Hogwarts Study Panel.

Chapter 378, Section 376: Ghostly Past (3k)

"Are you Ms. Grey?"

Hermione rushed over and asked, while Justin cautiously cast a whispering spell and then looked around as if facing a formidable enemy.

The ghost nodded without saying a word.

"Are you also a ghost of the Ravenclaw Tower?"

Hermione added carefully.

"good."

Her tone was not warm at all.

"Please, we need help. We need you to tell us everything about the missing crown."

Hermione finished speaking in one breath.

It seemed that only in this way could she alleviate the terrible unease in her heart.

"I am afraid,"

The Ghost Lady's lips twisted into a cold laugh as she turned to leave, saying, "I can't help you."

"etc!"

Hermione panicked for a moment, but anger and tension almost overwhelmed her. The ghost hovered right in front of her.

"The matter is urgent."

She said anxiously.

"You're not the first student to covet the crown."

The ghost lady said dismissively, "Generation after generation of students have been haunting me."

"We found him! Oh no, we found Sheen!"

Hermione said her panic vanished like snow when Sheehan's name was mentioned.

The ghost's gaze immediately fell on the little wizard beside her, or rather, she had been watching him from the very beginning.

"You found it?"

"The Ghost Lady asked."

"Yes, Miss Helena."

Sheen said.

The atmosphere then became quiet. The Ghost Lady carefully examined Sheen, her eyes flashing with a variety of complex emotions before finally settling into calm.

"Would you like to go take a look?"

Sheen said softly.

"Lead the way."

The ghost lady floated to Sheen's side.

She didn't look at Hermione and Justin again.

Ten minutes later.

The House of Requirement welcomed guests once again.

As the ghost lady gazed at the room that could change shape at will, her gray eyes dimmed.

"I have some questions. In exchange, I will answer them."

Lady Ghost looked at Sheen.

"Please speak."

Sheen waved his wand, and the crown reappeared before everyone's eyes.

"How did you find it?"

"That's what Lady Ghost said."

"Voldemort hid it in the Room of Requirement."

Sheen said.

"It's your turn to ask a question."

"That's what Lady Ghost said."

"Do you wish to be reborn in the Pure Land?"

Sheen said carefully.

"Sheen"

Justin whispered to himself, both he and Hermione looking puzzled.

"We came here to break the crown curse, and in doing so, we use the crown, right?"

Hermione asked again, still puzzled.

Before Justin could respond, the Ghost Lady's voice rang out softly.

"She chose you—she'll always be like this, and that's what makes me resentful—if she were more ruthless, I—"

A grayish-white bead fell from the corner of the Ghost Lady's eye as she murmured.

After a long while, the Ghost Lady finally spoke to Sheen: "I—have long since lost all face—"

"I understand, it's your turn to ask."

Sheen lowered his eyes and said.

How did you know my name?

"The ghost lady asked."

"Mr. Owl told me."

Sheen said in a low voice.

"Raven? Ha—it has never spoken to me. Of course, you were chosen by her, they were chosen together, but I wasn't."

A mocking smile played on the Ghost Lady's lips. She glanced at Sheehan, but ultimately said nothing more. "Ask your questions, little wizard. You may ask me three more."

Just as Sheehan was about to speak, Justin had already exchanged a glance with Hermione and quietly moved closer.

"May I ask you a question?"

He said.

"it is good."

Sheen looked at them and knew they must be very anxious.

"Ms. Helena, do you know how Ravenclaw's tiara was found and subsequently made into a Horcrux?"

Justin asked.

The ghost lady became impassive, floating in the air, looking down at Justin.

"That's a long story—once upon a time, I stole a crown from my mother."

"What—what did you do?"

Hermione's eyes widened.

"I stole the tiara," Helena Ravenclaw repeated, glancing past the two men at Sheehan, "because I wanted to be smarter and more famous than my mother. So I ran away with the tiara."

Justin and Hermione were bewildered, but forced themselves to listen carefully to what the Ghost Lady was saying: "They said that my mother never admitted that the crown was missing, and she always pretended that the crown was still there."

She even concealed her loss from several other founders of Hogwarts, and from my terrible betrayal.

Later, my mother fell seriously ill. Although I had done something unfilial and unjust, she still longed to see me one more time.

She sent a man to find me; he had loved me for a long time, but I rejected him. My mother knew that man wouldn't give up until he found me.

She took a deep breath and tilted her head back.

"He found the forest where I was hiding. I refused to go back with him, and he flew into a rage. Barrow has always been a hot-tempered man. He hated that I had rejected him and was jealous of my freedom, so he stabbed me to death."

"Barrow? You mean one?"

'

Justin and Hermione felt like they had stumbled into a terrible place and overheard some horrible secret.

"Barrow the Blood Man, yes,"

As she spoke, Ms. Grey lifted her cloak, revealing a black wound on her snow-white chest. "When he came to his senses, he was filled with remorse and took the weapon that had taken my life, and committed suicide. So many centuries have passed, and he still wears shackles to this day as an act of repentance—he deserves it."

She added with a cold laugh.

"Then—then what about the crown?"

They asked together.

"I heard Barrow stumbling toward me in the forest, so I hid it and left it there ever since. It was hidden inside a hollow tree."

"A hollow tree? What kind of tree? Where?"

"In a forest in Albania. A desolate place, where I thought my mother was out of reach."

"Albania—and then what? How could this happen—"

"I—I don't know!"

The Ghost Lady's expression turned to terrifying resentment. "I could never see it! Of course, it was my stupidity, and she knew it all along."

After her terrifying outburst of resentment, the Ghost Lady said absentmindedly, "Voldemort, he—he's very likable. He seems—almost understanding—and compassionate—"

He deceived us of the information and tarnished the crown with the most heinous act, an irreversible act that I will never forgive. If anyone wants to kill him, I am willing to pay any price.

"You're not the only one deceived by Riddle's sweet talk, ma'am. He can make himself very charming when he needs to—"

My mother said that the human heart is the most unpredictable thing.

Justin offered words of comfort.

Hermione was already dejected.

They still received the worst answer.

"Perhaps—you still have two questions."

The Ghost Lady let out a low scoff.

"How is life as a ghost?"

Just when Justin and Hermione had no idea what else to ask, Sheehan spoke up.

"Loneliness, regret—this is the shameful life I deserve—what other answers do you want to know?"

"That's what the Ghost Lady said with a self-deprecating smile."

"Perhaps it's time for you to leave."

Sheen sighed silently.

Ravenclaw's crown has, of course, suffered irreversible damage.

Sheen had anticipated this.

The reason he didn't destroy Ravenclaw's crown quickly was simply because he saw some extra information in the Book of Ghosts: "Wizards who become ghosts have obsessions that are hard for ordinary people to imagine, but these obsessions need to be supported."

If there are no people waiting for them in the world of souls, then even ghosts will get lost.

This is reflected in their increasingly blurred intelligence and emotions.

In other words, at the end of death, on the other side of the curtain.

Ravenclaw may still be waiting silently, perhaps having wandered for thousands of years in the twilight before the dawn breaks over the borderlands.

"You have one more question."

The ghost lady was somewhat lost in thought; she had been immersed in sorrow and shame for thousands of years.

She had grown accustomed to her desperate situation and didn't need anyone to intrude into this terrible despair.

"I'm fine now."

Sheen said.

At the same time, he slowly raised his wand, and a huge stone guardian rose up again, taking the fangs that floated from the Wizarding Book, about to destroy the crown with lightning speed.

At this moment, Bai Yi returned from the wind and snow.

It was pounding on the window, and in its claws it was carrying a sword inlaid with rubies.

"A dignified end."

With a flick of his wand, Sheen commanded the stone guardian to obey his will, shattering the crown in a single blow to the astonishment of the group.

A blood-like, black, viscous substance was seeping out from the crown.

The group felt the crown vibrate violently before it shattered into pieces inside the wooden cabinet.

As it cracked open, everyone faintly heard an extremely faint, extremely distant scream of agony, not coming from the castle or the playground, but from the thing that had just shattered.

A head shrouded in black smoke burst forth from the crown and headed straight for Sheen.

Justin didn't hesitate to pounce on him.

But then another unexpected event occurred: after roaring and thrashing, the black head vanished into nothingness.

"You—Green, this is Ravenclaw's crown!"

The Ghost Lady screamed in shock.

"The wisdom of a wizard is never contained in a crown."

Sheen said calmly.

The Ghost Lady was first taken aback, then lost in thought for a moment before she suddenly realized something.

Perhaps that's what sets him apart from others.

Beside the Ghost Lady, Hermione was frozen in terror.

The Room of Requirement fell silent, except for Helena's sudden, low, hearty laughter.

She rejoiced at the destruction of a fragment of Voldemort's soul: "The basilisk's fangs—the venom-soaked sword—can destroy the Horcrux's substance. Anyway, I thank you, Mr. Grimm, for making amends for my mistake and—giving it a dignified exit."

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