Title: a crown of thrones is my grief (set it aflame and let it burn)

Team: Montrose Magpies

Position: Seeker

Prompt: Write about a whispered confession.

Summary: Pandora and Regulus are in Hogwarts for the last horcrux. But to find the Diadem, they need the Grey Lady's help.


Hogwarts feels unnaturally still with no students bustling about. Regulus' and Pandora's footsteps echo in the halls as Pandora leads Regulus to wherever she saw the Grey Lady would be.

"She needs to be here," Pandora breathes, her eyes bright with determination.

Regulus nods, not quite sure what she means but trying to encourage her anyway. "Is there any other place that she would be?" he asks, meaning to be positive but Pandora gives him a look.

"She's a ghost, Regulus," Pandora bites out. "She could be anywhere. Just because I'm a Seer, does not mean that I am all–knowing."

He does not say anything further to her as she turns into a hall. Her footsteps become more of a march as they go further down the dark hall.

Relief crashes through Regulus when he sees a shimmering form floating on the far side of the hall, tall and slender and in a dress.

"Helena Ravenclaw!" Pandora says with all the authority in the world, as if she is Death Itself and not a 5' 3 Seer who had just been praying for a miracle 10 minutes before. "The Grey Lady of Hogwarts."

Ghostly eyes turn toward them and the Grey Lady floats in her spot uncertainly, as if they were coming to exorcise her. "I have not been called that for many a years," she whispers, head tilting to the left.

They come to a stop in front of her and she looks them over, eyes narrowing. "How may I help you?" she asks frostily. "You are a bit too old to be in Hogwarts, no?"

Regulus squares his shoulders and forces himself to look as calm and confident as Pandora does. "We need your Mother's Diadem," he says.

The Grey Lady goes a shade paler, but her features twist with anger. "Why do you seek it out?" she asks. "You have no reason for it; it is not an artifact for you to gawk at," she snaps at them.

"It is not," Pandora agrees. "However, it is the last artifact that we need to defeat the Dark Lord. He has used it to hold his soul and it is tainted with at least a quarter piece."

If ghosts weren't already pale, Regulus would say that the Grey Lady would've gone snow white. "What do you mean?" the Grey Lady whispers.

Regulus takes a deep breath. "The Dark Lord has used it to make a Horcrux," he explains calmly. "It keeps him immortal but it has also destroyed his sanity. He has caused much pain and suffering—if this continues, he may end up destroying our magical haven here."

"Oh…"

The Grey Lady sinks to the ground, floating just about the stone floor, which she would sink through if she touched it. "I–" Her face twists with grief and sorrow and she blinks as if she was trying to hold back tears. "He was so charming as a young man," she whispers. "So, so charming. He said that he was going to change things for the better you know."

Pandora sits down and Regulus follows her lead, though there is a small flash of annoyance at having to listen to a ghost whine about how they were tricked.

It happens all the time; she's not the first one to have been tricked by the Dark Lord, but they would make sure she was the last.

However, they need the location of the Diadem, so Regulus forces himself to listen.

"—I told him where it was. I took him right to it and he smiled, said that he was so thankful. Which, I suppose he was." The Grey Lady looks at them with sorrowful eyes. "How do I know that you won't use it for ill as well?"

"We'll swear it on our magic," Pandora offers.

Regulus stares at her.

They will do what?

That is not something that you offer to do willy–nilly. Especially as Regulus didn't know exactly what the ghost wanted them to swear on.

Something impossible knowing his darling luck.

"Or you can watch us destroy it and then we will never look for it again?" Regulus offers instead. "I can swear my magic to that."

Pandora rolls her eyes but nods.

The Grey Lady stares up at them with blank eyes, before slowly nodding her head. "I agree to your terms," she states, coming back up. "I will take you to it and then you will leave."

Regulus nods his acceptance.

The Grey Lady floats in front of them, leading them through Hogwarts, and then stops in front of a tapestry. "Pace three times; ask for the Room of the Lost Things," she says calmly.

Of course, Pandora takes that up and paces thrice times. A door appears and she pushes it open. Immediately, they are confronted with so many items.

Regulus gazes at it all, mouth almost dropping open when he sees Limited Editions of things half–buried underneath all the clutter. The Grey Lady seems to notice none of it though as she floats through it all, leading them forward. Pandora drags Regulus away from a 1798 Starlight Edition Pocket Watch that there are only 7 of.

He snatches it up just before it's out of his reach and tucks it into his pocket. They twist through the room, searching for the Grey Lady who apparently forgot that they cannot walk through the stacks of clutter like she can.

The diadem is on an old, decaying wig; it looks new, as if it had just been forged and carved by the Goblins.

Pandora takes it with delicate hands and turns it over a few times. "This feels almost blasphemous," she mutters before nodding. "Are you sure we should destroy it?"

Regulus startles at the question. What?

It takes a few moments to realize that there are compulsions on the Diadem, but the Grey Lady has already taken matters into her own hands.

The Grey Lady does not look amused by Pandora's airy question and swoops down to get right in Pandora's face. "You will destroy it right now, as you promised," she hisses. "And you will rid my mother's greatest pride of the taint from that lying scumbag." The Grey Lady reaches out a ghostly hand and passes it through Pandora's head, causing her eyes to widen at the sensation.

Pandora sways for a few moments, before nodding slowly. Then she shakes her head, clearing it of the fog from the Diadem's compulsion.

Blue eyes turn to Regulus."Do you want to, or shall I?"

"I'll do it," Regulus says immediately.

She nods and then murmurs a floating spell. It floats up and up and up until it's higher than the tallest stack of clutter.

Regulus focuses his magic and points his wand up. "Ignis Gehennae," he chants.

Fiendfyre pours from his wand in the form of a Chimera, and the Horcrux screams.

Pandora flinches at the sound, the tortured, pained screams, but the Grey Lady stands tall and watches as her shame burns away in the fire. And when the flames finally die out, there is only a deathly, ringing silence.

"It is done," the Grey Lady states calmly. She hovers for a moment, and then, "Thank you. You have done well."

Without another word, she turns and floats away, disappearing into the stacks, leaving Pandora and Regulus behind.