Written for the All You Need is Love Competition and the Art Museum Challenge.
What a life it was, to have died but to still grow old and lonely.
The Baron had always been referred to as an old, lonely soul, so perhaps he was not the prime example of the matter; for one, Helena Ravenclaw was a beautiful instance of how terrible the existence of the ghost truly was.
It started with Rowena's death; the Baron had known her well, and he was far from pleased by her death, but when Helena had returned to Hogwarts, wanting then to apologize for her theft, and found her mother being carried away under a white sheet, she holed herself up inside a tiny broom closet for months. The sound of crying resonated still, hundreds of years later, near that small little closet.
For Helena and Rowena, closeness had been important; even when Helena felt Rowena wanted her to be something she could not be, she would always tell the Baron of her unconditional love for her mother. Back when Helena knew nothing of the Baron's lust for her, they would talk often, and he would rarely have a conversation with her in which she didn't mention her mother. Rowena, according to Helena, was strict, but she was wise and beautiful and respected and generous and fair and the most intelligent person Helena had ever met - which, from Helena, was most likely the greatest compliment that could ever be given.
The Baron had nobody to slip away from, but he watched her slip away from everyone; he could not bear that he had done this for her. He supposed it had all started with Rowena, though. Everything had begun when Helena's mother died, because Rowena was important.
Unlike the Baron.
What a life it was, to continue an old and lonely existence that could have been beautiful if she would only let go a thousand years.