Three Hallows, Two Weasleys and One Broken Girl

Chapter 12: A Tale of Eagles

Warning: this is sad. But if you cry, you know no one has stolen your soul, or your deal with the devil fell through.

———

Delphi was expecting reams of books, and she was a little disappointed to find herself in a room that was more like a study, with only one book shelf against a wall, admittedly crammed with books...but still. This was Rowena's secret room, surely a massive library with more books than Nicholas Flamel has lived days, wasn't the most unreasonable thing to dream of.

"I know that face." Said Helena beside her, smirking, "you thought you'd enter a maze of book shelves vast enough to have used the entirety of the forbidden forest to make twice over."
Delphi wilted. "So?"
"Well, what was the material point of that arithmancy puzzle? My mother was a witch, and even if the Hogwarts library doesn't utilise expansion charms...what's to say my mother didn't?"

Hope renewed, Delphi approached the bookshelf, not spying any runes on the shelving, she reached for one of the books. Strangely, it did not appear to have an author, simply entitled 'Runes'. Opening it was even more disappointing as the pages appeared blank.
She turned, confused to the ghost watching her.
Helena looked excited, "get your quill, and draw a rune in it."
Obdiently, Delphi did so, drawing the rune for water and watching in complete awe as words started to appear. Paragraph after paragraph appeared, followed by the book and date each extract came from. All referenced the water rune. Some were even in other languages.
The most mind-blowing part of it was that there were recent books included.

"Self-updating." Said Helena, answering her unspoken question. "Rowena would never deny anyone knowledge, indeed every book a headmaster or anyone else removes finds its way back to the library, but this discovery, this worldwide search tool, was a gift for only the truly curious, only their writing would result in the book giving them answers."
"But how does the book know?" asked Delphi doubtfully.
Helena smile, "the books are enchanted to only respond to someone with similar magic to her, the maker. Curious magic, grey magic."
"Amazing..."
They stood/hovered in silence for a while, Delphi examining the study closely, and Helena lost in the past.

Eventually Delphi tentatively returned the Rune book to its shelf and settled on the one chair, speaking cautiously, "could...could you tell me their story?"
Helena smiled softly, "I suppose I could...It would be nice to share it with someone living again. You're the first to come here since, as Ravenclaw women tend to be travellers and have spread across the world, and yes, they are a female only line."
Delphi nodded, "My mother was one of three sisters, and her mother was one of six."
Helena hummed, clearly lost deeply in times long gone.

———

Rowena Ravenclaw was the only daughter of a book binder and his wife. It was perhaps entirely thanks to his work that she had the opportunity to learn to read at all. As for the time, women were rarely educated in anything aside from sewing, cooking and housekeeping.
Her magic first appeared when she was four years of age. By some miracle her parents did not take it as a sign of the devil. They protected her and later her brother, unlike Salazar's parents, but more on him later.

Hiding her and her brothers' gifts – as they insisted on calling them – was a challenge, but they managed well enough. Her parents were convinced that her magic was not a sign of the devil but a gift from god, and that to suppress such a gift would be a grave insult to their creator. Though witches and wizards were known to exist, there were none that they knew of to teach the two, so self-study was the best they managed, leading to an impressive mastery of wandless magic that would have her future friends in awe.

By sixteen, most young women in their village were marrying, but you'd have to be deaf, dumb and blind not to realise that Rowena was meant for greater things. Her father gave her the money to travel to the nearest city; Londinium, and learn a trade. She bid them farewell, and it would be many years before she saw any of them again.
She learned much of the world in her journey but it was after entering a pub - the leaky pot, seeking bed and board, that Rowena Ravenclaw stumbled into the wizarding world.