Godric’s Scholar
GODRIC
Godric had been following the black-haired wizard for three days before he had watched him get captured. During that time period, he had learned little to nothing about the black-haired wizard, other than a grand total of four things. One, he was a skilled legilimens. Two, he had little to no grasp on magic from other spells. Three, he could speak to snakes. Four, he had a great skill for cussing, especially after he stubbed his toe. It was rather impressive, and Godric would have to take note of the words to use later. But that was beside the point.
Based on inference, Godric would assume that he would not be happy to discover that there had been a red-haired wizard following him. On that same note, though, perhaps the man would be happy if Godric helped him escape jail. Granted, he wouldn’t have been happy that Godric had done nothing to stop him from being stuck in jail in the first place, but that wouldn’t change the fact that he had saved him from the jail, right?
That didn’t matter at the minute. Godric had strong morals, and even if they didn’t always align with the law, he never crossed them. Stalking a stranger was reasonable, but allowing that same stranger to die at the hands of a witch hunter was downright cruel.
But, before Godric saved the fascinating stranger, he would need to find a helper.
Godric had the bare bones of a plan laid out in his mind. He would find a child, preferably one with wide eyed innocence but the guile of a good liar, to distract the prison guard. While the prison guard talked to the wide eyed child, Godric would go in, save the man, run out, and escape.
To tempt the aforementioned child in the first place, though, he would need food. And to find the food, he needed to find someone who sold it.
He raced through the small town, looking for someone who sold food. Indeed, many of the stands sold food, but the question was which one would be most popular for a child. He knew which stand he would go to— any one that was sweet. That didn’t mean that all children automatically liked sweet things, though. He had grown up on his own, raised by two mugwort parents in the middle of nowhere. He hardly understood social formalities, let alone what children did and did not like to eat.
He decided that he would go to a stand and buy something that he would like twice— candied honey, hopefully sweet enough to satisfy his sweet tooth and maybe that of a child. Hadn’t his mother said something about children loving sweets?
He had left his mother far too early. He was only seventeen, and had only left her six months earlier, but still it pained him to know that she and his father had no idea where he was now and he would never see them again. He had left on good terms, wanting to see the world and make a new one where wizards could live in peace, like the wizarding towns he had heard of in the Scottish glens. The first place he had moved to from Ireland was England— then, after realizing how much work it would be to found a wizarding town on his own, he made up his mind to simply reform a Scottish town.
But before he could do that, he had been distracted by a random stranger cursing at a rock and promising to bring agony to its whole family line for generations of rocks to come. And, needless to say, Godric had been very intrigued by the rock threatening stranger, and had decided to stick around if only for a little while. How could it hurt to find a new friend?
After handing the street vendor a few coins and sucking on some honey candy, he went up to a little boy with rusty brown hair. “Would you like candy, if only you would distract a prison guard for me?” Needless to say, the little boy ran away.
Godric asked the same question again of a different child, only to get the same answer. Only after he sat down, putting his head in his hands, did a little girl approach him. “You sure have a lot of candy, Sir.”
“Indeed I do. What’s your name?”
“Annmarie, Sir. And yours?”
“Godric Gryffindor.”
“Would you be willing to give me any of that candy?”
“Would you be willing to distract a prison guard so that I may rescue a man I hardly know who was convicted for consorting with demons?”
“So you do not believe he was consorting with demons, Sir?”
“I believe he was performing magic, Annmarie, but not that magic is a demon craft.”
Annmarie smiled. “I can light things on fire with my mind. I only do it with firewood, mind you, and it’s very helpful, Sir. But I don’t have to talk to any demons before I do it.”
Godric frowned. “So you would be willing to distract a prison guard for me?”
“Yes, Sir, but I would need more than just candy.”
“What would you want?”
The girl pulled out a map, pointing to Scotland. “Mum told me that there were wizard towns up there, and that she wanted me to go to them. Then she was burned for being a witch. I want to go there. So, in addition to the candy, if you take me to this place I will distract a prison guard.”
Godric smirked. “You drive a hard bargain, Annmarie. Are you sure you can’t lower the price?”
“Yes. Can you take me?”
“Yes.”
And so Godric brought her to the prison, where she would talk to the guard. But no sooner did he bring her there than he saw the man and a young boy run like hell, out of the cell and away from Godric. “Good news, Annmarie,” Godric muttered to her. “You won’t have to distract a guard. You’ll just have to run up north with me until we catch those two people.”
Annmarie shrugged and dashed after Godric, who was already sprinting after the stranger and the boy who had been going with him.