James grabbed the Marauder's Map, clutching it and the Invisibility Cloak to his chest, then carefully closed his dad's trunk. He ran down the steps and back into his bedroom. By the time he'd hidden his contraband in the bottom of his own trunk, he was feeling both excited and frightened in equal measures. There was sure to be a row when he was found out, and there was no question that he would be found out. Still, he knew that his dad wouldn't be able to deny that he himself would have done the same thing if he'd been in James' shoes. He was counting on that to temper things when the time came. Until then, he'd put both items to great use. He didn't know exactly how, yet, but there was no question that, with the Invisibility Cloak andthe Marauder's Map in his possession, he felt much better equipped to tackle whatever adventures were sure to come.

        The return trip to school was, like all post-holiday journeys, melancholy and quiet. Back at Hogwarts the next week, James and Ralph relayed to Zane everything Luna had told them and the connections they had subsequently made. James was gratified that Zane immediately grasped the implications.

        "Maybe Madame Delacroix's put the Imperius Curse on Jackson?" he asked in a low tone as the three boys huddled around a table in the corner of the library.

        "Yeah," Ralph agreed. "That'd make sense. She could just be using him as a tool."

        James shook his head. "Dad says the Imperius Curse is pretty easy to cast, but it takes a lot of willpower to maintain it over a long period of time. The whole school year is a long time. Also, a strong enough wizard can learn to throw it off or resist it altogether. Jackson's too sharp to be an easy target for something like that."

Ralph shrugged, and then leaned in, lowering his voice as a group of students walked past. "Either way, I still think the whole thing's a wash. I mean, wizards have been trying to get Merlin back for centuries, haven't they? And the best wizards alive today believe that the whole thing is just a sort of fairy tale. Professor Franklyn said in D.A.D.A. that the best records show that Merlin ended up getting involved with something called 'the Lady of the Lake' who took his powers and imprisoned him. Could just be part of the legend, but still, supposedly he died around twelve hundred and was buried just like anyone else."

        Zane, who was always prone to the morbid imagination, widened his eyes. "What if the plan is to bring him back as an Inferius? Maybe they're just going to raise his body like some kind of zombie or something!"

        James rolled his eyes. "Inferi are just animated corpses. Nobody would say somebody had been brought back to life if they'd just been turned into an Inferius. It'd be the same thing as just grabbing Merlin's skull and working it like a puppet."

        Zane held up his hand and mimed a mouth with his fingers, "Hey, dudes. I'm Merlin. I just flew back from the dead, and boy, are my arms tired?"

        James stifled a laugh. "All right, so seriously, maybe the whole Merlin's return thing is just some crazy legend. Jackson and Delacroix and whoever they're working with in the Progressive Element believe in it, and as long as they do, they'll keep at it. Even if the plan to bring back Merlin doesn't work, they'll just figure something else out. If we can prove what they are trying to do, though…"

        "We can at least shut them down," Ralph nodded. "Right? Discredit them with the wizarding world?"

        "Yeah. And if we can do that, we take away a lot of their ability to accomplish their goal."

        Zane laced his fingers behind his head and leaned back. "So looks like we need to get our hands on those relics. The throne is too protected for us to get to, if it's on that island. We don't yet know who has the Merlin staff or if anybody even knows where it is. That leaves the robe. At least we know where it is, and as far as we know, Jackson's case won't try to bite our legs off if we open it."

        Ralph looked grim. "As far as we know."

        "We need to be able to get it without Jackson knowing it's gone. If he catches on, they'll have time to back off and cover their tracks," James said, thinking hard. "I just wish we knew when they were planning on bringing all the relics together. We have to get them before they try it."

        "And where's this Hall of Elder's Crossing?" Ralph added.

        "I figured it's got to be the island itself," James answered, raising his eyebrows.

It was Zane's turn to shake his head. "Nah. Can't be. The sign on the gate said that it was the Grotto Keep. At the bottom, it said something about the Hall of Elder's Crossing, as if it was someplace else."

        James dug in his backpack, finding the sheet of parchment he and Zane had recreated the gate poem on. He spread it between them. In the light of what Luna had told them about the relics, the poem made a lot more sense. They read it, along with their scribbled notes, once again.

When by the light of Sulva bright -- sulva = moon

I found the Grotto Keep; -- means can only find the Keep by moonlight

Before the night of time requite -- time requite? A certain date?

Did wake his languid sleep. -- Merlinus; sleeping? Rip Van Winkle

Upon return the fretted dawn -- happens at nighttime?

With not a relic lossing; -- the three relics! Brought back together

Bygone a life, a new eon, -- a life from the past in a new time; the legend's origin?

The Hall of Elder's Crossing. -- here? where?

        "Yeah," James agreed reluctantly. "It makes it sound like the Hall of Elder's Crossing is a different place entirely. Maybe the Grotto Keep becomes the Hall of Elder's Crossing, somehow?"

        Zane shrugged, unconvinced, "Meh."