A/N: Yes, another Rowena/Salazar one-shot… I've been in a Founders-Era haze in the past few weeks…

I'll update my multi-chaptered fics soon! I promise that I don't plan on abandoning any of them. :)

I hope you like this! Please favorite and review! Even a quick smiley face or frowny face would make me happy.

Disclaimer: The Harry Potter Universe belongs to J.K. Rowling. I am making no monetary profit off of this.

Even Rowena herself isn't sure how it happens.

They had always had a kind of sort-of-crush feeling hovering between them, but neither had acted upon it. After all, it hadn't been that strong of an urge at first, and neither Rowena nor Salazar was the type of person to rush into something, especially after so many years of friendship.

But then it gets stronger, and stronger, and stronger, until one day, after her Transfiguration class, Rowena finds herself somehow trapped against the wall of the astronomy tower in Salazar's arms. She isn't sure how she got there; all she knows is that he says something and then she says something, breathless, and then suddenly his lips are on hers and it feels so wrong because they're both professors and here they are snogging like a pair of hormonal teenagers but then he presses harder against her lips and she isn't thinking anymore for once and oh Merlin.

It escalates after that- Salazar cornering her in empty classrooms in between classes; Rowena visiting his quarters after curfew- and suddenly, inexplicably, Rowena finds herself doing two things she had sworn never to do, years ago.

Lose her better judgement and fall in love.

Love isn't like what Rowena imagined it as- it's not just damsels in distress and knights in shining armor. No, their love is so much more than that. It's the cackling passion between them when his emerald green eyes meet her stormy gray ones; it's the tender sweetness when their lips meet; it's feeling that she'd do anything for him.

What frightens Rowena most about love is that it isn't rational. There isn't a manual for love. It's limitless and boundless and ruleless and it's both exhilarating and intimidating.

But when Salazar touches her, all thoughts about rules and and fear disappear, and suddenly there's only one indefinable feeling.

Love.

And Rowena thinks that perhaps all those love stories she had called silly up until now were not quite that unrealistic after all. Because when Salazar looks at her, she knows that she would do anything- from fight a Hungarian Horntail to hang herself- for him.

When he leaves that day in the peak of summer, she doesn't believe it at first. Several hours after the argument, Rowena goes outside to search for him, thinking that he's just sulking around his favorite spot under an old oak beside the lake, or perhaps walking along the outskirts of the Forbidden Forest.

But he's not there. Or anywhere.

After hours of relentless searching, Rowena finally comes to terms with the growing feeling in the pit of her stomach. Salazar is gone.

And her heart shatters.

Rowena hasn't felt anything like it before. She hadn't thought that someone's heart could actually ache- she had thought that the term heartache was merely an exaggeration.

But the choking pain in her chest is anything but an exaggeration.

That night is the first time Rowena Ravenclaw cries in decades.

Rowena is sure that Godric and Helga notice something is wrong- they know her too well to not notice. But they also know her well enough to know not to press, so they leave her alone.

Until she becomes sick. At first, the Head of Ravenclaw passes it off as a simple cold, and her fellow professors seem to believe her.

That is, they believe her until she passes out right in the middle of a charms class.

By then, Rowena has already realized what has happened. She is not stupid, and she knows full well what she and Salazar have done.

That night, when Helga asks, concerned, about Rowena's health, Rowena tells her the truth. The truth that even Rowena did not fully believe, did not want to believe, until the words are out in the open, resonating around her bedchamber, and finally, the situation hits her full in the head.

Salazar is gone forever, leaving behind not only his lover, but his child.

For once in her life, Rowena Ravenclaw doesn't have the answers.

What were you thinking? That one comes from Godric. The truth is, Rowena doesn't know. Perhaps she wasn't thinking for the first time in her life; perhaps she was absolutely blinded with love.

Will you keep the child as your own? That one comes from her mother. Rowena wants to keep the child, of course she does. But if the truth came out, Hogwarts might be ruined. It is such a young school, and who would want to send their child to a place whose headmistress has an illicit child? And besides, Rowena is in no place in her life to care for a baby. Perhaps it would be happier with someone else… But no, Rowena cannot bear the thought of giving her child away…

Why didn't you tell us? That one comes from Helga. And Rowena doesn't know. Now that she thinks back, the Head of Ravenclaw herself wonders why she didn't even consider telling her two closest friends about her relationship with Salazar. Perhaps it was the secretive way Salazar had always gone about their affair, and the fact that she was so in love that Rowena never questioned it. Love can really be an inconvenient thing.

Why did you let him do this to you? This one comes from Godric, again, and after hearing it, Rowena finally storms away from her room, effectively ending the interrogation. She doesn't know why she leaves; she's never been the quick tempered sort. Perhaps it's the pregnancy hormones she's read so much about finally coming to life, she tells herself.

But inside, Rowena knows that that's not really the reason. It's because she doesn't want to hear the words that she knows are true; she doesn't want to admit that for once, she wasn't thinking straight; that for once, she didn't come out on top.

How could you let him do this to you?

I loved him. I loved him, and he betrayed me.

What will I do?

And for once, Rowena Ravenclaw doesn't know.

So much can happen in nine months.

Seasons change. Men die. Wars are won and lost.

But as Rowena Ravenclaw learns the hard way, nine months is not enough to heal a broken heart.

Her façade hardens, and Helga and Godric are finally convinced that she is okay. Rowena's heart is still shattered, but finally, she has found all of the pieces. Perhaps it isn't glued together yet, but that will come in time.

Nine months isn't enough time to heal a broken heart, perhaps. But it is enough time to have a child.

Helena Ravenclaw is born in the warm spring of 978. The birth isn't easy on Rowena. But as she gazes down on her newborn child, she feels truly happy for the first time since Salazar left. And Rowena knows that if she were given another chance, she wouldn't change anything.

At first glance, young Helena seems to be all Rowena. Until she opens her eyes.

And Rowena sees a pair of emerald green orbs as familiar to her as the back of her own hand. A pair of emerald green orbs that she hasn't seen in nine months. A pair of emerald green orbs that Rowena once gazed lovingly at as she proclaimed her love to another human for the first time. A pair of emerald green orbs that stared at her, unblinking, as she begged him not to leave on the day that she lost the love of her life.

And her heart shatters anew.

Rowena barely registers Helga asking her if she would like to write Salazar. And the truth is, Rowena would like nothing more than to pick up a quill and a sheet of parchment and beg him to come back. Merlin knows she would sell her soul just to see him again. But her anger speaks, and suddenly she is saying words that she knows comes from her heart, and not her brain.

And for the first time in her life, Rowena Ravenclaw doesn't care.

Rowena watches as Helena grows from a chubby toddler into a beautiful young lady. Whenever she looks into her daughter's eyes, she is reminded of her lost love. But somehow, every single time those emerald eyes meet hers, Rowena's heart heals a little bit more.

Rowena Ravenclaw will never stop loving Salazar Slytherin, but time and a new love have bandaged the wound.

And yet, during those moments when time seems to stop and the world fades away, Rowena cannot get him out of her head. And she wonders where he is in the wide world. She wonders what he looks like now. She wonders what he is doing.

And if he is thinking of her.

Rowena Ravenclaw knows that she is dying.

It is not illness or age that is slowly eating away at the brightest witch of her age. No, it is a broken heart.

Rowena loves two people above all else, and both have betrayed her.

She knows that the baron's son will not rest until he has found Helena. She has seen the wistful glances he sends her daughter's way, and Rowena knows first-hand the look of a broken heart. No, he will bring Helena back, one day. But something tells Rowena that she will not be on this Earth long enough to welcome her beloved daughter back.

Rowena sighs- a melancholy noise, full of suffering. She has been in anguish for so long… her dreams are beckoning to her… she is almost there… almost to a place without pain… the warm sunlight is almost on her face… she can feel it…

Rowena Ravenclaw smiles and closes her eyes.

A/N- Did you like it? Did the ending seem too abrupt? Favorite and review, please! I'd love some constructive criticism.