James shivered violently. Finally, the professor's hand came loose from his shoulder, wrenched free as she fell forward, toppling full length like a tree. James scrambled to catch her, and she fell partially upon him. She was so light, so festooned with bangles, jewelry, and coloured shawls, that it was like being fallen on by a thrift store mannequin.
'Professor?' James gasped, struggling to roll her over. She was as stiff and cold as a plank of wood. He shook her. 'Professor Trelawney?' She stared up at the dark ceiling, her eyes boggling blindly behind her spectacles, which had been knocked askew on her face. James was terrified. He filled his lungs to call for help, but at that moment, the professor convulsed before him. She inhaled desperately, filling her narrow chest and flailing her arms, struggling to sit up. James grasped one of her cold hands and tugged her shoulder with his other hand, pulling her upright.
'Goodness me,' Trelawney wheezed, her voice an octave higher than normal. 'What has become of me, fainting dead away right here on the corridor floor. My apologies, Mr. Potter, I do hope I didn't alarm you…'
James helped the professor to her feet, and peered at her face suspiciously, his heart still pounding in his chest. She seemed not to remember what had happened or any of her strange words, but James felt almost certain that she knew
'I'll be just fine, James, my boy,' she said faintly. 'Please, go on, go on…' She seemed either unwilling or unable to look directly at him.
'Professor,' James said slowly, 'are you sure you're… I mean, what did all of that mean?'
'I don't know what you're talking about, young man,' she admonished, as if he had suggested something slightly dirty. 'Off with you now. Your family awaits.'
'I could walk you to your rooms, Professor,' James offered, stepping forward and reaching for Trelawney's elbow.
'No!' she nearly shrieked, snatching her elbow away from him. She struggled to moderate her tone. 'No. Of course not. Just go. Please.'
James peered up at her face, his eyes wide, worried. 'It was about someone who's going on this trip, wasn't it?'
Trelawney sighed hugely, shakily turning to lean against the wall and fanning herself with the end of a mauve scarf. 'There are those who laugh at me,' she said, as if to herself. 'They don't believe in the cosmic harmonics. They doubt that I am one of its rare vessels.' She tittered a little madly, apparently forgetting that James was even there. He began to back away, half afraid to leave the professor alone, but knowing his fellow travelers were waiting for him. Trelawney didn't look up at him, but continued to mutter nervously to herself, her face lost in the shadows of the corridor. Finally, shaking his head, James turned and began to run, following the distant voices from the rotunda.
'It was you, James,' Trelawney's voice said blankly, stopping him in his tracks. 'It will surprise no one that I have had very few true revelations in my life. Rarely do I remember them, nor is this time any exception, but for one thing: I saw you. You are the one. You are the instrument, but not the tool. You will shepherd the one who will bring down the darkness. Even now… even now…' Her voice had gone flat, resigned and dead.
James turned slowly to look back over his shoulder. Trelawney stood right where he'd left her, leaning against the wall, indistinct in the shadows.
'You're confused. My dad was the Chosen One. Not me. It was his job to save the world.'
She shook her head slowly, and then laughed again. It was a thin hopeless sound. 'Your father was indeed the chosen one. His task is finished. Now, the universe demands payment, and that payment will come by your hand. It is done. You cannot escape your destiny, any more than your father could his.'
'I don't believe that,' James heard himself say. 'Nothing is unchangeable. Whatever this
'I know you will,' she said slowly, so sadly that it nearly broke James' heart. 'I know you will. But you will fail, dear boy. You will fail…' She exhaled on the last word, turning it into a long diminishing note, fading into the darkness. James shivered violently.
'James?' a voice called. It was his dad, Harry Potter. 'Is that you? We need to move along, son.'
James glanced along the corridor and saw shadows approaching, growing longer in the torchlight.
'I'm coming, Dad,' he called. 'I just… I ran into somebody. We were saying goodbye… She's still —'
He turned around again, pointing, but Trelawney was gone. In the predawn darkness of the corridor, there was no sign of her whatsoever.
2. THE GWYNDEMERE
James couldn't remember the last time he had been awake at such an early hour. The sun was barely a rose-grey suggestion on the horizon, leaving the rest of the sky scattered with faint stars and high clouds, frosted with moonlight. Mist rose from the school grounds and the grass was so wet that James could feel it through his trainers.
'Good morning, James,' Izzy, Petra's sister, announced cheerfully, moving alongside him as the travelers made their way into the pearly dawn gloom. 'It's exciting, isn't it?'
'It is, actually,' James agreed, smiling at the younger girl as she skipped next to him, her blonde curls bouncing around her face. Izzy was a year older than James' sister, Lily, but it was a little hard to remember that. Where Lucy tended to strike people as older than she really was, Izabella Morganstern had a simple innocence that made her seem rather younger. Petra had explained to James and his family that Izzy had been born with some sort of learning disability, one that had earned her the disdain of her own mother and very nearly doomed her to a life of dull servitude at the woman's cold hand. James didn't think that Izzy seemed slow, exactly. On the contrary, it was almost as if her brain was simply blissfully unencumbered by the sorts of nagging worries that left most people grumpy and irritable. James envied her a little bit.
'Petra didn't want to get up when I tried to wake her,' Izzy said in a stage whisper, nodding toward her sister, who was walking some distance away, near Percy and Audrey. 'She says she's not a morning person.'
James nodded. 'I'm not either, usually. But this is different, isn't it?'
'It's not like getting up for a day of work on the farm or anything dull like that,' Izzy agreed, grabbing James' hand and skipping merrily. 'We're off on a grand adventure! We're going for a ride on a ship, just like Treus. Aren't we?'
'Raise ye forth thy wands and wits,' Albus commented from somewhere behind James. 'Right 'Treus'?'
'So how are we getting there, then?' Ralph piped up. James turned to see the bigger boy walking alongside Albus, his hands stuffed into the pockets of his hooded sweatshirt. 'Portkey? I've always wanted to travel by Portkey. Is it that stump over there?'
'You see who's leading this little expedition, don't you Ralph?' James replied, nodding toward the front of the group.
Ralph squinted. 'Yeah. It's Merlin,' he said, and then slumped as realization struck him. 'Oh.'
Albus peered ahead at the Headmaster. 'What's that mean, then?'
'It means we're walking,' James answered, grinning. 'Merlin likes to commune with the secret whatsits of
