"Helga! Rowena! What are you two talking about?" Salazar called to the girls who were still in the hallway.
"Business. But we've finished, so you better have saved some food for us!" Rowena jokingly answered as she and Helga moved into the kitchen.
"What sort of business, Row? I thought we'd finished with that." Godric looked up at her with a mouthful of a turkey sandwich made especially for him by Sara.
"Helga is going to be the fourth founder of 'Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.'" Rowena said as she sat down and took a bite from an almond butter and jelly sandwich.
Both Godric and Salazar looked stunned, and everything was quite as the two men took in the news.
It was Sara Slytherin who spoke first.
"Helga, why didn't I know about this?" She said, puzzled.
"Well, Sara, I just found out myself." Helga answered shyly.
"Why did they ask you and not me? I'm a witch, too" Sara's words made everyone uncomfortable.
"Sara, I just figured that since we already have one Slytherin in the group that it would be in the school's best interest to branch out." Rowena tried to put in logically.
"Is that all I am to this group? 'Salazar's sister'?"
"No Sara, you are a wonderful witch." Rowena said. She gave Godric a look that told him to say something nice.
"And a great sandwich maker." Godric added, though he wasn't looking at Sara, he was still trying to read what Rowena wanted him say from her facial expressions.
Sara of course noticed everything Godric did, and she was hurt by his seemingly false compliment.
"Oh, gee. I can cook. Now I'm a wonderful person." Sara said sarcastically, turning her head and then her hips toward the door and walked out of the kitchen.
The Founding Four remained seated at the table.
"Rowena, why didn't you ask Sara? And why do we even need a fourth?" Salazar asked with a very cold, serious expression on his face.
"I told you. I didn't want things to always have to be two against one. If there were four, then we could debate issues if it was two against two, and if it was three to one then things wouldn't seem as unfair to the person who disagrees." Rowena thought this sounded like a good argument.
"And you thought Sara would always side with me instead of you?" Salazar stated, still with an edge to his voice.
"I thought that Sara, having been raised in the same house as you, would see issues much the same as you do. I wanted Helga because she would bring something new. She already though of a name!"
Rowena had not expected Salazar to be so cold, but as she answered, she wondered why she was surprised. Of course Salazar would be rude to her. He wanted to get his sister into the group, and he wouldn't give up his ambitions easily.
"Well Sal, Rowena does make a point. You and Sara are very similar. And Hogwarts is a wonderful name. Neither of us could have come up with it." Godric was trying to keep the peace between his two closest friends.
"Godric, it's so nice of you to try to smooth things over. But how would you know my sister?"
"I've known her as long as I've known you! And so has Rowena!" Godric argued back.
"As if you've ever really known us."
It was weird for him to be arguing with Salazar. Before trying to found this school they had hardly ever fought. They never had anything to fight over. They had been friends that hung out and had fun together. Though they had worked together, they had never puts their hearts into their work. They had never tried to reach an important, meaningful goal together. But now that they were all trying to put their hearts into their work, they found that their hearts lay in different places. And that all those sunny days of friendship had never left time to dig beneath the surface of discover if they actually were compatible.
"You all go way back. You have been friends for along time. Sara really is a great witch. If you want her to join I won't mind." Helga said, trying to remain loyal to both Sara and Rowena at the same time.
"Of course Sara is a great witch. But I'd prefer it if you'd remain. Godric, Salazar, why don't the three of us vote on whether to keep Helga in." Rowena said. "I vote that Helga becomes the Fourth Founder."
"And I vote that she doesn't." Salazar said. "Godric, looks like you break the tie."
Godric had to think only for a minute. He knew Salazar would be furious if he voted to keep Helga. But at the moment, Godric wasn't caring what Salazar would feel like.
"I think Helga would be a wonderful asset to Hogwarts. I vote she stays."
Rowena smiled at Godric.
Salazar reached across the table to shake Helga's hand.
"No hard feelings, Helga. Welcome aboard." Salazar said, hiding his disappointment as his share in the school dropped from one third to one fourth. But he decided not let one little road bump ruin his vision for the future of the educated wizarding world. He was already planning ways to make sure that Slytherins would always dominate the school.