Chapter 257 - 256. Department of Mysteries. Part 2. The Time Room.

A few minutes later, Severus pulled away from the now-unconscious wizard and gazed thoughtfully into the distance. Then, using a nonverbal Obliviate, he wiped all memories of himself from the Unspeakables’ minds before emerging from underground.

"As I expected, those two rooms weren’t guarded because there was nothing special in them," he said, turning and activating the invisibility charms on his cloak as he left the room. "And there’s no one here because they were confident in the local protective charms and the outside guard. Besides, a new shift was supposed to start soon."

*So someone should be coming here shortly...*

~creak~

"And I told her, ’I won’t go with you,’ and I left! No, but you should have seen her face. How am I supposed to go out in public with her?! Damn! She has so many beauty products, and she doesn’t even want to use them!"

"Man... are we really talking about your wife...?"

"Who did you think I was talking about? Nowadays all women are for sale, each one prettier than the last, as if they stepped out of a magazine after taking a beauty potion from Prince’s shop."

"If she’s so terrible, why don’t you leave her?"

"Sigh... I can’t. Her father holds quite a high position in the Ministry of Magic. If I leave her, he’ll kick me out of here himself."

"I won’t ask why you married her, it’s already obvious, but my advice to you is to leave if you don’t like it. Galleons are good, and you can never have too many, but you can always earn more, while lost time is gone forever."

"And lose this job?! When they pay over five hundred a month for doing almost nothing?"

"Would you leave this job yourself?"

"Well..."

"Exactly!"

I would advise you to work another year or so here, save up enough money, and leave the country, because if you leave her, her father won’t let you live. Or give her a beauty potion to drink. Slip it in her tea, for example," a voice said behind them, making one guard flinch as the other nodded.

"Hmm... not a bad idea, honestly. I hadn’t thought about giving her a po..." But then he noticed his colleague’s voice sounded strange. "...tion... hey, what’s wrong with your..."

Thud! Two bodies hit the ground at the same time.

"Severus..." Nagini gave him a disapproving look.

"Now, don’t give me that look. I might actually be saving a family here." Severus smirked and, using the Imperius Curse, which was more convenient in this situation than the alternative, brought them under his control. "Get up and act normally. Pay no attention to me, and keep quiet." They nodded slowly, like zombies, then briskly resumed walking around the room.

"Now you know where we’re going?"

"Yes. This place is very badly designed. If you don’t know the name of the room you want to reach and you’re unlucky, there’s a good chance you’ll never find it. The same goes for getting out of this place... Time Room," Severus said loudly, and one of the doors suddenly swung open, bright light bursting from it. "But if you do know, it’s quite convenient," he added, heading toward it.

"Is that... the ticking of clocks?" She heard loud ticking coming from the room.

"Yes, a huge number of clocks..."

When they finally entered, they were greeted by a room filled with every kind of clock imaginable, from simple grandfather clocks to wall clocks and even wristwatches.

They were everywhere: in cabinets, on top of them, between bookshelves, on the floor, on the windowsill, which offered a view of a white clock face, not to mention the clock drawings on the ceiling, whose hands even moved.

The room itself, though quite large, was difficult to navigate at times because clocks were everywhere, unless, of course, you knew how to navigate between them and avoid falling into traps, since all of them were magical.

This place was also heavily guarded. Of course, the Unspeakables hadn’t revealed themselves yet, but at least fifteen of them were hiding in the room, watching them at that very moment. They weren’t in a hurry to attack, because if a wizard had managed to get here and knew how to open the right room, then most likely he had been sent by someone, perhaps the Minister of Magic himself.

But no one had warned them about this, so one of them emerged from his hiding place, a large antique clock as tall as Severus, and blocked his path. This didn’t particularly surprise Severus, who showed no reaction to the sudden appearance.

"Allow me to see your authorization," the Unspeakable said dryly, extending his open palm. Severus took a sheet of paper from his breast pocket and handed it to the man in the faceless mask, with a wand now in his other hand.

"Here you go. By order of the Minister of Magic, I have come for one Time-Turner." A weak, multicolored spark burst from the authorization. "Show me where they’re kept."

"Yes, follow me..." But he didn’t get to finish, because a dull impact echoed through the room and the Unspeakable’s body fell to the floor. Nagini stared at Severus in amazement, not expecting this turn of events at all, but...

*I knew it wouldn’t be enough just to replicate the effect and appearance of the authorization, but it was worth trying.* He had recognized this through the simplest method, unknown in this world, by sensing the magic in his opponent’s body. At the beginning of the conversation, the magic had flowed calmly through him, but when he received the authorization, it was as if something burst, and the magic began gathering in the center of his chest, where his core lay.

That was the first sign that the wizard was preparing for battle.

A wand appeared in Severus’s hand, and he immediately pointed it toward the door. In full view of the remaining wizards in the room, more than twenty different locks appeared on the door.

"Are you going to keep hiding?" he asked with a mocking smile, thrusting his palm sharply toward one of the corners.

"Argh!" A surprised scream came from that direction, and a witch in a white mask flew out, silently clutching her throat as if something was choking her.

"They hire women for this kind of work too... interesting. It’s been a while since I’ve broken women’s necks..." With a bloodthirsty grin, he licked his lips, emitting a dark, oppressive aura that sent chills down the spines of everyone hiding in the room.

Crack!

"Alice! Don’t you dare!" A furious yet frightened cry rang out. Another guard dropped from the ceiling, his wand aimed at Severus, but he didn’t dare attack while the witch was a hostage. "Let her go! Fight fair!"

"Hmm? Why would I?" Severus asked, tilting his head. "Actually..." Crouching, he placed his palm on the unconscious Unspeakable’s head and quickly sifted through his memories from the last few minutes, locating all the guards gathered here.

After more than ten seconds, he rose to his feet and met the gaze of the tense guard, who, like the other wizards, hadn’t looked away the entire time, all waiting for the right moment to strike.

"Thank you for deciding to wait. And now... sleep." At those words, the guard standing before him swayed.

"You... wha...t... did..." His eyes rolled back and he collapsed to the floor.

"One problem eliminated," Severus summarized, stepping over the bodies of the first two unlucky actors. "Unpleasant little place, by the way. How did you like the performance?" He looked at Nagini.

"You should play a villain. It came too naturally, as if you were born for the role."

"Thank you for the compliment. I’d bow if we weren’t in this place."

"But why did you do that? I’m sure you could have done without the performance," she said, lowering her gaze to the table where he had stopped. On it lay a box.

"Because of the artifacts. There were too many here, and they were interfering with my senses. I also didn’t know what special features each one possessed, so I had to be more cautious," he said, touching the lid and dispelling all the charms on it. "Here’s our reward..." Opening the box, he saw about twenty small golden hourglass-shaped pendants, each mounted on an axis and linked together by a chain. "We can study them later." After quickly examining the runes superficially and drawing on the guards’ memories, he was certain these were Time-Turners.

"Are we leaving?" Seeing Severus take three artifacts and put them in his pouch, she asked, glancing to the right where the same masked witch lay. "If we delay, more might come."

"Not yet. I learned about another interesting place here..." he said mysteriously, squinting as he turned and headed for the exit.

"It’s rare for something to interest you so much..."

"And it’s a very interesting thing, if it is what I think it is..."

"Hmm? What is it?" she asked with genuine curiosity.

"Natural Love Potion..."

"Um... why do you need it?" Nagini looked at him, puzzled, unable to understand why he would need that potion. He didn’t seem to have any issues with love.

"I need what creates it: the source of this potion, a special kind of magic under whose influence even dried-up plants can bloom again while increasing fertility. This is the true Philosopher’s Stone for any potioneer or herbologist, if it is what I think it is," he explained calmly, a gleam in his eyes, as he left the room. Then, raising his palm sharply, he stopped four multicolored projectiles fired by four Unspeakables. They had arrived to guard the place along with the previous two, only slightly delayed.

However, Severus didn’t even glance at them as he reflected the spells, strengthening them several times over. The newcomers didn’t even have time to cast Protego before they were thrown against the wall and lost consciousness.

"Severus, they could have..."

"They didn’t. Before leaving this place for the last time, I used silencing charms." Quickly scanning the doors, he easily found the most protected one, which could not be opened with simple unlocking charms or any other spells. Only the password would work, but at most ten people knew it: those who worked behind that door and rarely ventured beyond it.

Approaching it, he touched the wooden surface with his palm and closed his eyes.

*First, I should cut it off from the other runes so I don’t erase them all. I don’t want the contents of this place to become public knowledge, and I can’t leave it without protection: too many dark and dangerous artifacts were stored here...* Finding the junctions wasn’t particularly difficult, but properly patching them up afterward was much harder.

So for the next ten minutes, he worked at it. Erasing and destroying rune weaves was one thing, but restoring them, especially completely unknown ones, was quite another.

And finally, taking the dagger from his belt again, he simply touched the door. With the sound of shattering glass, all the charms dissipated, leaving it completely defenseless.

*There’s, of course, another place I’d like to visit, but...* For a moment, an image flashed through his mind: a stone archway draped in a dark substance that looked like tattered fabric. The strange, unnerving feeling of danger made Severus shudder. He felt as if he had seen something like it before, and that really frightened him. So, to stay out of trouble, he decided to skip the Death Room of the Ministry of Music.

At least for now, Severus didn’t intend to come within a hundred meters of this dangerous thing that his instincts were screaming about, and he had already learned to trust them. *Until I become an Archimagus, I definitely won’t go in there, even if it’s safe to approach.* With those thoughts, he pushed open the door, and a pleasant floral fragrance immediately greeted him...

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Currently at;

1. Harry Potter: Satan? Nah, Just My Family Crest = Chapter 444

2.Harry Potter: Beyond Good and Evil in the Wizarding World = Chapter 459

3.Harry Potter: Reborn as Draco Black = Chapter 244