It took Hagrid another ten minutes to get Sigrid and me to stop sniping at each other, and that was mostly because both of us were getting a bit bored with it. You can only be humorously sarcastic for so long before needing a bit of a breather. After that, we managed to chat amicably, for the most part. Turns out my prediction about Hagrid fucking off up to Sweden once he got the letter was spot on. What I hadn't counted on was for the family to decide that it would be far more convenient for Sigrid to come back to Hogwarts with Hagrid and learn magic from him directly than to go through owls as had been the intention at the onset. So she'd come back with him and was now occupying Hagrid's spare room.
Sigrid was still supposed to send owls back home with materials to allow the rest of her family to get started on their own and she would be returning periodically to help with their progress personally. I expected Hagrid would accompany her for those trips. They seemed to be getting along fine which was heartening. Not that it was hard to get along with Hagrid.
After about an hour I made my excuses and made my way inside and up to my room. Once there I change out of my flight suit and put it away before putting on my robes. Then I went to the necessary steps to manifest the correct room I needed before entering. Beyond the door lay the only room I'd spent as much time in as the Quantum Compression room.
The Room of Hidden Things.
It was the place where all the forgotten, discarded and hidden things eventually ended up in Hogwarts. A thousand years of history, treasure and trash stacked high into haphazard towering piles that threatened to collapse under their own weight. The air inside was stale and dry, smelling of old wood, parchment, and metal.
It reminded me of the opening scene of the Pixar movie Wall-E, where you could see skyscraper-sized towers of compacted trash arrayed like a city. In the room, it was more like narrow streets and alleys in between the towering piles of unknowable things. The high arched ceilings had giant chandeliers with ever-burning candles hung from them, casting the room in deep shadows where the light from the large windows on one side didn't reach. The windows that showed different vistas from different sides of the school as far as I'd been able to determine, and while I'd found the same windows around the school I'd not figured out how they were connected to the room.
I didn't know exactly how big the room was as I'd actually not walked far enough to reach the other side, or even seen it. I estimated that it was at least three times bigger than the Hogwarts grounds at the very least, probably bigger. I took a left by the door and headed a bit into the trash alley there for a few feet and stopped in front of a lacquered black box that rested on the floor where I'd dropped it a year earlier.
It hadn't been hard.
The news that Professor Glasscock wouldn't be returning for my third year had gone the rounds months before the end of my second year. So I had ample time to make sure that no sign of my presence was apparent in the room and then I'd not gone into it over the summer during the day.
The diadem had shown up about midway through the summer.
I hadn't interacted with it beyond moving it a bit out of the way and giving it a quick visual inspection to assure myself that it was the real deal. Ravenclaw's diadem didn't much look like the diadem created for the movies, it was far slimmer and much less ostentatious, lacking most of the gems shown on the movie prop. If I'd guess it was made entirely of silver in a vaguely Celtic design that ended two triquetra on each side of the giant blue sapphire in the center. I found it to be a very elegant design.
I stood up and fished the stone out of my pocket and activated it. "Rowena Ravenclaw."
Immediately a woman that looked to be in her mid-sixties dressed in blue robes edged with gold borders along the neck and arms. If I were to be generous I'd describe her bearing as regal, unbent by time despite her age, but truth be told I just thought she looked snotty, like a librarian looking down on the plebes that dared intrude on her domain. Her eyes were as blue as her robes and her hair, despite her age, was still black as night with only a few strands of silver to indicate her real age. She was still a looker.
Rowena studied me intently for a few moments before her eyes briefly flickered to the stone in my hand and then to her diadem still resting in its box. I could see the wheels turning in her mind as she put the pieces together in her head. "I see." She sighed and closed her eyes for a few moments before looking at me again. "You have done quite well for yourself, child." She stated seriously. "Few have ever possessed the Resurrection Stone let alone my diadem."
"I'm surprised you know about the Stone, it was created after your time," I told her lightly.
Rowena's look sharpened to a razor's edge. "Don't play the simpleton, child. I would have my time here be limited so that I may return to my rest, save your jesting for the living."
"So the dead are aware of what goes on in the world of the living," I concluded, deciding not to take offense at her tone.
"I think it obvious, how else would I have a mastery of the language? Rest assured, it was quite different in my time." She chided me.
"Do you know anything…" I started but she interrupted me.
"Child, what was your purpose for summoning me?!" She asked me harshly.
I blinked in surprise before smirking. "You have an appointment I don't know about?"
Rowena visibly steeled herself before answering. "This is not where I'm supposed to be. To be summoned to the world of the living is… uncomfortable. I would prefer not to remain longer than necessary." She ground out. "So if you would." She prompted me.
I blew out a breath of air through my nose before sighing. "Fine, I'll save it for later. How much do you know about what has happened to your diadem?"
Rowena huffed and crossed her arms over her chest. This did some interesting things to her bust. No one ever noted that she had a nice pair. A grievous oversight in my mind. "You are referring to desecration wrought upon it by the fool Riddle?"
"Yes," I confirmed. "I'm looking for a way to remove the soul fragment he has stored there, preferably without damaging the diadem."
"You need merely remove the stone from its setting; it is there that the enchantments are placed. The diadem is purely a way to hold the stone close to the head unobtrusively." Rowena explained shortly. "If that is all?"
I shrugged. "I don't suppose you know a safe way of destroying the Horcrux in the diadem? The world would be a better place without Piddle in it."
"My child, you hold the answer in your very hand," Rowena stated simply.
"The Resurrection Stone?"
"Indeed. Of the three it is the only one that actually opens a path to what lies beyond. I trust the rest would be obvious." Rowena responded dryly
I frowned, it couldn't be that easy, could it. "It can't be that easy, what about the charms keeping the soul bound to the vessel?"
Rowena sighed in exasperation. "You are vastly overestimating the strength of the charms, Herpo's skill was only enough to get the job done, not do it well, and thank the stars for that. I believe you are conflating the toughness of the vessel with the strength of the charms keeping the soul in place, a common mistake in novices." She told me pointedly. "But, if you desire a more dangerous solution you could always bring it to a Dementor. Perhaps that is more to you likening?" She said in what I think was a very snotty tone.
I bit down on a caustic retort. It wouldn't do to alienate someone with Rowena's obvious knowledge. I wasn't anywhere near that stupid. "Thank you for your help, Ravenclaw," I stated formally before tossing the stone into the air and breaking the connection. Rowena immediately faded, leaving me alone once again.
"Well… no wonder her daughter is the way she is." I muttered under my breath before I turned towards the diadem. "I can't believe it's this easy. Talk about an anticlimax."