Harris Raymons walked back to his room holding a jack-o'-lantern.
This jack-o'-lantern was one of the extras left over after decorating the castle. Hagrid's pumpkin patch had produced a bumper harvest this year. After a huge number of pumpkins had been sent to the Hogwarts kitchens, there was still an excessive amount of pumpkin rind left over.
Even after the professors had turned those pumpkin rinds into jack-o'-lanterns and decorated every place they could think of, quite a few were still left.
So after discussing it, several professors each took one jack-o'-lantern as a Halloween gift.
"Tsk, what am I supposed to do with such a huge jack-o'-lantern?" Harris Raymons looked down at the oversized pumpkin in his arms and sighed in frustration.
Throwing it away outright didn't seem right. It would make the other professors lose face. Better to leave it out for a day, then quietly get rid of it afterward.
Having made up his mind, Harris Raymons returned to his room and set the jack-o'-lantern on the table beside the door. He let out a breath of relief, then turned to look at a section of the room hidden behind curtains.
A bitter smile crossed Harris Raymons's face. He was reluctant, but he still forced himself to lock the door, walk over, and pull the curtain aside.
A massive black crystal appeared before him, with an exquisite silver diadem suspended at its center.
It was Ravenclaw's Diadem, one of Voldemort's Horcruxes.
A pitch-black aura spread through the crystal, while tiny bubbles of air dotted it like stars.
It was an incredibly beautiful crystal to look at, yet Harris Raymons's face twitched at the sight of it, as though he could barely bear to confront it.
"The pain of looking at this thing is even worse than I imagined. The deeper I go, the stronger that feeling of dark magic eating away at me becomes."
Harris Raymons ran a hand over the surface of the crystal. There was a vicious crack there.
This crystal was formed from memories drawn out of Ravenclaw's Diadem through a special potion. Every day, Harris Raymons would chip off a small piece of the enormous crystal and use it as material for the Pensieve so he could watch Voldemort's memories and search for clues about the Chamber of Secrets.
He had already found some clues, but they were just too disgusting.
Crawling through sewer pipes was a serious test of Harris Raymons's patience. More importantly, the pipes branched in every direction, and he was genuinely worried he might get lost inside.
In fact, he had already gotten lost in the pipes several times. If not for the crow Star being able to move him out at any time, Harris Raymons would have died trapped long ago in the Hogwarts sewer system beneath the castle, where the Anti-Apparition Charm had been permanently fixed in place.
"Tonight's the Halloween banquet. Should I take a break?" Harris Raymons looked at the cracked crystal and fell into thought.
The pressure's been a little too much lately. Taking a moment to relax should be fine...
"Raymons, Raymons, how can you be this weak? Backing down once means surrendering to pain. Next time, you'll only reject it more and fear it more!"
Harris Raymons muttered to himself, determination flashing in his eyes.
He couldn't let himself slack off. That Curse was still hanging over his head like the Sword of Damocles.
With that thought, Harris Raymons chipped off another piece from the crystal, planning to take another look at Voldemort's memories.
Crack.
A fissure split across the surface of the huge crystal, running all the way through it.
Harris Raymons glanced at the crack, a thoughtful look appearing on his face. After hesitating for a moment, he turned to grind the crystal down, then used the Pensieve to view the memory inside.
Harris Raymons lowered his head into the Pensieve. At that very moment, something changed in the massive crystal behind him.
The cracks covering the crystal spread soundlessly, branching outward like a spiderweb.
A faint light appeared on Ravenclaw's Diadem inside the crystal. Forced out by that light, the pitch-black aura peeled away from the diadem, then escaped through the crack that ran through the crystal and entered the room.
The black aura writhed through the room like a human shadow. Its head turned toward Harris Raymons, staring at him for a moment as he remained bent over the Pensieve, and a cold, sinister presence spread through the room.
But in the end, it did not approach Harris Raymons. Instead, as though making up its mind, it quietly drifted toward the door.
In its current state, it was no match for an adult wizard. It needed to find young souls and strengthen itself.
It crept soundlessly to the door. A hand like living shadow climbed onto the doorknob and was just about to push the door open when a harsh cry suddenly came from above.
"Caw!"
The shadow jerked its head up and saw a crow standing on the eaves, its crimson eyes gleaming in the dark.
Maybe it was only an illusion, but the shadow seemed to see mockery in those eyes.
A mere crow? How dare it mock me?
The shadow trembled with fury, and dark malice spilled along the wall toward the crow.
The crow simply watched the shadow's movement. Looking at the shadows closing in around it, it tilted its head with obvious disdain.
Damn beast. I'll rip its soul to pieces!
The shadow let out a silent roar. The darkness on the wall suddenly shot forward, blooming like black spider lilies, except those petals were not delicate decoration but blades meant to kill.
"Caw!" The crow sprang into the air. Its nimble body easily dodged the blade-like shadows, then under the shadow's gaze, it landed on someone's shoulder.
The very person who should have still been bent over the Pensieve, enduring the Curse as he watched the memories.
"You seem pretty lively. Going after my raven the moment you appeared?" A faint smile appeared on Harris Raymons's face, droplets of water sliding from his damp sideburns.
He hadn't been watching the memories at all. I was tricked!
Panic seized the shadow, and its shadow-like body began to destabilize with the violent swing of its emotions.
Harris Raymons watched all of it, curiosity rising in his eyes.
This shadow-like thing in front of him had to be the fragment of Voldemort's soul hidden inside Ravenclaw's Diadem. Horcrux magic was extremely rare, but it was not completely unheard of. It was just that no one had ever been as insane as Voldemort.
Five Horcruxes in total. Not even the original creator of Horcruxes had ever gone that far.
At that point, sheer quantity had probably triggered a qualitative change. Otherwise, that shadowy freak in front of him would never have come into existence.
"You're not getting away. Be good and surrender." Harris Raymons drew his wand, ready to capture the shadow.
This thing was absolutely worth studying, and as a fragment of Voldemort's soul, it definitely carried a huge amount of information worth extracting.
That was far faster than stupidly sifting through memories.