In The Shadows² ★ Draco Malfoy

*Rowena Ravenclaw

But the horcrux, the diadem, it hadn't been in Ravenclaw Tower. And nobody had seen it for centuries so how was anyone supposed to know where it was? And then it hit Briar. Hogwarts was centuries old. And so were the ghosts in it.

"Harry" She said, her eyes wide "No one living has seen this diadem correct?" He nodded "What about someone dead?" Harry looked confused for a moment, but then his eyes bulged "The ghost of Ravenclaw. She'll know!"

"You're a genius!" Harry exclaimed and Briar sprinted back up the staircase. She looked on either side of her, and eventually her eyes landed on the familiar Ravenclaw ghost watching them. Then the pale woman turned and drifted through the wall, so the pair ran after her, until they found her floating in an empty corridor

"Hey — wait — come back!" 

She consented to pause, floating a few inches from the ground. "You're the Gray Lady?" Harry asked. She nodded but did not speak. "The ghost of Ravenclaw Tower?" 

"That is correct." Her tone was not encouraging. 

"Please: we need some help. I need to know anything you can tell me about the lost diadem." 

A cold smile curved her lips. "I am afraid," she said, turning to leave, "that I cannot help you." 

"WAIT!" He had not meant to shout, but anger and panic were threatening to overwhelm him.

"This is urgent," Briar said fiercely. "If that diadem's at Hogwarts, we've got to find it, fast." 

"You are hardly the first students to covet the diadem," she said disdainfully. "Generations of students have badgered me —" 

"This isn't about trying to get better marks!" Harry shouted at her. "It's about Voldemort — defeating Voldemort — or aren't you interested in that?" 

She could not blush, but her transparent cheeks became more opaque, and her voice was heated as she replied, "Of course I — how dare you suggest — ?" 

"Well, help us, then!" 

Her composure was slipping. "It — it is not a question of —" she stammered. "My mother's diadem —" 

"Your mother's?" 

She looked angry with herself. "When I lived," she said stiffly, "I was Helena Ravenclaw." 

"You're her daughter? But then, you must know what happened to it!" 

"While the diadem bestows wisdom," she said "I doubt that it would greatly increase your chances of defeating the wizard who calls himself Lord —" 

"Haven't I just told you, I'm not interested in wearing it!" Harry said fiercely. "There's no time to explain — but if you care about Hogwarts, if you want to see Voldemort finished, you've got to tell us anything you know about the diadem!"

Helena stared at them sadly and after a few moments Briar's shoulders sagged in defeat and she made to turn away, when Helena spoke in a low voice. "I stole the diadem from my mother." 

"You — you did what?" 

"I stole the diadem," repeated Helena in a whisper. "I sought to make myself cleverer, more important than my mother.I ran away with it. My mother, they say, never admitted that the diadem was gone, but pretended that she had it still. She concealed her loss, my dreadful betrayal, even from the other founders of Hogwarts. Then 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." She drew a deep breath and threw back her head. "He tracked me to the forest where I was hiding. When I refused to return with him, he became violent. The Baron was always a hot-tempered man. Furious at my refusal, jealous of my freedom, he stabbed me."