'Mr. Deedle--or shall I call you Mr. Dolohov?' Merlin said.
'I'm kind of attached to the Deedle,' Ralph answered, glancing up at his father. 'I don't know if I'm ready to be a Dolohov yet. Sorry, Dad.' Dennis gave a small understanding smile.
'Mr. Deedle, then,' Merlin said. 'Not just any wizard could have born the responsibility of the staff. You have heard it said that the wand chooses the wizard, and this is true. Madame Delacroix believed you were merely a vessel to bring the staff to her, but she was mistaken. The staff chose you. A lesser wizard would have been unable even to hold the staff, much less use it. But you, without knowing it, brought the staff under your own power. You had no idea of the strength of it, and yet you managed it. It obeyed you, and that is the mark of a wizard of very, very great potential. Part of this staff now belongs to you, Mr. Deedle. I have felt it. I knew that a portion of it was no longer my own, but I knew not whose it was. Now I know.'
Merlin lowered his staff so that it lay across his knee. He closed his eyes and felt along the length of the staff, his hand barely touching the wood. Faint green light moved within the runes, flickering. Merlin wrapped his hand around the lower, tapered end of his staff, then, with barely a twist, broke off the last foot of its length. He opened his eyes again and held the length of wood out to Ralph.
'You are, I believe, in need of a wand, Mr. Deedle.'
Ralph took the length of wood from Merlin. As he did, the wood became his wand again, still ridiculously fat and chunky, with the lime green painted tip. Ralph grinned, turning it over in his hands.
'I wouldn't expect it to be quite as powerful as it once was, of course,' Merlin said, turning his staff upright and using it to stand again. The staff was noticeably shorter now. 'But I suspect you will still be able to do remarkable things with it.'
'Thanks,' Ralph said seriously.
'Don't thank me,' Merlin said, raising an eyebrow. 'It's yours, Mr. Deedle. You made it so.'
'So the wizard gives the cowardly lion his courage,' Zane said, grinning. 'When does James here get some brains?'
Merlin cinched his eyebrow a bit higher, looking from Zane to James.
'Don't pay him any attention,' James said, laughing and leading the group to the stairs. 'It's a Muggle thing. We wouldn't understand.'
'Come on!' Ralph called, running up the steps. 'I want to show Ted and the rest of the Gremlins I've got my wand back! Tabitha Corsica can keep her stupid broom.'
The three boys scrambled up the moving staircases, followed more sedately by Merlin and the newly reborn Dennis Dolohov.
'Will he be okay with that thing?' Dennis asked Merlin, frowning a little.
Merlin merely smiled and clacked his staff on the steps as he climbed. Unnoticed, a jet of lime green sparks shot from the tip, swirling and glowing like fireflies in their wake.
The last weeks of the school year spun out before James like a blur, remarkably free of deathly peril and adventure, but packed nonetheless with the lesser stresses of schoolwork and final essays and wand practicals, all of which were relatively welcome in the wake of the Hall of Elders' Crossing. To no one's great surprise, Hufflepuff was awarded the House Cup, being the only house to avoid major point deductions for involvement in the various Merlin conspiracy skullduggeries. The broomstick caper alone had cost Ravenclaw and Gryffindor fifty points each.
On the morning of the last day of school, James was stuffing his books and extra school robes into his trunk when Noah pounded up the stairs calling for him.
'Ron Weasley's in the fireplace. He wants to talk to you.'
James grinned. 'Excellent! Tell him I'll be right there!'
'James, look at you!' Uncle Ron cried when James tromped down the stairs a minute later, still tying his tie. 'All respectable and everything. Have a good year, did you?'
James nodded. 'I guess I did. Looks like I'll pass, after all. Spent all of Monday night getting ready for Franklyn's D.A.D.A. practical, then had the most horrible sensation that I'd forgotten everything five minutes before the test.'
'I wasn't exactly talking about your schoolwork, you dunce,' said the face in the embers, grinning crookedly. 'Your dad told me all about the Merlin conspiracy you uncovered. That's brilliant stuff, and no mistake.'
'Yeah, well…,' James said sheepishly, 'it was all pretty exciting there for a while, but it's weird. Five weeks of schoolwork and suddenly all of that seems like it happened to someone else.'
That's the way of it,' Ron nodded. 'The dull parts of life spread out in your memory and crowd out the exciting parts until they just seem like little flashes. It's the way your brain copes with it all, I guess. Speaking of which, how's Professor Jackson doing?'
James rolled his eyes. 'Nothing can keep old Stonewall down for long. He wasn't really injured in his duel with Delacroix, even though his backup wand wasn't as powerful as the one she broke. Apparently, he chased her through the woods for hours and finally cornered her in a clearing. He says he'd have gotten her, except that she cheated, calling on the enemy naiads and dryads to fight with her. The trees attacked him from behind, knocking him out. That's how he got the big bruise on his forehead. Still, he was back in class the day after Prescott left, and he's been raining fire on Zane and me ever since.'
Ron raised an eyebrow. 'Can't really blame him, I guess.'
'We gave him back his briefcase and apologized and everything. I mean, I know we ruined his lifelong quest to protect the relic robe and prevent the return of the most dangerous wizard of all time and all, but come on. Merlin turned out to be all right. Delacroix got sent back to the States to stand trial in the American wizarding courts. Everything worked out in the end, didn't it?'
'All I can say is if I was him, I'd wish you spiders in your drawers for the rest of your life,' Ron mused. 'But that's just me. My mind tends to go that way.'
'Honestly, Uncle Ron. I want to make it right. I liked Professor Jackson at first.'
'At the risk of sounding like a responsible adult, James, actions have consequences. Apologizing is great, but 'sorry' isn't a magic word. You not only ruined Jackson's plans, you took a stab at his pride. You succeeded in foiling him. In his mind, you made a fool out of him. That's a hard thing for a bloke like him to get over. Frankly, you can't blame him, can you?'
'I guess not,' James agreed sulkily. 'At least he didn't fail us in Technomancy. It was a close thing, though.'
'Good man. Still, don't get too wrapped up in classwork, you. You've got a reputation to live up to.'
'Or down to,' Noah's voice quipped from nearby.
'I heard that, Metzker,' Ron said sternly. 'It's a proud Potter tradition, squeaking by in school. Started with
