Post by Mike Meyer on Mar 22, 2007 23:55:31 GMT -5
Hogwarts was founded over a thousand years ago by two wizards and two witches: Godric Gryffindor, Salazar Slytherin, Rowena Ravenclaw, and Helga Hufflepuff. These four were among the most celebrated European wizards and witches of the age, and they personally trained all their students. As time went on Hogwarts grew in size as more and more students enrolled.
Slowly, cracks began to appear among the four founders. All four founders selected their students according to strict criteria (much of which was opposed to that of the other houses). Slytherin, however, sought greater forms of selection, desiring to limit school admissions only to students born to magical parents (he distrusted those born to non-magical parents); this desire brought him into conflict with the other founders, in particular Gryffindor. Tension also developed between the other Founders: the once-great friendship of Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff failed as disastrously as that of Gryffindor and Slytherin, and, divided, the four founders and their houses sought to control the school, bringing the castle into fighting and chaos. Slytherin eventually fled the school; the other three founders, diminished by their loss, then re-established peace.
At some point before Slytherin departed, he had constructed the Chamber of Secrets, concealing within it a basilisk. According to legend, he left this for his progeny, so that, when an eventual successor (the Heir of Slytherin) returned to the school, he or she would be able to open the Chamber, unleash the monstrous Basilisk within, and purge the school of all muggle-born students. The only descendant known to have discovered the Chamber is Tom Marvolo Riddle, who later came to be known as Lord Voldemort.
Slowly, cracks began to appear among the four founders. All four founders selected their students according to strict criteria (much of which was opposed to that of the other houses). Slytherin, however, sought greater forms of selection, desiring to limit school admissions only to students born to magical parents (he distrusted those born to non-magical parents); this desire brought him into conflict with the other founders, in particular Gryffindor. Tension also developed between the other Founders: the once-great friendship of Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff failed as disastrously as that of Gryffindor and Slytherin, and, divided, the four founders and their houses sought to control the school, bringing the castle into fighting and chaos. Slytherin eventually fled the school; the other three founders, diminished by their loss, then re-established peace.
At some point before Slytherin departed, he had constructed the Chamber of Secrets, concealing within it a basilisk. According to legend, he left this for his progeny, so that, when an eventual successor (the Heir of Slytherin) returned to the school, he or she would be able to open the Chamber, unleash the monstrous Basilisk within, and purge the school of all muggle-born students. The only descendant known to have discovered the Chamber is Tom Marvolo Riddle, who later came to be known as Lord Voldemort.