Ficlet Challenge 41 - You -- you alone -- will have the stars as no one else has them
Title: (untitled)
Summary: Rowena Ravenclaw always knew she was destined for great things.
Characters: Rowena Ravenclaw
Genre: Gen
Rating: G
Word Count: 619
Can the Order post to Tumblr? Yes
Notes: Written for schizophrenic0
Rowena Ravenclaw was sitting at a large table, parchment spread out in front of her. Intricate floor plans covered the surface, carefully traced in ink and measured to the smallest detail. Accuracy was important if this was going to work. She was tracing her wand slowly across all of the lines, murmuring the words that she had written, concentrating on what she wanted to achieve. It was important to keep focused.
Nobody would disturb her, she had made sure of that. Godric and Helga knew better than to disturb her when she was working and even Salazar would keep his distance when he saw that particular glint in her eye that indicated she was working on a difficult problem.
Some time later, after Rowena thought that her fingers were frozen in that position around her wand, that her eyes were going to start leaking tears from the strain of focusing so intently on the drawing, that her throat was made of sand, dry and starved of moisture, she finally finished. Carefully, she laid her wand to one side, waiting patiently.
After a few moments, the lines on the drawing shifted. A staircase moved to one side, a door disappeared to reappear somewhere else, corridors became slightly longer, walls moved to create corners where there were no corners before. It had worked.
She allowed herself a small smile at her success and stood up, walking over to the window, looking out at the dark night sky. There were a few stars, but the brightest one sat above where their school, their beautiful school, was going to be. She could see the plot of land from here, empty but close to her. If she looked carefully enough, she could almost see the walls rising up and what the silhouette of the castle would look like by the lake.
Tomorrow, she would start the work of investigating how she could practically apply what she had just achieved to a larger scale, to bricks and mortar instead of ink and parchment. Godric might see a shifting floorplan as a challenge, an adventure. Helga would worry about it being unfair for the students, but she could be persuaded by making the shifting regular and timetabled instead of random. Salazar might not have a strong opinion, but would probably attempt to persuade her to work in a shortcut every now and then for someone who knew how to look for it.
It has started as a theory, as an interesting curiosity and had now become something more. In her mind, it would present students with an interesting challenge. She also knew though that she partly wanted it to be another one of her great experiments, her wonderful achievements.
She knew that she had been destined for great things, destined to do great things from a young age. Her mother had held her hand and pointed up at the stars. "You, you alone, my girl, you will have the stars as no one else has them. You will shine just as brightly. Everyone else will be the dark backdrop for your brilliance."
They were going to build the school. Rowena was certain already that she was going to educate the smartest, brightest young pupils, to show them what could be achieved if you could only put your mind to it. Maybe one day, she would stand on top of a tower with her own little girl and point at the stars, say the same words, inspire her to be great, inspire her to aim high and then even higher than that. Yes, she could see it now, a little girl, awe-inspired, clutching her hand and gazing up at the winking constellations open-mouthed.
Points tally:
1 Challenge ficlet, 619 words = 26 points for Ravenclaw
Susan/Ravenclaw
Summary: Rowena Ravenclaw always knew she was destined for great things.
Characters: Rowena Ravenclaw
Genre: Gen
Rating: G
Word Count: 619
Can the Order post to Tumblr? Yes
Notes: Written for schizophrenic0
Rowena Ravenclaw was sitting at a large table, parchment spread out in front of her. Intricate floor plans covered the surface, carefully traced in ink and measured to the smallest detail. Accuracy was important if this was going to work. She was tracing her wand slowly across all of the lines, murmuring the words that she had written, concentrating on what she wanted to achieve. It was important to keep focused.
Nobody would disturb her, she had made sure of that. Godric and Helga knew better than to disturb her when she was working and even Salazar would keep his distance when he saw that particular glint in her eye that indicated she was working on a difficult problem.
Some time later, after Rowena thought that her fingers were frozen in that position around her wand, that her eyes were going to start leaking tears from the strain of focusing so intently on the drawing, that her throat was made of sand, dry and starved of moisture, she finally finished. Carefully, she laid her wand to one side, waiting patiently.
After a few moments, the lines on the drawing shifted. A staircase moved to one side, a door disappeared to reappear somewhere else, corridors became slightly longer, walls moved to create corners where there were no corners before. It had worked.
She allowed herself a small smile at her success and stood up, walking over to the window, looking out at the dark night sky. There were a few stars, but the brightest one sat above where their school, their beautiful school, was going to be. She could see the plot of land from here, empty but close to her. If she looked carefully enough, she could almost see the walls rising up and what the silhouette of the castle would look like by the lake.
Tomorrow, she would start the work of investigating how she could practically apply what she had just achieved to a larger scale, to bricks and mortar instead of ink and parchment. Godric might see a shifting floorplan as a challenge, an adventure. Helga would worry about it being unfair for the students, but she could be persuaded by making the shifting regular and timetabled instead of random. Salazar might not have a strong opinion, but would probably attempt to persuade her to work in a shortcut every now and then for someone who knew how to look for it.
It has started as a theory, as an interesting curiosity and had now become something more. In her mind, it would present students with an interesting challenge. She also knew though that she partly wanted it to be another one of her great experiments, her wonderful achievements.
She knew that she had been destined for great things, destined to do great things from a young age. Her mother had held her hand and pointed up at the stars. "You, you alone, my girl, you will have the stars as no one else has them. You will shine just as brightly. Everyone else will be the dark backdrop for your brilliance."
They were going to build the school. Rowena was certain already that she was going to educate the smartest, brightest young pupils, to show them what could be achieved if you could only put your mind to it. Maybe one day, she would stand on top of a tower with her own little girl and point at the stars, say the same words, inspire her to be great, inspire her to aim high and then even higher than that. Yes, she could see it now, a little girl, awe-inspired, clutching her hand and gazing up at the winking constellations open-mouthed.
Points tally:
1 Challenge ficlet, 619 words = 26 points for Ravenclaw
Susan/Ravenclaw