The darkness swallowed everything.
Harry felt his breath hitch as his surroundings faded into an abyss. The air was thick, oppressive, charged with an energy that made the hairs on the back of his neck rise.
He could still hear Lupin's breathing beside him—shallow, tense. But the voice… that voice still echoed in his skull, resonating through his bones like an unshakable force.
"Peverell."
Harry gritted his teeth, pushing back against the rising panic. He had faced monsters before—Voldemort, Dementors, creatures of nightmares—but this felt different. This was something older. Something patient.
Something waiting.
Then, suddenly—
A flicker of silver light.
Lupin had cast a Lumos, the tip of his wand glowing weakly against the oppressive void. It barely illuminated a few feet in front of them, but it was enough to reveal the hooded figure still standing there.
Unmoving. Watching.
Harry squared his shoulders.
"What do you want?"
The hooded figure didn't move. But the voice returned, low and knowing.
"You are unshaped."
Harry's fingers curled into fists. "And what's that supposed to mean?"
A pause. Then—
"You do not yet understand what you are."
Lupin took a cautious step forward, his wand still raised. "If you have something to say, say it plainly."
The hooded figure tilted its head, as if amused. Then, with an almost imperceptible shift, the darkness around them began to writhe. Shadows coiled and pulsed, forming symbols—ancient and unreadable—glowing faintly in the void.
Harry felt something stir inside him.
Something familiar.
Something old.
His breath hitched as the symbols pulsed in time with his heartbeat.
The hooded figure finally moved, raising a single, skeletal hand. With a flick of its fingers, the symbols twisted—rearranging, shifting.
Harry's chest tightened.
He knew these symbols.
Not from Hogwarts. Not from books.
From within himself.
His magic recognized them.
The air grew thick with tension. Lupin's grip on his wand tightened. "Harry, we need to leave. Now."
But Harry couldn't move.
The symbols burned brighter, wrapping around his body like invisible chains. They weren't restraining him, but rather… awakening something.
The hooded figure's voice came again, softer this time.
"The world does not see you as you are."
Harry's heart pounded.
"But soon… they will."
The darkness surged—
And suddenly, Harry was falling.
The chamber vanished. The hooded figure disappeared.
He tumbled through the void, shadows latching onto his limbs, whispering, screaming—
Then—
A jolt.
He hit solid ground.
Light flooded his vision.
The chamber was gone.
Lupin was gone.
Harry sat up, his breath coming in short, ragged gasps. He was no longer underground. No longer in the depths of some forgotten chamber.
He was back in Hogwarts.
In the middle of the Great Hall.
And every single person was staring at him.
—