For a second, Aurora regretted this decision and was sure she was going to be engulfed with more smoke, but then - SNAP! The knob came off in her hand, and the oven didn't explode. Win win! Now, was that what was SUPPOSED to happen? Or did she just destroy the oven for absolutely no reason?

She picked up the broken knob and examined it. This wasn't a knob at all! It was a brooch of some kind. This HAD to be what the clue was talking about. It could be taken on and off, and it WAS rather pretty...but she didn't have time to sit here and admire it all day. It must have been some sort of heirloom from Ilvermorny, if it came from across the sea, but she would investigate that later. After all, the clue didn't say she had to figure out what it WAS once she got it, just to find them! She placed it in her pocket and then did a quick Finite on her Bubble Head charm, since it seemed like the danger of possible smoke inhalation had passed.

One item down - one more to go.

This clue was more puzzling to her than the one about the oven. That one seemed to have jumped out at her rather quickly, for whatever reason. She picked up the parchment from the table again and read it over and over a few more times. She was looking for a lever of some sort? And what did the thing about the dust mean? There was dust EVERYWHERE, so that was hardly helpful. She wandered over to the dining room table, wrinkling her nose and using her collar as a scarf again to keep the smell of rotting food at bay. That didn't seem useful at all. Moving on.

She walked back to the fireplace and the furniture, which had seen better days for sure. She ran her hand over the fireplace over and over again, getting dust EVERYWHERE but hoping that she maybe would find something helpful, like a loose brick or something - nope. Nothing. Nothing inside the fireplace either, just more dust. Which she was now covered in.

She stood up and dusted herself off, sighing as she did so. Didn't seem like there was a lever of any sort around here. With that, she turned on her heel and walked back towards the entrance, heading for the stairs. She stopped at the bathroom along the way and peered inside, JUST to be sure she checked every inch of this place...BLEGH. Nope. There was no way these Ministry officials were sadistic enough to make her go rooting around in THAT.

So it looked like the second floor was her next stop.

Aurora walked up the spiraling stairs, going slowly since she wasn't sure how much integrity they had left to them, being so OLD, and made her way to the upper level. There wasn't any rotting food up here at least, but more dust of course. Her brown eyes scanned her surroundings. Ok, a table missing a leg...a bunch of dusty books, and a piano with a bunch of missing keys. There was also a bed, but as soon as she walked closer, she could see the sheets...MOVING...so yeah. Aurora was avoiding that for sure. It was making her itchy just looking at it!

So where did she start? She still had no clue what this clue was talking about! It was so frustrating!! She read it over a few more times, stopping to scan the items she had at her disposal after each read. There were no straws, bricks or sticks around, so her idea about the three little pigs connection seemed to be out. Looking for a lever that unlocks a door, something is off...she looked at the table, wondering if maybe THAT was what the clue was talking about. One of the table legs could be a lever...but then she would have to probably physically BREAK the table, since that would leave only two legs standing, and she had already defaced one thing in here today. Would they really want her destroying another? Didn't this place have like...history and all that? You'd think they'd want that preserved to some extent...

She looked at the books directly ahead of her. That could be a good starting place. After all, when Aurora thought of secret passages - she thought of bookcases. She could rip them all off the shelves and hope one opened a secret passage. She decided that was a good starting point. She started to walk toward the bookshelves, leaving dusty footprints in her wake....but then she stopped abruptly when she passed the piano.

Maybe the PIANO keys opened a door. It wasn't exactly a lever, but if she tried pushing all the keys...maybe one would open the door? Maybe the clue wasn't even talking about opening a door at all - after all, pianos had KEYS, and KEYS opened doors. It could simply mean she had to play with the piano to get the item! Worth a shot, she had nothing to lose, really. She walked back and stood in front of the piano, taking her manicured finger and pushing down on the very first one in the row. She winced at the note that it played - this piano was TOTALLY out of key. Wait, that could be what the clue was talking about! Something was off...the tuning of the piano was DEFINITELY off.

If this didn't work, she would try the books next. But for now...she took her finger and one by one, pressed each key, white and black, making her way down until she had hit every one.