Helena: A Father’s Daughter
I am a girl without a father.
Yes, I know,
I must have a father.
But for all practical purposes,
I am a girl without a father.
I was a girl without a father.
I say this not to justify my actions,
But perhaps to explain them better.
My father was gone before I was born.
My mother was brilliant,
“The brightest witch of the age.”
Because of this she kept from me
Her one moment,
A moment of…stupidity.
No, not stupidity,
Weakness.
My mother was never stupid.
Perhaps you may understand better when I tell you,
My mother was a Founder.
My mother was the smartest Founder.
For a woman of the time,
She did many Incredible Things.
My mother preserved her name for all time,
In the school,
And in me.
The name of Ravenclaw was passed to me.
For I had no father.
Let me tell you,
About the Founders Four:
Salazar embraced the dark
And it Defined him.
Godric fought the dark by means of the light,
And the fight made him Stronger.
Helga…Helga was in a way the light.
She denied that dark existed and thus saw Only Light.
My mother…
My mother desired to understand the light
And the dark.
To know them wholly.
Her desire,
Her hunger for knowledge,
It Consumed her.
I too longed for knowledge,
The knowledge of whom I was,
Where I came from.
My father.
I was the produce of my mother’s quest.
I was the full knowledge of light and dark.
I was the two combined.
My mother was not the light,
My father was not really the dark.
No, it is not that simple.
My mother saw the light in the dark.
My mother embraced the lightness of the dark.
I was the fruit of the embrace.
I had my mother’s intelligence,
My father’s ambition.
My mother’s love,
My father’s desertion.
My father left,
Not because of me.
My father had no daughter.
My father knows his daughter not.
My father was always gone.
My father broke,
My mother’s heart.
I broke,
My mother’s heart.
I had no father,
But I was very much my father’s daughter.
Nothing good could come of him.
And thus, my life brought only death.
My mother’s death.
My lover’s death.
My death.
I am a ghost.
I could not bear to see my mother.
I am my mother’s mistake.
All of her mistakes were me.
I chose to stay,
Here
Rather than face her.
I am no Ravenclaw at heart.
I am no Slytherin in name.
I am a girl without a father.
Helena: A Father's Daughter by Briel
Chapter Notes: Disclaimer: JKR owns the Harry Potter universe, I merely adore it. Many thanks to MistressOfTime, my amazing beta, for taking the time to work through this almost-poem with me!
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