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The witch on top of the Astronomy Tower has her arms crossed against the biting cold. Clutched to her heart are several sheets of paper. She doesn't need to look over the balustrade to know that the driveway is ablaze with light. The coaches with the school governors will arrive at any moment now. Soon there will be no return. But her decision is long made.
The wind catches her robes and makes her shiver. The pages in her arms rustle, the sound of friendly chuckles or whispers of encouragement. She has the sudden urge to set them free.
She knows them by heart, the stories of her sisters. Twelve witches, some famous, others infamous. Some of them closer to her heart than others, but all of them comrades, friends.
She spreads her arms wide and the crumpled pages, filled with her neat handwriting, rise into the air. But what a fickle fellow the wind is. He blows them this way and that way and a few even land in the gutter. The witch can't bear to watch it any longer. She raises her wand. What has been paper turns into fog so dense it's almost corporeal.
Twelve foggy sparrows spin around her head. When the wind catches them, he's unable to destroy them. He blows and blows, but they only rise further, still changing shape.
The witch smiles at the twelve white eagles that now circle the tower. Her sisters will watch over her.
Circe
Famous, or rather, infamous, for having Transfigured a few seamen into swine and for a scandalous love affair with Odysseus. It isn't even certain whether the latter is true; Odysseus was well known as a braggart and liar after all.
Mostly forgotten are her achievements in magical theory. Her groundbreaking work on interspecific Transfiguration was lost with the destruction of the Library of Alexandria. Only a single early medieval transcription has survived, and to this day, Circe's authorship is heavily disputed.
Considering the hygienic conditions aboard ancient ships, Transfiguring sailors into pigs speaks of a certain kind of dry wit.
Morgan
The most powerful witch that ever lived – more powerful even than Merlin himself. Also, and for this very reason, demonized among wizards and Muggles alike.
In troubled times, when Merlin's disappearance and Arthur's downfall threatened the union of magic and non-magic folk, Morgan served as scapegoat. The christian knights accused her of incest and adultery, the druid council named her a dark sorceress. Disgusted with male politics, Morgan retreated to Avalon and Vanished the whole island.
While nowadays Merlin's name's invoked in connection with his beard, balls, or saggy underpants, Morgan's remembered for her dazzling masterpiece, the Fata Morgana.
Helga
One of the four founders – that's about all "Hogwarts: A History" has to say about her. And that she was a great cook.
Little known is the fact that it was Helga's magic that knit the stones of the castle together and animated them. After Salazar had left, Godric went tourneying and Rowena hid in her tower eventually to perish of a broken heart. Helga ran the school all by herself for over thirty years. When she died, stones started to shift, creating a magnificent tomb around her.
It could be rightfully argued that Hogwarts itself is a Hufflepuff.
Perenelle
"Behind every great man, there's a great woman" – for the wizarding world, Madame Flamel is the embodiment of this saying.
The opposite is true. Perenelle discovered the Philosopher's Stone, but decided to keep it a secret. When rumors spread, she begged a faithful servant to stand in for her, as she wished to continue undisturbed her studies and quiet life. He asked for her hand in marriage in return. Their sham worked for several hundred years, but then Nicolas started to believe their own lies.
He destroyed the Stone at Dumbledore's insistence, condemning Perenelle to death without even asking.
Dilys
St. Mungo's Healer and celebrated first Headmistress of Hogwarts.
Up to the 1900s, in order to pursue a profession a witch had to stay unmarried. It was believed unfeasible for women to combine the duties of motherhood with a career. Dilys laughed about nonsense like that. In her career she had to combine many things, including being mother of hundreds and manager of a whole castle with house-elves, portraits, and difficult ghosts. She was confidante and administrator at the same time.
Her own daughters she claimed to have found on the hospital steps and named them Chastity, Purity, and Duty.
Artemisia
First witch to become Minister of Magic.
Artemisia inherited the ministry from her husband, who died saving French purebloods from the guillotine. She was never officially elected. During the Napoleonic Wars, most wizards joined the army, and so she remained in office until La Grande Armée Magique was finally defeated. Her most important accomplishment was the Goblin Treaty, rehabilitating Wizarding Britain's finances and ultimately leading to the founding of Gringotts.
While Madam Lufkin is counted among the great Ministers of Magic, she could never have been elected. Witches' suffrage was only introduced in 1921, over sixty years after her death.
Griselda
For over a hundred years Head of the Wizarding Examinations Authority.
Among the first witches to study for a university degree, Griselda completed her Doctor of Arithmancy before she turned twenty-one. Escaping an arranged marriage, she went to Rome and became governess to sixteen-year-old Augusta Borgia. After Griselda's father's death, Griselda returned to England to join the Ministry, where she soon advanced in her career. She was reunited with her former pupil when Augusta married Minister Aldous Longbottom to help him prevent a scandal concerning a same-sex love affair.
Griselda never married, but her friendship with Augusta Longbottom is legendary.
Bathilda
Renowned magical historian who posthumously hit the front page for her involvement in the Grindelwald-Dumbledore affair.
In her lifetime Bathilda wrote over a hundred books on topics ranging from the founding of Hogwarts to the Goblin rebellions. She's well-known for her in-depth analyses and unique insights into processes of social and political change as well as for a certain rambling style. Critics of her work only regretted that it didn't cover anything later than the 19th century.
Among her belongings after her death were two unpublished, but complete, manuscripts: "Grindelwald's Rise to Power" and "The Voldemort Riddle: A Case Study".
Olympe
Half-French, half-giantess war heroine and former headmistress of Beauxbatons Academy.
When Olympe published the journals of her voyage with Hagrid in which she admits her mixed giant heritage, the school governors immediately suspended her. Her case was widely discussed in the press, and several political groups formed in the wake of her final dismissal. Until today left-wing and right-wing activists regularly fight bloody battles in her name, but the laws limiting the rights of so-called "half-breeds" still exist.
In the meantime, Olympe has relocated to Hogsmeade, where she lives with her partner, Wilhelmina Grubbly-Plank, and a menagerie of scary pets.
Elphinstone
Born Elfriede Natalia Stein to Muggle parents in Grindelwald's Berlin. Spent her youth in hiding. A Glamour and forged papers enabled her emigration to England.
Confronted with the problems of witches at work, Elphinstone never bothered to clarify her gender and made a comfortable Ministry career. Everything changed when she fell in love. Minerva McGonagall didn't do comfortable. To win her, Elphinstone had to risk the truth.
When Minerva decided that a legal marriage was worth the sham, Elphi was overjoyed. She had finally found a home when the bite of a Venomous Tentacula ended the couple's happily ever after.
Amelia
First witch to take Auror vows. First female Head of the Auror Office. First female Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement.
Amelia's career was unprecedented. She showed them all. The short-cropped hair and monocle screamed dyke like nothing else, but it was an unspoken law never to mention it. While everybody knew about Madam Bones, no one would have dared to use that knowledge against her. The silence was sometimes stifling. Amelia had learned to live with it. Her job always came first.
Until Minerva challenged her best friend to come out together. Amelia's death prevented the scandal.
Rolanda
Seeker for England. Lost the 1966 World Cup because she ogled the German Seeker's bum.
The latter is as far from the truth as it can get, a shameless lie born out of the need to find a scapegoat for an abysmal defeat. The whole nation was shocked, and who better to blame than the unfortunate Seeker who had outed herself as a lesbian not so long ago.
Until today Rolanda claims that Waltraut Weber's bum would've been worth it. When she's in one of those moods, Minerva takes her into her arms and distracts her with her own bum.
"It's time, Minerva," Rolanda calls from the open doorway. Minerva can't take her eyes off the twelve white eagles.
"They're beautiful." Rolanda joins Minerva at the balustrade. "What are they?"
"My notes on the witches."
"Oh." Rolanda stiffens. Minerva can hear her sharp intake of breath. "Is this … Does this mean you changed your mind?"
The fog birds are forgotten when Minerva turns to her lover of so many years and looks into her eyes. "Never. I'll go down there now and tell them that I'll marry you. Under Muggle law, if necessary. If they have anything to say to that – anything except congratulations, that is, but I doubt that will be the case – I'll give them a speech on witches' history that they won't know what has hit them."
"What if they still sack you?"
"Then it's their loss," Minerva states proudly. She has long been in doubt about her qualities as a leader and believed herself just an interim solution. Too long she has lived in the shadows of two great men, but now she knows her own worth.
She takes Rolanda's hand. "I love my job, but I can't allow the prejudices of our society to rule my life just because I want to keep it. Besides, I want to marry you more than I want to be Headmistress. I told you that again and again, I want to marry you more than anything."
Minerva stops the kiss before it absorbs her. "Later," she promises. "First we have a battle to fight."
The two witches leave the Astronomy Tower hand in hand. High up in the sky, twelve white eagles continue their circles.