James Potter and the Crimson Thread

by G. Norman Lippert

  “Well, yes and no,” Odin-Vann nodded vaguely. “You won’t, actually, Miss Weasley. But you shall perform perhaps the most important task of all.”

  Rose looked taken aback but didn’t object, at least not yet.

  Odin-Vann went on, turning to James.

  “According to Petra, James, you have in your possession a singularly useful map of the school grounds. Is that correct?”

  “The Marauder’s Map?” James confirmed. “Yes, I still have it.

  Dad let me use it year before last to keep an eye on Lily and Albus, making sure they didn’t skive off on Hogsmeade weekends before they were allowed. It’s still hidden in the bottom of my trunk.”

  “And a particularly powerful cloak of invisibility?” Odin-Vann cocked his head, his eyes nearly sparking with interest.

  “Ah, no,” James admitted, drooping his shoulders. “I tried, but Dad keeps that safe and tucked away at home. That’s caused too much trouble in the wrong hands. He doesn’t exactly trust me with it anymore.”

  Odin-Vann pressed his lips into a thin line and nodded curtly.

  “Ah. Well. No matter, then. The Map is the most important tool for tonight. Can you give it to Miss Weasley?”

  James nodded and glanced at Rose. “Of course.”

  “Excellent,” Odin-Vann went on, becoming intent. “Your job, then, Miss Weasley, will be to watch the Map tonight. It may require you to be awake all the way until dawn, but it is essential that you keep alert.”

  Rose looked deeply disappointed. “You mean, I’m staying here?”

  Odin-Vann nodded patiently. “I need you to stay and act as sentinel. It is an absolutely essential duty. You must keep an eye on the headmaster at all times. Assure he stays inside the castle. And if he does not, if he vanishes from the Map, even for a moment, you must let us know somehow.”

  “The Protean ducks,” James suggested, glancing at Rose. “I’ll take mine. If Merlin leaves, you can duck me a message. But,” he turned back to Odin-Vann. “Why are we concerned with Merlin?”

  “Because noble as he may be,” Odin-Vann sighed reluctantly, “he, like the rest of the wizarding world, will attempt to capture and stop Petra. Unlike the rest of the wizarding world, however, he may be capable of succeeding.”

  Rose agreed to this with obvious reluctance. She had never been to the World Between the Worlds, and James knew that her curiosity about it must be nearly overwhelming.

  On the other hand, as they both knew, it was where their cousin Lucy had died. James had a sense that this was the main reason Rose did not push any harder to come.

  “What about me?” James asked. “Will we start at Alma Aleron?

  Will Petra meet us there? Is Zane involved?” At that thought, a jolt of nervous excitement fanned out in him. “That’s why she contacted him, isn’t it? I tried to ask him about it, but he’s been out whenever I try to raise him on the Shard!”

  Odin-Vann was shaking his head. “All of those details will come to light soon enough. Your job, James, is to do exactly what you did a few weeks ago, when you appeared to both Petra and myself. Your job is to travel to her via the connection you seem to share. She has opened her end. She expects you.”

  “You mean,” James said, deflating slightly. “My task is… to go to bed?”

  Odin-Vann shrugged. “However you did it before, do it again.

  I am permitted to leave the castle. You are not. But you can make your own way to Petra, it seems. Do so this night. If it works as I believe it does, you will travel to wherever Petra is, without anyone knowing you’ve even left your bed. Accomplish that, and the rest will take care of itself.”

  James did not feel anywhere near as certain of his ability to accomplish this task as did Odin-Vann, but he nodded slowly, his mind spinning.

  Rose was clearly unhappy with the plan, but didn’t seem inclined to argue about it, at least not to Odin-Vann himself. With their business concluded, for the moment at least, the three returned to the warm glow of the castle.

  “We are clear on our roles, then?” Odin-Vann whispered, pausing beneath a hanging lantern.

  Rose nodded soberly, still frowning.

  James shrugged. “I’ll do my best.”

  Odin-Vann studied his face intently, and then nodded. “Give me an hour. And then, just go to sleep. Petra will more than allow you to come through. She will summon you. It will work. Just be prepared.”

  James wasn’t entirely sure what being prepared entailed under these circumstances, but he nodded anyway.

  Odin-Vann parted from them at the next corridor. James and Rose continued on, each lost in the dense fog of their own thoughts as they made their way back to the common room. Outside the portrait hole, Rose stopped James and whispered, “Do you trust him?”

  James blinked at her. Amidst his mingled worries and excitement about the night’s plan, he hadn’t even given that question any consideration. “I… I guess so. I don’t see much reason not to.”

  Rose nodded slowly, her eyes drifting. “You’re right, I suppose.

  Petra trusts him, apparently. Still…”

  “I’ll get you the Map,” James said, nodding to himself. “And maybe you can hex me with a sleep charm before I go up. I feel about as far from sleep right now as I’ve ever been.”

  Rose agreed to this and the two climbed through the portrait hole, each filled with their own stew of excitement and worry.

  The common room was still half full of students. The walls rang with loud chatter and the crackle of the fireplace. Almost no one noticed the two students’ return.

  James ran upstairs to retrieve the Map. When he came back down, he found Rose seated on the loveseat beneath the window with Scorpius. He could tell by the tilt of their heads that she had told him what was happening. James wasn’t sure how he felt about that, but if it meant Scorpius would help Rose stay awake through the night, perhaps it was for the best. At least it meant that they weren’t fighting for the moment.

  Scorpius glanced up at James as he approached. James handed his knapsack past him to Rose. Inside it was the Marauder’s Map.

  “Don’t forget to take your Duck,” Scorpius commented, arching an eyebrow at James. “Assuming you really can.”

  “I think I can,” James nodded. “I brought some of the dirt back from the place I went to last time. I think I can take with me whatever I’m holding. My biggest problem is going to be getting to sleep at all.”

  Scorpius shrugged. “Rose is a treat with a sleep charm. You’ll probably collapse on the stairs before you reach the first-years dormitory.

  Say hello to your daft American friend, should you see him.”

  James smiled at the thought of Zane, even under these circumstances. Scorpius pretended not to like the blonde American, but James knew better. Wherever Zane and Scorpius weren’t complete opposites, they were extremely alike. “I’ll give him all your love,” he agreed.

  The three whiled away a disconsolate half-hour as the common room crowd slowly thinned. James was anxious to be underway, assuming the plan would work, but tried to obey Odin-Vann’s timeframe as much as his patience would allow.

  Finally, he stood and admitted that he could wait no longer.

  Rose nodded, drew her wand surreptitiously from the pocket of her jeans and flicked it at James, muttering something under her breath.

  Nothing happened visibly, but James stumbled backwards a step as something soft seemed to whump him in the chest. He blinked and a wave of pleasant dizziness fell over him, “Off with you,” Rose commanded urgently. “Scorpius is right.

  You’ll be dreaming on the stairs if you don’t hurry.”

  James turned and made his way to the entrance to the boys’ dormitory. The floor seemed to tilt gently beneath him, pulling him off course so that he bumped the edge of the door with his shoulder. The sensation was muffled, almost pleasant. The stairs felt steeper than usual. He leaned forward and used his hands to pull himself up the flights, both steadying and hurr
ying, nearly falling up the steps. Rose’s sleepiness spell was indeed immensely strong.

  He almost forgot to collect his Duck after all—nearly threw himself onto his bed fully clothed before remembering that final detail.

  He fumbled in his open trunk, feeling more than looking. His fingers clutched the soft rubber and he clutched it to his chest, giving the Duck an accidental squeeze.

  “Daft Dew-beater!”

  James half-fell, half-crawled up onto his bed, his head swimming amiably, already dipping into a dreaming fugue.

  His last incoherent thought was that the Duck in his hand was a Quaffle. He was flying over the nighttime pitch, preparing to score, but the goal rings were no longer guarded by Lily. Now, strangely, they were protected by the figure of Donofrio Odin-Vann, who opened his arms to block the shot. As he did, his cloak spread wide like dragon wings, seamlessly black, covering everything, covering the entire world.

  James fell into the blackness, still clutching the Quaffle-Duck to his chest, and the blackness sucked him in. It streamed past him first like a wind, and then like a hurricane gale, and finally like smothering water, compressed and swift, carrying him helplessly faster and faster, breaking through the fog of Rose’s sleep charm with a stab of sudden fear.

  Fighting against the rushing dark, he finally broke through, gasped urgently, and sat up.

  He was no longer in his bed in Gryffindor Tower. Instead, he was sitting on a cushion of fresh grass beneath a dusky evening sky. A huge shape hulked next to him. James blinked up at it, still muddy-headed, knowing that he should recognize the shape but not quite able to do so. It wasn’t until the voice spoke up next to him, startling him badly, that it all began to make sense.

  “Sheesh, James!” Zane’s voice rasped, full of shocked urgency.

  “Are you all right? Did that, like, hurt?”

  “What do you mean?” James asked, clutching his head as if to hold it together. He turned to see Zane drop into an urgent squat next to him. Peering past the blonde boy, he asked, “Is that Apollo Mansion?”

  “The very same,” Zane answered distractedly, leaning to examine James. “Seriously, you’re okay? You fell out of nowhere like a comet, hit the ground hard enough to rattle the windows!”

  James’ head was clearing slowly. With Zane’s help he climbed unsteadily to his feet. “I’m fine. I guess. Really good to see you, mate.

  Am I really here? Alma Aleron?”

  Zane shrugged. “As here as I am, looks to me. I think you dropped your Duck, though.”

  James glanced around and saw the rubber Duck lying a few feet away in the grass. He retrieved it and pushed it into his pocket. Taking a moment to look around, he finally recognized the bulk of Apollo mansion, home to Bigfoot house. It still sat atop Victory Hill overlooking the quadrangle and the enormous brick shape of Administration Hall, with its imposing clock tower. According to it, local time was just past six in the evening. The only major difference to the scene since James had last been there was the lack of the broken werewolf statue, which had long since been cleared away now that the Wolves’ reign of unnatural Clutchcudgel tournament wins had been ended.

  Returning to Zane, James said blearily, “It’s good to be back, even if it’s only for a little while. But how is this supposed to happen?

  We can’t just open the Nexus Curtain like we did last time, can we?

  The house has to be empty, for one thing.”

  Zane managed to look mildly wounded. “Like I can’t manage the simple task of clearing a house for an evening? I just told them the place had come down with a sudden infestation of Streeler snails.” He bobbed his head and glanced back at the plain, blocky façade of Apollo mansion. “Mainly because I infested it with Streeler snails,” he added with a shrug. “But it wasn’t hard to get everybody out. Tonight’s the first Clutch match between The Bigfoots and the Vampires. The snails were just insurance. I’m supposed to be clearing them out while everyone’s away. No problem. The Nexus Curtain works as a portal for every living thing from the cornerstone up. I hope those slimy, venomous little brutes are happy in their new home in the Double-you Bee Double-you.” He looked a little wistful.

  James nodded. “So you have the horseshoe, then?” The silver horseshoe, James well knew, was the key that opened the dimensional gate, converting the entire house into a portal.

  Zane nodded and patted the bulge in his jeans pocket. “I probably shouldn’t carry it around like this, should I?” he said in a hoarse whisper. “Who knows what kind of trans-dimensional radiation the thing gives off, eh? Ah well, it’ll either make it impossible for me to have kids, or make them super-powered mutants if I do. I should start thinking up possible superhero names.”

  “How did you come by it, anyway?” James asked, looking down at the darkly glimmering silvery shape. “That thing’s got to be under a thousand spells of protection these days, doesn’t it?”

  Zane shrugged. “Got it from the same place we got it the first time we went through the nexus curtain. Remember that? Petra had it.

  Pulled it right out of her pocket. Normally, this thing lives under twenty-four-hour protection up in the Tower of Art. But Petra, you know,” he shrugged in grave wonderment. “How does she do any of the things she does?”

  “Where is she,” James asked, glancing around. “Or Odin-Vann.

  Have you met him already? Tall, skinny bloke with a little pointy goatee?”

  “Petra’s inside,” Zane nodded at the mansion again. “Along with Izzy. They have to stay totally out of sight until the last moment.

  That other dude is in there, too.”

  “Izzy’s here?” James blinked. He knew he should have expected that. Petra rarely went anywhere without her half-sister, whom she protected intently.

  Zane nodded. “They were talking about what will become of her once Petra zaps away into Morgan’s dimension. I think that Odin-Vann guy means to take care of her. Adopt her, maybe.”

  James’ head spun for a moment. He couldn’t quite bring himself to imagine Petra abandoning Izzy, but of course it would be impossible to do otherwise. The Izzy in that other dimension, unfortunately, was dead.

  At that moment, the door to Apollo mansion opened. Donofrio Odin-Vann stepped out, followed by a thin, young woman in jeans and a pale green jumper, her glossy dark hair pulled back in a ponytail.

  At the sight of her, all the breath seemed to suck out of James’ lungs. The color faded from everything in the world except for the young woman as she came lightly down the steps, meeting his eyes, smiling at him, faintly, but with genuine affection.

  She approached him, reached for him, touched his shoulders.

  And then they were embracing. It was a brief reunion, but monumental in James’ mind. He had not touched Petra in years. Had only seen her once, briefly, on the night that she had created her Horcrux. In his heart, she had become something almost mythical—a towering icon of both hopeless love and impending tragedy. And yet now, finally, here she stood before him, in his arms, half-a-head shorter than him. Her hair smelled of lavender. The embrace of her arms was strong, warm, utterly human.

  And then she was letting him go, stepping back, looking up at him.

  “I’m sorry,” she said.

  He shook his head at her, speechless. Was she sorry for the way she had recently blocked him out, closing off her end of the their shared thread? Or for including him on this possibly dangerous mission?

  James couldn’t tell. Possibly both. Or perhaps she was sorry for something else entirely.

  “You should go now,” Odin-Vann said. “We have very little time.”

  James frowned, finally tearing his gaze away from Petra. “You mean… you aren’t coming?”

  Odin-Vann nodded and drew a brief, heavy sigh. “I would be of little help where you are going. My mission is to stay here. I will keep Izzy safe, and watch the house. Should anyone approach while you are in the World Between the Worlds, I will need to remove the horseshoe key. I will
send them on their way by whatever means necessary and replace it once the coast is clear.”

  There was something off-kilter about the way Odin-Vann spoke and avoided eye-contact, but James couldn’t quite identify what it was.

  “Where will Izzy be?” Zane asked, drawing his wand out of his pocket.

  Petra answered, “She’s in the basement game room. The cellar isn’t part of the portal. She’ll be safe there with the Disarmadillo and Don just outside. And she has her doll with her, Betsy.”

  James nodded hesitantly. It was strange hearing the professor referred to as Don, but he supposed that’s what all of his old friends and classmates called him.

  Zane tugged the horseshoe from his other jeans pocket and handed it to Odin-Vann, who accepted it reverently. He turned toward the cornerstone and the engraved shape that, James knew, fit the horseshoe perfectly. The young professor glanced back over his shoulder.

  “You have your means of communicating with Ms. Weasley?” he asked James.

  James nodded, patting the Duck stuffed into his pocket.

  “You both have a very important duty,” Odin-Vann said, looking at James and Zane meaningfully. “A grave duty more important than any other task on earth at this moment. Do you both know the true source of Petra’s powers?”

  James did know, but hadn’t realized that Odin-Vann did. He nodded, a bit uncertainly.

  Odin-Vann went on, more intently than James had ever heard him speak. “Petra is a sorceress. There may be none like her in all of history. Sorcery power is derived from a natural element. Petra’s is the first of her kind: her element is the city. Where you are going, I need not remind you: there are no cities. There never have been, and there never shall be. While she is there, she will be at her weakest, drawing on her stored power alone, like a Muggle battery. You two are to be her protection. You are wizards. You take your power with you. Use it well. Find and collect the symbolic crimson thread. And bring it and her back here safe. Do you understand?”

  “They understand, Don,” Petra said. She placed an arm each around Zane’s and James’ waists, squeezing them both. “These two shall be my knights in shining armour, at least for the next hour. Open the portal already. As you say, time is short.”