Hogwarts: Legacy of the Necromancer

Edith Cushing pretended not to know the tea was poisoned. Every time Lucille Sharpe left, she would quietly pour the refreshments into the fireplace.

Then, during the dead of night, she would explore the entire manor. It wasn't long before Edith encountered another ghost.

Even though it had turned into a skeleton, Edith could recognize the ghost—it was the spirit of that hideous woman.

As Edith passed by with a candelabrum in hand, the ghost suddenly appeared and dragged her into a hidden chamber inside the wall.

Carefully shielding the candle flame, Edith realized she was in a small secret room. On the surrounding shelves were neatly arranged flat boxes, the kind typically used to store jewelry.

The ghost hovered in the center of the room, almost face to face with Edith. It uttered a few strained words: "Wealth. Jewels. Secrets."

Those few words seemed to drain the spirit entirely, and after speaking, it faded away.

Wealth. Jewels. Secrets. Edith's curiosity surged. Holding up the candle, she opened one of the nearby boxes.

Inside was a necklace made of crimson gemstones, each the size of a pea. Edith compared them with her own ring and realized they were the same type of gem.

She counted sixty-six of the crimson stones on the necklace. Under the flickering candlelight, they gleamed with a bloody red hue.

The scene was dazzling, but there was something chilling beneath the surface—an eerie sense of bloodshed lurking behind the shimmer.

Could this entire room be filled with jewelry?

Edith quickly opened several more boxes. Each held something different—necklaces, belts, bracelets, bangles, rings, earrings. The zodiac-themed brooches were particularly stunning.

For any woman, to be surrounded by so much jewelry would be pure bliss. Edith couldn't help but let out a silly laugh.

The camera panned downward from the ceiling of the secret room, capturing Edith bathed in the glow of crimson gemstones.

In the end, Edith didn't take a single piece of jewelry. She left the secret room carrying only a single document.

"For her, are all these jewels less valuable than that ring?"

Milla Jovovich seemed to understand what the protagonist was thinking—especially since the camera lingered on Edith's left hand holding the file. That very ring was the one Thomas Sharpe had given her when he proposed. Whether she was looking at the file or at the ring… well, that was for the audience to interpret.

However, it's said that the jewelry used in the film was real. According to production sources, all of it belonged to the investor's family—genuine heirloom jewelry, not mere props like in other films.

Allegedly, the two lead actresses were entrusted with guarding the jewels during filming, which sparked envy among many actresses.

It's also rumored that the actresses went on to become brand ambassadors for the jewelry in the U.S., with each representing a store on either coast—East and West.

According to whispers, while staying in their rooms, the actresses would wear the jewelry provocatively and spend intimate time with the investor.

It's even said they eventually became the investor's mistresses and received some of the jewelry as gifts.

These rumors made Milla Jovovich's eyes twitch. Even if they were only rumors, she knew there was probably some truth to them.

Back in her room, Edith began going through the document. It was a reply from the British Gemstone Association.

According to their evaluation, the crimson minerals sent by Baron Sharpe were not considered gemstone-grade crystals.

Therefore, the baron was not authorized to sell jewelry made from these substandard stones.

Reading this, Edith knew the judgment was biased. Even though she wasn't a gemologist, she could tell just by looking at her ring that the stones were of high quality. Whether they met so-called "gemstone-grade" standards was subjective. Furthermore, the document contained no specific lab report—it was clearly a tactic to block the sale of this particular type of gem.

Inside the folder was also an unsent letter from Thomas Sharpe addressed to the Gemstone Association, filled with anger and accusations against their evaluation. But the fact that the letter remained here showed he never sent it. Thomas had simply swallowed the loss.

No wonder the secret room was filled with jewelry, yet the Sharpe siblings still had no money!

"It seems the source of these jewels is problematic. If it were just a matter of licensing, the Sharpe siblings could have pulled some strings, offered incentives, or gifted a few pieces. Getting approval to sell shouldn't have been that hard. But they gave up entirely—that's what's truly strange."

Milla Jovovich paused the recording and began speculating about the upcoming plot. This is the difference between watching a recording and watching a movie. When watching a movie, you're bound to follow its pacing, but when watching a recording, you can examine plot details closely—even rewind to catch parts you may have missed.

There was no point in overthinking it. Though she had a few guesses, the film so far hadn't revealed any extra information, so she could only keep watching to see how the story would explain things.

Since Edith Cushing arrived at Crimson Peak, she had encountered ghosts twice.

The first ghost led her to the basement, where she found a box buried inside the wall. It contained evidence of the Sharpe siblings' crimes, and what she discovered was deeply unsettling.

The second ghost dragged her into a hidden room filled with the Sharpe siblings' wealth. But none of it could be sold; it was treasure that couldn't be used—a cruel illusion of riches.

As the story progressed, the third ghost appeared.

Although she had stopped eating the tea cakes, Edith Cushing's health continued to decline, and her coughing fits became more severe. Of course, part of this was intentional—she wanted the Sharpe siblings to witness her deterioration.

"Cough, cough, cough...!"

Edith Cushing leaned against the wall, making her way to the first-floor bathroom. She had just suffered another violent coughing fit. It seemed the poison she had ingested earlier was still ravaging her body. But with the snowstorm outside and the town so far away, escaping this terrifying place was impossible. Since she couldn't leave, she had to keep investigating.

Looking at the bloodstains on her handkerchief, Edith stared at her own bloodied mouth in the mirror, quietly encouraging herself. You can endure this. The truth will come to light soon.

Suddenly, blood-red liquid began to flow into the bathtub behind her, quickly filling more than half of it.

Edith Cushing knew she was about to encounter another ghost. She didn't know what this one might reveal.

Nervous yet intrigued, she stared wide-eyed at the tub.

The ghost of an older woman appeared. At first, her full face was clearly visible to Edith, then she mimicked the act of coughing blood before lying back into the blood-filled tub. After a short moment, a skeletal apparition floated up from the water. It didn't appear to have the ability to speak—only extending its hand into the blood-red pool.

Edith Cushing was stunned. After the ghost reached into the tub, it brought up a handful of bead-sized pellets—no more than a few dozen. But Edith recognized exactly what they were.

Her gaze shifted instinctively to the wedding ring on her left hand. The six crimson-red gems on the ring looked exactly like those pellets.

So that's how the Crimson Gems were made—by soaking red clay in water, placing it with human remains, and allowing it to undergo a transformation as the body decomposed, eventually forming those bloody crystals.

That was why the Sharpe siblings didn't dare go up against the Gem Association. These Crimson Gems weren't natural crystals at all. They were rare formations born of human flesh and blood.

Disgusted, Edith instinctively wanted to remove the ring. But she quickly restrained the impulse. It wasn't the right time to alert the Sharpe siblings. If she acted rashly now, she'd be in grave danger.

In that brief moment of distraction, all the blood in the bathtub vanished, and the third ghost disappeared without a trace.

"My dear! Are you alright?"

Thomas Sharpe suddenly appeared in the bathroom, grabbing Edith's hand with concern. Before she could answer, he turned to look at the bathtub. It seemed Edith had just been staring blankly in that direction.

After all, it was at that very spot—where the bathtub stood—that the elder Lady Sharpe had been killed.

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