Chapter 11 - Rowena Ravenclaw's Diadem

Despite seeing the location of the diadem in the movie, it still took him two whole hours to find the Diadem in the Room of Hidden Things.

And those two hours only made him realize how large the Room of Hidden Things actually was.

And not only was it large but it was also filled with thousands of things that were filled with magic of one kind or another.

Even Selena, who was exceptional at sensing magical auras was of no help because of the thousands of different kind of magical auras in the room that stung her magical senses so much that she could do nothing to help him in his search.

Regardless, when he found the diadem, he made sure to not touch it under any condition.

The original Harry Potter truly hated Voldemort for killing his parents and thus would never fall under the influence of the dark lord but he had no such defense so he had to be extra careful around the Horcruxes.

He levitated the Horcrux from a distance before dropping it inside the bottomless purse that he usually used for carrying money.

He had needed a container to hold the horcrux so he had emptied the bottomless purse in order to keep the horcrux inside of it.

But even now, he could see the dark magic inside the horcrux fighting against the magic of the bottomless purse and it won't be too long before the whole purse would be contaminated by it's evil aura and lose all of the magical charms placed on it.

And he was not even surprised by that as he already knew that a Horcrux corrupted anything it touched.

The purse was worth 40 galleons but if he could use it to keep the horcrux in check for sometime then losing the purse would be worth it.

Plus, it was not like 40 galleons meant all that much to him.

He checked the Marauders' map once again in order to make sure that the whole corridor was empty before leaving the room after which he started started walking outside the room once again.

After all, the Diadem was the most valuable possession of Rowena Ravenclaw who was one of the greatest witch who ever lived. He knew that he was capable of destroying the daidem if it came down it. But he was not willing to lose such a precious artifact without actually trying to save it.

So he had to find a way to remove the soul from the diadem without destroying it.

And sure enough, Hogwarts answered his call and he entered the room once again to find a heavy tome lying on the center of the room on a pedestal.

It seemed that he might be able to use the Diadem after all.

He picked up the book with a smiled and started reading through it in order to find a way to gain the remarkable artifact known as Rowena's Diadem.

—————

Minerva finished checking the last parchment submitted to her by the first years and sighed in relief at the job being finished.

Checking ȧssignments and giving appropriate marks had never been her favourite way to spend the day but it was a necessity that came along with being the Transfiguration teacher in Hogwarts.

As she made the list that contained the names of the first year students, she smiled to herself as she saw the full marks that her little cub Hermione Granger had received.

From what she's seen so far, Hermione was a remarkable witch and had a bright future in front of her.

Then looked at another name in the list and frowned a bit.

Harry Potter, son of Lily and James Potter who had been one of her favourite students before their untimely death was turning out to be a disappointment more than anything else.

In classes, he never bothered to answer any questions she asked to the students and didn't show any interest in her subject either.

In fact, she couldn't even remember that he was in the class until the end of the period at which point he simply got up from his seat and quietly left the class.

It was almost as if he vanished from her class while she was teaching the rest of the students.

She scoffed at the thought and looked at the ȧssignment handed to her by Harry and frowned at the messy job that he'd done.

Instead of the foot long essay she told them to write, he only wrote half a foot long essay and in a very bad handwriting on top of that.

It was almost as if he couldn't even be bothered to write an essay.

As if he considered himself above such things.

So she knew that he at least understood what she taught even if he didn't show any interest in it.

She sighed and rubbed her eyes once again and put the parchment back along with the others.

In the next class, she would definitely pay attention to him and check his performance personally.

Plus, Albus had also shown some interest in the boy so it was likely that he would ask her about Harry in the next weekly staff meeting.

—————

Harry read a thick book at the back of the class while a jovial Flitwick taught the others about the history of Lumos charm.

The Room of Requirement did not allow the students to take anything from the room. He knew because he had tried to take that one book regarding Horcruxes outside the room but every time he did so, the book simply vanished into thin air as soon as he stepped outside.

Even hiding the book inside a limitless bag didn't help.

So people might think that you cannot take anything from inside the room but he found a loophole in the whole system.

Just because he cannot take the book outside the room didn't mean that he could not copy the text inside the book into another book.

Neither did it placed any restriction on things that you copied from the original ones.

The book he was now reading was the result of a simple Gemino charm performed on the original book. It was by no means permanent and would dissolve into thin air before the end of the day. But he had no qualms with that since he would go back to the room of requirement before the end of the day anyway and if he wanted the book then could simply make another copy of it once again.

His knew face looked a bit haggard as he had been studying continuously since last night but his Shroud of Concealment made sure that others didn't pay much attention to him.

He ignored Flitwick's rambling in the background and focused on completing the book as soon as possible and understand what he needed to do to remove the soul of Voldemort not only from the Diadem but also from his scar and the other horcruxes as well.

After all, if he could save the Diadem, then why shouldn't he do the same with Salazar's locket and Hegla's cup.

A bump in his shoulder broke his concentration and he turned and looked at a very young Blaise Zabini who was pointing at the front of the class.

"…Potter. Mr Potter." He turned to find Professor Flitwick looking disapprovingly at him for having ignored him in the class.

"Yes sir." He said and pushed the book in his bag.

"Mr Potter. Did you understand how to perform the Lumos charm properly." The diminutive professor asked from atop his pile of books and Harry gave a bitter smile as the whole class focused their attention of him.

It seemed like Professor Flitwick was paying extra attention to him in the class otherwise he would not have broken through Harry's Shroud so easily.

"I believe I do Professor." He said with a confident nod.

"Wonderful." Flitwick said with a childlike glee and Harry had to smile at the professor's antics. There was just something so innocent about this man that Harry couldn't help but respect him for it. "Then would you please show it to the rest of the class?" Flitwick asked.

"Yes Professor." He said and pulled out his wand from the holster and pointed it in the air and hissed "Lumos" in Parseltongue and a bright white light filled the whole room, removing any darkness from it altogether.

Then he stopped supplying more magic to the wand and the light slowly faded away from the room, leaving behind stunned children who rubbed their eyes in order to get a clearer vision of the room.

"Ohh… Wonderful Mr Potter. Absolutely wonderful." Professor Flitwick said cheerfully even while he was rubbing his eyes from being blinded by the spell. "That was an amazing application of the Lumos charm, if not a bit overpowered. Five points to Ravenclaw for such a good demonstration. You may sit down now Mr Potter." He said while practically jumping on his books from excitement.

Harry sat back down on his seat and watched with some amusement as the rest of the class gave him a wary look at his liberal use of Parseltongue before going back to their work.

"I've never seen such a strong Lumos spell." Blaise commented from beside him at Harry's questioning gaze, he continued.

"All I heard was a terrifying hiss followed by a blinding light. Did you really spoke the spell in Parseltongue?" he asked conspiratorially and Harry wondered if he should tell the truth to a Slytherin who might use this knowledge against him some day.

But then again, even if the truth comes out that saying the incantation Parseltongue gives better results, it's not like anyone else could do anything about it considering how Parseltongue was an ability that couldn't be copied.

"Yes." He replied "Incantations said in Parseltongue produce better result that incantations said in Latin." Blaise nodded his head at that and went back to jabbing his wand and trying to perform the spell, unsuccessfully.

Harry of course didn't inform the Slytherin that he could easily perform such overwhelming spell with the Latin incantation or even the English word just as easily.

In fact, he could easily get the same results without even using a wand but he wanted to be seen as a genius, not a monster.

The reason for his spectacular result was the fact that out of all the students in the class, he was the only one to understand the importance of using your will and intent behind a spell.

Harry looked around the room and found Hermione looking at him curiously but as soon as their gazes met, her face turned red and she went back to practicing the charm. As it so happened, she was once again the only one in the room beside him who was successfully able to cast the charm by the end of their first period.

Harry shook his head and observed the rest of the students discreetly. Now that everyone had gone back to their own task, he used his Shroud of Concealment once again and went back to reading the book on souls and Possessions.

It was quite an interesting book after all.