Chapter 170: Department of Mysteries
Chapter 170: Department of Mysteries
"He's being hunted by both the Ministry of Magic and the Death Eaters?"
Sophie's gaze was fixed on Sherlock, her voice trembling with evident anxiety.
This witch must have some history with Eddie. Considering that Eddie mentioned they had a falling out during their school days, and Amy's mother's identity was unknown, Sherlock couldn't help but imagine a series of dramatic love triangles and entangled emotions.
But now was clearly not the time to indulge in such thoughts.
"Exactly, so you need to take me to Madame Selwyn in the Department of Mysteries as soon as possible. The sooner we find her, the sooner Eddie will be safe!"
Sophie hurriedly threw on a robe over her nightgown and grabbed Sherlock's arm, Apparating them both directly into the Ministry of Magic.
The Ministry of Magic had anti-Apparition wards in place, but they were ineffective against official employees. However, unless it was an emergency, no wizard would Apparate directly into the Ministry. It was considered highly impolite, and most employees preferred to use the designated entry points (in the original Voldemort era, Mr. Weasley would Apparate directly to his office).
They had no time for such niceties now and Apparated directly to the sixth sublevel of the Ministry of Magic.
"I've never been to the ninth floor where the Department of Mysteries is located, so we'll have to go to the sixth floor and take the elevator from there!" Sophie explained, then led Sherlock in a sprint towards the elevator. The areas they passed through suddenly lit up with lights.
The entire Ministry of Magic was eerily quiet. At this hour, even the night-shift wizards were absent, leaving only the Aurors patrolling the corridors. It was completely empty, with not a soul in sight.
Before they reached the elevator, they suddenly noticed a motionless figure lying in the corridor!
Sophie's face paled as she approached and saw the face of the unconscious wizard.
"It's Brook! Only two teams from the Auror Office are left, and they take turns on duty at night!"
The wizard named Brook was not dead; he had merely been hit with a Stunning Spell. Sherlock frowned as he examined him.
"The spies within the Ministry of Magic have begun their operations. The Death Eaters in Sheffield are keeping most of the Aurors occupied. The Ministry's defenses are now extremely thin, and we don't know how many Death Eaters the traitor has brought into the Ministry."
"What should we do now?" Sophie's voice trembled. "Should we try to alert the other Ministry employees first, or go straight to the Department of Mysteries?"
She was just a regular clerical worker in the Ministry, with no combat experience and no knowledge of basic defensive charms. She was completely useless in a fight.
Sherlock didn't expect much from her and continued towards the elevator.
"Can you contact all the Ministry employees and get them to return within thirty minutes?"
"Not even the Minister of Magic could do that!"
"Then there's no point in trying. We don't have the time. Let's go and see what's happening first."
Sherlock released his Control Magic. The Ministry of Magic clearly had extremely powerful magical protections, and his usually effective Control Magic was now being restricted and compressed. Instead of extending to its usual maximum range of ten meters, it could only reach about eight meters.
But even eight meters was enough for his purposes.
They stepped into the elevator and began their descent.
Sophie looked tense, but she kept her lips tightly pressed together, showing no sign of wanting to back out. She followed Sherlock down.
When they reached the eighth sublevel, the main hall of the Ministry of Magic, they found two more Aurors lying unconscious on the ground, which only deepened Sherlock's unease.
There were definitely more than one Death Eater in the Ministry!
Finally, in the darkness and silence, they arrived at the ninth floor, the location of the Department of Mysteries.
Sophie gripped her wand tightly, and as soon as Sherlock stepped out of the elevator, he took out a bag of wands and scattered thirty or so of them around the corridor.
He couldn't use more; the space in the Ministry's corridors was limited, and his Control Magic range was already restricted. Any more wands would overcrowd the narrow space and reduce their effectiveness.
They emerged from the elevator to find a single, straight corridor ahead. As they moved forward, they encountered another Auror lying on the ground, stunned and unconscious.
According to Sophie, there were now two teams of Aurors left in the Ministry of Magic, which amounted to ten people. Including the Head of the Auror Office, Scrimgeour, there were eleven Aurors in total, and they had already found four of them stunned by spells!
They walked along the corridor for about two minutes and arrived at the end.
There was a black door here, simple and plain, with no doorknob or any sign, and it was slightly ajar.
Sherlock walked up to the door, and his Control Magic had already detected the scene behind it. After confirming that no one was lying in ambush and that it was safe, he pushed open the black door.
Behind the door was a massive round room where everything, including the ceiling and floor, was black.
The walls were lined with twelve black doors, similar to the one they had entered through. After Sherlock and Sophie stepped inside, the circular walls began to spin rapidly, making it impossible for them to tell which door they had entered from or which one they should enter next.
Sophie, breathing heavily, asked, "There's no one here? They're not here?"
Sherlock didn't answer her question because the spinning walls had already stopped. He walked along the circular wall, examining each door one by one, trying to use his Control Magic to detect what lay behind them.
But this time, he couldn't "see" anything. Behind every door was nothing but emptiness, as if the black circular room they were in existed outside of all other spaces.
At this thought, Sherlock's face suddenly showed a look of realization.
That's right; they were indeed outside of all other spaces. The Hall of Mysteries was a space that had been created separately, and those black doors were not actual doors but entrances to other spaces!
That's why his Control Magic couldn't detect anything behind the doors.
Once Sherlock understood this, he didn't have a better plan. To find out which door the Death Eaters had entered, he would have to open each door one by one and check.
With dozens of wands floating behind him, Sherlock approached one of the black doors.
"Be ready", he warned Sophie.
Sophie's hand, gripping her wand, was sweating warmly. She nodded, indicating that she was ready.
Then, Sherlock gently pushed open the door in front of him.
The room was brightly lit, almost empty, with only a table and a large glass tank filled with a dark green liquid in the center, large enough for someone to swim in.
Many white objects were floating slowly and leisurely inside. At first glance, they looked like some special type of jellyfish, but closer inspection revealed that they were actually brains!
Sophie's lips trembled as she looked at the scene. "I think I've heard of this place. This is the Hall of Brains, where Silencers study human brains."
Sherlock only glanced a few times before shifting his gaze away from the Hall of Brains.
The brains in the glass tank seemed almost alive, and looking at them for too long gave one an eerie feeling.
There were many other doors in the Hall of Brains, but Sherlock had no intention of opening each one to check. He needed to first determine if the Death Eaters were behind any of the twelve black doors.
The door to the Hall of Brains remained open, and the circular wall with the black doors did not start spinning again.
Sherlock didn't linger; he quickly moved to the next black door, and the wands floating beside him shifted their aim.
He pushed open the second black door.
The room was full of planets, dark, with no visible boundaries, ceiling, or floor.
Even though Sherlock wasn't an expert in astronomy, he immediately recognized the solar system, with the nine planets orbiting a large, fiery ball in the center (Pluto was reclassified as a dwarf planet in 2006, leaving the solar system with only eight planets).
Even without Sophie's confirmation, Sherlock could guess the name of this room—“Hall of Planets.”
Next, he opened the third door.
The space behind this door was large and dimly lit, with a central depression forming a massive stone pit, about twenty feet deep.
Stone steps circled the room, like stone benches, gradually descending in steep levels, similar to a lecture hall.
In the center of the stone pit was a raised stone platform with an ancient, dilapidated archway on it. The archway had no walls for support, and a tattered black curtain hung from it.
Despite the cold air and the absence of any wind, the curtain gently swayed, as if it had just been touched.
This room gave Sherlock a very bad feeling. Without investigating further, he moved on to the fourth door.
The room was filled with beautiful, diamond-like, shimmering light, and every surface had a clock.
The clocks varied in size, from large grandfather clocks to small pocket watches.
The ticking of countless clock hands created a sound like the footsteps of thousands of tiny, marching soldiers.
At the same moment he opened the door, a wizard holding a wand and wearing a grotesque iron mask made eye contact with Sherlock!
(End of Chapter)
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