James Potter and the Hall of the Elders' Crossing

by G. Norman Lippert

  Sacarhina laughed lightly. “My dear Minerva, I suspect that the future of Hogwarts, the students, and yourself is as secure as ever. As I mentioned, we have contingencies for such events. The Ministry is prepared.”

  “Forgive me, Miss Sacarhina,” Franklyn interjected, taking half a step forward, “but you’d have us believe that the Ministry of Magic has prepared contingencies for a Muggle investigative reporter penetrating the school of Hogwarts on foot with a camera crew at the ready and intentions to broadcast the secrets of the magical world to Muggles worldwide?”

  Sacarhina’s indulgent smile tightened. “I’d have you believe, Mr. Franklyn, that the Ministry has prepared emergency response techniques for dealing with a wide variety of confrontations. The specifics do not matter.”

  “I beg to disagree, Miss. The specifics of this instance have revealed a rather large security breach that could, at this point, be utilized by virtually anyone. This school can no longer be considered secure until this breach has been addressed.”

  “One thing at a time, Professor. We appreciate your concern, but I assure you that we are fully equipped to deal with the matter in its entirety. If, however, you feel that the safety of yourself and your staff are at risk, we could possibly arrange for your early departure. This would cause us great disappointment and be quite a disruption to the school���”

  “My concern, Miss Sacarhina,” Franklyn said coolly, removing his glasses, “is for the security of everyone within these walls, and for the security of the magical and Muggle worlds in general.”

  “Again with the hyperbole,” Sacarhina smiled. “Please, all of you, put your minds at ease. I, along with Mr. Recreant, will arrive tomorrow evening. We will meet with this Mr. Prescott and I am quite confident—positive, even—that we will reach a mutually amicable arrangement. You needn’t bother yourselves with it any further.”

  “What about my dad?” James asked.

  Sacarhina blinked, apparently mystified. “Your father, James? Whatever do you mean?”

  “Well, don’t you think he ought to be here along with you and Mr. Recreant?”

  Sacarhina smiled her ingratiating smile again. “Why, your father is Head of the Auror Department, James. There is no dark magic involved in this unfortunate set of circumstances, so far as we can tell. There’d be no reason to bother him with it.”

  “But he’s dealt with this man before,” Neville said. “He and James witnessed him on the Quidditch pitch last year and led the search to try to capture him.”

  “And a fine job he did,” Sacarhina said, her smile snapping shut. “That was his duty at the time. This, however, as you cannot fail to realize, is an ambassadorial issue. Harry Potter’s skills may be varied, but ambassadorship is not one of them. Besides, Mr. Potter is currently on assignment and not to be interrupted. We do have, however, specialists in exactly this sort of negotiation. Along with myself and Mr. Recreant, we are arranging for another ambassador to join us. He is an expert in Muggle-magical relations. We expect him to spearhead our dealings with Mr. Prescott and his crew, and we have full confidence that he will serve all parties quite well.”

  McGonagall waved her hand dismissively. “What shall we do with Mr. Prescott until your arrival, Miss Sacarhina?”

  “Make him comfortable. Allow him to make his telephone call. Other than that, as little as possible.”

  “Surely you do not mean for us to allow him free access to the school,” the Headmistress said, as if it were a statement rather than a question.

  Sacarhina seemed to shrug in the fireplace. “Whatever harm he might be able to do by observing is surely less than the harm he could do if he brought Muggle legal charges against us. We must, for the moment, treat him as a guest. Besides, it sounds as if he’s seen quite a lot already.”

  McGonagall’s face was unreadable. “Very well, then. Good afternoon, Miss Sacarhina. We will look forward to your arrival tomorrow evening.”

  Sacarhina smiled again. “Indeed. Until then.”

  The face vanished from the fire. The Headmistress reached for her poker and poked studiously at the embers for several seconds, strewing them so that no hint of the face remained. She replaced the poker, turned her back to the fire, and said, “Insufferable bureaucratic poppycock.”

  “I’ll be happy to lodge Mr. Prescott in the Alma Aleron quarters,” Franklyn said, putting his glasses back on. “I’d prefer to keep a close eye on him, anyway. I suspect we can keep him busy enough to prevent him causing any more trouble.”

  “I don’t like this at all,” Neville said, still looking at the fireplace. “Harry should be here. Prescott himself isn’t a dark wizard, of course, but there is something extremely dodgy about how he got here at all. Somebody led him here, and that person somehow circumvented the Vow of Secrecy. I don’t care what Sacarhina says, I’d feel a lot better with a decent Auror looking into it.”

  The Headmistress opened her door. “At this point, it is out of our hands. Professor Franklyn, your idea is as good as any. Let us escort Mr. Prescott to the Alma Aleron quarters. And despite what Miss Sacarhina might believe, I’d prefer for us to arrange for Mr. Prescott to be quite busy for the next twenty-four hours. The less time he has to explore the school, the better. Mr. Potter, please feel free to return to your classes, and although I suspect I cannot ask you not to speak of this to Mr. Walker and Mr. Deedle, I’d be quite happy if you managed not to talk of it to anyone else. Especially Ted Lupin or Noah Metzker.”

  As James followed the adults out of the office, a quiet voice spoke to him from the wall. “Going to be quite a busy day tomorrow, Potter.”

  James stopped and glanced at the portrait of Severus Snape, not entirely sure what he meant. “I guess so. At least for the Headmistress and everybody.”

  Snape’s black eyes bored into him. “Answer me truthfully, Potter: are you still laboring under the delusion that Tabitha Corsica is in possession of the Merlin staff?”

  “Oh,” James said, “look, say what you want, but it makes sense. We’re going to get it from her, too, one way or another.”

  Snape spoke quickly. “Don’t be a fool, Potter. Turn over what you have. Give it to the Headmistress. Surely you see how dangerous it is to keep the robe, especially now.”

  James blinked. “Why? What happens now? Does it have something to do with this Prescott fellow?”

  Snape stared hopelessly at James. “You don’t see it, then,” he sighed. “There is a very good reason why your father, dull as he is, is being kept from accompanying tomorrow’s delegation. There are members of the Progressive Element even within the Ministry, although they do not call themselves by that name. Sacarhina is one of them. Recreant may be as well, although he is not really in charge. Either she is taking full advantage of a very suspicious coincidence or this is all her plan from the beginning.”

  “What? What’s her plan?” James asked, lowering his voice and stepping closer to the portrait.

  “The details are unimportant. All that matters is that unless you secure the Merlin robe by tomorrow night, all will very likely be lost.”

  “But it is secure,” James replied. “We captured it already. You know that. We have to get the Merlin staff now.”

  “Forget the staff!” Snape hissed angrily. “You are allowing yourself to be manipulated! If I had even the slightest hope that you’d be any better at it than your father was, I’d have taught you Occlumency by now. When I tell you to secure the Merlin robe, I mean you must turn it over to those who know how to bind it, not just hide it. The enemy has the other two relics. The robe wishes to be reunited with them. You will not be able to prevent that, Potter. Don’t be the arrogant fool your father was!”

  James scowled. “My father was never the arrogant fool you think he was, and I’m not either. I don’t have to listen to you. Besides, tomorrow isn’t the alignment of the planets. It’s the next night. Zane told me himself.”

  Snape grinned maliciously. “So trusting are you both. Where, p
ray tell, does Mr. Walker get his information?”

  “He’s in Constellations Club,” James replied angrily. “Madame Delacroix’s been using everybody in the club to help her pinpoint the exact timing of the alignment.”

  “And did it never occur to you that she might have deliberately altered the information just enough to mislead those too ignorant to notice? She has known the day of the alignment for the past year. She only needed help to ascertain the hour. Even you have realized that she is involved in the Merlin plot. Do you expect that she would desire dozens of stargazing students to be swarming the grounds on the very night she plans to skulk off to facilitate the return of the most dangerous wizard of all time?”

  James felt sheepish. Of course she wouldn’t. He just hadn’t thought of it. He opened his mouth to speak, but could think of nothing to say. Snape went on. “She has misled all of you by exactly one day. The Hall of Elders’ Crossing will not occur Thursday night, but Wednesday. Tomorrow, Potter. You have been duped, and you are being duped still. There is no time for any more delusions of grandeur. You must turn over the robe. If you do not, you will fail and our enemies will succeed in their plan.”

  “James?” It was Neville. He poked his head into the Headmistress’ doorway. “We lost you, it seems. Did you forget something?”

  James mind was running at full speed. He stared blankly at Neville for a few seconds, and finally gathered himself. “Er, no. No, sorry, I was just��� thinking out loud.”

  Neville glanced at the portrait of Snape. Snape sighed and crossed his arms. “Go on, Longbottom, and take the boy with you. I’ve no use for him.”

  Neville nodded. “Come along, James. You still have time to make your afternoon classes if you hurry. I’ll walk with you and explain your tardiness.”

  James followed Neville out of the room, thinking only of what Snape had told him. They had only one day, one day to get the Merlin staff from Tabitha. One day before the Hall of Elders’ Crossing, and it just happened to be the very same day that Sacarhina was coming to deal with Prescott. As he rode down the moving spiral stairs and came out into the corridor below, it occurred to James that Snape was right about one thing: tomorrow was indeed going to be a very busy day.

  16. Disaster of the Merlin Staff

  The next morning, James, Ralph, and Zane entered the Great Hall for breakfast and headed purposefully toward the far end of the Gryffindor table.

  “Are you sure about this?” Ralph asked as they crossed the Hall. “We can’t go back after this, you know.”

  James pressed his lips together, but didn’t answer. They crowded in with Noah, Ted, and the rest of the Gremlins, all of whom were seated conspicuously in a tight knot.

  “Ah, the very man,” Ted announced as James squeezed between him and Sabrina. “We were just taking bets on why you asked all of us to meet you for breakfast. Noah thinks you want to officially join the ranks of the Gremlins, in which case we’ve prepared a series of grueling challenges for you to complete. My favorite is the one where you don Sabrina’s old Yule gown and run through the school singing the Hogwarts tribute as loud as you can. There’s plenty more, although Damien’s challenges tend to involve too many slugs and mustard for my taste.”

  James grimaced. “To tell you the truth, the reason I asked to talk to all of you is that Ralph, Zane, and I have something we need to ask of you.” To their credit, none of the Gremlins seemed surprised. They simply leaned in a little as they continued to eat. James didn’t exactly know where to begin. He had awoken that morning with the simple realization that, on their own, he, Ralph, and Zane would not succeed in capturing the Merlin staff in one day. They had no plan. The portrait of Snape had been some help, but Snape didn’t even believe that Tabitha Corsica had the staff. So who could they turn to? He acted on his first impulse. He could ask the one group of people in all the school who were experts in the subtle arts of chaos and tomfoolery. It might take too long to explain everything to Ted and his fellow Gremlins, and even if he could, they still might not agree to help, but it was his best, last hope. James sighed hugely and stared at his glass of pumpkin juice. “We need your help to��� to borrow something.”

  “Borrow something?” Noah repeated, his mouth full of toast. “What? Money? A cup of sugar? A decent haircut? Doesn’t sound like you need us, exactly.”

  “Quiet, Metzker,” Ted said mildly. “What is it you want to ‘borrow’, James?”

  James took a deep breath and then simply said it. “Tabitha Corsica’s broom.”

  Damien coughed into his juice. All the other Gremlins glanced at James with widened eyes. All except Ted. “Whatever for?” Sabrina asked in a low voice. “Tonight’s the tournament match between Ravenclaw and Slytherin. Is that it? Are you trying to ruin Slytherin’s chances? I admit that there’s something highly suspect about that broom of hers, but cheating doesn’t exactly seem like your style, James.”

  “No! It doesn’t have anything to do with the match,” James said, and then faltered. “It’s a lot to explain. And I’m not even allowed to talk about some of it. McGonagall asked me not to.”

  “Tell us as much as you can, then,” Petra said.

  “All right. Zane, Ralph, help me out. Fill in any bits I miss. It’s going to sound pretty mad, but here goes.” Between the three of them, they explained the entire story of the Merlin conspiracy, from the first glimpse of the shade of Madame Delacroix on the lake to the adventure at the Grotto Keep to Ralph and James’ mysterious confrontation with the creepy dryad demanding the Merlin robe. They had to back up then, and explain how they’d come to capture the robe from Professor Jackson. James was worried that the story had become so fragmented that the Gremlins wouldn’t be able to follow it. Ted listened intently the entire time, simply eating and watching whoever was speaking. The rest of the Gremlins asked clarifying questions and responded with a mixture of skepticism, awe and excitement.

  “You’ve been working this whole plot out all year and you’re only now telling us about it?” Damien asked, narrowing his eyes.

  “Like I said, McGonagall warned us not to tell anybody about the Grotto Keep,” James said sincerely. “And we were worried that you wouldn’t believe the rest of it, anyway. We had a hard time believing a lot of it ourselves. For a while, at least. So what do you think?”

  “I’m confused,” Sabrina said, frowning. “The whole thing seems pretty patched together. It’s one thing to shoot off Weasley fireworks during the debate, but it’s something else entirely to go and steal the broom of one of the most prominent, and frankly, scary witches in the school. That’s thievery, that is.”

  “It’s only thievery if what we’re saying isn’t true,” Zane reasoned. “If Tabitha’s broom is the Merlin staff, then it isn’t hers, really. I don’t know whose it is, but no matter what, she had to have stolen it somehow herself.”

  Damien didn’t seem convinced. “Even if she did, we’d be the only ones who knew that. If she hauls us all into the Headmistress’ office claiming we stole her broom, what would we say? It’s all right because she stole the broom herself from somebody, we don’t know who, and besides, the broom is really the magic staff of the most powerful wizard ever, so we were really just doing the world a favor taking it out of Corsica’s hands? That’ll fly like a dead owl.”

  “Well, why wouldn’t it?” Ralph interjected. “If it’s true, it’s true.”

  “And that came from the mouth of a Slytherin,” Noah said, grinning crookedly.

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” Ralph said, firming his jaw.

  James shook his head. “It’s all right, Ralph. He’s ragging you. The point is, yes, even if it is true, we might not be able to prove it. I won’t tell you we might not get in trouble over this. I can only tell you that if it is true, then being hauled to McGonagall’s office and called a thief is the least of our worries. I can’t ask any of you to get involved if you don’t want to. It’s risky. We could all get in loads of trouble. We could even fail
despite our best efforts.”

  “Now wait a minute,” Noah said, “this is the Gremlins you’re talking about.”

  Petra sat up straight and looked around at the group. “The thing is, if James, Zane, and Ralph are wrong, we’ll know by tomorrow. If we did ‘borrow’ Corsica’s broom, we could return it, somehow. Probably anonymously. No harm, no penalty. Everybody will just think it was a Quidditch prank, right? But if this story is true, and the broom really is the Merlin staff, then nobody will be dragging anybody to the Headmistress’ office.”

  “Why not?” Sabrina asked, interested.

  “Because Tabitha will have bigger fish to fry,” Noah answered thoughtfully. “If she’s part of some big Merlin conspiracy and she fails to come through with the staff, she’ll be in some serious outs with her cronies. People like that don’t tend to be very forgiving, you know. Why, we might never even see her again.”

  “One can only hope,” Petra muttered.

  Ted stirred. “Look here, all of you. This is all well and good, but as far as I’m concerned, there’s only one thing to decide. Can we trust James? I don’t know Zane and Ralph here all that well, but I grew up with James. He may have sometimes been an obnoxious little squitter, but he’s always been honest. And besides, he’s the son of my godfather. You remember that guy, don’t you? I’m willing to take a little risk for him. Not just because he’s family, but because he’s a Potter. If he says there’s a battle worth fighting, I’m inclined to believe him.”

  “Well said, mate,” Noah said gravely, slapping Ted on the back. “And besides, let’s not forget that this does have the fringe benefit of pulling one over on Tabitha Corsica.”

  “And perhaps balancing out tonight’s Quidditch match,” Sabrina admitted.

  “And maybe we could somehow snatch her broom when she’s nice and high in the air!” Damien grinned nastily.

  “That’s what I said!” Zane exclaimed.