Department of Mysteries

Unlike in the original story, since Umbridge wasn't in the castle, Harry, Meghan, and Harry didn't need to use her fireplace to contact Grimmauld Place; instead, they used the fireplace in the Gryffindor Common Room directly.

Kreacher's answer shocked the three of them.

Next, they would have to sneak into Professor Umbridge's office to use her fireplace. Since she wasn't at Hogwarts anyway, they could simply avoid the other people Ghost in the corridor.

As for why he didn't inform Professor McGonagall or Snape, it was because Harry simply didn't trust them. He didn't believe these adults would believe a baseless dream of his.

(Note: To prevent students from leaving campus at will during the day, although the fireplaces in the common rooms can be used to contact family members, they cannot be used to transport a person. If you need to leave campus during the day, you must use the professors' fireplaces.)

A few minutes later, they appeared inside the Department of Mysteries, with even Ginny Weasley following them.

Harry was standing in a huge circular room where everything, including the ceiling and floor, was black. Some identical black doors, without handles or any markings, were spaced apart and embedded in the surrounding black walls. A few candles with blue flames adorned the walls, casting a cold, weak light that made the floor look like a pool of black water.

"Which way should we go?" Ron asked. There were twelve doors in front of them, all identical and indistinguishable.

Just as Harry was gazing at the door, pondering which one to choose, all twelve doors began to spin rapidly around the four of them simultaneously.

"What are you trying to do..." Ron said uneasily.

"Don't move yet." Hermione calmly surveyed their surroundings, saying with some concern, "I think this is making it unclear which door we came in through."

"Does that mean we might not be able to go back..." Ron's face tightened, and a bead of cold sweat appeared on his forehead.

"Yes, similarly, we have no way of knowing which door we need to go through." Ginny nodded in agreement.

Harry stared anxiously at the twelve identical doors. Now, identifying the exit was harder than finding an ant on a black floor, and any one of those twelve doors could be the one he needed to pass through.

"There's no need for us to go back now," Harry said excitedly. "We won't go back until we find Sirius Black— " he said, taking out his wand.

"Get all the wands out," he whispered. "We'll try them one by one."

"Wait!" Hermione cried, stopping Harry from pushing open one of the doors. "The Mark has appeared!"

She drew a line in the air with her wand, and a fiery red "X" appeared on the door.

"If this isn't the door, then we can eliminate one possibility," Hermione said.

"Good idea." Ron exclaimed, stepped forward, pushed open the black door, and the four of them filed in quietly.

The chains of the chandelier hung low from the ceiling, illuminating the entire room. Warm, hazy light floated in the room, making it appear exceptionally bright after the group entered from a dark room.

The room was almost empty, except for a table and a huge box filled with dark green liquid in the center of the room, big enough for them to swim in. Many white things were slowly floating around in it.

"What is this?" Ron muttered, sounding somewhat disgusted.

"I don't know." Harry shook his head, feeling disappointed. This wasn't the room he had dreamed of.

"Let's get out of here," Harry said. "Not this one."

So they retreated to the previous room, and the door marked with a red X slammed shut behind them with a loud rumble. The walls began to spin rapidly, and the blue candle flames on the walls blurred into a halo of eerie blue light around them. Beneath the halo was a red-golden light. When everything came to a standstill, the twelve doors rearranged, and one door had a fiery red X burning on it, indicating that they had already been there.

So Harry pushed open the other door.

A serene curtain the Other Shore quietly in the middle of the room, its drapery moving without wind for centuries, as if someone is beckoning to something.

He quickly climbed down the stone benches one by one, reached the bottom of the stone pit, and slowly walked towards the stone platform.

"Be careful," Ginny whispered.

Harry stood in front of the door, the archway before him much higher than it appeared from above, the curtains still swaying gently as if someone had just passed through it.

"Who's there?" Harry asked softly, gripping his wand tightly. A strange feeling rose within him; someone must be standing behind the curtain. He cautiously circled around to the other side, but there was nothing there, only the other side of the tattered curtain.

"Harry?" Ginny called out to him softly from the high platform in the distance, and the others looked over anxiously as well.

"Is there something?" Ron asked.

"I don't know," Harry answered casually, staring intently at the curtain and pressing his ear closer. He thought he heard something—a murmur and whispering coming from behind the curtain.

"Let's hurry!" Hermione's voice sounded frightened as she urgently exclaimed, "This doesn't seem right, let's go to the next one."

"Wait a minute," Harry said absentmindedly. He noticed that although the archway was very old, it had a unique beauty. The gently swaying curtains piqued his interest, and he had an urge to pass through them.

"Harry, we're here to save Sirius Black!" Hermione shouted at the top of her lungs, startling the others.

"Sirius Black..." Harry repeated, his expression dazed, his eyes fixed on the curtains, "Oh dear..."

Harry stepped back a few paces from the stone platform, his gaze abruptly shifting away from the curtain.

"Let's go." He turned his head away reluctantly for one last look, then slowly walked to the stone bench at the bottom and climbed back to the entrance of the room.

"We need to hurry, we won't find Sirius Black if we're this slow," Hermione said to the others after they returned to the black circular room.

The walls began to spin again, then came to a stop. Harry walked casually to a door and pushed it. It wouldn't budge.

"What's wrong?" Hermione asked.

"It's... it's locked..." Harry said, banging on the door with all his might, but the door didn't budge.

"Looks like this is it, isn't it?" Ron said excitedly, trying with Harry to force the door open. "It's definitely the one!"

"Get out of the way!" Hermione snapped. She pointed her wand at the ordinary lock and said, "Alohomora!"

No response.

"Sirius Black's knife!" Harry said. He pulled the knife from his robes and stuck it in the gap between the door and the wall.

The others watched anxiously as Harry slashed the knife from top to bottom, then pulled it out and rammed the door with his shoulder. The door was still tightly shut, just as before. Moreover, when Harry looked down, he found that the blade had melted.

Harry's heart was pounding faster and faster, as if something was blocking his chest.

The images of Sirius Black's suffering kept replaying in his mind; his cries for help seemed to pierce through the illusion and strike deep into his soul. He could no longer contain himself, and his restless emotions burned like flames.

"We can't wait any longer," Harry said through gritted teeth, suddenly raising his wand with an unusual ruthlessness flashing in his eyes.

He loudly uttered a spell that his companions had never heard before—a spell spoken with an ancient and eerie tone.

In the next instant, a black flame burst forth from the tip of his wand, rushing towards the tightly closed metal door. The flame made no sound of burning, had no temperature whatsoever, and didn't even emit a scorching aura, yet it silently corroded a round hole in the center of the door in an almost corrosive manner.

"Harry... what kind of magic did you just use?" Hermione asked in a low voice, looking at him with some concern in her eyes.

Harry didn't answer, but stared at the dark flames as they gradually died down, his expression grave.

He himself didn't know what kind of magic it was.

All he knew was that these spells had suddenly and inexplicably popped into his head during the Christmas holidays.

At the time, he was obsessed with the pursuit of power for various reasons, and throughout the entire vacation, he was so engrossed in learning these powerful spells that he couldn't extricate himself. A sense of fear flashed through his mind; judging from the situation before him, these should all be evil and dangerous Dark Arts.

Beyond the cave entrance was a room so dark it was almost pitch black. After hesitating for a moment, they cautiously stepped inside.

The room was eerily empty, filled with an indescribable, strange smell—a mixture of dampness, dust, and a faint metallic rust.

In the center of the floor, a lone glass bead sat, clear and transparent, with a crimson feather suspended inside, its luster vibrant like a raging fire.

Harry recognized it; it was a Phoenix feather.

Harry stared intently at the feather. As if drawn by some unseen force, he slowly reached out, his fingertips barely touching the bead—

"Chirp--!"

A clear, high-pitched cry echoed throughout the room—it was Fawkes' voice! The Phoenix that had appeared to save Harry in his darkest hour.

A beam of warm light shone down from the ceiling, instantly dispelling the darkness of the room.

Everyone held their breath as a golden XZ Prayer Wheel appeared before them, slowly spinning in the air. With each rotation, pale golden characters appeared and disappeared from its surface, like a meditation ritual.

"What... is this?" Hermione murmured, her eyes filled with surprise.

But before they could see more clearly, a drawn-out voice suddenly came from behind, its chilling tone like a snake slithering into their ears. "Very good, Potter."

"Now, slowly turn around and put down your wands."