JAMES POTTER AND THE VAULT OF DESTINIES

       And in the center of the Memorial Day parade route, Merlinus Ambrosius moved through the rioting throng, gathering James, Zane, and Ralph close to him, looking down at the pathetic form of Lucy Weasley, dead in Ralph's strong arms. Harry Potter pushed toward them through the crowd, his face stern. Behind him, shooting Stunning Spells up at the swirling W.U.L.F. assassins and the running looters that had suddenly appeared, stalked Titus Hardcastle.

       Merlin surveyed them all gravely and then turned his gaze to the pandemonium that was unfolding all around.

       'What happened?' Harry called out, surveying the rioting crowd.

       With grim composure, Merlin replied, 'Ms. Morganstern has relieved the world of its ignorance.'

       Just like Eve, James thought, frowning sadly. She isn't evil, just mistaken. She ate the forbidden fruit from the Tree of Knowledge, and then she gave it to the rest of the world. He shuddered as another thought occurred to him.

       Merlin glanced down at him and his face suddenly looked very old. 'What is it, James? What do you know?'

       James sighed. 'I was just thinking about Petra and Eve,' he replied, and then met the old man's eyes. 'I was thinking about how people have always called this city 'the Big Apple'.'

       Merlin nodded. 'The fruit of knowledge,' he agreed morosely, 'offered to the rest of the world. From here, just as with Eve, there will be no turning back.'

       All around, the Muggle crowd roared and rioted, boggling up at the magical city above them. Car alarms blared as people abandoned the footpaths and clambered over vehicles. Glass shattered as store windows were broken, inundated by people seeking refuge from the frightening sights all around. Harry Potter and Titus Hardcastle continued to fire their wands into the air, Stunning the remaining W.U.L.F. assassins or chasing them into hiding.

       Merlin spoke once more. 'Do you know what else they call this city?' he asked. Without waiting for an answer, he went on. 'They call it… 'The City that Never Sleeps'.'

       With that, he raised his staff in both of his hands, gripping it so tightly that his knuckles whitened. He coiled himself, uttered something incomprehensible in his ancient mother tongue, and plunged the staff back down again, driving it into the pavement like a spike.

       A massive flash blinded James. It seemed as large as the sun, but heatless and silent. When James blinked and looked around again, he saw the flash still, like a dome of light. It spread along the canyon of the street, growing larger, rippling noiselessly over the thousands of Muggles gathered there. As it passed over them, lighting them for a moment with its bony glow, they froze in their tracks. Within seconds, the milling, heaving Muggle crowd fell silent and still, petrified by the receding blast, like ten thousand statues.

       The television cameras shut down. Every electric light in the city flickered, buzzed, and went dark. Stoplights winked out over intersections and cars rolled to gentle stops, knocking bumpers dully on the crowded streets. Silence fell over the city as wizarding New Amsterdam surveyed the suddenly inert body of its sister, Muggle New York, silent and dark as a crypt below it.

       James turned back toward Merlin and blinked in surprise. James, Ralph, Zane, Harry Potter, and Titus Hardcastle stood in a circle around the space where Merlin had been standing only moments earlier, but the big wizard himself was nowhere in sight. In his place, still vibrating faintly with the shock of its planting, was the rune- covered staff. The runes no longer glowed with their faint inner light. Now they were completely dark.

       'Oh no,' Harry said into the sudden silence. He shook his head in woeful negation. James looked around at the frozen tableaux of Muggle humanity and then glanced helplessly up at his father. Harry wasn't looking at the human statues that filled the streets, however. He was looking down at the dead figure of his niece, held in Ralph's arms.

       'Lucy,' he said, his voice barely a whisper. Gently, he took her body from Ralph and cradled it in his own arms.

       'The woman is gone,' Titus declared somberly, scanning the petrified crowd. 'And her protege is dead.'

       James blinked and followed Titus' gaze. A figure lay on the ground amidst the sea of human statuary. A hitch rose in James' chest as he broke away from the group and moved toward the shape. When he reached it, he knelt down.

       Morgan's hair had fallen across her bloody face, obscuring it. James could see immediately that the girl was dead just as Titus had declared. Protruding from her back, its jeweled handle glinting maliciously, was a silver dagger. For the third time that night, James' eyes blurred with tears. Morgan—the Petra from some other, less fortunate dimension—had merely been Judith's pawn after all. Petra and Izzy, Judith's unknowing and unwitting sister Fates, had been the real prize all along. Once the Lady of the Lake had finished using Morgan, she had disposed of her, quickly and without a second thought.

       Morgan's eyes were open, staring calmly at the heel of a petrified man who had frozen in the act of jumping over her body. James bit his lips sorrowfully and then reached forward. As gently as he could, he closed Morgan's eyes.

       'We must go,' Titus said from behind him, addressing the group. 'Merlinus' Petrification Spell may only last a few hours.'

       James stood up slowly and turned around. Harry drew a deep breath and then, still cradling Lucy's body against his shoulder, lifted his wand to his throat.

       'Attention, all magical denizens of New Amsterdam,' he called, sending his amplified voice echoing up into the canyons of the buildings. 'You must leave this place immediately. It is no longer safe for you here. The city of New Amsterdam is now a compromised zone. Soon, the Muggle city below you will reanimate. When it does…' Here, Harry paused and drew a deep, reluctant breath. 'When it does, it will be unsafe for you to be here. For the immediate future, you must evacuate as quickly and as calmly as you can. Take only what you need, and attempt to be gone by morning.'

       Overhead, the magical city began to rumble nervously. The flying highways and byways, which had paused in alarm during the massive flash of Merlin's Petrification Spell, fell into frantic, zooming motion.

       Harry pocketed his wand and took James' hand in his own.

       'I have sent word to your mother,' he said. 'She and your brother and sister will Apparate here soon to meet us, and your aunt, uncle, and cousin Molly will follow them shortly.' He looked aside, inviting Ralph and Zane into the conversation as well. 'Tell me exactly what happened, all of you, so that I may be prepared to give Percy and Audrey this awful news.'

       James drew a deep, shuddering breath, but Zane answered first.

       'She died trying to save Izzy,' he said gravely. 'There's a lot more to the story, but that's the most important thing. That's the only part that really matters.'

       Together, as the group set out toward the nearby waterfront, weaving through the throng of Muggle statues, the three boys began to tell their tale.

       The Lady of the Lake was gone, vanished away into hiding, as were Petra and Izzy.

       Morgan, the unfortunate Petra from another dimension, lay dead with the ugly dagger still protruding from her back.

       Confetti still sifted down into the eerily frozen, suddenly darkened streets.

       And Merlinus Ambrosius was no more.