Helena stared at Draco in shock and asked maliciously, "You want to find it...you want to wear it? You, a regular first-year student? Trying to get a high score, is that it?"
"I have no interest in wearing it," Draco said softly.
"I know the Dark Lord deceived you; he betrayed your trust. I just want to know what the Dark Lord did to it. You must know something. Please tell me, unless you are on the Dark Lord's side..."
"Of course I do—how dare you say that!" Helena retorted fiercely.
She looked down at Draco, a terrifying look flashing across her face—she was far from gentle at that moment.
As if she had made up her mind, she said sharply, "How could I possibly side with him? He desecrated the Ravenclaw diadem with his Dark magic! He heard my story and stole it from that hollow tree in the Albanian forest!"
As expected, the Dark Lord took the diadem from the Albanian forest.
Draco closed his eyes and continued, "And how did it get back to Hogwarts?"
"A long time passed," the Grey Lady recalled softly, "and one day he came to Hogwarts seeking a job. He said he wanted to be the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher... Dumbledore, of course, refused him! And so he left it here!"
"I can hear that diadem wailing day and night!" she said through gritted teeth.
"A wail?" Draco noticed the word.
"Yes! He turned my mother's diadem into a Horcrux, and he put a filthy piece of his soul on it! My mother will never forgive me," Helena Ravenclaw said bitterly.
Horcrux. It is a Horcrux. Now it is finally confirmed.
Although he had long suspected it and had his own guesses, he still felt a chill run down his spine when he actually heard it from someone else.
The Dark Lord actually committed the terrifying act of splitting souls. Did he not know what the consequences of this act would be?
The rupture of the soul brings irreversible and permanent loss, which is considered the lowest form of depravity in the eyes of any pure-blood wizarding family.
This is the most absurd thing in the world. The Dark Lord has willingly fallen into depravity, pursuing what pure-blood wizards have rejected; those pure-blood wizards are completely unaware and blindly follow him.
The Malfoy family, in their past life, were just fooling around with something whose soul was broken.
Draco's face gradually paled, feeling a chill run through his body—a chill that cut to the bone—due to the final confirmation of the Horcruxes and the Dark Lord's evil, madness, and folly.
The Grey Lady had no time to notice Draco's expression. Her years of depression found an outlet in Draco's questioning. Those painful memories hidden deep within her were poured out without ceasing:
"That diadem, that diadem... I wanted to be smarter and more prestigious than my mother. I wanted to prove myself and make her acknowledge my abilities. I took it to a place my mother could not reach, and I wore it as I thirstily explored the limits of magic... I made a lot of progress! But the world never knew what I had accomplished! And my poor mother, she never saw me before she died."
Whether Ravenclaw's diadem truly brings wisdom, Draco could not know.
What he was certain of was that through Helena's expression, he saw endless regret and sorrow.
"The Baron killed you, did he not? So he wears his chains," Draco asked softly.
"Ha! Of course you know. The Baron deserved it." The Grey Lady laughed shrilly, like a violin with an ill-fitting bow, playing a mocking tune.
She gazed at the distant Astronomy Tower, murmuring, "I saw you talking to him there. You were both Slytherins, you had something in common. I never wanted to have anything to do with any more Slytherins; I could never understand your ambition, your obsession, your madness..."
"It is ridiculous that I still confide in Slytherin time and time again... Slytherin, you ruthless bastards, you deceived me, hurt me, and betrayed me!" she screamed hysterically, venting her anger at the dark night sky.
Suddenly, Draco understood why he had been repeatedly rejected by the Grey Lady—she was particularly wary of silver-green.
If he had been wearing a gold and red tie, they probably would have started talking already.
Thinking of this, he could not help but give a bitter smile.
This damned, stubborn house prejudice is practically everywhere in Hogwarts! Even the ghosts are not immune.
"I am so sorry. Whether it is your death or your being used by the Dark Lord." He spoke nervously, carefully choosing his words, trying to soothe the Grey Lady's unstable emotions.
"Dark Lord? Ha! That self-aggrandising title makes me want to vomit!" the female ghost said disdainfully. "Fifty years ago, he was not called the Dark Lord; he told me to call him Tom. Back then, he was just an ordinary student. Somewhat handsome, compassionate, and very understanding... I was wrong to trust him. Those cunning vipers of Slytherin always love to put on that charming facade to deceive people—"
The Grey Lady turned around, her eyes filled with venom as she coldly scrutinised Draco. "Tell me, how are you any different from him? How can I trust you?"
At that moment, probably no one would find her beautiful. Her face appeared unusually ferocious due to the expression of disgust and hatred.
"I do not want to use it. If I could, I would destroy that soul and wash away the shame of the Ravenclaw diadem. But I need your help. You need to tell me exactly what to do," Draco said with difficulty, still swallowing the shocking news.
Merlin, will he be going to murdered by a ghost? Draco groaned inwardly as he watched the Grey Lady's murderous expression.
After hearing his words, the Grey Lady stopped being angry. She suddenly calmed down, looked at the deep night outside Ravenclaw Tower, and remained silent.
Following her gaze, Draco could vaguely see the Astronomy Tower across the way, where the Bloody Baron stood there in a daze once again.
"Do you know what you can see from here?" she asked impatiently, seeing Draco's enigmatic expression. "Except for the Astronomy Tower."
Draco glanced at her in alarm but did not answer.
He thought, "It is probably not about looking at the stars."
"I can see the Forbidden Forest. I know what you did that night—you were targeting him. But you were wrong, ignorant, shallow, and naive." She criticised his actions mercilessly. "His soul still exists, does it not?"
Draco never expected that anyone other than Hermione would know this secret.
Since that is the case, he no longer concealed himself and frankly said, "That is right. I am dealing with him. Then, perhaps you can tell me how to destroy his soul?"
"Unless you destroy the Horcruxes he created, you cannot truly destroy his soul." She frowned, as if pondering some important question.
Her words were so loaded with information that Draco was momentarily at a loss for words.
Finally, he decided to ask the most crucial and important question.
"How do I destroy the Horcrux?" he asked, without much hope.
There was no response. The Grey Lady fell silent.
This did not surprise him.
He searched through so many Dark magic books in the Restricted Section, and found very few that mentioned "Horcruxes".
For example, in the book Secrets of the Darkest Art, although the term "Horcrux" is mentioned, it is only briefly mentioned without any explanation of its concept, let alone how to destroy it.
How can you expect a ghost that has been dead for a long time to know more?
After what seemed like a century, the Grey Lady spoke again.
To Draco's great surprise, she actually knew how to destroy the Horcruxes.
"Destroying a Horcrux is difficult, extremely difficult. It must be an indestructible weapon, like a blade made by the Goblin King—Godric Gryffindor's sword—I am not sure if it will work, it is an option worth trying, but it has been lost for a long time, like Ravenclaw's diadem; or something equally evil Dark magic, like Fiendfyre with its cursed power, which can devour and burn everything, but it is too dangerous, I have never heard of anyone being able to control it, and its spell is incomplete, I do not know if any ancient wizarding families still have it; and—" Helena's eyes became distant.
"What else?" Draco pressed.
"The ultimate monster in the magical world—the basilisk—has venom that is so destructive that it cannot be repaired by magic. There is a Salazar Slytherin basilisk in the Chamber of Secrets at Hogwarts. I guess it is probably still alive?" Helena said, barely managing to speak.
"The Chamber of Secrets? Where exactly is the Chamber of Secrets?" Draco recalled the Chamber of Secrets scandal that had caused a great uproar in his previous life, and Hogwarts had almost been shut down because of it.
But at that time, he was too young to understand the profound meaning behind the Chamber of Secrets.
Regarding the "Slytherin Chamber of Secrets," in most of his leisure time in his previous life, he was either smugly pleased with his pure-blood status, firmly believing that the misfortune of being petrified would not befall a Malfoy; or busy arguing with Potter and the others; and occasionally going to scare the Muggle-born Hermione Granger and bicker with her...
In short, he did not do much of anything worthwhile.
He deeply regretted his past actions! He had too few clues in his memories of his past life. Draco never focused on exploring the Chamber of Secrets itself; as for his father Lucius, he only told him some superficial knowledge about the Chamber, and when it came to the core issues, he was always vague or kept silent.
If the Grey Lady knew— Draco would cast an expectant look at her.
"I do not know, I was away from Hogwarts for too long back then." A faint sadness appeared in the Grey Lady's eyes. She said regretfully, "When I came back, they had renovated Hogwarts and it was no longer the way I remembered it. I am sorry, I cannot remember anymore."