The Unknown

Chapter 46: A mothers love

'Helena. My daughter. My little girl. My baby, a ghost. I have to find her,' were Rowena's thoughts as she ran around the castle, attempting to find her daughter. It was so much easier to find her as a child, she was good at hiding but would soon giggle, revealing her hiding place and after that it was easy. She was a child, she could only run whereas now, Helena was a ghost and could float high and fast to get away, could walk through solid surfaces, making it even harder for Rowena to find her. She had searched floor after floor with no luck, there were only students that were shocked, surprised, and some that feared her. She asked the portraits and any other ghosts she came by, but they seemed as helpful as the students, very few giving indication to where her daughter could be as their surprise outweighed their helpfulness. In Rowena's opinion, it was like asking Godric a question while he was in the middle of one of his foolish quests. Pointless.

Rowena searched high and low and couldn't find her, and then the bell for first lesson chimed and it only made wondering the corridors all the more difficult with students scurrying to get to their lessons on time. She was so worried and nervous about finding Helena that she forgot to think about where her daughter would go, she forgot to think logically. She exited the Ravenclaw common room and began to walk down the stairs before she leant against the wall and clenched her fists and began to mumble, "think, Rowena, think. She's angry, she's scared...she's been alone".

A moment passed before Rowena pushed herself off the wall and ran down the rest of the stairs before running through the corridors. Helena would still want to be alone and with students in classes, it narrowed down the places she could be hiding. She'd want to be alone to show her emotions that she'd locked up tight for so many years, something Rowena felt responsible for. If only she didn't lock her own emotions away when Salazar left, if she raised Helena to put her feelings first, maybe their reunion would have been different, maybe Helena would have lived and had children of her own. But that never happened, and it took Rowena being on her death bed and dying to realise that she let her heartbreak control her, when she should have been raising her daughter with as much love in her being, she closed herself off.

Rowena got to the entrance of the astronomy tower and was careful to not make a noise. She knew the old metal stairs always creaked in certain areas when students rushed up them and she didn't want her daughter running from her again. Taking each step with care, she reached the top before she knew it and saw her daughter sat on the floor, her shoulders shaking as she looked out to the sky. It was like she sensed Rowena was there as she quickly wiped away her ghostly tears, hovered above the ground, and began to float away, not even looking at her mother.

"Helena, please," Rowena pleaded, something she never did in life, "please, just give me a few minutes, that is all I ask. Please, little raven".

Helena froze to the spot when she heard the old term of endearment her mother gave her as a small child but it was as a small child when her father left, did her mother stop using it and only ever called her Helena or young girl. She never thought she would hear it again and surprised herself that she still remembered it. She didn't turn to look at her mother as she said, "how did you know where to find me?"

Rowena took cautious steps closer as she answered, "I looked all over the castle before I focused and remembered your two most favourite places. The Chamber, your father used to take you there and I know you still went there after he left, even when I forbid you. Then, the astronomy tower. I remember we used to sit here for hours, reciting everything we knew about the stars and making stories up of what could be beyond. Remember, the stars hold the knowledge of the universe but-"

"It is lost upon us. The universe is infinite, it holds all the secrets and knowledge of what's here and now, the past and what's to come, but no man or woman can know everything," Helena finished what her mother told her as a child and she smiled ever so slightly as she added, "you said that's why it was acceptable to create stories as children of the stars, as when it came to the stars, anything is possible".