After thinking it over for a bit, Rey finally put the diadem on his head.
Not for any other reason, but for the silent words Rowena had left him before she vanished: Please take care of Helena.
Rey was convinced Rowena wouldn't harm him. Moreover, as a Dark Wizard himself, he didn't believe Voldemort's dark magic would be able to corrupt him in the short time it took to wear the Horcrux.
Perhaps the key clue to resurrecting Helena was hidden right here.
As he placed the diadem on his head, it resized itself automatically, fitting perfectly.
The sapphire pressed right against the center of his forehead. A refreshing chill instantly seeped from his forehead deep into his mind.
In that moment, Rey felt the world spin. The scenery around him blurred and shifted, and suddenly, he was standing in the Headmaster's office at Hogwarts.
But this was the Headmaster's office from a thousand years ago, because Rowena Ravenclaw was sitting behind the desk.
The situation was a lot like Harry using the Pensieve to view memories—it felt incredibly surreal.
"Mother! I can't accept your arrangement!"
A familiar-looking Helena stormed into the office. For some reason, she looked furious. She was speaking to her mother, Rowena, with a tone that bordered on interrogation.
"Child, based on your description, Rey has likely returned to the future. You have to think about your own future, too."
"Mother, my future is to live until a thousand years from now..."
"Helena, you're being too naive. Putting aside whether Rey is alive or dead in the future, it is incredibly difficult for a human to live for a thousand years, let alone achieve true immortality.
"In the truest sense of a millennium... aside from the ancient Dragon Race, I really can't think of any other species that can live that long..."
"He's definitely alive. He will definitely wait for me..."
Helena was stubborn. Once she set her mind to something, she would never give up halfway. She would think of every possible method to do exactly what she said: live for a thousand years.
The mother and daughter began to argue, and eventually, Helena slammed the door and left. Watching her daughter storm off in a rage, Rowena looked utterly exhausted.
Helga Hufflepuff walked in after Helena left. Magic glowed at her fingertips as she massaged Rowena's temples, helping her relax.
"Helena won't give up. Perhaps, as her elders, we really should do something for her," Helga said softly while massaging.
Rowena relaxed slightly, sighing as she replied, "What can we do? A thousand years is too long. Besides, we don't know the situation Rey MacFusty is in back in the future. Even if she waits a thousand years, Helena might still end up alone."
"Maybe he is still alive. Maybe he will wait for Helena," Helga paused for a beat, then smiled.
"You believe that?"
"I do. I believe in his heart for Helena. And I believe he's alive. After all, he's half-dragon. And traveling those thousand years was thanks to the black unicorn. The backlash from time magic shouldn't be as severe as we imagine."
"If that's the case... maybe that object could actually help them."
After hearing Helga's words, a lightbulb went off in Rowena's mind, and she suddenly thought of something.
---
Through this viewed memory, Rowena told Rey something he had never dared to imagine.
He had always thought it was just a fairy tale, something not to be taken seriously. But hearing Rowena's certainty, Rey believed she had no reason to lie to him.
Legends of the Magical World—it was a storybook for young wizards. It was filled with myths that usually fell apart under scrutiny.
Rey had read this book a thousand years ago, and there was one story he remembered very clearly: The Fruit of Life in the Divine Realm.
Legend has it that within everyone's mental world, there is a door leading to a Divine Realm.
In this realm, there are three trees: the Tree of Life, the Tree of Wisdom, and the Tree of the Soul.
In the story, a queen went to the Divine Realm to obtain a Fruit of Life so she could live forever with her lover. But at the last moment, the clever queen chose the Fruit of Wisdom instead. She believed that with her intelligence enhanced by the fruit, she could figure out a way for both of them to live forever.
The story didn't have a happy ending. The queen was betrayed, and the potion she brewed was shared between her lover and her handmaiden.
And here, what Rowena was telling Rey was this: that queen who was betrayed by her lover was Rowena Ravenclaw's ancestor. And the sapphire on the diadem was actually the pit of the Fruit of Wisdom.
This was the fundamental reason why wearing the diadem made a person smarter.
Moreover, Helena had once told Rey that when she was very young, Rowena used to read this story to her, over and over again.
Watching this while wearing the diadem, Rey felt like a bomb had gone off in his brain.
It was astonishing. Who would have thought the Fruit of Life actually existed? And the proof of its existence was right here—the pit of the Fruit of Wisdom, Ravenclaw's Diadem.
---
The cold diadem began to heat up on Rey's forehead. Helplessly, Rey took it off.
The memory playback ended right there.
However, just as it ended, before he fully removed the diadem, Rey heard a roaring voice.
This voice didn't belong to anyone in the memory. It belonged to the owner of the Horcrux—Voldemort.
"Who is spying on information that belongs to me?!"
The roar was hysterical and filled with menace. The unwillingness and resentment within the soul fragment manifested as a skull, lunging toward Rey.
ROAR!
Just as Voldemort's skull avatar charged at Rey, a majestic dragon's roar erupted within the memory world.
The sound stopped the charging skull in its tracks, and Rey immediately pulled the diadem off his head.
"The information in this diadem was left for me by Rowena. Since when did it become yours?"
Looking at the diadem, which was gradually cooling down in his hand, Rey spoke in a cold voice.
As a Horcrux, it naturally contained a fragment of Voldemort's soul. That fragment had actually tried to attack him just now. If not for the backlash from the magic inside Rey's body, that piece of soul might have succeeded.
"Shameless Voldemort. I didn't realize the Dark Lord was this thick-skinned."
With a cold snort, Rey etched this grudge deep into his heart. If he got the chance in the future, he would pay this back tenfold.
---
At the exact moment Rey took off the diadem, deep in a forest in Albania...
A python that had been lying still suddenly jerked its head up, snapping awake.
Its body was massive; it looked like it had just eaten. As it woke abruptly, black mist rose from its vertical slit pupils, condensing into a twisted human face on top of the snake's head.
The human face controlled the snake's head, looking around suspiciously and frantically, like someone who had dozed off after lunch and been startled awake by a nightmare.
Its long tongue flicked in and out, trembling incessantly. Then, it stretched its head forward, and the boneless snake body slithered into the dark, deep grass, dragging its undigested meal along with it.