Ravenclaw's Relics

Jon felt that Helga was being overly modest.

This Ancestor of his from a thousand years ago—since he had no idea how many generations separated them, Jon truly did not know what to call Helga—possessed magical knowledge that transcended time. Although the magical world's magic had improved, Helga's insights were always uniquely brilliant.

After explaining the basics of the Disillusionment Charm to Jon, he gave up on the idea of mastering the spell immediately.

"Compared with making an Invisibility Cloak, such a crude invisibility spell as the Disillusionment Charm was impractical in our time. The environment back then was exceedingly harsh. If we had relied on such a simple spell, we would probably have been burned at the stake long ago."

After comparing several current spells with those from her era, Helga told Jon this.

She took several books on modern spells from Jon—the magic of the Portrait world could copy the text from books and re-form it within the Portrait world—and intended to revise the casting methods of those spells for him before beginning his magical training.

Jon had no complaints about this. Having a Legendary Witch personally tailor the power of his spells was something he had never even imagined, an opportunity that could only be encountered by chance.

At least the Meditation Method had earned Helga's praise.

Since he could not begin magical training for the time being, he might as well explore this study Lady Ravenclaw had left behind.

There was nothing worth reading on the bookshelves, only outdated spellbooks and guides to crafting magical items. In those areas, the modern magical world had long since replaced the old with the new and achieved far greater accomplishments.

Jon did not believe Ravenclaw's legacy could be so simple. At the very least, the things this Legendary Witch used in her daily life ought to have been quite extraordinary.

After looking through the entire room, Jon turned his attention to Ravenclaw's desk.

He sat down directly in Ravenclaw's chair and began opening the drawers on either side beneath the desk one by one.

"Hmm? It's locked?"

Having found nothing in the first three drawers, Jon immediately perked up. Whatever Ravenclaw had locked inside a drawer certainly could not have been ordinary.

After thinking for a moment, he pointed his wand at the keyhole and murmured, "Alohomora."

There was no response. The spell failed.

Jon did not think there was anything wrong with his spell, because he had practiced it many times at home. It was one of the spells he had mastered best.

"That won't work. Alohomora is an ingenious spell, but it cannot be used to undo the Counter-Lock Charm Rowena set." Helga on the wall had returned from the Portrait world to the surface at some point. "She was the finest spell master I ever saw."

Jon waved his wand and tapped his own head with its tip. "But this is the only unlocking spell I know, and you just said that if I break it open by force, the magic might backlash and injure me."

"Of course. Rowena's magic is far too dangerous for you right now. Even the backlash from a Counter-Lock Charm could leave you seriously injured. But why are you so determined to open this drawer?"

"I just want to know what's inside."

Jon tapped on the large locked drawer. This was a scene that had never appeared in the Original Work; it was impossible for him not to be curious. "Anything Ravenclaw carefully locked away here must be no ordinary object. It might even be the true inheritance Ravenclaw left behind."

"Rowena's inheritance... wouldn't it be inappropriate for you to take it? I think Rowena's heir is still in the castle. Perhaps she would not approve of what you're doing."

"Helena has already become a ghost, and besides, she probably doesn't even know..."

Jon stopped halfway through, because he had let something slip.

Eleven years after being reborn, this was the first time he had misspoken. Fortunately, the one who heard him was not someone else, but his own Old Ancestor.

He looked up at the portrait. Helga within it seemed lost in thought, yet she had not noticed anything strange.

Huh? She couldn't tell that anything was wrong?

Just as he was about to quietly let the matter pass, Helga continued, "So you people found out that Helena became a ghost after all? I knew that boy named Tom was unreliable. He used sweet words and his status as a descendant of a Founder to trick Helena into revealing where the diadem was, but in the end, he vanished without a trace."

"..."

Was it really appropriate to say such things in front of a Child like him?

And it seemed that the Old Lady did not know Tom Riddle had already become Lord Voldemort.

Jon watched Helga sink into her own world and quietly said nothing more. Though Helga in the portrait looked very young, because of legendary magic, she was essentially still an Old Lady.

And perhaps becoming completely oblivious to the outside world while thinking was a shared trait among Legendary Wizards.

However, Helga's words also reminded Jon that he had fallen into a mistaken line of thought.

What, fundamentally, was a drawer protected by a Counter-Lock Charm?

Fundamentally, it was still a locked drawer.

And if it had a lock, then naturally, it had a key.

How had Tom Riddle hidden Ravenclaw's Diadem after obtaining it?

The answer was that he had found the Room of Requirement—the very place where Jon now stood.

This was the Room of Requirement!

Jon knocked on his own head. Ever since receiving Hogwarts's acceptance letter, the reality of the magical world had muddled his thoughts. Sometimes, he found it difficult to grasp the key point of something very simple.

He put away his wand, extended one hand, and spoke softly.

"I need the key to open this drawer."

A moment passed in utter silence.

The key did not appear out of thin air as Jon had guessed, nor did it fall from somewhere. This could not help but leave him puzzled.

"Could it be that there is no key?"

Jon tugged at the drawer handle and could clearly feel the lock inside catching against the stop, so there had to be a key.

The only possibility was that Ravenclaw had taken the key with her as a burial object.

Fine, he still had other solutions. He simply could not manage them yet.

"If you can't open it, then leave it alone. I have a feeling there may not be anything inside anyway. Perhaps it only contains some books Rowena collected." Helga said softly, "She always liked researching strange magic."

"All right, I'll set it aside for now."

Jon considered several ways to open the lock, but without a locksmith, and since he could not make a key himself, he could only keep the matter in mind for now.

"I've been out for quite a while. Once there are more students in the castle, I'm afraid I won't be able to avoid them, so I have to leave now." He spoke to Helga's portrait. "Your portrait can stay here for now. When school lets out this year, I'll take you home with me."