"Rowe," Victoria whispered his name as she put her head on his shoulder. His arm was around her shoulder as he held her on the couch.

"Yes?" He asked as he peered down at her. He reached down with his free hand to brush the free stands of her hair from her face.

"Can I ask you something?"

"You can ask me anything you want."

"And you'll answer truthfully?"

"As if I could ever lie to you." He responded, bringing a smile to her face, though he hadn't seen it.

"Have you… Have been with a girl before? I mean… intimately." She softly with pauses in between fragments of what she wanted to say, mostly due to her fear of what his answer would be.

"Riah," He sighed as he put a kiss on the top of her head. "Are you sure you want that answer?"

"Doesn't that answer my question already?" She replied as she lifted her head and looked up at him, realizing she'd spoken the truth he'd been reluctant to admit. "How many?"

"Three." He answered. She nodded as she tried to rest her head again, but he stopped her with a hand on her cheek. "But that was… a long time ago."

"Here?" She asked.

"No," He answered. "I told you, you were the first person to see this room, other than me. This is our room." He told her strongly as he kept his hand on her cheek, his thumb brushing her cheek bone just below her eye. "I haven't so much as looked at any other girl since you."

"Thank you," She whispered softly to him, still staring him in the eye. He nodded before he pressed his lips to her forehead. "Have you seen your father lately?"

"No," He answered with a shake of his head. "Not since the Hospital wing, why?"

"Mine never came to see me." She replied, putting her head down on his shoulder. "If it were Jocelyn-"

"Don't, Riah." He stopped her before she could even begin to compare herself to her sister. "It doesn't matter anymore."

"Do you remember your mother?" She asked softly, but the room went silent when he didn't answer right away. "Do you remember her at all?"

"Yes," Rowen answered, putting a soft kiss on her head. "I remember her a little. She died when I was five. She used to wrap this old blanket around me whenever I got scared. It was before Hogwarts, so my dad would leave a lot. Usually with Rowena, and Eve would stay the night with us all the time. Her father died too when she was barely one, so my father was basically her father. She's my sister in every way. Bt my mother… she had this really old blanket and she would wrap me up in it every time I got scared after my father left, and then the next morning she'd come to wake me up, but the blanket would be falling off because Eve would sneak into my room when she got scared and I used to tell her that the blanket would protect us from everything."

"I don't remember my mother at all, Rowe. I don't even have somebody else to remember. At least you had Rowena. She loves you Rowe. I can see it. Everybody knows she favors you, nearly as much as her own daughter."

"Yes, but that has nothing to do with everybody else." Rowen replied. "I saved Eve all the time. After her father, and my mother, my sister was hardly able to walk yet, and my brother was still in his crib. Eve and I… We were all we had for a really long time. It wasn't for at least a few more years that your father and Helga Hufflepuff showed up and we had sort of an extended family. Except Logan and Jocelyn. I think they hated us all even from the beginning."

Victoria laughed as she tightened her grip around Rowen's body. "I always wanted to fit in with them. I wanted to belong, and I never did."

"I can't imagine anybody wanting to be like them."

"I was little, Rowe, and they were my siblings. They were the only friends I had before our parents became friends. And by the time I met you, you were always around Evelyn, and Caleb was your sister's age, and I didn't fit with them either. I was just… misplaced for the longest time."

"You never gave us a chance, Riah." He replied. "I tried to play with you once or twice, but you were just as boring as Eve." He laughed as he looked down at her, but she pushed him away slightly, only to tighten her grip when he came back to her. "But none of that matters anymore."

"I suppose not." She agreed, letting her eyes drift shut.

"Do you think Rowena and my father are… involved?" Rowen asked, and Victoria rose her head to stare up at him, thoroughly confused. "It's a serious question." He defended himself as he peered down at her. "They're… always together. And her and Eve always stay at our Manor anyway. I don't think anybody's stepped into the Ravenclaw manor in years. They live with us, Riah, I mean Eve has her own room in our manor."

"Because there are only two of them. They'd be lonely in a big Manor by themselves. I mean, there are four of you guys, with your father, and Hufflepuff is still married, and my father has the tree of us." Victoria pointed out, and Rowen shrugged.

"I still think they sort of… want something." Rowen replied, and Victoria rolled her eyes, as she rested her head once more.

"Perhaps," Victoria replied as she yawned. "They spent nearly most of their lives together. Maybe they just don't want to upset you and Eve and your little siblings." She added as she let her eyes close.

He felt her shiver against his body, so he conjured a blanket to put around her body as she lay against him. "Are you spending the night here?" He asked curiously.

She nodded against his shoulder before she spoke. "I'm too tired to make it across the castle now, and not get caught."

"Same for me." He replied as she put his head back to shut his eyes.

**

Rowen woke the next morning, and tried to stretch, but found himself pinned between the back of the couch he was laying on, and Victoria in front of him. He looked down to see the peaceful look on her face as she slept in his arms. Not wanting to wake her, he moved his legs up to straighten them, but they hung over the arm rest on the other side of the couch.

He wrapped his arm around her once again before he rest his head down on the armrest. She was curled up in between the armrests, but he deemed her to be comfortable because she was small enough to fit. He only held her for a few more minutes before she woke up and turned to look at him, a smile on her face.

"Good morning." He whispered to her.

"Good morning." She replied as she snuggled to him again, putting her face in his chest, and taking in the smell of him. "I don't think I've ever slept that well before."

"No?" Rowen asked as he rubbed her back gently.

"No," She shook her head softly as she slowly started to rise. She sat on the couch, but Rowen continued to lay. He shifted over and laid on his back as he stretched his arms out and let out a heavy sigh.

"What time is it?"

"I'm not sure." She responded as she stood up and started to straighten her robes, but to no avail. They simply wrinkled up in the same places that she had slept on it in. She moved over towards the fire to find it still burning warm, but not too hot. When she peered over her shoulder, she smiled to find Rowen watching her, still laying across the couch, his legs dangling over the arm rests.

"Why are you watching me like that?" She asked.

"Because I can." He replied, finally sitting up. "We should go out there to see what time it is. If it's still breakfast we may not have been missed yet."

"Somebody surely noticed your lack of presence by now." She replied as she pulled her wand from the inside pocket of her robe. She muttered a spell and watched as her robes flattened, as if brand new. After wishing for a mirror and chair, she sat down and started to work on her hair, attempting to make it presentable, or at least make it appear as if she hadn't spent the night with a boy.

"I don't think so. I sleep here a lot, my roommates have become accustomed to my absence in the mornings. If I disappear at night, that's new." He replied, watching her in the mirror as she combed her long black hair with a comb she'd conjured as well. When she started to reach back to pin her hair up, Rowen neared her and moved her hands away from her hair.

"What are you doing?" She asked as she peered at him through the mirror.

"Just wait." He told her as he wished for a jeweled hair piece. He stared down at his hands until a ruby encrusted hair piece materialized in his fingers. Taking back a portion of her hair, the way he knew his sister did her hair, he pinned the hair piece in place, before stepping back.

"You can keep that." He told her as she turned to look at what he'd done in the mirror.

"Red?" She asked before looking up at him. "And Gold?" She added after a second glance in the mirror. "How very stubble of you," She remarked as she laughed.

"Do you like it?"

"I do," She answered as she rose to her feet, the chair, mirror and comb disappearing into nothing as she turned her back to them. "I have to go to the Slytherin Tower, so I suppose I'll see you later."

"Alright." He nodded. "Meet me at the lake today. At lunch."

She stared at him with a smile before she nodded in agreement. "I'll be waiting for you." She whispered as he bent down to capture her lips in a kiss once more. Without another word, she turned and made her way to where she knew a door would materialize once she neared it. As she waited for the brass doorknob to appear in her grasp, she turned back to see Rowen watching her leave. Once she felt the wood of the door, she smiled at him before turning the doorknob and leaving the room, shutting the door behind her.

**

Rowen had been sitting, absent mindedly throughout the entirety of his father's lecture, but he was well aware when the class had been dismissed. Usually, Rowen was the first out the door, eager to get to lunch, however this time he had a whole other mind set for his lunch period.

"Rowen," He heard his father call his name. Inwardly groaned, Rowen turned back to see his father straightening papers on his desks while his classmates filed out of the classroom. "I need to talk to you."

"About?" Rowen replied.

"Victoria." He answered as he peered up at him, after the room had cleared. "And your sudden interest in her."

"What does that have to do with anything?" Rowen asked as he sat on the desk before his father, who was seated behind his professor's desk.

"Rowena talked to you, did she not?"

"She did, but I don't understand why it's such a big commotion. All I ever hear is that I jump from one girl to the next and then all of a sudden, I'm being chastised for picking one that I actually like." Rowen voiced his frustrations with a groan as he watched his father, but he eventually turned to the portrait of his mother behind Godric.

"Because she's not just any girl, Rowen." Godric replied. "It was one thing when you moved from half-bloods to muggle-borns, but she's a Slytherin, and she's far out of your reach, something you'd do well to remember!"

"Godric," The chastising voice of Rowen's mother broke into the conversation, but Godric didn't bother looking back at the portrait.

"You can't have her, Rowen. Salazar would never marry her to you. She's out of your reach, and you have to stop before you hurt the both of you."

"How can you tell me that!" Rowen yelled back at him, losing his calm for the first time in front of his father. "You of all people should know what it's like wanting something when everybody you care about keeps telling you that you can't have it. And why? Because of Slytherin! Because of one single person! You would let him decided my future?"

"Don't be foolish, Rowen." Godric replied as he stared down at the stack of papers on his desk.

"Tell me about her mother."

"What?" Godric peered up at his son, whom he felt resembled himself all too much.

"Her mother. Victoria's mother. Tell me what happened to her. Rowena told me that you knew her. That you both knew her and that you should tell Victoria about her." Rowen said strongly as he stared at his father with the conviction Godric thought nobody would have against him.

"She died in childbirth." Godric replied.

"Is that the charming story Rowena went on about?" Rowen replied with the sarcasm he knew he shouldn't have, especially when Godric snapped the quill in his hand when Rowen's words fell upon him.

"Their mother was… she was exceptional. It was tragic. Her death ruined everything, but it made Salazar. He wouldn't be here if she had lived. She would be in his place, and Victoria would be the one everybody wanted." Godric replied as he watched his son. "She was everything in one, Rowen. She was stunning, and she charming, she more powerful than me. Only she ever matched with Rowena, and she might've killed me in a duel. One thing you should've known long ago, was not to break that girl, because you just might lose your life with the power she capable of."

"And that's it? She was better than you? She matched Rowena? That was what Victoria needed to hear?"

"She gave up the one man she loved to save everybody else she cared about." Godric replied. Rowen had been so focused on his father, he hardly noticed the tears on his mother's face in the portrait. In fact, it wasn't until the silence fell around them, did Rowen realize the pain his father told the story with.

"She didn't love Slytherin."

"She loved another." Godric replied. "She loved him more than anything. She would've died for him if need be, but she married Salazar solely for the money he came with. She saved her family. She bought them a house and farm to live off of for the rest of their lives. She provided for everybody she ever cared about because she choose them over her own love, and I don't think she ever forgave herself for what she did to him. He understood. He never held it against her, but she hated herself for it. They were meant for each other, she believe anyway, but she threw it all away to become a mother to the Slytherin dynasty that she didn't even care about."

"And Victoria should've heard this story, why?" Rowen asked.

"Because Victoria is her mother inside and out, and Salazar is terrified of her. She's more powerful than anybody in this whole damn castle and once she unlocks that, nobody will stop her from getting what she wants, and right now what she wants is you!"

"And that's the most horrible thing? That she wants me?" Rowen replied.

"No," Godric sighed as he shut his eyes and shook his head. "Of course not, Rowen. It's not horrible that she wants you. It's horrible that she wants you, when you are virtually the only boy she can't have. Do you have the slightest idea of what a match between you and Victoria would be?"

Rowen wasn't sure if the question was meant to be answered, but his father continued even when Rowen remained silent.

"To match you, a Gryffindor, well known for dueling and power, to Ava's daughter, a daughter who resembles her inside and out, would be to bring together the two most powerful, most promising witch and wizard of this age, but any child from that bloodline would bear the name Gryffindor, the last thing Salazar needs or wants, is our family over powering his."

"But you're his close friend."

"That doesn't matter to him. I'd rather you married Evelyn for the sake of Hogwarts than Victoria. There are exactly two girls you cannot have, and unfortunately, only one of them repulses you." Godric replied as he looked up at Rowen who wore only a defeated look across his face.

"She is simply unobtainable through any legal, or moral ways."

"And the other ways?" Rowen asked.

"Any other way would end Hogwarts as it is now. Salazar would blame me for what you did to his daughter and he wouldn't stay here anymore. Hogwarts would not be the same if you broke all the rules for true love."

"You think this is true love?"

"It's impossible for any love at seventeen not to be true, my dear boy." Godric replied.

"So what would you have me do?" He replied. "Just sit back and watch as he marries her off to some drooling idiot? And do nothing?"

"You should do what you feel is right, but know the consequences. Anything between you and Victoria would shake the entire magical world for years to come. Your child would change everything, and your decision would change Hogwarts. Make your decision as you will, but know what you're doing before you act on impulse."

"And if she married someone else?"

"I would question my paternity." Godric replied only to hear his wife's voice in the portrait behind him.

"But if we did break all the rules?" Rowen asked softly as he peered down at a crack in the flood.

"I would love you all the same, Rowen, and support you as I pick up the pieces of the school you shattered in the dust cloud behind you."