As she had requested, Helen Spinner came at the end of the lesson to Professor Sprout, who was her teacher as well as head of her house. The brooch was still in her pocket, where she had kept it since she picked it up from her dressing table this morning. Her hand slid towards it, and her fingers closed around the cold metal as she approached Sprout's desk.

"Ah, Miss Spinner, you wished to talk to me about something." She took a seat and gave the nervous first year a wholehearted smile.

Spinner casted her eyes down and fidgeted in her pocket. "Er… yes, professor. Actually, I wanted to show you this." In one quick movement, she took the pin out of her pocket and directly handed it to Sprout.

She looked at it. It was a simple, yet elaborate little thing, made of gold and decorated with one single marten around the butt, its head pointed towards the sharp end of the pin and its mouth opened wide, showing its miniature golden teeth crafted with great skill and precision. Although, it might not be a marten, it could just as well be an otter or weasel instead. Plants were her speciality, not animals. Its eyes were laid in with scarlet gemstones.

As Sprout studied the brooch, Spinner informed her of anything she knew. "It was found by one of my ancestors, in early nineteenth century. He was a lawyer in the Muggle world, prosperous, and with a weak spot for ancient objects. According to the family story, he found it on one of his many strolls in the countryside. He took it home and studied it, but he couldn't find anything except that it must be very old and well-preserved. For generations we've tried to figure it out, we've consulted historians all over Britain, but no Muggle could tell us anything. So when we discovered that I was a witch, we thought it may be a wizard object. What do you think, professor?"

"It might very well be, but I can't tell you anything about its powers or whose it might have been. Could I keep it for a while, so I can show the other professors? Professor Binns might have an idea, or professor Lupin…"

"Sure!" Spinner smiled a lovely little girl's smile to the nice teacher, grateful for the help she offered. "As long as I get it back."

"That won't be a problem, sweetheart. You'll get it back as soon as we've figured it out. Now, off you go, your friends are certainly waiting."

Spinner grinned one more time before skidding off. Sprout sighed, she always loved the first years, and especially little Hufflepuf girls like Spinner. They really were her weak spot.

She glanced at the brooch in her hand. With what Spinner had said, it was almost definitely a wizard object. Only without apparent magical powers, it had been in a Muggle family unnoticed for ages. She decided to first ask professor Lupin, the new Defence against the Dark Arts teacher, to check the object on any malevolent spells. Because if the brooch had been in contact with Dark Magic, they better found out before it was too late…

He would never think of Percy. Frankly, when Remus Lupin discovered the brooch he'd put on his desk had disappeared, his first suspicion laid with the Slytherins. If any student would recognize such object and be cunning enough to steal it, it would be a Slytherin.

On the other hand… Immediately thereafter, he thought of the Weasley twins. He'd heard enough stories of McGonagall to conclude that they would do anything for a laugh, and if she could be believed, they were even worse pranksters than he himself had been during his Hogwarts years. Which was quite impressive.

But never, never – unless he would hear a confession of the Head Boy himself – he would have suspected their older brother, Percy Weasley. That guy shuddered at even the slightest mention of mischief, rules and order were his livelines. The very idea of stealing, was incomprehensible to him, and yet he'd stolen the brooch, and didn't even feel the teeniest bit guilty of it.

No one knew yet, of course, that it was him. He neither was worried that anyone would know, for if they would ask him about his deeds, he would rightfully point out that it was his. As it was. As soon as he saw it, he knew the pin belonged to the Weasley family, and the Weasley family solely. He had never seen it, nor heard of it before, but he had recognized it as theirs, and taken it swiftly when they left the classroom. He had taken their heritage back.