The crowd was quiet as they sat dispersed at the four round tables. Each table represented one of the Hogwarts Houses. Salazar wondered where the Hat would place the young woman standing before them.

She was pretty, or at least she would be if not for the scars on her right arm, up her neck, and covering the area where her ear used to be. Godric had done the unbelievable by finding out about the girl and saving her before her execution could be carried out. Of course he couldn't have possibly arrived 20 minutes earlier, because he had probably gotten lost or something else ridiculously pathetic. Salazar grinned ruefully and glanced over to the table next to his, where Godric's face was lit up.

There was a glow in Godric's eyes that Salazar hadn't seen since they had completed the central part of the castle a few years previously. Even then, Godric's joy had been worn down by the thirteen years of preparation, ward work, and construction. Now he was rejuvenated and young again. Everyone in the room seemed to have lost 10 years to their age at least, Salazar mused. He glanced at Helga, whose worn and tan face looked as youthful as it had when they'd first started construction almost two decades ago. She wasn't quite old enough to look matronly, but he knew everyone there viewed her as a surrogate mother figure.

Rowena's youthful vibrance had slowly morphed into a more tempered form, and she sat at her chair with all the grace one could muster in wizarding robes. Salazar didn't bother with the baggy robes and stuck to regular pants, boots, and tunic, and was grateful that he didn't get caught in the wind like the more traditional wizards and witches in their robes seemed to. He looked once again to the center of the room, where the young woman, Solene, stood nervously as Helga gave the usual speech about acceptance, courage, knowledge, growth, and community. Helga handed Solene the ugly, battered old Hat and Solene slowly raised it and put it atop her head.

"SLYTHERIN", the hat bellowed out after less than a fraction of a second. Salazar stood and clapped and beamed along with his cohort. He had been jealous to not gain any of the last few recruits to the Hogwarts Wizarding community, and he thought Solene would fit in wonderfully with his batch of witches and wizards. They shared a dormitory down in the cellar ("Dungeons" as Godric jokingly called them) and there were only four women and nine men. It would be nice to add another companion to the group.

It was after the Sorting and dinner that Salazar had his idea, and he stopped by the kitchens to pick up mulled wine and glasses before heading to Rowena's study. The glasses floated behind him as he walked, and he relished the freedom to do such a spell publicly without fear of detection and death. Hogwarts was truly a blessing to all of them.

He knocked on Rowena's room and heard a muffled response, so he slowly opened the door. Rowena was engulfed in some sort of cloud, but it vanished into the air as he walked through the doorway.

"Brilliant," he commented honestly. "Was that a rain cloud?" He set down the pitcher and glasses at her tea table and took a seat, not waiting for formalities with his lifelong friend and sometime romantic partner. Their relationship may look unusual to outsiders, but they were comfortable with one another.

She gave a little grumble.

"Well, in some ways it was," she replied, "but I can only seem to make it gather the water that's already in the air. I'm still trying to actually bring rain to an area without the water already in the air."

Salazar leaned back on the settee, eyebrows raised. "Impressive. As usual, your ideas are profound. Could you imagine gathering the water in the air over the ocean or over a farmland that has been oversaturated, and instead bringing it to a region that needed the water more? Or stopping the rain during an important ritual, only to allow it to fall afterwards?"

Rowena blinked slowly, looked back to where her small cloud had been, and looked back at him.

"Oh my," she responded politely. "And I was just thinking how nice it would be to be able to make it rain."

Salazar laughed out loud at that, without an ounce of surprise. "Tomorrow you're going to tell me everything about that rain cloud. But first, I have an idea that I need your help with. I think we should do something fun. We haven't had much time to really relax lately, and with Godric so happy right now I thought it would be nice to… well, to play a little prank on him. You in?"

Rowena, smirking, got up and sat at the chair across from Salazar. She poured herself a glass from the pitcher.

"And what sort of prank would require my help?" She asked, amused.

"Well," Salazar began, and Rowena immediately knew she would participate no matter what. When she and Salazar put their heads together it was always so fun.

"You remember a few years back how Godric tried to make that ugly hat useful? He used to store his sword in it and some essence of dittany whenever we had any available, and he wore it everyday for months before it got so ratty looking. I was thinking we spruce it up and give it back to him, of course make it temporarily stop randomly sorting our new members, and then after he's gotten used to it again start making it act unusual. You know, start singing, or drop things on his head, something like that. Anyway, if we sneak into his office while he's at lunch tomorrow…"

Salazar and Rowena stayed up late laughing at potential jokes they could pull on their friend Godric and at each other's ridiculous ideas. Little did they know what those ideas would one day lead to.