James said, "Remember what the green dryad told us? She said that the trees were waking, but that many of them had… how did she put it?"

        Zane nodded, remembering. "She said they'd 'gone over', like milk past its expiration date or something. Some of the trees are bad, in other words. They're on the side of chaos and war. You think yours and Ralph's blue dryad was one of the bad ones trying to sound nice?"

        "Makes sense," Ralph said. "She was all beautiful and smiles and everything, but I had a pretty strong feeling that if I didn't bring her the robe, that smile could turn hungry pretty fast. That's what scared me. That and her fingernails." He shuddered.

        "So this is way bigger than just us and the Merlin conspirators," Zane said seriously. "The tree spirits are involved. And who knows what else, too. For all we know, everything in the magical world might be taking a side."

        "Either way," James said earnestly, "it proves that these relics are incredibly powerful. In the wrong hands, who knows what kind of damage they could do? That's why we have to get the staff away from Tabitha."

        "I don't understand why we don't just get your dad in here," Ralph interjected. "It's his job to deal with this kind of stuff, isn't it?"

        "Because they have rules they have to follow," James replied wearily. "They'd have to bring in a team of Aurors to scour the grounds. They wouldn't just go nick Tabitha's broom because we said it was the Merlin staff, even if we did turn over the robe. There'd be magical sweeps, investigating every unusual source of power. It could go on for days. By the time they got around to checking out Tabitha, she'd have gotten the broom out of here. Jackson and Delacroix might sniff trouble and escape, too. They might even get the whole conspiracy together to go to this Hall of Elder's Crossing and try to bring Merlin back. It wouldn't work without the robe, of course, but then the throne and the staff would be lost, hidden and in the control of dark wizards."

        Ralph sighed. "All right, all right. I'm convinced. So we'll try to capture the Merlin staff from Corsica. But that's it, all right? Then we turn it all over to your dad and his pros. They clean up the mess and we can be the heroes. Whatever. OK?"

        Zane nodded. "Yeah, I'm with you. Get the broom and we're done. Agreed?"

        James agreed. "So we need a plan. Any ideas?"

        "It won't be easy," Ralph said firmly. "If we got lucky with Jackson's briefcase, then we'll need an act of God to pull this one off. The Slytherin quarters are so thick with guard hexes and Anti-Spying spells that they almost hum. They're the most suspicious lot I've ever met."

        "Tricksters always expect to be tricked," Zane said wisely. "But there's one thing we're forgetting, and it may even be more important than capturing the Merlin staff."

        "What's more important than that?" James asked.

        "Keeping the relic we've got," Zane answered simply, meeting James' eyes. "Something out there knows we have the robe, and it's already tried once to get it from you. I don't know what kind of magic that was, but you both seem pretty convinced that it transported you to the island straight out of Hogwarts halls, right?"

        James and Ralph exchanged looks and then nodded at Zane.

        "So," Zane continued, "if Disapparition is impossible on Hogwarts grounds, then it used some other form of magic to get you there. That's some powerful mojo. What's to say it won't try again?"

        Ralph paled. "I hadn't even thought of that."

        "Maybe it used up all its power the first time," James said a little doubtfully.

        "You two better hope so," Zane said, looking back and forth between them. "Because it already tried asking nice. The next time, it won't be so polite."

        An idea struck James and he shivered.

        "What?" Ralph asked, seeing James' face change.

        " Remote Physio-Apparition," James said in a hushed voice. "That's what Professor Franklyn called Delacroix's power to project a wraith of herself. It's different from regular Apparition, because she just sends out something like a ghost of herself, but the wraith can still look solid and affect things. I looked it up. The ghost makes a solid version of itself out of whatever material is handy, and then wears that like a puppet. Somehow she used it to bring the Merlin throne here and hide it on the island without being detected."

        Zane frowned. "OK. So?"

"So what if that was how Ralph and I were sent out to the Grotto Keep? Ralph, you called it an out-of-body experience. What if that's what it really was? Maybe we were forced to have a Remote Physio-Apparition! Only a wraith of ourselves went out to the grotto, but our bodies stayed in the corridors, just sort of… frozen."

        Ralph was clearly horrified by the thought. Zane looked thoughtful. "It seems to fit. Both of you said it happened when you were alone in the corridors. There'd be no one to see you both standing there on autopilot while your souls or whatever were strung out to the Grotto Keep."

        "But that's Delacroix's specialty," Ralph said, shuddering. "You think she knows we got the robe somehow?"

        James answered, "Maybe. She's slippery as an eel. She might have figured it out and not even told Jackson. Maybe she wants all the glory for herself."

        "One thing is for sure, then," Zane announced. "We can't let you two be alone. My guess is that whoever or whatever is doing this doesn't want the secret to get out. That's why they waited until you two were alone for a few minutes. If we keep people around you, then maybe it won't try again."

Ralph was as white as a statue. "Unless it gets really, really desperate."

        "Well, yeah," Zane agreed. "There's always that possibility. But we can't do anything in that case, so let's just hope it doesn't come to that."

        "That makes me feel loads better," Ralph moaned.

        "Come on," James said, getting up from the breakfast table. "It's getting late and the house-elves are giving us the eye. It's time we got out of here before somebody notices we're planning something."

        The three boys wandered out onto the chilly grounds and talked of other things for a while, then, having separate house-related obligations, went their separate ways for the rest of the day.