Chapter 10

Helga, to her credit, didn't interrupt Rowena once as she explained what she had seen and what her suspicions were.

"I'll see if Lynch or Goodson are around to brew up an antidote," she said immediately that Rowena had finished speaking.

"So you think that I should go back and…?"

"Steal him back off the little cow," Helga interrupted. "Yes I ruddy well do!"

"What about the baby?"

"What about your baby asleep in the next room?" Helga retorted.

"I know." Rowena hesitated a few moments and Helga looked at her questioningly. "But if I go and steal him back aren't I doing to her what she did to me?"

"No!" Helga answered immediately. "You're not using a love potion to go about it. You're just bringing him to his senses."

"What if he doesn't want to come back?" Rowena asked quietly. It was her worst fear and the one that she was most afraid of even speaking aloud. Anything else she could bear, but she knew that the idea of Salazar choosing Cordelia over her would break her.

"You don't seriously think he would, do you?" Helga looked astounded as she shook her head at what she clearly perceived to be her friend's stupidity.

"I don't know," Rowena admitted. "If it were just me and her then I think…no I know…that he'd choose me. But she's having his baby as well. What if he chooses to stay for the child?"

"He won't," Helga assured her. "He'll choose you and Helena, I'm sure of it."

"But would that be the best choice?" Rowena asked quietly. "I have you and Godric and the rest of the staff to help me. Even some of the sixth and seventh years have offered to baby sit, though that's probably partly in the hope of getting house points. Cordelia won't have anyone helping her."

"Cordelia was useless at making potions, she can get help from whoever's been brewing up all this trouble with her."

"But do you think that Salazar would want his child to be raised by people like that?" Rowena asked.

Helga looked back at her in silence. "He wouldn't have much of a choice, would he?"

"Exactly. Even if he tried to take the baby once it was born…"

"Cordelia would demand the child back."

"If he stays with her he can at least be a good influence on the child, to counter whatever poison Cordelia is spewing."

"Would he be a good influence whilst under a love potion?" Helga asked. "I don't know of anyone who's lived under the influence of one for any length of time."

"Me neither," Rowena admitted. "Whatever way you look at it, it's not going to be easy. He's going to have a horrible decision to make and someone's going to suffer."

"I'm going to get the antidote," Helga said. "Then you're going right back to Thebes and you're going to bring him back home to us."

"Are you sure that's the right thing to do?" Rowena asked.

"Yes," Helga replied firmly. "He has the right to make the choice for himself and not have you make it for him. You think that it makes you like Cordelia to steal him back whilst she's expecting his child. It doesn't, but if you help her to take away his free will by doing nothing then you will be like her."

"I didn't think of it that way," Rowena said.

"Which is why I'm here," Helga replied. "To make you see sense. Now you take Helena to Jocelyn while I get the antidote. I'll pick her up from there again once you're on your way."

Rowena arrived back in Thebes several hours later. It had taken longer to find either of the Hogwarts potions experts than they had expected; Helga and Rowena had circled the school twice over before they found either one of them. Consequentially it was full dark by the time she left the school.

It was later in Thebes and the inn was almost deserted when she stepped through the door.

She approached the bar with determination, the antidote clenched in her hand and hidden in her pocket.

"Could you tell me which room the Slytherins are staying in?" she asked as soon as the barman turned to her.

"You just missed them," he replied with an apologetic smile. "Apparated out of here earlier this evening. Bit surprised myself, they'd reserved the room until the end of the month."

"Did they say where they were going?" Rowena asked.

"No, sorry." The barman shook his head. "They received a visitor and rushed out of here right away. Some emergency at home no doubt. Perhaps you'll find them there?"

Rowena scowled. She had no idea where Cordelia lived though she knew that Godric probably did. The only thing was that she didn't believe that Cordelia would be anywhere they could find her.

"Was the visitor female?" she asked, suspecting who it was.

"Sure was. A young girl, looked like she might be related to Mrs Slytherin."

Tabitha. She'd obviously crept out of the school and given her aunt the warning that Rowena might be showing up soon. Rowena was surprised she hadn't seen Tabitha earlier but suspected that once left to their own devices Lilith and Tabitha had probably engaged in round two of their fight which would have delayed her.

"How long ago did they leave?" Rowena asked.

"Nearly an hour ago."

Rowena nodded thoughtfully and stepped outside once more.

She ducked into the alley across the road and pulled the chain that hung around her neck out from her robes. She wore it all the time now and wasn't taking any chances. The time turner would give her the time that she needed to find them before they left. It simply had to.

She turned the hourglass once, figuring that if it wasn't quite enough time she could always go back another hour as well. She didn't want to go too far back and risk running into herself.

She had barely arrived back when she felt her limbs become immobile and she fell painfully to the ground.

"I can't say I'm surprised to see you here," Tabitha said as she stepped into her line of sight. "Though I must admit I didn't expect to see you here just yet, I rather thought I saw you only a few minutes ago heading towards the dungeons."

Rowena tried to throw off the curse but was having no success at all.

"I'd wonder how you got here so fast but I rather think that I already know," Tabitha continued as she crouched down beside her and took away her wand. "My aunt was rather curious as to how you could be teaching two posts at once all the time she was applying for the Ancient Runes position. She was furious at being refused the post each year and just couldn't figure it out. So once he became more amenable to her questioning she asked Salazar…or should I say Uncle Sal?…and he told her all about a little device he'd discovered called a time turner."

Rowena continued to struggle to no avail as she mentally cursed both Cordelia and her niece.

"He described it quite carefully and I see that he was very accurate about it." She reached out her hand and tore the time turner from its chain. "I think I'll take this and return it to its rightful owner," Tabitha continued with a sly smile. "He may even give it to me as a gift for my help today, if I ask him nicely."

Rowena swore silently to herself. Tabitha was going to be so expelled before this night was over.

Almost as if she was reading her thoughts Tabitha smiled again. "Oh and I don't think I'll be coming back to Hogwarts for the rest of the year. I don't believe there's anything else that you and the rest of the staff can teach me. I rather think I've graduated beyond whatever you have planned in your lessons."

Rowena glared at her, or at least she tried to. Perhaps something showed in her eyes, if not her features, and Tabitha recoiled slightly at what she saw.

"Now what else do we have here?" she asked after she'd recovered herself. She dug around in Rowena's pocket and pulled out her hand that was still clenched around the vial containing the antidote. "An antidote?" she asked, before answering her own question with a light laugh. "But of course it is. Pity it won't do you any good." She pulled out the stopper and watched as the contents drained to the floor, soaked up instantly by the hot sand. "All gone, and so will we be. And I wouldn't try searching for us again…we know how to stay hidden."

With that Tabitha turned to walk away towards the inn, leaving Rowena to continue to struggle against the curse. She paused at the end of the alley and turned back momentarily. "So much for the Great Rowena Ravenclaw."

Rowena struggled against the curse which was the most powerful she'd ever been subjected to but knew that she would never break free in time. She knew the second that Tabitha and the others had apparated out of the area and she felt the curse lift instantly.

Knowing it was useless Rowena still hurried into the inn, only to be told once again that she had just missed the Slytherin party leaving. She swore loudly, eliciting a look of shocked horror from the barman.

"You wouldn't be Rowena would you?" he asked as she turned to leave.

"Yes," Rowena replied with a frown.

"I have a message for you," the barman said as he rummaged around beneath the counter. "Here you go."

Rowena took it from his outstretched hand and looked at the handwriting. Her heart sank when she saw that it wasn't Salazar's script on the parchment. For a few brief seconds she had dared to hope that he had somehow managed to overcome the potion and had left her the message telling her where they were going. Instead what she saw was Cordelia's handwriting and she knew she wouldn't like what she found within.

She opened it anyway; there was just one unsigned sentence. Perhaps I'll send him back to you when I've grown bored of him.

She swore again, this time earning a mere shake of the head from the barman.

There was little else she could do, other than return to Hogwarts and speak with Godric.

"Deserted," Rowena confirmed once she'd returned from the last known address of Cordelia Disdel. She'd also tried Tabitha's home address but there was no sign of anyone at that address either. She'd enquired with the neighbours which had resulted in her travelling to other locations but it seemed that the entire family was aware of the search and were hiding far away.

"You've found him once, you'll find him again," Helga assured her.

It was the early hours of the morning and Rowena had been apparating up and down the country to one address after another as she followed up on various leads.

"They have to turn up sooner or later," Godric agreed. "They may contact us for a refund of Tabitha's fees for the year."

"Do you really think they're that desperate for money?" Rowena asked. "With the Slytherin fortune they can afford to throw away a year of school fees if they want to."

"Maybe they'll enrol the baby here when the time comes?" Helga suggested. "She might think that after all that time you'll have forgotten him."

"Well if she does, she'd be wrong," Rowena snapped.

"Only time will tell if she is confident enough, or stupid enough, to get in touch with us," Godric said. "In the meantime I'll write to everyone I know again, this time telling them to look out for Cordelia as well as Salazar."

"Thank you," Rowena replied, though she didn't hold out any hope that this time the enquiries would bring about the results that she was hoping for.