The Locket

During chapter 34, evening, Grimmauld Place

The elf was puttering around in its… room? ... there was probably no better term, and it would do. Marvolo got up to make a show of sweeping the room with his magic, to detect what he was searching for here, even if he already had located the locket.

Marvolo let himself drift over to the small door to a cupboard, hiding a boiler by the look of it, finally turning to face the pile of rags and the elf. "It feels like what I seek is in there."

All three wizards could clearly hear the elf muttering to himself. "What is the foreign wizard doing here? Kreacher wants the wizard gone, wants all of them gone." Then the being, looking as if he had thrown on a skin at least one size too big – there were that many wrinkles – turned and looked up with a tilted head and narrowed eyes.

Marvolo saw the moment the elf made the connection in his mind. Recognized the wizard who had taken him into a cave, made him drink a horrible potion, leaving him there to die. The wizard who was the reason the master he had served so faithfully had found his death in the same cave. He saw the hatred in those strange eyes. And was sure that if looks could kill, he would be in need of a new body, again.

"I'm looking for a dark artefact I left behind many years ago," Marvolo said, selecting his words with care – very aware of the others listening – directly addressing the elf. "It is dangerous and can't be left as it is."

Suspicious eyes narrowed as the elf tipped its head to the side and, muttering as if the others weren't there at all, the old elf made its displeasure known. "Master said Kreacher has to destroy it. Make sure it stops existing. Can't go against sweet Master Regulus' orders. Can't do what Kreacher should."

The small thing sounded frustrated and angry at itself. To Marvolo it sounded as if Regulus had ordered his elf to take the locket and destroy it, leaving him behind in the cave. A positively Gryffindor plan, or in other words, a totally harebrained scheme.

"The object is really hard to destroy. I'm sure you have tried all you could think of. You're a dedicated elf, an honourable, reliable servant for your family. I know that there are not more than a handful of methods to destroy it." He was still trying to speak in a way that would make it possible to get the elf to give up the locket and his Master's last command, and at the same time didn't alert the other two wizards as to the nature of the object. It was unlikely that Regulus had told his elf what exactly it was that it had to destroy.

Hopefully.

"Bad wizard knows how to destroy it? Can't trust. Locket is evil, can't keep existing. Wizard evil too!" Marvolo wondered how being in the possession of a horcrux had affected the little being. Maybe his fixation on this task, destroying a horcrux without the means to do it, was to blame for the state of the old house. But how could he convince the elf that it was a good idea to give the locket to the wizard he thought evil?

Acutely aware of the two others sitting on the edge of their chairs behind him, Marvolo quickly thought about different ways to go about this before he committed to one course of action.

"Your Master was right. Creating that object was wrong. It needs to be neutralized. Things have changed. I have changed. I'm here to retrieve the object and take it apart so it will no longer be a danger." The elf looked sceptical, its head tilted back and to the side, scrutinising the wizard standing before him with surprisingly intelligent eyes. Or maybe not so surprising. He should stop underestimating others because he thought them less intelligent or powerful than himself. He hadn't included wards against elves in his protections around the horcrux, and it now was abundantly clear that he had needed such wards.

A few tense moments the wizard and elf looked at each other. Then the elf turned to shuffle over to the open door, rummaged in the rags piled on the floor, knocking over some things by the sound of it, before he came shuffling back, a small necklace clutched to his chest in his spindly fingers. "Wizard will make locket not evil again?" Marvolo nodded. "Will make evil go away?" Marvolo nodded again.

When the elf held the locket out on the palms of his long, slim hands, Marvolo cast a wandless and silent levitation charm, got a silken cloth out of his pocket, and wrapped the locket of Slytherin in it. If he had been able to, he would have departed as soon as the small packet was safely stowed away. But there were protocols to follow, niceties to observe, between two Lords of the Wizengamot. Sometimes he looked back with fondness to the days he just could act as he wanted, breaking every rule. Some things had been so much easier.

Thanks to Jordre and Jake for helping to improve my spelling!

First published on the 18nd of July 2017