It took me a couple of minutes to figure out how to use the stone to destroy the Horcrux in the diadem. I found that I needed the stone to be in physical contact with the vessel when it activated for it to work, which necessitated some nimble use of my fingers to get everything positioned righty. Once I'd managed the same thing that happened the first time I'd used the stone repeated itself. A long-drawn-out eerie wail echoed through the Room of Hidden Things before slowly fading as if the originator had disappeared in the distance. It was an incredibly creepy experience now that I knew what was happening.
I couldn't help but shudder as a cold uneasy feeling crawled its way up my spine. Like someone was walking over my grave. I didn't envy what fate had in store for Tom Riddle, I pitied him. I honestly couldn't figure why he had done it, why he had created Horcruxes and condemned himself to limbo when the wizarding world had ample proof that there was an existence after death even if they didn't know exactly what that entailed? If there was no afterlife, like back home, then his choices seemed far more understandable. I doubt there is anyone not truly religious that doesn't fear the nonexistence of death.
It damn well terrified me.
But since I'd gotten here to this world, that fear had slowly but surely been fading away, little by little, as I became used to the presence of ghosts and with the sure knowledge that there was something waiting beyond my death, even if I didn't know exactly what. Though, I made a note to see if the dead could tell me that. I also made a note to not do something truly bad, no sense tempting fate.
Doing research into the matter had helped immensely to calm me down in that respect as well, and as it turns out, it was darn interesting reading. What little there was of it? Oddly enough Wizards weren't too interested in spiritual beings such as ghosts and the like. The general accepted amongst wizards that a ghost was the disembodied soul of the deceased. I tentatively disagreed with that stance, mostly because I'd found a mention in a book about Dementor's that stated that they showed no particular interest in ghosts. If a ghost was essentially a disembodied soul then why would a soul-sucking monster ignore what was essentially free food?
It made little sense to me.
I'd never been able to test if it was true or not until now that was. "Helena Ravenclaw."
The air in front of my shimmered and the familiar visage of the Gray Lady faded into view, though she wasn't all that gray right now. The resemblance to her mother was strong, she had the same eyes and hair and similar enough features. She lacked a bit in the bust department, but I think she probably had a nice booty, but it was hard to tell with the robes.
She looked at me with a haughty look and would probably have tried to look down her nose at me if I didn't stand half a head taller than her. "What do you want?"
I smiled a friendly smile. "I just thought we'd continue our discussion from last year." I lied easily. Well, it wasn't entirely a lie. I had tried to talk to the Gray Lady not long after Piddle had left the diadem at Hogwarts, but the ghost had been uninterested in having a conversation, even after I'd mentioned the diadem. That had actually made it worse and the Gray Lady had left through a wall moments later.
Helena wrinkled her nose. "You have made a mistake then, we have never spoken."
"Ah, sorry for having disturbed you." I apologized simply and then sent her back to the hereafter. "Hum, well, that answers that I suppose," I muttered thoughtfully to myself.
So what did that mean for ghosts? I had some theories, of course, the one I liked that most were that it was just a case of accidental magic cast at the moment of their death that caused the phenomenon, which would mean that ghosts were essentially living sentient spells. Of course, that didn't explain Binns – as he had been asleep when he had passed and still become a ghost. My other theory was that they were essentially an imprint of the soul left behind, like a footprint in clay. That would correspond somewhat with how one created the minds of portraits, and how I did it when I created my three animal companions. However, that sort of process didn't impart memories, only very basic skills like the ability to speak a particular language, or languages if the donor was known more than one very well.
I sensed there would be much experimentation in my future.
"SCIENCE!" I thundered, and then immediately felt silly for having done it. God, so much cringe!
I should probably look into Poltergeists as well, they were kinda like ghosts, only they could interact with things and give some of the laws of magic, as wizards knew them, the middle finger. It might be worthwhile to see if I could figure out how that worked. Might want to look into other spectral beings as well now that I think about it, I'd read some tantalizing facts associated with their creations that gave me some ideas.
I wonder if house-elves had ghosts. They had to have. I'd ask Paddy later.
And that reminded me, I'd have to see if I could create magical prosthetics – that was a bad name, misleading too, I wasn't going to be amputating any limbs. What to call it then… magical enhancement? No. Bleh! What do you call magical tentacles and extra arms? Octopods? Oh, that's just terrible! Maybe I could rip off some existing stuff? Eh, I'd figure it out later. Maybe Lys knew a good name.
I mulled that over in my head as I decided that a bit of spelunking was in order. It had been over a month since I'd gone digging in the room. "Paddy!"
"Yes, sir," Paddy responded from where he was standing on an old birdcage, complete with a bird skeleton, still sitting on the little swing. I hoped I was just imagining it moving its head a bit, or it might have been Paddy's with that had just jolted it a bit.
"You found anything interesting in here since we were here last?" I asked as I set off in a random direction.
"Nothing beyond the occasional precious metal object and money of various denominations – I placed such items with the rest for your perusal," Paddy informed me dryly.
I nodded absently. Not that I didn't think it wasn't important, my life would certainly have been a lot harder if not for the valuables I'd been able to scrounge from the room over the years. As I'd expected the room held a lot of things that were valuable, mostly it was stuff such as candlesticks and goblets that made of precious metals, but I had found a fair amount of wizarding world currency in the form of galleons, sickles, and knuts. I'd also found a picture-perfect pirate chest filled with gold coins, gems, a jewel-encrusted scepter and holy hand grenade, and even a god's honest crown of all things. There were also three nice-looking daggers with gold grips in there.
None of it seemed to be enchanted as far as I could determine, nothing happened when I put on the crown anyway. And since the wizarding world had no king, and never had, I assumed it was from the normal world. The coins had what I thought looked like Arabic lettering on them but I had no idea if I was correct in that. I'd have to take one of them out in the normal world and see if anyone could identify them for me. The crown and other paraphernalia were obviously European in design, which made it odd that it would be in a chest with Arabic coins.
Gold and other precious materials weren't the only useful things I'd found in the room of hidden things of course. I'd sourced most of my furniture and building materials from there, not to mention several sets of potions equipment such as caldrons, vials, and scales. There were lots of old clothes that had been rendered down for raw materials for my leatherworking endeavors. I'd found several telescopes that I'd dismantled and used the lenses to build my microscope.
I'd found books, of course, most of it being porn. Go figure. Others were filled with gruesome crap I didn't even want to think about. There were alot of books I couldn't read because they were written in runes and I couldn't be bothered with translating them. Maybe Lys knew how to read it, Dwarves were all about runes in fiction, right? I'd take her in here once she got back for school.
I cursed and jumped back as a bust of some wizard tried to take a bite out of me, almost knocking over what looked like a tree made entirely of goblets in various materials. One had to be careful with some of the stuff in this place, they weren't all that friendly. I eyed an entire stuffed troll suspiciously before going on. I stopped and examined something that looked like the framework for the Deathstar. Maybe some sort of astrological instrument or something? Would it be too much to ask the people that made these things to put a label on it and include an instruction manual? They could definitely have been nice and slapped a warning label on the stuff that might try to kill you. I moved further in examining various things and talking softly to myself as I went.
"Vial with weird moving rainbow liquid, pass."
"Funky Earth Globe that doesn't have America on it, pass."
"Iron maiden? Why?"
"Wiggeling chest with chains around it... not touching that."
"Evil looking green glowing lantern with a weird looking candle inside, I don't think so."
"Book." I picked it up and opened it. "Giant wizard porn… moving on."
"Map for a village called Claremont... dunno where that is..."
"Jar with preserved pixie heads, what would you even use them for?"
"Statue." I stopped and stared at it, it stared back and then blinked. "Animated."
I passed a tower of empty portrait frames. Beyond that was a large trunk that I flipped open. "Trunk full of… goblin porn… huh, I didn't realize they were hollow, look at her go."
I stopped to stare at something wiggling around on the floor. "Animated… horse… dildo…!"
Well, faith in humanity lost for another day. I couldn't help but sigh. Whats next, dragon porn?