Hogwarts: a history 2

"Malgino was a pure-blood or half-blood — I don't know, he never really talked about his family. He usually said that his father was a coward farmer, who was too afraid to use his powers. We just laughed hearing that, we always thought he was a charming boy, who had a great sense of humour but — we never detect the darkness of his humour," Helena's voice shook with anger and disgust. "He called his father coward because he never used his powers on Muggles, he didn't reveal himself in front of the Muggles. Malgino hated his father and each person who thought hiding from the Muggles was the best idea."

"But wasn't that the entire point of Hogwarts? To hide the students from Muggles?" Chris interrupted.

"Yes, it was but Malgino's ambitions weren't only to rule over the Muggles, it was much more — he wanted to rule the world like a king. The entire world. And to do that he needed enormous power and most importantly immortality."

Helena stopped herself from shouting.

"He knew the founders were gifted. They possessed enormous powers, and together their power was something unimaginable. So he started to look for a way to possess that much power, and to make matters worse he was sorted into Ravenclaw. My mother felt very happy whenever Malgino asked for new complications magic and the books the founders had read. "Curiosity is the first and best sign of a wise and intelligent person," she had said. No one understood his true intentions — not even me. . . Even after reading and learning so much he wasn't satisfied, because he barely reached the level of the power he wanted, so he started to look for other ways. Genevieve and I were already friends with him at that time, he always made friends with those who were close to the founders. One day we did exactly what he expected us to do, I and Genevieve slipped out that the founders were talking about preserving their power in Hogwarts. For us it was a metaphorical talk, we thought they wanted to make the school more powerful but for him, it was a way of his success. I don't know when the founders made the kids or when Malgino found a way to become immortal or how the keys help to unlock the power but soon everything started to go wrong. The difference between the founders started to increase, they started to have conflicts. When Malgino was in his last year a huge argument happened between the founders, they raised wands at each other. It was chaos. Genevieve was furious at the founders' behaviour, she tried to reason with them but they already had made up their minds. My mother became unbearable, she started to sing praise of Ravenclaws every chance she got. I was nothing like her, I didn't possess much power and intelligence like her. Malgino knew that he knew how I felt about my mother so he suggested me about her Diadem. The Diadem possessed powers of her, the diadem bestows wisdom. Malgino didn't say it clearly but talked enough about it to rise my jealousy. I stole it."

"You what?" Chris looked at her, eyes widened.

"I stole the diadem," repeated Helena in a whisper. "I sought to make myself cleverer, more important than my mother, as Malgino expected but the next part didn't go according to his plan. I ran away with it without telling him where I was going."

"You stole your mother's diadem because of Malgino but then you ran away without telling him that?" Chris repeated. Helena wasn't making much sense.

"Because I realized what he wanted, at least a bit of it. I heard him talking to Genevieve. He was encouraging her to be brave and take the Goblin sword from his brother Sir Godric. I knew Genevieve was going to refuse, she was nothing like me. But I understood what he was trying to do — he wanted each and every magical objects of the founders for himself. So I ran away from here. I was no match for him, I knew if he found me he will take the diadem from me and I was too proud to tell anyone about my betrayal. I thought running away was the best choice."

"And what about Malgino and your mother? Didn't they try to find you?" Chris asked.

"They did, but couldn't find me," Helena smiled bitterly. "My mother hid my betrayal from everyone and said she gave me permission to live my life as I please so I left. Only Malgino knew that wasn't true, he knew I had the diadem. But I concealed myself well and he couldn't find me, maybe he found something more interesting than the diadem so he stopped looking for me because the last news I got from Hogwarts when Sir Salazar left Hogwarts. I bet it was his work."

"I thought Salazar Slytherin left because of the muggle-born students' thing," Chris injected.

"Christina Norton, Salazar Slytherin always hated the Muggles and Muggle-borns but that never meant he will leave the school he dedicated his life to create," Helena said smiling. "The founders were the foundation of this school and it's magic, they made this school together because they knew no matter what they will always be together. I think Malgino had something to do with this because the next news I got was, Malgino had left Hogwarts and somewhere was busy creating dark big wild beasts and he was releasing the beasts on people. It was a horror. Muggle, wizards all were dying. No mercy. The next thing people were talking that Malgino was going to attack Hogwarts."

"So did he?" Chris' heart was pounding.

"Yes, he did. At that time, my mother fell ill — fatally ill. In spite of my perfidy, she was desperate to see me one more time. She sent a man who had long loved me, though I spurned his advances, to find me. She knew that he would not rest until he had done so."

"The Baron?" Chris said.

"Yes, he studied with me in Hogwarts and after school, he decided to help the school and stayed," Helena drew a deep breath and threw back her head. "While he looked for me, Malgino attacked with his dark magic, creatures and what not. The timing was perfect what I have heard later, my mother was ill, Sir Salazar had left. It was up to Sir Godric and Madam Helga to stop him. They did stop him. Malgino had underestimated the power of Helga Hufflepuff. She believed in love not hatred but that didn't mean she was weak. After I returned to this school as ghost I heard, Madam Helga had not only stopped him and destroyed his vicious army, she also had put a long-time curse on him and Sir Godric had strengthened the curse. That was the reason why everyone thought he was dead because the curse was fatal."

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To be continued. . .