Harry Potter and the Secret Treasures - H.P.S.T Chapter 1678: The Temptation of Death

The Ravenclaw family suffered a devastating loss with the loss of the Diadem of Wisdom.

The ghosts, of course, could never have found the Diadem; it had been stolen by Rowena Ravenclaw’s daughter, Helena Ravenclaw. Lady Ravenclaw never announced the incident publicly — none of her three closest friends even knew the truth.

It was only after Lady Ravenclaw’s death that people discovered the Diadem was missing.

It wasn’t among Lady Ravenclaw’s belongings, and no one knew where it had gone.

Many rumors circulated about it, such as the Diadem had gone seeking a new master, or that the other members of the Ravenclaw family were unworthy to possess it. These speculations circulated for a thousand years. Many even became convinced that the Diadem was still somewhere in Hogwarts. Wizards searched every corner of Ravenclaw Tower. They never found the Diadem — but they did uncover many other secrets along the way.

Hogwarts harbored countless secrets, each with its own story.

Of course, none of those discoveries had anything to do with Ravenclaw’s Diadem!

In reality, the Diadem had indeed left Hogwarts; it had been hidden deep in a tree hollow in the Romanian forest.

A thousand years later, Voldemort traced it to that tree hollow from the faintest of clues. By then, however, the Diadem had lost all its magic and become an ordinary object — a rust-covered iron band.

Had Rowena Ravenclaw’s famous words not still been engraved upon it, few would ever have believed that this iron ring was the Diadem of Wit.

The Diadem, having lost its magic, could no longer grant wisdom and had no practical use. However, it undeniably possessed unique historical significance and commemorative value. Voldemort therefore transformed it into a Horcrux, endowing it with a new purpose, and new magic.

He brought the Diadem back to Hogwarts as a Horcrux and hid it in the Room of Requirement.

What happened afterward is well known. Evan retrieved the Diadem from that place, destroyed the fragment of Voldemort’s soul concealed within it, and — under Lady Ravenclaw’s guidance — restored the magic the Diadem had lost, returning it to her hands…

From this perspective, the Diadem had not truly been separated from Lady Ravenclaw for very long.

Her daughter stole it, but Evan soon carried it from the future back into the past and returned it to her. However, Lady Ravenclaw didn’t keep the Diadem; instead, she gave it to Evan as a reward for passing her test.

Aside from Lady Ravenclaw and Evan, no one else ever knew the truth of these events.

The rest of the Ravenclaw family most likely believed the Diadem to be truly lost. And that loss was catastrophic for them. The Diadem was the symbol of wisdom; to lose it meant that the Ravenclaw family was no longer the world’s most intelligent Wizarding lineage — especially since the Diadem was also the key to entering the family library.   

Whatever was in that library, no one could retrieve it.

For the moment, that seemed to be the case; but Evan still didn’t know what had happened here.

What exactly had taken place in this land?

And what did the loss of the Diadem have to do with it?

“After Lady Rowena Ravenclaw passed away, we lost the Diadem, and the Ravenclaw family’s reputation plummeted. People gossiped, but the impact of losing the Diadem wasn’t just that. Besides the enormous loss of prestige, we also lost our family heritage,” said Marcus. “All the secrets about the Veil of Death were preserved in the library. We tried many methods, but we couldn’t open the library without the Diadem. Without those secrets and that knowledge, the Ravenclaw family lost its qualification to serve as guardians. The family gradually declined until that day, when the Veil of Death was opened, and the power of death descended upon this land. It killed everyone and imprisoned our souls here even after death, never allowing us to find rest…”

Evan studied the ghost closely. The pace of his account was rather too abrupt.

After Rowena Ravenclaw’s death, the Ravenclaw family lost her Diadem and support, and the entire family declined and fell into ruin. But what did that have to do with the Veil of Death being opened? Moreover, the decline of pure-blood Wizarding families was an inevitable, long-term trend — rises and falls spanning centuries. Many ancient and once-prominent pure-blood families had vanished entirely during that process.

The loss of the Diadem — and with it the most precious family magical inheritance — might have hastened that decline, but it had been unavoidable.

The key issue was not the diadem. Evan thought for a moment, then pressed on, “The day you say the Veil of Death was opened — when exactly was that?”

“It was the day we died!” said Marcus, closing his eyes as if sinking into a painful memory. “I can’t remember the exact date, but what happened that day is still vivid in my mind. Countless black flies poured out of the Veil of Death. They were Death’s messengers, carrying the power of destruction. They blotted out the sky, swarming over the castle and this land. Death slaughtered everyone. From that moment on, the world lost its color and sank into eternal darkness.”

Black flies, messengers of calamity and death, were known to appear in certain extremely Dark and evil branches of magic.

However, black flies blotting out the sky and engulfing the entire castle — Evan could scarcely imagine what kind of Dark magic that would require. Unless Marcus’s description was exaggerated, perhaps only Death itself could have done such a thing.

“Later, those wizards removed the Veil of Death, but Death remained,” Marcus continued. “It’s inside that building, its power still lingers, and it is still watching the Ravenclaw family. All the living who ever approached that building were cursed and died tragically. For your safety, please do not go near there, my lord.”

“What a tragic story, Marcus!” Evan said, gazing at the distant green light. “I’m saddened by what happened to you, and I thank you for your advice, but there are still some things I don’t quite understand. For example, who opened the Veil of Death?”

“After the family began its gradual decline, things grew very grim. Without the deterrence of powerful wizards, more and more Dark wizards with ulterior motives came to the family’s lands,” said Marcus. “Some sought the Ravenclaw family’s treasures, some coveted the magical books in our collection, and others came for the Veil of Death itself.

“In this process, the Veil of Death was opened. It was the Ravenclaw family that opened it…”

“The Ravenclaws opened the Veil of Death themselves?!” Evan pressed.

“I don’t know the precise details. In those final days, many within the family believed that the power of the Veil of Death would help them grow stronger — help the Ravenclaw family reclaim its former glory,” said Marcus slowly. “I believe they must have been bewitched by Death. As time went on, more and more people came to share that belief, and the entire family fell into a kind of fevered madness.

“In the end, those people — the outside Dark wizards, along with the members of the family who held such ideas — opened the Veil of Death together and brought down Death’s curse upon the Ravenclaw family…”

Translating_Wizard

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