The weeks went by. Rowena had been attentive to two of the teacher evaluations. Umbridge had not only checked the teachers' resumés, but had also questioned their relationship with the Headmaster. She had tested them in their fields and had even questioned the students. Rowena could see that there was something hidden behind the veneer of professionalism the woman projected. She could see it, and of all of them, Salazar was the most perceptive. She couldn't understand why no one else had noticed. All the teachers seemed to have made the cut, except for Professor Trelawney. It appeared her position was safe for now, though she had been put on probation. Godric had testified that the interrogation had been especially vicious.
The matter had not stopped there. There had been several complaints from students regarding Umbridge's rather arbitrary punishments; curiously, these were students who were Muggle-born or came from families who had publicly supported Dumbledore in the past. It seemed like an attack on the Headmaster, seeking to punish those who supported him, knowing that he was unable to fight back. It was an attempt to take away all his support. Rowena had noticed that many students came out of Umbridge's punishments looking worse for wear, and also that the woman had begun to limit the rights of association, annulling the power of others to mete out punishments so that she could have the final say and authority over them… among many other things.
Defence Against the Dark Arts class, as they had imagined, had become a joke. No course was learning anything. From first to seventh year, all they did was read a book that said nothing but nonsense of no practical use. A book that seemed destined to indoctrinate people and make them completely useless. Rowena could see where this would lead without needing to use her gift. An entire generation would be in danger precisely because they did not know how to defend themselves, and what was worse, this could cause the following generations to also not know how to defend themselves properly. That would be catastrophic.
It had been difficult for the four of them to get together. It had cost them a lot. They had to hide and sneak into the meeting point they had used last year. The previous year, Helga had not been able to risk entering the castle because of Moody, who in the end turned out not to be Moody. Now with Umbridge watching some of them, especially Salazar, it was better not to take risks. So they had had to wait to meet.
"You took a while this time," Helga said when they were all there. She was seated next to Salazar.
"She's watching me. She thinks I don't realise it, but that's how it is."
"You're her target," Helga said. "She is behind the Dementor thing. I can't prove it, but I know."
"Let's put that aside for now," Rowena said. "It's important, but the most worrying thing now are the students. She's cutting back on too many rights. I fear that she could incur a 'coup d'état'."
"She can't do it if she can't throw Dumbledore away," Godric observed. "I know that Dumbledore is not a saint of your devotion, Salazar, and in fact, I don't completely trust him. But it is not in our interest to be expelled from Hogwarts."
"It's one of the possibilities that can happen," Rowena said. "There are several paths open, several possibilities. Anything can happen."
"The Minister is looking for a way to arrest Dumbledore. Rumours are circulating in the Ministry. You know he thinks Hogwarts is Dumbledore's recruiting centre for his Order," Helga said.
"In a way, it is," Salazar commented. "Many of the members of the Order were teenagers who finished Hogwarts shortly before joining him. Some teachers are part of his club. And if they discover that he is sending people to guard the Department of Mysteries, they will have his head and that of many others on a platter. The Minister wants to deny reality and will do what is necessary to achieve it."
"That's not the only thing that worries you," Godric said, looking at his friend.
"True. Sirius told me at the end of the summer that the Order is guarding the Department of Mysteries because that's why Voldemort wanted to kill me as a baby. He said something about Greek myths as a clue. I think he was talking about prophecies."
"The Department of Mysteries keeps a record of all the prophecies," Helga said. "I could take a look, but it will take me some time."
"If you find something, don't touch it. I've heard that the Department of Mysteries bewitches what they study so that no one who isn't involved or registered to handle their objects touches them without suffering the consequences," Godric said.
"Unfortunately, we don't know any Unspeakables," Salazar commented. "And even if we knew one, they couldn't tell us anything. Mr. Weasley told me that no one knows what they do, that they take an oath the moment they start working there." He shrugged. "However, it seems that for some people it is easy to deduce what is studied there. At least, people who have been connected with the Ministry at some point."
"They study time, space, life, death, prophecies, and... love," Rowena said. She knew those things from the number of conspiracies that her father had uncovered in the Quibbler. Of course, the publications seemed crazy, but those who knew how to read them could understand. It was easy to know what they were studying, but not the result of those studies. All of this was classified information. Personally, she did not like not sharing the knowledge and wisdom acquired. On the other hand, she knew that there was knowledge that was dangerous.
"Didn't he tell you anything else, Salazar?" Helga asked.
"No. Dumbledore bound them with some sort of oath. There were no signs of an Unbreakable Vow."
"Dumbledore seems to be too keen on being in control," Rowena observed, looking at the three of them. "I suspect that he has been praised so much that he believes his own legend. He thinks that his way of proceeding is the right one and is infallible. But I don't think it goes beyond that."
"I don't trust him," Salazar said. "I don't like to be used."
"I don't trust him either," Helga said.
"Everything you've said doesn't inspire great confidence," Godric said. "Although some things are somewhat ambiguous. I think it will be better to remove him from our conversations, unless he starts to be annoying to our goals. He has his agenda and we have ours."
"You say it's better for the students themselves to come up with the backlash, don't you, Rowena?"
"That's right, Salazar. It's what's best for them and it's going to be the best thing in the long run. That they know how to get out of difficult situations on their own."
"But there's still something we can do. We can prepare the castle so that if Umbridge pulls off that 'coup d'état,' she can't really take possession of it," Salazar said.
"Are you talking about making the school deny her to the point that a decree is an empty decree?" Godric asked. "To activate the castle's defences against her?"
"Exactly."
"That can attract unwanted attention, Salazar," Helga observed.
"It all depends," Rowena said. "It's getting late. Better to return before they realise our absence."
With Umbridge's practices, laughter in the castle soon disappeared. It became more and more like a military-style institution. Godric knew that most faculty avoided punishing students as much as possible for the nonsense of the disciplinary code that Umbridge wanted to implement. The Defence lessons did not improve. They were weekly tortures of meaningless lessons, and many saw that they were going to fail their Defence OWLs. Godric saw that as worrying and that for the vast majority, it would be a reality.
"Bloody old gargoyle," he heard Hermione protest. She and Ginny were two of the few who knew the truth about them. He knew that they had been reincarnated. They had told her and Ginny everything when they were planning how to handle the fake Moody. He knew that Rowena had told Nott. Of course, none of them knew that they were literally the founders themselves, only that they had the consciousness of having been others in the past and not a fusion of their past and present selves.
"Take a deep breath. When you get upset, you talk so fast that I can't follow you."
"We are not learning anything! And that doesn't just jeopardise our future by jeopardising our studies. That puts us in danger."
"That's true. Regardless of Voldemort, not everyone has good intentions. There are wizards of all kinds."
"I'd like to face her, but... I'm not the most skilled at Defence. You and Salazar are, and yet you both seem to stay out of it."
"Salazar is a target of Umbridge. You only have to see how she treats him in class. She is trying to find a pretext to charge against him. As for me... I am controlling myself so as not to act in an exacerbated way."
"I know. She also seems to keep an eye on you, though less so. We have to do something. We cannot sit idly by."
"When you say that, it means you have something in mind. Am I wrong, Hermione? Your mind is spinning with something."
"If the teacher does not teach us, we will have to look for someone to teach us. That's why I thought of you two. Since the few adults we know who could help are not in the castle, and the rest of the teachers are restricted."
"We are all students. The fact that we grasp the concepts first does not mean that we are qualified, even with our background."
"I know, Neville. I know. It's just an idea. We need to learn, even if it is from each other and the more, the better."
"I imagine that you will want to mature that idea in peace. Do you?"
"That's right. You don't mind, do you? I need to consult the original rules of the school, because that woman's decrees are not such. They only serve to reaffirm an authority that she does not have. She wouldn't need them if she really did."
"Okay. I'll leave you alone. Let me know when you have it. We may come together, though not as leaders."
Godric got up and walked out of the common room. It was the weekend so the curfew was a little more flexible, although with the current trends of the pink toad, as Salazar called her, he would not be surprised if it was the next thing to be touched. If people's freedoms were limited to specific spaces without being able to meet with each other, it created a greater lack of communication and, in a way, it favoured the segregation that was already quite widespread. This seemed to be aimed at doing the opposite of what the Hat had recommended. He entered the Room of Requirement, where Rowena and Salazar were playing an ancient and strange Egyptian game called Senet. A game that he had never understood or had any interest in understanding.
"Sorry for the delay; I was with my girlfriend," Godric said.
"You can play," Salazar replied, looking up from the board. Apparently, he had just lost the game.
"I've arranged to meet Theo tomorrow."
He approached them and took a seat between them. He looked at them with a serious expression. A seriousness that only acquired in those moments when something truly serious happened. The situation at the school was dire. Very serious. They had talked about it before, but the situation seemed to be getting more and more serious. It got complicated at times.
"The coup d'état seems to be getting closer and closer," he announced bitterly.
"I'd like to know what her next move is. To enter her mind, but it would not be very wise. I am trying to go unnoticed and not fall for her provocations. The only way to achieve this is to be alone with her, but how to be alone without it being a punishment?" Salazar commented with a frown.
Godric knew what he meant. His friend was one of the targets of that "teacher" so he couldn't just approach her. She was not like the fake Moody last year, who sought to gain his trust. No. She had made it clear from the beginning that she wanted to end Harry Potter.
"You'll have to wait for the opportunity to present itself," Rowena said.
"So far Hermione has had an idea," Godric said to his friends. "It's not fully developed but I think it's something big. I know that his main idea is to learn what we are being denied this year."
"So the perfect prefect is going to break the rules," Salazar smiled.
"He doesn't consider decrees official rules, I think he learned that from you," Godric said.
"We've been friends since the troll incident, and in the second year it occurred to her that we should make the Polyjuice Potion... She is very attached to the rules but knows when to break them and how to do it."
"Or how to turn it in her favour," Godric pointed out, looking at his friend. "The fact is that from what she told me, she had the initial idea that we would teach. Which we agreed was counterproductive. I reminded him that we are all students and that it would be better to learn from each other."
"That will strengthen relations between everyone," Rowena murmured. "We have to collaborate without taking the lead."
"That's another thing we have to think about. The other thing... We have to kick her out of here as soon as possible, get her to make a mistake and get her out. The problem is that what she does, as she is a representative of the Ministry, will have an impact on the Minister. That can work both for us and against us," Salazar said. "Fudge is playing with fire and could fall at any moment. Which wouldn't be bad because as a leader he's pathetic. But the worrying thing will be the next Minister."
"Someone promoted by Malfoy would be catastrophic. It would set things up for Voldemort to easily control the Ministry," Godric said.
"And no one will support anyone who has been proposed by someone close to Dumbledore," Rowena added.
"If we could make Voldemort come to light... it would be enough for no one to trust anyone who in the past has been associated with him. Even if it had been through the 'Imperius Curse'."
"How do you plan to achieve that, Salazar?" Godric asked his friend.
"We will have to force him to make his move. The longer he takes to achieve what he wants, the more impatient he will become, and in the end, he will make a mistake," Rowena said. "But there's time for that. One front at a time."
"I gather that you want to take care of that personally," Godric commented, looking at his best friend. "Well, you were always good at those games, Salazar."
That weekend the first excursion to Hogsmeade took place. Hermione had informed him that she had summoned several students to Hogsmeade to discuss the issue of Defence Against the Dark Arts. She hadn't told him how many people had agreed to go, but what she had told him was the place, the Hog's Head pub. A secluded place where she hoped they would not be seen. Salazar did not take long to correct her, pointing out that precisely because it was a place with such unusual clientele, it would attract unwanted attention. The night before the day of the excursion, Hermione approached him in the common room about it.
"I've changed the place, just as you suggested, Harry. It will be in a reserved area of the Three Broomsticks. I've written saying that we will celebrate a birthday."
"It's a good cover," he admitted. "By the way, I've taken the liberty of inviting a few Slytherins."
"Really, Harry? I know you trust some of them, but..."
"The rest will have to get used to it. It's time to break down the barriers that separate one house from another."
"It will be a tense meeting."
"We cannot exclude anyone."
"I know. But many will point to them as possible traitors."
"Then we will have to make sure that there are none."
"I have a couple of ideas prepared in this regard. You see..." She took a scroll from her backpack and put it on the table. "I've been preparing this." It was a contract that would punish anyone who wanted to betray them. "I haven't told Neville; I don't think he'll like it at all."
"Will you allow me?"
Salazar examined the parchment. It had a series of spells on it that made whoever signed it commit not to reveal anything that could endanger them, and a curse that would be activated before anyone who gave them away, tattooing the word "snitch" in the form of a rash. It was something brilliant that made him smile. He didn't expect that Hermione had the potential for a mind in that aspect. It was true that Godric would find that questionable, but acceptable after all. It was something that had been prepared by a real student after all.
"Not bad. Although I would make a few modifications. In the first place, I would take into account that the curse is activated before the one who voluntarily betrays us. We both know that there are magical methods to force one's will. On the other hand, I would add one more enchantment that would make the person in question forget everything at the moment of giving us away. Everything related to the content of the meeting and what comes after it that is related to it."
"Okay, I see what you mean."
"There is something else."
"What is it about, Harry?"
"We'll have to tell them what they're signing. As a security measure."
"But then they won't want to sign."
"They may want to, and they may not. If not... well, I can take care of covering that aspect. Of course, they will not participate in our project."
"But that's..."
"Unfair, I know. Current conditions require such measures."
"I'll work on adjusting it for tomorrow."
Salazar was clear about how to cover the eventual problem that could arise. He just needed to tell Helga and tell her the situation and what he needed. That she would remain hidden and forget those who did not sign. It didn't take him long to write the letter. As soon as he had it, he called Kreacher. It was faster that way than by owl. In addition, it was something urgent, or rather, semi-urgent. The strange elf obeyed the two of them. They had earned his loyalty and respect when they destroyed the Horcrux.
The next morning, he waited for her early outside the Shrieking Shack. They had the whole day of excursion and the meeting was at noon. So he had arranged to meet with Helga early to tell her everything. He hadn't been very specific in the letter. He preferred to tell her everything face to face. As soon as he had finished, he gave her the Invisibility Cloak to keep her hidden. She agreed to make it easier for students to reveal themselves. Hogwarts was, after all, a sanctuary for them to learn magic. And the students wanted to learn magic. That meant that they were taking the reins of their own destiny. He spent the morning with her talking until it was almost noon, the time when he had arranged to meet the rest. They went together, though she was under the Invisibility Cloak he had lent her. He supposed that she had stayed by the door of the booth they had been assigned; the rest would gather around a large table. Little by little, several people arrived. In total, a score of students or a little more. It wasn't a bad start.
"What are these people doing here?" Ron asked when he saw Draco, Theodore, and Blaise arrive.
"I invited them," Salazar said calmly and firmly. He had made the offer to Draco and Theodore knowing that Rowena had told the latter. He imagined that Blaise had been told by one of the other two.
"They're Slytherins."
"And so are we, from all the houses," Hermione said. "All of us who are here are interested in the same thing. We are all concerned about the direction that Defence Against the Dark Arts is taking. We have to take action on the matter. We must do something for the sake of our own education and for what may happen in the future."
"How are we going to learn without a teacher?" Zacharias Smith said. "Who's going to teach us? Potter? We all know that the previous year he was stealing Diggory's fame and he would surely do something to make everyone think he was crazy."
"Actually, we can all learn from each other," Salazar said, ignoring the boy. He did not inspire much confidence. But he didn't know how much of that lack of trust was due to the boy himself or was due to the history, the past of the boy's family. What was clear to him was that he was someone to watch. Ron and most of the Gryffindors saw the Slytherins as a threat; Salazar saw a potential threat in that Hufflepuff. Although it could be that he was wrong. He was not always right and his mistakes could be very dangerous.
"Yes, yes," Smith snapped. "That's just stupidity. This is a waste of time."
"If that's what you think, you may not be here," Rowena said.
"Shut up, Lunatic," Smith snapped.
Before anyone did or said anything, Nott grabbed Smith by the collar of his shirt and pointed his wand at him. Everyone stared in silence. In part, Salazar was enjoying it. It was good that someone was willing to defend one of his friends in that way. But the fight had to be stopped.
"Nott. Let go," Godric said. "Fighting won't do us any good. Smith, either you sit down and listen or you leave."
"I'm leaving. I'm not staying with you. I'll enjoy it when they punish you all."
Salazar was glad he had taken the proper security measure. Smith would remember nothing of that meeting or of the purpose of meeting. That gave them security. It was not illegal to meet to talk about a subject. It wasn't even against the decrees because they only had scope at Hogwarts.
"Don't worry. After all, we're celebrating a birthday," Salazar said with a smile. "That's not illegal."
"Whose birthday?" Ernie asked. "It would seem to me a great coincidence if one of all of us here had their birthday."
"It can be mine," Ginny said. "Or it could be Hermione's or anyone's. You can celebrate it whenever you want."
"My sister and I had our birthday last week," Padma said. "We have friends in every house," she added, glancing flirtatiously at Blaise.
"That's settled... Hermione, continue."
"Good. It is important that we learn to defend ourselves. Even if what we have to face immediately are only some exams, anything we can train with is really important."
"How do you think we'll be able to learn from each other, Granger?" Draco asked.
"There are always those who can master some spells better than others or who understand certain magics better. The idea is to be able to support each other, to study all together. May we all be the engine to advance of others."
"There are many of us. It will be difficult to go unnoticed," Susan Bones observed.
"We'll find the right place," Godric said. "As soon as we have it, we will tell you. We will only need one representative from each house. Someone who is committed to liaising. At the end of the day, it's all about being discreet."
"You don't have to decide now. Talk about it among yourselves," Salazar said. That was important but not immediately necessary.
"Before we go any further, I would like to ask you to sign your names on this sheet of parchment. Those of you who sign pledge not to reveal anything about what we do, who we are, or where we meet. Nothing at all. The scroll is prepared both to ensure that you can't reveal anything you don't really want to reveal and also to punish anyone who does," Hermione explained.
"In a nutshell. It's bewitched," Theo translated with a smile on his lips that Draco and Blaise also shared.
"Awesome, Granger. A contract. I didn't expect this move from you," Draco said.
"Where do I have to sign?" Blaise said.
"That's cruel," said a girl from Ravenclaw who had come with Cho Chang. "Marietta Edgecombe," she said. "And surely illegal."
"You want us to sign a document that can curse us. What good is this meeting if you tell us that you don't trust us. I'm not going to sign."
"It's insurance," Hermione said. "Nobody expects anyone here to talk about what we plan and will do, but it is always convenient to have insurance."
"Every deal is always closed with a contract, and serious partnerships tend to do that too," said Ernie Macmillan. As far as Salazar knew, the boy's father had several companies and participated in more than one association.
"I don't care what you say; I'm not going to sign that, and I don't recommend you sign it, Cho," Marietta insisted. "Who knows what they are really giving us."
"At least they have warned. Not everyone usually does," Terry Boot reasoned.
"It's crazy too. Let's go, Marietta," Chang said. Salazar could feel the look he gave her. He deliberately ignored her. He knew what it meant and it was strange to him. As far as he knew, Chang was with Cedric.
The departure of those two girls meant a new silence. Salazar wondered if anyone else would rise to leave or if there would be more problems. He sighed, picked up the pen, and wrote his name on the parchment. Little by little the rest were signing.
"What if they betray us?" Justin Finch-Fletchley asked after signing.
"They won't, Justin, don't worry about it. They don't really have evidence and they won't have access to it," Hermione said.
The meeting was over. Little by little, everyone was leaving the place. That was done. Salazar smiled. The students were really beginning to take the reins of Hogwarts, and he was sure that the castle would help them do so.