Secrets of the Silver Locket
Chapter 4
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, or any of its characters. *looks in mirror* Nope, still not J.K. Rowling *sigh*.
All throughout Hogwarts, everyone was buzzing about the Halloween Masquerade Ball. When Al wrote to James about it, his brother replied – jokingly – that he hoped Celeste would still have her toes properly working by the end of the night. After all, the Potters – with the exception of Lily, perhaps – were never all too fond of dancing. With good reason, too. Needless to say, Al was more than a bit relieved when Scorpius informed him that he had once received dance instruction and would do his best to teach his friends.
The only other thing besides dancing that had Albus worried was a set of dress robes. He had no clue where his were. His sister reminded him that they did, in fact, go shopping and purchase dress robes just last summer, and that Al's probably lay at the bottom of his trunk.
And so, about ten days after the masquerade ball was announced, Al, while digging through his trunks in order to find his dress robes, stumbled upon something else.
A small, locked diary that bore the words The Diary of Gabrielle Slytherin and the note that went along with, torn and ripped, the only words legible being Helena Ravenclaw.
Al knew that name. He knew he knew it, but could not figure out where he had heard that name before.
Midnight
A girl in a dark green cloak swiftly made her way through the corridors of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry to the first floor girls' bathroom. She opened it slowly, making sure no one but Myrtle was there.
"Hey Myrtle." She said to the ghost, as she pulled her hood down. Long silver-blonde hair cascaded down her back. Myrtle smiled - a rare occurrence - at the girl.
"You going back down there again, huh?" she said. The girl in green nodded.
"Want to come?" she asked Myrtle. Myrtle's eyes widened.
"Are you serious? You and your boyfriend never bring anyone down there." Myrtle answered.
"So, is that a yes?" the girl in green said archly.
Myrtle gave her an 'are-you-kidding' look and nodded.
Laughing, the girl in green walked over to the bathroom sink and hissed something that Myrtle could not understand. The girl disappeared down the stairs, Myrtle following her as the sink closed itself back up. The two walked through the pipes until they got to a large wooden door.
"No one but me knows about this room." The girl told Myrtle.
"Not even that boyfriend of yours?" Myrtle scoffed.
"Not even him." The girl replied as she opened the door.
It was the largest closet ever to exist, Myrtle decided. There were clothes of all colors and styles, from every time period and country imaginable. The girl in green walked over to where the Medieval-style dresses were, pulling out a gorgeous silver dress with green stitching and emeralds sewn in.
"What do you think of this dress?" she asked Myrtle, holding it up in front of her.
"It looks beautiful." Myrtle gushed.
The girl looked thoughtful for a moment before carefully laying the dress down on a large chair.
She turned back toward the wardrobe and pulled out a dark emerald green cloak, with silver snakes sewn onto the bottom that had rubies for eyes. They looked almost lifelike.
The girl put the cloak on the chair right above the silver dress.
"Come on Myrtle. Let's head back. I need to get some sleep." She said, yawning.
The two walked back to Myrtle's bathroom silently.
"You'll be back on Halloween, right?" Myrtle blurted out.
"Of course. When have I ever not come here on Halloween? Are you going to the Masquerade Ball?" the girl asked as she pulled up the hood of her cloak.
"Probably. Why do you ask?" Myrtle replied.
"No reason." the girl answered with a secretive smile as she exited the bathroom, making her way back through the corridors as the clock struck midnight.
"Who is Helena Ravenclaw?" Al kept asking himself. He had spent all week wracking his brain, trying to figure out who Helena Ravenclaw was. Perhaps James would know… he thought to himself as he sat down at a table with his friends in the semi-new inter-House common room.
"Al, are you okay?" Rose asked him, concerned. Al jolted back into reality. All his friends seemed very worried about him. Not that they didn't have a good reason. After all, he had hardly been paying any attention to anything that went on that whole week. Al turned to Rose and whispered to her,
"Do you know who Helena Ravenclaw is?"
Rose gave him an incredulous look.
"You're kidding, right?" she asked, "Have you not paid attention to your dad's stories? Helena Ravenclaw is the Ravenclaw ghost. The Grey Lady? Remember?"
Al suddenly felt very stupid for not remembering that.
"Why the sudden interest in a ghost?" Rose asked. Scorpius and Demeter looked up for a second, confused.
"What's this about a ghost?" Scorpius inquired.
"The Grey Lady to be exact." Demeter added.
Al suddenly became very interested in the essay he was supposed to write for Charms, not looking up as Rose pestered him quietly for the rest of the hour.
As the group made their way back to their respective common rooms, Al pulled Rose, Demeter and Scorpius off to the side, telling the others to go back. He pulled out the diary and the note, and Rose's eyes widened as she mouthed the words Gabrielle Slytherin. Scorpius threw him a look of disbelief.
"Were you planning to tell us about this or were you going to keep this thing a secret?" Demeter demanded.
"Well, I wasn't all too sure what to do with this. I think that we should tell the others about it, though, before I even approach the Grey Lady." Albus answered, sheepishly.
"I think we'd better look up anything about this Gabrielle Slytherin first. I'll look through my copy of Hogwarts, a History when I get back to the dormitory." Rose said. Albus and Demeter snickered while Scorpius was struggling not to laugh.
"Rose, I think your obsession with that book borderlines on unhealthy. And yes, I realize it is your favorite book. You are really way too much like your mother." Albus chuckled.
Rose huffed and stalked in the direction of the Ravenclaw dormitories.
The next day, when Al went down to the Common Room to meet Celeste and Ellie, he found Celeste waiting for him, looking unusually sad.
"What's wrong?" he asked. "Where's Ellie?"
"She – she and Riel – they had to go back – her mother is sick, Al. So she and Riel went back to New York. She asked me to – to tell you guys." Celeste sniffled.
Al felt a drop in his stomach – Ellie was so close with her mom… and to find out that she was sick…
"Poor Ellie." Al said. Celeste just nodded, as they headed out of the Common Room, toward the Great Hall.
"Ellie and Riel went back to America." Celeste announced as they joined their friends at the Ravenclaw table.
"We know. Scorpius told us already." Demeter told the two Slytherins.
The group ate their breakfast in silence. When the bell signaling first class, Rose pulled Al aside.
"Hey, Al, can I talk to you for a minute? Privately?" Rose asked, looking around furtively. Al nodded.
The two walked out of the Great Hall and behind a suit of armor.
"I looked through Hogwarts, A History twice last night and there was only one mention of Gabrielle Slytherin – she was the daughter and heir of Salazar Slytherin. Little is known about her, or her descendents – if she even had any, that is." Rose informed him.
"I think we need to tell the others about the diary – tonight." Al told his cousin.
"Good. How about you bring Celeste to the Room of Requirement tonight, after dinner? I can get everyone else there. Now, I don't know about you, but if we don't get to class soon, I think Flitwick will have our heads!" Rose said, as she started running toward the Charms classroom, Al running right behind her.
It seemed as though the sun had barely set before Al and Rose got everyone into the Room of Requirement without any of their fellow students – or worse, any of their teachers – the wiser. Celeste sat in a comfy chair provided by the room, wondering why her boyfriend was acting so odd. It seemed that only she, Henry and Nicole had no clue what was going on. The other four were in a huddle, quietly arguing about something. Finally, Al turned toward where Celeste and his other two friends were sitting, pulling out a book from his bag. From what Celeste could tell, it looked like a diary of sorts, old and locked tightly. From where Celeste was sitting, she could make out a faint writing on the cover of the ancient diary.
Al stood there nervously as his three friends sat there, looking to him expectantly.
"Alright, so, last week, I was looking through my trunk for my dress robes, when – when I found this." Al said quietly, holding up the diary, "The diary of a girl named Gabrielle. Gabrielle Slytherin, that is. There was also a note that seemed pretty old and faded – the only words I could make out were Helena Ravenclaw – who, as Rose reminded me, is the Grey Lady. And – well, I only told the others about it yesterday, and I was going to tell you all today, but I guess I can't now that Ellie and Riel are back in America and…" Al babbled.
"And from what I found last night in Hogwarts, A History, Gabrielle Slytherin was the heir of Slytherin… Now, the interesting thing about Gabrielle is that less than two weeks before her twenty-fifth birthday, she died under mysterious circumstances. Her husband and daughter disappeared within two weeks, and no one, it seems, knows what happened to them. And, because of that, everyone considered her twin brother, Gavin, Salazar's heir." Rose stated in her 'explaining interesting facts to my friends' voice.
"So… basically, the heir of Slytherin has been missing for about a thousand years?" Henry asked.
"Basically, yes. However, the Gaunt family has been claiming they were the heirs of Slytherin due to the fact that they were the only family alive that were descendants of Gavin Slytherin. Which would explain why Voldemort thought of himself as the heir of Slytherin, what with his being the last descendant of the Gaunts." Rose answered.
"So, what exactly do you propose we do with this diary Al? Are we just going to keep it and not tell anyone, or are we going to go to the Grey Lady and asked her about the damn thing?" Celeste asked Al.
"Well, I would think it best if we asked the Grey Lady about it, but we'd have to get her alone somewhere, so that no one else can accidentally find out about it. I think that we should just keep it between us for now." Al proposed.
The group decided to go with Al's idea, if only because he was the one who had found the diary.
When the group left the room, Al ran right into – or rather through – two ghosts. The shock of it caused Al to drop the diary, which he had been putting back in his bag. As he picked up the book, he looked up and saw who he had run right through – the Grey Lady and the Bloody Baron.
The Grey Lady gasped as she saw the diary.
"Where did you find that book?" the Bloody Baron demanded.
"I – I found it." Al stammered.
The rest of the group had exited the room by that time, and they were as shocked as Al to see the two ghosts standing in front of them.
"Can you keep a secret?" the Grey Lady asked suddenly. It appeared that the shock of seeing the diary had worn off.
They all nodded. Helena Ravenclaw looked them over for a moment, as if she could tell whether or not they were lying.
"And I suppose you wish to know the story of Gabrielle Slytherin?" she asked archly.
They nodded again.
"Very well then. Meet us at Moaning Myrtle's bathroom at midnight. Take care to not be seen." She told them.
"We'll be there." Al replied.
It was eleven thirty and Myrtle was waiting anxiously for Albus Potter and his friends to appear. She knew they were coming – the Grey Lady and the Bloody Baron were waiting there for a reason. And her friend and her boyfriend had told her what was going to happen as they pulled up their hoods and disappeared. Myrtle supposed that they would tell the students their story. Well, she wouldn't be surprised if they did.
It was five to midnight and the Grey Lady and the Bloody Baron were waiting in the girls' bathroom. They would have sent Myrtle away, but she argued with them, claiming that if she'd kept their secrets this long, one more secret wouldn't hurt, would it? After getting her to swear that she wouldn't tell a soul, they allowed her to stay, as long as none of Al's group saw her.
The clock was about to strike midnight when the three ghosts waiting in the bathroom heard frantic whispering right outside the door. The door opened slowly as seven almost-invisible sixth years crept into the bathroom as silently as possible. Once the door had closed, they all started reappearing – seven unidentifiable figures in long dark cloaks.
"You have the diary?" the Grey Lady asked.
One hooded figure pulled down the hood of his cloak, revealing Al Potter's face.
"Yeah, I've got it." he said, pulling the diary out from under his cloak.
Quietly, the Baron opened the entrance to the secret room. As he had Helena began to make their way down, the students followed, quickly casting Lumos so that they would not be in complete darkness.
They all walked in silence, in a single-file line. It seemed to take an eternity of walking until they reached the large wooden door. The two ghosts disappeared through it, but Al, the leader, or so it appeared, pushed the heavy door open.
They all made their way into the cozy room. While Henry, Nicole, Demeter, Scorpius, Rose and Celeste seemed content gaze around the room in wonder, Al felt drawn to the old, wooden desk. The two ghosts watched solemnly as Al slowly made his way to the desk.
"See that wooden box, on top?" Helena said.
Al nodded, picking up the box. A small voice inside his head told him to pay attention to the silver ring next to the box, but he promptly forgot about that.
"Inside, you'll find – you'll find the key to unlocking the diary." Helena told him, stumbling over her words.
All eyes turned toward Al, looking to him expectantly. Taking a deep breath, Al opened the box.
It was empty, save a small note written in handwriting slightly familiar, like a dream.
"There's a note." Al said dumbly.
"Read it! Read it!" the Baron demanded.
Al read it aloud:
"Thought you'd be able to unlock my diary, huh?
-Gabrielle Slytherin"
A/N: Okay, so stuff actually happened in this chapter. Anyone want to guess who the girl in the cloak is? The next chapter will be up some time within the next two weeks. Once again, I'd like to thank the people who reviewed the last chapter (Cliodhna, StunningSpellRocks2345, and Silvia8917), and to all those who have not reviewed, PLEASE REVIEW!!!