Harry Potter and all of its characters belong to J.K. Rowling.
I own nothing but the original characters I make.
Chapter 71: The Diadem
It was dark, curfew was drawing near, and James was walking alone through the desolated passages of the seventh floor of the castle.
His feet moved with purpose and at a constant pace, until he arrived in front of a very peculiar painting of a man trying to teach some trolls how to dance.
This was a very well-known piece of art, due to the ridiculous scene depicted in it. But no students knew about the secret behind it.
'It's been so long since I visited this place…' The Room of Requirement was one of the locations he had initially considered for his lab, but it was quickly discarded for several reasons. Like the fact that the room itself was heavily enchanted and constantly changing shape.
Something like that could be detrimental to any long-term project that James tried to work on.
Now, the reason he had come tonight had nothing to do with potions.
James paced in front of the strange painting three times while muttering his need for a place to hide something very important.
All of a sudden, a door formed in the wall, and James wasted no time walking inside and closing the door behind himself.
"Mmm…it feels even bigger than I remember." Perhaps it's because the last time he was in here, he was on his flying broom and the room was on fire.
In front of him was a labyrinth, except that instead of stone or any other construction material, the walls were made of random objects that had been piled up on top of each other.
James sighed and began to walk around, looking for anything that felt familiar.
He had seen the Ravenclaw Diadem before and hoped to recognize it if he were to see it once more.
"I can't believe I'm doing all of this again…" James groaned.
Seeing Voldemort again and now finding himself hunting down his Horcruxes was bringing a lot of unpleasant memories from his past.
He had lived a very long life as Harry Potter. The war against the Dark Lord had been one of the most unpleasant parts of that life, but it was something that he was able to leave behind eventually.
He then got to experience an entire lifetime…over a century long.
As Harry, he traveled the world, met many interesting people, and later became a Master himself, taking countless students who became his new family.
When he awoke in this world, he quickly came to understand that he was going to face Voldemort once more.
But even understanding this, he still felt very detached from it, like it was happening to someone else.
As James, he decided to try and make good use of this new chance he had been given and try to surpass his previous accomplishments in potion-making and alchemy.
At that point, the matter of Voldemort had moved to the back of his mind. Not really forgotten, but not a priority either.
Seeing him in person had changed James' mentality on the subject. The man was a threat to everything he currently cared for, and he would have to do something about it if he didn't want to lose it all.
"Okay, this is ridiculous." He had been walking for over thirty minutes, and it didn't feel like he had covered even ten percent of the room.
"Wait…could that spell work on the thing?" James took his wand out. "Let's see…Accio Ravenclaw Diadem!"
Then he waited…several seconds passed, and nothing happened.
"I knew it couldn't be that easy…he must have put a lot of protections—"
He heard something in the distance as he was speaking.
James waited for a moment in silence and then heard it again. It was a low banging noise.
"That way." He could at least identify the direction and began to move toward it.
The sound was getting louder, and it was definitely a banging noise.
"There!" He spotted a large pile of old furniture and was sure that the sound was coming from one of them.
James climbed the unstable 'mountain' with as much care in his steps as he could.
A wooden cabinet was hanging precariously on top of a wardrobe.
"It had to be there?..." James saw the little door moving as something inside tried to escape.
He then climbed to the top, and while hanging with one hand from the wardrobe, he used his other one to pry the door open.
He only had time to catch a glimpse of something silver before it hit him in the head and made him fall all the way down to the floor.
"Damn it!" James had to push himself to one side. He was not the only thing to collapse from the pile, but the large wardrobe and several other pieces of furniture had followed him and almost crushed his body.
"Urgg…" He struggled to stand back up and felt a sharp pain in his leg.
"It wouldn't be funny if this is how I die on my second chance…the former legendary alchemist passes away after being buried under a pile of furniture because an enchanted diadem made him…" He interrupted his mumbling to look around. "Wait…where is it?"
"Ouch!" Now he was sure that his leg was broken.
Good thing he always carries an entire apothecary on his robes.
He pulled back his sleeve, revealing dozens of tiny pockets. Each one of these had potions, elixirs, or ointments for a large variety of situations.
James took a flask containing a liquid of a vibrant green color that almost seemed to glow.
This was a much more potent version of the healing potion he gave to Lily. It was able to cure almost any physical injury in mere seconds.
"Uff…okay, better." He felt the pain disappear almost immediately and recovered his ability to walk. So he resumed his search for the diadem.
Luckily, this time, he didn't need to use any more spells to find it and was able to spot it nearby.
"Got you." James lifted the diadem using his wand. He was not going to touch it until he ran a few tests.
"I have successfully secured one of the Horcruxes. Now the question is…what do I do with you?"
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