"Don't go… please…"
"Shouldn't I hide the diadem?" Helena asked timidly.
"You've had a thousand years to think things over, and you're still hung up on that?"
"Hiding the diadem on purpose was my fault…" Helena began to wallow in guilt again.
"So you lost it—big deal. Just hand it over now and be done with it."
"Ah… is this a confession? Will they send me to Azkaban?" Helena asked, trembling.
"You don't actually think everyone knows you were the one who stole the diadem, do you?" Harry said heavily.
Helena looked up.
"Don't look at me with those innocent eyes!"
"You mean… they don't?"
Harry paced back and forth. A thousand years, and all of it spent drowning in guilt—how was she not insane? She should have gone insane.
Unbelievable. A person this dense was actually the daughter of Rowena Ravenclaw, famed for her wisdom.
Harry grabbed her by the shoulders. "You know what? Your mum probably thought you were so stupid, she couldn't even be bothered to come find you after you ran off. She didn't want you anymore. For all we know, when you disappeared, she cracked open a beer with the other three founders to celebrate not having to look at you anymore."
Helena's graceful, timid eyes filled with tears. "You're lying…"
"Now… you're going to take that stupid crown and go straight to Dumbledore. Hand it over. Make up whatever excuse you want—say that, I don't know, a female ghost who normally carries herself very elegantly but has a nasty habit of peeping on male students in the bath happened to spot the crown in a drain in the boys' bathroom. Something like that. Just toss it to Dumbledore and be done with it."
"Who's going to care how it went missing? The whole wizarding world will be thrilled to see a legendary treasure lost for a thousand years suddenly found again."
"Oh… oh…" Helena nodded hurriedly, frightened by Harry's exasperated tone.
——
Click!
A flash of light. Smoke.
Ghostly Helena stood in front of one of Hogwarts' iconic towers, holding the diadem and wearing a graceful, enchanting smile.
The camera captured the moment.
A reporter from the Daily Prophet had come to take the photo—Professor Dumbledore had suddenly announced that the legendary Ravenclaw diadem had been found.
So the paper had come to cover the scoop.
——
Willows swayed. A gentle breeze stirred the leaves.
"Thank you…" Helena said to Harry under a large tree.
Harry looked up. The sunlight was warm but not blinding. It felt nice.
He glanced at Helena, who looked a bit translucent.
So ghosts weren't afraid of sunlight, huh?
"Why are you thanking me? It was yours to begin with. You're the idiot who hid the diadem in Albania for a thousand years and spent every day regretting it. If Riddle hadn't tricked you into revealing its location, would you have just kept moping in silence for another thousand years?"
Helena: "..."
"Wait… did you just nod?"
Helena turned away, her long hair caught in the breeze, hiding her expression.
"I… did not."
"If your voice were any quieter, I might believe you."
"..."
"Now that the diadem's been handed over, are you happy?"
"…Mhm."
"Any regrets?"
"…No."
"Then can you stand a little farther away from me?"
"Eh?!"
"I'm worried that staying too close to you might make me less intelligent."
Helena stormed off in a huff—but smiled in the end. "I left you a little surprise…"
——
The next day.
Harry noticed lots of people giving him strange looks.
Jealousy, shock, confusion…
Many of the girls couldn't help giggling.
And then—
Smack!
Harry slammed a newspaper down onto a low wooden table.
The spot was secluded. Only a beautiful ghost sat quietly reading a book.
Harry growled through clenched teeth, "This is your idea of a surprise? Explain this to me. What part of this is supposed to be pleasant?"
On the front page of the Daily Prophet, the main headline featured a moving photo of Helena from the day before—she was incredibly photogenic.
The headline, written in bold animated letters, read: SHOCKING! A Millennium-Old Missing Treasure Found—by a Ghost!
In the article, Helena was quoted saying that she, an ordinary ghost, had discovered Ravenclaw's lost diadem while spying on Hogwarts students in the bath.
Harry never imagined she'd be so brainless as to use the ridiculous story he had made up on the spot when talking to an actual journalist.
But none of that was even the worst part!
The worst part was—she claimed the student she'd been spying on was Harry Potter!
Helena said, "I only said what you told me to say!"
"I was joking! You weren't supposed to take it literally!"
"But I don't know how to lie, and I couldn't think of another reason. The reporter nearly got me to spill the truth, so I just said what you suggested…"
"Then why did you say I was the one being peeped on?! Don't you feel even the slightest bit embarrassed?" Harry was on the verge of exploding.
Helena puffed up indignantly. "Of course I was embarrassed! But when the reporter asked who it was, I panicked. You're the only other one who knew about the diadem, and I couldn't risk dragging anyone else into it. So I just blurted out your name!"
"Oh, brilliant. You blurted it out. You couldn't have said the bathroom was too steamy to see clearly? Or just said you didn't know?" Harry was devastated.
"Oh… why didn't I think of that…"
"Ugh… Harry, where are you going…" Helena watched as he walked away, his back full of sorrow.
"I'm going… to find everyone who read today's newspaper—and kill them all…"
Who could hear the sound of a heart breaking?
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⚡🪄 THE REBIRTH OF HARRY POTTER
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⚡ MAGIC HAS BEEN GIVEN A SECOND CHANCE.
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🪄 THE WIZARDING WORLD WON'T FOLLOW THE SAME STORY TWICE
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