Slytherin Tales: The Divine Seven

Chapter 19: The Professor and the Pendant of Perception

"Darius? That sounds familiar," I muttered.

"What?"

"Nothing, continue" I quickly replied.

"The pendant's current location is unknown.

"Darius... I think I've seen that name written somewhere," Genesis said, thinking for a minute. "I remember! In Professor Wolfram's office, there's an old photograph there that had that name written on it."

"So the next plan of action would be... breaking into his office?" Val asked. I shook my head.

"I would rather us not get into any needless trouble if we get caught," I said.

"What about the book?"

"That was different, we didn't steal it, we technically got it through fair means," I moved my hair out of my face. "Anyway, we have Genesis. She can get us into his office without much hassle. Now let's go!" I got up, closing the book. I found Jason, who was off in a corner doing some reading on his own, and after returning the book to him, we left the library. We followed Genesis through the stone halls to Wolfram's office. When we got there, she knocked a couple of times and we were soon greeted by a familiar pair of warm green eyes.

"Ah, good morning youngsters, what can I do for you?" he said smiling as he saw us, opening the door wider for us to step inside. He was dressed in his usual light green and silver robes and his bandaged hands cajoled us to enter.

"We need some help, Professor," Genesis explained as we walked inside. "I remembered seeing something in here, something that could help us with Sachie's investigation."

"I assume you're talking about the situation with the missing staff? Has your investigation been going well?"

"As well as can be for the given circumstance. Also sir, I never got to say it in Professor Willoughby's office, but I wanted to say thank you. If you hadn't come to my defense... Well, I don't know what would've happened."

"Think nothing of it, I chose to believe your convictions because I have faith in you." This made me grin. "Although, I must admit, I was rather surprised you hadn't come to talk to me about your investigation sooner."

"We didn't know much about the objects so we wanted to research them first. We also had a little bit of a misunderstanding," I said, rubbing the back of my neck slightly embarrassed. He cocked an eyebrow at me.

"Oh? How so?"

"I think they all had their suspicions about me because of my nightly 'disappearances'," Genesis answered as she adjusted her ponytail.

"Also Professor Wolfram, I have a question for a friend," Elliot started. "Are you a werewolf?" This just made Professor Wolfram laugh.

"An odd question, must be an odd friend."

"You have no idea," I said, thinking back to the owlish outlandish oddball Ozzie.

"To answer your question, no I'm not a werewolf. It would make it rather difficult to hold legilimency sessions with Ms. Greely if I were."

"I suppose that's right, but it does leave a mystery as to who that werewolf was that you saw, Sachie," Elliot sighed.

"We can figure that out later, let's stay focused right now," I replied.

"Here we go, this is what we were looking for." While we were talking, Genesis had quietly gone to one of the shelves and grabbed the framed photograph. She brought it over to us and we all took a look. The black and white photo depicted a younger Professor Wolfram alongside another young man with messy hair with a strange necklace strung about his neck. In the background there were several portraits, but the main one behind them was of seven men stationed around a round wooden table, each of the men held a different snake in their arms. On the bottom of the frame it read Balto & Darius.

"That's the pendant!" I pointed to the necklace. "Professor, you knew the Darius who owned the Pendant of Perception, right? We were hoping you might be able to tell us where it is now."

"The pendant? How does this connect to the staff?"

"We think the true culprit is after the pendant."

"Hmm... the information on the pendant is known only to a select few. I received the pendant from Darius, and so, for safekeeping, Professor Willoughby and I arranged for it to be hidden within the castle. Unfortunately I'm not at liberty to disclose the location," he informed us before pausing. Our spirits had deflated a little before he spoke once more. "A picture is worth a thousand words... but you didn't hear that from me." He winked at us and I understood. I took another look at the picture, immediately recognizing where it was taken.

"Of course, sir. Thank you, Professor, for everything," I smiled gratefully. "Come on, gang!" I turned, bidding them to follow me.

"You've certainly gathered quite the ragtag bunch of misfits here, haven't you Ms. Sinclair? I wish you all the best of luck, I have no doubt you will succeed." His parting words to me gave me hope, and we left his office more adamant on figuring this out than before. Our spirits felt unshakeable, nothing could stop us now. Or so we thought.