James Potter and the Hall of Elders' Crossing

by G. Norman Lippert

  In his room at night or in a corner of the library, James would study the poem he and Zane had seen on the gate to the Grotto Keep. With Zane’s help, he had written it down from memory and was confident it was accurate. Still, he couldn’t seem to make much of it. All he knew for sure was that the first two lines referred to the fact that the Grotto Keep could only be found by moonlight. The rest was a puzzle. He kept fetching up on the line that read ‘Did wake his languid sleep’, wondering if that could refer to Merlin. But Merlin wasn’t asleep, was he?

  “Makes it sound like he’s Rip Van Winkle,” Zane whispered one day in the library. “Snoozing away a few hundred years out under a tree somewhere.” Zane had had to explain the fairy tale of Rip Van Winkle, and James considered it. He knew from hearing his dad’s conversations with other Aurors that much of Muggle mythology came from long, distant encounters with witches and wizards. Stories of wizarding lore made their way into Muggle fairy tales, became stylized or altered, and grew into legends and myth. Perhaps, James mused, this story of the long sleeper, who awoke hundreds of years later, was a Muggle echo of the story of Merlin. Still, it didn’t get James or Zane any closer to figuring out how Merlin could possibly return after so many centuries, nor did it offer any clues as to who might be involved in such a conspiracy.

  At night, as he was drifting to sleep, James often found his thoughts returning, strangely enough, to his conversation with the portrait of Severus Snape. Snape had said he’d be watching James, but James couldn’t imagine how that could be. There was only one portrait of Snape on the Hogwarts grounds, as far as James knew, and it was up in the Headmistress’ office. How could Snape possibly be watching James? Snape had been a powerful wizard, and a potions genius according to Dad and Mum, but how would either of those things allow his portrait to see around the castle? Still, James didn’t doubt Snape. If Snape said he was watching him, James felt confident that, somehow or other, it was true. It was only after two weeks of mulling over the conversation he’d had with Snape that James realized what struck him most about it. To Snape, unlike James and the rest of the wizarding world, it was a foregone conclusion that James was just like his father. “Like Potter, like son,” he’d said, sneering. Ironically, though, to Snape, if no one else, this was not precisely a good thing.

  As the leaves in the Forbidden Forest began to settle into the browns and yellows of autumn, the blue Progressive Element buttons were augmented by the posters and banners for the first All-School Debate. As Ralph had predicted, the theme was ‘Re-evaluating the Assumptions of the Past: Truth or Conspiracy’. As if the words themselves weren’t enough, the right side of each banner and poster bore a drawing of a lightning bolt that was enchanted to shift into the shape of a question mark every few seconds. Zane, who, according to Petra, was quite good at debate, told James that the school debate committee had argued for quite some time about the topic of the first event. Tabitha Corsica was not on the debate committee, but her crony, Philia Goyle, was the committee chair.

  “So in the end,” Zane had reported to James, “the debate team turned out to be a great example of democracy in action: they argued all night, then she chose.” He shrugged wearily.

  The sight of the signs and banners, and especially, that very unambiguous lightning bolt, made James’ blood boil. Seeing Ralph on a ladder finishing hanging one of the banners just outside the door to Technomancy class was more than he could take.

  “I’m surprised you can reach like that, Ralph,” James said, anger pushing the words out, “what with Tabitha Corsica’s hand so far up your backside.”

  Zane, who’d been walking next to James, sighed and ducked into the classroom. Ralph hadn’t noticed James until he spoke. He glanced down, his expression surprised and wounded. “What’s that supposed to mean?” he demanded.

  “It means, I’d think by now, you’d have gotten sick of being her little first-year puppet.” James already regretted saying anything. The guileless misery on Ralph’s face shamed him.

  Ralph had the mantra down well, though. “ Your people are the puppetmasters, preying on the fears of the weak-minded to maintain the demagoguery of prejudice and unfairness,” he said, but without much conviction. James rolled his eyes and walked into the classroom.

  Professor Jackson was absent from his usual spot behind the teacher’s desk. James sat next to Zane in the front row. As he sat down, he made a point of joking and laughing with a few other Gryffindors nearby, knowing Ralph was watching through the doorway. The mean pleasure it gave him was hollow and raw, but it was pleasure nonetheless.

  Finally, the room hushed. James looked up and saw Professor Jackson entering, carrying something under his arm. The object was large, flat, and wrapped in cloth.

  “Good morning, class,” he said in his usual, brusque manner. “Your last week’s essays are graded and on my desk. Mr. Murdock, would you mind distributing them, please? On the whole, I am not terribly disappointed, although I think most of you can be relieved that Hogwarts does not generally grade on the curve.”

  Jackson carefully set his parcel on the desk. As he unfolded the cloth from around it, James could see that it was a stack of three rather small paintings. He thought of the painting of Severus Snape and his attention perked up.

  “Today is a day for taking notes, I can assure you,” Jackson said ominously. He arranged the paintings in a row along the shelf of the chalkboard. The first painting was of a thin man with owlish glasses and an almost perfectly bald head. He blinked at the class, his expression alert and slightly nervous, as if he expected someone, at any moment, to jump up and shout “Boo!” at him. The next painting was empty but for a rather bland wooded background. The last showed a fairly ghastly clown in white face with a hideously large, red smile painted over its mouth. The clown leered inanely at the class and shook a little cane with a ball on the end. The ball, James noticed with a shudder, was a tiny version of the clown’s own head, grinning even more insanely.

  Murdock finished handing back everyone’s papers and slid back into his own seat. James glanced down at his essay. On the front, in Jackson’s perfect, left-slanting cursive, were the words, Tepid, but borderline cogent. Grammar needs work.

  “As always, questions about your grades may be submitted to me in writing. Further discussion will be obtained, as needed, during my office hours, assuming any of you remember where my office is. And now, onward and upward.” Jackson paced slowly along the line of paintings, gesturing vaguely at them. “As many of you will recall, in our first class, we had a short discussion, spearheaded by Mr. Walker,” he peered beneath his bushy eyebrows in Zane’s direction, “about the nature of magical art. I explained that the artist’s intentions are imbued on the canvas via a magical, psycho-kinetic process, which allows the art to take on a semblance of motion and attitude. The result is a drawing that moves and mimics life at the whim of the artist. Today, we will examine a different kind of art, one that represents life in a wholly different way.”

  Quills scratched feverishly as the class struggled to keep up with Jackson’s monologue. As usual, Jackson paced as he spoke.

  “The art of magical painting comes in two forms. The first one is just a more lavish version of what I illustrated in class, which is the creation of purely fanciful imagery based on the imagination of the artist. This is different from Muggle art only in as much as the magical versions may move and emote, based on the intention--and only within the imaginative boundaries--of the artist. Our friend, Mr. Biggles here, is an example.” Jackson gestured at the painting of the clown. “Mr. Biggles, thankfully, never existed outside the imagination of the artist who painted him.” The clown responded to the attention, bobbing in its frame, waggling the fingers of one white-gloved hand and waving the cane in the other. The tiny clown’s head on the end of the cane ran its tongue out and crossed its eyes. Jackson glared at the thing for a moment, and then sighed as he began to pace again.

  “The second type of magical painting is much mo
re precise. It depends on advanced spellwork and potion-mixed paints to recreate a living individual or creature. The technomancic name for this type of painting is imago aetaspeculum, which means… can anyone tell me?”

  Petra raised her hand and Jackson nodded at her. “It means, I think, something like a living mirror image, sir?”

  Jackson considered her answer. “Half credit, Miss Morganstern. Five points to Gryffindor for effort. The most accurate definition of the term is ‘a magical painting that captures a living imprint of the individual it represents, but confined within the aetas, or timeframe, of the subject’s own lifetime’. The result is a portrait that, while not containing the living essence of the subject, mirrors every intellectual and emotional characteristic of that subject. Thus, the portrait does not learn and evolve beyond the subject’s death, but retains exactly that subject’s personality as strictly defined by his or her lifetime. We have Mr. Cornelius Yarrow here as an example.”

  Jackson now indicated the thin, rather nervous man in the portrait. Yarrow flinched slightly at Jackson’s gesture. Mr. Biggles capered frantically in his frame, jealous for attention.

  “Mr. Yarrow, when did you die?” Jackson asked, passing the portrait on his way around the room again.

  The portrait’s voice was as thin as the man in it, with a high, nasal tone. “September twentieth, nineteen forty-nine. I was sixty-seven years and three months old, rounding up, of course.”

  “And what--as if I needed to ask--was your occupation?”

  “I was Hogwarts school bursar for thirty-two years,” the portrait answered with a sniff.

  Jackson turned to look at the painting. “And what do you do now?”

  The portrait blinked nervously. “Excuse me?”

  “With all the time you now have on your hands, I mean. It’s been a long time since nineteen forty-nine. What do you do with yourself, Mr. Yarrow? Have you developed any hobbies?”

  Yarrow seemed to chew his lips, obviously mystified and worried by the question. “I… hobbies? No hobbies, as such. I… I always just liked numbers. I tend to think about my work. That’s what I always did when I wasn’t figuring the books. I thought about the budgets, the numbers, and worked them out in my head.”

  Jackson maintained eye contact with the painting. “You still think about the numbers? You spend your time working out the books for the school budget as it stood in nineteen forty-nine?”

  Yarrow’s eyes darted back and forth over the class. He seemed to feel he was being trapped somehow. “Er. Yes. Yes, I do. It’s just what I do, you understand. What I always did. I see no reason to stop. I’m the bursar, you see. Well, was, of course. The bursar.”

  “Thank you very much, Mr. Yarrow. You’ve illustrated my point precisely,” said Jackson, resuming his circuit of the room.

  “Always happy to be of service,” Yarrow said a little stiffly.

  Jackson addressed the class again. “Mr. Yarrow’s portrait, as some of you probably know, normally hangs in the corridor just outside the Headmistress’ office, along with many other former school staff members and faculty. We have, however, come into possession of a second portrait of Mr. Yarrow, one that normally hangs in his family’s home. The second portrait, as you may guess, is here in the center of our display. Mr. Yarrow, if you please?” Jackson gestured at the empty portrait in the center.

  Yarrow raised his eyebrows. “Hm? Oh. Yes, of course.” He shifted, stood, brushed some nonexistent flecks of lint off his natty robes, and then stepped carefully out of the portrait frame. For a few seconds, both portraits stood empty, then Yarrow appeared in the center portrait. He was wearing slightly different clothes in this portrait, and when he sat, he was turned at an angle, showing the prow of his nose in profile.

  “Thank you again, Mr. Yarrow,” Jackson said, leaning against his desk and crossing his arms. “Although there are exceptions, typically, a portrait only becomes active upon the death of the subject. Technomancy cannot explain to us why this should be, except that it seems to respond to the law of Conservation of Personalities. In other words, one Mr. Cornelius Yarrow at any given moment is, cosmically speaking, sufficient.” There was a murmur of suppressed laughter. Yarrow frowned as Jackson continued. “Another factor that comes into play once the subject is deceased is the interactivity between portraits. If there is more than one portrait of an individual, the portraits become connected, sharing a common subject. The result is one mutual portrait that can maneuver at will between its frames. For instance, Mr. Yarrow can visit us at Hogwarts, and then return to his home portrait as he wishes.”

  James struggled to write all of Jackson’s comments down, knowing the professor was notorious for creating test questions out of the least detail of a lecture. He was distracted from the task, however, by thoughts of the portrait of Severus Snape. James risked raising his hand.

  Jackson spied him and his eyebrows rose slightly. “A question, Mr. Potter?”

  “Yes, sir. Can a portrait ever leave its own frames? Can it, maybe, go over into a different painting?”

  Jackson studied James for a moment, his eyebrows still raised. “Excellent question, Mr. Potter. Let us find out, shall we? Mr. Yarrow, may I beg your service once more?”

  Yarrow was trying to maintain the pose of his second portrait, which was studious and thoughtful, looking slightly away. His eyes slid to the side, looking out at Jackson. “I suppose so. How else may I help?”

  “Are you aware of the painting of the rather odious Mr. Biggles in the frame next to you?”

  Mr. Biggles responded to the mention of his name by feigning great shock and shyness. He covered his mouth with one hand and batted his eyes. The tiny clown’s head on the end of the cane goggled and blew raspberries. Yarrow sighed. “I am aware of that painting, yes.”

  “Would you be so kind as to step into his painting for just a moment, sir?”

  Yarrow turned to Jackson, his watery eyes magnified behind his spectacles. “Even if that were possible, I don’t believe I could bring myself to join his company. I’m sorry.”

  Jackson nodded, closing his eyes respectfully. “Thank you, yes, I don’t blame you, Mr. Yarrow. No, we can see, therefore, that while a much stronger magic is required to create the imago aetaspeculum, it isn’t designed to allow the portrait to enter a painting of a purely imaginary subject. It would be, in a sense, like trying to force yourself through a drawing of a door. On the other hand, Mr. Biggles?” The clown jumped up ecstatically at the mention of its name again, then looked at Jackson with a caricature of intense attention. Jackson spread an arm toward the middle frame. “Please join Mr. Yarrow in his portrait, won’t you?”

  Cornelius Yarrow looked shocked, then horrified, as the clown leaped out of its own painting and into his. Mr. Biggles landed behind Yarrow’s chair, grabbing it and nearly rocking Yarrow out of it. Yarrow spluttered as Biggles leered forward, his head over Yarrow’s left shoulder, the miniature clown’s head cane over his right, blowing raspberries into the man’s ear.

  “Professor Jackson!” Yarrow exclaimed, his voice rising an octave and trembling on the verge of inaudibility. “I insist you remove this… this fevered imagining from my portrait at once!”

  The class erupted into gales of laughter as the clown leaped over Yarrow’s shoulder and landed on his lap, throwing both arms around the man’s skinny neck. The clown’s head cane kissed Yarrow repeatedly on the nose. “Mr. Biggles,” Jackson said loudly, “that’s enough. Please return to your own painting.”

  The clown seemed disinclined to obey. He threw himself off Yarrow’s lap and hid elaborately behind the man’s chair. Biggles’ eyes peeped over Yarrow’s right shoulder, the miniature head peeped over his left. Yarrow turned and swatted at the clown prissily, as if it were a spider he was loath to touch but anxious to kill. Jackson produced his wand--a twelve-inch length of hickory--from his sleeve and pointed it carefully at the clown’s empty frame. “Shall I alter your environment while you are away, Mr. Biggles? You’ll
need to return to it eventually. Would you prefer to find it stocked with a few more Japanese Thorn Thickets?”

  The clown frowned petulantly under its make-up and stood. Sulking, it clambered out of Yarrow’s portrait and back into its own frame.

  “A simple rule of thumb,” Jackson said, watching the clown give him a very enthusiastic nasty look. “A one-dimensional personality can merge into a two-dimensional personality’s environment, but not the other way around. Portraits are confined to their own frames, while imaginary subjects can move freely into and through any other painting in their general vicinity. Does that answer your question, Mr. Potter?”

  “Yes, sir,” James answered, then rushed on. “One more thing, though. Can a portrait ever appear in more than one of its frames at once?”

  Jackson smiled at James while simultaneously furrowing his brow. “Your inquisitiveness on the subject knows no bounds, it seems, Mr. Potter. As a matter of fact, that is possible, although it is a rarity. For great wizards, whose portraits have been duplicated many times, there has been known to be some division of the personality, allowing the subject to appear in multiple frames at once. Such is the case with your Albus Dumbledore, as you might guess. This phenomenon is very difficult to measure and, of course, depends entirely on the skill of the witch or wizard whose likeness appears in the portrait. Is that all, Mr. Potter?”

  “Professor Jackson, sir?” a different voice asked. James turned to see Philia Goyle near the back, her hand raised.

  “Yes, Miss Goyle,” Jackson said, sighing.

  “If I understand correctly, the portrait knows everything that the subject knew, yes?”