The seal shook beneath Percy's hand. Nyx stopped speaking when the light moved beyond the line she had been restoring.
"Enough. Take your hand away."
Percy obeyed. The pressure eased, leaving warmth in his fingers that did not feel entirely his.
Hermione watched the fracture. "Is it holding?"
"For now," Nyx said. "The movement has slowed. We have not repaired the whole binding."
Ron sat on a clear stone. "I will take slower over actively falling apart."
Harry helped Percy stand. "What did you feel?"
"Something answered. I saw marks, a place, and heard a name. Perseon."
Hermione asked him to repeat the sound. She wrote it phonetically rather than deciding a spelling at once.
"That resembles parts of the old language," she said. "I would need a record before calling it a translation."
Nyx examined the written sound. "Our records use a title for a storm guide. It may be the same term."
"May," Ron said. "An important improvement over being informed Percy is a storm god."
Percy almost laughed. Then the chamber moved again.
Harry lifted his wand toward the crack Acheron had used. "He is still below."
Nyx shook her head. "That pressure is not his."
A meaning reached them without an ordinary voice. The seal was weak. The person it had recognized would make a path or be taken with it.
Percy dropped to his knees before he could decide whether the message was a warning or a demand.
Light burst from the stone. Harry pulled Hermione back, and Ron caught Percy's sleeve as dust fell around them.
When Percy could see again, a new image remained clear in his mind.
"A temple beneath the lake. There was a key. I recognized something about it."
"Recognized how?" Hermione asked.
"I cannot explain it yet."
He hated that answer. It was still more honest than treating the image as instructions.
Nyx looked toward the fracture. "Acheron will search for anything that changes this binding. We should report the location before he has time to reach it."
"And check whether opening it helps," Harry said. "We have already seen what the wrong person can do with a door."
They left by the mapped route, taking their notes and the exact order of the changes. Percy kept the trident still rather than testing whether the larger pressure would answer again.
Far below them, Acheron reached a stone altar. Red flames gave enough light to show several shapes moving above it.
"The first bond is weaker," he said.
The response came in overlapping voices. Bring the bloodbound. Bring the one they called Perseon.
Acheron bowed his head. He did not ask what would happen to the person he brought.
Lessons continued after the report. Percy found that reassuring until McGonagall gave back an essay with more corrections than he had expected.
The hedgehog on his desk became a pincushion after three attempts. Ron's still had a nose.
"It seems attached to that part," Percy said.
"So am I," Ron replied. "We have reached an understanding."
In Defense, Lupin had them practice shields against a dummy. Percy cast Protego and knocked the dummy over.
Lupin stopped the exercise before the next student tried to copy him.
"Your shield is pushing force outward," he said. "That may be useful elsewhere. Here, we need to know how to stop it at the intended edge."
Percy tried again with less power. The result was less impressive and more useful.
Hermione watched from the next position. "Tell me that did not feel like the seal."
"A little."
She put the observation in her notes. He was glad she did not call it a discovery yet.
There were ordinary parts of the week too. Neville knew which plants wanted less water, the twins made breakfast noisy, and Hagrid showed them a young griffin during an additional creature lesson. Pounce tried to bite Malfoy's robe before taking a dislike to the hem of Percy's.
Percy moved his foot. He had not expected a creature lesson to require defending his trousers.
In the common room, Hermione returned to the temple's messages while Harry and Ron played chess. Ron lost after deliberately trying a move Harry had questioned.
"We can establish that was terrible," Ron said, removing his knight from the board.
Harry grinned. Percy appreciated the small experiment more than the larger ones they had been making below the castle.
Hermione looked up. "The voice may be using things Percy already remembers. Knowing a name does not prove its account."
"It knew more than a name," Percy said. "But I agree. We should check the location before trusting the meaning."
They would need a way to examine water pressure and breathing below the surface. Ron remembered a cousin mentioning a book on diving charms.
Percy wrote down the title before asking what the cousin had actually used it for.
"Avoiding a boat," Ron said. "That did not end particularly well. Read the limitations too."
The fire turned blue while Percy was writing. He looked up, but it had returned to its usual color before anyone else noticed.
He recorded that instead of chasing the feeling it left.
Later, he tried saying Perseon in the empty dormitory. The water in his cup moved, though he could not tell whether his own attention had caused it.
He stopped after one attempt.
Somewhere beneath the lake, a response remained. He did not yet have a good reason to answer.
Flitwick announced a return of the Dueling Club during Charms. He would supervise it with Lupin, and the first session would use an enchanted platform to soften falls.
Ron expected Malfoy to enter. Hermione expected Malfoy to need a correction. Percy thought both predictions were plausible.
Harry faced Malfoy in the demonstration.
On Flitwick's signal, Harry cast Expelliarmus. Malfoy stepped aside and answered with Serpensortia.
A snake landed between them.
Lupin removed it before it approached either student. "We are practicing control, not settling old arguments."
The next pair moved onto the platform. Percy eventually faced Colin Denham, an older Hufflepuff who asked whether he wanted a slower first exchange.
Percy said no. He would regret that answer in a moment.
Colin cast Stupefy. Percy raised a shield before thinking about its size.
Blue light crossed the platform. Colin fell over the edge and struck the softened floor.
Percy lowered his wand at once.
"Are you hurt?"
Colin sat up, blinking. "Mostly surprised. What was that?"
"More than I meant to use."
Flitwick checked Colin before addressing Percy. He had Percy repeat only the wand movement, without a spell, and ended his round there.
Lupin watched the edge of the fading shield. Percy could tell he had noticed the same outward force as in class.
That night, Hermione found him checking the diving book.
"Your response was too large," she said. "I do not think being faster is the part you need to practice."
Percy agreed, which seemed to interrupt the rest of her prepared argument.
He showed her Glacien Vade. The charm held water away and balanced pressure around its user. It did not give unlimited air or make the surrounding water safe.
Hermione read the limits herself.
"We test it in the shallows first."
Ron looked up from a packet of sweets. "An excellent word. Shallows. I support keeping it in the plan."
They went to the boathouse at sunset that weekend. Harry watched the upper path while Hermione kept a record of the spell's behavior. Ron stayed close enough to help Percy back out.
Percy stepped into water below his knees and cast the charm.
A clear space formed around him. Water pressed against its edge without reaching his robes.
He took one step deeper, then stopped to check that he could breathe normally.
Hermione asked him to describe the pressure. Percy answered before moving again.
For a moment, the experiment behaved as the book said it should.
Then a shape passed beneath the surface nearby.
Percy stopped. Pale eyes looked up at him. Hair moved with the weeds, and one hand rose from beside the figure's body.
It pointed directly toward him.
The charm trembled. Percy stepped back instead of trying to follow the gesture.
Hermione caught his arm as he reached the shore. The water closed over the empty space behind him.
"Did you see it?" he asked.
Ron nodded. "I would prefer the next test to involve something that cannot point back."
Hermione wrote down the location and the moment the charm weakened. "It noticed you. We do not know whether the gesture was an invitation or a warning."
Percy looked across the lake. The surface had returned to ordinary waves.
He wanted to get a closer look. That was exactly why he waited beside his friends while they finished the report.
To be Continued?
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I actually don't know how I should end my chapters :(
See you guys next week!