Harry's current state was very strange.
The Roman numeral VII formed by those "brains in jars" only existed for a moment, but now it felt like it was burned onto his retina and just would not fade away.
That image made him look at the seventh black door without even thinking.
'Were those brains guiding me?'
Once this thought appeared, Harry could no longer hold himself back.
He slowly stepped forward and pushed open the black door.
"Harry! Why did you open another new door again?"
Hermione shouted anxiously.
According to her idea, what they should be doing now was checking Aberforth's claim.
If the mechanism here really was spatial magic, and every time the walls rotated the room behind the door also changed, then they should keep testing the same door again and again until all possibilities were tried out.
This was the most effective elimination testing method.
But now, Harry had opened another door.
This almost doubled the amount of work they would have to do next.
"Alright, Hermione, don't be so angry." George and Fred took turns persuading her. "Anyway the door is already open, we might as well go take a look."
Hermione still looked puffed up with anger, clearly not convinced by George and Fred.
And what they did not notice was that Harry's body not far away was trembling lightly.
The scene in front of him had already gone beyond his imagination.
Not because it was scary or strange, but because it was just too ordinary.
Behind the seventh black door was actually a small inn.
The worn wall paint, the doors with room numbers carved on them, the small wooden counter…
Everything was telling Harry this was an extremely ordinary hostel.
Maybe even a seaside hostel, because Harry vaguely heard waves hitting and seagulls crying.
At first glance it did not seem like much.
But for something so ordinary to suddenly appear inside a place like the Department of Mysteries, that itself was the strangest thing.
On the other side, George and Fred finally calmed Hermione down.
The two of them walked slowly to Harry's side and said, "Hey! Harry, what are you standing there for? Why aren't you hurry… wow!"
George and Fred both let out a cry of surprise.
Clearly they were also shocked by the scene behind the door.
But unlike Harry, a hint of excitement flashed in their eyes.
"A seaside holiday inn? George, I'm not seeing things, right?"
"Of course not, Fred, because I see it too!"
George and Fred spoke one after another, then pushed Harry toward the doorway.
This startled Harry, but before he could stop them, the few of them had already stepped into the inn together.
Creak~ Creak…
The wooden floor of the inn groaned under their steps, sounding old and worn, as if foretelling the fate of Harry's group.
Unfortunately, all of them were focused elsewhere.
George and Fred rushed almost immediately toward the counter in the center of the inn.
Harry, meanwhile, stood stiffly in place, staring blankly at the wall in front of him.
On it was reflected a large patch of dim yellow sunlight that usually only appeared at dusk.
It formed a neat square on the wall according to the shape of the window frame, and at first glance it looked like a very strange human face made of squares.
The sound of seagulls rang out again.
Harry instinctively turned his head to look outside the window.
He was already prepared to see a beach, waves, even a sunset.
But what entered his eyes were only two windows completely filled with yellow light.
It was as if someone had placed huge light panels directly against the windows.
Strangely though, the light from those "panels" was not glaring, and Harry felt no discomfort looking straight at them.
Looking further upward along the windows, an old wooden wall clock was hanging there.
Harry had one like that in the Dursleys' house where he used to live.
Every noon the little wooden door on it would open automatically, and a spring bird would pop out to call the time.
Harry used to hate this kind of clock.
Because whenever it called, it meant he had to serve tea, water, and prepare lunch for the Dursley family.
And now, his dislike for that clock grew even stronger.
Because the time it showed now was six in the evening.
This perfectly matched the dusk scene inside the seaside inn.
But it did not match Harry and the others' time.
Harry clearly remembered that when they arrived at the telephone booth, all the street lamps around were already on.
And London street lamps automatically turn on at seven in the evening.
Harry took a slightly uneasy deep breath.
As a wizard raised as a pure Muggle who had attended five years of primary school, he knew about time differences.
Because of that, he strongly suspected they might have been transported by that black door to some land thousands of miles away.
Still, it did not quite make sense.
Because you could not see anything outside those windows at all.
It was as if the space they were in had been cut away from the real world and sealed as an independent entity.
"Hey! Harry, come look at what we found!"
Ron's slightly excited voice pulled Harry out of his thoughts.
He suddenly turned around and saw Aberforth and the others had all entered the inn and were gathered around the empty counter.
At the center hung a cord with a piece of plastic attached at the end.
No, more accurately, it was a light pull cord.
Harry was very familiar with it.
There was one connected to a light bulb in the cupboard where he used to live.
But the problem was, there was no light bulb anywhere in this whole inn.
So what did this pull cord switch on?
While Harry was still thinking, George's hand had already grabbed the cord.
"Don't!" Harry shouted immediately.
But it was too late.
With a click as the cord was pulled, the whole inn instantly became pitch black.
The dusk light on the wall, the bright "light panels" outside the window, every glowing thing went out.
Everyone present was startled.
Fortunately, the light quickly returned.
Because George, frightened, pulled the cord again right away.
"Merlin's beard! What just happened?"
Ron shouted loudly, his wand trembling slightly, as if infected by his owner's fear.
"So this cord actually controls all the light here?" Fred rubbed his chin and said. "But that doesn't add up. The light coming in was clearly sunlight, unless…"
George immediately added, "Unless we're actually locked inside a little box, and there's a big light bulb outside shining at us!"
As soon as he said that, Ron trembled even more.
Hermione scolded, "Stop talking nonsense! How could that be?"
"Why not? This is the Department of Mysteries. Anything can happen!" George said excitedly, shaking his head. "Otherwise, how do you explain this?"
As he spoke, George pulled the cord again.
The surrounding light dimmed once more.
But this time, along with the light, the entire environment changed.
The warm seaside inn vanished in an instant.
In its place appeared a huge spacious room filled with tall shelves.
On those shelves were many small grayish glass spheres.
Under the light of wall mounted candle holders, the glass spheres gave off a faint glow.
The sudden change finally made George and Fred stop joking.
They stood back to back with Aberforth, forming a circle that protected Harry and the other two inside, while they held their wands and watched the surroundings carefully.
Harry was also a bit stunned.
Looking around, he felt his heart beating fast and hard, even speaking felt affected.
Still, he forced himself to say in a hoarse voice, "This is it! We're here!"
"What?" Hermione said softly. "But this place doesn't look like it went through a battle. And there's no sign of Dumbledore or the others!"
Ron twisted his head back and forth, looking through the gaps in the human wall formed by Aberforth, George, and Fred.
"Maybe what Link said before was right. Maybe you just had a nightmare. None of this is real."
"We don't think so," George and Fred said.
"Link once told us Harry's mind was accidentally invaded by Voldemort. If Dumbledore and the others never came here, then I think… this is very likely a trap set by Voldemort!"
As soon as those words came out, Harry and the other two turned pale.
"Wait! What are you talking about?!"
Aberforth said angrily. "You mean this place is completely a trap? Damn it, and I actually came along with you!"
Hearing that, Harry shrank his neck, unsure how to explain the situation.
Hermione spoke up for him, "This isn't Harry's fault! He was just too worried about Dumbledore!"
Aberforth said harshly, "At least there's no obvious danger here now, and Dumbledore and the others aren't here. Since that's the case, we should leave immediately!"
As he spoke, he pointed toward a narrow door far on the other side of the room.
"You mean we should go in there?"
Ron said in disbelief. "Who knows what weird room might be inside? There could even be monsters!"
"That's still better than staying here!"
After saying that, Aberforth directly pulled Harry and the others toward the narrow door.
George and Fred exchanged a glance and hurried to follow.
Their thoughts were similar to Aberforth's.
Since they had not found any sign of Mr. Weasley here, the first thing they needed to do now was leave and confirm Mr. Weasley and the others were safe.
Actually, they should have done this earlier.
Unfortunately, the earlier series of sudden events had clouded their judgment.
The group quickly moved through the room, but something strange happened again.
As rows of tall shelves passed on both sides, the narrow door seemed to move backward automatically, always keeping a fixed distance from them.
Seeing this, Aberforth stopped first and said,
"Spatial restriction! We're trapped! Stop trying to get closer. Quickly look for something like that pull cord. Since we came in here through it, logically it can take us out too!"
Hearing this, Harry and the others nodded and began spreading out to search around.
This was bound to be difficult.
Although there were many wall mounted candle holders in the room, the area was simply too large.
The cold bluish flames did not provide enough light.
On top of that, the place was full of tall shelves.
Trying to find a pull cord in such a messy dim environment was like looking for a needle in the sea.
But now it had become a task Harry and the others had to complete.
They quickly searched the shelves around them, but aside from glass spheres of various sizes, there was nothing else.
This made Harry grow more and more restless.
It felt like some danger was quickly approaching him.
"Harry! Come here quick!" Ron suddenly shouted. "On this… on this there's your name?"
"Huh?"
Harry replied gloomily, then suddenly reacted and rushed to Ron's side.
Ron was holding a glass sphere about the size of a baby's fist.
From Harry's angle, he could clearly see a cotton like glow swirling inside it, along with a thin thread wrapped around its surface.
At the end of that thread was a yellowed label, with a date from about sixteen years ago written in thin long handwriting, followed by, the Dark Lord X Harry Potter
"What is this?" Ron said nervously. "Why is your name on it?"
Harry gently shook his head.
He swore he had never seen anything like it before.
But the moment he saw the sphere, a strange stirring rose in his heart.
An unclear voice seemed to whisper in his ear.
It was a language he did not know at all.
Yet somehow Harry clearly understood its meaning, pick up that crystal ball.
At this time, Aberforth, Hermione, and the others not far away also noticed something unusual on Harry and Ron's side.
When Aberforth saw the crystal ball in Ron's hand, his eyes, half hidden in messy hair, suddenly widened.
As if he remembered something, he shouted sharply, "Harry! Don't touch that crystal ball!"
Harry clearly heard Aberforth's voice.
Even though it sounded distant and hollow to him, he did hear it.
And because of that shout, a trace of caution rose in Harry's heart.
But it was useless.
The strange whisper in his ear was like a basin of cold water poured directly onto the flame of caution in his heart, easily extinguishing it.
Harry's eyes gradually unfocused, and his expression turned blank.
He slowly took the crystal ball from Ron, who was still looking toward Aberforth, and carefully held it in his palm.
The next moment, the whispering voice disappeared.
Harry regained clarity.
Frowning, he looked at the crystal ball in his hand with confusion.
At the same time, Aberforth finally rushed to Harry's side. Staring at the crystal ball, the muscles on his face twitched uncontrollably.
"It's over!" he murmured. "It's all over!"
Harry looked at him in confusion.
"What's over? Obviously it's just…"
Before Harry finished speaking, a drawn out rising voice sounded behind them, "Very good, Potter. Now turn around, slowly turn around, and give it to me."
Harry knew that voice too well.
'Lucius Malfoy!'
That deliberately dragged tone sounded exactly like his son Draco Malfoy.
Harry suddenly turned his head and sure enough saw Lucius Malfoy with his platinum blond hair.
No, not just Lucius Malfoy.
More and more dark figures were approaching around them.
These black robed figures blocked both sides of their path.
From the gaps in their hoods, fierce eyes glared, and dozens of shining wands pointed straight at their hearts.