Gotta Light? (was His Little Helper

[nkafkafi]

Talisman wrote:

> How's this, just for fun. (Unless it comes to pass, in which case, I 
> mean it quite in earnest. <g>)
> 
> Harry et al finally figure out that the locket is the one from 
> 12GP.  They question Kreature, find out he saved it from the trash, 
> and search his nest.  But, alas, it's not there.  
> 
> Of course they think of Dung (Kreature offers a suitable epithet) 
> but sticky-fingers has been keeping a low profile these days. 
> Moreover, there is no telling who may have the hot goods now--could 
> have been sold to any odd hag in the street, really. 
> 
> What to do?  Slim as their hopes seem, they ask around and do what 
> little they can to locate the musty perp. They're getting nowhere.
> 
> Then, one day, Harry stumbles into a back room--and--there he is: 
> slumped against the wall, his entire body burnt more completely than 
> DD's hand; the once putrid tobacco-boy now turned all to ash and--in 
> one charred hand--the open locket.

Neri:
Or, how about this alternative scenario:

After the OotP Christmas feast, before Kreacher was back from his
holidays visit at the Malfoys, Sirius decided to raid and clean
Kreacher's nest. He found the locket there, but this time instead of
discarding it he decided to stow it in his vault at Gringots. Gold is
gold, after all, and Sirius perhaps was just preparing his new will,
and he thought it would be nicely ironic if the Black riches would all
go to half-blood Harry. Of course, Sirius couldn't go to Gringots
himself to deposit the locket, so he asked another Order member to do
it for him. For plot purposes this Order member would be Emmeline
Vance, or any other Order member who's already dead and buried by Book
7. After Sirius demise, as DD explains in HBP Ch. 3, all the content
of his vault was automatically transferred to Harry's vault.

So in Book 7, the Trio spends two chapters figuring out that RAB is
Regulus Black, then another chapter to question Kreacher, but Kreacher
says the locket disappeared from his nest. Another chapter to figure
out it might be Dung who stole it, and another three chapters chasing
down Dung who, being guilty of other thefts, runs like hell. When
finally caught he swears he never saw a locket and they don't know if
to believe him. A nice conflict and moral dilemma ensues, probably
Harry (who wants to crucio Dung) and Hermione (who believes him)
having a shouting match while poor Ron is stuck between them. The
other horcruxes were all located and destroyed by now and it's time
for the final match. Then Harry needs some gold from Gringots, and it
turns out the locket was in his own vault all this time. Oh, the irony.

Neri