The red lights moved closer.
Percy raised the trident until its points faced the corner. Hermione stood beside him with her wand ready. Ron moved where he could see the corridor behind them.
The figure stepped into the light.
Its cloak was torn along one side. Beneath the hood, Percy could see very little beyond the eyes.
"You have chosen," it said.
Percy looked toward the pool. The first figure was gone.
"Apparently, that brought an audience."
The newcomer laughed. It was the same strained sound they had heard beyond the closing door.
Hermione spoke before it could move nearer.
"Who are you?"
"The Shadow that Walks Between."
Ron tightened his grip on his wand.
"Does anyone down here use an ordinary name?"
The figure ignored him. Its attention stayed on Percy and the trident.
"You chose to preserve a connection that should not remain."
"Then explain why."
"The bridge disturbs the balance. What passes through it may remake both sides."
Percy looked at the pool. It had become still, but he could sense the boundary beneath it more clearly than before.
He did not know enough to dismiss the claim. He also had no reason to accept it from someone arriving in a cloak to announce a threat.
"What do you want?"
"To sever what you have awakened."
"And what happens to the people near it?" Hermione asked.
The figure looked at her.
"You think too narrowly."
"I asked about people."
Percy was grateful she had not let the answer pass.
The figure raised one hand. The marks above the pool dimmed, and a current turned sharply beneath the surface.
Percy felt it pull against the trident.
He changed his grip. The weapon's base struck the floor with a sound that made Ron look toward him.
"Percy?"
"I felt that."
The figure lowered its hand.
"You carry a power you do not understand. You could break the boundary while trying to hold it."
That was true enough to make Percy angry. He had just agreed to protect something whose instructions consisted of images and a title.
"What would you do differently?"
"I would end the connection."
"By breaking it?"
"By restoring what existed before you."
Percy heard the change in wording. Ending and restoring did not have to mean the same act.
Hermione moved her light toward the nearest mark. It had begun to fade along one edge.
"The room is reacting," she said.
Ron looked at the ceiling.
"We have seen how that ends."
Percy stepped between the figure and the pool. He did not intend to attack. He wanted to find whether the pull changed when he moved.
It did.
The trident grew warmer, and the water steadied close to him while continuing to turn on the far side.
The figure watched.
"You would oppose me without understanding the cost."
"I would like you to stop moving things while we speak."
Its eyes brightened.
Percy held the shaft with both hands. He could feel the connection reaching toward the pressure rather than waiting for him to decide.
He made himself lower the points slightly.
He had enough experience with weapons to know when holding one was making an argument easier to start.
"What is beneath this pool?" he asked.
The figure did not answer.
"What crosses the bridge?"
Again, nothing.
Percy looked at Hermione. She had noticed too.
"You ask us to trust your explanation," she said. "Then you leave out the parts we could examine."
The floor shook.
Ron put one hand against the wall to keep his balance. Hermione stepped away from a crack opening near her foot.
Percy felt the trident pull again.
He pushed against the movement with the nearest water. For a moment, the current stopped.
Then the figure's cloak moved as if wind had struck it.
There was no ordinary breeze in the room.
"You cannot hold this forever," it said.
"I am starting with now."
Percy held his position. He could feel power passing through the weapon, but keeping the water still required his attention.
He had expected another claim about destiny. The work was much less impressive.
His hands hurt. His feet were slipping. He needed Ron to warn him when a piece of stone fell behind him.
Hermione held her wand toward the changing marks without trying a spell she did not understand.
"Which part is moving?" she asked.
"The far side."
"Can you hold only that part?"
Percy tried.
The strain eased. Water near his feet remained free to move while the pressure beyond the pool met a smaller resistance.
He had been trying to hold too much at once.
The figure took one step back.
That was the first response Percy trusted. It was visible, and it had followed something he had done.
"I will not let you break it while we are standing here," he said.
The figure laughed again, but this time it sounded angry.
"Then meet me at the threshold of the Abyss. Learn what it means to claim this duty."
Ron looked toward the corridor.
"We decline the invitation."
Percy almost agreed aloud. He did not want the stranger to decide the next place he would go.
"I will learn what is happening," he said. "That is not the same as going wherever you tell me."
The figure's outline began to weaken.
Its eyes remained visible after the cloak had faded into the dark. Then they were gone too.
Percy waited before lowering the trident.
The pressure beneath the pool eased. The cracks in the floor remained, which made the room less willing to pretend nothing had happened.
Hermione examined one from a distance.
"It can affect the chamber."
"So can I," Percy said. "That does not tell us which explanation is right."
Ron looked at him with tired approval.
"Good. Because I would like somebody with actual qualifications to hear about this."
Percy turned toward the passage.
They needed McGonagall. They needed Dumbledore. He could admit that without making what had happened smaller.
"We go back," he said.
Hermione nodded. She checked the map in the first chamber would still be useful, then led them toward the corridor.
Percy kept the trident. It was awkward to carry and clearly dangerous, but leaving an awakened object unattended seemed worse.
He would explain that choice before someone else had to ask.
As they entered the tunnel, a distant sound came from higher in the stone.
A door moved somewhere they could not see.
Percy stopped long enough for Ron to notice.
"What?"
"I think something else opened."
Ron closed his eyes for a moment.
"Then we report that too. From upstairs."
Percy followed him. For once, he had no argument to offer.
To Be Continued... Next week!
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