Warning: this is sad. But if you cry, you know no one has stolen your soul, or your deal with the devil fell through.

———

Delphi was expecting reams of books, and she was a little disappointed to find herself in a room that was more like a study, with only one book shelf against a wall, admittedly crammed with books...but still. This was Rowena's secret room, surely a massive library with more books than Nicholas Flamel has lived days, wasn't the most unreasonable thing to dream of.

"I know that face." Said Helena beside her, smirking, "you thought you'd enter a maze of book shelves vast enough to have used the entirety of the forbidden forest to make twice over."
Delphi wilted. "So?"
"Well, what was the material point of that arithmancy puzzle? My mother was a witch, and even if the Hogwarts library doesn't utilise expansion charms...what's to say my mother didn't?"

Hope renewed, Delphi approached the bookshelf, not spying any runes on the shelving, she reached for one of the books. Strangely, it did not appear to have an author, simply entitled 'Runes'. Opening it was even more disappointing as the pages appeared blank.
She turned, confused to the ghost watching her.
Helena looked excited, "get your quill, and draw a rune in it."
Obdiently, Delphi did so, drawing the rune for water and watching in complete awe as words started to appear. Paragraph after paragraph appeared, followed by the book and date each extract came from. All referenced the water rune. Some were even in other languages.
The most mind-blowing part of it was that there were recent books included.

"Self-updating." Said Helena, answering her unspoken question. "Rowena would never deny anyone knowledge, indeed every book a headmaster or anyone else removes finds its way back to the library, but this discovery, this worldwide search tool, was a gift for only the truly curious, only their writing would result in the book giving them answers."
"But how does the book know?" asked Delphi doubtfully.
Helena smile, "the books are enchanted to only respond to someone with similar magic to her, the maker. Curious magic, grey magic."
"Amazing..."
They stood/hovered in silence for a while, Delphi examining the study closely, and Helena lost in the past.

Eventually Delphi tentatively returned the Rune book to its shelf and settled on the one chair, speaking cautiously, "could...could you tell me their story?"
Helena smiled softly, "I suppose I could...It would be nice to share it with someone living again. You're the first to come here since, as Ravenclaw women tend to be travellers and have spread across the world, and yes, they are a female only line."
Delphi nodded, "My mother was one of three sisters, and her mother was one of six."
Helena hummed, clearly lost deeply in times long gone.

———

Rowena Ravenclaw was the only daughter of a book binder and his wife. It was perhaps entirely thanks to his work that she had the opportunity to learn to read at all. As for the time, women were rarely educated in anything aside from sewing, cooking and housekeeping.
Her magic first appeared when she was four years of age. By some miracle her parents did not take it as a sign of the devil. They protected her and later her brother, unlike Salazar's parents, but more on him later.

Hiding her and her brothers' gifts – as they insisted on calling them – was a challenge, but they managed well enough. Her parents were convinced that her magic was not a sign of the devil but a gift from god, and that to suppress such a gift would be a grave insult to their creator. Though witches and wizards were known to exist, there were none that they knew of to teach the two, so self-study was the best they managed, leading to an impressive mastery of wandless magic that would have her future friends in awe.

By sixteen, most young women in their village were marrying, but you'd have to be deaf, dumb and blind not to realise that Rowena was meant for greater things. Her father gave her the money to travel to the nearest city; Londinium, and learn a trade. She bid them farewell, and it would be many years before she saw any of them again.
She learned much of the world in her journey but it was after entering a pub - the leaky pot, seeking bed and board, that Rowena Ravenclaw stumbled into the wizarding world.

Diagon Alley was barely more than a market back then. Dozens of temporary tents with expansion charms, set up by merchants from all over the world selling wares just as likely to be useless as useful since there was no ministry to establish quality standards. Cauldron thickness was a nightmare.

However, Rowena found herself in a tent filled with books, of spells, of charms, of potions...and she was home. Spending all her money without thinking, she was left standing in front of the merchant clutching at least two dozen books.
The merchant was an elderly woman, with tan skin and sharp black eyes, who clearly saw a kindred spirit, and the first thing she asked, was if Rowena would like a job.

The next five years, Rowena travelled the length of Britain, learning everything she could and making copies of rare books, just in case the muggle authorities got a hold of them. She grew wise for her age, and beautiful in way that was as much a blessing as a curse. But though her eyes saw much, it was the children who always caught her eye. Their lack of magical education, their pain and lack of protection. Their innocence and hope being beaten out of them by ignorant men and women.

On a journey to Surrey however, her adventures truly began.
For she met Salazar Slytherin.

His name back then was actually Samuel. He had no surname, having been given to the nuns at his birth, and having spent his first ten years of life being exorcised and punished severely for his gift once it was shown, before running away. A bitter youth then, bitter and arrogant. A dangerous combination.

But Rowena saw far more in him, than he even saw in himself. And once she proved to him she was an equal, they travelled onward together. And despite the Arthimancy challenge of their first night, it wasn't that unusual for them to share a tent.

He was dark and dangerous, and oh so tempting to the young witch. Fortunately for her, unlike most women who fall for dangerous men, she did manage to pull Salazar back from the brink, and save, 'fix' him. Or so he admitted, only on his death bed nearly a hundred years later.
He'd been ready to destroy the world, but she had shone light in places he'd only seen darkness and directed his anger towards fixing the problems instead of making more.

Together, they were a force to be reckoned with academically, and amassed a certain degree of wealth from their research and skills. Enough for each to get a home of their own if they'd wished. Scotland was far more wild and magical than England, and far out of the reach of the axe happy king of the time. Finding the point where three ley lines crossed, the duo built a house, warded to the ninth degree, where they could keep possessions they'd rather not travel with.

It was in late stormy nights in that home, in front of a warm hearth, the pair came to two essential decisions about their lives to come.
The first, that though enjoyable, sharing a bed with each other was not a long term arrangement. They were far too alike and argumentative to make a happy couple.
The second. They were going build a school.

Children were neither good nor bad, but they were innocents. Both Salazar and Rowena were determined, that innocent as they were, children should be kept out of the daily battles between magical and muggle, and be given somewhere completely safe, to learn, to grow, and to make friends and lasting bonds of trust and loyalty.
The problem was, no matter how academic Rowena was, or how talented Salazar's was at manipulation, neither were decent builders.
Rowena would have liked to go to the goblins, but even Salazar wasn't sure his cunning could match them...plus they were currently mid-uprising, so a wizard builder it was. Or witch.

Helga Hufflepuff, was blond, kind, loyal, and missed nothing. She was also a master builder.

They came into her mother's shop in Diagon but never even made it to the counter before she had approached them. She knew all her mother's tricks, and had a gift for runes that put Rowena in awe. With her talent, Rowena's knowledge, and Salazar's ability to get someone to buy a sickle for ten galleons...they thought they were ready to make history.

Unfortunately, war was not something they had paid much attention to. A few wizards and witches were trying to form a ministry, fighting several different fronts, and not one of them want these wizards to be able to get into their school... the children must be completely safe from all who wish them ill. And to know how to protect from warlocks, masters of combat magic, you need a warlock.

The trio's answer, fell from the sky. Quite literally.

Godric was a couple years younger than Rowena, and had decided to pick a fight with a hippogriff that fateful day, attempting to tame it he later claimed. The hippogriff did not appreciate his efforts and bucked him mid air. His landing almost killed Salazar. His beaming smile finished the job much to Rowena and Helgas' amusement.

Despite his complete uselessness with magical creatures, Godric did later prove to be a prodigy of battle magic, even if his recklessness gave the heavily crushing Salazar nightmares.

So, Helga Hufflepuff the pureblood, Godric Gryffindor the halfblood, Rowena Ravenclaw the muggleborn, and Salazar Slytherin the unknown founded Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Also casually defeated the entire ministry, beating them into submission so they'd allow the school to be run independently. The day the Hogwarts Charter was signed, Salazar and Godric married. They blood adopted a couple boys in the following years. Helga found herself a grumpy potioneer, and had an absolutely mortifying number of children...mostly because she adopted almost every muggleborn that came to her house from an unsafe home.

Rowena had her dalliances, but academia would always be her true love. Helena was an accident following a night with a particularly plucky man named Nicholas Flamel, but she tried her best as a single mother.

It was nearly fifty years of peace before it all went down hill.

Godric died.

There was a dragon nearby who kept damaging the school's wards and he was determined to best it, so it ceased to be a threat to the students. He snuck out without telling any of them and entered its den whilst it slept, but even then he barely won against it, dying of his injuries before any of them realised he'd gone.
Salazar was never the same again, his bitterness cast off in his youth returning in full force.

Helga left them ten years later. One of her children had discovered a strange plant, and become seriously ill not long after. In her efforts to work out what it was to save her child, Helga also caught it. They both died within the month. Rowena burned the plant to ash with fiendfyre.

Salazar stayed with her into their 120s. She tried to do what she had done in the early days and ground him. She partially succeeded, and his sons helped, but when Salazar loves, he loves with his entire being, and the part of him lost with Godric was never regained.
His dry humour did last until the very end, and he left her with the school's motto.

Never tickle a sleeping dragon.

It was as dark as his humour got, but she couldn't help but keep it. She knew most would take the advice as metaphorical and not literal. She only wished Godric could have heard it, and listened. But life was full of what ifs, and she'd been gifted with a far better life than most could boast.

Rowena lived to see her daughter's tragic death. She waved off her niece with a convincing smile, the girl as desperate to travel as she had been once upon a time. She over saw the school until she had complete confidence her friends' legacy would last a thousand years.

Then she left quietly, to the graves of her friends, and at the ripe age of 157, she dug her own grave and joined them with a smile on her face. Sacrificing her life and magic as a final boost to the Hogwarts wards, and heading on to the next great adventure.