JAMES POTTER AND THE VAULT OF DESTINIES

anything to it?'

       Straidthwait let out a rattly sigh and tapped his coffee cup with one bony index finger. 'I barely knew Professor Magnussen as anything more than a rather feared professor, and then as a famous escaped murderer, but I don't think he'd leave meaningless clues. He was too arrogant for that. Still, I'd have a difficult time believing that poor old Leo Roebitz had anything to do with it. He hadn't even died yet when Magnussen disappeared. No, I'm afraid you boys are chasing the proverbial feral waterfowl.'

James released a disappointed sigh. 'Now we'll never find out where the Nexus Curtain is,' he muttered.

       Straidthwait perked up a little at that. 'Did you actually think,' he said, peering at James, 'that the Nexus Curtain would be found inside the casket of a dead wizard literature teacher?'

       James bristled a little. 'Well, it's magic, isn't it? It could be anywhere. We were just following the clues.'

       'Yes,' Straidthwait chuckled drily. 'I suppose that is one way to go about it. Following clues. Of course, if it were me, I'd follow Magnussen himself, instead.'

       'How are we going to do that?' Zane asked, tilting his head. 'He's only been vanished for a hundred and fifty years or so.'

       'Yeah,' Ralph added. 'And nobody saw where he went anyway. They were all too busy watching his house burn down.'

       'It wasn't his house,' Straidthwait replied pedantically, raising a skeletal finger. 'It was the house of John Danforth Roberts, one of the three founders of this school, God rest his soul. And I wouldn't be quite so hasty about who saw what on that particular night.'

       James narrowed his eyes at the mouldering professor. 'What do you mean?'

       'I'd imagine it was quite obvious at this point,' Straidthwait said, making a rather ghastly smile. 'I witnessed Magnussen's escape.'

       'But,' Ralph began, squinting thoughtfully. 'But, Franklyn said, in the Disrecorder vision, that nobody saw Magnussen escape. He said they were all too distracted by the fire.'

       'Alas, I had my own reasons for keeping my observations a secret,' Straidthwait admitted, leaning back in his chair. 'Not that they'd have done anyone any good, I suspect.'

       Zane asked, 'Is there a story that goes with that?'

       'Not much of a one, I'm afraid,' Straidthwait sighed. 'You see, I had recently become enamored with a fetching young lady by the name of Charlotte. She lived in Erebus Mansion and had a delightfully wicked mind. She occupied me for many hours during that autumn—hours that would have been far more responsibly spent on my studies. As a result, I was failing Mageography quite disastrously. My teacher, Professor Howard Styrnwether, had confronted me about my failing grades, demanding that I not throw my future away for some 'made-up strumpet', as he called her.

       'He was right, of course, but I was livid. In fury, I abandoned the Mageography essay I had barely begun and instead wrote an entirely new essay consisting of precisely five words, which glowed green on the parchment and read as follows: 'Dearest Professor Styrnwether—Get Stuffed'.'

       Zane hooted with laughter. 'That's excellent! I see why you were President of Zombie House.'

       Straidthwait nodded, smiling despite himself. 'Yes, well, I might never have achieved such a position if it had not been for the events that followed. You see, I handed the essay in after a night of affronted anger, emboldened by Charlotte herself and not a few Dragonmeades in the Kite and Key. Almost instantly, however, I regretted the act. If Styrnwether failed me in Mageography, the chances were that I would never get accepted to the graduate school, and if I didn't get accepted to the graduate school, I'd never receive my doctorate in Advanced Arithmatics, which meant I could never become a teacher and grow to be the distinguished and revered undead professor you see before you now.

       'Thus, I pined for a means to retrieve the essay before it was too late. Unfortunately, Professor Styrnwether had already begun grading the essays. I hovered near his office door, peeking in, looking for any opportunity to sneak in and steal back the insulting essay. Styrnwether, unfortunately, did not pause for so much as a bathroom break, and I began to fear the worst.

       'Shortly, however, I overheard the brouhaha stewing in the lawn outside. I looked out a nearby window and saw the crowd gathering, saw the flames beginning to lick from the lower windows of Magnussen's residence. I had heard about the travesty of Magnussen's crimes, of course, and knew that tensions had been mounting, ever since the decision had been made to allow him to maintain his post during the investigation.

       'I immediately ran out to join the mob, as much out of curiosity as malice, although, I admit, there was some malice in my own thoughts as well. As the night drew in and the flames grew brighter and hotter, enveloping the unfortunate home of the former John Roberts, I spied, in the milling crowd, the humorless features of Professor Styrnwether. He was watching from a distance, his arms folded disapprovingly.

       'Perhaps it is a testament to my own sense of self-preservation, but I found myself immediately inspired. At once, I darted away from the flames, into the nearby faculty offices. The halls were completely deserted, of course, and I breathed a great sigh of relief as I retrieved my essay, ungraded, from the stack on Professor Styrnwether's desk.

       'I immediately produced my wand and obliterated the damning parchment. Finding a new parchment in the professor's desk, I quickly scribbled an apology for the fact that my essay would be a day late and promised to accept with good grace whatever penalty he deemed such tardiness deserved. I slipped this back into the stack of essays and, feeling a hundred pounds lighter, made my way back out into the darkening evening.

       'It was then, as I was skirting the buildings, some distance from the conflagration, that I saw him. Professor Magnussen was an unmistakable figure, tall and solid, with stony features and a crown of very short grey hair. I feared for a moment that he had seen me and ducked into the bushes next to the guest house. The professor strode on, however, his gait full of purpose, and I breathed a sigh of relief. I feared him, you see, on that night more than any other. I considered bravery, but only for a moment. I was only a student, of course, and Magnussen was a much feared wizard, even before he was known to be a torturer and a murderer. Thus, I watched.'

       James was spellbound. 'Where did he go? Did you see him open the Nexus Curtain?'

Straidthwait shook his head. 'I did not. The truth is, if indeed Magnussen did escape through the Nexus Curtain, then he did not do so immediately. He left the campus first. I watched him, even heard him, for my hiding place was quite near the Warping Willow. That is where he went. When he was under its branches, he spoke only one word. A moment later, he vanished. As far as I know, no witch or wizard ever saw him again.'

       There was a moment of tense silence as the boys thought about this. Finally, James said, 'What was the one word?'

       'The word was 'Abitus',' Straidthwait answered somberly. 'It is a simple spell which conjures an exit to the currently relevant date and time—the now. Magnussen left the campus that night and escaped into Muggle Philadelphia. I know not where he was going, but if all the suspicions about him are true, I have my ideas.'

       'You think he was going to the Nexus Curtain?' James asked, wide-eyed. 'You think maybe it wasn't on campus at all?'

       'Perhaps,' Straidthwait shrugged slowly, and then leaned forward. In a rasping whisper, he added, 'Or perhaps… he was going to get the key.'

       'The key…,' Ralph repeated slowly. 'Like, maybe whatever it was, it was too dangerous for him to keep on campus?'