JAMES POTTER AND THE VAULT OF DESTINIES jp-1

by G. Norman Lippert

  A cool breeze whistled around the Tree’s twisted trunk, threading through James’ hair and making the branches sway and hiss. A dull crackle emanated from the depths of the Willow, sounding like pine knots in a fireplace.

  In front of James, Izzy gasped. “Look!” she cried, pointing. “The sun’s coming up!”

  Zane peered at the pinkish glow as it expanded on the horizon. “I may be mistaken,” he said, “but I think that’s the sun going down. Er, in reverse.”

  The pink glow spread and brightened, turning orange, and then, sure enough, the sun peeked over the stone wall of the overgrown yard. The yellow orb climbed into the sky with eerie speed, casting hard shadows inside the yard, and then swiftly shortening them. Warm air blew through the Tree and James squinted, finding himself in a sudden hot noontime. The sun began to move faster, sliding back down the sky on the other side of the Warping Willow, which sighed and shushed all around, its branches swaying like curtains.

  “What’s happening?” Lily asked with a note of fear in her voice.

  Ginny pulled the girl up into her arms. “It’s all right, Lil,” she soothed. “We’re still traveling, I think. Only now, we’re traveling in time.”

  Night spread across the sky again, filled with glimmering stars. Now, the moon waltzed overhead, its bony crescent chasing the clouds. Moments later, the sun followed once again, moving so fast that it seemed to be rolling across the sky like a marble. The wind in the Tree increased, shushing the whip-like branches, and James felt movement beneath his feet. He glanced down and saw the Warping Willow’s roots twisting through the earth, spreading and shifting like tentacles.

  The sky dimmed to night and lightened again to noon, beginning to cycle with dizzying speed. The sun and moon chased each other across the sky, and then blurred into streaks, and then vanished into seamless, silvery arcs of spinning time. The arcs curved across the sky, and seasons began to drift past the outside of the Tree. The grass grew brown, and then grey and listless. Suddenly, snow covered it, sparkling white and piling high, forming drifts against the interior walls of the yard. The snow vanished away again, and now autumn leaves carpeted the ground. Almost immediately, the leaves evaporated, leaving the grass green and lush, peppered with white butterflies. James turned on the spot, transfixed, watching the yard all around as it cycled past seasons and into years, faster and faster, blending into a flickering tableaux of decades, even centuries. And through it all, Flintlock hunkered unmoving, looking like nothing more than a craggy boulder, through flashing eons of sunshine and snow.

  Finally, the cycle began to slow, until the seasons became distinct again, and then the streaks of the sun and moon, and finally the alternating lights and darks of days. The Tree sighed and whispered, settling, until the sun lowered for the last time and the sky grew dark, flooded with stars. The moon was a high, full orb now, frosty in the darkness. It slowed, climbing, climbing, and finally crawled to a stop. The Warping Willow relaxed and went still.

  In the sudden silence, Neville Longbottom exhaled a pent breath. “So…,” he asked slowly, “when are we?”

  Chancellor Franklyn glanced at him, and then at the watch that hung from a chain around his prodigious waist. “It’s eleven twenty-one,” he answered. “September fourth. Er, seventeen fifty. Give or take a few seconds. It’s hard to be especially accurate about such things.”

  “Oh my,” Petra said from behind James. He turned to glance back at her, saw the expression of rapt wonder on her face, and then turned around again, following her gaze.

  Beyond the curtains of the Warping Willow’s branches, the yard had grown. The gate was still visible nearby, but the wall it was set in was much wider; so wide, in fact, that James couldn’t see either end. In every other direction, moonlight sifted down onto manicured lawns, sprawling colonial brick buildings, statuary, fountains, and flagstone footpaths. Flickering lampposts dotted the campus, their lights dim and entrancing under the full moon.

  “Well,” Percy said, and even he sounded awestruck, “it looks like we’ve finally made it to Alma Aleron.”

  7. ALMA ALERON

  James had wanted to explore the grounds that very night, but his parents, along with the rest of the adults, had insisted on getting everyone to their rooms and into bed.

  The guest quarters were housed in a large brick mansion that overlooked the grounds, relatively near the Warping Willow. Shortly, James had found himself in a surprisingly sumptuous bedroom with a gigantic marble fireplace, nearly as tall as he was, and three four-poster beds so high that they had little wooden stepstools next to them. Albus claimed the one nearest the window and James took the one in the middle. Within minutes, despite the excitement of the night, and the thrill of finally arriving, James had dropped into a deep dreamless sleep.

  He seemed to wake almost immediately and blinked at the bright sunshine that beamed through the window, swimming with dust motes. Bird song twittered nearby and as James sat up in his high bed, he could see people moving on the flagstone walkways of the campus below the window. He grinned and saw that Albus was already awake.

  “I smell bacon,” Albus said, nodding. “The kitchens are in the basement. Come on, let’s see if we can nick a little nosh!”

  “Way ahead of you,” Ralph announced from the other side of the room, shrugging into a very oversized white robe. “Come on, there are two more. One for each of us. Man, this is living.”

  “I can’t imagine that this is what life will be like in the dorms,” James replied, grabbing one of the robes, “but when in Rome…”

  Together, the three boys tramped down the stairs and down a high, richly paneled hall. Display cases on one side showed a variety of trophies and awards as well as a collection of strange leather sporting balls, most dull and worn with age. On the other side of the hall, framed portraits and photographs peered down. James recognized some of the faces in the images—Abraham Lincoln and George Washington among them—but most were completely unknown to him. Very few of the images moved and James assumed that most of the paintings were, in fact, nonmagical.

  The boys passed a large sitting room and a coat closet and stopped as they neared a busy dining room, filled with bright morning light from two tall windows. Most of the adults were already gathered around the table, babbling, passing plates, and pouring steaming cups of coffee and tea. Happily, James, Ralph, and Albus ran into the room and found seats around the long table.

  “Robes and pyjamas?” Lucy said, blinking aside at James as he climbed into the chair next to her.

  “Al smelled bacon,” James shrugged. “Be glad he’s dressed at all.”

  Percy spooned sugar into his tea as he spoke, apparently in the middle of a conversation with Chancellor Franklyn, who sat across from him. “So, in order to maintain security and remain hidden in Muggle Philadelphia, Alma Aleron exists in a time bubble in the year seventeen fifty.”

  “Actually,” Franklyn replied, leaning back in his chair and dabbing at his chin with a napkin, “we are now back in the twenty-first century, as of this morning. Twenty forty, I believe. We try to use round numbers, but even so, it can be monstrously difficult to keep track of.”

  Georgia Burke spoke up next. “The time bubble roams daily, spanning approximately four hundred and fifty years. The historical target of any given day is determined by a complex algorithm based on the actual date, the phase of the moon, and… er… the mood of a certain Kneazle-cat.”

  “Yes,” Franklyn nodded. “Patches, the administration pet. The wizard who designed the algorithm is a believer that there needed to be a single random variable to prevent outsiders from cracking the timecode. He figured that only those that truly deserve to be on campus would know Patches the cat, and her moods. Ingenious, really, but somewhat obtuse, since cats, even of the Kneazle variety, really only have one mood.”

  “Sullen,” Burke agreed. “With various shades of petulant, haughty, aloof, and bored. Still, as a security concept, it is fairly solid.”

&n
bsp; “Oh, we know all about Kneazle-cats,” Izzy commented from across the table. “Remember Crookshanks? Rose’s family’s cat?” she asked, looking aside at Petra, and then turning to address everyone else at the table, her voice sober. “But Crookshanks isn’t sullen at all. He’s a sweetheart.”

  “To you, perhaps,” Harry muttered.

  “So what if someone hops over the school wall from the inside?” Albus asked around a mouthful of toast. “Would they be able to go explore the future or the past? What if they got lost? Or went and screwed up history somehow?”

  Franklyn laughed lightly, as if this were a question he’d had to answer many, many times. “Fortunately for history, the time bubble stops at the boundary of the campus: the stone wall we all observed last night. The moment you climbed over, you’d leave the Timelock and find yourself in the normal flow of time, only locked out of the campus, and with Flintlock to convince to let you back in.”

  “Ah,” Albus said, disappointed.

  “At any rate, we have a full day ahead of us,” Ginny announced placing her napkin next to her plate. “Lily, we need to get you and Izzy settled in at your new school, elsewhere in the city, and we need to get ourselves squared away with our own flat.”

  Franklyn cleared his throat. “Harry, I’ve arranged for an indefinite Floo visa for you and your charges, effective as of this morning. It will allow you free access to the Crystal Mountain and any domestic magical destinations you may require for the duration of your stay.”

  “That will do nicely,” Harry agreed. “But what about communication with my associates abroad? I understand that you have an entire department dedicated to international experimental communications. As you know, Titus Hardcastle, my second-in-command, will be joining me periodically during the investigation. It will be necessary for me to communicate with him regularly and international post is notoriously slow.”

  At the end of the table, Merlin spoke. “I have foreseen just such a requirement, Mr. Potter. Speak to me in my quarters when you have the opportunity.”

  Franklyn blinked at Merlin, and then turned to Harry. “And of course, the Department of Experimental Magical Communications will assist you in any way that you might require. I will equip you with a pass that will grant you immediate access to the campus through the main gate. Flintlock knows you now, and will escort you through the Timelock. As you can imagine, however, you cannot Apparate onto the campus from outside of the time bubble, nor can it be accessed via Floo. Alas, our security measures, foolproof as they are, do present their own unique limitations.”

  “I don’t plan on leaving campus at all during my stay,” Neville Longbottom announced, smiling. “I’ve a meeting with the Head of the Flora Department, Professor Sanuye, later this morning, in preparation for my presentation tomorrow night. Frankly, I admit, I’m a wee bit nervous about it.”

  “You shall do splendidly,” Audrey announced confidently. “There is no greater expert on the subject of herbology than you, Professor Longbottom.”

  “Well,” Neville replied, blushing, “that may be stretching it a bit far…”

  “As for you four,” Ginny said, indicating James, Albus, Ralph, and Lucy, “you are scheduled to meet Zane next to the Octosphere at ten o’clock. He’ll show you around the campus and get you prepared for your first day of school. If you plan to wear something other than your pyjamas and those ridiculous robes, I suggest you finish up quickly and change.”

  “Ugh!” Albus proclaimed suddenly, lifting his cup and staring at it disdainfully. “You call this tea? I’d heard that Americans couldn’t brew a decent cup, but really! This tastes like warmed over prune juice!”

  “Albus Severus!” Ginny scolded.

  Franklyn peered at the cup in Albus’ hand. Gently, he reached for it. “Ah, yes. Ahem. It tastes like warmed over prune juice because that’s precisely what it is, young man,” he said, taking the cup and sniffing it. “You seem to have picked up my drink by accident.”

  Albus’ face reddened as James and his parents laughed. Audrey covered her own mouth to stifle a smile while Percy rolled his eyes. Merlin moved to get up, indicating the end of the meal.

  “Oh. Well,” Albus said stiffly. “Never mind then.”

  By daylight, the scale of Alma Aleron campus seemed even larger. Neatly cropped lawns and flower gardens were crisscrossed with paths running in all directions. Some of the footpaths were meandering and narrow, laid with pea gravel, others were wide flagstone thoroughfares, cutting straight swathes between the various buildings.

  As James, Albus, Ralph, and Lucy made their way to the center of campus, they encountered innumerable students of nearly every age, most dressed in various versions of the school uniform, which consisted, generally, of a dress shirt, tie, pants, and blazer for the boys, or a blouse, skirt, and tie for the girls. V-necked sweaters were occasionally worn in place of the blazer, especially by the girls, and some students forewent the blazer altogether or carried it slung over their shoulders.

  The confusing bit was in the fact that there didn’t seem to be an established school colour. As James glanced around, soaking in the sights, he counted at least half a dozen different colour combinations. He did notice, however, that students in similar colours tended to cluster together in knots, either walking swiftly to their classes or hovering near the benches and low walls that dotted the campus, laughing and lounging, occasionally tossing around strange leather sporting balls.

  The buildings that comprised the campus were mostly brick, covered in ivy, with dormers and towers jutting from their high roofs. The entrances were wide and grand, with stone staircases leading to banks of heavy wooden doors, many propped open to admit the fresh autumn air. Most of the main buildings seemed to range along a very long narrow common space, dotted with huge ancient trees, pools, bridges, gardens, and statuary. On the closest end of the commons, near the guest house and the Warping Willow, was something like an old ruin, mostly comprised of stone blocks stacked haphazardly around a grass-filled foundation. The only recognizable portion of the ruin was the main entrance and steps, which seemed ready to collapse at the slightest provocation. A very worn and broken statue of a severely dressed wizard holding a wand at his side stood in front of the entryway, looking as if it had once stood atop a grand pedestal which had, through time and entropy, become buried. The name engraved along the top of the ruin’s doorway was barely legible: Roberts.

  Across from the ruin, sitting at the far end of the commons like a patriarch at the head of a gigantic table, was a very imposing red brick building with buttresses and stone columns, ranks of tall windows, and a dizzyingly tall clock tower which stood over its impressive central entryway. The school’s full name and date of origin were engraved over the columns in huge block letters: ‘ALMA ALERON UNIVERSITY of MAGICAL HUMANITIES and SPELLCRAFT – 1688’. James had an inkling that he’d seen the building before, and then he remembered: it had been in the background of his first glimpse of A.A.U., seen through the magical rear wall of the Trans-Dimensional Garage during his first year at Hogwarts. He’d seen that very clock tower, albeit from a different angle, and heard it tolling the hour. He felt a little surreal now, looking up the building from its own lawns, knowing that he’d be attending school under it, probably for the entire year.

  Finally, the four students made their way into the center of the campus commons and stopped beneath one of the massive elm trees that cast their shadows over the grounds, their turning leaves catching the sunlight like kaleidoscopes. Nearby, a grand, terraced pool splashed with fountains, surrounding a strange black marble ball that seemed to float in the very middle.

  “Here he comes,” Ralph said, mopping his brow with his sleeve. “How can it be so hot here this late in the year?”

  Lucy shrugged. “This is mild by their standards. Be glad we didn’t arrive in the middle of August. My father says you can boil a cauldron on the footpath during a typical American summer.”

  “Ugh,” Albus grunted, shaking
his head.

  “I’m disappointed not to be able to try it, really,” Lucy said, bending down and laying her palm on the stone at her feet. “This is barely hot enough to soften a jellywort.”

  “Has it ever occurred to you,” Albus said, peering sideways at his cousin, “that your dad might be full of jellywort?”

  Lucy regarded Albus calmly. “Yes,” she said. “Actually it has.”

  “Morning everybody,” Zane said happily, crossing the pool’s terraces to meet them. “Sorry I’m a little late. There was an incident last night in my house involving a pledge, an Engorgio spell, and a key lime pie. I’ve never seen such a mess, and it was up to me to make sure it got cleaned up afterwards. The pledges barely swam through half of it. If you ask me, there isn’t a Zombie in the bunch.”

  Lucy frowned. “A key lime pie?”

  Ralph glanced at her. “You heard him say the word ‘zombie’, and the thing that struck you was the pie?”

  “He obviously doesn’t mean real zombies,” Lucy sniffed. “Zombies are forbidden. At least in this country.”

  Zane raised his voice and pumped his fist in the air. “Zombie pride! Zombie grit! Undead fight and never quit!” He stopped, lowered his fist, and grinned. “Sorry, force of habit. Go Zombies, eh?”

  “Whatever you say,” James smiled, shaking his head.

  “Come on, I’ll give you the lowdown while we walk,” Zane said, beckoning. “There’s a lot to go over and not much time. I have class in half an hour. You can sit in if you want.”

  “Oh yeah,” Albus commented brightly. “That’d be buckets of fun.”

  Lucy smacked her cousin lightly on the back of the head as they stood up. “Give it a rest already, Albus.”

  “All right,” Zane said, turning around and walking backwards, his arms held wide. “This is Alma Aleron’s main mall. Most of the classroom buildings are along here, on either side. Back by the Warping Willow, that pile of bricks and stone is the home of one of the original founders. Looks tempting to climb on, but not a good idea. Magic’s the only thing holding what’s left of it together these days.”