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Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry:
Fantastic Beasts and How to Collect Them: 39. Chinese Fireball (character) Godric Gryffindor
365 Prompts: 146. (character) Godric Gryffindor
Scavenger Hunt: 75. Write about one half of your OTP dying.
Advent Calendar: Day 12. (pairing) Godric/Salazar
Days of the Year: January 23rd - Write about someone writing a letter or note.
National Bird Day: Goldfinch (genre) romance
Appreciate a Dragon Day: Falkor (Neverending Story) (word) optimistic
Crystals and Gemstones: Green Opal (word) heartache
Tarot Reading: The World - Write about something coming to an end.
Slytherin Challenge Alphabetti: G - (character) Godric Gryffindor
International Wizarding School Competition:
Practice Round 4: Theme One Regret (Quote) Sometimes you get so close to someone you end up on the other side of them. Richard Siken
Monthly Challenges for All:
Link Maker: Same Ship Type (romantic/sexual), 1,919 words
Fall Bingo: 4A (Owl) 1,919 words
Community Garden: Mixed Bag (Angst) 1,919 words
Warning for character death, Hanahaki Disease trope, Unrequited Love trope, and a slight bit out of character. The word count is 1,919 words. I hope you all enjoy Godric's Love.
The cold wind whistled through the towers that housed his rooms as another resounding hacking cough brought with the taste of blood and roses. Godric had known this wasn't going to get better. In fact, he figured that it wouldn't ever get any better.
"The new cure didn't work, did it, Godric?" asked Helga, wringing her hands as she glanced toward the window where her greenhouses could be seen.
Godric shook his head another racking cough sending his body into shivers. His chest heaved with the effort of just breathing. He could tell that Helga was disappointed in herself for not finding the cure.
"We can try again tomorrow, Helga," Godric said, feeling the shivers leave his body as a heat he thought was impossible in his illness took hold of him. "I grow tired and would like to be alone."
"But Godric…."
"Please, Helga," he plead, looking up at her with his blood shot eyes from lack of sleep. He could feel a small amount of the blood he'd hacked up rolling down his chin and mentally cursed himself for not being mindful enough of his condition.
"Godric, we need to find the cure and now," Helga said, glancing towards the greenhouse once more as though hoping some cure could be found there. "You read what they said would happen when the victim started to cough up blood, didn't you?"
"I did," Godric said, laying his hands upon the blanket that was tucked around him. "But I do not think that the cure for this disease can be found out in your greenhouses, my dear, Helga,"
Godric had known this fact from the moment that he'd read the research that Helga had presented him a while back on his disease. It was nearly uncontrollable. The victim nine times out of ten died of the illness.
"Godric, anything can be cured by…."
It was now his turn to question her on her reading of the research but he just couldn't bring himself to do it. He knew that Helga was only trying to help him in that very Helga Hufflepuff way that she had. To tell her that no what she did he would still end up dying would be a sin and a shame. And he wasn't about to disappoint her. Not yet.
"I suppose then you should go and try and find another cure," Godric said, hoping she'd take the hint and leave him be. It was embarrassing for the once brave and chivalrous Gryffindor to be seen as weak and frightened.
"Don't worry, Godric," she said, hastening to leave his rooms, "I will find the cure and everything will be alright."
Godric snorted after making sure that Helga was long gone. He knew that there was never going to be alright. He'd known that the moment that Salazar had left. He'd known that the moment that he admitted to himself that his feelings for Godric were more than that of friendship. He just never knew that it would lead to his death going down this path.
He stood up on shaky legs that seemed much weaker than they had yesterday. He could feel them tremble as he made his way over to his writing desk. He could hear Helga right now chiding him for being out of bed and Rowena being in frank agreement stating all the medical reasons for him staying in bed. But he knew that if he didn't write this letter now he would never get the chance to do so.
Picturing Salazar's face with its dark angles and features, he put quill to paper and wrote the words that came to his mind. No not his mind. The words that came to his heart. He hoped that they would be a comfort to Salazar when he, Godric, was no longer.
My dearest Salazar,
It has been a while since we have spoken and I miss you more now than I have ever missed you before. I want to start this letter off by saying that I wish that things had ended better for our group of friends. It was not my intention to make you flee the castle. It was my intention to bring the four of us closer. But intentions aren't everything and what I had hoped for didn't come to pass. I'm so very sorry, my dearest, dearest friend.
I am secondly writing to say that by the time you receive this letter I may be gone from this world. It was not my choice to leave you. But if I must I will. I am afraid to die, Salazar. Not because I fear where I may be going. I am afraid for you. For you, and Helga, and Rowena. Not because I don't know what you will all do once I'm gone. I"m pretty sure that once I am gone hostilities will start up again. At least on Rowena's part. But I am afraid of losing what might have been. What could have been if we hadn't hardened our hearts against each other.
This brings me to another thing that I must say to you, my Salazar. A thing that I wish could be said out loud. Shouted from the very mountain tops for all to hear. But it is not an acceptable thing for a proper gentleman in our society. Thus, I must be content with writing it to you.
I love you, Salazar. I have loved you with all of my heart, soul, and entire being. I have loved you since we were young children together. Playing at knights on our stick horses. Protecting the honor of Helga and Rowena. I have loved you through everything that we have been through. The building of the school and the schism that followed after it. I have loved even when I threw down the ultimatum to choose between your ideals and us, your friends. I have loved you as you walked away from us even though I knew you would never return.
It broke my heart to have to say those things to you. It broke everything inside of me and there is no way to fix it. You are the only way but by the time this letter reaches you, I will be gone. I will be gone and my words will be just that. Words of a man who was too afraid to love and be loved in return. I am sorry these words have come to you too late, my Salazar. I'm sorry we never had our time. I am sorry. I am sorry. I am sorry.
Loving you forever in eternity,
Godric
He turned his head as a coughing fit overtook him. He didn't want his words to Salazar to be marred by this disease. He wanted them to arrive fresh and pristine as the moment his quill had laid them upon the paper.
He put the parchment paper into an envelope made of the finest parchment and addressed it to the last known address of Salazar Slytherin. Calling his owl over, he quickly tied the letter to the owl's outstretched leg. Even his owl seemed to know that something was wrong.
"You must be brave, my dear Hooty," he told the owl. "You are to stay with Salazar now. He will take care of you very well."
Another round of rough coughs spread through his body as he sent the confused owl on its way. He stood up trembling legs once more and started to make his way across the room. It was during this trip that his final bout of coughing hit him like a boulder rolling down a hill. He hacked and hacked and hacked until he fell upon his knees unable to catch his breath. He hacked until he had no more breath to do so and then he fell to the floor dead.
Salazar was staring morosely out the window of his family castle. It had been over five years since his friends had made him leave the castle and he felt lonely. More lonely than he'd felt in years. But today there is something different mixed in with the loneliness. Something that made him even more morose. He just couldn't put his finger on what it was.
That was when he saw Godric's owl flying towards him. He couldn't help letting his heart hope that the others had changed their mind about letting him leave. Perhaps Godric was writing to tell him to come back and they could be friends again. He couldn't allow his heart to hope for more than that. After all, Godric and Helga were very close. He was pretty sure that they'd marry and have children. Thus when he'd been forced to leave a part of him was relieved. Relieved that he wouldn't have to watch Godric and Helga's romance bloom and flower into love.
The owl tapped upon the window sill with its beak. Hooty was giving him the same exasperated look that he'd used to give Salazar when he'd bring letters from Godric at the castle. It was almost like his mother's disapproving look when he'd declined to marry the last three women that had been proposed for brides for him.
"Don't get your knickers in a twist, Hooty," he said, opening the window and allowing the owl in. He walked over to the chair that Hooty had perched himself on and took the envelope attached to the owl's leg.
A smile spread over his face as he recognized Godric's handwriting. Perhaps he had been right all along. Godric was writing to bring him back. Things would be going back to the way that they should be.
But then he'd opened the letter and with a sinking heart, he read Godric's words to him. Why now at the end did Godric feel the need to say it? He could have told Salazar how he felt a number of times. He could have fought to keep Salazar around and Salazar could have been there to be with his love during his final moments.
He reread the last paragraph over and over again. He wished that he'd have known how Godric felt before now. He could have told Godric how he felt. He too had been in love with Godric Gryffindor for a long time. He too felt the conformity of the times they were living in crashing down upon him.
The cream color parchment still smelt of Godric and holding it close made it feel like Godric was here with him.
"Salazar," his mother called from somewhere nearby, "a letter has just arrived for you from that school of yours."
Salazar walked numbly down the stairs already knowing what the letter would say before he'd read. It was going to say that Godric was dead and he'd lost his chance at love.
Accepting the letter from a family servant Salazar read the words that he had known would be written in it. His heart shattered to tiny pieces upon the ground as he did so. From that moment on Salazar promised himself that he would never fall in love again. He would protect his heart from this aching.
"Mother, I have changed my mind about the Bulstrode girl," he told his mother, crunching the parchment up and tossing it upon the fire.
His mother started to make arrangements to reach out to the Bulstrodes as Salazar watched the paper and his heart go up in flames. It is what his Godric would want.
I hope you all enjoyed Godric's Love as much as I enjoyed writing it.