The Necklace

I don't know how long the eleven of us waited there in the tunnel. Minutes? Hours? Days? It felt like forever.

When Klaus finally deemed it safe, when we heard no more noise from above, he whispered to Farley and I, "I'm going upstairs to check it out. If I'm not back in ten minutes, follow the tunnel down, find a way out, and don't look back."

We nodded and he silently slipped out of the passageway and into the darkness of the basement.

A minute later, Penelope softly began to cry.

"Shut her up!" Farley demanded of Annabelle. Annabelle took Penelope onto her lap as if she were a small child and started to rock her back and forth to shush her, muttering comforting words all the while.

A small hand tapped me on the back, and I turned around to face Princeton.

"Kerry, I'm scared," he whispered in his small, little-boy voice.

"You have to be brave, Princeton. I know you're scared; we all are."

"Even you?" he asked, his eyes wide.

I nodded. "Even me." I took his hand, and we sat quietly in the darkness for a few moments longer. Someone coughed, and I could feel Farley growing anxious beside me.

We sat there for quite a long time. I grew impatient myself. What if something had happened to Klaus? I'd never forgive myself for letting him go out there alone.

Finally, when it had been about half an hour, Farley insisted that we couldn't stay there any longer.

"If he'd have found something, he would have come and got us! They must have still been up there when he went up, and they caught him and now he's dead."

"No! He wouldn't have just gone like that – he would have been careful. You're ridiculous, we have to wait for him!"

"I'm not waiting, and I'm taking the children with me." He grabbed Tally and Humphrey roughly and pushed them down the rest of the path, bent-over to avoid hitting his head. Humphrey cried out in pain as he did so.

"You're hurting him! Let go of my brother, Farley. You're not taking him!"

"Yes I am! I'm going to save all of you by taking you out!" He motioned for Annabelle to stand up, and she did, with Penelope still in her arms. They huddled close together, and Maverick and I looked at each other hopelessly. I knew he wouldn't leave me, but I couldn't really stop the others from leaving.

They started to move down the tunnel, but they didn't get very far when we heard a faint cry from outside.

"Kerry! Come out, quickly!"

Immediately Farley turned and ran back to where I was standing. "Did you hear that?" he asked.

I nodded and reached a hand out to open the secret door to find Klaus peering in at me.

"Come on, follow me!"

"What is it?" I asked as I jumped down through the hole.

"It's Trelawney; she's – well, I don't know if she's going to – just follow me!" He led me through the basement and up the stairs. The others were close behind.

"Avoid looking at anything directly," he called behind me. "Everyone is – " He didn't bother to finish the sentence.

We went through our dining area and music room, past a few bodies, and I felt my stomach churning. The horrific thought of it all – that it had happened only a mere hour ago – was more than I could stand.

When we passed Viktor Krum's body, it was more than my heart could take to hear Tally's cry of surprise, and then her pitiful sobbing as she realized she was now an orphan.

I heard the toll it was taking on the others as well. As we passed through each room, gasps of shock and horror at the damage the Death Eaters had done rang through my ears. Annabelle shrieked at the sight of the strewn bodies and nearly fell backward; luckily Maverick was there to catch her and help her back to her feet. Penelope's hand flew to her mouth, and for a moment I was sure she was going to be sick, but I ushered her along and we got past it.

We managed to continue up another flight of stairs to one of the more remote bedrooms, the empty ones no one used. He guided all of us inside, and we formed a circle around Madam Trelawney's body.

She wasn't looking so good. She had collapsed on the floor, beside the bed, and she was breathing hard. Her clothes had been torn, her hair was in disarray, and her eyes were unable to focus. It seemed the effort of staying alive was more than she could take.

"Children. Children. I'm the last alive, am I? Everyone else is gone, aren't they?" She managed to sputter, looking pitiful as she did so.

Klaus nodded solemnly at her.

"I knew it. I knew I would be. I heard them coming, and I just knew I should hide so they wouldn't find me, but they did anyway!" She started to cough violently, and I held her shoulder to keep her steady. "The curse they put on me is working fast. Spreading through my body. I'll be dead soon."

Penelope started to cry again, and Farley told her roughly to be quiet.

"I don't have any strength left, or else I'd get it for you, but children. Get the necklace. The necklace is what you need."

"Necklace? What necklace?"

"The necklace. Get the – oh dear, Minerva must have had it today, you go and check her – but then again, I just don't know – " Her eyes rolled into the back of her head, and she stopped breathing for a second.

"Trelawney! You have to wake up – tell us what necklace!"

"Children... just... get the necklace. Oh, my dear boy... my dear boy!" She grabbed Klaus by the scruff of his shirt and shook him. "You aren't misbehaving in school, are you now, Timmy? You stop that. Be good."

Klaus shook himself out of her grip. "She must be hallucinating... Trelawney, come on, snap out of it, you have to tell us what necklace you're talking about. It's me, Klaus, not Timmy, tell us what necklace we have to get!"

"It'll – just – the necklace – OH GOD!" She grabbed her chest and without another word fell backward to the floor, lying there motionless.

I kneeled there, looking at her, completely shocked at her sudden departure from this world. I felt the tears burn behind my eyes, and that's when I realized the hopelessness of it all. Our entire world had come crashing down, and I hadn't realized it until I saw the effects of the Death Eaters work right in front of me – until I saw this helpless woman die at another's cruel hand.

It took a moment, but slowly, ever so slowly, each one of us began to open up and cry. The boys tried to comfort us, but one could see they were trying their hardest not to.

After a few moments of lamenting, Klaus took a bedsheet and covered Madam Trelawney's body with it.

Farley, wiping his eyes on his sleeve, took charge of the situation. "Alright, what with this just happening –" He stopped, took a breath, and began again, his voice rougher and edgier, now that we was sure he wasn't about to cry. "Obviously this old bat was crazy–"

"Don't talk about her like that!" Tally screamed and hurled herself at him, beating him with her fists. Klaus was fast to stop her, but she didn't stop struggling in his arms. "Everyone's dead, and you just talk about Madam Trelawney like – like it's nothing! Everyone's dead!" With one last cry, she stopped struggling and just lay there in Klaus' arms, sobbing hysterically.

"She didn't know what she was talking about!" Farley defended himself. "I–I think we should clean up, and – and take all the bodies away, and then move to a different spot – where someone won't be able to find us. It's now too dangerous to be here, now that the Death Eaters can find us and everything – "

Klaus interrupted him. "Aren't we going to look for the necklace?"

"What good would the necklace do?"

Klaus stroked Tally's hair back away from her face as she sobbed into his shoulder. "I don't know, but it was obviously important if Trelawney, on her deathbed, found it most important to tell us to find it!"

"Look, she was just a crazy old bat; that's why they only put her in charge of mixing the mashed potatoes. Why the hell should we listen to anything she has to say?"

"Why don't we just give it a try, Farley?" I pleaded with him. "Maybe it's nothing... but then again, maybe there is something to it... It wouldn't hurt just to give it a chance."

He glared at me but finally agreed. We all traipsed back downstairs to where Professor McGonagall lay on the floor in the basement, cold and unmoving. Trying to avoid crying again, Annabelle took the four youngest children away to the corner to play a game, a feeble attempt to keep their minds off all the destruction and death in the house, while the remaining six of us stripped Professor McGonagall's body and looked through everything for a necklace of some sort.

After a half hour's worth of searching, we came up empty-handed. We had gone through everything short of taking off her undergarments, which would have been disgusting, but had still found nothing.

"This is useless. I told you there was no necklace. Trelawney was just hallucinating. Maybe she had thought of when she was younger, and hopefully better looking, and she had had a necklace, or something."

"But she said that Professor McGonagall must have had it today, meaning the teachers probably switched it around, always giving it to somebody else, so no one would find it. That suggests it's pretty important," Kimberly argued. She pulled her hair into a tight bun, a sign that she was thinking hard. "Maybe someone else had it."

"Why wouldn't the teachers have told us about it? If it was so important, why not mention it at some point or another? Did they think they were all going to be around forever?" Farley paced back and forth over the hardwood floor, running a hand through his hair and looking slightly crazed.

"No, they didn't think that, but probably they figured if less people knew about it – then it'd have less of a chance to 'accidentally' slip out and the Death Eaters would know."

"Why wouldn't they have just told us? This is useless. I think we should just give up and go."

"Farley, stop being such a pessimist."

"Where else are we going to look?!?" he snapped at me. "There was nothing on her person – what else do we do?"

"Hey, guys, I found something," Maverick called, pulling on her jacket.

Klaus and I hurried to kneel beside him. "What is it?"

"It was sewn into her jacket sleeve... It's a piece of paper... but I can't get it out."

"A piece of paper... right. How helpful! It's probably a note for some recipe of McGonagall's Great Grandma Fifi's best chicken casserole or something," Farley grumbled as we tore it out.

Klaus held the paper in his hand. "One-sixty-nine," he read.

I frowned at it. "One-sixty-nine? That's all it says?"

Klaus nodded.

"What does that have to do with anything?" Kimberly asked.

We all shrugged.

"It could go to anything! How useless."

"Farley, stop it. We have to find out what this goes to – and soon."

* * * * *

We all went to sleep heavy-hearted that night. We hadn't figured out what 'one-sixty-nine' meant, nor had we the energy to clean up the disaster area the Death Eaters had left for us. We fell asleep in the same room, too scared to part from each other for even a moment, and Farley was supposed to be keeping watch, but when I woke up the next morning, he was fast asleep.

I shook my head and smiled at his simplicity, the dolt. I checked on everyone in the room; everyone was sleeping soundly as if nothing would disturb them. I headed downstairs for a glass of water.

I've always been a light sleeper. Usually the slightest noise during the night can awake me, which is really a curse, considering the Burrow is nearly always creaky and making noises. I usually wake up of my own accord anyway around half-past five every morning, just in time to see the sunrise.

In my opinion, the world is prettiest and most at peace just as the sun peeks over the horizon, keeping watch over all of nature, and nothing is awake just yet. Maybe the earliest chirp of a bird here or there, but other than that, just peaceful silence. It's my utopia.

To my distaste, I found in the kitchen that the Death Eaters had smashed all of our best silverware and dinnerware, leaving me with nothing to drink out of but an untouched vase I found in the music room.

I emptied the vase of its previous occupant, a dying flower, and washed it out thoroughly, making sure it contained no residue before I filled it with clear water. I was just thankful they hadn't smashed or dried out the well while they were here.

After getting my fill of water, I decided to take a short walk around the grounds of the building. It was a gorgeous morning, and I wanted to take advantage of it.

After putting on a light jacket and my shoes, I ventured outside. The smell of dew on the lawn and the sensation of the bright morning sun on my face helped me forget all the problems inside the house; all the lost parents and friends, the mourning children, the disaster the Death Eaters left, and most importantly, the significance of the necklace.

My pace slowed to a slow stroll as my mind raced over what I knew about it.

Well, it's important... but that means next to nothing!

Then I remembered that Trelawney said that they switch it around.

What could be so important that they'd need to switch it around? What could 'one-sixty-nine' be for?

I was still thinking hard when I heard screams from inside. I took off for the house, thinking the worst had happened.

I ran in the door, threw off my jacket, and bolted up the stairs into the room where they had all been sleeping.

"Maverick! What are you doing?"

Maverick was sitting on top of Princeton, tickling him all over his body. Princeton was shouting at him to stop, but still laughing uncontrollably.

"Stop it, Maverick, I mean it!" I cried at him over Princeton's own cries.

Maverick looked up at me, rolled his eyes, and fell over backward, landing on the ground away from Princeton. Princeton got up slowly, holding his stomach and moaning like a baby.

"Oh, stop it, he didn't hurt you that badly," I remarked.

"He's wounded me! I'm dying!" Princeton began to fake a slow and painful death, as boys are prone to do. Maverick began to pretend to whack him over the head repeatedly with some pretend heavy object, and Princeton fell to the ground and continued his death charade.

"Boys!" I shouted, completely angered over their unwise decision to joke about death, especially considering the present circumstances and the fact that the rest of the kids were just gently stirring now.

Princeton realized what he was doing and immediately his face fell. Feeling ashamed of himself, he turned away from me and began speaking with Kimberly to avoid further embarrassment.

Maverick, on the other hand, scowled at me.

"We're just having a bit of fun!" He took a step closer to me and stood up straight, showing off all six feet of his height.

"Maverick, I'm older than you," I boasted.

"Yeah? You're also about a foot shorter."

"I am not! I'm only a couple inches shorter."

"A couple inches? Try a foot and a half!"

"I'm only eight inches shorter than you, but I could still probably beat you up."

"Stop that ridiculous nonsense!" Annabelle called from the other side of the room.

"Or what?" we snapped in unison as we both turned to glare at her. Everyone laughed.

We stopped fighting, and by this time everyone else had awoken and was complaining that they were hungry. Kimberly and Greg headed to the kitchen to scrounge up something for us, and before too long, they had fixed up a meager meal, which would, at least, subdue us for a while.

* * * * *

When we finished eating what little food we had left, we sat around the undestroyed kitchen table and discussed what to do.

"We still don't know what the 'one-sixty-nine' goes to – or if it even goes to anything at all!" Farley said.

"Don't be thick. It has to go to something. I want to find that necklace –"

"Don't start on about that necklace business again! This is just ridiculous. There was no necklace, even from the start, I'll bet."

"Farley, hasn't anything been able to penetrate your incredibly thick head? There IS a necklace, there absolutely has to be, so be quiet and let the rest of us talk."

"If you can remember, I'm the oldest here, and that should give me seniority, and I should be the one making decisions –"

"But we're not going to listen to your decisions if your decisions are UTTER CRAP." At Greg's outburst, Farley pounded his fist on the table and got up and began to pace, completely frustrated.

"Look," Annabelle said with an air of superiority, as though whatever she said was going to be taken as law. "Why don't we all just think about what it is, and then if we have any ideas, we'll investigate them, and maybe we'll come up with nothing, and maybe we'll come up with something,"

That left them silent and wondering.

After a moment of speaking, Klaus spoke up. "Wouldn't it have to be a combination of some sort?"

I agreed, the idea forming in my mind. "Yes, or the number to a vault, or something, right?"

The thought lodged in all our minds at the same time.

"Gringotts!"