Chapter 45

"Are you not curious about him?" One ghost asked another, Helena heard him from the side.

"Yes, but his eyes are dreadful. It makes me feel as if he's looking at something he shouldn't." The female ghost said, making exaggerated movements with her arms.

"I completely understand it! Its also scary when that green-eyed boy looks at us!" A portrait interjected, knowing who they were talking about.

"Oh my, even the portraits?" The ghost put both of her hands close to her mouth, surprised by the revelation.

A male ghost floated over, wondering about who they were talking about. After knowing about the person in question, he told them a piece of information Peevees came across. "Apparently, he got reprimanded by his head of house, so he won't use his eyes again as much."

The two females ghost let out a relieved sigh, as if they could actually breath.

"Grey Lady, are you not curious about him?" The first female ghost asked her.

Helena looked at the female ghost, wondering how to respond to her. It's true that she was curious at first, just like everyone else when they saw a living person who has also died.

That curiosity turned to a mixture of uncomfortable feelings when the boy screamed at the sorting, releasing an aura of death long forgotten by her and by the other ghosts in the castle.

But if it were only that, they could easily get along with him, because after that, the aura of death disappeared. Instead, whenever he looked at any of them with his green lit eyes, they would feel a primal fear completely envelop them. To others, it made them feel as if he was looking at their very being, something no one should see, but he did, not only once, nor twice.

After a few weeks since the new school term started, the boy's eyes were shining completely, all day, every day, it got so bad that his head of house had to talk with him and make him stop.

"I am curious, but not enough to go and talk to him." She finished after pondering for a while.

"Ah, that is a shame my lady. I was thinking of asking you to invite him to my death day." Sir Nicholas arrived from behind after hearing the conversation.

"Me?" A questioning look showed on her face.

"Yes. I've been trying to get close to him, but… It shames me to admit it but I'm very frightened of his stare." Sir Nicholas cleared his throat.

"Oh, don't be Sir Nicholas, you are not the only one." Another ghost added.

"But, why do you want the Grey Lady to ask him?"

"I thought that she wouldn't be as affected as the rest of us, my apologies my lady."

Helena shook her head. "It's okay, I can go, he calmed down a bit after his head of house had a talk with him."

A bunch of ghosts perked up, curious about what would happen. The reason why most of the rumors in Hogwarts spread like fire was because of the ghosts, they all had nothing to do, so one of their pastimes was to gossip to anyone and everyone who wanted to hear.

"Can you ask him about how he died?" Said one ghost.

"Can you ask him how he can have a human body after dying?" Another one added.

From there, a barrage of questions assaulted Helena, something she was not used to. She tried to mentally note down each and every question even if it was too much for her, until the room got awfully quiet.

The Bloody Baron had entered, probably trying to defend Helena from the other ghosts, yet all he received was disdain as she left the room.

Even after hundreds of years, she would not forgive him for what he had done, not only to her, but to he family. It didn't matter how much he regretted it.

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After wandering around the castle for a while, Helena found him entering inside of the Room of Requirements, it surprised her to know that someone else knew about it. Her mind came back to Tom Riddle when he befriended her, only to steal her mother's diadem and curse it, leaving it behind in the castle for the years to come. It wasn't until two Gryffindors came to her and explained it that they knew what happened.

It shocked her a great deal, not only one, but two people knew about her greatest shame. They dreamed about it, or so they said. Helena didn't fully believed them, but after observing them for a while, she came to trust the young couple.

They knew where the diadem resided, but didn't act on it, respecting her wishes. Helena would come and go to talk to them the most trivial stuff to the most serious things. The couple missed their family, their siblings, and she wondered how it was so hard for them to attend Hogwarts. She asked as well but received a pitiful smile from the two Gryffindors.

They too, had an aura of death surrounding them.

She learned of their names after a month of meeting up. A Lion and a Knight, their last names shocked her a great deal and made her think back on his uncle Godric. There wouldn't be people more fitting for his house that the two of them. She thought how he would've congratulated their parents for such wonderful names. He used to be like that after all.

And now, their kid was here. The same penetrating gaze as the Knight. It wasn't a surprise, since she knew the two would end up together, what surprised her was the aura of death around their kid. Nothing she had seen before, or nothing the other ghosts had seen either. Thankfully, after the feast the aura calmed down.

Helena decided to wait for the couple's child outside of the Room of Requirements.

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Their first conversation didn't go as planned, but at least she managed to look at her friend's child in a comfortable manner, without being looked at with those violent eyes.

She wanted to get to know him, just how his parents did with her, so she asked him to call her by her name. Something not a lot of people have the pleasure of knowing.

And he responded in kind.

He saw in him her two friends.

After that she went back, it was enough to get to know each other, and he still had a lot of years ahead of him in Hogwarts.

She would get to know him more.

Not really knowing how to start a conversation, she would wait for him in the following days and just float besides him, that was enough for her, really, until Sir Nicholas asked her if she had asked him about attending his death day. She forgot about, no, its more accurate to say that that didn't take as much priority in her mind, but she did promise Sir Nicholas to do it, and that she would.

One week before Samhain, she entered the Room of Requirements with him. Helena let him do his usual practice, watching over him until he got tired of being observed.

What followed was a conversation that surprised her a lot, not only because of the ridiculousness of the situation, but also because that made sense, and it fit together with what his parents sometimes told her.

After their little conversation ended in her being looked at with green lit eyes that looked through her, she remembered the favor Sir Nicholas asked of her, she floated towards him, thinking that he shouldn't have come far and finally caught up to him. Asking him to attend Sir Nicholas' death day.

He agreed, a different demeanor from before, and the conditions for him to attend were pretty understandable, until the last one. What exactly did he meant by companion for the evening, she wondered.

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The good thing was, that she didn't have to wait long to find out. The kid managed to do something other wizards thought impossible, he created a spell that let him come into contact with ghosts, not only that, but she could feel the warmness of his hands as well.

She already knew that the boy was capable, after creating a spell just to block his sense of smell, and she had to admit, it flustered her a bit when he said he wanted to touch a ghost. It was a bad use of words, even thought he didn't mean anything by it.

Helena didn't knew how much she missed the human touch until he created the spell. She caressed his hands afterwards for a long time.

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The next days were blissful, since she didn't know how much she missed human contact, and the boy didn't really mind it either, it made her glad, since she didn't want to make him uncomfortable.

The current situation was good, and for the first time after a few years, she was looking forward to meeting with a person.

That was, until the boy told her about the little spell he uses on his wand and the Room of Requirements, he then, proceeded to explain what it does, how he used it on actual humans, not knowing what it would do.

She could see it on his eyes, an unquenchable thirst for knowledge, to know what would happen. Now that it already happened, Tom had the same look on his face a few years ago.

She wasn't knowledgeable enough back then, and even if things looked like they didn't change, Helena could tell, those were the eyes of someone who thought 'can I do it?' instead of 'should I do it?'.

Helena wanted to guide him towards the right path, not only because she enjoyed his company, but also as a favor to his parents. Thankfully, he realized his mistake and apologized profusely. He knew that what he did, or wanted to do is wrong, and took actions to correct his mistake.

She couldn't help it but smile at him. Helena forgave him but wanted him to spent some time reflecting on it, so she took her leave.

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Finally, it was time for Sir Nicholas' death day, she expect it to go more or less the same way, but having the kid spend the evening with her really improved the mood. 

He would sometimes take out a candy out of his pockets and eat it, it made her chuckle, but she tried to fake ignorance and don't let it show on her face. 

The rest of the evening they talked with a few ghosts acquaintances until they brought up the topic of the boy's nature.

She could tell that he wasn't comfortable with the topic, so she took the boy by the arm and pulled him away from the bustle of the party.

They spent the rest of the party amongst themselves, until Sir Nicholas presented him to the Headless Hunt organization.

In all honestly, she found these type of organizations to be a bore, she couldn't understand the appeal of one, but that wouldn't stop her from helping her friend out.

What surprised her the most was when the kid asked the Headless Hunt if Sir Nicholas became fully headless, would he be able to join their little club, she didn't show it, but she got worried for a moment. Worried that a repeat of what happened yesterday would happen again.

Thankfully, that wasn't the case, all she could see on his eyes was worry towards a friend. And he explained it properly how he didn't know if what he thought of would even work in the first place, it was Sir Nicholas who reassured him that it was okay.

Helena could tell more or less what he was planning to do, and she let it pass, since the ghosts are connected to the castle, so if something or someone tried to exorcise them without their permission, the castle would defend the ghosts, yet, she didn't expect him to actually succeed.

She was glad for him, and for Sir Nicholas, but this would bring forth a multitude of requests from other ghosts, and even questions from the headmaster. That's why he asked Sir Nicholas to kept everything that happened here a secret.

She wondered if he thought that far ahead, or was it just a silly request?

For now, that didn't matter, because even if it were the case, it was with the best intentions.

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After they left the party and guided him to his common room, Sir Nicholas left first, letting the two of them alone. When she was about to take her leave as well, he stopped her.

The kid wanted to tell her about his death day. It surprised her a lot. While they did got closer together, she didn't expect him to tell her his death day. For some ghosts is a difficult topic to talk about, and some even ignore it altogether for a few years or even decades.

Helena was grateful for the vow of confidence he showed her. After that, they parted ways, Allen, with a weight lifted off of his shoulders, and Helena, with a warm feeling inside of her.

"Mary… Joseph…" She muttered under her breath, thinking back on her two Gryffindor friends.