Written for the QFLC-Round 2: Write about Inter-house friendship.
Thank you Jordi and Raybe who Beta'd this!
Enjoy!
Rose Gold With A Hint Of Magic
The library was blissfully quiet. The only sounds that could be heard were the scratches of quills on parchment and the occasional turn of a page. This was heaven for Rowena. The air just seemed to be filled with knowledge and the desire to obtain it. The warmth of the summer sunshine made the library more stuffy than usual, but it was nothing a few temperature control spells couldn't solve.
Rowena knew that picking the smartest witches and wizards for her house was a great idea, after all who would want boisterous teens or cunning adolescents in their houses? The thought of all of that noise and disruption made Rowena frown slightly so she stopped read her book and decided to write a letter to her mother. She hadn't written to her mother recently because she was so busy with her students. Now that she had all of this peaceful and precious time she could write her mother quite a detailed letter.
Dear Mother,
Unfortunately that was all Rowena wrote before an ear-splitting noise broke the delicate, glass like silence of the library.
"Sorry, sorry, I'm so sorry! I'm such a clumsy fool."
Rowena rolled her eyes at the familiar voice. Helga.
"I am very sorry, I didn't mean to drop all of these-"
"Helga, please cease your blabbering," Rowena said, her irritation evident. They had many more differences than those similarities that Godric always pointed out.
Rowena radiated regularity while Helga was clumsy enough to trip over her own feet. One was one of the most beautiful witches that lived while the other was more rotund and not prized on her looks even though she was a pretty witch. Rowena loved peace and quiet while Helga got a buzz when a lot of people were together.
But somehow, even with all of these differences, Rowena loved Helga. She was a breath of fresh air after being raised among loving, but uptight witches and wizards. Helga was kind, loyal, extremely hard-working and she always saw the best in her students. Maybe that's why she said she would take 'the rest' after Godric, Salazar and Rowena herself picked their preferences. There was no denying that Helga was a great friend and that's why Rowena gave a warm smile to her when she rounded the corner.
She was a kind-faced woman and her strawberry blond ringlets framed her heart-shaped face. Helga's always rosy cheeks were a stark contrast to Rowena's pale ones.
"Rowena, you have to see this," Helga whispered loudly.
"See what?" Rowena asked, standing up from her seat.
"Not here, outside," Helga said and she grabbed Rowena's wrist and begun to lead her out of the corridor.
"Helga, not in front of my students," Rowena hissed, but she couldn't stop the ends of her lips from tugging upwards.
"I think I have what you're looking for." At Helga's words, Rowena's interest peaked and she now willingly followed Helga out of the library.
(***)
"And you couldn't have apparated us to the destination?" Rowena huffed, taking another step up the tall, spiral staircase. It was built out of thick slabs of grey concrete so their footsteps echoed around the dark tower.
"Sssh! We must be quiet if you wish to keep this item a secret."
"Then when will we be there? We have been walking for ages. If only one could invent a spell in which a staircase could move on it's own accord-"
"-If only one could, yes, but we are not in need of any spell as we are already here," Helga said. She made some room for her friend at the small landing where a door stood before them.
"It's through there?" Rowena asked. Helga nodded with a wide smile on her face. Rowena had been explaining all summer for her need for this treasure. She very vaguely detailed all the wonders that could come out of it. It could be an eye-opener or man destroyer. Even if Rowena's highly intellectual talk about how complex the spell she was planning to do didn't capture Helga's excitement, that simple description of the item certainly did. A man destroyer!
From the start of the school year on, Helga dedicated any free time that she had to finding this mystery. She finally found it when she apparated there on accident when she wanted to find a dark and isolated place for her Devil's Snare. Rowena took a deep breath and then walked into the chamber. It was so dark she could barely see anything, so she took out her wand and muttered, "Lumos," before she bumped into something.
Lucky she did, too. The light from her wand illuminated the chamber and there, right in front of Rowena and Helga, stood a tall, rose gold-framed mirror on clawed feet. There were a few seconds of silence, in which both Rowena and Helga admired the beauty of the mirror, but then Rowena sighed and turned around to her friend.
"Thank you Helga, really, but this wasn't the mirror I was looking for," Rowena said. Helga's smile dropped.
"What do you mean? You said it had to be a treasure, special, and a mirror!" Helga exclaimed, putting her hands on her hips. Rowena sighed again, which irritated Helga further.
"I know, but I need a magical mirror! Not an old rusty one. I was thinking something Merlin would use." Helga gave an uncharacteristic scoff which made Rowena's eyes narrow. "Look, I didn't ask for your help."
"You only jabbered on about it for a number of weeks!"
Rowena looked like she was about to respond but she bit her tongue. Several tense seconds passed, then Rowena said, " I have to teach the sixth years soon, so I'd better be off." With a small pop, she was gone.
Helga breathed in and out a few times before turning on her heel as well. She still had to make sure to feed the Hippogriffs and being worked up over Rowena and her seriously skewed expectations was not going to do anything for her.
(***)
She knocked three times on the door and waited patiently for an answer. Helga had seen Rowena and Salazar speaking in hushed voices out by the forest an hour ago, but thought she might have came back by now. Obviously not.
Helga had a sneaky suspicion that Rowena was asking Salazar about Merlin. She knew that Salazar had some powerful friends but Merlin! Absolute nonsense.
Helga frowned slightly as she knocked again and no one answered. She turned the brass handle slightly and cringed when the door squeaked open.
"Rowena?" Helga whispered, but again she was met with silence. Deciding that Rowena wasn't in her bed chamber she was about to leave when something caught her eye. Nothing fancy, instead a piece of scrunched up piece of paper in the immaculate room.
Helga walked towards the disregarded paper on the dresser, feeling a little uncomfortable. She didn't like knowing she was doing something that was typically frowned upon. She picked up the paper and smoothed it out.
Elegantly written on the scrap of paper were nine words:
I show not your face but your heart's desire
Helga's brow furrowed. What was this? A spell? Most likely, but why was it written in plain English and not in Latin? The blonde pondered over these questions, many possibilities swimming in and out of her head until she got it.
No wonder she needed such a powerful mirror, because the words didn't hold the magic. Then Helga got another brainwave and the ends of her lips turned upwards.
"This is going to be a piece of cake," Helga said to herself and rushed out of the room, the piece of paper held firmly in her hand.
(***)
Arg! Helga wanted to rip the paper that she was holding into a million pieces. She had recited the nine words over and over and over again for the last ten minutes to no avail.
She knew that in the palm of her hand she was holding something special, something mystical. But the mirror needed to evoke that magic, and the mirror was being a pain in the badger at the moment.
Maybe Rowena was right? This mirror wasn't as magical as Helga hoped. She smoothed the paper out again in her hands and read the words. A sigh escaped her lips and she looked up back at the mirror.
Helga didn't see the mirror, instead bright purple smoke that surrounded it from top to bottom. Gasping, Helga stepped closer to the mirror, then suddenly there was a bright light which blinded her.
When she did open her eyes she couldn't believe them. There stood the mirror, almost glowing in gold, standing tall and proud. It seemed to be full of magical energy, the glass was sparkling and the frame polished and if Helga squinted she could make out some inscription at the top:
Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi.
Helga didn't waste a second before she ran out of the chamber. She had to tell Rowena.
Team: Montrose Magpies
Position: Beater (2)
Prompts:
(word) mirror
(phrase) a piece of cake
(word) holding
Word Count: 1525