I became Voldemort Chapter 265: Department of Mysteries

I want to take a mont to thank you for your incredible support and love. May your Christmas be filled with laughter, warmth, and magical monts. Wishing you joy, peace, and endless adventures in the coming year!♥

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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 won.

"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 Departnt of Mysteries?" she asked.

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

"The Departnt 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 Departnt of Mysteries seed 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 Departnt 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 et 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 Departnt 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 so very advanced anti-unlocking spells on this door," Cedric speculated.

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

"And we only have a few hours," Fleur said anxiously. "Does anyone rember how much ti 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 ticulously keeping track of ti 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 Departnt of Mysteries within that tifra.

Let alone have enough ti to break through the enchantnts 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 pogranate.

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 mont, debating whether to disclose secrets about the British Ministry of Magic. After so 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 Departnt 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 Departnt 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 Ti-Turner."

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

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

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

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

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

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

Of course, that wasn't entirely absolute.

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

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

"Moreover," Cedric continued, "such magic is inherently unstable. Even if you want to travel back in ti, 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 ti never returned to this world. They simply vanished into the fabric of ti itself. Only one exception is known…

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

"..."

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

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

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

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

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