"Make haste, Rowena!" Helga said impatiently from the doorway. "Salazar claims he'll leave without us if you do not hurry."
"Don't believe him, Helga," Rowena replied with a smile. "Salazar's bark is worse than his bite. Besides, Godric has the map, and he will not consent to depart without me."
"And if he tires of waiting?" Helga demanded.
"Well, you are packed already," Rowena pointed out practically. "You three can go on ahead. I'll catch you up."
Helga smiled. "Unlikely," she said. " You won't know where you are going. Are you almost done?"
"Nearly," Rowena said, biting her lip as she made the hard decision to put one of her precious books aside.
"I'll begin loading up the carriages," Helga said. "Which are you taking?" She looked around at the vast multitude of cases scattered around Rowena's bed-chamber.
Rowena looked surprised at the question. "All of them, of course," she said.
Helga's mouth dropped. "All of them?" she squeaked. "Rowena, you've packed more than twenty cases!"
"We'll need books," Rowena said stubbornly, a hint of defiance in her voice. "We're founding a school."
"We're only picking the location!"
"My point still stands."
Helga sighed. "Remember when Godric said that the place he had in mind was over rough land?" she said.
Rowena frowned. "I see no obstruction to my plans," she said.
"You can't traverse rough tracks for months carrying all these cases, Rowena, even with levitation spells!"
"But if I can't read, what'll I do in that time?" Rowena asked.
Helga smiled fondly at her friend. "Would it surprise you to know that there's more to life than books?" she asked.
xXx
"No! I've changed my mind! I'm not bored! I wish to take my words back!" Rowena cried as she struggled helplessly in the air. "Return my wand to me at once, you rogues!"
"You said you desired entertainment," Salazar called from the lake's shore. "I find swimming very entertaining." Beside him, Godric had his wand pointed at the levitated figure of Rowena, being held over a glass-surfaced lake.
Helga, hearing the shouts, emerged from the treeline of the forest. "What are you doing to her?" she scolded the two young men, but her grin was playful.
Godric and Salazar glanced at one another mischievously. Helga recognised that look and took a step back. "Oh, no you don't-" she said, but was cut off before she was finished. With a twitch of his wand, Salazar cast a spell that had her hovering over the lake besides Rowena.
"Why did you not disarm him?" Rowena hissed, still squirming fruitlessly.
"I left my wand in the tent," Helga replied calmly. Unlike Rowena, she relaxed back into the pleasant hold of the levitation charm and let Salazar carry her where he willed.
"Shall we let you down?" Godric called teasingly from the banks.
"If you like," Helga replied.
"No! They mean to drop us into the water!" Rowena said.
"I know, dear," Helga said. "Don't panic."
"But we're fully clothed!" Rowena exclaimed.
"Clothes dry," she said, winking as Godric began to count down from three. "Take my hand before we fall."
As their bodies fell towards the glassy lake, their fingers entwined.
xXx
The witches got their revenge later by dropping both wizards into the lake in the dead of night.
xXx
The next morning, the pair was still sulking. "There were merpeople in there!" Godric exclaimed as he attempted to warm himself before the fire Helga had lit as an apology. "And I think there was a squid!"
"Really?" Helga sounded fascinated. "Did you speak to them? Did they seem friendly?"
"We didn't pause to ask," Salazar said dryly.
Helga didn't notice the tone, already standing up. "I'm going to speak to them," she said boldly, and strode off towards the lake.
"I shall be sorry to move from here," Rowena said idly, sipping at a cup of tea. "You might claim to have found a better spot to build a school, but I am not convinced. We've already spent two weeks here, and every day we discover more and more to keep us."
"If there are unicorns residing in the forest, then the place must be teeming with magical life we've yet to spot," Salazar added. "Where better to teach young witches and wizards?"
"Helga would be most keen on remaining," Rowena observed, glancing towards the lake where the other woman had disappeared into.
Godric looked disgruntled. "Well, if the place the old soothsayer told me of is not to your satisfaction, we can return here," he informed his friends. "But I believe we should continue on our journey."
Rowena and Salazar simply looked at each other and looked away.
The next summer, the four of them returned to their campsite and began drawing architectural plans for a school. They debated making it a floating island in the middle of the lake for quite some time, before eventually settling on a castle. This they called Hogwarts.