The Journey From Oidhche Shamhna

Disclaimer: Not Mine.

The Journey From Oidhche Shamhna

Chapter 26

The Birth of a Town

The students would be leaving later that day for the summer. They were all excited to be going home, especially the older students, who not been home for almost three years now. Helga sat up the exiting table as Karra and Bretta sorted the brooms by the list of destinations.

"You are sure three can ride that thing?" Helga looked at the brooms suspiciously.

"The little ones, the older we will put two at a time," Karra reassured her. "Rowena will cast spells when they leave so the Muggles don't see them. They will be fine."

"I don't like this." Helga shook her head. "If Rowena has her way she will use elf travel next year. She can already go from one end of the valley to the other."

"Bretta tried and left a foot behind. Rowena and Gryffin set it right but I can't imagine children trying it." Karra scowled.

"It is fine now. I told Rowena I would wait until she tests more, she seems to think she is close to a solution," Bretta said. "I used a wand, but Rowena thinks it would be better not to use it. Instead of allowing the magic to focus, it may be better to let it spin around you and carry you safely."

"When she lets Helena try it we will know its safe. Until then, I prefer to walk." Helga set out the student files to check off who left with whom and the exact time of departure.

"I have a broom here for Erwin," Karra said. "It is his third trip this year."

"He is working with Marcus on setting up trade routes." Bretta sighed, transfigured a chair, and put it by the table for Helga. "Traders will not come so far north for just one site to trade. It makes it harder each year to put in supplies."

Helga looked up and saw Rowena hurrying down the hallway toward her with a smile on her face.

"I found it, Helga." Rowena put a book of parchment on the table and opened it to the first page. "As the students from the other three towers leave, prick their finger and put a drop of their blood on this page and this page alone."

"The student list? That's what this is?" Helga hugged Rowena. "You have worked so hard on this. To think, we will finally have a way without sending Erwin out."

Rowena looked away from Helga biting her lip, and then back at the book. "Once we have a sample of each line's blood the book will do it all. Until we are sure we have each line, I am afraid he will keep looking."

Helga grinned and picked up a quill, pricking her own finger and letting a drop of blood fall to the parchment where it soon disappeared.

"Karra, Bretta, come add yours," Helga said, handing Karra the quill. "Rowena, have you added yours?"

Bretta watched Karra place a drop of blood to the book and stepped back, shaking her head. "Karra, you ... no, I will not be claimed. I will have no children."

Helga and Rowena looked at Karra as Bretta hurried away.

"She was taken during the war. No wizard would have her now." Karra shrugged her shoulders. "By the rules of her clan she can not wed."

"Clan laws do not apply here," Rowena said angrily.

"Ways are slow to change." Karra looked at her evenly. "You were lucky to have Erwin take you in. Most wizards would not have done that."

"Enough of this talk," Helga said. "We need to be happy for what we have. Here, take the quill, Rowena, it is your turn."

"No, Helga." Rowena chewed her lip again and she kept her eyes lowered. "I am afraid I can have no more children. You know that, you have known that since I delivered Helena."

"Then we will add Helena's to the mix." Helga tried to brighten the moment. "Then you can someday see your grandchildren listed."

"Yes," Rowena looked up at Helga with a sad smile. "Make sure all the children add theirs, and I am asking Erwin to carry a page and collect a drop from each he meets. Soon we will have them all."

"Then the list just appears each year?" Helga shook her head and touched the page with her finger in awe.

"It lists the children that are born and when. After we have used it for a while and all the children born are listed, the new births from one year will be listed together. I only hope it works with the mixed children. I have charmed it down to fifteen generations to work for even them. If we do this each year it should never need outside or Muggle blood."

"Before the children leave I want that patch weeded." Helga started toward the dining hall. "At least they can get rid of the hogwarts. I told them this would happen."

She walked into the dining hall, clapping her hands until she had everyone's attention. "Everyone in Hufflepuff report for hogwarts duty."

A general groan went up from her students as they slowly stood and started outside to the garden. The other houses taunted them until Helga cleared her throat loudly and put her hands on her hips, glaring at them.

"I see Slytherin would like to help today. I thank you, gentlemen and ladies." She grinned at them and pointed to the door. "Now, anyone else for hogwarts detail? No? No one else finds it funny? I thought not. In addition, do remember to hurry back in the fall. I am sure more will be awaiting your attention. I am sure the other houses will like to help at that time."

She turned and walked out of the dining room, hearing laughter and complaints behind her as she headed down to the garden to make sure Hanson put them to work. He was much too lazy when it came to discipline and let the students get away with far too much.

"I see you are again terrorizing the students." Gryffin walked along beside her.

"I should make you go with them, it is your fault those weeds are here." She laughed at him. "So, what are you doing this summer with all the free time?"

"I need to find some better swords for training. The ones we have do not fit the hands of the younger ones."

"Do you not think they are too young to learn to use a sword?"

"No, we will never again be caught unable to defend ourselves," Gryffin said. "I am adding wand work next year. For the students that live in tribes that keeps seid, they will be excused from lessons."

"Gryffin, there are other ways, ways with the wand that they may accept first, and then learn to use them in battle."

"Some of the students still keep complete seid, Helga. Perhaps you can speak to the parents, send them a missive, or have your family speak of it."

"It will take a long time to change their ways." She sighed and looked at him. "Erwin is leaving again today. Rowena is beside herself."

"He has the broom now, he was only gone a week each time before and it should be no different this time."

"I see you are spending time with Karra." Helga looked at him, then quickly away.

"I don't think Marcus would enjoy hearing you say that." He frowned at her. "Helga, I do not want a wife and you need to stop trying to find me one."

"You need one Gryffin, really, you do. What is this about Marcus?"

"He and Karra seem to have reached an agreement."

"Marcus and Karra? I would not think Marcus would be a match for her. He is... he is in the library more than out and Karra comes from a clan where women fight next to the men."

"As did Marcus before his injury. He feels useless and can no longer lift the sword, but he is a hard worker, I would say harder than most here."

"Unless you want to weed hogwarts, you'd best be off to whereever you were going. Once Hanson sees you he will have you bent over a row with the Slytherins pulling weeds."

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"Rowena, a moment please," Erwin said from the doorway, watching as Rowena leaned over the table with Elmira, pricking the thumbs of students that stood in line to add their blood to parchment.

"Erwin!" She put down the quill and ran to him, pulling him into the hallway before wrapping her arms around his neck. "You only left this morning. I thought it would be days."

"Come, witch, we need to talk," he said, grinning and pulled her down the hallway.

"Helena is looking for you. She wants to talk you into letting her take formal lessons next term."

"She is but eight," he said with a scowl. "She has yet to have enough power to handle a wand, and she already has access to the library."

"She is bored, Erwin. Now with setting aside a part of each year to send the students home she will have even less to keep her busy."

"What of Orion and Cassiopeia? She is down at Temin's as much as she is in the tower."

"She wants more. She visits Helga in the kitchens and gardens, but she still wants more. Even Salazar says she must have more to do, and you know she is his favourite."

"I will have Gryffin find her a small sword, and Salazar can start her in potions, but no spellwork," he said firmly.

They walked into their chambers and shooed out the elf that insisted on cleaning the teacher's quarters. Erwin looked around the sparse room and smirked at Rowena.

"I think of all the rooms in this place, this is the barest."

"I am not used to the fancy tapestries of Salazar, or the paintings of food and pastures that Helga seems to like. She has even has a picture of a pear hanging in her tower. The students all laugh at it."

"Salazar and Alya are leaving today as well," Erwin said, smiling at Rowena. "It seems she is determined to spend the summers in the city. She has agreed to the dungeons for the school year as long as Salazar takes her home in the summers and for celebrations."

"I think I like her, and she is good for Helena."

"Good? I would rather you keep them apart," Erwin said, frowning. "Alya is too interested in clothing and fine jewels. She tells tales of the big cities in the east and ..."

"She is used to those things, and it is good for Helena to know more than of this place and these walls." Rowena walked to the window and looked out at the grounds. "Look at all the changes, Erwin. Do you remember the first time we saw this valley?"

She felt his arms snake around her waist. "No, I remember nothing of that day but our first time."

"Are you sorry?" She sighed and leaned back against him.

"Of you? Of course not. I would rather cut off my arms than lose you," he laughed nuzzling her hair. "Of this place? Sometimes, yes. I wish we could be elsewhere and keep the old ways."

"They are gone, Erwin, all the old ways are gone."

"No, not completely. There are no longer villages of just our clans, but there are still quiet dwellings and fire pits that send the smoke through the hole in the roof, and places not make of stone."

"And the smell of peat, and the oily film it covers everything with, and rising before the sun to carry water." She turned, laughing at him. "Would you still be content to raise herds and work in the fields?"

"Yes, I think I would." He pulled away from her and ran his hands through his hair. "I need to talk to you about something you will not like. Your father has contacted me through a trader we both work with."

"My father?" Her knees were suddenly weak and the breath rushed out of her lungs. "Erwin..."

He led her to the chair she had set by the window and gently lowered her into it and began to pace, gathering his thoughts.

"Hengest has fallen out of favour with Vortigern, and his son Vortimer. His land was taken from him and it is now said he hides for his life."

"The lands that were my bride's price, and the title he bought by selling me." She raged at Erwin, coming to her feet and glaring at him. "He should never have taken the gifts. He has only lost what was not his to have."

"Rowena, please, let me finish. I cannot risk losing my contacts. He still has powerful friends, one word from him and we could lose most of the supplies we need."

"What does he want, Erwin? What more can he take?" She felt tears running down her cheeks and turned back to the window to hide from his face. "Again he threatens and again he gets his way?"

"He wants to come here."

"NO!" she screamed and turned back to him quickly. "I don't trust him or what he is capable of doing. You don't know him, Erwin, no."

He rushed to her and pulled her into his chest. "I would not let him in the valley, Rowena, you have to believe that."

"Then what do you plan? Why is it only now I hear of this?"

"I needed to figure out what we could do before I spoke to you. It was Gryffin who found a solution and Marcus who agreed."

"I am the last to be told?" She pulled her head from him and looked up to his face. "Erwin?"

"We will let him have a place at the mouth of the pass. Rowena, it is on the far side of the lake and will be hidden from Muggles as is Hogwarts."

"Hogwarts? The plants? What does..."

He started to laugh at her and slowly shook his head. "The students all talk of leaving Hogwarts."

"They are referring to leaving Helga's weeding." She grinned at him with tears still in her eyes.

"Ah, yes. That may be true. They do, however speak of coming back to Hogwarts in the fall...it is a fitting name." He grinned back at her. "If you see the valley from the pass you will see for yourself. The valley seems to shimmer in the leaves of the plant."

"I will find a spell that can keep it in place. Hogwarts indeed!" She laid her head down on his chest and sighed. "Fine, tell me of Hengest."

"He will be given just enough space for an inn. He will provide a place for the traders to stay and to conduct business to keep the valley hidden. Only Wizarding traders will see the inn, like Hogwarts it will remain magical, only for our own."

"I don't like it, Erwin, I don't."

"Marcus and Karra will set up a shop to trade from. They will offer Helga's herbs and potions made by Salazar and his students. Even Gryffin will trade the swords he no longer needs, or as he finds better the ones he no longer needs."

"Temin and Kista could make wands available." Rowena saw the future income of Hogwarts guaranteed. "I could put a price on spells, perhaps they would buy simple spells if they are useful, or maybe charms."

"I promise, Rowena, he will not enter the valley. I will ward the path myself and will kill him if he tries." He lifted her chin and locked his eyes on hers. "He will never see Helena, nor will she know who he is to you."

"Will you still have to travel?" She held her breath and prayed quickly.

"Perhaps, not as much." He let her go and walked to the table to pick up a bottle of whisky he kept there. "I will still go at least once a month. Only with the brooms it will not take as long."

"Erwin?" She fought the urge to cry out and fling herself at him. "Why must it always be you? Perhaps this summer I can join you. With the brooms we could go and return in the same day."

"I want you safe, Rowena." He tipped the whisky into a cup and lifted the cup to his lips, draining the entirety before turning back to her. "I want to know you are here with Helena and you are both safe."

"I would be safe with you." She smiled at him, knowing, but not wanting to believe, that he would leave her again.

"You have much to do, Rowena. The inn must be planned. Marcus and Karra will tell you what they need."

"When will they join?" Rowena looked away, knowing he wanted to change the topic of her going with him.

"Marcus said they will travel to the sea this summer. He has a brother he thinks may have made it out, he wants to try to find him."

"Make sure he takes a piece of parchment with him."

"Yes, I will do that." He ran his hand again through his hair and then walked across the room and gathered her in his arms. "Rowena, you know I love you? You know I could not live if I did not know you were here. You know you and Helena are the only things that keep me coming back?"

"What is it that keeps you going?" she asked before she could still her words.

He looked at her sadly, spun on his heel and left to collect his broom for his trip.

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Helga rested her head on Hanson's shoulder as she listened to his snores, unable to sleep with the noise. She rose up on one elbow and peered down into his face in the dim morning light coming from the window above their pallet.

Grinning, she traced her finger over his lips and waited for some response from him. His lips moved and snoring stopped but still his breathing was even and his eyes closed. She conjured a feather, tickled his nose, and chuckled as she saw it twitch. Bending down and touching her lips to his, she was startled as she suddenly found herself under him.

"You were pretending," she said, laughing up at him.

"I woke when you touched my lips. You are lucky I did not have a wand in my hand, witch. If I did you would not be under me but on the floor and across the room." He got up from his position and sat on the edge of the pallet, rubbing his face with both hands.

"Hanson?" She laid her hand on his back, not understanding.

"I sometimes dream of before I came here, Helga. I sometimes wake fighting."

"Is that why you put your wand over there?" She nodded to the table across the room.

"Yes, you must promise me to talk when you wake me. If I don't hear a voice I... it is your voice that should wake me." He turned back to look at her.

"Then I will whisper in you ear." She grinned at him as she rolled over to her stomach to go back to sleep.

"Oh no, witch," he said, laughing. "You don't wake me and then go back to sleep."

He grabbed her hip and pulled her to her back. "I may be easy with you, and let you have your way on every thing else, but this just will not do."

"If I had my way you would not have sat up."

"Oh?" He crawled back on the bed and lay over her again. "Do you not think we are missed?"

"The students are gone." She ran her hand over his naked chest and looked up through her lashes.

He lowered his mouth and tasted hers as she pulled him down to her. "Helga, today we set out the town. We should at least pretend to care past our bed."

"Gryffin said we would leave after lunch."

"Lunch?" He turned and looked at the window. "That is why you woke me before dawn?"

She nodded as she lifted her legs to circle his waist. "I thought we should get an early start."

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"Salazar has left already, and angry words are coming from Rowena's tower. I think we should just leave and do this ourselves." Bretta looked up from her lunch. "Helga and Hanson will climb out of bed by dinner to eat and say they are tired just to go back at it again."

Gryffin snorted into his cup and came up gasping, wiping mead from his chin and looking at her with a shocked look on his face.

"Bretta!" He nodded to Helena, who sat at the end of the table with Elmira and some of the others. "I really think you should be more careful."

"She is not blind." Bretta smiled and took another bite of her meat. "She is unusual for one so young."

Gryffin looked down the table and nodded. "She is like her mother. She reads at all hours."

"She should be out running the fields instead of in all the time. She should be at the lake and playing with Orion and Cassiopeia. She knows her books, but not people."

"We can collect Marcus and Karra and leave for the pass if you are ready," Gryffin said.

"Send them your Patronus. By the time we find them we can be to the pass and back." She stood up and started to the door. "I don't like this, Gryffin. I don't like it at all."

He took his wand and sent his new Patronus to Marcus with a message to meet them at the pass to begin the planning of the trading post. As he watched the silvery ghost of the lion run away, he looked after Bretta and understood why she did not send her own.

He was unable to cast a Patronus after he lost his Lara. It was years before he could put the pain away and his silvery lion. He knew she had not married, that she had worn a cap and cloth as only a ruse. Perhaps she has seen too much, he thought, perhaps she had lost too much to find her peace. He hurried after her, cursing his luck at being the one to deal with a temperamental witch.

She helped in his lessons, teaching the younger students how to hold the sword and how to polish the metal to keep the blade sharp. He had seen her throw a knife with precision that he could not match and wanted to add it to the defence class but was unable to get her to talk to him long enough to bring it up.

Now he hurried to keep up with her as she angrily stalked off ahead of him.

"Did you send the message?" Bretta asked, not turning around as he caught up to her.

"Yes, it is nothing you could not have done." He looked at her from the corner of his eye as he fell in step with her. "You can send your Patronus, can you not?"

"I have not tried for a while." She looked straight ahead on the path. "It is faster for you than for me, my wand work is still too slow."

"Bretta? Can you send a Patronus yet?"

"I told you I have not tried for a while."

"Witch!" He stopped and glared at her. "I am leaving the valley with you. Once on the other side of this pass I need to know what you can do."

"I have a sword and I know how to duel with a wand. It is enough for you to know," she answered him angrily.

"Until we set the wards against the non-magical it is not too much to ask."

She turned and saw that he had not moved any closer to the pass. She looked at him then back up the path to where they were headed. "

Stay there and wait for me if you are scared to leave." She turned her back on him and started walking up again.

"Damn you, witch!" His long strides caught up with her quickly. "Why do you argue with everything I say? Why do you..."

"Stop it!" She fumed at him but did not turn to look at him as she continued to hurry up the path. "I do as I must around here. I do as I am told. I was told to come up here to help with the trading post. I was not told I had to listen to you complain."

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"Complain?" He scowled at her. "Witch, you are making this difficult for me."

"I should care?" she shot back at him.

"You are not like this with the others. Why is it just with me that you seem to want to fight over everything?"

"I don't... only sometimes."

"Bretta, if I have done something wrong I need to know what it is. I need to at least have a clue."

"A clue? You want a clue?" She walked toward him and poked his chest with her finger, putting her face to his and clenching her teeth. "I am good enough to help you in your lessons. I am good enough to take care of the students after you leave them in tears, I am good enough to do everything you ask but not good enough for ..."

She suddenly stopped and turned to walk away.

"Bretta?" Gryffin looked at her, thoroughly confused. "Good enough for what?"

"Shut up, Gryffin." She kept walking away when Gryffin stopped and grinned.

He ran to catch her and grabbed her elbow, turning her around and pulling her face to his quickly before she could refuse. He crushed his lips to hers while walking her backwards off the path and lifting her up only to lay her on the ground. He felt her arms hesitate before she reached for him, and her lips open as he slipped his tongue into her mouth and he wondered why he had waited to do his for so long.

"Is this better, witch?" he whispered in her ear as she nodded and turned her mouth again to his, unwilling to have their mouths separated for the length of time it took for him to find her ear. He pushed her robes down her shoulders and kissed a trail from her mouth to her breasts.

"Gryffin." She arched her back and wrapped her legs around him only to have him lift her robes and run his hand over her hip. "Please, Gryffin I just need to feel you, I need you to pretend..."

"Does this feel like I pretend, witch?" He lowered his mouth to hers again, tasting the salt of her tears. Pulling back, he looked into her face and felt he could at last see his future. He chuckled and sent his Patronus to tell Marcus to wait.