AN: Not only do I not own anything, but I did absolutely no research on JK Rowling's characters other than the books and movies. I seriously doubt this will match anything that has been released, but who knows, it might.

Chapter 1: Godric

Wiping the sweat from his forehead, a tall man in plate armor leans against a scarred tree. This man was rather muscular and built like he had been raised swinging his great sword. With eyes that almost seemed golden, dark auburn hair that just couldn't be tamed and a wild beard of the same color, add in his prowess on the battlefield and you can understand why his men call him the Lion. He started slowly surveying the bedlam around him. The ground on the particular stretch of road was currently cluttered with bodies missing limbs, and a corresponding number of limbs missing bodies.

"Well Ric, that's another group of bandits taken care of."

"I've told you before not to call me Ric" sighed the man leaning on a tree. "My mother and father went to the trouble of naming me, please don't ignore all that work they put in and call me Godric."

With this said, he looked up from the carnage into the eyes of his fellow knight and friend. Shifting his eyes he counted how many men were still standing, the numbers were better than expected, but not as good as desired.

"How many did we lose?"

"Three dead, two injured beyond help and five that'll need time to heal."

"Alright, let's collect everyone and head home. I'm sure my father will want to hear our report, and I need to talk to the families of these men." Godric pushed off the tree with a little effort.

—

Slowly riding through the gate and onto the grounds of a moderately luxurious manor, Godric looked around and finally started to relax as the feeling of "home" started settling in. The smell of the flowers from the gardens reminding him of his mother and a time before he had to defend his homelands.

The last five years had been hard on him. Yes, he had been trained in swordplay and all the other disciplines necessary to be a knight, but all the training in the world can't prepare you for actually taking a life. And there was no training in how to deal with losing friends. It had been five years since this self styled Lord Deus had announced himself and started uniting the bandit gangs.

In all these years, not once have they been able to corner this Lord. Every time Godric felt like he was close, Deus just seemed to melt away into the shadows. This helped grow his mystique and created an awe amongst his followers and unease and fear in his enemies.

What only Godric and a select handful of people knew however, was that Deus was in fact a wizard. Godric kept this information on a need to know basis due to the superstitious attitude prevalent in the common people. Those same people that trusted Godric with their life and the lives of their families, would turn on him in a heartbeat if he was ever exposed as being a wizard.

Godric saw the destruction that could be wrought by the masses first hand when he was a young child. His father made sure he saw the people dragging what just the day before were friends and family from their homes violently. He watched helplessly as there was no trial, no proof provided, just suspicion and hearsay. The mob jeered as they strung up former drinking buddies and their children's young friends to posts in the main square. He was forbidden from looking away as the fires were lit and the screams ripped through the air.

"This is why our magic must remain a secret my son," his father told him with I shed tears in his own eyes. "The church has taught the commoners that magic is only given by demons and can only be used for evil. They don't know any better and as such they fear it. And fear, well fear is the greatest motivator of destruction."

Godric vowed to himself right there that he'd try to better this world, he'd try to educate at least the families of people with magic that it wasn't an evil possession, but rather a gift given. He would remove the ignorance and the fear and create a safe world for people like him and his parents. For all people with magic.

Of course back then he had never heard of Lord Deus. He had never seen a person with Magic's gift use it for anything other than good and beneficial reasons. Deus used his magic to remove a person's will and force them to do his bidding. He tortured and maimed, raped and killed, and all with magic.

This alone drove Godric to want to destroy him. How dare he turn such a beautiful thing like magic to such ugly actions? Godric found Deus to be more repugnant than the people who feared magic, for where their actions are driven by fear and ignorance, Deus did not have this excuse. He knew his magic hadn't been a deal with a devil, he knew he could do good with it, but he chose to be repulsive, he chose to be vile, he chose to be evil. And for this, for choosing to turn the gift his parents had taught him about, the gift he had seen perform wonders, to see someone choose to turn it to such malicious and selfish acts, was in Godric's mind, unforgivable.

Godric has taken the time to slowly introduce magic to his closest confidants. It took him weeks to convince them he wasn't crazy or possessed. He showed them the wonders that could be achieved. His mother's potions that could help cure fevers and calm the distraught. His father's ability to change objects into anything he wanted, to move from one place to another almost instantly. His own abilities that he used in combat to gently push away a strike that would have been fatal or create a wind gust at just the right times to shift an arrow's trajectory to ensure it didn't catch him. He displayed his very minor healing talents by calming injured friends and slowing blood loss as well as he could until they were able to reach a doctor.

It took even longer for them to be around him using magic without fear in their eyes, but now they were his stoutest supporters. They were his generals and lieutenants and they helped lead his force against the bandits without revealing his secrets.

All these thoughts, memories and feelings went through his head on the jaunt to his family's manor. After dismounting and handing off his horse to the stable boys. He entered his home in search of his parents.

"Godric darling, we're in the tea room" drifted the melodious sound of his mother's voice.

Upon entering said tea room, he noticed his parents were not alone. With them sat a man who was older than himself, but significantly younger than his parents. This man was slender, not too thin, just trim. He had dark hair pulled back in a ponytail and a short goatee. His emerald green eyes seemed to glow under his prominent eyebrows. As he stood up Godric realized they were of a similar height.

"Hello there, you must be Godric," his voice was low, but not menacing. It reminded Godric of the rustle of the undergrowth as an animal moved through it. "I hear you are having a problem with a monster calling himself Deus." Deus was said with such venom that Godric knew there was something personal involved. "I've hunted him for years, I want him destroyed and I've decided the best way to do that is to offer my services to you and your family."

Was this guy crazy? "And what pray tell do you think you can offer that my other knights cannot? Why do you feel you would be so beneficial in this fight?"

The man chuckled slightly, "Let me introduce myself and then I'll explain. My name is Salazar Slytherin."