"Me wantee," Zane said in a low voice. "How much are they?"

        "How much do you have?" Ted asked.

        Zane thought for a moment. "Since I gave my last five to the house-elf doorman, er, nothing."

        "It costs more than that," Ted said, nodding.

        On the way back to the castle, Zane told James that he'd had an idea about how to swap the relic robe with Ralph's dress cloak.

        "Meet me tonight in the Ravenclaw common room," he said. "Tell Ralph to come, too, when you see him. I'll meet you both at the door at nine."

        That night, the Ravenclaw common room was unusually empty. Zane explained that there was a wizard chess tournament going on in the Great Hall. "Horace Birch is playing Professor Franklyn for the title of grand wizard chess champion of the universe or something. Unofficial, I'm thinking. Anyway, everybody's down there cheering him on. So have either of you come up with a way to get the robe relic from Jackson yet?"

        "I thought you said you had a plan?" James said.

        "I do, but it's pretty iffy. I thought I'd listen to your ideas first, in case they were better."

        James shook his head. Ralph said, "I've been watching Professor Jackson. He never lets that briefcase out of his sight."

        "Actually," Zane said, settling into a chair by the fire, "that's not entirely true."

        Ralph and James sat on the sofa. James said, "Ralph's right. He even takes it to Quidditch matches. He sets it between his feet at meals. He's got it with him constantly."

        "He does have it with him constantly," Zane agreed, "but there's one situation where he isn't exactly keeping his eye on it."

        "What?" James exclaimed. "Where?"

        "Technomancy class," Zane answered simply. "Think about it. What's he do all class long?"

James considered it a moment, then his eyes widened slightly. "He paces."

        "Bingo," Zane said, pointing at James. "He puts his case on the floor by his desk, careful as always, but then he paces. He circles the room ten times a class, I bet. I've been watching. Takes him about a minute to make it all the way around the room, which means that for about twenty seconds, his back is turned to the briefcase."

        "Wait," Ralph interjected. "You think we should try to make the switch right in the middle of class?"

        Zane shrugged. "Like I said, it isn't a great idea."

        "How? There's twenty people in that class. We can't have them all in on it."

        "No," James agreed, "Philia Goyle's in that class. She's tight with Tabitha Corsica, and it's possible, even likely, that they're in on the Merlin plot. Philia may even know what's in the case. Nobody else can know what we're up to."

        "Doesn't mean it's impossible," Zane said.

        Ralph frowned. "You think we're going to be able to get into Jackson's case, swap the robes, and close it again, all while Jackson's back is turned for twenty seconds, and without anyone else in the class catching on?"

        "Hmm," James said, furrowing his brow. "Maybe we don't need to get into the briefcase. What if we find another briefcase? We could stuff Ralph's cloak in it and somehow just swap the cases while Jackson's back is turned."

        Ralph was still doubtful. "Jackson will be able to tell. He carries that thing with him everywhere. He's probably memorized every scratch and scuff on it."

        "Actually," Zane said thoughtfully, "it's a pretty standard-looking leather briefcase. I've seen others almost exactly like it right here at Hogwarts. If we could find something close enough…" Zane suddenly sat up and snapped his fingers. "Horace!"

        "Horace?" James blinked. "Horace Birch? The Gremlin wizard chess player? What's he got to do with anything?"

        Zane shook his head excitedly. "Remember the Wocket? Horace used a Visum-ineptio charm to make it look like a flying saucer. It's a Fool-the-Eye charm! He said it just makes people see what they expect to see. If we found a case that looked enough like Jackson's, then put a Visum-ineptio charm on it, I bet that'd be enough to fool old Stonewall good! I mean, he'd never expect anything to happen to his case during class, so the charm should help him see the fake briefcase as his own. Right?"

        Ralph thought about it and seemed to brighten. "That's so crazy, it just might work."

        "Yeah," James added, "but still, how do we swap the cases during class without anyone else noticing?"

        "We'd need a diversion," Zane said firmly.

        Ralph grimaced. "You've watched too much telly."

        James frowned, thinking of the Invisibility Cloak. "You know," he said, "I think I have an idea." He told Zane and James about finding the Invisibility Cloak and the Marauder's Map.

"You liberated them from your dad's trunk!" Zane grinned delightedly. "You little miscreant! Ted will want to kiss you."

        "He doesn't know, and I want to keep it that way, for now, at least," James said sternly. "But the point is, I think we can use the Invisibility Cloak to make the switch without anyone knowing. It'll require all of us, though."

        "I'm not even in that class," Ralph said.

        James nodded. "I know. What class do you have that period? First slot, Wednesday?"

        Ralph thought. "Um. Arithmancy. Ugh."

        "Can you miss one?"

        "I guess. Why?"

        James explained his plan. Zane began to grin, but Ralph looked uncomfortable. "I'm a terrible liar. They'll catch on straight off," he moaned. "Can't Zane do my part? He's a natural."

        James shook his head. "He's in the class with me. It'd be no good."

        "You can do it, Ralph," Zane said heartily. "The trick is to look 'em straight in the eye and never blink. I'll teach you everything I know. We'll make a liar out of you yet."

        That night, as James got ready for bed, he ran through the plan in his mind. Now that he'd allowed himself to consider the impossibility of Merlin's literal return, he felt rather silly for having been so certain of it. Obviously, it really was just a mad delusion for power-crazed dark wizards. Still, it was evident that Jackson and Delacroix, at least, believed in it enough to try it. If James, Ralph, and Zane could capture the relic robe, that would be enough proof to get his dad and his Aurors to search the island of the Grotto Keep. They'd find the Merlin throne and the conspiracy would be revealed. It'd be front-page news in the Daily Prophet, and Tabitha Corsica's Progressive Element,which was surely part of the plot, would be revealed as a campaign of lies and propaganda, intent only on war and domination. With that vision in his head, James felt a stab of determination to do everything he could to capture the relic robe.