Chapter 30: The Light Changes

The Board voted on the Accord at noon, in the Boundary Gallery, because the Warden said that was where the words had been written.

Harry stood by the window with Draconia's hand in his.

He had stopped noticing that he was holding it.

The cradle sat on the table, brass and bent and empty.

For two years it had been the most important object in his life.

It looked, in the daylight, like a pair of rusty forks.

"The question before the Board," said the Warden, "is whether the second clause of the Accord stands as written."

He read it out.

"The wards shall be kept by two of opposed houses, chosen by the wards."

"They shall hold the post four years with wands crossed in the cradle, from the tenth hour to the second."

He laid down the paper.

"There is a motion to amend."

"I move it," said the woman in grey.

"I second," said a Board member Harry had never heard speak.

He was a stout old man with a white moustache who had been asleep at three of the last four meetings.

The Peverell cousin stood.

He looked at the tin box on the table, with its eleven letters, and at the old woman in the window seat with her stick.

Then he looked at Harry, and Harry, who had expected hatred, saw only a tired man who had spent his life protecting a window.

"I think," said the cousin slowly, "that I have been defending a picture."

"Yes," said Harry's great-aunt.

"I would like to see the old glass reset."

"So would I," said the Warden.

"And the wording?"

"The wording," said the old woman, "is simple."

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