Pale in the Shadows

Part II Unfortunate Spell – Prologue

'I have not a clue how you stomach that bile,' Rowena muttered, sitting at the head table after hours. She was dressed in a silk gown of indigo and green, her feet covered in slippers. Her long red hair was pulled back in a bun with curled waves coming down to fall against her shoulders. It was obvious she had just finished her rounds at her family's house; there had been a party where nobles were invited to share in the latest gossip about the wars and religious movements. The Ravenclaw family in particular were powerful leaders, her family having military, merchant, and scholarly backgrounds.

'Why? Too much earth, my dear?' Helga taunted, drinking from her mug a tonic she had brewed for a clear head and good night's rest. Every passing day the house wars seemed to escalate with the woman left to tend the hospital wing, aiding the cursed and poisoned. It was exhausting between teaching lessons, tending the gardens, and keeping track of all other piles of things that cropped up. 'Alas, that is why I work with the soil and plants and you spend all your time in that study of yours. It is also why you buy ingredients from me.'

Smirking, Rowena bowed her head. 'Certainly, Helga. We all serve purposes. You perhaps most of all,' the usually arrogant woman confessed. 'I am envious to a degree. Magick for me is a chore just because I must keep appearances at my parent's estate. They were never so involved as I am, but I find it taxing to work with the muggles. Sometimes I would much rather spend my days here, researching and spell casting.' Chuckling, the older Rowena smiled at her friend. 'Dear Helga, you are a breeze of fresh air to these halls.'

Giving a sad laugh, the woman replied, 'He told me the same thing. Salazar. He told me that I would be what Hogwarts was meant to become. It was my vision. But lately I feel like I am drowning in all this hate like a disease of chaos.' She drained the tonic with an exasperated sigh. 'I just wish that fool Gryffindor would stop treating this like a knight's errand and start treating it like a united school of magick! I cannot take one more war cry in the middle of a lecture and I am very well going to curse the next fool who harasses one of my house just because my house is smart enough to keep their nebs out of this ridiculous clash between Slytherin and Gryffindor!'

Nodding, a little surprised at her companion's outburst, Rowena snapped her fingers and a house elf answered her summons. 'Would you bring me some wine and two goblets?' With a bow the elf went to do as she bid, and in a moments time returned. 'Very good,' she told the creature who smiled and vanished. Rowena poured the wine for the two of them, passing it to Helga. 'You are strong, though. I am hardly here, and as a noble I don't always see the world the same way as people who aren't. To your vision, Helga.'

Their clinking glasses echoed in the empty hall, and the two sipped from their goblets. 'From your family stores, I assume,' Helga mused looking at the dark red of the wine.

'Is there any better?' Rowena sighed looking at the empty long tables divided into four section. 'Our dreams are becoming a nightmare as this animosity between houses grows. Even in my own house I begin to see the calculations of whether to stand with Slytherin or Gryffindor, and Salazar isn't even here to defend his house. No matter what words we say to them, still there are pranks and open fights and Godric simply antagonizing the situation with his knight's attitude that Salazar is a coward unwilling to face a man's duty, whatever that is.'

Helga couldn't help but burst into laughter at Rowena's obvious distaste. 'I can agree with that. 'A man's duty' indeed. Both men warriors in their own way and I wonder who truly had the right of it? Salazar who left to stem the fighting only creating rumor and distrust as members of his house plot, or Godric who stayed and runs around antagonizing and provoking his? Surely we should just combine the two of them into one being and Hogwarts would be unstoppable.'

'Or unbearable,' Rowena muttered, a giggle escaping her. The two continued drinking the wine until the bottle was empty, finally resting their tired heads on the table. 'I don't want to move. My legs are killing me after having to dance tonight, and all I get to look forward to tomorrow are lessons, whining prefects, and if I remember correctly meeting the new potential teachers. Thank god Godric and Salazar aren't picky about who I employ.'

'Not that Salazar is here to even voice an opinion,' Helga muttered, sadly. She leaning back into her chair staring up into the ceiling, feeling like her mind was drifting away in a thousand different directions. Everything whirled around the enchanted ceiling, which reflected the night sky as an expanse of brilliant white stars unclouded by the weather. It wasn't until Rowena frantically shook her that she realized anything was wrong. 'What is it?'

'You-you started to speak in this strange voice. I think you just gave a prophecy of some sort.' It was rare to see Rowena panicked, the woman usually had an answer for everything and anything. Despite her headstrongness, she usually had a reason for her methods, though it sometimes took some needling to figure out what those methods were.

'A prophecy?' Helga snorted. 'Surely you jest. I must have been talking in my sleep or some such. I am much to exhausted and had a bit too much wine, I am afraid.'

'Possible, but unlikely.' Thoughtfully, Rowena pulled out her wand and placed it to her temple. She pulled the tip away after much thought and with it came a strand of silver, which she whirled into a wind which pulsed with Helga's voice, distant and inhuman as it echoed in the hall:

To prove magick is union—

Understanding of our world,

A boy of snakes and lions,

Born to stop a chaotic darkness

From outshining light

And burning light from

Swallowing darkness,

Will lead the wizard world

Opening closed eyes

With mighty roar

Our houses he will unite.

With union formed

The chaos he shall smite.