[forty three]

"What do we do with it?" Ron whispered

They were all sat on the dining table, with the stone right at the center like some odd specimen, which it was. It looked nothing like it used to. Perhaps it was the way that it got turned into a necklace.

"Is nobody really going to put the shelves back in place?" Astoria asked

"I'll help you." Celine offered, and they both stood to levitate the shelf and fallen books back in place.

"First of all, how do you two know how it looks like?" Harry looked at Viktor and Elena suspiciously

"Are you forgetting where we're from?" Elena asked, as if it should've been obvious

"We're from Durmstrang. Who else was from Durmstrang?" Viktor prompted

"Grindelwald." Hermione said as she and Draco walked down the stairs, fully clothed this time.

"Exactly. We studied this. We know the hallows." Viktor said "It's been known, ever since the war, that Harry possessed all three at one point. Back in Durmstrang, power was everything. The hallows were symbols of power, and so we learned them."

"Hmph." Harry grunted

"What do we do with it?" Blaise looked at it cautiously, like it might explode

"We test if it's real." Theo said "Like Hermione mentioned, we might be the decoy. This might not even be the real stone."

"Exactly. It looks nothing like it used to." Harry nodded

"But, what if it's spelled? This is McGonagall we're talking about." Ron said

"Oh Helga's cakes, I'll do it!" Ginny exclaimed and grabbed the necklace before Harry could even stop her.

"Hello, sister." A familiar red-haired brother sat comfortably on the kitchen counter.

Ginny dropped the stone with a gasp "." She whispered, eyes welling up with tears

"Fred?" Ron's eyes widened "It's real? ?" He scrambled to get a hold of the necklace. Hands shaking as he took it.

"If I had known you'd be this eager to see me, I'd have died earlier." Fred snickered at Ron

"Freddie." Ron's voice broke

Hermione followed Ron's gaze towards the empty mini kitchen, assuming that was where Fred was.

"This is insane." Harry mumbled

"Okay, how about we all have a turn?" Hermione said, who she was going to see, she wasn't sure.

"Can't we just hold it all at the same time? Would that have the same effect?" Blaise asked, silently wishing he wouldn't see all his mother's past husbands. Was that how this worked?

Ron looked at Fred expectantly, but he just shrugged "Try it out."

Ron shakily offered the necklace to the others "Fred said to try it out."

"Really?" Draco said hesitantly, what if he saw his father? What were they going to do? Does a soulless vegetable count?

Theo also glanced at the necklace hesitantly. He hasn't heard from his father since... What if he found it he was dead through this necklace?

"Tell Malfoy to stop being such a wimp." Fred snickered "I can't believe you lost Hermione to him, Ronald."

"Oh shut it." Ron snapped

"Say that again, Weasley?" Draco glared at him

"Not you." Ron glared right back "Can all of you just take the chains, please?"

Each of them took a deep breath before holding onto the chain, feeling a wave of magic flow through their veins.

"Harry,"

Sirius Black stood next to him, face widely grinning at his godson

"Sirius." Harry beamed

"Welcome to the family, Ginny, dear." Lily Potter gave Ginny the warmest of smiles, causing her to blush as red as her hair

"Mamu, papu." Elena looked close to tears as she looked at the two elderlies who stood next to her

"Yes, this is all quite sentimental, but can we get to the point?" Severus Snape drawled from where he stood near the stairs, quite far from where everyone else was

"Not our fault your heart's the color of your clothes, Snivellus. Let the children relish in the moment." James Potter rolled his eyes

"He's right though, we haven't got much time." Remus Lupin pointed out

"Moony, did you just agree with Snivellus?" Sirius gasped

"Now, now, let's not stray from the point." Albus Dumbledore piped in from the couches

"Professor? Aren't you just outside, though?" Astoria raised her brows

"That is but a memory of me, miss Greengrass." Dumbledore shrugged

"What is the point?" Viktor asked, apparently, nobody from the afterlife was there for him.

"There is an imminent threat, you know that, of course." Fred shrugged

"What do you know?" Draco narrowed his eyes

"We can't see everything. We're mere fragments of the souls you've come to miss. However, we do know that the threat is near and you must be prepared." Elena's grandmother said

Theo, who was relieved to not find his father part of the pack, said "We don't even know where to start."

"You can start by telling McGonagall you found this stone." Lily said

"It's imperative that you don't know where this is. New magic is brewing, that much is true." Dumbledore nodded

"But— we—" Ginny looked at Fred helplessly

"We'll always be here, Gin. I'm always just here. Even when you and Harry are—"

"." Harry cleared his throat "Is there somebody we have to watch out for?" He looked at Vincent Crabbe, who stood silently next to Blaise

"The problem is because of the past. That much we know." Crabbe said, looking at Draco "This isn't somebody new, that's for sure."

Hermione looked at Harry worriedly. Only he was completely aware of her suspicions over Goyle.

"It might be difficult to come out of this unscathed." Daphne Greengrass gave her little sister a small smile "It's best if you work with each other."

"Teamwork makes the dream work, is it, Granger?" Fred grinned, still happily seated on the kitchen counter

"These are things we already know." Pansy complained

"It's closer to home than you think, sweetheart." A woman, who looked like a spitting image of Pansy, smiled at Theo kindly

"Is it?" He asked, his eyes seemed to challenge the words of Pansy's mother

"The point is," Remus gave all of them a pointed look "to work together. Don't doubt each other. Make sure you don't know where the stone is and to keep in mind that the culprits are people you've already met."