Harry peered around the door, gazing into the Hospital Wing. There were now eight students in comas, still unexplained and unmentioned by the staff. Even worse, it was rumoured that those who had fallen into comas earliest were growing weaker…slowly dying. He couldn’t believe the professors and headmaster were hiding it, pretending it wasn’t happening, as though the rest of the student body wouldn’t notice their classmates collapsing and never returning.

He jumped, startled at the nearby window suddenly cracking with a loud echo. He sighed as he stared at the crack. Windows breaking had become the newest occurrence to indicate something failing inside Hogwarts. The castle was getting ready to collapse around them, it seemed.

Everything afflicting the castle and its residents had just been continuing and, clearly, worsening. Alongside the newly broken windows were mostly still paintings, cracked stone everywhere, candles that struggled to stay lit and floating, and torches that were extinguishing themselves around the castle.

Conditions among the students were no better. In addition to the devastating comas, the hate was continuing and there were now visible signs that many students were experiencing numerous headache-inducing visions. The visions were no longer restricted to only a couple of them.

He wanted an explanation for it all, was desperate for one. He was tired of the uncertainty and confusion. He wanted to know the what, the how, the why…the who. He felt convinced Voldemort had to be behind it all, but none of the other questions were answered. He could answer one question with a theory, but never all of them.

He, Ron, and Hermione had been researching Mind Magic and the history of Hogwarts for weeks with little success. There was very little recorded about either topic, particularly about Hogwarts, at least in the texts they had access to. They needed details about Hogwarts’ construction, design, and magical system, but there was next to nothing with such details.

Harry found himself getting discouraged. There was so much they didn’t know. They were missing something important.

He sighed, rubbing his forehead in response to his developing stress headache. He turned away from the infirmary and made his way to the Grand Staircase to go and meet Ron and Hermione in the library for yet another research session. As he was walking up one flight of stairs, a rumble suddenly shook the castle, making Harry stumble and have to grab the railing to stay standing. It wasn’t the first time such a thing had happened; it had been a common occurrence like everything else. It still made Harry and the other students on the stairs look around and hesitate to continue moving on the stairs.

After a minute or two, they all deemed it safe to continue on. Harry stepped onto a staircase with a couple others and waited as it started moving to its other connecting landing. They were about halfway when the castle shook again, only this time, it didn’t stop. Harry and the others with him held onto the railing, attempting to stay upright. As the shaking continued, it got more violent and a deafening groan echoed. Dust and even tiny bits of stone began to rain down from the high ceiling.

Then, all of a sudden, they were falling. The second year Slytherin and fifth year Hufflepuff with him grasped the railing as hard as possible, shutting their eyes and screaming. Other students on the staircase were also gasping and crying out as they watched, unable to do anything.

The stairs they were on had cracked and crumbled away from the landing they were connected to and they were plummeting. Harry waited for the crash, unsure what to do. It wasn’t as long as expected before they were jostled violently by the impact. The crash whipped him around, making him smack his head painfully against the stone railing.

His head was pounding, ears ringing, and vision blurred when he heard muffled screaming. He thought it was from all the watching students, but, when he was finally able to see again, he realized the young Slytherin had been thrown from the stairs in the crash and was now dangling off the edge, screaming for help.

Their stairs had managed to get caught and wedge itself on a landing’s corner and another staircase, severely damaging both. The bottom right of their stairs was unsupported and hovering above the dark abyss, making Harry realize absently that he never really knew what was below the Grand Staircase. Ignoring the thought, he started shuffling down the precarious stairs to the hanging girl. Holding the railing, he reached out for the Slytherin.

“Grab my hand,” Harry called to her.

Sobbing and clearly terrified, the girl hesitated before reaching out as far as she could. After stretching, they managed to clasp hands tightly and Harry pulled, helping her scramble back onto the stairs.

“Okay, both of you, climb up to the stairs we’re caught on,” Harry instructed. “Get off the staircase.”

The Slytherin and Hufflepuff shook their heads, obviously distrustful of their broken stairs’ stability.

“It’ll be okay,” Harry said. “I’ll catch you if you fall. Trust me.”

The Slytherin sobbing and the Hufflepuff biting their lip, they eventually nodded. Harry gave them an encouraging smile and watched them begin to move. They kept one hand on the railing and crawled slowly up the tilted stairs. The Hufflepuff climbed off first onto the supporting stairs and turned to help the Slytherin. Once off, they scurried down to the closest landing and into a corridor to be safe from anymore breaking stairs.

Harry blew out a breath, relieved the others had gotten to safety and beginning to feel exhausted as the adrenaline wore off. He also began to feel the pain in his skull behind his ear where it had hit the stone.

“Potter!”

Harry looked down and found Snape on the landing that was also helping to keep his stairs from falling further. He didn’t bother questioning the relief and happiness he felt at having Snape there to help him.

“Come down and get off of there!” Snape yelled at him.

He really didn’t have the energy to move, but he knew he had to get himself off the stairs. Gathering all the energy he had left, he started his own slow climb across and down the stairs. He hadn’t gotten far when the stairs shook slightly and the sound of scraping, crumbling stone rang out. His stomach sank as his stairs dropped a little further. His eyes widened. The supports were failing and the stairs he was on were about to start falling again. He looked back at Snape. He could almost swear he saw worry in the man’s eyes.

“Potter. Move. Now.”

Harry heard the urgency and began to move again, shuffling as quick as he dared. The stairs continued vibrating and had dropped an inch or two a couple more times. Once near the landing, Snape reached out for him. He grasped Snape’s hand and let the man pull him over the railing and onto the landing. They moved back until they were almost in the connecting corridor.

“Are you alright?” Snape asked, visually examining him.

Harry nodded. “Yeah, just hit my head.”

Snape was about to take a look when the scraping stone made a kind of scream, making them turn to the stairs. They watched, shocked, as the broken staircase broke through its supports and fell. It smashed through another staircase and took out part of a landing before disappearing into the dark. Harry couldn’t help but shiver, having just been on that staircase moments before. He hissed when fingers suddenly prodded his injured scalp.

“Hey!” he cried out. “That hurt!” He shot Snape a glare.

Snape just raised an eyebrow. “Don’t whine.”

Harry kept his half-hearted glare.

“You appear mostly fine,” Snape said. “Are you?”

Harry dropped his glare with a sigh. “I’m okay, promise. Thanks for helping.”

Snape inclined his head, and very lightly and quickly squeezed Harry’s shoulder. “Come, let’s get your head healed.”

“Sure,” Harry said, not really wanting to, but also knowing he shouldn’t argue. He was about to start following Snape when glancing down the corridor made him stop. At the very end of the hall, he recognized Dumbledore. The headmaster had been there? Why hadn’t he helped or come to make sure everyone was alright? Only a moment after spotting him, Dumbledore swept away and disappeared down another corridor. He frowned, confused at the headmaster’s actions, or lack thereof, in this case.

“Potter,” Snape called out.

“Right,” Harry said, distracted. “Coming.”

He followed Snape to the Hospital Wing, absentminded the whole way. Even when Ron and Hermione rushed in after hearing what happened, he couldn’t stop thinking about Dumbledore.

Harry sat in his bed with the curtains drawn with a sigh. He had finally escaped the common room after being bombarded with questions about what had happened on the Grand Staircase for what seemed like hours. After the questioning, the Gryffindors had devolved into casting blame onto the other houses, accusing them of destroying the stairs to try and hurt or kill Harry. He didn’t bother to correct them or point out that both a Slytherin and Hufflepuff had been on the stairs with him. They wouldn’t listen.

Ron and Hermione, on the other hand, were terrified to let him out of their sight as though the castle would collapse on top of him the second he was alone. He tolerated the hovering for as long as he could, admitting it had been a scary experience.

Soon, though, he’d had enough, was overwhelmed, and he just needed to be alone and in quiet. He’d convinced Ron and Hermione to let him go by promising he wasn’t going to try and sneak out to go anywhere else. Luckily, he had no intention of doing any such thing and had just collapsed into bed in relief.

He stared up at his canopy, relishing the quiet as his mind ran through a wide variety of things. He replayed the stair collapse, glad they had all escaped before they were seriously harmed. He replayed the moment with Snape, secretly enjoying the comfort he had received from the man, no matter how subtle and brief and strange. Then, his thoughts turned to Dumbledore and he frowned.

He still didn’t fully understand what it meant that Dumbledore had appeared to ignore the stair disaster.

Perhaps he had seen Snape and assumed he wasn’t needed. While possible, it was strange and didn’t seem like something Dumbledore would do.

Or was it?

He flashed through everything he had gone through since stepping foot into Hogwarts. It was fairly common for Harry to get into the danger and find some way to deal with it alone and then Dumbledore would show up. His help was always given after the fact. At the time, there were reasons why Dumbledore wasn’t immediately available, but, as he thought more, he began to winder. Had Dumbledore purposefully ignored Harry in danger? Where had the man been going after Harry spotted him in that hallway?

Still frowning as confusion filled him, he opened the drawer on his bedside table and pulled out the Marauder’s Map. He hadn’t used it in quite some time and his heart hurt as he gazed at it, reminded of the still relatively fresh loss of Sirius. Pushing the sadness down, he picked up his wand from where it sat beside him on the bed.

Tapping the blank parchment, he said, “I solemnly swear that I am up to no good.”

The ink spread across the parchment, creating the Hogwarts design and spelling out the nicknames of the map’s creators. He unfolded the map and, crossing his legs to make space, laid it out in front of himself n the bed. He examined the map, noting where everyone was. There weren’t many students wandering around despite the majority of the student body having remained at Hogwarts that year for Christmas break and it was New Years’ Eve. No one felt much like celebrating. Mostly everyone seemed to be in either the Great Hall or their respective common rooms with some in the library or the Astronomy Tower. He noted the names in the Hospital Wing as the students in comas.

The staff was scattered with some in the Great Hall, some in their offices or personal rooms, and others slowly patrolling the corridors. He searched for Dumbledore at that point, curious about just where the headmaster could be. It didn’t take long to find the man in his office, and Harry chewed his lip in contemplation. Maybe he was just overthinking things. Surely Dumbledore wouldn’t ignore danger and destruction. He must have just determined Snape had it all under control and went to deal with who knows what. The man likely had a lot to concern himself with given everything happening in the castle, and Voldemort’s growing presence in the world.

He sighed and shook his head, repeating to himself that he was just imagining things. He was about to clear the map when something caught his eye. He lifted the flap that was near the lavatory that held the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets. That area of the map, including that lavatory, was blurred and the lines were squiggly, waving and swaying on the page. He stared at it closely, even brushed the area with his fingers. Nothing like that had ever happened to the map before. It was a damn near perfect piece of magic.

He quickly scanned the map again, looking for any other oddities. He found one other blurred, waving section where Gryffindor Tower was. He looked up, as though whatever was happening on the map would be visible in his curtained bed. When nothing became apparent, as expected, he returned to the map. What was going on with those two areas of the school? Was the map malfunctioning, despite working flawlessly for decades, or was it identifying something in the castle? Could it be connected to Hogwarts’ dying magic?

He was interrupted from pondering further as the other boys in his dorm made their loud entry. He quickly cleared the map and put it back in his table, pulling back his curtains to join the pre-sleep conversation. However, he was only half involved as his other half could not put Dumbledore or the map out of his mind.

Harry blinked and found himself back in a familiar white space. However, this time, there was something different. There were three dark spots and he could feel multiple other presences. He frowned, looking around for the woman he knew would be there. He still hadn’t had any luck finding out who she was. After a little bit, he finally spotted her approaching in the distance.

Like all the other times, she stood in front of him and smiled softly. She looked exactly the same as all the other times he’d seen her. She clasped her hands in front of her as she gazed at him.

“My child,” she said quietly, her voice light.

Harry was stunned to hear her speak for the first time. He hadn’t expected that to change.

“Who are you?” he asked and was startled to hear his words echo in the space.

“I am your home.”

Harry furrowed his eyebrows at the vague, confusing response. “Why have I been dreaming about you and now when I’m awake? What do you want? Who are you?”

“I am your home,” she said again, “and I need my heroes.”

Harry’s frown deepened.

“I am dying, my child,” she said, her smile fading. “You’ve seen it…felt it.”

It was then he finally realized the unbelievable. “You’re Hogwarts.”

She smiled briefly again.

“I don’t understand,” Harry said. “How is this possible?”

“I possess very old, but very powerful magic,” she said. “My creators’ poured their life into me, giving me life.”

“But…you’re a castle,” Harry said, deadpanned.

She gave him a gentle, but pointed look. “You know I am much more than that.”

Harry silently conceded the accurate point. “But you still can’t die.”

“Technically, no, I cannot. However, everything that makes me Hogwarts can be extinguished,” she said and he gave her a questioning look. “The magic that created me and sustains me has been terribly misused for years. Additionally, my core has been missing for far too long.”

Harry briefly thought about Dumbledore’s mention of Hogwarts’ source.

“Thus, it is my magic that is fading and failing, and you have seen it.”

He pictured everything that had happened to the castle so far, including his near-death on the stairs only that day.

“So, we were right,” Harry said. “Your magic is being drained, but how and by who?”

“Unfortunately, I am able to tell you little,” she said. “I am bound.”

“What kind of person could manage this?”

“A very dark and powerful one.”

“Is your draining connected to the Mind Magic?”

“I cannot say.”

Harry sighed. “Then what am I supposed to do if you can’t tell me anything?”

“You must find the others and discover the truth,” she said.

“What others?”

“The other heroes, four in total.”

“Who are they? Do I know them?”

She smiled. “Quite well. Together, the four of you must return my core and defeat my binder.”

“What’s your core?”

“The Four Swords of the Founders,” she said. “Four swords for four heroes.”

Harry frowned. “Swords?”

She nodded. “You possessed one once, many years ago.”

“The Sword of Gryffindor,” he whispered in realization.

“Yes. It has since been hidden away and the others have been gone for a long time, stolen by the one who binds me,” she explained.

“How will I know who the others are? How do I find the swords? How do I defeat someone powerful enough to destroy you and ancient magic?” Harry asked, desperate and lost.

“Trust in your friends, in the family you have created, the family you have forgotten,” she said and he was taken aback by the feeling of pure love he got from her. “They will guide you and, together, you will return me to my former splendor.”

Harry just stared at her, wondering if he could do what she asked. “What happens if we can’t return the swords?”

She grew sad. “Then my magic, the magic of the Founders, will extinguish forever, and I will cease to exist as the home you know.”

Harry’s stomach twisted painfully. That couldn’t happen.

“Together my heroes will discover the truth and with all my children, you will defeat the true Dark One.”

Her necklace, which he realized was a more antiquated version of the Hogwarts crest, began to glow. He knew she was about to leave, but she couldn’t go! He was still so confused!

“But, I still don’t understand. How do we find the swords? How do we find who’s doing this? How do we defeat them?”

She smiled and held her arms out to the sides as though readying for a hug. “Together,” she repeated and the glow from her necklace engulfed her. It continued to grow, overtaking the space and making Harry shield his eyes. As he was blinded, the white space with the three shadowy areas faded away.

Green, black, grey, and brown eyes snapped open at the exact same moment and the air pulsed around each individual.

Hogwarts’ four heroes had been awakened.