Spring's prettiest sunset winked its way through young Helga Hufflepuff's fiery coronet braids as she watched her younger brothers and sisters whirl around the maypole. Only a few summers ago, she had been among them, but she stood now with her governess, stern Mistress Ravenclaw, trying to mimic the older woman's reserved and mysterious smile. It wasn't working. Helga was famous in her large family for four things: her generous spirit, her special edible gifts, her prowess at tug-of-war, and her enormous, enormous smiles. Lady Hufflepuff groaned sometimes because she feared her oldest daughter would never find a husband, but Lord Hufflepuff was certain that any man with a warm soul and a large stomach could make a fine wife of Helga someday.
"Excellent as always!" he told her over tea, relishing one of her flourished cakes. "How clever to bake them in the form of cauldrons! Why, these are even better than your pumpkin pasties from Samhain, my dear."
"Oh, did Helga help the cook with the baking this year?" asked Aunt Pomona politely.
"Help?" said Lord Hufflepuff. "T'would be more correct to say the cook helped Helga!"
Helga smiled, enormously.
Tea had barely ended when Helga's younger brothers, Horace and Henry, were tugging at Mistress Ravenclaw's skirt and demanding the treat they knew they had coming. "Dance the ribbons!" they implored.
Mistress Ravenclaw frowned at her pupils. "What do I always say about children who tell instead of asking?"
Henry waved his hand, oblivious as always to context. "That they are never answered!"
Helga bounced on the balls of her feet, ruining her new dancing slippers, but remained properly silent. She was anxious to see this year's trick, too.
At last, Mistress Ravenclaw took up her slender wand (eleven-and-a-half inches, ebony, containing the tail feather of an eagle owl), and flicked it solemnly upward. Immediately, the colorful ribbons of the Hufflepuff maypole took flight and began to shimmy and contort in the loveliest fashion. Leaving their pole behind, they formed nets, rings, and even darling tiny ribbon people who waltzed together beneath the fading sky. Finally, the whole cloud of ribbons burst forth in every direction like a firework, returned primly to Earth, and reattached itself to its base.
"How marvelous!" Horace said. Everyone present agreed
Mistress Ravenclaw bowed. When she rose, however, her eyes sent silver teardrops spilling down her nose.
"What's the matter?" said Helga, taking her teacher's arm carefully.
"Oh!" said Mistress Ravenclaw. "It's just ... Children, I've had some news lately," she announced.
"Has someone died?" asked Lady Hufflepuff.
"No, thank goodness," said Mistress Ravenclaw. "But I'm afraid I will be leaving you quite soon."
"Leaving?" bellowed Lord Hufflepuff. "But why?"
"My dear old friend Lord Slytherin has written me a letter," she said. "I cannot refuse ... I owe his father such a debt ... An opportunity has arisen with which Lord Slytherin requires my assistance."
The effect around the table was immediate. Twenty Hufflepuffs cried out together in surprise and sadness. Poor Henry, who was the first to recover, looked up at Mistress Ravenclaw with his honest blue Hufflepuff eyes and asked, "Will you miss us, Mistress?"
"Oh yes," she said. "All except for Helga."
Helga nearly jumped. Had she so vexed Mistress Ravenclaw with her pranks?
"Why?" said Henry, so that she would not have to.
"Because," said Mistress Ravenclaw, peering down the table. "If I have my way, she'll be coming with me."
