The storm drew on. The trail leading up to the school was wet and muddy, he almost slipped.
She met him in the gate, warm and dry. As usual, her charms never failed.
"Rowena."
He saw her eyes well up in tears. "S-Salazar."
A long pause.
"So," he began. "Where's my daughter?"
WITHOUT YOU
By: Miss Sairas
"Wait! Salazar!"
He ignored her call and raced up the long staircase. "How could you not tell me!"
"Please, you'll wake the students!" she ran after him, trying to catch up.
He stopped and turned abruptly. She almost crashed into him. "A daughter, Rowena. A daughter!" She couldn't look at him.
He slammed her bedroom door open and stormed in it. He scanned the room briefly before spotting a handsome, varnished cradle. In it, a baby, screaming her lungs out.
Rowena, soon enough, appeared at his side, glaring. "Look—now you've woken her."
She left him by her doorway and hurried to the crying infant.
"Hush now, Helena…" he heard her croon, now rocking the baby in her arms. "Mama's here…"
And as little baby Helena quieted down and fell back to sleep, Salazar cautiously walked up to the infant and her mother.
"Rowena," he said, his voice totally different. "Is she… is she really mine?"
She gently laid her down again in the cradle, turned back to him and sighed. "She is."
The world seemed to stop. He searched her eyes—eyes he knew so well—and found no lie. A great wave or regret washed over him. I never should have left.
But as fast as the thought came, it left, a sudden anger taking its place. "And I was left in the dark." He hissed.
"How! How could I tell you!" she cried, her eyes welling up once more. "You disappeared, Salazar! Gone! You left! No one knew where you went. You told no one! Not even me!"
Her last sentence twisted his insides. Owling was out of the question. They both knew he never opened his letters.
He opened his mouth to reply but found no words came out.
He looked at her again. How beautiful she still was—her eyes wet or not. Her hair had grown longer, but he noticed the how unmaintained it was.
He swallowed. "How old is she?"
She did not bother to wipe her tears. He had a splitting suspicion she kept them flowing to show him how much hurt he was causing. "About 4 months."
"I see." He replied, coolly, turning away from her. He headed for the door. "I will send the necessities and will visit once a—"
"No."
"No?" he turned again. She stood tall, staring at him with such power.
"You…" she let the words flow out. "will never come back again. You will not send money—I can provide for her on my own. And you will definitely not give her the illusion that you will be the father that will always be there."
He faced her fully, looking enraged. "Just because I left the school, Godric and Helga—"
"—and me."
"…And you," he added. "does not mean I will abandon my child. I will be a part of her life, Rowena! Do not expect me to turn a deaf ear to a child that partly belongs to me."
"And what of Helena, Salazar?" she almost screamed. "What life can she have—when suddenly her beloved father stops visiting! My child will not be—"
"Our child!"
"—broken hearted as I have been."
He was silenced. She continued.
"You left before I had the chance to tell you. If you had stayed—"
"I could not stand being in place were my ideas were—"
"You could have tried! We could have talked about it rationally! It would have worked out!" she cried. She was standing in front of him now. "We would have had a family! We would have been happy!
"Rowena—"
"But it's too late now." She said finally, opening his slender palm and closing it. She has sobbing now. "For the school. For Helena. And for us."
He looked down at the locket in his hand. And deep inside, the heart he tried so hard to freeze, melted and cracked. "I gave this locket to you."
"And I am giving it back." She said, walking away from him now. "When you gave it to me and promised me love, I would have believed you until the end. You had no ring, but proposed to me with that locket instead, but when you left, it was nothing but the sole remembrance of what might have been. Who I would have become. What you could have been part of."
"But now," she went on. "I can move on. No longer will your cold heart keep me from life I have no choice to continue."
She led him outside her room. "With or without you. Goodbye, Salazar Slytherin." And shut the door in his face.
Outside, he heard is daughter crying again, this time, the sound of her sobs mixed with her mothers.
End.