Baby Steps.

Safely back inside his dorm room, Loki sat on his bed with a prominent frown on his face.

'What is it that the coin made them do?'

'How did it possess them and make them go to the roots of the Whomping Willow?'

'And why did it take them into the Whomping Willow in the first place?'

'Is Sirius the one really behind all of this? No. That doesn't seem to be the case, why would he have gotten captured by me if he could do such crazy things? And why would he play along with me to fight against the Aurora Order?'

'On top of it all, why didn't the tree react to their presence? I've heard plenty of warnings from both, Professor Sprout and Snape about its violent tendencies.'

*sigh*

Loki dropped into his cushiony bed and stared blankly at the ceiling.

He was losing hope.

He was against an opponent he could not do much against, yet.

'Lampooning does nothing.'

'...I should take this in smaller steps. I'm too eager and trying to jump to conclusions without laying down proper foundations.'

'Yes. All knowledge is built only on solid foundations.'

Loki felt his potion react to the rule he just affirmed in his mind and digest by a per cent. Bringing his potion to forty-two per cent digestion.

'Alright, let's take this slow and steady.'

'Let's list all the things I know.'

'Aurora Order is planning something and this something is closely tied to me for some reason which is why they want to get rid of me.'

'Except Aurora Order is also cooperating with a different organisation or an entity, likely to be 'Her' since it is related to plague and sickness, that is doing something which is closely connected to the founders.'

'Maybe to accommodate their pathways and rise into a dual pathway god or even an attempt at becoming a pillar?'

'Perhaps it is trying to induce corruption in 'them' a side effect of which is students in the castle falling sick.'

'And then there's Salazar Slytherin himself who needs to be woken up from his slumber by placing something inside the bowl, the object that currently is my best guess is the Slytherin Locket.'

'...'

'Complicated.'

'Last but not least, I possess a coin that can take control over my will and send me into the Whomping Willow from where I doubt I will ever return.'

Loki stared at the blank ceiling and began to wonder what he would do.

'If there's a person that can infect so many students at once, with or without the help of a Beyonder item, it stands to reason that they are at least a Demigod.'

'In such a scenario the only people I can depend on are Professor Snape and like it or not, Salazar Slytherin who is asleep.'

'If I choose Professor Snape, I won't need to explain him much but I doubt the matter will only remain until him.'

'I could claim that the Hidden Sage was pestering me with information about this case, but it would be risky and I'm half sure 'Adam' will be involved and he might learn my secrets and I don't want to meet him anytime soon just yet.'

'I don't know what he might do to me, or what plans he might wrap me in. It'd be very irresponsible of me to join hands with him when he can manipulate me into stabbing my own back somehow and kill myself.'

'Ok then, the option of asking Professor Snape or any of the other teachers for that matter is out the window.'

'So the only other option is to handle the matter by waking up Salazar Slytherin. There's not much else I can do if he decides to kill me after waking up, but given how he's acted so far, I guess I can only take the risk and wake him up. Especially since he might be able to help Walburga later.'

'Then to wake up Salazar, I am in need of an artefact that I do not currently possess. The Slytherin locket.'

'So my current aim is to find the locket?'

With his aim figured out, Loki wondered about the things corresponding to it.

'Can I divine the location of the locket?'

Loki immediately went above the grey fog so that no matter what he gazed upon, he'd still be protected by the Sefirah castle and not suffer any adverse injuries.

With his sights set on the question, "Where is the Slytherin's Locket?" Loki began to perform a dream divination.

A blurry vision of something, as if he was watching through a glass mosaic came into view.

'Anti-Divination?'

Loki tried to focus his vision and soon enough he could see something.

A small dark cupboard came into view.

'The style and familiarity…'

'The Black Manor?'

Inside the cupboard was a white cloth that was wrapped around an object. Because of how tightly it was wrapped, Loki could easily make out that inside it was an eight-sided item which was about an inch thick.

But as soon as Loki tried to see anything else he saw the object in wrapped in cloth quiver, causing the hair on the back of his neck to rise.

'Abort!'

Breaking out of the vision Loki calmed himself down and took a few deep breaths before checking his body to see if anything was wrong with him.

After he was satisfied that there was nothing wrong with him, he calmed down and left the Sefirah Castle with a frown on his face.

Loki wrote a quick letter to send the next morning before he fell asleep out of exhaustion. He was waiting to send the letter to Sirius because if there really was a demigod under the whomping willow it was too dangerous to go anywhere near it even in the spirit world.

He divined to check if something would happen to Sirius and when he found nothing too dangerous he opted to just sleep and deliver the message the next day.

Later the next day, Sirius opened the letter he had just received via a school owl from Loki.

'Don't use the path under the Whomping Willow. Get away from the Shrieking Shack as soon as possible and find somewhere else to hide. Something unspeakable is happening there, literally, and it would be in your best interest to move from there.'

Sirius became confused as he read the letter.

'Move away?'

'But why?'

Sirius looked at the door that led out of the Shrieking Shack and pondered if he should just walk into the tunnel and see exactly what was going on. But then he stopped and thought about it a little more.

'Something unspeakable? Like You-Know-Who? A demigod?'

Sirius's face wore a frown and his brows furrowed.

'Tsk. Just as I was getting comfortable.'

He kicked a random piece of broken wood that was lying around on the floor and began to pack up his meagre possessions. He had a stolen wand, the ring Gehrman Sparrow had given him, and a little bit of food he'd stolen as a dog from the residents of Hogsmeade.

In London, inside the Black Mansion Kreacher looked at the window where a familiar owl sat and *snapped* his finger to magically open it.

"Master needs something?" Kreacher asked looking at Rowley who was busy pecking on the bread crumbs he held in his hands.

Kreacher untied the letter that was attached to Rowley's feet and unfurled the letter to begin reading it quietly.

'Kreacher!

I hope you have been able to contribute to keeping the Black Family's name high by keeping the mansion clean.

I would like you to do something for me.

I want you to find any information you have on the whereabouts of the Locket of Salazar Slytherin that exists in the Black Family Mansion.

I am currently searching for the locket and need your help finding it.

Again, I hope you are doing the Black Family proud and working to the best of your ability.

Loki.'

Kreacher's hands trembled as he read the letter and the picture of an all-too-familiar locket sprang up in his mind.

"...Master Regulus.", Kreacher whispered unheard words as he brought his hands closer to his face and wiped the tears leaking from his eyes. "Is it time to reveal your secrets?"

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