A/N: I'm sorry I cannot write Olden English for the Founders, but English
is actually my very second language and I don't trust myself to go back in
time with it... besides, the Founders could have spoken in Anglo-Saxon for
all we know!!!
Summary: Have you ever wondered why Gryffindors and Slytherins hate each other (the real reason)? Join Harry, Herm, Draco, Pansy, Cho, Hannah and the gang as they race to find those reasons and much more...The timeline swaps between the Founders time and Harry's. Not Slash (I surprise even myself at times).
Disclaimer: you know how it goes, why should I write it again? The characters and settings and everything you recognise are not mine, I'm only borrowing them. I do own the plot, though *smiles proudly*. The quote belongs to the works of Whinnie the Pooh, by AA Milne.
*** *** indicates a change in the timeline, swapping from Founders' time to Harry's present or vice versa.
Now, for the thank-yous:
Jenn: I know the story may seem a bit confusing at the beginning, but I hope it clears along the way... if it helps you, you can try reading the Founders bit first, and then Harry's. dn: Decent interaction between Cho and Draco? Yes, probably... I don't know if I'll ship them, but it's a strong possibility! hannirose: I like the name Hannah, of course it makes you special!!! And I mean to make a real character out of the poor Hufflepuff, don't worry about that! CassandrAIarwen: flirting, most definitely; relationship, maybe, maybe not... it's my first Cho/Draco, so bear with me! (By the way, for me "slash" means same-sex relationships, and the ways of making *that* happen between Cho and Draco are quite slim...)
Yet another Chamber, by Dark Fairy
Chapter two: How many books can one read before going mad?
"The wrong answers are the ones you go looking for when the right answer is staring you in the face" Eeyore, the Old Grey Donkey
Harry gave a very deep sigh and raised his tired eyes from the mouldy volume he was peering into; he met Justin's sympathetic gaze before Hermione looked up as well and huffed at both boys.
"Get reading, you two, we have no time to lose!" she snapped; seeing that Harry seemed somehow reluctant to follow her command, she raised her nose and asked in her best superior tone "Don't tell me you're tired already?! Malfoy seems to be doing OK, and he got here before you even woke up..." Harry looked towards the other table, where, of course, the Slytherin boy was efficiently looking up the index of an encyclopaedia, followed by Cho's unblinking gaze. Neither the Ravenclaws nor Draco looked tired, but Pansy was unhappily tapping her fingernails on the table and throwing disgruntled looks to her assigned book.
"Pansy, darling, don't you think it's time you gave a small stroll around the castle to clear your head?" suggested Malfoy, annoyed by the sound of the fingernails over the polished oak.
"Wonderful idea, Draco!" cooed the girl, taking the cue "I'll be right back!"
"I'll go with you" offered Harry, standing up as well, taking the surprised girl's arm before she had time to utter any objections, and leading her out of the Library. "Thank goodness for that!" he exclaimed, releasing the Slytherin as soon as they were outside the heavy oak doors.
"You crumpled my robes!" complained Pansy, examining the place where they had been in contact with the Gryffindor. Seeing that the damage had been minor, a wrinkle or two, she turned to Harry with a neutral expression. "I wonder how much time it'll take them to find whatever they're looking for"
"I hope not much" yawned Harry, stretching his cramped arms "because I swear, if I spend another evening in that library, looking up non-existent references, I'll go mad!"
"You say that as if you weren't already" retorted Pansy placidly, with a half-smirk.
"Do you read Rita Skeeter as well?! That woman certainly has a fan-club..."
"I helped write the article" shrugged the blonde girl, looking out of the window and towards the lake, where the giant squid had fallen asleep on the beach. "It should be nice to take a walk out there, shouldn't it?"
***
"I do not have the slightest idea on what the young men nowadays are up to!" exclaimed Rowena, shutting the drawers of her desk with a loud 'bang!'; Helga looked up, startled by the noise, and found her tall friend watching something outside, half-hidden by the curtains. "Our final exams are within a fortnight, and they are out there, playing that stupid game involving brooms, pebbles, cauldrons and a massive amount of blows to everyone... why can't they do something more sensible, like coming here to study?"
Helga wisely chose to keep quiet, knowing Rowena wasn't asking for a answer; the tall girl was just in high levels of stress, bored out of her mind and needing something to drive her out of her state of perpetual annoyment. The heaven-sent gift was a sweaty Godric, sporting a bloody cut on his brow and a bruised arm, who came flying up to the window, motioning for his friend to open the window.
"Come outside, Rowena, and do us a favour!!! The game is on its way to becoming a cruel battle if someone with brains does not join us soon..." Rowena crumpled her nose, not keen on getting on a broom "You don't have to fly if you don't wish to, your only duty is to keep an eye on us, and see that no Salazar gets involved in foul play"
"Speak for yourself, Godric, I do not remember trying to knock anyone off their broom with my cauldron" said Salazar from his place, while Rowena already had her cloak on and was flying down the stairs.
Helga sighed softly; she would have said no anyway, but it would have been nice if they had invited her. Leaving her place by the fire, she went to the window and watched Rowena arguing with the players, surrounded as always by a small group of boys showing off in search of her approval. Not that breaking a bone in broom would do anything to earn the respect of the intelligent Lady Ravenclaw, but even a contemptuous look from her hazel eyes was valued. Helga turned away and towards the vanity table on the far corner; she looked at the mirror and saw only her short, dumpy figure with her blonde, straight hair and pale blue eyes. Nothing in her was striking, enchanting or even mildly eye-catching. Her only attractive, though she did not know it, was the sincerity of her gaze, the timid warmth of her smile, and the entire feeling of whole-heartedness she gave out. To distract her of her reverie came a impatient rapping at the window.
"Helga, stop admiring yourself and come here!" called Salazar from outside; while the witch went to the window, Salazar flew off and pirouetted to avoid a rain of pebbles that descended upon him; with another heart stopping dive he tricked the stones into following Godric instead and then went back to Helga, followed by an admiring murmur from the rest of the students who were watching him. "How come you didn't follow Lady Ravenclaw in her afternoon stroll?"
"I wasn't invited" confessed Helga, throwing a benevolent look to the girls who were envying her from the ground; Salazar's dark expression grew darker at this. "I would have refused anyway, you know I must study Transfiguration well in advance..."
"I promised to help you with that subject" interrupted the dark-haired boy "and you must take a rest, Helga, you've barely stopped reading to eat in these last few days... you hardly go into the garden anymore, and Godric and I miss having fresh cut flowers pinned to our robes every morning"
"I'm sorry about that!" wailed Helga, covering her eyes with her small hands "I completely forgot, I was so tired this morning!"
"It was a joke, Helga" soothed Salazar, smirking when a particularly big pebble fell noisily into Godric's cauldron. "I much rather have you sleeping in the mornings than have a bouquet on me... I only meant to say that you must really stop the rhythm of work, because not even Rowena studies as much as you do. You'll do fine in those exams, I'm sure!" And then, Salazar flew off to join in the game, and stop a particularly cute scene of a wounded Godric and an immaculate Rowena.
Helga smiled from her place in the window before going back inside; she would wake up early next morning, and pick the prettiest flowers in the garden.
***
"So, are you trying to tell me that in the five years you've been studying at Hogwarts, you've *never* been to the lake?!" asked Harry in amazement, looking at the blonde girl walking by his side.
"Why should I have come? It is quite pretty and everything, but I have a much better view in my grandfather's castle" replied Pansy, shrugging; seeing a particularly rough terrain ahead, she placed her hand on Harry's arm, to steady her high-heeled sandals, and continued. "Besides, there are much more interesting things to do inside the walls of Hogwarts... you know nothing of the pleasures of an evening spent at the hairdresser's, do you?"
Harry decided not to dignify that with a response; at the same time, he was busy wondering why the girls he knew didn't have such pretty hands as Pansy. Lavender and Parvati sported really long nails, painted in all kinds of shocking colours, from forest green to Lockheart's pink, often with glitter and/or glow-in-the-dark effect; Aunt Petunia always wore the same chipped salmon pink nail-varnish, and Molly Weasley didn't even make the effort, while Hermione's nails were bitten and ink-stained. Pansy's, on the contrary, were of medium-length, with a translucent pink varnish and looking as if they had never touched a quill in their existence. Her perfume was nice as well, rose-blossom and magnolia, only perceived when one was really close to the girl, like when Harry had to help her climb over a fallen trunk. He compared the faint fragrance with Lavender's citrus perfume, or Paravti's orchid-and-cedar, whose mixed signals remained hours after their owners were gone, or Aunt Petunia's cheap chemist's-branded perfume, or Hermione's non-existent one.
By the time Harry had emerged from his make-up reflections, they had already reached the far part of the lake, from where one could see Hogwarts in all its night-time glory.
"Nice" admitted Pansy after a critical exam. "However, that tower there seems a bit too battered; it's no wonder really, as it faces the wind during most of the year, but..."
"That's Gryffindor Tower" interrupted Harry with a faint smile on his voice at how Slytherins dissed Gryffindors without even trying.
"That's why, then" answered Pansy, smiling as well; with her back to Harry, she continued her examination of the school "Ravenclaw's Tower, the tallest part of the castle, with the Astronomy classroom at the top; Hufflepuff must be all the ground floor of the south side, I've heard they have a passageway leading right into the greenhouses... now, isn't there a thought?"
"What, the greenhouses?" asked Harry nervously.
"No, the towers, and all the rest... the architecture, so to speak!" Harry' face must have shown the confusion her felt, because Pansy gave an impatient sigh and started making her way back. "I mean to say that if the Founder's Chamber really belongs to all four, it must be, a) in the middle of the school, b) in the common areas, or, c) having an entrance in each house. Wouldn't that make sense?"
Everybody was gathered around Pansy, where she had summoned them when entering the library and announcing she had an idea. Draco gave an indefinable half-smirk, half-smile to his housemate, while Cho assented, looking nervous. Terry actually broke into a grin and got up to search for a map of Hogwarts, and Hermione gave a longing look to the book she was reading.
"So, no more researching?" asked Justin hopefully.
"I always though it was quite pointless, but it was the only thing we could do..." drawled Draco, shutting his book the first "Now, we can do a bit of terrain-examination. The two towers are the smaller areas, they can be searched easily, while the dungeons and the Hufflepuff wing..."
"Wouldn't it be better to look in the common areas first?" interrupted Hannah, visibly flinching when Draco turned to her, only to melt in a puddle of blushes when the Slytherin gave a her a charming grin.
"Nice input from Hannah, after all the common areas are open to everybody, and all in all, they are much smaller"
"We can take care of the Great Hall, Trophy Room and annexes to it" offered Hannah, made brave by Draco's earlier compliment "We are doing an essay for Professor Binns about their history anyway, we have permission to stay there after hours"
"Wonderful!!! We can look into the classrooms, we know all the teachers" exclaimed Cho eagerly, taking out parchment and quill.
"I'll take the Library" sighed Hermione "Madam Pince is used to have me around"
"I can go into the kitchens and the laundry" said Harry, relieved to think that Dobby would be doing all the work.
"So, what's left for us, Boot?" asked Draco, apparently not very interested. The Ravenclaw boy looked into the map.
"All the inside is covered, but there's a chance there's an outside entrance, so you could check the grounds... that would include the Forbidden Forest, I'm afraid."
"Of course not!" interjected Cho hastily "The Forbidden Forest wasn't made a part of Hogwarts until the late sixteenth century, haven't you read 'Hogwarts: A History'?! The grounds before that were little more than the Quidditch field, the lake and the playground behind"
"We'll see to that, then" agreed Draco lazily, holding out his arm for Pansy, as they prepared to leave "We can meet in three days, to see what we've discovered, if we have discovered anything at all. Until then" The Slytherins left without a backward glance, followed closely by a very relieved Justin and an excited Hannah.
******
"Naturally, Sir Gowain is trying to call my attention too" said Rowena, matter-of-factly, brushing her hair and talking to Helga, who nodded sympathetically "*And* Godric and Salazar as well..." she added, as an afterthought. Those last words awoke Helga from the sleepiness in which she had immersed herself when Rowena started talking about her admirers.
"Godric and Salazar?!" the plump witch opened her blue eyes as wide as she could "But they are friends of ours, what makes you think...?"
"Helga, friends or not, a boy of their age will be interested in a girl who happens to have, as I do, more beauty that is normally found in a human being" Rowena continued brushing her hair as a preparation to her sleep, without apparently noticing what she had said; Helga didn't notice either: she knew Lady Ravenclaw was very beautiful, and she knew that the poor girl didn't enjoy her beauty at all.
Rowena Ravenclaw was easily the prettiest girl in Mr Grundy's school, with her pale skin, her auburn hair and big hazel eyes; she was one of the most intelligent students as well, although her achievements were perpetually overshadowed by her looks, thus making her hate everything that had to do with the splendour of her figure. And now, the struggle between her two best male friends for her interest came to reaffirm her opinion that beauty was just a very inconvenient trifle. What worried her was Helga; Helga, normally considered the shadow behind Rowena, the dumpy, lovable girl to whom no-one gave a second-look. It had been hard work to get her to talk to Godric and Salazar on their first year, but after that the four of them had grown really close and Rowena didn't want all that spoiled because both boys now happened to fancy her.
"Is there no doubt about it?" pleaded Helga from her bed. Rowena nodded solemnly.
"I wish there was" she replied truthfully "but seeing them and their ways when they share my company... no, there is no doubt about it. We can only hope they recover their senses soon, before the friendship we have grows stale"
--------------------- A/N: Well, even Rowena Ravenclaw can be mistaken, you know? What do you think about the Harry/Pansy thing? At first it gave me the shivers, but seeing that she's not the pug-faced girl anymore... and Cho/Draco? Maybe unrequited? Hmm, endless possibilities...
Summary: Have you ever wondered why Gryffindors and Slytherins hate each other (the real reason)? Join Harry, Herm, Draco, Pansy, Cho, Hannah and the gang as they race to find those reasons and much more...The timeline swaps between the Founders time and Harry's. Not Slash (I surprise even myself at times).
Disclaimer: you know how it goes, why should I write it again? The characters and settings and everything you recognise are not mine, I'm only borrowing them. I do own the plot, though *smiles proudly*. The quote belongs to the works of Whinnie the Pooh, by AA Milne.
*** *** indicates a change in the timeline, swapping from Founders' time to Harry's present or vice versa.
Now, for the thank-yous:
Jenn: I know the story may seem a bit confusing at the beginning, but I hope it clears along the way... if it helps you, you can try reading the Founders bit first, and then Harry's. dn: Decent interaction between Cho and Draco? Yes, probably... I don't know if I'll ship them, but it's a strong possibility! hannirose: I like the name Hannah, of course it makes you special!!! And I mean to make a real character out of the poor Hufflepuff, don't worry about that! CassandrAIarwen: flirting, most definitely; relationship, maybe, maybe not... it's my first Cho/Draco, so bear with me! (By the way, for me "slash" means same-sex relationships, and the ways of making *that* happen between Cho and Draco are quite slim...)
Yet another Chamber, by Dark Fairy
Chapter two: How many books can one read before going mad?
"The wrong answers are the ones you go looking for when the right answer is staring you in the face" Eeyore, the Old Grey Donkey
Harry gave a very deep sigh and raised his tired eyes from the mouldy volume he was peering into; he met Justin's sympathetic gaze before Hermione looked up as well and huffed at both boys.
"Get reading, you two, we have no time to lose!" she snapped; seeing that Harry seemed somehow reluctant to follow her command, she raised her nose and asked in her best superior tone "Don't tell me you're tired already?! Malfoy seems to be doing OK, and he got here before you even woke up..." Harry looked towards the other table, where, of course, the Slytherin boy was efficiently looking up the index of an encyclopaedia, followed by Cho's unblinking gaze. Neither the Ravenclaws nor Draco looked tired, but Pansy was unhappily tapping her fingernails on the table and throwing disgruntled looks to her assigned book.
"Pansy, darling, don't you think it's time you gave a small stroll around the castle to clear your head?" suggested Malfoy, annoyed by the sound of the fingernails over the polished oak.
"Wonderful idea, Draco!" cooed the girl, taking the cue "I'll be right back!"
"I'll go with you" offered Harry, standing up as well, taking the surprised girl's arm before she had time to utter any objections, and leading her out of the Library. "Thank goodness for that!" he exclaimed, releasing the Slytherin as soon as they were outside the heavy oak doors.
"You crumpled my robes!" complained Pansy, examining the place where they had been in contact with the Gryffindor. Seeing that the damage had been minor, a wrinkle or two, she turned to Harry with a neutral expression. "I wonder how much time it'll take them to find whatever they're looking for"
"I hope not much" yawned Harry, stretching his cramped arms "because I swear, if I spend another evening in that library, looking up non-existent references, I'll go mad!"
"You say that as if you weren't already" retorted Pansy placidly, with a half-smirk.
"Do you read Rita Skeeter as well?! That woman certainly has a fan-club..."
"I helped write the article" shrugged the blonde girl, looking out of the window and towards the lake, where the giant squid had fallen asleep on the beach. "It should be nice to take a walk out there, shouldn't it?"
***
"I do not have the slightest idea on what the young men nowadays are up to!" exclaimed Rowena, shutting the drawers of her desk with a loud 'bang!'; Helga looked up, startled by the noise, and found her tall friend watching something outside, half-hidden by the curtains. "Our final exams are within a fortnight, and they are out there, playing that stupid game involving brooms, pebbles, cauldrons and a massive amount of blows to everyone... why can't they do something more sensible, like coming here to study?"
Helga wisely chose to keep quiet, knowing Rowena wasn't asking for a answer; the tall girl was just in high levels of stress, bored out of her mind and needing something to drive her out of her state of perpetual annoyment. The heaven-sent gift was a sweaty Godric, sporting a bloody cut on his brow and a bruised arm, who came flying up to the window, motioning for his friend to open the window.
"Come outside, Rowena, and do us a favour!!! The game is on its way to becoming a cruel battle if someone with brains does not join us soon..." Rowena crumpled her nose, not keen on getting on a broom "You don't have to fly if you don't wish to, your only duty is to keep an eye on us, and see that no Salazar gets involved in foul play"
"Speak for yourself, Godric, I do not remember trying to knock anyone off their broom with my cauldron" said Salazar from his place, while Rowena already had her cloak on and was flying down the stairs.
Helga sighed softly; she would have said no anyway, but it would have been nice if they had invited her. Leaving her place by the fire, she went to the window and watched Rowena arguing with the players, surrounded as always by a small group of boys showing off in search of her approval. Not that breaking a bone in broom would do anything to earn the respect of the intelligent Lady Ravenclaw, but even a contemptuous look from her hazel eyes was valued. Helga turned away and towards the vanity table on the far corner; she looked at the mirror and saw only her short, dumpy figure with her blonde, straight hair and pale blue eyes. Nothing in her was striking, enchanting or even mildly eye-catching. Her only attractive, though she did not know it, was the sincerity of her gaze, the timid warmth of her smile, and the entire feeling of whole-heartedness she gave out. To distract her of her reverie came a impatient rapping at the window.
"Helga, stop admiring yourself and come here!" called Salazar from outside; while the witch went to the window, Salazar flew off and pirouetted to avoid a rain of pebbles that descended upon him; with another heart stopping dive he tricked the stones into following Godric instead and then went back to Helga, followed by an admiring murmur from the rest of the students who were watching him. "How come you didn't follow Lady Ravenclaw in her afternoon stroll?"
"I wasn't invited" confessed Helga, throwing a benevolent look to the girls who were envying her from the ground; Salazar's dark expression grew darker at this. "I would have refused anyway, you know I must study Transfiguration well in advance..."
"I promised to help you with that subject" interrupted the dark-haired boy "and you must take a rest, Helga, you've barely stopped reading to eat in these last few days... you hardly go into the garden anymore, and Godric and I miss having fresh cut flowers pinned to our robes every morning"
"I'm sorry about that!" wailed Helga, covering her eyes with her small hands "I completely forgot, I was so tired this morning!"
"It was a joke, Helga" soothed Salazar, smirking when a particularly big pebble fell noisily into Godric's cauldron. "I much rather have you sleeping in the mornings than have a bouquet on me... I only meant to say that you must really stop the rhythm of work, because not even Rowena studies as much as you do. You'll do fine in those exams, I'm sure!" And then, Salazar flew off to join in the game, and stop a particularly cute scene of a wounded Godric and an immaculate Rowena.
Helga smiled from her place in the window before going back inside; she would wake up early next morning, and pick the prettiest flowers in the garden.
***
"So, are you trying to tell me that in the five years you've been studying at Hogwarts, you've *never* been to the lake?!" asked Harry in amazement, looking at the blonde girl walking by his side.
"Why should I have come? It is quite pretty and everything, but I have a much better view in my grandfather's castle" replied Pansy, shrugging; seeing a particularly rough terrain ahead, she placed her hand on Harry's arm, to steady her high-heeled sandals, and continued. "Besides, there are much more interesting things to do inside the walls of Hogwarts... you know nothing of the pleasures of an evening spent at the hairdresser's, do you?"
Harry decided not to dignify that with a response; at the same time, he was busy wondering why the girls he knew didn't have such pretty hands as Pansy. Lavender and Parvati sported really long nails, painted in all kinds of shocking colours, from forest green to Lockheart's pink, often with glitter and/or glow-in-the-dark effect; Aunt Petunia always wore the same chipped salmon pink nail-varnish, and Molly Weasley didn't even make the effort, while Hermione's nails were bitten and ink-stained. Pansy's, on the contrary, were of medium-length, with a translucent pink varnish and looking as if they had never touched a quill in their existence. Her perfume was nice as well, rose-blossom and magnolia, only perceived when one was really close to the girl, like when Harry had to help her climb over a fallen trunk. He compared the faint fragrance with Lavender's citrus perfume, or Paravti's orchid-and-cedar, whose mixed signals remained hours after their owners were gone, or Aunt Petunia's cheap chemist's-branded perfume, or Hermione's non-existent one.
By the time Harry had emerged from his make-up reflections, they had already reached the far part of the lake, from where one could see Hogwarts in all its night-time glory.
"Nice" admitted Pansy after a critical exam. "However, that tower there seems a bit too battered; it's no wonder really, as it faces the wind during most of the year, but..."
"That's Gryffindor Tower" interrupted Harry with a faint smile on his voice at how Slytherins dissed Gryffindors without even trying.
"That's why, then" answered Pansy, smiling as well; with her back to Harry, she continued her examination of the school "Ravenclaw's Tower, the tallest part of the castle, with the Astronomy classroom at the top; Hufflepuff must be all the ground floor of the south side, I've heard they have a passageway leading right into the greenhouses... now, isn't there a thought?"
"What, the greenhouses?" asked Harry nervously.
"No, the towers, and all the rest... the architecture, so to speak!" Harry' face must have shown the confusion her felt, because Pansy gave an impatient sigh and started making her way back. "I mean to say that if the Founder's Chamber really belongs to all four, it must be, a) in the middle of the school, b) in the common areas, or, c) having an entrance in each house. Wouldn't that make sense?"
Everybody was gathered around Pansy, where she had summoned them when entering the library and announcing she had an idea. Draco gave an indefinable half-smirk, half-smile to his housemate, while Cho assented, looking nervous. Terry actually broke into a grin and got up to search for a map of Hogwarts, and Hermione gave a longing look to the book she was reading.
"So, no more researching?" asked Justin hopefully.
"I always though it was quite pointless, but it was the only thing we could do..." drawled Draco, shutting his book the first "Now, we can do a bit of terrain-examination. The two towers are the smaller areas, they can be searched easily, while the dungeons and the Hufflepuff wing..."
"Wouldn't it be better to look in the common areas first?" interrupted Hannah, visibly flinching when Draco turned to her, only to melt in a puddle of blushes when the Slytherin gave a her a charming grin.
"Nice input from Hannah, after all the common areas are open to everybody, and all in all, they are much smaller"
"We can take care of the Great Hall, Trophy Room and annexes to it" offered Hannah, made brave by Draco's earlier compliment "We are doing an essay for Professor Binns about their history anyway, we have permission to stay there after hours"
"Wonderful!!! We can look into the classrooms, we know all the teachers" exclaimed Cho eagerly, taking out parchment and quill.
"I'll take the Library" sighed Hermione "Madam Pince is used to have me around"
"I can go into the kitchens and the laundry" said Harry, relieved to think that Dobby would be doing all the work.
"So, what's left for us, Boot?" asked Draco, apparently not very interested. The Ravenclaw boy looked into the map.
"All the inside is covered, but there's a chance there's an outside entrance, so you could check the grounds... that would include the Forbidden Forest, I'm afraid."
"Of course not!" interjected Cho hastily "The Forbidden Forest wasn't made a part of Hogwarts until the late sixteenth century, haven't you read 'Hogwarts: A History'?! The grounds before that were little more than the Quidditch field, the lake and the playground behind"
"We'll see to that, then" agreed Draco lazily, holding out his arm for Pansy, as they prepared to leave "We can meet in three days, to see what we've discovered, if we have discovered anything at all. Until then" The Slytherins left without a backward glance, followed closely by a very relieved Justin and an excited Hannah.
******
"Naturally, Sir Gowain is trying to call my attention too" said Rowena, matter-of-factly, brushing her hair and talking to Helga, who nodded sympathetically "*And* Godric and Salazar as well..." she added, as an afterthought. Those last words awoke Helga from the sleepiness in which she had immersed herself when Rowena started talking about her admirers.
"Godric and Salazar?!" the plump witch opened her blue eyes as wide as she could "But they are friends of ours, what makes you think...?"
"Helga, friends or not, a boy of their age will be interested in a girl who happens to have, as I do, more beauty that is normally found in a human being" Rowena continued brushing her hair as a preparation to her sleep, without apparently noticing what she had said; Helga didn't notice either: she knew Lady Ravenclaw was very beautiful, and she knew that the poor girl didn't enjoy her beauty at all.
Rowena Ravenclaw was easily the prettiest girl in Mr Grundy's school, with her pale skin, her auburn hair and big hazel eyes; she was one of the most intelligent students as well, although her achievements were perpetually overshadowed by her looks, thus making her hate everything that had to do with the splendour of her figure. And now, the struggle between her two best male friends for her interest came to reaffirm her opinion that beauty was just a very inconvenient trifle. What worried her was Helga; Helga, normally considered the shadow behind Rowena, the dumpy, lovable girl to whom no-one gave a second-look. It had been hard work to get her to talk to Godric and Salazar on their first year, but after that the four of them had grown really close and Rowena didn't want all that spoiled because both boys now happened to fancy her.
"Is there no doubt about it?" pleaded Helga from her bed. Rowena nodded solemnly.
"I wish there was" she replied truthfully "but seeing them and their ways when they share my company... no, there is no doubt about it. We can only hope they recover their senses soon, before the friendship we have grows stale"
--------------------- A/N: Well, even Rowena Ravenclaw can be mistaken, you know? What do you think about the Harry/Pansy thing? At first it gave me the shivers, but seeing that she's not the pug-faced girl anymore... and Cho/Draco? Maybe unrequited? Hmm, endless possibilities...