A/N: Written for two challenges on the Hogwarts Challenges and Assignments forum: the Fanfiction Resolution Challenge and the 365 Prompts Challenge, both of which included the prompt to write a fic set in the Founders Era.
Helena had been sleeping peacefully for half an hour. Rowena had a long list of things to do, from papers that needed grading to lessons that needed planning. She didn't have the time to watch her infant daughter sleep, yet there she was, mesmerized by the life she had brought into the world several days prior.
There was no doubt that having a child meant more work than she'd had before. She had questioned a few times why she hadn't taken one of the handful of offers she'd had from families willing to take Helena in and provide her with a home.
A home that would come with a nice respectable family, that is. Not one where there would always be whispers about her paternity.
Rowena had never intended to marry, for she'd never met a married woman who was allowed to lose herself in knowledge. She knew of plenty fine women who pretended to be less educated than they were to save their husbands' egos. Plenty of them could have stood where she did if they hadn't been intent on living a respectable life.
Of course, when Rowena had shunned marriage, she had believed that meant shunning motherhood too. Helena had been a happy accident that came after years of trying to ignore the part of her that longed for intimacy, if not marriage, and then years of trying to find men and women of like minds.
There had been ups and downs, but Helena had been the most earth shattering part of the journey. She was unexpected and had exposed Rowena to more abuse than she had previously endured, which was saying a lot as one of the most visible women in wizarding society. She had taken her share of abuse before falling pregnant out of wedlock.
She took a step closer to the crib, smiling as Helena made soft noises in her sleep.
It had been worth it.