Slytherin's Locket

"To the Dark Lord I know I will be dead long before you read this but I want you to know that it was I who discovered your secret. I have stolen the real Horcrux and intend to destroy it as soon as I can. I face death in the hope that when you meet your match you will be mortal once more. - R.A.B."

- A note inside the fake locket.

Salazar Slytherin's Locket was orignally owned by Salazar Slytherin and became an heirloom of his family. It was a locket of heavy gold with a serpentine S in glittery green stone inlay on the front. These stones could have been emeralds, as emeralds decorated the snake statues in Slytherin's Chamber of Secrets.

Creation
The locket was a creation of Salazar Slytherin, the celebrated Founder of Slytherin House at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. When Slytherin created the locket, he enchanted it so that only a Parselmouth, like himself, could open it. When Slytherin left Hogwarts, he took the locket with him.

Family Inheritances
After Slytherin's death, the locket was passed down his family line, and eventually came to Marvolo Gaunt in the village of Little Hangleton. The locket was one of two remaining Gaunt family heirlooms, the other being Gaunt's Ring. Contradictory to his obsession with the two heirlooms, Marvolo permitted Merope, who he horribly mistreated, to wear the locket around her neck. After Marvolo and Morfin were imprisoned in Azkaban for assaulting both Muggles and Ministry of Magic officials, Merope escaped the horrors of her childhood home and fled to London with Tom Riddle Sr. She may have captured his affections with a love potion, but this was never proven.

Merope became pregnant with Riddle Sr's child. During her pregnancy, Riddle abandoned Merope and returned to Little Hangleton. Desperate for money, Merope sold her only valuable possession, the locket, to Caractacus Burke for only ten galleons, either not realizing that the locket was a priceless artifact or simply ceasing to care. Not long afterward, she came to a Muggle orphanage, on New Year's Eve, and gave birth to her son, Tom Marvolo Riddle. Merope Gaunt died shortly thereafter.

Creation as a Horcrux
Many years later, Tom Marvolo Riddle graduated from Hogwarts and took a job at Borgin and Burkes. Riddle visited the elderly witch Hepzibah Smith and charmed her with flowers and compliments. Smith showed Riddle her most prized possessions: Helga Hufflepuff's Cup, an artifact that had been created by her own ancestor, and the locket. She stated that both objects had considerable powers which she had not fully tested, and detailed the locket's historical value. Smith admitted she had paid a heavy price to Caractacus Burke to obtain the locket and that Burke had previously bought it from "a ragged-looking woman," and had paid her a mere pittance for it. By this time, Riddle knew his family lineage and knew the "ragged-looking woman" Smith referred to was his own mother.

Two days later, Smith was found dead and her elderly house-elf, Hokey, admitted to accidentally poisoning her master's cocoa. The truth was, however, that Riddle had killed Smith himself and imbedded a false memory in the house-elf.

Smith's family later discovered the cup and the locket were both missing, but Riddle had disappeared with the cup and locket, and was not heard of again for a decade. Riddle murdered a Muggle tramp and used that murder to make the locket into a Horcrux. This was a marked departure from his other Horcrux murders, as he tended to choose deaths significant to him in the creation of Horcruxes.

The locket was hidden by Riddle, now Lord Voldemort, in a seaside cave he had visited as a child. It was in this cave that he "committed an act so horrifying" that he shocked fellow orphans Dennis Bishop and Amy Benson into muteness. Voldemort hid the locket in this cave with several magical enchantments to guard it. First, the cave could not be Apparated into or Disapparated out from; second, a door that could only be opened by wiping blood on the cave walls; third, an Inferi-infested lake; fourth, an invisible rowboat that would transport an individual safely across the lake; fifth, a stone basin filled with a green potion that could not be vanished, transfigured or otherwise made to change its properties. The only way to remove the potion from the basin, thereby exposing the locket at the bottom, was to drink it. The potion caused unbearable pain to the drinker, and caused them to see their worst fears and memories as though in a nightmare. If the drinker had any strength left, they would be forced to drink water from the lake, as the potion was enchanted to render the drinker unable to imbibe anything but the lake's water, which would awaken the army of Inferi.

Switching and Hiding the Horcrux
Voldemort used the Black family house-elf Kreacher to test the locket's defenses. When he had seen the cave's effectiveness in action, he left Kreacher to die on the island in the middle of the dark lake. However, he forgot that house-elves have special magic binding them to their masters, and Kreacher was able to Apparate to his master Regulus Arcturus Black, one of Voldemort's Death Eaters. Black was infuriated at the mistreatment of Kreacher, and turned against Voldemort. He forced Kreacher to take him back to the cave where crossed the lake with the house-elf and drank the potion himself. He instructed Kreacher to switch the true locket with a fake one, and to take it home and destroy it. He ordered Kreacher to sail across the lake without him, and Kreacher, with the Horcrux in hand, watched in horror as Black was dragged beneath the lake by the Inferi. Kreacher was able to escape to the Black family home, 12 Grimmauld Place.

Kreacher was unable to destroy the locket, thus he placed it in a glass case in the drawing room and left it undisturbed for many years until the Order of the Phoenix began to use the house as headquarters. The Order undertook a massive, overdue cleaning of the house, and the locket was placed into a rubbish pile to be thrown away. Kreacher secured the locket in the cupboard where he slept, along with some other Black family heirlooms that were headed for the trash.

After the death of Sirius Black in 1996, Mundungus Fletcher combed the house and stripped it of its remaining valuables. These included the locket from Kreacher's cupboard. He took it to Diagon Alley and began to sell his wares, and was caught by Dolores Umbridge. Umbridge eyed the locket and thought she could pass it off as a Selwyn family heirloom, as evidence of her alleged pure-blood status. She agreed to let Fletcher off for the obvious theivery in exchange for the locket.

Reclaiming the Locket
In 1997, Albus Dumbledore and Harry Potter ventured to the seaside cave where Voldemort had hidden his locket. They were fairly certain that a Horcrux was hidden in the cave. Through great personal injury, Dumbledore successfully retrieved the fake locket Black and Kreacher had left.

Harry would later deduce that the R.A.B. from a note inside the fake locket was in fact Regulus Arcturus Black, and together with Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, they questioned Kreacher about the locket. Kreacher brought Fletcher back to 12 Grimmauld Place under Harry's orders, and they discovered the locket's fate.

In an incredible act of daring and nerve, Harry, Ron and Hermione infiltrated the Ministry of Magic, where Hermione took back the locket from around Dolores Umbridge's neck and replaced it with a copy so that Umbridge would not realize what had happened.

Destruction
"I have seen your dreams, Ronald Weasley, and I have seen your fears. All you desire is possible, but all that you dread is also possible... Least loved, always, by the mother who craved a daughter... Least loved, now, by the girl who prefers your friend... Second best, always, eternally overshadowed..."

- The locket torments Ron before he destroys it

For months, the trio was forced to merely keep the locket in safekeeping until a way could be found to destroy it. They took turns wearing the locket, which began to wear heavily at their physical and emotional health. Ron was particularly susceptible to the locket's powers, and it caused him so much discomfort and unexplained anger that he temporarily abandoned his friends.

With the guidance of Severus Snape's Patronus, Harry was able to find Godric Gryffindor's Sword at the bottom of a frozen pond in the Forest of Dean. Rather than allow him to acquire the sword, the locket around his neck tried to strangle him. At that time, Ron returned, and rescued Harry from drowning. Harry spoke the word "open" in Parseltongue, which caused the locket to spring open. Inside the locket's picture windows were two eyes that looked like Tom Marvolo Riddle's eyes, before his soul-severing caused his eyes to turn red. The locket then began to mentally torture Ron. Apparitions came out of the locket and Ron was transfixed by visions of Hermione and Harry cruelly mocking him. Ron was able to break through the horrible images and smashed the locket with Gryffindor's sword, destroying the Horcrux.

Powers
Before becoming a Horcrux, the locket was described by Hepzibah Smith as having "all kinds of powers," though she failed to elaborate. What's more, the only way to open the locket was to speak to it in Parseltongue.

After it was turned into a Horcrux, the locket had a negative influence on those in its proximity. When worn by Harry Potter, Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley in late 1997, it made them all irritable, suspicious, and unable to summon enough happiness to use a Patronus Charm. However, someone as malicious as Dolores Umbridge would have an affinity rather than aversion to it, and not be hindered by it. The locket also had magic in place to protect itself; when Ron attempted to destroy it, it created a vision to show him his worst fears and deepest insecurities. At times, it also burned very hot, such as when Harry wore it in proximity to Nagini, another Horcrux, and when he tried to pick it up while its continued existence was being threatened.

The locket may also have had the potential to possess individuals, in a manner similar to another Horcrux in Tom Riddle's Diary, as Harry saw "a trace of scarlet" in Ron's eyes at one point during the locket's attempt to prevent him from destroying it.

Powers
Before becoming a Horcrux, the locket was described by Hepzibah Smith as having "all kinds of powers," though she failed to elaborate. What's more, the only way to open the locket was to speak to it in Parseltongue.

After it was turned into a Horcrux, the locket had a negative influence on those in its proximity. When worn by Harry Potter, Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley in late 1997, it made them all irritable, suspicious, and unable to summon enough happiness to use a Patronus Charm. However, someone as malicious as Dolores Umbridge would have an affinity rather than aversion to it, and not be hindered by it. The locket also had magic in place to protect itself; when Ron attempted to destroy it, it created a vision to show him his worst fears and deepest insecurities. At times, it also burned very hot, such as when Harry wore it in proximity to Nagini, another Horcrux, and when he tried to pick it up while its continued existence was being threatened.

The locket may also have had the potential to possess individuals, in a manner similar to another Horcrux in Tom Riddle's Diary, as Harry saw "a trace of scarlet" in Ron's eyes at one point during the locket's attempt to prevent him from destroying it.

Appearances

 * Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
 * Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows