Post by Tabitha Lawson on Jan 13, 2007 18:14:57 GMT 10
Tabitha retrieved a new roll of parchment from her school bag immediately, and dipped her quill in ink even as most of the class was still in a dazed stupor. She half wondered if any of them knew what the professor had just instructed them to do. Then, setting quill to parchment, the Gryffindor fourth year began to write in a flowing script:
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry was founded roughly one thousand years ago by the four greatest witches and wizards of the age: Godric Gryffindor, from the wild moor; Rowena Ravenclaw, from the glen; Helga Hufflepuff, from the broad valley; and Salazar Slytherin, from the fens. The four planned to build a school where magical students could learn to control their powers to the fullest extent of their innate ability.
The four were great friends -- Gryffindor's and Slytherin's friendship is especially noted, as well as Ravenclaw's and Hufflepuff's -- and decided that they would run the school together. Gryffindor was known as brave and charming; Slytherin as cool and cunning; Ravenclaw as bright and innovative; and Hufflepuff as sweet and kind.
Slytherin was in charge of the construction, though each of the founders contributed to the planning, and it is believed that Rowena Ravenclaw devised the plan of the changing floors and staircases, possibly even enchanting them herself. During this time, after being denied the opportunity to allow entry into the school to only pureblood students, it is thought he made the famed Chamber of Secrets and hid in it the monster which was meant to kill and eventually drive out all Muggleborn students from the school.
Over time, certain differences in the preferences of the four founders arose. Slytherin wanted to accept only students from purely magical families, those known as purebloods, and teach only the craftiest and more cunning of the lot. Gryffindor wished to guide the brave and true on their magical education. Ravenclaw wanted only those with intelligence and wit, and Hufflepuff preferred the just and loyal, and proclaimed that she would willingly teach all of the students and have no favorites.
There was little strife at these initial differences, for each founder had a House of their own where they could choose to accept those students who fulfilled the qualities that they valued. So, even today, the four Houses, each named for one of the four founders, accept only those students which the founders themselves would have picked, by the aid of the magical Sorting Hat which Gryffindor had once worn and which the four had enchanted -- giving it brains, as the Sorting Hat itself once sang.
For a while, the school continued in prosperity, molding the minds and skills of the witches and wizards of the future. Then, at last, Slytherin's obsession with blood purity caused a rift between the founders, and much fighting ensued. At last, one morning, he left Hogwarts forever, never to return. Though the fighting died down, the school was not quite level with three founders instead of four, and the rivalry between Slytherin House and the House of Gryffindor has not ended since. The unity that was intended for the four Houses of the one school seems to have been lost when its fourth founder left all those centuries ago.
Tabitha placed the last period with a flourish and read over the length of the paper, checking for errors or inconstancies. It seemed complete, she thought, and it was, at the very least, the best that she could do, compiling all the information from her notes and all that she could remember ever having read or heard from the Sorting Hat of the four great founders of the magical school. At last, Tabitha drew her wand from a pocket of her robes, murmured, "Wingardium Leviosa" with a measured swish and flick of the wand, and sent the paper gliding to the professor's desk.
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry was founded roughly one thousand years ago by the four greatest witches and wizards of the age: Godric Gryffindor, from the wild moor; Rowena Ravenclaw, from the glen; Helga Hufflepuff, from the broad valley; and Salazar Slytherin, from the fens. The four planned to build a school where magical students could learn to control their powers to the fullest extent of their innate ability.
The four were great friends -- Gryffindor's and Slytherin's friendship is especially noted, as well as Ravenclaw's and Hufflepuff's -- and decided that they would run the school together. Gryffindor was known as brave and charming; Slytherin as cool and cunning; Ravenclaw as bright and innovative; and Hufflepuff as sweet and kind.
Slytherin was in charge of the construction, though each of the founders contributed to the planning, and it is believed that Rowena Ravenclaw devised the plan of the changing floors and staircases, possibly even enchanting them herself. During this time, after being denied the opportunity to allow entry into the school to only pureblood students, it is thought he made the famed Chamber of Secrets and hid in it the monster which was meant to kill and eventually drive out all Muggleborn students from the school.
Over time, certain differences in the preferences of the four founders arose. Slytherin wanted to accept only students from purely magical families, those known as purebloods, and teach only the craftiest and more cunning of the lot. Gryffindor wished to guide the brave and true on their magical education. Ravenclaw wanted only those with intelligence and wit, and Hufflepuff preferred the just and loyal, and proclaimed that she would willingly teach all of the students and have no favorites.
There was little strife at these initial differences, for each founder had a House of their own where they could choose to accept those students who fulfilled the qualities that they valued. So, even today, the four Houses, each named for one of the four founders, accept only those students which the founders themselves would have picked, by the aid of the magical Sorting Hat which Gryffindor had once worn and which the four had enchanted -- giving it brains, as the Sorting Hat itself once sang.
For a while, the school continued in prosperity, molding the minds and skills of the witches and wizards of the future. Then, at last, Slytherin's obsession with blood purity caused a rift between the founders, and much fighting ensued. At last, one morning, he left Hogwarts forever, never to return. Though the fighting died down, the school was not quite level with three founders instead of four, and the rivalry between Slytherin House and the House of Gryffindor has not ended since. The unity that was intended for the four Houses of the one school seems to have been lost when its fourth founder left all those centuries ago.
Tabitha placed the last period with a flourish and read over the length of the paper, checking for errors or inconstancies. It seemed complete, she thought, and it was, at the very least, the best that she could do, compiling all the information from her notes and all that she could remember ever having read or heard from the Sorting Hat of the four great founders of the magical school. At last, Tabitha drew her wand from a pocket of her robes, murmured, "Wingardium Leviosa" with a measured swish and flick of the wand, and sent the paper gliding to the professor's desk.