Helena Ravenclaw

Chapter 2

Author's note at the end! Otherwise, read on :)

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"Want to talk?" Helga asked Helena. The rest of the fifth year students were happily frolicking in Hogsmeade, but Helena never went because one, she never really had any friends, and two, she liked having time to herself, with no one teasing her.

"Sure," Helena was pleasantly surprised. Now she was talking to Helga more and more, and had taken to calling her by her first name. She sat down with Helga on a stone ench in the courtyard, brushing off bright red and orange leaves as she sat down.

"Have you talked to your mother yet?" Helga asked innocently, the loaded question weighing heavily on Helena's ears.

She shifted nervously in her seat, not looking at Helga, but instead at the almost bare tree branches that had provided cool shade only a few months ago. "No, but--"

"Helena," Helga chided, sounding more like her mother than Rowena ever did. "You know nothing's going to magically get better if you just sit around and wait for your mother to have an emotional epiphany."

"I know..." Helena pouted. "It's just that... Sometimes I feel like she doesn't get me... Like she doesn't know what to do with me."

"Oh dear," Helga laughed. Helena just stared at the ground between her feet. "That's exactly what your mother thinks about you Helena! Keep in mind that even though your mother is the smartest of them all, she doesn't really get the emotional side of things."

Helena nodded, but didn't feel any better. "Does she hate me? Father left when I was born, so does she regret giving birth to me?" Helena's eyes teared up and her vision became blurry. "It seems like she hates me..."

Helga cooed comfortingly and drew Helena into a hug. Helena slumped against her and cried for the first time in more than a year, fat tears tumbling down her cheeks. "What makes you feel like that, dear?"

"I dunno," Helena moaned, her words broken by hiccups. "My first year -- hic -- Carmen cast a charm that trapped me in the dormitory -- hic -- and I was late to class and when I finally got to class and told her what happened... She didn't believe me! She likes Carmen more than her own daughter!"

 "That's not true, dear, and you know it," Helga said. "Ever since your accident, I'm afraid your mother really doesn't understand you..."

Helena didn't answer, knowing that Helga was merely trying to comfort her, nothing else. Or, at least, that's what she thought. Helena suddenly had an idea.

"Helga," she wiped her tears from her cheeks and sat up straight. "Will you teach me new charms and stuff? I want to get ahead."

"No, sorry," Helga smiled at her sweetly. "If you ask your mother, I'm sure she'd be delighted to do so."

Helena gave the innocently smiling Helga a glare, acknowledging her thinly veiled dare. "Fine. I know you're going to goad me into doing it sooner or later," Helena stood and crossed the courtyard, kicking a few dead leaves in a childish tantrum. She also ignored Helga's chuckle and something that sounded like, "Oh, to be young again..."

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"Mother," Helena choked out, the very word unfamiliar on her tongue. Rowena looked at Helena, surprised that her daughter was actually talking to her. 

"Yes, Helena?" Rowena put down her quill and turned in her seat to examine Helena. She smiled and said, "Wow, you look so nice today. Are you wearing one of those robes I bought for you at the beginning of the year?"

Helena blushed and nodded. Her mother was being so receptive. Had she been wrong about her mother all along? Or was this an act? Helena quickly decided it must have been the second option. Her mother would never be kind to her for anything other than ulterior motives.