Helena Jenkins was a pure blooded witch in her 6th year at Hogwarts and belonged to the house of Slytherin. She didn't know how lucky she was to even be alive, she didn't know the trouble some people went through so she could survive her grandfather's attack and she had no idea that one of her choices would change not only her life but also the life of Tom Riddle and the history of the magic world forever.
Who knew that this most determining moment would happen before the end of her Christmas holidays?
When she grew up, her parents told her that she was meant to do great things, that this was the reason why the mysterious young man appeared and stopped her grandfather, who later went to finish his life in Azkaban for his actions against her, but she didn't let it go to her head, she didn't believe it. She wasn't even sure if she really believed this story.
Of course her grandfather hadn't Stupefixed himself but why did people immediately came to the conclusion that she had been saved because she was special? She never understood it and never really cared to look into it.
Helena had always been a very discreet girl.
She wasn't shy, she knew how to voice her opinion when it was needed and could be quite loud while doing so if the subject mattered enough to her but she believed that the best way to lead her life was to be quietly in the background. To watch and to learn, then to use what she had learned to take the advantage when she needed it.
A real Slytherin according to her mother.
She had always been a very good student, always in the top 5 of her year, but she never tried to get attention with this. She had her friends, her studies and her life goals. If she cared about helping her house win the House Cup, she didn't engage in the silly wars that existed between the houses. She respected others and they respected her.
Most people thought that the reason she got along so well with Tom Riddle was because they were the same. They both studied hard and they were both pretty calm students. They both hated people who spoke all the time without really saying anything important and were quite often found studying quietly together in the Library or in their common room.
Helena couldn't believe how much the girl who shared her dormitory could speak sometimes and she envied Tom who had his own room thanks to his functions of Head Boy.
Helena had long and wavy brown hair and chocolate eyes which shone every time she smiled. If she wasn't the thinnest among the girls of her year, she wasn't fat either and most boys found that her curves were pretty generous. She didn't care about them though. They were all hormonal morons who forgot that they actually had a brain that could function if they gave it a chance.
.
That morning, as she sat down for breakfast with her classmates, Helena thought back to her previous years and what her future held for her.
She was the heir of one of the wealthiest and most powerful pure blooded family in the country and so she would never have to work if she didn't want to but she was also an only child, which meant that she'd have to marry quickly, if possible with the second son of another important family so her husband, and later her future children, could work with her father and keep the family business going.
Helena knew that she was lucky not to have been promised at birth to another pure-blood boy and she was aware of the fact that not many girls in her condition had been given the opportunity to choose her husband like she had.
Of course there were conditions her parents refused to waver on.
First she had to let them know of her choice before Halloween, the one that was coming up in a few days only. Then he had to be introduced to them during the following Christmas break, when they would celebrate their engagement and decide on the date of the wedding and the conditions of the union, which would be a contract between her family and the family of her fiancé.
Her father would favor a Slytherin, pure blooded if possible, half-blood maybe (muggle born was out of the question, unless he had something extraordinary to bring them). Her mother had added that a boy from another house would be acceptable if he was smart and from a great family.
The condition they had set and that she feared most was that if she hadn't found anyone after Halloween, they would be choosing for her and she refused to let them. She didn't want to end up with a pure blooded idiot who'd only be good at acting with brute force. She shook in disgust every time her eyes landed on one of the three Goyle sons or on the youngest Parkinson… She would never be able to suffer life with one of them.
Helena's problem wasn't finding the right person.
No, she already knew who she'd love to marry. She had been in love with Tom Riddle for so long that she didn't really know when her feelings appeared but she feared that he wouldn't share her feelings and that she wouldn't be able to find the right arguments to convince him to marry her.
She knew that Tom didn't believe in Love, he just barely believed in friendship after all. She knew him well, she was probably the one who knew him best in the world because of all the time they had spent together.
She knew that Hagrid hadn't been the one to open the Chamber of Secrets and she had been the one to convince Tom to stop the attacks. She knew how hard life was in his orphanage and after a very long conversation, which lasted the entire night and had made them both late for class for the first and only time in their life, she had decided to keep his secrets if he did his best to be tolerant towards muggles and muggle born witches and wizards as long as they kept their distance with him and didn't attack him or people he cared about.
Of course she didn't approve of what he did when he released the monster but she understood his need to prove to himself, and to others, that he was important and that he, too, had an inheritance, even if it was an unusual one. Opening the Chamber of Secrets had allowed Tom to reassure himself to the fact that he had a family and that he wasn't just another ordinary orphan. He wanted to feel like he belonged and it had provided him that feeling.
Helena knew Tom enough to know that he, sometimes, regretted having caused the death of this girl but he was strong enough to get over it and keep on standing bravely.
They had spoken about it a few times and now that Tom had the confirmation that he was the heir of Salazar Slytherin, he didn't feel the need to free the monster. He loved this school and didn't want it to close its door, even after his own departure. And why would he need a monster when he knew who he was.
Helena had helped him realize that if Hogwarts had closed its doors, other children that were in a situation similar to his would have to stay with the muggles who didn't understand them and hurt them out of fear. They wouldn't be able to escape the harsh reality that was the life of a wizard that lived with muggles unaware of magic or fearful of it.
If Tom wasn't naturally emphatic because of the harsh life he had lived in the orphanage, Helena had helped him develop a sense of empathy towards people in his situation and now Tom had gotten over his need to prove himself the most powerful. Knowing who he was inside was enough, and he owed his new self appreciation to Helena.
Harry will only be mentioned at first, you'll only see him in action in the later chapters (11 and 12).
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Lorelei Candice Black