Quidditch League Round 7: Appleby Arrows

Chaser 3: Ravenclaw's Diadem

Prompts: Take a Bow – Rihanna (Song); "All that is gold does not glitter" – J. R. R. Tolkien (Quote); freedom (word)

Wisdom

You feel the heavy disappointment flowing through your body as you glance at your watch for what seemed like the millionth time in the last hour. You had agreed to meet here, and he was late. Again. You are no longer willing to wait on this cold, lonely corridor alone.

This wasn't the first time you had been forgotten, or had been made to wait in favour of something that was more important. In fact, as you think back to every meeting you had ever planned, you realize that he had always been late, or never, arrived at all. You had been greeted with a sheepish expression and tossed a hasty apology or excuse the next morning for the latter.

You had always forgiven him for it, even knowing the apologies would change nothing, and the promises of it never happening again had as much worth as leprechaun gold, they disappeared once you took your eyes off the little pieces. His promises had always glittered like sparkling jewels that would draw any girl in, you included, but you had soon found that they weren't worth their gold, and yet you had always stayed. Waiting. Hoping.

Not this time.

You don't know where your feet are taking you, but you want to be somewhere far away from everyone, from potentially running into him and being force-fed an excuse or two. You want to hide until you feel less worthless than you currently do. You would never want him to know how much his absence affected you. You want to wait until you can face the world like the strong and stern Gryffindor you are.

That was something you had always been proud of. You had never needed to anything or anyone to ensure that you were taken seriously by everyone, even the teachers would believe you over most other students.

You find yourself standing outside a pair of doors, almost certain you have never seen these doors before, and you have passed through this stretch of corridor many times over the last five years. This was Hogwarts though. If there were staircases that moved at seemingly random intervals, why could the rooms not do the same? You may have just been missing the room every time you passed by.

You push open the door, realizing that the door is heavier than you had initially expected. To your surprise, the door does not creak as it swings open, but the sound of objects being pushed and jostled over one another reach your ears until you realize that the doorway is slightly blocked. You decide to slip into the room through the now slightly parted doors, not wanting to fight the futile battle against objects unwilling to move.

The room is filled with odd bits and random items that seemed to be out of place together. Textbooks, potions ingredients, broken cupboards, and what smells like something rotting are all in the fairly large space, haphazardly placed on top of each other as if their owners had been in a rush. You know for certain that a single person could not have possibly left all this in one room, not to mention that if it really was only one person, they probably would have left it a lot neater if only to find whatever they would need.

Curious, you look around the room, flicking through textbooks with printing dates of decades ago, and odd looking contraptions you had never before seen in your life. The usual disapproval of finding all this obviously hidden materials in a room was suspiciously absent. This was almost like a forgotten museum, unknown to the teachers, of past Hogwarts students, and that caught your curiosity.

Your eyes reach a bust with a diadem perched on its head. The diadem looked oddly out of place in the messy room with its delicately detailed silver work leading up to the eagle with a blue sapphire for a body. It looked far too expensive to be cast aside and surrounded by junk as it was. You momentarily forget your wand as you clamber onto the nearby surfaces to reach the diadem, wanting to find a clue as to why it had been stored in this room. You were never one for the tiaras and crowns, but there was something different about this particular one. It is almost as if the diadem carried an aura of importance within it.

Wit beyond measure is a man's greatest treasure.

You definitely recognize that inscription. It is the motto of Ravenclaw, house of intelligence. For a moment you wondered if you could be holding the long lost Diadem of Ravenclaw. It fit all the descriptions you had read of the diadem. You had once thought you would have an adventure to find the diadem. You had thought only of the fame that would come with finding the lost relic.

You cast the thought aside. The diadem was lost. There were probably many people had probably already seen this diadem, one of them would probably have recognized it as the original already if it was. It was just an extremely well-crafted replica. You had heard that there had been many of those made by the people who had adored Rowena Ravenclaw during her time.

A really good copy, that's all, you remind yourself as your fingers brush over the glinting silver. It wasn't the real thing. It was a person's attempt at being better than they were. You realize that despite whoever tried to make the diadem in your hands, had probably given it everything they had, but in the end they had finally realized that it would never be real. It would never be the original thing, and it had been discarded. Someone had thrown away something they had worked so hard over, because they realized that it wasn't really what they wanted.

You don't realize why, but somehow you are lightened by the thought. The idea of simply giving up on him crossed your mind again. You were always trying so hard to make it work. You wished you could just keep hoping that something would change even if you knew, deep down, that nothing ever would.

You felt like the craftsperson who had tried to make the copy of Ravenclaw's diadem in your hands, except you had been crafting a relationship. You had put in so much effort, but you knew it was nearing the time for you to give up and let it all go. You were reaching the end of your patience, and understanding of being second best to everything and everyone that was never you. You were tired of your loss of freedom, and having to always make your plans around someone else while never being granted the same privilege.

There were no apologies that could fix the past, and perhaps it was best if there was no longer a future to be filled with more.

You levitate the bust and diadem back onto its original place with only a flick of your wand. You cast the room with one last glance, somehow feeling that you will never find the room again.

The heavy door closes behind you before disappearing once again.

Your decision had been made.

And it was final.