The Journey From Oidhche Shamhna

Disclaimer: Not Mine.

The Journey From Oidhche Shamhna

Chapter 10

The Quiet Valley

It was early morning when they found the pass and broke over the summit of the mountain that had eluded them for days. Helga was the first to see the expanse of sloping green that went from her feet to a jewel-lit lake that shimmered in the morning's light. The valley was long, very long and narrow. Through its middle a ran a lake, like a lazy finger pointing to the northern seas. On the far side of the lake, she saw green meadows, stacked like platforms up the side until they disappeared into the morning's fog. The early mist of yesterday's rain ran in the air, causing white clouds to swirl and steal up the sides of the mountain on the opposite side of the valley. A gentle breeze and the smell of salt told them they had come as far as they could.

Helga fell to her knees and pointed to the wonder before her.

"We are there," she whispered, more to still her own heart than to share the find with others.

She lifted her head to the sky and prayed to the gods of the new world. She reached into her pocket and pulled out the herbs of her home she still carried and, digging a small hole in the ground, she buried her past, embedding its smell in the soil and joining with it forever, before standing and walking forward.

Gryffin slowly pulled his sword and, grabbing a lock of hair from the right side of his head, he cut it off and held it up as an offering of his flesh. Salazar joined him, and throwing his hair to the valley, he closed his eyes and sent his love on the wind as his mother had taught him long ago, to tell her he had arrived. He slapped Gryffin on the back and they both followed Helga down.

"Is this what you truly want?" Erwin said, watching the three clansmen walk into the quiet valley.

"Yes," she said, unable to think of more as she looked ahead at the lushness that was before them.

"Then it is time." He pulled her around and searched her face. "Tell me now that you will be as my wife. Tell me this is for all time. Tell me we have not made a mistake in all this."

"Erwin, you know ...."

"You will never be allowed home again. You will never be welcomed back. If you accept me, it is forever. It is all you will have. You will not have a true home, or a family to come beyond the walls of this valley. We will only be joined here, and not accepted anywhere else. Do you understand?"

"It is your choice, Erwin. I made my choice one morning when I ran crying from my husband's bed to find solace in another. I can never go back. I am banished. I am a whore in all but deed to them."

"Shh." He shook his head and pulled her to him, kissing her hungrily and not wanting to let go. "Could you live without magic? Could you hide the fact that you are a witch?"

"Why would you ask me this?"

Erwin looked into the valley and saw his future away from everything he loved save the one standing in front of him. He wondered if it was the same for her. He bent down, pulled the knife from his boot, and took up her hand. "We will not have the blessings of the gods. We will be married only in this valley. Do you understand?"

"We already have been blessed." She smiled as she reached and stroked his cheek. "We don't need whatever gods we had. We do not need them here. Please, Erwin, just let me love you."

He made the cut to his own hand and then handed her the knife to slice into her own. "I will not do this to you. You come to me willingly or not at all."

Understanding his meaning, she cut her hand as well. Then, holding his right hand in her left, they walked into the valley together, letting the blood of their joining drip to the earth as their offering. Once they had joined with the others Helga caught sight of their reddened hands, clasped together in a mix of blood, and nudged Salazar.

"Well, I see we will need to redo the sleeping arrangements." He grinned at Rowena's blush. "I don't think your pretty wife would be happy sharing a mat with Helga any longer."

Gryffin scowled and turned away. Walking over to the edge of the bluff they had come to, he stood looking out at the horizon beyond the valley. He closed his eyes and willed Lara's smile away, the hurt of her memory still too new and the memory of her sighs at their claiming too painful.

"It is hard on him," Helga whispered. "He does not mean to be like this."

"Gryffin," Erwin called, and then walked over to where he stood. "I have one new brother here to second. I would like you to do the blessing. Our gods will not honour our claiming, they denied it at the cirlce. We will need it done with only a wizard blessing and outside the laws."

Gryffin locked his eyes on the man standing in front of him, wanting to refuse this request that went against everything that he believed. This kind of joining was not done in his clan. A witch was forbidden to remarry unless widowed for a year to ensure any child she carried would have its rightful place. He found himself nodding his consent, seeing the look on Erwin's face and the way Rowena's eyes beseeched him.

"I have no bridal cap to offer," he said flatly, as the sight of Lara's twisted hair and her smile as the combs had slid into place came into his mind.

Erwin reached in his pocket, took out the diadem he had carried with him since leaving his village, and handed it to Gryffin. "It is time for new customs without the interference of old gods."

"Yes." Gryffin looked over to Rowena but saw his Lara as she had looked on the day he claimed her. "Perhaps it is."

Helga and Salazar stood behind the couple, placed both their hands on their shoulders, and gently pushed them to their knees, standing witness to the event.

"I, Gryffin of..." He paused and looked at Salazar, then sighed and started again. "I, Godric Gryffindor, witness and bless your binding. This is a binding without the gods' approval and without the laws of men. This is a binding only as true and as sure as your love for one another."

He reached out and took the wands offered by the couple and snapped them in half, handing Helga the broken wand of the groom and Salazar that of the bride. He raised his face to the sky and offered up a prayer that honoured the binding. He knew the gods had not approved, so he asked only for their kindness and in return pledged their loyalty to the gods of this new place. He asked that the binding allow the pair this time in a valley they would call home and asked the blessing be extended to their lifetimes.

Then he reached forward and took hold of Rowena's hair. He twisted it into the bridal knot, securing it with one-half of each wand, and placed the diadem on her head. Having no bridal cap to hide her hair and shield her from the stares of men, he pulled up her hood and stepped back.

He then took the other half of each wand, and kneeling in front of the couple, he scratched into the rich black earth until he could lay the pieces next to each other, and cover them with soil. "A marriage not of the gods may not be dissolved by the gods, nor a marriage outside the law be broken by the law."

He stood and placed one of his hands on each of their heads. "May the wisdom of Odin show you the way."

Helga grabbed Rowena's hands and pulled her up, as Erwin rose slowly to his feet. He felt a foreboding in his binding in this strange yet wonderful valley but shook off the feeling as Helga and Rowena embraced. He took hold of Rowena's hand and walked her away from the others, finding a secluded area behind a rocky crag, and together they completed the joining.

Salazar watched them as they walked away and scowled. "I wish you had your mirrors, Helga. I feel uneasy about this."

"She loves him completely, Salazar." She rested her hand on his arm and watched with him as the couple walked further away, eventually disappearing from sight. "I know he feels the same. He is uncomfortable when she is not near, restless and ill at ease. He cannot long be out of her presence without feeling a loss."

"He is sickened, not being with his clan. He is fighting the change, Helga." Salazar looked to Gryffin.

"Our new Godric will take his leave to avenge, but Erwin... Erwin will take his leave from heartsickness."

"Is that a bad thing?" Helga asked.

"You two, quick, come and look." Gryffin turned back and smiled at them, then pointed across the lake. "There, a flat of land large enough for a great tower."

"Perhaps we should build four." Salazar looked at the place in the middle of the mountain's face that Gryffin had pointed out. "One great keep for each house. A keep for Gryffindor and his great sword, and one large enough to hold Hufflepuff and the elves that will soon be joining her."

Helga laughed at Gryffin's scowl when Salazar mentioned the elves. "And one large tower large enough for Rowena's family and one big enough for you and that snake in your pocket."

"Witch," Salazar growled at her with a wink. "Hope we are not too long alone in this valley or you may soon see my snake."

Helga blushed scarlet and turned to Gryffin only to see him trying to bite back his laughter. She swatted at his arm and stomped down towards the lake, keeping to the left, towards the base of its finger.

The three reached the lake's shore, stopping to rest and digging in the soft mud to unearth mussels, which they tossed into a small fire they had built, until the mussels popped open and the juice sizzled into the coals. When they had eaten their fill, Helga looked up to where they had just come.

"Should we call them to eat?" She again heard Salazar's laugh and saw Gryffin's smirk as he shook his head. "Fine, I get it, but they will be hungry."

"Leave them be, Helga. Let them have at least tonight," Gryffin said. "We need to find our own shelter. The winds will be fierce. There are storm clouds on the horizon, coming over the sea from the north."

Salazar doused the fire and buried the coals in the wet mud, then stood and joined the others on the now-short trek to their new home. His eyes were already plotting the new dwellings. He had seen great towers in the lands of the south with great stones piled one on the other, built by the king of the other people. He smiled, and looked to the space where he could see the four great towers as if already there.

It was almost dark when they reached the tableau. The wind was faster here, the air colder and heavy with the impending rain. Helga ran to the middle of the meadow and stood with her eyes closed, willing to see where to turn. She raised her hands and let the wind swirl her robes and whip her hair.

"It is no good," she said, biting her lip. "I can see nothing here."

"So, my pretty miss." Salazar grinned. "Do you want to see my snake?"

"I have already seen your snake, Salazar, and if you mean the other one, I come from a family of men. I am sure your snake will hold no surprise." She talked boldly, with her head held up while colour spread once again.

Salazar reached into his robes and pulled out his father's parting gift. Waving his hand to enlarge it back to its original size, he untied the ropes and stepped back as a great cobra stood in the basket and raised its head.

"Friend," Salazar hissed, bowing to the snake.

"Massssterrr."

"I have need for you, Great One," Salazar hissed. "These lands are cold, too cold to be without a shelter. We need to find a place warm and deep."

"Yes, Master."

"We stand on a great mountain of stone. I am sure there are unseen places that you can find."

The snake slid over the side of the basket and coiled around Salazar's feet. Its tongue tasted the air and then it suddenly turned to Helga and Gryffin, fanning its hood and raising up from the ground.

"Friend." Salazar slowly stepped between the others and the snake. "I will tell you when the time is right, and then you will strike."

"I have waited so long."

"Yes, you have been very patient, my friend. However, these are not for you." Salazar glanced back over his shoulder at Gryffin holding Helga, her face buried in his chest. "These and theirs, for all time to come, will be safe from you, as will the other of the glen who lies with her husband."

"Who, then?" The great snake lowered its eyes and stared back at Salazar.

"Others will come, not pure or true. You will wait for my signal, or for that of my heir." Salazar bowed again. "For now, we need shelter."

The great snake uncoiled and crept silently away in search of a hiding place. Salazar turned back to see Helga sitting on the ground holding on to Gryffin's legs. Both held wands in their hands.

"She will not hurt you." He frowned at Helga. "Do you trust in me so little that you would fear my clan's familiar?"

"It was a shock for her." Gryffin bent down to help the shaking witch up. "She had seen a snake the size of your finger, not one as big as a man."

"I always thought the legends of Parselmouth to be stories for children." Helga looked around nervously for the snake.

"It is an inherited skill of little use. I suspect it is oft passed down but not oft used." He walked over and helped Gryffin lift the witch from the ground.

"Helga, think of it this way. If a child was born that could make it rain by saying the word rain three times quickly while jumping on one foot, do you think the clan would benefit?"

"Of course, that is a silly question."

"Has your clan ever lined up all the children and made them try?"

"Well..."

"No? So how do you know they cannot?" Salazar grinned at her look of disgust. "In our tribe all children are encouraged to talk to the snakes, to see who has been blessed. Since ours is the only clan that seeks to find the Parselmouths, we are the only clan that has."

"She is special," Salazar said, looking over his shoulder for the cobra. "Herpo the Foul, not one that the Slytherin are most proud of, sent her to my father. She protects the clan."

"Some protection. All she has to do is raise her head." Helga scowled at him.

"She is not yet full grown." Salazar chuckled at her expression. "Once she is grown, the very act of her looking in your eyes will take you onto death."

"Let me know when she has a birthday. I will make sure to poke out her eyes," Helga sneered at him.

Helga shivered as a gust of wind came blowing so cold that she pulled her cloak tight and turned to look to the far end of the finger of the lake. "The winds must be coming straight in from ice sheets. We need to find something or hope the shields will hold."

"I know," Salazar said, looking back the way they had left Rowena and Erwin. "I am afraid we may need to disturb them before the night has passed."

Gryffin held out his wand and tossed it in his hand a few times to get the feel of it. "I have tried nothing more than simple spells with this."

He closed his eyes and brought up the vision of Lara coming down the path to him and his brother at the end of the day, the sun lighting her hair and her bare feet kicking up small puffs of dust on the dry ground. "Expecto patronum!"

Silvery wisps of light flew from the tip of his wand, twisting and turning in a fight to become a visible entity. Gryffin scowled when the light faded and became nothingness, leaving an empty void in the air.

"Ah, Gryffin." Helga sadly looked at him and shook her head. "Try again, perhaps a different memory."

"Stop." Salazar's voice came as a warning. "Leave it for now."

He pulled out his own wand and sent a white liquid snake on its mission to collect the couple and lead them to the safety of a common fire, or a still-hoped-for shelter. He saw his clansman standing still, looking at his wand and knew he was feeling the loss of his wife once again.

"Do you remember how long it took me to regain my Patronus, my brother?" Salazar said softly. "Almost two full years. You expect, not yet two moons later, to find joy in her memory?"

Gryffin did not answer, but only went to where Helga again sat on the ground and joined her, wrapping a warming shield around them both and looking at the ground. "If the prophesy is true we have but twelve months left to prepare to either help save or to see the destruction of our world. It is time to put away foolish thoughts of children and schools."

"Tomorrow the practice begins." Salazar looked at him coldly. "If it is battle you crave you must train."

"What of the school? And we need a dwelling." Helga glared at each wizard in turn. "I did not come all this way to fight a battle."

"You came because of a vision that was given but not explained." Gryffin was becoming angry. "We both just ran from what we should have done. We were too prideful, too self-important. We wanted to take the test so we left our clans for this."

"What is happening to us?" Helga yelled at the wizards, her voice carrying up the path to Rowena and Erwin. "We started as friends and now we argue and fight!"

"Helga?" Rowena ran into the ring of light by the fire, going to the witch and hugging her tight. "It is fine. Erwin and I were on our way to share something he has found when I heard you yell."

"Found what?" Gryffin spat. "A way to leave us, as he surely will? Both of you should leave this valley and take away the blasphemy that follows us."

Erwin did not flinch at the statement. Rather, he knelt on the ground to unwrap the wands that were still held in the bundle they had been in when laid in the chest of ebony. Sitting back on his heels, he looked up at the others, expecting them to see the same thing he did.

"Maybe it needs more of the moon." Rowena ran to grab up the cloth that held the wands, gingerly touching only the sides and dropping it back to the ground once away from the fire's light.

Salazar stood with his wand, watching the four before him, suddenly aware that the great cobra was in danger. These outsiders did not trust his powers, and suspected the snake was to harm them. He held his wand tightly, and then relaxed his hand, ready to toss curses in their direction. Slowly he began to circle.

Helga glared at Rowena, suspecting the witch was trying to foist a position of power in the small group, to wrest control and to have her way. She had just taken Erwin and now her eyes had turned to Gryffin.

"Gryffin, put your wand on the ground and step away from it." Erwin looked up and saw trust fall from the wizard's eye. "It is the wands. See, in the light, the base of the wand? It has a powder that transfers to us when we touch them. The powder has built up to the point it can now rob you of reason."

Gryffin held his wand out in front of him as he walked closer to the cloth Rowena had spread before him. He could hear air rushing past his ears and feel his blood pouring though his heart, increasing his heartbeat and burning a fire in his soul.

"Gryffin." Erwin stood and pushed Rowena behind him. "Listen to me - it is goblin magic. They cursed the wands so we would destroy one another. That is why they have not followed. They had no need."

Gryffin fought for control. He took deep breaths and saw the funeral pyre with Lara raise before him and heard her screams. With his hand shaking against his mind's orders, he pointed the wand at Rowena and snarled, then turned and shouted "Accio wands!" as he fell, gasping, to his knees.

Erwin threw his body at Gryffin, knocking his wand and the two others that flew to him to the ground. Removing his cloak, he covered them and turned to the others. "Rowena, quickly start a fire. They need to be destroyed and I do not trust using magic on them."

Helga sat on the ground, covering her face and crying. Rowena hurried to her and threw her arms around her, hugging her and telling her all was well. She looked at Salazar, who still stood looking around bewildered at the turn.

"I was going to kill you, Rowena, it was on my lips." Salazar looked at his hands that had held the wand. "I have never felt so much rage and hate."

"It is the wands. They were cursed," Erwin said. "Rowena and I had ours snapped. She only touched hers again after... well after she was putting her hair back up."

Rowena smiled and blushed, knowing what he had just revealed, and lowered her head in sudden interest of the ground. "I became angry with him, and fearful. I slapped him and said that he... I said not nice things about his... I said he was..." She looked to Erwin for help.

"Let's just say it was a first time I will not forget." Erwin laughed at her embarrassment and soon Gryffin had joined in. "If I had not felt her enjoyment I would not have known she was only..."

"Erwin!" Rowena hid her face in both hands.

"I would not have known she had been cursed, the change in her was so complete and sudden." He looked directly at Rowena with a look that cautioned her to quiet. "The only thing that had happened was the touch of the broken wands, and in the moonlight I saw the powder. That is when the Patronus came."

"We are lucky you put you hair back up," Helga said, hugging her knees to her chest to still her still-racing heart. "If you had decided to have another go with Erwin we may have killed each other."

Complete silence followed Helga's remark as Rowena stared at her, her mouth opening and closing, trying to speak, as her face became redder and redder. Salazar gave a snort that he tried to swallow down and cover with a cough, and Gryffin narrowed his lips and bit on the inside of his cheeks.

"Umm," Erwin tried to speak, looking at Helga, thinking it polite to respond.

"Don't you dare say a word," Rowena hissed.

"What?" Helga looked around innocently. "I only meant if you...Oh."

Rowena turned away from the wizards, hiding and shaking her head until she too could hold her laughter no longer and joined into the first sound of true laughter heard in the valley.

Salazar wiped his eyes with the back of his hand. "I think this would be a good time to find my familiar and see if we have shelter for the night. Come, Helga, we need to make sure the shelter is big enough for even your feet."

"Yes," Erwin said, standing. "We know they fit in your mouth. Now let's see if there is a place large enough to keep them warm."

"We will keep watch," Gryffin said from his place on the ground.

"We have a small burning to take care of." Rowena began kicking the wands into a small pile, careful not to touch them.

After they tossed the wands into the flames, they sat and watched as the now useless sticks of wood turned to ash, and the fire sent sparks into the sky, reminding them both of Oidhche Shamhna.

"I have had a vision, Gryffin. I have had a vision that he leaves."

"Not all come true."

"This one was close as I could count it in moons."

"Your love is new. Perhaps it will be enough to hold him."

"Yours was not."

"That was different. I was to be gone only a few days and I did not know the danger she was in."

"He leaves me, Gryffin. He just leaves me and goes. How can a wizard do that? I remember the women of my village waiting months for their men to return to them. I remember the sadness I could feel in their dwellings. How do wizards do this?"

"They always came back, did they not?"

"Could you have done that? Leave your Lara for months?"

He fought for a way to explain to her. "Rowena, I don't know if what I felt for Lara is the same with all men. I cannot tell you that all love is the same. If you need false assurances, you will need to talk to someone else. I loved her when she was thirteen and I twenty. I saw her walking with her mother. Her mother handed her a piece of something to taste, they were at the market." He stopped and shook his head and smiled. "This is wasted talk. I don't know what this would mean to you."

"Finish the story, please, Gryffin."

"She took a taste and smiled at her mother, nodding her head and whispering something. I was too far away to hear, but I am sure she was agreeing that whatever it was it tasted good. Then, when her mother turned to pay for whatever it was, she spit it in her hand and shoved it in her pocket. She caught my eye watching her, and put her finger on her lips, and winked at me." He stood and looked down at her.

"I have loved her since and ever will. I do not know why I think of that as the first time I saw her. She was always there. But from that day to this she has owned me."

"Do you think you will ever get past this?" Rowena hugged her knees and lowered her head. "If he does not come back I could not..."

"Do you want a lie, Rowena?" He squatted down and lifted her chin. "Do you want me to tell you everything will be fine? Or do you want to hear the truth? The truth is that every day of these past moons I have wanted to take my life. The truth is that it is only your selfishness that keeps me alive and missing her as I do."

"My selfishness?" She jerked her head up to look at him.

"You and your selfish idea of setting up some sort of school while our world is falling apart." He stood and thrust his hands in his pockets. "My kinsmen travel with you. I cannot leave them unprotected, and you cannot keep them safe. This is all I have in the world."

He looked down at her. "Perhaps that same selfishness of yours will keep him close. Pray it does, and if he leaves it may be better to pray he never comes back." He then calmly walked away.