For Fanfiction, School of Imagination and Creativity (Biodiversity, using the prompts Founders' Era and "If you're going through hell, keep going." - Winston Churchill); the If You Dare Challenge (957. Battle In The Sky); the HP Potions Competition (Bruise Removal Paste); Fantastic Beasts Challenge (Sphinx); Legendary Creatures Competition (Uraeus) and the Literature Class Competition (Nathaniel Hawthorne, Primary School)
This is dedicated to Milly, who was the one whose plot bunny is the reason this fic exists in the first place. I hope you enjoy it! :)
Note: The Founding of Hogwarts has been delayed by about 100-200 years here, so that it happens post the Battle of Hastings – which occurred in 1066 – and the Norman conquest of Scotland – which happened in 1072 – than the canonical 10th century, which would somewhere be in the 900s. The usage of the term "Mudblood" is something I believe would not have had the same stigma in the Founders Era as it does in the canon timeline, sort of like the slow creeping of political correctness into our world. Also, I've had the children call Godric "Uncle" because most of them are rather young, and I imagine calling the teachers and Founders by a familial name makes them feel more comfortable in their new home.
The men referenced here are all confirmed Companions of William in the Battle of Hastings. Their full names and designations can be found on the Wikipedia page.
About William's wife – William was one of the few kings believed to have completely faithful to his wife, Matilda of Flanders, later Queen Matilda. He had no children from anyone else, and is indeed believed not to have had a single mistress. I've interpreted this as him being deeply in love with his wife, who, in this fic, is both a witch and the driving force behind his desire to invade England and free her magical citizens.
All historical information comes from Wikipedia, so I cannot vouch for its reliability.
"Now, I do believe that it's time for you all to get to bed," the distinguished looking wizard said, looking down at the young children crowded around his feet.
With so many magical children being born into Mudblood homes, the Founders of Hogwarts had started searching for these children before they reached magical maturity. Many of them were feared and abused by parents who believed that they were demons, and such children had been rescued and brought to the castle even though some of them were barely older than five or six years of age. Though they did not begin studying magic so early, the castle provided them with a home, and surrogate parents in the form of the Founders and teachers.
At the wizard's proclamation, the children protested loudly, begging for one last story.
The wizard laughed. "Very well you little hellions," he said, "What would you like to hear?"
"Uncle?" a quiet little girl at the back of the pack of children asked tentatively, walking up to the front, "Could you perhaps tell us of the times when you fought alongside King William?"
"Do you all wish to hear about that?" the man asked the children gathered around him.
Looking around, all that the wizard saw was numerous nods of agreement and eager faces at the prospect of hearing about a battle that was already becoming the thing of legends.
"Very well," Godric Gryffindor said, "I will tell you the truth about the Battle of Hastings."
Godric Gryffin looked at the man he had pledged his allegiance to, his face grave and drawn.
"What is it Godric?" William asked, turning away from the battle preparations happening in front of him to look at his chief counsellor. "You know that you, of all people, may speak freely in front of me."
"Forgive me for saying this, my Lord, but I do not know if our preparations will be enough," the golden haired man said. "We are preparing to go into what will undoubtedly be more hell than a battle, and the fact that we know nothing about Harold plans makes me uncomfortable."
"I will not deny that we prepare to go into hell, Godric," the king said pensively. "Harold will have prepared for our arrival, and the fighting itself will be nothing short of brutal, battle of a kind that not many of our men have seen before. And yet we cannot afford to nothing. You know better than I the atrocities that Harold – as with Edward before him – has subjected the wizarding folk of his land to, and I refuse to leave them to suffer alone which I have the capability to help."
"I would never suggest that, Your Majesty," Godric said.
William turned to face him. He was a handsome king, or at least, he would have been so had his face not been lined with marks of worry and tension. "Then what would you have me do?" he asked, a hint of desperation in his voice. "Either I invade, and condemn my men to die even though we all know our final victory is assured, or do nothing and watch my wife's people in England die under the rule of that usurper. Whatever path I chose to take, I end up condemning someone to great suffering. The choice I must make has already placed me in hell; all that is left for me to do is continue onwards to find the least torturous way out of it. At least if I attack, I will know that I have not taken the coward's way out of this mess that the gods have trusted me to untangle."
"Delay the invasion," Godric said confidently. "Not for long – just for a month or so. There is someone that I know in England who will be able to give us some information on Harold's army and his strategies. It will not prevent losses, but it will reduce them to those expected from any other battle. If we continue the way we are going, there is a possibility that we will lose more than three-fourths of our army before victory is ours."
"Who was it who helped you, Uncle?" a ten-year old boy asked curiously, interrupting Godric's story.
"Ah, you know him very well," Godric said, a mischievous smile dancing around his lips.
At that pronouncement, all the children's eyes widened.
"Who is it?" the young girl who had asked for the tale in the first place asked eagerly.
"Godric, what are you doing up so la-" Salazar Slytherin's voice reached the little room where they were all sitting. "Ah," he concluded as he entered and saw the children at Godric's feet.
"Brilliant!" Godric exclaimed delightedly. "I was just about to tell the children about you, Sal!"
"Wha-?"
"It was Salazar I owled," Godric said, ignoring his best friend's confused expression. "And once he told me everything he knew, William and I changed our plans to suit Harold's."
"What happened next?" someone asked excitedly.
"Well…"
"At this rate, by the time we reach there half our forces will have been decimated," William said worriedly, looking at the storm that was lashing the Norman ships with enormous winds and angry purple waves.
"I wouldn't worry, My Lord," Godric murmured. "We have been assured by a trustworthy source that the storm will pass without doing us any damage at all."
"And who is this so-called source of yours?" William snapped. Immediately, he looked sheepish, rubbing his eyes tiredly. "Forgive me, Godric. I am merely overly worried."
"It is understandable, William," Godric said, smiling understandingly. "Our source of information is communication from a Seer from the shrine at Delphi. We received the letter before we left, but I hesitated to tell you and delay the expedition to Britain further."
William sighed heavily. "Very well then, Godric, if you're sure," he said, turning to talk to Aimeri, who had come up next to him.
The children stared up at Godric with reverential faces.
"You…you called the King by his familiar name, Uncle?" an awed boy asked.
"I have known William since we were both no more than boys, Thomas," Godric said, smiling down at the child. "He has ever been like a brother to me. Now, where was I?"
"You were about to tell us about what happened when you landed at Hastings!" a little girl piped up.
"Ah yes. Now, I will not tell you about the actual battle itself," Godric said. Before protests could break out across the room, he held up his hand. "You are all too young to hear of it. Besides, you will learn of it when you study History of Magic in a few years as it is, and since I am the one who will teach you about that particular Battle, there is nothing that you are losing out on. Now, though I will not tell you of the battle, I will tell you of its aftermath…"
"Ah, did you see Harold's face when we landed?" William laughed. He had a tankard of mead in his hand and celebrations over the Norman victory rang out around the men. "And when he saw you, I was sure he was going to take his horse and bolt the other way. I would have loved to know what he was thinking when he realised that his and Edward's hatred of the magical folk of the world was coming back to hurt him!"
"I was there William!" Godric laughed. The two men were sitting around a large fire, joined by the highest ranking men in William's army and common soldiers alike. At this time of victory, the divisions of class seemed senseless.
"Songs of your bravery in the battle will be sung for centuries, Lord Gryffin," Eustace said, saluting Godric. "Indeed, saying that you were the one who turned the tide of the battle for us would not be wrong."
"Eust-"
"Very true Eustace!" Robert crowed. "He must be rewarded William!"
The men took up a demand for Godric's reward, drowning out the man in question's protests.
"Very well!" William roared over the noise. "For your bravery, I hereby rule that you, Sir Godric Gryffin, shall forevermore be known by the name Gryffindor, the Golden Gryffin of the English crown!"
At the pronouncement, renewed cheers rang out around the Norman camp. But William held his hands, calling for a few more moments of quiet. "Furthermore," he bellowed, "You shall be awarded a piece of land in the land of Scots once it us under our rule. It will be a place for you build the school you have long dreamed about!"
"We're on that land now, aren't we?" an excitable young girl asked.
"Why yes we are, Edith," Godric said. "To continue with our tale…"
Before Godric could say anything else, Salazar – who had been watching in silence until then – interrupted them.
"That is enough for tonight, I think," he said is a warm voice. "The fire is burning low, the stars are constellations are twinkling much too brightly in the sky for it to a respectable time, therefore it is long past when the lot of you should have been in bed. Besides, if Rowena finds out about this, she will have all of our heads. Godric can tell you about the conquests of Scotland tomorrow, I am sure. Some anticipation will undoubtedly make the story all the more sweeter."
Among a few grumbles, the children all started getting up and waiting for the two men to accompany them to their dormitories for the night.
"It's okay, children," Godric said, voice still full of good cheer. "Salazar's right, it is getting much too late for you to still be awake. Besides, if Rowena kills me, who will be left to tell you tales? We all know that she will never be as good as me at recollections," he said with a roguish wink. "I give you my word I will continue the story tomorrow night."
Though not fully satisfied at the half-finished story, the children all settled considerably more than before.
Salazar threw Godric an unimpressed look. "If Rowena finds out about your words, your death moves from the hypothetical to the certain, you know that right?" he asked.
"There is no way she will find out," Godric laughed, not worried in the least at the thought of the most knowledgeable of them all after his hide.
Salazar looked at him doubtfully, but refrained from commenting. Nothing would change his friend's mind, so he would have to satisfy himself by making sure he was present when one of the students let slip the story of Godric's comment to Rowena, as would undoubtedly happen. That way he could at least have the satisfaction of laughing at Godric.
The two men walked with the children, exchanging quiet conversation. When the last of the young ones were put to bed, they returned to the cozy little room where Godric had been telling his tale.
"I have never understood why it is that story that fascinates all the children," Godric said as he poured each of them a goblet of wine. "We have all done many more exciting things apart from take part in a Battle, and yet it is that one which has captured everyone's attention."
"It is the romance of it, I believe," Salazar said with a slight smile. "All the boys wish to be knights, and the girls all want to be swept off their feet by them. Of everyone they know, you remain the only person who has been a warrior in the king's army, a real-life knight who has taken part in a battle. It was to be expected, considering the fact that it is children we teach."
"I would much rather retell the story behind the school motto," Godric grumbled.
"Considering the fact that that was the one instance where it was all of us instead of just you who were involved in doing something monumentally stupid and risky, I'm not surprised," Salazar said drily.
"I have never quite understood why you insist on putting me down constantly," Godric said in a falsely wounded voice. "I have always been the person who protects us all."
"Maybe what we need is someone to protect us from your reckless and idiotic schemes," Salazar shot back, not fooled in the slightest by his friend's act. "At least then we would not have to deal with house-elves who are put out by the fact that you nearly burned down their kitchen."
"I thought it was our kitchen! The four of us!" Godric exclaimed.
Salazar merely raised an eyebrow.
Godric blushed a light red. "You do make a good point," he muttered.
"Indeed I do," came the dry reply. "Now, shall we play?"
"I will beat you this time, you know."
Salazar smirked. "You say that every night, and you have still to carry through on your promise."
"Stop crowing," Godric grumbled, "It's a bad look on you. Besides, I was going to suggest we change it up a bit tonight."
"I'm already interested," the dark haired man said with a touch of dry sarcasm.
"Do you think you feel up to playing white tonight?" Godric challenged. "Let's see how well you'll do when you're playing with an unfamiliar colour."
Instead of replying, Salazar levitated the chess set from the high shelf where it was kept towards the two men. As the brilliantly hand-crafted pieces began arranging themselves on the board, Salazar threw Godric a challenging smile. "Shall we start?" he murmured as the board turned so that the white pieces were in front of him and the black ones in front of Godric.
"We shall," the fair haired man replied. "Your move, Sal."
Note: For those of you who have seen X-Men: First Class, my idea for the chess games is much like the games that Charles and Erik play in the movie. And if you want to read something more into both this fic and the movie, well, who am I to stop you? ;)
As always, I hope you guys like it, and don't forget to drop a review on your way out :)