The Locket That Was Hard to Destroy

"That fellow was a Ravenclaw! Merlin's beard! That was the first time I'd ever seen a Ravenclaw like that!"

Phineas Nigellus Black kept shouting from his frame, while the former headmasters in the surrounding portraits all wore looks of annoyance.

In one of the originally murky portraits, an old witch with long, hanging silver curls appeared. The moment she heard Phineas Nigellus Black's complaints, she immediately frowned.

"Phineas Nigellus Black! Ever since Albus left, you've been going on about this, and now that I'm back, you're still going on about it..."

Just then, Vizet, Dumbledore, and the phoenix Fawkes stepped out of the flames and appeared in the Headmaster's Office.

"Do quiet down!" the silver-haired old witch yawned. "Is there no other portrait of yours anywhere? So because you don't want to go back to your ancestral home, you can only stay here and bother us?"

"What do you know, Dilys Derwent?" Phineas Nigellus Black said indignantly. "He actually called me a Troll!"

"If he called you a Troll, wouldn't you be angry? If I were still headmaster, I'd definitely expel him!"

"What a pity that would be..." Dumbledore looked at Vizet, winked his left eye, and said quietly, "Fortunately, I'm the current headmaster."

Although Phineas Nigellus Black did not catch what Dumbledore had said, he did see Vizet smiling, and his expression instantly turned ugly.

Vizet raised his head and looked at the headmasters' portraits hanging on the walls. "Good afternoon, headmasters. I hope I'm not disturbing you?"

"Of course not. We much prefer hearing young voices," Dilys Derwent said, nodding kindly. "What a good child... so polite..."

"Yes! What a good child!" the headmasters' portraits, who had been thoroughly irritated by Phineas Nigellus Black, echoed at once.

"What nonsense are you talking!" Phineas Nigellus Black immediately retorted. "You