It started with a tremor.
Just a faint hum beneath the Great Hall's marble.At first, the professors thought it was a buried spell misfiring.
But Rowan knew better.
"It's not magic leaking," she said."It's memory colliding."
Harry and Blaise had activated two Guardians.
Now they were coming together for the first time.
The Meeting Place
The castle created the room itself.
A space that hadn't existed — suddenly did.
Down a corridor no stair should have led to, under a ceiling made of reflected sky,stood a hexagonal chamber, with symbols of fire, seal, ring, and root etched into the floor.
In the center:Two circles.
One pulsing silver.One bleeding red.
Harry stepped into the silver one.
Blaise entered the red.
The Guardians appeared behind them — like echoes, like shadows given breath.
The Clash
They didn't fight.They resonated.
The Memory Guardian (Harry's) moved with stillness, every gesture measured.
The Sacrifice Guardian (Blaise's) pulsed with red heat, bound in rings, its steps like thunder.
When they stood face to face…
The floor cracked.
"One was sealed," Memory said."The other, surrendered," Sacrifice replied.
"One seeks to preserve.""One dares to burn."
"And both," said the Chamber itself, "cannot reign together."
The Choice
Each Guardian reached for their bearer.
Harry looked to Blaise.
"We're both trying to finish what Ardyn started."
Blaise replied:
"No.You're trying to remember it.I'm trying to complete it."
The room dimmed.
The Guardians raised their hands.
And then…
They rejected each other.
The floor split down the middle.
The chamber groaned.
And the castle above them shook.
Final Scene – Hogwarts Fractures
At exactly 3:11 a.m., the Grand Staircase froze mid-rotation.
Students awoke screaming as runes lit up across their walls.
Paintings went silent.Wands flickered.Portraits of Founders wept blood-red tears.
And in the sky above the Astronomy Tower, a second mark appeared:
Two rings interlocking.One sealed.One cracked.
The prophecy had shifted.
Now it read:
"Only one shall burn.""But both will fall."