That night, Hogwarts slept carefully.
No one said it out loud.
Students still joked in the common rooms. Fred and George tried to sell "I Survived the Tournament" badges until McGonagall confiscated the first batch. Ron hid the Chomping Cabbages under his bed and warned them not to bite anyone's socks.
Hermione checked her leaf talisman three times before sleeping.
Harry kept the willow branch under his pillow.
Theodore was not in the dormitory.
That alone made Harry open one eye before midnight.
Across the room, Ron was snoring softly. One Chomping Cabbage poked its head out from under the bed, listened to him for a moment, then retreated as if offended by the sound.
Harry sat up.
The room was dark.
Quiet.
Normal.
Then the leaf talisman beneath his pillow grew warm.
Harry froze.
Not hot.
Not burning.
Only warm enough to say: pay attention.
He reached for the willow branch.
The moment his fingers touched it, the room changed.
He was no longer in the dormitory.
He stood in a street made of black stone.
A city stretched around him, half-sunk in dark water. Tall buildings leaned over narrow canals. Windows glowed faintly, but there were no people inside. Above the city hung a sky without stars.
Harry's breath caught.
A dream.
He knew it was a dream.
Knowing did not make it less real.
Something moved at the far end of the street.
Harry raised the willow branch.
A voice whispered from the water.
Not Parseltongue.
Not English.
Not any language he knew.
But he understood the hunger inside it.
Come closer.
Harry took one step back.
The water in the canal rose.
A pale hand surfaced.
Then another.
Then dozens.
They gripped the edge of the stone street and began pulling themselves up.
Harry swung the willow branch.
Green light cut across the nearest hand.
It vanished into mist.
The others did not stop.
Harry's talisman burned against his chest.
The black city trembled.
Then a familiar voice sounded beside him.
"Not bad."
Harry turned.
Theodore stood there, robe sleeves neat, expression calm, as if visiting strange drowned cities in dreams was part of the school timetable.
Harry nearly sagged with relief.
"Theodore."
"You noticed it was a dream."
"Yes."
"Good."
Theodore looked toward the rising hands.
"Now cut only what reaches you. Don't chase."
Harry nodded at once.
The hands crawled closer.
Harry cut the first.
Then the second.
The third came from behind, but the willow branch pulled his wrist around in time. He struck too hard and stumbled.
Theodore did not help.
Harry recovered on his own.
This time, he adjusted his grip.
The next cut was smoother.
The drowned city rippled.
The whispering grew louder.
From the deepest building at the end of the street, something opened its eyes.
Harry did not see the shape clearly.
He only felt it.
A dream that wanted to be real.
Theodore raised his hand.
Fuxi Divine Heaven Resonance sounded softly through the empty street.
The black water froze.
The hands stopped climbing.
The buildings shook like reflections disturbed by a stone.
Harry's leaf talisman flashed green.
The dream shattered.
Harry woke in bed with a sharp breath.
His hand was still gripping the willow branch.
The dormitory remained quiet.
Ron snored once, turned over, and muttered, "Don't sell my cabbages…"
Harry stared at the ceiling.
Then he realized his sleeve was damp.
Not with sweat.
Water.
Black water dripped from the edge of his cuff and vanished before it touched the bedsheet.
Harry did not sleep again.
In the girls' dormitory, Hermione woke at almost the same time.
Her hand went straight to the fire-crab pendant.
Warm.
The leaf talisman beside it had turned slightly darker at the edges.
She sat up and lit her wand.
A faint mark had appeared on the parchment beside her bed.
She had not written it.
It was a circle.
Inside it, a tower shaped like a spine rose from black waves.
Hermione stared at it for several seconds.
Then she quietly reached for her notebook.
Fear could wait.
Notes could not.
By morning, Theodore found both of them waiting near the Great Hall entrance.
Harry looked tired.
Hermione looked tired and angry.
That was more dangerous.
Ron arrived a minute later, yawning and carrying a covered box.
"What happened? Why do you both look like you revised for exams in a haunted lake?"
Harry looked at Theodore.
"I had a dream."
Hermione lifted her notebook. "I had one too. I didn't see it directly, but it left a symbol."
Ron's sleepiness vanished.
He slowly looked down at his cabbage box.
The box shook once.
Very lightly.
Ron opened the lid.
Inside, every Chomping Cabbage was awake.
All of them were facing the same direction.
Toward the Black Lake.
Ron closed the lid.
"I hate mornings now."
Theodore took Hermione's notebook and looked at the drawing.
The spine-like tower.
The black waves.
The circle.
Same structure as the shard from the chains.
"So it reached dreams already," he said.
Hermione's face tightened. "You said it couldn't influence us directly."
"It didn't."
Ron pointed at the notebook. "That looks direct."
"It tried to find a matching frequency. Your talismans stopped it from touching your souls. What you saw was residue."
Harry frowned. "Residue had hands."
Theodore glanced at him.
"Then you handled residue well."
Harry did not know whether to feel praised or more worried.
Hermione crossed her arms.
"What is it?"
Theodore did not answer immediately.
That annoyed her more than a bad answer would have.
Before she could press him, Dumbledore appeared from the stairs, looking as if he had also slept very little.
"Mr. Snow."
"The dreams reached them."
Dumbledore's face became serious at once.
"Only them?"
"So far."
Ron raised his hand.
"My cabbages may have had a group experience."
Dumbledore paused.
"Do I wish to know more?"
"No," Theodore said.
"Wise."
They moved into an empty side classroom.
Dumbledore sealed the door.
Theodore placed Hermione's notebook on the desk and tapped the drawn circle.
"The thing below Gatekeeper is testing for openings. It cannot fully wake, but the damaged Ten Absolute Arrays gave it a taste of the school's surface. Now it knows there are minds here."
Hermione's knuckles tightened.
"Students."
"Yes."
Harry's expression hardened.
"Then we stop the dreams."
"We reduce the chance of contact first."
Ron looked relieved for half a second.
Then suspicious.
"How?"
Theodore looked at him.
Ron immediately regretted asking.
"You three still have leaf talismans. Tonight, you help test the dream barrier."
Ron closed his eyes.
"I knew it."
Hermione leaned forward. "Barrier around the dormitories?"
"Around all four common room regions first. Students sleep in clusters. Easier to protect."
Dumbledore nodded slowly.
"The founders' rooms already have old protections."
"And passwords, portraits, house identity, repeated habits," Theodore said. "All of those can become anchors."
Hermione's eyes lit despite her exhaustion.
"Dreams follow association. So a common room is easier to defend because everyone inside shares a mental idea of safety."
"Correct."
Ron looked between them.
"I understood none of that, but if it keeps creepy lake dreams out, I support it."
Harry nodded. "What do we do?"
Theodore smiled faintly.
"Sleep."
Ron stared.
"That sounds too easy."
"It will not be."
"Of course."
At the Headmaster's office, Quirrell sat bound in the chair and listened.
He should not have been able to hear anything happening outside the room.
But Voldemort could.
The Dark Lord had been silent through most of the night.
Now he spoke.
"The thing below is reaching dreams."
Quirrell's face was pale.
"My Lord… is that good?"
"No."
That answer surprised him.
Voldemort's voice was low, controlled, and colder than before.
"It is reaching beyond the formation. Beyond my design. Beyond my command."
Quirrell did not dare say that the formation had been beyond his command for some time.
Voldemort continued, "Snow wounded it. Now it is curious."
"Curious about what?"
"Everything above the lock."
Quirrell swallowed.
"And us?"
Voldemort was silent for a moment.
Then he said, "Especially us."
Quirrell's stomach turned.
For once, Voldemort did not sound pleased to be noticed by a higher power.
Theodore spent the rest of the day quietly changing Hogwarts again.
No grand announcement.
No visible ritual.
Only small things.
A leaf talisman behind the Gryffindor portrait.
A thin green line under the Ravenclaw tower door.
A mark hidden beneath the Hufflepuff barrels.
A Wutu seal carved into the stone near the Slytherin entrance, placed carefully enough not to disturb the lake-facing magic already there.
The common rooms were not just rooms.
They were habits.
Stories.
Belonging.
Theodore used that.
By evening, the four house regions had faint roots in the Wuzhuang foundation.
Thin.
Temporary.
Enough for a test.
When night came, Hermione lay awake again.
The leaf talisman rested beneath her pillow.
Huhu's pendant glowed softly against her chest.
For the first hour, nothing happened.
Then the room grew cold.
Hermione opened her eyes.
She stood once again in the black city.
This time, she was not alone.
Harry appeared beside her.
Ron appeared a moment later, clutching the cabbage box with both hands.
He looked around.
"Oh, brilliant. Nightmare field trip."
Theodore's voice came from above the drowned street.
"Stay together."
The three looked up.
There was no Theodore.
Only a green-gold line stretched across the starless sky like a root.
At the far end of the city, the spine tower opened its doors.
Something inside noticed them.
Ron opened the cabbage box.
The Chomping Cabbages looked out.
For once, none of them tried to bite him.
Ron swallowed.
"That is either very good or very bad."
The black water began to rise.
Hermione lifted her wand.
Harry raised the willow branch.
Ron held the box forward.
From above, the green-gold line brightened.
The first test of the dream barrier had begun.
◇ BONUS & SUPPORT ◇
◇ 1 bonus chapter for every 10 reviews — drop a comment!
◇ 1 bonus chapter for every 100 Power Stones.
◇ Read 60 chapters ahead on P@treon → patreon.com/StrawHatStudios