She should have listened to the air around her. She should have closed her eyes and taken the chance of letting logic breeze past her. If for one moment she had felt the tension vibrating from the very ground beneath her feet she would have been able to sort this situation out. In this, lady Ravenclaw's sharp mind had failed to exceed the warning of natural instinct.
Rowena told herself that this was a childish tiff. Once the business behind the construction of their marvelous school was complete, she and her fellow founders would be able to return to themselves. She would be shaking her head at Helga as the plump woman chatted animatedly over a newly found recipe. Godric and Salazar would settle back by the fire and continue their epic battle of wizard's chess.
Life never proves so simple. The debate of enrollment parameters had only been the catalyst to cut previously frayed strings. Rowena's patience with her friends faltered slowly, unnoticeably, until the decades became pressed together.
Standing before one another, the founders faced the façade of friendship once forged. Silently they had committed to their own ways. Bathed in consented degradation Rowena vehemently regretted her deafness.