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Chapter 645: Looking for the Lost Diadem
🕑 Added 2019-10-31 19:46:13 +0000 UTCThe access to this place depended on the resonance magic generated by the Merpeople's singing, which would not last for a long time.
Once the singing stopped, the gap between the entrance and exit would be closed and Evan would be locked in here.
He had to seize the time to learn the secret of the place and get out before the gap was closed.
Evan followed the raven's flight path and quickly walked through the rows of bookshelves to the inside.
At the innermost side of the room was a sunken alcove, in which stood a tall white marble statue.
It was Rowena Ravenclaw!!!
When Evan and Luna had visited Ravenclaw’s Common Room, they saw her statue.
The marble statue of Ravenclaw here was larger than the one in the House Common Room.
She seemed to be looking at Evan, with a seemingly innocent teasing smile on her face, beautiful but somewhat daunting.
The raven stayed above her head and cocked its head, its blood-red eyes staring dead at Evan.
It uttered a harsh, mournful cry that made him shudder.
"Wit beyond measure is man's greatest treasure!"
The cold, strange voice that Evan had heard before sounded again. This time, he noticed that the voice was from the raven.
"If you want Ravenclaw's reward, bring her Diadem, and I will show you all the secrets!"
"Ravenclaw's Diadem?!" Hearing it, Evan's gaze removed from the raven, and only then did he notice that the famous Diadem was not on the head of the statue of Rowena Ravenclaw.
That was really incredible! Indeed, the Diadem could be clearly seen in the portraits and sculptures of Rowena Ravenclaw, even in all the written records. Ravenclaw herself hardly took the Diadem off.
It was considered to be a symbol of Rowena Ravenclaw and had special significance.
For hundreds of years, many wizards believed that Ravenclaw's Diadem had magical features and could enhance the wisdom of its wearer.
It was a very famous legendary magic item that had been handed down from generation to generation in the Ravenclaw family.
It was not clear whether Ravenclaw's Diadem had other uses besides increasing wisdom, but it was undoubtedly proof of wisdom and status.
It was believed that only the smartest wizard in the world was qualified to wear the Diadem, also known as the Diadem of Wisdom.
In the eyes of the world, Ravenclaw had always been crowned because she was recognized as the cleverest wizard. But after her death, this precious magic prop had disappeared.
No matter how the posterity searched the castle and her relics, they found no trace of it, and the Diadem disappeared out of thin air!
Since then, the Lost Ravenclaw Diadem had become a mystery, and various rumors had flown everywhere.
Some said that Rowena Ravenclaw was reluctant to give up the Diadem and took it to her grave.
Others believed that the Diadem had been automatically hidden, and only when a wizard with intelligence comparable to that of Rowena Ravenclaw showed up would it reappear.
But Evan knew that Ravenclaw’s daughter, Helena Ravenclaw, had stolen the Diadem. She wanted to be smarter and more prestigious than her mother, so she fled with her crown and hid in a forest in Albania, hoping to monopolize this treasure that did not belong to her.
No one knew about this, Ravenclaw had never admitted that the Diadem was gone. She had been pretending that it was still with her.
She even concealed her loss and her daughter's terrible betrayal from the other three Founders.
She didn't even look for her Diadem, just as though it had never been.
Later, Ravenclaw was sick and very ill. She hoped to see her daughter again before she died.
She sent the Bloody Baron, a man who once loved Helena, to find her.
But the Baron ended up killing Helena, and then he stabbed himself with the same knife.
Centuries had passed, and he was still wearing his chains as an act of penitence.
After their death, they both eventually returned to Hogwarts, just in a ghostly form.
Because of all kinds of regrets and remorse, they would stay there forever, wandering in the old castle.
Helena didn't see her mother in the end, and didn't get her forgiveness, though Ravenclaw probably never resented her.
The Baron blamed himself for killing his beloved with his own hands, living in infinite pain, and couldn’t be relieved after death.
As for Ravenclaw’s Diadem, Helena had hidden it in a hollow tree in the forest of Albania.
The story did not end here. Evan did not need to go to a desolate Albanian forest to find a thousand-year-old tree, nor did he have to go to the Ravenclaw Library to look through ancient books and ask about the painful love between Helena and the Bloody Baron.
Because Voldemort had found the whereabouts of the Lost Diadem, he went to the distant forest and took it back.
He made the Diadem of Wisdom his precious Horcrux, instead of being in the humble tree.
Then, Voldemort brought the Diadem secretly back to its real home and hid it in the Room of Requirement in Hogwarts.
On his way back, Evan had been thinking about these things.
In this case, he should thank Voldemort for making the challenge left by Ravenclaw very easy.
Evan had just to return to the castle, find the Diadem in the Room of Requirement, and take it to the next Merpeople’s ritual. Thus he could get the secret treasure left by Ravenclaw.
The only thing he needed to pay attention to in the whole process was not to be affected by Voldemort’s Horcrux in the Diadem.
Speaking of which, Evan had always wanted to deal with the Horcruxes, but because the matter wasn’t very urgent with Harry still one of them, he kept delaying it.
At the right moment, he would take this opportunity to dispose of the Horcrux and check whether there were any secrets hidden in the Diadem.
Evan said goodbye to the Merpeople and resurfaced with the magic materials he had exchanged.
It was now about ten o'clock in the evening. The dark moon was swaying in the thick clouds and the cold wind was blowing.
Evan was surprised to see Hermione waiting on the bank, curled up in the grass, clutching a glass bottle of blue magic fire.
She was looking nervously at the lake, trembling with cold and looking very pitiful.
"Oh, this girl … I thought she had gone straight back to the castle … she’s still waiting here!" Evan's heart was warm, and he felt some remorse for Hermione.
He knew that Hermione was not at ease, so she kept waiting for him by the lake.
Sure enough, as soon as she saw Evan crawling out of the lake, Hermione rushed over and hugged him tightly.
