"Our sedoretu is broken, Helga," Godric said. "We've lost our Evening husband."
He buried his face in her shoulder, and she put her arms around him comfortingly.
The two of them were the Morning man and woman in the First Sedoretu of Hogwarts, and had always looked to one another for comfort when the relationship with their Evening counterparts became strained. Rowena and Salazar did so love their magical experiments, even if Godric and Helga didn't always approve of what they were doing at any given moment.
"We will go on," Helga assured him. "We must go on. We will persevere and continue to guide the students who have placed their trust in us." She put on a strong face, even though she was silently breaking inside, and Godric knew it.
"I suppose there's nothing else we can do," Godric admitted, trying to comfort her as much as she was him.
"What are we going to tell young Marvolo?" Helga wondered. "He hasn't gone, too, has he?" It wasn't clear whether she was more distraught by her husband leaving, or the thought of losing the son she'd borne, as well.
Godric shook his head. "Salazar left by himself."
Helga visibly relaxed at that. "Much as we tried to hold things together, we'd known there were problems for some time."
"I just feel like it's my own fault," Godric said. "That I pushed him to this."
"Don't blame yourself," Helga assured him.
"What if I hadn't disapproved of his Dark Arts studies so vocally?" Godric said. "Or was it my pushing to accept Muggle-born children into the school? Or maybe it was for me spendng more time with you than he ever did."
Helga shook her head. "Stop." She put her finger on his lips. "Don't doubt yourself. Stay true to what you believe, and you cannot go wrong." She sighed and turned away, leaning on the windowsill and looking out over the Black Lake. "Maybe he'll be back."
"I'm not going to get my hopes up." Godric went over to stand behind the woman who had been like his sister for many years.
"If we don't have hope, what do we have left?" Helga replied softly.
Rowena was annoyed at Salazar's sudden departure. Not only had he stormed off in the middle of the night after yet another argument with his husband, but now she couldn't find some of the books they'd been working with, either. She wasn't sure if he'd taken them with him when he left, or hidden them somewhere in the castle or elsewhere. Either way, they were out of her reach, and Rowena was vexed.
"What are you looking for?" asked Helga, poking her head into her wife's office.
Rowena shook her head. "Nothing important," she lied.
"Are you still upset about Salazar?" Helga asked.
"Of course I'm upset," Rowena replied, sinking into her chair with a sigh. "But it's not going to make anything better. Thirty years we were together, and for what?"
"At least Helena and Marvolo had a chance to be raised by a full sedoretu," Helga said.
"I didn't expect things to end like this, though," Rowena said.
"It's not over yet," Helga said, going over to put a hand on Rowena's shoulder. "You've still got Godric and me."
Rowena sighed. If it hadn't been for Helga's intervention, their sedoretu would have fallen apart years ago as it was. Sweet Helga was the cement that bound together four very different people, and Rowena loved her for it, even as she had taken Helga for granted far too often.
She wasn't so blind as to not see the unshed tears sparkling in Helga's eyes. Their Morning wife needed comfort just as much as the other two, even if she would never admit it in favor of trying to comfort the others instead. Rowena sighed and went over to her, taking Helga up gently in her arms. There were times that Rowena had to admit she had been cold, perhaps, but now, the three of them that remained needed each other more than ever.
"Come on," Rowena murmured. "You can sleep in my room tonight."
Helga blinked water from her eyes, and nodded quietly, brushing away tears with one hand. There was only so far that even she could pretend to be strong.
The two of them curled up in the bed and just held one another for what seemed like hours. Helga fell soundly asleep after some time, leaving Rowena laying there with her arms wrapped around her wife, wondering just how their once seemingly perfect sedoretu had ever gone wrong.
Rowena looked sadly to the still-sleeping figure of Helga nestled up in the rich blue sheets of the four-poster bed. Such had been a common sight to see in the year since Salazar's departure. While Helga could get brotherly affection from Godric during the day, by night she often found her way to Rowena's bed. Being of the same moiety, Godric could not give her the same sort of comfort. That would be incest as surely as sleeping with one's own blood sister.
Rowena went out to her office to resume her work. There was still much to be done, and making herself busy would keep her mind off her troubles for a bit, perhaps. Without those books, she relied on her diadem to fill in the missing details in their place. Rebuilding years of research from scratch took all the cleverness that she could muster.
But this morning, Rowena opened the locked box where she normally kept the diadem, only to find that it was empty. She frowned in at the box. Who could have taken it without asking her first? The box was keyed to only open for her own blood, and she didn't think anyone could circumvent the safeguards overnight.
"Helena?" Rowena whispered. Had her daughter taken the diadem while she was occupied with Helga in her bedroom?
She didn't want to believe it. Maybe Helena had simply borrowed it without asking, for whatever reason, and it would reappear where it had been before when Rowena wasn't looking. Either way, however, she didn't want to tell Godric and Helga about this. She didn't want them to know that their daughter might be a thief. A betrayer. Tears stinging her eyes, Rowena closed the box again and turned away.
"Rowena?" Helga murmured sleepily from the doorway.
Rowena hid her face, not wanting Helga to see her crying. She pretended to have been intently examining the book on the pedestal, blinking repeatedly to try to dispel her tears. Surely she was overreacting, anyway. Helena would never steal from her. If she'd wanted to use the diadem, all she'd needed to do was ask Rowena to borrow it for a while.
"Good morning, Helga," Rowena said, putting on a calm mask to make sure her voice to stay steady. She'd get to the bottom of this in her own time.
"I'm heading down for breakfast," Helga said. "Don't work too hard. If I don't see you in the Great Hall by lunch, I'm going to bring something up for you, you hear me?"
Rowena forced a smile. "Yes, Helga. Of course."
Once Helga was gone, Rowena headed out to see if she could find Helena and get some answers out of her. It was a Sunday, so there weren't any regular classes today. However, Helena was not in her room, and no one she asked had seen her anywhere this morning. Rowena decided to bide her time, and wait. Surely Helena would return.
And yet, as the days passed, no sign of Helena turned up. Rowena grew increasingly distraught. Where might Helena have gone? There was only one place Rowena could think of, and that was Baron William's estate. She wasn't sure that Helena would have gone there of her own volition, but perhaps the baron had coaxed her into coming.
William and Helena were both Evening people, but William's interest in her had always seemed a step beyond what was appropriate between two people of the same moiety, and Helena had pushed him away. If Marvolo had been willing and they'd found a suitable Morning wife, they could have been married, but as it was, the baron's affection went unreturned. Ironic, since Marvolo had been more interested in William than anyone else.
That was the trouble with becoming obsessed with a single person. Marriage wasn't something that should be be with a single person. Only with four people could the proper balance be maintained. Having relations with one person might be appropriate for short-term pleasures, but such could never last. Even a sedoretu was not immune to falling apart, but it was far less likely.
Rowena pushed that bleak thought out of her mind as she headed out of the Hogwarts grounds so that she could Apparate to the baron's estate.
Baron William was a pureblood wizard who lived in a fine manor. He had been one of Salazar's students. In those early days, sometimes it had seemed like there were four separate schools in Hogwarts. Things were more integrated now, especially with Salazar having left and someone else needing to step up in his place. They could teach his classes, but they would never be able to take his place.
"Lady Rowena," Baron William said, sweeping into the lavish atrium to greet her. "To what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?"
"Is Helena here?" Rowena asked, skipping the pleasantries.
The baron scowled. "No, I have not seen her in some time. Has something happened to her?"
"She-" Rowena began, for once at a loss for words. "She's gone. I don't know where she went. I was hoping she would be here." Well, not precisely hoping, but at least if Helena had been here, she'd know where she was.
"I see," the baron said, frowning and shaking his head. "No, she is not here. Is she in danger? Do you think someone kidnapped her or something?"
Rowena took a deep breath. She would have to admit Baron William what she was unwilling to tell her own husband and wife. "No, I think she ran off willingly. I found something missing that only she could have taken, and she's nowhere to be found. I hate to admit this, but I think she may have stolen it."
"That's a serious accusation," Baron William said. "Why would she do such a thing? To steal from her own mother? I'm assuming this was something important, priceless, irreplaceable?"
Rowena nodded. "I don't know why she did it. I wanted to find her to ask. I just want to know why." Her voice cracked a little. "I don't care so much about the item. I just want my daughter back. Find her, William, if you can. Please find her?"
"I will find her, Lady Rowena," the baron said fiercely.
"Rowena has taken ill," Godric told Helga. "I've arranged for someone to cover her classes."
"Is it serious?" Helga wondered.
"We don't know yet," Godric said, shaking his head. "I hope she'll be alright."
"She's been withdrawn for weeks," Helga said, sighing. "I wish there were more I could do for her."
Rowena had finally gotten over Salazar's sudden departure, but then Helena disappeared as well. Helga knew her well enough to not be fooled by the mask Rowena put on for everyone else.
"I wish we could go back to trying to build sedoretu for our children," Helga said.
"If only Helena had gotten along better with William," Godric said. "He seemed a noble enough fellow, if a bit on the temperamental side, and Marvolo was fond of him. Pity it didn't work out that way."
"Nothing ever seems to work out the way we hope it to," Helga said.
Over the subsequent weeks, Godric and Helena remained at Rowena's side as her condition steadily worsened. She woke up one morning, looking up at her husband and wife deliriously.
"Helena?" she murmured. "Is Helena here?"
"No, my love," Helga whispered. "But I'm sure she'll be back soon."
"Helena..." Rowena rasped. "I want to see her... I want to see my daughter's face again. Just one more time." Her voice cracked. "One more time..."
She was not to get her wish, however. Rowena's eyes slid shut and she drifted off into a sleep from which she did not wake.
Helga buried her face in Godric's shoulder and wept shamelessly. Their sedoretu was down to two now.
Godric and Helga buried themselves in their work. Helga would rather mourn, but obligation to her precious students kept her going. Godric, on the other hand, just wanted to forget. Soon enough, however, the school year ended and the students were sent home for the summer.
The two of them found themselves sitting in the grass on the shore of the Black Lake, staring out at the water, still as glass underneath the sunlit sky.
"Where do we go from here?" Helga asked quietly.
"We will go on," Godric replied, putting his arm over her shoulders. "We must go on. There are still students to teach, and Marvolo needs a sedoretu. Perhaps we can see grandchildren in the future."
"It seems a bit much to hope for, after everything that's happened," Helga said. "Salazar's gone. Rowena's dead. And Helena returned to us only as a ghost... I had hoped for better for her, and now she denies herself the next life, for what? Out of guilt? Regret?"
"If we don't have hope, what do we have left?" Godric murmured.
The two of them sat quietly by the lake as the sun sank behind the mountains. No more words were needed.