A tall, slender ghost witch with waist-length hair floated towards them. Her appearance was delicate, yet her expression carried an air of pride and coldness.
As she moved, her floor-length cloak gently swayed behind her.
"It's been a long ti, Uncle Dracula," she said, slightly bending her knee in a bow and speaking softly to Dracula.
"Indeed, it's been quite a while, Helena. Several centuries, and you've grown rather haughty!" Dracula said with a half-smile, teasingly. "If it weren't for my needing to see you today, you wouldn't have bothered to co, would you?"
A hint of embarrassnt appeared on Helena's delicate face, and she said, sowhat unconvincingly, "It's not about being haughty... I just... didn't have the face to see you."
When facing Dracula, her proud and aloof deanor imdiately vanished, replaced by the appearance of a young girl caught by her parents after doing sothing wrong.
Seeing Helena's familiar, delicate face, Dracula's thoughts drifted back to over nine hundred years ago—
Helena Ravenclaw, daughter of Rowena Ravenclaw, one of the four founders. At that ti, Rowena maintained a very good relationship with Dracula, and her daughter was naturally well-acquainted with him.
During a period after Hogwarts Castle was built, Dracula left his Scottish domain and returned to Romania to reorganize the fledgling vampire clan. It was during this ti that Helena and her mother encountered trouble.
As the founder of Ravenclaw, Rowena adhered to the maxim "The greatest treasure of humanity is extraordinary wisdom." Therefore, she had extrely strict demands on Helena, to the point of being harsh. Helena, rebelling against her mother's strict demands and feeling disappointed, secretly stole Rowena's crown and fled Hogwarts.
Helena left Scotland with the crown, believing it would make her as wise as her mother and help her et her mother's stringent requirents. Rowena, feeling ashad of her daughter's departure and theft, kept the matter hidden from everyone, including the other three founders and Dracula.
However, Rowena's heartache over her daughter's departure led her to fall gravely ill shortly thereafter. Before her death, she asked Barrow, who loved Helena deeply, to find her daughter and bring her back to see her one last ti.
This was the thing she regretted most before dying.
Helena refused to return to Hogwarts with Barrow and rejected his feelings once more—knowing Barrow, who was not only unattractive but also had a bad temper, Helena had no interest in him. Barrow, losing his composure, angrily attacked her with a knife—
The final outco was that both of them beca ghosts at Hogwarts: Helena, the aloof Grey Lady of Ravenclaw House, and Barrow, the nesis of Peeves, the Bloody Baron.
"This happened nearly a thousand years ago, Helena; there's no need to keep blaming yourself," Dracula sighed softly and said. "Rowena wouldn't want you to spend your ti mired in guilt and self-reproach."
"But... guilt, or rather, attachnt, is the very basis of a ghost's existence," Helena gently shook her head. "If I were to co to terms with it, perhaps I would cease to exist in this world."
Dracula fell silent.
"Professor Dracula, aren't you good at comforting people?" In the still air, Dumbledore suddenly spoke up with enthusiasm. "I see you're not being sincere; you can change your behavior for those you care about, whether it's for Nicodemus or the Grey Lady!"
Dracula was imdiately at a loss for words.
He realized that Dumbledore seed very eager to impose social niceties on him, adding weight to his so-called attachnt theory.
"Let's stop discussing this and focus on the matter at hand," Dracula said, shifting the topic and turning to Helena. "There's a ntally unstable ghost over there. I need your help to calm her down. Professor Dumbledore and I need to ask her so questions."
Helena nodded lightly and floated towards the location of Moaning Myrtle.
At this mont, Myrtle was still floundering in the toilet, struggling to create a few tiny splashes of water. She was attempting to find a suitable position to drown herself in the remaining water.
"Myrtle Warren, stop what you're doing!" Helena furrowed her brow, looking at Myrtle, who was face down in the nearly empty toilet bowl. "Do you realize that your behavior is tarnishing the reputation of Ravenclaw House?"
When not facing Dracula, Helena resud her cool and aloof deanor.
Although no one knew her true identity as Rowena Ravenclaw's daughter, Helena still held high prestige among the students of Ravenclaw House due to her consistently cold and aloof image.
Myrtle Warren, recognizing Helena's voice, realized that the Ravenclaw ghost had arrived.
She shivered all over, quickly erging from the water and awkwardly turning her body around while trying to tidy up her appearance.
"Alright, co over quickly. Professor Dumbledore and Uncle Dracula need to ask you so questions," Helena said sternly.
Myrtle timidly nodded and floated towards Dracula and Dumbledore.
The next second, she suddenly widened her eyes.
"Dracula... Uncle?" Myrtle asked in shock. "That very handso professor is your uncle?!"
"Yes, Professor Dracula is my elder. Is there a problem?" Helena said.
Myrtle imdiately beca dejected again, her face falling as she murmured, "Oh no, Professor Dracula is Lady Grey's uncle. Having lived so long, he must be very strong. It's probably very difficult to die while holding the position of Professor of Dark Arts..."
With his excellent hearing, Dracula easily caught Myrtle's mutterings, his face darkening.
Helena also looked back at him with a wry smile and couldn't help but tease, "Still as charming as ever, Uncle Dracula!"
'As soone who single-handedly raised his own aesthetic standards, making it impossible for her to accept Barrow, Uncle Dracula remains the perennial "blue-faced troublemaker."'
Helena thought with a smile.
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