Washerwoman

2. Muggle Studies

Rowena had almost balked at the sight of the girls’ hands. They were red and chapped; she had never seen any witch or wizard with a similar malady. And to Rowena’s questioning concerning her hands, the girl had simply replied:

“I’m a washerwoman.” As if this made it all clearer to a witch; the girl had been, of course, a Muggle.

Rowena later found out that it was the constant cleaning things by hand, and ducking palms in water, that caused the skin to redden. Well, at least she could give professor Sibgal a topic for his Muggle Studies lesson.

Prank Week

96. Socks

She couldn’t find them. Or if she could, they weren’t paired up – she always made sure her socks were arranged in pairs in her drawers. She had always been a very organized person.

So how had all her socks been rearranged so that it was impossible to find half of them, not to mention finding a pair? This was ridiculous, preposterous, it was…

“Prank Week,” Rowena muttered. The last week of school, during which the Seventh Years were allowed to pull pranks on fellow students and (although this was discouraged by the staff) the teachers.

How could she have forgotten?

The Last Present

98. Pajamas

She looked at the small package warily. Her mother had been a strange person when alive; now that she’d died, Rowena wondered just how strange she had grown in her old age. She hadn’t kept in close contact with her parents since founding Hogwarts; they did not se it as an adequate profession for a lady, to teach.

But now, Rowena Ravenclaw Senior had died, the day before her present for her daughter had been delivered.

She had always gotten rather strange (usually also edible) presents from her mother.

Rowena ripped open the packaging, and…

…no, it was just pajamas.

Public Love Letters

100. Homework

“Once you copy down the homework, you may all leave,” Rowena announced to her Transfiguration class, having waved her wand vaguely in the direction of the board.

After a moments silence, some of the fifth years burst into giggles while one of the Prefects raised his hand.

“Um, Professor? Are you sure this is our homework?” he asked hesitantly.

“Yes, of course I…”she turned around, glancing at the board, only to see the content of part of Godric’s last letter to her displayed for all to see.

The paragraph about him liking her pink polka-dotted underwear.

The giggles grew louder.

Interruptions

68. Roar

“What was that?” one of the students asked, interrupting Rowena mid-sentence.

“What was what?” she demanded sharply, irritated at the boy’s rudeness.

“That!” Another second-year girl exclaimed fearfully, and started off the wave of fear which rushed through her classmates.

“What?”

“I heard it too!”

“It’s a troll!”

“Calm down!” Rowena yelled above the noise. In the second-long pause following her order, she too heard a roar. However, she was not at all worried.

“It is nothing to fear, The Defence Against the Dark Arts class is studying Boggarts, it probably turned into a dragon this time. Where was I?”

Far-gone birthdays

19. Wand

Rowena rand down to her father’s chamber, the smile simply glued to her face. The reasons for this, you may ask?

“Happy Birthday, Rowena dear!” her father said, noticing her entrance.

“Thanks Daddy!” the girl replied.

“Hmm, you’re growing too fast, eleven already…” the elderly man said wistfully, before motioning over a wizard who was waiting nearby. “Now, meet Ollivander. He’s recently opened up a wand shop, and I decided you should get your first wand from him.”

“A wand? My own wand?” Rowena could feel the excitement bubbling inside her. She was going to be a proper witch now!

Class Before Christmas

8. Leprechaun

“Honestly, could you pay attention for once?” Rowena exclaimed, looking around the class in exasperation. Christmas holidays were almost upon them, and her third-years were far more interested with them than listening to instructions about turning their desks into pigs.

“Professor, it’s the last class of term…” one of the students ventured, but stopped, seeing the icy glare directed at him.

“Exactly, it is still class time. Now…”

“Leprechaun!” one of the girls suddenly shrieked.

Rowena sighed, closing her eyes for a moment. This was the second time this week someone had tried to disrupt her lesson using that excuse.

Fashion

49. Yule Ball

“What’s this?” Rowena looked at the package Helga had just placed in front of her suspiciously.

“What does it look like? A dress for tomorrow night,” Helga replied with a small smile.

“But… I don’t need a dress…” Rowena began, frowning.

“Oh, what were you intending to wear, your regular robes?”

Silence followed as Rowena glanced at her robes, wondering what was wrong with them.

“You were, weren’t you?” Helga said with exasperation. “Well, a good thing I got you this then, it’s elegant and perfect for the occasion. You’ll look wonderful in it, it’s pure satin and…”

“Pink satin?!”

Visiting Hogsmeade? Never!

20. Hogsmeade


Rowena apparated straight into Hogsmeade with a smile still on her face. It first appeared back at Godric’s Hollow, where she’d spent the day with her fiancé.

It quickly disappeared when she took in her surroundings. A few broken down cottages with thatched roofs, a single alehouse which was full of drunks half the time, and vampires the other half… not an ideal place to be right outside a school’s gates.

“And to think Helga suggested visits for the students here,” she said out loud, walking up to the castle. She was quite sure that would never come to pass.

New Professor

21. Veela

“You have got to be joking. You said you found someone adequate for post of Flying coach!”

“It’s not my fault you don’t like her, just because she’s attractive…”

“She’s a Veela for Merlin’s sake, she’s a bit more than attractive!”

“It doesn’t matter, she’ll be a good teacher!”

“Especially when all our male students end up in the Hospital Wing because they weren’t paying attention to where they were going, being too busy staring her her!”

“You have a point…but just look at her!”

Rowena huffed and left Godric wondering what to do about the professor he’d already employed.

Babies

22. Kneazle


Rowena looked at her little niece, smiling at the two-year-old as she did so.

“My, aren’t you a beauty!”

“Kneazle!” the child replied with a grin.

“Oh, she just learnt that word, she keeps repeating it at every step…” Rachel, Rowena’s sister, replied.

“She is quite sweet,” Godric suddenly appeared next to his fiancé.

Rowena noticed suddenly the look of tenderness which crossed his face. He looked almost as if he wished…

As if he wished we had children, too, she thought with a smile. She could just picture their life a few years from now with children around them…

Wedding Plans

88. Sweet Tooth

Rowena’s face fell.

“Godric, it’s got sugar. Loads of sugar. On the top. There’s icing.”

“Well… yes, it is a cake, after all,” the wizard observed.

“Our wedding cake. Which means we both have to eat some. Which means we both have to like it. And this one has sugar icing on the top. Sugar!”

“Yes, you’ve already mentioned that…” Godric looked at her, still not understanding what she was trying to say. Cakes were meant to be sweet, right?

“I know you have a sweet tooth and all that… but I’ve already told you I can’t stand sugar icing!”

Enemies throughout Millennia

39. Duel

“Midnight, Trophy Room, wizards duel,” the blond whispered.

Frederick Potter nodded at the Slytherin. He and Tobias Malfoy had been enemies ever since they set foot at Hogwarts, and he would love the chance to beat him in a duel.

But when midnight came, Frederick found the Trophy room empty, apart from…

“Planning on a duel, were you?” Rowena looked positively murderous as she appeared next to Frederick, the third year Slytherin caught by the scruff of his shirt.

“As lowly as I think of you, I thought you had brains enough to plan this more carefully,” Frederick whispered, disappointed.

Eager to Learn

40. Spell

“Daddy, daddy, tell me a spell!” Rowena swung her wand around excitedly. It was the day before she was to start her magical schooling.

“You’ll have to wait until… how did you do that?” Rowena had managed to lift the tall hat off his head with the use of her wand.

“I… read about it somewhere,” she admitted sheepishly, letting the hat fall back down on her father’s head. “But I can’t find any of the interesting ones!”

The man shook his head, although he felt rather proud of his daughter at that moment.

“You’ll have to wait until tomorrow.”

Flying Pillows

15. Room

“You’ll charm it? Really? It will fly?” Elinor, Rowena’s niece, jumped up with excitement at the thought of refurnishing her room with magic.

“Only for a moment, though,” Rowena replied with a smile.

“Show me!” Elinor demanded.

“You know, when you come to Hogwarts in two years time, you can’t just demand Profesors show you how to do things.”

“But you’re my aunt!” Elinor protested.

“And your future Professor.” Discretely, Rowena directed her wand at a pillow and made it float over Elinor’s head. “So you better listen to me…”

Elinor laughed aloud as the pillow fell on her head.

Art of Diplomacy

51. Act

“So our last agreement was just an act, was it?” Rowena demanded, glaring icicles at Salazar.

“No, not… entirely,” he replied smoothly, a smirk gracing his features.

“How was it not? You agreed that purity of blood should not matter when we admit students to the school, but now you refuse to accept half of them on the basis that they have a twice removed second cousin who’s a Squib!” she hotly interjected.

“I simply told you, last time we discussed this matter, that I agreed to think about it,” Salazar reminded her. “I never said I would actually agree.”

Speeches

52. Bore

Rowena yawned. Godric snored.

The Minister for Magic talked on.

“Godric, wake up,” she poked him none-too delicately. “I know he’s a bore, but it’s the future of our school that’s at stake here.”

“Huh? Oh come on, you know as well as everyone else that he’ll make it an official magical learning centre, he just likes the attention he gets, or thinks he does, when he’s rambling on.”

“Godric! You don’t know, he might decide we aren’t good enough to last long term, and force us to close down… Are you listening?!”

“Just wake me up when he’s done.”

A Distraction from Books

13. Quidditch

“Games? Official teams? Captains? Competitions that…”

“Yes to all the above, don’t repeat every word I say, please,” Helga shot Rowena a look which clearly asked her to be quiet. “Yes, I know you’re probably worried that this will destroy any chance we have at house unity, but it would be a good distraction from books…”

“Why would anyone need a distraction from books?!”

“…and it would also promote loyalty, discipline and teamwork. Plus, it’s fun,” Helga continued as if she hadn’t heard Rowena’s indignant question.

“But why would you need a distraction from books?” Rowena asked again, baffled.

Friendly Banter and Plans

32. Common Room

“Yes, each house will have their own common room, and dormitories leading from there…” Rowena muttered to herself, pouring over the plans for the school she and her three friends were going to open. Soon. Once they finished preparing the castle for the students they hoped would come.

“Make mine in the dungeon, I don’t like heights,” Salazar requested, passing by and levitating a huge tree limb in front of him. “I found this in what Godric said will be your office, by the way, there are still some sort of creatures flying around…”

He smirked at Rowena’s startled expression.

The First Sorting

30. Feast

“Welcome to our very first opening feast!” Rowena announced with a smile to the small student body in front of her. “Now, we have a system of four houses hear, named after myself and the three of my colleagues who have co-founded Hogwarts. Ravenclaw, Gryffindor, Hufflepuff and Slytherin.”

“This old hat here will decide which of the houses you should belong to,” Godric took over. “Come up and put it on when we call your name.

“Derek Dumbledore!” Helga called out.

“Gryffindor!” the hat yelled almost immediately.

No wonder his great-great-great-great…. grandchild also ended up in that house.

Kitchen Staff

24. House elf

“Haley, do you know any other house elves which are looking for employment?” Rowena asked her own house elf, who had just delivered her some papers to her office.

“A few, Mistress,” the elf replied with a bow.

“Good. I’d like you to get in touch with as many as possible, and tell them to come here tomorrow at midday.”

“May I venture as to ask… why, Mistress?” Haley asked, nervously. She didn’t usually ask questions.

“We’ll need some staff in the school kitchens, of course,” Rowena replied, glancing at Haley over the rims of her spectacles. “Off you go.”

Post-owls

70. Teem

“What in Merlin’s name is happening here?” Rowena asked, staring aghast at the chaos of feathers right outside the Great Hall windows.

“It seems we forgot to open more than two windows before breakfast, and now the postmen are stuck trying to be the first in here,” Helga replied, looking rather amused.

“You mean post owls. Why don’t you open some more windows?” Salazar asked, appearing out of nowhere.

“It’s a rather interesting spectacle. You don’t usually get owls teeming at your windowsill…” Godric explained, sounding fascinated.

Rowena shook her head as she waved her wand to open the windows.

Tournament

86. Daring

“This tournament is not for the faint-hearted. There are many dangers you shall have to overcome before you reach the end…”

Rowena watched the excitement of the students in front of her as she described the rules of the Tournament. Magically, a representative from each house would be chosen to compete, and the winner would not only gain fame, but it would also have the chance to speak at the celebration of the tenth anniversary of the school’s existence.

But she worried all the wrong students would be trying. She knew everyone gathered was daring… but were they good enough?

Robes for a Celebration

87. Plaid

”This? I’m supposed to wear this?” the girl stared at the robe with revulsion.

“Why… yes. Is there a problem?” Rowena looked down her nose at the Slytherin fifth-year who had, unfortunately, managed to win the Tournament. And she had been so sure that some student from her own house would win.

That had not been the case.

And now the girl had the nerve to complain about the robes she was to wear for the celebration! Robes the Minister himself had sent over!

Although Rowena had to agree with her student on this one, plaid was really not in.

Misunderstanding

72. Vex

Rowena stared at the ancient scripts, thoroughly vexed about their meaning. She had just uncovered some old scriptures form her father’s vaults, which he’d left her in his will.

However, whatever it was her ancestors were trying to tell her, she wasn’t getting it. And the thought of talking to Salazar, who knew more languages than any other wizard she knew, really didn’t seem appealing. Disagreements between him and the rest of them were more and more frequent…

Rowena could only hope that it would not get worse, and cause them to split up. Because how would Hogwarts survive that?