«So you have finally found me.» Helena's melodic voice was cold and harsh as she looked at the man in front of her.
Her lips curled in disgust as she studied him. His black hair was bushy after fighting his way to her through the dark and dangerous forest. His elegant uniform that spoke of his astounding wealth was torn in several places as if a rabid animal had attacked him with its razor sharp claws. She could see blood decorating the left side of his abdomen. The splotch of red was a morbid contrast to the white cloth of his uniform.
A sword was tucked into its sheath at his hip, ready to be used should danger appear, and she could see the handle peeping out of the sword's covering. His face was dirty and he looked completely different from the aristocrat she was used to seeing. To her utter dismay she could see that the goofy and pathetic smile was present in his innocent looking face despite the fact that he was dirty wounded and probably very hungry.
It was Cuthbert. How he had managed to find her, she had no idea. But he had and now she had to deal with it. Of her many admirers Baron Cuthbert was the most devoted of them all. If not for the innocent look on his face she would have thought that the unhealthy obsession he had with her was borderline scary. But she knew that Cuthbert would never hurt a fly. Because while he was arrogant, he was completely harmless, if not exceedingly annoying.
Despite the many times she had rejected him; he kept coming back asking her for her hand again and again. She didn't understand him. She had never given him any encouragement and still…
She didn't comprehend how he could go through the humiliating process of being rejected over and over again. Or maybe he believed that if he asked her enough times she would eventually accept his offer and the hope of a future with her as his wife was what drove him.
That hope, however, was wasted and would only bring him misery because she would rather carve her eyes out with a blunt spoon than agree to marry him.
Helena stood silently and watched him. If he made even the smallest indication of trying to grab her, she would run or use her magic against him. She knew why he was here. He wanted to take her back to her mother. Back to Hogwarts and back to him. If only Cuthbert knew the whole story he would have given up years ago. If he knew who she truly loved he would understand that he was chanceless against him.
Her eyes were drawn towards Cuthbert's eyes. They were a brown color. She thought that they looked just as soft as his personality. She sneered inwardly at the dumb expression that was etched on his face.
People like Cuthbert were loved by 99 percent of the female population. They were the type of men who made wonderful fathers with their loving nature. Their obsessive love for their wives made sure that the woman would always feel safe and wanted, cherished and loved. Helena was the 1 percent who liked the other ones; the dangerous ones, the dark angels. Her thoughts strayed towards him because he was the epitome of the dark angels. In fact the term might have been made with him in mind.
Thinking of him brought back unwanted memories, so she quickly focused on something else. Her eyes were drawn back to Cuthbert's prone form. He was leaning against a tree a couple of meters away from her. His eyes were staring at her with an obsessive love-struck look. She knew why he was here. She knew what he wanted and she would do everything within her power to resist him. Her chin tilted upwards in a stubborn motion.
"I won't come back with you," she declared, her eyes flashing dangerously as he took a step forward. He didn't know anything, the fool. He didn't know why she could never return to her mother. Why her pride would not let her go back to Hogwarts and beg for her mother's forgiveness.
"Don't you dare take another step, Cuthbert! I will destroy you." Cuthbert didn't seem fazed at her death-threat. His face curled into an amused smile and he stepped closer to her despite her warning.
"You were always so feisty," he chuckled and gave her a wink. It seemed as if he had translated her death-threat into a proclamation of her love for him. Helena felt the fury ignite inside her. How could he possibly not see that she wasn't interested in him! She had tried everything from brutal honesty to brutal violence, and yet he hadn't understood. WHY didn't the message pass through his thick skull!
"You never take me seriously, do you," she began coldly. "No matter what I say or do you follow me around like one of Helga's lost little puppies, it's disgusting." Cuthbert only laughed at this.
"Oh, Helena. You amuse me so. I must admit that before you left I began to doubt if you truly loved me. But then Salazar told me the truth. He told me how you secretly desire me, that the way you so cruelly reject me is your own way of telling me that you love me. 'She only wants you to work for it, my friend' he said. And I believe him for if there is one man's opinion that I trust above all then it is Lord Slythrin's. So what do you say Helena. Why don't you stop the act and admit that you love me," he grinned, confident of his own fortune and that Helena had loved him all along. Helena on the other side had not heard a single word past the first mention of Salazar.
"Salazar," she hissed furiously and her jaw clenched with her effort to keep her rage inside and not unleash it at the rest of the world. She couldn't believe it! Hadn't he hurt her enough? She felt the emotions she had tried to bury slowly crawl to the surface; Anger, betrayal, devastation. They all blurred together until they became a burning orb of emotion. That despicable man, even after she had escaped from Englaland, his cruel meddling continued to destroy her life.
"You should know to not trust a word that comes out of Salazar's mouth," she spat. Cuthbert seemed slightly taken aback by the sudden anger. Once he had gotten over the shock, his face contorted into a disappointed expression.
"How can you say something like that about Lord Slytherin? He is an admirable man, with high morals and a gentlemanly nature. He is the epitome of the greatness in mankind." He spoke with wide eyes that shown of pure admiration and respect. Helena felt sick at the look on his face.
"You say that only because you have never seen his true face. You have never seen the cruelty inside of him. I am sure that if I were to tear his chest open, his heart would be missing," she said bitterly.
"Dear god, Helena! Such a fool thing to say. If your mother heard you, I can't even imagine what she would do-" he gasped in horror.
"My mother-" Helena interrupted. "-wants me dead." Helena deadpanned.
"Dead? Why on earth would she want you dead? It was she who sent me here in the first place. She said that you had run away from home and that I needed to find you and bring you back to her. 'Cuthbert, I trust that an admirable and brave man as yourself will bring my daughter home,' she said," Helena laughed a cold laugh.
"Well that definitely sounds like her. Only she would sugarcoat the story with lies. To your information Cuthbert I did indeed run away from home, the reasons were many I assure you. But the most important was because I stole my mother's diadem. She only sent you because she is too lazy to come and get me herself, and once I get home I'm sure she'll skin me alive," she said calmly, and watched in fascination as his eyes widened and his features twisted into an expression of sheer terror.
"You stole your mother's diadem," he spluttered and looked at her incredulously. For one second she had hoped to get some sympathy about the fact that her mother was going to kill her, but Cuthbert, of course, had only heard the apart about the diadem.
"The diadem," he asked again thinking he had misheard her. His eyes were boring into hers as if he wanted to force her to tell him that she had only been joking.
"Are you deaf? Yes, I stole that diadem."
"Are you mad," he gasped putting a hand to his heart. "This changes things. We – we must go back at once and you- you must bring the diadem. Wherever you have hidden it, you must find it, NOW! May the Gods have mercy upon your soul, Helena. What have you done, oh, what have you done!" His voice was hysteric as he babbled.
"Did I not make myself clear, Cuthbert," she said coldly, "I am not coming with you."
"What," he questioned incredulously as if the sheer idea of not going back reached such levels of absurdity that it shouldn't even be deemed a thought.
"I have had enough of your attitude, Helena. It is not becoming of a woman of your status," he said tiredly and stepped towards her.
"And who are you to tell me what I should do and should not do," she challenged. There was a mighty silence as Cuthbert stopped in his tracks. He seemed to be considering something. He tilted his head slightly to the side and looked at her with an intense stare, as if he was judging her.
Eventually he must have come to a conclusion, because suddenly his entire posture changed. His stance became fiercer. The innocent gleam in his eyes disappeared, leaving only cold obsession. The goofy smile faded away leaving a cold smirk in its wake.
She gasped in horror and took several steps backwards as the mask of innocence slipped away from Cuthbert's person. He followed each of her steps with a step of his own. She felt her back bump into a tree and tried to run for it, but his strong arms took a hold of her shoulders making it impossible for her to escape. His grip was harsh enough to leave bruises. All the while Helena's mind was in uproar, what was happening?
"Helena, you are betrothed to me. As your future husband I definitely have a say." He explained with a leer that looked completely out of place in the face of the man she had once thought of as weak and pathetic. She didn't understand what he was talking about. All she could focus on was the major shift in his personality. She had only seen someone lose their mask like that once before. She could feel the horrible memories resurfacing with the accompanying emotions of devastation, hurt, and betrayal.
"Betrothed," she asked. "Since when? If my memory serves me right, and it does I assure you. I rejected you, four times." She said cruelly, acting towards him as she usually would, thinking that if she acted as if nothing was wrong, then maybe Cuthbert would revert back to his simpering self and she would no longer be dealing with the obsessive maniac who was still clutching her shoulders in a death grip.
"Indeed, I have asked you four times and you have cruelly rejected me each time. However, your mother was kind enough to give me a reward for bringing you home-" he said maliciously.
"No! You are lying," she shrieked knowing where the conversation was going. It couldn't be true. He was only trying to scare her, she was sure of it.
"She signed the marriage contract before I left. It wasn't difficult to get her to sign it once I convinced her that you loved me as much as I do you. And you weren't there to protest…" he finished. The wildness in his eyes was more protruding now. "You are mine now, Helena." he leered.
"You- you swine!" His eyes flashed dangerously and he leaned forwards grabbing a hold of her chin,
"We'll have to do something about that nasty tongue of yours. Such a foul mouth is unbecoming of a woman with such a high status." His fingers trailed down her cheek in a loving gesture.
"Let. Go. Of. Me" she snarled and spat in his face. His eyes widened in fury and he released the grip on her chin so that he could wipe the saliva of his face.
"Your words, spoken with such cruelty, they wound me so," he mocked and placed his hand on her shoulder. "Now, I think it is time for us to leave."
He tugged her closer to him, the suddenness of the motion made her stumble and fall to the ground.
"Come with me, Helena." He said in a smooth voice as he towered over her where she lay fallen on the ground.
"Who are you," she breathed with fear in her voice. It was clear to her now. This creature standing over her was not Cuthbert, it couldn't possibly be Cuthbert.
"I am Cuthbert," he stated calmly.
"No. No you cannot be. The Cuthbert I know is a weak and pathetic man who is too naïve and too foolish to see that his true love despises him. You are not him. You are cruel, greedy, and evil. You tricked my mother into signing a marriage contract and thus you have bound my soul to yours against my will. Only a wicked person can take away someone's will like that, and while Cuthbert is one of my least favorite persons in the world, he was not cruel."
"I am Cuthbert." He said again. "Did you really think that Salazar was the only one who hid behind a mask," he scoffed and looked at her as if she was stupid. "I am much more dangerous than you ever gave me credit for."
"So you know about Salazar then," she breathed. She had genuinely believed that Cuthbert thought Salazar was innocent from the way he defended Salazar's honor. Cuthbert was a master at acting, she realized. Cuthbert had fooled her for years, he was even better at acting than Salazar. While Salazar had always been somewhat dangerous, and everyone knew not to cross him, Cuthbert had seemed harmless.
"That I do, he even told me about what he did to you. We're actually good friends me and him. I must say it was rather amusing to hear about you. I wouldn't have thought that you were foolish enough to fall for his charms, but I must have overestimated you." His words shot through her like the tip of a sword cut its way into the victim's heart, cruelly and painfully. An image of Salazar laughing with Cuthbert as he told Cuthbert of what he had done appeared in her mind. She could see them laughing at her behind her back, talking about how foolish she was.
"GET AWAY FROM ME!"
"Did I touch a nerve. I guess it must have hurt when he dumped you. You are so used to gettong everything you want, Helena. All you need to do is to show your pretty little face and people throw themselves at you. I am sure the rejection must have nearly killed you. Tell me… did it hurt," he asked cruelly.
"Because then you can finally understand how I felt when you rejected me again and again. If it weren't for the fact that I love you I would have killed you for causing me such harm. So you should count yourself lucky that I like you," he smiled. Helena felt her insides curl at his twisted words. She rose from the ground ignoring his insults and jibes. Was this some sort of punishment? She had always been selfish and cruel. Was this the price of living a life without considering others? Was she fated to be Cuthbert's wife? Would she have to suffer through years of his insanity?
"Now, come with me. This has become tiresome, and do bring that diadem with you. Salazar still wants it. There was a reason he told you to steal it in the first place. Personally I think that revealing his true nature to you before you delivered the diadem to him was rather foolish of him. He did not seem to think that you would run away without giving it to him… He'll learn from his mistakes I suppose…" She tuned out the words. She didn't want to be reminded of what had happened.
"Never! Forget about it. I will never come with you."
"Why?" His voice was genuinely curious as if he couldn't understand why she would reject his offer. Helena wondered if he was slightly retarded or had some sort of brain-damage.
"You question me as if the answer isn't obvious," she laughed cruelly. She had gotten over the shock of his sudden personality shift. And now that she had gotten used to dealing with the obsessive and twisted version of him she was ready to attack, because he wouldn't go down without a fight.
"You are pathetic. You are beneath me, the dirt on my shoe. I have never loved you nor will I ever love you. I will not come with you, I will not marry you. I don't care if the marriage contract is binding once it is signed. I will rather die than be with you, Cuthbert," she said forcefully. Each word struck him with the force of a kick in the stomach. She grinned maliciously when she saw the hurt look that spread across his features for the brink of a second. "You are a monster," she finished. That seemed to do it for him. His eyes flashed and he wrenched the sword out of his sheath and pointed it at her throat.
"What did you call me," he snarled. It seemed as if she had hit a nerve. The word seemed to ignite a terrible fury inside of him. She wondered what memories were connected to the word. She was on dangerous grounds, she realized. His sword was pointed at her throat in a lethal posture. It would be suicidal to egg him on, but she couldn't help herself. She wanted to cause him as much pain as he had caused her.
"Monster," she repeated coldly.
"I AM NOT A MONSTER," he roared and raised the sword upwards. All he needed to do was to stab it downwards and her life would be over.
"A wicked terrible monster. You have no compassion. You are not human, you disgust me," she cackled. A sickening squelching sound echoed through the forest as the cold sword penetrated the skin of her throat. A bloodcurdling scream escaped her lips before her eyes glazed over, staring blankly at nothing.
Cuthbert stared with wide eyes at Helena's fallen body. His knees buckled as he fell to the ground next to her, his eyes were wide in horror of what he had done.
"No…" he muttered, shaking her shoulder violently. Helena's limp body gave no response.
"Helena!" He pulled at his hair in frustration and fear.
"I'm sorry, Helena. I lost my temper. Yo-you-… I-… I didn't mean it!" he shook her again but there was still no response.
"Come on. Stop it! Enough of this foolishness!" He slapped her, hard.
"Come on,"
SLAP!
"Wake-"
SLAP!
"-Up"
SLAP!
"WAKE UP," he roared but it was to no avail. All he had accomplished was tearing the skin of her cheek as his sharp ring grazed it.
"Why!" he screamed at the heavens. He grabbed the sword and pulled it out of her neck, hoping that maybe she would wake up once the offending weapon was removed. She didn't.
"I will follow you wherever you go, Helena. You cannot escape me! We will be together again!" he cackled manically and raised the sword in the air, before he turned it against himself. For the second time a squelching sound disturbed the silence of the forest. A gurgle escaped his mouth as the sword went through his stomach. He fell to the ground, slowly bleeding out until he knew no more.
AN: I wrote this story for a competition with the prompts: Bruises and Forget about it.
It's a take on what happened between The bloody baron and Helena Ravenclaw.
I entertained the thought that perhaps Helena didn't steal the diadem for herself but for somebody else; Salazar. Only to find out that Salazar didn't love her at all and had only been with her so that he could get the diadem from Rowena. Cuthbert is the bloody baron. I have never seen his name printed so I came up with a name of my own. The mentioning of Englaland is not an error. I think that they called England for Englalang in Helena's time.