Inside the Room of Requirement, buried under centuries of accumulated junk, a thin, twisted wisp of black smoke was thrashing violently.
After struggling for some time, it barely managed to form a vague human shape.
"What… just happened?"
The hoarse voice echoed through the air. This fragment of Voldemort's soul had no idea what had just occurred.
All he remembered was drifting peacefully inside the diadem like usual. Then, suddenly, something picked it up.
He had tried to invade the intruder's mind, but his efforts met nothing—like trying to control a stone.
Before he could react, something landed on the diadem. A moment later, a powerful repulsive force erupted from inside it and forcibly ejected him.
As he tried to resist, something grabbed hold of him and yanked him completely out of the Horcrux.
Now that his consciousness had stabilized, Voldemort finally remembered everything. The more he thought about it, the more confused—and furious—he became.
He had been sleeping soundly inside the diadem. How the hell had some unknown thing dragged him out? If he wasn't mistaken, the thing had been holding what looked like a Muggle cleaning tool.
A Muggle feather duster had destroyed his Horcrux?
Voldemort couldn't wrap his head around it. When had the world gone this insane?
"Perhaps I've already conquered the world," he muttered to himself. "Those people must be resisting me. That's why they're desperately searching for ways to destroy my Horcruxes."
The more he thought about it, the more plausible it seemed.
Why else would anyone waste time researching ways to target his Horcruxes unless they were trying to overthrow his rule?
"Hah. So they can't beat me in a fight, so they resort to these petty tricks? How laughable."
The distorted face of the soul fragment twisted with rage and mockery.
In his eyes, anyone who relied on such underhanded methods was nothing more than a rat in the gutter.
"Still, to be safe, I should warn my main body that the other Horcruxes might be in danger."
With that thought, the fragment carefully began to move, squeezing through cracks and quietly slipping out of the Room of Requirement.
Since those people had chosen to destroy his Horcrux here, this place was clearly one of their strongholds. Even though he was confident in himself, he was still just a soul fragment. Caution was necessary.
That caution would end up saving his life. Soon enough, he would discover that his grand dream of ruling the world no longer existed. As the only active fragment left, he would become the new Voldemort.
But for now, he knew nothing.
Meanwhile, inside Tom's shop, everyone who had just witnessed Santa casually dusting Voldemort's soul out of the diadem with a feather duster had fallen into a strange, heavy silence.
Even Tom, the one who had created the golem, looked slightly dazed.
He had suspected the golem might be capable of something like this, but actually seeing it happen still caught him off guard.
He had only made a golem. Why the hell had it turned into some kind of conceptual god?!
Helena wanted to make up for her past mistakes, so the golem just… cleaned the corrupted diadem?
What if her wish had been to reconcile with her mother, Rowena Ravenclaw? Would it have gone to the underworld and dragged her soul back too?
Rowena had been dead for centuries. She'd probably already reincarnated by now!
Norberta turning out special made sense—he had interfered with her hatching. The two unicorns becoming intelligent was acceptable too; animals Tom and Jerry interacted with always ended up weird.
But this? A golem becoming a conceptual god? That was a bit much, even for him.
And Helena wasn't even a child! She was older than Dumbledore. Probably older than Nicolas too.
How the hell did this thing decide she counted as a "child"?
"I think I finally understand why Voldemort can't be killed," Dumbledore said quietly.
He had long suspected Voldemort had found some way to cheat death, but there were many dark rituals that could achieve similar effects. He had never been certain until now.
Seeing the soul fragment expelled from the diadem made everything click.
"A Horcrux."
As the oldest person present, Nicolas might not have specialized in curses the way he did in alchemy, but he knew enough about dark magic. Horcruxes also had some overlap with alchemy, so he was even more certain than Dumbledore.
"That's a Horcrux. But how did he do it? Normally, destroying a Horcrux requires destroying its container as well. If it's inside a living being, you have to kill the host. If it's inside an object, you have to destroy the object. But now—"
Forget how the golem had even found the Horcrux without being ordered to (even Dumbledore hadn't known Voldemort had hidden one inside Hogwarts). The real question was how it had removed the soul without destroying the container.
[Well… maybe because it's Santa?] Tom offered. [Bringing gifts to good children is its job?]
He was just as confused as everyone else, but his confusion was more about why his golem had become a conceptual god rather than how it had pulled this off.
If it really had become one, then something like this was probably trivial for it.
"This isn't magic at all!" Nicolas looked like he was having a breakdown. "Alchemy is precise! It's not supposed to be this… casual!"
He felt like his entire life had been a joke.
He was the only person who had ever successfully created a Philosopher's Stone. He was supposed to be at the forefront of alchemy. Yet everything Tom did made him feel like he had wasted his centuries of life.
Right now, Nicolas felt like a Chinese person watching someone dip a strawberry-filled bun into chocolate sauce.
"Um, big brother," Ariana said softly, "shouldn't we be more worried about that black thing that just got kicked out?"
"No, Ariana. You're thinking too simply," Dumbledore replied, shaking his head. "Knowing Tom—knowing Voldemort—he's probably long gone by now.
You can call him arrogant or foolish, but the man who became the second Dark Lord is not stupid.
By now, he's likely already left Hogwarts. Possibly even left Britain."
"Then—"
Before Ariana could finish, Dumbledore cut her off gently. "Don't worry. As long as I'm still at Hogwarts, Voldemort will never dare to openly attack this place."
"But—"
"Wait. I wasn't asking about that," Ariana said, looking exasperated. "I was asking why you called Tom by his name just now!"
Dumbledore paused.
He raised his wand and gave it a light flick. Glowing letters appeared in the air: "I am Voldemort."
Another flick, and the letters rearranged themselves into "Tom Riddle."
"Tom Riddle. That was Voldemort's original name."
"Oh, I see," Ariana nodded. "But from now on, just call him Voldemort. Tom is my friend, after all~"
She winked playfully at Tom.
"I'll be more careful," Dumbledore said with a fond smile. Then he turned back to the image. "Since Voldemort has fled, let's go speak with the Grey Lady. She clearly knows more than she's let on."
They Apparated straight into the Ravenclaw common room.
The Grey Lady—Helena—watched as Santa held out the diadem. Her entire form trembled.
She knew that object better than anyone. It was because of that diadem that she had died. It was because of that diadem that she had been deceived. It was because of that diadem that she had spent centuries drowning in regret.
Now, seeing it so close again, feeling its familiar yet strangely clean presence—no trace of dark magic left—she hesitantly reached out.
The next second, her fingers passed straight through it.
Right. She was a ghost. She couldn't touch anything physical anymore.
Still, it was enough.
Even without physical contact, she could feel it. The filthy, corrupting presence that had stained it for decades was gone. The diadem had returned to its original state—the way it had been before that man tricked her into stealing it.
"I'm sorry," Helena said quietly, pulling her hand back. "I misjudged you. This really is the gift I wanted most. Even if I no longer deserve it… thank you."
"There's no such thing as 'deserving' or 'not deserving,' child," Santa replied gently. "This is your gift. A reward. Please accept it."
Helena gave a small, helpless smile as Santa kept trying to push the diadem into her hands.
"While I appreciate it, I'm a ghost now. I can't actually take it. So… as thanks for purifying it and bringing it back, could you give it to your master instead? I hope he'll put its power to good use and not let it gather dust again."
"This gift was made for you," Santa said firmly, refusing to budge. "If you wish to give it away, that decision is yours to make. My task is simply to deliver it to you."
Helena was at a complete loss.
Why had this thing suddenly become so stubborn?!
She wasn't refusing the gift because she didn't want it—she literally couldn't hold it!
She was about to ask Santa to place it on her mother's statue instead when several figures suddenly appeared in the common room.
"Tch. Even if you are the headmaster, you should still follow the rules when entering the Ravenclaw common room," Helena said with a frown.
She hadn't seen who Apparated in, but the only person who could do so inside Hogwarts was the headmaster.
It wasn't like a house-elf had decided to take a casual stroll through Ravenclaw.
When she finally saw who had arrived, she paused.
Dumbledore was there, but he wasn't alone. Several others had come with him—including a tall, two-legged blue cat standing upright like a person.
"We'll discuss Ravenclaw traditions later," Dumbledore said calmly. "But before that, Lady Grey, I believe there are some things you should tell your headmaster.
About the diadem? Or about Horcruxes? Or perhaps about the boy named Tom Riddle?"
Helena had no intention of hiding anything. As a Hogwarts ghost, assisting the headmaster was part of her duty.
She had kept these secrets before because no headmaster had ever asked. Now that Dumbledore had asked directly, she had no reason to stay silent.
"I know about all of them," she said. "But first… perhaps we should let this Santa continue his work."
She looked at Tom.
[Got it.]
Tom nodded.
Even if Santa had become a conceptual god, it was still his creation. Its main job was delivering gifts. Right now it was stuck in a loop because Helena couldn't physically accept the diadem.
The solution was simple.
[Just put the gloves on and take the diadem from it.]
Tom tossed a spare pair of gloves toward Helena—the same kind he had made for Ariana.
Before Santa continued its deliveries, he also planned to make a few quick adjustments to its programming. He didn't want it going around granting random wishes to everyone it met.
Especially not if it ran into Snape and decided he was a "good child" who deserved to have Lily's soul pulled back from the afterlife.
Although…
If it actually could do that, maybe it wouldn't be so bad?
For Harry's sake, Tom had been thinking about ways to bring his parents back. If Santa could actually pull it off, that would save him a lot of trouble.
A dangerous little idea began forming in Tom's mind.