With a genuine smile forming on his lips, Regulus finally gave up and carried on with his dinner. He couldn't remember enjoying a meal at Hogwarts as much as he was now.

"By the way," Alexandra started after a few minutes, "do you know what happened to our previous Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher? Professor Ezra, I mean."

Regulus frowned, throwing his gaze down thoughtfully. "I'm not sure... but there were rumors over the summer."

"What rumors?" Alexandra asked curiously.

"That he had been kidnapped," Regulus lowered his voice and said. "I'm not sure, but they're saying that the Dark Lord needed him for something. But I have no idea what."

Alexandra gulped, looking away uneasily. She kept thinking of her parents. They too were victims of the Dark Lord, along with her grandfather. How many people had to suffer because of him? How many more were going to be next?

But trying to forget all about the matter, Alexandra endeavored to change the subject to a more cheerful one. They had a blast that evening, even though many still were staring at their direction. But the two hardly cared as they spoke and laughed.

After the feast came to an end and they were asked to return back to their common rooms, they had to go their separate ways; Regulus down toward the dungeons and Alexandra up the Ravenclaw tower.

Alexandra went back to the Ravenclaw common room, though she did not come along the Grey Lady on her way, as she had hoped. Determined to speak with her that night, Alexandra decided to sneak away from the crowd and go find her, even though she could get in trouble.

She turned the corridors left and right and glanced into different halls and chambers, until she finally saw her; pale and silver, gliding along a deserted corridor.

"Helena!" Alexandra called out to the ghost, causing her to come to a stop.

Helena glanced behind her shoulder at where Alexandra stood. "It's late. You must get back to bed."

"Please," Alexandra said desperately, picking up her pace to catch up with the ghost. "I need to talk to you."

"Like I said, it's late," she said coldly. "Perhaps another is time —"

"I know I'm a descendent of Ravenclaw!" Alexandra blurted out.

      The ghost stopped in mid-air, as if petrified. Alexandra stood there, staring at the back of her head fixedly, holding her breath as an eerie silence fell between them.

     Slowly, Helena turned around, looking at Alexandra in shock, a hollowness in her voice as she said, "Wh-what?"

    "I know who I am now," said Alexandra, taking slow steps toward her. "I know my father was your descendant, and I know that I'm your last heir."

     "How could you have possibly known?" Helena whispered, as if thinking out loud to herself.

     "Many things helped me realize it," she answered. "Recently I was given an heirloom, inherited to me by my grandmother, on my father's side. It was a dress. I didn't realize what it was for long. I knew it was familiar, but I couldn't put my finger on it. Although then I paid a closer attention to Rowena Ravenclaw's statue in the common room. It was the same dress."

      "It could've been just a costume that your grandmother used to have," Helena tried to reason, though her voice didn't come out as firm as she wished it to be. "The dresses could've merely been similar."

     "Maybe." Alexandra nodded. "Even I thought so that it was a far fetched idea for my grandmother and father to be from your bloodline. But there were other things that help me realize the truth."

      "Which were...?" The ghost raised her silver brow down at her.

     For a second, Alexandra thought about telling Helena everything; from the reason her parents had died, to the fact that Marcellus had never been her grandfather, and that she had seen the Dark Lord in the Pensieve, saying that he wished to have Alexandra join the Death Eaters because of her powerful background. But she thought against it.

     "There was something else," said Alexandra, only now realizing it. "Corvus... the black raven... he came to me when he was little. I found him one freezing cold winter day behind my window and I took him in. And in the past two years, whenever danger was near, he came to me. Just like how the legend says... a raven will always come to a true Ravenclaw in need."

     It was true. Corvus had been there even on the night that Marcellus had died, sitting on a tree branch in front of the house, as if warning Alexandra.

      "But, how is it possible?" Alexandra questioned, looking back up at the Grey Lady. "There was no recollection of Rowena Ravenclaw ever having a grandchild. There is no mention in the history books, claiming that you gave birth to a baby."

      Helena threw her glance away, her expression full of sorrow and grief. "It's true... there was no mention of me having a child in history books, because no one knew of it to begin with."

      Alexandra kept watching her carefully, holding on to each word that left her mouth.

      "Do you remember what I told you about how one becomes a ghost?" Helena questioned quietly, and so Alexandra answered with a small nod.

      "People are either too scared to move on, or feel too guilty that they can't find peace, or... they have unfinished business on this earth."

      "Yes," Helena whispered. "The Baron still remains here as a ghost, for his guilt of killing me forbid him from finding peace, and me... there was something I needed to look after. Or rather, someone."

      This was exactly what Alexandra had thought, though now hearing it from her felt different. It felt more real.

"I was eighteen and reckless. I sought to make myself cleverer, more important than my mother. So I ran away with her diadem. But at the time... I was pregnant out of wedlock."

Alexandra wanted to ask her who the father was, but she held herself back. She could only imagine it had been a young boy around Helena's own age that maybe she was in love with, though he never got to know her secret.

"As I told you before," Helena went on stiffly, "months later, my mother fell fatally ill and so she sent the Baron after me. But when he finally found me in a forest in Albania, he took my life along with his own. But he was oblivious to the fact that I had given birth to a little girl at an inn, somewhere near Albania. I was dead, yes, but I could not get myself to move on. So I returned as a ghost to make sure she was raised in safe hands; the hands of a lady who worked there as the innkeeper."

Alexandra could not think of a single word to say as she stared up at the ghost, her mouth going dry and her breathing shallow.

"For centuries, there had been whispers flying around about the heir Rowena Ravenclaw still existing, though only a few knew of the truth," said Helena. "But I kept an eye on the generation that carried my blood in their veins. The same blood that dwells within you, Alexandra. Yes... you are the last heir of Ravenclaw."