Helena immediately became corporeal and calmly stepped into the heavily warded section of the room, deliberately setting the curses off one after another. Julian watched with quiet amusement as those vile spells struck her, only to be nullified the instant she returned to her incorporeal state, leaving them with no target and causing them to dissipate harmlessly. The soul shard within the diadem was clearly beginning to panic as it tried, and failed, to tempt Julian into keeping it instead of destroying it. Julian merely sneered at that pitiful attempt at spiritual manipulation. He was a master of controlling his own soul, so such a pathetic effort only drew his contempt.
Before long, only the mannequin's swapping trap remained, and the moment Helena triggered it, she shifted back into her ghostly form. As a result, the diadem fell to the floor with a sharp clatter rather than landing on her head. The soul shard grew desperate for survival and threw itself even harder into trying to manipulate Julian into sparing it, regardless of how much of its own energy it burned through in the process. Julian felt increasingly irritated by the constant pressure of that spiritual magic against his mind, so he flared his own spiritual energy and crushed it without mercy.
Julian's soul was denser and of a much higher quality than that of any known wizard, so the weak spiritual force of a mere fragment from an ordinary soul had no chance of resisting him. Pulling the Nazgul ring from Greed while continuing to suppress the soul shard, Julian carefully lowered it onto the point of the diadem, making absolutely certain that he did not touch the cursed object himself. Like a shark sensing weakness in prey, the ring resized itself to fit tightly around the diadem, and a dreadful scream tore through the air as it began its work on the soul shard.
Helena watched coldly as the diadem was slowly engulfed in a white and gold radiance while the soul shard was converted into Julian's spiritual signature. Then the energy withdrew into the ring, which began to glow as it waited for Julian to claim the power it had harvested for him. What disturbed her was the emotional impression coming from the ring. It felt like a dog eagerly seeking praise from its master even after it had just erased a portion of a soul forever. Yes, the ring seemed almost alive, and it appeared to want nothing more than to serve its creator.
Julian, much like Helena, felt repulsed by the ring, but he kept himself under control. Rather than destroy it, he picked it up and sucked in a sharp breath as it eagerly handed over the power it had gathered. The energy flowed into his body and then directly into his soul, causing it to stretch and expand in order to contain the sudden influx. Once the transfer stopped, Julian felt physically ill. A pounding headache slammed through his skull, and nausea hit him so hard it felt as though he had eaten far too much despite not having consumed anything since breakfast.
His veins bulged beneath his skin, and his body flushed red as his flesh struggled to contain a soul that had suddenly grown too large for it. Fortunately, his exceptionally fit body was just barely strong enough to hold together under that internal strain.
"It's done. You can retrieve the diadem now," Julian said, sounding breathless between pants.
Helena became corporeal again and gently lifted the silver headpiece, her expression turning sad as she examined it and discovered that becoming a horcrux had ruined most of its enchantments. Only the less significant ones remained, things like preservation and self cleaning charms, while the enchantment that enhanced intelligence had been shattered into countless fragments that would be nearly impossible to restore.
She told Julian this, but to her surprise he was not bothered in the slightest, as though he had long ago expected that to be the case. After thinking it over, Helena realized that Julian had never once seemed truly interested in the diadem's enchantments. His concern had always centered far more on the soul shard inside it, which in hindsight made perfect sense given his mastery over spiritual energies.
If anyone would understand how much damage stuffing soul energy, much less a fragment of a soul, into enchantments could cause, it would be him. Once she understood that, his reaction no longer seemed strange at all, and she watched as he winced while placing the diadem into Greed.
"Let's go. We're done here for now," Julian said tiredly as he started walking with a strained expression.
Because most of the staff was occupied dealing with the aftermath of Harry's clash with Voldemort, Julian managed to slip into the Gryffindor dormitory unnoticed and collapse onto his bed from exhaustion.