The Founder's Lockets

Draco recognised the locket from somewhere but he just couldn't quite figure it out. He brushed away any warnings that formed in his mind.

'I'm definitely going to tell Hermione but if anyone asks about it, it's a memento from my holiday to Paris,' thought Draco, studying the locket. 'Besides, it's not dangerous, ' he said, reassuring himself, 'plus, there is no way in hell I'm telling anyone I went to a family reunion.'

Hermione turned around and eyed Draco curiously. Draco tried not to look too guilty as he slyly pocketed the abstruse object. He wasn't going to tell her just yet.

'Hey Draco, if your afraid of heights then how come you're Slytherin seeker. Doesn't your fear affect your, er, performance?'

'I don't have a fear of heights,' said Draco, avoiding Hermione's eyes, 'and besides when I'm playing Quidditch I can focus on the game. Not how high up I am.'

Hermione grinned like she had discovered gold. She had, perhaps, found out the secret as to why Draco didn't fly as well as Harry. She had always thought he could be as good as Harry if he wasn't so hesitant. She wasn't going to tell him though, as, no matter how much she loved him, she had to stay loyal to Gryffindor and Harry.

Hermione turned to Narcissa who was gripping at the bars and shaking. She hadn't quite conquered her fear.

Grasping her by the shoulders, Hermione lead Narcissa and Draco to the hidden magical gift shop. If she knew one thing that would calm Narcissa down, it was shopping.

And shop she did. Narcissa bought a very large selection of souvenirs. Including several tea towels that had 'my friends went to Paris and all they bought me was this lousy tea towel' written in ink that changed colours.

After their retail therapy the trio retreated to a cute little café a short walk from the tower. Hermione was engrossed in the book she had bought and was boring Draco and Narcissa with useless trivia about the tower.

'Hey, did you know that Gustave Eiffel was a wizard and he bewitched the tower to only exert the same pressure on the ground as a man seated in a chair which is a approximately 4kg per centimetre square!'

'Great,' murmured Draco, into his Butterbeer.

Narcissa excused herself and went to the ladies. Draco seized the opportunity and reached over and snapped Hermione's book closed.

'Hey,' protested Hermione, meeting Draco's eyes, 'I was reading...'

'You can read anytime, Hermione, but we really need to discuss what were going to do went we get back to Hogwarts. I'm,' he hesitated, 'I'm planing to tell the Slytherins. Are you going to tell Ron? I know you guys are really close, even if sometimes you have little quarrels. I know it's hurting you that you have to hide, us.'

Hermione was surprised at his concern. Obviously she had expected some hesitance towards telling the Slytherins but it was amazing that he had some regard towards Hermione and Ron's friendship.

He reached out and grasped Hermione's hand.

Lisa tramped through the ankle-high snow, hopelessly lost. It was pitch black and she stumbled along blindly. Shrouded by the cold mountain air, that chilled her to the bone, she felt her way around.

She shivered and wrapped her thin black robes tightly around her fatigued body. She walked on, stumbling over the broken branches and rocks, until the cold and fatigue finally got to her.

She collapsed heavily into a thin sheet of snow, which partially covered the brown dirt, underneath a small evergreen tree. She wrapped her hands around herself and curled up into a little ball. Her body shook violently and her teeth chattered as she struggled to keep them clenched shut.

She shook partly because it was freezing and partly because she was scared. Her surroundings scared her; the darkness scared her, the prospect of being alone, lost in an abyss of ice and darkness for an eternity scared her. But most of all the eerie daunting silence scared her.

A harsh screech pierced the silence and broke through it like cut glass. Lisa instinctively covered her ears and tried to quieten her breathing, which was fast and wheezy.

A creature swooped past, creating a gust of wind so large that Lisa's hair and robes were tousled violently and she was lifted off the ground.

She screamed in panic and dug her fingers into the snow and dirt in an attempt to prevent her body being flung off the ground, across the snow-covered plain and into the evergreen trees surrounding her.

She hit the ground with a small thump. She didn't go all that high but the impact hurt like hell.

She crawled slowly and hung onto a nearby tree trunk, clinging onto it for dear life.

Looking up through the shroud of snow-covered leaves she spied a dark figure advancing towards her.

It dived and Lisa gave a blood-curdling scream. Her heart pumped wildly and she started to hyperventilate as the tawny creature pulled out of the dive and dropped a minute brown package that almost disappeared into the thick blanket of snow.

Lisa squinted into the darkness and recognised the creature was in fact an owl. She scrambled out from under the foliage and screamed out to the owl, which had flown away into the pitch-black blanket spreading across eternity.

Lisa sunk to the ground and beat her fists into the crisp white snow. In her frustration she knocked the brown package.

To her surprise it bounced up and began to unravel itself. Brown paper and string fell to the floor lightly, not even marking the snow below it.

Out rose a mother of pearl coloured box. Lisa reached out and grabbed it, and curiously she uncovered it. A rich, glittery blue smoke rose from the depths of the box and a fiery fierce smell surrounded her. It made her choke and sputter.

It was a brutal, spicy and bewitching smell, full of wizardry and magic.

She blew at the peacock blue fumes and revealed a brilliant white gold locket.

It had a heavy chain connected to a locket bearing an escutcheon. The escutcheon had a thin margin of sparkling sapphires and within that was the Ravenclaw eagle as clear as day. The locket seemed to be radiating light and heat from inside it so Lisa clutched it close to her to keep warm.

With the locket around her neck and safely tucked in her robes she curled up underneath the dense foliage and fell asleep.

Ron opened his eyes and stared at the ceiling. A panicked thought stuck him. This wasn't his ceiling. His ceiling was a funny cream colour stained green with rising damp. The ceiling he was staring at was as white as snow with no signs of rising damp at all. 'And for the record,' thought Ron, 'this isn't my Chudley Cannons quilt.'

Then it struck him. 'I'm in Wales!' realised Ron and slapping himself mentally, 'I'm at Great Aunt Elise's place in Cardiff.'

He bounced off the bed and onto the floor, tripping over the satin pajamas that were too long for him. He was astonished when he saw the outline of a body curled up in a tangled mess of sky blue sheets and wine coloured, down filled quilt.

A mane of lustrous copper red hair seemed to seep through the space between the pillow and the bedclothes like water flowing down a waterfall.

Ron rubbed his eyes, 'Had I drank too much fire whisky last night?' he asked himself, knowing quite well what the answer was.

The whole Weasley family was in Wales for their summer holidays. Even Charlie, Bill and the twins, who were busy with work, joined them for a while. The night before had been their last night so they all had a big dinner at the local bistro, The Bloated Sardine.

After the heavy meals and rich puddings the twins dragged ickle Ronniekins, amongst protests by their mother, to the pub.

'Daeh ruo yffo dess ip' read the bright blue neon sign. Ron was ushered in and made to sit at the dusty bar. Fred and George, who seemed to know quite a few people there, called over a scantily clad waitress. Spotting the two, she brushed her blond hair to one side and bounced over.

'Hello there, boys!' said the waitress, batting her eyelashes. 'Hello, Jane,' said George, with Fred and Ron grinning at George's expression. Apparently the twins had been there quite a number of times before and George had fallen for the waitress named Jane. Fred, trying hard not to laugh, ordered three fire whiskeys. Trying to look macho, the Weasley brothers sculled down their drinks and ordered another round.

Looking back, that was pretty much the only thing Ron remembered about the night before.

Ron shook off the anxieties of last night and concentrated on the problem at hand. What had he done and who was the mysterious woman sleeping in his bed?

Lisa sensed movement beside her but kept motionless. With her eyes shut she concentrated on listening out for a sign that signalled she was alone. Her ears picked up the sound of footsteps pacing up and down the varnished floorboards. Finally she heard the big wooden floor creak open and someone step out.

She exhaled, opened her eyes, propped herself up and froze. Two red headed boys were staring, jaws dropped, at her and all her glory. Apparently the person hadn't stepped out but another person had stepped in.

'Umm...'

She understandably didn't know what the hell to say so she said the first thing that popped in her head.

'You're Ron and Fred Weasley right?'

Fred clamped his hand over Ron face and over his own, leaving space between his fingers so he could very obviously peek through.

'Ah...' said Lisa, realising she hadn't exactly covered herself up. She blushed furiously and apologised. She had never felt more like a slut in her whole life.

Ron fought out of Fred's impromptu censor and asked her what was nagging him all that time.

'You're Lisa Tupin, right?'

Harry lay on his bed, arms folded behind his head, reminiscing about the day before. He fiddled around with the locket around his neck and thought.

He thought about Arabella and her smooth, peaches and cream skin. Her wavy, chestnut hair and her gem like blue eyes. He was completely infatuated with her and it pained him to even think about anything else, especially his newfound treasure.

The girl sitting at the window opposite Harry's felt exactly the same way. Disappointed by their private conversation being cut short by a very irate Mr Dursley, Arabella, no matter how she tried, could not stop thinking about Harry. Everything from his messy, jet-black hair to his knobbly knees took her breath away.

Neither one of them could quite figure out why the locket was there and what to do with it so Harry let the matter rest there, just as Uncle Vernon came in and told him to,

'Fucking shut up.'

As Harry fiddled with the locket he managed to open it. Glancing at the interior, expecting more jewels, was disappointed. Inside was a simple square sheet of gold in scripted with the words Draco Dormiens Nunquam Titillandus. Harry recognised the motto from the Hogwarts crest but had no idea what it meant. He left it at that, as he had a feeling Hermione could enlighten him about the meaning.

'It means never tickle a sleeping dragon but literally in Latin it translates as dragon sleeping never tickle.' stated Hermione.

'What have I told you about being so pedantic, Hermione.' scolded Narcissa, trying to keep a straight face.

Half way through Draco and Hermione meaningful discussion about making their relationship public, Narcissa turned up and demanded to know what the hell they were talking about. So Draco changed the subject, as he didn't want his mother to know about how sensitive he was about the pressing matter. Winking at Hermione he produced the locket out of his pocket.

'We were talking about this,' said Draco, fidgeting with the clasp holding the locket. He opened it and took a peek inside. Thinking quickly, he added a new story to his already extensive list of lies.

'I was just asking Hermione the meaning of this,' showing Narcissa the little motto engraved onto a thin piece of silver.

Narcissa eyed them both with suspicion as Draco handed over the locket to Hermione who examined it carefully and gave her answer.

Fred eyed Ron insidiously as Lisa explained what had happened and why she was in Ron's bed.

'Well,' began Lisa, 'last night, in a fit of rebellion and insanity, I went to the pub. I had a major fight with my boyfriend so I decided to get him back by getting pissed.'

Ron looked at her incredulously as she continued on with her sordid tale. 'I was on my 5^th or 6^th drink when you and your brothers walked in. I recognised you from Hogwarts, but I couldn't quite remember what your names were. I guess it was the alcohol. Anyway I watched as you called over the blond waitress and order your drinks. Then George lead her away with him and I decided to come on over.'

'That reminds me,' interrupted Ron, 'where is George?'

'With Jane, the waitress,' replied Fred, impatiently wanting Lisa to continue.

'Okay, by that time, you and Fred were really pissed and I mean severely pissed. I don't think you guys are well, let's say, desensitised to alcohol. Anyway,' catching dirty looks from Ron and Fred, ' we were all just chatting and not making much sense when you invited me to your ...'

'Okay,' said Fred protectively, knowing quite well what had happened after that, 'I can guess, well actually I pretty much know, what happened.' He knew what had happened but he didn't know very much of Lisa's motives. He knew she wanted to get back at her boyfriend so he was concerned and pretty much convinced that she was using Ron. Ron, on the other hand, seemed somewhat infatuated with her and completely oblivious to the educated inference.

Lisa looked at Fred sideways. Her concerned expression spread throughout her face and reached her eyes. Her eyes searched Fred's eyes, she could tell that he didn't trust her and was weary of her presence. If there was anything she knew about Fred, it was that he was a troublemaker and that he loved his family fiercely, so it was rather obvious if he had been crossed. His usual cheerful grin was replaced by a calculating grimace.

Ron sensed the growing hostility and piped up. 'Fred,' said Ron placing his hands on Fred's shoulders, 'I think we should leave Lisa alone so she can get dressed and,' he added, 'Lisa you can join us downstairs for breakfast.' amid silent protests from Fred.

Hannah heard a clap of thunder and jumped in shock. Her long strawberry blonde hair lay unkempt and askew around her.

Raising her eyes skyward and looking around she realised exactly where she was. Apparently she had fallen asleep in the Great Hall and the bewitched sky of a ceiling had woken her.

She banged her fist up against the Hufflepuff table and heard it's ghostly echo bounce off the walls and return back to her. She had never been all alone in the Great Hall before so the sheer magnitude of it scared the shit out of her.

As per usual the Great Hall was lit with thousands of white candles, floating mid air over the four long house tables. The light radiating from them was comforting to Hannah so she gazed up at them.

She was so hypnotised by them that she didn't notice the tawny owl appear from the velvet black darkness. Swooping past a row of floating candles, the strength of the wind it created blew them out.

It flew around in circles, making each row of candles flicker and fade out. Hannah, with her eyes completely transfixed on it, followed the transcendental creature. Rooted to her seat at the Hufflepuff table, she watched helplessly as row-by-row of levitating candles flickered out with the speed of a small locomotive train. Whimpering, Hannah watched as smoke spiralled from the candles that had been blown out, as the owl spiralled around the candles blowing out the last candles. Hannah was plunged into an abyss of darkness and silence. All she could hear was her short, sharp and quick breathing.