The Foundation for the Future
by Healer Pomfrey

All recognizable characters belong to J. K. Rowling, and I am not earning anything by writing this story.
I am not a native speaker of English. Please excuse my mistakes.

COMPLETELY AU! Partly OOC. Dumbledore/Weasley bashing! It is my story, and I intend to write it the way I want it.
If you don't like it, go and find something else to read or write your own story to your liking!

It was two days before Harry Potter's eleventh birthday. The boy knew that he was not going to have a present let alone a birthday party - freaks didn't have such things.

On this evening, however, all of a sudden, something that looked like a small present appeared in his cupboard under the stairs, seemingly out of nowhere and began hovering right in front of his face as if it wanted to say 'Take me, I'm yours.'

Before Harry knew what he was doing, he automatically reached for the small package, only to sense a distinct pull behind his navel and feel the world around him rotate, faster and faster, before it suddenly turned black in front of his eyes.

HP

By the time the movement became slower and finally stopped, he realised in shock that his cupboard was gone from the view. He now found himself in a beautiful room, sitting on the floor next to a girl of about his age, while four adults were standing in front of them. What was most intriguing was the smile that he received from the adults. Never before had anyone smiled at him, the freak, in such a nice and comforting way.

'Am I dreaming?' he wondered, letting his eyes wander around his surroundings in disbelief.

The girl next to him was the first to speak. "Excuse me, but where are we? I was supposed to go to bed, when a small gift appeared in front of me, and when I touched it, I ended up here," she said, giving first Harry and then the adults a questioning look, before adding, "I'm Hermione, and I'm eleven."

Only now did Harry notice that the girl was cradling a thick book close to her chest. 'She must like books,' he thought, somehow immediately feeling comfortable in the girl's presence. 'Maybe she'll allow me to read it,' he thought, hopefully.

"Welcome Hermione and Harry," one of the nice women addressed them in a soft voice. "You're Harry, and you're eleven, too, is that right?" she then asked him.

"I'm Harry, but I'm only going to be eleven in two days' time," Harry replied in a barely audible voice, trying to not panic, as the question 'Why do they know my name and how old I am?' pushed itself to the forefront of his mind. He absentmindedly followed the pattern of a large animal, which he could not recall having ever seen before, on the carpet, on which he and the girl were sitting.

"As you're both almost eleven," the lady who had just greeted them spoke again, "you'll already know that you're supposed to attend Hogwarts in about six weeks' time."

While Hermione nodded eagerly, stating that she couldn't wait for school to commence, Harry gave the kind lady a sad look, knowing that he only was a freak to whom normal things wouldn't apply.

"Have you already heard of Hogwarts?" the lady asked, kindly.

"No Madam," Harry replied, not trusting to raise his voice to more than a small whisper.

"Oh Harry, it's Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry," Hermione informed him, sounding extremely excited. Turning to the adults, she added, "Maybe he hasn't received his Hogwarts letter yet."

"Very well," the lady continued to speak, "the four of us are the founders of Hogwarts, and I'm a seer. I've had many visions about the two of you, and you're going to fulfil important tasks during your time at Hogwarts. Therefore, the four of us have decided to train you, before we'll take you back to the future, where you'll become students at our school."

"The founders?" Hermione queried in apparent disbelief. "Rowena Ravenclaw, Helga Hufflepuff, Godric Gryffindor and Salazar Slytherin, is that you?" Seeing the four adults nod and smile, she still could not believe what seemed to have happened. "But Hogwarts was founded in 981, and we have 1991. You can't have brought us more than one thousand years into the past now, can you?" she asked in obvious doubt, before she showed the founders her book and informed them that 'Hogwarts: A History' was her absolute favourite.

"I'd love to borrow and read your book some time," Rowena replied with apparent interest, making Hermione cast her a broad smile.

"Indeed, we brought you one thousand years into the past, to the year 991 to be exact," Godric confirmed. "In fact, Harry here is the first heir of all four of us, and you're going to be his betrothed in the future, which is one reason why we decided to train the two of you together. The other reason is, like Rowena already said, there's going to be a war in your time, for which we want to prepare you both in order for you to win said war."

"Thank you very much for your offer," Hermione said, thoughtfully, "but do my parents know about this?"

"Your parents don't need to know, child," Rowena replied, smiling. "At least not at this time. We'll take both of you back to exactly the time from where you vanished, no matter how long you stay here with us, and then you can tell them everything."

"Frankly speaking, we'd like to keep you here for at least a year and have you attend Hogwarts in our time," Godric explained, "maybe two or even three years if you wish."

"But won't our parents notice if we return there being fourteen instead of eleven?" Hermione asked with apparent bewilderment, causing the man that had to be Salazar to chuckle.

"We'll give you a potion to return you back to your current age, before sending you back," the potions master promised, smirking. "You'll have your let's say fourteen-year-old mind along with an eleven-year-old body."

'How's that possible?' Harry wondered, however, the girl seemed contented with the explanation and did not ask, so he felt slightly reassured that everything would be all right.

"Thank you so very much, Professors," Hermione said in clear excitement, before she turned to Harry. "Harry, I've read a lot about Hogwarts and its founders, and I think we can be very lucky to be able to study with them. Will you be my friend?"

"I'd like that," Harry replied, shyly, a small smile playing on his lips, although a small voice from the back of his mind told him, 'She'll notice soon that I'm just a freak.'

Knowing that it had been evening in the future for the children, the founders led them to Helga's and Salazar's quarters, to which they had attached two rooms for them. Helga showed them to the bathroom and to their respective rooms, explaining that her sister was of the same age as them and was going to attend their first year together with Hermione and Harry.

"If I tell her about you, she'll come to live in the castle right away instead of waiting another week until school begins," she said, smiling, before she told the children to get ready for bed, promising that she'd come to tuck them in after a minute.

"I'll transfigure your clothes into comfortable sleepwear, all right dear?" she enquired in a soft voice, when she re-entered his room, causing Harry to nod, slightly apprehensively.

"Thank you," Harry whispered, tired but outright happy that Helga gently tucked him into bed in his new pyjamas, a kind gesture, which he had never experienced before.

"Good night, child, sleep well," Helga replied in a soft voice and nox-ed the light, before she quietly left the room, leaving the door ajar in case the boy would need her during the night.

'These pyjamas are strange,' Harry thought, 'but all their clothes were strange earlier. Maybe clothes are just different one thousand years into the past. Hermione was wearing normal clothes though,' he mused, before he drifted off to sleep, feeling more comfortable than he could remember having felt before.

HP

By the time Harry woke up, for once just by himself instead of by Petunia's shouting that he should get up and make breakfast, it was already bright outside, and he realised in disbelief how gorgeous the room was that he was staying in. One wall was completely covered by a huge window, which allowed the view onto the grounds, a forest and even a lake. It was beautiful, and Harry instinctively let out a happy giggle upon noticing an enormous animal playing and splashing around in the sunshine.

Suddenly, Harry heard a knock at the half-way open door, and Helga entered the room.

"Good morning, Harry," she said as friendly as she had spoken to him in the evening. "Breakfast is going to commence soon. I suggest that you wash up and come out into the living room, so that we can go to the Great Hall together. Hermione is already waiting for you."

"Good morning, Professor. I'll hurry and make breakfast," Harry replied in a small voice, causing Helga to gasp.

"First of all, when no students are around, you may call me Helga," she said, gently. "Secondly, you're not going to make breakfast. Our house-elves are doing all the housework for us."

Harry stared at the kind lady in shock. "But how can I earn my keep?" he asked, hesitantly.

"Oh dear, who in the world told you such a thing?" Helga enquired, seemingly angered.

"My relatives," Harry whispered. "They told me I'd cost a fortune, and if they weren't so kind and took me in, nobody else would want me, because I'm just a good for nothing freak and an ungrateful brat." He didn't know why he was telling this to the kind woman, however, the words came out of his mouth almost automatically, just because she was so nice to him and he felt so safe in her presence, instinctively knowing that she wouldn't hurt him.

"Harry," Helga replied in a suddenly much sterner voice. "Let me tell you one thing. What your relatives told you is absolute rubbish. You're neither a freak nor any of the other names they called you. You're a very nice boy. As we told you last night, we're your many times great grandparents, even if we're not much older in this time than you are, and I'm very happy to have you here."

Harry smiled, happily, and slowly scrambled out of bed, not wanting to make his nice great grandmother wait. His smile intensified, when Helga pointed her wand at him and changed his pyjamas into old-fashioned clothes like the adults were wearing them in the evening.

Uttering a quick "Thank you," Harry dashed out of the room and into the bathroom, of which he emerged a few minutes later, happy and eager to explore his new home, great grandparents and friends.

HP

Hermione was sitting on the sofa engrossed in her book, which she let sink immediately upon seeing Harry enter the room.

"Good morning, Harry," she said, friendly, smiling at him. "I'm so excited to be here, I still can't believe it, and I'm happy that you're here with me."

"Me too," Harry replied, feeling very much reassured to have been told someone was happy that he was here for the second time on this morning. He shyly returned the smile, noticing that the girl had chocolate brown eyes that matched her bushy hair. 'She looks nice,' he thought, happily.

HP

An instant later, the children followed Helga out of the founders' quarters and down a large staircase into what Helga explained to be the entrance hall. Harry still admired the enormous entrance doors, when Helga opened a smaller door opposite of the entrance and motioned the children to come on.

"This must be the Great Hall, Harry," Hermione explained to him. "Rowena has charmed the roof to look like the sky, so if it snows, for example, it'll look as if it snowed in the hall, but the snow will never reach the floor."

"Exactly dear," Rowena commended the girl, before she greeted them both and ushered them into two empty seats.

As soon as everyone was seated, breakfast popped up on the table, causing Harry's eyes to widen at the amount and choice of food.

Apparently noticing that he was not used to eat at the table with others, Helga, who was sitting on his right side, while Hermione was sitting left of him, placed a little of everything onto his plate, encouraging him to eat.

HP

After breakfast, the founders took turns showing them the castle, beginning with the library, the astronomy tower, the Potions classroom with all kinds of interesting looking ingredients and finally the headmaster's office, before the headmaster took the children out onto the grounds for a small unicorn riding trip.

In Godric's office, Harry and Hermione met the headmaster's familiar, Fawkes. Harry could only stare at the beautiful phoenix in clear admiration that turned into horror, when the bird began to trill.

#New nestlings already? Oh no, I had so much hoped for some more egg turns of peace and quiet.#

"We will be quiet," Harry promised the bird in a small voice, causing the headmaster to stare at him with apparent pleasure.

"Do you understand Fawkes?" he enquired, friendly.

"Yes sir," Harry replied, shyly, glancing at Hermione.

"That means that you're going to be a phoenix Animagus," Godric told him, before he explained what an Animagus was and that Fawkes had a very bad mouth. "So you better don't listen to him when he says anything that is not nice."

Harry smiled, feeling very enthusiastic at the idea of changing into such a beautiful bird.

"Will you teach us the Animagus transformation, sir?" Hermione asked, eagerly.

"Of course," Godric replied, grinning. "We've already made a study plan for the two of you, which we're going to explain after lunch. For now, let's go unicorn riding."

HP

Just when they left the castle, stepping through the large entrance doors, a girl came running towards the castle, stopping right in front of them.

"Hello, I'm Ceridwen, Helga's sister. I've already heard that you're coming and couldn't wait to meet you," she blurted out in a fast speed. "Let's be friends; we're going to have so much fun."

"Hello Ceridwen," Hermione replied, returning the other girl's smile.

"Hello Ceridwen," Harry echoed, immediately liking the girl.

"Are you going unicorn riding?" Ceridwen asked Godric and immediately decided to join her new friends.

HP

Godric assigned each of them a unicorn, and he and Ceridwen patiently taught them how to make the unicorn acquainted to them, so that it would allow them to ride on it.

Harry's unicorn was called Moonlight, and Harry felt slightly anxious on the one hand, but incredulously happy on the other hand, when she allowed him to sit on her back after an hour of petting her and talking to her in a soft voice.

HP

After lunch, the teachers explained that once school commenced, they would have subjects like Transfiguration, Charms, Potions, Healing, Defence, Sword fighting, Runes, Arithmancy, Latin and a few other subjects. Besides classes, however, the four founders wanted to teach them other topics, which were not taught in class but might be useful for them in the future. Among these was the knowledge about Hogwarts and her secrets, the Animagus transformation, Occlumency, wandless magic, invisibility charms, Apparition in and outside of Hogwarts as well as other special charms and defence spells that the founders deemed necessary on the basis of Rowena's visions of the future. In addition, Godric would teach Harry the charming of a Portkey including time travel Portkeys.

"No one else can make time travel Portkeys," Godric informed Harry, glancing at Hermione and Ceridwen. "It's a special trait of the Gryffindor line, and I believe that it might be better to keep it between you and me. We can't have our children and grandchildren change the future over and over," he added, smirking.

'I'm going to learn so many things, and I can do as well as I can, I don't have to do worse than Dudley,' Harry thought, happily, while Ceridwen discussed with the founders that she was going to study together with her two new friends.

HP

"Since you both don't have wands," Godric told them, when Harry and Hermione obediently remained in his office after everyone else had left, "we need to make wands for you."

"Excuse me, sir, make them?" Hermione asked, incredulously. "In the future, I bought my wand at the wand maker."

"We could do that," Godric relented, "however, your wands will be much more powerful and fitting for you if we make them ourselves. I suggest that we ask Fawkes if he's willing to give one feather for each of your wands as the main ingredient. For wood, we can use lichens from Hogwarts' top roof, and we shall add one drop of Harry's blood as the heir of Hogwarts for each wand. This will make two incredibly strong wands for the two of you."

"Lichens?" Hermione asked, glancing at Harry. "How are we going to get these, and are they what I think they are?"

Godric grinned. "That may be, however, they're magical lichens, and since they grow on the roof of Hogwarts, and already have for ten years since we founded her, they possess very strong magic, and we can use them for a wand instead of some kind of tree. In fact," he admitted, "my wand has the same ingredients, except for Harry's blood of course," and it's much more powerful than any other wand of my colleagues or friends."

To the children's surprise and excitement, Godric led them back to Helga's and Salazar's rooms and straight to a life size portrait of Helga's parents, which swung back, as soon as Godric uttered, "Roof." Behind the now open door was a narrow staircase, and Harry just began to wonder how many steps it would take to get to the roof, when they stepped out into a beautiful herb garden.

"This is Salazar's garden for potions ingredients," Godric explained, before he led the children to one part of the roof, where they could harvest the best lichens.

"This is absolutely amazing," Hermione blurted out, pointing out how small the lake and Hogsmeade looked from the top roof.

Harry could only full heartedly agree, and happily nodded when Godric motioned them to follow him into the sword making room to make their wands.

It took Harry and Hermione the rest of the day to make their wands with Godric's proficient help, however, it was worth the effort. When Harry took his wand into his right hand, instructed by Godric to test it to know if they had to magically adjust the length, warmth spread through his whole body, and he felt incredibly happy.

"This is just amazing," he blurted out in surprise.

"Let me try," Hermione said and reached for her wand. "Oh my, this feels very different from the wand that we bought in the future, even if that wand was said to have chosen me. This one here warms me, and it just feels strong and reassuring," she added, casting Harry a broad smile.

"Usually, it's said that the wand chooses his wizard or witch," Godric supplied, smirking. "However, a wand specifically made for someone under consideration of the most fitting ingredients is much better, and with the combination of Fawkes' feather, Hogwarts' lichens and Harry's blood, your wands are extremely powerful. Normally, people don't make their own wands though."

HP

The following day was Harry's birthday. Still absolutely in awe about his wand, Harry completely forgot about it and was stunned, when they reached the Great Hall in the morning noticing that it was beautifully decorated and that parts of it had been turned into what looked like a huge playground with trees, holes filled with water and many other attractions.

"Excuse me, Helga, what's this meant to be?" Hermione immediately asked, causing Helga to grin.

"This is a broom playground for the three of you," the founder replied, enthusiastically. "You'll have to practise some, but it's going to be great fun to try flying through all the obstacles on brooms."

Before Harry even realised why parts of the Great Hall had been transformed into the playground, Ceridwen pulled him into a bear's hug, shouting, "Happy Birthday, Harry."

'My birthday? Today?' Harry thought in confusion, before Hermione followed her friend's example.

After a quick breakfast, during which everyone congratulated Harry, the three children were handed brooms and allowed to play on the playground and do as they pleased for the whole morning. Harry thoroughly enjoyed himself, knowing that he had never had so much fun before in his life. The experience was only topped in the afternoon, when the children were called to the table to eat his birthday cake in the form of Hogwarts and a whole lot of presents popped up in front of Harry.

"But freaks don't have birthdays let alone presents," he thought, not realising that he voiced his thoughts.

However, Hermione and Helga, who were sitting on each side of him, had heard his muttering.

"Harry, you're neither a freak, and of course we give you presents, because we love you and want you to be happy," she reassured him in a small voice, causing Hermione to nod, eagerly.

'This was the best birthday ever,' Harry thought late in the evening, when Helga had tucked him into bed like she used to do every evening. 'Oh well, it was my first.'

He happily glanced at the pile of books, which he had received for his birthday, before he drifted off to sleep with a small smile playing on his lips.

HP

During the remaining four weeks of summer holidays, the founders took turns teaching the three children during the mornings, while they were free to do as they wanted during the afternoons.

While Hermione was very interested in Charms and spent most of the afternoons with Rowena, Ceridwen helped her sister in the hospital room to prepare for the new school year, and Harry assisted Salazar in the Potions lab.

To his relief, Salazar taught him as patiently as the other founders did, in spite of his often grumpy behaviour, and Harry thoroughly enjoyed himself. Salazar had many potions to brew for the upcoming school year, and by the end of the holidays, Harry was able to flawlessly prepare the ingredients for the most common potions.

When Salazar told his colleagues that Harry was doing his job adequately, the other founders knew that it meant Harry was very much adept at Potions and told the boy as much.

Occlumency or the Animagus transformation was not as easy for the children though, and by the end of the holidays, they still had not succeeded changing as much as a finger into feathers or paws let alone a complete hand, and Harry slowly became frustrated when it did not take Salazar more than a second to get into his mind and view memories of his stay with the Dursleys.

"Don't worry, children," Godric told them on the last day of the holidays. "During the school year, we'll only teach you during the weekends, and we'll begin with easy tasks, leaving difficult ones like Occlumency, Sword fighting or the Animagus transformation for a later time. I also wish to teach you making your own swords, however, your magic should be more developed than it is at this stage."

HP

Harry felt incredibly happy. Never before had anyone bothered teaching him anything, for the first time in his life he had friends, and the four founders soon became his own family. As much as Harry loved to learn so many new things, he thoroughly enjoyed himself being together with Hermione and Ceridwen. The three children spent all of their free time together, either roaming the castle or sitting in Helga's and Salazar's quarters, where all adults used to spend their free evenings.

HP

"I hope you're going to be sorted together with me," Ceridwen said one evening. "Where do you think Sopho will sort you?"

"You're probably going to be in Hufflepuff, won't you?" Hermione asked, pensively.

"I think so," Ceridwen replied, shrugging. "I don't know if you can talk Sopho into sorting us together."

"Well, if they call us in alphabetic order, I'm going to be the first anyway, so the two of you will have to try convincing the Hat," Hermione said, smirking.

"We'll try," Harry promised, thinking, 'Oh no, I wouldn't want to be without them. I don't know anyone else, and they're the first friends I ever had.'

tbc...