Chapter 12: The Missing Locket

Beth did enjoy the look on Hestia's face when she told her about the transformation and the fifty points. She had to show everyone her small certificate and then she had to demonstrate the transformation once for them and then several more times in the Common room for the rest of the Ravenclaws. Word spread quickly throughout the school and Beth marveled at the amount of practice she was suddenly able to get in transforming. The first several times it had been very difficult but the more she did it the easier it became. Of course it also made her very tired and a little bit dizzy to change back and forth from human to falcon.

Finally she simply couldn't do it anymore and hurried back to the Ravenclaw tower, leaving her friends in the Great Hall to ward off everyone else. She sat down on her bed and tried to look at a few scrolls Professor McGonagall had given her to study about other animagus wizards. The words seemed to dance over the page by themselves and so Beth gave up trying to read and closed her eyes.

Now no matter what Draco claimed he wouldn't be able to get her in any trouble with the Ministry and they wouldn't bother to investigate her, especially since she'd arrived with Professor McGonagall insisting Beth had just managed the transformation a matter of hours ago. Beth felt a bit bad at having a teacher lie about it but Beth wasn't about to tell the whole truth about her transformation to a triune of Ministry wizards.

It worried her though that Draco knew what her animagus form looked like, he would've found out once the rumors had finished going around the school and he certainly must've seen her in the Great Hall this evening. It worried her because she was sure he was connecting her with the bird he'd seen in the tree that Hogsmede weekend.

She felt her stomach sink at the thought that he would be sure to inform his mother and his aunt. It wouldn't be very long before all the Death Eaters knew exactly what Beth looked like in her animal form. She suddenly wished she hadn't told her friends once they had returned from their holidays. It was fun, being congratulated by other students, even ones she didn't know very well.

She did her best to pass through the rest of the term without thinking too hard about Draco, the Death Eaters and Salizar's locket. It seemed too strange for her that Salizar would have a locket for a special heirloom. She thought about it for a long time before she came to a theory that she could accept. It could be that the locket contained very powerful dark magic, Slytherins were supposed to be very sly and cunning after all, why wouldn't Salizar place a powerful spell on something everyone least expected? It could also be, and this was Beth's backup theory, that the locket You-Know-Who had discovered was a fake.

Beth didn't really want that locket to be a fake since if it was a counterfeit she had no idea where to start searching for clues about the real relic. It all made her head spin but she spent long hours in the library anyway, searching for clues about Salizar's relic. She came across several books recounting a history of the Slytherin house and various famous witches and wizards that had gone on to do great things. Beth noted that You-Know-Who wasn't mentioned but that was really only to be expected, not many people knew that You-Know-Who had once attended Hogwarts under the name of Thomas Riddle.

The book, however, pointed very clearly to the fact that Salizar had left behind a locket but the book seemed unsure if the locket had been locked away in Salizar's vault or passed down within his family. She found another book on Hogwarts that gave the name of a former headmaster who had locked the locket away in Salizar's vault at the behest of the family.

"It must be powerful." Beth whispered to Balboa as she sat in the library with her customary pile of books. She stuffed the Slytherin history book underneath the others with a careful glance around the room. Draco Malfoy hadn't yet made his appearance today but Beth had no doubt that he would be in sooner or later. There weren't yet any other Slytherins around as there had been the past couple of weeks and Beth suspected that Draco was employing spies to watch which books she read. She made sure to gather up as many Transfiguration and Divination books as possible each time she entered the library.

"It really must be something if his own family wanted it locked away." She whispered as she flipped through the book searching for more clues as to its whereabouts. She knew that there wouldn't be anything in the history about where You-Know-Who had hid it but she hoped to learn something about the magic contained inside it. She could perhaps trace it with her own magic. Powerful artifacts gave off an aura that was not easy to disguise. Beth opened another book about tracing and locating ancient magical artifacts and made some more notes.

The spells didn't look difficult; they were just complicated and usually involved certain phases of the moon and sometimes potions that a replica of the object needed to be dipped into. That wasn't going to do her much good since she didn't know exactly what the locket looked like. She had a pretty good idea that it bore his initials and that it was most likely made out of gold but apart from that she had very little idea.

Balboa gave a low yowl and Beth looked up as Draco Malfoy entered the room. She stuffed the book she was reading back into the pile and picked up a particularly boring looking book about Human Transfiguration and set about doing her transfiguration essay for Professor McGonagall.

When she left the library she gave her pile of books to Madame Pince who took them and started shelving them at once. She hung around the desk chatting with her as the books flew towards their shelves and only left when the last one had shelved itself at the back of the library.

Beth was starting to feel more secure with the knowledge that she had gathered from the letters given her by Dumbledore and the time she had spent in the library. She had made up her mind weeks ago that as soon as the term ended she would go searching for Salizar's locket. She didn't dare tell anyone about her plan; she merely refused all offers for spending the summer holidays at the home of one of her friends. She kept to one story that her parents had planned a vacation.

Beth was having a hard time thinking about her parents and her friends. It was odd to remember that this whole adventure had started on Halloween and here it was almost summer once again and she hadn't so much as wondered if they were worried about her. "It was all a dream, that bit about being a Muggle?" She was asking Balboa one morning over breakfast. Balboa only purred in response and ate a piece of her bacon.

The rest of the term went by quickly as Beth tried everything to try and discover where You-Know-Who had hidden Salizar's locket. The best that she could come up with was that he had entrusted it to one of his Death Eaters. Beth wondered if that hadn't been a bad move on You-Know-Who's part, what if that Death Eater had tried to escape from him?

They didn't last very long if they did, Beth had overheard Dumbledore talking about one of the family of Black that had deserted You-Know-Who and had been killed less than three weeks later.

"It was a bit strange, don't you think, the way that the Death Eaters killed one of their own so ruthlessly?" Dumbledore was saying to someone in his office as Beth waited outside the door. She had raised her hand to knock but had paused when she heard voices.

"You-Know-Who is ruthless to his enemies." A deep voice was saying. "To betray him means death and we've seen it time and time again."

"But to strike down someone who had been loyal up until then…" Dumbledore murmured.

Beth held her breath, waiting to hear more but then the other deep voice bid Dumbledore farewell and Beth knocked on the door, hoping to catch a glance of the person that Dumbledore had been talking too. As she entered the comfortable round office there was only a flash of green flame to mark the stranger's passing. Dumbledore was sitting at his desk and smiling at her as usual.

"Ahh, Beth, have anything new to report?"

"I didn't mean to interrupt your meeting, Headmaster." She said quickly, hoping Dumbledore would volunteer some information.

"It was an impromptu meeting and he had his own business to attend to, nothing to be concerned about." He gave her a warm smile and Beth could tell that there was nothing more she would be able to get the Headmaster to tell her about whoever had just been in his office.

Over the course of the rest of the term that was plenty more research in the library and piles of old letters to read. Most of them were very dry, boring epistles from one Founder to another or from one Headmaster to another, or to teachers and sometimes even to students about the running of the school.

There were one or two letters about wards and spells that had been placed around the Vault or the Chamber of Secrets. She put those aside and read them over carefully once she had pushed through the main bulk of the other letters.

She was heartened when she discovered a trove of Salizar Slytherin's letters that discussed his students, his house, and the magical spells he intended to teach only to them. He bemoaned in several letters the fact that he was unable to teach his students Parseltounge.

Beth found that very amusing but she was more intrigued in a few letters written to his wife about his locket and the spells he intended to place on the object. He seemed to be very careful not to write down the exact nature of the spell, which was very frustrating. He was also very vague about what the spell was going to do but it was a start anyway and she was able to get a few descriptions that she was sure would help her to locate it.

As the term ended Dumbledore told her that he would keep in touch with her by owl over the summer. That made Beth rather nervous and she told him that she intended to be traveling with her family who were muggles. Dumbledore assured her that his owls would be able to find her no matter where her family happened to be taking their holiday.

"I'm sure your family is used to owls by this time."

"Yes, of course!" She said with a hasty smile. She suddenly wanted to tell him of her plan but she knew that he wouldn't approve so she thanked him and said that she would look forward to his correspondence.

The train ride back to King Cross station was fun even if Hestia kept insisting that Beth should just tell her family she was going to stay with friends for the summer. Beth managed to politely refuse the offer multiple times and caught the Knight Bus back to Diagon Alley. She took a few essential things in her maroon duffel bag and stored the rest in her vault at Gringotts.

She enchanted her bag to be very light to carry and nestled Balboa inside. He stuck his head out the time and stared at her with his bright yellow eyes.

"Don't worry; I have a few places I think we can look first." She said as she searched for an out of the way spot where she made her transformation and taking the bag which seemed to weigh nothing at all she took to the sky.

Balboa nestled down into her robes and started to purr. Beth barely caught the sound through the whistling wind and cold mist.