Every Wednesday and Saturday, the Louvre Museum opened for evening hours. By then, the daytime din of tour groups had vanished, and the museum became quiet. The Lion entrance they had used during the day was already closed; everyone had to enter the Louvre Museum through the entrance beneath the Louvre Pyramid. The first corridor after security led to a medieval Paris streetscape and the Louvre's old fortress walls, now buried underground.
During the day, Pomona had merely felt that something was off. After nightfall, that feeling grew even stronger.
The Louvre Museum was not like Borgin and Burkes, filled with collections that looked obviously evil, but it was precisely these "artworks" that so often caused trouble. Apart from the diary, which of Tom Riddle's Horcruxes had not been some sort of jewel or artwork?
Without realizing it, they reached the Sully Wing. There had hardly been anyone there during the day, and at night, not a single visitor was in sight. The lighting inside was very dim. As she stared at those Ancient Egyptian sculptures along the way, she did not know whether her eyes were playing tricks on her, but she kept feeling as if they were covered by a thin veil of black gauze.
"I must be going mad," she muttered. "We should head back as soon as possible."
No one paid her any attention. Severus walked over to the Pensieve, while Gong Saiyi went to stand beside a stone stele. With their backs to her, they looked as though their souls had been sucked away by the objects before them.
"Oh..." She looked around in terror, then hurried to Severus's side and anxiously linked her arm through his, hoping it would give her courage.
"Tut." The old bat narrowed his eyes at her impatiently. "Those sculptures