Auden froze as he heard Helena accuse him of theft. But the thing that intrigued him was not being found out, but the fact that he was unable to hear her anytime he was moving through the castle.
Since what he was trying to do was not legal, he had made sure to listen to anything that was happening around him. So he had used his hearing to the maximum amount possible while moving through the corridors. He had even made sure to move away from the walls so that he wouldn't be ambushed by the ghosts that passed through suddenly. Even though he was wearing the cloak of invisibility, he had no idea of the effects it would have on ghosts. So he had not taken any risks.
Plus, people would have only found out that he stole the cloak if they saw him exchanging it with Harry's in his room. Since an invisibility cloak is not that rare. Costly, yes, but not so rare that people clamour to get one in their hands. So only if she was there to witness it would she have known that he had stolen the cloak. But he remembered using his senses to the maximum at the time, so he was sure that he had not heard even a single voice.
Seeing his shocked expression, Helena had a smile on her face.
"Don't forget, dear brother. I am a spirit that has been roaming the halls of this institution for almost two thousand years. Even if I am not as smart as my mother, do you think I would not have thought about a way to be completely silent if needed?" she asked with a slightly accomplished grin.
Auden didn't even need to ask why she had not mentioned it last time. It was so that she could surprise him like this later.
"I am not stealing, just borrowing. I'm sure you recognise the artifact, right? I only need it for the duration of the Christmas break until I accomplish what I have planned to do. And I have made sure to give an equally strong cloak for Harry Potter to use during that time," Auden replied calmly as he took out the cloak again.
"Has the magical world grown powerful enough that they have artifacts that reach the level of the Deathly Hallows? Honestly, I never expected that, I suppose," Helena said with a slightly puzzled expression.
"No, but the cloak Harry was using was not in any way perfect," Auden said as he used the spell again to make the enchantments made by Dumbledore appear on the cloak.
It only took a few moments for Helena to find out the meaning of those spells. Her expression took a form of defeat at what she found as well. She muttered with a hint of frustration:
"Sometimes I think whether dropping a brick on his head by accident and killing him would make me ascend to heaven. It does not even belong to him, yet he still decides to tamper with it while giving it to a boy he had manipulated all his life.
Does he not even trust anyone in his life?"
"Only those whose absolute life is controlled by him. Snape can be considered the biggest example of this, I suppose," Auden said offhandedly as he put the cloak away again carefully and turned towards Helena.
"Alright, since you know I am doing this, I need your help to do the rest. Since I will be leaving for my vacation tomorrow, I will need your help to do it tonight."
"Do what exactly?" Helena asked.
"Retrieving two of the artifacts I need," Auden replied, to which Helena froze and then recovered. Her expression became serious.
"Are you sure about this?" she asked.
"Not doing it as soon as possible is a recipe for disaster. The chances of my plans being broken are very high. Right now I know the locations of four of the founders' artifacts. Two of them are in this castle, which I will retrieve today. Another is in a house that I will have to get into during vacation. And another is in an even more secure location, harder for me to reach. So I need to find the three artifacts as soon as possible in order to plan to get the fourth," Auden muttered as he began to move through the hallways again.
"Waiting for the opportune moment might end up with me losing the locations of the artifacts I need to find. So it's better to create those opportunities on my own." He started moving through the hallways until he reached a set of stairs to the headmaster's room. As he reached the last step and the gargoyle, he gently put his hand on the wall and whispered silently:
"Can you please help me enter the headmaster's room? And can you make it as silently as possible?" He waited for two seconds and then the door slowly opened until it was wide enough for him to go into the room.
"Thank you," he whispered again as he entered the room.
As he did, he was able to see the hundreds of pictures of the headmasters sleeping peacefully in the frames. But Auden knew the truth: even though they might look like they were sleeping, they were actually listening to everything that happened in the room and the castle. And according to the laws that bound them, they were unable to go against Dumbledore's wishes due to his status as the headmaster of Hogwarts. So he could not trust any of them and had to do this on his own.
He slowly began walking towards the stand where the Sorting Hat was snoring in its sleep. He also made sure to check whether Fawkes was in the room and was glad to find out that he wasn't.
He then gently took the hat and put it on his head, which he had slightly uncovered from the cloak, as the hat required direct physical connection to talk through the mind.
He then began constantly thinking about the hat and wishing for it to continue to act like it was sleeping.
The hat stirred at the sudden influx of mental energy. But it was immediately able to recognise who was wearing it. So it immediately started acting like it was sleeping while communicating with Auden in his mind.
"Well, I had a feeling that I would meet you again soon, my dear friend"
A/N- hope you like it.