A/N
This was written in two hours for Gamma Orianis's One Hour Challenge/Hardest Challenge Ever II.
I apologize if it's a bit rough, I haven't done this in a while.
DISCLAIMER:
I own only my twist to the storyline, this is J.K. Rowling's world and characters, I only borrow for fun.
Enjoy the story!
Prologue
Rowena Ravenclaw's mind was racing; it often did, as she sat down in the small clearing within the Forbidden Forest. The sun was setting and her surrounds seemed to shift to become more sinister as darkness began to settle in; a fitting time and place for this meeting, she thought.
"You came." Rowena didn't turn towards the smooth voice that had spoken from the trees to her left, it belonged to Salazar Slytherin and she hadn't decided yet how forgiving she was going to be tonight. "I wasn't sure if you would."
"I wasn't sure that I would, either." Her voice was cold.
"You have every right to hate—"
"I do." Rowena cut him off with a sneer, rising to her feet. "I have every right to hate you, myself, this forsaken forest, and the school behind it."
"Rowena." Salazar moved into the clearing to stand across from her. "Allow me a moment to explain myself."
"A brief moment is all you will have, this is not the only place I must be tonight."
"I know, you are a woman with many responsibilities." His voice held a note of fondness that few had ever heard in it. "How is Helena?"
"She wonders why she has no father and why I never speak of him." Rowena did her best to hold her glare steady.
"Perhaps it is time you gave her answers." He stepped closer to the dark haired woman, towering over her small form.
"And where would I begin? How would I undo the damage of the stories she's been told?" Rowena leaned back to look him in the eye.
"With love; the knowledge that you loved me and I you." His eyes glistened, "And we her."
"She wouldn't believe that we loved her, a man who disappeared when she was three months old and never a word from since?" Rowena shook her head, "I can barely make her believe that I love her, let alone a man she hasn't heard from in eleven years."
"Let me tell her then, let me be a part of her life." Salazar took Rowena gently by the shoulders, "It's not too late, Rowena."
"It is, you know that it is." Rowena tried not to soften her gaze but feeling his touch, seeing the pain in those green eyes; it was too much for her. "I will always love you, Salazar, at least my memories of you, but your daughter will never have that. She's not capable of forgiveness, perhaps she gets it from her father."
"Perhaps she does." Salazar slid his hands down her arms to take her hands in his. "But maybe it's worth trying, worth a chance."
"Is it worth finding that she might know and hate you, and me, even more?"
"It is to me."