Ancient Wizards Return to Hogwarts...

Chapter 185 Fate, Wonderful Beyond Words

Upon hearing Rice's question, Helena frowned at first, then slowly said, "Perhaps it's because I don't want him to see Mother's crown?"

"He was sent by Rowena to find you, how could he not know you were wearing her crown?"

"I'm afraid he'll steal the crown?" Helena thought of a second possibility.

Before Rice could even speak, Barrow stepped in to defend himself: "No way! I'm not one to covet the crown; I just want to take you back to Hogwarts—"

"Then try to recall the details of what happened that day. I'm really curious, why did the two wizards argue, and why did Barrow end up stabbing you to death with a dagger?"

Helena and the excited Barrow fell silent, and a thin layer of black mist rose from their spiritual bodies at the same time.

Helena seemed to be trying hard to recall, but in the end she just shook her head helplessly and told Rice that she couldn't remember any details of that day.

After Helena reached the same conclusion as him, Barrow looked thoughtful, realizing that something was amiss.

"Look," Rice laughed, "there are plenty of suspicious points, aren't there?"

Helena pursed her lips: after Rice asked a series of questions, she also discovered the problem.

His own death seemed not as simple as it appeared in his memory.

"The crown is a very dangerous thing. Your mother put some spells on it to restrain it and conceal its sharpness, but it is, after all, made from the skull of the God-King. Do you understand what I mean?"

Helena nodded uneasily.

In fact, she didn't understand.

She was born after Ragnarok, and as a young wizard who had never experienced the divine era, Helena had no idea of ​​the power of those gods. To her, the so-called God-King and the gods were nothing more than defeated enemies of her mother, uncles, and aunts.

She could only see the enormous benefits hidden behind the crown, but not the dangers behind it.

"And that friend Barrow mentioned... Heh, I think I understand why you were able to break the seal on the crown."

According to Ravenclaw's estimation, Helena does not have the ability to break the protective spell on the crown, but with one or more treacherous friends, that would be a different story.

Helena, escaping Hogwarts with her crown, was practically a walking treasure trove. It's no wonder that others coveted her wealth, like a child carrying gold through a bustling marketplace.

The likely outcome is that the "friend" who successfully broke the crown's seal used its power to control Helena. It's important to understand that the difficulty of wielding a crown and being wielded by it to gain power is vastly different. No matter how rebellious Helena was, she refused to be a slave to the crown, and thus suffered greatly.

The killer used the power of the crown to alter Helena's memories. When Barrow came looking for them, the killer did the same, altering Barrow's memories as well. Going further, the killer manipulated the emotions of both men, ultimately leading to their deaths.

From then on, the killer completely seized Ravenclaw's crown. As for Helena's memory of "hiding the crown in the hollow tree," that was probably just a smokescreen created by the killer. The real crown had already been claimed by the killer, and what remained in the tree was likely just a beautiful replica, used to divert the attention of outsiders.

Even if someone does eventually follow in Helena and Barrow's footsteps and find their way into the forest, the crown left behind by the murderer will be enough to fool them.

Counterfeits certainly cannot bring wisdom, but the person who finds the crown will only look for the cause within himself, and who would question the crown that Ravenclaw's daughter hid away herself?

As for that flaw in the memories of the two ghosts, who else in the world could discover it besides themselves? One of these ghosts is notoriously short-tempered, and the other is arrogant and haughty. It's a favor if he even speaks to you. Who is so powerful as to force Helena and Barrow to recall the most painful day of their lives?

He was all alone now, and Rice couldn't help but clench his fists.

The perpetrator from back then may have already turned into a mound of yellow earth, so let its descendants pay this debt!

Whoever holds the crown now is guilty. Everyone knows the crown belongs to Ravenclaw, yet you pretend not to know. Do you really think you have a good temper?

The two ghosts fell silent, then after a while, the blood-man Barrow turned to Rice: "Teacher, shall we go to Albania? Professor Ravenclaw's tiara is still there—"

"I'm afraid he's gone." Helena interrupted Barrow before Rice could finish speaking.

"What?" Barrow asked, bewildered. "Some Muggle found it and picked it up?"

Helena closed her eyes, took a few deep breaths, and decided to reveal another secret hidden in her heart.

"Uncle Salazar, I hope Barrow can avoid this."

Barrow, Rice: ? ? ?

After a moment's thought, Rice dismissed Barrow.

"Can you tell me now?" Helena's words piqued Rice's curiosity. Although he was certain that the crown in the hollow tree was a fake, he still wanted to know what Helena was hiding and why the crown was no longer there.

"I... it's like this, there was a student, and I told him the address where the crown was hidden." This time, Helena's voice became very soft, and if the wind outside the tower picked up a little, Rice couldn't hear her.

"what?"

"I...he...is very good at charming people. He seems...he seems understanding and compassionate..."

Rice's expression turned strange: Is this even possible? I've never seen anything like it before!

Sometimes, he was also amazed by the imaginative ideas of the young wizards of later generations.

First, there were monks from the Secret Order entering Hogwarts in stages, and then there was an unknown young wizard who used this method to find out the whereabouts of the crown.

"So who is that student?" He was eager to know the name of this genius.

"Tom Riddle, as far as I know, he later became a dark wizard, using the alias Voldemort."

Rice: !!!

"It's you again!" Rice couldn't help but feel the strangeness of fate. The last time he saw him, this kid had helped him a lot, curing Ravenclaw's madness together. At that time, he could tell that the kid had used a Horcrux in pursuit of immortality.

Did he seek the crown to achieve immortality through its wisdom? Did he fall so low as to use Horcruxes because the crown was a fake and could not provide him with any wisdom?

Rice speculated and pondered, adding with a sigh, "Voldemort, this kid has quite a connection with us. Nana, he's the one who cured your mother's illness."

Helena: Huh?!

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

The second update is here! I'm off to write the next one!

(End of this chapter)