alt_ron | Order Only: We Found It!

We found the protector's horcrux tonight!! It's a locket--or it was one--but we destroyed it! completely killed it! So, yeah, it was a locket that Pansy found at Grimmauld Place, and it was doing really Dark, horrible things, and we finally figured out it wasn't just cursed, it was actually a horcrux--like the diary was, y'know? And we worked out that we could destroy it the same way because basilisk venom is super deadly to Dark devices.

And it was brilliant!! I've got the thing right here, and it's totally ruined. No sign of any magic left. At all. None!

And it was definitely his. The LP's, I mean. So that means he won't be able to do that rite again. If someone tries killing him, they'll be able to do it, and he won't be able to come back!

It's really Pansy and Sally Anne you can thank for finding it. And Harry for finishing it off. Just so you know.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

alt_albus

Alas, Mr Weasley, there is more than one.

That you destroyed this locket is commendable, mind.

From:

alt_ron

Wait. Wot?

You mean he- why-

What're you saying?

From:

alt_albus

I located another on Saturday, but have not yet retrieved it. It is well-protected.

(Severus, perhaps we might consult when I can get free.)

If there is more than one, there might well be more than two. I must think.

From:

alt_severus

I am at your disposal. ~~In fact, I will drop whatever I am doing at the slightest hint you are willing to keep us informed of your plans~~

From:

alt_albus

This evening, I think, when I am less likely to be missed.

Grimmauld Place, if there is no objection. The library may be of some use.

From:

alt_sirius

Albus,

Of course, it's perfectly all right to meet here, but let's keep the conference somewhat - limited in numbers, if you can do. Our newest residents don't need the whole Order descending. Everyone will mean well and want to encourage them and I'm not sure either Draco or Hermione is ready for that sort of attention.

Snape, would you agree?

From:

alt_albus

Small would be best, yes.

I wish to focus on the protections, which are extensive and rather far outside the expertise of most of our number.

From:

alt_ron

How many can there be?

I mean, we were talking last night about how they're maybe made, and...

He can't have made one every time he killed someone, can he? Because that would mean-

From:

alt_ginny

OH.

Well if there IS more than one that explains why the locket seemed SO MUCH like my tiara.

From:

alt_sally_anne

Right.

Remind me where that ended up? Did you put it in the room of lost things?

From:

alt_ginny

I did. But then I wound up getting it back, and I was going to take it and show it to Professor Dolohov (look, I'm sorry, but I didn't KNOW about the Order at the time) and Umbridge caught me with it. Actually, Megan Jones thought I was smuggling food and she called Umbridge and Umbridge took it.

From:

alt_ron

Umbridge took it.

From:

alt_alice

And this is possibly another horcrux?

From:

alt_harry

Was she wearing it when we plated her?

From:

alt_ginny

Well did you notice a TIARA ON HER HEAD when you turned her into a toad?

I would think it's the sort of thing that might have stuck out in your memory.

From:

alt_harry

We transfigured her into the toad right off. It happened pretty quickly. But I don't think she did.

We might use the Pensieve to make sure.

I think we might need to ask her where it is. Where it was last year, anyways.

From:

alt_alice

I see.

Do you require further assistance beyond Severus, Albus?

From:

alt_albus

This particular task does not play to your strengths, my dear. I think Severus and Sirius and I will do well enough for the moment.

My thought is to remove it and deal with it first, and deal with the larger question of there being more among a fuller company in the near future.

From:

alt_alice

Of course.

From:

alt_albus

Also, Mr Weasley, when you can come to my office without drawing attention, I would like to see the remains of the locket.

From:

alt_ron

Er, yeah. Okay.

You won't need to keep it, will you? I mean, we told Pansy she could decide what happens to it.

From:

alt_albus

I will need to evaluate it first. It would not do to have it continue to present a danger to anyone.

From:

alt_sirius

Glad everything worked out. Good on you all, for destroying it!

From:

alt_sirius

So, let me see if I can work this out ....

Pansy went looking for my mother's locket, with Regulus's lock of hair in it. (We talked about that at Grimmauld, she and I: She had a theory that if we found the hair, we could find his remains. Or him, if he were still alive.)

Instead of that locket, she found this one, the one Sally-Anne described ('ornate gold with an 'S' on), and thought it was the one she was looking for, so she kept it.

But it was really a horcrux, and the longer she kept it the worse she became?

Have I got that much right?

Until finally last night she went round the twist, alerting you to her mental state in the process. Then you figured out you had to destroy the dark object. Had you figured out it was a horcrux already, or was that in the process of destroying it?

From:

alt_sally_anne

Right, okay. We explained this to Professor Dumbledore but I don't know if Pansy is going to want everyone to know unless they really need to. If it goes up on the whole lock I sort of think she should be the one to put it up, not me or Ron.

Kreacher I guess had mentioned he did have a locket, and Pansy found it and kept it. She thought it was Regulus's but she couldn't work out how to get it open. She'd put it on once a month when she was doing this memorial rite for Regulus. Everyone -- well, I definitely noticed she was getting cross more easily, but we all thought it was the challenge.

Yesterday I guess she got one more challenge from Pennifold and she took it to mean she ought to go murder Padma. I ran into her when I was coming back from the Hospital Wing and she was on her way to Ravenclaw, I think, and we argued and she slapped me and put a hex on my bag and when everything spilled out, the locket was in there. I knew as soon as I picked it up that it was something really dark so when Pansy said she wanted it back, I jinxed her and ran away with it.

I didn't know it was a horcrux. Only that something was really wrong with it. But when Harry saw it, he recognised it as a locket Tom Riddle had been interested in and that's when we realised.

When Ron opened it so we could destroy it, it TALKED. Said horrible things. Made a fake version of me and Ron come out and say awful things to Pansy and then a fake version of your brother. Just so you know. But she wasn't fooled. Anyway if we'd had any doubt it was a horcrux seeing all that? it wasn't just incredibly dark it was also really powerful and complicated in a way that you can't just patch together with metal and magic, does that make sense?

Oh, and the reason Pansy could never get this one open is, you have to tell it to open in Parseltongue. So Ron transformed and then told it to open.

From:

alt_ron

You should have heard what it was whispering when I was telling it to open. It called me a brother of Salazar and said I should take it.

But it had an idea how I should take it from you. It knew I had poison. And it knew you were holding me.

It was wrong about the brother of Slytherin bit, though. Sorry, but I mean, 'Kill your friends' was a stupid thing for it to try out on me.

From:

alt_sally_anne

'Brother of Salazar,' huh?

You know in the really old texts, who sometimes gets referred to as the Salazar's Brother? Godric. Kind of funny.

From:

alt_ron

Er. Yeah. A bit awkward, innit?

And there you go again, dragging little known facts out of nowhere. That got a chapter in Hogwarts a Bloody History?

From:

alt_sally_anne

Well Hogwarts a Bloody History is in fact filled with little-known facts (actually, it's mostly stuff everyone knows, like that you can't apparate or disapparate on the grounds or in the school) but it's the most sanitised dull version of the Founders you could ever ask for.

The 'Brother of Salazar' bit was in this book I borrowed from Professor Dolohov about the Founders that was quite a bit more interesting. It's sort of a mix of real history and extremely out-of-date gossip.

From:

alt_sally_anne

So I don't know how it wound up in my bag. I asked Pansy. Maybe she put it there? Could maybe PART of her have realised what the locket was doing, and gave it to me without telling the part that the locket was controlling? We haven't talked about horcruxes in Dark Arts but we've talked about lots of other dark objects, it's why we thought of basilisk venom as a solution.

But also, how did KREACHER wind up with a horcrux?

From:

alt_ron

Huh.

I mean it pretty much has to have been her. Or maybe the thing itself? I mean, maybe it wanted to get away from Pansy and find someone else to twist. Or maybe one of the elves found it and tidied it up into your bag instead of Pansy's.

Probably wasn't Daphne. Or Bulstrode.

Oi. Imagine if it'd got hold of her!

From:

alt_sally_anne

Well, there are magical objects that can move themselves. Ordinarily they need something they can use as feet or legs but honestly I'm not sure WHAT this would have been able to do.

It's very odd it would go into my bag, though. I mean

It's just odd.

From:

alt_sally_anne

Bulstrode, ha. Yeah she'd have kept it, I think. Daphne might have realised it was Dark but she'd have taken it to Professor Dolohov, I think.

I wonder what he'd think of something like this.

From:

alt_ron

And, yeah.

What was it doing at Grimmauld? Maybe it was really something Regulus brought there. That'd make Pansy partly right about it.

But it could've been your Mum's, too, couldn't it, Sirius?

From:

alt_sirius

I don't know, and I've been wondering the same thing myself - how it got to Grimmauld, that is. And how it jumped from Pansy's possession to Sally-Anne's.

Gold with an 'S'? I don't remember ever having seen that sort of piece in my Mother's collection. But then I didn't pore over her jewels the way Reg did. (Merlin, if I'd thought he was playing dress-up I'd - nevermind.) Anyway, I'd have to see it to be sure, I suppose. But it doesn't sound like anything she'd have had. In fact, nearly all her jewellery was silver, or white gold, to go with her blacks and dark greens and such. But - it's possible, I suppose.

I don't think she'd have had anything with a fragment of Voldemort's soul in, at least, not deliberately.

I think I'd better have a chat with Kreacher.