James' eyes widened thoughtfully. 'Cameron, you know those books pretty much frontwards and backwards, right? Tell us everything you remember about that ring.'
Cameron looked at James, a little puzzled, and then shrugged. 'Well, according to legend, the ring once belonged to Death, so it allowed the holder to see and speak to dead people. It was passed on through generations of Salazar Slytherin's relatives until it came to the Gaunt family. Voldemort took the ring and used it as a, er, Horcrux,' Cameron whispered the last word as if it was a sort of swear word. He went on in his normal voice. 'Later, Dumbledore captured the ring and cracked the stone with Gryffindor's sword, making it useless to Voldemort. After Dumbledore died, he willed the stone to Harry Potter, hiding it inside his Snitch. In the book, Harry uses the Resurrection Stone to speak to his dead parents when he's going to confront Voldemort in the Forest. After that, no one knows what became of the stone. Anyway, when you said something about a mysterious black ring, I just thought that might be what you were talking about. My mistake.'
'Cameron,' Rose said seriously, 'I could kiss you, you silly geek. That's brilliant!'
Cameron blushed fiercely and hugged his newsstand sack, grinning.
Ralph asked, 'Do you really think the Resurrection Stone and the Beacon Stone are the same thing?'
'It sure seems to fit,' James replied. 'It was black and set into a ring and it was passed on by Salazar Slytherin through loads of generations.'
Rose added, 'And it allowed the bearer to see and communicate with dead people because it came from the Void that all departed souls pass through.'
Ralph shuddered. 'So whatever became of it? What happened to it after that night in the Forest?'
'It's just like Cameron said,' Rose sighed, 'no one knows. If I remember right, it was purposely left out of the books so that nobody would be tempted to search for the stone again. It was presumed lost forever. Nobody knows where it is, or even if it still exists.'
James narrowed his eyes, thinking. He decided not to say anything, but he knew of at least one person who did know what had become of the Resurrection Stone. And James was one of the only people on earth who could ask that person and possibly get an answer.
Eventually, the foursome made their way to the Three Broomsticks, affectionately known among some of the older students as the 'Triple Sticks'. They ordered Butterbeers and had a light dinner. Hogwarts students packed the tables, talking boisterously and calling to each other. Sabrina, Damien, and Gennifer Tellus jostled through the door just as James was finishing his sausage. Damien grinned as they pushed their way through the throng.
'Made it through the tunnel, I see,' Damien called. 'I'm a little jealous, you know. We discovered that passageway first. I was hoping to be the first to see the inside of the Shrieking Shack. How was it?'
'Barely standing,' James answered. 'You'll be lucky if it's still upright when you go through yourself.'
'Where's Noah and Petra?' Rose asked.
Gennifer rolled her eyes. 'Oh, they're having a lover's spat over at Madam Puddifoot's. I told them it'd be nothing but trouble if they started dating.'
'They aren't really dating,' Sabrina said, pulling up a chair and sitting down. 'They're just snogging. It isn't exactly the same thing.'
James glanced up sharply, surprised that he had somehow missed this development. 'How long have they been, er, snogging?'
'It started about a week before Christmas,' Sabrina replied. 'It's probably all that rehearsing as lovers for the play that did it. You can only pretend to fancy one another for so long before it leaks over into real life.'
'James knows all about that,' Ralph said, popping the last of his sausage into his mouth. James sighed.
'So what are they fighting about?' Rose asked.
Damien gestured dramatically. 'Noah saw Petra having some big, heavy conversation with Ted behind Weasleys'. She was crying, and Ted didn't look too happy either. Noah's quite the jealous type, you know.'
'He should've known what he was getting into, dating his best friend's former girl,' Gennifer proclaimed loftily. 'It spells trouble any way you look at it.'
Sabrina said, 'I just don't understand what Ted sees in Victoire anyway. He was lucky to have Petra. Victoire's a bit of a stuck-up powder puff no matter how you look at her. No offense.'
Rose waved a hand. 'Oh, you don't have to apologize to us. We think the same thing most of the time.'
James felt suddenly hot and angry. He stared out of the window, confused at his own thoughts and emotions. Something about the fact that Noah and Petra were suddenly dating needled him mercilessly. He'd always liked Noah quite a lot, but now, all of a sudden, he wanted to go find the older boy and push him down. The irony of it was that he knew where to find Noah: he was sitting across from Petra at this very moment, just down the street in the ridiculously pink and fluffy Madam Puddifoot's Tea Shop. Worse, James now knew for certain that Noah wasn't the main problem. Just as Rose had said, Petra was obviously still in love with Ted Lupin, despite the fact that he had moved on to Victoire. The whole affair was hopelessly complicated, and James was frustrated to realize that there was absolutely nothing he could do about it.
Eventually, the conversation moved on to other topics. James, Rose, Ralph, and Cameron said goodbye to the Gremlins and made their way out to the street. The evening was cooling as the sun lowered, bringing a restless wind through the village. Bits of newspaper and candy wrappers skirled across the street as students began making the journey back to the distant castle. The foursome began to make their way to the Shrieking Shack, stopping only once along the way to pop into Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes where they hoped to say hello to George and Ted.
'The old tunnel is open, eh?' George said, grinning over the front counter. 'That's excellent. Fred and I only tried that route once, since everyone was afraid of the ghosts in the Shack. We didn't make it all the way through, but we got far enough to leave some graffiti on the walls, as I recall.'
Rose nodded. 'Yeah, I think I saw that. The drawing of Professor Snape was particularly amusing.'
'Oh, those were Fred's,' George said, sighing. 'He was a good one for a quick caricature. He said it was all in the hook nose.'
James asked, 'So how's business been?'
'Oh, really excellent. Ever since we bought out Zonko's, we've been rolling. They had a pretty loyal clientele, you know. I've even considered making this Weasleys' flagship location instead of the shop at Diagon Alley, but Ron says I shouldn't. He says the original location is still the best.'
Rose looked around appreciatively. 'I bet Ted loves working here. This place is right up his alley.'
'Yeah,' George agreed. 'It's good having him around. He's a hard worker and he has some great ideas for some new products. Some of those new Every Flavor Beans were his ideas, although even I drew the line at a flavor called 'guanomole'. The blighter's been no use to me today, though. These Hogsmeade weekends are like a family reunion for him. He's been in and out all day doing who-knows-what.'
There was a loud snap. James and Rose turned to see Cameron shaking his finger violently, trying to dislodge something that had apparently clamped onto the end of it.
'You snapped it, you bought it, my friend,' George said jovially as he came out from behind the counter. 'Just kidding, really. Those are the finger snapping Galleons. Always a laugh, those. Just lay one on the ground and wait for any unsuspecting person to come across it.'
'They sure look real,' Cameron admitted as George pried the fake coin off his finger. 'Up until the point that it chomps on you, I mean. That's, er, great. Thanks.'
'If you like those, you'll love our Disapparating knickers bomb,' George said, leading Cameron to another
