Author's Note: It's another Founder's fic, woo! Also, here's your friendly reminder that I operate with international founders because of a very specific discussion I once had which lead to my Founders stuff featuring Coast Salish Ravenclaw, Masai Gryffindor, Roma Hufflepuff, and Iberian Muslim Slytherin. Enjoy!
Disclaimer: The following characters belong to J.K. Rowling, and this story derives from her original works, storylines, and world. Please do not sue me, I can barely pay tuition.
Hogwarts: Assignment #4, Task #3, Write about someone who enjoys gardening
Warnings: NA
Especially Empty
Godric had known that some nonsense was going on. He'd just known when he had woken up and found the kitchen completely empty, with no sign of Helga—not even a lit hearth—and when the mug Rowena favoured for her morning brew was still sitting on the shelf. The latter wasn't even in the library or perched on any of the windowsills where she liked to do her morning reading.
So Godric sighed, wrapped one of his bright red Masai blankets over his wizarding robes for warmth, and walked out of the castle with three cups of tea on a platter. His third eye was nothing brag-worthy, he had known far better seers back home, but it did effectively guide him to where his two fellows were.
Rowena was sitting on the stump of a tree they'd had to cut down over the last school year, wearing a simple hide dress and a blue and beige shawl over her shoulders to stay home. Godric could tell she'd come here straight from bed because she had not yet put her dentalium earrings on and her hair was still loose down her back. Rowena was very prideful about her long black hair and had told them that she would never cut it off of her own volition, but she always wanted it swept or pulled or braided out of the way.
"Good morning," Godric said, handing her the cup of tea he'd made her.
"Good morning," she said, eyes still fixed on the field nearby. "How did you sleep?"
"Better than you two, by the looks of it," Godric said. "Do we know what she is doing in..?"
"She is coping," Rowena said simply, eyes still fixed on Helga in that piercing, nearly bird-like way that reminded Godric of her raven form.
He nodded along and then turned to examine Helga. She was wearing the clothes she always wore to teach Herbology classes—a blouse twice her size tucked into a dirty skirt that had been torn and mended a thousand times over in just as many mismatched colours of thread. Her baby bump was just barely visible in her gardening uniform, which Godric knew was why Herbology had become her favorite class to teach recently—surpassing Potions, Alchemy, and Economics. Her hair was braided down against her scalp in a crown braid, and her wand hung at a toolbelt along her waist with other herbology supplies. At present, she was busy raking up the dirt.
"Good morning, Helga," Godric called out.
She must not have heard him as she did not look up and simply continued her work.
"I thought she'd already planted all the summer vegetables here," Godric said.
"She has," Rowena said. She took a sip of her tea. "She dug everything up just after twilight and started replanting it all. I saw it from my chambers in the tower."
Godric nodded.
"Right," he said. "And has she explained why..?"
"She said she just likes to garden and we should leave it at that," Rowena said.
"Right," Godric repeated. This was not a lie, per se. Helga did like to garden. Her vegetable patches and orchards and greenhouses fed the entire castle during the school year—the entire student body, the elves, and leftovers were frequently brought down to the village that was starting to form nearby, he believed that 'Hogsmeade' was what it was being called. Helga could walk into the Forbidden Forest and emerge with baskets full of herbs and berries and mushrooms to elevate her dishes. But there was something… well, frankly worrying about this.
"I know," Rowena said, as if reading his thoughts—which Godric increasingly believed she could. "That is why I came to sit with her."
"Right," Godric said. He took a sip of his own tea. "I made her a cup…"
"Best not to bother her," Rowena said.
Godric had made her very favourite kind of tea, but he trusted Rowena's judgement on this. She had, after all, been sitting here watching since twilight—had seen Helga's frantic gardening through the morning mist and rising sunlight.
He sat on the ground next to her and leaned his head against her crossed legs. One of her hands came to rest on his head.
"I should have known that today would be difficult," Godric said. "Our first day since Salazar left without the students… The castle feels empty whenever the students go home, but it is especially empty now."
"I do not relish it either," Rowena said. "Nor do you, I know. But Helga has been taking it… well, you can see as well as I can."
Godric sighed.
"I had thought my own wounds had healed," Godric said. "I was foolish and wrong."
"We are all foolish, but we were not wrong to give Salazar the ultimatum he took," Rowena said. "I… I believe this, no matter how much pain it may cause."
"I agree," Godric said softly. "I agree without liking it."
Rowena's fingers continued to run in circles against his shaved skull, but this did not help to ease his mind.
"I wish she knew she could talk to us," Godric said, finally. "We may not have loved Salazar the way that she did but we… we understand that she did. We understand how strong that bond ran. We are not upset that this is difficult for her."
"She knows," Rowena said, with that matter-of-fact tone in her voice that made Godric sure he did not even need to ask how she knew. "But it remains difficult and so she… I do not know if this is gardening since she did just replace an entire pre-existing garden."
"I don't know anything about gardening either," Godric said. He watched Helga pause momentarily in her raking and lean against the wooden tool, looking at the earth around her. She reached into a pouch in her toolbelt and sprinkled some powder she took from it over the garden. Then she began raking again.
"She will be okay, yes?" Godric asked Rowena.
"Wish I could say yes, but I cannot," Rowena said. He tilted his head up to look at her. "Well, if you ask for honesty, I honestly do not know."
"So very comforting," Godric sighed. He turned back to look at Helga. "Is this much physical labour going to be okay for the baby?"
"I honestly do not know much about babies," Rowena repeated.
Godric sighed and got up, taking the cup of tea he'd made for Helga and calling out her name as he stepped barefoot onto the mess of dirt and soil she was working on taming.
She looked up at him and offered a weak smile he didn't believe. He put the cup in her hands and wrapped the red blanket from his shoulders onto hers.
"Why don't you take a break," he suggested. "I will rake for you…"
"I want to stay busy," Helga said.
"So Rowena told me," Godric replied, picking up the rake. "You can stay busy giving me orders, yes?"
"Yes," Helga said quietly after a while. "I was just about finished with all the raking. I was going to start planting seeds now—carrots, onions, cabbage, potatoes, turnips, asparagus…"
"That sounds wonderful," Godric said, nodding encouragingly as he readjusted the way the blanket hung around her shoulders. "Let me help."
She sounded like she was going to protest, but then she paused and rested a hand on her belly—on a spot towards the left where the baby seemed to kick most often. She sighed and reached into one of the pouches hanging at her waist and put a handful of seeds in Godric's palm.
"Sow them a quarter inch deep, three to five inches apart, along this line," Helga said. "I tilled the soil for them, so they should have plenty of room to grow downwards."
"I can do that," Godric nodded—though really he was quite bad and unpractised at gardening.
A raven landed nearby and moments later, Rowena regained her human form.
"I can help too," she said.
"I know you two don't like gardening," Helga said. "Both of you. Really, don't worry…"
"But we love you," Godric said. "And today is a difficult day, so let's spend it making something."
Helga smiled when he said that, as if relieved that someone was finally on the same page as she was.
"Yes," she said. "Let's make something. Together."
Stacked with: MC4A; Hogwarts; Not Commonwealth; Harmony of Souls Eternal; Shipping War
Bonus challenge(s): Native Son; Gryffindor MC; Slytherin MC; Hufflepuff MC; Founders Four (Y); Seeds; Tissue Warning; Olden Times (Y); Old Shoes; Themes & Things A (Family); Themes & Things A (Friendship); Themes & Things B (Loss); Themes & Things C (Blanket); Themes & Things E (Dress/Skirt); Themes & Things F (Found Family); Ethnic & Present (Y); Rian-Russo Inversion (Y); Hold the Mayo; Short Jog; Yellow Ribbon; Yellow Ribbon Redux; Two Cakes!
Word count: 1397
Shipping Wars
Ship (Team): Helga Hufflepuff/Salazar Slytherin (Green Badger)
List (Prompt): Summer Micro 2 (Garden)