January 1071

"And here we are," Helga said, laying a long and fancy scroll out on Rowena's table. "The Rights to the Hidden Halls. To some extent, at least. There's a whole bunch of fancy Latin that sums up to the following: we can use the Hidden Halls ley line network for our detection system and can use it for our school if we wish, but free passage only applies to the outer layers; if anyone besides us wants to go deeper, other representatives of the Council will need to give permission." She took a deep breath and let out a deep, satisfied sigh. "There are also some portions about funding and support and oversight but... we did it. It's going ahead."

The rest of us clapped, but beyond that there wasn't a whole lot of cheering or visible enthusiasm. Besides Helga, we weren't very emotive people in that regard. Well, I could be, mostly when I was being sarcastic.

Now that I could use the Ways again, we'd gone back to having meetings at Rowena's tower. It was a good, central location, and didn't run into any hassles regarding getting through town gates or streets like there was with meeting at my place. Rowena had "laid out" a spread of fine food and wine, which meant that either Helga had given her some forewarning, or Rowena's brownies were just that good.

That being said, part of the lack of enthusiasm may have been from Lash's, or rather Ciel's, presence. While Rowena and Lash had gotten along like high-octane gasoline and Greek fire, Helga and Salazar were both a little more hesitant about the mysterious spirit I'd started carting around with me. However, they were both used to things being utterly weird around me, so they didn't push too hard as to the circumstances behind Ciel, trusting my word that everything was fine.

"Now we just have a few pressing administrative... logistical concerns to resolve," Helga said hesitantly, pulling out a scrap of parchment from her robes. "I think that's the right way to say it."

"What kind of concerns?" I asked.

"Where we're going to establish our school, how we're going to connect our school to the Hidden Halls, what it's going to be named, some school policies," she said.

"How to alliterate your name," Rowena interjected.

I groaned and hit my head against the table a few times, much to Lash's amusement.

"The answer to your first two questions has a relatively simple solution, Helga," Lash said once I'd stopped hitting myself. "You build the castle close to or around this tower, and expand underground."

"I can move if necessary," Rowena said. "We don't have to build around here."

"Yes, yes, I'm not doing this just for your convenience," Lash said. "The main reason is that there are a number of geographical and magical advantages in establishing yourselves here. In the mundane sense, Warwickshire is centrally located in England, heavily fortified, and a major trade center. You won't want for supplies, there is plenty of local demand for scribes, and there are many local families that could easily send their scions to you. Even if there are issues with the rest of the kingdom or the King, the school could maintain itself in Warwickshire indefinitely."

Helga nodded slowly. "And the magical ones?"

"Rowena has built her tower close to a ley line, which you'll be able to draw upon to power the school's wards. Which you will have to, because it won't have a threshold worth speaking of unless you design the buildings and defenses themselves very carefully. From what I've been told it's a short journey from here to London through the Ways. And connecting the castle to the Hidden Halls through a Portkey, which I believe was one of the ideas, will be trivial if you establish the magical side of the school underground, close to the ley line."

"Ah, I see," Salazar said. "You propose to make the Hidden Halls and the school as alike as possible, so as to connect them through the Nevernever."

"Exactly," Lash said, nodding to Salazar. "Build a castle on a hill, natural or otherwise, establish a complex underground, populate it with practitioners, and soon enough the Hidden Halls and the school will be separated only by a short trip through the Ways. That would in turn drastically reduce the difficulty of setting up a Portkey between the two locations, as you would only have to secure a small segment of the Nevernever. And yes, that means Rowena wouldn't have to move."

Helga nodded and looked up at the ceiling, brow furrowed. "That sounds good, Ciel, but how long would it take for the Ways to... align themselves?"

"I can't say exactly," she said. "Anywhere between a week to six months, depending on how physically similar the underground complex is to the Hidden Halls, how many of the Council reside at both locations, which of you reside where, how far apart they are in the Nevernever currently, and so on."

"Six months at the worst." Helga clicked her tongue and looked around. "I don't have any clue how long it will take to build a castle, but if we start excavating and building underground at the same time as we start working aboveground, could we get it connected before we're done?"

"In all likelihood," Salazar said. "There are fast, magical methods of construction, but I am not certain there are any wizards or witches alive that could manage the speedy creation of a castle. It would need to be built the slow, human way. Unless you have any insights, Rowena?"

"No. I didn't make this tower myself. Instead I sold off most of my family's land and commissioned this tower's construction on what was left of it," she said. "I could perhaps help in the excavation, or move around large blocks of stone. That's all."

"Then we need to hire people to build the castle. A lot of people, I think," Helga said.

Salazar nodded.

"Alright, we'll work out the how of that later. Maybe the Council could help there," Helga said. "Which brings us to the school itself. All in favor of naming it Hogwarts?"

Before I could even groan, five hands shot up. I blinked in response, the amount confusing me for a moment, and it took a few seconds to realize that Lash had thrown up both arms and was currently smirking at me.

"I hate you," I sighed.

"Not as much as you're about to," she said, before dropping both hands and turning to face Rowena. "You see, Rowena, you have been going around your alliteration in the wrong way. You've looked and looked for names, which isn't going to work for two reasons. First, it doubles on the alliteration with Helga, which might lead to unnecessary confusion."

"Uuuggghhh..."

"And second, you are trying to give Harry another name when he doesn't want one. Instead, go the other way. Try to find an appropriate title that would fit with Dresden. This then gives you a spread of DD, HH, RR, and SS, which while not perfectly symmetrical, is split across the alphabet and is completely distinct."

I finished groaning and took a deep breath. "Fine. Fine. I'll take a damn title if it'll make you all shut up about this."

Lash gestured in my direction. "See, there you go."

"Well..." Helga began. "The first that comes to mind is Duke, but I don't think that's a good idea."

"Definitely not," Lash said.

"Perhaps a title suited to his role in the school?" Rowena suggested. "None immediately come to mind however."

"As much as I am loathe to even voice this, there is a Spanish word that may fit," Salazar said. "It denotes a man as a gentleman, something I am not entirely certain fits in this instance, and it also has a second meaning in a few institutions of higher learning, denoting a man as a teacher and lecturer."

Lash started snickering as Salazar went on, which I did not take as a good sign. Rowena though completely ignored Lash and asked, "What is it?"

"Don," Salazar said.

"No-" I immediately began, only to be cut off by Lash's enthusiastic, "YES!"

I immediately sighed and turned to face Lash. "Ciel, no."

"Harry, this is entirely deserved revenge for every bit of frustration you have put me through," she said.

I flapped my mouth like a fish a few times before switching to Sumerian. "It makes me sound like I'm part of the mob!" I complained.

"Which is part of the point," Lash replied in the same language. "It is an appropriate, temporally-contextual title that fits the alliterative scheme while also being a bizarre reference to your past time and life, which is entirely in line with your own naming scheme. And yes, it is annoying, but you will come to accept it, like I have you."

I sighed and ran a hand through my hair. "But why not just go with Dean? It's just as appropriate."

"A Dean is the head of a group," Lash replied. "Which is Helga in this instance, not you. Don is just the term for a teacher. Moreover, in the case of the two English schools you will be preempting, Oxford and Cambridge, it is the title for a senior member of staff. So you see, Don works better, on multiple levels."

I took a deep breath and looked over at everyone else, who were watching our exchange with varying degrees of interest and confusion. "Fine," I said in English. "I will accept Hogwarts, and Don, on one condition."

"Yes?" Rowena said intently.

"Helga, you remember that discussion we had about House mottoes?" I asked.

"Yes, I was actually about to get to that-"

"Well you'll have to accept mine," I said bluntly. "Can I have some parchment and a quill, please?"

"Uh, yes," Rowena said, getting up from the table and heading to a nearby drawer. She came back a few moments later with a piece of parchment, a quill, and an ink pot. I uncapped the ink pot, dipped the quill inside, and freehand styled some Latin curving around an empty space, to be filled later with whatever emblem I desired. Then I dried the quill, set it down on the table, and held up the parchment for everyone to look at.

Lash snickered, Salazar groaned, Rowena looked intrigued, and Helga squinted to read it off. "Nimis insanus mori," she quoted. "Is that... Too Crazy to Die?"

"Yup. Take it or leave it," I said.

"But... why?" Helga asked.

"I don't know, it seems very appropriate. I would accept it," Rowena said.

"You just want him to accept the alliteration!" Helga cried.

"Yes, but it's also very appropriate."

Helga groaned and buried her head in her hands. "How do I keep forgetting that I'm the only sane one here?"

Author's Note: And this spells the end of "The Founding", as I've decided to call it. "Hogwarts" (WT at the moment) is under development and being plotted out.