The landlord hands him Helga's owl when he gets back to the inn. He opens and reads it. He cannot believe what it says. Sara is dead? But he left her under Sal's protection… Sal has left? He storms off to Hogwarts and demands answers. His wife's dead body and a disheveled, confused Helga greet him. Rowena is said to be so distraught that she is confined to her tower. Helga produces a rambling, hastily cooked up story that makes no sense and that she doesn't really expect him to believe. And anyway, he doesn't really care about how his wife died and why his friend left. What happened is that his best friend has abandoned him, and Sara whom he left in his care is dead.
Reasons occur to him aplenty- Godric is much more perceptive than people give him credit for. He even thinks he knows the reason for Rowena's strange behavior, but that is too horrible for him to consider. Sara's death doesn't move him as much as it should; love had no place in their political marriage. But Salazar! That is another matter entirely.
He and Salazar weren't just friends. Their relationship went back to the time when they were infants, when Lord and Lady Slytherin took in the orphaned Godric. They were brothers in all but blood. They complemented each other so well. Godric couldn't have shone in the battlefield without knowing that Sal had his back. He couldn't have gone on his adventures and quests without the reassurance that Sal was looking after things at home. He had trusted Sal with his life. And the bastard had betrayed and abandoned him.
Godric can't understand- why? Why did Sal leave them, the school, Rowena and the children? Was it for Sara? Was she really worth our friendship, wouldn't I have given her up in a moment for you? He rages and curses, and then breaks down and weeps. Helga takes charge, and comforts him. Dear old dependable Helga. Although something seems wrong with her nowadays. Sara is buried, and he determinedly casts Sal out of his mind. Rowena gradually recovers, but she isn't the same as she used to be. But then, he asks himself, can any of us pass through these events and come out unchanged? Can anything be how it used to be?