"Hoo—"
Harry took a deep breath and opened his eyes on the bed, staring at the incredibly familiar ceiling above him. The boy's chaotic anxiety finally settled a bit.
"You're awake?!"
Beside the bed, the girl holding the Niffler noticed Harry's movement, and her previously confused gaze gradually filled with excitement.
"Gin, Ginny..."
Harry clearly did not expect the first person he'd see upon waking would be her, so he forced himself to sit up, sweeping his gaze around the room. Ron and Neville, who were chatting nearby, also gathered around.
Ron squeezed Ginny aside, "Are you okay?" he stared at Harry with wide eyes, the concern in them was incredibly sincere.
However, Ron evidently forgot what temperament his sister had after being pushed aside. Sitting on another bed, Ginny raised her eyebrows, and Kabuda in her arms timely dug into his pocket, then handed the Rune Stone to the girl. The two exchanged a glance.
"Ow ow ow ow ow—"
Before Harry could respond, Ron was sent tumbling aside howling as if he had been kidnapped by a truckload of burly bakers, clutching his backside.
Noticing Harry's slightly surprised look, Ginny blushed somewhat embarrassedly. She cleared her throat lightly, sat back down on the chair beside Harry's bed, and resumed peeling an unfinished pear, cutting a slice for Harry.
"Bang—"
The doors of the infirmary were pushed open with a bang as Hermione rushed in from outside, even leaving Madam Pomfrey's angry shouts behind. The girl hurried over to Harry's bedside, watching the curious boy, she seemed to finally relax, "Really awake—"
The girl shouted towards the door, her cheeks flushed red from running.
"Ow—"
A black figure rushed in, Sirius quickly squeezed Ginny aside once again, eyes full of concern as he stared at Harry for a long time.
"Sirius..."
Harry just wanted to speak but was interrupted by Sirius's actions. The man flipped open his blanket, began checking his clothes, and only after confirming the boy had no injuries, did Sirius finally relent, pulling the embarrassed boy into his embrace after the undressing—
"Good that you're okay, good that you're okay—"
A warm flow surged from deep within the boy's heart, feeling Sirius's genuine emotion, Harry's eyes unknowingly filled with tears.
"Wow, such a tender moment, we better not interrupt."
William half-leaned against Lupin's shoulder, separating soul from body isn't a simple charm, after returning to his body he felt somewhat weak, so he could only rely on Lupin for movement, though this debuff wouldn't last long, a good sleep should make it better.
Harry felt the same, being tightly held by Sirius, he felt as if he was falling apart.
"Senior."
Harry took a breath, greeting William.
"Have a good rest."
William nodded towards Harry, then refrained from interrupting the "warm moment," allowing Lupin to lead him all the way to the Headmaster's office. The two sat waiting for a long time, until finally the missing Dumbledore entered together with Professor McGonagall.
"...Did you find it?"
Seeing Dumbledore's tense expression, William furrowed his brows.
"Found it, but... the situation isn't good."
Dumbledore sighed, then upon his cue, Professor McGonagall pursed her lips, placed the item in her hands on the desk, and the four people's gaze in the room fixed upon it simultaneously, even many headmaster portraits on the walls were awakened by the atmosphere, they too stared at the object on the desk—
Then, whispers began around them.
It was a silver crown, the silver metal outlined a majestic eagle about to soar, a large blue gemstone was embedded in the eagle's chest, it was a very beautiful diadem, at least it should've been originally.
But now, rust covered every part of the crown, even the large blue gemstone, once sparkling, had become dull. The originally sacred diadem now exuded a sense of death, and everyone staring at the diadem bore a look of disbelief.
"Is this? Dumbledore? Is this..."
Phineas Black pressed himself against the picture frame, eyes wide and unblinking as he stared at the crown.
"Yes, this is the legacy of Ravenclaw."
"But, how did it become like this?!"
A headmaster from Ravenclaw spoke sharply, licking his lips, his eyes red. Now, even a fool could see the diadem definitely had a big problem.
It didn't seem like Ravenclaw at all, rather... a bit like Slytherin.
"Voldemort did this."
William reached out and picked up the diadem, eying the rust; he tried rubbing it, to no avail, "This thing was used to make a Dark Arts artifact by him." Usually, when William and Dumbledore discussed Soul Artifacts, they would flip these portraits over, who knows if one of them might be a blabbermouth.
"Such a waste! An absolute waste!!"
shouted the headmaster, who hailed from Ravenclaw, with unreserved fury in his eyes as he glared at Phineas Black not far away. "Look at this, Nigel! This is the good student cultivated by your Slytherin!!"
Phineas Black: "?"
As the only Slytherin headmaster present, he remained silent.
Although he didn't like Voldemort either, he shouldn't retort now, because the headmaster scolding him was his school's headmaster during his student days, which meant that his position was suppressed.
Ignoring the chaos on the walls where the old folks nearly pulled each other's beards, William pointed his magic wand at the diadem. In the next moment, a plume of pitch-black smoke rose from the rusty diadem, and a bald specter in a black robe shouted at William—
"What are you yelling about?"
But William simply waved his hand, dispersing the bald specter on the diadem. Yet, looking at the still rusty crown, his gaze became somewhat helpless.
"Unless it's completely destroyed, otherwise..."
Dumbledore also shook his head. When he found the diadem, he checked it, and the fragment of Voldemort's soul clung to it like a leech. Although it didn't seem that Voldemort had cast any charms to protect the Soul Artifact, he couldn't remove it from the diadem—
"I originally wanted to try, although Ravenclaw said it's actually not that useful."
William wrinkled his nose. He had learned the diadem's location from Ravenclaw and through the dream Harry described, where Little Tom told him about the three places Voldemort was. A diadem or a cup alone didn't seem much, but a diadem, a golden cup, a pendant box...
A fool could guess what Voldemort had done.
With a flick of his wrist, a slender silver sword appeared in William's hand. It was probably the sole surviving relic among the school's four founders.
Furthermore, William suspected that Voldemort always wanted to turn this thing into a Soul Artifact too, but since Dumbledore had always kept Gryffindor's Sword in his office, Voldemort had never found the opportunity.
"So, now that both the sword and the diadem have been found, it still lacks the golden cup and the locket—"
"I do have a lead, but it's not urgent. We can wait until summer break..."
Dumbledore sighed. Clearly, Voldemort's actions were causing him headaches too. Seeing the diadem in front of him, he silently pushed it to William, "You take it, see if there's anything you can do, if not, it's okay to just destroy it—"
"No!"
The paintings on the wall shouted, but sadly, except for Lupin, the other three didn't even twitch an ear.
"You're just trying to slack off!"
William looked at the utterly resigned Dumbledore, speaking begrudgingly. He realized that ever since he showed up, the old guy was getting lazier and throwing everything over to him, just like when Harry got into trouble, Dumbledore got the news and immediately—
"Quick, go to the Room of Requirement and find William, the Buddha!"
Such a hands-off manager, so William turned to the tense-looking Professor Meow, courage surging to his mind, "Professor Meow... ahem, Professor McGonagall, I'd like to report, lately old Dumbledore hangs out with Professor Percival to eat sweets every day, and he's got over a dozen pieces of pineapple jam in his drawer!!"
"Albus!!"
Thus, Professor Meow was enraged, and Dumbledore was left looking sullen.
Watching the old man being nagged nonstop, William felt like he had just taken a big bite of ice cream on a midsummer day, feeling extremely pleased. He waved it off, being led out of the office by Lupin. Seeing the diadem in William's hand, Lupin couldn't help but ask, "What is that?"
"Soul Artifact."
William had no intention of hiding it from him, so he whispered after ensuring no one else was around.
"Voldemort actually..."
Lupin's pupils dilated once more. He knew about Soul Artifacts as William had explained it once, but he hadn't associated it in this case. After all, "Who would turn a tool that can enhance wisdom into a Soul Artifact?" Lupin asked quietly.
"Yeah." William shrugged, "No one would do that, so obviously, it's not as useful as you think."
"... Makes sense."
The two chatted as they walked back to the Room of Requirement.
"What are you doing here?"
Seeing Sirius squatting at the doorstep, staring blankly at the tapestry of Barnabas being pummeled by the troll, Lupin blinked in surprise.
"... Professor McGonagall gave me an ultimatum." Sirius sighed deeply.
"What?"
"To go make an Animagus registry in a couple of days with Mr. Richard—"
At this point, Sirius curiously glanced at William. According to Harry, this transfer student had only been studying magic at Hogwarts for two years and had already become an Animagus? To think he used to consider himself and James quite the prodigies.
Hearing Sirius's words, William was equally surprised.
"Oh... Apparently, that's a thing."