Harry did not go back to sleep after the dream. Neither did Percy or Ron, and by four in the morning all three of them were sitting around the small table near the dormitory window.
The other boys were still asleep. Percy had placed a silencing charm around their side of the room after Harry explained what he had seen, although it had taken him three attempts because he still disliked using a wand for things that should have been simple.
Ron looked toward Harry.
"Start again."
Harry rubbed his eyes and tried to remember the dream in order. Each time he thought about it, the cold feeling returned behind his scar.
"I was seeing through Voldemort. He was meeting Death Eaters somewhere, and they were looking at maps of Scotland."
Percy leaned forward.
"Then the thing appeared."
"Yes."
"What did Voldemort do?"
"He tried to threaten it."
Ron gave a tired nod.
"That sounds like him."
Harry looked toward the window. The glass reflected three pale faces and the dark dormitory behind them.
"It called him heir. Then it said it wasn't commanding him."
Percy remembered the word Harry had given them before.
"Offer."
Harry nodded and pressed his fingers against his forehead. The scar did not hurt anymore, but that almost made it worse.
"I think it wanted him to listen. Voldemort was afraid for a second, but then he became interested."
Ron frowned.
"Interested in what?"
"I don't know."
Percy leaned back and stared at the ceiling. He could feel the water inside the castle, but he deliberately avoided reaching toward the lake.
"Whatever it offered, it knew what Voldemort wanted."
Ron looked at him.
"Power."
Harry shook his head.
"More than that."
Percy looked back at him. Harry's expression had changed, and Percy realized he had felt something during the vision that he had not explained yet.
"What?"
Harry took several seconds before answering. When he did, his voice was quieter.
"Voldemort wasn't interested until it touched him. I felt what he felt."
Ron shifted in his chair.
"And?"
"Relief."
Percy frowned.
"From Voldemort?"
"Yes."
Harry looked at his hands.
"For one second, he wasn't afraid of dying."
Nobody spoke for several moments. Percy understood the problem before Ron did.
The thing below the lake had found the easiest way to make Voldemort listen. It had not promised him another weapon or another army because Voldemort already believed he could obtain those things himself.
It had offered him freedom from death.
Ron looked between them.
"That's bad."
Percy nodded.
"Very."
-----------------
Dumbledore was awake when they reached his office. Percy had stopped being surprised by this, because the Headmaster appeared to consider sleep an optional activity.
Snape was already there as well. He stood beside the fireplace with his arms folded, looking exactly as pleased to see them at four thirty in the morning as Percy expected.
Snape's eyes moved toward Harry first.
"Another vision."
Harry stopped near the desk.
"Yes."
Snape looked toward Dumbledore.
"I told you this would happen."
Percy pulled out a chair.
"Nice to see you too."
Snape ignored him.
Dumbledore listened while Harry repeated the dream. He asked very few questions until Harry described the feeling of relief that came when the entity touched Voldemort.
Dumbledore's face became more serious. Snape stopped looking annoyed and began listening properly.
Harry finished.
"It offered him something that made him stop fearing death."
Snape's voice was quiet.
"Then the Dark Lord will pursue it."
Ron looked toward him.
"Even if he doesn't know what it is?"
"He does not need to understand it."
Snape walked toward the desk.
"The Dark Lord has spent most of his life trying to defeat death. If something claims it can give him what he wants, curiosity alone will bring him here."
Percy looked at Dumbledore.
"How quickly?"
Dumbledore did not answer immediately. He looked toward one of the windows instead, where the first weak light of morning was beginning to show.
"Voldemort does not usually act without information. He will investigate first."
Snape gave a small, humourless smile.
"Normally."
Harry looked at him.
"What changed?"
Snape's eyes settled on Harry's scar.
"It contacted him directly. That will make this personal."
Percy understood enough about Voldemort to know that this was not good. People who believed themselves to be above everyone else rarely enjoyed discovering something that could enter their mind without permission.
Dumbledore turned toward Snape.
"What have you learned about the soul fragment?"
Snape's expression became flat again.
"Not enough."
Ron whispered toward Percy.
"Good morning continues."
Snape heard him.
"Ten points from Gryffindor."
Ron stared at him.
"For whispering?"
"For irritating me before sunrise."
Percy looked toward Dumbledore.
"Can he do that?"
Dumbledore's eyes moved toward the window again.
"I believe I have temporarily become interested in the weather."
Snape continued before Ron could complain.
"The fragment attached to Potter is not a complete soul. It is damaged, unstable and deeply connected to his own magic."
Harry folded his arms.
"We knew that."
"No, Potter, you suspected that."
Snape placed three pieces of parchment on the desk.
"I have confirmed it."
Hermione's voice came from the doorway.
"How?"
Everyone turned. Hermione stood there fully dressed, carrying two books and looking far too awake for the time.
Ron stared at her.
"How are you here?"
"Dumbledore sent for me."
"When?"
"Ten minutes ago."
Ron looked offended.
"I've been awake for hours."
Hermione walked past him.
"That is not an achievement."
She placed her books beside Snape's parchment and looked at the diagrams. Several circles represented Harry, Voldemort and the fragment between them.
Snape pointed toward the smallest circle.
"The fragment does not behave as an independent soul while it remains inside Potter. It uses his magic to remain stable."
Harry looked at him.
"Can you remove it?"
Snape's expression remained unchanged.
"Yes."
Everyone became still.
Percy looked at Snape.
"That sounded too easy."
"It is."
Snape turned another parchment around.
"I can remove it. I cannot guarantee Potter survives the process."
Harry stared at the diagram.
"How bad?"
"Bad enough that we are not doing it."
Harry looked toward Dumbledore.
"You already discussed this."
Dumbledore nodded.
"Last night."
Percy noticed the anger appear in Harry's face.
"You could have told me."
"Once we had something useful to tell you."
"It's inside me."
Dumbledore did not argue with that. His expression softened slightly.
"Yes."
Harry looked away.
Hermione studied Snape's notes.
"If the fragment depends on Harry's magic, then separating it physically may not be necessary."
Snape looked toward her.
"Explain."
"The seal needs the Slytherin signature to release its claim. It does not say the fragment has to leave Harry permanently."
Snape's expression changed by a very small amount. Percy had learned that this was probably Snape's version of interest.
Hermione continued.
"What if we make the fragment temporarily separate from Harry's magical identity?"
Harry frowned.
"How?"
Hermione opened one of her books.
"Occlumency."
Snape almost looked offended.
"That is not what Occlumency does."
"I know."
Hermione pointed to a section of the page.
"But advanced Occlumency separates thoughts, memories and external influence. Harry's connection to Voldemort uses all three."
Snape picked up the book and read the passage.
Percy looked between them.
"So instead of pulling the fragment out, Harry makes it stop being part of him for a few minutes."
Hermione nodded.
"Something like that."
Harry looked toward Snape.
"Can you teach me?"
Snape stared at him for a long moment.
"You have already demonstrated a remarkable inability to follow basic Occlumency instruction."
Harry's expression hardened.
"Maybe get better at teaching."
Ron moved slightly away from both of them.
Percy looked at Hermione.
"Should we leave?"
"Probably."
Dumbledore raised one hand.
"There is no time for either of you to continue an argument that has already wasted several months."
Snape and Harry both looked toward him.
Dumbledore continued.
"Professor Snape will teach you what is required. Harry will follow the instruction."
Neither of them looked happy.
Percy smiled slightly.
"Compromise."
Snape looked at him.
"Silence."
Percy stopped smiling.
-----------------------------
By breakfast, the plan had become clearer.
Harry would begin intensive Occlumency training with Snape. The goal was no longer only to block Voldemort, but to identify the foreign part of his mind and separate it from his own thoughts long enough for the seal to recognize it.
Hermione had a different problem. The seal required her to return the words, which sounded simple until she tried to explain what that meant.
They sat at one end of the Gryffindor table while the rest of the Great Hall slowly filled. Percy ate more than usual because he had learned that magical emergencies became much worse when he was also hungry.
Hermione had Helena Ravenclaw's journal open beside her breakfast.
"The language is not just information."
Ron looked toward her.
"It's words."
"It's magical language."
"Still words."
Hermione sighed.
"When I translated the seal, I formed a magical connection with the inscription. That is why the dampeners reacted to me."
Percy swallowed a piece of toast.
"So you don't only know the words. The seal knows that you know them."
"Exactly."
Ron stared at his plate.
"I preferred when words were words."
Hermione pointed toward one of the translated lines.
"Returning them probably means breaking that connection. The problem is that I don't know how."
Percy looked toward Dumbledore at the staff table.
"Pensieve?"
Hermione considered it.
"Maybe."
Ron looked between them.
"What would that do?"
Percy had only used Dumbledore's Pensieve once, and he had disliked the feeling of falling into someone else's memory.
"You can take memories out."
Hermione nodded.
"But removing a memory from your mind does not always mean you forget it completely. The memory can leave an impression."
Ron looked at her.
"So we need you to forget something properly."
"For a short time."
Ron did not like that.
"What if it doesn't come back?"
Hermione stopped writing.
"Then we find another method."
Ron looked at Percy.
"That's not what she means."
Percy knew.
"No."
Hermione closed the journal.
"We have six days. I am not removing anything until we understand the process."
Percy looked toward Harry, who had barely spoken since leaving Dumbledore's office.
Harry noticed.
"What?"
"Nothing."
"You're staring."
"You're about to spend six days letting Snape attack your mind."
Harry picked up his cup.
"I've had worse weeks."
Percy thought about the previous year.
"Fair."
A large group of owls entered the Great Hall before anyone could continue. Most flew toward students, but four went directly to the staff table.
Dumbledore caught one letter. McGonagall took another, while two Ministry owls landed in front of Amelia Dorridge.
Percy watched Amelia open the first message.
Her expression changed.
Kingsley stood immediately.
Amelia handed him the parchment.
Dumbledore looked toward them.
"What has happened?"
Amelia stood.
"There was an attack in Hogsmeade."
Conversation around the Great Hall stopped almost at once. Percy stood before anyone told him to.
"When?"
"Twenty minutes ago."
Harry stood beside him.
"Death Eaters?"
Amelia shook her head.
"We don't know."
Percy felt the lake.
The crack remained below Hogwarts.
Then he searched farther.
Water moved beneath Hogsmeade through old pipes, wells and underground streams. Near the northern edge of the village, he found something wrong.
An empty point.
Percy's face changed.
"It's not Death Eaters."
Dumbledore looked toward him.
"You can feel it?"
Percy nodded.
"It's in Hogsmeade."
--------------------[Line Break, but with personality~]---------
The road into Hogsmeade was closed before they arrived. Aurors had placed barriers across both ends of the street, and several frightened villagers stood outside nearby shops.
Percy came with Dumbledore, Kingsley, McGonagall and Flitwick. Harry had wanted to come, but Dumbledore refused because the entity had already shown that it could use him as a connection.
This time, Harry had not argued for long.
They found the damaged building near the edge of the village. It had been a small magical supply shop, and half of the front wall had disappeared.
There was no rubble, and Percy stopped several metres away.
"Same as Umbridge's desk."
Kingsley nodded.
"Nothing was destroyed. It's just gone."
A Ministry worker approached Amelia.
"Two people were inside."
Amelia looked toward the empty section.
"Bodies?"
The worker shook his head.
"No trace."
Percy felt sick as McGonagall looked toward the missing wall.
"Could they have escaped?"
"We checked every exit."
Percy stepped closer to the building. Dumbledore raised a hand to stop him, but Percy pointed toward a puddle near the doorway.
"It's still here."
He touched the water, and cold pressure entered his fingers immediately.
The entity was close, not physically, but connected.
Percy followed it through the puddle and into the water pipes below the shop. The empty point moved through the network like ink through paper as it searched.
Percy closed his eyes.
"What are you doing?"
A feeling entered his mind.
LOOK.
Percy opened his eyes.
"It's looking for something."
Dumbledore stepped closer.
"Can you determine what?"
Percy touched the puddle again. The presence moved through several buildings, then stopped near an old well.
Percy followed it.
"That way."
They crossed the road and moved toward the northern side of Hogsmeade, where the well stood behind an abandoned cottage, surrounded by old stones and dead grass.
Percy approached slowly.
The water below was wrong.
He looked toward Dumbledore.
"It's here."
Flitwick raised his wand.
"Inside the well?"
"Through it."
Percy moved closer and looked down. The water reflected the grey sky, then the reflection changed.
For a moment, Percy saw another place: a dark chamber with stone walls and a man standing alone.
Percy recognized him immediately.
Voldemort.
Percy stumbled backward, and Dumbledore caught him.
"What did you see?"
Percy stared at the well.
"Voldemort."
Kingsley raised his wand.
"Here?"
"No."
Percy shook his head.
"The water showed him somewhere else."
Dumbledore looked into the well but saw only his own reflection. Percy stepped forward again, and the image returned.
Voldemort stood before a black surface that looked like a mirror. Nagini rested behind him while several candles burned around the room.
The entity's presence filled the reflection.
Percy could hear nothing, but meaning began to pass between them.
Voldemort spoke first.
"What are you?"
The dark surface moved.
Percy felt the response.
BEYOND.
Voldemort's face remained calm.
"That is not an answer."
NO NAME.
Voldemort stepped closer.
"Everything has a name."
NOT BEFORE.
Percy did not understand the answer, but Voldemort seemed to understand enough to become more interested.
"What do you want?"
OPEN.
Voldemort smiled.
"And what do I receive?"
Percy felt the presence change as images moved through his mind: a body that did not age, a soul that could not be taken, and a world without the boundary between life and death.
The images made Percy's stomach twist as Voldemort saw the same thing.
"Immortality."
NOT.
Voldemort's smile disappeared.
"Then you have nothing to offer me."
The response came slowly.
MORE.
The image changed again.
Percy saw death itself as a boundary, similar to the seal beneath Hogwarts, and watched a soul reach that boundary and stop.
Then it turned around.
Percy understood.
It was not offering Voldemort immortality. It was offering him the ability to return every time.
Voldemort's expression changed.
Percy pulled his hand from the well, and the vision vanished.
Dumbledore looked at him.
"What did it offer?"
Percy took a breath.
"Not immortality."
Kingsley frowned.
"Then what?"
Percy looked toward the dark water.
"A way back from death."
Nobody spoke.
Dumbledore's expression became colder than Percy had seen in a long time.
"That would be enough."
Percy nodded.
"Voldemort thinks so too."
--------------------[BOLD LINE BREAK]-----------------
They returned to Hogwarts before noon. Dumbledore ordered every entrance sealed, and no student was allowed to leave the castle grounds.
The attack in Hogsmeade spread fear faster than Umbridge ever had. Students gathered in corridors to exchange rumours, and even the people who had dismissed Percy's stories about the lake had stopped laughing.
Harry waited inside Dumbledore's office.
Percy explained the vision while Hermione took notes. Harry became more uncomfortable with each part.
"So it can speak to Voldemort without using me now."
Dumbledore shook his head.
"Not necessarily."
Harry frowned.
"I wasn't there."
"Your connection may have allowed the first contact. Once established, the entity may no longer require you for every exchange."
Hermione looked toward Percy.
"Like the Ministry wards."
Percy nodded.
"It learns the path once, then uses it again."
Ron stood near the window.
"So every time it touches something, it keeps access."
Nobody answered because that was probably correct.
Harry looked toward Dumbledore.
"What happens if Voldemort accepts?"
Dumbledore walked toward the table.
"We do not know."
Percy looked at him.
"But we're guessing."
"Yes."
Dumbledore placed Helena's journal beside the seal fragment.
"The entity cannot fully open the gate itself. If it could, it would already have done so."
Hermione nodded.
"It needs the three locks."
"Or something strong enough to break them."
Percy understood.
"Voldemort."
Dumbledore nodded.
"Possibly."
Harry looked toward his scar.
"He can't control the sea lock."
"No."
"He doesn't know the language."
"Not yet."
Hermione stopped writing.
"Not yet?"
Dumbledore looked toward the old journal.
"Tom Riddle once possessed this."
Hermione stared at him.
"You said he had it for a short time."
"He did."
"Did he copy it?"
Dumbledore did not answer immediately.
Percy looked at him.
"That's a yes."
"I do not know."
Harry stood.
"But he might already have part of the language."
Hermione went pale.
"If he has the words and the Slytherin bloodline, he has two of the three locks."
Ron looked toward Percy.
"Which leaves sea."
Every person in the room looked at him.
Percy leaned back.
"I don't like where this is going."
Harry's face hardened.
"He'll come for you."
Percy considered the situation.
"Probably."
Hermione shook her head.
"Not necessarily Percy himself. He needs the sea connection."
Percy looked toward her.
"Which is attached to me."
"Mostly."
Percy froze.
"What does mostly mean?"
Hermione turned toward Dumbledore.
"The vial."
Percy understood.
Umbridge's sample.
Amelia had said Umbridge removed everything from her Ministry office before returning to Hogwarts. The extraction frame had been destroyed, but Percy had never seen the original vial.
He stood.
"Where is it?"
Nobody answered.
Percy looked toward Amelia.
"You searched Umbridge."
"Yes."
"Was the vial on her?"
"No."
Percy felt the room become colder.
Harry looked at Amelia.
"Then where is it?"
Amelia's expression tightened.
"We don't know."
Percy walked toward the window.
Voldemort needed sea magic.
Somewhere outside Hogwarts, a sample of Percy's power was missing.
The entity had already reached Voldemort.
Hermione closed her eyes.
"Oh no."
Percy turned.
"What?"
She opened Helena's journal and moved rapidly through several pages.
"If the sample still carries Percy's magical signature, Voldemort may not need Percy physically."
Harry stepped closer.
"Can he use the vial as the sea lock?"
Hermione found the section she wanted.
"Not completely."
Percy waited.
"Completely is important here."
"It could let him imitate the sea lock long enough to damage it."
Ron looked toward the floor.
"So we now have a Dark Lord looking for a stolen bottle of Percy."
Percy stared at him.
"Please never call it that again."
Ron nodded.
"Agreed."
Snape returned to the office less than an hour later.
He entered without knocking and placed a folded parchment on Dumbledore's desk. His expression told Percy that the news was not good.
Dumbledore opened it.
"Where?"
"Yorkshire."
Harry looked toward Snape.
"What happened?"
Snape turned toward him.
"Two Death Eaters attacked a Ministry transport twenty minutes ago."
Amelia stood.
"What transport?"
"Evidence recovered from Dolores Umbridge's secondary laboratory."
Percy stopped moving.
"The vial."
Snape nodded.
"It was part of the shipment."
Hermione looked toward Amelia.
"You found another laboratory?"
"This morning."
Amelia's face had gone pale.
"We were moving the evidence to London."
Percy looked at Snape.
"Did they get it?"
Snape did not answer immediately.
That was enough.
Harry swore under his breath.
Percy walked toward the desk.
"How long ago?"
"Twenty six minutes."
Percy closed his eyes.
He reached toward every source of water he could feel beyond Hogwarts, but the distance quickly became too great.
Dumbledore looked at Snape.
"How many Death Eaters?"
"Four."
"Casualties?"
"Three Ministry officers injured. One missing."
Amelia's expression became hard.
"The evidence?"
"Taken."
Percy opened his eyes.
The room had become silent.
Voldemort now had the sample.
Hermione looked toward the seal fragment.
"Then he has access to all three components."
Harry shook his head.
"He doesn't have me."
Hermione looked at him.
"He has his own blood."
Harry became still.
Nobody had considered that.
Voldemort did not need the fragment inside Harry to produce Slytherin's magical signature.
He was Slytherin's heir.
Percy felt the situation rearrange itself in his head.
"Then why did the entity care about Harry?"
Dumbledore looked toward Harry.
"Because Harry was available."
Hermione understood next.
"It wasn't specifically looking for him. It was looking for the bloodline lock."
Harry sat down slowly.
"So now it has the original."
Snape's face became grim.
"If the Dark Lord chooses to cooperate."
Percy looked at him.
"He will."
Snape's eyes narrowed.
"You sound certain."
Percy remembered Voldemort's face in the well.
"He thinks it can bring him back every time he dies."
Snape became very still.
Percy continued.
"He'll cooperate."
Dumbledore closed his eyes for several seconds.
When he opened them again, the tiredness was gone.
"We change the plan."
Hermione stood.
"What do we do?"
Dumbledore looked at each of them.
"We repair the seal before Voldemort reaches it."
Percy glanced toward the window.
"We still don't know how."
"We know enough to begin."
Harry looked toward Snape.
"And my part?"
"You train."
Dumbledore turned toward Hermione.
"You determine how to release the language connection."
Then he looked at Percy.
"You speak to Aequor again."
Percy frowned.
"About what?"
Dumbledore's expression became serious.
"How to reach the seal."
Percy stared at him.
"We already know where it is."
"No."
Dumbledore looked toward the floor.
"We know where it is from this side."
Hermione slowly understood.
"The repair has to happen at the gate itself."
Dumbledore nodded.
"Which means the three of you must enter the lower chamber."
Percy felt the Black Lake below the castle.
Aequor moved through the deep water.
Beyond it, the fracture widened again.
Percy took a breath.
"When?"
Dumbledore looked toward the clock.
"Tomorrow."
Ron stared at him.
"Tomorrow?"
"We have six days."
Dumbledore shook his head.
"No."
Everyone became quiet.
Percy felt the change at the same moment.
Aequor's presence pushed through the water.
A new meaning reached him.
FIVE.
Percy's expression changed.
Harry saw it.
"What?"
Percy looked toward the window.
"The seal lost another day."
Hermione stared at him.
"How?"
Percy thought about the stolen vial.
Then he thought about Voldemort.
"He accepted the offer."
Far below Hogwarts, another crack spread across the gate.
This time, something on the other side began pushing back.
===============
Somehow still going!
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