EPIC EXCHANGE: For MelodyPond. Rowena Ravenclaw/Salazar Slytherin

Entry for the "Chocolate Frog Card Club" at "Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry (Challenges and Assignments)"

(Gold) Architect of Hogwarts; Challenge (no bonus) Write a story set in Founders Era Hogwarts.

Entry for the "Gringotts Prompt Bank"

HP Locations Prompts: 15. Founder's Tower

Love/Relationship Quotes:

"I love thee to the depth and breadth and height my soul can reach."

"When I am with you, the only place I want to be is closer."

"We loved with a love that was more than love."

All Colour Prompts: 17. Blueberry; 22. Bronze; 3. Dark Grey; 3. Ghost White; 9. Moss Green

More Plot Ideas: 52. Secret Relationship

Rowena felt as if somebody had ripped her heart out. He had taken it with him.

She was standing on the highest floor of the Founder's Tower, the place where they used to meet, away from judging or curious eyes, to be alone with each other, whispering vows of love to each other while holding each other tight.

"I love thee to the depth and breadth and height my soul can reach," he mumbled softly, his pale fingers running gently through her long, dark locks. "When I am with you, the only place I want to be is closer."

Rowena could feel her heart skipping a beat upon these wonderfully choosen words and she smiled widely at him, standing on her toes to kiss him with all the love she too felt for him. Her blue dress melted into the moss green of his robes as he pulled her closer, holding on to her as if she could vanish any moment.

It had been like a dream, really, a wonderful dream and she had never thought that she would be forced to wake up, and still now she told herself that he was not gone. That he would come back, even though she had witnessed the fight that Godric and Salazar had had.

She loved the way he had looked down on her with his dark grey eyes, his skin a ghost white under the light of the moon, openly admiring the sight she was in her blueberry and bronze dress, the dress that was reserved only for him. Only for the nights in which they would dance, kiss, converse, hold each other, and only the stars would see what the two founders were doing. Sometimes, they may have blushed if they could.

Never before in her life had she felt so wonderful, so free, so happy. Love had often been cruel to her, her first husband having been taken away from her too early, and Salazar seemed to be her cure, sealing together the pieces of her broken heart.

Suddenly, he was the air she needed to breathe, he was her everything and sometimes she had to conceal the smile that sneaked its way on her face whenever she saw him.

Rowena had never had a single thought about how he could possibly leave, or that their luck could be clouded at all. Maybe this was the reason why she did not see the signs of the storm that had been coming up.

And then, when it had hit, it had surprised her, shocked her to the bone.

"Salazar, please, stay! Godric and you, you had so many disputes and you were always able to sort things out between the two of you, I am sure you will do so yet again! Please, stay! I don't want you to leave, I need you here!" Rowena begged, tears in her eyes as she stormed onto the balcony of the Founder's Tower, the small piece of parchment with Salazar's message to meet him up here still clutched in her hand.

"I have no choice, my dear. The barrel is full, I cannot work with Godric any more! Rowena, my heart, we loved with a love that was more than love, and I do regret that I have to leave you, but I don't think I have a future here at Hogwarts," Salazar answered, cupping her face, his fingers gently running along her jawline, caressing the smooth skin as if he was trying to memorise how she felt under his fingers.

"And I will never stop loving you, my heart, and if fate has mercy with us, we will meet again."