"Thank you for the compliment, it's not really worth it, it's just making up for my own faults, I'm just trying to make sure that Mr Filch's workload doesn't increase in vain because of our transgressions." Luke stayed humble and wary, he felt Dumbledore's tone was a little off.

"Kindness of heart is invaluable, and coupled with enough responsibility, that quality really shines through. Mr Harris, I'm sure you're exhausted after such a lively evening, hurry back to your cosy bed in your Ravenclaw tower, sweet dreams and good night."

Dumbledore actually didn't punish him for the offending night excursion, but on second thought Luke took it for granted, Dumbledore had always admired wizards with Gryffindor's spirit of valour and love of adventure, not to mention that although Luke wasn't afraid of punishment, it would be best to have a few less twists and turns.

Luke bowed to his Headmaster and said goodbye, turning to leave.

Returning to Ravenclaw Tower once more, he still had to face the question of the magical door ring, "What is it that you destroy just by calling it by name?"

It was late in the night and Luke was feeling tired, after a little thought he still gave the answer impatiently, "Silence."

The door opened noiselessly and the young Ravenclaw immediately dodged inside.

Just as he was about to head back to his dormitory, Luke suddenly stopped in his tracks, he felt as if someone was staring at him, looking around, there was no one - not even a ghost.

Knowing that his senses were not wrong, Luke did not rush back to his dormitory; his older brother Albert often said at home, "Always be on your guard." The phrase wasn't Albert's original, it was the mantra of one of his predecessors in the Auror's office. At the moment, it struck Luke as particularly true, so he drew his wand.

It was a good thing that the magical long candles in the Ravenclaw common room were kept up all night for the convenience of those students who liked to read, so Luke could view his surroundings very clearly.

The blue curtains blew in the wind, but it was obvious that there was no one behind them, the ceiling and carpet adorned with stars were visible at a glance, and there was no one there either, as Luke allowed his eyes to gently wrap around the rows of bookshelves and scanned all the wide seats, with no sign of anyone in sight.

The stillness of the night paired with the chirping of unknown insects outside the window and the cool breeze should have been cosy and nice, but Luke did get chills, the feeling that he was being watched hadn't gone away. All the places had been checked, so there was only - Luke walked quickly to the niche opposite the door and scrutinised the white marble bust of Rowena Ravenclaw.

It was an exceptionally beautiful face, her features three-dimensional and chiselled. The tightly closed lips, half-slit eyes, and tightly furrowed brow all revealed that not only was she beautiful, but she was also a very stern person, but as Luke looked at the statue's face, it suddenly gave him an inexplicable feeling of closeness, and realising that something was wrong, he shook his head, and then this to run the Brain Closure spell, and observed it again.

One of the statue's hands held a wand around his chest, resting on the left side above his heart, while the other hand seemed to hang down naturally, favouring the palm of the hand in a gesture that seemed like an invitation, like an explanation.

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The whole statue looked like it was urging the students to learn the mysteries of magic, or explaining spells, or dissecting a philosophy of life - and the most interesting thing was that no matter where you were, Rowena Ravenclaw's eyes seemed to be staring at you as if they could see into the hearts of men and women.

Luke failed to pick up on the anomaly from the statue, but with his keen five senses, he confirmed that the feeling of being observed was coming from the statue.

"I know you're hiding in the statue, come out!" Luke pointed his wand at the statue of the founder of his academy.

"Come out or I will shatter the statue." Luke gently tapped the statue with his wand, a little later the tip of his wand glowed with a shimmering light, "Powdered-"

"Stop it, how dare you!" An extremely beautiful and tall female apparition floated out of the statue quickly.

"Oh, so it's you, Lady Grey." Luke withdrew his wand with some embarrassment, realising that he had nearly blown up her mum.

Lady Grey was the Ravenclaw's Academy Ghost, like her mother she was very tall and beautiful to look at, with long cascading hair to her waist and wide robes to the floor that couldn't hide her beautiful figure, but unlike her mother, who revealed herself to be majestic with enough wisdom to back her up, she seemed overly haughty and unimpressed.

"Luke Harris, I know you, the best student we've had in Ravenclaw in years, and many of the professors speak highly of you. But I know that you go out very early in the morning every day using the Phantasmagoria spell, your behaviour is very strange, what are you hiding?" Lady Grey clung to the statue as if she was going to hide in it at the first sign of trouble - her bad experience decades ago had made her wary of students with such behaviour.

"So you see me in statues all the time. Honourable lady, everyone has a little secret, but my morning exercise isn't exactly a secret, I merely get up early and go out to work out, and I'm stealthy merely to avoid trouble. The school is still very strict about inspections." Luke shrugged, having already concluded that Ms Gray meant no harm - if it had been a Peppermint instead...he could be a lot nastier than Ms Gray.

"But what I'm curious about is how you were able to host a statue of our Academy's founder, Rowena Ravenclaw." Luke hit the nail on the head, pointing out the crux of the matter, his eyes fixed on Lady Grey with a single misplaced glance, not missing the flash of panic in her translucent eyes.

"Rowena Ravenclaw is my real mother, and as her only descendant, I can certainly host her statue." Lady Grey explained.

Luke spotted the problem at once - going by Lady Grey's usual personality she probably wouldn't even bother answering such a question let alone explaining it in a panic, and while it was common for people in portraits to be able to walk around each other, it was rare for ghosts to be hosting statues of other people - -Weeping Myrtle can inhabit a toilet bowl because it has pipes and space to do so. Ghosts can't host entities, such as a wide wall, which a ghost can get itself through but can't hide in for long, which means the statue must be empty.

In a few short moments, Luke could see that Lady Grey was lying, so - why was she lying? What was she hiding?

"Excessive intelligence is mankind's greatest asset. Your mother was as beautiful as she was wise, and as her only descendant, you are lucky to have such a great mother." Luke put on a social face and a gentle tone, deciding to pay a few compliments first - after all, a predecessor had done that to her, and it looked like she was quite taken with the routine, though it didn't see to be as effective after being lied to once more.

"Lucky? Boy, when you've been through more, you'll learn that overweening intelligence may not be the greatest asset, but also has the potential to lead to great disaster. Having a great mother with a myriad of auras may not be a beautiful thing for each other." Lady Grey, as if she had been touched with sadness, spoke in a very mournful tone.

"You seem sad..." said Luke, trying to be persuasive, "Look, I'm a Ravenclaw through and through, and if the descendant of the Academy's founder ever needs to ask for help, I'll be happy to offer what help I can. "

"Perhaps, after all, you are a Ravenclaw, a student chosen by my mother's standards - there was once a teenager who was much like you, just as brilliant, just as poised, and he tried to persuade me just as much, but he lied to me." Lady Grey grew angry, and the expression on her transparent face became somewhat distorted.

"And what was his name? What academy is he a student of?" Luke did his best to look empathetic, leading the way like Ms Gray pointing out the differences between him and Mystique in their academy origins.