James Potter and the Hall of Elders' Crossing [1]

by G. Norman Lippert

  On the way to the common room, James decided to take a detour to the hospital wing to collect his backpack. Philia Goyle and Murdock were no longer guarding the doors, of course, but James was surprised to see Hagrid crammed onto one of the benches nearby, flipping through a thick magazine called Beasts and Boondocks. He glanced up, closing the magazine.

  “James, good to see yeh,” he said warmly, apparently trying to keep his voice quiet. “Heard yeh was back safe and sound. Seen your father, then, I’d wager?”

  “Yeah, just left him,” James answered, peeking into the cracked doors of the hospital wing. “What are you doing here, Hagrid?”

  “Well, it’s obvious, isn’t it? I’m keepin’ watch, I am. Nobody in nor out ‘less it’s by permission o’ the Headmistress. Needs his rest and ‘cuperation, after all he’s been through.”

  “Who?” James asked, suddenly interested. He peered more closely into the crack between the doors. There was a shape lying still on one of the beds, but James couldn’t make out any features. “Why, Professor Jackson, a’course!” Hagrid said, standing and joining James by the doors. He peeked over James’ head with one beady black eye. “Haven’t you heard? Showed up in the courtyard ‘alf an hour ago, looking quite a fright,” he whispered. “Caused no end o’ commotion when the students out there caught sight of ‘im. We brought ‘im in here straight away and I was given the post of keepin’ an eye on the doors while Madam Curio ‘tended to ‘im.”

  James looked up at Hagrid. “He’s injured?” “That’s what we thought at first,” Hagrid said, stepping back. “But Madam Curio says he’s all right except for a few broken ribs, some burns on ‘is arms, a nasty bruise on the skull and about a million cuts and scratches. He’s been in a duel, she’s says, and a long one, at that. Happened during the night, out in the forest. That’s all we could get out of ‘im before he conked out.”

  “A duel?” James repeated, knitting his brow. “But Delacroix broke his wand!”

  “Did she?” Hagrid said, impressed. “Now, why’d she go and do a thing like that, then?”

  “She was the one he was dueling against, Hagrid,” James said tiredly. “He and she… look, I’ll explain later. But I saw her break his wand in two pieces. I saw the bits. He left them behind.” “Weerrrll…,” Hagrid said, resuming his seat and producing a long, pained groan from the bench. “He’s American, y’ know. They like to carry more‘n one wand around. Comes from all that old Wild West lore and all. They sticks ‘em in their boots and up their sleeves and hide ‘em in their canes and such. Everybody knows that, don’t they?”

  James peered into the crack of the hospital doors again, but he still couldn’t make anything of the shape on the mattress. “Sorry, Professor,” he said quietly. “But I hope you gave her royal hell.”

  “What’s that, James?” Hagrid said, glancing up.

  “I just came for my backpack,” James answered quickly. “I left it in there last night.” “I don’t s’pose yeh might want to come back later for it, would yeh?” Hagrid asked earnestly. “Only I’ve got my orders, here. Nobody in nor out. The Headmistress thinks that whoever attacked Jackson might come looking for him. Can’t rule out it was that crazy nutter pretending to be Merlin.”

  “It was Delacroix, Hagrid. But yeah. I can come back later. Good work.” Hagrid nodded, and then flopped his magazine open onto his lap again. James turned and headed back the way he’d come. The Gryffindor common room was empty. The fire in the grate had burned down to red embers, but it had warmed up enough outside that it wasn’t necessary anyway. In fact, as James headed up the stairs to the sleeping quarters, he felt a gust of cool, fresh air push past him. Someone had apparently left a window open upstairs. He was just wondering if he should shut it or not when he topped the landing and saw Merlin reclined comfortably on his bed.

  “Here is my little counselor, after all,” Merlin said, looking up and lowering James’ Technomancy textbook.

  James glanced at the open window next to his bed, then back to Merlin. “You,” he said, his mind boggling slightly. “Did you…” He pointed uncertainly at the window.

  “Did I fly in through it?” Merlin said, laying the book aside almost reverently. “Lofted upon the wings of my skyborne brethren? What do you think, James Potter?”

  James closed his mouth, realizing that this was a kind of test. He pushed his first thoughts aside and looked around.

  “No,” he answered. “No, actually, I think you just opened the window because you like the air.” “I like the scents of the air, especially this time of year,” the great wizard replied, looking toward the open window. “The essence of growth and life comes from the earth now, filling the sky. Even the nonmagicked feel it. They say that ‘love’ is in the air in springtime. It’s close enough to the truth not to matter, but it isn’t love of a man and a woman. It is the love of dirt for root, and leaf for sunlight, and yes, wing for air.”

  “But you wanted me to believe that you came in through the window, didn’t you?” James said, feeling carefully emboldened.

  Merlin smiled slightly and studied James. “Nine-tenths of magic happens in the mind, James Potter. The greatest trick of all is to know what your audience expects to see, and making sure they do.”

  James approached another bed and sat on it. “Is this what you came to talk about? Or are you here because you got my message?” “I have been privy to many things since you last saw me,” the wizard answered. “I have moved in and out, to and fro. I have conversed with many old friends, reacquainted myself with the earth and the beasts and the air. I have met very strange things in the forest, articles of this age, and learned much of the way the world is in this time. I have studied you yourself and your people.”

  James smiled slowly, realizing something. “You never left us! You vanished from the top of the tower, let us think you flew off with the birds, but you didn’t go anywhere, did you? You just turned invisible!”

  “You have rather a talent for looking beyond the flat of the mirror, James Potter,” Merlin said, his voice low and his face impassive. “But I will admit that I did hear everything your Professors Franklyn and Longbottom, and the Pendragon, and yes, your father, said about me. I was amused and angered that they presumed to know me so. And yet I am no slave to arrogance. I asked myself if what they supposed was true. I left then, and I visited my old lands. I went in and out, to and fro. I studied my own deep soul as Franklyn supposed I should. And I found there was a shadow of truth in their words. A shadow…”

  Merlin paused for a long moment. James decided not to say anything, but simply watched the wizard. His face remained utterly immobile, but his eyes were distant. After no less than two minutes, Merlin spoke again.

  “But a shadow was not enough to bring me back to the mire of double-speak and confused loyalties that pass for battle-lines in this benighted age. I was far-off, exploring, seeking space and land and uninterrupted earth, already sinking into the deep language of the wind and the rain, when there was a new note in the song of the trees. Your message, James Potter.”

  James was amazed to see that there was finally emotion on the enormous man’s face. He looked at James nakedly, his eyes suddenly wet. James felt shame for the man’s raw expression of anguish. He even felt a little guilty for his own words, words that had apparently, shockingly, pierced this enormous man’s hidden heart. Then, as if the anguish had never been there, the massive, stony face composed itself. It was not a matter of masking the emotion, James realized. He was simply witnessing the workings of emotion in a man whose culture was utterly alien to him, where the heart was so close to the surface that deep emotion could pass over the face shamelessly and completely, like a cloud obscuring the sun but for a moment.

  “Thus, James Potter,” the wizard said, standing slowly, so that he seemed to fill the room. “I return. I am at your service. My soul does indeed require this. I have learned much of this world during my travels this day, and I love little of it, but there is a prese
nt evil, even though it is masked with duplicity and etiquette. Perhaps defeating that evil is secondary even to stripping that evil of its façade of respectability.”

  James grinned and jumped up as well, not sure whether to shake Merlin’s hand, hug him, or bow. He settled for pumping his fist once in the air and proclaiming, “Yes! Er, thank you, Merlin. Er, Merlinus. Mr. Ambrosius?”

  The wizard simply smiled, his ice-blue eyes twinkling. “So,” James said, “what do we do? I mean, we only have a few hours before Prescott and his crew gather to film the school and everything. I guess I have to explain all that to you. Sheesh, this is going to take a while.”

  “I am Merlin, James Potter,” the wizard said, sighing. “I have already learned as much as I need to know about this world and how it works. You’d be quite surprised, methinks, to learn how much the trees know of your culture. Mr. Prescott is not your problem. We simply need a council of allies to aid us.”

  “All right,” James said, plopping back onto the bed. “What sort of allies do we need?” Merlin’s eyes narrowed. “We require heroes of wit and cleverness, unafraid to foil convention in order to defend a higher allegiance. Battle skills matter not. What we need at this moment, James Potter, are scoundrels with honor.”

  James nodded succinctly. “I know just the group. Scoundrels with honor. Got it.”

  “Then let us have at it, my young counselor,” Merlin said, smiling a little frighteningly. “Lead on.”

  “So,” James said as he led Merlin down out of the portrait hole, “do you think we’ll win?”

  “Mr. Potter,” Merlin said breezily, stepping out onto the landing and placing his fists on his hips, “you won the moment I decided to join you.”

  “Is that the famous Merlin pride talking?” James asked tentatively. “Like I said,” Merlin replied, turning to follow James with his long, slow stride, “nine-tenths of magic happens in the mind. The last tenth, Mr. Potter, is pure and unadulterated bluster. Take note of that and you’ll do very well.”

  After the bright, misty morning, the day progressed into a hazy stillness of unseasonable warmth. Headmistress McGonagall had insisted that classes continue, even during the tour of Martin J. Prescott and his entourage, but in spite of her order, dozens of students had gathered in the courtyard to witness the arrival of the Muggle reporter’s crew. Near the front of the group, James and Harry stood side by side. Only a few feet away, Tabitha Corsica and her Slytherin compatriots were looking decidedly bright-eyed and eager. On the top of the main steps, Headmistress McGonagall was flanked by Miss Sacarhina and Mr. Recreant. Martin Prescott, on the lowest step, glanced at his watch.

  “Are you sure they can get their vehicles in through the way you described, Miss Sacarhina?” he said, glancing up to where she stood, squinting in the sunlight. “They will be driving vehicles with wheels, as I’ve said. You know. Wheels. There aren’t any magical mud bogs or bridges with trolls living under them or anything, are there?”

  Sacarhina was about to answer when the sound of automobile engines became audible in the near distance. Prescott jumped and spun on the spot, craning to catch a glimpse of his crew. James, standing near the front of the crowd of students with his dad, thought Headmistress McGonagall was handling herself pretty well, considering everything. She merely pressed her lips tightly together as the huge vehicles rumbled into the courtyard. There were two of them, and James recognized them as the sort of enormous off-road trucks Zane called ‘Landrovers’. The first one ground to a halt directly in front of the steps. All four doors popped open and men began to emerge, blinking in the hazy sunlight and carrying large leather bags covered in thick pockets. Prescott scampered down among the men, calling them by name, pointing and yelling directions.

  “I want lights and reflectors on the left side of the steps, angled toward the doors. That’s where I’ll do my final commentary and conduct interviews. Eddie, you have the chairs? No? All right, that’s fine, we’ll stand. Sitting might seem too, you know, established, anyway. We want to keep the feeling of exposé alive the whole time. Which cameras do you have, Vince? I want the thirty-five-millimeter handycam on everything. Double film the whole shoot with it, got it? We’ll edit the footage in here and there for that hidden camera feel. Perfect. Where’s Greta with the makeup?”

  The crew completely ignored the assembly of students and the Headmistress and Ministry officials on the steps. All around the trucks was the well-oiled bustle of men assembling cameras, attaching electrical cords to lights, stringing microphones onto long poles, and saying “Test,” and “Check,” into smaller microphones meant to be clipped to Prescott’s shirt. James noticed a few individuals moving among the group that didn’t seem preoccupied with the technical preparations. They were dressed rather better and seemed curious about the castle and the grounds. One of them, an old, balding, friendly-looking man in a light grey suit, ambled up the stairs toward the Headmistress.

  “Quite the fuss, isn’t it?” he proclaimed, glancing back toward the trucks. He bowed slightly toward the Headmistress. “Randolph Finney, detective, British Special Police. Not quite retired, but close enough not to matter. Mr. Prescott may have mentioned me? He made rather a big deal of my being here, it seems. Between you and me, I suspect he’d hoped for someone a bit more, er, inspiring, if you take my meaning. So this is some sort of… school, I understand?”

  “Indeed it is, Mr. Finney,” Sacarhina said, stretching out her hand. “My name is Brenda Sacarhina, head of the Department of Ambassadorial Relations for the Ministry of Magic. Today is going to be a very interesting day for you, I suspect.”

  “Ministry of Magic. How perfectly quaint,” Finney said, shaking Sacarhina’s hand rather distantly. His gaze hadn’t strayed from the Headmistress. “And who might you be, Madam?”

  “This is--,” Sacarhina replied, but McGonagall, long accustomed to overriding unwelcome noises, spoke easily over her.

  “Minerva McGonagall, Mr. Finney. Pleased to meet you. I am Headmistress of this school.”

  “Charmed, charmed!” Finney said, taking McGonagall’s hand reverently and bowing again. “Headmistress McGonagall, I am delighted to meet you.”

  “Please, do call me Minerva,” McGonagall said, and James saw just the slightest pained look pass over her face. “Indeed. And call me Randolph, I insist.” Finney smiled at the Headmistress for several seconds, then cleared his throat and adjusted his glasses. He turned on the spot, taking in the castle and grounds. “I’d never known there was a school in this area, to tell you the truth. Especially one as magnificent as this. Why, it should be on the register of historic places and no mistake, Minerva. What do you call it?”

  Sacarhina began to answer, but nothing came out. She made a tiny noise, coughed a little, and then covered her mouth daintily with one hand, a look of mild puzzlement on her face.

  “Hogwarts, Randolph,” McGonagall answered, smiling carefully. “Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.”

  “You don’t say?” Finney replied, glancing at her. “How wonderfully whimsical.”

  “We like to think so.” “Detective Finney!” Prescott suddenly called, trotting up the steps, his face covered in pancake makeup and tissue paper stuffed into the collar of his shirt. “I see you’ve already met the Headmistress. Miss Sacarhina and Mr. Recreant are here to conduct the tour, of course. The Headmistress is just along for, er, color, as it were.”

  “And she performs her role quite well, doesn’t she?” Finney said, turning back to McGonagall with a grin. James saw that the Headmistress was refraining rather heroically from rolling her eyes.

  “You have met Miss Sacarhina and Mr. Recreant, then?” Prescott plowed on, moving between Finney and McGonagall. “Miss Sacarhina, perhaps you will tell Detective Finney a bit of what it is you do here?”

  Sacarhina smiled charmingly and stepped forward, threading her arm through Finney’s in an attempt to lead him away from Headmistress McGonagall.

  “…” Sacarhina said. S
he paused, then closed her mouth and tried to look down at it, which produced a rather odd expression. Finney regarded her with a slightly furrowed brow. “Are you quite all right, Miss?” “Miss Sacarhina is feeling just a tad under the weather, Detective Finney,” Recreant said, adopting an ingratiating grin that was no match for Sacarhina’s practiced smile. “Do allow me. This is a school of magic, as the Headmistress has already mentioned. It is, in fact, a school for witches and wizards. We--” Recreant’s next word seemed to catch in his throat. He stood with his mouth open, staring at Finney and looking rather like an asphyxiating fish. After a long, awkward moment, he closed his mouth. He tried to smile again, showing far too many large, uneven teeth.

  Finney’s brow was still furrowed. He disengaged from Sacarhina’s arm and glanced between both her and Recreant. “Yes? Spit it out, then, why don’t you? Are you both ill?” Prescott was very nearly hopping from foot to foot. “Perhaps we should just begin the tour, then, shall we? Of course, I know my way around the castle a bit now. We can begin as soon as… as soon as…” He realized he still had tissues jammed into the collar of his shirt. He grabbed at them and stuffed them into his pants pockets. “Miss Sacarhina, you had mentioned that there would be someone else? An expert in explaining things to the uninitiated? Perhaps now would be a good time to introduce this person?”

  Sacarhina craned her head forward, her eyes bulging very slightly and her mouth open. After a few seconds of strained silence, the Headmistress cleared her throat and gestured toward the open courtyard. “Here he is now, I suspect. You know how Mr. Hubert tends to be rather late sometimes. Poor man will forget his own head one of these days. Still, he is a genius in his own way, isn’t he, Brenda?”