Entry for Ancient Runes at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

Task: Write about a character finding light in the darkness - you're free to interpret this however you want!

Extra Prompt: (word) despair

Saltatio Mortis – Als die Waffen schwiegen (When the weapons fell silent). A beautiful song from my favourite band about the Christmas truce 1914 that made me tear up when I listened to it.

World War I!AU

I know, this is totally the wrong time of year, but a call for peace is never misplaced.

Thank you to Emily, who betaed this for me! :)

(2700 Words)

A Silent Night At The Western Front

Snowflakes quietly fell from the heavens, being blown over the scarred piece of earth that seemed to stretch endlessly. As far as the eye could see, the soil had been dug up, wood-supported trenches that were many kilometers long wound through the landscape. They were deep marks, a reminder of the destruction that was happening at the site.

Several hundred meters separated the parallel trenches; a death zone, full of churned soil, barbed wire and dead soldiers in uniforms from both sides. They were still hanging in the wires, motionless; horrific memorials to those men cowering in defilade, reminding them that they could soon join their comrades and enemies in death.

The cold air was filled with the nauseous smell of burned earth, decaying flesh, mingled with the clean scent of fresh snow. As the white flakes landed on the battlefield, it covered this picture of death and doom with a light blanket. It was as if Mother Earth wanted to conceal the scars that these human beings had inflicted upon her.

Godric Gryffindor pulled his scarf higher to cover his mouth and nose as he left the wooden shelter. The place that was not much more than a cave under the earth had been his sleeping place for weeks now after sunset. His watch was about to start, and he wanted to give the letter meant for his family to the messenger before he left to their rear emplacements, the place where all their supplies came from.

In this hell, he'd nearly forgotten that it was Christmas; time seemed relative when you moved through a tangle of trenches every day, far away from civilisation. He'd come to realise that he was losing his connection to the things of daily life down here, where death could take him away at any given hour. And so he had forgotten that it was Christmas, the feast of love. Maybe he hadn't remembered because in the trenches - there was no love or joy and the only thing waiting for them was death and despair.

He'd written his parents to assure them that he was okay and that they even had a Christmas tree here. It was a peaky exemplar of a fir tree, as it had been growing right next to their eastern trench and had lost most of its rooting when they had expanded that part of their position.

They didn't really have much to decorate it with, only some ornaments made out of old newspapers and cigarette boxes.

But the men had all agreed that it was better than nothing, and to Godric, telling his parents about their Christmas tree was acting as if this war wasn't as lethal as it really was.

With his rifle in his hands, he walked up to his comrade and took over the watch from him. Squinting his eyes against the cold wind, he stared over the edge of the trench, his gaze wandering over the death zone, searching for any trace of an attack; his rifle constantly aimed in the direction of the German trenches, ready to shoot.

But the air was filled with silence.

...

Es war kalt in Flandern, am Weihnachtstag

Nach zu vielen Kriegen

Im Jahr 1914, Winter der Welt

Als die Waffen schwiegen

Aus den Schützengräben, gegen den Tod,

Klang ein einfaches Lied

In vielen Sprachen ein "Stille Nacht"

Das zum Wunder geriet

…

As he cowered there, pressed against the wall of the trench, dirt covering his uniform, Godric felt a little bit homesick. He missed his family, and their joyous Christmas celebrations. His mother's plum pudding, his father's brandy and the old Christmas tales that he would read to his little sister, even though they were both young adults already. Warmth filled him at the memory of them singing Christmas carols in front of the fireplace, drinking hot chocolate and eating biscuits.

Before he could hold himself back, he started humming the melody of "Silent Night", his heart heavy in longing for his home and his family.

And as he stood there, his comrades walking by picked up the tune, one after the other, joining him in his little yearning for home and for peace. They started quietly, shaky, but with every line, their voices grew steadier. Before Godric realised what had happened, the melody was floating loudly through the cold air above the trenches. When he turned around once or twice, he could spot the smiles on the faces of his comrades, filled with the same sadness and longing he had felt earlier.

Godric didn't really register how men all around him lit candles, small flames in the darkness. Their warm light made the trench feel a little bit less like the hopeless place it was, and soon, his comrades had placed so many along the rim of their position that the night appeared to be chased away.

The singing grew more and more powerful, and it made Godric's heart vibrate; tears stung in his eyes as he thought that every single man here probably just wanted to do one thing: go home.

...

Als die Waffen schwiegen

Und Stille ausbrach

Ein Lied aus den Gräben

Frieden versprach

Für einen Moment wollt' keiner mehr Siegen

Der Soldat war auch Mensch

Als die Waffen schwiegen

…

Some of the voices close to Godric sounded choked as they sang the Christmas song, and Godric realised that they were crying openly.

In this moment, a thought crossed his mind – this must be the first time in a long time they were only human. They'd been fighting for months now, and the military leaders were shoving them onto the battlefield like they moved and sacrificed figurines on a chessboard. Being a number, one of thousands, they were only there to kill the enemy or die for the King and the Motherland.

And sometimes, they too forgot about their beating hearts when they stormed past fallen comrades and killed other human beings, for a cause they didn't really understood at times. They were marionettes, fighting and dying because others had decided that this war was necessary. Dying for a conflict that wasn't their own.

But tonight, every single soldier remembered what was really important in life.

It wasn't that they survived to the next day, or that they managed to forge ahead at a strategically important point of the front.

What was really important in life was love.

He knew that many of these men had a girl at home, or even a wife, some of them pregnant. Godric couldn't imagine how they must feel, sitting here, far away from their wives, some of them dying before they'd even heard about the birth of their baby, without having had the opportunity to hold that child at least once. When he looked at them, seeing those strong men literally break, he was glad that he didn't have a girl at home that he had to worry about.

Worrying about his family already was enough.

Though the war was happening far away from them, on the other side of the channel, he knew that they weren't going to be safe for long. The Germans were capable of airstrikes already, and he was sure that it wouldn't take long until their zeppelins and aircrafts would succeed in crossing the English Channel. And London would be their first target.

Pushing his concern for his family's safety down, he tried to come back to the here and now, to this little moment of something that reminded him of peace.

Something had changed, though.

Through the dimly lit night, voices had joined the soldiers in their singing. The familiar melody wafted through the air, closing the distance of not even one hundred meters between the two trenches, and the foreign words made Godric's heart jump.

He couldn't believe it, but it was really happening. The Germans had joined them in singing 'Silent Night', and the two languages, English and German, mixed. It was a special moment, one that had always seemed so impossible to him, for they were enemies, here to kill each other.

But here they were, singing together over the trenches, and Godric thought he could hear the same longing in their voices that he carried in his heart.

...

Ein Meer voller Kerzen, längs den Gräben

Erhellte die Nacht

Und mutige Posten, hoben die Hände

Verließen die Wacht

Bald sangen zusammen

Feinde, Soldaten

Über Gräben hinweg

Feierten Weihnacht

Im Krieg, mit Tod und mit Dreck

…

As Godric listened to the choir of soldiers from both sides, he felt like something extraordinary, something unique was happening, at least for these times full of enmity and conflicts.

For the first time in many weeks, he realised that they were only human too, and he thought about how wrong it appeared to be to sit here and wait. To wait for the feared moment in which one side decided that it was time to start shooting again.

Taking off his helmet, he asked himself what could be wrong about using this temporary truce to see the men that were sitting in the trench opposite to them?

He couldn't really explain why he was doing this; he was acting on a feeling as he carefully raised his helmet over the rim of the trench, so the post on the other side could see his movement. Godric could hear some of his comrades whispering behind him, asking him what he was doing, but he ignored them, trying to stay as calm as possible as he raised, exposing his head and torso to every marksman waiting on the other side.

"Ein Tommy! Da bewegt sich einer! Die Tommys greifen an!"

He heard the screams on the other side, but couldn't understand what they were saying, even though he could tell that they were alarmed. The adrenaline was rushing through his veins as he slowly lay his weapon onto the ground, clear for everyone to see, and climbed out of the trench, raising his hands.

It was entirely possible that they would shoot him, believing that he was trying to trick them, but now he had come so far he didn't wanted to go back. Many of the men close to the scene had stopped singing, shocked about what they were seeing.

Godric could feel his heart racing in his chest as he took a tentative step forwards, staring at the trench he was walking towards. Everybody seemed to hold their breaths, silence and a big amount of tension hung in the air, and he wasn't too surprised when he heard the click of a weapon's safety catch being released.

"Wartet! Er ist unbewaffnet!"

"Salazar! Was tust du denn?!"

Surprise and relief flooded Godric as he saw how a soldier climbed out of the trench and mirrored Godric in raising his hands. He had to be about his age, and short, black hair was visible underneath his cap.

"Nicht schießen!" the young man exclaimed, seemingly saying this to his comrades as much as to Godric's, who surely had grabbed their weapons as well. Slowly, he walked closer, keeping eye contact with Godric. As he came to stop in front of him, they looked at each other for quite some time, neither of them daring to move.

Then, Godric took a deep breath and extended his hand to offer it to the German soldier, saying: "Hello. My name is Godric."

Immediately, a grin flashed over the features of the man, and he took Godric's hand, shaking it quickly while answering: "Mein Name ist Salazar."

...

In dem Moment lag so viel Hoffnung

In dem Moment lag so viel Glück

Der Moment war ein Versprechen, doch der Weg führte zurück

Zurück zu kalten Schützengräben

Zurück zu Leid und Tod

Jede Hoffnung war erloschen

Im Morgenrot

Als die Waffen schwiegen…

…

It felt like a dream to Godric as the hesitation of the moment vanished and the soldiers of both sides left their trenches, one after the other. None of the officers objected to this; they joined their soldiers as they walked through the deathzone to greet the soldiers of the other country. He could see some of the soldiers immediately engage in conversation; he assumed that they were speaking English or German respectively, and he wished he had learnt a foreign language.

However, he still was able to communicate with the young man called Salazar; they used hands and feet to describe the words the other couldn't understand. Soon, men of both sides had brought food and drink to their little meeting place and, after they carried away the bodies, they started sharing. The Germans had a whole barrel of beer while Godric's comrades brought the tobacco and the scones they had received with their Princess Mary Boxes.

They started singing again after having told each other jokes that some of the men translated for the other side, and Godric couldn't help but smile. It was a beautiful moment; one that gave him hope that humanity wasn't lost yet, no matter how many had fallen already.

And seeing enemies laugh and sing together like friends strengthened this hope; he knew that these men had no antipathy against them. If they hadn't been at war, he could have become friends with Salazar. He appeared to be a nice guy; he shared some of his biscuits with him and showed him the picture of a beautiful girl, and even though Godric didn't understand more than her name, Helga, he felt a connection to him.

Language barriers didn't matter.

Nationalities didn't matter.

The war didn't matter, and neither did their surroundings.

In this moment, they were just two groups of men who were celebrating Christmas together, far away from home, and shared what they had; they kept each other company. Sitting together, trying to compensate being away from their families and loved ones, seemed like a promise that freedom was possible; that friendship between their nations was possible.

Godric felt like he was with friends as they sat by hastily lit campfires and talked, showing each other pictures of home.

But as dawn approached fast, painting the sky in the most beautiful shades of gold and red, Godric, Salazar and the other men were reminded of the harsh reality they were living in. Far away, they could hear explosions, and immediately, the spell that had hung over them broke. Everybody stood up, grabbing the items they had brought with them and walked to their respective trench.

"Auf Wiedersehen," Salazar said softly to Godric as they looked at each other, and Godric felt sad at the thought that he would probably never see Salazar again. Taking his hand, like hours earlier when they had met in the middle of the death zone, he shook it, and nodded at the other man.

"Goodbye."

After sharing a short smile, they both turned around and before Godric knew it, he was standing in his trench and was loading his weapon, bullets whizzing through the air above them. The past hours now appeared to be a distant dream as he heard the screams all around him.

And once again, the despair returned, grasping his heart with its cold fingers, and he asked himself when the killing would finally end.

It was cold in Flandern, on Christmas day

After too many wars

In the year of 1914, winter of the world

When the weapons fell silent

From the trenches, against death

Sounds a simple tune

In many languages a "Silent Night"

That became a miracle

When the weapons fell silent

And silence broke out

A song from the trenches

Promised peace

For one moment nobody wanted to triumph anymore

The soldier was human too

When the weapons were silent

A sea of candles along the trenches

Illuminated the night

And courageous posts, raised their hands

Left their watch

Soon sang together

Enemies, soldiers

Across the trenches

Celebrated christmas

At war, with death and with dirt

This moment was so full with hope

This moment was so full with happiness

The moment was a promise, but the way led backwards

Back to cold trenches

Back to suffering and death

Every bit of hope was dead

At break of dawn

When the weapons fell silent...