---
The Silence That Remains
He left on a stormy night. She saw him go, saw him abandon his life and work of the last couple of decades. Saw him abandon the woman he loved, and who loved him back more than anything else in the whole world. But he hadn't asked her to come with him, and she had never suggested that idea either. Her life was here, where it had been for the last couple of decades as well. But she wasn't ready to leave, and he wasn't able to stay. And they both knew it and they both had accepted it.
---
"Come here for a second, Rowena."
The girl with long dark curly hair raised her glance from the book in her hands and grunted annoyedly.
"What is it, Godric?"
She didn't like to be disturbed while reading, and it was a good book.
"Just a moment, Ro, I promise," his friend laughed at her attitude, which he had grown so used to. "I want to introduce you to someone."
Rowena ignored his request for a moment longer, but then her curiosity overpowered her irritation, and marking her spot carefully, she placed the book on the table and walked up to her friend.
Godric gave her an affectionate smile. She was so sweet pretending to be angry with him.
"Rowena," he said when she had finally stopped in front of him. "This is an old friend of mine, Salazar Slytherin."
---
She had seen the storm coming. All of them had. And yet there was nothing they could do about it. But they had still tried, tried to fight the inevitable. Godric had tried it, and Helga had tried, and even she had tried in her own way. But one can't fight what is already happened, one can't uproot a tree whose roots go to the core of the Earth. And they didn't know what they were fighting with, at least Helga and Godric didn't know. Rowena did, but she was not able to use it to her own advantage. She had made the promise a long time ago, and she was going to keep it.
---
"Rowena, isn't it?" the dark stranger appeared to her side so quietly that she had to suppress a shriek of surprise.
"You know it very well, don't you, Saz." She teased him right back. The thought that he might have truly forgotten her never crossed her mind.
"How is Godric doing?" He changed the subject.
Rowena shrugged. "Well, I suppose. How should I know."
"I heard you two are engaged. Congratulations! He is a good man, I suppose, although I would have thought you choose someone more... sophisticated."
"Why would I do that?" she frowned. "I'm sophisticated enough for both of us. But thank you for your warm wishes anyway."
She carefully examined his reaction and was pleased to notice the small wrinkle between his eyes. Was he jealous? She hoped he was.
"It's so nice to know you still care about your friend's happiness," she added. "Even though you heard wrong."
---
She remembered the night things had taken a drastic turn. She remembered her research, about protective and concealing charms, for the School, when she had stumbled about something she didn't want to know. Almost, the storm had passed her, almost she had closed the book and called it a day, since it was already long past midnight. But she hadn't, and now she knew.
No one knew why Salazar hated Muggles with such a force and passion. No one but her. And Rowena was going to take that secret into her grave. She would never breathe a word of it to anyone, least of all to him.
Mistreating books was an unforgivable sin in Rowena's world. Yet she didn't hesitate before pulling the certain page out of the certain book and charming the latter afterwards so that no one would notice. The tome was an original with no copies of it yet made, and with removing the page from it, she had removed it from the history as well.
Later, she sat in front of the fire, and looked history burn.
After that night, nothing was the same again.
That night the world had lost a piece of truth. And she was never going to tell anyone.
---
"What are you looking at?" he turned to her in the moonlight.
"You look cute when you are sleeping," she answered simply.
"I DO NOT look cute," he objected. "Besides, I wasn't even sleeping."
"Then I suppose you look cute awake as well."
She only got a long hiss as a reply.
"Was that 'I love you' in Parseltongue?" Rowena inquired sweetly, a rather wicked smile on her lips belying the innocent tone of her question.
Smirking, he pulled her to him for another kiss.
---
Godric had stopped by to apologize. She hadn't understood why he had to apologize, but he had explained it to her. He apologized to her because he had left, and she was alone.
She had nodded and told him that she was all right and asked him to leave so that she could be alone. Then she sat in front of the fireplace and stared into the flames. He had no right to apologize. He had no right to feel sorry for her. He had no right to try to help her. Because it was her burden to bear and no one else's. It was her life, her love, her pain, not his, and he had no right to steal it from her.
---
"Rowena, come here!" the bossy tone of Godric cut through the ringing silence, which had been so thick and suppressing after their yells.
She knew she would regret it, yet she answered his call.
"Rowena, perhaps you would be able to talk some sense into this... friend of ours."
Typical Godric. Always so kind, so polite. A great contrast to the other man in the room, glaring at them with murder in his eyes.
"I think we have discussed it already," she said. "You can't make someone believe something they don't want to believe."
Godric looked shocked. Good.
"But Rowena, you can't be saying that you actually consider what he is telling us. You know that one's heritage should never be used against them, and a wizard or witch can be great no matter who their parents are."
"It might be dangerous," she spoke slowly, trying her best to remain neutral.
"But you can't punish these children for a reason so small and trite. And even the non-magic folk are people just like us – we are no better than them!"
"We are different."
"That doesn't mean we can't live together, peacefully."
"It doesn't," she shook her head. "We could live together peacefully."
But would we?
---
A few hours after Godric, Helga came to see her. She didn't try to apologize, she didn't try to steal away her life, her love, her pain, her burden, her world. She only sat down by her side and stared into the flames at well.
Helga knew more about Rowena than anyone else, including Salazar and Godric. She knew about her dark side.
Helga knew about that Rowena who had taken away a page from history and watched it burn. She didn't know why, but she knew how. They had been great friends for a long time.
---
"He's leaving," Helga murmured one evening.
"Who's leaving?" Godric frowned.
"Salazar."
"I know." Silence. "What about Rowena?"
"She knows as well. It was she who told me this."
"Is she all right?" he asked worriedly.
"She's fine. She has known it for a long time."
---
She was not going to stop him. Perhaps she should have, perhaps she could have. Perhaps she could talk to him, perhaps she could make him understand, perhaps she could help him escape his past. Perhaps she could...
---
"A storm is coming," she spoke silently, gazing out of the window in her tower-room.
He said nothing, but approached to stand behind her, one hand on her shoulder, looking at her dark hair and pale skin in the light of the crescent moon, instead of the mass of dark clouds and occasional flashes of blinding white on the horizon.
"Not tonight," he said after a while.
"No, not tonight," she concurred.
---
He left on a stormy night. She saw him go, saw him abandon his life and work of the last couple of decades. Saw him abandon the woman he loved, and who loved him back more than anything else in the whole world. But he hadn't asked her to come with him, and she had never suggested that idea either. Her life was here, where it had been for the last couple of decades as well. But she wasn't ready to leave, and he wasn't able to stay. And they both knew it and they both had accepted it.
---
Rowena removed her glance from the crystal ball in front of her and moved to gaze into the night instead. The sky was black and starry, and a full moon spread its light over the hills and woods.
As long as the weather was beautiful, he would still be with her.
---
She had never witnessed anything more beautiful than the storm on the night he left.
She could have made him stay, she could have even cured him of his revenge and dark thoughts, of his burning hatred of Muggles and Muggleborns. She could have made him stay and live with him happily ever after.
But she didn't.
---
Rowena was sitting in front of the fireplace, gazing into the flames and listening to the silence. She had changed enough history.
No one would ever know why Salazar Slytherin hated Muggles that much.
No one would ever know he had a reason to hate them.
No one would ever know that they deserved it.
---
She had made her decision on that night years ago when she had watched history burn. She wanted him to have his revenge. He deserved to have it, and they deserved everything he was going to do to them.
In a way, it was her revenge as well.
In the silence she sat and gazed into the flames.
---
The End.
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A/N: Hope you liked it! Drop me a line if you don't mind. Will answer to your questions, as well.
(2.Nov.2007) So many people have asked me about what Rowena burned that I decided to answer it here. That part was left unsaid with a reason, which was to give everyone the opportunity to come up with something horrible enough that would justify Rowena's actions for them. I never really decided on anything specific, although I do have an idea, and if you want to hear my opinion, you can ask me for it. It's just that I like stories where something is left open for the readers to ponder and think out by themselves. :)
Oh, and "The Silence That Remains" was the title of Israel's song at the Eurovision Song Contest 2005. It's pretty. Can't understand a word since it's in Hebrew (I think), but it's pretty nonetheless.