The day Rowena had met Salazar's parents was always going to be a memorable one; unfortunately for the courting couple the day turned out to be memorable for all the wrong reasons.
It had started off pleasantly enough. Rowena had been woken by the sound of someone quietly tapping on the door of her bedchamber at Ravenclaw Manor. Her maid had entered with an owl she'd immediately recognised as Zeus and she had leapt from the bed to read Salazar's words of assurance that everything would go smoothly when she and her parents attended the Slytherin Manor for dinner that evening.
The first sign that things were not going entirely as planned was the number of people who were at the Slytherins' Manor when the Ravenclaws arrived. It seemed that the private dinner party had turned into a celebration for every neighbour in a fifty mile radius.
It had taken Rowena more than half an hour to even locate Salazar. When she did it was to find him in the company of a young woman who clearly had far more than dancing on her mind. Rowena had watched them unobserved, a smile playing on her lips as she watched Salazar fending off the clearly unwanted advances of the little hussy. The amusement at his discomfort vanished instantly however when she spotted the woman attempt to slip a wayward hand into Salazar's robes. Rowena had stormed across the room, a cup of wine in her hand and promptly poured the same over her would be rival.
The events that immediately followed were somewhat of a blur, involved a lot of hair pulling and scratching, and caused many of the guests to be thankful that women's dress robes rarely had room for the storage of wands.
Salazar had stepped in and steered Rowena out into the gardens before she'd done too much damage to the other woman. If anyone dared to say that Rowena hadn't had the upper hand then they would find themselves on the receiving end of some imaginative hex the next time she saw them.
"You've got blood down your robes," Salazar commented as he dabbed at her split lip with the cuff of his own robes.
"Little hussy," Rowena muttered. "She should learn to keep her hands to herself."
"Yes," Salazar said with a sigh. "I think you've probably taught her that lesson quite well this evening. You really shouldn't have done it though."
"I'm not going to stand by whilst some little tramp is-"
"The little tramp as you call her, is the daughter of one of my father's oldest friends," Salazar informed her in a tight voice.
"She should still keep her hands to herself."
"Quite. But you're missing the point here."
"Oh, I'm getting the point," Rowena replied with a mischievous grin. "Seems I have rivals I didn't know about, so we'd better get married real soon before one of the little tramps gets you into a compromising position and steals you from me."
"I take it this is the charming Rowena we've been hearing so much about?" The female voice was breathy and each of the s's sounded slightly elongated. Rowena knew at once that she was a parseltongue like her son.
"Mother," Salazar's voice took on a more formal tone as he turned to the older woman who was stepping out of the darkness towards them. "May I present Rowena Ravenclaw."
Salazar's mother was not what Rowena had been expecting. Although Katelyn Slytherin had the height and stature of her son she had an abundance of silvery blond hair that was a stark contrast to her son's raven locks. Her piercing blue eyes swept over Rowena who dipped into a respectful curtsey, at the same time trying to discreetly cover the bloodstains.
"Your father would like to speak with you Salazar; he's in his study." Katelyn waved her arm towards the house but did not take her eyes off Rowena. "We'll take a walk round the grounds until you return."
Salazar gave a small bow to his mother and hurried off towards the house.
"Salazar's father is not happy," Katelyn said without preamble as soon as he had disappeared into the house. "If you wish to marry my son, you'll have a hard time convincing my husband to give you his blessing."
Rowena bit her tongue rather than respond as she wished to. She knew that all her excuses would hold no water with the woman walking beside her.
"My husband wishes our son to marry a lady of breeding," Katelyn continued. She raised a thin hand to halt Rowena's words of protest. "That is to say a lady of breeding who acts like a lady and doesn't cause a scene in public. There were many ways you could have dealt with – what was it you called her? – Ah yes, the little tramp. Many ways that would not involve the spilling of blood."
Rowena looked at the blood splattered on her robes once more before it vanished with a tap of Katelyn's wand.
"Will he really refuse his permission? Will he stop us marrying?" Rowena asked.
Katelyn snorted in a most unladylike manner before she replied. "Salazar has never waited for his father's permission before doing anything so I doubt that he'll start now. But things could be difficult for you if you don't have the blessing of both of his parents."
"Do we have your blessing?" Rowena asked in a quiet voice.
Katelyn waited a moment as though considering her response. "My son has always had some unusual, even unconventional, ideas. Some might even see them as strange. But he will need a wife who will stand by him, embrace those ideas without laughing at them and will help him realise his dreams."
"I like hearing Salazar's ideas," Rowena said with a smile.
"Yes," Katelyn smiled back. "I believe you do. You will make him a fine wife…and yes, you have my blessing."
"Thank you," Rowena replied as they turned back towards the house.
She could see Salazar silhouetted in the doorway as they walked back. Even from a distance he appeared agitated.
"Oh dear," Katelyn sighed as they approached him.
"Father's furious," Salazar said in a hushed tone as they reached his side. "Mother, do you mind if I speak with Rowena alone for a moment?"
"Of course not," Katelyn answered as she swept into the house.
Salazar opened a nearby door and ushered Rowena inside the empty room. "He refuses his permission for us to marry," he said as soon as he'd closed the door behind them.
"Your mother said you wouldn't wait for his permission," Rowena said, wondering if the older woman had been wrong about that. From the look on Salazar's face she was starting to suspect that was indeed the case.
"Father says he'll cut me off entirely if I marry you," Salazar said. He sank into one of the chairs with a gloomy expression on his face.
"Is that all?" Rowena asked, brightening up considerably. "I have money, my parents are as wealthy as the Slytherin family."
"It's not about the money," Salazar replied. "He'll banish me from the estate here, never to return and never to communicate with any member of the family again."
"Your mother?" Rowena guessed. Salazar nodded. "She gave us her blessing."
"It doesn't matter," Salazar said. "She won't go against my father's wishes if he banishes me. I can't leave her alone with him, not permanently."
"Is he that bad?" Rowena asked as she sank to her knees at Salazar's feet. He didn't reply; he didn't need to. The look in his eyes told her exactly what the elder Salazar Slytherin was capable of and all her dreams of a wedding the following Spring disappeared in that moment.
"I'll think of something," Salazar promised as he pulled her from the floor and onto his lap. "Or you will, after all you are the most intelligent witch alive."
"Flattery will get you everywhere," Rowena teased.
"I certainly hope so," Salazar laughed. "But not until we're married."
"I'm not sure I want to wait that long," Rowena whispered into his ear as her hand moved in the same direction her rival's had earlier that evening.
"What's going on here?" asked a voice in the doorway.
"Father!" Rowena gasped as she looked up to see both of her parents, Salazar's mother and a man who couldn't be anyone other than Salazar Slytherin Senior.
The two couples strode into the room and Katelyn closed the door behind them. Rowena thought she caught a small smile on the face of the woman and realised that she'd planned this. Whilst she and Salazar had been wondering how they were going to win his father round, his mother had taken matters into her own hands.
"Rowena, if you could take a seat that isn't already occupied," Adela Ravenclaw requested. Rowena complied with a blush.
Once everyone was seated Rowena watched as Katelyn took charge of the conversation.
"It does appear that our son has compromised Miss Ravenclaw," Katelyn began. "Her reputation can only be saved by a prompt wedding, in the Spring perhaps?"
"Well that's settled then," Rowena's father said in a jovial yet relieved voice.
Rowena smiled at Salazar as her parents nodded in agreement. Unfortunately he didn't return her smile and his gaze was focused entirely on his own father, the only person who had yet to speak on the matter.
The chatter of the others died down as they realised that perhaps all was not settled.
"Father?" Salazar asked hesitantly.
"The reputation of ladies only applies to actual ladies," Salazar Senior replied with a sneer. Rowena felt the blood rushing to fill her face as she dimly heard the gasps of her parents at the insult. "I will never give my consent to this marriage."
Rowena watched as her father leapt from his seat, his wand at the other man's throat within an instant.
"Your son has compromised my daughter," he hissed in cold fury. "You deny this? You refuse your consent?"
"Yes," Salazar's father replied in an icy voice. He then spoke something in parseltongue and a snake slithered out from the chair beneath her. She hopped to her feet, instinctively drawing closer to Salazar.
Her father stood still as the snake moved closer towards him. He lowered his wand slowly as the snake moved past him and curled up at the feet of the one that had summoned it.
"Rowena, we're leaving." Rowena looked at her father, as he stood eyeing the snake.
"Father?" she questioned hesitantly. She'd never seen him like this before and for some inexplicable reason she was frightened.
"Now, Rowena!" her father's order was clear but she still couldn't bring herself to move her feet.
"Rowena, let us discuss this matter at home," her mother pleaded and Rowena looked at her mother's fearful expression. She nodded reluctantly and with one last glance at Salazar she'd left the room with her parents.
At home she'd shouted, argued, cried and sulked, all to no avail. Nothing was going to sway her father in his insistence that she cease contact with Salazar Slytherin immediately. An owl from Salazar the following evening confirmed that his father was equally unwilling to change his mind about the idea of them marrying.
The next two weeks were the worst of her life and only an owl from her oldest friend Helga Hufflepuff had managed to pull her from her misery.
Her parents had been only to happy to agree to Rowena's suggestion that she visit with Helga for a few weeks and she'd packed her bags and left her childhood home for what would be the final time.
The first thing she'd done on arriving at Helga's home was borrow her friend's tawny owl and sent a letter to Salazar telling him of her whereabouts. He'd arrived the very next day with his own bags beside him.
Rowena never knew how her parents had found out that Salazar had joined her at Helga's. She hadn't planned it and there were relatively few wizards in the area to recognise the newcomers. But somehow, within a week of her arrival, her parents had found out and delivered their ultimatum.
Rowena passed her parents' letter to Salazar who read it several times before he looked up.
They sat in silence for nearly an hour before Helga returned from the nearby village and read the letter too.
"Your parents clearly don't think of me as much of a chaperone do they?" she said. "Living in sin indeed. So what are you going to do?"
"She's going to have to return home," Salazar replied as though this was obvious to everyone.
"I am not!" declared Rowena, her mind made up at long last. She snatched the letter from Helga's hand, pulled her mother's ring from the finger it had been on since her sixteenth birthday five years before and sealed it within the parchment.
"No!" Salazar reached out and grabbed her hand as she started to attach it to the leg of her parents' owl. "You don't know what you're doing. You'll be an outcast, shunned by society."
"I don't care! I'll have you, and I'll have Helga," Rowena replied. She pulled her hand out of his grasp and turned her attention back to the owl. No one spoke until the owl was on its way home.
Her parents never replied.
It didn't matter. She had everything she wanted.