PROLOGUE

I sit in the Ravenclaw common room vigorously scanning the numerous, slightly worn copies of the Daily Prophet and the Quibbler that are laid out before me on the old oak table. Luna sits across from me with her arms draped lazily over the table, her shallow breathing the only sound in the room aside from the crackling of a slowly dieing fire. I lift my eyes from the paper and settle them on my housemate's frazzled blond hair, recalling the sweet smell of her dirigible plum shampoo. The scent had lingered on my pillow long after she'd left to her own bed early that morning, and I hope it will still be there when I return. If I return.

"Luna? Are you awake?"

No reply.

I huff, falling back into the cozy lounge chair and rubbing the palms of my hands against my eyes, trying to chase the sleep away. I can't sleep yet, not until I have the answer. We've been at it for hours, Luna and I, scanning every article, I the Daily Prophet and she the Quibbler (she refuses to lay a hand on the Daily Prophet), searching for anything that has to do with the six murdered muggleborns. As I rest my head against the soft back of my chair, I recall my conversation with Helena one week earlier.

"Helena... What is the matter?"

The ghost's form stirs slightly as I approach, but she does not move to face me. I can always tell when something is troubling others, whether alive or dead. "All was thought to be right with the world again, but we have escaped a venomous snake just to be thrown into a forest fire." The ghost replies solemnly as her lifeless eyes gaze out of the misted window.

"You talk of Lord Voldemort, right? And now the Scarlet Riddle? Do you think that she is more dangerous than he was?" I question, stepping up beside the translucent figure.

"Was? Child, he is still dangerous. The memory of him, of the things he has done, they effect people. Though, in a way, she is much more dangerous than he is, or ever was. Looking at what she has done, you would think her careless, leaving her victims right where she has murdered them. She has no followers to dirty their hands for her, not a soul on which to place the blame but her own. However, there was nothing to trace back to her. We do not even know for certain that she is a woman, we can only guess. What makes her more dangerous than Tom Riddle is the fact that she does not have an obsession with power. She has nothing to cloud her vision.

"Scarier still is her intelligence, her wit. It is as if she has the mind of a Ravenclaw, but the heart of a Slytherin. Quite a dangerous combination. His followers- the Dark Lord's- will be stirring in their cells, just waiting to jump into action, to follow her. She is bound to know that, to know that a follower will forever be looking for a leader."

"Why would they follow her? Voldemort practically owned those people, made them believe that he was some kind of god. He had Horcruxes, ways to make himself seem invincible."

"And who's to say Scarlet does not? Perhaps she is a Horcrux herself."

"What do you mean?"

Helena turns to face me then, her eyes seeming to burn with a fearsome fire as they bore into mine, making her look more alive than dead in that moment. When she speaks, her voice reverberates off of the stone walls, overpowering every other sound. "When faced with horror, a soul will tear. The actions of two one form will share. Goodness sleeps while evil thrives, and in her wake, a Wonder dies."

As the last echo of the earth bound ghost dies away, the temperature of the hallway drops. Helena's dark look lingers a while longer before she slowly fades away into nothing.

I let out a low sigh and force my eyes open, trying again to focus on the words on the page. Now that I know the end of Helena's riddle, that the 'Wonders' were actually muggleborns, I have to figure out the rest. I can't let it go, not when I am so close to solving it. "When faced with horror, a soul will tear..." I groan in frustration, feeling very much like a stuttering child who just can't find the right word. And then it hits me. "Horcrux... A Horcrux!" I jump up out of the chair and begin pacing the room, reaching up to fiddle with the ends of my hair as I always do when I am sure that I am on to something. "Perhaps she is a Horcrux herself... Helena said those exact words... The actions of two one form will share, goodness sleeps while evil thrives! Luna, I think I've got it!"

One look at the still sleeping girl has me rolling my eyes. Of course I would make my big discovery, and she would sleep through it.

I turn away from her and begin pacing again, Helena's riddle finally unfolding before me. "The Scarlet Riddle is two different people, one good, one bad... A Ravenclaw with the heart of a Slytherin, just as Helena said! She's... a multiple." I shoot back to the table and pick up the small piece of parchment on which I'd written the dates of the murders and compared it to the dates I have committed to memory, each of those dates being a night I had woken up on the floor, deep in the dungeon of the castle.

"Oh, fuck."