WRITTEN FOR THE HOUSES COMPETITION, YEAR 7, ROUND 9
House: Ravenclaw
Class: Muggle Studies
Drabble
Prompt: [Object] Ravenclaw's Diadem
Word Count: 731 (google docs)
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Greed of Men
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The diadem was corrupted beyond repair.
Helena could feel it, could feel the evil emanating off of it every time she was anywhere near it. She could be a floor below the damned thing, floating through the sixth floor, and the vile essence of whatever lurked within the diadem would seep through the thick stones of Hogwarts, finding her wherever she hid.
She could still see it when she closed her eyes. She saw it the way she remembered seeing it as a child, supercilious silver adorning her mother's brow. She remembered the utter envy that had filled her when she saw her mother's implacable expression, her eyes far away, as though the diadem was whispering the secrets of the universe into her ears.
She saw it the way she remembered seeing it when she stole it, creeping into her mother's solarium in the dead of night, the moonlight glinting off of the metal and shining through the gem at its centre. She remembered the vindictive glee that had coursed through her veins when she dismantled her mother's wards, lifting the diadem off of its cushion, and placing it on her head.
It had been heavier than she expected, the weight of the world burdensome upon the crown of her head, and the silver bitterly cold against her forehead.
You are a child, it had whispered to her. A mother's love has limits.
She saw it the way she remembered seeing it in the Albanian forest where she died. She remembered leaving it in a hollow tree, surrounded by hastily erected wards, remembered how loath she was to leave it behind. It had seemed out of place, surrounded by decaying leaves and the brittle exterior wood of the tree.
At the time, she had planned to come back for it. She had planned to escape whoever her mother had sent for her, and come back to retrieve it. There were more secrets for it to tell, she knew it. There was more to the world than what she had seen.
But Helena had died, and she had woken up at Hogwarts, ghostly-grey and unable to leave.
Perhaps that was why she had unwittingly allowed the diadem to be ruined. She had meant to go back for it, and the thought of her mother's beautiful creation wallowing in some forgotten forest haunted her. The wisdom of the world haunted her.
"Let me find it," Tom had said, and he had been so handsome, so sincere. "Let me bring it home to Hogwarts for you."
It had been an impossible dream, that he would return her mother's diadem to her unharmed. What is infinite? Helena asked herself bitterly, whenever she remembered her folly. What is infinite? The universe, and the greed of men.
Tom had returned the diadem to Hogwarts years later, under a different moniker, and hidden it from the world.
Helena had seen it once. She had followed him into the Room of Hidden Things, unseen, and when he left, she had stood and stared at her mother's creation.
The diadem had choked her with its foul, unholy impurity. Its edges glinted sharply, painfully, and the beautiful blue of the gem had clouded over.
Helena was unable to stand it. She left and had stayed away ever since.
She had stayed away, and when the inquisitive students who wore Ravenclaw's colours scoured the library for proof that Rowena Ravenclaw's diadem was anything more than a myth, she didn't help. She obfuscated; she dodged their questions.
No one had deserved her mother's diadem so many centuries ago, when it was still pure – not even Helena. Now that it was corrupted, doubly no one deserved to find the mutated, monstrous thing it had become.
Generations of students could search, but they would never find Ravenclaw's diadem. It would fade into myth and legend once more, and no one would ever know what Helena had allowed to happen to it.
It was her deepest shame; her greatest regret. Helena had betrayed her mother in life, and failed her legacy in death. But never again, she vowed, never again. She was inured to the petty flatteries of men. They couldn't fool her, not now that she knew the depths of despicable corruption that lurked beneath shallow platitudes and charming smiles.
No unworthy wizard would lay eyes on her mother's most precious creation ever again.
a/n: beta love to Theoretical-Optimist, RowenaHermioneRavenclaw, and Sapphire402!
"What is infinite? The universe and the greed of men" is a quote from Shadow and Bone, by Leigh Bardugo.