James Potter and the Curse of the Gatekeeper

heaved it out over the chasm as hard as he could. It tumbled into the darkness, turning slowly, and then there was a flash and a spark as one of the magical blades swooped down. It pulverized the rock in midair, and then sucked back up into darkness.

        James looked aside at Rose and Ralph, his eyes wide. Ralph shrugged helplessly.

        Albus drew a deep sigh. 'I think I might know a way to cross that,' he said, as if he dreaded admitting it.

        'What, Al?' James asked, but his brother had already turned. He walked a few paces away until he stood at the base of the stone steps again. He glanced back.

        'Dad taught me this one,' he said. 'It saved his life once. Maybe we can use it to save Lil.' He turned back to the stairs, raised his own wand, and as loudly as he could, shouted, 'Accio broomstick!'

        Almost a minute passed, and James had begun to doubt the spell had worked when an exclamation of alarm echoed down the stone steps.

        'No!' Tabitha's voice cried. 'Not my broom! You can't!'

        Ted called over her, 'Incoming!'

        The broom dipped down the stone steps and halted next to Albus. James, standing nearby, could hear the faint hum of the broom. He remembered it well from his doomed attempt to commandeer it last year.

        'You can't be serious,' Zane said, stepping forward and examining the broomstick. 'This is Tabitha's broom! The bogus Merlin staff from last year. You're not going to try to ride it across that chasm, are you?'

        'It's my broom now,' Albus said grimly. 'Tabitha gave it to me, although she may well be regretting it.'

        Rose proclaimed, 'But you can't just fly across! You saw what happened to the rock! I don't know how Petra made it across with Lily, but there must be some other way!'

        Albus strode to the edge of the chasm and straddled the broom. 'This is no ordinary broom, Rose. I don't know where Tabitha got it, or how it works, but it knows where it needs to be. In a way, it's kind of the reverse of James' Thunderstreak. It knows where to go, and it puts it into the mind of the rider. The broom won't let us get chopped. And besides, we don't have a choice. Hop on behind me, James, and hold on as tight as you can.'

        James gulped and climbed onto the broom, wrapping his arm tightly around his brother's waist.

        'Wait!' Rose cried. 'This is mad!'

        'That's why we can't wait, Rose,' James said, gritting his teeth. 'If we wait, we'll realize how completely daft this is. Go, Al!'

        James felt Albus tense. Together, they coiled, and as Rose reached forward to grab James, her face terrified, Albus threw himself forward, taking James and the broomstick with him.

        The broom plummeted under the weight of both James and Albus, and James squeezed his eyes shut, hugging his brother as he leaned over the broomstick, struggling to pull it upright. The broom corrected swiftly, angling upwards and accelerating. James still had his lit wand in his fist. He gripped Albus with his left arm and held the wand aloft, fighting the force of their momentum. Wandlight flashed off a long, steely blade as it dropped alongside them, scything the air. Albus lurched sideways as the broom banked away, and James nearly dropped his wand, fighting to hold on. The air hissed on all sides as huge, curved blades sliced the darkness, dropping like swords and barely missing them. Amazingly, the broom seemed to determine the course on its own, dodging with lightning speed through the flashing, deadly barrage. James struggled to hold on, trying to keep his body as close to the broom and Albus as possible. There was a high, rasping sound as one of the blades sliced a neat seam in his robe, and James felt the chill of the metal whoosh past his skin. He yelped and leaned away, pulling the broom slightly off course.

        Albus swore, trying to correct, but it was no use. The broom seemed to have lost its bearing. It pushed upwards beneath them, and James had a sense that they were nearing the other side of the chasm. Suddenly, a rough stone wall loomed into view, as if it were falling on them. Albus pulled up, trying to help the broom to reach the ledge, but it was too high. The broom struggled, flying nearly straight up, still weaving past falling blades. And then, suddenly, there was light and space, and James was spinning off the broom, flailing for something to hold onto. He landed hard on stone, rolled, and scrambled up, his chin scraped and bleeding but otherwise unhurt.

        Albus lay ten feet away, dangerously near the edge of the chasm they had just traversed. He moaned and clutched his head.

        'Al!' James called, stumbling over to him. 'Are you all right?'

        'I think we crashed,' Albus replied, shaking his head as if to clear it. 'That was just sick, wasn't it? Ow!'

        James glanced down, 'Oh no! I think we broke it!'

        'My leg?' Albus asked, examining his shin critically. 'Ouch! I'm pretty sure it isn't supposed to bend in that direction, but it's nothing Madam Curio won't be able to fix, right?'

        James blinked at Albus' crooked leg. 'Oh. Ew. No, that's not what I meant. Sorry, Al. I meant that.' He pointed at the broomstick, which was splintered messily into two pieces.

        'Oh no! That hurts even worse than my leg! How are we going to get back now?' Albus exclaimed, picking up one of the pieces.

        James shook his head. 'Like you said, let's just rescue Lily, and we'll figure out the rest later.'

        Albus started to scramble to his feet, and then hissed in pain, falling back. 'I'm no good, James. Unless you plan on carrying me, I'm stuck here.'

        'Come on, I can't do this by myself!' James said, feeling a sudden, helpless anger.

        'Well, if you hadn't pulled us out of control back there, I wouldn't be in this condition, you stupid berk!'

        'Me? Whose idea was it to ride the Broom from Hell across the pit in the first place?'

        'Well, you sure weren't coming up with any brilliant ideas, were you?'

        'Shh!' James suddenly hissed, half turning.

        'Don't shush me, you big git!' Albus cried. 'If my broken leg wasn't still attached, I'd beat you with it!'

        'SHHH!' James insisted, waving one hand frantically. He cocked his head, listening. Albus stopped and listened as well, furrowing his brow.

        'It's a voice,' he whispered. 'Sort of. That's creepy,'

        'It's coming from that cave over there,' James pointed. As his eyes adjusted to the gloom, he could see a greenish light flickering from the mouth of the cave.

        'Go, James,' Albus whispered urgently. 'Go get Lily back if you still can. And if you can't, I swear I'll kill you.'

        James nodded. 'All right. I just hope nobody else beats you to it.'

        He took a deep breath, still staring at the green glow of the cave mouth, and then began to walk toward it.

        James' phantom scar began to sing a long, high note of pain. It rang in his ears, throbbing with the steady thrum of his heartbeat. Petra wouldn't really hurt Lily, would she? He truly wanted to believe she wouldn't, but he remembered the dreams, remembered the coaxing, lulling, infuriating words of that phantom voice. It had promised Petra she could get her parents back if only she was willing to make the hardest choice of all, to repay blood for blood. Petra was obviously not in her right mind. She was in a sort of trance, wasn't she? She was under the control of that horrible voice, and the last shred of the soul of Lord Voldemort which beat in her veins. But even as James approached the entrance to the cave, he knew that was not entirely true. Petra was being influenced, yes, but she wasn't being forced to do anything. The shred of Voldemort wasn't enough to completely control her, only to sway