Chapter 13: Hiding Place
The first thing that Beth discovered about flying was that it was very tiring and the second was that while she was a Falcon she had this terrible tendency to want to catch and eat rabbits. She had also learned that no matter how warm the air was near the ground it was much colder the higher she flew.
There was also the small problem of food. Beth had forced herself to pack light and so had only brought a very limited amount of supplies. Balboa seemed happy to go hunting for mice or small birds and Beth knew from the limited amount of research she'd done on Falcons that they ate much the same but Beth wasn't sure she was ready to try her hand at hunting.
Beth was also frustrated with her slow progress. Flying was faster then walking, it was true, but she couldn't even begin to reach speeds that she would've been able to make on a broom. She checked her map by the light of her wand every night, always discovering that she hadn't flown half as far as she would've liked.
"I don't know how we're going to manage to cover all this ground." She said mournfully looking at the too-distant marks on her map.
Balboa didn't seem at all perturbed by their slow progress and stretched himself out on top of her spare robes in her duffel bag.
Throughout the summer Beth dealt with one frustration after another. She had believed that once she'd reached one or two of the places she'd marked on her map she would find clues that would lead her to her next destination or give her a new destination entirely. This was not the case. Her first few stops came after long, exhausting flights and after long amounts of research and questioning jumpy wizards and witches she was left with nothing. No clues that would send her to the spot where Salizar's locket was hidden.
She did manage to gather a few clues but those were few and far between. She learned a little bit about the Riddle family and how they had all died at the hands of Tom before he had become widely known by his other name. She also learned that very few people wanted to speak of anything that had to do with You-Know-Who and thus her investigation had met an unforeseen obstacle. She had expected that it would be difficult to extract information out of people concerning this Dark Wizard and his followers but she hadn't expected as strong a reaction as she received. Wizard and Witches would go pale and slam their doors or look quickly around before hurrying away from her as fast as their feet could travel. In a few rather memorable cases the witch or wizard had Apperated at the first mention of the Death Eaters.
Beth wanted to hang around Malfoy's place and spy but she was sure Draco would've told his parents what she looked like as a bird and it would do no good to try and hide in a tree near a window. No matter how much she knew she could learn if she went there, Beth stayed away. It would do Dumbledore no good if she were killed while she was in bird form.
She had a feeling that the Death Eaters would know where the locket was hidden – even if Voldemort hadn't told them, someone must've had some idea – but she had an even harder time tracking down Death Eaters. She knew that wouldn't be easy but she had thought that she would hear people talk of a thickening of the mist on certain nights or the Dark Mark rising above homes in the dead of night. But there was nothing, not even rumor; it seemed that most people were doing their best to forget the danger that was all around them.
Beth also spent as much time as she could digging up old books in out-of-the-way bookstores, both Muggle and wizard. She had learned from Dumbledore that Muggles often had interesting information about wizards and it was precisely because no one believed what they wrote.
"It is very surprising how often they are correct." He said in a rather fond tone of voice. "It rather seems a shame that no other muggles believe them."
This research was a bit more fruitful in that it provided her with a small bit of information about Salizar and his locket. It wasn't much, mostly exaggerated rumors about a strange man and his over-fondness for his locket which the author assumed was a powerful talisman. The author was correct of course but most of the other theories in the book were nothing but interesting if rather funny reading.
There were very few books written by wizards detailing Horcruxes. Beth had been unable to gather very much information at Hogwarts apart from what Headmaster Dumbledore would tell her and the single book in the library that held scanty information on the subject. It was dangerous magic and so it was a forbidden topic. Beth could understand the reasoning, any spell that involved murder was as bad as the Unforgivables but it made it very difficult to gather any information. She had no idea if the effect of turning an object into a Horcrux would affect its magical signature and, it seemed, no way to find out.
However the locket had been affected by its new magical properties Beth knew it would probably be very well hidden but it was where it was hidden that bothered Beth.
She shuddered to think that he kept it on his person. She told herself over and over again that it didn't make sense to keep a Horcrux close to one's person since the entire point was to safeguard a piece of one's own soul.
There were the occasional letters from Dumbledore that were delivered by rather harried looking owls. No matter where Beth happened to be at the time, the owls would find her and the envelopes were always addressed as if Dumbledore were following her movements. "Miss Beth Burke, second hostel on Brathbury Street, Manchester England."
It made Beth a bit nervous but Dumbledore never hinted at knowing anything beyond what she had told him when she had left school for the summer. "Hope you and your family are enjoying your holidays." The letters usually began, "I'm sure you've found time to continue your research in a most unobtrusive manner. I've discovered a few things that might interest you."
There were variations, especially when Dumbledore complimented her on a bit of information that she'd pulled from an obscure Muggle or wizard source. "Marvelous the things you can find in Muggle books," one later read fondly, "I wish I could devote more time to the quest of searching through Muggle libraries myself."
The letters were always interesting to be sure, but they rarely gave her any clues as to the location of Salizar's locket. The first letter hinted at the fact that You-Know-Who was not actually sure of the location of the locket himself. Beth felt her hands shake as she read those words.
"That means we have a good chance of getting it back!" She told Balboa as they sat in the room of a small wizard inn that Beth had located completely by accident. She had been looking for a place to stay within the town when she stopped at what looked to be a little coffee shop. It was strange since no one passing seemed to notice the brightly colored signs in the windows that advertised a variety of cool drinks when it was such a warm day. Beth had wandered inside and found out that it was in fact not a Muggle coffee shop at all.
She'd been able to get a room and directions to a small wizard library that a young witch had set up out of her home in the country. Beth spent several days there, searching through several rooms crammed with books, looking for anything that could give her a clue on how to track modified magical objects.
After that letter from Dumbledore she'd redoubled her efforts and with a little help from a friendly old wizard who thought she wanted to search for old enchanted galleons on the beach, she managed to get a spell working that was fairly good at tracking magical objects.
She spent several hours modifying the magical detector that looked a bit like an overlarge compass with several extra hands. It was very late when she finished her modifications but she didn't go to sleep, instead she spent several more hours starting to brew a potion that would enable her to use transfigured objects to track the actual object. The books stated that potion was good within an acceptable margin of error and although Beth found many volumes on tracing magical items she didn't fail to notice that many never mentioned a success rate.
Beth left the potion to simmer when she went to sleep and it was mid-afternoon before she woke up to find that Balboa was watching the cauldron intently. She hurried to get dressed and rushed downstairs to secure herself a tray of something to eat. She managed to get some breakfast leftovers and the very beginnings of the roast chicken that was to be for lunch and rushed back upstairs. She set aside some chicken and bacon for Balboa as she gently stirred the cauldron.
"It looks like it's almost done." She said taking large bites of scrambled egg with toast. "I'll just have to transfigure something to look like Salizar's locket." She started to search through her things. Her excitement dimmed a bit as she realized that she didn't have anything suitable. "The potion will sit for two days before it becomes unusable." She said checking the piece of paper on which she had scribbled her notes. "I suppose that's enough time to find some old locket but I'll need time to transfigure it properly." She was gathering up her money pouch and cloak when Balboa gave a curious little meow and rushed out the door.
Beth didn't think much of her cat's disappearance since he tended to do it rather often when she was at Hogwarts. He would usually return grooming his whiskers and cleaning his claws. Beth spent the remainder of the day searching the city for a used jewelry shop. She found a few and one that was even run by a sweet old witch but she couldn't find any old lockets that were the correct shape. She did return with two that were at least close to correct shape.
She sat down on the bed and set about trying to transfigure the first. It went rather poorly and although the locket no longer looked like the tarnished old heart shaped thing she'd bought it didn't look a thing like Salizar Slytherin's except for perhaps the fact that it was now gold, but the heart now looked like a misshapen potato rather than an oval.
Beth sighed, pushed it aside and pulled the other one close and started again. She was about to give up in frustration when Balboa pushed his way through almost closed door and jumped up onto the bed. Beth looked up and was about to shoo him gently out of the way she noticed a gold chain, green with tarnish dangling from his mouth.
"What did you find?" She asked as he dropped it on top of the other two. She scooped it up quickly. It was an old locket, badly tarnished, had broken hinges and the gems were all missing. The important thing was that it had exactly the same shape as the sketch of the locket that she had made in her notes.
"Balboa, where did you manage to find this?" She asked excitedly as she tossed the other two lockets off the bed and set this new one down on top of the several sheets of sketches with which she had been working. Balboa purred and blinked his yellow eyes lazily as he curled up by her feet.
It took several hours but when she was done Beth had an almost exact replica of Salizar Slytherin's locket.
"There!" Beth said as she placed the final finishing touches on it. "Now someone would have to look really closely to tell the difference." She scratched Balboa behind the ears and took the locket over to her simmering cauldron. She dropped it into the maroon liquid and watched as bubbles rose to the surface and the liquid slowly turned a tawny beige color. Once the bubbles had stopped she carefully levitated the locket out of the potion and dropped it onto the magical detector.
The hands spun and whirled for several moments before swinging back and forth widely between north and south. Beth watched carefully as one hand finally centered on East and another settled on "several miles distant," and a third settled on, "concealed." The other three hands wavered back and forth between several words concerning the age and power of the object. One of the three finally managed to settle itself on ancient and then the second settled down on "dangerous dark magic," but the third couldn't seem to decide between strong or weak magical aura.
"That's promising." Beth said as she flopped back onto the bed exhausted.
It took almost another week before the hand on the magical dial ceased pointing to several miles distant and began to point towards, "Very close," and Beth began to get nervous. She wasn't sure where she was in relation to Diagon Alley and she feared she wouldn't be able to make it back in time for school. The summer was almost over and she hadn't yet found the locket.
"I can't go back without it." She told Balboa as she penned a hasty letter to Dumbledore concerning her research. She detailed her thoughts on a magical detection device and the merits of the potion that one could use to track artifacts for lack of anything else to write about. She hadn't done any more research since she had begun to search for the locket in earnest.
She had begun searching the town since now whenever she walked the hands on the compass moved back and forth and the final hand was now pointing to, "In this general area." She walked quickly through the streets holding the compass in front of her watching the hands swivel back and forth.
"It's close." She told Balboa one night as the sun was beginning to set. The hand was beginning to inch its way towards, "right here," and Beth started to get excited. She quickened her pace and didn't bother looking up as the compass led her down a dark alleyway. The hand finally slid over and came to a rest over, "right here," in the middle of the alley.
Beth stopped and looked around. She was in the middle of a narrow alley between two buildings. It was dark and dingy and looked to be the kind of place where one did not wander alone at any time. She swallowed hard and got a grip on her wand before she started to sweep the area around her with her compass. The needle that had been pointing to West stopped shifting when she aimed it at one of the grime covered walls.
Balboa was sniffing the wall and Beth bent down and ran her hand over the cold, wet bricks. "Do you think it didn't work after all?" She wondered aloud as she bit her lip nervously. She had spent long exhausting days in flight to make it to this spot before school started. She looked down at the compass again and noticed that one of the hands was still pointing towards, "concealed."
She ran her wand along the wall until one of the bricks gave a faint glow. Beth felt her heart beat quicker as she mumbled a few spells until the brick slid inward revealing a small hole. Beth tried a few more spells until more of the wall opened to reveal a small cavity where someone had stashed several old looking pairs of clothes, silver goblets, dishes and several expensive looking bits of jewelry but nothing that looked like Salizar's locket.
Beth sorted through the pile quickly, fearing that the wizard who hid these things would come back. She noticed that several were embossed with the Black family crest and Beth started darting glances up and down the alley to make sure that there was no one in sight.
Balboa walked into the cavity and started pawing through a pile of necklaces that had become tangled in each other as Beth pushed several silver goblets noisily to one side. A few moments later Balboa meowed loudly and pawed at an old, tarnished necklace that looked as if it had been thrown into a fire several times, or used as some young witch or wizard's experiment.
"Is that it?" She asked picking it up quickly and she shivered as a jolt ran up her arm. She stuffed it into the pocket of her jeans and tossed her replica into the hole. Balboa climbed up onto her shoulder and Beth closed up the hole and hurried out of the alley, checking the magical compass. All the hands were now pointing to, "in possession."
She breathed a deep sigh of relief as she rushed back towards the motel where she'd rented a room. It was a Muggle motel so she would have to be careful about her magic but she had to make sure that she had the correct piece of jewelry. It certainty felt like the right thing since she could almost feel the magical thrumming from inside her pocket.
She slammed the door of the small room behind her and set the locket down on her bed and yanking her wand out of her pocket she fired off several spells. The locket glowed green for several moments before its image wavered.
"It's transfigured!" She said almost holding her breath. She bent down slowly, her wand shaking with her hands as she licked her lips to moisten them. She could feel the excitement making her nervous as she carefully spoke the words for the spell. Slowly, almost reluctantly, the shape of the old locket began to change and the tarnish melted off to reveal shining gold. Within moments Salizar Slytherin's locket was lying on her bed.
Beth let out a long breath and stared for a long time before she wrapped it up in a spare shirt and stuffed it into her duffel bag. "Come on, Balboa," She said, gesturing to her bag. Balboa obeyed and climbed in, setting one paw, claws out, on the shirt that hid the locket. "We have to get back to Diagon Alley so we can get back to Hogwarts."
Even though the sun had already set, Beth hurried out onto the street and started running up the streets. As soon as she had come to a dark enough patch of street she checked up and down before she changed into a Falcon and grabbing her bag in her talons took off into the sky.