Harry Potter and the Obscurus

Chapter 76 Time Hall

Arthur Weasley's sudden appearance initially only surprised Harry and Moran. After all, as strangers, even the most outgoing person wouldn't feel comfortable trying to strike up a conversation with a "colleague" they'd just met. But what the two didn't expect was that due to an unexpected situation at the Ministry of Magic, Mr. Weasley, who was supposed to participate in the Daily Prophet's lottery today, was caught in a bind.

"Mr. Cooper, do you know how long it will take to finish dealing with the minister's matter?"

"This is classified information. What? You, from the Muggle Misuse Prohibition Division, are trying to overstep your bounds?"

"Of course not! I..."

Arthur Weasley, who was about to step into the elevator, said somewhat awkwardly:

"To be honest, I have quite a few children, and living off my Ministry of Magic salary is actually a bit tight... Today is the last day to enter the Daily Prophet's Galleon Prize contest, and I haven't submitted my card clippings yet, so..."

Harry and Moran could both hear the plea in Mr. Weasley's drawing. Although they didn't know what trouble he was entangled in at the Ministry, if he couldn't participate in the Galleon Prize draw, then Black wouldn't be able to see Scabbers perched on Ron's shoulder in Fudge's Daily Prophet. As a result, all the stories triggered by Sirius's escape would disappear because the timeline was altered.

"This shouldn't be something caused by our time travel, right? Why did we happen to be there?"

As Harry reluctantly took the card clippings from Mr. Weasley, he asked Moran in his mind.

"Time and fate are too mysterious for me to make any definitive conclusions. But thinking about it carefully, the atmosphere in the Ministry of Magic these days is not good. While it's not to the point that everyone is so obsequious, most employees would certainly prefer to associate with wealthy people like Lucius Malfoy."

"what do you mean?"

"The Daily Prophet has always been heavily influenced by the Ministry of Magic. Can such a media organization, which mainly spreads the ideas of politicians, really let good fortune smile upon the Weasley family?"

Arthur Weasley, of course, had no idea about the communication between Harry and Moran in their mental worlds. When he noticed Don Cooper's complicated expression, his heart sank. But just when he thought he would be unable to participate in the Galleon Prize draw this year, the strange man in front of him took the card clippings from his hand.

"Alright, go back to your work. I'll hand this in for you when I'm done."

Mr. Weasley's eyes lit up, and he instinctively reached out his hand as if to an old friend, only to suddenly realize that he had just met Mr. Don Cooper.

"Thank you! Thank you so much! I mean... I know I might not win, but with such a great opportunity in front of me, I'd regret it if I didn't try, haha... Well then... I'll stay here for now, I still have a lot of reports to write about Muggle bombs."

Harry and Moran were eager to ask Mr. Weasley about the bomb, but since they were now playing the role of Don Cooper, they were supposed to be in the know, so no matter how curious they were, they had to pretend they already knew.

......

The minor incident did not deter Harry from heading to the Time Hall. After leaving the room containing the elevator, the distance to the Time Hall of the Department of Mysteries was only the length of a simple corridor.

Gazing at the pure black door at the far end of the path, Harry's heart pounded faster. He desperately wanted to avoid the clicking sound of his shoes hitting the floor, but he was afraid that a lack of confidence would arouse suspicion. Thus, those short dozen or so steps felt like an eternity.

squeak......

Behind the black door was a circular, black room. Unlike the solemn and dignified atmosphere of the main hall, the floor, ceiling, and walls of the Department of Mysteries resembled a bottomless black lake. Twelve identical black doors, without markings or handles, seemed to be embedded in the walls, spaced slightly apart, dividing the circular room into twelve equal parts.

Swish swish!

Clusters of blue flames suddenly lit up on the wall, and under their cold, faint light, the door behind Harry quietly closed.

The sudden turn of events surprised both Harry and Moran. One placed his finger on his wand at his waist, while the other activated Obscurus to surround himself, preparing for battle.

No one appeared, and there were no magical traps. The walls of the circular rooms leading to the various halls began to rotate on their own, as if being toyed with by a mischievous Pippi.

The danger lurking in the shadows made Harry feel more uneasy than facing Voldemort head-on. The next second, a blue flame, unlike the one on the black wall, suddenly rose up.

"Could you use your sense of magic to locate the Time Hall? I don't want to stay in this lousy place any longer."

Harry's suggestion was exactly what Mo Ran wanted to do. After telling him to "protect himself," he withdrew the black mist and devoted himself to his work in the Time Perception Hall.

The doors used to seal the various rooms were made with special materials and magic by the Ministry of Magic. In theory, aside from the Silent Ones who worked there, no outsider should know what was hidden behind each door. However, for Mo Ran, a transmigrator, the enhancement he experienced due to his proximity to the Hall of Time was even greater than usual.

"Slowly back away."

As if he had already spotted the target, he gave a soft command:

“When I say ‘go,’ turn around, push the door open, and rush in.”

"it is good."

In the darkness, the door, blurred by the spinning motion, gradually became clear. Not only in the Time Hall, but Mo Ran could almost see through the walls to the magical power hidden in every room.

A square room where brains swim in a dark green liquid; a strange archway standing firm in the center of a giant, concave stone pit, unsupported by walls; a storage room as tall as a church, filled with dusty glass spheres...

"Found it! On my command... Go!"

Squeak!

Harry's intense concentration ensured that Mo Ran's efforts were not in vain. With his agile movements, he didn't even get his clothes snagged before slipping directly into the correct room.

......

Diamond-like, shimmering light enveloped everything in the Time Hall. Unlike the dark, circular room, this room, themed around exploring the mysteries of time magic, was almost entirely filled with soft, cheerful colors.

Harry, who was about to squint his eyes, let out a soft exclamation after feeling the warmth coming towards him. Then, without Mo Ran needing to explain, he recognized what the winning bidder, which was being used as a light source and filled the entire room, was.

Clocks of all sizes sat on the floor or hung on the walls and bookshelves. Countless second hands ticked rapidly, seemingly without end, sounding like a marching column of thousands of soldiers, making it impossible to distinguish near from far or find the beginning or end.

"Amazing!"

"Harry blurted out. Surrounded by the intense time magic, he was as excited as a mountain child seeing a modern metropolis for the first time."

Since he began his self-taught magic three summers ago, Harry has felt that many of the world's so-called advanced magics are not as profound as wizards claim. It's no exaggeration to say that even without the help of Headmaster Dumbledore and Professor Snape, he is confident he can master any magic except for the Goblinsfire.

But the magic contained within the Time Hall is entirely different.

It is primitive and wild, like something born into this world that is alive and conscious.

"This feeling is like...like..."

Harry, who wanted to share his own experiences with Mo Ran, was at a loss for words. Faced with this feeling that was difficult to explain in words, he finally understood why the other party had suddenly become like Dumbledore after transmigrating—he had fallen in love with telling riddles.

It turns out that the so-called time magic was never successfully mastered by the wizards!

If spells truly exist that can manipulate time, then at the very least, time travelers could simply alter the course of history and return to their own point in time, instead of being forced to remain within the existing timeline and wait for it to revert to its original state. Furthermore, like other magic skillfully used by wizards, restrictions such as the inability to be discovered and the inability to alter past events—which could potentially lead to misfortune and disaster—should be eliminated.

After a brief moment of speechlessness, Harry condensed the thousand unspoken words into a single exclamation:

"No wonder Headmaster Dumbledore once said that the Reversal of Hours Charm is very different from true time reversal! So that's what he meant!"

Mo Ran, who should have been having a discussion with Harry, was completely captivated by the most dazzling and mysterious magical artifact in the Time Hall.

In the far corner of the room, a bell-shaped crystal dome, as tall as Harry, sat quietly. From a distance, many people would mistake it for a crystal ball music box that Muggles used to give as gifts during holidays.

There were no markings or pointers inside the crystal dome. It didn't even resemble the hourglass-shaped time-twister used by Hermione in the movie. Apart from a constantly churning "airflow" emitting a faint light, there was nothing else inside.

"Move closer over there."

Following Moran's directions, Harry also discovered the unusual crystal dome in the room filled with clocks. But when he actually stepped to the end of the room, he found that the "mysterious glowing airflow" trapped inside the dome was actually a tiny hummingbird.

The hummingbird is smaller than the palm of an average adult, but this little guy is the fastest flapping bird in nature. Watching the bird inside the enclosure flapping its wings so fast that only afterimages remained, Harry and Moran both focused their attention on the bright and translucent jewel-like egg it was holding in its claws.

Protecting the eggs while flying upwards is no easy task, but what's even more daunting is that the world inside the crystal dome seems to have its own miniature weather system. The closer one gets to the top, the more the unstable winds and large raindrops make it even more difficult for the hummingbird to move forward.

Having roughly guessed the purpose of the crystal dome, Harry looked at its top and, after confirming that there was nothing but a thick crystal wall on the dome, couldn't help but sigh.

If it's cruel to mercilessly soil and wet a bird's light and beautiful feathers, then the truth that even if one successfully flies to a high place with the eggs, one cannot gain freedom, is truly heartless.

Soon, the hummingbird, gradually losing its strength, succumbed to the storm from above. Unable to maintain its balance, it tossed its eggs aside and fell headfirst to the ground.

With a loud "crack," the hummingbird, which had been struggling for who knows how long, was smashed to pieces at the bottom of the crystal dome.

Harry frowned, feeling a pang of pity. However, what happened next made him reconsider the meaning behind the cruel scene.

The sound of the hummingbird falling to the ground overlapped with the sound of the egg cracking. It represented the dying farewell of the old and the declaration of the newborn hatching. The broken eggshell drifted down from the air, then slowly came together again. By the time the newly hatched hummingbird had regained its footing in the air currents, the hummingbird that had fallen due to exhaustion was now encased in an egg.

Could they be the same hummingbird trapped in a time loop?

A somewhat absurd guess, yet perfectly aligned with the theme of the Time Hall, popped into Harry and Moran's minds.

Compared to the exhausted bird that had been re-encased in its egg, the new hummingbird seemed to be a carbon copy in terms of size, feather pattern, and demeanor. More importantly, even though it had just hatched, the hummingbird seemed to know its mission and flew directly to the bottom of the crystal dome, picked up the egg, and began its climb back into the sky.

......

Creating a device that traps a bird that is constantly born and dies in a small world, making it mistakenly believe that it can reach that unattainable dream, but can only waste its time in an endless cycle of time, is like a perverse act full of wicked pleasure.

Mo Ran didn't know if the director omitted this cruel scene from the "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" films to avoid showing it to the audience, or simply to save time and money. However, with his current level of understanding, he quickly glimpsed the truth hidden beneath the surface of time magic in this model.

......

Even before his transmigration, Mo Ran had noticed that J.K. Rowling had intentionally portrayed subtle differences between children from pure-blood families and young wizards from Muggle families. Because of their early exposure to magic, most Hogwarts students from wizarding families exhibited a lack of caution, or even disregard for danger, in their studies and daily lives.

Taking the Weasley twins as an example, their actions—tricking Ron into making an unbreakable vow and burning a hole in his tongue—have crossed Mo Ran's bottom line. After all, jokes that harm others physically or mentally, or even threaten their lives, can no longer be called jokes.

The problem is that magic exists in this world, and many disasters that are irreversible for Muggles are simply minor problems that wizards can solve with a wave of their wands. Over time, even young wizards newly integrated into the magical world become "generous" and "magnanimous" through generations of exposure.

Mo Ran understood perfectly well that J.K. Rowling, as an excellent author, didn't create such detailed world-building settings for the sake of generating buzz among fans. Her purpose in depicting these differences was to better illustrate a principle—that magic is not omnipotent.

Whether ordinary people or wizards with magical powers, people usually experience more significant growth and progress after realizing their mistakes. Compared to other educational methods, the deep-seated, unforgettable pain is what truly leaves an indelible mark. This is precisely why the idea of ​​returning to the past has always been considered one of humanity's most cherished desires.

However, if humanity truly had the ability to travel back in time and change history, what would the final outcome be? With the opportunity to start over, all past mistakes could be easily corrected, and all the suffering and torment experienced would become worthless and not worth remembering.

The inspiring and uplifting phrases like "knowing shame leads to courage" and "knowing weakness leads to strength" may disappear from the face of the earth; even worse, humanity may gradually lose its original courage and fighting spirit, becoming trapped in an endless cycle, and ultimately losing itself.

.....

"Interesting! No wonder you were able to accomplish such a feat!"

A sudden compliment interrupted Harry and Moran's thoughts. Just like Hermione had once suddenly appeared in a Hogwarts classroom, a man who looked exactly like Thor Crocker in a photograph with Professor Dumbledore appeared behind the "wall" made of clocks.

"Saul Crocker?"

Harry's tone was still polite, but as an intruder, he wisely placed his hand on his wand at his waist.

"Yes, I am Thor Crocker."

The man answered casually, then rolled up his sleeves, looked at his forearm covered with at least a dozen watch chains, and said:

"But you're not going to see me. There are still a few seconds before that version of me returns to the present. Oh, by the way, you can take out your wand now. I remember that version of me wasn't very happy when I saw you. Well then, see you next time."