Abandoned
The Founders sat together at a table somewhere beyond the Veil. Well, three of the Founders sat at the table - the fourth stood aside, apart from the rest. They had gathered to discuss the results of the Second World Wizards War, but no one knew how to start the conversation. Then Salazar Slytherin spoke.
"I blame the three of you."
Helga Hufflepuff gasped in shock, Rowena Ravenclaw glared in anger. Surprisingly, Godric Gryffindor didn't react at all.
Ravenclaw, who had a fierce temper (something that the Sorting Hat doesn't mention during its song), took offense.
"Us? US? You BLAME US," she all but screeched. "YOU were the one who left us. YOU abandoned us!"
"And in return," Slytherin said in a tired and defeated voice, "all of you abandoned my House."
Helga Hufflepuff, unnoticed by all, was crying silent tears, but found her voice.
"He's right, you know," she said quietly, her voice soft and shaking.
Ravenclaw sent a blistering, scathing glance at Hufflepuff.
"And how did you come to that conclusion?" The caustic tone was still present in her voice.
"It means," Godric Griffyndor said in the deep, rumbling voice that was uniquely his, "she finally sees what we should've seen before we all journeyed to the other side." He went silent again, unable or unwilling to elaborate.
There was silence again, at this place beyond the Veil where the Founders were gathered together. Ravenclaw was muttering to herself under her breathe, undoubtedly, cursing Slytherin in all the known and unknown languages of man, wizard, goblin, merfolk and everything in-between.
Hufflepuff was crying as she rubbed her arms in an attempt to become warm. She stole glances at the other three, her glances falling most often on Slytherin.
Griffydor did nothing. He didn't curse Slytherin or cry. It was like he was dead – well, more dead than he currently was, at any rate.
Then there was Slytherin. Pacing back and forth, it looked like he wanted to speak. Every time it seemed like he was going to, he would stop, look at the three at the table, and then start pacing again.
How long they were there, no one knows. Maybe because time really doesn't have a meaning to those who dwell on the other side of the Veil. Maybe it was because there is time there but no one was willing to admit to the length of time they sat and stood in that awful silence. Finally, it became too much for at least one of them, as Hufflepuff broke the silence by making a confession.