Time Magic Reversed (1): Here Comes the Big Bad Wolf

Anton's hiding place was the Brain Room in the Department of Mysteries.

He knew this place.

Earlier, Dudley had brought him a letter from his mother, Petunia, explaining how Vernon had gotten in touch with the Department of Mysteries through a bank goblin. Anton had contacted Rookwood to ask for information about it.

Rookwood had once been an Unspeakable in the Department of Mysteries.

Though he hadn't belonged to the Brain Room, he had a general idea of the research conducted there.

—They used brains and memories to explore the underlying logic of the wizards' magical world, and to find out why wizards could cast spells while Muggles couldn't.

Rookwood said he'd seen the Unspeakables working there. They used their wands to extract their own memories and put them into these brains, then drew memories out of the brains and stuffed them into their own minds.

He said the pool filled with brains was like a giant Pensieve, and guessed that it might contain an enormous amount of knowledge and memories.

When Anton heard Rookwood's guess, he'd thought of the place as a wizarding version of a "server," with the brains inside serving as "hard drives."

But after actually seeing it for himself, he realized that wasn't the case at all.

These brains were empty. Anton couldn't sense any memories in them. Instead, they'd been filled with distorted images: the despair of facing death, the fear that came from wandering through dark corners, and so on.

Thin, pink, blood-vessel-like strands extended from the brains drifting all around him, making them look like jellyfish.

The brains swam closer now and then, their tiny vessels touching one another...

Anton could vaguely sense something—"emotions."

Yes, emotions!

Or perhaps these blood vessels carried information about "emotions"?

Anton tried extending a Black Thread, slowly and