James Potter and the Curse of the Gatekeeper

by G. Norman Lippert

  "How dare you? Get your hands off me!" Scorpius cried, struggling as Albus wrestled to keep him down.

  "Take that back!" Albus yelled furiously. "Take it back right now!"

  More doors opened along the corridor. Curious students gathered, some grinning and pointing.

  "James," Sabrina Hildegard, a fellow Gryffindor, said as she stepped into the corridor. "What's going on? First, the connecting door is left open, and then—"

  There was a sudden crack and a flash of red. Scorpius clambered to his feet, his face livid. He pointed his wand wildly, but Albus lunged at him.

  "No!" James shouted. "Albus, stop!"

  There was a furor of voices and clamoring figures as Scorpius stumbled backwards, trying to evade Albus' reaching arms. Another spell ricocheted off the ceiling of the compartment. Suddenly, James remembered the Borley. He spun around, looking for it, but the creature was gone. Desperately, he scanned the corridor.

  "No spells!" he shouted, holding up his hands, but no one noticed him. James was jostled as more students pressed into the narrow space, crowding to see the fight. He spun around, looking for the creature, and suddenly saw it. The Borley leapt within the shadows of the milling students. It was much larger than it had been at first, and seemed rather more solid. It jumped to the floor and James heard a thump as it landed. Unthinkingly, he pointed his wand at it. The Borley saw him and lunged as if to attack. James pulled his wand up and ducked. The creature went over his head and disappeared into the throng that filled the corridor.

  "BE STILL!" a very large voice boomed, and James didn't have to guess who it belonged to. He grimaced and slumped against the wall.

  The crowd of onlookers silenced immediately. A moment later, the corridor had emptied again as the milling students slipped sheepishly back into their compartments, leaving James, Albus, and Scorpius. Albus had a handful of Scorpius' robes. Scorpius still had his wand in his hand. He tried to slip it surreptitiously into his robes.

  Merlin rolled his eyes slowly. "So," he said in his low, rumbling voice, "can any of you tell me in which direction it went?"

  3. The Sorting

  "You can't take ten points from Gryffindor before we even get to school!" James insisted, trotting to keep up with Merlin's massive stride. Albus followed, glancing back angrily.

  "Deducting points from the offender's house is the preferred method of discipline at Hogwarts, Mr. Potter," Merlin said distractedly. "I asked you to guard the Borley. And not to allow any magic to be used in its presence. Failing that, you were to at least point me in the direction of its escape. I'd not be fulfilling my duties as Headmaster if I didn't mete out some form of discipline for your complete disregard of my direction."

  "But Scorpius did the magic!" James insisted, jumping in front of the Headmaster and forcing him to stop. "It's not my fault he's a hotheaded git! I did everything I could to stop him!"

  Merlin was scanning the corridor slowly. "Did you truly do everything you could, Mr. Potter?"

  James threw up his hands. "Well, I suppose I could have sat on Albus to prevent him from attacking the bloody loudmouth!"

  Merlin nodded, and then looked down at James, giving him his full attention for the first time. "It is true, what they say, Mr. Potter: I come from a much different age. When I give instruction, I do not do so lightly. It will behoove you to remember that a lack of effort in carrying out those instructions goes much poorer with me than an excess of effort. Do you understand?"

  James worked through the sentence in his head, nodding slightly. He glanced up at the Headmaster and shook his head.

  "It means," Merlin replied slowly, "that I expect you to do everything within your power to carry out my requests. If sitting on your brother might have helped, then next time, I expect you to do exactly that. The Borley has escaped, and more importantly, your negligence has allowed it to gain power. It will not be as easy to transfix next time. And you should be aware that, up until a few minutes ago, it was relatively harmless."

  Merlin's lowered brow and glittering eyes made the point very clearly. James still felt unjustly accused, but he nodded his understanding.

  "What is it?" Albus asked. "This Borley thing."

  Merlin turned away, half dismissing the boys. "They are a form of Shade: shadow creatures. They are purely magical beings, and as such, they feed on magic. They'll taunt young or foolish wizards into using magic on them so that they might feed and grow. When they are tiny, they are harmless. As they grow…"

  James looked around the compartment, following Merlin. "What do they grow into?"

  "I believe," Merlin said gravely, "that you call them 'Dementors'."

  Both James and Albus knew about Dementors. James shuddered.

  "I think I saw this same Borley a week ago, back at my grandparents' house," James commented. "And then later, at the eye doctor's. It made a horrible mess, but a few minutes later, when the doctor came into the room, the mess had vanished. Everything was back to normal. I thought I'd imagined it."

  "You didn't imagine it," Merlin said, stopping at the end of the corridor and turning. "The Borleys come from a realm outside of history. They can manipulate tiny pockets of time, bunching minutes together like a wrinkle in a rug and then poking directly through them. You saw its actions, so you remembered them even after it leapt back in time and undid them."

  Albus screwed up his face in concentration. He shook his head. "But why would it do that?"

  "It's a defensive reflex," Merlin said curtly. "They use it to cover their tracks. It's somewhat akin to a squid squirting ink to confuse its enemy."

  "Confused me all right," James nodded.

  "So if you can't catch them using magic," Albus asked, "how do you catch them? What do you do with them after you, er, transfix them? You said you needed to go get something. Is it in that bag?"

  "Please return to your compartment, boys," Merlin ordered, turning and opening his own compartment. He shouldered the large, black bag. "We will be arriving at the station soon. You should get into your robes."

  "Yeah, but—" Albus began but was silenced by the closing of the compartment door. The windows were smoked, blocking any view of the interior.

  "Well, that was educational," Albus commented as they retraced their steps back along the train's corridors.

  James said nothing. He felt rankled by the way he'd been held responsible for the escape of the Borley. How could Merlin have blamed him and allowed Scorpius to get away without even a stern look? James had been looking forward to the start of the school year partly because he had a sort of rapport with Merlin, the new Headmaster. After all, James had been inadvertently responsible for the famous wizard's return from the distant past. Also, they had worked together at the end of the last term to thwart a cunning plot to cause a war between the Muggle and magical worlds. And yet, even before their arrival at Hogwarts, James seemed to have gotten on Merlin's bad side.

  As he and Albus returned to their compartment, James remembered the words Rose had said at the beginning of their trip: a wizard as powerful as Merlin could be all the scarier because he's not evil but just selfish.

  But of course that was ridiculous, wasn't it? Merlin wasn't selfish, just different. James knew Merlin as well as anyone did. He'd even been consulted about whether or not the famous wizard would be a good Headmaster. He wasn't dangerous. He was just from a much different time. Merlin had said so himself. He came from a much more serious, grave age. Not only was it important for James to remember that fact, it was important for him to help the rest of the students understand it as well.

  By the time Albus yanked the door to their compartment open, it had begun to rain in earnest. The windows of the train were streaked and spattered with huge drops. Ralph was asleep on his seat with his tabloid open on his chest. Rose was buried in her book, barely noticing the brothers' return. And James was becoming rather certain that this year might not be quite as fun as he'd first thought.

  As the light began to fade from t
he day and the rain finally abated, James, Albus, and Ralph dug their robes out of their satchels. Both James and Albus' robes were rather sadly wrinkled. Rose looked up from her book and clucked her tongue at them.

  "Haven't you two ever learned how to fold your clothes?"

  "Boys don't learn things like that," Albus said, trying to smooth out the front of his robe with his hands. "We learn cool things. Secret boy things that I'm not even allowed to tell you about. Girls get stuck learning how to pack clothes so their husbands look good when they go out to their jobs."

  "I'm not even going to respond to that," Rose said, shaking her head sadly. "I only hope your sister is learning her lessons better than you did. The son of a famous woman Quidditch player should know better."

  Ralph raised his eyebrows. "I think I know an Anti-Wrinkling Spell. You want me to try it out?"

  "No thanks, Ralph," James said quickly, "no offense, but I still remember you burning a bald stripe on Victoire's head last year."

  "That was a Disarming Spell," Ralph said defensively. "My wand is a little sensitive about those. The problem isn't getting them to work but keeping them from working too well."

  "Hmm!" Rose said pointedly, "I wonder why that might be?"

  "So you really tackled him, eh?" Ralph said to Albus, reverting to a former topic.

  "Knocked him clean off his feet," James said, nudging his brother. "It was pretty good even if it did get me into trouble."

  "You need to learn some self-control, Albus," Rose said, finally putting her book aside. "He may be hard to like, but you are at Hogwarts now. You can't go around tackling everyone who says something you don't like."

  "Something I don't like?" Albus said, glaring at Rose. "Did you miss the part where he insulted our dead granddad? There's such a thing as honor, you know! I'll do it again if he so much as looks at me sideways."

  "I didn't say you shouldn't retaliate, Albus," Rose said meaningfully. "I just said we're at Hogwarts now. You retaliate with magic."

  "Yikes," James said, laughing a little nervously. "The apple really fell far from the tree with you, Rosie."

  Rose looked hurt. "I may be my mum's daughter, but I'll have you remember that I'm a Weasley, too."

  Albus grimaced. "Well, I can't do any real magic yet. Besides, it felt so good to knock him down."

  Rose shot James a serious look. "Then I hope you're getting your bum in gear. Looks like you'll be spending a lot of the year sitting on your little brother."

  "He's his own problem from now on," James said. "Besides, Scorpius deserved it. That stupid twit was trying to Stun Albus. His parents have been teaching him curses already. It's a good thing Albus has a good reach."

  "Well, all I can say is I'm going to be doing some research on this Borley creature," Rose said as the train slowed, entering Hogsmeade station.

  Albus raised his eyebrows in mock surprise. "You mean there's a magical creature you haven't learned about already?"

  "Sounds like trouble to me," Ralph admitted. "If Merlin said the thing had turned dangerous, I'd guess it's definitely something to look out for."

  James zipped his satchel and slipped it over his shoulders. "I just want to know why it's been following me around. Why'd it pick me?"

  "Obviously, it thought it could trick you into using magic on it," Rose reasoned. "It almost worked too."

  "That's why it ran away when you threatened it at the doctor's office," Ralph added, raising his eyebrows. "You said you told it you were a wizard, but that you didn't have your wand with you. It realized there was no point in making a mess if you weren't going to zap it, so it covered its tracks by jumping back a few minutes and undoing everything."

  "Yeah, well, aren't you all brilliant?" James grumbled. "I'd like to see how you lot would've handled it if you'd been there. Besides, it was Scorpius and Albus that finally allowed the thing to get a little magical snack and turn all scary."

  "Don't blame me," Albus said, still trying to press the wrinkles out of his robes with his hands. "If you'd have attacked Scorpius with me, you could've disarmed him before anything happened. I bet old Merlin would've approved of that."

  A few minutes later, the train shuddered to a stop. All around there came the sound of opening doors, footsteps, and chattering, excited voices as the train's occupants filled the corridors, streaming toward the exits. James, Albus, Rose, and Ralph gathered their things and joined the throng.

  As they climbed out onto the wet platform of Hogsmeade station, James caught sight of Hagrid standing under a nearby lamppost, barely fitting under it.

  "First-years," he called in his great, gruff voice. "First-years, this way! The rest of yeh go an' find the carriages out front. If yeh don' know where to go, follow the ones that do. Step lively now."

  James grabbed Albus' robe, stopping him.

  "Hey," he said, quietly, "I mean it. Don't worry about the Sorting, little brother."

  "I'm not, actually," Albus replied, shrugging. "I remembered something Dad told me back at platform nine and three-quarters."

  James blinked. "Well, good. What'd he say?"

  "He said that the Sorting Hat will take my wishes into account. He said that if I really don't want to, the Hat won't make me be a Slytherin."

  "You, a Slytherin?" Scorpius' voice sneered behind them. James rolled his eyes. He should've known the little squid was the spying sort.

  "Get away from us, Scorpius," Albus said, gritting his teeth.

  "Or what?" the boy grinned. "Are you going to risk getting your brother into trouble again by rushing me? That only works once, Potter."

  Albus nodded. "I'll do that and more if you don't watch yourself."

  "That's why you'd never make it into Slytherin," Scorpius said airily, turning to walk away. "As you saw on the train, Slytherins fight with their brains and a wand. Your sort has to rely on brute force. But what do you expect from a son of Harry Potter?"

  Albus tensed to lunge at Scorpius again, but James grabbed his shoulder. "Don't you dare go after him again, you dolt. That's just what he wants you to do."

  "He's ragging on Dad!" Albus hissed.

  "He's trying to provoke you. Save it for later. You've got the whole school year to hate him."

  "That's right, Potter," Scorpius said as he turned back, still grinning. "Listen to your brother. He knows what happens when you go up against a Slytherin. Did he tell you what happened when he tried to steal the Slytherin Captain's Quidditch broom last year? Nasty business, that. I hear you ended up facedown in the mud."

  James let go of Albus' shoulder, his face flushing with anger. "You just want to watch it, Malfoy. We're not afraid of the Slytherins."

  "Then you really are as foolish as you look," Scorpius said, his grin vanishing. "A Malfoy is back in the House of Slytherin again. We don't play politics. You best watch yourselves." He glared at the two brothers, then turned, his cloak flapping, and disappeared into the throng.

  "Arrogant little nutter, isn't he?" Albus said. James glanced at him and grinned.

  "See you in the Great Hall, Al."

  "Yeah," Albus replied, nodding toward the carriages. "Have fun with the Thestrals. Don't let them frighten you too much."

  "You're the one who has nightmares about them, not me," James said, rolling his eyes. "Like I told you, they're invisible."

  Albus simply looked at James, a curious expression on his face.

  "What?" James asked.

  "Nothing," Albus said quickly. "I was just thinking of something else Dad said on the platform, right before I got on the train."

  James stopped and furrowed his brow. "What'd he say?"

  Albus shrugged. "He said James might have a little surprise with the Thestrals."

  With that, Albus turned, shouldered his pack, and walked toward Hagrid at the far end of the platform.

  They weren't invisible; at least not completely. James hung back, sincerely apprehensive to get too close to the horrible-looking, semi-transparent creatures hitched to the carriage
s. The nearest one beat its great leathery wings slowly. It turned to look at him, its blank white eyes bulging grotesquely.

  "You can see them, eh?" a voice asked. James glanced up, startled, and saw the stout face and red cheeks of his friend Damien Damascus. Damien was also looking at the Thestrals, his brow slightly furrowed. "I started seeing them at the beginning of my fourth year. Shocked me good, I'll tell you. I thought the carriages were just magical, that they pulled themselves up to the castle. Noah took me aside and told me all about the Thestrals. He'd been seeing them since his second year. Come on, they're harmless. They're actually kind of cool when you get used to them."

  James threw his bag into the carriage and climbed into the rear seat.

  "Hi, James," Sabrina said as she heaved herself into the front seat. She still wore a quill in her wavy red hair. It bounced jauntily as she turned to look over her shoulder. "So what was the drama in the train? Merlin looked like he was going to shoot death bolts from his eyes."

  James ran his hand through his hair wearily. "Don't remind me. I already got ten points taken from Gryffindor."

  "Not the best way to start the year off," Petra Morganstern said, joining Sabrina on the front seat. "That kind of thing can get your fellow Gryffindors a bit peeved. Fortunately, we seventh-years are above being petty about such things."

  "Sabrina and I are sixth-years," Damien pointed out. "And I don't know about her, but I'm still as petty as they come. I haven't forgiven you lot for losing us the House Cup last year. To Hufflepuff, of all things."

  "You'll forgive us for trying to save the world," Petra said lightly, arranging her robes on the seat. "Besides, I recall you were involved in that escapade as well."

  "That may be, but unlike the rest of you, my involvement was never proved. That's why our dear departed Ted saw fit to make me the official Gremlins scapegoat. Allegations just roll right off me."

  Sabrina nodded seriously. "I'm glad you found a good use for that oily hide of yours."