Chapter 5: Silver Falcon

It didn't take long for Beth to get very cold crouching in the snow every time the woman stopped to look around and holding her breath as she transfigured herself to look like part of a snow covered tree or boulder. She considered going back when the cloaked woman was joined by several other figures that hurried into a cave.

Beth hurried up to the entrance which was tall enough to admit a rather large person. She slipped inside, grateful to at least be out of the wind and quickly changed the color of her cloak back to its black and grey with a bit of dust to keep her hidden. She crouched behind an outcropping that was just inside the cave entrance as the woman began to speak.

"Have you been able to find it?"

"No, all the passage ways are protected by passwords!" said a voice that sounded all too familiar but she didn't have time to consider it.

"I thought he was wrong for this job, Bellatrix, let him get back to the job that our Lord gave him. This is supposed to be your assignment!"

Beth stopped breathing. Bellatrix! That could mean no one else but Bellatrix Lestrange and that meant that she was listening to a meeting of Death Eaters!

"And how am I supposed to get into the damn school!" Bellatrix said hotly. "It's better to let the boy figure out anything that he can!"

"I did find a secret passage," said the familiar voice. Beth strained to try and remember who it belonged to. "I think it may lead someplace that could at least give me a clue but I haven't gotten the chance."

"Get permission from Severus to read the books on the restricted shelves, there may be something there concerning the make up of the castle."

There was the sound of shoes scuffing over stone and the voices were suddenly closer. Beth panicked, if she moved now, she would surely be caught but she couldn't remain where she was hiding because they would be sure to see her once they got close. She clasped her wand tightly and tried to remain calm so she could think clearly. Balboa chose that moment to wriggle out of her grasp and dash across the drifts, vanishing in a streak of color and flying snow.

"What was that?" a voice inside demanded and footsteps began to run towards her.

Beth panicked and dove after her cat but instead of tumbling into the snow she suddenly felt like she was contorting and then she was flying. She flapped her wings and landed in a tree a few feet from the cave entrance. She gave a loud call and looked down as three people rushed out of the cave.

"It was just a damn bird." Bellatrix said, pointing her wand at Beth. "Let's hurry before someone notices that you're missing."

"I heard a cat though." The shortest figure was looking around frantically.

"There's no cat, just that damn bird, oh put your wand away, Bellatrix, if you kill that bird every wizard in the ministry will be up here before you can blink!" The tallest figure started walking towards the village.

Bellatrix threw back her head and glared up at Beth but tucked her wand away and stalked after the tall, still hooded man. The three figures soon disappeared behind the drifts. Beth watched them go, turning her head to one side to get a better view. What had just happened? It was suddenly hard to think straight and her eyes kept darting to the moving bits of snow that were shifting below her. She turned her head to try and get a look at herself.

She saw snowy grey and white wings and sharp talons that clung to a thin branch. It was suddenly clear. She had managed her animagus transformation! She was some kind of bird! She flapped her wings in sudden amazement when she felt like she was being stretched and the branch suddenly gave away beneath her new weight and she fell through the tree with a crash and into the deep snow.

She looked down at her gloved hands in amazement. "I did it!" She scrambled up and looked around. "Balboa?" She hoped the Death Eaters hadn't seen her cat. The cat appeared a moment later, shaking the snow out of his fur. "Don't ever do that again!" Beth said to the serene yellow-eyed stare. "Did you see, Balboa? I did it!"

Balboa purred and looked very satisfied.

"Now I just have to remember how I did it." She said, thinking back. It had been a strange shrinking sensation. She tried to remember what had triggered it. "I was scared because the Death Eaters…" Beth looked up, her amazement and pride at her achievement dimming. "I've got to report this to Dumbledore right away. There's a student working for the Death Eaters! It must be Malfoy!" She gathered up Balboa and hurried towards the village.

Hestia, Jonquil, Helen, and Abby were waiting for her at the Three Broomsticks.

"What happened, Beth?" Hestia asked as she sat down. "Get lost in the snow?"

"We were worried!" Helen said. "I mean, you said you would meet us here and then you weren't here! The way you just dashed out of Honeydukes! I wanted to go and get a teacher…"

"And Helen worries too much." Hestia continued. "Really, where did you get off to? We had the damnedest time holding Helen back."

"Sorry." Beth said with a sheepish smile. "I saw some books and I got all caught up." It was a total lie but they all believed it.

"I've got your bag anyway." Jonquil handed her a brown bag emblazoned with Honeydukes in gold. "You left it on the counter."

"Oh, thanks!" Beth said. She'd totally forgotten about her chocolate.

"You left your Quills in my bag; we can sort them out when we get back." Abby said taking a deep drink of butter beer.

"Thanks, guys." Beth said with a smile. "I didn't mean to worry you." She accepted a mug of butter beer gratefully.

Helen sighed loudly. "I guess it's alright, just don't run off like that again. We're all supposed to stay together. We can't afford to lose House Points."

Jonquil rolled her eyes behind her mug and Beth swallowed a giggle in a gulp of butter beer.

Beth wanted to report what she had heard to Dumbledore but the Headmaster wasn't in his office. Beth contemplated the short conversation that she had heard back to her room. Draco Malfoy with the help of who knew how many other Slytherins was looking for the Founders' Relics. She hadn't noticed anything strange in the library but then again she had been so absorbed in her own research she hadn't noticed much of anything.

Beth suddenly felt troubled. What if the Slytherins had been spying on her and then reading the books she had read? She looked at Balboa, but he wasn't paying any attention to her. He was walking purposefully towards the Ravenclaw tower. She couldn't put a trace spell on the books since Madame Pince had probably been handling them and there was no telling how many other people had touched the books in the meantime.

"I have no way of knowing how much Draco knows." She said mournfully as she spoke the password and dove through the second door as it swung open.

Beth spent most of the evening in the Common Room with Hestia pouring over their Ancient Runes homework. She really wanted to tell her friends that she had managed the transformation but if she did they would send her away to take the test and that could take months! There were a dozen tests and then a hearing at the Ministry. It was best if she kept it a secret for now, especially since she wasn't sure if she was going to be able to do again.

She was torn between wanting to practice the transformation and reading more of those letters that Dumbledore had given to her. She finally feigned exhaustion and rushed upstairs and onto her bed. She pulled the curtains closed and began sorting through the letters that she still hadn't read. Draco and the other Slytherins knew nothing about these letters unless they were spying on Dumbledore's office and Beth doubted that they had the means to do that. Practicing her transformation could wait, she had to get to the relics before the Death Eaters did!

The first few letters revealed nothing. They were missives from Rowena to traveling students warning them to keep themselves hidden from non-magic users or to take care when using little-traveled roads. She tucked them away in the packet with the others and picked up another, holding her wand close and doing her best not to make too much noise.

Her eyes widened as she read down the page. This letter wasn't from any of the Founders; it appeared to be from a retired headmaster of Hogwarts to a newly instated one. "I advise you to take great care in keeping the school and its grounds safe. I myself uphold the decision to make it impossible to Apparate on the Grounds." Beth flicked her wand down the page and brought her face closer, straining to read the words in quickly fading light as her friends put out the candles and went to bed. The thick royal blue curtains around her bed blocked any moonlight or starlight that would've seeped through the windows. "Furthermore, I urge you to protect the Vault."

Beth's hands started to shake. "You are well aware that the treasures within are both powerful and important. If any of those things should fall into wrong or inexperienced hands I tremble to think what would become of us all. It is the same with the Salizar's Chamber; it must remain closed and locked. Under no circumstances must it be opened and the beast sleeping there allowed to awaken."

Beth read the letter at least four times before she set it on top of the first letter that she had discovered. "I was right!" She told Balboa who looked a bit annoyed at being woken from his sleep. "There's a vault in Hogwarts someplace and the Death Eaters are trying to find it too! That means that there must be powerful magic in there! It's probably the Relics!"

Balboa yawned. Beth quickly read through the other letters. There were a few other mentions of a secret vault that was different from the Chamber of Secrets but there was still no clue as to its location. There were several more letters, some between teachers and the Headmaster at the time debating on the location of the vault and what kind of magic kept it sealed. She unrolled her map of Hogwarts once again and studied it intently.

"Salizar wasn't happy when Rowena suggested that it be built and the castle has changed a lot over the years, yet Salizar hid the Chamber in a bathroom and it could only be opened by someone who could speak Parseltongue." She thought as she tried to guess where the vault might be hidden. "It could be near this tower." She murmured, placing a small black X near the base of the Ravenclaw tower. "But if the other Founders agreed to help her…" She traced a line from each of the houses except for Slytherin and placed an X where the lines met. "It might be at some central location. That letter said that Rowena wanted to build the vault in the center of the castle."

Beth rubbed her eyes and yawned. It was getting late and she had class early tomorrow morning. She only four more days until her next meeting with Dumbledore but she was already bursting to tell him about what she had discovered. She wondered excitedly what he had managed to uncover in the letters that he had read.