down the steps to breakfast, he forgot all about it. In the light of a new day and a new week, he felt perfectly confident that their plan would work. Failure was inconceivable. He was in such high spirits about it that he barely noticed the pale wizard in the painting of the Assumption of Saint Mungo watching him intently, frowning and stone-faced.
The first hurdle James, Ralph, and Zane faced in capturing Jackson's briefcase was simply finding a case similar enough to make the switch. It was, as Zane had suggested, a fairly basic black leather case, rather more like a doctor's bag than a briefcase. They studied it carefully at dinner Monday evening, as it sat between the professor's black boots beneath the faculty table. It had two wooden handles on the top, a hinged brass catch, and was, indeed, rather beaten and scuffed. They were dismayed to discover that it had a small, tarnished brass plate riveted to one side with 'T. H. Jackson' engraved on it. While it was, in most respects, an almost entirely unremarkable bit of luggage, the boys soon discovered that there was not, in fact, one exactly like it to be easily found. Plenty of students and faculty had leather cases and portfolios, but they were all either too narrow, or the wrong color, or of a rather different size or shape. By Tuesday night, they had still not found a case they could use to perform the switch. Ralph suggested that they might have to wait until the next week to perform the switch, but James was insistent that they keep trying.
'We don't know when they're planning to bring all the relics together,' he explained. 'If we wait too long, they'll try it and then we won't have access to any of the relics at all. They'll figure out they don't work, and then hide them or destroy them.'
Ralph and Zane agreed, although it didn't get them any closer to finding an appropriate case to use for the switch. Then, Wednesday morning, the day of Technomancy class, Ralph came to the breakfast table with a manic glint in his eye. He plopped down across from Zane and James and stared at them.
'What?' James asked.
'I think I've found a case we can use.'
James' mouth dropped open and Zane audibly gulped the coffee he'd been sipping.
'What? Where?' James asked in a harsh whisper. He had decided they were going to have to wait after all, and had been simultaneously worried and relieved. Now adrenaline shot through him. The rather wide-eyed paleness of Ralph's face indicated he was feeling the same thing.
'You know my friend, Rufus Burton?'
James nodded. 'Yeah, another first-year Slytherin. Greasy-haired kid, right?'
'Yeah. Well, he collects rocks and stuff. Calls himself a 'rock-hound'. Has a whole bunch of polished little stones arranged on a shelf by his bed: crystals and quartzes and moon-sapphires and all that. I listened to him talking about it last night for almost an hour. Well, he brought all his rock hunting tools along with him to school, of course. He's got a little hammer that's a pick on one side, and a bunch of little scrapers and brushes and loads of these little cloths and polishing solutions.'
'All right, all right,' Zane said. 'We get the picture. Guy's a geek with tools. I'm spellbound. What's the point?'
'Well,' Ralph said, unperturbed, 'he carries all his tools and gear around in a case. He had it out on his bed last night…'
'And it's the right size and shape?' James prompted.
Ralph nodded, still wide-eyed. 'It's almost perfect. Even has a little plaque on the side! It has the name of the manufacturer on it, but it's in the same place as the little plate on Jackson's case. The color's different, and the handles are ivory, but other than that…'
'So how do we get it?' James asked breathlessly.
'I've already got it,' Ralph answered, seeming rather amazed at himself. 'I told him I wanted a bag to carry my books and parchments in. Told him my backpack didn't feel very, you know, Slytherin. He said he knew just what I meant. He said he'd gotten a new toolcase for Christmas, so I could have his old one. That's why he had it out: he was taking everything out of the old one to put into his new case, which is bigger and has a hard dragonskin cover. Watertight, he told me.' Ralph was beginning to ramble.
'He just said you could have it?' Zane asked incredulously.
'Yeah! I've got to tell you, it wigged me out a bit. I mean, isn't that just a little too… I don't know…'
'A little too much of a coincidence,' Zane nodded.
James grew thoughtfully determined. 'Where's the case now?'
Ralph looked a little startled. 'I brought it down with me, but I hid it in one of the cubbyholes under the stairs. I didn't want anyone to see me with it in here. Just in case.'
'Good thinking. Come on,' James said, getting up.
'You still want to go through with it?' Ralph asked, following reluctantly. 'I mean, we were going to wait until next week anyway…'
'That was only because we didn't have a choice.'
'Well,' Ralph muttered, 'there's always a choice. I mean, we don't have to do it this way, do we? Couldn't one of us just hide under the Invisibility Cloak and make the switch when Jackson's not looking?'
Zane shook his head. 'No way. There's too little room in there. Jackson would run you over doing one of his laps. If we're going to do it, this is the only way.'
'Look, I think we're meant to do this,' James said, turning to face Ralph and Zane when they got to the doorway. 'If there is such a thing as destiny, then that's what put that case in your hands last night, Ralph. We can't miss this opportunity. It'd be like… like spitting in destiny's face.'
Ralph blinked, trying to envision that. Zane scowled thoughtfully. 'Sounds serious.'
'You two still with me?' James asked. Both other boys nodded.
The case was still in the cubbyhole beneath the main staircase, and it was as similar to Jackson's as Ralph had described. It was a ruddy red color, and much more scuffed from having been dragged through the dirt and rocks, but it was exactly the same size and shape, with a matching brass catch in the center. Ralph had already stuffed his dress cloak into it, and when James opened it to check, it looked almost exactly the way the cloth inside Jackson's case had looked when it had come open that day in Franklyn's classroom.
'Let's take it to the boys' bathroom in the upper cellars,' James said, preceding the other two down the staircase. 'It's just down the hall from Technomancy. Do you need anything special, Zane?'
'Just my wand and my notes,' Zane answered. Horace Birch had been more than happy to explain the Visum-ineptio charm to Zane, but there'd been no opportunity for him to practice. Further, the charm would only work--if it worked at all--on anyone who didn't know the charm was in place. The result was that neither James, Ralph, nor Zane would know if the charm was working. They'd just have to trust Zane's spellwork until the switch had been accomplished and Jackson picked up the fake case. Only then, one way or another, would the effectiveness of the charm be shown.
In the boys' bathroom, James plopped the case on the edge of the sink. Zane dug in his backpack for his wand and the bit of parchment he'd scribbled the Visum-ineptio incantation on. He handed the parchment to Ralph.
