Madam Pomfrey found three bruises Percy had not noticed. She treated them, made him drink something unpleasant, and refused to call the evening successful merely because everyone could walk.
Ron tried that argument once. He stopped when she began listing the ways walking could conceal an injury.
McGonagall returned after their examinations.
"Professor Dumbledore would like to hear your account."
Percy looked at the clock.
"Now?"
"You reported an unknown chamber and a possible threat beneath the school. When would you prefer?"
"Now seems reasonable."
She led them to the Great Hall. The tables were mostly empty, and several teachers had gathered near the staff table.
Flitwick had a sheet of parchment spread beside him. Snape stood at the end, watching Percy before watching the other two.
Dumbledore rose when they approached.
"Sit down. Minerva tells me you have already had a difficult night."
Ron accepted the chair as if it were a personal kindness.
Percy sat beside Hermione. The trident rested in a clear space nearby, where nobody could touch it accidentally.
McGonagall placed their notes on the table.
Dumbledore read the first page. He looked at the weapon when he reached the description of the orb.
"Did it remain active after you left the lower chamber?"
Percy shook his head, then checked before answering properly.
"I can still feel the connection. The light stopped."
Flitwick examined the trident from a distance. He did not begin with a spell, which Percy appreciated more than he expected.
Hermione described the carvings and the map. Ron explained the route back, including the point where the original passage had been interrupted.
Snape asked whether the figure had physically crossed the pool.
"No," Percy said. "It appeared above it."
"And the second figure?"
"From the corner. I could not see how it arrived."
"Then do not assume the two arrived by the same means."
Percy nodded. He had made that sort of assumption already.
Dumbledore asked what the Shadow had threatened to sever. Percy repeated the words he remembered and admitted when he could provide only their meaning.
The headmaster kept those parts separate in his notes.
"We should treat this as a threat," McGonagall said. "That does not require us to accept its explanation of the boundary."
Dumbledore agreed.
Percy was relieved by that. He had spent enough of the night being told what events meant by the people causing them.
Outside, rain struck the high windows. A flash showed the grounds before thunder reached the hall.
Percy felt the water move. He kept his attention on the table.
Flitwick noticed his fingers tighten against the chair.
"Does the storm change the connection?"
"It makes more of it noticeable."
"Can you leave it alone?"
"I am trying."
The professor wrote that down without calling the effort a failure.
Dumbledore turned to McGonagall.
"The passage should be secured. We need its measurements before introducing spells into the lower chamber."
She nodded.
"I have asked staff to keep students away from the corridor. The library entrance is also being checked."
Hermione looked up.
"The black book?"
"It will be examined without repeating its words."
Percy had not known how much he needed to hear that until she said it.
Snape looked toward him.
"You will report any new pressure, particularly anything that appears to offer instructions."
"I intend to."
"Intention has not kept you out of the Restricted Section."
Percy accepted that one without answering. Ron seemed to be making the same effort beside him.
The headmaster asked whether Percy could describe the new sense of the boundary without trying to use it.
Percy considered the water below the castle. He could feel a difference between a current moving freely and one being held at the pool.
He explained it as carefully as he could.
Flitwick asked two questions about direction. Hermione corrected the position of an arch in her drawing.
For several minutes, the danger became something they could describe on paper. Percy preferred that to being asked for another declaration.
Then the floor moved beneath them.
It was slight, but every person at the table noticed. A cup struck its saucer, and one of the empty chairs creaked.
Percy looked toward the trident.
The orb had given a small light.
Dumbledore raised one hand, stopping Flitwick before he could approach it.
"What did you feel, Percy?"
"The pressure changed below."
"Did you cause it?"
"No."
He was certain enough of that to answer at once.
The orb went dark again. The floor remained still.
Dumbledore wrote the time beside their description.
"We will need help from people familiar with older enchantments."
He named records to be checked and sent messages to people beyond the school. McGonagall arranged the work among the staff rather than allowing the conversation to become a promise that Percy would solve it.
One name was Remus Lupin. Dumbledore asked him to assist with defensive work and take practical lessons while Quirrell was unavailable.
Percy recognized the name. He kept the recognition to himself and listened to what Lupin would actually be asked to do here.
Ron looked at the notes accumulating on the table.
"So we can go back to being students?"
"You remain students," McGonagall said.
"That seems to involve a great deal of underground work."
"Which is why you will leave the next inspection to us."
Percy looked at Dumbledore.
"And my connection?"
"We will learn its limits before asking you to use it again."
There was no promise that the answer would be easy. Percy found that more useful than another speech about courage.
The storm continued as they left the hall. Several portraits were awake, asking about the movement in the floor.
Ron answered one with a complaint about being kept up late. Hermione told him not to start rumors.
Percy walked between them. Beneath the castle, the new connection remained present.
It was no longer a task only three people knew about.
At the tower entrance, McGonagall reminded them to sleep and to tell her at once if any figure returned.
Percy meant to follow both instructions.
For tonight, he had done enough choosing.
To Be Continued... Next week!
MUAHAHAHA
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