“And from thinking a bath is interchangeable for another splash of dad’s aftershave,” Lily said, hurrying through the door and dropping onto the chair opposite Rose. “Sorry I’m late everyone. What did I miss?”
“Nothing so far,” Ralph sighed, settling into his own chair between Scorpius and Rose. “Except another row between these two and some unwelcome insights into Albus’ nonexistent love life.”
“Look who’s talking, Deedle,” Albus said, favoring Ralph with a piercing look. “When’s the last time you had a date?”
“I go on dates,” Ralph shrugged. “I just don’t spend all the rest of my time gassing on about them.”
Lily whispered loudly in Rose’s direction: “He’s got a thing for his Head Girl, I hear.”
“That’s more ambition than amour,” Scorpius glanced aside at Ralph. “He’s become quite the social climber, our Ralph. Finally living up to his House assignment.”
“You’re all full of Doxie-doo,” Ralph shook his head. “You don’t know anything about me. I probably shouldn’t even be here, now I’m Head Boy. If one of those Snape portraits sees me on the way back to the dungeons…”
“Just tell him you were spying out the rest of these sneaks,” a new voice suggested in an unmistakable American accent. “That’s the sort of double-dealing duplicity the Snapester likes best. And don’t pay any attention to the rest of these malcontents, Ralphinator. I think it’s killer you made Head Boy. Way to go!”
James smiled at the rectangular piece of mirror he had removed from his knapsack and propped on the table. In it, a blonde boy’s face could be seen, speaking from the depths of what appeared to be a mound of dirty laundry and candy wrappers. The mirror was one of the remaining Shards of Merlin’s legendary Amsera Certh, now broken up and reduced to its most basic uses. At one time, Merlin had been able to spy on conversations held via the Shard, but since then the sorcerer had deliberately destroyed his own portion (much to his evident disappointment), vowing never again to subvert the Shard for his own espionage.
“Easy for you to say, Zane,” James said with a shake of his head.
“You don’t have to put up with Ralph second-guessing every decision against the Hogwarts Handbook of Student Conduct.”
“Hi Zane,” Lily piped up, craning on her chair to see the boy in the Mirror. “How’s life back at Alma Aleron?”
“Same as always in most ways,” Zane bobbed his head.
“Complicated and worrying in others. The Timelock is getting a little wonky as the unplottability spell around the outer wall frays like an old scarf. Little chunks of the school keep breaking through into Muggle basements and attics all around Philadelphia, popping up like bubbles.
Professor Jackson says he has a solution in the works, but for now we’ve had to restrict the Timelock to the century before the city of Philadelphia was founded, just to be safe.”
“Things are getting tetchier around here as well,” Ralph said soberly. “We just had a Muggle family join us in the Great Hall, just as Merlin was finishing up his start-of-term speech.”
“No!” Zane’s eyes widened. “How’d they get in?”
“Just drove their car right up into the courtyard,” James said, his shoulders slumping. “They were lost and looking for directions.”
Uncharacteristically, Zane looked worried. “I’m sure old Merlin was up to the task of wiping their memories and sending them on their way, right?”
“And setting up a refreshed unplottability field around the school,” Rose said. “But yes. It’s a concern. Things are unraveling in ways no one can really predict. And there doesn’t seem to be much anyone can do about it.”
“Which brings us to why we’re all here,” Scorpius said somewhat impatiently, leaning back in his chair and raising his eyebrows. “For whatever it’s worth, we’re the few who may have some idea of who is really behind all of this. Meaning, of course, Judith, this very secretive Lady of the Lake person. And Petra Morganstern, our very own Undersirable Number One. Not that we’ve heard more than a peep from either over the last few years.”
“No news for two whole years,” Lily blew a breath up into her blonde fringe. “How do we know that Judith, the Lady of the Lake, is even still out there? Maybe she gave up and went back to whatever dimension she came from?”
James shook his head firmly. “Judith’s not the type just to give up. The more ground she loses, the harder she fights. But we know she’s still out there, working behind the scenes, letting everyone blame Petra for her plans.”
“I still don’t understand how anyone can blame Petra for what happened with the Morrigan Web,” Lily said, her brow darkening.
“Loads of us were there when it happened. We saw Judith and her fighting!”
“We did see it,” James agreed sourly, “But hardly anyone seems to remember it right. Judith has a sort of slippery quality about her that makes most people forget about her the moment she’s out of sight.
Even the people that do sort of remember her are afraid to admit it.
Don’t you see? People prefer blaming Petra. She’s the villain that they know. It’s less complicated, and somehow more comforting that way.”
Rose nodded. “That’s why the consequences of her plan are still unfolding everywhere around us.”
“And how do we know that?” Scorpius asked, cocking his head.
“Because you’ve got Muggles showing up in the Great Hall,”
Zane replied from the Shard. “That’s evidence that Judith’s plan, her version of our destiny, is still in play. Because the Crimson Thread is still stuck in our world, not the one it belongs to. The Thread is like a rock in the gears of our world’s destiny. As long as it’s here, things will continue to break down more and more over time.”
“And the Crimson Thread,” Scorpius said, doubt creeping into his voice, “is Petra Morganstern, according to you lot.”
James sighed. “We’ve been over this. When Judith brought the other dimension’s version of Petra into our world through the Vault of Destinies, then killed her here, that version of Petra—the Morgan version—became a part of our universe. Now, our Petra is the new Morgan. The Crimson Thread plucked from the Loom represents her.
She believes that the only way to set things back to rights, to get our own original destiny back, is for her to take Morgan’s place in that other dimension, Morgan’s version of our world, restoring the balance.”
Lily nodded tentatively. “And the fact that the Vow of Secrecy is still coming apart is a sign that she hasn’t succeeded in doing that yet.”
“Judith doesn’t want her to,” Ralph said. “Petra’s her toe-hold in our world. If Petra replaces the Morgan from that other dimension, not only do the destinies snap back into place, Judith gets sent back to whatever netherworld she came from. She’ll do anything to make sure Petra doesn’t do that.”
Scorpius looked doubtful. “Two years is a long time. How can we be certain that both of them are even still alive?”
“Petra was just in the news a few weeks ago,” Albus said, staring reflectively into a dark corner. “She apparently broke into some top secret armory of forbidden artifacts and books, looking for something.