Chapter 9 – The Gryffindor Legacy Part 5

Waking up, I open my eyes slowly. The couch I am on is really comfortable and I consider going back to sleep when I remember where I am and what I was doing.

"Grandpa!" I bolt up in alarm. "How long was I asleep!?"

"Relax Jordan, it was only an hour or two," Gryffindor says quietly.

"Easy for you to say! Every hour I am gone is another I will spend dying from Mother's lectures!" I shoot to my feet and look around the room. "We need to hurry this up. Are you sure we can't come back for all this later?"

"Unfortunately, I am not sure and that is the problem," Grandpa says uncertainly.

"What? What do you mean?"

"My boy, I have no doubt you will be a powerful wizard one day, but, for now, you have just woken up your abilities. I am worried that you will not be strong enough to breach the barriers by yourself and might not be able to return here for a year or maybe even longer. The spirit of a loyal servant helped you before, but the next time you will need to do it on your own. The barriers are not multiple 9th Circle spells for nothing! We need to get a few things before we leave just in case."

"Ah...OK. Yea, he really 'Helped.'" I say sarcastically. "I suppose that makes sense though...But can we do this quickly, please?" I urge.

"Sure, Jordan...but first, how are you doing? How are you feeling?" Grandpa continues in his quiet voice. I realize that he is talking to me like he is walking on an eggshell bridge over a ravine.

"I am fine, Grandpa. Thank you for your concern, but I got my crying over with. It is time for me to man up and get things done. Tenacity is one of our house's core values, is it not?" I ask with a smile.

"Ha! That is is my boy, that it is! Glad you are doing better. Alright! As you said, no more dawdling about. Just follow my instructions and we will be out of here within the hour!" Grandpa Gryffindor says, his previous good-natured energy returning to his voice.

I look around the treasure room I am in and....to be honest, my only reaction is: "Wow". It is still baffling to see the amount of wealth in both items and raw resources just laying about in an organized mess. The room itself is a massive 50x50x50 meter cavern lit by golden, glowing crystals on the ceiling. The simple stone blocked walls, floor, and ceiling shine with the power of countless enchantments and protections that have stood the test of time.

Along the right side of the room is an armory. The first section of the armory, closest to me, consists of five wooden weapon racks that span the entirety of the wall from floor to ceiling. Each one is filled to capacity with swords, spears, halberds, maces, staves (both martial and magical), bows & crossbows, and any and all other medieval type weaponry. The last of these racks is devoted to small weapons and throwing weapons including wands. Across from these weapon racks are a myriad of glass cases in all different shapes and sizes on pedestals and tables. I can only imagine these contain the most precious or dangerous weapons in the room. The rest of the armory is a repeat of this design, only for Shields, arrows & other missiles, armor, and battle robes.

The far back wall is split into three sections. Each section consists of rows of cabinets with the most valuable or eye-catching of their contents displayed on the walls or mounted above or around them. The first section seems to consist of art, as paintings, sculptures, and statues are mounted near the cabinets. The second section consists of cloth, clothes, and robes. Tapestries and fancy robes are mounted in cases along the wall. The most prominent of these being four sets of robes that looked practically identical except for the flairs of color lining them in red, green, blue, and yellow. They each have some sort of crest attached to the breast pocket, but it is too far away for me to make out the details of it. The final section seems to be for metal ingots and gems. The cabinets in this section are spread a bit farther apart than the other sections and ingots and gemstones matching the content of the cabinets are stacked neatly in display bins next to each. A massive diamond is mounted on a pedestal in the middle of this section causing a rainbow-colored disco ball effect on the wall around it as light shines on its faceted edges. The sucker must be half as big as I was!

The Left side of the room contains a long row of shelves with glass containers mounted on pedestals separating each of them. I can make out a multitude of different items of every size, shape, and dimension with metal plaques under each. Just before the entrance to this corridor of madness is a book. I can make an educated guess and say it is a catalog of all the items down the rows.

On the entrance side of the room, left and right to the door I entered through, are floor to ceiling bookcases filled with tomes, some so ancient that some seem to be nothing more than frayed paper. Scrolls and loose sheets of paper have their own shelves as well. Across from the bookcases are comfy looking chairs, sofas, loveseats, padded flat couches, and even a bed against the far left wall. Why the hell did I sleep on this couch when there is a bed here! I feel jipped! The injustice of it all!

Last, but most certainly not least, as it takes up the majority of the space, is thousands upon thousands of coins stacked to the ceiling in large piles that seem to defy gravity. From left to right they consist of platinum, gold, silver, bronze, iron, and copper. On pedestals in between each mound are cases. Enclosed in them is a single coin, of the respective type nearby, mounted in the center and below that is a weird, garbled signature on a gold plaque.

I give a low whistle taking this all in and agree with my original statement. THIS. IS. TOO. MUCH.

"You think this is impressive? This is just our family's important collections vault. We have several other caches that are much lar...." Grandpa stops and I swear I can feel him sweating as he notices me glaring hard at the journal in my hands. "You know what? Not important. Turn to the right and open the small cabinet next to you."

I walk over and open the small side table cabinet with a single door and a flat top that has a notepad and an ornate pen on top. I had somehow missed this when describing this enormous place but, then again, I am sure I missed a lot of things. This place is JUST TOO MUCH! The Inside the cabinet is a coat rack style room with a multitude of bags hung up on hooks along the wall. Why? Because of course even this small cabinet is enchanted to be bigger on the inside than outside. Did I mention this is all TOO MUCH? Important things should be said three times I remember, nodding to myself sagely.

"Great! Now take the biggest one in the middle and the smallest one on the side," Gryffindor continues his instructions.

"Both of them?" I ask, wondering why I could possibly need two.

"Yes, my boy! The small one is for currency and the large one is for items and your luggage," He explains.

Shrugging, I take out the blue-scaled, leather coin purse with drawstrings and a metal loop to attach to a belt as well as a normal-looking leather messenger's bag with a long leather strap that has a leather pad in the middle.

"The coin purse looks gaudy as hell, but at least the messenger's bag is normal looking!" I exclaim as I remove both and sling the leather bag around my neck while attaching the coin purse to my side. The metal clasp doesn't look like it should fit my modern belt, but it morphs and accommodates it.

"That is blue dragon scales, my boy! Made from the neck leather of a blue dragon. It is priceless!" Grandpa complains at my complaint.

"Of course it is. What's next?" I ask, eager to get this over with.

If he had a body, he would be rubbing the bridge of his nose right now. Sighing, he responds tiredly. , "Walk up to each stack of coins and think about taking all but 1,000."

"Hol' up."

"What now?" Grandpa exclaims exasperatedly.

"How am I supposed to carry, like, a million coins in this small bag?"

"...I could explain the theory behind it, but would it suffice to just say magic?"

Sniffing, I respond, "Checks out."

I walk up to the piles of coins and do as instructed. The blue bag of untold wealth sucks up the coins of indeterminable value just as I mentally commanded it to. The mounds of coins are each reduced to small piles of coins in a matter of seconds.

"Cool!" I shout in amazement. Magic was...well...magical!

"Check the contents of the bag," Grandpa Gryffindor says. I start to ask a question, but he interrupts me with, "Just mentally ask the bag how much it holds."

I do so and am astounded when the information simply pops into my head!

Blue Dragon Scaled Coin Purse: Contents:

Platinum Phoenixes: 287,598

Gold Dragons: 597,862

Silver Wolves: 762,897

Bronze Goblins: 652,358

Iron Thestrals: 420,069

Copper Fairies: 1,535,142

"Wow." Was the simple answer monotone I gave. Despite the frankly stupid amount of coins in the bag, it weighed no more than it did before.

"Pretty cool right!" Grandpa Gryffindor was happy at my reaction, maybe hearing something in it that I wasn't sure I felt..."Now that you have those, go grab the sealed coins on the pedestals and put them in the other bag. It works much the same as the coin purse, only storing larger items. You can get a list of items in it as well with a thought."

I was beyond arguing at this point and just went and tried to open the latches on the boxes.

"Wait!" Grandpa Gryffindor called, "Just take the whole container. they are worth more sealed. These will be useful if you have to work with Goblins, I am sure."

"You are one of those never-remove-toys-from-their-packaging type guys, aren't you?"

He pauses for several seconds, most likely going through my memories to understand the question.

"I probably would be. Look how much your father's sealed 1980's Luke Skywalker action figure is worth now!"

Shrugging, I added each sealed coinbox to my bag.

"Anything else I should take?" I asked, hoping he would say no.

"Nah, that should cover it for now. I need to know the state of the world before we introduce some of these items to the public again. Many were....let's just say they could cause a stir even in my time." He said. trailing off at the end. "Head up the stairs and make your way to the throne room," he continued to instruct me, "and...well... No way around this, you are going to see mine and Salazar's bodies. Or at least what is left of them. Mentally prepare yourself for that."

"Fantastic," I mutter morosely as I make my way back up and to the throne room. Standing before the door I take a deep breath and the thought of leaving and seeing my family gives me the strength to push the door open...at least a few centimeters until it sticks.

"Um...Open?" I try, and a horrible grinding sound accompanies the doors swinging wide open. I grab my head to cover my ears as I wait for it to stop.

The throne room, sorry Mother, is fucked. I can see where it once could have been elegant, but now it is little more than a rubble and crater infested warzone. Bodies litter the floor, and the ornate rug is more a series of scraps on the ground than a walkable surface. The ceiling and walls on either side are broken to such an extent that it is a small miracle, or magic if you will, that the room has not collapsed in on itself. Stagnant water and other undeterminable fluids pooled in the craters. A purple viscous liquid even bubbled from time to time. The room smells of stale air and rot, despite the clear openings to the outside. I can see a path out and back onto the bailey from here through a particularly large hole in the ground and wall. The room is maybe 30 meters long and in the center, about 20 or so meters away, is a raised platform with a throne on it. At least, I think it was a throne. It is more like a leaning statute of melted gold at this point. Half of it is just gone and hanging off of it is the skeleton of a man. Next to the skeleton is a 15-meter deep crater with another skeleton lying in the center. At the other end of the hall, I can see the skeletal remains of two massive monstrosities. One clearly is a snake and the other I can only assume to be a griffon based on the wings and lion-like skull. Surrounding them are the remains of what must have been a truly epic battle. The walls are pocked and some parts are completely melted while groves and furrows are taken out of the floor and walls all around.

"That's you?" I say more as an observation than a question.

"Yea, that's me." A sad Grandpa responds slowly. "Salazar is in the crater by me...make your way over to me when you feel you are ready. Oh, and avoid the puddles of liquid," he adds as an afterthought.

I make my way down the throne room, avoiding craters, skeletons, and puddles as I go. When I am about halfway, the piles of metal I assumed to be more skeletons attempt to rise from the ground. Only about half make it up and the rest are so damaged that I can see through most of them. They all clumsily make their way around the remnants of the red and gold rug and kneel as I walk forward. Some fall to pieces as they attempt this, others fall into craters and scatter or fall into various liquids and start dissolving. Only about ten of them remain to kneel as I approach the half-raised platform half massive crater.

When I reach the top and stair down at the skeleton of Godric Gryffindor hanging feebly off a broken throne I feel a wave of sadness hit me. I haven't had much time with Grandpa, but I know he deserves better than this.

"When I can, I want to get you a proper burial." I offer.

"Hah..." He lets out a tired sigh, "Yes. We will need to do that for me and all my knights, witches & wizards, and apprentices...and Salazar as well."

"Him?" I ask incredulously.

"Yes, him too," Grandpa says and gains strength in his voice again. "Despite everything that happened, he was still my friend. My brother. My family. He has done horrible things, but he should be remembered for the good things he has done as well, of which there are numerous accounts. I will not let his few atrocities stain the over 100 years of honest work he did. He was a good man, just misguided in his old age."

I was speechless. This was the man who had killed him, This was the man that lead an army to attack his castle. This was the man who had cursed his family for over 1,000 years. This was the man who had taken the name Gryffindor and pushed it into the dirt and piss and shit to be forgotten while his name lives on. Good man? Hardly. Still...Grandpa wanted it, so...I could do it for him. For Godric Gryffindor, not for Salazar Slytherin. Fuck that guy.

Now determined on the future of these skeletons, I walked further up to Grandpa Gryffindor...He smelt really bad. I had not gotten close to any of the skeletons if I could help it, and now I realized what a stroke of genius that was. One of his hands held the edge of the half-destroyed golden throne encrusted with rubies keeping his skeleton in place and the other held out a wand. It was an ornately decorated cherry oak wand with runes and inscriptions running the surface of the wood. Towards the butt of the wand was a single band of metal wrapped around that looked like silver but was shinning with obvious magic and almost seem to flow around itself. Inscribed on the top and bottom of the metal were the family's core tenants and family motto.

Tucked into what remained of his robes was a crystal wand nearly half a meter long. Remembering Grandpa's words in his note, I looked over to the crater and noticed a solid black wand of nearly the same size laying near the corpse of Salazar Slytherin. While the crystal wand seemed to emanate light and positive energy, the black wand seemed to suck in the light and had a black miasma of death and destruction rippling off it. I choose to ignore both like I was instructed to do.

I reached down to grab the wand from the closed hand of the skeleton when I nearly had a heart attack. The totally dead skeleton tuned its boney white skull to look up at me, white fire in its eye sockets glowed and wisps of it faded off to either side. Then, the freakish thing did something I would have nightmares about for years to come. It smiled at me. Or at least, that was what I felt it was doing. It unclasped its boney hand and placed the wand in my frozen-in-terror outstretched hand. But that wasn't all, no no, that would have been a mercy. Next, it spoke in a raspy voice in old English and the wand...connected to me? Bound itself to me? I don't really know, but it flashed white and I felt warmth in my hands for a few seconds. The light faded and then the skeleton, still smiling at me in the most creepy way it could, took a ring off its boney finger and put that in my hand as well. It closed my still pissing-myself-almost-literally frozen hand and spoke more words that I was pretty sure would summon a demon. Then it looked at me one last time, nodded, waved its hands and fixed the broken throne like it was nothing, and finally, slumped over once again dead.

"What. The. Fuck. Grandpa." I hissed out after taking a gasping breath.

"Ah...yea, I forgot I would do that. Sorry....but it was cool right?"

"You are lucky you are dead."

"Aw, come on, it wasn't that bad, was it? You got your wand and our family signet ring!"

"If I could hit you or hurt you, I would."

"Ungrateful little shit..." Grandpa Gryffindor muttered under his breath, then continued in a forced, happy tone. "Well, that is it! We can leave and go see your family now!"

Nodding to myself, I headed towards the opening in the wall to head out to the bailey. I needed to get out of here as soon as possible.

"Not that way! The wards would kill you for trying to get through!" Grandpa warned me.

Stopping, growling, and grumbling threats against my long-dead ancestor, I made my way out of the throne room via the way I came in, down the entrance hallway, and out into the light of...early evening?

"Shiiiiiiiiiit." I groaned, elongating the word. "I am so gonna die. Mother is going to kill me. Father and sisters are going to laugh as they watch. I hope you enjoyed our time together Grandpa because it is about to end."

"Oh, hush. Get going, my boy, and we will be home at the manor before dark." Grandpa chided good-naturedly.

I got to the end of the property and faced the massive gatehouse I had originally entered through. Was this only a day ago? It seemed like many weeks had passed since I entered here. Weird. I looked back at the castle, a stunning sight in the glow of the setting sun even when it was half destroyed. Pulling the wand out of my pocket and staring at it, the journal, and the ring now on my right ring finger I smiled to myself.

This was it. The start of my journey. I was a wizard now and this new world was an epic adventure just waiting to be had. I was going to be a normal school kid, make friends, discover secrets in an ancient boarding school, and...maybe even get a girlfriend...or two? Ha! Like that would ever happen. Still smiling, I put the wand back in my pocket and headed for the gatehouse entrance.

Almost as an afterthought as I walked through the gatehouse entrance and back into the valley I had left seemingly ages ago, I asked, "Grandpa, do I need to, like, lock up or anything? Set the alarm or some traps or something?"

Laughing, Grandpa responded, "Turn around and see for yourself Jordan."

Turning, I looked for what he was talking about but stopped when I realized. It was gone. The massive castle was just not there anymore. 20 meters in front of me was a rock face of the mountain I was surrounded by. I chuckled to myself as I walked over to my motorized bicycle and turned the engine on, ensuring it still worked.

"Magic." I said with a smile and hopped on to head home.