"He's being hunted by both the Ministry of Magic and the Death Eaters?"
Sophie's eyes were fixed on Sherlock, her voice thick with obvious tension.
This Witch definitely had a history with Eddie. Recalling Eddie's mention of their falling out at school and the mystery surrounding Amy's mother, Sherlock couldn't help but imagine a convoluted, melodramatic love triangle.
But now was clearly not the time to be thinking about such messy affairs.
"That's right. So you need to take me to find Madam Selwyn at the Department of Mysteries as soon as possible. The sooner we find her, the sooner Eddie will be safe!"
Sophie hurriedly threw a robe over her pyjamas, grabbed Sherlock's arm, and Apparated with him into the Ministry of Magic.
The Ministry of Magic also had permanent Anti-Apparition wards, but they were ineffective for official employees. However, unless it was an extreme emergency, no Wizard would Apparate directly into the Ministry.
That would be highly impolite; employees usually travelled to work by flushing themselves down the toilet (in the original books, during the period when Voldemort was in power, Mr Weasley travelled to work by Apparating directly into his office).
Now, of course, they couldn't care less about such things and Apparated directly onto Level Six of the Ministry.
"I've never been to Level Nine, where the Department of Mysteries is located, so we have to go to Level Six first and then take the lift!" Sophie explained before leading Sherlock at a run towards the lift. Every light flickered on as they passed.
The entire Ministry of Magic felt incredibly desolate. At this hour, there weren't even any night-shift Wizards. Aside from the patrolling Aurors, it was empty, without a soul in sight.
Before reaching the lift, they suddenly spotted a motionless figure lying to one side of the corridor.
Pale-faced, Sophie stepped forward and looked at the Wizard, unsure whether he was dead or alive.
"It's Brooke! There are only two teams left in the Auror Office, and they're taking turns on duty tonight!"
The Wizard named Brooke wasn't dead; fortunately, he had only been hit by a Stunning Spell. Sherlock looked at him with a furrowed brow.
"The moles within the Ministry have already begun their move. The Death Eaters in Sheffield helped them by drawing away most of the Aurors' attention. Now, the Ministry's defences are very thin. It's still unknown how many Death Eaters that traitor brought into the Ministry."
"What should we do now?" Sophie asked, her voice trembling. "Should we find a way to notify the others in the Ministry first, or go straight to the Department of Mysteries?"
She was just an ordinary clerical worker at the Ministry with no combat experience, and she couldn't even cast a Shield Charm, so she was essentially useless in a fight.
Sherlock hadn't counted on her anyway. He continued running towards the lift.
"Do you have a way to notify all Ministry employees within thirty minutes and get them back to the Ministry?"
"Not even the Minister for Magic could do that!"
"Then there's no need to notify them. There's simply no time. We'll go down first and assess the situation."
Sherlock released his Control Magic. The Ministry clearly had extremely specialised magical protection. His Control Magic, which had always been invincible, felt faintly restricted and compressed, unable to extend to its maximum distance of ten metres, barely reaching eight.
But even at eight metres, such a perception range was sufficient.
They stepped into the lift and began to descend.
Sophie looked very nervous, but she pressed her lips together tightly and showed no sign of wanting to back out, continuing to follow Sherlock down.
When they reached Level Eight, the Atrium, they saw two more Aurors lying on the floor, which caused Sherlock's heart to sink slightly.
There was definitely more than one Death Eater in the Ministry!
Finally, amidst darkness and silence, they reached Level Nine, the floor where the Department of Mysteries was located.
Sophie gripped her wand tightly. After stepping out of the lift, Sherlock reached into his bag and scattered over thirty wands around him.
He couldn't use more; the corridors in the Ministry had limited space, and the range of Sherlock's Control Magic was being suppressed. Any more wands crowded into the narrow corridor would actually reduce their effectiveness.
After exiting the lift, there was only a long, straight corridor ahead. Following it, they saw another unconscious Auror lying on the floor.
According to Sophie, there were two teams of Aurors on duty, totalling ten people. Including Scrimgeour, the Head of the Auror Office, there were eleven Aurors in all. They had already found four who had been stunned.
After walking along the corridor for about two minutes, they reached the end.
There was a black door there, very plain, with no handle or markings, and it had been left slightly ajar.
Sherlock walked over to the door. His Control Magic had already detected the scene behind it. Confirming that no one was lying in wait and that it was safe, he pushed the black door open.
Behind the door was a large circular room. Everything here, including the ceiling and floor, was black.
There were twelve black doors set into the walls, identical to the one they had entered through. Once Sherlock and Sophie stepped inside, the circular wall began to spin rapidly, making it impossible to tell which door they had come through or which one they should enter next.
Sophie asked breathlessly,
"No one's here? They're not in here?"
Sherlock didn't answer her. Once the spinning wall had stopped, he walked along it, examining each door in turn and trying to use his Control Magic to detect what lay beyond.
However, this time he could sense nothing. Behind every door was a void, as though the black circular room they were in existed independently from all other space.
At that thought, a look of realisation suddenly appeared on Sherlock's face.
That's right—they were indeed independent of space. This hall of the Department of Mysteries was a space carved out on its own, and those black doors weren't doors in the true sense, but entrances to other spaces.
That was why his Control Magic couldn't probe what lay beyond them.
Realising this, Sherlock had no better option. To find out which door the Death Eaters had entered, he would have to open them one by one.
Dozens of wands floated behind him as Sherlock walked up to one of the black doors.
"Get ready," he warned Sophie.
Sophie's palms, gripping her wand, were slick with warm sweat. She nodded, indicating she was ready.
Then Sherlock pushed open the door in front of him.
The square room was brightly lit and almost empty, except for a single table. In the centre stood a large glass tank filled with a deep green liquid, big enough for someone to swim in.
Many white objects drifted lazily inside. At first glance, one might mistake them for some unusual species of jellyfish, but a closer look revealed that the things floating in the water were actually brains.
Sophie's lips trembled as she looked at the scene.
"I think I've heard of this place. This is the Brain Room, where the Unspeakables study the human brain."
Sherlock only glanced at it before looking away.
The brains in the glass tank all seemed alive, and looking at them for too long gave him a deeply unsettling feeling.
There were many other doors inside the Brain Room, but Sherlock had no intention of opening them one by one. He first had to determine whether the Death Eaters were behind any of these twelve black doors.
Since the door to the Brain Room remained open, the circular wall with the black doors would not begin spinning again.
Sherlock didn't linger. He moved quickly to the next black door, and the wands floating around him adjusted their aim in unison.
He pushed open the second black door.
This was a pitch-black room filled with planets, with no visible boundaries, ceiling, or floor.
Even Sherlock, who knew little about astronomy, immediately recognised the Solar System. The nine planets followed their own orbits and speeds, rotating while revolving around the blazing sun at the centre (in 2006, Pluto was reclassified as a dwarf planet, so the Solar System now officially has eight planets).
Even without Sophie saying anything, Sherlock could guess the name of this room—the Planet Room.
He then opened the third door.
The space beyond was large and dimly lit, square in shape with a sunken centre that formed a massive stone pit about twenty feet deep.
Stone steps circled the entire room like tiers of seating, descending level by level, each step steep, much like an old lecture theatre.
In the centre of the stone pit stood a raised stone dais, upon which stood an ancient Archway. It looked weathered and dilapidated, with no walls supporting it. A tattered black veil hung from it.
Although the air was cold and there was no wind, the veil swayed gently, as though it had just been touched.
This room gave Sherlock a very bad feeling. He didn't bother trying to determine its purpose and moved on to the fourth door.
This room was filled with beautiful, diamond-like dancing lights, and clocks covered every available surface.
They varied in size, from grandfather clocks to tiny pocket watches.
The ticking of countless clock hands sounded like the tiny, synchronised footsteps of thousands of marching soldiers.
The moment the door opened, a Wizard wearing a hideous iron mask and holding a wand locked eyes with Sherlock from the centre of the room.