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Chapter 72 - A Ghostly Reckoning

"No, I wanted him to say something else, but magic doesn't always do what you want. Read the book and you'll see what I mean," the dark-haired teen stated. While the jinx worked, the fact that that man still…. He couldn't even finish that thought. It was just too vile.

"Alright," she said, gathering up her books and giving Harry a kiss on the cheek. With that she left.

"We're going too," the twins stated as they too picked up the book and left the room.

"Let's just explore. I want to see if I can find the Grey Lady and apologize about yesterday," the boy-wonder said, getting up as well and leading them out of the Hall. He still felt a bit bad, not overly so. He felt that the two spirits did need to have that talk, if only to vent. Still, her wails had given the whole castle nightmares.

So, the three teens moved through the castle and went to the seventh floor. They wandered aimlessly, or at least the boys did. Luna knew exactly where she was going.

"Are you sure there's something here, Luna?" Neville asked as they turned another corner, where there was nothing but armor and portraits. They had searched every hall along the way, in hopes of finding a secret room or passage; so far all they found were a few old classrooms.

"Soon," she said mysteriously as she pointed to the end of the hall they were walking in.

When they turned where she had indicated there was Lady Ravenclaw, who actually looked much better. She was no longer grey and was now more of a washed-out white. There was a wistful smile playing on her lips as she drifted back and forth in front of the wall. "Well met, young students," she said when they came up to her.

"Well met," they answered back.

"I wanted to say I was sorry for bringing the Baron here. I really did think that he'd move on," Harry said, rubbing the back of his head.

"Oh, he did," the shy ghost replied with a wave of her hand. "I am not sure how it happened, but one minute he was there, just taking my vitriol, and the next he was gone in a great flash of light. I really hope that he is paying for his crime." Her smile turned bitter. Her mind played at all the torture the absent ghost must be going through.

"I wonder who will be the House Ghost for Slytherin now," Luna said with vacant eyes.

"It is being discussed by the Ghost Council. They want to make sure it is someone who can control Peeves," the Grey Lady said with a tilt of her head. "You're a seer," she stated as if it were fact.

"I am," the little blonde replied with a nod.

"My mother was a seer. It can be a terrible curse. Use it well, but hide it when you can," was the vague advice.

"Did she ever see the nargles?" the little Ravenclaw asked excitedly, bouncing in place, making Harry and Neville very glad she was dressed casually.

The lady ghost just smiled approvingly, and said that her mother had not. That was a good disguise. She turned to Harry and said, "Where you seek is behind this wall. Pace back and forth three times and think that you need to hide something. When the room appears you will find my mother's diadem, please grant my wish." She then drifted away, hiding in the walls to see it the boy would grant her boon. She wanted to finally put to rest the curse on her mother's greatest treasure.

Our hero did as told and a door appeared in the wall, which he opened and inside was the greatest hoard of junk he had ever seen, well that he could remember. The other two teens' eyes popped nearly out of their heads. Harry got a wicked smile on his face and entered the room. "This could be fun, but first we have to find the diadem," he said, clapping his hands together and rubbing them.

He called his map to enlarge so it showed a foot in front of him, making it so Luna and Neville could see it. He then had Data scan the room for Dark magic. Hundreds of things appeared on that map and they were all deep within piles of junk or further in the room. So he had the android calibrate it to the Darkest of spelled items. There were then ten spots to find. "Let's start with the shelves first," he said, pointing to the line of bookcases on the right. He explained the map and his headspace along the way.

Neville was impressed and had plans to do something a bit more magical for his headspace. He was really glad that his gran had taught him Occlumency, so it would be easy to adjust. He figured that he too could incorporate some magical people to make his mind clearer and stronger. Like Merlin, Rowena, and Godric.

Luna, while fascinated, already had her mind set up so that it would boggle the greatest of Legilimens. It was a mass of twirling colors and lights. Finding anything in her mind was impossible, except for her, of course.

The first item they came too was an ornate silver spoon with a vile curse that would kill the person who used it for potatoes, according to Spock's readout that is. It was harmless any other time, but the second any form of potato touched it the curse activated, and the person would die a horrible death. It had been brought to the school over 600 years ago to kill a rival family member of a then prestigious family. It had worked, and the spoon was then brought here to cover the crime.

"Don't touch that," Harry said, when he got the report, making his two friends step back. "Spock says it's safe right now, but I don't want to take the chance," he explained, getting closer to the object.

Luna shivered at the blackness coming off the piece. "Harry, please cleanse that," she all but begged. "Try and use as much magic as you can." Then she smiled at him in a dreamy way to show she wasn't trying to boss him around.

He shrugged and waved his hand. "Deep cleanse," he said, putting a large bit of magic into the spell. He called up his golden dome to protect his friends.

The spoon shivered in place and then floated and spun as the curse fought to stay attached. Finally with an explosion of black smoke it dissipated. The tableware then dropped back on to the shelf, clean and shiny. He scanned it and now it was just a piece of silverware.

"That took a bit more out of me than I thought it would, so let's save anymore until we find the diadem, yeah?" he said, slumping his shoulders and then stretching them with a roll. He casually waved his hand and dropped the shield.

"That is probably for the best," Neville said, clapping him on the back, very awestruck with how much control his friend had over his magic. He couldn't wait until he was where Harry was. He had already done a great number of wandless spells, in the privacy of his bed. They were little things, like levitation or cleaning Trevor's habitat. He even found all his socks, which seemed to always disappear. His confidence was growing by the day and his showed in his schoolwork. McGonagall even praised him once or twice, but he still needed to do something with his wand. He looked around the room, 'Maybe there's one in here,' he thought wistfully.

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