JAMES POTTER AND THE VAULT OF DESTINIES

       'I couldn't sleep,' he replied, matching her tone of voice. 'I saw someone's shadow go by and came out to see who else was up.'

       Izzy nodded. 'It was probably me and Morgan. That's Petra, you know. I call her Morgan sometimes still because I was there when she changed her name. I changed mine too, but I couldn't make it stick. Hers fits her, though, even though she says that everybody else can still call her by her old name.'

James nodded a little uncertainly. 'I see… er,' he said. 'Anyway, why are you both up, then?'

       'Just like you,' Izzy replied. 'We couldn't sleep either. Petra especially, I think. She has dreams. They make her feel a little crazy,' she said, whispering the last part.

       James sat down on the end of the chaise as Izzy curled her feet under her. He peered over toward the fireplace. 'What do you mean they make her feel crazy?'

       Izzy nodded her head back and forth and shrugged. 'I don't understand any of it. I don't think they're regular dreams. She says she feels them even when she's awake. She says they make her forget what really happened, the last day we were back home, on Papa Warren's farm.'

       James wanted to ask what had happened that day, but thought he probably shouldn't. Instead, he asked, 'Do you think she's all right?'

       'No,' Izzy answered, sighing and peering back over her shoulder, toward the fireplace. 'But it'll be all right in the end. She says we just need to get away from everything. That's why we're going all the way across the ocean. I think she's hoping that the dreams won't be able to find her there.'

       James followed Izzy's gaze and finally saw Petra, seated at a low desk near the fire, her back to them. 'What do you think, Izzy?' he asked, not taking his eyes from Petra's silhouette where she sat bent over the desk. 'Do you think it'll work?'

       Izzy shook her head, making her blonde curls swing. 'No, it won't work. Don't tell Morgan— Petra—that I said that, though, all right? I don't think her dreams are going to go away. I think they're going to get worse. Until it's all over, at least.'

'How do you know, Iz? When will it be over?'

       The girl shrugged again. 'Headmaster Merlin says that she has to find out where the dreams are really coming from. He told her to chase them. That's what she's doing now. She's chasing them. It works best right when it happens, right when they wake her up.'

       James studied Petra, saw that she was engaged in some intense activity, bent over the desk so severely that she appeared to be wrestling with it. 'What's she doing?' he asked very quietly. 'I mean, how does she chase a dream?'

       'She's writing it,' Izzy said simply. 'Like a story. She's good at that. She used to tell me stories all the time, when it was nights out. She'd make them all up in her head, and a lot of them were better than the stories she read to me in the books. Me and Beatrice and all the rest of my dolls all listened. It was our most favorite thing.'

       James could see it now that Izzy had told him what Petra was doing. Her elbow moved slightly, and a quill wavered in the air over her shoulder, silhouetted in the darkness.

'Does she read the dream to you, Iz?'

'Oh no,' the girl answered quickly, obviously disinterested. 'I don't want to hear them. They're nasty. I don't want to ever think about any of that ever again. It scares me too much. And it makes me sad. I miss my mother, sometimes, and I cry, and Petra doesn't know what to do. I never want to hear those stories.'

       James looked back at Izzy, frowning thoughtfully. 'Then why do you come along when she chases the dream? Are you standing guard?'

       Izzy nodded. 'Yes, that's what Petra says, but I think there's another reason, maybe. I think she asks me to come because she needs me here to prove that the dreams aren't true.' She sighed again, in a quick, businesslike manner, and looked at James. 'She needs me here to prove that I'm still alive.'

       James' eyes widened. What in the world did that mean? He opened his mouth to ask, but a shadow moved nearby. He glanced up and saw Petra approaching, shaking her right hand as if to loosen the kinks from her fingers.

       'Hi James,' she said, smiling tiredly. 'I see you haven't given up skulking around at night, Invisibility Cloak or not.'

       'Yeah,' James said, his face reddening. 'I couldn't sleep. Are you, you know, all right and everything?'

       'I'm fine,' Petra lied, glancing away. James saw that she had her knapsack in her left hand, partly unzipped. A sheaf of loose parchment lay inside. 'Izzy probably told you what I was doing. I just have some things to work out, that's all.'

'Izzy said it's a bad dream,' James said, standing. 'Is that really all it is?'

       Petra looked back at him. In the darkness, James couldn't read her expression. He went on quickly, 'I mean, you don't have to tell me or anything. It's just, you know, I was there. I remember what happened that night in the Chamber of Secrets and everything, and I had my own run-in with the Gatekeeper. I know what you're going through, sort of. If you, I don't know, wanted to, er, talk about it. Or whatever.'

       Suddenly, helplessly, Petra laughed. She shook her head wonderingly and pushed her hair out of her face. 'James, you are very sweet. I'm glad you're here, and not just for the reasons you said. Me and Izzy both, we owe you and your family a lot. I don't know what we'd have done without the lot of you. But you, especially. You make me feel better. Do you know that? You make me laugh. Lately, that's a very rare thing. Walk with us, won't you?'

       James could feel the heat beating off his face as the blood rushed to his cheeks. He was glad it was very dark in the room. 'Sure,' he said, pushing himself to his full height. 'I was just checking on you. Some lady in black robes told me where you'd gone. You probably saw her already.'

'I didn't,' Petra answered, sighing. 'Did you, Iz?'

       'I only saw that man sleeping by the statue near our rooms. I think he's a lantern lighter, fell straight to sleep while out doing his job. He snored really loud, and it echoed. Remember that?' She giggled.

'I remember,' Petra said, smiling.

'So,' James began, feeling a little bold, 'how did it go?'

       Petra walked slowly along the hall, watching the murky view beyond the crystal. 'How did what go?'

       'The, er, dream chasing. Izzy mentioned it. She said you were writing it down. Like a story.'

       Petra nodded. 'Headmaster Merlin told me I should try it. I didn't want to, but… it helps. A little.' She touched Izzy's head lightly, resting her hand on the girl's blonde hair. 'It isn't a very nice story though. It's rather horrid.'

       'I… I could read it, if you wanted,' James said, studying the floor furiously as he walked. 'If you thought it might help.'

       Petra was silent, and James was suddenly worried that he had offended her. He glanced aside at her, but she was looking thoughtful, her eyes half-lidded. 'Perhaps,' she finally said, 'you may be right, James. Maybe that would weaken it. Like Izzy probably told you, it's… more than just a dream. It's like a certainty. Like a memory of something that didn't really happen, or happened very differently. I can't shake it off. It haunts me.'

       James nodded and willed himself not to say anymore. Silently, the three walked on, finally coming to the lantern-lit corridor where James had begun. He saw the door to his room, still standing slightly open.

'We can find our way from here,' Petra whispered.

       'We're just around the corner and down the stairs,' Izzy added, pointing. 'Past the man sleeping with the