He caught up to Petra, clutching her arm so hard that she finally stopped and spun around. When she turned her gaze upon James, he stumbled backwards. Her eyes were horrible—flashing like diamonds in a winter sun, yet dark as tombs. She blinked and seemed to recognize him, although her expression didn't soften.
'I'm sorry, James,' she said. 'There's nothing I can do for Lucy. She's dead. But Izzy is still alive and she needs me. I can't stay here.'
James buried his face in his hands, overcome with helpless misery. He glanced back and saw Zane and Ralph kneeling over Lucy's body, lifting her hands as if to help her up. They didn't understand yet, or were simply refusing to believe it.
'Bu
'Then they should pay for it,' Petra said, and her voice rang in the high chamber of the room, building on its echoes until it sounded like a chorus. James looked back again and saw Zane and Ralph crossing the floor to join them. Lucy's body hung limp in Ralph's arms and Ralph, James saw with real surprise, was crying. Tears streamed down the big boy's face, making shining tracks on his cheeks.
'We did everything we could, James,' he said pleadingly. 'But we ran out of ideas! Even my wand won't do anything! And I tried! I really did!'
James found himself nodding at his friend. 'I know, Ralph,' he said, and tears filled his own eyes, tears of mingled misery and rage. 'I believe you.'
'Let's go get those two witches,' Zane seethed in a low, fierce voice. His face had gone as pale as a gravestone.
'Neither of them are witches,' Petra said, turning back to the wafting fabric of the portal curtain. 'But that won't help them when I find them.'
With a shuddering breath, James moved alongside Petra and gripped her hand once more. It was so cold that it almost stung. Together, with Ralph in the rear, still carrying Lucy's body, the four strode toward the curtain and vanished into its sweeping folds.
When the curtain swept back from them, James blinked into darkness. Noises rang out all around—scufflings and shouts, the whoosh and crackle of spells, all forming the unmistakable clamor of a magical fight. A streak of green lit the space and James saw a man nearby, dueling a wildly grinning witch.
'Where are we?' Ralph called, his voice frightened.
'The Department of Mysteries,' Petra replied grimly, striding forward. 'But not in our time. Don't touch anything. Don't even raise your wands. This is not our destination. It's only a trick.'
James matched Petra's stride, but couldn't avoid looking around. What he saw sent a chill deep into his heart. The dueling man was his father's godfather and one of James' namesakes: Sirius Black. His black hair clung to his face in sweaty tangles as he manipulated his wand.
'Give it up, Bellatrix,' Sirius grunted, jabbing forth with a Disarming Spell. 'You've always been far better with your tongue than your wand.'
The wild-eyed woman cackled eagerly, deflecting the spell and parrying with another green curse.
'We are not real to them,' Petra called out, walking directly between Sirius and Bellatrix as they battled. 'Unless we stop and take possession of this reality, it will not recognize us. Don't interfere! There is another curtain straight ahead.
James looked and saw what Petra meant. Straight ahead of them, no more than fifteen paces away, was another Nexus Curtain, identical to the one through which they had already passed. Petra strode toward it purposefully and James matched her stride for stride.
'James!' Zane exclaimed, grabbing at his friend's shoulder and pointing. 'Look over there! Is that…?'
James knew the story of where they were. He knew what the battle was about and what was about to happen. Sirius Black was going to be killed, sent through the veil that wafted even now behind him—the veil through which, ironically, James and his companions had just come. And yet, as he looked toward where Zane was pointing, James was stunned almost to a standstill.
His father moved at the perimeter of the battle, engaged in his own struggle. His glasses were crooked on his face; the famous scar marked his forehead. He appeared to be almost exactly the same age as James himself.
'We could stop it,' he said, reaching out to grasp Petra's arm. 'We could stay here and stop it all. We could save Sirius and stop all the terrible things that happened afterward!'
'James,' Petra said, pausing only for a moment, 'you've been here before. It's the bargain of the Gatekeeper all over again. We can't change what's been done, no matter how much we might want to. History will find a way to happen, no matter what. Our destiny is elsewhere. Come.'
Reluctantly, James agreed. The troop moved through the battle, unscathed and unseen, and stepped into the soft folds of the second portal. As he went, however, James couldn't help looking back. Sirius was taunting Bellatrix for her failure to strike him and she was raising her wand, her teeth bared in fury and black glee. And then, thankfully, the fabric of the curtain swooped around James and he felt that reality drop away behind him.
This time, when the curtain passed over the travelers, they moved into the noise and heat of an even larger battle. James recognized their surroundings immediately: it was Hogwarts, although not quite as he knew it. Witches and wizards crowded the hall, engaged in outright war. In the near distance, James saw Bellatrix Lestrange again, only this time she was dueling his own grandmother, Molly Weasley, her face nearly unrecognizable with grim ferocity. More faces became visible in the fracas: his long dead Uncle Fred, whom he knew only from pictures; Ted Lupin's mother, Tonks; even a much younger version of Oliver Wood, fiercely battling alongside Horace Slughorn. The floor vibrated beneath James' feet and enormous legs moved beyond the windows—a giant was just outside, its club rising to deliver a blow to the decimated castle. A snarling shape leaped over the crowd in a blur, landing directly beside James and flashing its bloody teeth. With a jolt of terror, James realized that it was the infamous Fenrir Greyback, the werewolf.
'None of it can harm us,' Petra called out, approaching a third wafting curtain. 'So long as you do not engage in what you see. Try not to look.' James heard the reluctance in Petra's own voice, however. If not for Izzy's kidnapping, she herself might have stopped and joined the battle, regardless of the consequences.
The travelers stepped into the third curtain.
Screaming met them this time. It was a woman's voice and James saw her almost instantly. She stood before a wooden crib, clutching a baby to her chest, shielding the tiny shape with her hands and arms. At her feet lay a dark-haired man. He stared unseeingly up at the ceiling of the small room, dead, and James recognized himself in the man's features—it was his grandfather, of course, James Potter the First. A high, cold voice overwhelmed the woman's screams and James found himself walking directly in front of the figure of Tom Riddle, still young and bursting with malevolent strength.
'Make it easy on yourself, Lily,' the Dark Lord instructed, raising his wand. 'In a moment, there will be nothing left for you to live for anyway.'
'Go!' James screamed out, pushing Petra toward the next curtain, which wafted in the doorway of the room's small closet. 'Either stop him from killing her or go! Go! I don't want to see it!'
Lily Potter continued to scream and James fled through the curtain, tears of helplessness and rage blurring his vision. A flash of blinding green light followed him, briefly but memorably.
And then they were in a small dingy kitchen. A woman was seated at a rickety table across from a man James recognized: Lucius Malfoy, although much younger than James had last seen him. He was drawing a cloth- wrapped object from his robes, placing it onto the table next to his empty teacup.
'Unwrap it, Mrs. Agnellis,' he said quietly. 'It is for you.'
