The Greedy Frog
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HP: DnD Chapter 24
🕑 Added 2024-11-27 19:31:06 +0000 UTCChapter 24: A Sneaky Boy
Through the quiet hallways near the Ravenclaw common room, a solitary spirit drifted.
A ghost.
Her figure was slender and pale, more ethereal than most, a faint, distant shadow gliding through the castle. Over the years, students learned to avoid greeting her; she rarely responded, her gaze cold, her attention given only to those in power, and even then, only in times of grave need.
Known to all as the Grey Lady, she haunted the corridors in silence. Tonight, when the castle teemed with Halloween revelry, she kept her distance, slipping away from the sounds of joy and celebration. The noise unsettled her; such joys and cheeriness felt a world away from the stillness she craved.
As she wandered the empty halls, she did not expect anyone to follow.
But then, a voice—a voice from her past—broke the silence.
“H-Helena?”
She froze, her translucent face was an unreadable mask, though her ghostly form shivered. The voice struck her like a chill wind, ancient and familiar, echoing with old memories she had long buried.
“It’s me.”
The words echoed again, making her heart—if she still had one—seize with fear and bitterness. She quickened her pace, moving further down the corridor, refusing to look back at the man whose presence haunted her in life and now again in death.
“I do not wish to speak to you, Baron,” she said sharply, her voice barely above a whisper. “Return to your halls. I have nothing to say to you.”
Yet he followed, his voice tinged with something close to remorse. “Helena, I know you fear me. I know you are angry, and that you wish I were nothing but a distant memory. But please, just look at me.”
Her phantom hands clenched, tremors rippling through her. She did not stop, did not glance back. “Leave, Baron,” she muttered, her voice brittle with restrained emotion.
The Baron’s expression faltered, his form fading slightly, like a mist retreating. He knew he deserved her disdain. He knew, too, that he could never undo what he had been done.
“Helena,” he called, more earnestly now, “hear me out, just once. If you do, I swear—I will trouble you no more. I will vanish from your sight, never again to haunt your steps.”
She paused for the briefest moment, her back to him. She knew the hurt he had caused, knew that his words had shattered any trust she might once have had. And yet, there was a crack in her resolve.
“Lies,” she whispered, her voice a soft hiss. “All you’ve ever done is lie.”
The Baron’s ghost seemed to dim. He took a tentative step forward. “What good would lying bring to me now, Helena? We are cursed to haunt this place—our sins etched into every shadowed corner. I have nothing left to gain, no dream of freedom, no hope for a life beyond this. Only… regrets.”
Helena’s face twisted with anger and sorrow, emotions swirling together in a storm she hadn’t allowed herself to feel in centuries. “You claim love,” she murmured, her voice heavy with pain. “But what love would lead a man to kill?”
“Love… of a fool,” he replied, his voice breaking. “Of a man overcome by his own madness, his jealousy… a man who did not understand himself.”
“No,” Helena insisted, shaking her head. “No love would drive someone to such lengths.”
“And yet, here we are,” he replied softly, with a sad, haunted smile. “Two ghosts bound to these halls, chained by the weight of our past.”
Her spirit trembled. “You know nothing of why I am here.”
The Baron looked at her, his voice low. “Don’t I? It is not because you failed to surpass your mother, nor because you longed for fame or recognition. It’s because you could never tell her how you felt—never had the chance to make peace with her.”
“Stop,” she whispered, but he continued, his voice barely more than a whisper himself.
“You loved her, Helena. Just as much as she loved you.”
Her figure shook, and she felt the weight of a thousand unspoken words press down on her.
“That is why we are here,” he murmured. “Bound by regrets, by all that was left unsaid.”
Helena felt her strength falter, her head bowed, shadows clouding her expression. She had never allowed herself to think it, never allowed herself to admit it. But as she stood there, in the dim light of the corridor, the realization washed over her like a tidal wave of sorrow and regret.
She was bound to this place, not by the Baron's sins alone, but by her own as well.
“It’s because you regret not telling her. That you were jealous, that it was only a foolish rebellion—that you only wanted to show her you were someone she could someday be proud of.”
As he stepped closer, her ghostly eyes grew heavy, the mist of tears shimmering in them, her pale form wavering like a candle’s dying flame.
“Stop…” she whispered, a tremor in her voice. “No. It’s not true.”
“Isn’t it?” he asked softly. “Then tell me, why are you still here?”
She was silent.
“It’s the truth, Helena,” he murmured, his voice heavy with sorrow. “There’s no need to lie—not to yourself.”
“What would you know?” she spat, bitterness lacing her words. But he only gazed at her with a pained smile.
“What would I know of yearning for a mother’s approval? Of wishing you could simply tell her you were good enough, that you wanted nothing more than her love?” he replied, his voice thick with a sorrow she couldn’t ignore.
Her strength faltered, her ghostly knees buckling beneath her.
“A murderer would never know true love,” she whispered, sinking to the floor, her voice fragile as glass. “A liar could never know it.”
He offered a rueful smile, his face etched with regret.
“Not love as you think of it,” the Baron said gently, “but love warped and wounded—a love unable to speak its truth, doomed to break the hearts of those it cherished most. That, I know.”
At last, Helena looked up, meeting his gaze, her expression both guarded and vulnerable. She could feel her lips parting as if to speak, but no words escaped. Instead, her eyes, hollow and eternal, found in his a shared anguish and a love both broken and unfinished.
“I know you can never forgive me, Helena,” he whispered. “You shouldn’t. But I do love you. It isn’t only the regret of ending your life that binds me here. It’s the love I failed to show, the love I could never make real.”
Helena’s gaze lowered, her hands trembling faintly. Her anger, so fierce moments ago, softened, slipping away like the last whisper of wind.
“Liar,” she muttered, though her voice was no longer filled with conviction.
…
…
[Late Evening — Hogwarts Library]
[Feline’s Escape]
Damien’s heart raced as he maneuvered through his own shifting bones and organs, allowing him to slip through a narrow gap and enter the restricted section of the library—a place reserved exclusively for final-year students.
“That’s… so many books,” he whispered, wide-eyed.
It felt like heaven. Shelf upon shelf of volumes he’d only dreamed of seeing, their contents forbidden to underclassmen, despite his relentless requests for access.
"Advanced Dark Arts, Advanced Herbology, Secrets of Fantastic Beasts, XXXXX Rated Beasts, and the Mythology of XXXXXX Beasts,” he read in awe, enchanted by the range of knowledge his seniors had at their fingertips.
But this wasn’t what he was here for.
“The other section,” he muttered, his gaze falling on a locked area.
Grand chains and enchantments sealed it shut, unlocked only a few times a month by the headmaster or senior professors who consulted its forbidden tomes for research and to advance their understanding of magic. No student was ever allowed inside.
“I need to know what’s in there.”
For the trials ahead, Damien needed spells and curses powerful enough to defend against monsters that would easily overpower a wizard of his level. The standard-issue charms simply wouldn’t suffice.
The advanced books in this section were valuable, yes, but would they be enough? After facing a Dementor, he realized that any knowledge, no matter how dangerous or forbidden, might be the difference between life and death.
But how to get in?
He scanned the area, searching for any opening he could exploit with his [Feline’s Escape].
“Is there no way?”
He bit his lip, knowing that a simple Alohomora wouldn’t work here. He’d already tried, to no effect. The barrier was reinforced by charms only someone of Flitwick’s or Dumbledore’s caliber could hope to dismantle.
“I need to think quickly.”
With the grand celebration underway, he only had a brief window before someone noticed his absence. This was his best chance, perhaps his only one for a long time.
“This looks… ridiculous.”
The lock bore the ominous design of a skull, a hallmark of the eerie decor Hogwarts seemed to favor, the kind that would unsettle any Muggle.
“So, what charm did they use?”
It was risky to touch random enchanted objects—curses were common on items meant to deter intruders. But Damien doubted the professors would place anything that could seriously harm a student, even if they were curious enough to tamper with the lock. The restricted section, after all, was still accessible to faculty and students under certain circumstances.
‘The locking magic must be beyond the standard curriculum,’ he thought, likely crafted by a professor. But he’d never figure out exactly what it was unless he tried to test it.
With a racing heart and nerves of steel, he finally placed his hand on the lock, bracing himself for a potential shock.
What he felt instead startled him even more.
[Duke’s Mind]
A sudden jolt pulsed at the back of his head—a legilimency probe trying to infiltrate his mind, immediately blocked by the dungeon-gifted power he now possessed.
‘It was repelled?’ he thought, stunned. But more shocking than the mental intrusion was the click that followed: the lock opened, as if unable to overcome his mental defenses.
‘Did they really expect legilimency to be a sufficient barrier?’
Baffled but pressed for time, Damien slipped through the doorway and entered the dimly lit room. This section contained far fewer books, each volume bound in subdued or menacing colors: deep black, blood-red, with symbols warning of danger.
Taking them back to his dorm was out of the question; the sparse shelves made any absence glaringly obvious. He would have to read here, memorizing as much as he could.
‘Memorizing is possible, but understanding it all…’
His skills allowed him to memorize anything with a glance, yet his 200% comprehension boost still wasn’t enough to fully grasp the intricacies of the advanced magic in this room. That would come later. For now, he just needed information.
“Let’s see…”
He scanned the titles, careful not to touch books that could curse him on contact. He focused on defensive and offensive spells, hexes, jinxes, and curses that he could study safely.
Some, like `Dark Summonings`, he avoided entirely, knowing that a single mispronounced word could invoke a curse, or blood and soul curses that required flawless precision to avoid disastrous side effects.
He found safer spells, such as ‘Petrificus Totalus’, a full-body bind, ‘Obliviate’ for erasing memories, and ‘Fiendfyre’, an all-consuming hellfire. Mastering these would take practice, but for now, he absorbed every detail he could.
His heart hammered as he scanned through spells of memory alteration, illusions, physical and psychological torment, all essential tools for the battles he knew were coming.
Nearly an hour passed before he realized his time was up. If he didn’t leave now, someone might follow. Carefully returning the books exactly as he’d found them, he exited the room, his mind brimming with new knowledge, most of which he still needed to fully understand.
But he faced one last challenge.
“H-Huh?”
As he contemplated how to reset the lock, it clicked back into place as soon as he stepped out, looking untouched and unbroken.
‘Convenient,’ he thought, relieved. ‘Maybe they set it up this way because the professors use it often.’
Taking a steadying breath, he realized that with professors visiting once or twice a month, it made sense to enchant the lock to secure itself automatically upon exit.
With a final gulp, Damien hurried away from the forbidden section, exhilarated but unable to savor the joy of his newfound knowledge.
