Sirius frowned. The unopenable locket didn't seem to be be cursed, so he was about to throw it into the discard pile, when Ginny Weasley commented that the rather garish piece of jewellery seemed familiar.
"You can have it." Sirius replied, tossing the locket to her.
"It feels heavy." Ginny commented, weighing it in her hand. "I wonder what's inside."
"Nothing good, I'll warrant, if it came out of this house. Probably some mini-manifesto on muggle inferiority, or," Sirius shuddered. "Or my mother and father. I'm not sure which is worse."
Ginny handed to locket over to Ron, but it felt light in his hand, and he didn't seem to feel any familiarity toward it, so he handed it back. The twins thought it would be an excellent place to hold their skiving snackbox candy – if Ginny could work out how to open it. "Just whip one out and you're free." Hermione was the first person to realise why it seemed familiar.
"This looks like Slytherin's Locket." Hermione spoke up. Sirius, in the process of wrestling with the grandfather clock, spoke up.
"Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised. I'd reckon that replicas would be quite common."
Hermione nodded, while the Weasley brothers looked confused.
"It's in Hogwarts: A History." Hermione explained. "It's a founder's artefact, like Gryffindor's sword or Hufflepuff's cup."
"What did Ravenclaw have?" Fred asked.
"I don't know; it's been lost for centuries, far longer than any of the other artefacts."
"Gryffindor's sword isn't lost though." Ginny spoke up.
"True; but none of the others have been seen for decades at least."
"Maybe they have special powers, and they'll come when they're needed?" George wondered. "To members of their respective houses."
Hermione nodded and turned to Ginny. "Well, do you think you could've seen it in Hogwarts: A History?"
"It's possible." Ginny grimaced. "But it doesn't feel quite like that." Ginny sighed. "Maybe if I get it open I'll understand."
Ginny left for the kitchen, wanting to use a knife to prise the locket open, which was shut tighter than a stubborn clam.
After about quarter of an hour of fruitless effort, Ginny was about to give up when Sirius appeared in the doorway.
"I forget about this." Sirius said; handing Ginny a different knife "It's supposed to be able to open any lock." Sirius's mother screeched, so he left Ginny to deal with her.
But even Sirius's special knife didn't work. Ginny was pondering the matter, when suddenly she was attacked from behind.
Letting out a scream of surprise, Ginny fought back vigourously. Sirius through the door a moment later and created a large bang, which threw Ginny's attacker away. It was Kreacher.
"What the hell happened?" Sirius asked.
"He just attacked me; out of the blue."
Sirius turned dangerously to Kreacher. "Explain yourself." Sirius barked.
"Master's locket." Kreacher rasped. "The blood traitor has master's locket!"
"Well," sneered Sirius snidely." " 'Master' gave it to her."
"It's not bad master's to give." Kreacher replied, before realising what he'd said, and beating his head against the cast iron oven door.
Hermione, who had entered the room with Ron, Fred and George, spoke up. "Oh, please, stop him."
"Cease those ridiculous antics." Sirius barked, which made Kreacher fall to the floor and bawl madly.
"I'm sorry, Ginny. Are you hurt?" Sirius asked Ginny.
"Not really, just a little shaken. I wonder why he did it." Ginny looked over a Kreacher, weeping in a corner.
"He's crazy; he's been here for years without anyone to talk to but my mother; and he was bad enough in the beginning. I reckon he's quite insane." Sirius's hard expression at his elf softened, he was looking at the pathetic creature with pity.
"Don't punish him; please." Ginny asked, feeling quite sorry for the pathetic creature. She then added in an undertone to Sirius. "Maybe I should just give him the locket."
"I'd rather know why he's so interested in it, first." Sirius answered. "Kreacher!"
Kreacher stiffly walked over. "Yes, master?"
"Who does this belong to?"
Kreacher bit his lip to stop himself from speaking.
"I'm ordering you to tell me, Kreacher. Who does this belong to?" Sirius dangled the locket in front of Kreacher's face.
"Master Regulus." Kreacher replied, unable to stop himself. "Master Regulus gave to Kreacher to…to…." Kreacher suddenly burst out wailing, and Hermione rushed forward to try and comfort him.
Kreacher screeched and pushed Hermione. "Oh, the Mudblood touched Kreacher, whatever shall he do?"
"I forbid you to use that word!" Sirius roared. "Now, why did Regulus give you this."
"Master Regulus wanted Kreacher to…to…destroy it." Kreacher shuddered. "KREACHER FAILED!" Kreacher started throwing himself against everything he could. "Kreacher tried everything he could, but nothing worked!"
"Kreacher, do you think, do you reckon that Master Regulus would mind if I tried to destroy it?"
Kreacher stopped his self-punishment and looked up at Sirius with huge, tearful eyes. "Master Sirius would do that?"
Sirius glanced at Ginny, who nodded. "Yes," Sirius replied. "If that's what you want."
Kreacher nodded, and Sirius placed the locket on a table.
"Diffindo!" Sirius brought his wand down on the Locket. It was undamaged. "Reducto!" Sirius tried again, and again, with the same results.
"Wow," Remus Lupin, who just entered the kitchen with Harry, muttered. "Never thought I'd see Sirius Black not be able to cause mayhem and destruction on something."
"It's crazy, Moony." Sirius said. "Nothing I can do affects it in the slightest."
Remus looked at the locket, lying innocently on the table. Ginny was in the background, deep in thought.
"Maybe you need to speak the passphrase to open it." Remus wondered. "Maybe you've got to speak Parseltongue."
"Nah, none of my family speaks that."
"True, but where did it come from?"
"Indeed. Do you know how Regulus came by this?" Sirius asked Kreacher gently, but the little elf whimpered and rocked back and forth, so Sirius gently sent him away.
"Why do you suppose Regulus wanted this destroyed?" Sirius asked Remus, dangling the locket in front of him. Sirius was not as disposed to follow his brother's wishes after some consideration in the matter; he had tried to for Kreacher's benefit; though he couldn't stand the Elf, he was beginning to feel some empathy for the poor creature. Now, though, Sirius had to wonder why his Death Eater brother would want it destroyed.
Fred and George were also fascinated by the locket. "Wow, such indestructibility."
"Indeed, brother, why I bet even we will be challenged to destroy this."
"But we don't want to, do we brother?"
"No indeed, brother of mine. We need to find out 'How It Works,' and then reverse engineer it into our products."
"And if we destroy it, we wouldn't know how this useful magic works."
"Indeed brother dear, I bow to your wisdom."
Fred and George beckoned Harry over. "Look here mate." Fred slapped Harry's shoulder. "Think you can do us a favour?"
Harry, well wary of Fred and George, frowned questioningly.
"Well, we just want you to try and get this open. Remus suggested we use a passphrase, but we think if someone with enough authority in their voice commanded it, it might open."
"Why don't you try?" Harry asked.
"Us? Authority? No way." George shook his head.
Harry picked up the Locket and, feeling quite silly, tried to muster his deepest and most powerful voice.
Ginny, who was sitting in the corner, had a moment of Sudden Realisation of Imminent Doom .
"Open." Harry hissed quite unintentionally.
"NO!" Ginny screamed, throwing herself across the room and ripping the locket out of Harry's hand. Harry was knocked to the floor by her momentum, but he did not rise, as his scar erupted in agony.
Ron, Fred, George and Sirius leapt to Harry's aid. Hermione raced out the door to summon help.
Ginny's momentum carried her away from Harry, she landed and desperately tried to shut the violently shaking locket, but to no avail, it, seeming to have a mind of its own, wrenched free of her grasp.
It was as if a figure from her deepest nightmares had risen to haunt her again. Ginny could hardly believe it to be true, but there he stood, Tom Marvolo Riddle, slightly older than she remember, but unmistakably him. Ginny, shaking madly, scrambled back.
Riddle's smoky lips curved. He still had it. He thought, but he wasn't interested in the terrified girl; something drew him to the boy writhing on the floor.
Remus leapt to Harry's defence, but his containment charms were useless against the apparition. Direct spells just sailed harmlessly through the figure. Remus was at a loss, but Riddle was quite pleased at these proceedings.
But Riddle didn't count on one thing: the complete and utter rude tactlessness of the Family Weasley, and their only daughter, Ginevra, defender of Boys in Deep Peril.
Ginevra Weasley, instead of allowing the superior Wizard to pass, rudely leapt in his way, brandishing her wand (quite uselessly, as we have just seen), and proclaimed that Riddle should
"Go back to the shadow!" Riddle was quite terrified of that prospect, being scared of the dark, but he didn't show it, and bravely continued to advance.
"You shall not pass!" Ginny waved her wand, and Riddle found himself behind where he started.
"What the?" Riddle asked, wondering how she possibly moved his awesomeness.
Ginny lunged and picked the locket up. Riddle sneered, and Ginny pulled a rather ugly face (it was actually beautiful, because it was Ginny who was pulling it, but Riddle didn't feel that way.) Still, his Supreme Genius realised what had happened. Strange Unknown Rude Face-Pulling Girl had changed the room around him, circumventing his many protections.
He still wasn't bothered much, but then Albus Dumbledore burst into the room, brandishing a shiny silver sword. Riddle's fear at the venerable old Wizard's appearance was replaced by derision as he saw the bearded buffoon wielding a Muggle weapon rather than a majestic wand.
Ginny handed Dumbledore the locket, who placed it on the table. Riddle sneered at them, watching Dumbledore swing the sword down on his locket. Riddle prepared to cackle at the failure of the old coot's plan, as his sword bounced off the locket and (hopefully), slice the old man's face.
As you probably have guessed, Dumbledore wielded the sword of Godric Gryffindor, and so Riddle only got a momentary twinge of Sudden Regret before he was no more (though, admittedly, he did screech quite a lot.)
The Aftermath of The Proceeding Events would take many pages to recount, and can be told as tales at other times. Needless to say, Albus Dumbledore Did Not Immediately offer Explanations as to what had transpired.