Location: Ministry Annex, Department of Magical Research – Sublevel Twelve
Time: September 28, 1:29 AM
⸻
Hermione didn't breathe as she stared at the glyph Neville had just sent.
It pulsed faintly on her comm-glass, burned into a root wall at Hogwarts. The Circle symbol. Wandbound.
She hadn't seen it in a decade.
Not since the day she broke into the Concord's Memory Isolation Wing and discovered what the Department had buried:
Entire magical families erased from census records.
Spellbooks locked behind curse-sealed glass.
A vault labeled "PROJECT: BLACKLIGHT," its contents sealed with a silence charm keyed to bloodlines that no longer existed.
Hermione stood in front of that vault now.
Level Twelve.
The Ministry didn't allow anyone down here without dual-clearance. She'd bypassed it years ago.
"Wandbound resonance confirmed," she whispered, tapping her wand to the vault's sigil.
"Initiate Protocol BLACKLIGHT."
⸻
The vault didn't open.
It unfolded.
Steel and spellglass peeled away like layers of forgotten thought. Air rushed outward — stale, heavy, like it hadn't been breathed in centuries.
Inside: a single circular table, surrounded by memory pens suspended in containment orbs.
On the table: a copy of a document she'd hoped to never see again.
BLACKLIGHT DOSSIER #1: "Resonant Children & The Thread Theory"
Classified: Tier V Concord Only
Excerpt:
"Certain children are born with what we now call Thread Memory — ancestral spell-echoes capable of bypassing Ministry-grade Obliviation.
These children may reawaken spells thought lost, or rebind bloodlines that the Circle deliberately severed during the Silence Wars."
"They are considered unstable. If allowed to converge, they may activate spell structures sealed beneath Hogwarts, Ilvermorny, and Beauxbatons — including the Wandbound Vaults."
"If more than two Threadbearers are identified in the same region, Protocol BLACKLIGHT must be activated.
Options:
1. Isolate the children.
2. Scrub the memory field.
3. Activate Vault Countermeasures.
4. Deploy a Vicar."
⸻
Hermione read the words with a tightening throat.
There were now three known Threadbearers.
They had already converged.
And somewhere below Hogwarts, a Wandbound Vault was opening.
⸻
She tapped her wand to the orb labeled "Vicar Blackstem – Cycle I".
The orb flickered. The image of a pale, shadow-eyed man shimmered into view — eyes like old ink, voice like falling snow.
"If you're seeing this, the silence has broken."
"They will remember us.
They will remember what we did to survive."
"And when they do… we must make them choose."
"Obedience — or collapse."
⸻
Hermione killed the feed.
She stared at the orb, at the black glyphs forming behind her reflection in the memory glass.
Then, slowly, she said: "I'm done choosing silence."
She turned and disapparated — straight into the heart of Hogwarts.