Ch. 171 What is left of the raven

"Well I guess I've put this off long enough already. Let's cleanse Rowena's Diadem." I declared to myself as I was relaxing during one of my rare free periods.

I should probably have done this earlier or cared more, but I never needed the diadem itself. In fact, it remaining as a Horcrux helped me more to keep things close enough to canon at Hogwarts.

The biggest reason for that thought is because the Diadem is also what is powering the curse on the DADA position. So I used it to my advantage and to make sure every Professor came and went. Quirrell was always going to die since Voldemort possessed him and nothing could be done about that, it helped ensure we wouldn't have to suffer through a second year of Lockhart or I would have had him jailed if he didn't screw himself over with Ron's old wand, I got the chance to approach Lupin and bring him into my werewolf school program, and the subtle influence helped me corner Crouch Jr and let me ensure his death. But now it's my turn and I'm not about to let little Tom's tantrum stop me from doing whatever I want. Even if I end up not returning to teach next year, it will be my choice and not some random bullshit screwing with me.

Might seem selfish but can you honestly blame me? Voldemort's puppet died, serial mind rapist, liar, conman and dirtbag self-lobotomized, werewolf teacher gets dream job and tones of benefits, and insane fanatic who helped murder my parents and kidnap me gets his soul sucked out. I think things work out quite well all things considered. Everyone got what they deserved in my opinion. Except maybe Quirrell, but I couldn't really do anything about him nor did I know what type a person he truly was. I couldn't track every forest in Albania, my network was still in its growth phase and Tom would have just found someone else to take over in the end.

But now I have some free time, the power, the knowledge and all the stuff I need to kill a soul fragment. Plus it'll serve as good practice for when I'll help Harry deal with his own. Not letting my lil bro get Avada Kedavra'd again just so he can get rid of it.

So anyway, I arrived at the RoR with no trouble whatsoever. All students are either in class, the library, the Great Hall or their common rooms, with sparse few in other places when they have a free period like myself.

Thus I found myself back in a place I haven't visited in a while, the Room of Hidden Things.

Ever since I found my time turner, I haven't spent much time here. I knew exactly where the Diadem was since I hid it until the time was right. But the room gave me a sense of nostalgia as I could almost see my first year self searching through the pills of lost or discard objects in order to obtain his prize.

'Seven years huh. It already feels like a lifetime ago. So much has changed from back then.' I thought with soft smile on my face as I looked around.

I then proceeded to walk towards today's goal as I looked at the room full of little hidden treasures waiting for someone to return for them. I couldn't properly sense everything back then, but now I could feel the Magic coming off of the artifacts in the room. It was like they wanted me to take them, but it was too bad that i had no need for what lay in the room. I could obtain better or even make better items myself, so why not let them be found by someone who would need these little treasures and appreciate them.

It was quite easy to find the Diadem in this room. Even if someone had moved it by some chance, I could feel it. In fact, it is the most distinct magical signature in this room and it was one of temptation. The Horcrux wanted to be found and worn. It wanted to be 'used' by someone believing in the effects of Rowena Ravenclaw's legendary Diadem. All so it could easily access the mind of the wearer. After that there are only two options: the first is for the Horcrux to 'help' the wearer and become indispensable, later forming a sort of dependency as the wearer slowly gets taken over by Tom's soul, or the second which aggressively breaks the wearer and turns them into a subservient puppet.

'Magical mind parasite or brainwashing. Sounds like Tommy alright.' I thought with a sigh at the sight of the now cursed object.

Just like I remembered it too. The beautifully cut oval sapphire which would rest on the wearers forehead as twisting bands of enchanted silver supported it and wrapped around to form the elegant diadem bearing its original owners colors and motto.

'Wit beyond measure is man's greatest treasure.'

"Wit, truly it is a great treasure, but it can also led to great suffering. Aren't I correct my lady?" I suddenly said aloud as I gazed upon the cursed diadem.

"You knew of my presence." A woman's slightly echoed sounded from behind me.

"Yes. I always feel everything around me, a benefit from over a decade of practice." I replied as I turned around to face none other than the Grey Lady.

She floated there, a few inches above the floor, with her black waist length hair and full-length cloak swaying lightly as is a breeze was playing with them. One could see her beauty, her pride which was engraved into her very soul, but it was heavily impacted by her guilt and sorrow which laid hidden behind her serene facade.

"Did you bait me?" She asked with a bit more of an edge in her voice.

"If you are asking if I purposefully spoke aloud back in my office, then yes. If you are asking if I lied, then no." I answered with confidence.

Just like I just said, the Grey Lady is still a rather curious ghost. Not in a sense of weirdness, but she still retained her curiosity and desire to learn even after her death. She regularly listens in on classes she finds useful and can be found reading in quiet corners of the library. And I've always known she had and interest in me to a certain extent, mostly because I could often sense her near me throughout my years as a student. And I have a few ideas why. All from a distance of course.

"And why would you do this?" She asked with suspicion this time.

"Because I knew you would be near desperate for someone to fix such an important link to your mother, even if it holds bad memories." I answered, but in a softer tone of voice this time.

"How do you know about that?" She asked in a freezing tone of voice as her hair seems to rise a bit in response to her emotions.

"I know the tales of all the ghosts in this castle, the past of the professors, the stories behind the paintings, the reasons behind the castles enchantments and architecture. It is in my nature to want to know." I answered as the look in my eyes softened the more I looked at her, but the answer made her pause.

That statement is actually true. Hogwarts itself is one of the things I have studied the most in this life. How the castle works, how it has partial sentience, every secret passage, why Peeves is a thing, what defenses are in place and how the wards function. I know the place inside and out. But I'll never say I know all of its secrets, and I know I don't actually want to know all of them because then it would lose some of its wonder.

"Then prove it. You say you know my story and my past, so tell me." She demanded as she put up a strong front, but I could see the emotions in her eyes.

"Helena. You are not to blame for your mother's passing. You were a child raised to reach standards which were not your own and it slowly crushed you until you knew not how to escape from the pressure. This pressure slowly turned to resentment of its source, but that is normal. It is normal for humans to want to reject what causes them pain and when a person becomes desperate to escape it, they act rashly. That is all you have done. You wanted to escape the expectations and pressure put on you by others to become someone else, with those around you ignoring the fact that no one can become another, they can only be themselves.

And that is why I was saddened by your story Helena. Because even you forgot that you were not just Rowena Ravenclaw's daughter in the end." I said softly to the woman who has lived in regret and guilt for almost a millennia.

"What do you know!? You're just like her!! You can do anything! You think you know everything! You think you know better than everyone! How could you possibly know how I felt?!" Helena yelled as she lashed out due to her emotions.

"Because I can feel your pain Helena. Because of my gifts I possess a form of empathy allowing me to feel the emotions of others, and ghosts as well apparently.

And your story is one I think about often as well. If I am even able to have children anymore, I want to avoid having them living a life like yours as much as possible. I want them to be able to follow their dreams and hopefully lead happy lives, not try to become me." I gently answered, causing her to to lose a lot of her hostility.

"You can feel my emotions?" She asked in a surprised manner as her eyes widened.

"Yes my lady." I softly answered with a nod and gentle eyes.

"Wait a moment. Aren't engaged with your Slytherin friend? What do you mean 'If I am even able to have children anymore'?" She then asked.

'Shit, I let that slip by accident and she picked up on it. I haven't even brought it up to Tory yet.' I thought as I mentally scolded myself for the blunder.

"I'll just say that there is always a price to pay for excellence, that is why it is never called perfection." I answered with a bit of a sad smile.

"A price to pay." Helena repeated softly as she took in my words so far.

"But as much as I enjoy having deeply emotional conversations, I should probably do what I came here to do in the first place." I suddenly declared as I recovered from my own emotions and noticed she was still mulling over her own.

I then proceeded to clear the area around me with a wave of my hand, causing all the clutter to move aside and the floor to be cleaned.

"*gasp* where is your wand? How could you do this level of Magic without one?" The Grey Lady suddenly asked as she noticed what I just did and of course she did, she spent a over 900 years in one of the best Magic schools in the world, so she knows a thing or two.

"I became one with it. It was the only way which would allow me the keep progressing along my path as a wizard, hence we merged. I was almost certain the founders achieved the same thing, was I wrong?" I answered before asking her out of curiosity.

"Well, yes they did, but that's not the point. You're not even twenty yet, how in the world did you achieve something even mother couldn't before she was 50?" She asked in shock.

"Like I said before, excellence has a price." I answered with a bit of a self derisive smile, resulting in her flinching a bit as a result.

But then I put my attention back towards my task. I needed to test a few different methods and see if with I wanted to do to Harry was possible. So I was going to mess with Tom's soul a bit.

The first thing I did was set up a Magic barrier using the best containment runes i knew, in this case it was actually based on the Room of Requirements itself. The RoR has the most powerful runic enchantment I've ever seen, capable of self expansion, modification, minor awareness, some legilimantic abilities, summoning programs, nearly indestructible from the inside and fully contains Magic within the room. So I studied them in great detail and came up with different models based on my own runic binary language to suit various needs. In this case I wanted something to completely contain the soul piece should it try anything. It activates using a simple mental command from the creator and forms a cage which can shrink or expand on command, hence is perfect for the occasion.

Now I can check all the defenses on the diadem and the link to the DADA curse. I already knew everything from Tom's memories back when I had my subscription to V-TV, but I am not taking any chances when it comes to this level of the dark arts. Especially when it comes to something containing an piece of a soul. I don't want any unexpected mutations in the defenses as a result of its long 'life'. But I was happy to see that the Horcrux was just as Tom remembered, weaker than that actually. My guess is that powering such a curse like the DADA one, him actually dying once and having to survive as an incomplete soul for a decade put a lot of strain on his Horcruxes. The only way I could see them getting as dangerous as they were originally is to go down the diary route, meaning using the life force of someone constantly using or carrying a Horcrux.

But with that step done, i can begin setting up my different methods today.

My first is going to be about half of what I want to use on Harry. The reason I say half is because I can't test out the other half in this situation since it requires the person to be in Harry's situation and what I have is just a diadem. But I'll be testing a way to essentially isolate the soul from its connection to Harry and Tom, then set up what is basically a seal to control the soul fragment to render it completely harmless without outside interference. This will be achieved using a specially created rune disk which will imprint temporary runes onto the diadem. I have a few different versions to test which has the best performance.

The second test will be to see how much my white Magic affects a Horcrux in general. I want to see the effects various spells have on possibly the darkest enchanted object in modern history. Hopefully I won't destroy it, but I'll start from minimal power just in case. I honestly think the thing will act like a shadowy symbiote from marvel when this happens.

And lastly I will be testing the effect of Holy Water on the thing. Of course i won't just dunk the diadem into a bucket of the stuff since I am certain that would cause the thing to disintegrate if the soul piece isn't removed before hand. No, I'll be testing version levels of diluted Holy Water to see how strong its effects will be. And to do that instead of one bucket of Holy Water I have a dozen or so buckets out at the moment with different numbers of drops put into normal water.

"What is with those buckets?! Why can't I be near them?" Helena suddenly said as she backed away from where I put the buckets down.

"Wait, you can't come near them or does it hurt you to be near them?" I asked by to clarify something.

"It feels like I'm being pushed back. Like I'm not allowed near them. It got worse and worse as you pulled out more buckets too." She answered while wearily gazing at the buckets filled with what looks like normal water.

"Fascinating. I didn't expect it to have ghost repelling properties, maybe even ghost trapping utility is used properly. Should test the limits later with a volunteer." I muttered to myself as I started doing some hypothetical scenarios and mental calculations on the subject.

"Do not just ignore me! Tell what is in those buckets. I've never heard of anything capable of doing something like this before." She said as her curiosity got the better of her and tried to get my attention.

"It's an alchemical solution my fiancée and I created when we were trying various things. As a result of its effects we named it Holy Water, because of its appearance and the fact that it acts very similarly to what the Christian faith says its holy water acts." I answered automatically as I was still deep in thought, resulting in a short and to the point introduction.

"You mean to say a few buckets of your Holy Water can actually deny a ghost? That rather impressive." She responded with an appreciative look on her face.

"Those buckets aren't full of holy water, they only have a few drops at most with the lowest only having one." I off-handedly replied to the ghost.

"What?!" She shouted in shock again which is interesting since today she has experienced more emotions than the last few centuries combined.

"Hmm? Oh sorry I wasn't paying much attention when I went off into my own little world and was responding automatically. Mother often scolded for that since I am apparently quite direct when that happens." I said as she broke me out of my thoughts because of that yell.

"Never mind that! Did you just say a few drops of you Holy Water is strong enough to keep me a good 20ft away?" She hurriedly asked with some intensity in her ghostly eyes.

"Damn, I told you about the water. But yes it apparently can. I also have a hunch on the effects the water would have if it came in direct contact with a ghost, but I'm probably not going to verify that anytime soon. But please don't mention this to anyone, we didn't really plan on people knowing about this anytime soon." I answered with some regret, but I felt like I should just be honest with Helena or she would be coming back later to satiate her curiosity.

"Yes yes, no one even talks to me anyway so who would I tell? Now explain what that solution is and what you are planning to do with it." She enthusiastically asked as she seemed to become much more energetic.

"I don't really have the time to explain the water now because I have a class later, as for its use today I want to test the effects of the diluted water on such a corrupted object in the hopes of cleansing it without destroying it." I answered after a moments thought.

"It can actually do that?! Then mother's Diadem can be free from that bastards corruption!" She said in a mix of emotions, resulting in a tear consisting of ectoplasm to actually roll down her cheeks.

"I did say that's what I was going to do didn't I?" I responded with a small smile. "Well it is natural to forget about that after our discussion."

That got her quite flustered surprisingly.

'Who knew teasing a ghost could be fun?' I thought to myself with a chuckle.

"But anyway, I would suggest you distance yourself Helena. The Magic i am going to use is very closely tied to the Holy Water and I don't want to accidentally harm you while I work." I warned since I'm almost certain white Magic would adversely affect a ghost.

"Um, yes, very well. I'll be over by that pill to make sure mother's diadem does not get damaged." She responded with a bit of a delay, but she did as I asked.

'Let's see, there is one major connection to the Horcrux which is undoubtedly Tom and then there are five smaller connections linked to it. This means Tom already has Nagini as a Horcrux on top of the cup, locker, ring and Harry. I already ordered Jennifer to signal me if Tom feels any of what I'm about to do, so here goes nothing.' I thought as I began my various tests.

My first task went well from any angle I could look at it from. The moment my rune disk activated all connections I could observe were severed, even the ones the diadem had to the school, meaning this could actually break the DADA curse of its own. I also reserved no notices from Jennifer's end so I could only assume no significant changes occurred, but this might just be because I hadn't actually destroyed the Horcrux yet. Overall the effect was as I wished and I'm certain I could achieve the same effect for Harry by having carry something on his person at all time to block Tom from his mind.

Next up was testing the white Magic on the thing since I would find it ridiculous if only thing like basilisk venom, fiendfyre or killing curses could actually destroy these damn things. And as it turns out I am right. These things couldn't handle a spell casted by something at the level of second core white Magic without showing signs of stress. This was while I was being extremely careful and closely observing the soul inside the diadem, meaning a second level core wizard giving his all could actually destroy a Horcrux of this level using white Magic. On a side note, that soul piece was screaming like a little bitch when this was happening and boy was that satisfying.

I was kind of starting to feel a bit of sadistic glee when I started the last tests of I was being honest. Something about actually being able to make a piece of Tom's soul feel like it was constantly about to drown was just so satisfying. I could feel its panic and fear as I slowly killed it by dunking the diadem in the progressively stronger concentrations of Holy Water.

'I would have had Harry experience this if he could feel the things emotions like I could. Would have been therapeutic for the kid to learn that the man wasn't all powerful, nor was he fearless nor indestructible.' I thought with a sigh as I dunked the diadem into the 8th bucket, only to finally feel the last vestige of all the darkness fade away.

"Well would you look at that, I guess either eight drops was enough or the progressively strong dosage managed to kill it gradually. Either way this thing is now as wholesome as it was supposed to be." I declared with a happy smile on my face at the great successes of today.

Deciding to check the time because I kind of forgot myself when I got into testing, I noticed I only had 3 minutes before my class started.

"Bollocks! I forgot the time!" I loudly said as I lost composer for a moment.

'Wait! It's fine. I just need to get out of the Room and flame myself to my office and I won't be late.' I thought as I quickly found a way to cheat the system.

As a result I hurriedly put away everything I used into my shrunken trunk and ran towards the exit leaving a completely stunned Helena behind me as she numbly approached the Diadem I decided to leave behind to retrieve later.

"He actually did it." I faintly heard as I ran for the exit, not noticing the tears of relief and happiness coming from the Grey Lady.