BLOODY AND GREY - a Fifth Founder story ⚡️[h.p./h. ravenclaw]

two

Wintertime at Hogwarts always reminded Helena of her childhood. During the year, the castle was full of students, strange children she didn't know. But in the winter, that meant Christmas. Which meant that the castle would just be her and her favorite people in the world: her mother, Helga, and Godric.

When she was little, this also included Salazar, the man that was asleep in the hospital wing for a long time. Until one day he woke up. He stayed with them for a bit, but left shortly after in search of someone. Wintertime always reminded her of Salazar, and she waited for him to come back every year.

But now that she was eighteen, almost nineteen, she gave up on ever seeing the man again.

Helga would tell her stories about the four of them sometimes, but every time Godric found them talking about the past, he fell into a bad mood.

Helena's relationship with Godric was strange. She saw him as a father sometimes. He was in love with her mother, but her mother wasn't always in love with him. That was also strange.

She remembered when she was young: she caught the two of them just outside her mother's room. They didn't know she was there, but she could see Godric holding her mother's face and his words were soft, an uncommon trait of Godric's. Their faces were close, and they may have gotten closer, if Helena hadn't decided to make her presence completely known before she saw anything else.

The other times, Helena was scared of Godric. He had a short temper and was ready to lash out at any moment. The day Orpheus came to Hogwarts, Helena eavesdropped (she had a bad habit of doing that) on what Helga told him, and he was angry. He went about ranting about some people she didn't recognize the name of, and Salazar. She pondered for years why Godric mentioned Salazar, and she never could understand why he was relevant.

For a moment, Helena thought Godric might kill the boy. She didn't understand why; it must have been some silent understanding between the remaining three founders of Hogwarts. Thankfully, Orpheus wasn't around to hear Godric's empty threats, but Helena was scared that Godric might act on those threats one day.

From that day on, she felt like she needed to look after the boy that was one year younger than her.

Orpheus was her best friend. At times, she took him for granted, but she knew she would never have anyone else like him. As they grew up together, it was obvious that Orpheus wanted to be more than friends, but that never interested Helena. She tried to get information about his past out of him. What connections did he have to Salazar Slytherin that made Godric mention him and made the Hat sort him into Slytherin? She never got a clear answer out of him for that either.

She was a true Slytherin--ambitious to the core and willing to whatever it takes to get there. There couldn't be any distractions, including Orpheus. She was on a quest to gain knowledge and discover the mysteries of the world.

At first, her plan was to leave Hogwarts as soon as she graduated. She would miss Orpheus, yes, but her goals were more important to her. She knew he would understand-he loved her and he would always let her go if it was best for her. (Sometimes she took advantage of that.)

However, her plans quickly changed when her mother told her of her diadem. Helena thought it was just a silly little crown that her mother wore sometimes, but when Rowena told her the truth of it, the diadem was all that she wanted.

Rowena promised Helena that one day the diadem would be hers. But that day would be after Rowena was dead, and Helena didn't plan to stick around and wait that long. She wanted the diadem now, but she didn't want to kill her mother for it. She wasn't a monster.

She couldn't just take it either, no. Her mother wouldn't just leave it setting aside. She would have to gain her mother's trust, something she didn't quite have. So, she stayed at Hogwarts the year following her graduation.

It was a choice that surprised everyone, especially Orpheus who knew her better than everyone. He was convinced there was something wrong with her and was trying to get her help, but she couldn't tell Orpheus the truth. Even though Orpheus shared her house and the values, he saw the world differently than she did. She was afraid he would convince her to leave the diadem.

She thought it would be easy, staying at Hogwarts, isolating herself from her best friend, intentionally seeking out her mother whom she used to avoid. But it took a toll on her. One night she convinced herself she was going insane.

She was downright miserable, and she knew she needed to speed up her process or else her feet might just sink permanently in the ground.

For a moment, she thought about just asking her mother for it. Surely she would understand, it was natural for a young girl to be curious about dangerously magical objects. But no, Helena didn't have that sort of open communication with her mother.

Rowena hardly wore the diadem anymore. It was more of a decoration to her, and as the days went by, Rowena minded the accessory less and less.

This was the perfect opportunity for Helena to swoop in. Even though Helena was a Slytherin and not a resident of Ravenclaw Tower, she did grow up there and knew ways to get around the riddled passwords like the back of her hand.

Once inside, Helena strolled to her mother's room like it was an everyday affair. Truth be told, she hadn't been to her mother's room more than five times since she was eleven years old.

The diadem sat on a cushion, on the top of a table. It was so unguarded that it could have been a trap or a fake, but Helena snatched the small crown up and ran out of the room before anyone knew she was there.

She breathed a sigh of relief as she sped down the stairs. Finally, it was hers and she could leave. It was almost too perfect.

Until she stopped on the last step, face to face with Orpheus: the boy who wasn't meeting her eyes but instead focused on the contents in her hands.