Chapter 4: Gargoyle Resonance in the Late-Night Corridor
Midnight at Hogwarts was like a scattering of diamonds, moonlight filtering through Gothic window frames, forming intricate geometric patterns on the stone floor. Leonard followed Hermione around the spiral staircase, the parchment map glowing faintly under his wand's light—it was her 'Map Surveying Charm' marking the locations of the Gargoyles, with the third Gargoyle in the North Tower corridor marked with three exclamation points.
"According to spectral analysis," Hermione whispered, her fingertips tracing the moss on the stone wall, "this Gargoyle has 37% higher starsilver content than the others, making its material closest to your amulet's." She pulled out a small telescope, aiming it at the Gargoyle's chest: "Look, the septagram on its emblem is missing a corner, perfectly matching the worn part of your amulet."
Leonard reached out to touch the Gargoyle's stone armor, feeling a subtle vibration in his fingertips, like countless tiny hammers tapping his bone marrow. The amulet suddenly hummed, its septagram pattern lighting up, and the Gargoyle's stone eyes slowly turned towards him, a golden-grey light characteristic of the Geo element swirling in their depths.
"Now!" Hermione quickly unfurled the parchment, using a 'magic Manifestation Charm' to capture the elemental fluctuations in the air. "Concentrate, try to summon the Geo Shield—just like when you cut ingredients in Potion Class, but this time, cover your entire body."
Leonard closed his eyes, recalling the sensation of touching the Geo Archon statue in the Chamber of Secrets. The heat from the amulet flowed from his neck to his limbs, and the Geo patterns on his wrists suddenly deepened, transforming into translucent armor covering his elbows. He heard Hermione gasp: "The Shield has formed! Duration... three seconds, no, three point two seconds! amulet energy consumption 37%, with an error of less than 1% from my calculated theoretical value!"
The Gargoyle's stone claw suddenly lifted, drawing a Geo pattern on the ground that perfectly matched the patterns on Leonard's Shield. Hermione's shorthand quill scribbled furiously on the paper: "Geo Shield · Initial Form: Coverage area 1.2 square meters, hardness equivalent to Hogwarts' foundation stone, 40% increased resistance to 'Expelliarmus'—but there's a 15cm gap on the left arm because the Gargoyle statue's left arm has a crack!"
"A gap?" Leonard opened his eyes, noticing indeed a layered discontinuity in the Shield at his left elbow, as if the Gargoyle's armor was missing a piece. Hermione nodded: "The integrity of the resonating object affects the Shield's form. This proves that your ability isn't generated from thin air, but rather activates an ancient Geo element matrix within the Gargoyle."
The sound of chains dragging on the ground echoed from afar—Filch's patrol was approaching. Hermione quickly packed up her instruments. Just as Leonard was about to retract the Shield, the Gargoyle suddenly emitted a soft, stony friction sound, and a fragment popped out from the septagram emblem on its chest, landing in his palm.
"starsilver fragment!" Hermione's voice held suppressed ecstasy. "Its material is exactly the same as your amulet, and it even has ancient magical script on it—" She suddenly froze, because the writing on the fragment perfectly matched the bottom of the family crest in the Granger Family genealogy.
Filch's lantern light shone around the corner. Leonard quickly pulled Hermione into a recessed wall, and the Geo Shield automatically expanded, enveloping them both in translucent armor. As the sound of the patrol approached, he clearly heard Hermione's heartbeat and the amulet's vibration frequency gradually synchronizing.
"Did you hear that?" Hermione suddenly looked up, her glasses fogged. "The Shield is filtering sound, just like a Gargoyle's ears can distinguish Dark Arts—" Her words were interrupted by Filch's sneeze. The old caretaker grumbled about "those annoying Gargoyles" and walked away.
Back in Gryffindor Tower, Hermione immediately placed the fragment under the microscope. Leonard watched the stone dust clinging to her hair and suddenly noticed that the star-like freckles behind her ear were particularly prominent under the amulet's light—three golden spots arranged in a triangle, matching the missing corner on the Gargoyle's emblem.
"The magical script on the fragment," Hermione suddenly said, "is 'contract' in Teyvat language. Combined with the family records, my ancestor, Eleanor Granger, might have been the Geo God's 'contractor' at Hogwarts, responsible for maintaining the Gargoyles' elemental matrix. And you, Leonard, are inheriting this contract."
She pulled out Eleanor's portrait from the family genealogy, her finger tracing the septagram on the portrait's cuff: "Notice, her amulet is missing a corner, matching the fragment you found. This suggests that the Seven Archons' amulets were once divided into seven parts, guarded by different families, and your amulet is now collecting these fragments."
Leonard gripped the fragment, feeling the faint Geo element pulsation within it. The amulet's septagram suddenly lit up completely, projecting a holographic star map of Hogwarts onto the ceiling, with each Gargoyle's position corresponding to a glowing node.
"Tomorrow, we go to the Restricted Section of the library." Hermione packed up the microscope, her eyes sparkling with excitement. "I found that a torn page from the'Seven Archons' contract Book · Geo Archon Chapter' is hidden in Section B, third row, next to the complete version of 'Gargoyle Neural Synapse Theory'. Leonard, we are solving a five-hundred-year-old magic puzzle—and you are the key."
Late at night, Leonard lay on his four-poster bed, gazing at the amulet's faint glow in the moonlight. The Geo patterns on his wrist had faded, but the fragment in his palm still carried the Gargoyle's warmth. He recalled Hermione's words during the experiment: "The essence of the Geo element is 'contract'; every Shitou remembers ancient agreements."
Perhaps the Gargoyles of Hogwarts never truly slept; they were merely waiting, waiting for a young man with an incomplete amulet to reawaken the contracts buried by time. And Leonard knew that when the amulet's septagram was complete, Hogwarts' ley lines would emit a deafening resonance—that would be the Seven Archons' second whisper to the human world.
The bedside alarm clock pointed to two o'clock. Leonard closed his eyes, the golden-grey light from the Gargoyle's stone eyes in the daytime flashing in his mind. This time, he didn't dream of the cyan stream of light from his Crossing, but of countless Gargoyles spreading their wings above the Castle, each stone wing flowing with the same septagram pattern as his amulet.
And in the North Tower corridor, the Gargoyle that had lost its fragment suddenly turned its stone neck, looking towards Gryffindor Tower. Clutched in its stone claw was a brown curl of hair, stained with starsilver powder, which Leonard had accidentally dropped while avoiding Filch—it was Hermione Granger's hair, and the key to unlocking the next contract.