Disclaimer: Since this is just the prologue, I'm going to say that JK Rowling is the best thing to hit the planet earth, and that I'm not really responsible for what she does to her characters. (Be prepared for some more disclaimer zingers everyone! I'm hoping to get help with them too, so review, and give me some of your best ones!)
Harry Potter and the Founder's SwordPrologue –
A Thousand Years Ago
Parry, thrust.
-Clang!-
Shift left, parry, parry, thrust.
-Clang!- -Crash!-
Be certain to think about your footwork now! Parry, thrust, parry…
-Clang!- -Zingg!-
"Ugh!"
Damn!… Concentrate! This isn't the training field!
"Godric, my dear, you're a waste of a sword."
Without lowering his weapon, Godric Gryffindor swiped the blood away from the gash on his upper arm. "I could say the same for you, Salazar, I can recall many a fight we've had where you were injured," he informed him in as calm a voice as possible, and lunged again, hoping to catch his enemy off balance.
Or perhaps this was his friend?
The semantics no longer really mattered. Salazar was wrong, and he had to see the error of his ways before too many people were murdered. If that meant killing him to keep everyone safe, he would do it. It would break his heart, but he would do it.
Salazar Slytherin smacked Godric's sword away with the blunt face of his own. He grinned, and Godric was reminded of the sneaky littlesquire he'd once befriended. Salazar was surely up to something. It was evident in his eyes.
He stepped back for a moment, and waved his wand over the black and green bejeweled pommel ofhis sword. When he threw himself back into the duel, the next parry was extremely heavy and difficult for Gryffindor to stop. The clang echoed around the chamber, and Godric saw his men wince and shuffle forward again.
"Not now!" he called out to them, knowing even before he looked at it, that his own sword was chipped. "Salazar, we promised that this fight would be sword against sword! There is to be no magic!" Godric's soldiers put their wands away, but kept their swords trained on their enemies.
Salazar sneered, and attacked again. "I have an excellent memory, Godric. But I do remember you saying we weren't allowed to use magicon each other."
Another burning slice was taken from Godric's thigh when the next blow came too strong for him to stop it entirely.
"As you can see," Salazar continued, "I am simply using the magic on my sword, not onyou."
Godric's eyes sparked with a sudden hatred. "Then you won't mind if I do the same." He pulled his wand out with his left hand, and waved it at his own ruby studded sword.
Very quickly, the battle became even again, and the fighters continued the duel. Salazar moved again with his wand, and the sword began to glow.
"Salazar, you wretch!" Godric spat, his throat closing up at the thought that he could die very quickly and painfully if that sword were to even touch him. Far be it though for him to fight a battle that wasn't fair. He quickly added the same poisoning feature to his own sword.
Godric knew that both his squires and Salazar's were eyeing each other from across the hall with distaste, their hands gripped tightly on their swords. They were very near joining in. His own squires were desperate to see that the fight was even and fairfor their lord, and Salazar's men were desperate to see that it was not. The only thing stopping them now was their lords' orders. Based on the tactics he'd used in this fight thus far, Salazar would likely wish to soon repeal those orders, and Godric would of course, need to kill his opponent before that could happen. The thought repulsed him. How could he kill the man who had in his younger years been his best friend and ally?
Between parries, Salazar added another feature to his sword with a defiant red spark from his wand. Now the sword was not only invincible, and glowed with the poisonous light, it also let off those shameless red sparks of dark magic; painful only to those who denied themselves it's awesome power.
Godric had no such magic, or at the very least, he refused to use that sort of charm. As far as he was concerned, winning a battle with your enemy was not worth losing your morals to do so.
The sparking sword came down upon him, and the instant his own came up to defend the attack, his body became ensconced in a wall of excruciating pain.
The sword lifted away, and immediately Salazar attacked again. Godric knew that he could not properly defend himself from such a sword, so he rolled away from the swing.
How could he fight this sort ofbattle? Salazar had never been a fair man, but to employ such tactics was beyond what Godric had ever expected.
"Salazar, how could you!" he said, bringing up his sword to fight off another blow, and wincing with the pain that immediately wracked his body. He rolled away again, and Salazar's blade pierced the rock floor of the chamber.
"My lord!" came a call, and Salazar nodded, "it is indeed time. Kill them."
"NO!" Godric yelled, watching as Salazar's green-clad squires pulled their own swords, and went to attack the men two men dressed in red.
The clanging of the swords distracted Salazar for a moment, as he smirked fiendishly at the methods his men used against their foes. They were more than ruthless, and Godric's men were felled quickly when they realised that their wands had been locked in place magically by Salazar's men when they were not looking. Both of his men finished their foes, nodded in obedience to their lord, and left the chamber.
Godric, who now lay terrified and in pain on the cold stone floor, looked over helplessly at the dead and staring bodies of his squires. He hated to think that those heaps of robe had once been his friends, and a wave of powerfulhatred swept through him. He lashed out in anger with his sword slicing at Salazar's ankles, just barely nicking the skin. However, he knew it would be enough. The poison infused on his sword would doubtless complete the work he was unable to. Salazar leapt back, his eyes filled with roaring anger, and he once more brought his sword down against Godric's.
The pain infused his body again, and Godric felt as if he were being torn to shreds. He knew that death was approaching, and hoped that his legacy would survive. Thank goodness he had believed the Seer, and sent his children away from the castle so quickly. Soon both he and Salazar would be dead. He from the inevitable strike of Salazar's pain infused blade, and Salazar from the two almost invisible poisoned cuts on his ankles.
"So, you think your children are safe, do you?" Salazar asked viciously, knowing exactly what Godric was thinking, or perhaps he'd simply remembered about his former friend's love for those he'd sired. "My men tell me that they have reached the forest, but daren't go further. I believe they wait for you there, even still."
Godric winced as his enemy now stood back, and circled his prone and twitching body. He couldn't speak, the pain was so intense, and his body convulsed as if after torture. He could just barely raise his blade anymore.
He knew his daughter only stayed because she wanted to see what had befallen her father. He'd sent her off to Hogwarts to let Rowena know what had happened, but evidently she still thought she could rescue him. Such a brave young girl; almost foolishly so.
At the news of his death, no doubt she would wish revenge against Salazar and his family. But Salazar would be dead, and there was little she could do today. She was still quite young, too young for any thoughts of revenge, and of course, she would now have her two younger brothers to look after. The revenge would have to be forfeit. Someone else would deal the revenge at a later time, in a more appropriate manner. Godric prayed that she was intelligent enough to see this.
"I will follow your children for the rest of their lives." Salazar hounded him mercilessly, as his blade continued to fill him with unmentionable pain. "I will rape your daughter, and I will kill your sons. They will never truly be rid of me." It sounded like a promise, but Godric knew it couldn't be. It would all be over when the poison finally reached Salazar's heart. Despite this knowledge, Godric grimaced. The honesty in Salazar's gleaming eyes during his threat was too much for his self-control. He found it very difficult to reconcile the fact that the whole war had been started because his daughter had wished him to betroth her to a muggle. He'd naturally consented. She was his only daughter after all, and she was a true prize for any man. The muggle boy had saved her life, and from what Godric could tell, he was strong and worthy.
Salazar had disagreed. And here he was now, threatening her purity.
Godric pushed away with every speck of power he held, and swung blindly again. Since Salazar had thought him already reasonably incapacitated, the sword was able to bring a deeper slash again across the man's cheek. Salazar immediately brought down his sword again in retaliation against Godric's, and the two charged blades met in the middle, with Salazar pressing his own further and further towards Godric's chest. The whole time, Godric writhed on the floor in waves of agony. He was somehow able to search out wells of energy that he didn't know he owned to fight off his old friend's sword.
"I swear that my family will have their revenge." Godric answered, breathing heavily into Salazar's shoulder, and shuddering at the mounting pain that coursed through his body.
"And I swear that they will forever seek it, but fail endlessly." Salazar spat back, showing crooked teeth to his old friend. "I will be merciful then, kill you quickly, and show your children exactly what they have missed. It will serve to keep them humble. A thousand years will pass, and they will never prevail."
Godric actually nodded, and when Salazar backed off, he let his sword drop beside him. It was hopeless, it was suicide, but in a way he hoped it would be martyrdom too. It was a difficult thing to resign himself to, but he prayed the cause would not suffer.
Salazar growled with glee, and brought down his sword, this time cutting short Godric's last desperate thought of how he would at last see his wife.
The beloved ruby studded sword vanished from the stone floor where it had been dropped, and crimson blood soaked into the stones beneath what remained of Godric Gryffindor's body.
Salazar Slytherin spared the now headless corpse not one last glance before he limped from the room to inform his son of his final requests.