Chapter 5

The first time ever Rowena and Helga caught Salazar and Godric arguing more heatedly than ever before was many years later, after the number of students kept growing and growing along with the wizarding community. The girls were walking together back to their quarters when they heard Godric's raised voice coming from an empty classroom. "It's not right, Salazar. Muggle-borns are wizards too. We can't just start discriminating them. Keeping them out of your house was bad enough, but at least there's still the rest of us who are willing to educate them. Now you want to deny all of them entry to our school?"

"I don't trust them, Godric! You've known I don't like the idea ever since this issue was raised. Now there are too many of them… staining our school! I can't stand it anymore."

Godric looked as if he was seeing his old friend for the first time. "Staining our school? You sound like a narrow-minded, paranoid, arrogant prick, Salazar."

"Oh, what do I care what you think of me? I'm going to talk to Rowena and Helga. They might see more sense than you."

"They'd never agree with you! They've always wanted everyone to get equal chance to receive education here. You have no good reason to not welcome them here other than blood prejudice. Which is really stupid, because, how could you judge someone by what they were born as?"

"Spare me the moral lecture, Godric. I'm talking to the girls and we'll see whose side they are on."

"There is no need," Rowena said as she pushed the door wider and stepped into the classroom. "We're here and we heard everything. And, Salazar… I have to say Godric is right."

Salazar looked surprised, then hurt, before he finally turned to Helga. "You too?"

Helga hesitated, looking between him, Godric, and Rowena. She was always the one who liked confrontation least, especially when it happened between the four of them. Especially when she had to take sides. And especially because she really, really cared about Salazar. Except lately, she too, could hardly recognize him anymore. He'd argued with Godric way more often than ever this year alone, and she could sense that their friendship was cracking, and she'd been terrified that it would eventually be broken beyond repair. Now she had the feeling that that moment might be right now. And she had no idea what she had to do to stop it.

"Helga, please, just be honest with me," Salazar said again. "You do understand where I'm coming from, right?"

Helga had tears in her eyes when she finally looked up at him. "I'm… I'm sorry, Salazar, but you of all people should know that I always treat everyone equally."

Salazar sighed, looking defeated. But even more so, he also looked betrayed. He shook his head and walked out of there without another word. Helga had a terrifying premonition as she watched his back retreat and finally disappear, leaving the three of them alone.

Salazar left the school a week later. It was devastating to his three friends, of course, but they also realized how much he'd changed over the years. How much they had all changed.

"Sometimes I feel as if it was a bad idea, dividing our students into houses like that," Helga said as she stood by the window, watching Salazar walk down the front stairs of the castle. Leaving Hogwarts forever. Her heart was breaking, and she still hoped he would turn around and change his mind. Tell them that he was wrong. But Salazar was beyond reason. If there was one thing Helga regretted the most, it was her failure to convince him to stay.

"Maybe," Rowena conceded softly as she sat on the chair beside her friend, looking around the office they'd shared between the four of them for years.

Godric stood with his arms crossed, leaning on the doorway. "Can this school remain standing with just the three of us?" he finally voiced the question that neither girl had been brave enough to ask.

All three of them looked at each other doubtfully, but eventually it was Rowena who said, "It has to. We don't have another choice. We owe it to our students."

Helga and Godric nodded, and they did try their best to keep the school afloat. But the friendship between them had changed too much to return to how it was, especially with a missing part. It was just never the same again, and eventually the rest of them, too, went their separate ways, leaving the school in good hands with a heavy heart.

Hogwarts just didn't feel the same without all four of them in it anymore, and the memories left behind too painful to relive every day.

When Helga thought back to the beginning, to their happier days, she couldn't stop wondering what went wrong or what they—what she—could've done differently to keep them from falling apart. But she soon learned that sometimes things just change. Even the best of friends could drift apart. And even someone whom we used to love could eventually become someone we no longer recognize.

And sometimes, there's just nothing we can do about it.