which could mean anything from hamburgers to, well, cheeseburgers, as far as I can guess.'
'Sure!' James said, smiling. Harry Potter smiled back and winked.
'But first,' he said, addressing the rest of the group, 'we'll be joining our friends from Alma Aleron for a look at some of their proprietary magic. We're due to meet them in the next ten minutes, and I've asked a few others to join us as well. Shall we?'
'I'll not be joining you, I'm afraid,' McGonagall said briskly. 'It appears that I will need to be keeping a close tab on certain elements of the student populace during your tour, Mr. Potter. I apologize.'
'Understood, Minerva,' Harry said. It always sounded strange to James that his dad called the Headmistress by her first name, but she seemed to expect it from him. 'Do what you have must, but don't worry about squashing every little outburst. It's hardly worth the effort.'
'I'm not sure I agree with you about that, Harry, but I expect I'd not be able to maintain perfect order regardless. I shall see you this evening, then.' With that, the Headmistress turned and left the room brusquely, still fuming.
'Shall we, then?' Miss Sacarhina inquired. The group began to move toward a door on the opposite side of the room. As they walked, Harry bent toward his son and whispered. 'I'm glad you'll be coming along tonight. Sacarhina and Recreant aren't exactly the most pleasant travelling companions, but Percy insisted I bring them. I'm afraid this whole affair's gone all political.'
James nodded wisely, not knowing what that meant, but happy to be invited into his dad's confidence, as always. 'So how'd you travel?'
'Floo Network,' Harry answered. 'Didn't want to make any more visible entry than necessary. Minerva warned us about the demonstration the P.E. types were planning.'
It took James a moment to realize his dad was talking about the Progressive Element. 'She knows about those guys?' he asked, surprised.
His dad put a finger to his lips, nodding slightly toward Sacarhina and Recreant, who were ahead of them, talking in low voices as they walked. 'Later,' Harry mouthed.
After a few turns, Mr. Recreant opened a large door and stepped out into sunlight, the rest following. They descended a broad stone stairway which led down to a grassy area bordered by the Forbidden Forest on one side and a low stone wall on the other. Neville Longbottom and Professor Slughorn were standing near the wall, talking. They both looked up as the group approached.
'Hi, Harry!' Neville said, grinning and coming forward to meet him. 'Thanks for inviting me and Horace along for this. I've been curious about it ever since the Americans got here.'
'Harry Potter, as I live and breathe,' Slughorn said warmly, taking Harry's hand in both of his. 'Very good of you indeed to ask us to come. You know I'm always interested in new developments in the international magical community.'
Harry led the group to a gate in the stone wall. It opened onto a neat flagstone path that meandered toward the lake. 'Don't thank me, either of you. I only brought the both of you along so that you could ask all the smart questions and make sense of what they show us.'
Slughorn laughed indulgently, but Neville only smiled. James figured that his dad was probably telling at least part of the truth, and only Neville knew it.
The group approached a large canvas tent that was pitched on a low rise overlooking the water. An American flag hung limp on one of the tent's poles, over a flag emblazoned with the Alma Aleron crest. A pair of American students stood talking nearby. One of the students saw the group and acknowledged them with a slight nod. He called toward the tent. 'Professor Franklyn?'
After a moment, Franklyn emerged from the side of the tent, wiping his hands on a large cloth. 'Ah! Greetings, visitors,' he said graciously. 'Thank you so much for coming.'
Harry shook Franklyn's outstretched hand. It was apparent that they had already met earlier and arranged this gathering. Harry turned and made introductions all around, finishing with James.
'Of course, of course,' Franklyn said, beaming at James. 'Young Mr. Potter is in my class. How are you today, James?'
'Good, sir,' James answered, smiling.
'As you should be, on such a fine day,' Franklyn said seriously, nodding approvingly. 'And now that the pleasantries have been seen to, do follow me, my friends. Harry, you were interested in seeing the means by which we care for our vehicles, is that right?'
'Very much so,' Harry said. 'I wasn't here to see your arrival, of course, but I heard all about your interesting flying vehicles. I am very eager to see them, as well as your storage facility. I have heard quite a lot of speculation about it, although I admit I understand very little of it.'
'Our Trans-Dimensional Garage, yes. Virtually none of us understands very much about it, I am afraid,' Franklyn said dubiously. 'In fact, if it were not for our technomancy expert, Theodore Jackson, none of us would have the slightest idea how to maintain it. Speaking of whom, he sends his apologies for not being able to be here for the tour. He will be joining us this evening and will be happy to discuss it with you then, should you have any questions for him.'
'As I'm sure we will,' Titus Hardcastle said in his low, gravelly voice.
James followed his dad around to the open side of the tent and nearly tripped over his own feet when he looked inside. The tent was quite large, with complicated wooden struts and frameworks supporting it. All three of the Alma Aleron flying vehicles were parked inside it, leaving enough room for neat arrangements of tool chests, maintenance equipment, extra parts, and several men in work clothes who moved among the vehicles busily. The strangest thing about the tent, however, was that the back was missing. Where James was sure he should have seen the hanging canvas wall he had seen from the outside, there was simply open air, looking out onto a view that was definitely not any view of the Hogwarts grounds. Neat, red brick buildings and huge, horny trees could be seen in the distance beyond the tent's missing back wall. Even stranger, the lighting of the scene was completely different than the bright noon sunlight of the Hogwarts grounds. On the other side of the tent, the scene was lit with a pale pink light, the huge, fluffy clouds in the distance tinged with gold. The trees and grass seemed to sparkle, as if covered in morning dew. One of the workmen nodded at Franklyn, then turned and walked out into the strange scene, brushing his hands on his overalls.
'Welcome to one of the worlds few trans-dimensional structures,' Franklyn said, gesturing proudly. 'Our Garage, which simultaneously stands both here, in temporary residence on the grounds of Hogwarts castle, and in its permanent location in the east quadrangle of Alma Aleron University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States.'
'Great Ghost of Golgamethe,' Slughorn said, stepping forward slowly. 'I've read of such things, but never thought I'd live to see one. Is this a naturally occurring temporal anomaly? Or is this orchestrated via Quantum Transference Charms?'
'That's why I invited you, Professor,' Harry said, smiling and examining the interior of the tent.
'The former,' Franklyn said, stepping between the Dodge Hornet and the Volkswagen Beetle to make room for the group. 'This is one of only three known dimensional plurality bubbles. What that means, I am told, is that this tent exists within a dimensional bridge, allowing it to span two places simultaneously. Thus, we can see on one side the noontime grounds of Hogwarts,' he gestured out the open side of the tent through which they had entered, 'what you might think of as our side of the transdimensional bubble. And on the other side,' he spread a hand toward the dim landscape seen magically through the rear of the tent, 'the dawn-time quadrangle of Alma Aleron University, the other side of the bubble. Meet Mr. Peter Graham, our head mechanic.'
