JAMES POTTER AND THE VAULT OF DESTINIES

hips. She stared up at him, her face shocked, wide-eyed. Between her hand and his, a glowing silver cord trembled, thin as thread but apparently very strong. So strong, James sensed, that it was very nearly unbreakable. It was magic, but not like any magic James had ever known, or even heard of. It was Magic, deep and powerful, coming from outside of him, like a current of electricity so huge and potent that it could kill him if he wasn't careful. The silvery thread came from the center of his palm, trembling and humming. He wrapped his fingers around it tightly.

       Petra raised her voice, crying up to him against the noise of the storm. 'What are you doing?'

       'I don't know!' James hollered back. 'But I don't think I can stop it! You have to climb up! I'll pull you!'

       'I can't!' Petra answered. 'My ankle's still caught! It'll pull us both under!'

       As she spoke, the mast crackled and splintered further. With a low creak and groan, it began to pull away from the ship, finally letting loose.

       'Use your Magic!' James yelled. 'Like you did the other morning! When you fixed the harness chain! I know it was you, just like in the dream story! Do it Petra! Now!'

Far below, Petra nodded. She closed her eyes as the waves rose and fell around her. Thunder and lightning blasted overhead, but the silver cord held strong, connecting Petra and James, glowing like a filament of starlight. Barely audible beneath the roar of the storm, a twang of breaking rope sounded and Petra grew suddenly lighter, buoying up out of the rolling waves. With a sustained shudder and a monstrous noise, the mast fell away from the ship. It crashed into the waves beneath Petra, sending up a deluge of grey water. Petra swung as she began to climb the glimmering thread, and James pulled her up, surprised at his own strength. It was as if power flowed into his arms from the thread itself, and still it tugged at his center, as if the thread's end wrapped around his very soul. For all he knew, it did.

       Moments later, James helped Petra clamber over the broken railing. She collapsed against him, sodden and exhausted, and he stumbled backwards, barely able to hold himself up.

       'What in the name of Neptune's ruddy trident is going on back here?' a voice bellowed. Footsteps sounded on the deck and hands grabbed at James and Petra, helping them up. James didn't recognize the sailors, but he recognized the look of annoyed alarm on their faces. The sailors hadn't seen what had happened at the rear of the ship. They only knew that lightning had struck their aft mast, breaking it off into the sea, and now, on top of everything, here were a couple of teenaged passengers mucking about on the deck during an Atlantic storm.

       'Get below-decks!' one of the sailors cried out, pointing. 'What, are you both totally daft? Go on!'

       James nodded, and then turned to look at Petra. He still had her hand, although the strange silver cord seemed to have faded away. Or perhaps it had simply gone invisible. 'Are you all right?' he asked her.

       She didn't answer. Instead, she turned and looked back, toward the rolling, stormy waves beyond the stern railing.

'Goodbye father,' she said in a faint voice. She shuddered and her eyes were wide, wet with exhausted tears. 'Goodbye. I'm sorry.'

5. NEW AMSTERDAM

       'So what happened out there anyway?' Albus asked quietly.

       James lay in his bunk, staring up at the ceiling. The ship still creaked ominously as it rocked, but the brunt of the storm had finally passed. The thump of footsteps could be heard from the decks above as the crew attempted to repair what was left of the stern mast.

       'James?' It was Ralph this time, from the bunk across the narrow room. 'You asleep over there?'

       'No.'

       'So what gives? What really happened?'

       James sighed. 'Apparently you lot saw it all from the stern windows in the captain's quarters. You tell me.'

'Hah,' Albus laughed derisively. 'We hardly got to see anything before Merlin got involved. We heard the mast fall over and saw bits of it go over the side, and then we saw Petra's feet hanging down, swinging back and forth with the ropes all tangled up in them. Mum let out a scream, and that's when Merlin came up and put the lights out.'

       'I don't get it,' James said, rolling over and looking at Ralph in the opposite bunk. 'Why did he pull the curtains?'

       Ralph screwed up his face thoughtfully. 'That's not what he did. He came forward and stood in front of the window, spreading out his arms, and he said something in that weird language of his. Old Celtic, I guess. Rose would probably know what it meant. Next thing we know, the windows had all gone completely dark, like they'd been covered in black paint. I guess he didn't want us to see it if Petra was going to fall. I mean, Izzy was there, after all. Petra's her sister.'

       'Thanks for the explanation,' James said, sighing.

       'So tell us!' Albus insisted. 'What happened?'

       James shook his head on his pillow. 'She fell. That's all. Lightning struck the mast at the back of the ship, right next to us. It fell over and knocked Petra over the side. She hung onto the railing until I got over there and grabbed her.'

       Albus shifted on his bunk, squeaking the thin mattress. 'What was she doing up on deck in the first place? Didn't she know there was a bloody hurricane going?'

       'I don't know,' James said. He meant to go on, to try to explain, but the words wouldn't come. Instead, he let the silence spin out, telling its own story.

       'I'll tell you one thing,' Albus commented, 'she's been a little odd ever since she showed up at our place, earlier this summer. Whatever happened back at her grandparents' farm, I think it knocked a few owls loose in her owlery, if you know what I mean.'

       'Shut up, Al,' James said. He felt his face heating, but he tried not to let it show in his voice. 'You don't know anything about it. So just shut up.'

       Ralph rolled over and rested his chin on his forearm, peering across the darkened room. 'Well, that's kind of the point, isn't it? Hardly anybody knows what happened there. I mean, there's Damien, Sabrina, and Ted, but they sure aren't talking. Merlin's orders. Whatever happened, it had to have been pretty ugly. Both of Petra's grandparents ended up dead.'

       'Phyllis wasn't Petra's grandmother,' James announced darkly. 'She was just the woman Petra's grandfather married, and she was perfectly horrid. Whatever happened to her, she got what she deserved.'

       The bed beneath James squeaked again as Albus moved around on it. A moment later, his head appeared next to James' bunk, peering up at him. 'You know something, don't you? Tell!'

       'I don't know anything. Shut up and go to sleep, you berk.'

       Albus stared at him critically.