The Vault of Destinies (James Potter #3) (50 page)

James blinked at her. He opened his mouth to thank her, but before he could, she spun on her heels and ran into the darkness, following the narrow flagstone path to Erebus Castle. James closed his mouth again and watched Lucy's silhouette vanish into the shadow of the trees. What in the world had gotten into her? Shaking his own head, he turned and walked the rest of the way to Apollo Mansion.

He was exhausted and a little frustrated, but he was also filled with a certain giddy contentment. He had done well tonight. His mum and dad were proud of him. And he had succeeded in playing for his House Clutch team while Albus had not. That last was a petty satisfaction, but it was satisfaction nonetheless. All that remained was the perplexing mystery of Professor Wood's reluctance to use serious magic in Clutch matches, but James thought he could probably work that out. Even now, remembering the conversation he'd had with the professor some days earlier, he thought he could begin to grope around the edges of it. It was still hazy, but it had something to do with earning the respect of his dead parents, and maybe even himself. It was complicated, and a little mad, but it made a certain backward logic. If using battle magic had earned Wood the shame of his parents, then perhaps he felt that avoiding it now, even in something as basic as a Clutch match, would help him regain their ghostly approval.

James shook his head. Being a grownup was such mad, complicated business. He was glad that he was still, technically at least, a kid.

Over the course of the following weeks, James never did speak to Professor Wood about the flaws of Team Bigfoot's Clutchcudgel magic game. Instead, he studied the small grey rulebook that Wood had given him for his line-writing assignment, particularly the chapter entitled
Offensive and
Defensive Spellwork Fundamentals
. There, he learned the essential magic associated with the game, including much of what he'd seen during the year's first match against Igor House.

As the season progressed, James studied the magic games of the other House teams and found that each house approached their Clutchcudgel magic in a distinct and different manner.

The Igors' team, for instance, used conventional Clutch spells most of the time, but occasionally surprised everyone with a spectacularly creative magical effort, often involving several players working in tandem. Such attempts failed as often as not, but they were always exciting to watch and the crowd always cheered the Igors' bloody-minded grandiosity.

Team Pixie, on the other hand, relied on endless variations of entirely original sport magic, mostly designed by Mother Newt herself. Pixie Clutch magic was almost always pretty, sparkly, and effectively devastating, such as when the team captain, a girl named Ophelia Wright, enchanted the tail of her skrim to produce a stream of tiny rainbow-coloured butterflies. The butterflies were admittedly beautiful, if rather fat and clumsy, so that as the opposing players flew into Ophelia's wake, they found themselves peppered with hundreds of splattering, colourful collisions, mucking up their uniforms and pasting over their goggles.

James spent an inordinate amount of time in the campus library, looking up classic Clutchcudgel magical strategies, often with Zane and Ralph alongside him. Secretly at first, James began to practice the offensive and defensive spells he was learning, using the bust of Sir Pepperpock in his dormitory room as a target. Often, Rose, Scorpius, and even Damien Damascus and Sabrina Hildegard would watch James' efforts via the Shard on the back of his dormitory room door.

"You're still emphasizing the second syllable of the Lanyard Charm," Rose announced critically on one occasion. "It's causing it to pull short too soon."

"And more twist in the wrist," Damien added, mimicking the move with his own wand on the other side of the Shard. "See? You're looking for a nice spiral. Keeps your aim true."

James ran his forearm across his brow. "Don't you lot have homework to do?"

"You forget that it's a lot later here," Rose sniffed. "We're only staying up because you're so endlessly entertaining. It's better than telly."

"Do the gravity well again," Sabrina suggested brightly, the quill bobbing in her hair. "I read that people who are really good at it can make one so strong that even light can't escape it! It's like a little miniature black hole!"

Ralph was lying on his bed surrounded by a collection of quills, parchments, and snacks. Glancing up from his Magi-American History textbook, he asked, "How do you all know so much about Clutchcudgel anyway?"

"Library," Rose shrugged. "There's not a whole lot there, but we found a few old magazines that talk about it. Apparently, there
is
a Clutch league in England, although hardly anyone's ever heard of it. I read an interview with the man who runs the league. He's rather… intense. But there was some good discussion of the basic magic that goes along with the game. Have you been practicing that Whistle-Whoopsie Hex Damien came up with?"

"I told you," James said, lowering his wand, "we're not allowed to use spells that hurt other players. Making the referee swallow his own whistle is a pretty obvious penalty."

"Can't be a penalty without a whistle blow," Zane mused from his lounge on James' bed. "Right? If a foul is committed but there's no whistle to call it, is it really a foul?"

"That's what I've been trying to say!" Damien exclaimed from the other side of the Shard.

"Forget it," James announced firmly. "I'm not risking getting put in the dock again."

"You mind if I steal that Whistle-Whoopsie bit, then?" Zane asked brightly. "I bet Warrington could put it to good use."

James rolled his eyes. On the other side of the Shard, Damien Damascus pointed a finger. "I've got patent pending on that one, Walker! Don't you go stealing it and calling it your own!"

"Wouldn't dream of it," Zane said in a wounded voice.

By the third match of the season, James had finally grown confident enough to attempt some real Clutch magic during the game. He waited until the fourth quarter of the match against Vampire House and, when he was sure Professor Wood was busy calling out formations, attempted a Lanyard Charm on the Vampire Clipper ahead of him. It worked perfectly. The Clutch popped instantly from beneath the boy's arm and bobbed backwards in the air. James caught it against his chest, surprised and delighted at how simple it had been.

The crowd responded with a rather surprised cheer, and as James zoomed through the intersection and around the Bigfoot platform, he saw Wood glancing around curiously, looking to see what the crowd was applauding. As James neared the end of his requisite three laps, he saw that two of the Vampire Bullies had assembled ahead of him, preparing to fall upon him and force him out of the course. James narrowed his eyes and raised his wand.

"
Cresco Gravitatis
!" he called, aiming for a point between and below the two Vampire Bullies.

There was a very satisfying noise, rather like a reverse popping sound, and the two Bullies were sucked downwards, out of the course. They collided with each other at the point of the gravity well and James was pleased to notice as he swooped past that the air seemed very slightly darker around the center of the spell. The well collapsed upon itself quickly, but there was no chance that the two Vampire Bullies would catch James now. He banked hard around the last loop, speeding up and crouching low over his skrim, and lobbed the Clutch easily through the goal, keeping it well out of the range of the Vampire Keeper's Cudgel.

The crowd responded with a concussive roar of applause, as surprised as they were impressed. James had harbored hopes that Wood might not have noticed his use of game magic, but this hope was neatly dashed by the echoing voice of the match announcer, a Zombie House girl named Cheshire Chatterly.

"And the Bigfoot magic game takes a rather shocking leap into the twenty-first century with the skillful hexwork of number twenty-two, James Sirius Potter!" she cried, her voice amplified over the roar of the crowd. "Could it be that this hearkens a new era of competitiveness for Bigfoot House? Only time will tell. In the meantime, three cheers for Professor Oliver Wood and his very effective coaching!"

James slowed as he glanced up at the announcer's box, frowning. He was unsurprised to see Zane seated in the box alongside Cheshire Chatterly. The blonde boy grinned and waved down at James, winking, the gesture about as subtle as a giant in a tutu. James tried to avoid Wood's gaze but couldn't help glancing aside as he circled the platform. Wood was smiling rather tightly as the crowd cheered him.

"Nice one, James!" Norrick called, passing James on his own skrim. "Keep an eye out, though. Team Vampire will probably ambush you now since they think you're the only one with any magic game."

James sighed as he crouched over his skrim, accelerating into the intersection. Sure enough, several Vampire players were eyeing him darkly as they swooped ahead.

"Why don't
you
try some magic then, Norrick?" James suggested, raising his voice into the rushing wind. "It's not illegal, you know!"

"I don't even
know
those spells!" Norrick responded. "That was a gravity well! Those are really tough!"

James was about to tell Norrick that they really weren't all that tough, but by then the two of them were zooming into the intersection and he lost sight of the other boy as they flashed and banked through the oncoming stream.

James didn't attempt any more magic during that match, which they lost by a score of fiftyseven to fifty. When it was over, he waited in the locker cellar below the gantry to see if Wood meant to chastise him. The rest of Team Bigfoot congratulated him heartily as they changed out of their pads and gear, but when Wood came down the stairs, they quieted immediately, watching, along with James, to see what he would say. Wood eyed the unnaturally quiet locker cellar for a long moment, letting his gaze sweep over the assembled players.

Finally, he cleared his throat and said, "Good match today, everyone. Well-played. We haven't seen such a close score in a long time. Carry on."

James watched as the professor made his way toward the exit. When the wooden door clapped shut, he let out a deep exhale of relief. For whatever reason, Wood had obviously chosen not to coach the team to perform any serious game magic, but he was apparently willing to allow it if James, at least, took the initiative upon himself. James felt a great weight of worry lift from his shoulders.

"Hey James," Wentworth said, plopping down next to him on the bench, "think you could teach me some of that stuff you did today?"

"Yeah," Gobbins agreed, keeping his voice low. "Me too. I don't know about the rest of these mokes, but I liked what you did out there today. Hell with tradition. I want to hex some heads."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," James said, raising his hands. "I just learned that stuff myself from books. Wood may let me get away with it on my own, but if he finds out I'm teaching the rest of the team to do it…"

"It's not the rest of the team," Wentworth said, wiping his glasses on his jersey. "It's just me and Gobbins."

"And me," Jazmine Jade added, sitting down on James' other side.

"Wurfh," another voice grunted. James glanced up to see Mukthatch nodding down at him, his black eyes twinkling.

James ran both hands through his hair in frustration. "Look, I'm not a teacher. I barely know those spells myself! I just read up on them, watched what everybody else did, and practiced in my room until I was ready to try it!"

"And you did all this without telling us?" Wentworth said reproachfully.

"No, no, it's better that way," Gobbins said enthusiastically. "Saves us all the trouble! Now he can just teach us what he knows!"

"I can't teach anybody anything!" James rasped, trying to keep his voice low.

"Why not?" Jazmine asked reasonably.

James shook his head and pursed his lips, at a loss for how to respond.

"Rharrf whubfle," Mukthatch said, giving James an encouraging shove on the shoulder, nearly bouncing his head off the wall.

"Muk's right," Wentworth said. "We're your teammates and your friends. It won't be like you're taking over Wood's job or anything. Think of it as… helping us out with our homework."

"Yeah," Gobbins grinned. "Our Clutch homework."

Jazmine nodded seriously. "We'd help
you
with
your
homework, James."

"You didn't the other night!" James spluttered, turning on Jazmine. "When I asked you to help me with my Precognitive Engineering essay!"

"You didn't want
help
with it," Jazmine replied, rolling her eyes. "You wanted to buy mine from last year. That's hardly the same thing."

Gobbins shook his head. "I
told
you she wouldn't part with it for less than twenty Jacks."

Wentworth stuck stubbornly to the issue. "So, will you help us learn some Clutch magic, James? Just us four?"

James looked from face to face and finally let out a long sigh of resignation.

"Woohoo!" Gobbins announced, throwing his fists into the air. "When do we start?"

"No time like the present," Jazmine suggested. "It's still early. We can meet in the attic common room. Nobody uses that room since Bump the Poltergeist moved into it. He won't bother us, though, as long as nobody minds having a few books thrown at them. Might even help. It'll give us something to aim at."