The Journey From Oidhche Shamhna

Disclaimer: Not Mine.

The Journey From Oidhche Shamhna

Chapter 36

Hope

Rowena heard Erwin in the outer chambers when she woke. She could hear him speaking quietly to Helena and sighed when she saw his cloak lying at the foot of the pallet, knowing he had been back for some time now. She hurriedly dressed and stepped out to the sitting area to see Helena jump up quickly and look at her as if caught at something she should not be doing.

"Helena, you may as well just tell me." Rowena smiled at her and Erwin. "You know I will find out as soon as you are gone."

"It seems our little girl wants to go to a ball." [Author ID1: at Thu Jun 3 11:49:00 2010 ]

"Where? With whom? When?" Rowena turned to Erwin, suddenly scared. "Surely you told her no."

"No?" Helena stomped her foot. "You don't even care what the answers were, why do you even bother to ask?"

"You are too young." Rowena looked at Erwin for help but only saw him grin. "Tell her she is too young."

"Alya's family will hold a grand ball after the naming. She has invited Helena."

"In the city?"

"Yes, in the city, Rowena, with Alya's family. She will be fine. She knows how to act as a Muggle."

Rowena looked at Helena and willed her eyes to remain dry. "Fine, but first she learns the elf travel. If she cannot do that, she cannot go. That is final."

"Mother!" Helena narrowed her eyes. "I have only a month to learn it and to find a dress, and all the other things."

"You have never seen a witch on a pyre, girl!" Rowena turned to her angrily. "Ask Gryffin, ask you father what it looks like and why we hide here."

"Rowena." Erwin crossed the room in three strides and grabbed her by the shoulders. "That is enough."

"No, it is not enough. I will keep her here until she can travel without fear."

"We do not learn to travel by elf until next year," Helena pouted.

"Then talk to your instructor, tell her I said to hurry it along. To teach you separate."

"You mean it?" Helena beamed. "You really mean it?"

"Go before I change my mind," Rowena said, trying to hide her own fear, clutching Erwin's arm.

"Mother, thank you, thank you." Helena threw her arms around Rowena's neck and hugged her before running from the room.

"Well, you have made her happy," Erwin said.

"You would have let her go anyway."

"Alya will take good care of her, and Salazar would give his life for her."

"You were back early." Rowena looked up at him, needing to change the subject.

"Yes, I got half way to the city and came back." He walked over to her and lifted her chin. "I remembered seeing the owls as I left and then realized I could use them. I no longer had a need to go to the city this time."

She nodded and touched his cheek with her palm. "We need to go to the dining room. Helga will cry if we are late."

"I hope she gets her potion soon. Has Salazar started it yet?"

She laughed as she took his arm and they started the walk down to the dining hall, relief flooding her at his admission of not going to the city. "He is finishing it today. He says he bought the ingredients two moons ago and was only waiting for her to admit she needed it."

"Marcus was here before it was light and left you a package."

"I asked for something. I am surprised he managed to find it so quickly. I only asked last night."

"He said he wanted it out of his dwelling, for it smells of rotten eggs. I assume it is sulphur."

"Yes. We also asked for cantharides and hyoscyamus. Helga found a potion that has hemlock and mallow added. I have found twelve different types of mallow and do not know which to use," she sighed. "I will try to cast to the mirrors, perhaps I can see which it is."

"You could just ask him, you know. I take it this is for Salazar, since you are brewing and not he."

"No, he must not know what we do until we are ready."

"Make sure you are prepared. He will have a hundred questions."

"I have a copy of Sushruta Samhita. Elmira is having two translations made by different sources for when he does not believe the first."

He reached forward, opened the door to the dining room and started to laugh. The ceiling held at least a hundred owls looking for a place to roost. Helga stood shaking her fist at a very scared looking Peska, who had pushed Laulen on the floor under the table for protection, and the students clapped and called to the owls.

"Just one day I want no problems." Rowena looked up at the birds. "Just one. That is not asking a lot."

Laulen peeked out from under the table and saw Erwin. He smiled and crawled out on the far side, away from his mother, and ran to him.

"Helga wanted an owl but did not know to call one by name. They all came, now she is crying and blaming my mother and me."

"She does not mean..."

"I know she means nothing. Mum thinks she does. Helga does not know mother will hex her. She will do it without a wand if she must. She will use the old magic if Helga keeps up."

Erwin saw the smile on the boy's face and grinned as he remembered what it was like to be that age and watch witches fight while still trying to maintain their dignity.

"Erwin!" Rowena saw his sheepish grin and slapped his arm. "Stop them, both of you are no better then the next."

He walked off to the head table chuckling as he went, leaving Rowena and Laulen standing together watching after him.

"Laulen? I have heard that you cannot sit in class with the others. I have arranged for you to sit with Elmira two hours a day to relearn your reading. After that we will see what can be done."

"I do not mean to be a problem."

"No, do not think that. You will live in town with your mother. Perhaps in the summer when the rest are gone you can work here on your other studies."

"Rowena?" Laulen chewed his lip and looked down, and with a large sigh stepped back from her. "I think Alya should not be here today."

Rowena looked to the dais at the front of the room that held the adults' table and saw Alya sitting next to Salazar.

"She appears well."

"She will be a mother before the day is over." He grinned at her and nodded. "I told my mother. She asked that Salazar give Helga her potion before she knows."

"I will tell Salazar to hurry. You get rid of these owls." Rowena smiled and reached out to pat the boy's arm.

Laulen flinched at the touch and gasped for air. "I am sorry," he said, stepping back farther. "Too many are here. I am having a hard time."

"Send the owls out and then leave here. You are welcome to eat in the kitchens or in my Chambers."

She watched as he ran off, calling the owls by name, then sighed and went to Salazar whispering in his ear the need for the potion. He threw his knife to the table and stood fast enough to send his chair to the floor. He glared at Rowena, then saw Helga over her shoulder still berating Peska and sighed.

"Fine, it is done. I was waiting for it to cool. I thought to add a flavour to make it easier to take." He ran his hand through his hair and looked back at Alya. "I did not sleep well. I did not mean to act this way."

"Salazar, perhaps I could cast the stones. Just to find if something keeps you from sleep." She bit her lip and looked easily at him. "You will need your sleep when your son arrives."

"We have decided our son will live in the city."

"Salazar, if we can find what this sickness is there would be no need..."

"Stay out of this, Rowena," he hissed at her. "This is one thing you have no control over."

He pushed her out of his way and hurried down between the tables to return to his lab and collect the potion. Rowena stood his chair up and sat in it next to Alya, reaching out and patting the other witch's hand.

"I tried," she said to Alya sadly.

Laulen ran up and pointed to the owls flying out of the hall. He then leaned down, placed his hand on Alya's back, and smiled at her. "It has already started here. You will feel it in your back. You should go to your chambers."

Alya looked at him, confused, then turned and looked at Rowena, who sat smiling at her. "He says he can feel what is happening. Is it true, Alya?"

"I think I only slept wrong, the bed is uneven."

"Your back?"

Alya looked down at her stomach and frowned. "It is still early, but not so early as to be a danger."

"I will go for Helga's potion and tell Salazar," Laulen said. "Rowena, will you umm..."

"Helga? Go, Laulen, she will calm down and I will explain to your mother. If I say anything now she will only get worse." Rowena stood and held the back of Alya's chair. "Come, Alya. I trust what he says."

"I am fine yet. I will go when the pains start." Alya smirked. "I am sure it is better if I walk and stay up."

"It is not for you," Rowena laughed. "Between Helga's tears and Salazar's worry the others would rather you went to your quarters. Your students will be happy for a day off."

"I don't think the students will be happy." Alya slowly stood, pressing a hand to the small of her back. "She will send them out to Hogwarts as soon as she finds she has free hands for the weeding."

Rowena smiled and took her arm, knowing there was more truth in the words then Alya knew. Helga not only had decided to clean the kitchens and cupboards, she had decided to rid the school of each unwanted weed. Rowena prayed the potion worked before she decided to polish each stone of the hallways.

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"Sir?" Laulen peeked into the lab, afraid to enter. "The potion, sir, for Helga, I am sent to collect it."

"Come in and get it, boy." Salazar frowned at him. "Are you scared of me?"

Laulen looked at him and then pushed back his shoulders and walked in. He stepped up to the worktable and picked up the vial Salazar had just set down.

"Answer me, boy! Are you scared of me or the darkness of the dungeons?"

"I fear only the madness that wants to take you," he said softly.

"What do you know of madness?" Salazar sneered at him. "What have you seen or heard in your safe cave to bring you madness?"

"I can feel every fear that is in the castle. I can feel all of it." He looked up at Salazar. "I cannot turn it off. Only when I put distance between myself and the fear am I safe."

"I cannot put distance on mine," he whispered., thinking how inappropriate it was to be talking like this to a child in his teen years but feeling he could not stop.

"Perhaps talking of it would help," Laulen said, as if hearing his thoughts. "Your son will be born today. You need to find your distance from the fear for him."

"My son? Today?"

Laulen smiled and nodded. "As soon as I give this to Helga I will tell her to attend Alya. You should see Rowena and let her use the stones."

"Out of here, you don't know what you talk of." Salazar angrily pushed Laulen to the door.

Laulen stumbled and as he regained his footing his hands went to his head, he fell to his knees, and he clutched his hands to his ears. Closing his eyes, he waited for the pain to subside before he looked up and saw Salazar standing in front of him.

"Please, sir, don't touch me."

Salazar squatted down and placed a vial on the floor. "Drink that. It will stop the pain."

Laulen took the potion quickly and sighed as he felt the pain slip off him as if a heavy stone were lifted. He got up, shaking his head at the hand Salazar reached out to him.

"Is it always like this?"

"No,' Laulen said. "There are so many here and your sickness is so loud, as is Rowena's."

"Rowena's?"

Laulen nodded. "You gave me a potion and said it would ease my pain. Why do you not let her do the same for you?"

"I do not have a ..." Salazar stopped and looked at the floor.

"I don't know what it is, sir. I do know it has not always been in you, the madness you feel. I know what it is like to have a father and I know what is like to have a life without one. You will decide now which life your son will know."

Laulen crossed back to the worktable and collected Helga's potion where he had left it. Slipping it in his pocket, he turned and looked at Salazar.

"Boy? How old are you?"

Laulen laughed aloud and shook his head. "My father called me a little old man, and said he should have named me Zeus when we worked the fields. I still remember him, but it gets harder. Harder still now that we are here and not where I have seem him."

"Hurry with that potion and tell Rowena to come to Helga's hospital wing. I will meet her there." Salazar turned and left Laulen grinning after him as he strode down the stone hallway.

Laulen took off at a run. He knew that Salazar would change his mind if Rowena kept him waiting. He made his was back up to the dining hall and ran to the table where his mother now sat alone, the staff and students all having left for lessons.

"Mum?' Laulen saw tears in her eyes.

"She is not an easy one like you said. She is mean and yells too loud."

"Mum? Did you... you know."

"No." She laughed and wiped her eyes. "Hardest thing I have done not to send her arse over that chair. I kept thinking of... well, I didn't do it."

"Of Dad. You were thinking of him."

"He said my temper would be the death of him." She looked at him and ruffled his hair. "I loved that man and kept thinking he would be angry at me."

"Mum, she really is not like that. Here, she needs these potions. They will calm her and .... Mum?"

"Where did you get this?" She smiled at him and wiped her eyes dry. "Merlin, I took this same potion when I carried you. Go now, I will give it to her. I should have known, the way everyone just let her go on and on without stopping her."

"Make sure she swallows it and then tell her she needs to attend to Alya. The baby comes today."

"Where are you off to?" She stood up and started toward the kitchen.

"Rowena. I need her right away." He kissed her cheek and started to run out of the dining hall to the dungeons.

"Feed the owls!" his mother yelled after him as he slammed out of the doors and ran full out down the hallway.

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Rowena hurried through the hallway and up to the third level between the two back towers where the hospital wing now sat. She prayed quickly that all would be well and that Salazar would let her lay the stones, which she had tucked in her pockets. She found him standing by the window, staring out at the grounds with his hands behind his back, rocking back and forth on the balls of his feet.

"Salazar?" she said softly. "Thank you for coming."

"It is that insufferable child. That boy that was foisted on us."

Rowena tried not to smile as she watched him try to sputter out an explanation for his behaviour.

"Yes, he is quite a disruption."

"He is that."

"Umm, and totally wrong about most things." She grinned at him.

"Let's get this over with. Alya is..." He turned back towards the window and looked at her sternly. "If you find nothing, she leaves day after tomorrow with the child."

Rowena walked up to him and placed her hand on his shoulder. "Do you remember our trip here? Do you remember the goblin village and the wands? Do you remember the parchment that was found with the instructions on bringing the heat to the floor?"

"What does this have to do with me now?" He turned and scowled at her.

"We think that whatever is in you, whatever it is acts like the poison on the wands. Do you remember what it felt like that first night here?"

"I have not touched a poison. If there were something here more than just...I would feel it."

"No, not a poison as such." She looked at him carefully and then took the stones from her pocket and pointed to a high, long table. "There. It will only take a few moments."

She waited until he had removed his outer robes and lay down. "I think it is something in the chamber below. It is the only place you go without the others. The boy hinted at what it was, then we thought of the pipes and clay."

"The boy again."

"Yes," she said with a grin. "He said when he eats berries they bother his skin the same way that this bothers you inside."

She positioned his arms out to his side and began to lay her stones on his pulse spots. Tapping the stones with her wand, she frowned when they did not react and repositioned them to his chest and throat. After she moved them several times, Salazar sighed and looked up at her with a sneer.

"Ok, turn over." She bit her lip and smiled weakly.

"No," Helga walked in and up to the table. "Open your shirt. There is an easier way. Elmira has a great book on..."

"Enough." Salazar began to sit up only to find Helga's wand at this throat.

"Yes, enough, you toad-faced arse. Your wife lays in childbirth and you act the fool. Do not try my patience."

"Please," he sneered at her. "If you shed one more tear I will..."

Helga flicked her wand and rendered him mute. Smiling, she looked at Rowena. "I have wanted to do that to him since I found the spell but never had the nerve. I also have a great spell that will stick him to the table but have not learned how to reverse it yet."

Rowena blanched. "I don't think this is a good idea."

Helga smiled at the red-faced Salazar and flicked again. "Just joking, Salazar. The sticking will wear off in a couple of hours."

"Helga? How much potion did you take?" Rowena questioned the witch, not taking her eyes off Salazar as he glared up from the table, unable to move or talk.

"The vial he sent. I must say, the tears are gone." She smiled widely.

Salazar rolled his eyes as Rowena began giggling. "Helga, you should have read it. One swallow a week. You had a months worth."

"There was no label on it, no writing." Helga frowned then turned back and looked down at Salazar. "Arse, that's all I can say. You should have labelled it, so consider this your own fault."

She pulled his shirt up and began to heat the stones with her wand. She placed them where she needed and then tapped with her wand.

"Now we wait." She nodded at Rowena. "On the third pass we should know."

Rowena looked at Salazar's eyes and thought to call Gryffin to be close when Helga's spells wore off. She saw how thin he was when the stones had been laid on his chest and remembered what Alya had said of his not eating. She looked back at him and frowned, reaching over and pushing his hair behind his ear. His skin was pale and almost translucent, his eyes shrunken and hollow. She turned from him and walked to the window, looking out at the grounds.

The changes in him had been too gradual for her to see. She looked back at him and wondered where the Salazar they had left Oidhche Shamhna with had gone. She felt the prickle of tears and turned back to the window, closing her eyes and wanting to pray. She laid her forehead on the cool glass and thought back to the times before the construction had started on the school. She thought of the fires by the lake and the way they would use Helga's cup to stretch one clam to dinner for all four. She wanted those times back. For just today, she wanted to see Salazar as he was then.

"There!" Helga shouted. "We are right, Rowena. Now we need to find which mallow we need for the potion. "

"When he can talk again he will tell us." Rowena smirked at Helga as she hurried over to them.

"Maybe we should just toss in all twelve." Helga watched as Salazar's eyes grew large. Enjoying his look of horror, she twirled her wand in her hand and smiled.

"A joke. Only a joke." Rowena patted his arm and looked harshly at Helga.

Helga reached in her pocket, pulled out a vial, and rolled it in her hand, looking at him and smiling. "I do have a potion for you until we can find the ingredients for the stronger one that Rowena found. Will you drink this if I un-stick your tongue?"

Salazar glared at her, finally nodding with what she could only take as a growl. Lifting her wand, she flicked and removed the hex to his tongue as Rowena stepped back from the table in fear.

"You ungrateful, overbearing, obnoxious, loud, foul, egotistical, boisterous, delusional harlot of a witch, let me up at once."

Helga smiled sweetly before leaning down close to his ear. "You forgot sweet, charming, and endearing."

"I will..."

Helga forced the vial to his lips and poured the potion in, shutting off his words, then quickly stepped back as he sputtered and spat.

"Tastes every bit as good as the swill you gave me," she said proudly.

"What by sweet Merlin is in that?" Rowena crinkled her nose.

"Sulphur," Salazar coughed. "You fed me sulphur."

"Not only." Rowena patted his arm again and looked to Helga. "If we are right, we need to have your body release what it holds. This is an old Muggle potion. Until we can find the ingredients to the new potion we found it will start that process."

"And if you are incorrect?" Salazar spit out the last of the taste still in his mouth.

"Then we will keep looking," Helga said. "In either case you close that damned chamber and stay away from it. It is cursed. From the beginning it was cursed."

"You say that not understanding your vision," he hissed from his position on the table. "You do not see the beauty in it."

"No, Salazar, there is no beauty in it, only death. I have always wanted it gone. I want it filled with dirt and gravel, I want all trace wiped from this valley," Helga hissed at him angrily. "Look what it has done to you. The chamber is madness itself."

"Salazar, it is the lead. It is in the pots, the jugs, and the pipes you fashion. You are near to it and consume it every day." Rowena looked up to see Helga's nod. "Slowly it will release itself from you. Elmira has translated a potion from before the time of Rome. It will work. We only need to decipher one of the ingredients."

"Alya will need to leave," he said flatly. "If it is lead, it will remain for months."

"No," Helga laughed down at him. "Your mother no longer heals but she does think. She is sending a Slytherin elf and bonding it to your son. She has told it that the child is its master. The elf will protect him from even you."

Salazar pulled one arm up from the table and smirked at Helga. She stepped back from the table and pulled Rowena with her.

"I have a baby to bring in to the world." She looked to the door nervously, hearing Salazar's other arm come free from the table. She turned and ran, lifting her skirts and letting her bare feet pound on the stones.

"Now Salazar, you know how Helga is, and you did not write on the vial."

Salazar sat up on the edge of the table and grinned at the door. "This should be good to hold over her for a long time

Rowena?" He turned back to her, his face unreadable. "If the elf cannot ... I want you to step in if it is needed. Step in and take them from me."

"Salazar." She wrapped her arms around him and hugged him tightly. "You must fight this."