Written for The Houses Competition
Head of House Hufflepuff
Category: Standard
Requirement: Must feature a member of Hufflepuff
Prompt: [Colour] Gold
Word count: 853
Beta: Aya Diefair
Through all her years, Helga had never let anything remain the same. Life was boring without variety and that was a lesson her mother had taught her well. She had also taught the importance of having one thing remain constant, an anchor for when one got lost in the changes they made. Just one thing that could bring them back from the different lives they lead to the simple truth of who they were.
For Helga's mother, it was lavender. No matter where she ended up, Una always had lavender growing in a garden she had access to. Helga chose a colour. She chose the golden shade of her mother's hair, for that reminded her of home.
It had been some time since Helga had allowed herself to be Helga. She had been Hella, Helen, Helena, and many others, but never Helga. Perhaps it was time to return to simple Helga who had a love of cooking and was always ready to lend a hand. That night, Lady Harmony Hell was pronounced dead and Helga Hufflepuff walked away alone through the night, searching for a new life.
She was suffocating. For far too long had she remained Helga Hufflepuff. There was no variety in her life, every day was the same as the last. If she wasn't teaching, she was helping Salazar in the dungeons, Rowena in the growing library, or Godric on the grounds of the castle they had built together. The people she was surrounded with knew her as well as they could, there was no changing the story on a whim.
To them, she was a daughter of the Hufflepuff House. Never mind that the Hufflepuff's hadn't been seen in years or they predominantly produced males. Thanks to a nifty charm developed by her mother and passed down to Helga, her stories were never questioned unless she gave someone contradicting facts such as being a Hufflepuff along with being the child of two Muggles.
Helga was rather tempted to break the illusion she spun around herself, just so that she could leave. Teaching the children was rewarding, yes, but it grew stale quickly. When Salazar left, Helga quickly followed his example. She had no desire to stay in Hogwarts for any longer.
Hel slammed the book shut—gaining a glare from the store holder as she did so. "My apologies," she said to the store holder and gently put the book down before walking away. The man shook his own head as he watched her storm off; women, such strange creatures that he would never be able to understand.
The journey back to her current home was filled with annoyed muttering as Hel berated the author of the book she had just perused. The title had intrigued her—Foundations of Hogwarts. The content had been utterly ridiculous. Apparently, Rowena had been having a torrid affair with Salazar that, upon ending, was what caused Salazar to leave Hogwarts.
Her own past life of Helga Hufflepuff was credited with being the weak point of the four of them. Loyalty and friendship were obviously things that people had no respect for. Bravery, smarts and cunning were far more important. Never mind that friendship was the entire reason the four of them had gotten together and built Hogwarts.
She collapsed on the single chair she owned when she returned home and glared at the pot of sunflowers sitting on the table. Rowena had always made sure that she never ran out of sunflowers in her small den at Hogwarts. The thought of Rowena brought back the book and her anger at the author returned.
"We will just have to set history right, won't we?" Hel told the sunflowers. The sunflowers remained silent and she sighed.
Her mother had told her to never return to a life, but what choice did she have? Hel groaned, spending so long in one place had made her care about those people. She had to make it right. Hel waved her wand limply and watched as her life packed itself up.
When she left the emptied-out shell she had lived in previously, it was not Hel Halliwell that left but Helga Hufflepuff. History would be corrected and there would be no more sensationalised drama revolving around her old friends.
"Always look ahead, never turn back. Is that not what I taught you?"
"I found something worth turning back for. Besides, I'm not always the person you see before you, there are many different lives I am exploring, Mother."
Helga Hufflepuff looked up from her writing and smiled at her mother. Una handed over the single sprig of lavender she held. "Remember who you are."
"I do. Goodbye, Mother."
"Goodbye, Helga."
Helga Hunter twirled the lavender in her hands for a moment and then placed it in the pot of sunflowers. The golden yellow and the purple of the plants made her smile. It symbolised her family, her true family. Plain Una and Helga Hunter, explorers of lives. With a small sigh, she bent her head again and continued writing the correct story of how she and her friends created their school.