"Well, sure," James agreed, remembering the lecture, but failing to see the point.

        Zane was nearly vibrating with excitement. "Merlin didn't Disapparate to a place," he said meaningfully. "He Disapparated to a time and a set of circumstances!"

        Ralph and James boggled, considering the implications. Zane went on. "At the end of your vision, you said Merlin told Austramaddux to keep the relics and to watch for the time to be right. Then when the time came, the relics were supposed to be gathered again at the Hall of Elder's Crossing. You see? Merlin was setting up the time and circumstances for his Reapparition. What you described at the very end, James, was Merlin Disapparating into oblivion," Zane paused, thinking hard. "All these centuries, he's just been suspended in time, stuck in everywhereness, waiting for the right circumstances for his Reapparition. To him, no time has passed at all!"

        Ralph looked at the trunk at the end of James' bed. "Then it's for real," he said. "They could actually do it. They could bring him back."

        "Not anymore," James said, smiling mirthlessly. "We've got the robe. Without all the relics, the circumstances won't be right. They can't do anything."

          As soon as James had heard Zane explain it, it made perfect sense, especially in the context of the Threshold Marker vision. Suddenly, his possession of the robe had become even more important, and he couldn't help wondering at the remarkable series of lucky circumstances that'd led to them obtaining it. From the briefcase Ralph had discovered in just the nick of time to Zane's remarkably effective Visum-ineptiocharm, James had the strongest sense that he, Zane, and Ralph were being guided in their goal of thwarting the Merlin plot. But who was helping them?

        "By the way," James said to the ghost of Cedric, once Ralph and Zane had fallen into an animated discussion about Merlin's Disapparition. "You said you were sent to help me. Who sent you?"

        Cedric had stood and was fading a bit, but not much. He smiled at James and said, Someone I'm not supposed to mention, although I think you can probably guess. Someone who's been watching.

Snape,thought James. The portrait of Snape had sent Cedric to help him when he'd gotten sucked into the Threshold Marker. But how had he known? James thought about that for a long time after Zane and Ralph had headed back to their own rooms, long after the rest of the Gryffindors had climbed the stairs and plopped into their beds. No answer came that night, however, and eventually James slept.

        For the next several days, the three boys went about their normal school activities in a sort of triumphant fog. James left Jackson's bag, with the relic robe inside, locked in his trunk and protected with Zane's Locking Spell. Considering the effectiveness of the Visum-ineptio charm on the fake case, they had no serious concerns that anyone would even be looking for the real briefcase. Jackson continued to carry the old red rock-hound bag with the Hiram & Blattwott's label on it to classes and meals, with no indication that he thought anything was out of the ordinary. Further, no one else spared it a second glance, even though Jackson had been seen carrying the black case with his name plate on the side for months. Finally, on Saturday afternoon, James, Ralph, and Zane met in the Gryffindor common room to discuss their next steps.

        "There're really only two questions, now," Zane said, leaning over the table upon which they were ostensibly doing their homework. "Where is the Hall of Elder's Crossing? And where is the third relic, Merlin's staff?"

        James nodded. "I've been thinking about that last one. The throne is under the guard of Madame Delacroix. The robe was under the guard of Professor Jackson. The third relic must be under the guard of the third conspirator. My guess is it's somebody else here on the grounds, an inside person. What if it's the Slytherin who used the name Austramaddux on Ralph's GameDeck? They'd have to be aware of the plot if they used that name, and if they are aware of it, they're in on it."

        "But who?" Ralph asked. "I didn't see who took it. It was just gone. Besides, the staff of Merlin would be pretty hard to hide, wouldn't it? If he was as big as you said he was in your vision, James, then the thing must be six feet tall if it's an inch. How do you hide a six-foot magical lightning rod like that?"

        James shook his head. "I haven't the foggiest. Still, it's up to you to keep a look out, Ralph. Like Ted said, you're our inside man."

Ralph slumped. Zane doodled on a piece of parchment. "So what about question one?" he said without looking up. "Where is the Hall of Elder's Crossing?"

        James and Ralph exchanged blank looks. James said, "No clue, again. But I think there's a third question we need to think about, too."

        "As if the first two weren't tricky enough," Ralph muttered.

        Zane glanced up and James saw he was doodling the gate to the Grotto Keep. "What's the third question?"

        "Why haven't they done it yet?" James whispered. "If they believe they have all three relics, why haven't they just gone on down to wherever this Hall of Elder's Crossing is and tried to call Merlin back from his thousand-year Disapparition?"

        None of them had any answers, but they agreed it was an important question. Zane flipped his doodle over, revealing a drabble of scribbled notes and diagrams from Arithmancy class. "I'm checking the Ravenclaw library, but between homework, classes, Quidditch, debate and Constellations Club, I hardly have two minutes left to rub together."

        Ralph dropped his quill on the table and leaned back, stretching. "How's that coming, anyway? You're the only one with any contact with Madame Delacroix. What's she like?"

        "Like a gypsy mummy with a pulse," Zane replied. "She and Trelawney are supposed to be sharing Constellations Club, like Divination class, but they've started trading on and off instead of teaching it together. Works a lot better, since they sort of cancel each other out, anyway. Trelawney just has us sketch astrological symbols and look at the planets through the telescope to 'ascertain the moods and manners of the planetary brethren'." James, who knew Sybil Trelawney as a distant family friend, grinned at Zane's affectionate impression of her. Zane went on, "Delacroix, though, she has us plotting star charts and measuring the color of starlight wavelengths, working out the exact timing of some big astronomical event."

        "Oh, yeah," James remembered. "The alignment of the planets. Petra and Ted told me about that. They're in Divination with her. Seems like the voodoo queen's really into that kind of stuff."