A Founder's Content
I could not reconcile Godric with Salazar, and now Rowena is dead. Life is difficult, but I persevere.
Helga and Godric had just returned from the Great Glen, where they now annually visited Rowena's grave out of respect for their friend. The Hogwarts Four were now the Hogwarts Two, and the two were showing signs of age.
Rowena had been dead for ten years, Salazar missing for eleven. The two remaining Founders sought solace in each other's company, wishing that things could have been different.
"I still miss them, Godric," Helga said as she reclined in her favourite chair. "I still try to talk to Helena and the Baron, but neither has any inclination to say anything. I do not think that they will ever tell their story, and I do wish they would, if only to ease my pain."
"Helga, we must accept that Rowena has passed and that whatever occurred between Helena and the Baron cannot change. It has been ten years, and there is nothing to be done for it. We did what we could to make it as painless as possible for Ro," Godric replied, stroking the woman's pale blonde hair.
"But what of Sal, Godric? He was your best friend. She – she loved him! And we lack any knowledge of his whereabouts, of whether or not he is dead or alive! I just want to see him one last time, to know whether he could have returned Rowena's feelings," Helga was crying now, overcome by the loss of two of the best friends she had ever had.
"I will refrain from commenting on Salazar, and can only say that while the two of us were friends, he cared very deeply for Rowena. Whether or not that changed in later years, I cannot say. Why do you ask?" Godric asked, uncertain of what this mood might indicate in Helga.
"I have been thinking of love. Of the love Rowena had for Salazar, of the love I am sure he had for her. Of the love Rowena felt for her husband before he died, of the love Salazar and I felt for our spouses before they left us. Of the love we all held for our children and the love you held for all of us, that you still hold for your friends and students, and that I cannot reciprocate in the way you would wish," she said while looking at him, apology written in her eyes.
The two merely looked at each other for a time, the fire in the corner of the Founder's Office dying as time went by. Godric was somewhat confused. He recalled the few times he had made advances toward Helga, and how each of those times had ended with him being shot down. She had said that it would not feel right. She always had an excuse, whether it was how her daughter might feel or her inability to love again after she and her daughter had been so coldly abandoned. He had never expected her to put it so bluntly, though he now knew better than to ask. He would love from afar, never to reveal the true depth of his feelings because he knew she would only break his heart.
Helga looked into Godric's eyes and saw the man she cared for, the man she loved and would do anything for, but could not. She needed closure, closure from the loss of Salazar. She needed closure from the death of Rowena, and she knew at that moment that she would never obtain such closure.
They were gone, and while visiting a grave may assuage the guilt she felt in a temporary way, nothing could prevent her from feeling that if she had been able to set the two Lost Founders together, then things would have turned out better. Perhaps Salazar never would have left, and Rowena would not have died so miserably. Perhaps the argument between the men could have ended more amicably, without threats.
There was so much she wanted, and yet there was no way to get what she wanted. The ones with the knowledge and creativity to give her what she wanted to be were the ones she so desperately sought, which only depressed her more when she realised that she would never be able to find them.
Helga Hufflepuff had been the epitome of happiness when her circle of friends had been whole, and she had been the glue to hold the group together when Salazar left. The day he returned, the last anyone ever saw of him, she had a flash of her old self and instantly hoped for the days long gone. Unfortunately, Godric ruined it and Salazar left forever. A year later, Rowena lay dying and Helga could do nothing to stop it. Rowena died and Helga was broken; having Godric was good, but she needed the others. She could never be the same.
Helga and Godric walked down to the Great Hall for dinner, where the students of Slytherin and Ravenclaw both sat quietly, obviously feeling somewhat alienated at having their Founding professors gone. The Gryffindors were as boisterous as usual during the meal while the Hufflepuff students ate quietly, which brought a smile to Helga's face for having managed to teach the young ones such manners. She picked at her food, disinterested in it for the first time.
"I shall return soon, Godric. I need to step outside and clear my mind. Peppy!" she called, and with a crack a young house-elf appeared, bowing low in his neatly kept tea-towel toga held together with a button bearing the Hogwarts crest.
"Yes, Mistress Helga? What can Peppy be doing for you?" the elf asked in the utmost of admiration.
"Peppy, if you could fetch my broomstick for me, I would be very pleased," Helga said, smiling kindly at the elf. She prided herself on providing the Hogwarts kitchens as a sanctuary to the elves.
"As you wish, Mistress Helga," the elf said before disappearing. He returned a moment later, bearing her favourite broomstick, one that Rowena, Godric, and Salazar had made for her as a gift one year out of an ash tree that once lived on the site the castle now occupied.
"Thank you, Peppy. You have always been a good elf," she said proudly before turning toward the entrance hall. She needed to take flight, to get her head in the clouds and work things out. She took off, feeling the wind in her hair and the nostalgia of flying with all her friends. Her wand was tucked deeply inside her robes, so as to prevent it from falling to the ground and breaking.
She was soaring, always gaining altitude, her face flushed as the wind brought bitter cold to her face. She was overjoyed and closed her eyes for but a moment to keep them from watering, thinking that she was now closer to Rowena and Salazar than she had been in many years. She was starting to lose altitude, and fast.
In the moment her eyes were closed, she had been approaching the Astronomy Tower and making the turn away from it that she knew by heart. She was following a regular flight path and there was no reason that the tail end of her broom should have brushed so violently against the tower. There was no reason that the tail end of her broomstick should have been nearly ripped off the broom and there was certainly no reason she should have been falling to the ground below.
She tried as she fell to reach her wand, but she had concealed it too well to retrieve it during such a fall. She fumbled about for a few more moments, finally grasping the wand and looking to the ground. She pointed her wand, ready to cushion her landing. She struck the ground before she could do so, her wand snapping and her bones breaking loudly.
As Godric rushed out of the castle to find her, assuming the worst, she feebly turned her gaze upon him. As he leaned down to help her, taking her hand in his, she spat out a bit of blood and said "Godric, I see them. They wanted me to come see them, and now I can. I am... overjoyed."
She coughed up some more blood and then fell still, Godric still holding her hand. Helga Hufflepuff, the least violent of the Founders, had died such a violent death. He looked at her for a moment and averted his eyes, unwilling to allow the reality to sink in. He conjured a blanket and a small platform, levitating her to the platform and covering her with the blanket – it was not wise or prudent for the students to see this. Before he brought her body to the Founder's Office, however, he uncovered her face and looked into her eyes.
"I love you, Helga. And I should have had it in me to let you know just how much. I hope you have found the peace and happiness you deserve," Godric whispered as he closed her eyes, ending the warm and loving stare that she had affixed to him in her dying moment.