The International Wizarding World Competition

Title/Link: Love's Choosing

School: Durmstrang

Year: 2

Technique: Writing Descriptions

Prompt: (action) serving

Word Count: 842

Additional Information: Warning for discrimination due to time period.

I hope you all enjoy Love's Choosing.

"Today is the day, Rowena," my mother told me as we walked into a room crowded full of lesser well-off noblemen and noblewomen. Their children were looking at each other excitedly. "Today you are part of a bigger world than you once were."

"But does that even mean, Mother?" I asked, having done more than once before today. She had been very cryptic about what today meant. Only saying that the rest of my life hung upon this day.

"The choosing is a very important thing in a young Pureblood man or woman's life. If you choose wrong it could spell ruin for our family. If you choose properly as I know you will the world will be laid at your feet, my daughter."

I'd been told about The Choosing since I was old enough to understand what choices were. But it didn't seem like such a choice to me. It seemed more like something along the lines of choosing a house-elf. Not choosing a companion to spend your life with.

"But what is the right choice? Is there a right choice? This ceremony seems like nothing more than choosing a house-elf in human form."

"Rowena!" my mother chided me, looking around as though to see if anyone had overheard what I had said.

I knew as well she did that the nobles in this room were fickle about their allegiances. Most of these young men and women who were being thrust forth for The Choosing had been my friends from a young age. We'd grown up together.

Helga waved happily at me from her mother's side with a huge smile. A smile that caused a pang of sadness to swell in my heart. If the implications my mother had given me were to be taken with a grain of salt me choosing Helga as my lifelong companion would only end in my family's ruin.

I could choose either Godric or Salazar. They were both in the same situation that I was in and would eventually have to face their own Choosing if one of them wasn't chosen today. Once a pair was bonded they couldn't be unbonded. Which would also prove a problem if I picked one of them. Neither of us could be with the person we would have chosen if that was to happen. Tradition stated that the person chosen during The Choosing was to be the companion of the one who chose them until the day they died if it was a male and female partnership or until they were married if it was a same-sex partnership. Meaning the only thing a same-sex partnership was good for was friendship and nothing more. I wanted more.

I gazed longingly at Helga as she stood with her mother. We'd been very close since our younger years and it wasn't until recently that we started to notice the feeling we had for each other had changed. Dramatically so.

"Today, ladies and gentlemen, our daughter Rowena joins the adult world," her father said, standing tall and grand in his finest dress robes. The dark blue offsetting his eyes which a marvelous sapphire in the dawning light. "Today is the day of her Choosing." He turned to me with a proud smile on his face. "Step forward, young one, and may you do your family proud."

I looked up and down the line of young men and women my age that had been assembled in front of me. Not only were they serving at this very moment an archaic function but so was I.

Most of these young men and women served at their parents' behest. I could tell from the power-hungry look in the eyes of the young men. The shy reserved looks upon the faces of young women I knew were no more shy than I was interested in settling down with anyone other than Helga.

I pondered my choice and pondered my choice, and pondered my choice some more. My eyes kept traveling back to Helga's. The look of pure adoration I saw there told me that something had to change. The Choosing couldn't be just about forcing someone into befriending a political ally or finding the proper marriage. It had to become something more. Something that generations later would feel was something that they could do without fear of judgment.

"Today I, Rowena Ravenclaw, at my own behest and the behest of those yet to come to choose as my lifelong partner and companion you, Helga Hufflepuff," I said, taking Helga's hand as though taking some as fragile as china. "Today I make a change to this ceremony that has served our people for generations upon generations. Today I choose not a lifelong friend but the person I love with all my heart."

Lacing my fingers through the soft ones of the woman I loved, I led Helga from the Great Hall of Ravenclaw castle. I could hear the murmurings of outrage from behind me but I didn't care. This was my choice and I was happy with it.

I hope that you all enjoyed Love's Choosing as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Sentences that I would like to be judged for the competition are as follows:

She could hear the murmurings of outrage from behind her but she didn't care.

She could tell from the power-hungry look in the eyes of the young men.

The look of pure adoration I saw there told me that something had to change.