Morton gave a forced laugh. "Some other time, Mirielle. I'm busy, apparently."
"Wait a minute," Ralph frowned, wheeling Comstock around another corner. "You're popular here?"
"It's a little something called personality," Comstock declared with a sniff. "You lot could learn a thing or two. Which reminds me," he added, turning to Rose. "Your cousin Dominique says she still wants that hairbrush back you borrowed Christmas before last."
"If we survive tonight," Rose rolled her eyes, "It'll be first thing on my to-do list."
James spied the Advanced Arithmancy classroom ahead, beyond a pair of high, bevelled doors. "Can you do it, Comstock?" he asked, dragging the boy forward at a trot. "Can you send us back to Hogwarts using those giant abacuses?"
"Abaci," both Rose and Comstock corrected simultaneously. They glanced at each with mutual irritation. "Short answer," Comstock went on, "No. You don't understand a thing about how it works. It would be daft to even try."
"I thought you were a genius at this?" James demanded irritably. "Don't start telling me now that it won't work."
Comstock jerked his elbow away from James' fist. "I can't send you there because the support arithmaticians don't do the sending!" he exclaimed irritably. "That's just not how it works! What's the big rush, anyway? Why are you lot even here?"
Rose, who'd been pacing briskly ahead of the three boys, came to an abrupt stop in the corridor. She gathered herself for a brief moment, hands raised slightly in front of her in a calming gesture, and then spun around to face Comstock.
"You were there in the forest the night we found the dead warlock. Yes?"
Comstock blinked at her, obviously reluctant to revisit the memory. "Erm… yes. Not to put too fine a point on it, but it was me what found him."
Rose nodded curtly. "He was a very bad wizard, and he was working with an even worse wizard. Together they created a sort of super weapon that's going to kill a whole load of people in, oh, about twentyfive minutes. Our parents are among them." She glared at Comstock, letting the full weight of her gaze bore into him like a drill. "If we get back immediately, we may be able to stop it. If not, well, the whole world is likely about to drop straight off into global war and chaos. So. Morton. Can you help us get back to Hogwarts? Or can't you?"
Morton returned Rose's gaze blankly, seemingly frozen in place. James waited as patiently as he could. Fleetingly, he wished he had his wand with him, if only so he could send a quick stinging hex into the boy's ample backside, shocking him into action.
Finally, glancing from Rose, to James, then Ralph, Comstock drew a quick, resolute sigh. "What we waiting for, then? We've got some abaci to man."
James nearly laughed with relief. Together, the four students broke into a run.
"So how does it work, then?" Ralph asked haltingly as he jogged.
"The base concept is marvellously simple," Comstock answered, his voice echoing in the corridor along with his heavy footsteps. "Have you lot heard of this thing called technomancy?"
"We've taken a class or two," Rose prodded. "Go on!"
"Well it turns out," Comstock panted, warming to the subject, "that the entire bleedin' universe is held together by magic. It's this thing called the Collective Constant, and it connects every bit of everything with every other bit of everything else! Nothing's independent! If you manipulate one bit of the Collective Constant, every other bit is manipulated right along with it!"
Rose squinted thoughtfully as she ran. "It's almost like the entire universe is connected by a giant Protean charm…"
"Fascinating," James exclaimed breathlessly as they pelted into the Advanced Arithmatics classroom, which was dark except for the golden glow of the corridor beyond. He stumbled to a halt amidst the hulking rows of abaci. "But how does that take us to Hogwarts?"
"Well that's the really cool bit," Comstock said, passing James and gesturing toward the dark abaci. "It doesn't!"
Ralph shook his head irritably. Running always made him grumpy. "You're not making any sense!"
"Nothing takes you to Hogwarts," Comstock said, a note of triumph in his voice, "because you bring Hogwarts to you!"
Rose's eyes widened excitedly. "Somehow, we disengage from the Collective Constant!" she said in an awed voice. "Like stepping off a merry-go-round! Except the merry-go-round is all the rest of the universe!"
Comstock nodded eagerly. "Then, you just move the Constant around you until the universe is where you need it to be!"
"This," Ralph said with feeling, "is completely and absolutely mental."
"It's not mental," James sighed impatiently. "It's just quantum."
"It's both," Ralph insisted.
"We don't have any choice," Rose overrode him. "We have to try it. Morton, what do we do?"
"Simple, really," Comstock said, and then seemed to change him mind. "Actually, not simple at all. Mind-bogglingly complex, really. But fortunately for you three that's my bit. See, once you disengage from the Collective Constant, you just need to move the universe around you until it's where you want it to be. Step back into the Constant and bammo, bob's your uncle. Me, I have to do all the calculations on my end to keep you from turning the universe all inside out and wibbly-wobbly."
Rose looked aghast. "It can't be that dangerous! Can it?"
"So I'm overstating it just a bit," Comstock shrugged, moving in front of an abacus and cracking his knuckles. "Mostly, I'll just be keeping you lot from accidently dragging yourselves through any supermassive black holes and whatnot. Should be manageable enough since you'll be keeping it in the celestial ballpark. No flings out to Neptune. Although Professor Moreau apparently has a nice flat there."
"Are you sure you can do this by yourself?" Ralph asked sceptically.
"Are you sure you lot can find Hogwarts without a map?" Comstock replied snidely. "You do your bit, I'll do mine."
James ran a hand through his hair in exasperation. "So exactly how do we do our bit, then? How do we disengage from the… Constant… thingy?"
"There's an incantation for it," Comstock shrugged. "That's the bit I can't help you with. Takes plain old magic. I've watched Benoît practice it a hundred times. Swish around all three of you, a quick flick upwards, and 'divellere'! Nice and clear."
James turned to look at Comstock, his stomach dropping precipitously. "We need wands for this to work?"
"Well, not all of you, I suppose," Comstock frowned. "But one of you, yeah, of course. How else you going to manipulate the Constant? Your bare hands?" He sniggered.
"But we don't have our wands!" James nearly shouted.
"Well," Comstock blinked, taken aback. "What kind of magical people are you then?"
"Hold on," Ralph said, digging into the inner pocket of his robes. "I think I can help." When he withdrew his hand, he was holding his enormous wand. Its lime green tip glowed faintly in the shadows.
"Ralph!" James exclaimed, beside himself with relief. "But how…?"
"My wand was never in the trunk," Ralph grinned sheepishly. "I had it hidden behind it so I could remove the Visum Ineptio spell and unlock it. By the time Grudje confiscated the trunk, this was already in my pocket."
"But… but!" James stammered. "Then why didn't you use it on Nastasia?"
"I meant to," Ralph admitted. "I was going for it just when she stunned me."
"I really could just about kiss you right now, Ralph," Rose said seriously. "But we need to fly. What was the incantation again, Morton?"
"Divellere," Comstock repeated, pantomiming the accompanying motion. "Draw a circle around all three of you with the wand, then flick it straight up."
Ralph nodded and gathered a deep breath. James and Rose clustered as close to him as possible, one on each side. Carefully, slowly, Ralph levelled his wand and began to turn in place, shuffling his feet as he went. James and Rose shuffled with him, careful to stay in the invisible arc defined by the green point of Ralph's wand.
"It doesn't look like it's doing anything," James muttered.
"Belt up!" Rose admonished. "You'll jinx it!"
Ralph completed the circle. Then, jerking his wand straight up, he exclaimed "Divellere!"
Nothing happened, except that Comstock reached forward with both hands and shuffled half a dozen abacus beads. They clacked into place firmly. Then, without looking up at James, Rose and Ralph, he seemed to wait.
"What now?" James asked him. Strangely, Comstock seemed to ignore him. James grew anxious. "Hey! What do we do now? It didn't work! Try again?"
Comstock continued to ignore him. He stared at the beads of the abacus, studying them intently.
"I'll give it another go--" Ralph said, but as he thrust forth his wand again, the classroom sped away from them in a shocking blur of motion. Rose gasped as walls flickered past, showing micro-glimpses of life around Beauxbatons. An instant later, the entire palace itself shrank away to the size of a model, albeit a model with absolutely perfect detail, right down to the banks of glowing windows, deep blue conical roofs, streams of pencil-thin white smoke issuing from dozens of chimneys, and the moon-washed white cliff upon which the building sat. Pine trees blanketed the surrounding hills and valleys, deep blue in the darkness.
"Whatever you do," Ralph said, his teeth gritted with concentration, "Don't… look… down…"
James immediately looked down. Beneath his feet was nothing but empty space, falling away for what appeared to be hundreds of feet. A hawk wheeled far below, stitching its shadow across a dusky, shushing forest.
"Your wand," Rose whispered, sounding both terrified and giddy. "Move it again, Ralph! But… slower this time."
Gently and gingerly, Ralph prodded his wand forward about an inch. In response, the palace of Beauxbatons shrank away to a mere pinprick of pale blue, accompanied by a blast of cool night air. A blur of hills and valleys unrolled beneath James' feet. Villages, fields, ribbons of roads dotted with occasional distant headlights, all raced away, rolling over the arc of the horizon beneath a haze of distance. James' head swam with the sight. In less than a second, however, the motion slowed and ceased. Now, the three students were hovering high over a gentle coastline, dark land running away on the far side, glittering moonlit ocean directly below. Boats dotted the tiny waves, looking like waterbugs from so great a height.
"It's all in your wand," Rose breathed. She glanced aside at Ralph, her eyes bright.
Ralph lowered his gaze to his wand, trying very hard to hold it still. "So…" he said slowly. "I move us around by moving my wand…?"
"Weren't you paying any attention at all?" Rose scolded impatiently. "We're staying perfectly still! When you move your wand, you move the entire universe around us! And Comstock's keeping track of its progress and smoothing out all the wrinkles as we go! That's why he was just sitting there while we thought the spell hadn't worked. We hadn't gone anywhere yet, so he had nothing to manage!"
Ralph screwed his face up in concentration. He nodded slowly, then changed his mind and shook his head. "This whole thing is completely mental," he said again, emphatically.
"Who cares how it works," James interrupted. "We're going the wrong way. And nowhere near fast enough! We have to go back across France, up past England! Go, Ralph! Quit bodging about!"
Ralph sighed again, steeling himself. Then, in a long, swift motion, he jerked his wand backwards over his shoulder.
The world bowled away beneath them, rolling forward this time. Clouds blasted past them in great, whumping ripples. Cities sped beneath their feet in streaks of yellow light. Mountains rose up ahead and shrank away behind in mere moments. Even the moon wheeled slowly overhead, passing in and out of hazes and fogs, flickering through banks of storm clouds.
A strip of glimmering blue water rolled over the curve of the earth, dividing the dark mass of the land.
"Is that a river?" James called, raising his voice over the rushing bawl of the wind.
"It's the English Channel!" Rose cried back. "And beyond it, that's got to be London already!"
The world was slowing down beneath them, unspinning gradually.
"More, Ralph!" James prodded. "We're barely half-way!"
Ralph nodded. He took a step backward, somehow managing to remain in exactly the same place, and swept his arm back again, drawing his wand in a long, sweeping arc.
Immediately, the earth wheeled away beneath them again. The English Channel whipped past. London streaked beneath, a mere blur of lights and snarl of gridded streets, instantly replaced by open country. Small towns and villages swept below like comets, connected by looping country lanes and fat motorways, studded with lights.
"Here we come!" Rose proclaimed, pointing ahead, her hair whipping wildly about her face. Slow us down, Ralph!"
"How!?" the big boy called back shrilly.
"I don't know!" Rose said. "Just do it!"
The world spun away below, blending into foothills and craggy cliffs. Forests whickered past, covered with blankets of cool night air. Mountains rose in jagged peaks ahead, unspooling toward them with shocking speed.
James glanced aside at Ralph. "Bring us lower!" he said, pantomiming vaguely with his hands. "And slower!"
Ralph swept his wand forward again carefully, gripping it now with both hands. In response, the earth's sickening spin became a mere roll. Gradually, it seemed to sweep upwards, rising to meet them.
"Easy!" Rose shouted, hanging onto Ralph's elbow. "Careful!"
"I'm being as careful as I can!" Ralph declared tersely. "I've got the entire universe in my hands here!"
"There!" James cried, stabbing a finger forward. "That's Hogsmeade! See? There's the train tracks and everything!"
Rose nodded, forgetting her fear as familiar landmarks began to slide beneath them. "Just a little to the left, Ralph..." she instructed, calming her voice. "Right over those trees. See? There's the lake! We're almost there!"
Amazingly, Ralph seemed to be getting the hang of what he was doing. He moved his wand in gentle forward and back sweeps, tilting it slightly this way and that, as if the universe was a ball of cotton candy he was bouncing on its lime-green tip.
Hogwarts castle heaved into view, rising over the trees of the Forbidden Forest. Hagrid's hut drifted below, followed by grassy grounds, awash in moonlight. The windows of the great hall glittered like molten gold.
"Brr!" James declared suddenly, hugging himself as the castle swept closer, filling his vision. "Why's it so cold?"
Rose glanced around, her face pale in the night air. "Yeah," she said in a worried voice. "This is no summer chill. I think it's… it is! Look! It's actually snowing!"
She pointed. Sure enough, as Ralph manipulated the castle beneath them, turning it gently, flecks of white blurred past, tossed like confetti in an icy wind.
"Something's really wrong," James muttered as the world slowed, rising to meet them. "This is bad…"
"Should we go straight into the Great Hall?" Ralph asked, still concentrating on his wand, nudging the universe with gentler and gentler motions. "Only it's pretty hard to park this thing on a dime, you know…"
"No!" Rose declared suddenly. "Not yet! We need to make one stop on the way."
"What do you mean 'make a stop'?" James demanded. "Like Comstock said, this isn't a cab!"
"Just trust me, James," Rose insisted. She pointed to the right, toward Gryffindor Tower. "Over there! The east turret…"
"You want us to stop in the girls' dormitory?" Ralph clarified with a nervous frown.
"Oh good grief," Rose declared tersely. "Close your eyes if you think you must. No one will be there at this hour. I need something."
Ralph gave a resigned sigh and steered the universe in a wide arc, drawing Gryffindor Tower toward them. In mere seconds it filled their view so that James could see every stone, every line of mortar. Then, with a cold shudder, Ralph teased the Tower over them. They passed through the stone walls and found themselves in a circular room, thankfully unoccupied. Beds lined the walls, mostly unmade, surrounding a neat iron stove.
"Looks just like the boys' dormitory," Ralph commented.
"Only I expected it to be… neater, somehow," James added.
Rose rolled her eyes. "I'll just be a moment."
"This better be important," James sighed tersely.
Rose stepped carefully away from Ralph. As she did, she seemed to pass out of a sort of invisible boundary. She stumbled for a moment, as if the orientation of the universe was slightly different from that of Ralph's conjured bubble. Recovering quickly, however, she dashed to one of the beds (it was neatly made, James noticed) and knelt before the trunk at its footboard. She opened it, rummaged in it briefly, then straightened and hurried back toward James and Ralph. When she neared them, she stopped and blinked vaguely.
"Where are you?" she whispered, waving her left hand through the air as if feeling for something. In her right hand was a small, powder blue brocade purse.
"We're right here!" James rasped back. She did not respond to his voice, any more than Comstock had when James had called to him earlier. Apparently, the same magic that disengaged them from the universe and allowed them to fly through walls like ghosts also made them undetectable to anyone outside the spell's influence.
James reached forward, careful to keep the rest of his body in the sphere cast by Ralph's wand, and grasped Rose's groping hand. She recoiled instinctively, and then allowed him to tug her inside. She stumbled again, reorienting to the spell's unique gravity.
"What's that, then?" James demanded, pointing at the purse in Rose's hand.
"Never you mind," she hissed impatiently. "Ralph, take us down to the Great Hall! We've got less than twenty minutes, if Grudje-- or the Collector, or Avior or whoever he was-- wasn't lying about when the Morrigan Web was to go off."
James heaved a quick sigh and nodded at Ralph. "Let's go," he concurred.
"What we going to do when we get there, then?" Ralph asked, sweeping his wand gently forward again, nudging back the universe. The girls' dormitory swept away, replaced with the stone walls of Gryffindor Tower and its many nested turrets.
"I don't know," James replied honestly. "I guess we'll do what we always do."
James Potter and the Morrigan Web Page 73