She wasn't a coward. However that didn't mean Helga didn't appreciate being safe inside the boundries of her new school, surrounded by children and safe in the arms of her husband. Safe away from the war.

'Don't be silly darling!' Rowena's voice echoed in her memory. 'muggles setting fire to each other over land and crying witch is not a war. Not against us at any rate'

It was a comforting thought, but perhaps not an accurate one. Not if the rumors brought from france by a young man named Mal Fois and his veela bride were true.

'her family went up in a pillar of flame. The servents doused the house in flames and walked out the front door after knocking over the lamps. Real witches and wizards are burning in France. They want us Madame Hufflepuff. Not our lands, not our galleons, they desire our blood. And we must fight back."

The worst part was that Salazar seemed to agree with him. They had even fought over it. They never fought, and his words still rang in her ears.

'You're being deliberately blind Helga. It won't take long for a muggleborn to have family come under witchhunter scrutney. How long would it take for a mother to sell out one witch bairn for the safety of six others?' Her hand had rested on her firming abdomen.

'No mother could trade away her childs' life Salazar. Who could send her child to be burnt?'

'A woman with others to think of. A muggle who can't use the potions to hel her other sick children. To keep hunger away. A woman who faces life in the poorhouse without a man to till her soil and feed her five other bairns? Oh yes Helga, you have grown up in a privlaged pureblooded family in the city. You have never seen a woman choose between one life and many. These serfs do it, and without guilt or thought. They will let one bairn die and shrive themselves at their confessional to their brutish bloodthirsty god, and ne'er think twice.'

But the fight was over. She had cried and he had held her, and kissed her and run his hands over the round swelling of life cradled firmly inside her. He had laid he down, loved her gently and sweetly, and promised her safety. Safety for her student and their little family. The safety of Hogwarts.

***

"I think the new game up from queerditch marsh would be a good thing to let the wee ones play! Ro, tell them what you told me, about making sure the bairnes get lots of practice with hands and eyes!" Rowena just smiled serenely at Helga as her wand spelled the self knitting needles.

"Yes dear, the children do need to learn to move their hands as quickly as their eyes, but really, playing with balls on brooms? Godric, you are positively Queerditch mad."

"It would be good for them Ro! Let them work on diving and...oh! evasive flying!" The smugness dripped from the words. "You can't deny that's a good trait to possess!" Rowena smiled at Helga, rolling her eyes.

"There darling, now you can just knit with white wool, and the blankets and clothes will turn pink or blue when you put them on the wee one. Save's time and wool." She preened, sticking her wand back behind her ear absently. "Darling, where's Salazar? This is supposed to be a head of staff meeting, and we need our entire head of staff here to do it." Helga's lips curled down into a frown.

"He had a meeting with that french boy. Did you know they changed their name to Malfoy, just to escape the french? I keep telling them, the french aren't going to come looking for him, but they don't listen..." Her voice broke off in a gasp as the door slammed open, and she gave a small gasp.

"Salazar!" His hair was singed at the ends, the silver streaks at his temples dimmed with soot. He reaked of smoke and a sickly sweet smell, knuckles bloodied and raw.

"I want them out. Get all of them out of your houses while you can, we'll send them home now, because by god, I will not allow the beasts here any longer!" Helga felt her heart skip a beat as she hovered next to the man.

" Salazar, what do you mean? What happened, come sit down." He glared at her. He actually glared at her, as if he wished his wife was somewhere, someone else.

"I will not sit down." His voice was scathing. " I make motion to remove all muggle born students from Hogwarts immediantly. Today! They come from boorish, blood thirsty stock and I will not have another of my student, students who belong here, endangered by their very presence! I've already begun culling them out of my house." Helga felt her stomach lurch.

"You...you've begun removing children from the house of Hufflepuff and Slytherin without...without consulting me?! How dare you! They are my students as well, and nothing done could be worth..."

"I just attended a witch burning." His words caught them all by surprise. She sank slowly into a chair. " Those were not muggles led to the stake Helga. I watched them try to apperate, I listened as they tried to spell themselves to safety, and I watched as not just muggles, but a muggleborn wizard in thir riduculous holy garb set and removed the wards to keep them at the stake. I watched those boys burn, because if I had moved to save them, there would have been no escape for any of us. Those beasts, those demons dressed as children will leave this school and they will leave this very night by Merlin!"

"Salazar, they're just children!" her eyes had tears in them but her voice stayed steady. "It wasn't them."

He spun around and his glare took her by surprise. He'd never looked at her like that before. His eyes had always been so warm. Not these chips of smoked glass boring into hers.

"Tell that to the Blacks. They lost two sons to witch hunters. Muggles who knew our world. Muggles who could not have learned anything of us if not from those children so vhemently protected by you. They broke their wands Helga. They broke their wands and broke their jaws so they couldn't speak a spell to save themselves and burnt them at the stake. Protect your precious Muggle blooded children if you will, but don't ask the same of me." His robes billowed as he spun on his heel, marching from the room. The bile rose in her throat, burning.

"Godric?" his hand rested heavily on her shoulder. " I need you to find me a set of rooms, for myself and my students." Rowena's needles clattered as they fell to the ground."They need a house." Her hads clenched into fists. Her husband had drawn a line in the sand, and he would be the first to cross it again. He would come to her.

Helga was no coward.