A/N - right then, my friends, this is a major step outside of the proverbial box for me. I saw some oneshots in this style floating around and decided that I might want to try my hand, and here's the result! Also, I luuurrve the idea that Godric and Rowena had a romance - maybe I'll put up something else about that...please review!

There is a small dip near the village, where the leaves are always brown and dying and yet the tree trunk is strong and young and green, and the air is so warm even in winter that it moves and shimmers like water under moonlight. Tangled high grass surrounds it and whisperswhispers in the breeze as the bushes obscure the view, and all that can be seen is the highhighhigh branches at the very top of the tree, the seductive hints of green leaves promising everything and never quite delivering.

A long time ago a boy with blazingred hair and shiningwondering eyes sat here with a girl, a beautiful girl, who shines and shimmers as bright as he does, like the world was born for her and for them and they are the only ones who matter in this moment and forever. And they sit in the longdustywarm summer evenings and talk about hopes and dreams and desperatedesperate need to be loved and adored and worshipped by somebody, anybody, everybody. And eventually, talking about the future, they lean closer and his fieryflaming hair mingles with her sootysoft locks and they begin to worship each other, two small stars join together in an explosion of colour and light and fireworks, and they swear and vow and promise to be together nowalwaysforever, no matter what happens. And they go on and on, always blazing and burning until one day they slowly fade away, together and too soon, and live on foreverforeverforever in the stories told of the Founders, and no-one ever guesses that quietgood Rowena and dazzlingshining Godric were ever so in love.

And then, years later, their ancestor with his ravendark hair returns, with a girl who has hair as blazingshiningfiery as the first boy, and they vow and promise and swear that nothing will ever break them apart, that they'll protect themselves from everything that tries to hurt them. And the tree and grass and bushes around listen to the sweetteenageeverlasting promises and pray for them to last. So they begin to burn, and blaze and the whole world notices, the good and bad, and they have a child who could shine brighter than anyone before, but as the two reach their zenith the blaze too brightwhitehot and burn out, leaving crushingterrifying darkness and a mark that should never have been.

But the boy, the one with the ohsoweird mark and the greengreen eyes hides his fire, his light and saves it, preserves it and it grows brighter and brighter until he can't hide it and then it blazes forth in a dizzying haze and swirl of light and dark and good and bad and love and hate until the world is scorched and silent and empty. But then the light changes, because of the girl with softandshining hair, becomes softer and sweeter and the world slowly heals and changes and becomes better, never as good as they wish for or hope for but so perilouslypainfully close that it agonises them. So the boy and the girl search and search for their taste of perfection and they roam and traipse and shamble all over the world, always returning to this strangecompellingcomforting tree that is both dead and alive at the same time. Because when they are here the whole world seems terriblyhorriblygood, so good and bright and sweet that it overwhelms them and the heady dizziness seems to spread like sunlight at dawn over the gardens. So they stay, and live here foreverandeverandever, because why would they ever want to leave this place with the golden leaves and shimmering air? So their light, oh so very different from the first desperateshining light and the second scaredblazingterrifying light, shines and helps and softens and becomes almost nurturing, and when they die they are buried by the tree and the light lives on in the little shimmeringshining girl and the two boys with blackblackblack hair, and the tree sits and watches and absorbs and remembers, so they end up being together nowalwaysforever, just like they always promised.