James Potter And The Morrigan Web (102 page)

Morton returned Rose’s gaze blankly, seemingly frozen in place. James waited as patiently as he could. Fleetingly, he wished he had his wand with him, if only so he could send a quick stinging hex into the boy’s ample backside, shocking him into action.

Finally, glancing from Rose, to James, then Ralph, Comstock drew a quick, resolute sigh. “What we waiting for, then? We’ve got some abaci to man.”

James nearly laughed with relief. Together, the four students broke into a run.

“So how does it work, then?” Ralph asked haltingly as he jogged.

“The base concept is marvellously simple,” Comstock answered, his voice echoing in the corridor along with his heavy footsteps. “Have you lot heard of this thing called technomancy?”

“We’ve taken a class or two,” Rose prodded. “Go on!”

“Well it turns out,” Comstock panted, warming to the subject, “that the entire bleedin’ universe is held together by magic. It’s this thing called the Collective Constant, and it connects every bit of everything with every other bit of everything else! Nothing’s independent! If you manipulate one bit of the Collective Constant, every other bit is manipulated right along with it!”

Rose squinted thoughtfully as she ran. “It’s almost like the entire universe is connected by a giant Protean charm…”

“Fascinating,” James exclaimed breathlessly as they pelted into the Advanced Arithmatics classroom, which was dark except for the golden glow of the corridor beyond. He stumbled to a halt amidst the hulking rows of abaci. “But how does that take us to Hogwarts?”

“Well that’s the really cool bit,” Comstock said, passing James and gesturing toward the dark abaci. “It doesn’t!”

Ralph shook his head irritably. Running always made him grumpy. “You’re not making any sense!”

“Nothing
takes you
to Hogwarts,” Comstock said, a note of triumph in his voice, “because
you
bring Hogwarts to
you
!”

Rose’s eyes widened excitedly. “Somehow, we disengage from the Collective Constant!” she said in an awed voice. “Like stepping off a merry-go-round! Except the merry-go-round is all the rest of the universe!”

Comstock nodded eagerly. “Then, you just move the Constant around you until the universe is where you need it to be!”

“This,” Ralph said with feeling, “is completely and absolutely mental.”

“It’s not mental,” James sighed impatiently. “It’s just quantum.”

“It’s both,” Ralph insisted.

“We don’t have any choice,” Rose overrode him. “We have to try it. Morton, what do we do?”

“Simple, really,” Comstock said, and then seemed to change him mind. “Actually, not simple at all. Mind-bogglingly complex, really. But fortunately for you three that’s my bit. See, once you disengage from the Collective Constant, you just need to move the universe around you until it’s where you want it to be. Step back into the Constant and bammo, bob’s your uncle. Me, I have to do all the calculations on my end to keep you from turning the universe all inside out and wibbly-wobbly.”

Rose looked aghast. “It can’t be that dangerous! Can it?”

“So I’m overstating it just a bit,” Comstock shrugged, moving in front of an abacus and cracking his knuckles. “Mostly, I’ll just be keeping you lot from accidently dragging yourselves through any supermassive black holes and whatnot. Should be manageable enough since you’ll be keeping it in the celestial ballpark. No flings out to Neptune. Although Professor Moreau apparently has a nice flat there.”

“Are you sure you can do this by yourself?” Ralph asked sceptically.

“Are you sure you lot can find Hogwarts without a map?” Comstock replied snidely. “You do your bit, I’ll do mine.”

James ran a hand through his hair in exasperation. “So exactly
how do
we do our bit, then? How do we disengage from the… Constant… thingy?”

“There’s an incantation for it,” Comstock shrugged. “That’s the bit I can’t help you with. Takes plain old magic. I’ve watched Benoît practice it a hundred times. Swish around all three of you, a quick flick upwards, and ‘divellere’! Nice and clear.”

James turned to look at Comstock, his stomach dropping precipitously. “We need
wands
for this to work?”

“Well, not all of you, I suppose,” Comstock frowned. “But one of you, yeah, of course. How else you going to manipulate the Constant? Your bare hands?” He sniggered.

“But we don’t
have
our wands!” James nearly shouted.

“Well,” Comstock blinked, taken aback. “What kind of magical people are you then?”

“Hold on,” Ralph said, digging into the inner pocket of his robes. “I think I can help.” When he withdrew his hand, he was holding his enormous wand. Its lime green tip glowed faintly in the shadows.

“Ralph!” James exclaimed, beside himself with relief. “But how…?”

“My wand was never in the trunk,” Ralph grinned sheepishly. “I had it hidden behind it so I could remove the Visum Ineptio spell and unlock it. By the time Grudje confiscated the trunk, this was already in my pocket.”

“But… but!” James stammered. “Then why didn’t you use it on Nastasia?”

“I meant to,” Ralph admitted. “I was going for it just when she stunned me.”

“I really could just about kiss you right now, Ralph,” Rose said seriously. “But we need to fly. What was the incantation again, Morton?”

“Divellere,” Comstock repeated, pantomiming the accompanying motion. “Draw a circle around all three of you with the wand, then flick it straight up.”

Ralph nodded and gathered a deep breath. James and Rose clustered as close to him as possible, one on each side. Carefully, slowly, Ralph levelled his wand and began to turn in place, shuffling his feet as he went. James and Rose shuffled with him, careful to stay in the invisible arc defined by the green point of Ralph’s wand.

“It doesn’t look like it’s doing anything,” James muttered.

“Belt up!” Rose admonished. “You’ll jinx it!”

Ralph completed the circle. Then, jerking his wand straight up, he exclaimed “
Divellere
!”

Nothing happened, except that Comstock reached forward with both hands and shuffled half a dozen abacus beads. They clacked into place firmly. Then, without looking up at James, Rose and Ralph, he seemed to wait.

“What now?” James asked him. Strangely, Comstock seemed to ignore him. James grew anxious. “Hey! What do we do now? It didn’t work! Try again?”

Comstock continued to ignore him. He stared at the beads of the abacus, studying them intently.

“I’ll give it another go--” Ralph said, but as he thrust forth his wand again, the classroom sped away from them in a shocking blur of motion. Rose gasped as walls flickered past, showing micro-glimpses of life around Beauxbatons. An instant later, the entire palace itself shrank away to the size of a model, albeit a model with absolutely perfect detail, right down to the banks of glowing windows, deep blue conical roofs, streams of pencil-thin white smoke issuing from dozens of chimneys, and the moon-washed white cliff upon which the building sat. Pine trees blanketed the surrounding hills and valleys, deep blue in the darkness.

“Whatever you do,” Ralph said, his teeth gritted with concentration, “Don’t… look… down…”

James immediately looked down. Beneath his feet was nothing but empty space, falling away for what appeared to be hundreds of feet. A hawk wheeled far below, stitching its shadow across a dusky, shushing forest.

“Your wand,” Rose whispered, sounding both terrified and giddy. “Move it again, Ralph! But…
slower
this time.”

Gently and gingerly, Ralph prodded his wand forward about an inch. In response, the palace of Beauxbatons shrank away to a mere pinprick of pale blue, accompanied by a blast of cool night air. A blur of hills and valleys unrolled beneath James’ feet. Villages, fields, ribbons of roads dotted with occasional distant headlights, all raced away, rolling over the arc of the horizon beneath a haze of distance. James’ head swam with the sight. In less than a second, however, the motion slowed and ceased. Now, the three students were hovering high over a gentle coastline, dark land running away on the far side, glittering moonlit ocean directly below. Boats dotted the tiny waves, looking like waterbugs from so great a height.

“It’s all in your wand,” Rose breathed. She glanced aside at Ralph, her eyes bright.

Ralph lowered his gaze to his wand, trying very hard to hold it still. “So…” he said slowly. “I move us around by moving my wand…?”

“Weren’t you paying any attention at all?” Rose scolded impatiently. “
We’re
staying perfectly still! When you move your wand, you move the
entire universe
around us! And Comstock’s keeping track of its progress and smoothing out all the wrinkles as we go! That’s why he was just sitting there while we thought the spell hadn’t worked. We hadn’t gone anywhere yet, so he had nothing to manage!”

Ralph screwed his face up in concentration. He nodded slowly, then changed his mind and shook his head. “This whole thing is completely mental,” he said again, emphatically.

“Who cares how it works,” James interrupted. “We’re going the wrong way. And nowhere near fast enough! We have to go back across France, up past England! Go, Ralph! Quit bodging about!”

Ralph sighed again, steeling himself. Then, in a long, swift motion, he jerked his wand backwards over his shoulder.

The world bowled away beneath them, rolling forward this time. Clouds blasted past them in great, whumping ripples. Cities sped beneath their feet in streaks of yellow light. Mountains rose up ahead and shrank away behind in mere moments. Even the moon wheeled slowly overhead, passing in and out of hazes and fogs, flickering through banks of storm clouds.

A strip of glimmering blue water rolled over the curve of the earth, dividing the dark mass of the land.

“Is that a river?” James called, raising his voice over the rushing bawl of the wind.

“It’s the English Channel!” Rose cried back. “And beyond it, that’s got to be London already!”

The world was slowing down beneath them, unspinning gradually.

“More, Ralph!” James prodded. “We’re barely halfway!”

Ralph nodded. He took a step backward, somehow managing to remain in exactly the same place, and swept his arm back again, drawing his wand in a long, sweeping arc.

Immediately, the earth wheeled away beneath them again. The English Channel whipped past. London streaked beneath, a mere blur of lights and snarl of gridded streets, instantly replaced by open country. Small towns and villages swept below like comets, connected by looping country lanes and fat motorways, studded with lights.

“Here we come!” Rose proclaimed, pointing ahead, her hair whipping wildly about her face. Slow us down, Ralph!”

“How!?” the big boy called back shrilly.

“I don’t know!” Rose said. “Just do it!”

The world spun away below, blending into foothills and craggy cliffs. Forests whickered past, covered with blankets of cool night air. Mountains rose in jagged peaks ahead, unspooling toward them with shocking speed.

James glanced aside at Ralph. “Bring us lower!” he said, pantomiming vaguely with his hands. “And slower!”

Ralph swept his wand forward again carefully, gripping it now with both hands. In response, the earth’s sickening spin became a mere roll. Gradually, it seemed to sweep upwards, rising to meet them.

“Easy!” Rose shouted, hanging onto Ralph’s elbow. “Careful!”

“I’m being as careful as I can!” Ralph declared tersely. “I’ve got the entire universe in my hands here!”

“There!” James cried, stabbing a finger forward. “That’s Hogsmeade! See? There’s the train tracks and everything!”

Rose nodded, forgetting her fear as familiar landmarks began to slide beneath them. “Just a little to the left, Ralph...” she instructed, calming her voice. “Right over those trees. See? There’s the lake! We’re almost there!”

Amazingly, Ralph seemed to be getting the hang of what he was doing. He moved his wand in gentle forward and back sweeps, tilting it slightly this way and that, as if the universe was a ball of cotton candy he was bouncing on its lime-green tip.

Hogwarts castle heaved into view, rising over the trees of the Forbidden Forest. Hagrid’s hut drifted below, followed by grassy grounds, awash in moonlight. The windows of the great hall glittered like molten gold.

“Brr!” James declared suddenly, hugging himself as the castle swept closer, filling his vision. “Why’s it so cold?”

Rose glanced around, her face pale in the night air. “Yeah,” she said in a worried voice. “This is no summer chill. I think it’s… it is! Look! It’s actually snowing!”

She pointed. Sure enough, as Ralph manipulated the castle beneath them, turning it gently, flecks of white blurred past, tossed like confetti in an icy wind.

“Something’s really wrong,” James muttered as the world slowed, rising to meet them. “This is bad…”

“Should we go straight into the Great Hall?” Ralph asked, still concentrating on his wand, nudging the universe with gentler and gentler motions. “Only it’s pretty hard to park this thing on a dime, you know…”

“No!” Rose declared suddenly. “Not yet! We need to make one stop on the way.”

“What do you mean ‘make a stop’?” James demanded. “Like Comstock said, this isn’t a cab!”

“Just trust me, James,” Rose insisted. She pointed to the right, toward Gryffindor Tower. “Over there! The east turret…”

“You want us to stop in the girls’ dormitory?” Ralph clarified with a nervous frown.

“Oh good grief,” Rose declared tersely. “Close your eyes if you think you must. No one will be there at this hour. I need something.”

Ralph gave a resigned sigh and steered the universe in a wide arc, drawing Gryffindor Tower toward them. In mere seconds it filled their view so that James could see every stone, every line of mortar. Then, with a cold shudder, Ralph teased the Tower over them. They passed through the stone walls and found themselves in a circular room, thankfully unoccupied. Beds lined the walls, mostly unmade, surrounding a neat iron stove.

“Looks just like the boys’ dormitory,” Ralph commented.