James Potter and the Curse of the Gatekeeper

        'And this boy is proof that he succeeded. It is far worse than we expected. The legend—'

        'Hush, Helga,' Rowena said gravely. 'James needn't hear of the details of that.'

        The two women looked at James. In the wandlight, their faces were very pale and deadly serious.

        'Hear me now, James Potter: beware Merlinus,' Ravenclaw said, speaking with great emphasis. 'The sorcerer has a glamour that bewitches those who wish to trust him. If he has achieved the position of Headmaster, then he has already fooled many. It may even now be too late for your world. But you may have been sent here this night for a great purpose. Perhaps you go back to serve as a warning. That which Merlinus bodes upon your world is an evil like nothing the earth has ever known. The Gatekeeper of the Void may even now be unleashed, and Merlinus is its Ambassador. There is no battling the Gatekeeper, but if you can find a way to destroy the Ambassador, James Potter, you must take it. Do not let him put his glamour upon you. If the moment comes, it will not be the time for discourse or hesitation. It will be the time for action. Do you understand?'

        James looked intently at Rowena Ravenclaw's earnest, pale face. Even here, a thousand years away from the events she was describing, she was clearly terrified. Slowly, James nodded.

        'How dare you?!' a voice shrieked suddenly, furiously, making them all jump. 'My chambers! My cache!'

        Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw both spun in the confined space of the hidden chamber. They pointed their wands as a dark figure tore the decimated portrait away. The voice screamed, and it was chillingly inhuman. James suddenly remembered the slightly open doors of Slytherin's laboratory, remembered thinking he should warn Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw to check there. Slytherin had fooled them with a shadow, and then hidden there, probably in his bat form. And now, enraged that they had discovered his greatest secret, he seemed trapped halfway between his forms, half bat and half man. His voice buzzed hideously. Great, leathery wings flapped from his hunched back.

        'Go James!' Hufflepuff cried, pointing her wand at Slytherin's grotesque shape. In his blind rage, he beat his enormous batwings, flailing them against the wall, preventing him from entering. He slavered monstrously, lunging and snapping his fanged mouth at the women.

        'No!' James yelled. 'I mean, I don't know how! I can't think!'

        A bolt of red seared the air, striking Slytherin's wing. He screamed and the wing flailed limply.

        'Get away from that Mirror!' he screamed, the words sounding alien in that strange, half-bat mouth. 'Touch it and die!'

        'Just go!' Ravenclaw urged desperately. 'Just as you did before!'

        Slytherin lunged again, finally forcing his way through the decimated portrait hole. Both Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw shot him with Stunning Spells, but in his mutated form, they only slightly weakened him. He snapped and roared at them.

        James turned away and flung himself against the Mirror. The moment he touched it, the reflection sank away, revealing the familiar silvery smoke. It swirled dizzyingly before James' face.

        'Go, James!' Hufflepuff cried. There was a whoosh and a horrid slashing sound. One of the witches screamed, but James couldn't tell which.

        'I wish I was anywhere else!' James said aloud, then, panicked, he amended that. 'I wish I was home! I wish I was in my own time! Right now!'

        Directly behind him, Slytherin roared, his voice both human and beastly. James felt the air of Slytherin's beating wings and sensed the coming slash of the bat-like talons.

        And then all of it was gone. The hidden chamber winked away, sucked into the swirling silvery mists. James felt the same odd sensation of flipping, as if he was being reversed through the Mirror. There was a rush of noise and speed, and then he was falling. He tumbled forward, catching himself on his hands and knees, and his wand clattered to the ground in front of him.

        James looked up. He was in a small dim room. It seemed to be full of dusty trunks and stacked crates. He scrambled around, looking back in the direction from which he'd stumbled.

        There, looking exactly the same but for a thick coating of dust, was Slytherin's Magic Mirror. The first word of the now-ancient inscription was still plainly visible: 'Erised'.

        'James?' a girl's voice asked, startling him. 'Is it you? It is! Wake up, you two! It happened!'

        'Rose?' James asked, completely perplexed. She appeared from the shadows near the door, disheveled and covered with cobwebs. James blinked at her. 'What are you doing here? Where am I?'

        Ralph was climbing sleepily to his feet. 'It's the middle of the bloody night. What else matters?'

        'He knew!' Rose said, almost hopping with excitement. 'He said you'd turn back up here if we made the Mirror ready, and you did! The three of us have been waiting here ever since dinner! We've been worried sick! James, what happened? Where have you been!?'

        'Wait a minute,' James said, climbing to his feet. 'How'd Ralph know I would be showing up here? Nobody could possibly have known that.'

        'Not me,' Ralph said sleepily, clapping James on the shoulder, 'although I'd love to take credit for it. No, this was all his idea.'

        Ralph hooked a thumb over his shoulder. James looked and saw the boy getting slowly to his feet, a tired, crooked smile on his face.

        'About time, Potter,' Scorpius drawled. 'Have a nice little trip?'

12. QUESTIONS OF TRUST

James insisted that, curious as everyone was, he was too exhausted for lengthy explanations. He told them merely that he'd travelled back to the time of the founders, and that he'd discovered far more than he intended about Merlin. He promised to explain everything in detail the next morning, which was Saturday. Reluctantly, the others agreed, and the four students crept out of the storage room. James allowed Ralph and Scorpius to lead the way through the dark corridors, returning to the main hall.

        'You actually met the founders?' Rose demanded in a hoarse whisper, refusing to wait for details.

        James nodded wearily. 'I did. They were a lot more… real… than I ever imagined.'

        Rose shook her head wonderingly. 'What was Helga Hufflepuff like? She's the one we hear the least about.'

        'She was tough,' James said, 'but nice. She wanted to talk things out with Slytherin even after he'd tried to kill the lot of us. But she wasn't a pushover. None of them were. They were hardcore. I'll tell you more tomorrow. How'd you all know I'd gone missing?'

        'Well, it's been a whole day, hasn't it?' Ralph said in a whisper. 'Besides, Cedric woke me up in the middle of the night last night. He told me exactly what happened. He thinks Merlin had bewitched the gargoyle to alert him, somehow, anytime somebody used the password to go up to the Headmaster's office. Merlin's been stalking all over the school, obviously mad as a hornet, but he hasn't said anything. Rose thinks he's been looking for something.'

        'I think he was looking for the Mirror of Erised!' Rose interjected. 'I bet he sensed it was here, hidden away somewhere but couldn't find it. It's protected from discovery somehow. I bet it's got him in a total lather!'

        'So how did you all find it?' James asked as they reached the stairs.

        Ralph looked at Scorpius, who shrugged.

        'I knew where to look,' the pale boy said. 'And when. More or less.'