"What did you say? Build a school?" Godric Gryffindor's thick brows shot up, and his steel-needle beard shifted with his exaggerated expression. "Where would we build it?"
Rowena Ravenclaw pointed her wand at the ground beneath their feet.
"You mean out here in this godforsaken wilderness?"
Rowena Ravenclaw said nothing, but her attitude made everything clear.
"Then who will be the teachers? Who will be the students?" Gryffindor pressed, changing the question.
Ravenclaw's silver-blue eyes shimmered in the moonlight. "The four of us would make the best instructors, and we could recruit others as well. As for the students..."
Her gaze swept over the children wrapped in new robes. "Every young wizard who awakens magical power should receive a proper education, rather than dying for nothing in the Witch-Hunting Movement."
"But some of those children already have teachers!" Gryffindor waved his gem-studded sword, its blade carving a bright silver arc through the air.
Salazar Slytherin suddenly sneered. His emotionless eyes glinted coldly. "What use are those so-called 'teachers'? Nine out of ten cannot even cast a decent Wand-Lighting Charm. Their abilities vary wildly, and most of them cannot escape the Church's pursuit!"
"So we're poaching people..." Gryffindor scratched his wild hair, then suddenly grinned. "Rowena, you really know how to give me a headache..."
He thumped his chest. "Leave it to me! I'll make every wizard in England know the name of Gryffindor School of Magic!"
"Wait," Ravenclaw interrupted suddenly. "The school will be called Hogwarts."
"What? Why not 'Gryffindor School of Magic'? What a majestic name!" Gryffindor's eyes widened.
"It will be called Hogwarts." Ravenclaw's tone allowed no argument. Blue light flickered at the tip of her wand. "But it will have four Houses, one for each of us..."
Gryffindor deflated like a punctured balloon. "Fine, fine... One House