn't bothered trying to figure it out because they had been busy working on an assignment from Savrin for the last week.

On top of that, neither of them talked with anyone but those in their little group, so learning things second-hand was kind of out. "No idea." Godric finally answered the question, sounding more lost than a muggle in the Ministry of Magic.

"Broomsticks!" She answered angrily, and for a minute both boys stared blankly at her, until a look of realization appeared on Godric's face before he burst out laughing. It took a few more seconds before Salazar finally clued in to why she was so angry, and he too couldn't help but smile.

"It's not funny!" She shouted even as she drew her wand, then shot them both with a stinging hex. "Oh, come on, Helga! It was ages ago, and you already got us back for it!" Godric cried out as both he and Salazar took off down the aisle between the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff tables to escape her.

Judging by how he was still laughing his ass off, it was apparent that he was not sorry for what he had done.

-------

An hour later, all four of them were standing in what once was Dumbledore's office, but now belonged to Savrin. "I can't believe what they've done to my chambers! There didn't use to be a wall right there, and that door was once solid gold!" Godric complained as he scrutinized the room he had built so long ago.

"Your hubris knows no bounds, Godric." Rowena stated as she looked over the room. On the way in, there was a gargoyle of a griffin standing out front where one had to give a password, then after making it up the staircase, there was a griffin door knocker.

"Griffin-door. How repetitive can you get?" Salazar said, earning a scowl from the red-head. "Oh shut it, Sally! At least we know where my chamber is. How has the search gone in finding yours?" Godric mocked, earning a scowl from Salazar.

It was true. Of the four chambers that each founder had built personally, only Salazar had not been able to find his.

"They renovated the castle a bunch of times, and the entrance was clearly moved by someone, most definitely by someone with Parseltongue, so probably one of my descendants." Salazar said, not interested in discussing the topic of his chambers any longer.

"Well." Savrin said, gaining their attention as soon as they entered the room. "Though I encourage combat practice, doing so in the Great Hall around children who couldn't defend themselves even if they wanted to, I must say I am disappointed in you all. I do hope you have a good explanation for all this?" Savrin said, causing Helga to hang her head in shame.

"Before you dish out the punishments, can I go? After all, I had no part in what happened." Rowena asked, choosing to retreat now before something horrible happened to her.

"Really? From where I was sitting, you were encouraging Helga to attack them, even going so far as to call out spells she could use on them." Savrin said, earning a nervous laugh from Rowena, who had clearly forgotten that little bit of information.

"Now, one of you, explain." Savrin ordered.

"Well, it started off more as a joke really. You see, back in the day, Salazar was having trouble teaching this little girl how to make a potion, which is naturally Helga's area of expertise. However, the little girl refused to let anyone else but Salazar teach her how to make said potion, but Helga was rather insistent on interfering. Naturally, Salazar came to me for help." Godric explained, earning a glare from Helga.

"You tell the truth, Godric, or I'll give you a black-eye!" She threatened. "Okay, maybe it was Salazar who refused to let anyone teach her, but in his defense, she was his daughter." Godric corrected himself.

"It doesn't matter that she was his daughter! Potions was my subject, and she begged him to let me teach her! Even Rowena didn't try to teach Helena everything! *Gasp!*" Helga had ranted angrily, but at the end she gasped suddenly and covered her mouth with both hands as she spun to look at Rowena, who turned away with a frown on her face.

Three days after the Sorting Ceremony, both Salazar and Helga had come to the breakfast table where they found Rowena almost completely asleep in her porridge. Apparently she had spent the first three nights of the year staying up until sunrise talking with the ghost of her daughter.

It had been a surprise to both of them to be sure when Rowena explained why she was so tired, which didn't go over well with the little blonde. Even though she could sympathize with Rowena for wanting to talk to her daughter, it was affecting her daily life, and if her sleep deprivation somehow resulted in them failing or messing up their plans to save magical Britain, it would cost thousands of lives, and the little blonde couldn't stand for that.

After a talk from Helga, Rowena promised to actually get some sleep, and to ensure this, she went and talked to the ghost of Helena. Whatever she said seemed to work, because since then, Helena only visited Rowena in the late hours of the evening before midnight, then disappeared until the following night.

Rowena would have been upset about the whole thing, but it seemed Helena wasn't hiding completely, rather she was just giving the child-copy of her mother time to actually get some sleep. The other Ravenclaw students still saw her around Ravenclaw tower, but Helena had a gift when it came to hiding from her mother.

"I'm sorry, Rowena." Helga said quietly, but Rowena simply brushed it off. Of the four of them, Helga was by far the most dramatic when it came to talking about Helena, but that was to be expected. She was the most empathetic of the bunch. Plus it was easy for them all to see how annoyed or sad Rowena would get at times when Helena was brought up.

"As touching as this is, you still haven't explained what caused you to attack them." Savrin interrupted, sounding annoyed. He didn't care about whatever mushy crap was going on in their lives, and he hoped that whatever it was would get fixed sooner than later.

"Ah," Said Godric before clearing his throat as he got back to the topic at hand. "You see, when Salazar proposed a challenge to me, naturally I couldn't refuse." "And what exactly was the challenge?" Savrin interrupted.

"He said I couldn't pull a prank over on Helga, and that if I was really as skilled as I knew myself to be, that I could pull one over on her. Naturally I wasn't going to back down. I spent the whole night setting things up, and the following morning when Helga tried to use magic on her broom like she did every morning, nothing happened. The moment she grabbed hold of the broom, the enchantments I put on it lit up, and away they went!"

"The fool made it so I couldn't let go, then the broom flew me across half the country and over every muggle village there was. I was probably seen by every muggle!" Helga growled angrily.

In Godric's defense, it wasn't as big of a deal back in their time as it would have been in the current era they found themselves in. As if something clicked in his mind, Savrin said, "So that's why the muggles think witches ride on broomsticks!"

"We were pretty influential people back in the day, so if any witch or wizard saw one of us riding on brooms, others would have tried doing the same thing. I'm almost certain that's why witches and wizards ride on broomsticks to this day." Rowena explained, and Savrin could only shake his head at the whole situation.

"So let me get this straight. Because you told Godric he couldn't prank Helga, he went out and did something that irrevocably influenced the entire magical world, and now Helga's mad because her being pranked became the inspiration for magical transportation for the last thousand years?" Savrin asked.

"Yeah, that about sums it up." Salazar confirmed. Shaking his head, Savrin mumbled, "I need a drink." The four mini-founders, having heard his mumbling, all let out audible gulps. The last time Savrin had a drink, he put their spirits into these tiny bodies before he tortured them for a whole night.

"You four must be punished. As such, you will be the first to go through the trials come the 5th of October. So far I haven't had anyone else test it, so if anyone's going to die, it may as well be one of you." Savrin told them with an evil smile on his face.

'Of course it's impossible for them to actually die in the trials, but the fear of dying again should be sufficient punishment.' Savrin thought happily. Meanwhile, the four mini-founders all looked dejected as they marched towards the door.

---------

The following day found Godric and Salazar standing out on the grounds for their first flying lesson. "If I have to hear that little rat explain how great he is at flying one more time, I'm going to jinx him so badly, his father's balls are going to hurt!" Salazar growled as they both looked over at Malfoy, who was acting like he was king of the world.

"How many times has he mentioned his father today?" Godric couldn't help but ask. It was a running joke between them and most everybody else to keep track of how many times Draco mentioned his father in a single day. There were even bets on it.

"Nine times so far. Three more times and I win the pool." Salazar said, which made Godric pause. "You only guessed twelve? I guessed twenty-five." Godric said, figuring Salazar was estimating quite low.

"Twenty-five? There aren't enough people who could tolerate him long enough for him to get to twenty-five in a single day." Salazar explained, getting a frown from Godric. "Hmm… I hadn't thought of that." He said.

When Madam Hooch arrived, she instructed everyone to stand beside brooms that looked about as old as Hogwarts itself. "How underfunded is the school if we have to learn on these?" Godric asked as he looked down at the splintered stick of wood.

Ever since they had learned about broomsticks being one of the common transportation methods for witches and wizards, they had done some research into them to see what all the fuss was about. Based on the information they had learned, it would seem the brooms that students of Hogwarts used were some of the much older models, which were way lower qualities than the newer brooms.

For instance, most of the older brooms couldn't go all that fast, they were less balanced, whatever that meant, they couldn't turn very well, and they were prone to spiraling out of control.

"10 galleons says that someone is skimming off the top." Salazar said, but Godric shook his head. If they were thinking correctly, someone was most guaranteed to be lining their own pockets with Hogwarts funds, because if money was going to go towards anything in the school, then the welfare and safety of children was paramount.

"Stick out your right hand over your broom, and say "UP!". Nice and clearly now!" Madam Hooch instructed.

Everyone did like she said. Both Godric's and Salazar's brooms jumped to their hands on the first try, but neither of them looked all that happy about it.

After being instructed how to mount their brooms without sliding off the ends, Salazar couldn't help but grumble, "I don't see what is so wrong with flying carpets. They were comfortable, practical, and I didn't feel like an idiot riding one." Godric could only nod in agreement.

"Now, when I blow my whistle, you will kick off from the ground, hard. Keep your brooms steady, rise a few feet and then come straight back down by leaning forward slightly. On my whistle-three-two-"

Before Madam Hooch could bring the whistle to her lips, Neville Longbottom pushed off the ground and shot into the air. "Come back, boy!" She shouted, but Neville only rose higher and higher.

"Arresto Momentum!" Godric shouted quickly as he drew his wand before anyone had the chance to blink. Neville, who had just begun to fall towards the ground off of his broom, seemed to freeze mid-fall, then slowly drift towards the ground as though he was a feather.

"Excellent work, my boy! 10 points to Gryffindor!" Madam Hooch said proudly before she helped recover Neville's broom that had begun drifting off towards the Forbidden Forest.

"Thanks Godric." Neville said sheepishly once everything settled down. "No problem." Godric told him, then went back to their lesson. However before Madam Hooch could once again blow her whistle, there was a cry of pain.

Everyone turned to see Draco Malfoy with his arm raised high into the air with a small glass ball clutched firmly in his hand. "Oh look. Malfoy found Neville's Remembrall." Salazar pointed out helpfully.

Reluctantly, Malfoy returned the Remembrall to Neville, but his eyes scanned the crowd of students for something else. When they met Godric's eyes, Godric smirked at him, which only seemed to piss him off. "My father will hear about this!" Malfoy shouted, however Godric only seemed to laugh.

When they finally got to climb onto the broomsticks and go more than a few feet off the ground, Godric found that it actually wasn't too bad flying on a broom, though he did feel stupid doing it. Salazar wasn't the best at flying, but at least he wasn't too bad.

Of everyone in the class, Godric might have been the best flyer, with Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, and Seamus Finnigan not too far behind. Draco Malfoy, for all his boasting, couldn't seem to remain on his broom for more than a few minutes, which was in stark contrast from what he had been telling everyone. The number of times he had threatened about how his father would hear about this, it really pissed a lot of people off, especially Salazar.

"You cheating bastard!" Salazar growled at Godric, who couldn't help the grin on his face. "Hey, there were no rules about jinxing his broom to piss the little wanker off. And by my count, he should be at twenty-four." Godric said as he smiled broadly towards Malfoy.

"Malfoy! If your father is anything like you, the school has nothing to worry about, so stop using it as some sort of threat!" He shouted, earning a few laughs from the Gryffindors present, while the Slytherins, especially Malfoy, didn't find it all that funny. "My father will hear about this! And I'll be sure to mention you, Gryffindor!" Malfoy growled hatefully.

"Well, let's go collect my winnings!" Godric said happily once the lesson ended. Both of them walked around for a while, then eventually made their way towards the Great Hall. Moving to the end of the Ravenclaw table, Salazar and Godric saw the group already standing there.

"Well folks, it appears I won!" Godric stated happily as he moved to grab the small pouch of sickles. Before he could grab it however, a small slender hand snatched it off the table and dangled it in front of his eyes.

"Sorry to disappoint you, Godric, but it seems I won." Sally Smith from Hufflepuff said. "Dragon-shit you did! I said he would say it twenty-five times, and he did! No one else even bet close to what I did!" Godric argued.

"Nope. Take a look." She told him as she showed the paper with all of their names written on it, and their guess number. Right beside Sally Smith were the words, "One more than Godric Gryffindor."

Looking at her, then to the smirk on Rowena's and Helga's faces, Godric let out a sigh before asking, "When did you get him to say it?" There was a laugh from beside him, and Godric turned to see Salazar smiling broadly at him.

"Actually, you got him to say it when you egged him on about his father. When I told you he was at nine, he was actually at ten." Salazar admitted, and Godric was half tempted to punch him in the nose.

"You might have won this time, but I assure you that it won't be so easy next time." Godric warned Sally, then looked into the eyes of all those present, letting them know it would be the same for them as well.