Encountering a Thousand-Year-Old Female Ghost

[Change]

[The Boy Who Lived] → [Star of Salvation] → [Reincarnated Merlin]

[Reincarnated Merlin (Magic Affinity +7, Creativity +1, Magic Resistance +3, Time Resistance +1)]

[You have proven through tangible achievements that you are not merely gifted—you also possess astonishing creativity. You are a living legend, destined to stand upon the monument of epic.]

The new title arrived late but not unwelcome, and it included the rare [Creativity] and [Time Resistance] bonuses.

The retained bonuses from [Star of Salvation] could be disregarded.

But...

There was still no luck bonus, the one he wanted most.

And the core trait's inherent resistance was [All Resistances], covering space-time, fate, physical resistance, and everything else.

"Keep [Reincarnated Merlin]."

Harry exhaled a puff of hot air.

He looked down; beyond the white clouds lay a silver-clad world, with Hogwarts Castle reduced to a mere black speck.

Behind him, paper wings covered in Cloud Seal Script flapped. The next moment, he dove headfirst straight into a thick snowdrift.

Ripples spread across the ground beneath the snow. Harry sank into the earth, followed the castle upward, avoided the sewage pipes, and leaped out directly from the sixth-floor floor.

Only a single breath of time had passed.

"Marietta, it's Harry Potter!" "Cho Chang, look at me—is my hair messy?"

"Keep your voice down, he's coming over." "Is he heading into the common room?"

When Harry emerged from around the corner, two Ravenclaws gasped.

But he stopped before the spiral staircase leading up to Ravenclaw Tower.

"You should come out now," he said to a wall.

"Is he..." Cho Chang started to wonder, when a ghost drifted out from the wall. "The Grey Lady!"

The Grey Lady was the resident ghost of Ravenclaw Tower. Those from the outer courtyards thought "Grey" was her name.

Her striking beauty was as famous as her aloof, condescending demeanor.

Even Ravenclaw students rarely managed to strike up a conversation with her.

And now...

Her face had turned somewhat opaque.

She was blushing!

Her haughty expression was gone, replaced by a maidenly shyness.

"Don't say 'you'—just call me Helena."

Cho Chang doubted her ears. What had she just heard?

The Grey Lady's name!

Even the lovesick Marietta stood frozen in place.

Harry was equally bewildered.

He had originally planned to handle things formally, using the [Wisdom Rune] and [Ravenclaw's Diadem] as bait to complete the Bloody Baron's task.

But the moment they met, after a few exchanges, the Grey Lady became unusually enthusiastic and even used the task as an excuse to arrange several meetings.

—Could she really like me that much?

—Didn't she learn any caution after being tricked by Voldemort decades ago?

[Ding ding ding! [Heart of the Millennia-Old Female Ghost] task completed]

[10 experience points, Silver Talent·1, Silver Magic Knowledge·1 credited]

The Dogskin Book seemed to think so too.

"How about we find another place?"

Cho Chang noticed the Grey Lady glance in their direction.

Then she and Harry walked straight into the wall!

"Walking through walls! Is the Harry we saw actually a ghost?" Marietta exclaimed.

"Maybe?" Cho Chang grew curious about Harry as a person, not as the Savior or the Leviathan of Knockturn Alley.

"It's all because of you, Harry, that I realized my mother wasn't lying. The [Wisdom Rune] truly can only be used by her herself, or by a genius like you who can simulate another's magic."

"The ultimate development of magic is personalization, like magical creatures—only a unique magical power can activate a unique rune."

"I imagine my mother would be quite surprised to know someone else can use her rune."

Helena's voice was soft, her breathtakingly beautiful face growing even more opaque.

Taking advantage of her ghostly nature, she drew brazenly close to Harry, her translucent hand nearly resting on his shoulder.

"You should be able to promise me you'll stop hiding from the Bloody Baron. This is already our third meeting."

"Bringing him up again! Must we talk about him every time we meet?" Helena yanked her cloak aside in agitation, revealing a black wound on her pale chest. "He killed me. Because I kept refusing his advances, refusing to go back!"

"Can't we have something purer between us, something deeper... at least friendship."

"First, I'm still a child." Harry shook his head. "Second, I also want to have a child someday, a complete family."

"Since when is there a child this tall and sturdy? Though I can't bear your child, still..." Helena lowered her eyes. "I can materialize for one hour each day, becoming a soft sculpture with sensation and touch, by cursing my own ghostly form."

[Ding ding ding! Ravenclaw's Daughter's loneliness has brewed for a thousand years. Please, great Savior, show mercy and spare not your essence and blood to help her vent.]

[Reward: 100 experience points, Golden Magic Knowledge·3]

--Huh?

--You dog, you want me to be a gigolo?

--At least there's no time limit. I can wait until I'm in my thirties; by then I should have let go of my scruples.

Harry's face remained solemn, his smile turning grave. "If you still want to stay in Hogwarts, in the Ravenclaw Tower your mother built, then don't say such things anymore."

Helena didn't waver at all. "I can wait. You're still young now, you don't understand. I inherited my mother's beauty; no man can refuse me."

Harry undercut her. "Tom Riddle."

"He's not a man." Helena said. "He split his soul, shattered his humanity and reason."

"This afternoon, the Order of Merlin and Fudge will come to award you a medal, won't they?"

"I dare say that even with so many elite wizards gathered, if he's nearby and able to move, he will definitely appear to announce his presence and launch an attack!"

"Ha." Harry finally laughed.

He had read the original books and watched the films. That bastard Voldemort, even after regaining his full strength upon resurrection, knew to lie low and scheme, isolating Dumbledore from the wizarding world.

"Impossible, absolutely impossible!"

--Impossible, absolutely impossible!

Even Harry, who dared to wear only a single layer of clothing in the wind and snow at high altitudes, now sensed a chill from the winter sunlight.

--Voldemort, how the hell do you dare!

--Doesn't that mean my first kiss...

His mind flashed to Helena's flawless, lovely face.

He was now at the former Quidditch pitch, surrounded by the crowd's attention.

The area had been converted into an award stage.

Suspended in the sky were magical words, constantly glowing and changing colors, suggested by Sirius.

[Congratulations to Hogwarts student Harry James Potter for receiving the First-Class Order of Merlin]

Harry looked at the familiar faces and found Quirrell among them.

But he, now quietly reunited with the Sith Sword Hilt, could not detect Voldemort's aura from him.

He knew Voldemort was here, yet Voldemort's aura seemed to merge with nature itself, impossible to grasp, no longer murky or evil, but carrying a hint of light, righteousness, and grandeur.

"Harry, what are you looking at?"

"Looking at Draco and the others."

Harry turned to the wizard speaking to him at his side—Albus Dumbledore, the only person Voldemort feared.

--I must be crazy to think Voldemort would actually launch an attack.

--Right, how could that be possible?

--If he does, I'm a dog!