Modification || T. Riddle || Completed

Chapter 7: The Dress

She turned behind her and saw nothing unusual, just the usual astronomy trinkets and the grandfather clock. But then she heard the faintest sound break the silence that surrounded her. It was like a slow rumble coming from every direction, and her eyes darted as she tried to find the source of the noise.

Then she saw it" the stone wall behind her seemed to be vibrating. It was slow at first, barely visible, but then it grew more forceful and clouds of dust were falling from the ceiling. Estela directed her wand towards the wall, ready to attack whatever may be causing the solid walls to rumble.

One of the the large stone blocks disappeared, revealing a large gap in the middle of the wall. Estela squinted to see, her vision obscured by the cloud of dust that hung in the air around her. Slowly, her wand raised, she made her way over the the wall.

"Lumos," she said as she reached it, peering inside and seeing nothing but darkness. But as she held the light of her wand above the hole in the wall, she saw something within reflect the light that was coming from the tip of her wand.

She hesitated, her mind racing through all of the bad things that may happen if she reached inside. But her curiosity got the better of her, and so she did, and her hand didn't come in contact with anything that stung, burned or bite, but rather something that cooled her skin in a silky soft sensation.

She grabbed the strange material and pulled it out and was disheartened to see nothing but a blur of blue fabric in the palm of her hands. At first she thought it was a tapestry or some kind of flag, but at she held it up, she knew she was wrong. It was a striking, deep blue gown.

She looked back at Rowena's portrait to see the woman nodding her head towards the dress and smiling warmly at Estela.

She looked back at it, running her hand over the sleek, silk material when her palm came in contact with a hard gem that was sewn onto the dress. When she looked closer, she could just about make out the initials RR carved onto the heavy stone.

"RR," Estela said quietly to herself. "Rowena Ravenclaw. This was yours?" She asked the portrait. But when she glanced back up, Rowena had left her painting.

She didn't know what to do. She couldn't keep it! It was evident that Rowena had overheard her conversation with Cayra and Anthony, but this was a historic artefact! This belonged in a museum of somesort, not to her. She knew it wasn't right for her to keep it, despite how beautiful it may have been. So she took it to the only person she thought might have answers: Dumbledore.

She went instantly to Dumbledore's office and saw him sitting at his desk marking long pieces of parchment. She even noticed an extra quill which was helping the professor mark the paperwork.

"Sir," she said. "Sorry to bother you, but something extremely odd just happened."

She took out her wand and pointed it at her bag, and out came the midnight-blue dress which floated in mid-air in front of them both. Dumbledore simply stared, wide eyed, at the dress for a moment, his blue eyes darting towards the large jewel with the initials, and he smiled very slightly at Estela.

"It appeared in the Ravenclaw Common Room, sir. The portrait of Rowena Ravenclaw, well it was as though she wanted me to have it. She must have heard that I didn't have a dress for the Halloween Ball. But surely I can't keep it."

Estela was taken aback to see Dumbledore still smiling at her, as though he knew exactly what was going on, and the fact that a dress over a thousand-year-old belonging to one of the most famous wizards in history didn't faze him at all.

"Look closely at the initials on the jewel, which I feel I must point out is made from pure diamond and sapphire. The initials RR. This dress belonged to Rowena Ravenclaw herself. Rowena wore this dress with superiority to many important events. It was meant to be passed down to her daughter, Helena, but due to certain measures, she was unable to obtain it. It is now perceptible that Rowena hid the dress until the next worthy person should come across it."