Hagrid met them at the forest path after breakfast. Fang pressed against his leg and refused to go ahead. Percy adjusted the trident across his back while Ron checked whether they could still see the castle.
"Are you sure this is a useful test?" Hermione asked. "We know the relic reacts to you. We do not know what else it reacts to."
"Dumbledore thinks the older wards reach into the forest," Percy said. "Flitwick wants to know whether the relic notices them. We look, report what changes, and return."
"No going deep," Hagrid said. "I will check the path ahead. Stay where I can find you."
Percy agreed. He could already feel water beneath the ground moving toward the older roots, but that was a reason to pay attention, not to hurry.
The trees blocked most of the morning light. Hagrid went ahead with Fang while the three stopped at a narrow branch in the path. Something small moved through the leaves on their left.
"Did you hear that?" Ron muttered.
Percy held up a hand to stop. The mist swirled around them, obscuring even the trees. Hermione drew closer to Percy, her wand raised.
Another shape crossed behind a tree. Percy turned too late to identify it.
"Pixies?" Hermione guessed.
"I do not know," Percy said. "But they keep moving when we turn."
A cloaked shape appeared between the trees. Its feet did not disturb the leaves. The trident pulled against the strap on Percy's shoulder.
"Guardian of the Bridge," it said. "These roots reach the old boundary."
Percy instinctively reached for the trident, but the figure didn't move.
"We are not your enemy. Your relic can recognize the boundary, but it cannot command everything below it."
Hermione stepped forward cautiously. "What do you mean? What lies beneath the forest?"
The figure turned slowly toward her. "A seal. A gate. A prison." It looked at Percy. "And it is weakening."
The shape faded before Hermione could ask another question. Leaves moved where it had stood, and the cold air eased around them.
"It called it a prison," Percy said. "The first figure called it a bridge. We should report both descriptions."
Ron looked pale. "So, if it breaks, what happens?"
"We do not know," Percy said. "I would like someone to explain what each part holds before we decide how to fix it."
On their way back, light appeared on a large oak beside the path. Percy recognized the mark from the chamber floor.
Hermione's voice trembled slightly. "Percy… I think this is part of the seal."
As Percy reached out toward it, the symbol pulsed, and a deep tremor rumbled through the forest floor.
And from somewhere far below the roots, something stirred.
Ron caught his sleeve when the ground moved. Percy waited until the tremor stopped, then looked at the mark again.
The light grew stronger when he approached. He held his hand above the bark, trying to feel whether water or the relic was causing the response.
Hermione whispered, "Percy, wait, if this is the seal, touching it again might—"
Too late. His fingers brushed the symbol.
There was a flash, white-gold light erupting from the tree, and the forest vanished.
He wasn't standing anymore. He was… floating?
Around him stretched a vast, starless void. But he wasn't alone.
A pressure reached his thoughts. He could understand parts of it without hearing words, but he could not tell who was sending it.
The meaning was urgent: the seal was weak, the bridge was under strain, and something chained below had noticed him.
Percy saw flashes of images:
A dark figure beneath the earth, bound in spectral chains.
A younger Dumbledore standing at the forest's edge, casting enchantments.
The trident, his trident, breaking through storm clouds to strike down something vast and winged.
The Founders of Hogwarts, standing together, faces grim, surrounding a great glowing doorway made of roots, light, and runes.
Then came the voice again:
Only the guardian may mend the chain. But the guardian must first remember who they are.
The images broke apart. Percy tried to find the tree again and found the ground much sooner than he wanted.
He landed on the forest floor with a gasp, knees hitting soft moss. Hermione and Ron rushed to him.
"Percy! You disappeared, just vanished!" Hermione cried.
"It was just a few seconds," Ron said, eyes wide. "But you were glowing."
"There were chains," Percy said. "And people around a doorway. I saw Dumbledore, younger than he is now. I cannot tell you when or why."
He checked the bark without touching it again. The mark had gone. Hagrid came back through the trees when Ron called.
Hermione described the light and the time Percy had been missing. Hagrid examined the tree, then made them turn toward the castle before anybody tried another test.
Ron nodded. "And whatever's beneath it… it knows you're here now."
"We need to tell Dumbledore what the tree showed me," Percy said. "Especially the part with him in it."
That night, Percy kept remembering the younger Dumbledore. The trident stood beside the desk, where it made an occasional quiet sound he could not explain.
If the image was a memory, Dumbledore had been close to the boundary before. If it was a suggestion, somebody wanted Percy to suspect him.
Percy had asked about it after returning. Dumbledore had confirmed work on old forest wards, but not the scene Percy described. That distinction had not helped him sleep.
He was nearly asleep when a beak struck the window.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
An owl, unfamiliar, black-feathered, perched on the window ledge with a scroll tied to its leg. Percy opened the window, took the scroll, and unrolled it.
There was no signature. Just a single line, written in silver ink:
"The seal was meant to hold back more than just darkness. Don't trust the one who wears the wolf."
Percy checked the back of the message. No name, no request for a reply, and no evidence that the sender deserved his trust.
The one who wears the wolf?
Before he could puzzle it out, the owl gave a low hoot and disappeared into the night.
He stayed at the window until the owl was out of sight.
Another stranger had supplied an accusation and left Percy to decide what it meant. He put the letter with the other notes rather than treating it as an answer.
Lessons continued while the staff checked the lower passages.
Lupin took the practical Defense lessons Dumbledore had arranged. He corrected mistakes without making students afraid to try again, which Percy appreciated.
Percy kept the new note in his trunk. He read it more often than its single sentence deserved.
The accusation remained the same. The letter supplied nothing that would let him test it.
Lupin wore an old coat and brought battered books to class. He learned students' names quickly and remembered which exercises had troubled them.
Percy knew another reason the word wolf might refer to him. A fact from a remembered book was still not evidence that Lupin meant harm here.
It was after a Friday class when Percy approached Lupin.
"Professor, may I ask about the forest wards?" Percy said after Friday's lesson.
"The inspection with Hagrid?" Lupin asked.
"A mark on a tree showed me something. I would like to know whether that has happened to anyone else."
Lupin set down the book he had been putting away.
"That section of the forest connects to older work beneath the castle. You should not examine it without someone who knows the route."
Percy narrowed his eyes. "But you know about it."
"Enough to avoid testing it casually," Lupin said.
Percy waited for an explanation of how he knew. Lupin did not offer one, and the other students were still packing nearby.
Percy left with the answer and the warning competing in his head. Neither was enough to decide which person to trust.
Harry brought the Marauder's Map to the common-room table that evening. The twins had given it to him after the recent trouble, saying a person should at least know which corridor he was getting lost in.
"They could have led with this instead of a joke," Percy said, following the small footsteps.
"They did. The joke was written on the wrapping," Harry said.
But then Percy saw something strange, near the dungeons.
Lupin's name moved in a short circle near the lower dungeons, then stopped.
"What's he doing?" Percy muttered.
Hermione checked the position. "That is near the passages the staff have been inspecting. Some were sealed after the first war."
Harry tilted his head. "Think he's hiding something?"
"We could ask," Percy said. He looked at the motionless name. "I would like to see what he is actually doing before another warning tells me what to think."
Later, Harry brought his cloak. Ron and Hermione stayed near the approach while Percy and Harry followed the route on the map. Percy knew this was exactly the sort of choice McGonagall had warned about. He made it anyway.
The lower corridor smelled of damp stone. They kept close enough to fit under the cloak without stepping on each other.
They stopped when Lupin came into view.
Professor Lupin was standing in front of a stone archway, half-buried in rubble. He muttered something under his breath, and a shimmering doorway appeared.
Percy caught Harry's sleeve.
The opening resembled the doorway from the tree's images. Percy could recognize the shape without understanding the connection.
Lupin stepped through it.
They waited until he had passed through, then followed before the opening closed.
Harry stopped just inside. Percy nearly stepped on his heel.
A circular seal filled the chamber floor. Carved beasts lined the walls, and light moved along several of the marks beneath Lupin's feet.
Professor Lupin knelt beside it, placing one hand on the seal. His expression wasn't malicious, it was pained.
His next words were quiet, but the empty room carried them.
"I've kept the promise, Fenrir. I've kept him away from the forest. But now the tides are shifting. He's already touched the tree."
Percy knew Greyback's name. He had not expected to hear it as part of a promise made over the seal.
Lupin rose and looked directly toward their position.
"I know you're there," he said, voice calm. "Come out."
They stepped forward slowly, the invisibility cloak falling away.
"You're working with Greyback?" Harry asked, voice full of disbelief.
Lupin's expression darkened. "It's not what you think."
"Someone warned me about the one who wears the wolf," Percy said. "I have not decided what that means. What promise were you talking about?"
That stopped Lupin cold. His eyes flicked to Percy. "You've seen it?"
Percy nodded. "The seal. The chained one beneath the forest."
Lupin looked from the boys to the seal. "I owe you an explanation. First, step away from that line."
Stone scraped beneath the nearest mark. Its light turned red.
A crack opened across the seal. Lupin moved between it and the boys before either could ask the next question.
To Be Continued... Next week!
I'm so... tired.
I'm so... tired.
I'm so... tired.
Important things should be said thrice
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