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Helga Hufflepuff and the House of Hufflepuff
Helga Hufflepuff and the House of Hufflepuff
Helga Hufflepuff is one of the biggest witches of the medieval times, if not of all times. Her first name comes from the Scandinavian word Helga which means holy. Her last name, Hufflepuff, is also the name of the house she created when together with the other three founders she established the already mentioned Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry. It can mean either huff and puff, or it can be translated bit by bit. Thus, Huff means to breathe and Puff is a Medieval word for pastry, which together would mean to exude sacred sweetness or something along those lines.
It is not known where Helga Hufflepuff comes from, but by what the Sorting Hat says about her, "sweet Hufflepuff, from valley broad", it is believed that her origins are from Wales.
She was very hard-working, helpful, loyal and patient. As she grew up she showed more and more interest in cooking charms, and soon she was widely known for her excellence with food-related charms. Later on many of her delicious recipes were used at feasts in Hogwarts, and by nowadays, it's basically a tradition to serve most of Helga's food at almost any feast, for any event, or even as dinner each day.
She was also a fighter for rights as Godric. Though while Godric fought for the rights of muggle-borns, Helga fought for the rights of House-elves. She wanted them to be treated the best they can be, and later on she even made Hogwarts itself a refuge for them. She let them work in the kitchen and prepare food and such, and they were treated very kindly there. She basically made sure that most of them (since not all of the house-elves were there) would not be abused or treated badly.
They didn't pay them for their work, but neither did any of their owners (those that had house-elves) and they didn't object, as it's in house-elves' blood to work and help their owner. Later, there was a certain house elf named Dobby that earned 1 galleon a week for working in the Hogwarts' kitchens, but that was when Albus Dumbledore was Headmaster of the school. The Headmaster actually offered him 10 galleons per week, but Dobby only accepted 1.
Helga was very friendly, and she made friends with anyone, though probably her closest friend was Rowena Rawenclaw. The only person she didn't quite get along with was Salazar Slytherin, after he objected to let muggle-borns study in Hogwarts.
When it comes to students, Helga was the one who wasn't picky at all. She accepted in her house anyone that wanted to study. While the other houses chose their students by characteristics, like bravery and intelligence, and let only those in their houses, she was kind enough to let anyone in her house, even the ones the other houses wouldn't accept. Later, the other houses tended to make fun out of Hufflepuff, as usually people believed the house to have only the "bad" students that no other house would take, but this was proven wrong with time. Hufflepuff has had quite successful students, such as Cedric Diggory being chosen as a Triwizard Champion, where he did an awesome job. Sadly the event took place in a bad period when You-Know-Who had great power, so Cedric didn't survive to meet his fame.
Here's what the Sorting Hat says about Hufflepuff:
"You might belong in Hufflepuff,
Where they are just and loyal,
Those patient Hufflepuff are true
And unafraid of toil."
That just proves that Helga favored hard work, fair play, honesty, and loyalty, in her house.
The house symbol is the badger, while the house colors are black and yellow. It's said that Hufflepuff roughly represents the element of earth. The house's Common Room is located at a dungeons level (so below the ground floor). To find it, you need to enter a door to the right of the main staircase in the Entrance Hall and then down a staircase from there. It's near the kitchen, and the entrance is a painting. To reach the dormitories you need to go through small tunnels that have round doors, like barrel tops. Thus it makes them look like a badger sett.
The House Ghost is the Fat Friar, who just like Nearly Headless Nick is a jolly ghost who likes welcoming first years.
Helga's properties include a small magical golden cup engraved with a badger, and that has two finely wrought handles. Hepzibah Smith thinks that this cup has great magical powers, but she didn't have the time to investigate it more deeply. Tom Riddle stole the cup after she was murdered. Afterward, Tom Riddle, later known as Voldemort, made it a horcrux.
It is also not know how Helga's life ended, but she did stay with Rowena and Godric in Hogwarts for many years.
That's it! Click here to be taken to this month's lesson.
Credit for this month's lesson (reference):http://www.hp-lexicon.org/wizards/founders.html#Hufflepuffhttp://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Helga_Hufflepuffhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hogwarts#Hufflepuffhttp://www.hp-lexicon.org/hogwarts/sorting_hat.htmlhttp://www.hp-lexicon.org/hogwarts/houses/hufflepuff.html
Wizard Card #72 © Electronic Arts ™Images © DeviantArt, Pottermore and Zoki PhantomLesson © Zoki Phantom
Wizard Card #72 © Electronic Arts ™Images © DeviantArt, Pottermore and Zoki PhantomLesson © Zoki Phantom
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