Sooner or Later (Godric/Gillian)

[Godric Gillian Gryffindor]

Think of Salazar, Godric wondered why the Slytherins and Gryffindors weren't the best of friends.  Sure, he and Sal fought, sometimes being enemies for a little while, usually lasting only a week, before both of them would just continue on like they hadn't fought, but apologies were far and few between.  Even still, he didn't know what could have caused such a divide.  Then again, Godric was the sort of guy who didn't want to know his own future.  So he wouldn't know about Sal and he having their biggest fight, all previous fights and unrequited apologies, piling up onto the big fight, ending with a duel to the death, where Gryffindor won, spared him, and Salazar left the castle, never to return again, to Gryffindor's knowledge.  He thought of him and Sal as the best friends in the world, but eventually the shaky foundation such a great friendship was based upon would fall, and only dusty remains would remain by the time of their duel, and Slytherin's departure.  Godric would still view Salazar as a friend, but he wouldn't let him return keeping his views on nonmagical folk, and was very upset at his friend's departure, even thinking about him just moments before his death, wishing to see him once more, knowing he wouldn't besides in the after life.  But... that was in the future.  Godric considered Salazar his best friend in the entire universe at this time, and the two were the best of pals, even Salazar believing it so. 

Godric was, unfortunately, a very trusting person.  Not the most trusting, as he did live in a time that he had to hide his magical abilities from most people, even the magical people, because those who had the powers weren't necessarily the kind to embrace it.  In fact, he was sure that he'd probably be on the run in the muggle world, as he and his friends gathered people to learn at their school.  They hadn't quite come up with a good way before Godric left, but it had to be effective, or the school never would have survived.  He gave everyone a chance, and some people he would give second chances, if they convinced him of so.  In that regard, he was much like Dumbledore, second chances, because he knew people screwed up, and redemption through a second chance was the only way to return them to what he viewed as the good side of everything. 

"That's right, you know what'll happen... At least... could you tell me... does the Frenchman get defeated?" Godric asked.  He really hoped that the one who took the French name Voldemort would lose, if not... well, Sal would tease him about it, because not only was the name French, but the man had been in Sal's house.  "Yeah, that's Sal.  He's my best friend." 

She said that she liked him... which meant that it was safe then.  Right?  "You like me too?" Godric asked, before he quickly kneeled on one knee, "Then Eliza, would you marry me?  I know we haven't know each other long, and marriage has changed.  But compatibility is what has changed the most, marriage because of two... clicking together. Seeing as we both have reached a late age, and both unmarried, it would be logical for the two of us to do so." He really hoped she was unmarried. He could use a wife. And one he liked as well.

[Elizabeta Anne Beilschmidt]

There were many good reasons for Slytherins and Gryffindors to not like each other, actually. In more recent years, Slytherin House had been a refuge for many of England's least favorite foreigners: the Italians. It wasn't really shocking that they were placed in Slytherin, since the Cavaliere Famiglia patriarch, Gio, was the Head of Slytherin House. That the children of himself and his siblings would take after him was no real surprise. It also wasn't necessarily bad. Gio was a brilliant wizard, one of the era's most notable. The advances that he'd made in the field of magic were nothing short of amazing. Eliza was a little awestruck by her professor, actually. In her time, he was a brilliant wizard, but he was aging. In this time, he was in his prime, and it was easy to see the skill that had made him world-renowned. The stories went that, besides his year-mate, Voldemort, Slytherin had not produced a wizard quite as brilliant as Giovanni Cavaliere in centuries.

She'd had a best friend, too, once, and now she tried to not think about Emilia. Their final duel was long overdue. If Eliza ever returned to her own time, she knew that she would have to end Emilia. She wasn't looking forward to it, though. The two of them had fought Communism together. For the longest time, Emilia had been the only person outside of Eliza's own family that she'd been able to trust. Emilia's betrayal still stung like it had just happened. For the life of her, she couldn't fathom what had possessed her friend to forsake all of the natural talent that she possessed to become a thief. She would blame that damned Ian Lynch, Emilia's husband, but it wasn't just him. She knew that it wasn't just him. There was more to it.

"You mean Voldemort. I...do not know. We were preparing to fight him when I was brought back in time. Well, everyone else was. I was....pursuing someone else," she admitted. "It was sort of important, but she got away."

She was at first shocked when he proposed and then couldn't help but laugh. She knew that it was a convention of his time. She wasn't going to get angry, and she felt bad for laughing, but it was just so funny. She liked him quite a lot, she decided.

"That isn't how things work in this time," she explained through her laughter. "Courtships are much more prolonged. There's a whole process that we call dating. While you're dating someone, they're your boyfriend or girlfriend. People have rather long lives, now, so marriages don't have to happen as early. Ah, hah...I'm sorry for laughing. It's just...you're a funny guy, you know?"

[Godric Gillian Gryffindor]

Godric could most definitely understand some rivalry. Salazar and he fought a lot of the time, and had competitions. They even planned to see whose students were the best.  Right now, he liked those in Gryffndor most of all, at least so far.  Then again, he hadn't met very many people.  Perhaps the school had just grown away from what they were truly like, and his hat had lost sight of how they truly were.  There were some he highly doubted Slytherin would chose to teach, and some he believed Slytherin would prefer to teach that were placed in different houses.  Either way, it was just another thing that had changed.  Even what his name meant.  What his friends' names meant.  Everything, literally everything changed.  And it was all hard to adjust to after 17 years in his world, which no longer existed. 

Godric wondered, if such change happened, then why were they so important?  If everything had changed so greatly, the only thing to remain was his old hat, and the castle, which both changed really.  He had heard there was  a portrait of him somewhere in the school, so perhaps he could speak to himself about it.  About how he could meld with this world, which seemed like another world, not Earth any more.  He was a very confident person, and did not doubt his ability to adapt, but to so much, most people would not ever be confident in adjusting to a completely new culture and civilization.  He had believed that things could not have changed so much, but it was not apparent that it had changed completely. 

"Yes, the Frenchman... So he still is around in a couple of decades," Godric said with almost a sigh, before smiling widely with his confident smile that was really the smile most people could associate with Gryffindor, who he was, so... it went with him, yeah, but most didn't know who he really was... anyways, "Perhaps this time around, I could help defeat the Frenchman sooner... after all, he took on a French name, and no Frenchman can ever be trusted."  The French were evil.  And there was going to not be a change in his mind in that area.  The French took his family and land away, and eventually he reclaimed it, but they killed his family, and he'd never forgive the French for that, even if it was centuries ago they killed his family. 

"You have to be joshing me," Godric said quickly standing, incredulous that he had gotten it wrong, "I did research, compatibility is the most important things nowadays, and... I apologize, Eliza, I didn't realize... why is your new system so inefficient?  It... doesn't seem right.  I can take the making sure the two to be married must be compatible, but such a long and drawn out process seems... a terrible waste of time that an heir could be born, even if life is longer... there are only so many years an heir can be brought forth." 

[Elizabeta Anne Beilschmidt]

There were some that were in Slytherin that Eliza suspected would have been chosen differently if the Founders were around to pick, but Gryffindor was the same. She suspected that Godric had not yet seen those members, but she knew that he would. What she hoped was that it didn't discourage him. In a school like Hogwarts, in times like these, it was only natural that there would be rifts between students. They were as much representative of their individual heritages outside of their magical abilities as they were representatives of the best and the worst that the magical world could offer. Theirs were tenuous times, stretched thin with the tensions on all sides, and Eliza was beginning to worry for what would happen when the thread snapped. Things were different, now. There were people in positions to change history that were never meant to get that chance.

She couldn't complain. She wouldn't have met Godric if not for this strange shift, and she was happy to have met him. She'd been, admittedly, lonely in her own time. It was hard to spread yourself between as many causes that needed you as she did, and she'd always been bad at ignoring people that needed her help. She remembered being in the position of needing help and not receiving it. She didn't wish it on anyone. Helplessness was something that Eliza absolutely could not stand, didn't want to. Never again, she'd promised herself. She didn't go back on her promises.

"His presence in my time is too complicated for me; when Hermione explained it, I got lost," she admitted. "But I think we could've beaten him back."

She believed in Harry, of course she did. He was her friend, one of the first she made at Hogwarts. If there was anyone in all of existence that could beat the odds and end Voldemort once and for all, it was Harry Potter. She had always believed that, even when he didn't, but it wasn't her place to say. Her life had not been really touched by the strife in England. It was into a different type of terror that Eliza had been born and raised. She knew evil, but not the type that most Englishmen thought of.

"Marriages are more for the enjoyment of another's company now," she shrugged. "And considered special. Something that you should only go into out of love. I guess it seems weird to you, but there are a lot of people in the world now, and most children live into adulthood, so scrambling to produce an heir is much less important. There are couples that never have children."

[Godric Gillian Gryffindor]

The thing that had discouraged him already was the fact there was so much bad blood between the school, extreme division.  A war.  War meant dead people.  And unless they were dead French people, dead people wasn't a good thing.  Godric had fought against those French who invaded their lands, against those who believed magic was evil, against many people, and all life (that wasn't French) was a waste of life, a waste of life that could have been lived out fully, even if being young lasted for such a little amount of time, and people died younger because of disease and such.  Godric was completely pro-life, except French life, and he hated that there was a war between the people in the school, led by a man who took the name of a Frenchman.  Even if this Voldemort wasn't French, he was as good as the French at least.  If Godric knew Voldemort was a descendant of Salazar... he'd get on Salazar for having a descendant who took on a French name and try to convince him not to have a child at all. 

Godric was happy about all this time jump magic that led him to this world.  At least he would know what the future held, and if any of his ideals (such as a system away from the medieval one he had with Lords and classes which held a lot of power, which wasn't completely flushed out in England, completely) held water, or that the school they built would survive.  It did, and that made him extremely proud.  Hogwarts (he tried to convince his friends and fellow founders to call it Gryffislytheravehuffle Academy, but they didn't go with it, unfortunately) had become a home to many people, and while evil Frenchmen like Voldemort also came here, the good had far outweighed the bad that had gone here. 

"I am confident that this time around, now that I am around, he can get defeated much quicker," Godric said.  He was willing to die, actually, to thwart the evil Frenchman, and was determined, even in his time, to uphold the good and righteous values of valuing all life (as the French weren't living, because they were too evil to be called living). 

"Love?  I don't understand.  Love is what is at all marriage hearts even in my time.  Loving one's spouse and family, and protecting them.  Created by the bond of marriage.  Is that not what love is now?" Godric asked.  He thought that love was part of a marriage, but what he believed as love was much different than Eliza did.  Simply caring for the well-being of a person, created through the wish to preserve the bond of marriage and procreate.  Desire had little to do with love to Godric, that was just lust and sinful.  "Never have children?  Now that is absurd.  Even if women become increasingly barren, there is always the need to leave a legacy, so one did not waste life by leaving nothing to remember them on this planet."

[Elizabeta Anne Beilschmidt]

Eliza knew how it was to fight against something you instinctively knew was wrong only to have everything fall apart. She still couldn't decide what it had been that caused her and Emilia to fall apart after the Wall came down, and it wasn't for lack of trying. She sometimes wondered if Emilia ever thought about it as much as she did, but she probably didn't have the time. They were both too busy for that; thought and careful consideration could happen later, when there was peace. If that was even a Thing, anymore. She didn't remember peaceful times, honestly. She'd been born in the middle of chaos and confusion, but she refused to be discouraged by such rampant nonsense.

She had seen a lot of good in Hogwarts, since she'd arrived. The staff had always been kind, for the most part, and she'd been lucky enough to make great friends like Harry and Ron and Hermione and, yes, even that moron Viktor. A part of her wondered what might have become of them if she hadn't been dragged back in time, but she tried to not think about it. Foreseeably, she wasn't returning to her own time, so she would make the most of what she had in this one. Godric was a wonderful guy, even if he had some funny ideas that didn't mesh well with modern times, and she really liked him.

"We can only hope," she agreed tersely. She wasn't going to outright agree; there were any number of people in her own time that they thought could have turned the tables on Voldemort that had, ultimately, been useless or, worse, had outright refused to help. She didn't quite understand why some of them had refused; she hoped that they had good reason for it.

"No. Love is something that comes before marriage now. It's...ugh. Why would you ask someone that's never been in love to explain?" she grouched. "It's built on trust, and understanding between two people, I guess. An acknowledgment of the fact that the other will drive you absolutely bonkers sometimes, and you still wouldn't want to be with anyone else. As for children, women haven't become more barren, you goof. We have large extended families, now, and it's easier to leave an impact on the world. There are any number of ways that a person can ensure that they'll be remembered; having children is a huge decision, and not the only way to ensure a continued legacy."

[Godric Gillian Gryffindor]

Hope was something that Gryffindor knew very much about.  The hope to be safe and practice magic.  The hope that he could be accepted for who he was, and what he could do.  The hope that their school would provide a home for others like them.  The hope for a better future where magic wasn't persecuted.  The hope that he could spend the rest of his life happy with his three best friends in the world.  The hope that Salazar would let go of his dislike of those who persecute those like them.  The hope he would realize that they just didn't understand them, and those who came from non-magical families were just the same as they were.  The hope that the class system that made Salazar a peasant near Rowena's land would go forever and have people never have to deal with being treated as inferiors just because of their blood.  The hope that the French would all die out...

Needless to say, Gryffindor had many hopes.  Hopes that were ahead of his time, other than the one about the French dying out.  There were a lot of Englishmen who wanted that back in his day.  Oh dear.  He was sounding like an old person now.  Back in his day?  Dear Lord.  He really needed to think of  it differently.  He was NOT an old man.  No, he wasn't.  he was just... middle aged, or nearing that age.  Maybe he could have a mid-life crisis!  That would be interesting!  Perhaps go into the muggle world and buy those contraptions... what were they called... cars?  Yes!  Then he could learn how to drive it!  Then again... what money did he have?  All of his land was now a village, and Dumbledore had just provided him with the necessities for him to live and blend in.  Where would he live?  Summer was coming up!  Oh this wasn't going well.  He had a lot he had to plan out.  But that... was for later.  Right now, he was talking with the lovely Eliza.

"That is not true.  Simply hoping does not get anything done.  Action must be taken.  Ensure that the change wished occurs, otherwise, nothing will happen," Gryffindor replied with a fairly serious look on his face.  He had hopes, but that did not mean that he only hoped.  He took action.  At Hogwarts he made it so that classes in the non-magical world did not matter.  He had created the school and invited those who wished to practice magic at their school.  He had created the situation where magic could disappear for awhile until the muggles were ready.  He had fought with Salazar and tried to convince him others, presenting his side of the whole bloodline thing in their fights.  He had vowed to take revenge on the French for his family.  Hopes, to Godric, were nothing if there was no action taken on them. 

"If you have not loved before, then how do you know that I am incorrect?  How do you know that what you look for as love even exists?" Godric asked curiously.  If she had not experienced this feeling towards someone, then how did she know it existed, because Godric sure hadn't felt it.  Then again, he wanted to spend all of his time with his three friends.  But it wasn't like he wanted to marry Rowena or Helga.  Though... he wouldn't be against it, if they wished it.  After all, they were his best friends.  And there was Morgana.  It was the same with Rowena and Helga... he serious doubted she would want to marry him.  And he didn't want to marry her, either.  "How else?  How else to leave a mark on the world?  Why would someone not want to have children, even if heirs aren't needed as much?  To hold a new life in your arms, knowing they would survive, since you did say children lived to adulthood more often now.  Losing a child is the only reason I would not want children.  Raising the young child, seeing the grow into strong adults." 

[Elizabeta Anne Beilschmidt]

She tried to not hope for things. In her experience, hoping for things made it much more difficult when it didn't happen the way you'd wanted it to, but maybe she was just a little pessimistic. Eliza's natural skepticism often outweighed any hopeful ideas that she might entertain. She preferred to be realistic; much fewer disappointments if one is realistic. Realism is the best policy, in all things. The overly hopeful were doomed to suffer countless disappointments.

She had hopes, though. She hoped for peace. She hoped for a better world for her own children. She hoped to get married one day and have a family. She hoped to help reestablish the Berlin Magical Academy. She hoped for many things; she just never spoke about them. Better to keep things like that to yourself. Other people could manipulate you with them, and she didn't need to have anything that others could use against her. Her friendships with other people were almost always based on Eliza being a strong person, and how strong could she be when there were ways to pick her apart?

"In my experience, hopes are best when left unexpressed," she noted. "They can be dangerous when given voice."

She shrugged in response to his initial questions. She didn't know if love existed. Maybe it didn't. She'd find out one day, she supposed. At that moment, she was more interested in practical things than falling in love, though she had to admit that it got lonely. It seemed like everyone among her friends except Eliza had found love at some point during their seven-year misadventure. She'd thought that she had come close with Viktor, but there was no way of knowing what might have happened with them.

"I came close once," she admitted softly. "It doesn't matter anymore. And, sometimes, it's best to not have children. Why bring a new life into a world that's going to Hell? It's unfair to the child, I think. Sometimes, it's better to just wait. Having children isn't a choice that you make just because you're married; it's something that you think about long and hard. Parenthood is a big commitment."

[Godric Gillian Gryffindor]

Gryffindor really wanted children, if one couldn't tell. One that wasn't French at all, one that was a son, and one that was a daughter. Others would be fine, but he wanted at least one of each. Godric understood not wanting a child to be brought forth into a world that is going to Hell, but given the time he was raised in, he thought it was worse than it was now. In fact, it was so much better. This world kids lived until their were adults almost all the time. He was lucky to make it to adulthood, especially with most of his friends intact, still alive as well. Gryffindor felt he was extremely blessed. He just couldn't understand how she could not see that just living, no matter the Hell it was, was a blessing, to Gryff at least. Dying due to something one could not control was Hell, but some Frenchman raising Hell to Earth, was something they could fight against. Even the ones who were not as smart could fight against them, while the diseases and conditions that killed so many in his time could only be fought by a handful of people, despite the widespread death.

However, Gryffindor had yet to be completely thorough with knowing what was going on in the world. He didn't know the conditions behind the Berlin Wall. He didn't know just how bad things were and had been in Italy. He didn't know how bad things would get here under the reign of the Frenchman. Being displaced so badly from his time left him clueless to just how much things had changed, just how much was going to change, and just how much pain and suffering there could be with a larger population. There weren't as many people in his time, and now with more people, there were so many more people to be hurting while they relaxed in the castle. But all he saw was those here at Hogwarts, so many people that were happy and safe at the castle.

"How can hope be dangerous? I'll let the whole world know what I hope. See if they can crush my hopes. No one can. My hopes will always remain, no matter what happens," Gryffindor said, "I lost my whole family when I was a kid, and I've always hoped to eradicate the killers from my land. Eventually, I did," as he found out from his book, which he had avoided most of stuff about him, but that was something he had to know and thus looked for, "If your hopes are true, then you won't let anyone crush them."

"Of course it matters now. We're here discussing whether it exists truly or not, and you nearly experienced it. But just because I can almost taste a GryffSlytheravehuff fruit, doesn't mean it exists," Gryffindor asserted, with a goofy smile. Once they had decided to not call the school what he wanted, he decided that he'd settle for a fruit named after all of them, the next new fruit they found. But they never did name a fruit, despite his explicit instructions to his descendants to do so (which Gryff hadn't done yet, but in his future he had). They never seemed to take him seriously. He wanted that fruit. Real bad. "This is not Hell, Eliza. There are people causing this world to be sad. People can be stopped easily, by anyone. Living in a world where kids die everyday at a young age, the mother dying from child birth, few making it to adulthood, and having little time to live after that. That is Hell. This, you can rise up against. It's like the French are nested in England, and are attacking. That can be solved. It just takes courage to stand up against those invaders and stop this world from going lower. It will only be Hell if we let it be. And the next generation, the children, will live in the world we make, the world we save, but if one waits, it may be too late to make those children to live in a world so fought for and the efforts of saving the world is lost."

[Elizabeta Anne Beilschmidt]

She wasn't totally sure if she wanted kids. Perhaps, one day, when she wasn't balancing so much. Eliza was the type to take the weight of the world on her shoulders if it meant she was helping someone, but that was also probably the reason she wouldn't be a good mother. She expected a lot out of other people and tended to react badly when disappointed by them. She tried, really she did, but she often found herself annoyed with Westerners. They had grown up with many more freedoms than she'd ever even been allowed to entertain the thought of, and yet they appreciated so little of what they were able to do. Westerners had the opportunity to change the entire world; they enjoyed a freedom that Eliza herself always found herself amazed by. Why they didn't do much with that tremendous freedom they were afforded was baffling. Maybe that's why she was so cautious about children. She worried about the world that they would be born into.

Hogwarts was, at the moment, a safe haven. She couldn't really hold it against Godric that he didn't understand exactly how bad everything was getting, and was already in some places, outside the castle walls; as of yet, he hadn't seen anything outside of them to know. Still, she found herself flaring up, eyes flashing angrily for a moment before settling back into their usual careful politeness. It did not pay to loose one's temper, she had to remind herself. When one lost their temper, they were vulnerable to all sorts of things. Vulnerability was an uncomfortable feeling. She never got used to it, partially because she had never found herself in a situation where it was safe to be open and vulnerable with another person. Well, not since Viktor. There was something about him that made it hard to not feel safe, and she missed that. Perhaps not in a romantic way, but he'd been her friend long before they dated. She wondered what he'd say if he could see her.

If Viktor could see her, she reminded herself, she would not be talking to Godric. She would be dating Viktor and still in her own time, and life would make sense.

"You shouldn't dare the world to crush your hopes," she snapped. "Or it'll make sure that it does."

She couldn't stop herself from snapping a little. How dare he talk so lightly of something like that?! Love was not a joke, and Viktor...

Viktor.

"It is irrelevant," she retorted angrily. "Because Viktor is in my time, and that alone makes anything that may have happened between us void. Perhaps love isn't real, but I never had time to think about it. People were dying around me, hundreds of them. I had no time to think about stupid, frivolous things like the existence of love. When I was a child, I watched the people around me starve, and suffer, and die for stupid things like daring to entertain ideas that were no endorsed by the state. When the Berlin Wall fell, I watched my nation attempt to heal while none of us knew how to go about it; I found myself unable to look my own family from the other side in the eye because they had lived such different lives. My sister fell in love with a moronic Italian, and through him I learned about their civil war. People will die, Godric, hundreds of them, potentially thousands. Juliette will die, as will her husband and brother, and God alone knows what happened to their poor children. They will probably die, too, for no other reason than their very existence being inconvenient. The civil war that goes on in Italy now will enter its fifty-second year when I turn seventeen. In England, people will die for the same reasons that people died around me when I was a child, daring to hope, to have the audacity to think differently than they should, for showing simple, human compassion to scared and starving children. That is the reality you are now part of, and it's why my inability to recognize whether or not I was ever in love with that Gott-damned fool Viktor Krum is entirely irrelevant. There are countless other things that have to be worried about and dealt with before such stupid, inherently fucking useless things as love gain any modicum of relevance."

Eliza withdrew as quickly as she'd snapped, clenching her jaw to prevent any further outbursts and carefully returning her face to its usual impassive mask. Quick to anger as she was, she'd always been careful to keep it in check. She policed her feelings like government officials had once policed her neighborhood back in Germany: thoroughly, carefully and viciously. She couldn't afford to show the wrong thing to the wrong person; it could mean death for her or people that she cared about. She was infuriated with herself for losing her head.

[Godric Gillian Gryffindor]

Godric hadn't expected her to get angry at his comments.  Then again, he was a fish out of water in this world.  His brain was wired differently than people here.  He grew up in a world where death by fighting for ones hopes didn't happen very often.  In fact, it rarely happened.  Godric didn't know it, but even he died from a stupid disease that he would never have died from if he was born in this time.  Godric grew up around such pointless death, that fighting was something that didn't kill so many people.  But it was far better to Godric to die fighting than wallow around in all the death suffered for fighting for ones hopes.  He would never let anyone crush his hopes.  He might suffer terrible defeat, but he would never let death of even millions stop him from keeping going forward.  He was just not that kind of guy.  His extreme determination was one of his best qualities, his determination to stand up for what he hoped and dreamed for, and not let death of those he loved get in the way.  He knew he would be sad, but he had lost so many people, despite still keeping three best friends alive, he was almost conditioned not to let it impede his progress. 

It seemed from how she was talking, that it was much like his time, just on a larger scale.  The same fraction of the population dying everyday, though now with more people.  However, such needless death such as diseases killing people that Godric lived in, seemed to him a worse death, a death with no hope at all.  While here so many died fighting for a better world, where the next generation needn't worry about dying for that better world.  That was a death full of hope.  The hope of a better world.  Unless the people died without fighting, because that would show lack of determination.  Courage was just an off-shoot of determination.  Not letting things get in one's way.  It was like they were almost synonyms, because a courageous one is afraid, but would not let it get in their way when getting to their goal.  Not letting the fear block the road to their goal.  That was what made Gryffindor, Gryffindor.  His courage, his drive to do what he believed to be right, to never give in, to keep fighting until one could not fight any longer. 

Because he fought so hard to make his students believe it was a safe place to be, to practice magic, he would never give up on his dream.  He let the whole world know his hopes and dreams.  There was no person in England that did not know Godric Gryffindor's dream of a safe place for magic.  Which also lead to some people fearing him, and trying to burn him at the stake (which he nearly died more than a dozen times, and even a couple before he was 17 years old), but it was worth it.  He would never back down.  He would not be deceitful and lead people to believe otherwise.  Godric Gryffindor was in fact, a little too honest for his own good.  But even that wouldn't kill him in the end.  Yet, it wasn't what killed him in the end. It was the thing that he could not fight against until his last breathe, and yet he still fought until he died to stay alive and fight to ensure Hogwarts's survival. Only his friends knew he was extremely sick, and his students were shocked when one day, what seemed out of the blue, he died.

"You've let this world make you believe it can do that, but if one truly believes in their hopes, not even the whole world teaming up one them can crush them. I've lost my whole family, and countless friends, as I'm sure you may have as well, but it hasn't crushed my hopes. My dreams. The whole of England chased me, tried to kill me so many times, and I bet eventually my friends too," Godric said extremely confident in his view, "But we survived; this castle holds my hopes and dreams. Not even the whole of England could stop me and my friends from creating what I always dreamed about since I discovered my magical powers. At the time, England nearly the whole world to me and my friends, so it felt like we were the outcasts, the most wanted, not being able to walk around the streets without a... a... what do you call them? Muggle, spotting me and trying to burn me at the stake. Yet, there was still hope. Obviously, we found those few who would go with us to learn magic, despite even those with our powers viewing it as disgraceful, and sinful, and made a safe haven, or as close as it could in any time. I will admit, if people didn't know my visage, it would have been easier. but I am sure that if I were not quite so open about my hopes, there would be no one who would follow me to Hogwarts. Without someone who would be honest, and open with everyone, yet still confident despite all odds, Hogwarts would have failed.  Without people to serve as inspiration, to stand as a solid pillar of defense to those who are not quite as hopeful and confident, the whole movement will fall."

Godric had been sure that without the four of their leadership qualities, especially his (as he was occasionally arrogant, but with good cause, as he truly viewed himself as a person people would follow, due to his charisma and confidence, which, he didn't know, would gather much support for the castle among the few others that held his beliefs, but in secret) Hogwarts would fail. Without the people going against him, people would not know him.  The first time he nearly died on the stake, he had given a speech. He was only 13 years old at the time, the idea of Hogwarts already in his friends' minds. But afterwards, in that village, he had found that magical support had grown. The next time, he had been caught in London, a year later, when he then disappeared to the castle, where his friends had scolded him (especially Helga) for doing that, splinching himself badly, as apparating was not the safest in the world, a scar on his chest today bearing the proof of that day. In the end, he never regretted being so open about his stance. It gathered support. It inspired people to hope as he did.

"I lived where I saw people die every day as well, Eliza.  You might not realize it, but people starved and suffered every single day in my time too.  It was terrible back in my time.  But at least now, now you can fight.  You can fight it.  We could not!"  He was getting a bit charged as well, a bit frustrated, his anger being one of the things he had little control over, but it was cooler than it had gotten many times, his voice mostly firm and frustrated than angry, really.  "There were few who lived to adulthood, killed by something we could not control, wihout the hope of surviving. I understand what loss is. It may be on a bigger scale now, but you know what? There are so many other people that live today.  They get to live.  Why don't you look at that side of it?  Think of all those who get to live.  That moronic Italian you were talking about, he's still alive in your time.  He lived.  He got to keep on living.  He gets to fight.  He gets to hope.  You.  You live.  You get to live; you get to fight to make sure all those who died fighting, don't die in vain.  Me?  I got to live in a world where all magic was sinful, a disgrace that needed to be eradicated.  Yet, because of people like Sal and Row and Puffy-Poo and myself, so many people got to keep going, good times came. Times of peace, and persecutions stopped. That is the world people fight for now, and if one doesn't have kids, it is wasted. Sure, some of those kids will die. Perhaps the conflict will go on for a few more generations, but in the end, you fight for that generation where the conflict ends to live in peace. If you dwell on deaths, then there is no reason to keep on fighting. If you believe that bringing a kid into a world full of conflict is not worth it, then you are fighting for just yourself, because who else would reap the benefits your plight will eventually bring? Why fight at all, if not for the future? And who... else is the future, but our progeny?  What else to give us hope than another, whom you care about?  So yes, it is important if you have... as you call it today... loved someone."  Gryff had Sal, Row, and Puffy-Poo to help him.   

[Elizabeta Anne Beilschmidt]

How dare he....? HOW DARE HE? He knew nothing about the world that he was now part of, and he still had the audacity to write off those deaths. Useless deaths, meaningless. They had happened over such stupid things; she'd promised herself that nobody else that she cared about would ever die for any of those reasons again. If it meant that she had to die herself, she would never again be the little girl that had stood by in horror and watched her uncle die. Eliza had to be strong for her friends that didn't understand fully what would happen if they failed. She would never let Godric know that anything he said struck a chord with her; if she showed it for even an instant, she covered it well. She had become very good at maintaining an impassive face under duress; in her younger life, it had been a matter of life or death sometimes.

She kept everything that she was feeling under check carefully, refusing to give him or anyone else the satisfaction of seeing her upset more than he already had. If Harry, who she owed so much, didn't get to see the weaker parts of her, why would she ever allow Godric to? She liked him, even if he infuriated her, but she couldn't make herself trust him. The part of her that insisted that nobody would understand her better than the founder of the House that the Sorting Hat had put her in the instant it touched her head was squelched by the conditioning that caused her to keep even her closest friends at arms' length. She missed them, despite everything; she wondered if Viktor would ever find someone else, or if Harry would ever defeat Voldemort, or if Ron and Hermione ever shut up long enough to realize their feelings for each other. Those were things she wouldn't be there for, she supposed; she just had to be resigned to it. She was needed in this time as much as she had been needed in her own.

"Do not," she began frostily. "Assume that you know my reasons for fighting. How dare you...? You presumptuous arschloch. ((Asshole in German))"

Thoroughly done with this entire conversation and being insulted by someone who assumed a lot and understood relatively little, she turned and began to head back up to the common room. She had enough people at the school that made assumptions about her without someone like Gryffindor accusing her of being selfish. She would never dare to call herself a saint; she'd killed people in cold blood, so how could she be? There had never been a point in her life when her motivation to fight was personal gain, though. Never. It hurt a little that he thought so little of her.