JAMES POTTER AND THE VAULT OF DESTINIES

       'I think it was Professor McGonagall who actually got me on the team,' Harry corrected, shaking his head and smiling. 'You just taught me what I needed to know to not get killed on the pitch.'

       'And a good job I did, too!'

       'Anyway,' Harry laughed, 'as it turns out, James, yours and Ralph's new house is headed up by one of the best professors on campus. He came to the States years ago and, for reasons I can't even begin to guess, decided not to leave. James, Ralph, this is my old friend and fellow Gryffindor, your new president, Oliver Wood.'

       'Wood!' Zane proclaimed, smacking his forehead. 'That's your name, not Birch. I was close, though, wasn't I?' He grinned aside at James and Ralph.

       'Hey,' Wentworth said, tapping James on the shoulder. 'There's this big owl on the stairs out front, hooting like crazy and trying to get in the front door. I'm guessing he's yours. You want me to show him to the tower? Or will he be, um… staying with you?'

       'Nobby's here!' Zane said climbing to his feet. 'Home sweet home all over the place. Come on. I'll help you Bigfoots carry your stuff over from the common dorm. No house-elves in the States, so you gotta do all the footwork yourself. Get it?' he grinned, nudging James. 'Footwork?'

'I got it,' James said, smiling helplessly. He rolled his eyes, and the three boys clambered back up the steps, heading outside.

       One hour later, James stood in the middle of the upstairs bedroom of the common dorm and stared down at his right hand, his eyes wide. On the floor at his feet lay his duffle bag, unzipped and gaping open, where he had just dropped it. He was surprised that he could still hear Zane and Ralph in the hallway outside, struggling to fit Ralph's things into the rickety dumbwaiter. In the center of James' right palm, a soft silver glow was still fading away, like a ball of stormlight.

       He shuddered, not knowing what had just happened, but knowing that whatever it was, it was very important. It simply didn't make any sense.

       'Merlin,' he whispered to himself, his eyes wide. Merlin would understand. He would know. James had just come from seeing him, as per the Headmaster's request, but it wasn't too late to go back again. He hunkered down carefully and reached to zip his duffle bag again, careful not to brush his fingers against the small parchment packet just inside.

       After visiting his new house and meeting Oliver Wood, the Bigfoot House President and inexplicable friend of his father (Wood's name had rung a faint bell in James' memory, but if his father had talked about him, it had been a long time ago), things had gotten decidedly weirder as the night progressed.

       On the way to the common dorm, James had remembered to stop in at the guest house in the hopes of catching Merlinus before his departure. Seeing his father in the basement of Apollo Mansion had reminded James of his appointment with the Headmaster, and he was very curious about whatever it was the old man meant to give him. Merlin had indeed been there, engaged in what appeared to be a serious discussion in the parlor with Chancellor Franklyn and Neville Longbottom. The room had quieted almost immediately as James, Ralph, and Zane had entered, and James had the distinct sense that it was an uncomfortable pause, brittle as glass. Merlin had welcomed the boys and excused himself from the gathering, claiming that he'd only be absent for a moment.

       In the upstairs rooms of the guest house, Merlin had shown the boys to his trunk. Ralph and James had seen it before since it was the very same trunk that they had helped the great wizard retrieve from an ocean cave early last year. It was unusually small—deceptively so, since its nested doors and drawers could open onto still more nested doors and drawers in a rather eye-bending display of conserved magical space. For now, however, Merlin had slipped only one drawer open. The drawer was long and shallow, containing a flat, square object wrapped in cloth. Merlin retrieved it and held it out to James with both hands.

'Last year,' he said, 'I told you about the effects of very magical objects upon the earth. I told you how they tend to leave very large footprints on the landscape of reality, and that the age of very magical objects was drawing to a close. Upon further reflection, I have determined that this is far truer than even I had known. Contrary to what I originally believed, the balance of the wizarding world is very precarious in this time. The weight of the extremely magical is enough to affect that balance. I realized that, in the name of that balance, I must do something that I very much did not wish to do. This is the result.'

       James accepted the object, which was about the size of a small tray and about the same shape. Carefully, he unwrapped it and looked down at it in his hands.

       'Cool,' Zane said, peering over James' shoulder. 'Now you can comb that bird's nest you call a haircut.'

       Ralph shook his head over James' other shoulder. 'Somehow, I think that's for something besides just checking your hair on the way to class.'

       The thing in James' hands was a mirror in a simple silver frame, apparently perfectly normal except that it felt unusually heavy in his hands. James didn't know if it was the frame or the mirror itself that gave the object its weight. He glanced inquiringly up at Merlin.

       'It is, in fact, perfectly appropriate for viewing yourself in,' the Headmaster nodded, smiling. 'But Mr. Deedle is quite right. That is not all it is good for. Do you happen to have your wand upon you, James?'

       James nodded. He set the mirror onto a nearby table and produced his wand from a pocket sewn into the inside of his blazer.

       'Excellent,' Merlin said, stepping aside. 'Now tap the glass and say 'mirror, mirror shard of three, show me where I wish to be.''

       James narrowed his eyes up at the big wizard.

       'Go on, James,' Zane prodded. 'Make with the magic. I'm dying of curiosity here.'

       James shrugged and tapped the glass with his wand, repeating the phrase exactly as Merlin had said it. As one, the three boys leaned forward, filling the mirror's surface with their reflections. Almost immediately, however, the reflection sank away, replaced by a swirling silvery fog. James and Ralph recognized it almost immediately.

       'The Amsera Certh?' James asked breathlessly. 'But…' He stopped, distracted by a scene that seemed to swim up from the depths of the Mirror, as if its surface was the face of a very deep pool. The image shimmered and resolved into the unmistakable shapes of the Gryffindor common room, albeit dark and empty, with only the ruddy glow of the fireplace illuminating its furnishings.

       'No way!' Zane exclaimed. 'It's Hoggies! But where's everybody at?'

       'It's the middle of the night there, you big div!' Ralph laughed. 'But is that really what we're seeing? Is it really Hogwarts?'

       'It is,' Merlin nodded.

       'But how?' James asked, turning to peer back at the Headmaster. 'If this is the Amsera Certh, why's it so small? And why would you give it to us?'

'It is as I said,' Merlin replied, his face somber. 'The magical world is simply too precarious to bear the weight of such extremely magical objects as the Amsera Certh. I determined that I must break it up, divide its powers, in order to prevent its influence from adversely impacting the fabric of reality. The truth is, now that I know of the existence of such things as the Vault of Destinies, I am even more confident that I have made the right choice.'