Title: Discord
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter
Warnings: N/A
Prompts:
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardry (Challenges & Assignments) : History of Magic (Assignment 1) : Write a story taking place during or soon after the founding of Hogwarts. The inclusion of any or all of the four Hogwarts Founders in your story is optional. (Time Period Task)
Word Count: 764
Notes: N/A
Summary: Godric and Rowena discuss some of the fundamental obstacles of the realisation of their dreams.


Rowena entered her office followed closely by Godric, their golden and dark heads close together as they discussed something animatedly. After several minutes of pacing across the room Rowena flung her hands up in the air in exasperation and whirled around to face her companion.

"Godric this is ridiculous. I mean - your hat? Really? We're going to determine the most important qualities about our students with your hat? Surely some kind of test would be more sensible-"

"Like a quest?" He offered, brightening up at the idea of a way for the students to prove their value. His mind was already full of challenges that they could pose to their students. Anyone who could face a dragon was surely worthy, anyone who could face down a banshee or a werewolf deserved a place at the school. The rest... well if they couldn't face their fears then did they really deserve an education in the magical arts? After all, magic could be dangerous.

Rowena sighed distracting his train of though. She threw herself down into her chair, clearly agitated. "Perhaps the hat isn't such a stupid idea after all. At least it's something that doesn't seem to deeply offend anyone in particular."

He watched, bewildered, at her apparent change of heart. It was a good job that the witch had enough brains for the two of them, for Godric Gryffindor would never be know as an intellectual genius. It was hard enough for him to keep up with her when she knew what she wanted; this state of indecisiveness was impossible to follow.

She continued talking, and although he wasn't sure how she had somehow manage to switch conversation topics he was perfectly happy to simply follow her lead.

"I'm worried about Helga. She's been baking almost non stop for weeks" What he had failed to notice, or perhaps refused to notice, was that this whole plan, everything that they had been working on for years, was slowly but surely tearing them apart.

Predictably, his answer was blunt, to the point, and did nothing to assuage her concerns. "I know. It's bloody annoying." After all, there were only so many cakes that could fit onto the tables in the dining hall, and they certainly weren't going to eat all of them. Much as he did like the witch's cooking, it was hard to cut a dashing figure when one had eaten plate after plate of pies.

Rowena shot her fellow founder a sharp look. "You know that she bakes when she's stressed. At least her hobby is harmless, unlike the duels that you and Salazar seem to be constantly engaged in. You almost burnt down my tapestries yesterday."

Godric groaned. "Don't worry, it's all just a game. Very rarely do I actually want to kill the man."

"Don't even joke about that."

She sighed, pushing her hair back from her face. "Sometimes I wonder what we're even doing here. I mean, this is insane. Who would try to do such a huge project? And if we can't even agree on the simple things, how can we possibly pull this off?"

Godric rolled his eyes. The woman was such a pessimist. Rowena had a brilliant mind, but so rarely did she allow herself to have hope, or put any faith in their chances. All she could see were the problems and when solutions evaded her she gave up too easily

He leant forwards, spreading her papers across the table. "Because we have you. Look at all of this." A sweeping hand gesture encompassed the entire room. Scrolls of parchment were suspended in the air, pictures and sketches and diagrams were pinned to the walls, and books were stacked up in piles everywhere. "Listen. Helga's not the only one who's stressed. You need to relax. We can do this. You can do this."

Rowena looked up at him in surprise. So rarely did he ever say anything so profound that she had forgotten he knew how to motivate them, how to unite them to produce something incredible. After all, Godric was the one with enough confidence and trust in the whole stupid venture for all of them.

"Don't look so surprised. I do have a brain, you know"

She smiled as he returned to his usual self, battling seriousness with humour. He could joke all that he liked, but she knew that underneath he had a much deeper side.

"Come on. We've got work to do."