Overlapping afterimages rapidly stacked around Richie's fingertips. A split second later, an invisible shockwave blasted straight toward the knight statue looming behind Hermione.
Simultaneously, Richie dove hard to the side, desperately trying to dodge the frontal swing of the stone sword aimed at him.
To Neville and the others, everything happened in a fraction of a second.
The massive stone sword gripped by the statue behind Hermione inexplicably snapped in two, the top half violently launching across the room.
Meanwhile, the statue in front of Richie actually accelerated, its blade slicing straight down at him.
"Richie!" the three of them screamed.
But their sheer terror quickly shifted to utter confusion. Their Disarming Charms hit the statue almost exactly at the same time, but the spells phased right through the stone as if it were a hologram, blasting into a painting on the far wall instead.
And the knight statue—along with its massive sword—instantly turned to ash the second it made contact with Richie, erupting into a massive cloud of pale dust.
Like a chain reaction, the other four statues simultaneously crumbled.
"Cough! Cough!"
The thick limestone dust rapidly expanded across the hall, leaving the group choking and coughing. Ignoring the mess, Neville, Seamus, and Ventis sprinted toward the center of the room.
"Richie!"
"Hermione! Are you guys okay?!"
They reached the center of the hall, frantically searching for them through the haze.
They quickly found Hermione looking entirely bewildered, and Richie sprawled face-down on the stone floor, completely motionless.
"What just happened?" Hermione asked, crouching down next to Richie.
From her perspective, she had been pouring her magic into the Levitation Charm to stall the pendulum. The next thing she knew, the others were screaming, she whipped around, caught a face full of dust, and the statues were entirely gone. She was completely lost.
"We have absolutely no idea!" Neville said as the three of them dropped to their knees around Richie.
"Richie! Richie!" They huddled around him, completely panicking.
Suddenly, Richie's head snapped up. The sand in the Hyper-Cognitive Hourglass—which he had kept tightly gripped in his palm—had finally run out. Real-time had resumed.
"Pfft! Blegh." Richie violently spat out a mouthful of dust.
Seeing him move, the group's faces lit up with massive relief. Neville and Seamus immediately grabbed him by the arms and hauled him to his feet.
"Oh man, you scared me to death, Richie," Neville said, clutching his chest. "I thought you were a goner."
Richie shook his head. His usually blonde hair was now completely coated in ash-gray dust. "I'm fine."
The five of them stood together, looking around at the massive piles of dust covering the floor. The vibe was incredibly bizarre.
"Why did they just... fall apart?" Seamus asked, genuinely baffled.
Richie shrugged. "Either they had a strict time limit, or this was just a massive prank left behind by the Founders."
He vividly remembered the exact moment the sword struck his leg. There was zero pain. It just felt like a gentle push right before the entire statue disintegrated into dust.
"A prank?" Neville scratched his head. "Why would they go through all this trouble just to prank us?"
Ventis waved him off, perfectly deadpan. "Pranks don't need a reason."
"Regardless, at least nobody got hurt," Richie let out a heavy sigh, his emotions completely tangled.
With the threat gone, the tension in the room rapidly evaporated.
"That was insane!" Neville broke into a massive grin and looked at Seamus. "Especially your Disarming... er, Blasting Curse! That was incredibly badass!"
Seamus high-fived Neville, instantly looking incredibly smug. "Obviously. I think this is the first time I've ever felt good about completely misfiring a spell!"
"Alright, can we please clean up? I am entirely suffocating," Hermione snapped. She wiped a finger across her cheek, revealing a thick layer of grime. Looking at the others, they were all completely covered in dirt and ash.
Realizing they looked like they had just crawled out of a chimney, the group quickly drew their wands.
"Tergeo!"
"Tergeo!"
They didn't just clean themselves; they spent the next ten minutes casting Scourgify and Tergeo to clean the entire hall. Once the dust was completely cleared, the room looked exactly like it had when they arrived—minus the five knight statues in the alcoves.
It felt entirely surreal.
With the cleanup done, the five of them gathered back around the massive pendulum.
"So... where is the third piece?" Neville blinked, leaning forward and gently poking the pendulum with his wand.
Click.
The pendulum instantly split perfectly in half down the center. A long, cylindrical object dropped out. Then, the pendulum snapped shut and rapidly retracted straight up into the ceiling, completely vanishing from sight.
The hall suddenly felt incredibly empty.
"..."
"Did I just break it?" Neville asked, his face dropping.
Richie shook his head and bent down to pick up the object.
"A scroll?" Richie raised an eyebrow, inspecting it. After fiddling with the edges, he successfully unrolled it.
The contents slowly revealed themselves to the group.
It was a painting. Inside the parchment, four shadowy, indistinct figures were floating in the dead of night, huddled tightly together in a circle.
As the scroll fully unfurled, two lines of tiny text slowly materialized beneath the image:
The mirror of the inverted galaxy, chanting silent, ancient odes.
When the strings are plucked, the starlight will dance in neon garments.
"Yes! That has to be the third piece!" Neville cheered.
Seeing the riddle, a massive wave of relief washed over the group. They had finally found it.
"This riddle is super weird, though..." Seamus scratched his head. "Mirrors... poetry... string music... neon garments? Why does this sound like a bedtime story about a princess?"
"Are we supposed to be looking for a person?"
"No, I don't think so." Ventis shook her head and pointed at the painting. "Those four figures are obviously the Founders. And the way they're huddled together... it looks like they're physically hiding something."
"Which means the riddle is definitely pointing to a specific location," Hermione added, her brow furrowed in deep thought. Suddenly, her eyes widened. "Wait. 'The mirror of the inverted galaxy'... Could that mean the surface of a lake?"
The others froze, processing the idea.
"Oh, wait, she's right!" Neville's eyes lit up with sudden realization. "At night, a lake reflects the sky exactly like a mirror!"
"And look at the painting," he continued, pointing at the scroll. "The Founders aren't just hovering in the air. The way they're moving... it looks like they're treading water!"
"And where is the only lake at Hogwarts?"
The five of them looked at each other and said in perfect unison:
"The Black Lake!"
The deduction had been incredibly smooth, and massive, triumphant smiles broke out across their faces.
Yawn...
With the mission officially a success, the adrenaline crashed, and a heavy wave of exhaustion hit them. The group quietly slipped out of the Clock Tower, made their way back to the Starlight Sanctum, crawled into their sleeping bags, and instantly passed out.
Once the students were gone, the whispers started up again.
"Oh, those kids were so brave!"
"They got dust all over my frame!"
"Well, at least they cleaned it up, didn't they?"
"My, my. It looks like another ancient mystery is about to be solved."
"Alright, alright, the show's over. Shall we go visit the other portraits?"
"Splendid idea!"
The gossiping voices slowly faded away.
With the moon hanging high in the sky, Hogwarts Castle finally fell completely silent.