James Potter and the Hall of the Elders' Crossing

        'Hold it up so I can see it,' he instructed nervously. His hand was shaking visibly as he pointed his wand at the case. After a moment, he dropped his arm again. 'This is all screwy. Ralph's the wand master. Can't he try it?'

        'Horace taught it to you,' James said impatiently. 'It's too late to show Ralph the wand motions. Class is in fifteen minutes.'

        'Yeah,' Zane protested, 'but what if I can't get it to work? If Ralph gets it right, you know it'd be good enough to fool anybody.'

        'And if he gets it wrong,' James insisted, 'we'll be picking bits of leather off the walls for the next hour.'

        'I'm standing right here, remember?' Ralph said.

James ignored him. 'You have to, Zane. You can do it. Just give it a go.'

        Zane took a deep breath, and then raised his wand again, pointing it at the bag. He looked at the parchment as Ralph held it up. Then, in a low, singsong voice he spoke.

        'Light immortal speeds the eye, for understanding's vanity. Discordia, the fool's ally, make expectation's guarantee.'

        Zane flicked his wand in three small circles, and then tapped the top of the case with it. There was a popping sound and a very faint ring of light appeared, emanating from the wand's tip. The ring grew, slipping down over the case. It grew fainter until it vanished. Zane let out his breath.

        'Did it work?' Ralph asked.

        'It must have,' James said. 'It looks the same to us, of course, but something happened, didn't it? The charm must be in place.'

        'I hope so,' Zane said. 'Come on, we have to get to the classroom before anybody else gets there.'

        They ran through the corridor, Zane and James watching for Professor Jackson and Ralph carrying the fake case with his winter coat draped over it.

'This looks stupid,' Ralph rasped. 'I look about as casual as Grawp in a tutu.'

James shushed him. 'It doesn't matter, we're almost there.'

        They stopped outside the door to the Technomancy classroom. Zane peered in, then turned back to James and Ralph.

        'Plan B,' he said under his breath. 'There's somebody in there. A Hufflepuff. Can't remember his name.'

        James leaned around the corner of the door. It was a boy he vaguely recognized from Muggle Studies class. His name was Terrence and he glanced up as James was looking.

        'Hey, Terrence,' James called, grinning. He sauntered into the room. Behind him, he heard Ralph and Zane whispering. He tried to drown out their voices. 'So how was your holiday? Travel much?'

        'I guess,' Terrence mumbled.

        This is going to be harder than expected, James thought. 'So where did you go? I took the train to London. Saw the family and everybody. Had loads of fun. You go anywhere fun?'

        Terrence turned in his seat. 'Went down to Cork with my mum. It rained most of the trip. Saw a flute concert.'

         James nodded encouragingly. Fortunately, Terrence was seated halfway from the front, turned around toward James. Out of the corner of his eye, James saw Zane near Jackson's desk, positioning the fake case. Terrence started to turn back toward the front of the room.

        'A flute concert!' James blurted loudly. 'Cool!'

        Terrence turned back. 'No,' he said, 'it wasn't.'

        Zane stood up, giving James the all-clear signal. James saw him and sighed with relief. 'Oh. Well, sorry to hear it,' he said, backing away from Terrence. 'Anyway. See you around.'

        Zane and James took their planned seats in the front row. It was a small classroom and Jackson's desk was only a couple of feet away. James scanned the front of the room, pleased to see that nothing seemed disturbed. He waited until a few more students came in, laughing and talking, and then whispered to Zane. 'Where is it?'

        'It's in that little corner by the chalkboard. I left the cloak folded a little so it doesn't drape onto the floor. I just hope old Stonewall doesn't trip over it when he goes behind his desk.'

        James looked into the corner that Zane indicated. It was just a shallow alcove formed where the closet next door butted into the room. It was unlikely that Jackson would venture there, but not impossible.

'Sometimes, he doesn't even go behind his desk all class,' James whispered. Zane gave a little lift and drop of the shoulders, as if to say here's hoping.

        A few minutes later, Professor Jackson strode into the room, carrying his ever-present leather bag. James and Zane couldn't help watching intently as he draped his cloak over the desk and settled his briefcase into its accustomed space on the floor next to his desk.

        'Greetings, class,' Jackson said briskly. 'I trust you all had an instructive holiday. One can only hope you haven't forgotten everything we worked so hard to instill in your heads prior to the break. Which reminds me. Please hand your essays to the left and then to the front. Mr. Walker, I will collect them from you once you have them all.'

        Zane nodded, his eyes bulging a bit. Both James and Zane had their wands slipped up their sleeves. If Jackson noticed, they'd just say they were carrying them that way in honor of their favorite Technomancy teacher, since Jackson himself carried his in a small sheath sewn into his sleeve. Thankfully, Jackson seemed a bit preoccupied.

        'I will be grading your essays tonight, as usual. Until then, let us take a sneak peek, as it were, into your cumulative understanding of the subject. Mr. Hollis, please favor us with a short definition of Hechtor's Law of Displaced Inertia, if you please.'

        Hollis, a red-cheeked first-year Ravenclaw, cleared his throat and began to offer his explanation. James barely heard him. He looked down at Jackson's case, sitting tantalizingly only a few feet away. James thought he could probably kick it if he wished to. His heart pounded and he was filled with a horrible, icy certainty that the plan couldn't possibly work. It had been ridiculously foolhardy to think they could pull such a caper under the prow-nose of Professor Jackson. And yet he knew they had to try. He felt vaguely sick with anxiety. Jackson began to pace.

        'Unnecessarily verbose, Mr. Hollis, but relatively accurate. Miss Morganstern, can you elaborate a bit regarding the transference of inertia between objects of different densities?'

        'Well, different densities respond to inertia differently, based on the proximity of their atoms,' Petra answered. 'A ball of lead will be launched in a single direction. A ball of, say, marshmallow will merely explode.'

        Jackson nodded. 'Is there a technomancic workaround for this? Anyone? Miss Goyle?'

        Philia Goyle lowered her hand. 'A Binding Spell coupled with the Inertia-Transference Spell will keep even low-density substances intact, sir. This has the added benefit that low-density projectiles will travel much farther and faster on a given factor of inertia than a higher-density projectile, such as Miss Morganstern's lead ball.'

        'True, Miss Goyle, but not necessarily beneficial,' Jackson smiled humorlessly. 'A feather shot out of a cannon still won't hurt.'

The class laughed a little at that. Jackson was just beginning his second circuit of the room. Then, suddenly, Ralph was at the door.