Written for The Houses Competition
House Hufflepuff
Category: Themed (Yellow)
Prompt: [Object] Chain
Word count: 2,120
Betas: Aya, Angel
Notes: Borrowing from BBC Merlin regarding the glowing eyes and long life.
It was said by many that Hogwarts was or became their home. They said that within Hogwarts they felt safe and protected. That when they entered the grounds and even more once they had entered the castle itself; they felt as though the castle was giving them a warm hug. Everyone just assumed that the four Founders of Hogwarts had been so powerful that they had somehow imbued the castle with semi-intelligence.
No one wondered why they received a feeling of desperation when they wandered into the dungeons – assuming that because that was Slytherin territory, they were either worried about the Slytherins if they were in another House or having an urgency to prove themselves if they were in Slytherin. No one thought of how the dungeons were colder than any other part of the castle – including the battlements at the top exposed to the elements. It was thought that the cold in the dungeons was due to them being underground and made of stone.
Only the Headmaster or Headmistress had access to the wards of Hogwarts, and even though they could manipulate them, they could not figure out how they were powered. There was no heart stone for the wards to anchor in, there were no obvious symbols or circles that contained any ward arrays. The wards just were, and each and every Headmaster or Headmistress learned to accept that during their tenure.
It grew to the point where the previous Headmaster or Headmistress would warn their deputy of the strangeness of Hogwarts' wards. They would explain that although the wards were not visible in any manner, they were there. To change the wards, they need only ask the Sorting Hat. The Sorting Hat was somehow in contact with the wards and could affect changes to them.
When asked, the Sorting Hat could not explain what it did or where the ward schema was. It only knew how to connect to that which powered the wards and pass on requests to the magic holding them. The changing or editing of the wards was always accompanied by a flash of yellow light surrounding the old Sorting Hat, and a yellow hue would settle around the grounds of Hogwarts for a few moments before the blue sky returned.
Deep below, hidden in the lowest levels of the castle was a cave. It was a cave filled with crystals reflecting each other and the yellow-clad figure trapped there. The crystals had grown in such a way that they reflected and enhanced anything pointed at them. Should someone light a flame in this cave, the crystals would make it seem as though a small sun was present—so bright would they make the limited light a flame provided.
Once upon a time, before a castle had been built upon the land, the cave had been known as the Cave of Crystals and used for many a ritual. It had been a sacred place for the druids that came before the wizards and witches. When their kind had begun dying out, the druids had built a mighty castle to defend and hide their precious cave. A protector had been charged with defending the cave from those who may misuse it.
Trying to lesson the burden of the protector—the druids had clad the protector in yellow. Yellow was a happy colour and aided concentration along with preventing depression and despondence. It had been their intention to aid the protector in continuing their duty throughout the long years ahead of them. In truth, all they had done was encourage hatred of the colour yellow. Though that would not happen for another few hundred years.
Before that, the Cave of Crystals was discovered, and the protector left the cave to help those who had found it. The protector felt that the three who had found the Cave of Crystals were worthy of its power and guided them in the usage of it. The three younglings decided to found a school within the castle that had been built above the cave. The protector had thought this a wise idea and agreed to aid the three in their quest to create the greatest school of magic ever seen. And so, Helga of the druids become Helga Hufflepuff of the wizards and witches.
She did not return to the cave for a long while, revelling in her freedom as the burden of protection was shared between her and three others. She trusted Rowena Ravenclaw, Salazar Slytherin and Godric Gryffindor to respect the cave's powers and never misuse the gift she had granted them by teaching them the ways of the cave. Having been clad in only yellow for so many years and not yet hating it, Helga had seen the three others with their separate colours and declared her own colour to be the yellow her fellow druids had given her.
It had been a wonderful decade of new experiences and people. She had wandered the world around the castle and seen how it had changed in the time she had been fulfilling her duty. She had not seen another druid in all that time, they had known they would die out and had prepared for it. Helga was the last druid and held all the knowledge of her kind. She shared some of the knowledge with the eager explorers who had found her. Perhaps she should not have shared the way her people had bound her to the Cave of Crystals as its protector.
It was after the youngest—Salazar—had left that the remaining two had turned on her and demanded answers as to why their partnership had fallen apart. She could not give those answers—she was of magic, not people. They had asked her what would become of their school, and she had said nothing. She knew not what would befall the school but knew that the castle would remain standing so long as the cave required protection. Such was the work of the druids that had given their lives to ensure their most sacred place would be safe.
By the time it took the sun to rise and fall two times since Salazar left, Rowena and Godric were preparing the Rite of Protection taught to them by Helga. Whilst they may have become friends with the druid, they cared more for their dreams and the continuation of the school they had built. Thus, they planned to once more bind her to the cave and therefore the castle and the school within it.
They modified what they had been taught slightly, sure in their knowledge and skill of what no wizard or witch could ever understand to bind the protector more completely to what she would be protecting. They would not allow any harm to befall their creation and would use whatever they had at their disposal without remorse. Even if that meant chaining an innocent druid to one place for an eternity.
And so it was that the friendly druid who had trusted and aided them was forever bound to the school for wizards and witches they had placed without care on the most sacred of druid areas. No longer was Helga free to wander the area surrounding the Cave of Crystals. She was chained by wizard magic to the cave she had devoted her long life to protecting.
Through the crystals, she could see the colour yellow reflecting back at her, reminding her of happier times when it had been her colour. Accompanied by red, blue and green, it had been wonderful but seeing it alone just made her sad and angry. She no longer found joy in the most joyous of colours. She hated the cheerfulness of it, hated how the crystals would forever show her the combination of druid kindness and wizard cruelty.
Still, she could not blame the students who attended the school she had helped create. She was the protector of the Cave of Crystals and anything else that shared the land. She would protect the school with all her power and would aid the small children in any way she could. After many years of integrating herself with the stone walls her kin had built, Helga managed to see more than the numerous crystals surrounding her. She saw the corridors filled with students and laughter, she saw the outcasts left behind by everyone else.
Those were the ones she paid special attention to. Those were the ones who most often felt her warm presence and soothing comfort, she tried her hardest to send out her magic to those in need of her. She maintained the protections of the land and protected those upon the land as well. Yet she couldn't quite manage to conceal her desperation for freedom, for a chance to see the sky with her own eyes once more.
When the students were further away from her, it was easier to comfort them. When they were close by, it only served to remind her where she was and that she could never leave. She could not contain her longing and it often leaked out of the cave, into the castle and through the hallways until every being within range felt her desire.
A wave of power hit her barrier and Helga gasped. There was an army outside the grounds of the Cave of Crystals intent on getting in. Gritting her teeth, Helga pushed her considerable magic into holding the attackers at bay. She was only one but she had had many centuries to store and build her power so that when someone did attack (such as now) she would be prepared.
Alas, even with the reflective aid of the crystals, she could not hold the barrier. The Rite that Rowena and Godric had changed for their own purposes had shifted its goal. It did not aid the protector in protection of the defended object any longer. Instead, it focused on binding the protector to the target of their protection. Helga was being aided in staying right where she was instead of going outside and fending off the attackers.
The wards fell and an army descended on the grounds of Hogwarts. While the school defenders fought, Helga focused her efforts on breaking free of the magical chain that had held her for centuries. Now that her barrier had fallen, the bastardised Rite was weaker and not as determined to hold her as it had been. It took her much time to wrest herself free of the cave, so much time that when she had finally done so, the battle was over.
The defenders of the school had won out, she assumed. She could still feel the familiar presences of many students and very few remembered presences from years ago. With a glance back at what had been her prison for centuries, Helga made her way through the corridors she still knew. She was weak from having expended her power on first trying to hold the barrier and then freeing herself, but she could not stand to stay near the Cave of Crystals any longer.
She would return, she knew that she could not leave behind her duty forever. However, she needed time away. She needed to see the sky and feel the breeze on her skin once more. Stumbling through the rubble-strewn hallways, she slowly made her way to the entrance of Hogwarts castle. No one paid any attention to her ragged state as pretty much everyone she passed was almost in the same state as she.
Helga passed by the Great Hall and saw the bodies lying on the floor. There she paused for a few moments, bowing her head and offering her regrets and thanks to the dead before moving onwards. The doors were open, partially hanging off their hinges and she walked through them. A smile drifted across her face as sunlight graced her skin for the first time in centuries.
She held her arms out to either side of her and basked in the warmth of the sun, feeling the breeze ruffle her long hair. Helga was free. A true smile now spread as she looked out over the grounds that had changed so much and yet not at all since the last time she had seen them. Helga's eyes glowed yellow—the sign of druid magic being performed—and the last druid vanished from the grounds of Hogwarts.
She would return in time to continue her duty of protection but for now, she trusted the defenders of Hogwarts to also defend the Cave of Crystals from any threats that may come. Even if they thought they were merely protecting their school and the castle, they would inadvertently protect her cave as well.