Title: The Heart of Hogwarts
Pairing: Rowena/Helga
Rating: G
Genre: Character study
Word Count: ~380
Warnings: None
Disclaimer: Characters are not mine.
Summary: Rowena muses over Helga’s place among the Founders.
Author’s Note: Thanks to
vensre for the beta read! <3
She would often hear the men mocking and laughing about Helga when they thought no one was around. She knew that they thought Helga to be less than the three of them; not a scholar or nobility or bent on gaining power, but a self-taught peasant - and an idealist peasant at that.
Rowena once believed as they did, but that had been years ago, before she’d really taken the time to learn about her fellow witch. Now she understood the myriad of ways that magic manifested itself in the world, that no one method was more powerful or worthy than any of the others if studied to its furthest capacity.
She’d long known that if not for Helga, their life’s dream would not be standing here today, complete and greater than any one of them could have imagined. Helga had, since the beginning, been their center. She kept them functioning as a whole, helping them see when perhaps the plans of one of their companions might be the best when they would have otherwise overlooked it for their own desires. Without her, they would have splintered apart long ago, and the grand vision that had become Hogwarts never would have been fulfilled.
Helga was much more than the diplomat. Rowena would often tell others that everything beautiful about Hogwarts was thanks to Helga’s vision. She could not deny her bias, but that did not make it any less true. She fondly remembered that early morning when Helga had rushed into her office to suggest that the ceiling of the Great Hall should be enchanted to look like the sky outside. They had worked together for days to create precisely the proper spell, using Helga’s knowledge of the sky’s magic along with Rowena’s books.
So today, when Helga suggested that the Sorting Hat should also create a new school song each year and lead the students in a rousing chorus, no matter their musical abilities, Grodric had laughed and Salazar had sneered. But Rowena had looked at her with pride and great affection.
And that night when they were tucked away in the privacy of their own chambers, Rowena would kiss her lovingly and tell her what a brilliant mind she had. Just like she had that early morning, years before.