Chapter 9-Blessed Day
"Every trainer has a choice/ To listen to the voice inside."-Pokémon Season 7 theme
"Salazar no," Helga pleaded silently.
Salazar had a Muggle family hanging up in the air abducted from an outing in a nearby meadow. The look on his face was absolute fury and hatred: the Muggle father had tried to report them for witchcraft. Now he was levitating them in the air. Slowly they floated around, turning upside down and to the side. The wife floated upside down and her dress started to fall. She screeched and pulled up the flap to avoid being exposed.
Meanwhile, Helga was trapped on the ground, her hands and legs glued to the sides of her brown dress, her wand laying beside her useless. One minute Helga was gathering herbs, then the next she was hearing Salazar yell "Petrificus Totalus" and she was down.
Helga huffed, equally angry as Salazar was if that was even possible. How did I get caught off guard? This is no coincidence that he chose to stage this stunt outside of Rowena's sight.
"How'd you like us witches now?" Salazar said, savoring every moment of this.
"Please, put us down, we promise-"
"SILENCIO!" Salazar said, silencing the wife. "I don't trust promises at all."
BANG! A sudden force scorched Salazar's behind.
"What the-"
"EXPELLIARMUS!"
His wand flew out of his hand and Rowena Ravenclaw, clad in her plaid traveling dress exploded into the clearing. Helga wished she'd never get on Rowena's bad side as much as Salazar had. Rowena's hair was frizzled from running through the woods, she had a hawk-like expression disfiguring her face.
She surveyed the situation, saw that it worse than she had suspected and moved so fast she was standing over Salazar before just as he stood up with his wand. Fury lined every inch of her face, she stopped, dispersed the Protego shields, and stared at him for what seemed like hours. Salazar just froze, wand at his side, Helga went completely silent. It was as if the world had stopped for a moment, waiting for what judgment Rowena was going to give. Salazar tried to penetrate her mind: all he got was battle scenes that nearly made him throw up. She stood up to her full height, turned away and then suddenly slammed her right hand, her sword arm, into his right cheek.
"What are you thinking?!" she shrieked with the voice tone that made grown soldiers cower in her presence.
Salazar spun into the air, completely surprised by Rowena's strength. On the ground, wide-eyed Helga suspected that it had something to do with her warrior upbringing. Moreover, Rowena had nice long, manicured fingernails that her maids had worked on all her life. Salazar and Helga had noticed that Rowena still obsessed over them, lovingly maintaining them every morning.
Years of paint, supplements, and constant fussing had strengthened them to the point that they were almost impossible to break without an instrument. Salazar found this out the hard way. Her fingers gouged deep into his cheek, leaving five bloody cuts across his cheek, part of his nose, and into his sideburns. He rolled into the dirt, screaming in pain and shock.
"Stay down!" she shouted at him.
"AAAAHHH!" the Muggle family of six screamed as the levitation charm holding them above the ground broke.
Rowena swung under them and used Wingarduim Leviosa nonverbal. The family floated just above the ground, still screaming, but alright. Rowena thought the countercurse to the Body-Bind while Salazar stayed on the ground, trying to staunch the bleeding.
"Helga put them to sleep or something," Rowena yelled. She couldn't let them escape yet.
Salazar got up to try and intervene, or just to stay something in his defense.
"Stupefy," Helga yelled, pointing her wand as Salazar.
BANG!
For the second time, Salazar's wand flew out of his hand as the red jet of light slammed into his face. He keeled over without a groan. Helga pulled a small vial out of her dress, having brewed a little bit of the Draught of Living Death a few nights before.
"Stay clear Rowena," she shouted as the family floated slowly down to the ground.
She threw it onto the family and they sunk into a deep sleep. Rowena gently levitated them to a soft piece of ground.
"Amazing, how...?" Rowena asked Helga. The princess already suspected what had happened, but she wanted to know every detail so she could put Salazar in his place.
"I modified the potion to be used in an aerial form," Helga informed her.
"What happened?"
"Well, that family saw us practicing and tried to run to the nearest village to report us," Helga said, horrified. "Salazar lost control."
Rowena felt most of her anger towards Salazar evaporate: he must have a big grudge somewhere against Muggles buried in his belly. That's what set him off, she thought. Still, she was still shaking with barely controlled fury with him. He'd nearly got them burned at the stake. A lapse of judgment like that was inexcusable.
"That's doesn't excuse him," Rowena reasoned. "What should we do with them?"
"Wipe their memories," Helga said. "Then let them go. It's the best we can do."
"Obliviate," she whispered six times.
"Just leave them here asleep," Rowena said, checking each of their pulses to make sure they were alright. "We'll let them wake up and wonder how they got here. Can you revive Mr. Temper?"
"Not yet," Helga said, pulling out some rope Rowena had just stolen 24 hours earlier. Rowena had reasoned that they might need it.
Rowena and Helga tied Salazar to a nearby tree. Rowena and Helga made sure that they used the same knots that they used to tie their horses to posts.
"You know, I would've used magic for this," Helga whispered to the Scottish princess.
"I know, but I feel better doing it by hand," Rowena whispered back, keeping her fury buried.
"Ennverate," Helga said, pointing her wand at Salazar's chest. Rowena kept Salazar's wand safe deep within her dress.
"Teach me that later," Rowena told her.
"Sure."
Rowena was mastering spells at an alarming rate. Overnight she'd mastered nearly every dueling spell Helga knew. The Welsh healer was sure she could best any witch or a wizard in a duel by this point. Not that it would help Salazar much though.
Salazar's eyes slowly opened, then he realized that he was tied, bound, and nearly gagged. He stared at his would-be friends with defiance burning in his green eyes.
"What was that?" Rowena demanded in a very dignified, regal yet terrifying manner. She'd spent years perfecting this face for use on underlings and suitors. Salazar quivered under the terrifying gaze, but he didn't falter.
"They tried to report us," he said. "I had to stop them."
"Not sufficient," Helga retorted. "Why?"
"Because..."
"Because...keep going. I can't wait to hear your excuse," Rowena said, crossing her arms.
"I...they massacred my family years ago and confiscated my lands," Salazar confessed. "What would've you done if that happened to you?"
Rowena had to admit to herself that she would've done the same thing to the men who sacked her castle if she could get her hands on them. She was really no better than him, as much as she hated to admit it. Still, it was no excuse. She was on the verge of untying him when Helga gave her a warning look.
"I gave you a chance and you just nearly blew it," Helga almost shouted at him. Rowena jumped: she'd never seen Helga lose her temper before. "No one gets hurt under my watch, especially Muggles. I understand how to lose a temper, but you nearly got us killed.
Helga bowed out, letting Rowena have a go at him.
"Longantach," Rowena cursed at him.
"What does that mean?" Salazar and Helga demanded together.
"It's Ravenclaw Gaelic slang for the guy who nearly got us burned at the stake and biggest idiot ever. I'll be judge, advocate, and jury here," she continued. "Where I come from, stupid acts like that are unforgivable. One more longantach move and you'll have much more scorched than just your rear end."
Diffindo.
The ropes cut in half and Salazar was freed. Helga waved her wand and the ropes binding Salazar magically repaired themselves and coiled themselves into Helga's newly acquired satchel.
"I'm confiscating your wand," Helga informed an increasingly disgruntled Salazar. "Until you prove that you are better than a wannabe to be burned at the stake, or you leave us at the end of today. Which will it be is up to you."
"One more mistake," Rowena warned him in a deathly tone of voice. She swiped her finger across her throat in a cutting gesture.
Salazar gulped, now thoroughly afraid.
Helga placed Salazar's wand with her's in a pocket deep in the fold of her dress.
"Rowena, keep a close eye on him," Helga said, turning away to gather up their things.
"With pleasure," Rowena said, cracking her knuckles and throwing Salazar a look that thoroughly terrorized him.
Nobody talked for the next three hours. Round noontime, Salazar finally tired of the enforced silent treatment Rowena and Helga were subjecting him too.
"Okay, I'm sorry," he finally said.
"'Bout time," Rowena chuckled, savoring every moment of it. "Ego finally deflate for ya."
"Hey, how're you speaking Welsh so good," Helga asked.
"Some magical help and study," Salazar said, glad the silence was finally broken.
"We're about to my house," Helga announced out of nowhere.
"I thought your house was in a major city or town," Rowena said, puzzled as they were in the middle of the woods. Rowena thought that she lived next to the woods, not in the middle of them.
"Are you kidding?" Helga said. "Middle of the woods, plenty of solitude, things to do, and herbs to find. As a matter of fact, my dwelling is just up ahead."
She kicked her horse's sides and sped up to a trot.
"Eagle?" Rowena said in Gaelic to the horse.
Eagle immediately kept up with Helga's mount, with Salazar drifting behind to avoid the murderous gazes of the two women.
"It's right here..." she said, her heart sinking to the ground.
It was a horrific scene. Bones were scattered everywhere, and what had been Helga's hut was nothing more than a burnt pile of ash. Her potions, carefully stacked herbs, all gone. She got off her horse and fell to her knees, tormented by sight around here. All those patients who were depending on her. She felt hot, fresh tears start to stream down her cheeks.
A pair of arms encircled her and she began to sob into Rowena's chest. She wet Rowena's blouse for what seemed like hours.
"It's okay, it's okay," Rowena cooed, keeping a close eye on Salazar, who was inspecting the scene around them. There was no way to shield Helga from this. Rowena felt her heartache for Helga, the sweet innocent girl she'd met three weeks ago. She'd prayed that this moment would never come.
Rowena meanwhile, was looking around the clearing, stunned a the scene before her.
"I need to see my patients," Helga finally said through a pile of tears. "Let's go."
"I don't know about that," Salazar said. "Let's find out what happened here first. Then we'll go find your patients."
"Okay," Helga agreed, wiping away her tears from her blotchy red cheeks. Rowena outvoted 2-1, didn't say anything.
Salazar explored the damp ground around them and found horse tracks leading away and in. The perpetrators clearly hadn't bothered to hide their route.
"Someone came in this way," he said, setting the scene. He'd seen this happen before with his manor. "Along with the poor people right behind them. Surrounded by armed men most likely."
They spread out, looking for clues on the ground. Rowena meanwhile, examined the bones that were scattered around the clearing. She was careful with them as each one represented a person who had just lived. Used to constant warfare, she'd seen those in the morgue do this after major battles or a murder happened. Rowena pulled out her sword for comparison, hoping to find some cut or wound marks on the bones.
"Strange," Rowena said, examining some of the bones. "That's weird."
Helga came over to her.
"This was a healthy individual," Helga said, taking the bones from Rowena and verifying her conclusions. "I've set and regrown enough bones to recognize a healthy individual when I see one."
"They're just, dead," Rowena said, looking at the rest of the skeleton.
'What you'd mean," Helga and Salazar said together.
Rowena picked up a femur and a skull and showed it to them.
"Nothing to indicate a forceful death. A morgue worker once told me that many warriors go for the head when...going after someone," Rowena said. She rotated the skull around. This individual was perfectly healthy. No sign of disease. Believe me, I know. Many of the tribes collect trophies. What else did you have to do when you were locked in a room full of bones for three days."
"Long story," Rowena added, seeing shocked looks on their faces.
"It's like he just dropped dead," Helga agreed, trying to control her emotions. She couldn't believe what she was seeing.
"Killing Curse," Salazar said, darkness and dislike crowding his face. Killing somebody without a cause in his book was despicable and messy. You leave evidence behind. Simply modifying memories was much better and easier.
"There's a Killing Curse?" Helga and Rowena said together, shocked.
"Yes, Unblockable and deadly," Salazar said. "But it takes a lot of hatred...I mean a lot...practice and magical skill to conjure it up. Only the darkest wizards seem to experiment or seem to achieve anything like that stuff. My uncle Gaunt was one of them. He was chock full of hatred and a powerful wizard. I saw him in the barn one day practicing that spell on spiders. Avada Kadavra, ...don't say or think it Rowena please, you don't know what might happen...but the spell backfired on him somehow. He was dead by the time I got to him."
Rowena meanwhile, had found what she was looking for.
"Hmm," Rowena said. "That's not all.
She picked up a complete backbone and the plates that made up it.
"Look, cut marks," she said, showing them it. She pulled out her sword from her belt and matched it perfectly to the cut. "Sword or dagger thrusts."
"Combined wizard/Muggle task force most likely," Salazar concluded.
"Really?" Rowena and Helga said together. Neither could imagine something like that was even remotely possible.
"Not all Muggles hate or burn witches at the stake," Salazar informed them. "Some cooperate and do horrible things in exchange for magical influence, favors, or because they've been bewitched. There's a controlling curse too as well. I've never used it before, but I know the incantation."
"Why?" Helga asked no one in particular, sinking to her knees, muddying the hem of her dress. She checked several more of the skeletons. She could sense the healing of some of her potions, their magical qualities causing tingling in her skin. But some of the bones had holes in them, signaling disease.
"You know Helga, I wonder," Rowena said, pacing back and forth so fast it dizzied Salazar and Helga. "Did you tell anyone about your cottage?"
"No," Helga said, still kneeling. "I traveled from village to village on foot and sometimes by horse. I never told anyone where I was going.
"Maybe it was you they were after," Rowena theorized.
"Me?" Helga said, now completely in shock.
"Isn't it strange that it's your hut has been burned down, and there are at least the remains of a dozen people scattered about it," Rowena continued. "Maybe they were appealing to your compassionate nature. It wouldn't be too hard to find out with how well known you were."
Helga was frightened, a sudden realization dawning on her.
"It doesn't seem a coincidence that we were attacked by the same men either," Helga added. "Could they be the same people?"
"What does it mean?" Salazar asked, still puzzled. Solving riddles wasn't his strong suit.
"Let's let it rest for know," Rowena said. "I wanna give these a proper burial."
"Use my hut," Helga said. "I already have a new home."
"Huh?" Rowena and Salazar said together. Surely she'd want to rebuild?
"With you," she said, giving Rowena a surprise hug. She paused for a moment, trying to recall something. "..for whether thou goest, I will go: and where thou lodgest, I will lodge."
Rowena recognized the quote from Ruth. Helga pressed on.
"I have nowhere else to go. Please, I promise I won't be a burden anymore. Besides, you need a healer anyways."
Rowena wasn't sure what to say about that, but Helga had a point. She would need to teach this feisty innocent young gal to fight first. She made a mental note to do that later.
"Let's first intern these bones, then find a safe hiding place for the night," Rowena told Helga. "Salazar, still haven't made up my mind yet. Don't make any plans yet."
"A priest?" Helga inquired.
"Too risky," Salazar said, trying to change Rowena's mind. "Let's conduct a brief memorial service then get out of here."
"Sometimes my tribe would be forced to bury our dead outside our settlements without the presence of a priest or monk, usually after an ambush or major battle," Rowena informed them. "We had a short, but beautiful Christian ceremony we used in Gaelic. I attended enough that I know the words."
"Okay," Helga said, pulling out her wand. "Not yet Salazar."
Rowena simply shrugged her shoulders and gave him a false pitiful look when Salazar looked at her for help. Within five minutes, Helga had buried all of the bones in the hut and had cleaned all the ash and any sign that it had been a hut, away. Rowena gave a brief ceremony in Gaelic, concluding with
"Is e am nàmhaid mu dheireadh a thèid a serious bàs, " She translated into Saxon and Welsh for her audience's benefit. "The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death."
"Beautiful," Helga said, wiping away her tears. "Let's go. I doubt I have any more patients around anymore. They were probably frightened off by the massacre. Still, I wanna check around some."
"Make it quick," Rowena said. "I have a bad feeling about this place."
"So do I," Salazar dared interject.
Rowena suddenly dropped and pressed her ear to the ground.*
"Hoofprints," she said, surprising and impressing her two companions. "Somebody's coming."
"Maybe a Caterwauling Charm," Salazar surmised, surprising the two women with his knowledge of magic unknown to both of them. "A charm designed to alert to intruders. It would make sense if you returned."
"Let's leave a little surprise," Helga said, still trying to control her emotions. She might be compassionate, but she wanted to leave a little surprise for those who dared tried to kill her. "Trip Jinxes."
"Good idea," Salazar said. "Wand please."
"Only two minutes, then give it back," Rowena warned. Salazar chose to ignore the jab: he shook his head, wondering how he was coming to like hanging out with them so much despite their distrust of him.
In two minutes the two had surrounded the entire area with the spells.
"Hurry, we got to GO!" Rowena shouted at them. Salazar handed his wand back over to without a word of complaint.
They remounted their horses and sped off into the rising sun.
Five minutes later after Rowena, Salazar, and Helga cleaned out, a series of horses bolted into the clearing. Six of them were cloaked, while the rest were in armor and dressed for battle. The combined Muggle/Wizarding force barreled into the clear, sword and wands draw.
"AHHHHHHHHHH" the men all shouted at once.
Trip jinxes activated, tripping up the horse. Soon it was raining riders as the horses tripped, and bolted, leaving their riders behind.
"Great, another embarrassing failure," one of the six hooded men said. "And the Hufflepuff healer and Ravenclaw girl are gone, again."
"We'll be punished again if we fail again," the third one chimed in.
"Wipe the memories of the Muggles," the first man whispered. "Master Merwyn won't need to know about it. All he'll find out is that a deer tripped the Caterwauling Charm. It's known to be ineffective sometimes."
So, I promise that after this we'll be seeing a lot more of Salazar and Godric Gryffindor than just brief snippets and their characters will be explored a lot more while still featuring Rowena and Helga as well. I've just had a lot of fun with these two girls and the depth of their relationship.
All of the spells mentioned are in the books and their listed effects are their effects. I_magine Rowena and other powerful magical beings could modify magical spells to deliver a brief burning sensation rather lighting Salazar entirely on fire. The opening scene is based on the Quidditch World Cup and what the death eaters did to the poor Robert Muggle family.
As for Rowena pressing her ear to the ground, it's an actual thing. Sound waves travel through solids faster than gas. Sam Houston used this when he was readying his men to go to the Battle of the Alamo when he listened to the ground for the rumbling of a cannon. He didn't hear any and chose to retreat rather than advance into a trap. Native Americans used it to listen for buffalo, while ice age hunters supposedly used it to listen for mammoths and giant antelope. It's possible some militaries, both ancient and modern, used it to listen for hoofsteps or the footsteps of thousands of men marching towards them.