James Potter and the Curse of the Gatekeeper jp-1

by G. Norman Lippert

  “Excellent!” Noah proclaimed, his voice echoing from further ahead. There was a distant splash. “The passage beyond is completely intact! There’s a little water to slosh through, and some seriously busy spiders, but the wandlight scares them away. I’d guess this goes straight on through from here.”

  “Are we going now?” Ralph asked. “I didn’t really come prepared for any, er, journeys.”

  “Don’t get anxious, Ralphinator,” Noah answered, scrambling back around the former cave-in. “We’ll go the rest of the way later. It’s just good to know the passageway’s back open again.”

  “And we’re the first to find it,” Gennifer added.

  “So don’t you lot tell anyone,” Damien finished, stabbing a finger in the air and looking severely at James, Rose, and Ralph. “Especially you, Mr. Slytherin.”

  “Easy, Damascus,” Noah said. “Ralph’s loyal to the Gremlin cause. Come on, let’s get back out of here.”

  “So where does the passage go to?” Rose asked as they retraced their steps.

  “Our best guess is that it goes to Hogsmeade,” Gennifer answered. “So you might get your wish about sneaking in a visit this year.”

  “The passage goes to Hogsmeade?” Ralph replied, a bit irked about Damien’s lack of confidence. “Where does it come up? Couldn’t somebody just trace it back to Hogwarts?”

  “Worried that your dad missed another weak spot in the school’s ‘security perimeter’?” Damien asked, smiling crookedly. “Don’t worry. Old Daddy Dolohov’s defensive perimeter is safe. Nobody will be coming back from the other side. Except us, hopefully.”

  “The passage doesn’t go to Hogsmeade directly, Ralph,” Noah said.

  They reached the bunker beneath the Whomping Willow. Carefully, Gennifer reached out and found the secret knot. The tree went still and she scrambled out.

  “So where does it go to, then?” James asked as the group climbed quickly out of the secret opening.

  “Our best guess is it goes to a delightful place called the ‘Shrieking Shack’,” Damien said, stopping outside the perimeter of the tree. “Nobody ever goes there.”

  “I can see why,” Ralph nodded. “Does it, you know, shriek?”

  “No, it’s just a name, Ralph,” Gennifer said, clapping the big boy on the shoulder. “It hasn’t shrieked in decades. Although apparently it used to make quite a fuss, didn’t it? Supposedly, the whole place shook.”

  Ralph looked back at James and Rose. “Are they making fun of me?”

  “Yeah, Ralph,” James nodded. “But it’s all out of love. Don’t sweat it.”

  Ralph accepted that and the three began to follow the Gremlins back across the wet grass. As they reached the castle, he asked, “So the Shrieking Shack didn’t really used to shriek?”

  James shook his head. “I didn’t say that, Ralph… I just said they were making a little fun of you. It’s best if you don’t ask any more about it.”

  Rose concurred. “Really, Ralph. Trust us.”

  Ralph opened his mouth, considered it, and then closed it again. He sighed and the three students climbed the steps into the castle, following the smells of lunch.

  8. THE AUDITION

  The next day’s Defence Against the Dark Arts class was slightly more bearable than previous classes, if only because they had a guest teacher’s assistant. The assistant was possibly even more of a celebrity than Debellows himself, since he was not only the new leader of the Harriers special forces squadron, but was also a former Bulgarian World Cup Quidditch player. Viktor Krum strode purposely into the gym as Debellows introduced him, and the assembly of students applauded roundly. James knew Krum very vaguely, having met him once or twice years earlier. Viktor Krum had, of course, competed in the Triwizard Tournament alongside James’ dad, Aunt Fleur and Cedric. During that time, he’d also had a short, romantic relationship with Aunt Hermione as well, to the extent that on the few occasions that Viktor had been in the same room with the Weasley family, Aunt Hermione had tended to look in the other direction quite a lot and Uncle Ron had puffed his chest out and adopted an attitude of noisy surliness.

  Viktor spoke to the class in his irrepressible accent, telling them how he’d trained alongside Kendrick Debellows in his early years in the Harriers, and assuring everyone that he wouldn’t be where he was today if not for the man’s leadership and example. James was almost immediately bored. He liked Viktor quite a lot, but he disliked Debellows enough that the sight of the man absorbing his protégé‘s praise made James a bit ill. The upshot was that there were no troops through the Gauntlet that day, although Debellows challenged Krum to a ‘manly contest’ to see which one of them could make it through first. Viktor had turned down the challenge, and James liked to believe it was because the younger man simply hadn’t wanted to shame his mentor.

  As the class wore on, James saw that Ralph, who was only slightly more artistic than James, was doodling an idea for the new Defence Club sign-up sheet.

  As they filed out of the gym and made their way to History of Magic, James said to Ralph, “You know, we really shouldn’t be putting those up until we know we have a teacher.”

  “That’s your job,” Ralph shrugged. “I have to do my part. Besides, you’ll talk Cedric into it. You’re good at that.”

  “Yeah, well, I haven’t talked him into it yet.”

  “You’d best get on it, then,” Rose said, meeting them at an intersection. “The first meeting is tomorrow night.”

  James nearly dropped his book. “Tomorrow? Since when?”

  “Since I started spreading the word around the Great Hall at breakfast,” Rose replied simply. “I only meant to tell Henrietta Littleby and Fiona Fourcompass, but you know how Fiona is. The whole Ravenclaw table was talking about it by the time I left. There’s a lot of excitement about it. Nobody likes the way Debellows is running D.A.D.A. even though it was sort of sweet to see Viktor in the halls this morning.”

  “But we don’t even know where we’re meeting!” James exclaimed. “I thought we talked about starting things up at the end of next week?”

  “That was before we talked to the Headmaster and saw what we saw in his Mirror. Ralph’s right. Things seem a bit more urgent now. Besides,” Rose sniffed, stopping at the door to History of Magic, “we agreed I was in charge of scheduling.”

  “Yeah, I suppose, but… the entire Ravenclaw Table?”

  Rose nodded. “And Louis is spreading the word with the Hufflepuffs.”

  “Louis!” James cried, raising his voice again. “You got Louis involved?”

  “He overheard me, so I thought I’d put him to work. What’s the matter? I thought you said that anyone who wanted could be involved?”

  “Yeah, well…,” James said, lowering his voice, “anybody we wanted to know about it.”

  “I don’t think it works that way,” Ralph replied. “Besides, word’s all over the school by now.”

  James exhaled in frustration, but it was too late to do anything about it. He’d have to go and find Cedric tonight if he could. Thinking that, he turned and shouldered his way into the crowded classroom where Professor Binns was already burbling away, his back to the students as he made ghostly notes on the illegible chalkboard.

  James finally had the opportunity he was waiting for that night after dinner. Ralph said goodnight at the stairs and Rose was in the library doing some homework. Once Ralph had descended into the cellars, James turned away from the stairway and walked along the main hall toward the portico. He felt rather strongly that he had to do this by himself. As he turned into the corridor that bore the trophy case, he slowed, looking around. There was no one about and the halls were quite silent as most of the students retired to their common rooms for the evening.

  James walked lightly along the display cases, passing the photos of ancient House Quidditch teams and displays of old game balls, plaques, and trophies. He paused for a moment in front of a Quidditch tournament trophy engraved with a list o
f names. It was rather old and tarnished, but the name near the bottom was still perfectly legible. ‘James Potter – Chaser’, it read in flowing script. Here was the name of the grandfather James had never known. He felt suddenly very sad because it reminded him that he had no grandfathers at all anymore. The plaque was rather dusty, probably forgotten by most everyone that moved daily through these halls. James had a strong urge to reach into the case and touch the plaque, as if to make sure it was real. It was like an anchor that connected him to a person and a time he’d never known. James glanced around the corridor, assuring himself no one was looking, and then stepped toward the case. The glass door squeaked slightly as he opened it. He reached in and ran a finger across the name engraved near the bottom, drawing a faint line in the dust. He could barely feel the etching of the letters.

  Suddenly, for no apparent reason, James thought of the words his father had said to him on the night of Granddad’s funeral: Granddad is really the third father I’ve lost… I’m back to where I started. This name on the trophy was where everything started. This trophy is from those last few years before everything changed, James thought, before Grandma and Granddad were killed by Voldemort; before Dad’s godfather, Sirius, was lost in the Hall of Mysteries; before old Dumbledore was struck down on one of the roofs of this very castle; this was back before any of that had happened, when everybody was happy and nobody had had to die yet. If only… if only…

  “I remember seeing your dad standing there in front of that very plaque,” a voice said quietly.

  James wasn’t surprised. He didn’t turn around as he said, “I came down here to look for you. I had a feeling this is where you came when you didn’t know where else to go.”

  “This is the first place I remember being after I died,” the ghostly voice of Cedric Diggory said. “There was a long, long time of nothing, although it sometimes felt only like minutes. Finally, here I was, looking down at my own picture by the Triwizard Cup. I spent a lot of time doing that. It was… comforting, in a way. I can’t see myself in mirrors, you know. It’s just one of the peculiarities of being a ghost.”

  James closed the trophy case and turned to Cedric. “You saw my dad standing here, looking at Granddad’s name on the plaque?”

  Cedric smiled at the memory. “It wasn’t just him. It was all three of them. Ron, Hermione, and Harry. It was their first year. I didn’t know them then, but I knew who your father was. Everybody did.”

  James looked back at the plaque again. It helped to know that his dad had also looked at that name and felt some of the same things he was feeling. He sighed.

  “The past is a steel trap,” Cedric said. “Trust me on that one, James.”

  James glanced up, as if in surprise.

  “What?” Cedric said. “It wasn’t that profound, was it?”

  James shook his head. “No. I mean, yeah, I guess, but that’s not what I was thinking. I just had the strongest, weirdest feeling that this has happened before. And all of a sudden, I thought of Ralph’s story.”

  Cedric looked puzzled. James went on, waving a hand. “It’s this story that we learned about in Wizlit. Professor Revalvier says that all great magical stories were meant to be told by word of mouth because written words cage them and make them tame. Magical stories are meant to stay alive. They change with each retelling because they pick up the spirit of the teller. I don’t know why; I just thought of the last line from the story Ralph told us in class. It’s the only line I can ever get exactly right when I try to write it down.”

  “What is it?” Cedric asked.

  James was thoughtful. “‘Then I am the King of the Cats,’” he said, as if tasting the words.

  Cedric’s ghost was silent. After a moment, he asked, “So what does it mean?”

  “That’s just it,” James said, shaking his head. “It doesn’t seem to mean anything unless I’m not thinking about it. Then, all of a sudden, it’ll pop into my head, just like it did now, and it’ll seem really important. I just can’t put my finger on it. It’s like seeing something out of the corner of your eye, something that vanishes as soon as you look right at it.”

  “Well, I guess if it really is important, it’ll come to you when you need it,” Cedric said, shrugging. “You said you came down here looking for me?”

  “Oh,” James replied, shaking himself. “Yeah. Er…” He sighed, and then looked the ghost right in his semi-transparent eye. “We need your help, Ced. I don’t know how else to put it. We’re putting together this club, Ralph and Rose and me. Actually, it was Noah, Sabrina, and Damien’s idea, but we’re the ones that went to Merlin and got permission and everything. Honestly, we’re not even the first people to do it. My dad had a club like this way back in his day, although it was after you, you know, er… anyway, we need to learn how to do defensive spells and techniques and our new teacher this year refuses to teach us anything except how to pull a hamstring. We’ve got permission to officially start the club, and by now, it seems like the whole school already knows about it. Our first meeting’s tomorrow, but we don’t even have a teacher. That’s why I came to find you. When we first talked about it, you were the first person that Ralph, Rose, and I thought of to teach us defensive magic.”

  “You can’t be serious,” Cedric said, smiling a little crookedly. “I’m a ghost, if you haven’t noticed. Not only do I not have a working wand anymore, technically, I don’t even have fingers. I couldn’t Stun a dust-bunny. I have a hard enough time magicking the lanterns out when I do my ‘Specter of Silence’ routine. And you think I can teach defensive magical technique?”

  “Well, yeah!” James said, warming to the subject. “I mean, you were a great wizard, even while you were still in school! Everybody says so! Even Viktor Krum talks about how you outwitted the dragon and took on the merpeople. You were a natural! Besides, you have actual battle experience, having been all through the Triwizard Tournament. And you learned under Dumbledore, who everybody says was the golden age of Hogwarts. Come on, Cedric! It’s perfect!”

  “I don’t think so, James,” Cedric said, his smile fading. “It’s great that you thought to ask me and all, but…”

  “Look, Cedric, this isn’t just for us,” James said, stepping a bit closer to the ghost. “You said you didn’t think there was a place for you here anymore. All your old friends and classmates have moved on. But there are a whole bunch of us who really do need you, here and now. My dad says you were totally excellent with your spellwork and technique, and everybody knows you were a natural leader. I know you still remember it all because ghosts don’t experience time the same way the living do. Come on, what do you say?”

  Cedric’s ghost was flitting backwards, his face downcast as he shook his head. “I can’t, James. Part of me would really like to do it, but I can’t. You wouldn’t understand.”

  “Look, Ced, just try it for a week or two. It’ll be great! Everyone will love you and I just know you’ll be able to teach us loads of stuff. Besides…”

  James faltered, not sure if he should go on. Cedric stopped and looked back at him. James took a deep breath and continued.

  “Remember the end of last year, that night when we talked in the Gryffindor common room? You told me there was a sense of Voldemort still in the halls here, even though he was dead. Well, Rose and Ralph and me, we saw something. And… I’ve been sensing things. Something’s up, and it has something to do with the old Death Eaters, and Voldemort’s grave, and some really scary creature in a cloak that looks like it’s made out of swirling smoke and ash. Rose even thinks that the Headmaster is involved, although I don’t agree. What I’m trying to say is that there could be a battle coming. Debellows isn’t teaching us anything worth using in a real magical fight. We just want to be prepared. We want to be ready. You’re from the time when Voldemort was still alive. You know how best to fight these people. You’re perfect, and we need you.”

  Cedric looked at James for a long, tense momen
t. He seemed to be struggling with himself. Finally, he lowered his brow and looked away. “You’re right about one thing, James. I did have experience with battle. I was killed in my first one. I lasted a total of ten seconds.”

  James was flabbergasted. “Ced, you can’t mean that. That night in the graveyard… that wasn’t a battle. I’ve heard Dad talk about it. He was there, remember? Pettigrew shot you with no warning. You can’t seriously think…”

  “Really, James,” Cedric said, looking up. The ghost’s eyes were very grave. “Don’t ask me again. I have my reasons. I can’t, all right?”

  James met the ghost’s gaze. After a moment, he sighed deeply. “All right, Cedric. Forget it. Sorry to bother you. See you around.”

  James turned and began to plod away. He got halfway down the corridor when Cedric’s voice said, “Does it hurt?”

  James stopped in his tracks and narrowed his eyes. He glanced back over his shoulder. “Does what hurt?”

  Cedric hadn’t moved. He hovered near the trophy case, looking solemnly as James. “The mark on your forehead.”

  James’ heart skipped a beat. Without thinking, he touched the place where he’d felt the itch and the strange dart of pain outside the Headmaster’s office. “You can see it?” he whispered harshly.

  Cedric nodded slowly.

  “What—” James began, but his voice failed him. He cleared his throat. “What does it look like?”

  Cedric’s expression didn’t change. He knew James knew. “It looks like a lightning bolt, James. Just like your father’s. Except it’s green. It glows a little.”

  James’ eyes were wide and his heart pounded. The spot on his forehead felt warm. It tingled a little now that he thought about it. He looked helplessly up at Cedric again.

  “Don’t worry,” Cedric said, sensing James’ question. “I don’t think anyone else can see it. Apart from the other ghosts, maybe. It’s only been there for a week or so. At first, it was very faint, but now… That’s why I asked if it hurt.”