Epilogue
An old woman lay in her bed, all colour gone from her cheeks and her
breath laboured and heavy. Next to her sat a beautiful young woman
with black hair and green eyes together with a young man, her brother,
with white hair and blue eyes. Each of them held one of her eyes, and
both of them looked sad and grim.
Suddenly, the door opened, and an equally old man entered the room,
his grey hair falling beneath his shoulders.
"How is she?" he softly rasped, never letting the old woman go with his
eyes.
The young woman turned towards him, tears in her eyes.
"Father, you came!" she exclaimed, then rose to throw herself into his
arms. "Oh, father! She is so badly hurt! Godric says she will not last the
day. Rowena is searching for you, and mother just keeps calling your
name…"
The man hugged his daughter tightly, then walked over to his wife's
bedside, sitting down to caress her cheek.
"Hel?" he whispered. "I am here love. Please, open your eyes."
A low moan was heard from the woman called Hel, and her eyes
fluttered open.
"Sa…Salazar?" she mumbled. "You are here… I am dying, I can feel it.
Please…Salazar, take care of our children. Do not…do not forget that I
love you. Salazar…"
So Helga Hufflepuff-Slytherin took her last breath, leaving her husband to
grieve with their children and closest friends. Salazar rose, looking bleakly
at his children.
"How could this happen?" he softly asked. "What…what happened?"
The man looked down, gulping. Then he looked squarely into his
father's eyes.
"It was one of the muggle students," he told him. "She told her father of
her teacher that had been a bondswoman. There was an ambush in the
forest…"
He could not continue talk. Salazar cried out.
"Why!?" he shouted. "Why didn't Godric listen to me?! We should not
have allowed muggle students here when Helga still was teaching! And
now we have paid dearly for it…"
He looked at his children, crying freely now.
"Aisling, Lucan," he said. "You know I cannot stay here anymore, not after
everything which has happened here."
His children nodded, even though they had their own grief to deal with.
Salazar dragged a tired hand through his hair.
"Tell…tell Godric that I have returned to my realms," he asked them. "Bid
both him and Rowena goodbye for me, and tell them that they will
always be welcome at my realms, even if I cannot come here. My time as
a founder has ended with Helga. Lay her body in my Chamber and raise
a statue over her. When I die, put me next to her and let us rest in peace
together. I love you both, do not ever forget that."
And with that, Salazar Slytherin, the fourth founder, husband of Helga
Hufflepuff and father of two turned his back on history and Hogwarts.
The End.