The Curse of the GateKeeper (James Potter #2) (8 page)

Dr. Prendergast blinked at James, his smile growing somewhat brittle. "That's very, ahem, amusing, James. What an interesting imagination."

James sat on the edge of the examination chair as the doctor put on his own glasses and rummaged in a cabinet. He produced a box and opened it on the table.

"Here we are," he said happily, extracting a pair of black eyeglasses. To James, they looked three times wider than his head. He slumped.

"Let me just help you get them on and we'll test the prescription. Won't take a minute."

He held them out to James, and then slipped them onto his head. James closed his eyes as the glasses settled onto his ears. When he opened them again, the world looked very slightly smaller and warped a bit around the edges. He glanced around, trying to get used to the feeling.

"There!" the doctor said brightly. "And how does that feel?"

James sighed again. "All right, I guess. It's a little weird."

"That's perfectly natural. You'll get used to them in no time at all."

James had already determined that he would not let that happen. He intended to wear the dreaded glasses for his mum to see for the next two days, and then to stick them in his trunk the moment he got on the Hogwarts Express. He didn't really need them anyway. He was sure of it.

Dr. Prendergast sat James on a stool in the corner of the examination room and turned him toward the eye chart on the opposite wall. James covered one eye at a time and read down the chart in a dejected monotone. The doctor nodded happily, removed his own glasses again and opened the blinds of the small room, letting in the afternoon sunlight.

"That's very good, James," he said, opening the examination room door. "We're mostly done. Just let me schedule your follow-up appointment and you can be off."

When James was alone in the room, he stood up and approached the mirror next to the window. The glasses weren't really that bad, he thought, but they were bad enough. They felt heavy and clunky on his face. He scowled and took them off.

In the mirror, something moved behind his reflection. James glanced up, and then turned around. The sunlight poured into the room, brightening it considerably. James saw his own shadow on the wall, projected onto a large poster showing a diagram of an eyeball. Another shadow scampered past his. James recognized it immediately as the same shape he'd seen a few nights earlier in the hallway at the Burrow. Without thinking, he reached for his wand in his back pocket, but of course it wasn't there. He wasn't yet allowed to do any magic out of school, and his mum forbade him from carrying it when they were out in the Muggle world.

The shadowy shape shimmied up the wall and leapt. James widened his eyes, surprised and bewildered, as the shadow seemed to come off the wall, leaping out of the beam of sunlight. It made a slightly darker shape in the room, almost invisible. The shadow wasn't being cast by the creature; somehow, the creature was its shadow. It landed on the small table next to the examination chair. To James' shock, it began to pick up some of Doctor Prendergast's tools and fling them around the room. They clattered and bounced off the walls. James jammed his glasses into the pocket of his jeans and jumped to catch some of the flying tools.

"Stop!" he whispered harshly at the tiny shadow imp. "What are you doing? You're going to get me into trouble!"

James ducked beneath the examination chair, scooping up the scattered tools. Meanwhile, having cleared off the table, the shadow imp jumped to the stool and scampered up the wall. It reached the cabinet and darted behind a row of thick books. One by one, the books began to pop off the shelf. James dumped the tools onto the table with one hand and lunged to catch the first few books with the other. Unable to catch them all, James bent to scoop them off the floor. A particularly large volume struck him in the back of the head, making him drop the books he'd already collected. Angrily, he spun on his heels, looking for the creature, meaning to grab it if he could. It jumped from the bookshelf to the wall, snagging a corner of the poster. The poster popped free and fell like a sail, covering James' head. He struggled out from under it and lunged at the creature. It leapt to the ceiling fan and sat perched on one of the slowly revolving blades. It seemed to be taunting James.

"This is a Muggle place!" James hissed at the creature. "But I'm a wizard! You can thank your lucky stars I don't have my wand with me!"

The creature recoiled at that, as if it had understood. It spun and jumped toward the window. James, still partly caught under the fallen poster, threw himself over the examination chair, reaching for the creature. He landed hard on the chair, which moved. It rolled on its casters, scooting across the floor and striking the wall below the window just as the door opened.

James looked up into the face of Dr. Prendergast, whose eyes widened.

"Look," James said quickly, clambering off the examination chair, "I don't know what it was, but it wasn't me! I didn't do any magic, I didn't knock all your books down, or tear your poster off the wall, or make any of this mess. All of this was done by some weird little shadow monster. You probably don't believe in shadow monsters, and that's fine, because I myself didn't even know they existed until now, so that's all right, but we'll probably all end up Obliviated anyway, so who really cares, right?"

Dr. Prendergast's gaze remained locked on James. His eyes looked rather magnified behind his glasses. James took a moment to glance around at the mess that had been made of the examination room. To his great surprise, there wasn't any mess. The books sat neatly on their shelves. The poster hung on the wall, perfectly intact. The eye examination tools lay neatly on a cloth on the table in the corner.

"Ah, ah hah, hah!" Dr. Prendergast laughed, smiling a little nervously. "This is like the story about your brother eating fish heads out of a bucket, I see. Like I said before, Mr. Potter, what a very, er, interesting imagination. Here is your reminder for your next appointment. I believe your mother is, ahem, waiting for you outside."

On the morning of the first of September, James was feeling unusually surly. The weather seemed to match his mood, having turned cool and foggy, covering the city like a wet blanket. James stared through his reflection in the car window as the family wove through the city toward King's Cross station. He'd made an attempt to tell his mum about the weird shadow creature he'd seen twice now, but she had been irritable and harried and had told him to save the inexplicable imaginary creatures for Luna Lovegood, who rather specialized in them. James had determined to ask Luna about it the next time he saw her, but for now, preparing for his return to Hogwarts and managing his strangely churlish brother, Albus, were enough to keep him busy. Soon enough, he'd put the shadow imp out of his mind.

Things had begun badly that morning. James, excited about going back to school, had his trunk packed and ready, waiting beside the front door of the Potter family home. When he tromped back upstairs to collect his owl, Nobby, Albus was still sitting on the bed in his room, tying his shoes. His trunk sat open next to the desk, half-packed.

"Come on, Al," James said, setting Nobby's cage on the desk. "Dad's already pulling the car around front. If we don't get packed and on the road we'll be late."

Albus made no effort to hurry. He slumped off his bed and stalked out of the room. James watched him go, rolled his eyes, and began piling Albus' school books into the trunk. Albus' new snowy owl, who was as yet unnamed, sat in her cage next to Nobby's, clicking her beak nervously.

"At least you don't have anything to pack," he griped to the owls. "Or a troublesome little brother."

"Albus," Ginny's voice called from downstairs, "James, it's time to go."

James grabbed Albus' new robes and a handful of clothes from the closet, stuffed them into the trunk, and slammed the lid. If Albus got to Hogwarts without a clean pair of underpants, it was his own fault. James grabbed the handle and lugged the trunk toward the door, meeting Albus as he came back.

"Is that my trunk?" Albus demanded.

James pulled the trunk past him, into the hallway. "Just get the owls, will you? We're going to be late."

"I wasn't done packing!"

"Well, I guess you're done now, aren't you?" James said, feeling suddenly angry. "Dad and Mum are waiting. What, did you decide you don't want to go to school after all?"

Without answering, Albus collected the owls' cages rather noisily and followed James down to the car.

As the family arrived at King's Cross station, James tried to lighten the mood.

"Just think, Al, by tonight, you'll be all settled in, sitting in front of the giant snake's head fireplace and drinking a flagon of Butterbeer with your new snakey mates."

Albus scowled and opened the car door, stepping out into the fog of the parking structure. James followed.

"Can I push a trolley at least?" Lily asked, displaying her best pout.

"I'm sorry, Lily," Harry said, piling the trunks and owl cages onto two trolleys. "They're rather heavy, and we're in a hurry. You'll be seeing Hugo in a few minutes, though. If all goes well, Aunt Hermione and Uncle Ron will be joining us for lunch as soon as the train leaves. Won't that be nice?"

"I don't want lunch," Lily said petulantly.

The family entered the large doors of the station and threaded through the commuters, attracting some curious stares as the owls hooted and fluttered their wings. Lily followed her parents, whining idly about her desire to go to Hogwarts with her brothers this year instead of two years from now.

"I've been in the Slytherin common room," James said to Albus as they approached the platform. "Ralph showed me. Zane's even been in the girls' sleeping quarters. It's kind of like a five star hotel in Middle Ages Transylvania, if you know what I mean. You'll love it."

Albus turned to look at James. "I won't! I won't be in Slytherin!"

"Give it a rest, James," Ginny admonished.

"I only said he might be," James said defensively, grinning at Albus. "There's nothing wrong with that. He might be in Slyth—"

He saw his mum's warning expression and fell silent. Feeling a little peeved, he took the trolley from her, glanced over his shoulder at Albus, and then pushed forward, running toward the partition. Just as it had last year, the partition seemed to dissolve. He flashed through it and pulled the trolley to a stop on platform nine and three-quarters. It was as crowded as it had been the last time he'd been there, although the mingled fog and steam made it hard to see everyone. Out of the dense mist, James could hear the chug and hiss of the Hogwarts Express, and for the first time all morning, he felt a bit better. Without waiting for the rest of the family, he pushed his trolley through the crowd toward the sound of the train.

"James!" a voice called out. James glanced around and saw his Cousin Lucy standing next to Uncle Percy, who was apparently lost in animated conversation with a man in a pinstriped cloak. Percy's wife, Audrey, stood nearby, holding Lucy's sister's hand and looking over a schedule of departures.

"Hi, Lucy," James said, pushing the trolley over to her. "I didn't expect to see you here. What's going on?"

"We're on our way back already," she shrugged. "Daddy got a call. There was some sort of magical disturbance in Wandsworth and the Ministry needs him back. At least we get to go home for awhile. Where's Albus?"

James gestured back the way he'd come. "Albus is still in a snit. He's been grumpy ever since the Burrow."

Lucy nodded understandingly but said nothing.

"Well, I better get my trunk on board," James said. "We're already late. See you, Lucy."

"Bye, James," Lucy replied, then added. "Keep an eye on Albus, all right?"

James felt a tiny twinge of guilt at that. He nodded. "Sure, Lucy. I'm his big brother."

Lucy smiled and waved. James turned and ran toward the train, pushing his trolley. As he met the porter, he saw Teddy Lupin moving through the fog with Victoire at his side, lost in hushed conversation. Satisfied that his things would be loaded safely onto the train, James trotted to catch up to them.

"Hey, Ted, Victoire," he called.

They stopped near the station, but Victoire continued talking, her head close to Ted's.

"It's time," she said, her face serious. "I do not wish to spend the year away at school with this secret between us."

"It isn't between us, Vic," Ted said reasonably. "You know your parents aren't ready to know about us. Your mum already thinks I'm a bum waiting to happen. Give me some time to arrange things in Hogsmeade. Once I've proven I'm serious…"

"To whom do you need to prove yourself?" Victoire asked, stepping back and placing her fists on her hips. "My parents, or yourself?"

Ted rolled his eyes. He glanced at James. "This is what it's like dating a girl whose family I've known all my life," he said. "They know me too well for my charms to work on them."

"Your charms work just fine," Victoire sniffed. "In fact, if it wasn't for your charms, you wouldn't even have this problem."

"Sorry to interrupt," James said, raising his hands, palms out. "I just wanted to say hello. I'll just fade away into the mist again."