Chapter 265: Department of Mysteries

Smack!

In the dark space, three disheveled figures were thrown out, landing heavily on the ground.

"Ah!"

Cedric hit the ground shoulder first.

Though his head was still spinning, he instinctively made himself a cushion to soften the landing for the two women.

"Ugh"

Fleur's elbow accidentally jabbed into his stomach, making him feel like his insides were churning.

"Oh! S-Sorry," Fleur said apologetically.

"...It's fine," Cedric shook his head, glancing over at Cassandra. Thankfully, Cassandra had controlled her landing position, or the additional weight would have been too much for him to handle.

But Cassandra ignored his glance and instead surveyed the dark space around them.

—It was a long corridor. The floor and ceiling were nearly indistinguishable, with smooth black walls reflecting their shadows.

"So this is the Department of Mysteries?" she asked.

"It should be," Cedric replied as he got up from the ground, rubbing his stomach and shoulder.

"The Department of Mysteries is the most classified area in the Ministry of Magic. Everything here is top secret. Not only have I never been here, but even my father hasn't."

As Cedric spoke, he glanced around this mysterious place, his gaze filled with both curiosity and caution.

Compared to the other floors, the Department of Mysteries seemed unnervingly quiet. No traps appeared, and even the magical drones that had been tailing them throughout the competition didn't enter here.

But that was to be expected.

Allowing them access to the Department of Mysteries as part of the competition was already astonishing. Broadcasting this area would completely expose the Ministry's secrets!

"Let's keep moving. This place feels suffocating," Fleur said uneasily, glancing to the side.

Her gaze happened to meet her own reflection on the black wall. She shivered involuntarily, hugging herself and rubbing her arms.

Neither Cedric nor Cassandra objected.

The structure of the Department of Mysteries was surprisingly simple. For now, the only path available to them was straight ahead.

They moved forward, their leather shoes making squeaky, sticky sounds on the floor, which felt unpleasantly mushy—like walking on soft, overcooked rice.

"My shoes got ruined from the fire…" Fleur muttered, annoyed. She kicked off her damaged shoes and continued walking in her white socks.

Before long, they reached a door.

It stood at the end of the passage, the sole door before them.

The door was peculiar. Naturally, it was black, adorned with intricate carvings. Its sheer appearance conveyed its heaviness, as if it had been sculpted from a single massive block of marble.

What was even stranger was that the door had no handle, appearing as though it was seamlessly fused with the surrounding walls.

Cassandra raised her wand to eye level, holding it like a pistol. With her other hand, she pressed her fingers lightly against the door and gave it a gentle push. The door didn't budge.

"Alohomora!"

Sparks flew from her wand, but the door remained utterly still.

"I think there might be some very advanced anti-unlocking spells on this door," Cedric speculated.

The same spell could range from simple to highly complex in its application. Clearly, the spells on the Department of Mysteries' door fell into the latter category. Without the strength of a truly powerful wizard, breaking through in a short amount of time would be nearly impossible.

"And we only have a few hours," Fleur said anxiously. "Does anyone remember how much time has passed since the competition started?"

"It's been two and a half hours," Cassandra replied, her tone as cool and detached as ever.

Though not obsessive about it, she had been meticulously keeping track of time since the beginning.

Three hours wasn't particularly long, nor was it particularly short, but it was clear that if Dumbledore hadn't handed them the Portkey he'd found, they likely wouldn't have made it to the Department of Mysteries within that timeframe.

Let alone have enough time to break through the enchantments on this door.

"Diggory, what's behind this door?"

Cassandra brushed aside the hair from her cheek, revealing a delicate ear with a rosy earlobe that looked as enticing as a ripe pomegranate.

She pressed herself against the door, tilting her head to listen as she curled her fingers and knocked lightly.

Knock, knock.

A muffled sound resonated from within.

"Hmm," Cedric pondered for a moment, debating whether to disclose secrets about the British Ministry of Magic. After some thought, he realized that his knowledge was shallow at best.

Besides, if they managed to open the door, the so-called secrets wouldn't remain secrets anymore. He decided to speak up.

"I've heard that the Department of Mysteries contains many doors…"

He rubbed his chin, recalling bits and pieces he had picked up over the years from various sources.

"You might know that there are innate forms of magic in this world—magic that is inherently difficult to explain and almost impossible to control. The Department of Mysteries is dedicated to studying these kinds of magic."

Fearing Cassandra and Fleur might find this abstract, he gave a concrete example.

"Like the Time-Turner."

Cedric, being an excellent student, had indeed learned about Time-Turners. However, much like Hermione, he didn't insist on taking every possible course, opting out of some subjects he wasn't particularly interested in.

"Time truly is a difficult kind of magic to explain," Cassandra murmured softly.

She was aware of Cyrus's past mishap with a Time-Turner—a story he sometimes shared with the young witches and wizards at Ilvermorny as a humorous anecdote.

"What is a Time-Turner?" Fleur, having never heard of it, looked particularly curious. "Does it let you turn back time?"

"No, time cannot truly be reversed, and reality doesn't change," Cedric explained. "A Time-Turner allows you to return to the past, but nothing that has already happened will be altered."

If one thought of a Time-Turner as a kind of correction tape, in reality, it wouldn't fix errors in the outcome; it would only tweak some insignificant details in the process leading to it.

Of course, that wasn't entirely absolute.

There had been a wizard who traveled back in time, spanning several centuries, and his actions disrupted the timeline, causing twenty-odd people to vanish into thin air. This demonstrated that time travel could indeed alter the past and history.

Fleur didn't fully grasp the concept, but that didn't stop them from finding the Department of Mysteries intriguing.

"Moreover," Cedric continued, "such magic is inherently unstable. Even if you want to travel back in time, the furthest you can safely go is about five hours. Anything beyond that poses significant risks."

He added gravely, "Most wizards who attempted to cross long stretches of time never returned to this world. They simply vanished into the fabric of time itself. Only one exception is known…

"A witch named Eloise Mintumble traveled back to the year 1402 and stayed there for five days. When she returned, her body seemed to have aged five centuries in an instant, leaving her decrepit and frail."

"..."

The terrifying consequences of time travel left Fleur and Cassandra visibly unsettled.

Both of them were in the prime of their youth, and for them, aging seemed far more dreadful than death itself.

"Just as human minds cannot fully grasp the nature of time, we cannot comprehend the damage caused when we tamper with its laws," Cedric said gravely. "And this is merely one of the many types of magic studied by the Department of Mysteries."

What Cedric did not know was that, at this very moment, a fractured soul was drifting aimlessly through the fabric of time.

__________

12 Adv Chapters—Patreon.com/HornyFBI