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Remember that scene in the last Harry Potter movie — where our hero locks the evil warlord around the neck dragging him off the cliff together?
Well, folks, that is Australian cricket right now.
It depends, of course, on which side you stand as to whether you think it is Cricket Australia (CA) or the players' union that has been possessed by dementors — sucking peace, hope, and happiness from our glorious summer sport.
But a cliff there is, and the two are locked together, knowing mutual damage — if not destruction — is imminent if both take that leap into July 1 without a semblance of a way forward.
At the very least, stop-gap measures need to be considered. The union said it was "possible" to come up with tour-specific agreements that could mean the Australia A team goes to South Africa next month, but that will only happen if unspecified "progress" is made.
There are unconfirmed reports Cricket Australia is offering unpaid contracts so players feel they can go on tour without compromising their industrial position. The union has not said what would constitute "letting the side down".
If the players go for free, are they ennobled or weakened? Is it a sign of good faith, or a sign no-one could stomach going through with a bluff?
Even if you do not know anything about the particulars of this pay dispute, know this: it has become about the nature of the relationship between Cricket Australia and the union.
Once, that might have been a way for the unions to have painted this to gain sympathy — now, it is the truth.
Whether or not you accept it has become a "master-servant" relationship, as Australian Cricketers Association president Greg Dyer said — seeing the Aussie cricketers as the downtrodden Downton Abbey types is difficult — the two are wrestling over a power balance and the stakes have now grown larger.
Come Saturday, the union could ditch cricket's major sponsors and pursue other deals. It is a wrestle over the upper hand, well beyond the issue of revenue pay deals. The message from players would be: 'Don't dare to challenge us again.'
The most notable part of the union's media conference on Tuesday came from Shane Watson's description of how CA "has really changed its dynamic over five years".
"It has become very corporatised, [becoming] not just a governing body of the game of cricket," he said.
"Everyone believed [once] that was a great thing for the game of cricket, but in the end they are the governing body of cricket. The players are there to serve the game of cricket and the administrators are there to serve the players in that regard as well."
It is three days before unemployment looms for our nation's cricketers.
Oh, for an elder wand.