Professor Vampire.

Chapter 294: Prophecy Ball

Under the illumination of the orange street lights, an old telephone booth stood on the street.

Harry had been to the Ministry of Magic when he was accused of violating the "Reasonable Restraint of Underage Wizards Act" and knew that the unremarkable telephone booth was actually the entrance to the Ministry of Magic.

He squeezed into the telephone booth with his friends. Fortunately, they were all young wizards around fifteen years old, and there was no fat person in the team, so they were able to squeeze in.

"Who is closest to the phone, dial 62442!" Harry shouted to his friends inside.

62442 is typed in a nine-square grid, which actually means magic (MAGIC).

Ron's arm was bent awkwardly and stretched towards the dial and dialed the number.

As the dial quickly turned back to its original position, a woman's cold voice came into the phone booth:

"Welcome to the Ministry of Magic, please state your name and business."

"Harry Potter, Ron Weiss, Hermione Granger," Harry said quickly, "Ginny Weiss, Neville Longbottom, Rolf Scamander, Luna Lovegood..."

"We are here to rescue people, unless your Ministry of Magic rescues him first."

"Thank you," said the cold voice, "Guest, please take the badge and pin it on your clothes."

Seven badges slid out of the metal chute that should be used to withdraw coins.

Hermione picked them up and handed them to Harry over Ginny's head without a word. Harry glanced at the top one and it said:

Harry Potter, rescue mission.

"Guests of the Ministry of Magic, you need to be checked at the security checkpoint and register your wand. The security checkpoint is at the end of the main hall."

"Got it!" Harry said loudly, "Can we act now?"

The floor of the telephone booth suddenly shook, and the sidewalk outside gradually rose above the window, and the darkness closed over their heads.

Accompanied by a boring friction sound, they gradually descended deep into the ground.

"Do you think it's too easy for us to come in?" In the dark, Hermione asked hesitantly, "Will the Ministry of Magic let us underage wizards come in so easily to save people?"

"It seems a bit strange." Rove also frowned, "I remember that the Ministry of Magic used to be very strict in examining guests, especially our reasons were a bit improper, and they didn't ask much."

Rove had been to the Ministry of Magic many times with his grandfather and father, and was quite familiar with it, but this time the examination situation really made him feel a little weird.

Fudge and Harry's relationship was so strained, how could the people in the Ministry of Magic not pay any attention to this name...

"Maybe it's because it's late at night?" Ron guessed, "It's time to get off work, my dad has never worked overtime until this time...but they are not in the Order of the Phoenix now, where could they be?"

They secretly went back to the Order of the Phoenix through Umbridge's fireplace to take a look, but did not find any adults.

"But even in the middle of the night, there must be someone on duty here, right?" Hermione asked, "Why didn't anyone ask about our purpose and just gave us a pass?"

"This proves that the Ministry of Magic has been conquered by those Death Eaters!" Harry said impatiently, "It is very likely that the staff on duty have also been in trouble!"

Others were silent.

Thinking of this, a nervous mood completely enveloped their hearts... Can they, a few students who have not yet graduated, really save Sirius from the cruel Death Eaters?

A thin golden light shone on their feet, getting wider and wider, and gradually moved to their bodies.

In such a narrow space, Harry grabbed his wand and squatted as low as he could to look outside through the glass to see if anyone was waiting for them in the main hall.

But the main hall seemed empty.

The light in the main hall of the Ministry of Magic was darker at night than in the day, and there was no fire in the mantelpiece embedded in the wall. But when the elevator stopped smoothly, he saw that the golden symbol on the dark blue ceiling was still twisting irregularly.

"The Ministry hopes you have a good time tonight," said the cold female voice.

The door of the telephone booth suddenly opened, and Harry stumbled out, followed by Neville and Luna.

The only sound that could be heard in the main hall was the continuous rush of the golden fountain in the center of the hall. The water kept gushing out from the wands of wizards and witches, the arrows of centaurs, the tips of goblin hats and the ears of house elves, and fell into the circular pool.

"Come with me," Harry whispered.

Seven of them were running at full speed down the hall, and he was at the front, past the fountain and toward the security desk, where a wizard had sat to weigh Harry's wand, but now it was empty.

Harry thought there should be security here, and believed that the absence of anyone guarding the door was a bad omen.

His foreboding was heightened as they passed through the golden doors of the Ministry and toward the elevators.

He pressed the nearest "down" button, and the elevator almost immediately clicked into view, the golden bars sliding from the center to the sides with a deafening, echoing clang.

They rushed in and took the elevator to the ninth floor below the Ministry.

"Department of Mysteries," said the cold woman's voice as the elevator stopped.

The bars opened and they stepped out into a corridor that was eerily silent except for the nearest torches flickering in the air currents stirred up by the elevator.

Harry's eyes turned to the plain black door in the corridor - in his vague connection with Voldemort, he could see that Sirius was tortured inside this door, and now they were finally here.

"Let's go." He whispered, leading everyone forward along the corridor.

The other young wizards stared at the front nervously, only Luna, who always had a strange way of thinking, looked around curiously.

"Okay, everyone listen," Harry stopped less than six feet away from the black door and said to the others, "Maybe we should leave a few people here... lookout, and--"

He actually wanted to rush in alone, because this operation was dangerous, and the others had nothing to do with Sirius, so they didn't need to step into danger for him.

"But if there is any situation, how can we notify you?" Ginny raised her eyebrows and asked, "You may be far away from us."

"We will all go with you, Harry." Neville also said firmly.

"Well, let's go on." Ron also said.

Rolf smiled and nodded to him.

Harry was still a little hesitant and didn't want to take them all with him, but it seemed that he had no choice...

He turned and walked towards the black door, which opened automatically,

...

"Get ready, Lucius, they are coming in."

Dracula said to a bronze mirror, behind which was the nervous face of Lucius Malfoy.

Harry and the other seven young wizards entered the black door of the Department of Mysteries, but they didn't notice that one of the six halls here had quietly opened a gap - that was the Hall of Death.

Dracula had been standing next to the huge stone arch, feeling the faint breath of death behind the curtain, while observing the actions and progress of Harry and others through the crack of the door.

After contacting Lucius, he took out another two-way mirror.

"Albus, are all the people from the Order of the Phoenix here?" Dracula asked the mirror.

"Everything is ready." Dumbledore said behind the mirror, "When you remove the anti-Apparition spell over there, all the available members of the Order of the Phoenix will Apparate directly to the Department of Mysteries."

"Okay, remember to ask your people to spare Lucius Malfoy's life. I promised him." Dracula added.

"No problem, I'll give the order." Dumbledore said.

In fact, Hermione and Rolf's suspicion of the abnormal behavior of the magic world was completely correct.

The Ministry of Magic should have had some employees on duty late at night, but there were many Death Eaters who had close ties with the Ministry of Magic. Lucius and Yaxley easily found an excuse to lead away the members of the duty room.

After no manual review, Yaxley directly approved the entry application of Harry and others, allowing them to walk in easily.

The hallucination Harry saw was also false-

Voldemort learned that Sirius was one of the most important people to Harry, both a father and a friend, so he used the connection between the two to invade Harry's brain and let him see the hallucination of Sirius being tortured.

As Lucius said to Dracula, Voldemort's goal was to obtain a prophecy ball, which recorded the fate of Harry and Voldemort.

However, what Voldemort did not expect was that Lucius had leaked this matter to Dracula early.

So Dracula contacted Dumbledore again, and the two quickly discussed a plan to take this opportunity to deal with Voldemort.

"Are you confident?" Dracula looked aside and asked.

The young Riddle was standing there, looking a little nervous.

"I don't have much confidence. After all, that is my main soul that has completely recovered its strength." He said gloomily, "and I only have three soul fragments here, not even half of the seven pieces..."

"After today, it will definitely be more than half." Dracula chuckled and said, "We will suppress him. You are only responsible for finding the Horcrux on Voldemort."

...

"It's here!"

After trying several doors in a row, Harry finally found the right one.

It was as tall as a church, with towering shelves lined up inside. There were countless gray glass balls on the shelves, and nothing else.

More candlesticks were embedded in the shelves at certain intervals, and dim light shone from them. The small glass balls glowed faintly in these lights.

Harry walked forward slowly and looked down at a dark aisle between two rows of shelves. He could not hear a sound or feel any movement, even the slightest movement.

"You said that Sirius was in the 97th row here." Hermione whispered beside him.

"Yes," Harry replied softly.

He looked up at the nearest row of crystal balls, the candles next to them were emitting blue flames, and the silver numbers under the brackets were flashing, "53".

"I think we should go to the right." Hermione whispered, glancing at the row next to her, "Oh, this is 54..."

"Everyone, get your wands ready." Harry lowered his voice and instructed.

They tiptoed along the long aisle between the shelves, looking back from time to time, and the distance was almost dark.

There were small yellow labels on the shelves under each glass ball. Some of the balls emitted a mysterious flowing light, while others were vague and dark, like extinguished light bulbs.

They passed row 84, row 85... Harry tried to listen to the slightest movement, but heard nothing. Maybe Sirius' mouth was blocked, or maybe he was unconscious...

Or maybe it was the most fearful thought in his heart, maybe he was dead... Thinking of this, Harry felt like he was falling into an ice cave.

"97!" Hermione said suddenly.

They gathered at one end of row 97, staring at the corridor next to the shelf, where no one was.

"Sirius should be at the very end," Harry said, his mouth was a little dry, "It's impossible to see clearly standing here."

He led everyone through two rows of towering glass balls. When they passed by, some of the glass emitted a faint light...

"He should be nearby," Harry said in a low voice. He was convinced that with every step forward, Sirius' ragged figure would appear on the dark floor, "somewhere here...really close..."

"Harry?" Hermione tried to call him.

Harry didn't want to answer, his mouth was already dry.

"Somewhere here..." he said.

They had come to the other end of the row of shelves, exposed to more dim candlelight.

There was no one here either, only echoes and dusty silence.

"Harry." Hermione said slowly, even amplifying her voice, "I think... Sirius is not here."

No one said anything.

Harry couldn't figure it out, he clearly saw Sirius, that was the real perspective of Voldemort... He didn't understand why Sirius was not here, and he didn't dare to believe that the picture he saw was wrong.

He ran quickly in one direction past the rows of shelves and looked along them.

However, there was no shadow of Sirius anywhere, and no signs of fighting.

"Harry?" Ron shouted.

"What?" Harry replied dejectedly.

He thought Ron would tell him he was stupid, or suggest that they should go back to Hogwarts, or blame him for taking a risk with a group of friends to come to the Ministry of Magic in the middle of the night...

However, Ron talked about something else: "Did you see this?"

"What?" Harry asked.

He strode up to Ron and saw that he was staring at a dirty glass ball on the shelf.

"What are you looking at?" he asked depressedly.

"It's...it has your name on it." Ginny said in surprise.

Harry moved closer, and Ginny pointed to a small glass ball. It was dirty, as if it had not been touched for many years, but the faint light inside made it shine a little.

"My name?" Harry asked blankly.

He walked forward and looked at the yellowed label under the glass ball on the shelf.

The label was marked with a date in exquisite handwriting, followed by a string of letters:

S.P.T to A.P.W.B.D.

(Sybill Patrick Trelawney to Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore)

"What is this?" Ron asked, "How did your name get on it?"

"It's a prophecy ball." Ralph frowned, "If Harry's name is written on it, then it's likely a prophecy about Harry."

"Prophecy?" Harry was a little curious, "What will these prophecies say?"

He raised his hand, grasped the dirty little ball, and took it down.

At the same time, a lazy voice suddenly sounded in the darkness not far away:

"Very good, Potter, now turn around slowly and give it to me."