G. Lippert - James Potter and the Hall of the Elders' Crossing

James and Zane nodded, speechless. Jackson continued to stare at them, breathing through his nose in obvious fury. "Fifty points from Gryffindor and fifty points from Ravenclaw. I'd give you both detentions, except that that might lead to questions about this case of mine that I do not wish to answer. Therefore, let me finish by saying, my young friends, that even if you do not so much as look at my attaché ever again, I can still choose to make your lives extremely… interesting. Please do bear that in mind. Now," he stood back, lowering his eyes, "take this pathetic little ruse and be gone."

With palpable disgust, Jackson shoved his bag at them with the back of his hand. The fake bag remained sitting in front of him. He laced the knuckly fingers of his right hand through the ivory handles and hefted it. The brass plate that read 'HIRAM & BLATTWOTT'S LEATHERS, DIAGON ALLEY, LONDON' glinted dully as Jackson moved around the desk. Neither James nor Zane could quite bring themselves to touch the case in front of them.

"Well?" Jackson demanded, raising his voice. "Take that thing and be gone!"

"Y-yes, sir," Zane stammered, grabbing the professor's bag and pulling it off the desk. He and James turned and fled.

Three corridors later, they stopped running. They stood in the middle of an empty hall and looked at the bag Jackson had insisted they take. There was no question about it. It was the professor's own black leather briefcase. The name plate shone clearly, 'T. H. Jackson'. James began to grasp that somehow, amazingly, they had succeeded. They had captured the robe of Merlin.

"It was the Visum-ineptio charm," Zane breathed, glancing up at James. "It had to be. Jackson knew we were up to something, but he didn't expect that!"

James was completely bewildered. "How, though? He had both bags right in front of him!"

"Well, it's pretty simple, really. Jackson assumed we were trying to swap the cases, but that we hadn't gotten around to it yet. He found the case under my chair and believed it was the fake one. The Visumineptio charm on the fake briefcase worked on both briefcases, letting him see what he expected to see. That's how it preserved the illusion that the fake case was the real one!"

Understanding dawned on James. " The Fool-the-Eye Charm extended to the real briefcase, making it look like the fake one, since that's what Jackson expected! That's brilliant!" James clapped Zane on the shoulder. "Nice one, you goon! And you doubted yourself!"

Zane looked uncharacteristically humble. He grinned. "Come on, let's go find Ralph and make sure he's okay. You really think he needed to eat two of those Nosebleed Nougats?"

"You're the one that said we needed a diversion."

James stuffed Jackson's briefcase under his robe, clutching it under his arm, and the two boys ran to find Ralph, stopping only long enough to collect the Invisibility Cloak from the floor of the empty Technomancy classroom.

Five minutes later, the three boys clambered up to the Gryffindor common room, rushing to hide Jackson's briefcase before their next class. James buried it in the bottom of his trunk, then Zane produced his wand.

"Just learned this new spell from Gennifer," he explained. "It's a special kind of Locking Spell."

"Wait," James stopped Zane before he could cast the spell. "How will I get it open again?"

"Oh. Well, I don't know, to tell you the truth. It's the counter-spell to Alohomora. I wouldn't think it'd work against the owner of the trunk, though. Just anybody else. Spells are smart that way, aren't they?"

"Here," Ralph said, crossing the room. He opened and closed the window, then stood back. "Try it on the window latch. You don't need that open, anyway. It's dead cold out there."

Zane shrugged, and then pointed his wand at the window. " Colloportus ." The window lock clacked shut.

"Well, it works, all right," Ralph observed. "Now try to open it."

Zane, wand still raised, said, " Alohomora ." The lock jiggled once, but remained locked. Zane pocketed his wand. "You try it, James. It's your window, isn't it?"

James used the same spell on the window lock. The lock unhinged neatly and the window swung open.

"See?" Zane grinned. "Spells are smart. I bet old Stonewall could tell us how that works, but I'm not going to be asking him any more questions, I'll tell you that."

James closed his trunk with Jackson's case inside and Zane performed the Locking Spell on it.

On the way back down to their classrooms, Ralph asked, "Won't somebody else notice that Jackson's carrying a different briefcase? What if one of the other teachers asks him about it?"

"Not going to happen, Ralphinator," Zane said confidently. "He's been carrying that thing long enough that everyone expects to see him with it. As long as they expect to see his case in his hand, the Visumineptio charm will make sure that is what they see. We're the only ones that'll see that it's your buddy's old rock-hound bag."

Ralph still seemed worried. "Will the charm wear off over time? Or will it work as long as people think that the fake case is the real one?"

Neither James nor Zane knew the answer to that. "We just have to hope it lasts long enough," James said.

13. R evelation of the R obe

That evening after dinner, the three boys ran up to the Gryffindor sleeping quarters again, pausing only when James noticed the staring woman in the background of a painting of some maidens milking a pair of ridiculously plump cows. He berated the tall and ugly woman, who was dressed like a nun, demanding to know what she was looking at. After half a minute, Zane and Ralph got impatient and each grabbed one of James' elbows, dragging him away. In the sleeping quarters, they clustered around James' trunk while James unlocked it and pulled out Jackson's case. He set it on the edge of his bed and the three of them stared at it.

"Do we have to open it?" Ralph asked.

James nodded. "We have to know we have the robe, don't we? It's been driving me crazy all day. What if I was wrong and the thing in there is just some of Jackson's laundry? I can't help thinking that he's the sort that'd carry around a totally meaningless briefcase just to get people talking about it. You should've seen how he was this morning when he thought he'd caught Zane and me. He was right mad."

Zane plopped onto the bed. "What if we can't even open it?"

"Can't be that much of a lock if it popped open that day in D.A.D.A," James reasoned.

Ralph stood back, giving James room. "Let's get it over with then. Try and open it."

James approached the case and tried the lock. He'd expected it not to work and was prepared to try the assortment of Opening and Unlocking Spells the three had collected. Instead, the brass catch on top of the case popped open easily. So easily, in fact, that James was momentarily sure it had clicked open a split second before he'd actually touched it. He froze, but neither of the other two boys seemed to have noticed.

"Well?" Ralph whispered. Zane leaned over the case. The mouth of it had come open slightly.

"Can't see anything in there," Zane said. "It's too dark. Open the rotten thing, James. It's yours more than either of ours."

James touched the case, grasped the handles, and used them to pull it open. He could see the folds of black cloth. A vague, musty smell wafted from the open case. James thought it smelled like the inside of a jack-o'-lantern a week after Halloween. He remembered Luna saying that the robe had once been used to cover the body of a dead king and he shuddered.