G. Lippert - JAMES POTTER AND THE VAULT OF DESTINIES

"They're coming," Izzy said urgently. "I sense them. Petra's dreaming of them."

"She's just beyond that door," Lucy shrugged, pointing. "Go ahead, Iz. Go see her. Do what you have to do."

Izzy trotted forward, clambering easily over the fallen guards. Lucy thought the heavy metal door would be locked, but when Izzy turned the handle it opened easily, swinging silently on its hinges. Izzy disappeared quickly inside.

Lucy stepped gingerly over the guards and stood just outside the open door. It was dark inside the cell. The walls were blank stone with no windows. A narrow metal bed stood in the exact center of the room beneath a dim lamp. Petra lay on the bed, uncovered, clothed in the same drab dress she had been wearing on the day that they had arrested her. Izzy stood beside the bed and clasped one of Petra's hands.

"Petra!" she said fervently. "Wake up! They're coming to get me! They're going to make me forget you and everybody else! They're going to send us away from each other! You have to wake up and help me!"

Lucy watched, frustrated anger and fear settling over her like a wet blanket. Petra lay on the bed still as stone, her eyes closed peacefully. Lucy could make out the shape of Petra's eyes beneath her lids. They didn't so much as flinch.

"Petra!" Izzy insisted in an urgent whisper. "Wake up! Please! Don't let them take me! They're coming! You're dreaming of them! I can see it in your thoughts even now!"

"Izzy," Lucy whispered, shaking her head. "She can't. She would if she could, but she can't. Do you understand? It isn't Petra's fault."

"No!" Izzy wailed, raising her voice, not taking her eyes from the sleeping shape of her sister. "She will wake up! She has to!"

A door banged open at the end of the dark corridor. Lucy looked back the way they had come and saw figures emerging into the dim light. Keynes was in the lead, his face hard. Lucy's father was close behind him.

"Lucy!" he called, his voice echoing in the low corridor. "Put your wand down, love! Please stop!" Then, to the others, he said, "If any of you raise a wand to my daughter, I will have your badges before the International Wizarding Court, I swear it."

"Come out, Izabella," Keynes demanded. All the sweetness had gone out of his voice. "You are only making this hard on yourself."

Lucy turned back to the small room. Izzy had not looked up from her sister. Petra, of course, had not moved in the slightest.

"Petra," Izzy cried, still clinging to the young woman's hand with both of her own, "don't leave me alone with them! Don't let them make me forget you!"

"Stand back, young lady," Keynes demanded, pushing Lucy aside. Her father stopped next to her and put his hand on her shoulder. He shook his head down at her, both sadly and warningly.

"Izabella Morganstern," Keynes said, striding into the room, "come this moment. I don't wish to Stun you."

He grabbed her, one hand on each shoulder. Izzy screamed and wriggled beneath his grip, but Keynes was no longer wasting any effort. His grip on her was like a vice. He turned her around even as Izzy still clung to her sister's hand.

"Petra!" Izzy gasped, tears running down her face again. "Don't let them! Petra, please!"

Lucy watched helplessly as Keynes pushed her toward the door. He stopped only to grasp Izzy's small fingers and pry them away from Petra's hand. The hand fell away limply and hung next to the narrow bed, the fingers curled loosely in sleep.

Izzy screamed, loudly this time, making no words. Keynes' face was hard as stone as he maneuvered Izzy through the door, which she clung to uselessly. Lucy reached to comfort the girl, but Keynes pushed her hand away, giving her a black look. A moment later, he dragged Izzy down the corridor toward the basement stairwell. The court agents followed along, cutting off Lucy's view of the blond girl. One of them remained by the door, his wand in his hand, standing over the Stunned guards.

"I'm so sorry, Lu," her father said, his hand still on her shoulder. "There's nothing I can do."

"PETRA!" Izzy screamed once more through her tears. The sound of it rang in the hall like a gong and Lucy realized that she herself was crying. She turned to look back through the open doorway of Petra's cell. The girl lay on the bed like a corpse, her eyes closed peacefully, her hand hanging limply to the side, pale in the lamplight.

"PETRA!" Izzy's voice shrieked, cracking, and then, frantically, echoing as the girl was pushed into the stairwell: "MORGAN! Help me! HELP ME!"

And on the bed, Petra's eyes flickered. They fluttered, opened, and then turned aside as Petra rolled her head toward the door, meeting Lucy's astonished gaze.

Coldness rushed out of the room like a gust of wind, streaming through Lucy's hair and clothes. Lucy gasped at the frigid blast and raised an arm to shield her eyes from its force.

When she looked again, the narrow bed in the dark room was empty.

"Are you quite certain of this?" Professor Jackson asked flatly, studying Albus' face.

"Teach-cheat don't lie," Albus said, nodding toward the pink paper in Professor Jackson's hands. Albus had realized that he'd been carrying the tiny paper in his blazer pocket ever since the day he'd used it to test the statue. It looked very small in Jackson's big knuckly fingers.

"Indeed it does not," Jackson stated gravely.

"He could've gotten that from anywhere!" Englewood cried. "There's no way of knowing if that stuff came from the statue! It's a trick! Got to be!"

Jackson narrowed his eyes at Albus. Slowly, he lowered the teach-cheat and pushed it into the pocket of his waistcoat. When the professor's hand reappeared, it was holding his wand.

"You may be right, Mr. Englewood," Jackson replied in a low, smooth voice. "This is, after all, an extremely serious allegation."

"Damn straight," Englewood agreed, giving Albus a beady-eyed glare.

Jackson raised his wand. Albus felt a moment of raw panic as the wand seemed to level at him. He glanced around, remembering that his own wand had been confiscated by Englewood. He was defenseless. And then, with a monumental sense of relief, he saw what the professor was really pointing at.

"There's only one way to find out," Jackson said, obviously reluctant to do what he was about to do. He stared down the length of his wand and trained it on the werewolf 's bronze head, just past Albus' shoulder.

The wolf growled, loudly this time.

Albus spun around, his eyes going wide, and ducked aside. If the statue meant to tackle its opponent, Albus did not wish to be between them.

Professor Jackson called his spell at exactly the same moment that the bronze werewolf pounced.

" Expulso !" Jackson thundered, raising his arm instinctively to match the metal beast's motion. The spell struck the statue in midair, producing a blinding purple flash which was, strangely, perfectly silent.

Albus dropped to the ground and covered his head with his hands. Bits of statue rained down like hail, peppering him, none larger than his pinky finger. When the rain of bronze bits was over, Albus raised his head, his eyes wild.

The rear half of the statue was mostly intact. It lay sideways on the grass, six feet from its base. The rest of the statue was spread around the lawn like a corona, thousands of tiny bits glinting in the yellow moonlight.

"Well then," Jackson said, his own eyes wide as he pocketed his wand, "let us proceed to the tournament match, then. We shall see what effect, if any, this turn of events has on the outcome."

"Er, what about him?" Albus asked, climbing to his feet and glancing back toward Englewood.