My name Marion Slytherin. Yes, I am Salazar Slytherin's daughter, one of the four founders of the magical school. Both, my brother, Guy, and myself attended the school for our education. My brother shared the same tendencies as my father, something that we differed in opinion about. And yes I fell in love with the man my family hated more than anything in the world. It all began the night I ran away from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, he followed me. Though at the time I was not exactly sure why.
The wind whirred in my ears as I ran through the trees. I loved to run, it gave me a freedom that the castle withheld from me. I stopped suddenly when I came to a clearing. The stars glittered in the blanket of night above my head. They sparkled like they never did in the school grounds.
"There you are!" a man's voice brought me back to reality.
"Professor!" I exclaimed back. I thought I had been careful enough not to be followed; to not leave any signs. Evidently I had been wrong. "What do you want?" I demanded.
His blond hair blew in the slight breeze, his blue eyes stared back at me. I did not know what he was going to say and I was not too sure if I was ready to hear it. "I have come to take you back to your father," Godric Gryffindor said. He did not say it menacingly, nor did he say it threateningly. It was as if it was a general statement.
"You wouldn't dare know what it is like to be there and his daughter!" the words rolled from my mouth. "All the lies and the hatred brought about by the issue of who is pureblood and who is not!"
"It is only your house that seems concerned with that business," he scorned me coolly. They hurt me probably more than they were meant to but I could feel the serpent crawl up my throat, waiting to burst out.
"You have no idea of the pain that I feel!"
"Pain?" he exclaimed. "The pain that is beating in my chest is real enough to me...It's driving me insane! I long for what I cannot have! It is right in front of me and I can't even let my hand reach out and touch it for fear of reprisal..."
For a second I was a little taken aback, I wanted to know the truth. I had that much right, had I not? "Reprisal?" I questioned him fiercely. "What reprisals have you to fear? The world is your own, you a man and a famous one can make any world he chooses," I snapped. The world we lived in was different, it was unbalanced and callous.
"Your father," he said calmly.
Speechless, I did not know what to say to him. The silence continued between us for a few more minutes before either of us could manage some words. A simple expression was written on his face; he was waiting for some sort of confirmation that he would be right to confess all.
"I am living in a purgatory," he continued, "I live like this because I cannot have the daughter of Salazar Slytherin." Godric Gryffindor stared into my eyes. It was not the normal stare that he looked at me with. This was a deeper, much more longing look, "I love you because you are smarter than any wizard and certainly braver than most. I love you without condition, and I will keep saying it because it is only ever to you I want to say them to."
What came over me in the next few moments, I could not say. It was as if my body had taken on a life of its own; engulfing him in my arms, slowly I let my lips find his. His kiss was soft and gentle, for me I never wanted it to stop. Yet it did stop when I bit his lip too hard- it made him jump back. "I'm sorry," I made a pathetic apology.
"Don't apologise," he caressed my face. I was not afraid of him. With one had he gently stroked my hair. With the other he held my chin. "I guess that means I love you too," he grinned.
I giggled, "Yes Godric, I do love you. I have loved you since I was a little girl and was brought to the castle by my father."
"Well in that case," he wrapped his arms around me, "We had best do it again." Godric felt my body against his, letting the two become one. Laughing his eyes looked once again back into mine, "I love your eyes, they're green like the grass in summer, and just as full of life I would wager. Not even Merlin could summon something like them to life," he kissed me softly.
Dawn came too soon that autumn morning. It was one of the warmest that I could ever remember, and in the years later, Godric too recounted that it was uncommonly warm. Since he had kissed me we had passed the hours talking about stupid things, sometimes scolding each other and sometimes laughing at the others jokes. As the sun began to rise, Godric suggested that we head back to the castle before our absence was noticed. We descended into the village of Hogsmeade, even then it was a rickety old looking village. The higher it climbed the more reluctant we became, our pace slowing.
Godric looked beyond the tavern to the towering castle, "No one will ever know that we were gone unless we tell them."
"Who would I tell?" I joked, clenching his hand tight. I did not know when next we would be alone together to be as we had the last night. "Who would I tell, love? I enjoy living , tell some one indeed sir!" the joke continued up to the gates of the castle. Daring so, I kissed him again. One more dose before I had to fight my addiction.
"Shh!" he put his hand to my lips.
In the distance, we heard light footsteps coming towards the Entrance Hall. "Go!" he urged me. "Wait," he kissed me, "I will write you under a different name."
"I'll hold you to that," I whispered bolting towards the nearest door. I did not want to leave him. I don't think I would want to leave the school again. In a few short hours everything had changed; the one place that I had hated was now the one place that I never wanted to leave. And the one person I was supposed to hate above the rest...well I was in love with. What else could happen in this day?
"Watch where..." snapped a gruff voice. "Oh sorry Marion, I did not see you. Where are you rushing off to?" he asked.
"Oh Guy," I pushed myself from the floor. "Today is a perfect day: nothing can spoil it."
He eyed me, I was five years his junior and he often thought me still a child. Though my seventeenth birthday was long past and my eighteenth was coming sooner than he or my father anticipated. "What has happened to you now?" he looked at me curiously. It appeared that I was not normally this happy. "Has someone awoken you in the night with some sweet spell?"
"Oh brother, brother dearest, today is just a fantastic day," I chirped. I was not going to let him ruin my mood because he did not approve of happiness. "Anyhow what are you doing up this early? Have you hurt any more muggles recently?"
"Hahahahaahah," he erupted into laughter. "You are funny, Marion; you spurt ideas of an equal society but you are just as bad as me and father."
"In what way?" I demanded, "I believe magic is magic, and is a gift. It does not matter if a witch or wizard comes from a magical or a non-magical background, they are still a witch or a wizard."
"In a world where purebloods rule, you had best change your thinking."
"Is that a threat?" I looked at him severely. "My thinking is different...so please forgive me for that."
"A woman of independent thought must learn to curb her tongue," he corrected me vilely. I could see the resentment boiling in his eyes. In some twisted way it gave me some immense pleasure to achieve something like that.
"And I am that independent woman, and you are just my brother, not my guardian," I twirled away victorious, "Excuse me whilst I go collect my herbs for my lessons today."
"Go little girl to your garden," he snapped.
I did not stop until I came to the portrait of Godric Gryffindor. He was the one that stopped me from daring to scream. I hated my life. I hated the way my father and my brother weighted the world on some one's blood. His glittering blue eyes saved me. I only had several months left in this hell. Freedom was on the horizon, the freedom that burned deep in these eyes. Though before long, I would learn that even angels had wicked schemes to bring a new evil into new extremes.