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Word Count - 728


A Life Without Joy (No Life At All)


Rowena stared out of the window, her eyes on the grounds of Hogwarts. It was snowing, the snowflakes joining together to cover the usually lush green in a coat of white. She sighed to herself, her head hurting.

A stress headache, she was sure.

Helena had run again, the fourth time in the last year alone, though this was the longest she'd ever been gone. Rowena didn't know what she was going to do with her daughter, who's jealousy and greed were going to be her downfall.

The coveted item, Rowena's own treasure, the Diadem.

Stupidly, if only Helena would change her ways, shed inherit the Diadem anyway. It was Rowena's most treasured heirloom.

Rowena shook her head. There was nothing she could do about Helena, nothing she could say to her until she came home. And even then, what could Rowena do? She'd tried time and time again to speak with her headstrong daughter, what was there left to say or do?

"Rowena?"

She turned her head, offering Salazar a tired smile and beckoned him closer. He stepped up behind her, his hands resting lightly on her tense shoulders.

"You are worrying about Helena again," he murmured. "She'll come home, Love. Just give her time."

"Will she?" Rowena asked, making her fear known now that she was no longer alone. "We had a particularly vicious row this time. I am… worried for her."

Salazar squeezed her shoulders. "Would you like me to send the Baron out to search for her. Even if she refuses to come home, he will be able to assuage your fears for her safety."

Rowena twisted her lips as she thought. Her gut told her no, because Baron had quite the infatuation with Helena, and Rowena knew just how much her daughter was uninterested with the man.

She shook her head. "No. Helena will return when she's ready to. Until then, I suppose I shall just have to wait and hope."

Salazar leant down, pressing a kiss to her cheek. "Then come with me. I shall endeavor to distract you."

Helena returned home.

Rowena tried again to speak with her daughter, to bond with her, but Helena resisted as she always had and so Rowena fell back into the shadows to watch her silently instead.

The festering jealousy that fed Helena made her blind to her own faults. Rowena heard tell of Helena's tales of woe that she spread, tales of how hard her life was, how her mother misjudged and maligned her.

Rowena denied the words, of course, but she refused to comment on the real story. It was nobody else's business, and Rowena had no wish to speak ill of her daughter, no matter what she thought in the privacy of her own mind.

Helena would change, or not, but Rowena would stand strong and wait for her daughter for as long as it took.

"I need you to send the Baron after Helena," Rowena said, entering Salazar's study.

Salazar looked up, surprised at the desolate look on Rowena's faith. He'd heard earlier in the day from Helga that Helena had run once more, but Rowena wasn't usually so upset by it. Worry was her usual emotion, yet this time she seemed angry along with it.

"What has changed, my Dear?" he asked, standing to wrap his arms around his love.

"She took my Diadem, Sal," Rowena whispered. "She stole it from me and run with it. I never thought… I never thought she could do such a thing, no matter her attitude to me. I never would have expected this."

Salazar rubbed her arm comfortingly, trying to force his own anger away. He hated to see Rowena so upset, and while Helena was often the source of Rowena's distress, this was beyond what even Salazar would have expected of the girl.

"I'll send for him immediately, sweetheart. He'll return with Helena and the Diadem, whatever the cost."

Rowena nodded silently and leant her head against Salazar's chest.

Salazar left.

The Baron never returned and nor did Helena.

Rowena spent many an eve sitting at her window, staring out of the grounds of the school she'd helped build from nothing.

For all of her accomplishments, Rowena had long lost the things that brought joy to her life, and really?

What was the point in a life without joy?


Written for;

Cheese Board; Sharp Cheddar - Rowena Ravenclaw

Pop Figure - Falcon; 3. Blind / 4. Fear

Flower - Dogwood; Rowena Ravenclaw

365 - 1. Treasure

1000 - 15. Heirloom