The house was long and narrow, far larger than Helga had imagined. She stood, staring at it for a long while, with Salazar and Godric talking quietly behind her. Rowena had told Godric of her discovery before she even told Helga, it seemed, and he, like Salazar, had insisted on accompanying her. Now they stood at the low stone wall, looking down the hill at the large home. Helga began to wish, not for the first time, that she had come alone so she could turn back without shame.
Salazar stood a ways behind her, watching her as she looked down over the hill. She looked, he thought, like a painting, with her hair twisted back in braids and her long traveling cloak. The scrubby grasses around her was the same color as her, fresh yellow.
She turned back to the two men.
"I'm going in alone." She said decidedly. Godric moved to protest, but Salazar put up a finger to silence him.
"She's right." He said.
Godric shook his head, "You don't know what you'll find in there, Helga." He said forcefully. "He left his family. Lord knows why. We should come to protect you."
She looked pleadingly back at Salazar, who moved a hand to Godric's shoulder.
"I have my wand." She said softly. "If I need you, I'll call." With that she turned, making her way down the hill, leaving the two wizards staring after her. At the door she paused, but it swung open before she had a chance to collect herself.
A small, fierce looking blonde woman, perhaps twice Helga's age stood in the doorway, holding tight to a heavy walking stick.
"What do you want?" She asked harshly. Helga winced slightly. The woman was her equal in height, but far more broad shouldered and sturdy. Helga noted that she did not carry a wand.
"I'm here to see Eurig Hufflepuff." She said softly.
"Why? What do you want with him?"
Helga looked at the woman's eyes. They were cornflower blue, like her father's had been. They held no malice, only warning.
"I-I'm his daughter." She said lamely.
The woman's eyes widened. She opened the door slightly, stepping out to stand face to face with the younger witch.
"Helga?" She asked, her voice was wary now, perhaps even frightened.
Helga nodded. The woman looked her up and down.
"Oh my." She said, her brow furrowed, "We thought you would come, ah but that was years ago." She looked accusingly at Helga, "Where have you been the last twelve years, eh? Where's that damned mother of yours?" She raised her hand suddenly and slapped Helga scoldingly on the cheek.
Suddenly they were beside her.
"Don't touch her!" Salazar hissed. The woman took a step back from the two newcomers. Both were considerably taller than her.
"And who are these?" She asked Helga accusingly, "Your guards, eh?"
Helga looked back, eyeing both Godric and Salazar, who slowly lowered their wands.
"No, they are my friends." She peered at the woman. "I'm sorry, who are you?"
The woman looked offended, and Helga stepped back in case she tried to slap her again. "I'm your Aunt Mairwen. Your father's sister. Of course your mother never told you. Too high and mighty I suppose."
Helga's eyes flashed. "My mother died over six years ago, Aunt Mairwen."
The woman blanched.
"Where is my father?"
Aunt Mairwen stared at Helga a long moment before looking back and forth between Salazar and Godric. She sighed heavily, her shoulders sagging.
"I suppose the best way to tell you is to show you." She turned back through the open door, thumping along on her walking stick. "Come on in, the lot of you."
Helga looked back and Godric nodded to her with an encouraging smile. She took a breath and stepped inside.
Every piece of furniture appeared to be carved with dragon imagery. A tapestry on the wall was hung with an image of a badger facing a dragon, with a script in gold above the image reading "Melium Amicus Montis". As the three newcomers entered, five large hounds rushed forward, sniffing at their feet. They jumped happily about Godric while Salazar stood stiffly, wand still at his side, by Helga's shoulder. They followed Helga's Aunt through the long room. Several other stocky, blonde heads of all sorts turned and looked at the new arrivals as they entered. Some of them looked questioningly at Mairwen, while others merely shook their heads at Godric and Salazar in their silken robes.
"What is it, Mairwen?" One of the older men asked, Helga noted that he had a long, bushy beard. "More trouble from the Ministry?"
"Hold your tongue, Uncle Irwyn, this is my niece you're talking about." Aunt Mairwen said harshly. The man looked at Helga as though he had seen a ghost then quickly turned back to the others at the long table, whispering under his breath.
Mairwen stopped about just shy of the end of the long table, gesturing toward a figure seated at a small lonely chair in the corner. The figure looked small, wrapped in a rough, brown blanket, with his head and face covered by a low hood.
"Go ahead, child." Mairwen said. "Go to him."
Helga looked at her Aunt uncertainly, then back over her shoulder. Godric and Salazar were picking their way carefully through the room behind her, whispering low to each other. She had little doubt Godric was strategizing an escape. She turned, going to the figure. She crouched before it, noticing how small and thin the hands looked.
"Papa?" She asked. The figure didn't move. She looked back at Mairwen, the hairs on the back of her neck prickling. Her Aunt merely stared back at her and nodded her head.
"Papa?" Helga asked again softly. "It's me, Helga." She reached out and touched the exposed hand, pulling back when she felt it's coldness. Shaking, she reached up and pulled back the hood, looking into the empty, cornflower blue eyes.
His beard had grown gray in the passing years, and his thick hair was all streaked with white. His cheeks were sallow, sunken, and he looked malnourished. But the eyes. Her father's eyes were completely blank, seeing, but not truly seeing. It was only when he blinked at the sudden light and took a deep breath that she realized he was not a corpse.
"Papa?" Helga's voice sounded small, childlike, even to her. She reached up and touched his face. It did not change.
She felt a small, warm hand on her shoulder and looked up to see Aunt Mairwen.
"He can't hear you, child. The Dementors got him." The older woman said softly. "Gave him the kiss. Twelve years ago now. Ministry brought him home like this." Helga felt herself collapse and the older woman was holding her, rocking her softly.
"Hush, child, hush. He's not in there now. He's gone. That man there, he's not your papa, not my brother. He may look like him, but it isn't him."
Helga let out a wail like a scream, burying her face deeper into the woman. She could feel the other's watching her, she could feel their pity, but she didn't care. She sobbed deeply, until she felt she could breathe again.
"I came here just to lose him again." She whispered, "I came here for nothing."
Aunt Mairwen tutted in her ear. "And I suppose I'm nothing, eh? You're back, my dear, you're home. You have a whole family just waiting to meet you."
Helga pulled back, sitting on her heals. Her face was burning from crying. She saw now that Godric was crouched beside her, his hand lightly rubbing her back. Salazar stood, staring daggers at Aunt Mairwen.
Helga looked back to Mairwen, who was peering at her niece worriedly.
"How did they get him? W-what happened?" She asked haltingly.
Mairwen sighed. "Come and sit down, have a drink. We all need one." She said briskly. Godric softly pulled Helga to her feet and Mairwen raised the hood again over the husk that once was Eurig Hufflepuff. Salazar glared at Godric for a moment as he lead Helga to her seat, before sitting lightly at her other side. Beneath the table, he took her hand and squeezed.
At Mairwen's behest, one of the men brought several mugs to them, filled with a warm, earthy-smelling liquid. Helga took the proffered mug and downed it in one go. Mairwen almost smiled. Godric and Salazar both eyed their mugs suspiciously before Godric took a hearty swig. Mairwen took a deep breath, meeting Helga's eyes, looking apologetic.
"I suppose I should have warned you." She said. Helga stared down at the table, feeling Salazar tense beside her.
"You should have." He hissed at her Aunt. The woman glared back at him. Helga rubbed over his knuckles lightly beneath the table with her thumb.
"Please, Aunt Mairwen," She said softly. "What happened to my father?" Mairwen nodded, crossing her arms on the table in front of her.
"You must have known your father, all of us, are friends to the dragons." Mairwen began. "Before our time, when the muggles first arrived, our family made peace with the dragons. Those were dangerous times in these lands. As the muggles came for the fertile soil, we were forced to dig tunnels into the mountains, protect the dragons, but the muggles pushed ever further. Your father took up his duties as a protector of the dragons. Kept them safe from the muggles, deep in the mountains. When he met your mother, well, she was not of our kind. A different sort of witch I suppose. She and your father came back here to get married, but when she found out about you, well, she didn't want you growing up in danger. I can't fault her that, you're a little wisp of a thing." She eyed Helga up and down again.
"That's from her side. Anyhow, your father still had his duties to the clan, to the land. The dragons trusted him, you see, and that trust is hard-earned. He couldn't well leave it all behind." She paused, taking a deep breath. "The Ministry came to us, you see. They didn't want the Welsh Greens on 'their' land anymore. Wanted to round them up and ship 'em to the continent with every other bit of magic. They went to your father, asked for his help. He knew the tunnels and caverns of the dragons better than any, perhaps."
Mairwen poured another generous dollop of whiskey into Helga mug, watching her again as she sipped more slowly this time.
"Your father could not leave the dragons to their fate, not even for your mother, or you. We're a proud sort, we Hufflepuffs. We don't take our duties lightly." She gestured to the strange tapestry. "The badger is the symbol of our clan. Your father, he refused to help the ministry. He decides he's going to stop them. Well when the ministry comes, Eurig warns the dragons, he and my husband, all our young men, lead them deeper into the caverns. He warned the Minister's men not to enter the tunnels..." She shook her head. "The fools followed. Not a single ministry wizard came out alive. My husband..." She lowered her head. "Never returned. Two weeks later Eurig came out of the tunnels, covered in ash and blood. He tried to save them, he said, but it is not the nature of a dragon to forgive, he refused to go back in the caverns, said it was too horrible. They took him to Azkaban. Four years he was on that rock. Then they brought him home...like this." She finished quietly.
Helga looked down at her mug, watching the liquid swirling about. Her father had been alive, over four years after he left them. He had needed them. Why had her mother not searched for him? She looked back at Mairwen, who had also lost her husband. She understood now why the woman was so rough, so angry at her when she first arrived.
Aunt Mairwen looked back at her niece, her expression softer. "Ah little one, you got your father's complexion. That Hufflepuff strain is strong," She eyed Salazar. "And don't you forget it." Mairwen reached across the table, stroking Helga's hair, more gentle than she had been since their arrival.
"It's a shame your father can't see you now." She laughed, "He'd tell me to put some meat on your bones."
"Your husband..." Helga asked, "What happened to him?"
She sighed, her eyes misty. "We returned to the tunnel, but we never found him, not any of them. The dragons had been massacred. Only a few remained, they were weak. The ministry men came back of course, but we only dug deeper. There are tunnels in those mountains that go on to the center of the earth. Three years ago the old Minister died. They stopped coming."
Helga looked at Godric at Salazar. "Potter." She whispered. Godric looked strained.
Helga looked about the room, seeing the pale faces and light-hair of her family for the first time. They all looked back at her, some smiling, some looking concerned. She noticed that many of the older men and women had burns across their arms and faces. Only the old and the young, she noted.
"Oh child." Old Uncle Irwyn had come, seating himself beside Mairwen. "We thought you were lost to us." He reached across the table, taking Helga's free hand. She looked down at his hand, worn and scarred over, holding her own.
"After mother died I was alone for so long." Helga whispered. "I didn't know..." She stopped, glancing down at some of the children, staring back at her curiously.
Mairwen smiled. "There's still time, you know." She looked to the two wizards. "I suppose she can't stay?"
Helga slowly shook her head, and Salazar's arm tightened beside her. The woman sighed.
...
Helga sat on the low hillside, turning the small golden cup over in her hands. The cup was engraved with the image of a badger, surrounded by tall grasses. The base appeared to be carved into dragon scales. Uncle Irwyn had told her that the cup had been her grandfather's, gold from the dragons hoard. She stared back at the house below her on the hill, smoke rising from the hearth. She could hear the voices of her family, hear Godric's booming laugh, wafting up to her through the valley. The door opened, and Salazar made his way to her, picking through the darkness. In the morning, they would be leaving again. She shifted as Salazar sat, awkwardly, in the grass beside her, and she leaned her head into his shoulder.
"I cannot give you that." He said quietly.
"Give me what?"
"Family. Your father." The wizard shook his head. "I could never be like him. I'm not...a hero."
Helga plucked lightly at the grass, making a small pile. "I don't want you to be like him." She said evenly.
"When I saved you in Romania..." He shook his head again, looking down. "I saved you for myself, Helga. I saved you for the wrong reasons. I wanted you safe because I didn't want to lose you. I couldn't."
Helga leaned in, taking a deep breath of his scent. "If you left me, I don't know what I would do." She said softly.
His voice rumbled in his chest, and she closed her eyes at the vibration. "If it were everything else in the world I would let it fall to dust. I couldn't do what your father did, protecting the dragons, leaving you and your mother behind." He said bitterly. "I would let the world burn for you."
Helga took a breath, steadying herself. "Salazar, that is not a wicked thing."
"Isn't it?" He whispered. "I saw what it means to you. Being here with them. And I hate them for it. I hate them because they might take you away from me."
"They won't."
Salazar took her hand, turning it over in his own. When he spoke his voice was cautious, almost frightened.
"I'm a selfish man, Helga. There are so many things...I have not told you." He ran his lips across his knuckles. "If I truly loved you, I would tell you to stay here, where you're safe. Far, far away from me."
"I feel safe around you."
"You may not always." He said darkly. Helga looked up into his face. He was stoney.
"Do you know why I killed those muggles?" He asked softly.
Helga stared at him, her eyes wary. They did not speak of this, not since that night. "To avenge your parents."
"No." He laughed darkly. "I killed them because I was angry. I hated them for what they took from me. They thought they had the right to take what was mine. To leave me with nothing." He spoke bitterly. "That is not love, Helga. That is greed. Your father..." He stared back at the house. "He loved you, he must have loved you and your mother, all his family, a great deal, but still he went, knowing he could lose it all. I could never do that."
She sighed, taking her hand from his and running it over his face. He shuddered at her touch.
"But you would." He said. "You would go if lives were at stake. You would leave me." He whispered. "If you came back to me, the way he did...I would hate you, Helga. I would hate you as I hated those muggles. I would resent you for leaving me, for putting yourself in danger, I would despise what you had become."
"Salazar," Helga said slowly. "You are wrong. I love you. I know you think that I should not, you're trying to push me away. Maybe you don't understand that you can't anymore." She leaned up, kissing him softly. "You are my Dragon, Lord Slytherin. I would hollow out mountains for you. I would protect you above all else." She looked at him, her eyes burning. "I would give my life for you."
He sighed, wrapping his arms around her now.
"You know they risk of loving me, don't you?" He whispered. "What was it the seer said? 'The last of your line will destroy all you hold dear'." He nuzzled her hair. "I am the last of my line, Helga. I am the last of the House of Slytherin."
Helga tilted her head up, smiling at him slightly. "Then I await my destruction."
Hello!
Well this chapter has been a bit of an emotional roller coaster (for me at least). I'm trying to delve a little deeper into what it means to be a Hufflepuff and a Slytherin in terms of love. Ambition, a sense of ownership, cunning...mixed with complete self-sacrifice and unconditional trust and care. Seems like the making of a very strange relationship. I've drawn a lot on our (few) source materials on Slytherin love: Regulus Black and Narcissa Malfoy (I'd say Snape but apparently JKR doesn't think he should have been a Slytherin, but oh well, agree to disagree). Of course Regulus and Narcissa were self-sacrificing and loved very deeply, though Narcissa didn't particularly care what happened to anyone else as long as Draco was safe (which is sort of Salazar's feeling here). What do you all think?
Mairwen has been one of my favorite characters to write. I got to give her a lovely old Welsh name and make her very tough, but she's still a Hufflepuff beneath all that. Also, enter THE CUP. In Old English mythology, badgers were believed to tunnel all the way through mountains, sometimes to the center of the earth. Badger mythology is clearly under-appreciated.