Unspoken (Helga X Salazar)

Forbidden Forest

The two founders continued their chatter, coming to know each other very well. Of course, Rowena had never been very fond of useless conversation. However Helga herself was a massive conversationalist, and managed to keep Rowena interested and entertained. The wise witch even lost track of time.

Soon, the sky had darkened. The sky turned orange with the lowering sun. Helga's chatter never ceased until she glanced at the sky.

"Oh!" She said in surprise, "I'm sorry Rowena, I suppose my chatter must have gone a quite bit longer than we expected."

Rowena acknowledged the sky, pondering something. "Would it not be quite dazzling if we enchanted the dining hall's ceiling to look like the sky?"

Helga smiled, "That would look grand, Rowena!"

The two witches lay in comfortable silence for a moment. Rowena pondering ideas, Helga admiring the orange hue of the sky.

"WHO ARE YOU?!" their rather peaceful thoughts were then quite rudely interrupted by a loud yell.

The two witches were on their feet in a second. Rowena with her wand out, Helga standing, gazing into the darkness of which the voice had called out from.

"Who are you?" She asked in return.

"I asked first. Reveal your name, stranger."

"If I do, would you step out into the clearing?" Helga sounded like an innocent child as she said so. She tucked her reddish hair behind her ear and looking around in vain for the person speaking.

The voice was hesitant, but then replied, "Yes, I will."

"Very well," Helga said, satisfied, "my name is Helga Hufflepuff."

The voice responded, "Pleasure to meet you, Ms. Hufflepuff. And who is your friend?"

Helga looked at Rowena for permission, which she denied. Disappointed, Helga called out, "My friend does like her privacy, and I hope you can respect that, for she is not willing to reveal her name."

Silence. But the voice responded after a while, "Very well. I will come out into the open, however, be warned, I am armed."

From Helga's left hand side, a man, chest bare, walked out of the woods. Well, the torso of a man. At around his belly, human skin blended into a horse's body, with two graceful hooves at front, shining hindquarters and a graceful tail swishing at the back.

His hands held a bow and arrow, specifically aimed at Rowena, though he glanced at Helga with wariness as well.

Although scratches covered his human body, and messy hair covered his face, Helga greeted the centaur with a smile. "Hello." She bowed in respect. This seemed to puzzle the creature.

"Are you not scared?" He asked, glancing at Rowena again quickly, to check that she had not been doing anything suspicious.

"You seem very nice actually."

"Most people would run."

"Where is the fun in that?"

The Centaur paused, lowering his bow. Rowena, wrongly assuming that Helga was only playing nice, took the chance to send a stupefying spell at the creature, who whinnied in alarm.

"I KNEW IT! LIAR!" His bow was out, and he fired, missing Rowena by a centimeter.

"Rowena! What did you?---" Helga yelled in alarm.

"You got him to let his guard down!" Rowena replied, casting spell after spell at the centaur, "Centaurs shouldn't be trusted, and you did a good job distracting him."

"Rowena I wasn't going to---"

"YOU LIED!" The centaur had gone into a frenzy, pulling arrow after arrow out of his quiver and shooting, galloping around the clearing.

"Helga! Rowena!" Salazar yelled at the group, arriving at the clearing.

Dodging the wild centaur's furious attacks and it's rainstorm of arrows, he ran to join the two ladies.

"What were you two doing?" He hissed, and then, noticing Helga's hand was empty, he added, "Why isn't your wand out?!"

"He never meant to harm us! Rowena shot a rogue spell at him and he got mad!" Helga exclaimed, "we shouldn't attack! Just... Save ourselves or calm him!"

"No way!" Salazar replied, raising his wand for a spell.

"You're only going to make it worse!" Helga clutched Salazar's arm pulling it downwards so that Salazar's gaze would be pinned on her instead. Helga looked at the man with pleading eyes, as Rowena turned to see the scene, firing protective spells instead of offensive ones.

For a moment, Salazar hesitated, unlike he ever had before. He lowered his wand. Much to Rowena's surprise and Helga's relief.

He muttered, "Protego Totalemente." Blue shimmered around the three, creating a sort of force field, of which the centaur's arrows bounced harmlessly off of. Salazar rose his wand in order to get the force field to follow him, then he beckoned at the two witches, who were, at this point, feeling like little kids getting punished by their father. Their heads hung as they followed Salazar, who continued to shoot them disapproving glares. The centaur's screams of rage disappeared as they exited the forest, and Salazar finally got rid of the forcefield.

He proceeded to scold the two witches, who hung their heads in guilt. Rowena trying to mutter excuses, Helga staying silent, wincing at every harsh sentence Salazar began.

When the wizard finally stopped, he turned away, robe swishing and muttering insults under his breath. Hufflepuff breathed in shakily before declaring to Rowena, "Rowena, I think there should be a new rule."

Rowena raised an eyebrow, already brushing herself off and returning to her prideful expression.

Helga continued, "All students are forbidden to enter this forest, unless under the protection of a teacher."

Rowena softened, "That's reasonable."

And as the two witches walked away, the forest seemed to darken, for there would never be another witch or wizard who would come bask in the sunlight the leaves let into the forest. There would never be another witch or wizard who would chatter, in complete relaxation, inside that forest. It was as if the forest had a friend taken away from it.

Maybe, if Rowena hadn't mistaken Helga's intentions. Maybe, if Helga had gained that centaur's trust. Maybe, just maybe, the students of Hogwarts would roam the forest's grounds, learning about the creatures that lived there by themselves for extra credit assignments.

Sadly, that's not the case, and the forest was known to all students as

the 'forbidden forest'.