[I close my eyes when I get too sad
I think thoughts that I know are bad
Close my eyes and I count to ten
Hope it's over when I open them]

Salazar: 12 years old

Salazar closed his eyes, trying to stave back tears. *Oh god...how could this happen?! Why?*
*I wish they were dead...It's wrong, but I wish they were dead!!!! Maybe if I close my eyes...everything will be the way it was.*
A heavy hand landed on Salazar's shoulder and he turned to sob into the shoulder of his best friend.

[I want the things that I had before
Like a Star Wars poster on my bedroom door
I wish I could count to ten
Make everything be wonderful again]

*I want...everything to be like it was before.*

10 years old:

Godric and Salazar met at wizarding school, where they had gone for a year to learn how to control their powers. The summer after, they were almost constantly playing together. Godric would ride his broom over to Salazar's house and play almost every day. And they would have dinner together, while Salazar's mom happily served the boys until they were stuffed, while querying about their day, and Salazar's younger brother and twin younger sisters ran around like little demons.

[Hold my mom and I hold my dad
Can't figure out why they get so mad
Hear them scream, I hear them fight
They say bad words and make me want to cry]

11 years old:

"Damnit! Asshole!" A slap.
"You have no right to-"
Deadly silence. Then, "I'm leaving."
Godric was politely trying to ignore the loud argument that Salazar's parents were having. Salazar was huddled in bed, trying to tune them out.
A catch in his breath brought Godric over, and he discovered his friend crying near-silently onto a ragged stuffed bear. "Mama...are you coming back?"
Godric didn't say anything, just gathered his smaller friend up and let him sob into his shoulder.
He gently ran his hands through Salazar's strawberry-blond hair, while whispering comfortingly, "Sal..." over and over.
They fell asleep that way.

Salazar's mother came back, but things never got any better.

[Close my eyes when I go to bed and I
Dream of angels who make me smile
I feel better when I hear them say
Everything will be wonderful some day]

/Everything was dark, yet studded with stars. An angel was teasing Salazar, making him smile. His face was shrouded in twilight, yet it seemed to have the light of kindness about him.
Right before leaving, the angel spread his black wings and whispered, "Everything will be wonderful someday. I promise."
The last thing Salazar saw was haunting grey eyes and black hair.\

[Promises mean everything when you're little and the world's so big
I just don't understand how you can smile with all those tears in your eyes
And tell me everything is wonderful now]

12 years old:

Godric's entire family had been visiting with the Slytherins. Salazar's parents were still fighting quite a bit, acting as cold to each other as a couple of married iceburgs, but were putting on a happy front for the Gryffindors.
Godric and Salazar had taken off on a broom-racing contest across the countryside when it happened.
Godric's nose wrinkled up. "...Do you smell something, Sal?"
Salazar nodded in agreement. "Ick. Seems to be coming from..." he rotated his broom around, searching for the tell-tale smoke.
"...'Rick...look...dammit, it's coming right from my house!!!"
The two sped off, even faster than they had been going earlier if that was even possible.
When they got close to the house, four eyes widened in horror. A small army was marching away from his parents' house, having torched it a short time earlier.
"Aqua!" both boys yelled at once, sending streams of water out of their wands and immediately running into the steaming rubble of the house.
Little by little, the two boys uncovered all four parents, Salazar's brother and sisters, and Godric's two-year-old sister. Both twins, Godric's sister, and Salazar's mother were alive, but barely. "Hurry and look up that spell," Salazar urged Godric. "Hurry!"
"I know, I know," Godric said, as he searched the pages of his mini spell dictionary.
"Heal!" he announced. "Aw, shit! Why does this have to be such a tricky spell?" he complained frantically, fumbling with his wand.
"Salazar..." his mother whispered, struggling to sit up. Salazar hurried to support her.
"Yes, Mama?" he questioned.
"Tell your father...I loved him. Never...be cruel to someone you love- you might die with them- thinking you hate them. It's a- terrible way to part paths."
"Mama..." Salazar pleaded. "What _happened_ here?"
"It was a group...from the Inquisition. They accused us of harboring witches and- when we refused- to answer their questions, they jumped- on us before we even had a chance to react- and pull out our wands..." she was fighting harder and harder to catch her breath. "Tell your father I love him..." she whispered, before her hand went limp and slipped from Salazar's own. In a near-panic, Salazar set her down and went to try and help Godric figure out the healing spell...before they lost any more.
"Heal!" Godric shouted again, and this time, finally, a cool silver mist flowed from Godric's wand and covered the area.

The only survivors were Helen, one of the twins, and Godric's sister, Andromache. Godric placed his hand on Salazar's shoulder, trying to smile through his tears for his parents. "It'll be OK, Sal. I promise."

[Na na na na...
Please don't tell me everthing is wonderful now]

16 years old:

"Don't say it, Rick," Salazar said, batting Godric's hand away from his shoulder. "I'm tired of hearing it. You know it's not OK, I know it's not OK."
As he had many times in the past four years, Salazar broke down crying. "Helen should have a twin sister, both girls should have parents...we can't raise them! We've nearly used up our parents' supply of money...they need a real life, with a real family. Damn Muggles!" He pounded his fist on the table. "I hate Muggles!"
"If only we'd known the spell..." Godric murmurred. "Salazar, it's been four years. You have to move on."
He buried his face in his hands. "I can't do this. I can't be a family for Helen."
Godric put his hand under Salazar's chin and raised his face to look at him. "A family is someone who cares about you. We're all family, aren't we? How long have you been having doubts?"
"Godric...I'm full of doubts. I don't even know what I'm doing with my own life."
"We'll figure it out together," Godric murmurred, kissing Salazar gently.

[No. No. I don't want to hear you tell me everything is wonderful now
I don't to hear you say that I will understand some day No. No. No. No.
I don't want to hear you say both have grown in a different way No. No. No.]

"Salazar..." Godric said with a sigh, blowing his black bangs out of his eyes. "It's...not working." Lately he sensed a great darkness inside of his lover...it was causing them problems...and it scared him. He was afraid Salazar's growing hatred with the Muggle world would consume him someday.
"I...know that. Don't you think I haven't noticed that? I'm trying- dammit, I'm trying so hard- I just don't understand it."
"We're not the same anymore...not as we were. I still love you- I always will...but I think we should just be friends."
A single tear splashed onto Salazar's hand. "I...understand."
Godric gave a ghost of a smile, wiping the tear from Salazar's hand. "You will understand...someday."

[No I don't want to meet your friend
I don't want to start over again
I just want my life to be the same
Just like it used to be
Somedays I hate everything
I hate everything
Everyone and everything]

"Sal, this is Rowena. She just moved here, a couple of weeks ago...the girl I mentioned...remember?"
"I remember..." he said softly.
After a quiet dinner (Helen and Andromache were eating over at the house of another friend), Godric pulled Salazar aside.
"She's a witch, you know."
"I know."
"We...were discussing what happened to our families...she's a smart girl, that Rowena. She suggested making a wizarding school- one that could teach students much more than the schools we have now, just to learn control. If we had been taught that spell, we could have saved your mother and your other sister. And we can organize a way to hide all wizarding activities from Muggles..." Godric went on for awhile, before he noticed Salazar's attention wandering.
"Is this OK with you...? We had hoped that you'd help us found it...Rowena has another friend, Helga Something-or-other, whom she says would also like to help...will you help as well?"
Salazar paused for a long moment. " I'll help." Another pause. "You love her, don't you. Rowena."
"...Yes. I do." "I still love you, you know," he whispered. "I know."
Godric turned and walked out of the room. And, Salazar knew, out of his life for good.

[Please don't tell me everything is wonderful now.. Na na nana....]

Years passed, and Salazar became more obsessed with his hatred of Muggles, and when Helen died of disease, his obsession was all he had left.
He lost contact with the other founders of Hogwarts, and drifted off into his own world, one of hatred and death.

[I don't want to hear you tell me everything is wonderful now...
Please don't tell me everything is wonderful now...
Na na na...
Everything is wonderful now...]

"When obsession is all a man has...take it away and he'll die," Helga whispered to herself, laying flowers on the graves of her three friends.
Godric had been killed by a wild horse. Panicked in a storm, it hadn't known what it was doing. A girl- she had only been fourteen or fifteen, according to Rowena- had tried to push him out of the way, knowing that he didn't see the horse coming.
They had both been trampled to death.
She had been a Muggle.
And everything Salazar believed about Muggles since he was twelve came crashing down around him, a dead city.
He died not long after.
"Oh, Salazar," Helga whispered, wiping a single tear from her eye. "Godric was never the only one who loved you."

She dropped a single rose to the grave, a drop of blood from where she had pricked herself staining the earth of the graves. ~end~