The castle was quieter than usual.
Too quiet.
It wasn't just fear anymore. It was exhaustion—students no longer whispered theories or bragged about near-misses with ghosts. They stayed in their dorms, walked the corridors with heads down, and glanced over their shoulders like something might crawl out of the stone itself.
Even the portraits had gone still.
And beneath it all, something stirred.
---
Gryffindor Common Room
Hermione had created another chart. This one stretched across the floor with color-coded incidents, time stamps, magical readings, and annotations in tiny print.
Ron stared at it like it was cursed. "I'm telling you, the answer isn't in numbers. It's in finding the monster and smashing it."
Hermione didn't look up. "Brilliant plan, Ron. Shall we put it on a banner?"
Harry was seated near the fire, absently flipping through Hogwarts: A History, more for distraction than study. His eyes wandered to the window.
He didn't say what he was thinking:
The next attack was overdue.
---
Meanwhile – The Dungeons
Snape walked the halls late into the night, not with the practiced glide of a patrolling professor—but like a man hunting something just out of sight.
The maintenance page Filch had brought him was now folded in his robes.
The snake speaks where the walls are thin.
He'd examined the castle's layout for hours, looking for areas where the oldest construction overlapped piping. Forgotten chambers. Dead ends.
He stopped at the end of a little-used corridor near the lower potions storeroom.
There. The stone behind a water-damaged arch was off by a fraction—warped with time and something else.
Snape raised his wand.
"Revelio."
The wall shimmered.
Then vanished.
Revealing a stairwell behind it, curling downward into pitch black.
Snape didn't hesitate.
He descended.
---
Slytherin Dormitory
Draco sat awake on his bed, one leg dangling off the side, staring at the greenish light cast by the underwater lamps. He hadn't spoken to anyone all evening—not even Blaise or Pansy.
The memory of Harry's words in the courtyard echoed in his ears.
"You've got too many feelings to be a proper villain."
He hated that it made sense.
Worse, he hated that Harry was right.
He slid open the drawer beside his bed. Hidden beneath a copy of Advanced Hexwork was a folded piece of parchment.
A map.
Not like the Marauder's Map. This one he'd pieced together from scraps in the library, hints in the Slytherin common room, and whispered rumors passed down by older students.
It showed hidden places. One of them—the narrow corridor Snape had vanished into hours ago.
Draco frowned.
Something wasn't right.
---
In the Depths
Snape moved cautiously, wandlight casting long, sharp shadows on damp stone. The air was colder here—wrong somehow.
The stairwell ended at an ancient iron gate, covered in rust and coiled vines.
He murmured a spell, and the vines withered.
He stepped through.
He didn't know what he expected—bones, perhaps. Or scales. Or some grotesque carving of Salazar Slytherin.
What he found instead was silence.
And water.
A shallow stream cut through the room, dripping from old pipes and feeding into a long-forgotten drainage tunnel. But on the far wall—etched deep into the stone—was a symbol.
A serpent swallowing its own tail.
Ouroboros.
Snape's breath caught.
He reached forward, fingertips brushing the carved stone.
And then—
A whisper.
Not a word. Just a breath of thought, like something watching.
He spun.
But nothing was there.
Still, his instincts screamed at him.
He turned and fled.
---
The Next Morning
Students were gathered in the Great Hall, hushed and nervous. Another message had appeared on the wall overnight:
"Her bones will lie forever."
And beneath it—
A cat collar.
Hermione gasped. "Crookshanks…"
Ron looked stricken.
Harry stood frozen.
This wasn't just fear anymore.
This was a declaration.
Dumbledore stepped into the hall, face grave, and ordered the students back to their dormitories. Classes were canceled. The Aurors were coming.
Snape stood silently behind him, eyes scanning the ceiling, the walls, and the frightened children below.
---
Outside the Hall – Later
Draco found Harry leaning against a stone pillar outside the Great Hall, his fists clenched.
"She's not dead," Harry muttered. "They're not killing people. Just—just freezing them. Right?"
Draco hesitated. "I don't think so. Not yet."
Harry turned to him, angry. "What do you mean, yet?"
Draco stepped back. "I don't know! I just… I don't think it's going to stop this time."
They stared at each other, breathing hard.
Then Draco said, quietly, "You're not the only one afraid for them."
Harry's face shifted slightly. He didn't reply.
But he didn't walk away either.