116- Old Friends

Hearing Rowena Ravenclaw's words, Rhys was completely stunned.

Helena had stolen Rowena's diadem, and after Rowena fell gravely ill, she sent Barrow to find Helena, only for Barrow and Helena to end up in a fatal conflict?

'What the..'

This news hit Rhys hard, leaving him momentarily unable to react.

But soon, he noticed something was off. The whole situation seemed strange and full of unanswered questions.

'Most importantly, where did the diadem go?'

"Even if you put a seal on it, you shouldn't have let Helena carry it around, Rowena. You should understand the dangers of the items we created—I'm not even willing to carry my wand for extended periods," Rhys said.

"My spell is flawless," Rowena's tone was firm. She glanced at Rhys and added, "If you had followed my advice back then, you could use your wand freely now."

"..."

Rhys was momentarily at a loss for words.

Of course, someone as proud and confident as Rowena would never admit that her spell had flaws. To her, the diadem was foolproof—if Helena had the ability to break the seal on the diadem, then her magical skills had inherited a significant portion of her adoptive mother's talents, and she would naturally be able to handle the diadem's influence.

He took a deep breath, hoping that everything was indeed just as Rowena had described—a series of unfortunate coincidences: an enraged Barrow accidentally killing Helena and then taking his own life out of shame.

Rowena Ravenclaw didn't want to dwell on the topic any longer. Instead, she continued telling Rhys about the changes at Hogwarts after Barrow's death.

After the four founders established Hogwarts, they each recruited students according to their own preferences. Their plan was to pass the responsibility of managing the school to these students once they had matured and could handle the duties on their own, allowing the founders to retire in peace.

As the students grew, their ambitions, character, and talents gradually became evident to the founders. Through a process of elimination, the most talented and virtuous young individuals caught the founders' attention and were given special training.

Except for Hufflepuff House, the other three houses had some exceptionally talented individuals emerge. For example, Helena from Ravenclaw House, Barrow and Adrian Dragonhart Greengrass from Slytherin House, and Mary de la Motte, the Crimson Witch, from Gryffindor House.

According to the plans of Slytherin and the others, these students, who had been trained in their respective "secret chambers," were meant to inherit their founders' will and help make Hogwarts the best magic school in the world.

They were also the primary candidates for the daunting task of maintaining the seals in the depths of the castle's dungeons—a task not just any wizard could handle.

But then, the unexpected happened.

First, a conflict broke out between Gryffindor and Slytherin, leading to Slytherin's departure. This set off a chain reaction, which eventually resulted in Gryffindor leaving as well.

This upheaval had a massive impact on the school.

After Slytherin left, Slytherin House, which had been the leading house among the four, suffered a significant blow and grew distant from the other three houses.

Gryffindor's departure further escalated the conflict between Slytherin and Gryffindor Houses, with Adrian and Mary even engaging in a fierce battle outside the castle.

In the end, both of them left Hogwarts—each swearing, just like their mentors, never to set foot in the castle again as long as the other was still alive.

After that, Adrian returned home to inherit the Greengrass family business, while Mary vanished without a trace.

With the subsequent deaths of Barrow and Helena, Rowena Ravenclaw found herself facing an extremely dire situation in her final days: of the four founders, only she remained, and the next generation of successors had completely vanished. Left with no other choice, Ravenclaw allowed herself to die within the seal, turning into a ghost to take her place in maintaining it.

Turning into a ghost as a means of achieving immortality was something she had considered while alive, but the application turned out to be far from what she had planned. In her original vision, she would have become a ghost to travel the world, not to become a "bound spirit" trapped in the dungeons.

After hearing Ravenclaw's story, Rhys could only sigh at the unpredictability of fate. He suppressed his unease and shifted the conversation to another topic.

"Now that I'm back, Rowena, have you considered taking a break and visiting the castle? So much has changed over the past thousand years. For instance, their budget has become quite generous, and the food is much better than what we had back then."

Rhys couldn't help but smile as he added, "Oh, I just remembered, ghosts can't taste anything. No matter how delicious the food or how sweet the desserts, it all tastes like ash to them. What a pity!"

Ravenclaw glanced at him. "I made some special adjustments to myself. As a ghost, I didn't lose my sense of taste."

Rhys: "What?!"

Ravenclaw: "Hehe! Surprised? With all the downsides of being a ghost, did you think I'd be unprepared?"

However, she quickly changed the subject, stating that she couldn't go above ground.

"I placed a spell on this body of mine that prevents it from leaving the sealed area of the dungeon—I'm well aware of the contamination here. I feared that if I lost control, I might unknowingly wander into the castle."

"Can't it be undone?"

"No, it's the safest measure to prevent any accidents."

Ravenclaw glanced at Rhys. "How could I have foreseen that someone who swore never to return would come back to help cleanse the pollution in my soul?"

Rhys immediately explained, "I go by Rhys Chassla Lint now; Salazar Slytherin hasn't returned."

"Heh." Ravenclaw let out a cold laugh.

Rhys quickly switched the topic.

"But it seems the contamination within you hasn't been fully removed," he said, pointing to the lingering stains on Ravenclaw's spirit.

"Perhaps this thing's absorption capacity has reached its limit," Ravenclaw replied, casting a disdainful glance at the distorted form of Voldemort on her shoulder. "Couldn't you have thought of a different solution? Did you really have to attach this thing to me?"

Rhys glared at Ravenclaw fiercely. "Rowena, why don't you take a guess at what you did to me before? There was no better option than this!"

"No choice, cleaning up trash is just in my nature. You should reflect on why you were deemed something that needed to be cleaned up."

Rhys: 'I regret waking you up. Such a great witch, too bad she has a mouth.'

The two old friends chatted for a long time before Ravenclaw finally brought up the topic of Daphne, who was playing chess with herself outside the corridor.

"So, who's that young girl outside? Don't tell me she's…"

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