I'm BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACK!! i know it's been a while, so some of you might want to look at the last chapter to refresh your memory. or i could just do it right here. so to be really fast... she's in love with Salazar, but he left to make a life for himself in the wizarding world... and last scene, we entered Godric Gryffindor as her new study partner. All clear?? Alright hit it!
"New study partner?" Rowena asked, confused. She looked the new boy up and down. "I don't understand?" Sir Slytherin seemed to be confused by Rowena's own confusion.
"Well, Godric has come here to study Magic, just as you have," he explained. Rowena took in the appearance of her new study partner. He was a bit shorter, with broad shoulders and muscles that peeked through his tuniv. Red brown curls spilled from his travel hat. His brown eyes sparkled micheviously as he stretched out his hand to Rowena.
"Pleasure to meet you," he greeted her. She took his hand mutely. It certainly was not a pleasure. She neither needed nor wanted someone to share her lesson's with. Especially someone who looked like he spent most of his time running about, hunting and horsing around, with little experience in being serious.
"So Godric," Sir Slytherin interrupted the slightly awkward silence, "would you prefer to rest up form your journey or are you ready to begin your studies.
"Let's jump right in," the new boy grinned. His mentor looked pleased.
"Ooh, an eager one," he commenter. Rowena rolled her eyes, but no one saw. And so their studies began. It soon became apparent that Godric was not as clever as his predecessor. He preferred to sit and observe the intricate discussions between Rowena and their teacher. Gdric offered his opinion only when asked, and then to state what Rowena thought was obvious.
"So Godric," Sir Slytherin asked his new pupil as they concluded. "What did you think?"
"I enjoyed it very much sir," he answered enthusiastically. "I think it was most interesting." Rowena stifled a yawn. Sir Slytherin shot her a reproachful glance. He looked at the clock on the mantel. "You still have a few minutes before your carriage arrives," he told her.
"That's all right, I think I I will wait for it in the garden." She bid farewell to the two men and left. The garden was her favorite place to think. It brought back all the sweet memories that she and Salazar had made there.
They sat beside the white stone fountain on a blanket eating the lunch that Salazar had had packed for their small picnic. He pulled a stray piece of lettuce from the torrents of her inky hair. She felt giddy at his touch.
"You look particularly beautiful today," he told her. Rowena smiled.
"Yes well, the green lettuce does bring out my eyes," he laughed, a deep warming sound.
His laugh was joined by the soft patter if water on the ground, as the heaves suddenly open up. Rowena shrieked as rain soaked through her dress. Salazar looked shocked for a moment, but then he continued laughing, harder than ever.
"Salazar!" Rowena protested, not seeing what was so funny. Salazar stood up, his face pointed upwards towards the sky, his light brown hair glittering with raindrops. He bent down to pull her to her feet, then held her close, their wet bodies clinging to each other, and then he began to twirl. He whirled her around and around in the rain, his shoes sloshing in the mud.
"Salazar what-?" but he was laughinf again, and this time she heard herself join in. And then they were dancing, giggling and twirling, raindrops cascading down.
"Rowena. Rowena!" Rowena, snapping out of her reverie, turned her head to Godric standing by the rose bush.
"What?"
"You left these behind." He held out her books, and she took it from his hands. They stood there uncomfortably for a moment, Rowena giving Godric a cold stare. He brushed a curl out of his eye.
"So what were you dreaming about?" he asked her.
"Nobody. I mean…nothing." She stammered, then glared at him. " How did you know I was daydreaming?" He shrugged his firm shoulders.
"I was standing here for about a minute long calling your name before you actually responded."
"Oh." She turned back to face the fountain, the water sparkling in the sunlight as it sprouted out the top.
"It was Salazar, wasn't it?" Godric inquired gently. Rowena turned slowly, surprised, when he said this.
"You know Salazar?"
"We have been loyal friends for most of our short lives." Rowena softened slightly. Perhaps she had judged him too quickly. "It all fits now," Godric continued. "His discriptions of you, I mean…your long black hair, your beauty, your wit."
"He wrote about me?"
"All the time," Godric promised. Rowena smiled, touched. "I saw him right before I left home," he added, lightening upon the look on her face. "He asked me to look out for you." Rowena's carriage chose that moment to appear.
"That's sweet of him," she said as she gathered herself to go. Godric walked her to the carriage and helped her up. "But I don't need to be looked after."
When Rowena returned to her room it was to find a short girl with long dirty blind hair on her bed.
"O hello, Helga," she said unenthusiastically. Helga hufflepuff pouted.
"Do not pretend to be so happy to see me," she said sarcastically. "It's embarrassing."
"I'm sorry," Rowena apologized to her friend. "You know I'm always happy to see you."
"So what is the matter?"
"Nothing really. There's this new boy that Salazar's father is tutoring. Godric or something of the sort…"
"Godric Gryffindor?" Helga offered. Rowena nodded. "I know him from flying school. He seemed nice enough."
"He is," Rowena sighed. "but he's not Salazar." Helga smiled sympathetically.
"Of course he isn't," she agreed, hazel eyes offerung some comfort, "but that's not his fault is it?" Rowena shook her head.
"I suppose not," she conceded. She plopped herself onto the bed next to her friend and laid her head on her shoulder. "I miss him," she admitted quietly, her dark eyes contracting. "Very much."
"And if you have read any of the letters that he sent you should know that he misses you just the same, maybe even more." Rowena glanced at the pile of passionate notes Helga had indicated, and smiled. Helga smiled back at her best friend. "He loves you."
The lessons continued much the same way that they had on the first day of Godric's arrival. Rowena and their instructor were passionately involved in the topics, with Godric offering his insight only sporadically. Despite her discussion with Helga, Rowena could not help but to harbor a slight dislike for her beau's replacement. She tried to cover it up, but she thought that Sir Salazar suspected something. This suspicion was only strengthened about one day about two months later, when he discarded the conventional lesson plan and sent them on a peculiar task.
"Today I am going t o be relaxing," he announced, "while the two of you set out into the woods and collect plants that are used in healing. Do not bother coming back until you have a full basket." There was little point in protesting, so the two soon found themselves in the woods behind Slytherin Manor. Rowena silently led the way, and Godric followed in the same solemn manner.
"Wormweed," Rowena said, stopping as she came to a long, thin, yellow leaf. "It stops the spread of black poison." Godric knelt down and yanked it out of the ground, revealing slimy roots that squirmed like worms. He placed it into the basket she was carrying. They walked for a minute or so longer, bit then they came to a large orange plant, " a Fairy bush," she announced. "When ground to a poweder it's leaves have the same properties of fairy dust."
Godric pulled off a leaf and put it in the basket.
"Wow you are good at this," he commented. Rowena ignored this compliment, pointing to a purple bid hanging from a tree.
"A palev bud," she named it. Plucking from the tree into the basket. "It's juices-"
"Heal wounds," GOdric cut in. "Yes, I know." He pointed to a small bush directly in front of them. "Craculas," he said. "the leaves make a potion that-"
"I know what it does," Rowena snapped. Godric was silent for all of a moment. Then he questioned her.
"You do not like me very much, do you?" Rowena paused, slightly taken aback by the bluntness of his question.
"You slow down the lessons," she accused him, not looking at him.
"You seem to go at a fine pace," he argued.
"Says you," Rowena pointed out. "Our lessons used to go much faster."
"Back when Salazar was here." Salazar spoke the thought that she hadn't.
"Yes," came the simple answer.
'Is that why you hate me?" Godric wondered. "Because I am not Salazar?"
Rowena was silent.
"I do not hate you," she said finally. Godric nodded then turned away. He plucked a brown leaf with a sharp violet zigzag down the middle.
"Violzec," he called it. "It slows the spread of poison, buying time." Into the basket it went. "I think that should be enough," he concluded surveying the full basket.
"Alright,"Rowena agreed. She stopped for a minute, tucking a stray piece of midnight hair behind her ear. "You go on ahead. I will catch up to you."
"Godric raised an eyebrow.
"You sure?" Rowena nodded. She turned and walked deeper into the forest. She kept on going until she came to a clearing, in the middle of which stood a lone, large and ancient tree, one where she and Salazar had loved to sit under together. She now took a solitary seat underneath it.
She rested her head in his slight shoulder, his chin resting in her hair.
"Mmmm," he murmured. "You smell like the forest." She smiled, absent-mindedly using a twig to scratch hearts over and over in the dirt. Suddenly she felt his hand upon hers, stopping her continuous motion, and he removed the twig from her hand. He tapped his wand to the edge of it, and it glowed red. Then he grazed it over the trunk of the tree, burning into it as though he was carving with a knife. When he finished, there was a heart and inside it read:
SS and RR, FOREVERE IN LOVE.
Rowena smiled, rewarding him with a kiss. A hissing noise behind her made her freeze. She turned slowly to see a poisenous snake slithering it's way towards her, a violent glare in it's yellow eyes. She pressed herself against Salazar.
"Shhh," he soothed her. "Do not be afraid." And with that he hissed a few mangled words and the snake instantly calmed. It slowed it's path, lazily lifting up it's head, as if in a trance. "Come," Salazar said, taking her wrists and stretching it out towards the snake. She cringed back. "Trust me Raven," he enticed her, and she relented, letting him guide her hand until she was petting the snake lightly on the head.
She stretched out her hand now to the snake in front of her, forgettingshe was alone, forgetting Salazar was not there to protect her. The snake raised its head, it's eyes murderous. Letting out a long hiss, it bared its fangs and sank them into her hand.
Review! Review! Review! Dont' know if you can tell but i'm really excited. O and due to somethings i thought of over the past couple weeks, the name might be changed. So stay tuned!!