James Potter And The Morrigan Web (73 page)

“And
I’m
here because I helped Rose nick the Cloak,” Albus nodded.

James pulled his own hair in exasperation. “We don’t
need
your help! If you get caught here we’re all totally doomed!”

“We can’t know that Avior will tell us anything meaningful,” Nastasia sighed. “And besides, they won’t get caught. Will you?”

“Not if Loudmouth here can keep his lips sealed for more than thirty seconds,” Rose said, tilting her head at Albus, who shrugged and rolled his eyes.

“All right,” James declared helplessly. “Just get back under the Cloak and don’t bump anything. Even if Avior can’t see you he’s no idiot. If you so much as
breathe
wrong he’ll know you’re there.”

“Not to mention that he might have a Sneakoscope or Foe-Glass,” Rose added, her voice muffled as Albus yanked the Cloak over them again.

“Good to know you’ve at least thought of all the ways this can go totally pear-shaped,” James muttered, turning back toward Avior’s closed door. Nastasia was already approaching it. She glanced back, assuring that Albus and Rose were sufficiently hidden, and then raised her hand and gave the brass door knocker a sharp rap.

Several seconds ticked by with no response. Experimentally, Nastasia tried the door latch. It was locked firm.

“Maybe he’s not here,” Albus said from beneath the Cloak. “Is he teaching, maybe?”

“It’s his scheduled office hours,” James replied. “At least, it will be in a few minutes. We got here a little early. Still, he
should
be here.” He reached up and rapped the door knocker himself, harder this time. The door knocker was fashioned in the shape of a brass tentacle attached to a squid-headed figure with a man’s body. It was exceptionally ugly, but thankfully, unlike many such ornaments, didn’t seem to be enchanted with magical personality.

“Nobody here but us chickens,” Nastasia sighed.

“Give it a go with an unlocking charm, James,” Rose muffled, unseen behind his left shoulder.

“Those never work,” James rolled his eyes. “Every time I try one it triggers some sort of counter-jinx. I tried it on the newsstand in Hogsmeade and nearly got myself caught for it.”

Rose huffed impatiently. A moment later, her fist appeared from beneath the Cloak, her wand outstretched. She tapped the latch of Avior’s door with it.
“Alohomora!”

The latch flashed bright yellow and produced an audible click. The door creaked open slightly on its hinges.

“Honestly, James,” Rose said as her wand hand vanished again. “You’re as bad with unlocking doors as Filch is with locking them.”

Nastasia giggled. Too nervous to be embarrassed, James leaned forward and gave the door a tentative push. It creaked ominously open, revealing a dim, circular room, lined with high, straight-backed chairs, stocked bookshelves, and an assortment of free-standing, evil-looking divining instruments. There were no Yuxa Baslatma plants here, James saw as he inched into the shadowy room, but there was a complicated telescope-like device, its lenses pointed strangely at the floor, a dark crystal ball like a gigantic black pearl on an ancient stone pedestal, and, strangest of all, a sort of ornately polished wooden box, as tall as a man, with a window set into its front. Behind the glass, encased in the box like a corpse in a coffin, was a thin man-shape wearing a turban and a pointed, black beard. Arcing above the figure’s window were the words:

Tawil At-U’mr
Knows All! Tells All!

“I’ve seen one of these before,” Nastasia commented, approaching the boxed figure. “At a Muggle carnival in New Jersey. It’s a clockwork wizard. Put a coin in the slot and he’s supposed to tell your future.”

“Daft, if you ask me,” Albus muttered, unseen.

“No fireplace,” Rose whispered with a shiver in her voice.

The room was, James noticed, wintry cold. “This is just the waiting area,” he commented, looking around. “There’s got to be a way further in.”

“I bet this guy knows it,” Nastasia said, cocking her head up at the clockwork wizard in the wooden box. “Old Tawil At-U’mr. Any of you have any money?” She tapped the coin slot with her wand.

At the touch of her wand, lights glared to life inside the box, illuminating the bearded figure. With a series of ratchets and clanks, it jerked to life, leaning back and tilting its head toward the ceiling. Its sculpted hands raised and made a clumsy, ratcheting dance before its pointed beard. James jumped backwards, bumping into the hidden shapes of Albus and Rose.

“No coin is required for such as thee,” a deep, recorded voice crackled loudly, emanating from a brass speaker on the front of the crate. “Only the unwashed need pay for their glimpse of the beyond. Ask what ye will, my masters, while the curse of life lies upon me.”

The light of the clockwork wizard illuminated Nastasia’s face as she stared up at it, beaming. She glanced back at James and rolled her eyes. “Oh, you big baby. It’s just a talking machine. What are you afraid of?”

James shook his head. “Are you sure it’s just a… you know… a machine?”

“It’s a bunch of gears and flywheels in a turban, you dolt,” Nastasia said, looking back up at the bearded figure. “But boy is it good. Professor Cloverhoof would flip his horns if he could see it.”

Behind James’ shoulder, Rose’s voice was slightly higher than usual. “So ask it how to get into Avior’s main quarters, already.”

“Alas,” the recorded voice blared, accompanied by the halting movements of the clockwork wizard. “None but the Great Master himself may proceed thence. Seat thyselves and await his return.”

“There’s got to be another way in,” Albus complained. “This is getting us nowhere. Look around for a door or something.”

James shook his head, glancing around the dark, cold room. “Maybe this isn’t Avior’s quarters at all. Maybe it’s just where he meets students and stuff.”

“You mean we tagged along with you under this smelly old Cloak for nothing?” Rose groused.

“Nobody asked you to come along!” James countered. “I still say you’re both completely mad.”

Nastasia was studying the clockwork figure in its box, a thoughtful look on her face. “Hey Tawil,” she said, “You know where Professor Avior’s rooms are, don’t you?”

The figure’s painted eyes didn’t move. After a moment, the head cocked back and forth jerkily and the hands made their complicated dance again. “Alas! None but the Great Master himself may proceed thence,” the recorded voice repeated. “Seat thyselves and await his return.” It shut off with an audible click and the lights fell dead. The mechanical figure slumped forward.

Nastasia narrowed her eyes.

“What?” Albus said from the centre of the round room. With a shuffle, he tossed off the Invisibility Cloak and ran a hand through his matted hair. “Am I missing something here?”

Nastasia didn’t take her eyes from the dormant figure in its darkened box. “Acid Pops,” she said.

James blinked. “Excuse me?”

“What’s she talking about?” Rose said in a brittle voice. “Shouldn’t we just be heading back?”

Albus turned to glance at his cousin. “What’s the matter with you all of a sudden? This was your idea.”

“I’ve just got a bad feeling about this thing!” she declared defensively. “And… well…”

“Cockroach Cluster,” Nastasia said, taking a step closer to the wooden box. Inside, the dormant figure hunched motionless.

“What’s she on about?” Albus muttered out of the corner of his mouth, nodding toward Nastasia. “Is she, you know, quite all right?”

“Nastasia,” James said worriedly, moving to join her next to the dark box. “Maybe we should just--”

“Fizzing Whizbee!” Nastasia interrupted, raising her voice.

Inside the box, the dark figure remained motionless, silhouetted behind the dusty glass.

“Why’s she doing that?” Rose demanded. “Make her stop!”

“Wait just a moment here,” Albus said slowly, realization dawning on him. “
Rose
is afraid of
clockworks!
That’s it, isn’t it?”

“I’m not
afraid
of them!” she hissed shrilly. “I just don’t trust them! They’re really, really dodgy! Everyone knows that! Always turning evil at the drop of a hat! Getting cursed and coming to life and developing a taste for human blood…!”

“Rose is afraid of clockworks!” Albus sang gleefully. “I can’t believe it! Brave cousin Rose! What time is it Rose? Oh, you wouldn’t know! Because you’d have to consult a clock!”

“Shut up, Al!” James demanded. “Nastasia, seriously, let’s just get out of here. There’s no point--”

“Sherbet lemon!” Nastasia announced, nodding to herself with satisfaction.

The lights popped back on inside the clockwork wizard’s box. Rose clutched James’ shoulders in alarm as the mechanical wizard jerked back to life, ratcheting and squeaking noisily.

“Password accepted,” the recorded voice squawked from its speaker. “Enter if you dare. And let the consequences be upon thine own head.”

With a complicated clank, the front of the box pivoted aside, forming a door. Behind it, the clockwork figure of Tawil At-U’mr stood full length, its robe hanging limp around hinged, mechanical legs. Its wooden feet were carved with sandals and covered in flaking flesh-coloured paint. It stepped haltingly out of the cabinet, its joints squeaking and its head bowing obediently. Lights flickered to life deep inside the wooden box, and James saw that it was actually a doorway into a much larger room.

He glanced from the suddenly revealed doorway to Nastasia. “How’d you know?”

She shrugged evasively. “Lucky guess.”

“Well,” Albus spoke up, “We going in or what?”

James glanced back. Rose’s face was as pale as a tombstone. She tore her gaze away from the clockwork man and met his eyes. Jerkily, she nodded.

“Let’s be quick about it,” he said. “If Avior isn’t here, he’s bound to be back at any moment.”

He turned back to the doorway formed by the wooden box. Beyond it, a large, dark room flickered with blue light. Complicated shadows leapt on the high walls and ceilings. He braced himself, felt Rose clutch his shoulders again from behind, and stepped forward.

15. ORIGINS UNVEILED

The inner chamber of Professor Avior’s office was circular, and much warmer than the waiting area had been. Flames roared in the maw of a monstrous fireplace. Pillars lined the room, stretching up into shadowy vaults.

“Looks a lot like the Headmaster’s office back at Hogwarts,” Albus commented. “And what is that in the cage? That’s not an actual Phoenix, is it?”

James and Rose followed Albus to a very large cage standing on an ornate brass stand. The creature inside seemed to take up nearly every inch of space where it hunched on a low perch. The cage floor was littered with what appeared to be rodent bones, all charred black.

“That’s no regular Phoenix,” Rose said, curling her lip. “It’s a Jiskra, sometimes called a
Black
Phoenix. See the two heads?”

“Cool,” Albus leaned close, peering through the bars. “It looks more like a feathered lizard than a bird.”

The head nearest him reared back between its furled wings. The beak split open, revealing rows of tiny pointed teeth, and the creature hissed, exhaling a foul-smelling mist.

“Holy--!!” Albus spat, leaping back and waving his hands to disperse the Jiskra’s wet, acrid breath. “What the bloody hell was that!?”

“Defence mechanism,” Nastasia giggled. “Another name they go by is ‘Deathbreath’. It’s a good thing the other head’s asleep.”

James kept a safe distance from the monstrous bird-thing. “Dumbledore had his Phoenix,” he mused darkly. “Avior has… this thing.”

Near the enormous cage on its stand, a large wooden desk was covered to overflowing with parchments, inks, books, instruments, and, strangely, an oversized wizard chess set. James approached this, examining the pieces where they stood in mid-play on the board. The black figures seemed to be made of ebony, while the white figures sparkled in the firelight like diamond.

“Someone really likes their board games,” Albus said as he joined James near the desk. “Who’s winning, do you think?”

James shook his head. “Ralph would know. He’s the chess player, not me.”