Helga Hufflepuff

Dame Helga Hufflepuff is a kind and gentle witch, and one of the founders of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. She does not believe in segregating the houses and is willing to train any witch or wizard.

Appearances
Helga Hufflepuff stands at 5'6" in height. She is a plump woman with a round face. She had long, curly blond hair that usually looks a bit windswept from working outside in the gardens. She has large, round eyes the perfect shade of robin's egg blue. They are kind eyes that usually gain others trust easily. Every now and again, however, when she thinks no one is looking, her smile which is almost always on her face, seems sadder. These are the moments when she's thinking of her husband and how little time they truly had together. Helga, while her clothes are of good quality and condition, does not dress up to the part of her status. She tends to wear sturdy clothing that ais long -asting. She's always been a very piratical girl and is almost never seen without her apron, usually because she forgot to take it off.

Personality
Helga was always a maternal sort, helping her mother out with her younger brothers and sisters. Being born to a poor family, she was no stranger to hard work and, even after marrying into money, continued to do many things for herself, such as cooking and tending garden. She always found comfort in such pastimes. Always an honest woman, Helga will always be truthful when she is asked a question, though she is known to sugar oat the hard to swallow bits when possible. Above all else, the quickest way to make the even-tempered Welsh woman angry is to lie to her. She believes in fair play and loyalty. Even after her husband went missing so many years ago, Helga still remains loyal to him.

One of Helga's main flaws, however, is that she tends to be motherly to those who don't want her to be their mom, such as when she clicks her tongue disapprovingly at Godric for falling into yet another woman's bed. She's known for trying to push her friends into relationships, wither they were wanted or not because she realizes how short life can be. Helga also tends to be a bit of a pushover, wanting to maintain the peace between the four founders of Hogwarts, she tends to give in more than she would like, usually regretting it later.

History
Helga Hufflepuff was born Helga Gwyther to Sir Digon and Dame Enid. She was the eldest daughter, though she had one older brother, Owin, and four younger siblings. A brother, Casnar, and three sisters, Mairwen, Cadi, and Wynnifred.

Born in the valleys of the South of Wales, Helga's family, while born with their royal title, was a poor family. Having to sell off most of the family homes two generations back, they were left with just one stone manor in the center of some farmland, which the family tended to run themselves.

Helga was brought up cooking, cleaning, helping tend the gardens while her brothers took care of the livestock. She helped raise her younger siblings, taking care of them when they were ill.

She learned magic from both her mother and father, for that was one thing the Gwythers had in abundance, family magic books.

Now, Helga might have married a farmer, despite her blood status, and went on to live as a farmer's wife, had fate not knocked on her door in the form of her Auntie Idella, her mother's older sister, who had married much higher than Helga's mother had.

Idella had decided that she would take her sister's children under her wing and see that they were married off well. Owin, who was already engaged was passed over and Helga was the one Idella first brought to her manor further north. It was at one of her Auntie's parties that 12 year old Helga saw Sir Heathcliff Hufflepuff for the first time. He was a knight from a much wealthier family than her own and about five years her senior and her Auntie informed her that Heathcliff was to be her husband and that her Auntie Idella would gladly put up her dowry.

This was when Helga learned than when Auntie Idella got it into her mind to do something, she just went out and did it. Helga and Healthcliff were married within the year, just a few days after her elder brother, Owin. It was a beautiful ceremony. She thought her mother might wash away from all the tears she'd shed in those few days.

Helga is the first to admit that her marriage to Heathcliff was, at first, awkward. She wasn't sure what to do and found that there was a whole new set of rules for her to follow in the Hufflepuff house. Things her mother had never taught her such as how to host a dinner party and her mother-in-law, Lynnette, informed her that a lady never ventured out to play in the dirt.

Helga still remembers, to this day, when her friendship with Heathcliff became love. It was when she was fourteen and Heathcliff had caught her crying in the gardens, feeling so frustrated because yet again she'd made his mother angry with her 'stupidity'. That was when Heathcliff had knelt down and told her to do what she did best and not to worry about what his mother thought.

Heathcliff told her that in her own house, she could go into the kitchens or into the gardens or ride around on a horse completely nude if that was what pleased her. When she pointed out that his mother was the lady of the house and not she, he just smiled at her with his charming, dimpled smile. That was the day he moved his wife out of his mother's home and into their own.

Helga planted a rose bush on either side of the manor's doors that first week they moved in.

When Helga was fifteen she gave birth to their son, Henry. Heathcliff was so pleased. She'd given him a son, an heir for his name. They had been worried she might be barren since it had taken so long, though, of course, it was only Lynnette who felt free to speak this grim thought aloud.

However, now they had their son and he was beautiful.

All was well for Helga until she was 19 and word came to her that Heathcliff, who had gone off to defend the borders of their kingdom with the other knights was lost, all they could find of his was a bloodied, dented helmet.

Helga was crushed. She kept hoping, trying to hold out hope that he'd return to her with his dimpled smile that he always wore when he thought that she was being silly. He'd have thought that too. He'd have thought she was silly for thinking him dead, for thinking he would not come back to her.

She shut herself away in her manor, dawning black and keeping the shutters drawn. She was only seen every once in a while, sitting on her window sill and looking out the window, watching the road leading to the manor, waiting as the seasons came and went.

It was almost a year before she stepped out and finally allowed for visitors. It was Rowena Ravenclaw, a dear friend, her best friend, who she allowed to see her first.

Helga was pale and her face splotchy, her hair was knotted and she was hardly in receiving clothes. She looked at her dear friend and embraced her. "I need something," she told Rowena, her voice thick with tears. "I need something in my life, Rowena. Something to work for, to work toward. I can't just keep waiting... Lynnette, the wicked woman, keeps writing me letters. She wishes me to marry Toby," she mentioned her Heathcliff's younger brother. "Toby sweet but he is not my Heathcliff and he deserves so much better than a woman who wishes he was someone other than who he is."

Now, all of the Founders have their own story when it comes to how they decided to start Hogwarts, they all have their own way of thinking and of who said what first. If you ask Helga how they began their school, she will tell you that, for her, it was this moment.

It didn't take long before she and Rowena decided that the best action was a school. Rowena was always brilliant and Helga wanted a goal, she wanted to help people to keep her life moving forward.

Its even hard to say how they came to mention this to Godric Gryffindor and his friend, Salazar Slytherin, but it seemed that once they got it into their heads, the school was all but built.

They choose a location far north, in Scotland. Helga was one of the first to move into Hogwarts Castle when it was built. She could not stand to live in the home she'd made with her husband any longer. She moved there and tended the grounds while making plans with the other Founders.

The last thing she did before leaving her home for the last time, three years ago was to leave a note sitting in the foyer on an old table. It was to Heathcliff should he ever return...