For three days, the lake did not move.
Wind crossed the grounds, but no ripples formed on the lake. From the classroom windows, it looked flat enough to be painted.
Percy could feel movement beneath that surface. It followed him even when he went upstairs.
Before dawn, he stood by the dormitory window. He tried to tell the movement in the pipes from the slower current he felt when he thought about the lake.
He lifted a hand. Water trembled in the pitcher beside his bed. He lowered his hand and wrote down what had happened for Flitwick.
Hogwarts resumed classes, but tension hung thick in the corridors. Professors stood closer to students than usual. Defensive wards shimmered faintly along the outer grounds, barely visible in certain light.
Dumbledore told the school that the lake remained closed. Harry wanted to know more. In Charms, Flitwick stopped two lessons when ordinary spells grew too strong. Snape ordered students away from cauldrons that stirred without being touched.
At lunch, Hermione opened the diagrams she had shown Dumbledore. "The lines changed after the dome closed," she said. "Look at this return path."
Ron stared at her. "You say that like it's better."
"It might be."
Harry leaned forward. "Explain."
Hermione pointed to the pillars. "These were separate in the first drawing. After the repair, a current went around them and joined this part. I think it carries water through the seal."
Percy frowned. "Then what is it?"
"A conduit."
Percy leaned over the drawing.
"For what?" Ron asked.
Hermione's expression faltered.
"I don't know yet."
Percy followed the line with his finger. It was close to the current he had felt at the dome. That night, he dreamed of the lake again.
He stood on dark water under a sky with no stars. He looked for a shore and could not find one.
The golden eye opened before him, but smaller now, contained within a vast shape coiled beneath the surface.
Aequor endures
The voice resonated.
Percy stepped back. The water held his feet. "Is the seal still damaged?"
Nor fully broken.
The water beneath his feet rippled outward in slow circles. "You were holding something back."
Yes.
"And now?"
The eye dimmed slightly.
The gate weakens.
Percy looked down. Something pressed against the surface beneath his feet.
"What is it?" For the first time, the ancient presence hesitated.
That which unmade the depths.
He remembered the empty space under the dome.
"The thing beneath the gate?"
I was guardian. Then I was bound. Corruption followed. But what lies beneath was never of sea nor sky.
The water trembled faintly.
It is absence given will.
Percy could not see through the water. He wished he could wake up long enough to write the words down.
"When the chains snapped," Percy said slowly, "it pushed harder."
Yes.
"And the new seal?"
Temporary.
Percy clenched his fists. "Then we strengthen it."
The eye focused sharply.
Balance cannot be forced.
The surface tilted beneath him. He tried to keep his feet, then woke sitting up in bed. Harry was awake across the room.
"You felt it too, didn't you?" Harry asked.
"I dreamed about Aequor," Percy said. "It said the repair was temporary."
Harry swallowed.
"I saw it last night. Not the sea thing. Something else. No shape. Just… nothing. Like my mind skipped." Percy's stomach twisted.
"We need to tell Dumbledore both parts," Percy said.
Harry gave a tired laugh. "I would like to tell him something good once." They took their accounts to McGonagall before breakfast.
At noon, water froze in goblets across the Hall. A student dropped one, and it broke with the juice still solid inside. From the window, Percy saw ice spreading from the center of the lake.
Hermione stood beside him. "That did not happen when Aequor rose." Percy could feel no current in the ice. They called McGonagall, who took them downstairs to show Dumbledore the change. Above the lake, a thin line split the air.
The line widened. Percy could see the far shore on either side of it, but nothing through the opening. Harry backed against the door. "That is what I saw."
Ice disappeared around the opening. It left no water behind. Percy stepped onto the grounds as a current moved beneath the remaining ice. McGonagall called him back.
The frozen surface shattered as colossal waves erupted upward, slamming against the tear in space. Water roared skyward, coiling around the rift like a living barrier. The golden eye flared beneath the surface.
Aequor defends.
Hermione pointed to the water at the edge of the opening. It vanished wherever it touched the gap. "It is taking the barrier away."
Percy felt panic surge. "Aequor can't hold that forever!" The eye turned toward him.
Balance.
Percy recognized the pull around the pillars. "I can feel the return current," he told Dumbledore. "The one I moved last time."
Dumbledore kept a shield between him and the gap. "Stay in the shallows. Move only what you can hold."
Percy waded in until the water reached his knees.
He found the current running back toward the pillars. Instead of pushing against it, he guided it around the place where water kept disappearing.
"Harry, keep that side clear!" Percy called. "Do not fire into the gap!"
Harry moved along the bank under McGonagall's shield. He pulled a floating branch away from Percy's feet. Hermione's marks appeared over the water. Ron helped her keep her balance while Dumbledore directed his spell toward the broken line.
Water closed around the opening. Dumbledore held the line steady. Hermione's marks joined across the current, and Percy felt it turn without pulling at his hands.
The opening widened once more. Percy slid forward in the shallows. Harry caught his arm from the bank while Percy kept the current moving around the pillars.
Blue and gold light met above the lake. The opening closed. Ice broke into floating pieces, and water covered the place where it had disappeared.
Percy knelt in the shallows. He let Harry pull him onto the bank before trying to stand.
Hermione and Ron joined them beneath the shield. "Aequor kept the water between us and the opening," she said.
Percy nodded. "It was holding the gate."
Dumbledore stayed at the shore. Nobody took the closure as a reason to reopen the grounds.
Percy still had the words from his dream to tell him.
The current continued beneath the surface.
Percy felt it settle around the pillars.
For now, the gate held.
He asked Dumbledore what they would need to make it last.
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Yay, finally done! I'll try to release one chapter a day for yall.