The remaining nodes began to hide.
That was the clearest sign that they had learned fear.
Theodore stood beneath the Quidditch stands, one hand resting against a willow root, his gaze lowered as if he were watching the match. In truth, his attention had already spread through half of Hogwarts.
Three nails were in place.
The center of the pitch.
The scoreboard.
The underground water vein.
Each nail held down one part of the Ten Absolute Arrays' movement. Not enough to seal the whole thing, but enough to stop it from moving freely.
The array no longer looked like a beast hunting prey.
It looked like a beast that had stepped into a hunter's snare and finally noticed the rope around its leg.
That was when prey became dangerous.
The match above continued.
A Chaser caught the Quaffle, spun past a Bludger, and sent the ball straight through the left hoop.
Cheers erupted.
The scoreboard changed correctly this time.
Ron stared at it for a long moment before relaxing.
"Good. Numbers are behaving."
Fred leaned over. "That is a very low standard."
George nodded. "But after today, fair."
One of Ron's Chomping Cabbages burped out a piece of brass.
Ron quickly covered it with his hand.
"No evidence."
Hermione remained near the commentator's box. Her notebook was now full of arrows, seat numbers, player routes, and several comments written in increasingly sharp handwriting.
Lee Jordan glanced at the page.
"I cannot read any of that."
"That is because it is not commentary."
"Can I borrow the scary parts?"
"No."
Lee looked disappointed.
Harry stood near the player entrance, fingers flexing around the willow branch hidden beneath his sleeve. His arm still hurt from cutting the invisible gusts earlier, but the pain was clean. Training pain. Useful pain.
He could feel the pitch watching for mistakes.
Not with eyes.
With timing.
Whenever a player leaned too far, whenever a broom slowed, whenever the crowd grew too loud, the pitch core twitched below.
Harry did not know how Theodore could remain so calm while sensing all of it.
He only knew he wanted to get better.
Fast.
Then the willow branch pulled.
Not toward the pitch.
Toward the castle.
Harry turned.
Hermione saw him move.
Across the stands, Ron's cabbages stopped chewing at the same time.
Theodore's eyes narrowed.
The next node was not attacking the match.
It was attacking the route behind them.
A narrow service passage beneath the west stand connected the pitch to the castle's old storage tunnels. It had been inspected twice, sealed with Filch's talismans, and guarded by a stone beast McGonagall had animated before sunrise.
Now the talisman at that passage entrance burned black.
Filch saw it first.
His face twisted.
"Someone dirtied my seal."
That was apparently a declaration of war.
He marched toward the passage with Mrs. Norris beside him.
Theodore's voice reached him through the willow root.
"Do not enter alone."
Filch stopped.
He looked offended.
Then practical experience won.
"Fine."
He turned and shouted upward. "Weasley!"
Ron froze.
Several Weasleys looked over.
Filch pointed directly at Ron.
"The one with vegetables!"
Fred clutched his chest. "Ronniekins, fame at last."
George wiped an imaginary tear. "Our little brother has become a tactical cabbage officer."
Ron stood up, red-faced.
"I hate all of you."
Still, he grabbed the box of Chomping Cabbages and hurried down.
Harry followed at once.
Hermione hesitated only long enough to tell Lee, "If anything strange happens, keep the crowd laughing."
Lee saluted. "Weaponized commentary. Understood."
Hermione ran after the others.
Theodore watched them go.
He did not stop them.
The node had chosen a smaller battlefield, but not one beyond their ability. More importantly, if he moved personally, the pitch core might use the chance to tear at the first nail.
So he stayed.
And waited for the larger enemy to grow impatient.
The west service passage was colder than it should have been.
The torches still burned, but their flames leaned inward, pointing down the corridor as if pulled by a silent breath.
Filch stood outside the entrance with his peachwood sword raised.
The blackened talisman on the wall curled at the edges.
Harry arrived first.
Hermione came after him, slightly out of breath.
Ron arrived last, carrying the cabbage box with both hands.
"I need to renegotiate my role in this group."
Filch ignored him.
Mrs. Norris hissed at the passage.
Something scraped inside.
Slow.
Heavy.
Metal against stone.
Hermione whispered, "What node is this?"
Theodore's voice came from the talisman on the wall.
"Possibly Earth Fierce."
Ron looked at the floor.
"I dislike the word possibly."
Theodore continued, "It uses ground, stone, metal, and buried things. Do not stand still for too long."
The floor beneath Ron's shoe cracked.
Ron jumped sideways.
A stone spike thrust up where his foot had been.
He stared at it.
"Noted!"
Harry stepped forward and cut the next spike before it fully emerged. The willow branch rang against stone, sending a shock through his wrist.
Too hard.
He adjusted his grip.
The third spike came from the wall.
Harry turned, cut at an angle, and this time the branch passed through the stone with less resistance.
Better.
Hermione raised her wand.
"Depulso!"
A half-buried suit of armor lurched out from the dark corridor. Her spell knocked it backward, but the armor did not fall apart. Red lines glowed between its joints.
Filch became furious.
"That armor belongs in the east gallery!"
The armor raised a rusted axe.
Ron opened the cabbage box.
"Go!"
Five Chomping Cabbages launched forward.
They hit the armor like angry green bludgers, biting fingers, elbow joints, and one unfortunate knee.
The armor staggered.
Harry's willow branch flashed.
The axe arm fell.
Filch rushed in and slapped a yellow talisman onto its chest.
"Back to storage!"
The talisman burned.
The armor froze, then collapsed into pieces.
Ron stared at Filch.
"That was actually impressive."
Filch snorted. "Of course it was."
The corridor shook.
More scraping sounds came from the darkness.
Hermione lifted her wand higher.
"This is not the node itself. It's throwing old objects at us."
Theodore's voice answered, "Correct. The node is deeper in the passage. It is using anything buried in the walls."
Ron looked at the cracked stones.
"Why does Hogwarts have so many things buried in walls?"
Hermione did not look away from the corridor.
"Because it is Hogwarts."
That explanation was impossible to argue with.
Another stone spike burst from the ceiling.
Harry cut it.
A rusted chain shot from the floor toward Hermione's ankle.
Ron's cabbage intercepted it, biting the chain and refusing to let go even as it dragged across the ground.
Hermione stepped back and pointed her wand at the chain.
"Incendio!"
The spell passed through Huhu's fire-crab pendant and became hotter than ordinary flame. The rusted chain glowed red, softened, and snapped.
The cabbage spat it out proudly.
Ron pointed at it. "Good. That was an enemy."
The cabbage turned toward his shoe.
"No."
Filch pasted three talismans in a row along the wall.
The corridor steadied.
Harry looked ahead.
"I can feel something pulling from the end."
Theodore's voice said, "That is the path. Go only to the next corner. Do not chase if it retreats."
Hermione frowned. "It wants to lure us?"
"Yes."
Ron immediately pointed backward.
"Then I vote we do not go."
Harry looked at him.
Ron sighed. "I know, I know. Next corner."
They advanced carefully.
The passage bent left.
At the corner, they saw it.
A lump of dark yellow stone embedded in the floor, pulsing like a buried heart. Around it, red lines spread into the walls and floor, waking broken metal, loose stone, and old rubble.
Earth Fierce.
The node had hidden itself behind the pitch's attacks and tried to break the prepared route from below.
If students had needed to evacuate through this passage later, the corridor would have turned into a death trap.
Hermione's face paled as she understood.
"It was preparing for evacuation."
Harry's grip tightened.
Ron stopped joking.
Even Filch went silent.
That made the node's purpose feel uglier.
Theodore's voice came from the talisman.
"Do not destroy it. Expose it."
Hermione took a breath.
"Harry, cut the lines to the walls. Ron, cabbages on loose metal. Mr. Filch, seal behind us so it can't spread backward."
Filch looked at her.
For half a second, he seemed about to object to taking orders from a student.
Then another stone spike came out of the floor.
He slapped it aside with his peachwood sword.
"Fine."
Harry moved first.
The willow branch cut the nearest red line.
The wall groaned.
Ron released two more cabbages. They attacked a rusted helmet trying to roll toward Hermione's feet.
Filch slammed talismans onto the floor behind them.
Hermione aimed at the dark yellow stone.
Not with force.
With light.
"Huhu."
The fire-crab pendant glowed.
Hermione cast Lumos again, but this time she focused the warmth into a steady beam aimed around the stone, not at it. The surrounding shadows thinned.
The red lines became visible.
Harry cut one.
Then another.
The node tried to sink deeper.
The talisman on the wall flashed green.
Theodore acted from afar.
A willow root burst through the floor beneath the stone and hooked it from below.
The node struggled.
Wutu Divine Light pressed down through the root.
Yimu Divine Light wrapped around the exposed edges.
The dark yellow stone rose from the floor inch by inch.
Ron stared.
"That looks like a rotten potato."
Theodore's voice sounded amused.
"Do not let your cabbages hear that."
Too late.
One cabbage looked very interested.
Ron grabbed it.
"No eating cursed potatoes."
The dark yellow stone cracked.
A burst of heavy pressure filled the corridor, forcing everyone's knees to bend.
Harry stabbed the willow branch into the floor and stayed upright.
Hermione pressed the leaf talisman at her chest.
Ron nearly fell, but Filch grabbed the back of his robe and held him up.
"Stand properly!"
"I'm trying!"
The node tried one last time to connect with the pitch core.
Theodore allowed the connection to open.
Just a crack.
Then he drove the force back through it.
At the Quidditch pitch, the grass under Theodore's foot trembled.
He pressed down.
The first nail answered.
The second nail answered.
The third nail answered from the underground water vein.
Now the fourth nail formed in the west passage.
The dark yellow stone stopped struggling.
A heavy thud rolled through the service tunnel.
Earth Fierce was pinned.
In the corridor, the pressure vanished.
Ron sat down hard on the floor.
"I vote this counts as exercise for the week."
Harry leaned against the wall, breathing quickly but smiling.
Hermione looked at the sealed stone fragment, then at the talisman.
"We did it."
Filch inspected the damaged corridor with a grim face.
"You also broke two walls, one floor, and an antique suit of armor."
Ron pointed at the frozen armor pieces.
"It attacked us!"
Filch glared at him.
Ron lowered his hand.
"Fair."
At the pitch, Theodore felt the fourth nail sink into place.
The Wuzhuang foundation spread again.
Four nails.
Four directions.
The Ten Absolute Arrays' movement slowed sharply.
The pitch core realized what had happened.
This time, it did not pulse in anger.
It became quiet.
Too quiet.
The match above reached another scoring rush. The crowd cheered, unaware that a second battlefield had just closed beneath their feet.
Theodore looked toward the castle.
Hermione, Harry, Ron, and Filch had handled it well.
Good.
But the remaining nodes had seen it too.
They would stop testing the children now.
The next attack would be aimed at him.
Theodore smiled.
Finally.
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