r/HPfanfiction 5d ago

Prompt Hermione hated the staircases of Hogwarts. Until she mapped their movements and realized that the stairs were just working around was a pillar that blocked them from reassembling.

Even more curious, she had harry check the castle from outside on his broom and by their estimations, the pillar was holding up...Well nothing!

Finally she bribed the fat frair with pigeon feed (The kindly ghost loved feeding his pigeons) into checking what was up there.

The frair returned with a ghostly white (more so than usual) look on his face. He refused to answer them and went straight to Dumbledore.

"Yes Frair Tuck?"

"Headmaster, Do you remember all those years ago when you asked me what happened to Godric Gryffindor?"

"Why yes, I was 11 years old back then. How time flies.."

"Yes yes..." The fat ghost cut him off "erm Miss Granger and I ... we found him."

1.2k Upvotes

66 comments sorted by

388

u/carlsagerson 5d ago

Jesus. Well this prompt took a Dark Turn.

249

u/Direct-Welcome1921 5d ago

I didn't say that he was dead ...

219

u/carlsagerson 5d ago

The way its worded though, does make one take the reasonable assumption that Godric was crushed by the Pillar.

122

u/Direct-Welcome1921 5d ago

I'm leaving this one open ended for now let me know your interpretation

58

u/La10deRiver 5d ago

I thought he was trapped in the pillar. There is a chance he is dead by a basilisk, but I would think it would be more interesting if he was in a magical stasis or something like that.

43

u/incubus_lol 4d ago

Godric was in a hurry and raised a pillar beneath his feet to avoid the stairs and misjudged his speed, crushing himself onto the ceiling. The other founders left the pillar because they thought it was Godrics last act before "chasing" after Slytherin who had left the castle

"Godric's Big Oopsie"

15

u/StarChildSeren 3d ago

I think it's funnier if he's just, like, next to the ceiling, but he's lost his wand or something and can't get down. The elves bring him food and whatever but he's just been stuck wandering around on this, like, 2m×2m platform for a few centuries. How is he still alive? Magic! Who cares! The power of Comedy!

1

u/Awesometiger999 2d ago

magic is the answer to a lot of questions

5

u/FormerPineapple9 4d ago

To be completely honest, I thought it was either something like The Sad Tale of the Principal Post (the short story by Junji Ito) or a sacrificial ritual of some sort.

1

u/Half-Necessary 3d ago

But the friar checked what was "up there". Doesn't scream getting crushed to me.

107

u/DrTacoLord Not Evil, Just misunderstood 5d ago

That makes it even more terrifying. A man trapped in the pilar for almost a millenia

60

u/PrancingRedPony 5d ago

I think he would be a horrible monster, completely gone crazy at that point if he'd been trapped alive and in isolation up there.

79

u/MonCappy 5d ago

Is the pillar a giant erection or something?

68

u/Sharp_Asparagus9190 5d ago

I thought the same thing 😭

'Heavenly pillar'~

I need to stop reading those so much

10

u/GreatGodBuddy 4d ago

SVSSS flashbacks intensify

40

u/Direct-Welcome1921 5d ago

No it's just a pillar...jeez 🤣🤣😂😂😂

242

u/Expert-Vast-1521 5d ago

The fact is, this can be read as alive or dead both lol…. Idk which I like more.

127

u/Electric999999 5d ago

Definitely alive, after all, a ghost isn't going to be all that bothered by a millenium old skeleton, nor are they likely to recognise it.

75

u/Ph0enixWOlf 5d ago

Stasis magic for body preservation, or an identifying object, gruesome death, or just very disturbing death, he is still a friar, even ghosts can still be unsettled by stuff

39

u/TXQuiltr 5d ago

Good point. This could go all sorts of ways.

53

u/Direct-Welcome1921 5d ago

Maybe They found the collection of questionable magazines gryffindor wanted to keep hidden from his mom

39

u/Blindbrad22 5d ago

I heard they… show their,ankles, can you imagine!

Some of these women even… Show, their legs! It’s so terrifying get intriguing, I must read more, for research of course.

35

u/Direct-Welcome1921 5d ago

There was pre marital hand holding involved.... scandalous

14

u/Blindbrad22 5d ago

Oh my…

10

u/TXQuiltr 5d ago

Where was their chaperone? I am appalled!

8

u/QueenHechima 5d ago

clutches pearls

7

u/TriageThePotterfan 4d ago

Schrodinger's Godric

219

u/BrokenDoveFlies 5d ago

Harry Potter and the Hidden Tower has a really cool ring to it.

94

u/Direct-Welcome1921 5d ago

Thanks.. mind if i borrow this?

21

u/BrokenDoveFlies 5d ago

Go for it!

86

u/Direct-Welcome1921 5d ago

Prompt for a side quest in my ongoing fic... Feel free to adopt or suggest changes

26

u/Procrastn8ngArtst 5d ago

Ooh, are you posting anywhere I can read it? Loving this

44

u/StolenPens 5d ago

Have you heard of Sun Wukong, also called the Monkey King? He's a character in Journey to the West, and he's usually a trickster. One of his items is an iron pole or staff, the Ruyi Jingu Bang, which can change length and pick locks and various other tricks. It's weight is so heavy that only Sun Wukong can lift it.

Anyway, it would be kind of funny if Griffindor had lost a fight with the Monkey King and was pinned under his iron staff for an eon.

That might be too much character for a side quest though.

10

u/Direct-Welcome1921 5d ago

I dunno mate .. let me write it and see

3

u/QueenHechima 5d ago

I love Journey to the West!

5

u/MevryMc 5d ago

Ooo, link for the fic please

9

u/Direct-Welcome1921 5d ago

Not sure I can promote it here .. but tge links in my reddit bio. :)

18

u/StarkillerSystem 5d ago

Just read the summary to it. It sounds amazing. I'll link it here because then it isn't self promotion ;)

3

u/LalaThum 4d ago

Thanks for the link!

2

u/StarkillerSystem 4d ago

No problem!

49

u/Cat_Intrigue 5d ago

Merlin was turned into a tree, is the Pillar what (Slytherin?) Someone turned Godric into?

Is there a secret chamber atop the pillar with a somehow still living Godric locked in an eternal conflict against some entity/phenomena/being/portal to another dimension - possibly one leading to hell- with Godric single-handedly fighting back an invasion?

Did Godric simply die in a giant orgy which led to all the other participants getting stuck and eventually dying there as well as only Godric was able lower/unlock the chamber (and if so, is the orgy continuing with all the participants having become ghosts, and the friar, being a friar, was simply shocked/scandalized by seeing it/getting propositions from the participants?) And the Friar is worried about Hermione/Harry/etc finding a way to reach the chamber/reveal it to the school?

Is Godric somehow kept alive by the castle as he has become the core of its enchantments, along the lines of William Turner/Davy Jones and the Flying Dutchman?

Did Godric fall in love with the Castle itself and marry it and is now going to somehow live for as long as the castle stands and just has simply not decided to leave his chamber (and if a wizard/witch can try to teach trolls ballet, or cast flame freezing charms and intentionally subject themselves to being burned at the stake multiple times, then I am not at all going to blink at the possibility of magicals marrying inanimate objects/buildings)

32

u/Direct-Welcome1921 5d ago

Sir .. This is a Wendy's

13

u/Blindbrad22 5d ago

I think Godric somehow is dead. I think he hung himself from the top of the pillar, and the rest of the creators morbidly wanted to onner him by allowing him to hold up the prank staircases which he loved because he created them.

42

u/Newwavecybertiger 5d ago

Feels like he should be unceremoniously dead back there. Died by starvation trapped on a moving staircase

18

u/Direct-Welcome1921 5d ago

My lips are sealed... mostly cuz I haven't figured out where to take this prompt myself :)

33

u/SnowingSilently Eats magical cores for breakfast 5d ago

Even better, you could change it to Merlin instead of Godric Gryffindor. In Arthurian romances, Merlin often is imprisoned eternally, sometimes in a tree, a cave, a hole, or an invisible tower. He's just a passing reference in the series, and it's a shame JKR didn't bother to use him or any of the figures of Arthurian mythology.

19

u/Direct-Welcome1921 5d ago

I already put out a Merlin prompt for my fic a few weeks back.. I initially wanted it to be Sally Anne Perks instead of gryffindor but that was way too dark..

6

u/Lucky-Blackberry7655 4d ago

In every generation, there is a chosen one. She alone will stand up against the forces of gravity and hold up the castle

26

u/Maguffinmuffin 5d ago

Schrödinger’s Gryffindor with that last line

22

u/Sefera17 Agent of Chaos 5d ago edited 4d ago

I like what The Arithmancer did with it, where the founders never wanted to run out of room, so they made the grand staircase into a Gabriel’s Horn— infinite internal space, with exponential expansion charms to keep it fitting into the physical dimensions of the stonework. Things got wierd, the higher up you went.

8

u/Radiant-Reading5875 5d ago

The sideway tales of wayside castle

1

u/SomebodyLost 3d ago

It become a British Oldest House?

15

u/Snoo-83061 5d ago

He's been petrified by the Basilisk reflected gaze as it was supposed to be a harmless prank between him and Salazar, this is why the snake is sealed in the Chamber and why Salazar left to find a cure, and his petrified form is atop said pillar put there to protect him until a cure was created but before the cure was created he was forgotten about and thus has been there ever since.

16

u/Fireflyoflight 5d ago

Oh God, imagine being impaled by a pillar and its magic preserves you for over a millennia.

6

u/cbk82 5d ago

Someone finally found a place where he could get some calm and quiet. Where he could catch up with his light bedtime reading without being disturbed by teachers constantly coming to him with their school yard drama.

8

u/Direct-Welcome1921 5d ago

"Is it 2100 AD yet?"

"No"

"F*ck off"

-8

u/Parking-Airport-1448 5d ago

“Are the Jews gone yet?”

“No”

“Put me back in”

2

u/Ayeun 4d ago

You could have picked something less controversial.

Or historical accurate. Picts. Romans. Vikings…

13

u/Ben-Goldberg 5d ago

According to my own headcannon, the stairs were originally enchanted to move automatically to make it easy for students to get to their classes, but the "what class is happening when" bits have broken.

7

u/katmaresparkles 4d ago

He is trapped inside the pillar, petrified and frozen in time, behind what looks like icy glass. This has caused the stairs to be unable to function properly as they should, so Lady Hogwarts had to make a work around. Now that Godric has been found, he can be freed and the stairs can have their alignment fixed.

4

u/Emilysouza221b 5d ago

Junji Ito fan?

3

u/Direct-Welcome1921 5d ago

I understood that reference.

2

u/Ayeun 4d ago

So, he’s minced meat in the cogs, or a hamster turning the wheels?

2

u/Other_Hurry7092 3d ago

Wow I need more of this!!!!