Chapter 283: Helena
The matter was actually quite straightforward. The deadline for Buckbeak's appeal was fast approaching. It was set for the final day of exams.
However, they had received news that, in addition to the members of the Committee for the Disposal of Dangerous Creatures, the Executioner would also be present. This made Harry and his friends deeply uneasy, feeling that something was amiss.
It seemed those people were already determined to execute Buckbeak and had no intention of waiting for the appeal results before making a decision.
At this point, Harry exchanged a look with Ron. Both their eyes held the same worry.
Harry then continued to tell Dylan, "Although Hermione doesn't want to believe it, we don't really want to believe it either."
"But we feel the possibility is high, so we plan to prepare for both contingencies." He paused, his tone becoming firmer. "If they really plan to execute Buckbeak regardless of the appeal's result, we'll free him beforehand!"
Dylan listened, placed the closed briefcase on the headboard, then bent down and picked up Coal. He stretched out his hand and stroked the small creature repeatedly from the top of its head to the tip of its tail, feeling the soft fur in his arms.
Then, he looked up at Harry and asked in a flat tone, "So? Do you want me to help?"
"No, no, no, we know you don't like getting involved in side issues like this." Harry quickly shook his head vigorously, his face showing a trace of nervousness, afraid Dylan would refuse before he finished speaking. He hurriedly explained.
"I wanted to ask you to help retrieve the Invisibility Cloak. Last time, I tried to take the secret passage and was nearly caught by Snape. In a rush, I sealed the passage, but the Invisibility Cloak fell into the secret passage under the statue of the one-eyed, humpbacked witch."
"I suspect Snape might be watching that area, but it won't be a problem if you go. He won't suspect you."
Dylan thought about it and decided the matter wasn't too much trouble.
"Oh... alright then. I'll go check for you."
The statue of the one-eyed, humpbacked witch was on the fourth floor. He needed to move around more recently anyway. It wouldn't take much effort to grab it in passing.
So, Dylan nodded, agreeing to Harry's request.
"Really? Thank you so much!"
Helena
That night, Dylan and Luna first went to the Forbidden Forest. However, he didn't see the little Centaur, which caused him to frown. Dylan had originally intended to go directly to the Centaur settlement. However, with Luna there, he temporarily put the matter aside.
Time flowed on.
Early on the Saturday morning before exam week. The sky was still only faintly bright, a thin layer of mist still permeated the corridor, and the air carried a slight chill.
The Grey Lady, as usual, floated by the corridor window, quietly looking out at the scenery, her form appearing somewhat hazy in the morning light. Suddenly, a faint sound of student footsteps approached from a distance. The Grey Lady habitually prepared to leave, intending to find another quiet place to stay. After all, she never liked being disturbed.
Just then, the student spoke: "Helena Ravenclaw, hello."
This name, which had been absent for countless years, now entering her ear, carried a strange power. The Grey Lady's figure suddenly froze in mid-air. She could barely believe her ears. She slowly turned around to face the student, her expression carrying a hint of unfriendliness, even alertness and aloofness.
However, when her gaze fell upon the student, or more accurately, on the object in his hand, she couldn't help but gasp, her eyes widening in shock. She instinctively raised her hand to cover her mouth, her eyes full of disbelief.
"You needn't be alarmed. I am here to present your mother's relic. This is done according to her instructions."
Dylan held a piece of yellowed parchment in one hand. The edges of the parchment were slightly worn, indicating its age. Resting on the parchment was Rowena Ravenclaw's Diadem.
The diadem's luster was somewhat dull, lacking its former brilliance, and it had some strange marks on it it looked like a melted cockroach had been imprinted on it. However, the mark was faint, barely visible without careful inspection.
"Mother, it's Mother..." Helena Ravenclaw murmured, her voice trembling uncontrollably.
In that moment, Dylan's figure seemed to completely disappear from her sight. Her entire mind was firmly captivated by the Diadem. She slowly reached out her ghostly hand, wanting to hold the crown that held countless memories.
But when her fingers passed through the crown without any resistance, she was jolted back to the realization that she was a ghost, no longer able to genuinely touch physical objects as she had in life.
"Where did you find this diadem?" Her words already admitted that she was Helena Ravenclaw. But her tone and expression showed that she still harbored doubts; otherwise, she would not have posed the question or revealed such complex emotions, as if encountering a long-lost loved one.
Helena knew clearly that Ravenclaw's Diadem was kept in the Room of Requirement. But as a ghost, she could not enter it on her own. This implied that at least after Voldemort placed the diadem in the Room of Requirement, and before Dylan retrieved it, she had accompanied someone who entered the junk room of the Room of Requirement and discovered the diadem there.
Yet, how could someone who could discover the Room of Requirement only enter it once? From this, it's reasonable to imagine that while Helena Ravenclaw might not be able to see the diadem at any time, she should certainly not have such intense emotions, as if separated for hundreds of years.
"In the Room of Requirement, madam."
Dylan glanced at the empty corridor. The morning light filtered through the windows, casting dappled shadows on the floor. The silence was so profound that he could hear his own breathing. "How about we go to the secret chamber left by Lady Rowena Ravenclaw to talk? There is also a letter she left for you there."
In truth, Dylan didn't need to say more. The majority of Helena's attention had already settled on the parchment. However, in her current state, she couldn't pick up the paper and could only watch it.
Hearing Dylan's suggestion, Helena nodded, her figure flickering before she vanished directly into the ceiling.
"I'll wait for you at the entrance to the Room of Requirement," her voice came from above, tinged with urgency.
Dylan shook his head helplessly, carefully putting the diadem and the parchment back into his satchel, and walked toward the eighth floor. He wasn't ready to let Helena meet Ravenclaw yet. He would bring her to the secret chamber first to see her reaction.
If he were to simply abduct Helena, the school might notice. After all, Helena was not like Peeves; no one would care if he went missing.
The Secret Chamber
When Dylan arrived on the eighth floor and reached the tapestry depicting Barnabas the Barmy being clubbed by Trolls, he walked back and forth three times in front of the wall. Subsequently, complex patterns gradually appeared on the wall.
These patterns intertwined, eventually forming an entrance that was distinctly different from the Room of Requirement seen at other times, radiating a mysterious and ancient aura.
"This is..." Helena's figure emerged from the wall, looking at the special doorway with surprise and curiosity.
"This is the secret chamber left by Rowena Ravenclaw, the most intelligent of the four Founders." Dylan extended his hand in a gesture of invitation. "Please."
Helena's heart was clearly hesitant, her eyes lingering on the doorway for a moment, but ultimately, she couldn't suppress the longing in her heart and drifted forward.
Passing through the entrance, the sight that met her eyes was not the imagined extravagance but a style that was elegant yet simple. Rows of bookshelves lined the wall, neatly filled with many books, some with yellowed and curling pages. The room also contained various workbenches scattered with draft papers, densely covered with handwriting, seemingly reflecting the owner's focus during her research years ago.
The overwhelming sense of familiarity made it impossible for Helena to doubt that this was indeed her mother's former secret chamber!
Helena slowly floated to a corner of the chamber. Next to a bookshelf was a raw wooden table covered with a blank piece of parchment. She stopped by the chair, quietly observing the table and chair, her eyes full of nostalgia. On the pen holder not far from the blank parchment, several quills were inserted. The ink on one of them looked as if it had been dipped recently, showing no signs of having dried up.
Everything before her eyes made it seem as though Rowena Ravenclaw had only temporarily stepped away and could return at any moment to continue writing lines of wisdom on the paper.
"This letter was originally placed here." Dylan took the parchment from his satchel and gently placed it on the table, covering the blank parchment.
Helena nodded toward him, then floated closer to the letter, her mind completely immersed in the words on the parchment. Although she could no longer touch physical objects, she subconsciously adopted a sitting posture, floating quietly on the chair, concentrating on the content of the letter.
Dylan didn't interrupt the mother and daughter's conversation spanning a thousand years. He slowly walked to the opposite corner and opened a cabinet. The cabinet originally held several robes left by Ravenclaw, but most had long since decayed. Only a few, which had been magically treated, remained intact, but the magical fluctuations on them were extremely weak, almost dissipated.
Dylan took one of the intact robes from the cabinet, then drew his wand and pointed it at an empty bottle on the table. As a faint glow flashed from the tip of his wand, the empty bottle instantly changed, gradually lengthening and shaping. It eventually transformed into a solid wood mannequin.
He stepped forward, carefully draped the robe over the mannequin, then took the diadem from his satchel and gently placed it on the mannequin's head. Having done this, Dylan stepped back a little to observe it. He then took his wand again and began to refine the mannequin's face.
Recalling Rowena Ravenclaw's appearance, he waved his wand, conjuring soft, long hair with a natural curve. Then, he adjusted the mannequin's features piece by piece, refining the contours of the eyebrows, eyes, and nose bridge, striving to match the image in his memory.
"Mother's eyes weren't that big."
Unbeknownst to Dylan, Helena had finished reading the letter and floated behind him. Her voice was calm but carried an undeniable certainty. "But they were very profound... You captured that point well. When she looked at you, you felt that any thought in your mind was transparent to her."
Dylan blinked, about to say something, but Helena continued.
"That wasn't the effect of Legilimency in fact, my mother didn't like that type of magic; Slytherin was fonder of it. It was a kind of penetrating insight, as if she could see through anything in the world at a glance."
Despite her words, Ravenclaw apparently failed to see through her own daughter.
Dylan didn't respond, but continued to modify the wooden statue of Ravenclaw under Helena's occasional guidance. She would point out that her mother's lip curve should be softer, the cheekbones slightly harder she didn't overlook any detail.
There was already a statue of Ravenclaw at Hogwarts, but that one was in the Ravenclaw common room. This one, completed under Helena's personal supervision, would presumably be more realistic than the other, unless the other statue was made by Rowena Ravenclaw herself.
After the final modification, Helena gazed at the wooden statue, falling into a long silence. The diadem on the statue, though having lost its former magic, still exuded solemnity. Coupled with the simple robe and the face closely resembling Rowena, it was as if the great witch truly stood before them.
After a long while, she slowly turned to look at Dylan.
"I don't know how you removed the dark magic from this diadem, but thank you for letting me see the diadem as it should be, and for my mother's letter."
At this moment, Helena had recovered her usual demeanor aloof and reserved. But the persistent melancholy and sorrow in her eyes had disappeared, replaced by an inexplicable serenity, as if a great burden had been lifted.
"But I apologize... the world has changed too much. I have nothing left with which to repay you."
"However, I am about to set off. Regardless of your House, since you could enter the chamber left by my mother, you must have sufficient curiosity. Perhaps you would like to see this letter?"
"You're leaving?" A hint of surprise showed on Dylan's face. He hadn't expected Helena to make such a decision.
"Yes, leaving." Helena offered a faint smile, a smile that held relief and a trace of anticipation for the future.
.......
AN: Check out my P@treon For +80 extra chapters.
Thank You For your Support!!
👉 Join now: patreon.com/Chaos_God