8
The coldest days of winter were setting in - the snow was piling outside - and it was Christmas time. It was in the air all around. Down in Hogsmeade, windows were hung with holly and people hummed or sang down the street. Around some corners, one could find a couple sharing a kiss beneath mistletoe. Children ran about, chased by one laughing parent or another, and though the cold bit cheeks and noses, it certainly seemed to have an opposite effect on the hearts of the people. The town was not of wealthy people, but they seemed to band together in such times of celebration. It was even a fact that this one time a year the people would gather together for a yuletide feast. Of course, it wasn't until the beginning of December that Rowena found out it was Godric, Helga, and Salazar who always held the feast.
This made sense, when she thought about it, as they did have the space and money, but she hadn't thought about it until she'd been commissioned by Helga to come shopping for food and decorations for the entrance and dining hall. At that precise moment in time, she was free from Helga's sight, and had been sent to buy some flour, as Helga had just run out, and still needed some for breads.
As she walked she held a cloak tightly around her, the hood up to cover her ears, and looked into shop windows as she passed. Down the road she heard a choir singing, and could only assume that it was a group from the church. It got her to thinking.
She'd long since resigned to the idea of helping to run a school and teaching, and she'd gotten excited too. For once in her life she felt like she was going to have a purpose in something, something that depended on her alone… Closing her eyes two seconds, she took a cleansing breath to rid herself of the creeping memory that threatened to ruin her day. When she opened her eyes she spotted Salazar walking out of a shop just down the street, smiling, a bag held within his hand. She quickened her pace to meet him, though he had not seen her yet.
"Salazar!" Rowena piped, causing Salazar to spin quickly and hide the bag behind his back. She chuckled.
"Oh, hello Rowena." He leaned over and kissed her forehead, keeping his cool even though he'd been caught with something - she didn't know what yet. "What are you doing down here?"
"I have been sent to buy some flour, and enjoying my small moments of freedom." She laughed lightly, her cheeks pink in a pretty flush. "I might ask you the same question, and dare I enquire as to what you're hiding behind your back?"
Salazar smiled, "I am shopping for some gifts, so you may inquire about the object in the bag all you like, but I'm not going to tell you." He was glad he'd been prepared to meet any of the others in Hogsmeade before he'd set out that day, and so just smiled smugly at Rowena instead of panicking about what to say.
She eyed him a little suspiciously, but eventually shook her head and laughed, still holding the grey, wool cloak closed. "Alright then…"
"Well, you'll be heading to Dillinger's for that flour, won't you? Isn't that… way on the other side of Hogsmeade?" He eyed her with smirking suspicion.
"Ah… you see… I'm taking the long way, to… avoid Helga." She looked up and to the left, smiling as she admitted her plan.
"Oh, so you're shirking?" Salazar laughed, casually sliding the bag into a pocket of his cloak.
"No! Of course n- okay, yes." They shared another laugh in understanding.
"Well, I can't say I blame you," he said, his laughter calming, "she often overdoes this whole Christmas thing."
"Really? How so?" Rowena asked as she began to walk down the street again.
"Well, last year… that was a disaster!" He shook his head following her example and walking beside her. "She had this wild idea to hang a ton of mistletoe and charm it so that when both parties standing beneath it noticed, they actually had to kiss to leave the spot." He shuddered slightly. "Do you know how many times I got caught under those blasted hanging plants? And with the most undesirable people. The very old women in town, the very young women in town… Godric… Ugh." Again he shuddered, and Rowena chuckled slightly. "It isn't funny!" he insisted. "I was just glad that half of the time the other person didn't notice."
Her smile brightened and she shook her head, thinking of poor Salazar trapped under mistletoe with some old woman, trying desperately to move before she looked up. "Well, hopefully, she learned from last year what a bad idea that was."
"Hopefully…" There was a bit of silence for a moment or two, then, "Perhaps I should start up a 'Daring' game this year…"
"A what?" she asked curiously.
"A 'Daring' game. We boys used to play it as teenagers. One boy would 'dare' another to do something crazy or dangerous, and if that boy didn't get caught, injured, or too afraid, upon completion of the daring act, that boy would then 'dare' another one. I remember once 'daring' Godric to climb onto the roof of the Smiths' house." He laughed. "Unfortunately for him, Mr. Smith was still awake and working at the time. The rest of us ran, but Godric had to climb a tree to hide."
Rowena laughed along with him. "I remember some of the boys doing that when I was a young girl."
"Ah, but I can't see you doing such folly things."
"No… I was too busy with my schooling."
"Schooling? Wow, your childhood sounds boring." They laughed once again.
"Well, I was raised wealthy in Greece 'til 12. Of course I was in school." She chuckled, "I was too busy learning arithmetic, spoken and written Latin and Greek, and music for such things."
"Greece, hey? I thought I heard the slightest accent in your voice, but I couldn't place it." A small bout of alarm went off in Rowena's head. She thought she'd completely hidden her accent, so that she couldn't be traced. Then she calmed herself, it didn't matter anymore. It had been too long, certainly. "Born Greek… I'd never have guessed. I mean, now that I know, of course, I can see some of the characteristics, but I'd never have guessed on my own."
"Well, actually," she started, "I was born in Spain, when my parents were holidaying, and then we moved back to Greece."
"Ah, I see. So were your parents married?" He was suddenly very curious to hear about her past, which was so unknown to him.
"Yes. They were indeed married." She shifted, a little uncomfortable talking about her parents, but he didn't notice, as she'd intended. She knew of his past, and she knew he knew virtually nothing about hers, 'He has a right to know something,' Rowena's mind argued with her discomfort.
"So is your mother Greek?"
"Yes. How'd you guess?" She smiled, watching her feet as she moved around a snow bank.
"Well Ravenclaw isn't exactly a Greek name." He chuckled.
"Ah, of course. Well, my father is English - surprise, surprise - and met my mother in Greece on a trip, and decided to stay thereafter. He brought his money and built a home for her in Argos."
They walked a little farther and up to Dillinger's General Store. Rowena reached for the door, but Salazar opened and held it for her. "Merci beaucoup, Monsieur."
He chuckled, "Don't tell me you speak French too."
She laughed with him, "And Spanish."
"Jeez, how many languages do you speak?"
"Well… there's Latin, Greek, French, Spanish, a bit of Italian, and, of course, English," she said as she picked up a sack of flour that must have weighed half as much as her.
"Dear God, you speak English? I never thought… Oh, please, say something! In English! I've never heard anyone speak it before!"
Rowena nudged him lightly with her shoulder, laughing. "Shut up, Salazar."
"Oh my goodness! And what does that mean?"
She ignored him and pulled the money, that Helga had given her to buy the flour with, out of her cloak pocket and handed it to the Dillinger boy who was running shop that day. "Thank you."
Salazar held the door for her again as they left. "I could carry that for you."
"I can do it myself," she said, knowing she probably could use his help, but not wanting to lose independence.
"But you don't have to. Use me as a working beast while you can, I won't do it forever. Besides, you don't want to wear yourself out." She laughed at his instance.
"I don't think you're a beast at all, but really, I can do it myself." She struggled slightly but moved the bag to her right hip to carry some of the weight, holding it with both hands, and smiled at Salazar, having proven herself right.
"Alright," Salazar resigned.
They walked for a while, Salazar, staying close to her left side, ready to steady her should she stumble. "You know…"
Rowena looked up at him for a moment, then back ahead, so that she didn't walk into anything. "What?"
"I really know so little about your life. I mean, I feel like I've known you forever, but… there's so much about you that's still a mystery."
"Well…" She said a tad hesitantly, preparing to open up to him. For a moment she wondered why that was so hard for her - opening up. It wasn't just with him though, with anyone… He was probably the person who knew the most about her though, aside from herself, her parents, and… Keith. She shook the thoughts and continued her sentence, her tone light, despite what was going on in her head, "What do you want to know? Please, ask away."
"Tell me about your mother."
"Ah… well…" Rowena took a slow breath, to calm her heart which leapt to her throat at his question. "She was loving, and good to me… as a mother should be… Ah… We used to go to the Temple of Demeter together." She smiled, remembering the days as they turned a corner. "We went while my father went to worship Zeus. We…ah… we would… take wreaths of poppies to leave in her honour." Rowena looked down her tone dropping a bit, "She used to say I looked just like her as a child." She quieted down then, not wanting to say more. Rowena missed her mother dearly, and talking about her, though it was of the good times, was still very painful.
He took note of her discomfort and asked another question. "So… not that I mind, but… Greece is… rather… far from here. What are you doing all the way in Scotland?"
"Oh… Well… Ah…" Rowena swallowed, "I… When I was 12… That was the year that I first changed… My father didn't take too kindly to it… And I've been running since…" She looked down, and shifted the weight of the flour.
Salazar was silent for a moment, trying to sort that into his head, "So… you've just been running? Since you were 12? You can't tell me you've been running for thirteen years."
"Well, I stopped for two years when I was 18... With Keith."
He nodded, "But surely, you can't still be afraid that your father is out there looking for you? Why would he?"
"I ran into him once when I was 16, narrowly escaped, because I was in some large city in Romania… Bucharest, I think… but I could be wrong." They were back on the road headed to the castle, 'I'm not afraid of him finding me, anymore,' she thought, 'I'm afraid to hurt someone else…'
"Didn't…" He paused. "Forgive me if this sounds… harsh… but, didn't your mother try to stop him? Didn't she have anything to say about his chasing you out?"
Rowena swallowed again, and bit her lip for a moment, then took a deep breath to answer him. "My mother… wasn't… around at that point…"
"Oh… I'm sorry."
"No… It's alright… You didn't know."
"Well, I'm still sorry."
They walked in silence until they reached the castle, Rowena's mind wandering her past, Salazar's wishing he'd asked something else - anything else.
Salazar, once again, grabbed the door (which had long since been repaired of its scars), and allowed Rowena to walk through the door before him. "I can take the flour to the kitchen if you want to avoid Helga." He offered after closing the door and pulling his hood off.
"Oh, no, that's alright. Helga's got a lot to do, I've avoided her long enough. She'll need my help." Rowena nodded, affirming herself.
"Well…" Salazar ran his fingers through his hair, with his other hand stuffed into his cloak pocket. "I could come help, if you'd like."
Rowena looked at him, one eyebrow raised, "Do you really want to?"
"Well, if you want me to come help…"
She laughed, "That's a 'no'. It's alright Salazar, don't worry about it."
"Alright, if you're sure…" He waited for her to protest, but she did not. "I'll be in my office, avoiding her as best I can."
"Don't forget to lock the door, if you really want to get out of helping her." Rowena's blue eyes were light with her smile and Salazar, taking a step toward her, stole a kiss, making them even brighter.
"And I'll become deaf." His smile was sly as he began to stride away, leaving Rowena, surprised, but smiling, to head to the kitchen where Helga waited for her flour.
As Rowena turned into the kitchen, she was greeted by a hyped and smiling Helga. "What took you so long, dear?"
"I'm sorry, I got a little distracted." She heaved the sack onto a counter top and turned back to Helga, "So, what can I do for you now?"
"Well, I had an idea to repeat something from last year with mistletoe."
