10th of January 1997,
I solemnly swear that I am Harry James Potter Evans.
Sirius likes to say that he is going to go gray on the top prematurely from all the surprises his life has had. I'm starting to get that a little now. A few weeks ago, I found out about the Heirs of the Founders and the lack of history surrounding them. Well, today I found something out about the Founders themselves, namely I finally learned who the second child of Salazar Slytherin was. Helena Ravenclaw. As in the daughter of Rowena Ravenclaw. As in Rowena SLYTHERIN nee Ravenclaw.
How did I learn this? I asked the Gray Lady, better known as Helen Ravenclaw herself. I thought that I would have to hunt around for her a lot longer than I have. I started out when we came back from Christmas. It didn't go so well the first few times. No matter how I introduced myself, or stated what I wanted to ask her, she refused to listen and would just vanish off through a wall or the roof.
But today I tried something different. Today I tried introducing myself as the Heir of Gryffindor.
The Gray Lady stared out over the grounds of Hogwarts, keeping a keen eye on the many students running around outside. She didn't bother turning her head to acknowledge the presence of the boy that had tried to get her attention for the past week. She was preparing to depart when his words stopped her.
"My Lady Ravenclaw please wait but a moment. I'm Harry James Potter Evans, heir of Gryffindor, and I wish to speak with you."
His words were honest, either he was, or truly believed he was, the heir of Gryffindor. Looking at him seriously for the first time since he first found her, she saw the similarities, but not with Godric. He looked like Godric's grandson, Jonathan.
"My Lord," she bowed her head in recognition, "If only you had presented yourself like so from the beginning, we might have had words much sooner."
The boy bowed his head in apology. "My deepest apologies, Lady Ravenclaw, but I have only recently learned of my heritage and I forgot my manners."
"Let it be behind us. And please, call me Helena."
"Then please call me Harry."
She nodded in acceptance, "What do you wish to discuss with me, Harry?"
The boy looked unsure for a moment, as if he didn't know if his words might offend her. Of course she wouldn't be surprised that he thought so. She never took kindly to the students, mostly because they were all so incredibly rude. With a few notable exceptions, like the young Lovegood heiress.
"I have been trying to find the Heirs of the Founders. Aside from myself, I have found the Heir of Hufflepuff, Susan Bones. I now seek the last two heirs, but history regarding yourself and Salazars true heir are muddy or lost to time." The boy explained with an expression betraying his annoyance.
She felt a chuckle escape her ghostly lips. "Perhaps, young Heir, it is because they are one and the same."
The boy's eyes almost buggered out of his head when she saw the realization dawn in his eyes. The haste with which his mind was functioning told her that he could have made a great Raven, but she saw the love in him as well, the love that Helena had treasured so deeply in her Badgers.
"You are the lost daughter of Salazar Slytherin? But that would mean…" he mumbled.
"That my father, Salazar and my mother, Rowena, were married." She supplied with a smile.
"Merlin…" the boy muttered.
"Father feared that with all that happened with my brother, the world would look unfavorable upon me if I was to present myself a Slytherin. I took my mother's name and went on, a hidden child of Snake and Raven." She explained carefully as she tried to gauge the young man's reaction.
"Amazing… such a grand piece of history, hidden away under our very noses!" The young man cheered.
"You said you seek the heir to my parents, did you not?" she asked when she saw he had calmed down.
"Yes, yes of course! But there isn't much known about you after your… your death." The young man's mood seemed to plummet as he reached that particular thought.
"I find myself curious, Harry… what does history say happened to me?" she inquired with a curious stare. She had not kept up with history since her death, but from what little she heard from the students, something was not adding up.
"According to historians. You took your mothers Diadem and fled to Albania, desiring to be smarter and greater than she ever was. On your mother's deathbed stricken with disease, she asked the Bloody Baron to track you down. The Baron, madly in love with you, accepted. He found you, but when you rejected his advances, he stabbed you in a fit of rage and then took his own life. Legend goes that the Diadem is still lost." The young man explained with sorrow marring his voice.
"My word," she whispered. "What travesty!" she yelled.
"My lady?" the young man questioned in shock.
"What dragon dung has been spewed since my passing?!" in her anger, Helena began floating around the small corridor. "I most certainly did not steal my mother's diadem! She gifted it to me as a wedding present, an heirloom! I did not run away to Albania. I moved there with my Husband. What nonsense is this that my mother died of a disease? I visited her repeatedly over the years until my death, she was in fine health the last I saw her!" her floating had slowly turned into a near race as she finally stopped near the window and glared out over the grounds. "As for the Baron? He was my protector, assigned by my mother, yes, but certainly not sent to retrieve me!"
"But… what of your death, my lady?" the young man asked with wide eyed wonder.
"My pregnancy was complicated and I was taken to safety as my son's magic was so strong that it caused me to have bouts of accidental magic. We didn't wish to scare the muggle community around us. But a mob whom had learned the truth found us on the eve I gave birth. My husband and the Baron fought as a friend of mine helped deliver my son to this world." A ray of sunshine shone through the window and illuminated her face, revealing two trails of glistening tears to the young man, "I had barely held my son for a moment when the door broke down and two men rushed inside. My friend killed the first but didn't manage to get the second before he stabbed my stomach." Her eyes turned to the young man, and he was struck with an overwhelming sense of sadness, "When a Witch has given birth, her body is exceptionally weak. There was nothing that could be done for me. I barely told my husband of my love for him and asked him to take our son back to Britain, to the safety of my parents. The Baron vowed to never stop protecting me, and he declared that if he had failed in life, he would not do so in death, and he joined me in the afterlife."
The young man was clearly stunned. His entire view of the events she had just described must have been utterly shattered. She knew what it was like to have one's entire world turned upon its head.
"And you remained as a ghost because of them, your husband and son. You remained to watch over them?" the young man asked.
"That is correct. I watched my son grow, get married, have children, grow old and die. My husband had died years before, but I could not join him in the afterlife. I do not know what it is, but something still grounds me to this world." She explained with a kind smile.
"Amazing, utterly amazing. So there are not two heirs remaining, but just one… the Heir to both Ravenclaw and Slytherin?" he asked while looking to her for confirmation.
"Indeed. Do you wish to know who?" she asked with a knowing look.
"You know who it is?" he asked in astonishment.
"I have watched generation after generation of my family pass through these halls, and I have watched over her just as I have everyone else." She explained.
"So it's a she… someone I know?" he asked.
"I should think so. You knew her briefly, but she has visited you in the castle since."
The young man's eyes tightened as he racked his brain for the answer. His eyes flew open and his mouth fell open at the implication.
"TONKS?!" he yelled in surprise.
The Lady smiled genuinely, "Correct. If you wish for a clue, the name of my husband was Actorus Black."
"Black… by Merlin… But how come it is Tonks that is the heir? She isn't from the head branch of the Blacks."
"That, my dear Heir, you will have to find out on your own. If I may suggest something. When you are within the Library, speak your title and behold my mother's greatest wonder." With those words, the Gray Lady vanished out through the wall, the truest smile she had ever had upon her lips.
So now I'm going to have to scour through the library for whatever it is that is supposed to appear when I say I'm the heir of Gryffindor. That aside, everything I learned today is already in my research journal in greater detail. But I had to write it here as well, I needed to record this in more than just one book.
I need to head off to bed now, there is much more work to be done now that I have discovered the last Heir. All three of us needs to gather and talk about what we want to do. But before that, I need to find out how it is Tonks can be the Heir to Slytherin and Ravenclaw.
Harry James Potter Evans.
