Watching History Unfold by Angel
Summary: Archibald Connelly had spent many years working in bars and inns across the country and had learned long ago how to read people. In fact, watching those he was serving was something that he had always enjoyed. He could learn much from people just by studying them in a casual setting like a darkened pub. Most people saw the lowly barkeep as a confidant of sorts, allowing their guard down and telling him their secrets after a few shots of fire whiskey. Archie was careful to keep the information to himself, content in the knowledge that he was one of the few people around who knew almost everything that was going on around him.
Categories: One Shot, Pre-Hogwarts, Harry Potter, General Characters: None
Genres: General
Ships: None
Warnings: None
Challenges: None
Series: None
Chapters: 1 Completed: Yes Word count: 2499 Read: 1644 Published: 03/01/2008 Updated: 03/01/2008

1. Chapter 1 by Angel

Chapter 1 by Angel
The last vestiges of the late afternoon sunlight poured in through the windows of the Hog's Head Inn, filtered only by the pretty white curtains that covered the lower half of the windows, which overlooked the quiet street outside. The windows which had been washed just a few hours before were already covered in a thin film of dust. The bar itself was the main focus of the tiny inn. Gleaming wood and polished brass made it stand out amid the wooden tables and chairs that were scattered through out the space.

The occasional horse and cart rode by stirring up new dirt from the dry, dusty street outside, causing the tired man inside to snatch the damp cloth from behind the counter impatiently. He made his way through the tiny bar and began to wipe the polished maple tables with his white rag again. He muttered a fluid stream of colourful curses about the dirt roads that ran through the fledgling community of Hogsmeade.

The man was tall and thin, his dark hair was flecked liberally with grey. His dark brown britches were patched in several spots and the bottoms were beginning to fray slightly, however his white shirt was new and tidy. The sleeves were rolled up to show the fading tattoo on his tanned right forearm: a soaring eagle. It was a tattoo that he had gotten one night long ago when he was young and foolish. I may not be young anymore, but I will always be foolish he thought with a chuckle.

Archibald Connelly had spent many years working in bars and inns across the country and had learned long ago how to read people. In fact, watching those he was serving was something that he had always enjoyed. He could learn much from people just by studying them in a casual setting like a darkened pub. Most people saw the lowly barkeep as a confidant of sorts, allowing their guard down and telling him their secrets after a few shots of fire whiskey. Archie was careful to keep the information to himself, content in the knowledge that he was one of the few people around who knew almost everything that was going on around him.

Archie had opened his tiny inn several months ago amidst the swirling rumours that a great school would soon be built near by, quite possibly the greatest magical school in all of Europe. His hopes, that his business would be successful because of the witches and wizards that would be there to help build the new school, had proved to be accurate for the first several months. However now that the castle's construction was nearing completion, business had slowed dramatically. In fact, for the last several weeks he had only had four rooms in use.

His guests were two men and two women, as different from each other as they possibly could be. One was a tall, slender lady with dark hair and startling blue eyes. Her manners and demeanour were that of a noble woman but the fierce intelligence and determination in her intense eyes were enough to alert Archie to the fact that she was not one to be toyed with. The other female guest was a short, plump woman with strawberry blonde hair and fair skin. Her warm brown eyes seem to be filled with a caring and compassion that Archie wasn’t used to.

Then there were the men, ah yes; these men were very different from each other not only in appearances but also in their attitudes. In fact they were like no men, Archie had ever met before. The larger fellow with long auburn hair was loud and boisterous, yet seemed passionate and truly dedicated to the school. He was constantly shouting and barking orders while drinking vast amounts of ale and he appeared to be completely devoted to the women. On many occasions Archie spotted the man staring longingly at the ladies.

The other fellow was a thin willowy chap with strikingly dark hair that was in stark contrast to his extremely pale skin. Archie thought on more than one occasion that the man looked as though someone had drained all of the colour from his face; even his eyes were such a pale blue that they were almost void of colour. Despite his pallid appearance or maybe because of it, Archie had taken notice of this man's personality. He had looked to find the colour that was missing from his appearance in the personality, it was there, blackness seemed to be oozing out of the man. It wasn’t anything that the man did, actually he was polite and courteous on the outside but Archie could innately sense the potential for the darkness within him.

The quartet came back to the inn each evening for dinner and drinks. They sat at the table for hours, deep in discussion about their hopes and plans for the great magical school. Some nights the discussion was peppered with lots of laughter and others the conversations were ended with bellowing and sharp words. Nevertheless, each morning the quartet greeted each other with warm smiles and pleasant conversation. The disagreements of the previous night seemingly forgotten.

This evening was like every other, the quartet arrived shortly after eight and took their usual seats by the fire. They were already deep in discussion as they sat. Archie brought their drinks to them, yet as was the case with most people, they took very little notice of the old barkeep and went about their business.

“We cannot simply select the students ourselves, Salazar, we will not know enough about them to simply choose them for our houses. No, there has to be a better way.” The dark haired man’s deep gravely voice rumbled throughout the room.

“Well I think I would be able to choose the students for my house with very little difficulty.” Salazar replied with a slight smirk on his colourless face. The firelight reflecting in his pale eyes gave them an evil, reddish hue.

“That is because you would only look to their lineage, Salazar. How many times do we need to have this discussion? You simply cannot separate the students because they are not of what you refer to as pure blood. It is absolutely wro…” started the plump woman, her warm eyes sharpened with her aversion towards the subject.

“We are going to have to figure out a way to determine which students belong in which house.” The dark haired woman cut her off gently, in a voice that was smooth and elegant as the soft velvet gown she wore. “Something that will help us in discerning what each pupil excels at.” She had a knowing look on her face as she surveyed her friends.

“Yes Rowena, you are absolutely correct. We need something that will reach into their minds to sort them into the proper houses. It will take some powerful magic to make this though. I don’t know where to begin…” The other woman’s quiet, thoughtful voice echoed through the empty room.

Rowena cleared her throat gently. All the others looked at her with expectant looks on their faces. Archie watched over the group as they talked. He had come to expect the looks from the others.

Unbeknownst to them, Rowena Ravenclaw was the true leader of this group. Her intellect and insight were the core of the quartet. She was able to influence the decisions being made and the ideas that were thought of, yet she did it in such a subtle way, that the others truly believed the ideas were all their own. Her understated mannerisms were able to smooth over most rifts between the others.

“Helga, if I may? I think what we may need is a type of magic that only the four of us combined could possibly master.” She spoke with a deliberate and patient voice. “I have already taken the liberty of researching the type of spell we would need.” She pulled a small roll of parchment from her robe and as Godric and Salazar cleared a space on the table. She unfurled the scroll and laid it out for the others to look at.

The three heads of the others leaned forward to study the parchment as Rowena sat back with a knowing look on her face. Archie could see from the look in her eyes that her clever plan was going according to schedule.

“Rowena, this spell could work, but has anything like this ever been attempted before?” Salazar looked at the pretty brunette with a look of unabashed wonderment. “It will require absolutely precise timing and it will be a true test of our abilities, but I think you may be on to something.”

“We need some sort of vessel that can be used to hold the spell throughout the years. Something that can reach into the minds of our students.” Godric leaned his elbow onto the table, deep in thought. Without warning, Helga reached over and snatched the weathered old hat from his head. He bellowed briefly about his favourite hat and was interrupted by Helga’s sweet laugh.

“This will do quite nicely I think. Oh don’t look so sour Godric I will buy you a new one tomorrow.” The teasing glint in her eyes sparkled as she laughed at the mildly disgruntled look on the large man’s face.

“But that’s my good luck hat..” He began loudly. His face flushing slightly in frustration.

“Honestly Godric, one of the greatest wizards of our era and you are concerned with ‘lucky’ hats?” Rowena teased him gently. A playful smile lit up her pretty face. Godric shrugged and resigned himself to the fact that his ‘lucky’ hat was no longer his. He could not deny the women anything.

“I would not force any student to wear that …that filthy, disgusting thing.” Salazar spat out with a look of utter disgust on his pale face.

“Well we needn’t keep this one. It is just something to practice with. This is an intricate and delicate spell as you’ve already mentioned. I think a hat would be a perfect vessel. It has to sit on the students head as that is the easiest way to access their minds” Helga placated Salazar before continuing, “Now I should think that the attributes that we would seek out for members of our respective houses are relatively obvious but perhaps we should write them out just so they are clear.” Helga looked around for a quill and ink while Rowena produced several more scraps of parchment. The four sat in silence for several moments while they composed their lists. As each of them finished, they looked over the spell on Rowena’s scroll one last time.

The group stood around the maple table and looked to one another. They began to chant in a language that Archie had never heard before. The words were almost like music, soft and lyrical, dancing in the dim light of the empty bar.

Archie watched in quiet amazement as the old, worn hat in the center of the table began to spin. It spun slowly at first but quickly picked up speed. The magic in the air seemed to crackle around the quartet like lightning. As suddenly as they had begun, the lyrical words stopped.

In turn each of the quartet, starting with Godric, muttered softly before tossing their scrap of parchment into the rapidly spinning hat. Archie couldn’t hear all of the words spoken through the crackling air, but what he did hear were words, that not only described what attributes each of the four would like for the students in their houses to have, but also described each of the founders themselves.

As each parchment was thrown into the tattered old hat a blinding flash of light illuminated the dimly lit bar. For each scrap of paper a different colour light was emitted. Deep, crimson light for Godric, emerald green for Salazar, deep, azure blue for Rowena and golden yellow for Helga. Each bright burst of light was enough for Archie to avert his eyes. After the quartet finished with the parchment, they began the musical chant again, this time they joined hands forming a circle around the table. The hat rose from the table and continued its swift spinning. Suddenly as the chanting ended, the hat emitted a brilliant rainbow coloured beam of light and a deep musical tone that reverberated through out the space, Archie once again shielded his eyes until the light had faded and when he moved his hands away from his eyes and looked back at the table the hat sat just as lifeless as it had been when the spell was begun.

The quartet looked at each other before taking their seats again. Godric looked at the others. “How do we know that the spell was successful?” He asked, “We’ll need to try it out.” He reached for the hat and was stopped as Rowena placed her tiny hand on top of his.

“Godric, we cannot test this on ourselves. The hat knows what we excel at. We placed the charm on it ourselves. We need someone neutral.”

Suddenly all four sets of eyes were on Archie, he took a deep breath to calm his nerves and made his way over to their table.

“Archie, could we ask you to try the hat on for us? It will simply tell us which of our houses you would belong in.” Rowena spoke in a soothing voice, as though she was afraid to frighten him away. He looked apprehensively at the battered, dirty hat and back into Rowena’s deep blue eyes. After a brief hesitation, he nodded briefly and took the hat that Godric offered him.

He placed it on his head and closed his eyes. He heard a deep, melodic voice which seemed to be coming from inside his head.

“Ahh well, I see you are not a student, you must be a test subject. Must ensure I am working properly I suppose. Hmmm lets see… oh yes plenty of bravery here, and there is a fair bit of ambition too, and loyalty, oh yes indeed…but intellect and cleverness, oh you have much of that as well. Hmm you would be a tough one to place, You’d do well in Gryffindor or Hufflepuff but I am certain you would fit in better in …RAVENCLAW!” The final word was bellowed out from the hat. Archie jumped up and snatched the hat off his head.

He looked from the worn hat in his hands to the delighted faces of the Hogwarts founders. Their laughter and clapping caused Archie to smile at the pure delight and happiness that played across their faces. Although his name would not be written in the history books, Archie knew that he had just taken part in a historical event.
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