Umbridge was placed under guard before they returned to the castle.
Amelia Dorridge took responsibility for her personally, which seemed to offend Umbridge more than the arrest itself. Two Aurors removed her wand, searched her robes, and sealed what remained of the extraction frame inside a Ministry containment box.
Percy watched from the shore while Madam Pomfrey checked Harry. The chain had left no physical wound, but Harry looked exhausted, and the scar on his forehead had become red.
"You are going to the hospital wing," Madam Pomfrey said.
Harry looked toward the lake.
"I'm fine."
"You were pulled across the ground by an experimental magical chain."
"I'm still fine."
"You may continue being fine in a hospital bed."
Ron covered his mouth.
Percy looked at him.
"Don't."
"I'm not saying anything."
"You were about to."
"I was thinking supportively."
Hermione ignored both of them. She was staring at the black water with her arms folded tightly across her chest.
Percy noticed.
"What?"
"The crack."
"What about it?"
"It stayed open."
Percy looked back toward the lake. The surface appeared normal now, but he could still feel the damage below.
"Yes."
Hermione lowered her voice.
"Then destroying the machine didn't stop the process."
"No."
Harry stopped arguing with Madam Pomfrey.
"How long do we have?"
Percy did not answer immediately. He had no way to measure the crack, but every few minutes he felt another small change in the pressure around it.
"I don't know."
That answer silenced all of them.
Dumbledore approached from the water's edge. His robes were wet near the bottom, but he seemed not to notice.
"We should return to the castle."
Percy looked at him.
"Aequor spoke to me again."
Dumbledore stopped.
"What did it say?"
"Too late."
Nobody seemed to like that.
Hermione stepped closer.
"Too late for what?"
Percy looked toward the lake again.
"I think that's what we need to find out."
--------------------------------------[Borken Line (woof)]--------------------------
Umbridge's arrest changed Hogwarts almost immediately.
By lunch, the Educational Decrees were still attached to the walls, but nobody was enforcing most of them. Several students began removing the smaller notices until McGonagall appeared and told them to stop damaging school property.
She waited until they turned away before removing one herself.
Percy was not there to see it.
He, Harry, Ron and Hermione had been taken directly to Dumbledore's office after Madam Pomfrey finished examining them. Amelia, Kingsley, McGonagall and Flitwick joined them while the Headmaster sealed the office with several layers of magic.
The room felt unusually crowded.
Percy sat beside Harry near Dumbledore's desk. Harry had been given a strengthening potion and looked slightly better, although he was still annoyed about having to drink it.
Amelia opened a folder.
"We have recovered enough evidence to suspend Dolores Umbridge from all Ministry duties while the investigation continues."
Ron looked at her.
"Only suspend?"
Amelia's eyes moved toward him.
"We investigate before we convict people."
Ron glanced at Percy.
"Strange idea."
Percy nodded.
"Very experimental."
Amelia continued as if neither of them had spoken.
"However, there is a larger problem. Some of the equipment used today came from restricted Ministry storage."
Dumbledore folded his hands.
"Was Professor Umbridge authorized to remove it?"
"No."
"Then how did she obtain it?"
Amelia hesitated.
"She used authorization from the Minister's office."
Hermione frowned.
"Did the Minister actually approve it?"
"We are verifying that."
Percy leaned forward.
"Meaning you think she forged it."
"Meaning I am not making an accusation until I have proof."
Kingsley spoke from beside the door.
"She forged it."
Amelia looked at him.
"Shacklebolt."
"Fudge doesn't know what a genealogical focus is."
Percy looked between them.
"That convincing?"
Kingsley nodded.
"Very."
Amelia closed the folder.
"The political problem can wait. The magical problem cannot."
Dumbledore turned toward Hermione.
"You recovered several of Professor Umbridge's notes."
Hermione opened her bag and removed a thick stack of parchment. Most of it was copied material, but Dumbledore had also recovered several original documents before the office was sealed.
"We have been reading them since yesterday."
Ron looked at her.
"You have been reading them."
"You were there."
"I was emotionally present."
Hermione ignored him.
"The same three categories appear again and again. Sea alignment, bloodline resonance and linguistic or mental resonance."
Percy looked at her.
"Me, Harry and you."
"Probably."
Harry frowned.
"Why Hermione?"
Hermione pulled out another page.
"Umbridge tested everyone in our Defence class. She kept records of how the dampeners reacted to each student."
Percy remembered the brass devices along the walls.
"They weren't only watching me."
"No."
Hermione turned the parchment toward them.
"Your readings were much higher than everyone else's, but Harry and I were the only other students who produced a consistent reaction."
Ron looked offended.
"I produced nothing?"
"You produced a temperature fluctuation of point three degrees."
Ron stared at her.
"That's something."
"It's probably because you were sitting near a radiator."
Ron leaned back.
"Still counts."
Percy looked toward Hermione's entry.
"Why did you react?"
"I don't know."
Dumbledore stood.
"Perhaps we have been asking the wrong question."
He walked toward one of the shelves behind his desk and removed a narrow wooden case. The box looked much older than the books around it.
Dumbledore placed it on the desk and opened it.
Inside was a piece of black stone.
Percy immediately felt pressure behind his eyes.
He stood.
"What is that?"
Dumbledore looked at him.
"You can feel it."
"Very clearly."
Harry moved slightly away from the desk.
"Should we be worried?"
"Not yet."
Ron looked at the stone.
"I don't like the 'yet.'"
Dumbledore lifted the object carefully. Thin silver symbols covered one side of it.
"I found this beneath Hogwarts many years ago. At the time, I believed it was part of an older foundation stone."
Hermione leaned closer.
"Those aren't normal runes."
"No."
Percy looked at the symbols.
"They look like the writing near the seal."
Dumbledore nodded.
"They are."
Hermione's attention sharpened.
"You knew?"
"I suspected."
Percy stared at him.
"You had part of the seal in your office this entire time?"
Dumbledore looked mildly uncomfortable.
"When stated that way, it sounds unwise."
"It is unwise."
"That is why I did not state it that way."
Percy sat back down.
"I hate wizards."
Harry looked at him.
"You're technically one now."
"That makes it worse."
Hermione was already studying the symbols. She traced one line without touching the stone.
"I recognize this section."
Dumbledore handed her a sheet of parchment.
"Try reading it."
Hermione looked at him.
"You already know what it says."
"I know one interpretation."
Hermione frowned, then looked back at the stone.
For almost a minute, nobody spoke.
Then her expression changed.
"This isn't a sentence."
Flitwick moved closer.
"What is it?"
"It's an instruction."
Hermione took out a quill and began writing.
"Not exactly an instruction. More like a sequence."
Percy looked over her shoulder.
"What sequence?"
Hermione translated slowly.
"Sea carries."
She wrote the first phrase.
"Blood identifies."
The second.
"Mind remembers."
The third.
Then she stopped.
Harry looked at her.
"That's us."
Hermione did not answer.
Percy looked toward Dumbledore.
"You knew."
"I suspected."
"You keep saying that."
"It remains accurate."
McGonagall gave Dumbledore a look.
He sighed.
"The stone predates the current castle. I have never been able to translate the complete inscription because parts of the language are not magical runes."
Hermione looked up.
"They're mixed."
Flitwick nodded.
"Several languages?"
"More than that."
Hermione pointed toward different symbols.
"Some are Norse. Some resemble early Celtic marks. A few are closer to Ancient Greek."
Percy looked at the stone again.
"Ancient Greek?"
Hermione nodded.
"And some are not human."
The room became quiet.
Percy felt the lake below them.
Aequor.
Dumbledore sat down.
"The seal was not created by the founders of Hogwarts alone."
Harry frowned.
"Then who made it?"
Dumbledore looked toward Percy.
"That is what we need to discover."
------------------------------[One More Borken Line (More woof)]------------------------
They moved to the library an hour later.
The restricted section had been closed to everyone else, and Madam Pince was furious about it. Percy suspected she considered ancient monsters less dangerous than students touching rare books.
Hermione had spread six large volumes across one table.
Percy stared at them.
"I preferred the lake."
"You nearly drowned."
"Still fewer books."
Hermione opened another volume.
"We need information from before Hogwarts was built."
Ron looked at the shelves.
"Hogwarts is a thousand years old."
"Approximately."
"That's a lot of reading."
"You can help."
Ron immediately picked up the smallest book available.
Percy sat beside Harry.
Harry had been quiet since Dumbledore showed them the stone.
Percy noticed.
"Scar?"
Harry shook his head.
"Not hurting."
"That's good."
"Maybe."
Percy understood.
The entity had reacted to the piece of Voldemort inside Harry, but the scar had not behaved the way it normally did when Voldemort was involved.
Harry looked at him.
"What if it can use him?"
Percy did not need to ask who he meant.
"Voldemort?"
Harry nodded.
"If the thing can use the magic in my scar, could it reach him too?"
Percy looked toward Hermione.
"That's a horrible question."
Harry gave him a tired smile.
"I know."
"So we should probably ask her."
Hermione heard them anyway.
"Ask me what?"
Harry repeated the question.
Hermione stopped turning pages.
For several seconds, she said nothing.
"Maybe."
Ron lowered his book.
"Can we have one answer today that isn't 'maybe'?"
"No."
"Thought so."
Hermione pulled another parchment closer.
"The connection between Harry and Voldemort works in both directions. At least sometimes."
Harry nodded.
"I've seen things through him."
"Then if the entity can enter magical connections, it might be able to reach Voldemort through you."
Percy leaned back.
"Would that help us or make everything much worse?"
"Both."
Ron closed his book.
"Excellent."
Hermione continued.
"Voldemort would probably notice it."
Harry looked uncomfortable.
"He notices most things involving my scar."
"Then we need to assume he will know something is happening."
Percy looked at Harry.
"Does he know about the lake?"
"I don't think so."
Dumbledore's voice came from behind them.
"He may soon."
They turned.
Dumbledore carried another book, but this one was much thinner.
Hermione stood immediately.
"Did you find something?"
"Possibly."
Percy looked at Ron.
"There it is again."
Ron nodded.
"It's spreading."
Dumbledore placed the book on the table.
It was not a printed book.
It was a journal.
The leather cover had almost completely worn away, and the pages were brown with age.
Hermione looked at the first page.
"Who wrote this?"
Dumbledore answered quietly.
"Helena Ravenclaw."
Harry stared at him.
"The Grey Lady?"
"Before she became the Grey Lady."
Hermione opened the journal carefully.
"Why is this still here?"
"It was hidden in Ravenclaw Tower until approximately fifty years ago."
Ron looked at Dumbledore.
"Who found it?"
Dumbledore paused.
Percy already disliked the answer.
"Tom Riddle."
Harry's face changed.
"Voldemort had this?"
"For a short time."
Dumbledore opened the journal to a marked page.
"He was searching for information about the founders."
Hermione began reading.
The handwriting was old but clear.
She translated aloud.
"My mother spoke again of the lower chamber. She believes the old guardian weakens, though Father says the binding will hold after all of us are gone."
Percy leaned closer.
"Guardian."
"Aequor," Harry said.
Hermione continued.
"The sea creature is not prisoner but keeper. Its duty is to watch the gate and warn those above should the dark beyond begin to wake."
Percy stopped breathing for a moment.
They had been wrong.
Not completely, but enough.
Aequor had never been sealed below Hogwarts.
It had chosen to remain there.
Hermione continued reading.
"The four founders strengthened what came before them, but they did not make the first binding. The old people of the coast built it with those who came from the sea."
Percy looked toward Dumbledore.
"Those who came from the sea."
Dumbledore nodded.
"Your world and ours may have crossed before."
Percy looked back at the page.
That was not something he wanted to think about yet.
Hermione turned the page.
"There are three locks upon the gate. The first is carried by the sea. The second knows the blood of those who built upon this land. The third remembers the words by which the gate was made."
She stopped.
Nobody spoke.
Ron slowly looked around the table.
"Percy. Harry. Hermione."
Hermione nodded.
"The three categories."
Percy's stomach tightened.
"Umbridge didn't discover three useful people."
Dumbledore looked at him.
"No."
"She found the three locks."
Harry stared at the journal.
"And then connected all of us to the seal."
Hermione looked sick.
"Not fully. But enough for the entity to learn what each part does."
Percy stood and began walking around the table. Pieces of the last few days were finally fitting together, and he did not like the picture they made.
"My power showed it how the sea part works."
Hermione nodded.
"Harry showed it the bloodline part."
Harry looked at her.
"And you?"
Hermione looked toward the old stone.
"I translated the inscriptions aloud near the dampeners."
Percy stopped.
"When?"
"During the first tests."
She looked horrified.
"I thought I was helping identify the symbols."
Dumbledore's expression became grim.
"You were."
Hermione looked at him.
"I also taught it the words."
Nobody corrected her.
--------------------------------[Third Bork]--------------------------------
The journal contained more.
Not much, but enough.
Helena Ravenclaw had written that the original seal required three forms of magic because no single person was supposed to control the gate. The sea carried power into the binding, the bloodline gave the seal an identity, and the remembered language told it what shape to hold.
The founders had strengthened the blood component with their own magic when Hogwarts was built. Over the centuries, however, the original bloodlines had weakened, split or disappeared.
Harry was different.
The fragment of Voldemort's soul carried the magical signature of Slytherin's line more strongly than most living descendants.
That was why the seal reacted to him.
Hermione looked toward Harry.
"The entity didn't want you because you're Harry Potter."
Harry gave her a dry look.
"That's comforting."
"It wanted the Slytherin magic inside you."
"Less comforting."
Percy pointed toward the journal.
"What happens if it gets all three locks?"
Hermione turned several pages.
"I don't know yet."
Ron leaned back.
"Fantastic."
Percy looked toward Dumbledore.
"You do."
Dumbledore's eyes remained on the journal.
"I have a theory."
Percy waited.
Dumbledore sighed.
"If the three locks are brought together in the correct way, they can strengthen the seal."
Harry understood first.
"And if they're brought together in the wrong way?"
Dumbledore looked at him.
"They can open it."
The silence that followed lasted several seconds.
Percy finally sat down.
"So Umbridge almost opened the gate because she accidentally collected the exact three things needed to do it."
Hermione shook her head.
"Not accidentally."
Percy looked at her.
"What?"
"Look."
She turned one of Umbridge's documents around.
Near the bottom was a line they had ignored before.
TRIUNE CONFIGURATION REQUIRED.
Percy read it twice.
"She knew."
Hermione nodded.
"Maybe not what the gate was, but she knew she needed three compatible sources."
Harry looked toward Dumbledore.
"Who told her?"
Nobody had an answer.
Percy thought about the dark line moving through Umbridge's wards. He thought about the way it had learned spells instead of attacking them.
Then he remembered something else.
"It was already talking to her."
Hermione frowned.
"What?"
"Not with words."
Percy tried to explain the feeling he had experienced below the lake.
"It learns through connections. It doesn't need to speak normally."
Harry's expression changed.
"You think it guided her."
"Maybe."
Ron groaned.
"There it is again."
Percy ignored him.
"Umbridge thought she was experimenting on the seal, but every experiment gave it more information."
Dumbledore nodded slowly.
"And perhaps suggestions in return."
Harry looked toward the door.
"Then we need to ask her."
----------------------------------[Fast Bork]-----------------------------
Umbridge refused to speak for eleven minutes.
Amelia had placed her inside an unused classroom with Kingsley outside the door. Her wand was gone, her robes had been dried, and her usual smile had disappeared completely.
Percy sat opposite her.
Harry, Hermione and Dumbledore remained behind him.
Umbridge looked at Percy with open hatred.
"You destroyed years of work."
Percy stared at her.
"You're welcome."
Dumbledore stepped forward.
"Professor Umbridge, we need to know how you learned about the three resonance types."
She looked away.
Amelia placed one of the recovered documents on the desk.
"You were not authorized to access this information."
Umbridge's expression did not change.
"I received guidance."
Hermione leaned forward.
"From whom?"
Umbridge hesitated.
Percy noticed.
"You don't know."
Umbridge looked at him.
"Do not speak to me like that."
"You don't know who told you."
Her face tightened.
Percy leaned closer.
"Did you ever meet them?"
Silence.
"Did they send letters?"
Umbridge said nothing.
"Did you hear a voice?"
Her eyes moved.
That was enough.
Harry stepped closer.
"You did."
Umbridge looked at him.
"It was not a voice."
Percy felt cold.
"What was it?"
Umbridge's hands tightened together.
"Dreams."
Nobody moved.
She continued reluctantly.
"They began after the first resonance test."
Hermione went pale.
"What did you see?"
Umbridge looked toward Amelia as if deciding whether she could still escape the situation by saying nothing.
Amelia's expression gave her the answer.
Umbridge spoke.
"A chamber beneath the lake."
Percy felt Aequor shift far below them.
"And?"
"A gate."
"What else?"
Umbridge's voice became quieter.
"Three figures."
Harry looked at Hermione.
Percy already knew.
"Us."
Umbridge did not answer.
Dumbledore stepped closer.
"What did the dreams tell you?"
"They did not tell me anything."
Percy shook his head.
"What did they show you?"
That question worked.
Umbridge stared at the desk.
"A way to contain him."
She pointed toward Percy.
Percy frowned.
"Me?"
"The dreams showed what would happen if your abilities continued to grow. Flooded cities. Broken coastlines. Thousands dead."
Percy stared at her.
For the first time, Umbridge did not sound angry.
She sounded afraid.
"The Ministry refused to act because you were a child," she continued. "Dumbledore refused because he believed you could be controlled."
Dumbledore's eyes narrowed.
"No such discussion occurred."
Umbridge looked at him.
"Not with you."
Amelia stepped forward.
"Dolores, who did you speak to?"
"I told you. Nobody."
"Then why did you believe the dreams?"
Umbridge's composure finally cracked.
"Because they were true!"
The room became silent.
She looked at Percy.
"I saw you standing above London while the Thames covered the streets. I saw Hogwarts broken open beneath you. I saw the sea rise when you became angry."
Percy did not know what to say.
Umbridge looked toward Harry.
"And I saw him beside you."
Harry's face tightened.
"What was I doing?"
Umbridge hesitated.
"Burning."
Harry touched his scar.
Hermione stepped closer.
"And me?"
Umbridge looked at her.
"You were speaking."
"What was I saying?"
"I couldn't understand it."
Hermione's expression changed.
"The seal language."
Percy looked at Dumbledore.
The entity had not simply manipulated Umbridge.
It had shown her the three locks.
And it had made each one look dangerous enough that she would try to control them.
Percy stood.
"It wanted you to build the machine."
Umbridge looked at him.
"No."
"You thought the dreams were warnings."
"They were."
Percy shook his head.
"They were instructions."
Umbridge stopped. For the first time since Percy had met her, she had no answer.
----------------------------------[Short Bork]------------------------------
They left her with Amelia.
Nobody spoke until they reached Dumbledore's office.
Harry sat near the window while Hermione immediately returned to Helena's journal. Ron remained close to her, unusually quiet.
Percy stood beside Dumbledore.
"Can it see the future?"
Dumbledore looked toward him.
"I do not know."
"Those dreams."
"They may not have been predictions."
Percy frowned.
"Then what were they?"
"Possibilities."
Dumbledore walked toward the window.
"Fear is more effective when it contains enough truth to seem certain."
Percy understood.
The entity did not need to show Umbridge what would happen.
Only what could happen.
Harry looked over.
"So it used her."
"Yes."
Hermione suddenly stopped reading.
"Professor."
Everyone turned.
She had found another section near the end of Helena's journal.
"This was written after the founders strengthened the seal."
Dumbledore moved closer.
Hermione read aloud.
"Should the gate weaken beyond repair, the three locks may close it again, but the binding must take from each what first made it whole."
Percy frowned.
"That's vague."
"It's old magic."
"Old people really hated clear instructions."
Hermione continued translating.
"The sea must surrender its claim. The blood must surrender its inheritance. The mind must surrender what it remembers."
Nobody spoke.
Percy looked at Harry.
Harry looked at Hermione.
Then all three looked toward Dumbledore.
Ron was the first to say it.
"What does that mean?"
Hermione stared at the page.
"I don't know."
Percy could tell she was lying.
"Hermione."
She looked up.
"The seal needs a price."
Harry's voice was quiet.
"What price?"
Hermione looked toward Percy first.
"The sea must surrender its claim."
She swallowed.
"Percy may have to give up his connection to the sea."
Percy felt as if the room had shifted slightly.
Harry looked toward her.
"And the blood?"
Hermione looked at his scar.
"The Slytherin magic."
Harry understood.
"The piece of Voldemort."
Hermione nodded.
Ron looked between them.
"That sounds good."
"It may not be removable safely."
Ron stopped smiling.
Then Percy looked at Hermione.
"And the mind?"
Hermione closed the journal.
Nobody needed to ask what the line said again.
The mind must surrender what it remembers.
Percy stared at her.
"Your memory."
Hermione did not answer immediately.
"Maybe."
Ron stood.
"No."
Hermione looked at him.
"We don't know what it means yet."
"You just said it."
"I said what I think it means."
"No."
Percy understood the reaction.
If they repaired the seal, it might take Percy's power, the piece of Voldemort inside Harry, and Hermione's memories.
Maybe all of them.
Maybe only the memories connected to the seal.
Nobody knew.
Dumbledore took the journal.
"We are not making any decisions until we understand the inscription fully."
Percy looked toward him.
"But the crack is still growing."
Dumbledore did not deny it.
"Yes."
"How long?"
Percy already knew there was no exact answer.
Dumbledore looked toward the dark window.
"Days, perhaps weeks."
Percy felt the lake below Hogwarts.
The crack shifted again.
A small piece of the seal failed.
Percy's expression changed.
"Not weeks."
Everyone looked at him.
Percy closed his eyes.
The pressure below was growing faster.
Aequor moved around the threshold, pushing against the fracture with its own power.
Percy opened his eyes.
"Maybe days."
Harry stood.
"How many?"
Percy looked toward the floor.
He wished Aequor could give him numbers.
Instead, another meaning entered his mind from far below.
SEVEN.
Percy froze.
Hermione saw it.
"What?"
He looked at them.
"Aequor answered."
Dumbledore stepped closer.
"What did it say?"
Percy felt the ancient guardian again.
The meaning did not change.
SEVEN.
He looked toward Harry and Hermione.
"Seven days."
Outside the office windows, the Black Lake remained perfectly calm.
Beneath it, the oldest barrier below Hogwarts began to come apart.
------------
To Be Continued...
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p a t r e o n . c o m /Reader004 (remove space)