Chapter 5 - The Gryffindor Legacy Part 1

I stood there, at the now open gates to my brand old castle, letting the words of my poltergeist sink in. I closed my eyes as I dived deep into my thoughts so that I could piece together the secrets contained in his words and....nope. Still doesn't make any sense. Ok, ok, I am not an idiot (biased opinion), and I realize the world is so much more than I originally thought. But like...I feel as if instead of entering a cold pool slowly to get used to it, I was shoved in, pushed to the bottom, and some asshole who can speak in my mind kept throwing ice cubes at me. How can I possibly cope with this much of my world view being wrong!? Forget my ancestors, my family must know this and kept it from me. Why? And...this is the reason the ministry heads came to visit me, isn't it? Are they after the castle? Or my blood? They must be a Ministry dedicated to magic or something. The Ministry of Spellcraft, or The Ministry of Enchantments, or maybe even The Magical Mystery Ministry! How cool would that be! John and Paul had to have been wizards right? I am getting distracted, but it has to be something like that! So, let's do what I do best and take a step back and analyze some things...Bahahahah who am I kidding? It will come to me when I need it. Into the castle, we go!

Hmm...into the castle we go, with caution. Those are definitely skeletons I see laying around, like, everywhere. Luckily, they appear to be long, long dead skeletons. The first bunch are right by the gatehouse. And...Whoa. This place is amazing! A Castle! A real castle! And I own it!? So what if it needs some fixing up, this is still my castle. What kid wouldn't kill for a castle! ...That comment may have been in bad taste...Ok so about the castle...hmm let's see. As a lover of adventure and fantasy, I have both researched and investigated several castles in my time and this one bears a striking resemblance to Alnwick Castle in Alnwick, England. Just... you know, smaller scale and way more dead and blown up. There is one main central building that seems to go up about 3 floors. It looks more like swiss cheese than a building, to be honest. Above that, there is a single giant tower that is missing its entire roof. From the main building, a few smaller buildings, most likely halls of some sort, branch off. I imagine, from the air, the entire structure would look like a big addition or plus sign with the middle being a giant square and the bottom line missing.

As I stepped into the courtyard, I was astounded by how dead the place looked. I can picture a giant lawn of fresh green grass stretching from the outer wall to the castle itself, only separated by a large gravel road that winds its way from the gatehouse to the front entrance...but instead, all I can see is blackened dirt with occasional blast marks, holes, and bodies lying around. The gravel road is there, and it leads to the central driveway (carriage way?) that looked to have once been decorated with a lavish garden in the middle, but which is now a charred black lump of dead trees. The gravel is scattered and pocked with blast and holes as well...Bailey! Yes, that is what this section is called. I am slightly more informed on castle layouts and their elements than I am on Gothic style homes. Fantasy novels for the win!

And thus, I walked the grounds of the bailey along the gravel road while avoiding holes and bodies. It becomes more and more apparent that whatever happened here wasn't just a small battle, it was a massacre of both sides. They seemed to fight to the last man and took as many with them as they could. I am not sure if these are my ancestors as well, or just their retainers, but they did the Gryffindor name proud, that is for sure. Despite the passage of time, the robes both sides wore seem to have remained mostly intact, but I dare not touch them in case they fall apart. I will need to study this place in-depth over the remaining 2 weeks of vacation. I stopped in my tracks. Wait....is this what my family and the Ministry were waiting for? Is this the significants of my birthday? Were they going to show me this? Or was it a test to see if I found this? If I am a wizard then, what is the importance of the 11th birthday?

Oh well, I will wait for my birthday and see for myself I suppose. I continued on towards the castle and I noticed that there was, at one point, an inner wall, but it seems to have been completely leveled. That is some scary siege equipment! Or...was it magic? Gah! It is hard to keep that in the equation because so much could be explained away with a simple, "Magic!" Let's just focus on the task at hand. I am coming up to a particularly large hole in the ground that intersects with the gravel pathway, so I will need to walk around it. As I do, I see about a dozen skeletons up close and gain some further insight. At first, I thought they all wore the same colored robes, but on closer inspection, they seem to just be incredibly faded. One side is faded red and the other is faded green. I am surprised the rain hasn't deteriorated them further...hang on.

I look up. The clouds are still as dark and menacing as ever and they seem to be getting even darker in the fading daylight, but there is no rain falling. Looking at the surroundings, the dirt looks like it hasn't seen water in...well, ever. The charred dirt is almost a fine layer of sand and seems as dry as a desert. I think it is safe to chalk that up to magic. No rain here, huh? I wonder if I can change that. Not sure what the purpose of never allowing the rain to fall would be...

Back to the skeletons, I notice that they also seem to have sticks lying next to them. In fact, I have seen many such sticks all over the place, as they are rather easy to spot in suck a barren landscape. Seems they flew everywhere during the death throes of this battle. I decide to leave everything as is. As I said already, I wanna study everything once I find this book I am supposed to have. I am finally reaching the rubble of the inner wall, so the castle is only 10 meters or so away now. I wish I had brought my bike, this would have...Crap! I left my bike in the rain! Hopefully, nothing rusts or is ruined. I am tempted to go back for it, but I am already here so might as well grab the book then go home before it gets too dark. I imagine it is around six in the evening at this point. The Sun is starting to set and it will take me over an hour to get back to the manor from here.

I pick up the pace and head to the opening of the castle. I have to avoid more and more skeleton piles and watch for uneven ground as I do. Just how many magic peeps fought here? The giant doors to the castle, even bigger than my manor's doors, were closed and locked. (I assume) Luckily, there was a giant hole in the stone to the left of the door that made a convenient ramp and way into the Castle. Even more dodging of dead bodies ensued as I carefully placed each step to get inside. Once passed the crumbled wall, I looked around.

This was a massive entrance hall lined with statues, busts, suits of armor, and paintings. Most of which were damaged beyond recognition. On the floor, besides the bodies, was the remnants of a lavish rug. The smell of stale air and mold permeates the structure. As I started to walk through the hall, I took out my phone preparing to use my flashlight application, when, suddenly, torches on the wall that I just passed light up. Now, I am not going to claim I didn't scream, but if you are wondering if that scream was a little girlish in nature and if a bit of pee came out of me...the answer is yes. Grabbing my chest as I sit on the floor where I landed after jumping a good 5 feet in the air, I looked at the torches on the wall. They seemed normal enough, just lit automatically when someone passed? ...Another fairly open and shut case of magic if I do say so myself. I got up, dusted off my jeans and hoodie, removed my foot from off the hand of a spooky, scary, skeleton, picked up my phone (No damage, yay!), and continued on down the hall. The next flames to light as I passed caused me to jump a bit, but by the third ones, I was used to it.

The farther into the hall I went, the fewer bodies I found. I now could appreciate the royal-red carpet rug on the ground with golden tassels and trim. After about 20 meters, I finally found the end of the hall, about 10 more meters in. As expected, there were 3 giant doors on each side of the hall, and a 2 meter wide stone staircase, complete with stone banisters, on the left that led up to the second floor. I looked up and saw that the ceiling directly above was slanted in a similar ascending manner, which, I would assume, leads to the third floor. Similar layout on the next floor, got it. The rest of the room was a mirror of the hall leading to it...or at least it would have been if there was anything left. The carpet remained, but the walls, pedestals, armor stands, and weapon wracks were suspiciously empty of anything.

In fact, the only remaining item of note in the hall was a statue of a bald and fat priest. "Bingo!" I said out loud and instantly regretted it. My voice sounded like a cannonball in the deathly quiet great hall, pun intended. I waited for a few moments as it's echo finally died down. Taking a deep breath, I cautiously made my way over to the statue. It shows obvious signs of tampering. Someone was clearly trying their best to remove it. Why though? Is there a huge market for bald, fat priest statues? I said it before, and I will say it again: Adults are weird. There were sizable cracks in the floor and walls as well as burn marks at the base of the statue, but there it stayed, resolute in its defiance of being moved. Right. Time to do the thing. I took out the pocket knife again and proceeded to lightly stab my finger twice. It hurt, but no blood came out. Ok, just a little harder....please don't cut off your own finger Jordan...

Finally, after my third try, I managed a light gash on my thumb. 'OW! That hurt!' I thought as I sucked on the cut before remembering what I needed to do. I looked at the priest's forehead and saw it covered in dust and grime. Frowning, I pulled up my undershirt and wiped the head "clean." 'That ought to do it,' I thought as I squeezed my thumb...only to find it was no longer bleeding. 'Oh, come on!' I screamed. Internally, of course, I learned my lesson last time. Taking the knife back out, I repeated the process and reopened the cut on my thumb and placed it to the forehead of the priest. I saw the blood slide down the face and waited. And waited. And...Oh! The password, right, duh. "Feathery Lion." I said confidently and quietly...nothing happened. Of course, this was just a test! I knew it was wrong but wanted to make sure that it wouldn't just open for any pretty boy with a password! Yea...let's go with that.

"Lion Feather." I said and this time, something did happen. The statues head split in half with a loud *Crack* that echoed through the chamber. It revealed an ancient leather-bound journal. Well, at least that wasn't freaky as hell and toooootally wouldn't haunt my dreams... I picked up the notebook to take it with me and leave...*sigh* but of course, it wasn't that easy. The notebook stayed in place, but instead, a sheet of paper fell to the ground. Where even was this? The cover didn't open so it couldn't have been in the book. Odd...Magic. Definitely magic.

I looked at the paper in my hands and was more than a little flummoxed. I couldn't read the words on it. The writing style was completely different from the modern era and even the words I could read were obviously in Old English and, thus, made no sense. I sighed again and rubbed the bridge of my nose. I guess I will just put it in my pocket and leave. But noooo, the world has a vendetta against me. The damnable thing gave me a paper cut.

"Are. You. Kidding. Me. Right. Now?" I growled as I held the paper up to my eyes. My Index finger had a long paper cut on it and a few drops of blood had already spilled onto the paper and smudged the ink there. Ok, you know what? Maybe I will just leave this place here and pretend I never found it. That sounds good. Gryffindor? Never heard of him!

Just then, the paper flashed with a dull red light and the letters changed. They became understandable but seemed to be written in blood-red ink. The note said the following:

To My Heir,

I am unsure when or if this letter will ever be read. Salazar, that damn snake, put a blood curse on me that blocks access to magic for anyone from my bloodline until his bloodline is gone from this world. It was his final farewell after attacking me in my castle. All of this for "Purity" and my refusal to ban non-wizard kind from Hogwarts...

My old friend....was it worth it in the end? You have doomed us both, and my family remains doomed for as long as yours remains alive. What a sad end to a friendship that spanned over a hundred years...

My heir, if you are reading this then all hope for our family is not lost. It will take time, but you must become stronger and reclaim our family honor. To a Gryffindor, honor and chivalry is everything. You must follow that code and do right by your friends and family. If you can do this, then all of my legacy and anything I own is yours to take. Please, rebuild our line and right our wrongs.

To assist you in this difficult endeavor, I have reformatted my journal to help you every step of the way. I have merged a part of my mind and soul with it, and so, all that I am and have succeeded in doing will be yours to learn and pass on as well. If there is a spell, tip, or secret I know of that is within your power to grasp, the journal will tell it to you. I have separated my knowledge out into the different circles of power that I believe they belong to. At each step, the journal will instruct you in what I believe you can handle, but do not grow complacent! Much has likely changed, and you must adapt and grow with the times! I hope this finds you early in your training, but if not, simply start after whatever circle you mastered last. The 7 years you have at Hogwarts should get you to the 6th or 7th circle. Once you master 6th circle magic, the real fun can begin. Hogwarts is a school to teach, yes, but it is also a place we founders left many bread trails to great and powerful secrets and treasures. Salazar had his base in the sewers, but Rowena, Helga, and I also created many secret places of our own. We did this to inspire further generations, but I am going to be a bit selfish and allow you to take them all if you can. All I ask is when you have succeeded in rebuilding our house, you either put them back or create new bread trails. Maintaining Hogwarts and its future success is also a duty to which all of the founder's families are bound.

The first few sections of the journal are still about the castle and the branch family manor nearby. As long as their secrets remain unplundered, they should be a great first step in teaching you to navigate the many trials and challenges that you will face in the later circles. There are some that, while available, you will need to wait until much later on to take advantage of. I cannot simply turn off their protections, and you will need strength, determination, courage, and knowledge to defeat those challenges. I was not one of the greatest wizards in the world for show after all!

Put a drop of blood on the Journal and it will be bound to you. You may summon it or dismiss it at any time and when it is dismissed, it shall remain protected in this castle inside the statue. I am not sure what changes merging my mind and soul will have on it, as this is a new concept that Salazar and I were discussing a few years ago after he returned from a trip to Greece. We think it might even be the key to eternal life! If it is, do not revive me. The past is meant to stay in the past and the dead are meant to stay dead. I will assist our family for as long as I am able to in the journal, but I do not wish to be taken from my afterlife. I believe I deserve a good, peaceful rest, don't you agree?

Lastly, after bonding with the journal, come to the throne room. Do not mind my spirit guards, they are merely enchanted armor meant to protect the owner of the castle. You are now the owner, so they will likely bow to you when you enter. Come to my body on the throne and take the wand in my hand for yourself. Salazar assisted me in its creation years ago when we were still as close as brothers and it is bound to my bloodline. You will find no greater ally in this world. DO NOT take the crystal wand in my pocket and DO NOT touch the obsidian wand next to Salazar's corpse. The first is far too powerful for you to use until you reach at least the 7th circle and the second would likely destroy your soul and take over your body if you tried to wield it. You will need to wait until the 8th or even the 9th circle to dispose of that wretched thing.

My heir, the road ahead of you is long and full of dangers, but I believe you can succeed. It is in our blood to be brave and strong. Help to rebuild our name and honor. Help to purge the world of evil as I once did. Love your friends and family and destroy your enemies.

Remember to always wear the name Gryffindor with honor and pride!

Godric Reynold Archibald Gryffindor