Umbridge was placed under guard before they returned to the castle.
Amelia Dorridge took responsibility for her personally, which seemed to offend Umbridge more than the arrest itself. Two Aurors removed her wand, searched her robes, and sealed what remained of the extraction frame inside a Ministry containment box.
Percy watched from the shore while Madam Pomfrey checked Harry. The chain had left no physical wound, but Harry looked exhausted, and the scar on his forehead had become red.
"You are going to the hospital wing," Madam Pomfrey said.
Harry looked toward the lake.
"I'm fine."
"You were pulled across the ground by an experimental magical chain."
"I'm still fine."
"You may continue being fine in a hospital bed."
Ron covered his mouth.
Percy looked at him.
"Don't."
"I'm not saying anything."
"You were about to."
"I was thinking supportively."
Hermione ignored both of them. She was staring at the black water with her arms folded tightly across her chest.
Percy noticed.
"What?"
"The crack."
"What about it?"
"It stayed open."
Percy looked back toward the lake. The surface appeared normal now, but he could still feel the damage below.
"Yes."
Hermione lowered her voice.
"Then destroying the machine didn't stop the process."
"No."
Harry stopped arguing with Madam Pomfrey.
"How long do we have?"
Percy did not answer immediately. He had no way to measure the crack, but every few minutes he felt another small change in the pressure around it.
"I don't know."
That answer silenced all of them.
Dumbledore approached from the water's edge. His robes were wet near the bottom, but he seemed not to notice.
"We should return to the castle."
Percy looked at him.
"Aequor spoke to me again."
Dumbledore stopped.
"What did it say?"
"Too late."
Nobody seemed to like that.
Hermione stepped closer.
"Too late for what?"
Percy looked toward the lake again.
"I think that's what we need to find out."
--------------------------------------[Borken Line (woof)]--------------------------
Umbridge's arrest changed Hogwarts almost immediately.
By lunch, the Educational Decrees were still attached to the walls, but nobody was enforcing most of them. Several students began removing the smaller notices until McGonagall appeared and told them to stop damaging school property.
She waited until they turned away before removing one herself.
Percy was not there to see it.
Madam Pomfrey examined them in the hospital wing before allowing a short meeting. Percy, Harry, Ron, and Hermione went to Dumbledore's office with Lupin. Dorridge, Kingsley, McGonagall, and Flitwick joined them there.
The room felt unusually crowded.
Percy sat beside Harry near Dumbledore's desk. Harry had been given a strengthening potion and looked slightly better, although he was still annoyed about having to drink it.
Amelia opened a folder.
"We have recovered enough evidence to suspend Dolores Umbridge from all Ministry duties while the investigation continues."
Ron looked at her.
"Only suspend?"
Amelia's eyes moved toward him.
"We investigate before we convict people."
Ron glanced at Percy.
"Strange idea."
Percy nodded.
"Very experimental."
Amelia continued as if neither of them had spoken.
"However, there is a larger problem. Some of the equipment used today came from restricted Ministry storage."
Dumbledore folded his hands.
"Was Professor Umbridge authorized to remove it?"
"No."
"Then how did she obtain it?"
Amelia hesitated.
"She used authorization from the Minister's office."
Hermione frowned.
"Did the Minister actually approve it?"
"We are verifying that."
Percy leaned forward.
"Meaning you think she forged it."
"I will compare the signature with the Minister's office copy," Dorridge said.
Kingsley spoke from beside the door.
"The order did not come through the usual desk," Kingsley said.
Amelia looked at him.
"Shacklebolt."
"Fudge's staff have no record of his approving the focus."
Percy looked between them.
"Then who signed it?"
Kingsley nodded.
"That is what they are checking."
Amelia closed the folder.
"The political problem can wait. The magical problem cannot."
Dumbledore turned toward Hermione.
"You recovered several of Professor Umbridge's notes."
Hermione opened her bag and removed a thick stack of parchment. Most of it was copied material, but Dumbledore had also recovered several original documents before the office was sealed.
"We have been reading them since yesterday."
Ron looked at her.
"You have been reading them."
"You were there."
"I was emotionally present."
Hermione ignored him.
"The same three categories appear again and again. Sea alignment, bloodline resonance and linguistic or mental resonance."
Percy looked at her.
"Me, Harry and you."
"Probably."
Harry frowned.
"Why Hermione?"
Hermione pulled out another page.
"Umbridge tested everyone in our Defence class. She kept records of how the dampeners reacted to each student."
Percy remembered the brass devices along the walls.
"They weren't only watching me."
"No."
Hermione turned the parchment toward them.
"Your readings were the highest. Harry and I had the next consistent reactions. That is what her table records, anyway."
Ron looked offended.
"I produced nothing?"
"You produced a temperature fluctuation of point three degrees."
Ron stared at her.
"That's something."
"It was measured beside a radiator. I cannot tell which one warmed the plate."
Ron leaned back.
"Still counts."
Percy looked toward Hermione's entry.
"Why did you react?"
"I don't know."
Dumbledore stood.
"Perhaps we have been asking the wrong question."
He walked toward one of the shelves behind his desk and removed a narrow wooden case. The box looked much older than the books around it.
Dumbledore placed it on the desk and opened it.
Inside was a piece of black stone.
Percy immediately felt pressure behind his eyes.
He stood.
"What is that?"
Dumbledore looked at him.
"Tell me what you feel," Dumbledore said.
"Very clearly."
Harry moved slightly away from the desk.
"Should we be worried?"
"Move back for now," Dumbledore said. "I will leave it in the case."
Ron looked at the stone.
"I don't like the 'yet.'"
Dumbledore lifted the object carefully. Thin silver symbols covered one side of it.
"This was recovered from an old chamber beneath the school. It was cataloged as a loose foundation fragment. I requested it after comparing Miss Granger's drawings with the archive record."
Hermione leaned closer.
"Those aren't normal runes."
"No."
Percy looked at the symbols.
"They look like the writing near the seal."
Dumbledore nodded.
"They are."
Hermione's attention sharpened.
"You knew?"
"I recognized a few marks in the drawings. I wanted to compare the original."
Percy stared at him.
"It was in the archive while we were looking for the inscriptions?"
Dumbledore looked mildly uncomfortable.
"Under a description that told us very little," Dumbledore said.
"It is unwise."
"I have asked them to bring every fragment from that chamber for comparison."
Percy sat back down.
"I hate wizards."
Harry looked at him.
"You're technically one now."
"That makes it worse."
Hermione was already studying the symbols. She traced one line without touching the stone.
"I recognize this section."
Dumbledore handed her a sheet of parchment.
"Write the part you recognize," Dumbledore said. "Do not speak it aloud near the stone."
Hermione looked at him.
"Have you translated it?"
"Part of it. I want to compare your reading before we attempt anything with it."
Hermione frowned, then looked back at the stone.
For almost a minute, nobody spoke.
Then her expression changed.
"This isn't a sentence."
Flitwick moved closer.
"What is it?"
"It's an instruction."
Hermione took out a quill and began writing.
"Not exactly an instruction. More like a sequence."
Percy looked over her shoulder.
"What sequence?"
Hermione wrote three phrases, then read them from the page while Dumbledore closed the case.
"Sea carries."
She wrote the first phrase.
"Blood identifies."
The second.
"Mind remembers."
The third.
Then she stopped.
Harry looked at her.
"That's us."
Hermione did not answer.
Percy looked toward Dumbledore.
"Do these match Umbridge's categories?"
"They appear to," Dumbledore said.
"Then she had some version of this before we did."
"We need to find out where she obtained it."
McGonagall gave Dumbledore a look.
He sighed.
"The stone predates the current castle. I have never been able to translate the complete inscription because parts of the language are not magical runes."
Hermione looked up.
"They're mixed."
Flitwick nodded.
"Several languages?"
"More than that."
Hermione pointed toward different symbols.
"Some resemble early coastal marks. Others look close to the Greek letters in the temple account. I will need a reference book to check them."
Percy looked at the stone again.
"Ancient Greek?"
Hermione nodded.
"I do not recognize the remaining marks. They match some of the shapes around the lake pillars."
The room became quiet.
Percy felt the lake below them.
Aequor.
Dumbledore sat down.
"The founders appear to have added to an older binding," Dumbledore said.
Harry frowned.
"Then who made it?"
Dumbledore looked toward Percy.
"That is what we need to discover."
------------------------------[One More Borken Line (More woof)]------------------------
They moved to the library an hour later.
The restricted section had been closed to everyone else, and Madam Pince was furious about it. Percy suspected she considered ancient monsters less dangerous than students touching rare books.
Hermione had spread six large volumes across one table.
Percy stared at them.
"I preferred the lake."
"You nearly drowned."
"Still fewer books."
Hermione opened another volume.
"We need information from before Hogwarts was built."
Ron looked at the shelves.
"Hogwarts is a thousand years old."
"Approximately."
"That's a lot of reading."
"You can help."
Ron immediately picked up the smallest book available.
Percy sat beside Harry.
Harry had been quiet since Dumbledore showed them the stone.
Percy noticed.
"Scar?"
Harry shook his head.
"Not hurting."
"That's good."
"Maybe."
Percy understood.
The chain had drawn darker light from the direction of Harry's scar. Percy remembered what he had read in his old life. He had not told Harry that part.
Harry looked at him.
"What if it can use him?"
Percy did not need to ask who he meant.
"Voldemort?"
Harry nodded.
"If the thing can use the magic in my scar, could it reach him too?"
Percy looked toward Hermione.
"That's a horrible question."
Harry gave him a tired smile.
"I know."
"So we should probably ask her."
Hermione heard them anyway.
"Ask me what?"
Harry repeated the question.
Hermione stopped turning pages.
For several seconds, she said nothing.
"Maybe."
Ron lowered his book.
"Can we have one answer today that isn't 'maybe'?"
"No."
"Thought so."
Hermione pulled another parchment closer.
"You have described dreams connected to Voldemort," Hermione said. "We do not know whether he has experienced anything from your side."
Harry nodded.
"I have seen things I could not have seen here," Harry said.
"Then if the entity can enter magical connections, it might be able to reach Voldemort through you."
Percy leaned back.
"Would that help us or make everything much worse?"
"I would not count on it helping us," Hermione said.
Ron closed his book.
"Excellent."
Hermione continued.
"If it reaches him, he might recognize the intrusion."
Harry looked uncomfortable.
"My scar has reacted before. This time it barely hurt."
"Then we need to assume he will know something is happening."
Percy looked at Harry.
"Does he know about the lake?"
"I don't think so."
Dumbledore's voice came from behind them.
"He may soon."
They turned.
Dumbledore carried another book, but this one was much thinner.
Hermione stood immediately.
"Did you find something?"
"Possibly."
Percy looked at Ron.
"There it is again."
Ron nodded.
"It's spreading."
Dumbledore placed the book on the table.
It was not a printed book.
It was a journal.
The leather cover had almost completely worn away, and the pages were brown with age.
Hermione looked at the first page.
"Who wrote this?"
Dumbledore answered quietly.
"Helena Ravenclaw."
Harry stared at him.
"The Grey Lady?"
"Before she became the Grey Lady."
Hermione opened the journal carefully.
"Why is this still here?"
"It was hidden in Ravenclaw Tower until approximately fifty years ago."
Ron looked at Dumbledore.
"Who found it?"
Dumbledore paused.
Percy already disliked the answer.
"Tom Riddle."
Harry's face changed.
"Voldemort had this?"
"For a short time."
Dumbledore opened the journal to a marked page.
"He was searching for information about the founders."
Hermione began reading.
The handwriting was old but clear.
She translated aloud.
"My mother spoke again of the lower chamber. She believes the old guardian weakens, though Father says the binding will hold after all of us are gone."
Percy leaned closer.
"Guardian."
"Aequor," Harry said.
Hermione continued.
"The sea creature is not prisoner but keeper. Its duty is to watch the gate and warn those above should the dark beyond begin to wake."
Percy stopped breathing for a moment.
The journal described Aequor as a keeper.
That matched what Percy had seen at the dome.
It did not explain how the guardian had become bound to the gate.
He wanted to ask Aequor whether it had chosen that duty.
Hermione continued reading.
"The four founders strengthened what came before them, but they did not make the first binding. The old people of the coast built it with those who came from the sea."
Percy looked toward Dumbledore.
"Those who came from the sea."
Dumbledore nodded.
"There may have been people working with the coastal guardians before Hogwarts," Dumbledore said. "This account does not name them."
Percy looked back at the page.
The phrase reminded Percy of home. He kept reading before anyone could ask why.
Hermione turned the page.
"There are three locks upon the gate. The first is carried by the sea. The second knows the blood of those who built upon this land. The third remembers the words by which the gate was made."
She stopped.
Nobody spoke.
Ron slowly looked around the table.
"Percy. Harry. Hermione."
Hermione nodded.
"The three categories."
Percy's stomach tightened.
"She matched us to the parts of the seal," Percy said.
Dumbledore looked at him.
"No."
"Then treated those parts as things she could collect."
Harry stared at the journal.
"And then connected all of us to the seal."
Hermione looked sick.
"Not fully. But enough for the entity to learn what each part does."
Percy walked to the end of the table. He could still feel the sore place where the band had pulled at him.
"My power showed it how the sea part works."
Hermione nodded.
"Harry showed it the bloodline part."
Harry looked at her.
"And you?"
Hermione looked toward the old stone.
"The marks formed around my wand during the breaches," Hermione said. "She also had copies of everything I submitted for review."
Percy stopped.
"When?"
"In the classroom and at the fountain."
She looked horrified.
"I thought the copied words would help her understand what was happening."
Dumbledore's expression became grim.
"You were."
Hermione looked at him.
"And she used them to build the frame."
Dumbledore put the copied list beside the journal. "She chose to use it after Flitwick warned her to stop."
--------------------------------[Third Bork]--------------------------------
The journal contained more.
Not much, but enough.
Helena Ravenclaw had written that the original seal required three forms of magic because no single person was supposed to control the gate. The sea carried power into the binding, the bloodline gave the seal an identity, and the remembered language told it what shape to hold.
The founders had strengthened the blood component with their own magic when Hogwarts was built. Over the centuries, however, the original bloodlines had weakened, split or disappeared.
Harry was different.
The scar connection had produced a strong reaction in Umbridge's equipment. Hermione thought it might carry a trace of Voldemort's inherited magic.
That could explain the bloodline reading. It did not tell them what had been taken from Harry.
Hermione looked toward Harry.
"The chain reacted to the connection in your scar," Hermione said.
Harry gave her a dry look.
"That's comforting."
"It may have been reaching for the Slytherin signature through you."
"Less comforting."
Percy pointed toward the journal.
"What happens if it gets all three locks?"
Hermione turned several pages.
"I don't know yet."
Ron leaned back.
"Fantastic."
Percy looked toward Dumbledore.
"You do."
Dumbledore's eyes remained on the journal.
"I have a theory."
Percy waited.
Dumbledore sighed.
"If the three locks are brought together in the correct way, they can strengthen the seal."
Harry understood first.
"And if they're brought together in the wrong way?"
Dumbledore looked at him.
"They can open it."
The silence that followed lasted several seconds.
Percy finally sat down.
"So Umbridge almost opened the gate because she accidentally collected the exact three things needed to do it."
Hermione shook her head.
"Not accidentally."
Percy looked at her.
"What?"
"Look."
She turned one of Umbridge's documents around.
Near the bottom was a line they had ignored before.
TRIUNE CONFIGURATION REQUIRED.
Percy read it twice.
"She knew."
Hermione nodded.
"Maybe not what the gate was, but she knew she needed three compatible sources."
Harry looked toward Dumbledore.
"Who told her?"
Nobody had an answer.
Percy remembered the pressure below the lake and the commands he had heard there.
Then he remembered something else.
"It may have reached her before it reached us."
Hermione frowned.
"What?"
"Not with words."
Percy tried to explain the feeling he had experienced below the lake.
"It sent words into my head below the lake. She had the sample and those copied marks beside her for days."
Harry's expression changed.
"You think it guided her."
"Maybe."
Ron groaned.
"There it is again."
Percy ignored him.
"Umbridge thought she was experimenting on the seal, but every experiment gave it more information."
Dumbledore nodded slowly.
"And perhaps suggestions in return."
Harry looked toward the door.
"Then we need to ask her."
----------------------------------[Fast Bork]-----------------------------
Umbridge refused to speak for eleven minutes.
Amelia had placed her inside an unused classroom with Kingsley outside the door. Her wand was gone, her robes had been dried, and her usual smile had disappeared completely.
Dorridge asked Percy to describe what he had felt near the frame. He sat at the side of her desk, well away from Umbridge.
Dumbledore stayed beside him. Harry and Hermione waited near the door until Dorridge asked whether they had questions about the sample order.
Umbridge looked at Percy with open hatred.
"You destroyed years of work."
Percy stared at her.
"You're welcome."
Dumbledore stepped forward.
"Professor Umbridge, we need to know how you learned about the three resonance types."
She looked away.
Amelia placed one of the recovered documents on the desk.
"You were not authorized to access this information."
Umbridge's expression did not change.
"I received guidance."
Hermione leaned forward.
"From whom?"
Umbridge hesitated.
Percy noticed.
"You don't know."
Umbridge looked at him.
"Do not speak to me like that."
"You don't know who told you."
Her face tightened.
Percy looked to Dorridge before asking another question. She nodded.
"Did you ever meet them?"
Silence.
"Did they send letters?"
Umbridge said nothing.
"Did you hear a voice?"
Her eyes moved.
Dorridge noted the pause and repeated the question.
Harry stepped closer.
"Was it like the voice at the lake?" Harry asked.
Umbridge looked at him.
"It was not a voice."
Percy felt cold.
"What was it?"
Umbridge's hands tightened together.
"Dreams."
Nobody moved.
She continued reluctantly.
"They began after the first resonance test."
Hermione went pale.
"What did you see?"
Umbridge looked toward Amelia as if deciding whether she could still escape the situation by saying nothing.
Dorridge waited. She kept her pen above the page without pressing Umbridge to answer.
Umbridge spoke.
"A chamber beneath the lake."
Percy felt Aequor shift far below them.
"And?"
"A gate."
"What else?"
Umbridge's voice became quieter.
"Three figures."
Harry looked at Hermione.
Percy looked at Hermione.
"Did you recognize them?"
Umbridge did not answer.
Dumbledore stepped closer.
"What did the dreams tell you?"
"They did not tell me anything."
Percy shook his head.
"What did they show you?"
Umbridge kept her eyes on the desk.
Umbridge stared at the desk.
"A way to contain him."
She pointed toward Percy.
Percy frowned.
"Me?"
"The dreams showed what would happen if your abilities continued to grow. Flooded cities. Broken coastlines. Thousands dead."
Percy stared at her.
For the first time, Umbridge did not sound angry.
She sounded afraid.
"The Ministry refused to act because you were a child," she continued. "Dumbledore refused because he believed you could be controlled."
Dumbledore's eyes narrowed.
"No such discussion occurred."
Umbridge looked at him.
"Not with you."
Amelia stepped forward.
"Dolores, who did you speak to?"
"I told you. Nobody."
"Then why did you believe the dreams?"
Umbridge's composure finally cracked.
"Because they were true!"
The room became silent.
She looked at Percy.
"I saw you standing above London while the Thames covered the streets. I saw Hogwarts broken open beneath you. I saw the sea rise when you became angry."
Percy did not know what to say.
Umbridge looked toward Harry.
"And I saw him beside you."
Harry's face tightened.
"What was I doing?"
Umbridge hesitated.
"Burning."
Harry touched his scar.
Hermione stepped closer.
"And me?"
Umbridge looked at her.
"You were speaking."
"What was I saying?"
"I couldn't understand it."
Hermione's expression changed.
"The seal language."
Percy looked at Dumbledore.
Percy thought of the three categories on the list.
The dreams had shown her people who matched each one.
They had also given her a reason to fear those people.
Percy stood.
"It wanted you to build the machine."
Umbridge looked at him.
"No."
"You thought the dreams were warnings."
"They were."
Percy shook his head.
"They showed you which people to use," Percy said. "Your machine joined the same three together."
Umbridge stared at him. Dorridge asked when she had first written the component list.
----------------------------------[Short Bork]------------------------------
They left her with Amelia.
Nobody spoke until they reached Dumbledore's office.
Harry sat near the window while Hermione immediately returned to Helena's journal. Ron remained close to her, unusually quiet.
Percy stood beside Dumbledore.
"Can it see the future?"
Dumbledore looked toward him.
"I do not know."
"Those dreams."
"They may not have been predictions."
Percy frowned.
"Then what were they?"
"They could have been invented," Dumbledore said.
Dumbledore walked toward the window.
"Umbridge did not see those events outside a dream. We will not treat them as something you are bound to do."
Percy looked at the water pitcher on the desk.
He had moved water in anger before.
That did not tell him whether any part of the dream was true.
Harry looked over.
"So it used her."
"It appears to have influenced her," Dumbledore said. "We still need to check the records of what she chose to do."
Hermione suddenly stopped reading.
"Professor."
Everyone turned.
She had found another section near the end of Helena's journal.
"This was written after the founders strengthened the seal."
Dumbledore moved closer.
Hermione read aloud.
"Should the gate weaken beyond repair, the three locks may close it again, but the binding must take from each what first made it whole."
Percy frowned.
"That's vague."
"It's old magic."
"Old people really hated clear instructions."
Hermione continued translating.
"The sea must surrender its claim. The blood must surrender its inheritance. The mind must surrender what it remembers."
Nobody spoke.
Percy looked at Harry.
Harry looked at Hermione.
Then all three looked toward Dumbledore.
Ron was the first to say it.
"What does that mean?"
Hermione stared at the page.
"I don't know."
Percy watched her thumb tighten against the page. She had an answer she did not want to say.
"Hermione."
She looked up.
"It could be asking for a price," Hermione said.
Harry's voice was quiet.
"What price?"
Hermione looked toward Percy first.
"The sea must surrender its claim."
She swallowed.
"Percy may have to give up his connection to the sea."
Percy felt as if the room had shifted slightly.
Harry looked toward her.
"And the blood?"
Hermione looked at his scar.
"The inherited signature. The connection in your scar may be what makes it read you that way."
Harry understood.
"Voldemort's magic," Harry said.
"Possibly," Hermione said.
Ron looked between them.
"That sounds good."
"It may not be removable safely."
Ron stopped smiling.
Then Percy looked at Hermione.
"And the mind?"
Hermione closed the journal.
Nobody needed to ask what the line said again.
The mind must surrender what it remembers.
Percy stared at her.
"Your memory."
Hermione did not answer immediately.
"Maybe."
Ron stood.
"No."
Hermione looked at him.
"We don't know what it means yet."
"You just said it."
"I said what I think it means."
"No."
Percy understood the reaction.
Percy imagined reaching for water and feeling nothing. Then he looked at Harry's scar and Hermione's hand on the journal.
They were guessing at three different kinds of loss.
None of the lines told them how much the binding would take.
He wanted another translation before anyone tried to pay it.
Dumbledore took the journal.
"We are not making any decisions until we understand the inscription fully."
Percy looked toward him.
"But the crack is still growing."
Dumbledore did not deny it.
"Yes."
"How long?"
Percy already knew there was no exact answer.
Dumbledore looked toward the dark window.
"I cannot give you a reliable number from these records."
Percy felt the lake below Hogwarts.
The crack shifted again.
The current lost one of its return paths.
Percy's expression changed.
"It has changed again," Percy said.
Everyone looked at him.
Percy closed his eyes.
The pressure below was growing faster.
Aequor moved around the threshold, pushing against the fracture with its own power.
Percy opened his eyes.
"We need to act faster than the last repair."
Harry stood.
"How many?"
Percy looked toward the floor.
He wished Aequor could give him numbers.
Instead, another meaning entered his mind from far below.
SEVEN.
Percy froze.
Hermione saw it.
"What?"
He looked at them.
"Aequor answered."
Dumbledore stepped closer.
"What did it say?"
Percy felt the ancient guardian again.
The meaning did not change.
SEVEN.
He looked toward Harry and Hermione.
"Seven," Percy said. "I asked how long, and it answered seven. It could mean days."
Outside the office windows, the Black Lake remained perfectly calm.
Below the lake, Aequor held the current across the damaged route. Percy wrote down the number before trying to interpret it.
------------
To Be Continued...
*More barking*
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p a t r e o n . c o m /Reader004 (remove space)