Chương 28: The Department of Mysteries
A/N: Pat-reon: HelloDarkness07
TWO CHAPTERS TODAY, this is the first one.
I'd just like to say that for two weeks, I won't be uploading as fast as before. Tis the time of Ganesh Chaturthi, and I will barely get any time to write, or post. Thank you for understanding, and for your support!
Read on!
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I saw myself doing a lot of things in my life. Become physically stronger, superhuman even, find a way to extend my life beyond the normal wizarding age, master any and all magic that I find, that also does not depend on me opening my Soul up to anyone else, free the House Elves from their Cursed lives, and then find a nice warm place, preferably a beach, to retire in, without the stress of staying sociable.
Sitting in front of Nicholas Flamel and Perenelle Flamel inside their house, sipping tea(which is brilliant, by the way), while internally debating taking over the entire Wizarding Britain, was definitely not something I saw coming. I did see myself talking to these two some time, ever since Old Lady Flamel over here approached me in France, but the rest? Nope.
"The Department of Mysteries, huh?" I say, after what Nicholas just told me.
The DOM of the British Ministry of Magic is looking for me, and they were just about to catch up, which, I think wouldn't have been good for my health, before Nicholas effing Flamel kidnapped me. Which is why I was debating taking over them, jury's still out.
Nodding, the old man says, "Yes. They've been trying to track you down for a long time. Well, not you specifically, since they don't even know who you are, but yes, they have been trying to find you, just as we were."
Frowning, I look at him and ask, "What did I even do to gain their attention, or yours? And do I need to worry about them showing up at my home?"
Nicholas chuckles, a bit sardonically, and says, "Oh, dear boy. You haven't done anything wrong, per se. You just found knowledge about the wrong subject, that they'd rather keep restricted. Time."
Well, shit, that makes lots of sense. For 90 years, they've been the only ones to experiment with Time, when it comes to Wizarding Britain. They recruited everyone that even showed a modicum of interest in Time (and probably killed off those that refused), and they basically monopolized the Time Research Industry.
Perenelle then adds, "As for why they don't, and can't approach you in the orphanage, they don't actually know who you are, or where you stay, or what you do. They just know that someone is researching Time within Hogwarts Grounds, and that someone used a powerful enough Time related spell outside any protection spells. Outside your protection charms, they can track your Magic traces for 24 hours, but not a second more. So, I'd thank us for the shelter I'm giving you."
Huh, so my Artefact Ageing Spell caught their attention? And I used it twice in two days, once for the Diadem, and once for Cadmus Peverell's Ring. Damn, I should have waited, but the greed for an old Artefact, one related to Death, was too mouth watering to just delay.
"Is that how you found me? I used the Time related spell, and that allowed you to track me?" I ask, keeping the cup down, and relaxing. I know, that at least for now, these two aren't my enemies. Well, they're the Flamels, they probably aren't my enemies for later either, but can't take a risk.
"Oh, yes. Anyone can track Time spells, if they're knowledgeable enough." Perenelle says, casually taking a sip of her tea.
Frowning, I say, "Please explain how that's possible. From my understanding, unless you specifically try to change the past, which is almost impossible, you won't ring any alarm bells anywhere."
Nodding, Flamel leans forward, excited to teach something, and says, "I haven't done much research in Time, barely two decades worth-" only he can say 20 years is not much, I'm barely in my third year myself! "- but from what I learned, I know a few things. Using spells, rituals, or any magic related to Time always sends out waves in Magic itself, although they may not always do anything. Doesn't matter if you're trying to change the Timeline or not, your efforts always catch someone's attention."
As he explains that, he moves his hand through the air, and draws a straight line in front of him, magically, that glows with the Orange light that I automatically connect with Sorcery. To show a Time Spell usage, he taps the glowy line once, which makes it send out a single vibration along a small part of it's length, and not anywhere else.
"So, the ripple is sent through space, through magic, but not through time? It doesn't change anything in the future or the past, like actually going to the past, but it does allow Wizards like you to track me down?" I ask, frowning at the diagram. Sounds really unfair. How are Wizards supposed to learn proper rules of Time Travel if they're not allowed to research time without someone banging on their door?
While I'm glad that my spell usage won't allow anyone in the past or future to track me down, just because I'm using Time Magic, it still worries me. What if someone can track my Time Slower band, even when it's not in use? It's.. worrying, since I do use my Time Slower quite frequently.
Nicholas says, "You're half correct. It is sent through the Energy that we call magic, and only those adept at both Time and Magic can track the Spell user down, like I did. Well, or if they have some sort of device meant to track Time Spell usage, which is how the Department of Mysteries does it."
He then draws another diagram, this time the line being a very thick one, and starts tapping it, which makes it make small oscillations in place, and says, "When the spells are minor, like the Time Reversal Charm, which is only limited to 7 hours a day, the ripple is so minute, and so, so common, that they don't even notice it. At least one Time Turner is active at any given time, and there are other entities that deal with Time too, as you might know. Their ripples are also relatively common, and hence, insignificant in the long run. But, when something big happens, a big spell, like say.. a Time Travel spell, one that deals with days, months, or years, then.. boom!"
This time, he taps the thick line a few times, and I see it vibrate, continuously, although the movement is too minute to notice without getting closer. And then, just as he whispers 'boom!' he taps the line a little forcefully, which causes the line to vibrate just once, but with almost 10 times the amplitude, before it returns to it's previous oscillating state.
This is not a representation of time, nor is it a true representation of how Time travel and its effects works, I know that. This is just to show that Time spells have an effect on Magic, in the exact moment you use it. In this case, Magic was represented by the line. Wrong analogy, but it works here.
"Whatever spell you used, or whatever Ritual, it dealt with centuries, almost a thousand years of time, that much I know. What it did, none of us have any idea, save you. But, it sent a ripple so strong, that it woke me up from my sleep, and probably sent, as you put it, alarm bells ringing in the Department of Mysteries. And then, you went and did it again, barely a day after the first spell. And who do I find at the end of the trace, but you. The one my wife spoke about so fondly, Mason Aves, the genius who sat his NEWTs early. You're lucky I'm better than the Department of Mysteries, or you would have been caught by them, and disappeared off to who knows where." Flamel says, and with a wave of his hand, banishes the illusion.
For a minute, I just stare at empty space, in the place that the illusion just stood. And then, the realisation sets in.
"They've already done this.. haven't they? They've made people disappear for researching a subject they didn't want the public to? Is this why no one knows about the Bode brothers?" I whisper, horrified at this implication, if it's actually true. I liked to joke about it, but the fact that this is real, and happening all around. And it almost happened to me too, and God knows what knowledge they could have managed to extract from me, if they had succeeded.
I knew about the Bode Brothers, the inventors of Time Turners, because I read it in the Room of Knowledge. But, I'd found that no one else knew who Lucas and Lucien Bode were, even when they were recruited by the DOM. If no one knows who the inventors of Time Turners are, despite many people regularly using them, then what happened to the ones they killed off?
Confirming my fears, Nicholas nods slowly, his eyes becoming sad. He says, "And they're hidden damn well. I only caught on to them in the 18th century, when they tried to recruit a family friend of ours in France. She didn't appreciate them restricting her research on other Realms, and she fought them off. She survived, barely, thanks to her Mystic Arts training, but the group that attacked her didn't. And then she disappeared off the face of Earth, packing up everything she might need. We know where she is, and how she is, but she refuses to show herself to the public for fear of the Department."
Taking over from the morose Nicholas, his wife says, "For 600 years, from the moment the Department actually came into being, they have been restricting the knowledge that the public has access to. Assassination, kidnapping, forceful recruitment, they do it all, just so they can be the leading researchers in any subject. They're someone that thinks only They should have right to all knowledge, and no one else. To that end, they even allied themselves with the Ministry of Magic, and the Muggle Royalty, promising them both that they're loyal to them. They're only loyal to themselves, and they have already proven it.. repeatedly."
I shake my head, and stand up. Pacing around the room, I wonder what I'm getting myself into. They're like Wizarding Hydra, except they're a bit more dangerous, and not Nazis. They're actually among us, I wouldn't even know if someone's an Unspeakable. This is worse than finding out that many of my very own school mates were sympathetic to Grindelwald's cause.
Damn, I'm getting paranoid again. Focus!
I keep pacing as Perenelle says, "Healers, Aurors, Teachers, Ritual Experts, Potions Masters, Astronomers, Diviners, Sorcerers, Curse Breakers, Warders, the Unspeakables have all of them in their Numbers. You think of a subject, and they have at least one expert in the DOM at any given time. All of them have taken iron clad oaths, or were forced into them, that doesn't even allow anyone to interrogate them successfully. The only way they tell you something, is if the higher ups see a purpose in it. Dozens of promising Wizards and Witches have disappeared in this century itself, either by assassination, or by being recruited. Each one of them was a pioneer in their field of research."
Shaking my head, I turn towards Nicholas, who's probably the one who knows the most about them, and ask, "Who are they? I mean they must have some leader or something? You can't keep an organisation going by just brainwashed slaves, and researchers. You actually need someone to drive them towards the goal, whatever it is. Someone who actually has some stake in it."
Nicholas and Perenelle both shake their heads, sighing in regret. Nicholas says, "No one knows that, not even I. I infiltrated them, stayed with them for 30 years, as one of their own, and I never saw a whiff of the so called Head Unspeakable, only the Heads of different research teams."
"You have to understand, Mason, that we're old. The Philosopher's Stone merely froze the ages of our bodies, it did not make us younger. We aren't as strong, physically speaking, as we used to be. I couldn't investigate them intensively, not unless I wanted to show my hand. Because whoever it is, this Head Unspeakable is a dangerous being."
I sigh, feeling upset about expecting too much of them. Head Unspeakable, huh? At least I have an alias of this leader.
Perenelle's voice brings me back from my dreams of revenge, as she says, "This Head Unspeakable is not a human, at least that much we know. We know of every Witch, Wizard, muggle, Goblin, Dwarf, and even Sorcerer, who has ever even thought of becoming immortal. Being immortals ourselves, we tend to keep an eye on such beings. And we know where everyone who succeeded are, and what they're doing right as of this moment."
I nod at her in acceptance, wondering how a muggle became immortal, and pick my tea again. Warming it back up using a warming charm, I sip it, and say, "I need to find a way to hide my Ripples from this Department. I'm thinking the Fidelius charm works, yes?"
Nicholas nods, widening his eyes. He whispers, "Of course! The Fidelius! Thats why I couldn't find you yesterday!"
Good thing the charm makes people not realise it is cast, unless told by the secret knowers themselves. They just.. forget about the location and anything related to it. They won't even know of the general location, unless they know that the Fidelius is cast.
Nodding, I bring out my pocket watch, and say, "You said they can find me for 24 hours unless I'm hidden, right? Well, thank you for your hospitality, but I need to go home now. I have stuff I need to look up."
Nicholas frowns, and asks, "Are you certain you will be alright? You can stay here for the day, if you like."
Shaking my head, I say, "Thanks, but I'm good. I need to be in a place that I trust, and as much as I appreciate your help, I don't know you well enough to trust you two."
Nicholas nods, and stands up, struggling to do so thanks to his age. He stumbles towards me, and pats my shoulder once. He says, "That's.. understandable. You're a good child, Mason Aves. I would like to teach you someday, but, I realise the day is not today."
I smile in appreciation, and say, "Thank you for the offer, Mr Flamel. I am already in the middle of learning Alchemy, however, and have already managed to transmutate Silver. But, I hope I can come to you with any doubts I have?"
Nicholas Flamel, Master Alchemist, smiles wide, and claps his hands. Glancing at his wife, he says, "A genius, eh? My wife was right it seems. The door to my house is open, if you want to clear any doubts, or talk. Nelly, if you will?"
I look at Perenelle, or Aunt Nelly, curiously, as she walks forward, and smiles at me. She says, "The Flamel Chateau is located on the Isle de Flamme off the coastline of Concarneau."
Suddenly, as if my mind hadn't known something was wrong, I suddenly realise that there was an island off the coast of France, that no one knows about. And I was now standing atop it.
I shake my head, marveled simply at the power needed to hide an entire island with the Fidelius charm, let alone casting a second Fidelius within the first one, on the place of residence itself.
And then, I start waving my hand to summon a portal to the Forbidden forest, this time surprising them, since they hadn't seen a Sling Ring on my hand, and walk through it. Good thing my ring doesn't have any apparent Enchantments.
Immediately after walking into the forest, I apparate to the Chamber of Secrets, before anyone can try and trace me to Hogwarts.
Time to waste 23 more hours in the school, and I know just what I'm going to do. Walking towards the statue of Salazar Slytherin, I hiss out, ~~Speak to me, Slytherin! Greatest of the Hogwarts Four!~~
As the mouth opens, wide enough for me to walk through comfortably, by just needing to bend down a little, I smile, seeing the expected sight. Sly, my giant horned serpent/cobra hybrid snake.
These last two years, Sly had gotten bigger, now about 5 meters long, and as thick as my thigh. Good thing was, he can still fly around, so my shoulders didn't face any unnecessary pain. The bad thing was, he's been asleep for a year and a half, going through some physical changes. He was evolving.
When Sly went to sleep, taking the place of the Basilisk as his own, he had turned completely into his Horned Serpent form, with a single white/blue horn showing on his head. It glowed with a dim white light whenever he flew, or was about to become invisible.
Now, that single Horn was joined by two smaller horns, one at each side, while his tail tip had grown three more horns, all 6 of them made from the same material, moonstone. He was also becoming heavier, despite his size not having increased in these years, which is probably a good thing.
But, he was also yet to wake. But, these changes are important to his body, to his magic, I know, which is why, I ignore him and go towards the back.
Selecting a tunnel out of the dozens of holes spread around the Nest, I jump down it, summoning my broom as I go, and fly towards the end of the tunnel. Once I'm about a mile underneath the Chamber itself, the tunnel ends, making me stop my flight downwards. Dropping down, I put the broom back inside, and smile, happy to be back here.
~~Open up, motherfucker!~~ I shout, feeling gleeful at the password, and walk in.
I close my eyes, to embrace the feeling of being back here after so long. I literally haven't been here for a year, and the last time I came here, was because I needed to get something from this room.
The Forge. My Forge.
There, in the corner, was my shelf, where I had kept my precious forged tools and weapons. The Butter knife made out of Goblin's Silver, the steel plate armour, the knives, spoons, a giant cutlery set big enough for Hulk, and lots and lots of stuff. Most of this was useless, with me just using them as practice.
Alas, I wasn't here for them, at least, for now. I was here for the Vanishing Trunk I've kept in this room.
"I'll be back, soon, my dears. I just need to sharpen my mind first, after which, I'll have use of you." I say, gently caressing the furnace and the Goblin's Silver hammer.
Shaking my head, I move towards another corner, and open the inconspicuous looking trunk. As I jump down the opening of the trunk, I see the now changed view of a single door in a very short room. I open the door, and come out into another corridor, which has two doors.
One leads to my house, the Aves Manor, and the other leads to the Room of Knowledge. I choose the second door, and enter the Room of Knowledge, the bigger one.
It was empty, as no one else knows of this room. Other than Helena, that is. Speaking of, I haven't talked with her in a while either. Huh, I've been in my own world for these two years, haven't I? I've met her just 3 times in these entire 2 and a half years that I've been out of Hogwarts.
I'll meet her later, this is important.
"Department of Mysteries." I say, and sit down to brace myself for the change. And the Room of Knowledge doesn't disappoint. Much.
It changes to become a small room, with a chair, a foot stool, and a shelf, which has barely 50 books on it. Not too extensive, but this has to be enough.
They want to try and restrict my knowledge? Hell, no. I won't just take over the Department, I will find this Head Unspeakable, wherever they're hiding, and kill them. I'll destroy the entire department, or I'll make it anew, into something that it's actually supposed to be. A place for research, a place of Mysteries.
Time to get to work.
-
Surprisingly, the Room of Knowledge has a lot of information about the Department of Mysteries, not all of it important for my crusade.
Hell, of the 47 books here, 14 just spoke about the Department in a paragraph or two, mentioning it and it's rumoured job. Becoming an Unspeakable was actually a good prospectus, since they gave a lot of benefits. Other than the fact that some of my co workers would have been brainwashed, mind controlled people, who just wanted to study.
It was founded in 1372, by a group of 3 people, in Germany of all places. All three of them studied at one of the 3 major schools in Europe, the Beauxbatons, Durmstrang, and Hogwarts, and no one knows how they even got together.
In the beginning, their goals were to understand Magic, why we have it when the muggles don't, and why Sorcerers and Wizards are so different when it comes to using Magic. But then, something happened in the 1390s, and they suddenly went off grid for a short time.
No one knew what happened to the group, other than they became even more secretive. They began recruiting people, geniuses in their fields, and then, they disappeared, never to be seen by the public again.
That was all the Room of Knowledge had on the original Unspeakables, the Hemmelig Forsker. Some people did find some oddities, however, when many geniuses disappeared, and even their relatives forgot about them.
Then, the Ministry of Magic was established, in the year 1707, and it established a new Department barely 5 years later. The Department of Mysteries.
Publicly, the Department was responsible for the study of the Enigmatic phenomena in the world of Magic. Love, Death, Time, Thought, and more were studied publicly, with many Department Heads of the Ministry knowing about them, and some even contributing to it.
But behind their secrecy wards, even beyond what protects the first subjects, were subjects that no one knows of, not even the Minister of Magic. Which means, not even I knew about it.
Most of the stuff the Room had on them was guesswork, along with a few journals that a grand total of 3 Unspeakables brought to Hogwarts, which also didn't tell me anything important about the Head Unspeakable.
There were some articles that gained my attention, like the witch who actually managed to change time by going into the past. Eloise Mintumble went back from the year 1899, to the year 1402, and then returned after a few days of stay there.
Whatever method she used had her stuck there, but it did not stop her Ageing. She would have aged, and died in that era itself, if the other Unspeakables hadn't found a way to bring her back.
The article in the journal mentioned that her method was not approved for use, since it was already known that she might change time if she went to the past.
Alas, she didn't listen, or someone prompted her to do it anyway, and she travelled back in time. When she returned, however, she wasn't the same.
She had aged 500 years, despite staying there just 5 days, and died soon after. Along with that, a few people, descendants of the people she interacted with, either disintegrated, or changed into someone else, right in front of observer's eyes. Those that changed kept their minds, but their habits, their psych, was still changed.
Anyway, this was a bust. I didn't find anything on these guys, other than the publicly known stuff. One Minister did try to get them to shut down, but despite being the Minister, he had no power on them. Which just makes me realize that taking over the Ministry is not enough to deal with these guys.
I'll have to deal with them carefully, since straight out attacking them is currently off the table.
But, for now, I'll have to keep my Time shenanigans under control, or do them in Hogwarts. Even with the Fidelius charm, I don't want to risk being found out at my home.
Or.. I'll have to bait them somehow, once I'm ready to face them. Right now, I'm not, so I'll just stay hidden. Soon.. my revenge will come, not just for me, but for all that have been wronged by the Department.
---
A/N: The last part, I spiralled a little. I think. Incase I missed something, or if I just implied it and not said it, here are the facts.
DOM is dangerous as fuck, they recruit geniuses to their cause, whatever it is, and force those that refuse, or kill them.
The Flamels know about them, but not much. Despite literally staying there, Nicholas Flamel did not find out anything conclusive about the Head Unspeakable, other than the fact that it's not a human, which is still a guess/deduction from the facts they know.
They want to restrict the amount of knowledge that the general public has access to, which sort of explains why wizards now are not as powerful as the Wizards of old, and why Mason seems too powerful for the current generation. He has old knowledge in his hands.
They're like Shield, except more evil, and with unknown goals.
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