HP: The Third Child of Prophecy

Chapter 135: Necklace

At 11:15 AM, on the chilly, windswept shore of the Black Lake, a haggard mermaid briefly surfaced, glanced around, and—despite the presence of four clearly visible students—seemed to overlook them entirely.

"Wait a minute…" Alexander Smith suddenly exclaimed, his eyes widening. "If the Fidelius Charm really is that powerful, then my parents must've died because of the Secret Keeper! Ryan, do you know who that was?"

Ryan nodded. "You can check the old newspapers. It was supposedly Sirius Black—your father's best friend."

"Supposedly?"

Ryan's voice grew thoughtful. "Yes. The Ministry never held a proper trial. They just threw him into Azkaban. And afterwards, he hunted down Peter Pettigrew—another of your father's close friends. When they found Pettigrew's remains, Sirius was just… laughing madly. He didn't resist. He was arrested on the spot."

"No trial?" Alexander said, stunned.

"How could the Ministry do something like that?" Hermione gasped. It was the first time she felt the weight of real-world injustice pressing down on her youthful idealism.

But Alexander wasn't finished. "Ryan, you mentioned the Deathly Hallows earlier. But no one really knows where those three items are, do they?"

Ryan smiled knowingly. "Actually, they were most likely owned by the three Peverell brothers—Antioch, Cadmus, and Ignotus."

"I'm descended from Antioch," he said calmly. "The Gaunts, Salazar Slytherin's line, descended from Cadmus. And Alexander… you are a descendant of Ignotus."

"What?!" Alexander was dumbfounded.

Ryan continued. "The Smith family has preserved knowledge about the Hallows for generations. I can't speak of the exact location of all three, but aside from the Invisibility Cloak—which is currently with Dumbledore—I do know where the other two are."

He glanced at Alexander. "You've always been interested in the Resurrection Stone. But that one? It's hidden somewhere surrounded by magical traps—so dangerous that even Dumbledore himself would struggle to retrieve it."

Ryan shrugged, casual as ever, as if he hadn't just casually revealed information that countless dark wizards would kill for.

Alexander's expression turned serious. "Then… when will I learn about them? Aren't we heading to Atlantis?"

Hermione, flustered, realized she'd completely forgotten their destination. Her mind had been entirely preoccupied with Ryan's voice, his calm demeanor, and the way the breeze shifted his hair.

"Alright," Ryan said, turning back toward them. "Before we go, we need to prepare one final item. A prop that ensures no one will notice our absence while we're away."

He reached inside his robe and pulled out a necklace with a polygonal crystal hanging from it. Kate, watching from the side, smiled faintly. It was a birthday gift she'd given him when he turned eleven—an ordinary-looking necklace with an extraordinary enchantment.

"This necklace has a very special function," Ryan explained. "It can create a temporary body—an illusion of sorts—that mimics us. The magic power it requires is supplied entirely by me. If you tried it alone, it would vanish in under an hour."

He gently stroked the crystal. A warm golden light radiated outward and struck the grassy ground nearby. Moments later, four faceless, humanoid forms emerged, vaguely shaped like the four of them.

"Alexander, Hermione—this is your first time. Take out your wand and insert it into the body."

"Anywhere?" Alexander asked, already intrigued.

"Yes."

Hermione carefully inserted her wand near the heart. Alexander, however, grinned mischievously and jabbed his wand into the dummy's nose.

Typical. Even in this world, he seemed to have a particular fascination with nostrils. Just like that time with the mountain troll...

As the wands connected, the golden light intensified. In a flash, the bodies solidified and formed duplicates of Alexander and Hermione, now fully animated.

"Whoa… it's like I can see from both perspectives!" Alexander exclaimed, touching his own hand and then watching his copy mirror him.

Hermione wobbled. "Oh—ow!" she fell clumsily onto her copy's back. "Controlling two bodies at once is a lot harder than it sounds…"

Ryan and Kate followed suit. Ryan inserted his wand at the forehead of his replica, while Kate gently pushed hers into the heart.

"Alright," Ryan advised, "don't move your real bodies for now. Just use the copies to go somewhere low-profile. Common rooms, dorms, somewhere you don't have to move much."

"Got it," said Alexander.

Their replicas then turned and began walking back toward the castle—up the marble steps, past the heavy wooden doors, and through the familiar corridors of Hogwarts.

About ten minutes later, the four real bodies, still on the grass, blinked in unison.

"We're ready," Ryan said. "Now—have either of you ever been on a waterslide?"

Hermione raised an eyebrow. "Why do I feel like I'm not going to like this…"

"I think you will, actually," Ryan said with a mischievous grin.

He took the magical scepter and pointed it toward the lake. A swirling vortex opened up in the center of the water, but oddly, the surface around it remained perfectly still.

Alexander leaned over the edge, trying to see what was inside.

"You're curious already?" Ryan said innocently. "Well then—off you go!"

Alexander barely had time to react before he was nudged forward. One moment he was standing by the lake, the next, he was gone—swallowed silently by the swirling hole.

"Alright, Hermione, your turn."

She stepped forward nervously and closed her eyes before leaping.

"Wait, no—!" Ryan interrupted too late. "You jumped wrong."

With a flick of his wand, he caught Hermione in mid-air, just before she landed in the wrong part of the lake. She floated, red-faced, before being gently directed into the vortex.

Her scream faded the moment she entered.

"Ryan, you're so bad," Kate said, grinning and leaning into him, her fingers brushing the necklace on his chest. "I love it."

"As long as you like it," Ryan said, pulling her close. "Then it's our turn."

Kate hesitated. "But shouldn't we follow them? They're only first-years. If they don't see us, they might panic."

"Don't worry," Ryan replied. "I control this passage. Even if we wait two hours, they'll only perceive us as arriving right behind them. To them, no time will have passed."

Kate nodded slowly. That made sense. And after all, this was Ryan—he always had a plan.

With a final glance at the now still lake, the two of them vanished together. The watery vortex sealed behind them, leaving nothing but gentle ripples on the surface of the Black Lake, as if no one had ever been there at all.

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