Book 1 - James Potter and the Hall of Elders' Crossing

4. the Progressive Element
James Potter sat up in his bed, stifling a gasp. He listened very intently, peering around the darkened
sleeping chamber. All around him were the small sounds of sleeping Gryffindors. Ted rolled over and
snorted, muttering in his sleep. James held his breath. He’d awakened a few minutes earlier with the sound
of his own name in his ears. It had been like a voice in a dream: distant and whispered, as if blown on smoke
down a long, dark tunnel. He had just about convinced himself that it had, in fact, been the tail of a dream
and drifted back to sleep when he’d heard it again. It seemed to come out of the walls themselves, a faraway
sound, still somehow right next to him, like a chorus of whispers saying his full name.
Very quietly, James slipped out of bed and shrugged into his bathrobe. The stone floor was cool
under his feet as he stood and listened, tilting his head. He turned slowly, and as he looked toward the door,
the figure there moved. He hadn’t seen it appear, it was simply there, floating, where a moment before there
had been darkness. James startled and backed into his bed, almost falling backwards onto it. Then he
recognized the ghostly shape. It was the same wispy, white figure he’d seen chase the interloper off the school
grounds, the ghostly shape that had come to look like a young man as it came back to the castle. In the
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