Slytherin's Locket
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Salazar Slytherin's locket is a heavy, gold locket with an elaborate, serpentine S on it (HBP20). It was one of Lord Voldemort's Horcruxes (HBP23).
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The Gaunts
The locket was an heirloom of Salazar Slytherin's descendents for many generations.
Marvolo Gaunt boasted about it to Ministry employee Bob Ogden when the latter visited the Gaunts' home in Little Hangleton, claiming that Slytherin's locket proved the family's noble status. At the time, Marvolo's daughter, Merope, wore the artefact in a gold chain around her neck (HBP10).
When Merope ran away from the village with her husband, Tom Riddle, Sr., she took the locket with her (HBP17). Riddle eventually left her in London, and she forfeited all use of her powers. Merope's extreme poverty forced her to sell the locket soon afterwards, shortly before Christmas, to Caractacus Burke, who was thrilled to confirm the object's authenticity. Not knowing how priceless the artefact was, Merope parted with it for ten Galleons (HBP13).
Burke sold the object years later to an old collector named Hepzibah Smith for a huge fortune (HBP20).
Voldemort
Full article: The Cave
Regulus
A year after Regulus Black joined the Death Eaters, Voldemort asked for the services of an elf. Regulus volunteered and offered Kreacher. He told the elf to go with the Dark Lord, obey his orders and return when the task was done. Voldemort took Kreacher with him to the cave that he had chosen as the hiding place for Salazar Slytherin's locket. He wanted to use the elf - a worthless, disposable creature in his eyes - as a test for his defenses. Kreacher accompanied him into the cave and onto a boat that took them to an island in the middle of the lake. There, Voldemort let him drink the poison inside a basin he had placed there, threw in the locket, and refilled the basin. Voldemort then left, while the poisoned elf stayed behind. He had clearly intended Kreacher to die, but had underestimated the house-elf's power and dedication. Driven by the unquenchable thirst the poison caused, Kreacher drank from the lake and was dragged into the water by Inferi. However, before they could harm him, Kreacher Disapparated and returned to his master, as he had been told to do. Voldemort had overlooked that house-elves can Apparate at places where wizards cannot.
Kreacher told his master everything. Regulus became worried. He must have suspected what Voldemort had hidden in the cave. A short while later, Regulus asked Kreacher to take him to the cave. Kreacher knew how to enter the cave and get to the island. Regulus gave Kreacher a second locket and told him to switch the lockets once the basin was empty. He ordered the elf to return home alone, not to tell anybody what had happened and destroy the locket. Then he drank the poison and was dragged into the lake by Inferi. Kreacher watched his master die and returned home. However, he was unable to destroy the Horcrux, although he kept trying and punishing himself for his failure (DH10).
When the Order of the Phoenix made number twelve, Grimmauld Place their headquarters, Kreacher was able to rescue the locket from their purges (OP6, DH10). He hid it in his nest under the boiler in the kitchen. However, Mundungus Fletcher stole it from there, along with Kreacher's other treasures (DH10).
Harry ordered Kreacher to tell him everything about the locket after he discovered who the mysterious R.A.B. was. He then asked him to catch Mundungus, and gave him the locket Regulus had left inside the cave as a reward. Kreacher tracked down Mundungus in just three days. But the thief was no longer in possession of the locket: he had been forced to give it to Dolores Umbridge, who had blackmailed him that she would arrest him for selling goods without a trader's license (DH11).
