Written for The Houses Competition
House Hufflepuff
Category: Themed (power doesn't corrupt, people do)
Prompt: House Common Room
Word count: 2,132
Beta's: Aya, Angel
Notes: History is kinda hard to confirm when part of it has devolved into myths. I went with what worked for this story and aligned at least partially, thus history may be incorrect but it's correct in this universe.
Moonglow is from the game Terraria.
They loved their school, it was an amalgamation of all their talents, hopes and wishes that provided a space for all young magicians to learn the art of magic. When they first started, everyone lived together with males and females separated as students were taught a subject by the one of four who had the most knowledge and experience of that subject. That was how things happened for several years until the population of Hogwarts grew beyond what could viably live in one common area. Thus; the Houses were created.
Each Founder chose a place for their common area that they liked and that would suit the multitude of rowdy students that were currently studying at Hogwarts. Rowena and Godric chose places up high where they could gaze out the windows and see the grounds—watching over the students that may be wandering said grounds. Helga and Salazar went the opposite direction; choosing places closer to the ground so that they could be more easily accessible should something happen out on the grounds.
There was also another reason for their choices of where their students would congregate. The places were where a House would talk with each other and the common room for each House gave an opportunity for all students to mingle. It also gave a place for the respective Head of House to give announcements or special tutelage dependant on that House's main focus.
Godric would get his students to gather at the windows and look out over the grounds as if they were a battlefield, readying them for the time that they may be fighting and were commanders of those on the front lines. He got them to think about their strategies, held chess tournaments every week and also taught their Defense and Offence along with their Duelling classes.
Rowena knew that the best place to read a book was on a window seat with a lovely view out of the window. She, too, taught the logic of a battle commander but did so via having her students research various documented wars and then work through the logic and decisions made by all sides. She made several students each week create a riddle for the rest of the House to solve and encouraged healthy debates on various topics. She also taught their History and Arithmancy classes.
Helga had a penchant for waking up in the middle of the night and wandering to the kitchens for a snack. Thus, she decided that her students should have easy access to the kitchens in case they also needed a midnight snack. She taught her students the importance of treating people fairly, how to be impartial when asked to adjudicate something with the power of reason that she commanded with ease. She taught them the different plants that would harm, heal or cause other effects. In her common room, she had several healing plants for her students to look after and would often take them out on excursions to the forest so they could gain experience recognising different plants in the wild. She was also in charge of the general Herbology class and also ran an optional class for all who wished to learn how to cook.
Salazar was a man that had a quota of how many people he could deal with in a day — it shortened if he considered those people to be idiots. He was also a man that liked to retreat into the cool darkness once society had given him permission to retreat. As such, he had allocated a part of the lower levels of Hogwarts Castle for his House to congregate in. There, he taught them the various tricks he had learned for how to deal with people that they did not like or when they had reached the end of their tether whilst also teaching their Potions and Etiquette classes.
Although the House areas were reserved for a specific House, there was no rule stating that a member of that House could not invite a member of a different House into their common room. The Founders had no desire for their students to consider themselves split into quarters now that they had their own place to rest. It was a common thing for Ravenclaw's and Gryffindor's to consult with each other on battle strategies or for Hufflepuff's and Slytherin's to discuss the different flora and fauna in the world that could also be potion ingredients or had some kind of effect.
Perhaps the two Hufflepuff's and Slytherin's that consulted on that subject most often were the Heads themselves. Helga and Salazar were often exploring a new aspect of some type of nature when they were not busy with other duties. When developing and testing potions, they would go down to Salazar's lab — aptly named the Chamber of Secrets by students — and experiment.
Unfortunately, quarrels still popped up between students (and occasionally Heads). That was where Helga was truly valuable, and she held all the power when she swept in to solve the dispute. This time it was between two particularly stubborn students; one a student of Ravenclaw and the other a student of Gryffindor. What had started as a simple debate over whether Agamemnon's or Julius Caesar's strategies were better had devolved into a verbal joust of insults delivered to the opposing party. A desperate Rowena and Godric had sent out a youngling from each of their House to find Helga and beg for her help.
As she made her way up the many stairs to Rowena's common room, Helga remembered another reason why she had chosen to have her common room and adjacent dorms nearer to the ground level — less stairs! The children on each side of her were also puffing slightly by the time they made it up to Rowena's tower, both of them still new enough that they hadn't yet gotten used to running up and down the multitude of stairs that Hogwarts Castle hosted.
Helga could hear the shouting from a level below Rowena's common room and she groaned as she also heard the unmistakable yelling of Godric and the cool spitting of Rowena — evidently, they hadn't been able to stay out of the argument for longer than it took to send younglings to fetch her. She worked with children.
"Was it not he who couldn't figure out how to overtake Gaul? Agamemnon thought out of the box enough to think of using a giant wooden horse! You would never be able to think like that, you're too structured and logical."
"Oh yes, it only took him ten years to think of that! Just like it took you ten years to finally understand which end of a sword to point at an enemy. How long did it take Caesar to conquer Rome? Oh yes, two years."
"And how long did it take the two of you to join into your student's argument?" Helga demanded from the common room entrance, hands on her hips and glaring at the children that were supposed to be wise founders.
Rowena and Godric whirled around to face her, faces flush with anger. Helga assumed that the two students hiding behind them were the original fighters she had been called up to calm. They were certainly not fighting now — instead, they were trying to become invisible and slink away. A strategy that was currently not working.
Helga's glare intensified as no answer was forthcoming and Godric finally stuttered out, "Uh… two minutes? Maybe? And I was twelve when I learned how to wield a sword."
"I don't care how old you were when you picked up a sword, your insults to each other are nothing more than what young children throw at each other. You felt so strongly about Agamemnon and Julius Caesar that you had to take over your student's arguments and fight your colleague on what is, essentially, a matter of opinion?"
"I will not have the might of Roman strategy compared to the rabble that was Greek strategy," Rowena sniffed.
Godric sneered at her, "Your precious Julius Caesar was a descendant of Aeneas! A Trojan, defeated by Greek strategy."
Sensing that the argument was about to start again and not wanting to have to deal with the noise that would result from that, Helga glared at the both of them in turn and they shrunk into themselves. The common room was silent as the various students dotted around watched Helga as she performed her type of tearing into people, make them feel bad and then encourage them to do better.
Helga sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. "You are supposed to be guiding the next generation of magicals, providing them with a good example of how they should act. This is not a good example Rowena, Godric. You are supposed to be the adults in this situation and yet you act like children, refusing to believe someone may have a differing opinion to your own.
"If you are to act like children, with childish insults and all, I shall treat you as children. You two shall not see each other for the rest of the day, you will both be confined to your common rooms where you shall remain silent unless a student asks you for help. You will go to sleep early tonight and I hope that the rest will soothe your tempers. Godric, go."
Godric opened his mouth to protest but closed it again when he saw how close Helga was to truly snapping. The Hogwarts motto talked about not tickling a sleeping dragon, right now, Helga was the dragon and she was about to awaken. Instead, he meekly edged around Helga and left the Ravenclaw common room, fleeing to the safety of his own common room as soon as he was out of sight.
The Ravenclaw common room was silent after that, the students either staring after Godric, looking at Rowena for guidance or watching Helga with terrified and slightly awe-filled eyes after her display of power. Helga smiled warmly at them and they relaxed a little bit. "You have your own opinions, but others will have theirs. If your opinions are different, don't make a big deal about it. Simply nod your head and accept that that is their opinion, you are perfectly welcome to calmly discuss your opinions but please do not copy the example given to you by both Rowena and Godric."
With that said, she turned around and left the common room. At the door however, Helga turned and smiled sweetly at her fellow founder, "Oh, and Rowena, dear? No reading today."
A spell later and Helga Hufflepuff was making her way down the many staircases back to her own common room where she had been tending to some moonglow before the two younglings had come bursting in, eyes wild and begging Helga to come help.
Salazar was there when she arrived and she smiled as she saw the position he had evidently been coerced into taking. Her youngest students were curled up against and around him as he waved his wand to create illusions showing the story he was telling them. A year ago, there was no way Salazar would have been comfortable in the presence of so many children – especially young children — and he never would have consented to show the scenes of a story with magic to those children.
Now, he was perfectly at ease with her students and even seemed to be enjoying showing them his story with his magic. Helga had worked on him slowly with kindness and understanding as she slowly corrupted the part of him that could not handle children. He glanced up as she entered and nodded in acknowledgment before turning back to the story he was telling. She smiled back at him and went to her moonglow, Salazar would find her after the story was finished if he needed her.
The next week saw another argument between Rowena and Godric — this one wasn't started by their students, it was just them discussing very loudly and with great fervour and heat in their voices about the pros and cons of building battlements around Hogwarts Castle. Yet again, the younglings found Helga and she set off to sort the two out. That was the pattern for several months; Rowena and Godric would fight over something, the younglings would find Helga, Helga would break up the argument.
A few days after an argument, Helga would seek out Rowena and Godric individually to talk to them. Every time, she would work her powers of kindness and fairness to slowly teach the two how to play nicely together. Eventually, they lost their antagonistic behaviour towards each other. Helga had corrupted their way of thinking with warmth to align with a more peaceful attitude.