Percy went to bed before deciding sleep was unlikely. At least he had stopped conducting that argument beside a cup of water.
The room became quiet. He could still feel the water beyond it, and kept turning onto a different shoulder as if that might make it less noticeable.
When he finally drifted off, the dreams came instantly.
In the dream, he floated above a trench. He could not see its bottom, and every attempt to move away left him in the same place.
Then, a massive golden eye snapped open beneath him.
He tried to swim upward. His arms moved without carrying him anywhere, and the voice reached him before he could try again.
"The surface is weak. The gods are fading. I rise, child of the sea."
He tried to shout back, to call for his father, but only bubbles escaped his mouth.
"You will help open the way," the voice continued, "whether you choose to or not."
Light showed through a widening crack. Something large gripped its edge from below. Percy could see the pressure on the stone before seeing enough of the hand to name it.
The current pulled him downward. He tried to hold the nearest water and woke before finding out whether it answered.
He jolted awake, gasping for breath. Sweat soaked his pajamas, and his sheets were twisted into ropes around his legs.
Harry was awake too. Percy asked what he had seen before describing his own dream, and both named the eye.
"Another vision?" Percy croaked, his throat raw.
Harry nodded. "I think... it's getting closer. Stronger. I saw the same... eye."
Ron came over from his bed. They went downstairs to the common room, where Hermione was still putting away her books, rather than expecting her to be in their dormitory.
She found fresh parchment. "Tell me separately. I want to know which parts match before we explain them to each other."
Percy gave the sequence as he remembered it. Harry added what had happened in his version, stopping when the scar hurt instead of using the pain to look farther.
Hermione compared the pages. "The eye and the demand match. We should tell Dumbledore those parts. We do not have to accept the speaker's account of what it is."
Ron sat back, looking pale. "Brilliant. So now we're on the menu of some sea monster and Voldemort. Just fantastic."
Hermione took a breath before answering Ron. "I know you are frightened too. Let us work out what actually changed before imagining every possible disaster."
Percy kept looking toward the staircase. The threat had felt personal enough that an ordinary room seemed unexpectedly difficult to trust.
Harry stood abruptly. "We need to see Dumbledore again. We can't just keep this to ourselves."
"We should avoid trying to summon the dream again," Hermione said. "Giving an account is different. He needs to know it reached both of you."
They all fell silent. Outside, the first pale light of dawn started to filter through the windows, turning the stone walls a cold grey.
Finally, Percy stood too. "We can't just wait. We go to Dumbledore. Now."
They dressed and found the current password. Ron carried a lantern because nobody wanted another mysterious voice supplying directions in the dark.
Portraits complained as they passed. Percy found the complaints reassuring: at least someone in the castle still cared chiefly about being woken.
When they reached the gargoyle guarding Dumbledore's office, Harry spoke the password "Fizzing Whizzbee" and the stone creature leapt aside.
Dumbledore was working at his desk. He looked at the notes Hermione carried before making room for the four of them.
"Another contact?" he asked. "Tell me what happened."
Percy nodded, his mouth dry. "It's getting stronger. It wants me to open the way. It called me 'child of the sea.'"
Harry stepped forward, trembling with anger and fear. "And it keeps saying the surface is weak, that it's coming. We can't stop it alone."
Dumbledore read the two accounts side by side. "The same route may be reaching more than one of you. We need to interrupt that, not simply endure it."
He found a diagram of a binding surrounded by wave marks. Percy recognized one of its shapes and disliked how familiar it was becoming.
"This describes coastal binding work," Dumbledore said. "It may show a way to strengthen part of the structure. I want it compared with what is actually beneath Hogwarts."
Hermione leaned in, her fingers trembling as she traced the drawing. "Could we recreate it? Strengthen it somehow?"
Dumbledore nodded slowly. "Perhaps, but it would require immense magical energy, and the cooperation of many powerful witches and wizards. Even then, there is no guarantee."
Percy put both hands around the warm cup Dumbledore gave him. The dream had left his fingers cold, and he preferred attending to something that did not ask for an answer.
Dumbledore's gaze shifted to Harry. "And you, Harry, your connection to Voldemort complicates this further. If Voldemort senses this creature, he may seek to ally with it, or use its chaos to his advantage."
Ron let out a strangled sound. "Merlin's beard. We really are in deep now."
Dumbledore closed the book with a soft snap. "For now, you must all rest as best you can. We will begin preparing protective wards around the castle immediately. I will also send word to trusted allies in the Ministry and beyond, carefully, discreetly."
Hermione frowned. "But what about the rest of the students? What if it comes while we're here?"
"The staff will prepare a response and routes out," Dumbledore said. "Keeping the school open is not a reason to leave children without one."
Percy looked at Harry. Being told somebody else would take responsibility did not make him calm, but it made the next breath easier.
At the door, pressure reached Percy again. He stopped and told Dumbledore before turning it into a private warning.
"SOON."
His hand stayed on the doorframe while he waited for the pressure to end.
Harry reported the same word.
Dumbledore added the time to both accounts and asked them to return to bed together.
After breakfast the next day, the headmaster had new records to show them. Percy was grateful that this meeting began with information rather than another demand from below.
His reflection looked like his own face. He checked it too often anyway, especially when water moved beside him without his asking.
Harry struggled with the marmalade until Ron traded him a clean knife. Hermione kept the notes closed long enough to eat, though her foot moved beneath the table the whole time.
Dumbledore had sent for them early. The moment breakfast ended, they slipped away from the crowded hall, ignoring the curious stares of the other students.
Dumbledore had cleared space for an old chart. The exhaustion in his face suggested the work had continued while they slept.
"I have a location to compare with the temple records," he said. "Come and look."
Hermione immediately burst out with questions. "Professor, have you learned anything more about the sigil? Or how to reinforce it? Do we know what exactly is rising?"
He turned the chart so Hermione could see it properly before asking her to compare the marks.
He drew a map from his robes. An old, yellowing chart of the North Atlantic, filled with strange markings and runes along the edges. In the center, a single black spiral had been inked, surrounded by layered protective symbols.
"This record places an original binding beneath the Atlantic," Dumbledore said. "The local temples may connect to it. That would explain a sea route appearing beneath a freshwater lake."
Percy studied the marked trench. It resembled the dream, but he could not measure a place from a picture that had tried to frighten him.
"The old maintenance has weakened," Dumbledore said. "More recent disturbances may have accelerated it. We need to establish which changes are causes and which are consequences."
Harry gripped the arms of his chair. "So it's my fault too," he said, his voice thick.
"No," Dumbledore said. "Being reached by it does not mean you invited it. Do not accept responsibility somebody else finds convenient to give you."
Hermione leaned forward. "So what can we do? How do we stop it?"
"We have contacted people who know the old coastal work," Dumbledore said. "Merfolk, water spirits, and surviving practitioners. Some may be able to explain what our records omit."
Percy felt his stomach twist. "And me?" he asked quietly. "Why does it keep calling me 'child of the sea'?"
"Your magic matches the sea component," Dumbledore said. "That may allow it to use you. It may also allow you to help close that route. The second possibility does not excuse neglecting the first."
Percy watched the headmaster. He wanted to help, but wanted somebody to stop speaking as if the help was already owed.
Ron, who had been uncharacteristically quiet, finally blurted, "So... we're going to go looking for sea druids and fish folk? Brilliant. Absolutely mad."
Hermione looked at the chart. "Then the record comparison matters. We should not go searching the sea without knowing which part we can actually reach."
Dumbledore confirmed that classes would continue while the outside investigation proceeded. Reports of Death Eaters near the North Sea would be checked by people equipped for that work.
Harry clenched his fists, his green eyes blazing. "Then we'll stop them. We'll stop all of it."
"You need not promise to stop every part of it today," Dumbledore told Harry. "Learn how to keep the connection from making decisions for you first."
The meeting ended with separate tasks and people responsible for them. Percy found that more useful than a declaration that the coming days would be difficult.
On the way back, they passed a portrait complaining about the wind. Ron told it the rest of them had complaints too, and Percy laughed despite himself.
Once they reached Gryffindor Tower, they collapsed into the common room. The fire crackled, casting shifting shadows on their faces.
Ron flopped onto an armchair and groaned. "We should be worried about Quidditch tryouts and homework, not bloody sea gods!"
Hermione ignored him, already buried in her books. "We need to find a list of druidic covens that still exist. And we'll need merfolk language guides. Oh, and waterproof ink!"
Harry stood at the window while Hermione checked another reference. He was looking at the lake without trying to receive anything from it.
Percy joined him. "I keep thinking I should be able to do more. Then I cannot even tell which response is mine."
"Tell us when that happens," Harry said. "We can help with the bit you cannot see by yourself."
Percy nodded. He had wanted assurance about a final battle and received something he could use this afternoon.
Behind them, Hermione suddenly exclaimed, "I found something!" She waved an old, brittle book in the air, her eyes bright with excitement and fear. "There's a mention of a 'Trident Convergence', a ritual that can combine sea magic and wizard magic to strengthen ancient bindings."
Percy's heart jolted. "Where? How?"
Hermione read quickly, flipping pages. "It has to be performed at the original binding site, at the trench. We'll need a focus object, something sacred to Poseidon or an ancient sea spirit."
Ron groaned again, sliding deeper into the armchair. "So now we need a magic seashell or trident, a bunch of chanting druids, and a boat trip to the middle of the Atlantic? Brilliant."
"We need to show them this passage," Hermione said. "The required focus may already be among the recovered objects."
The fire crackled again, spitting sparks.
Percy felt the distant pressure while she marked the reference. He stayed beside the table and said when it reached him.
The word remained the same: soon. They recorded it without letting it decide how fast they worked.
To Be Continued...
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