The Dark Sanctuary
The world was dark.
Unspeakable McAlister felt his hands shake around his wand as he and his colleagues nervously gathered around the only source of light in the room.
The pulsing unnatural light that was coming from underneath the Archway. From Beyond the Veil.
McAlister wanted to demand an explanation for this anomaly- he wanted to shake down his co-workers and force them to confess what they had done behind his back, because according to his observations, this day should have been like every other day.
The Unspeakables had entered the Death Chamber only a few minutes ago to start a new work day. They had taken their usual notes on the Veil's peaceful state, their assistants had herded in a fresh batch of beings who no longer 'existed', and then they had gotten into position to sacrifice the first subject of the day (a babbling veela that was being puppetted to walk into the Veil and her probable doom).
But before the veela could touch the tangible air beneath the Archway- the lights in the room began to flicker.
McAlister had ordered the Controller to halt the Veela's movements even as he waved his wand to check the lights. But before his magic could touch them, the lights gave a dying sputter, and then abandoned them to an uncomfortably complete darkness.
Amid the suspicious mumblings of the Unspeakables, several began to bark orders at their assistants.
One left the room to gather more fairy lights, while a few others tried to manually cast a Lumos spell.
It was then that they discovered something was blocking their magic- because not even a glint of light was allowed to fill the perfect darkness that surrounded them...
"hE IS cOMinG. DeATh IS cOMinG. YoU wILL aLL DIE UnWOrThy scUM-"
Unspeakable Parnes automatically cast a silencing spell in the direction of the babbling veela, and everyone was surprised to see it take affect. Why-?
Their magic was working, so why couldn't they-
And the then air beneath the Archway began to glow.
McAlister knew that the veela was only speaking nonsense, but as he stared into the unnatural blue void in front of them- he couldn't help but shudder. This was the Death Chamber after all, and it felt like they had tempted Fate by calling Death to their side.
The stuffy air in the chamber quickly became cold, and it had started to dance across their skin and pull at their clothes as if they were standing outside on a windy day. The Unspeakables felt ridiculous as they tried to keep their robes in order and several spelled their hair up in order to avoid it from getting into their mouth and eyes.
And then the ground underneath their feet became unsteady, as if the entire room had suddenly been picked up and held in an unsteady grip. Only the area around the Archway remained stable, which caused the room's inhabitants to stumble instinctively toward the artifact that was no doubt causing their situation.
But while they all felt trepidation- most of the Unspeakables also couldn't help but feel a bit of curious excitement. They were Unspeakables after all, and they had dedicated their lives to unraveling the mysteries of the universe.
McAlister could no longer see the Death Chamber's exit, nor could he make out the ceiling or the walls that marked the edges of the room. It was as if they and the Veil had been transported into a separate plane of existence, and noting this change terrified him to his core-
Because admitting what his eyes were telling him, would mean that he had to admit that no help was coming for them...
...
..Strangely ...
... as the minutes began to pass by, they all subconsciously became convinced that they had become trapped in a strange hiatus that made every minute feel like an hour- and as they drifted, McAlister found his thoughts wandering back to his initial question. Was there really nothing significant about today?
After a few lazy calculations, McAlister concluded that there were no significant alignments of the stars for another few days, nor was a Solstace occurring any time soon...
But as reality began to slip away from him, McAlister found himself recalling the Event that had occured almost one year ago. Or was it EXACTLY one year ago? Did that incident have anything to do with the current phenomenon they were experiencing?
[Exactly?] One year ago, a group of supposed Death Eaters [who had somehow escaped the Ministry's notice] attacked Harry Potter [how in the hell did that disgraced 'chosen one' even end up in their workplace?!] in the Department of Mysteries-which had in turn caused: the Destruction of the Prophecy Hall, the Indefinite Hiatus of the Time Turner Project, and an Unfortunate Delay in the Taming the Brain Eaters.
Those 'Death Eaters' and the recently exposed Order of the Phoenix happened to do most of their fighting in their section of the Department, and fixing up the desecrated Death Chamber had put them all in a foul mood for months. But over time, they accepted the fact that they had been lucky; because outside of some cosmetic damage and uncomfortable questionings, nothing seemed amiss with their research or research subject.
The Unspeakables in the Death chamber continued to do their jobs as if nothing had happened, even as the Wizarding Society began to fall to pieces around them. While Fudge was being fired and Scrimgeour struggled to deal with the fallout of everyone finding out that 'oh yes, Voldemort is back!', most of the employees in the Department of Mysteries remained unaffected.
After all, to them it didn't matter who their 'Master' was. All they required was a quiet environment that remained removed from conflict. Whether it was Fudge spouting the orders, or Voldemort, or even Harry Potter- they honestly didn't care.
McAlister wondered if they were finally going to experience the consequences of that night.
The Veil that the Arch contained continued to glow an annoyingly consistent blue for what felt like days, but was truly only a few minutes, before suddenly- the glow started getting brighter, and golden flecks of light began to glint inside the the void.
Everyone knew instinctively that the cause of these disturbances was about to be realized, and they all tensed as they tried to mentally prepare themselves to confront the creature that had dared to interfere with their work.
No one was surprised when a floating object emerged from the Veil. They and their ancestors had spent centuries feeding things into the Veil, and in the back of their minds, they had always considered the possibility that someday something might come out.
The golden flecks that they had glimpsed through the Veil been condensed down into a glittering golden sphere, and within it they could see the silhouette of their visitor sitting snug inside.
However, before any of them could open an assault against the container, it disintegrated in a flash of light that temporarily blinded them all.
After the Unspeakables blinked away the white dots that clouded their vision, their eyes couldn't help but bulge at the first clear glimpse they got of their visitor.
It wasn't possible- it shouldn't have been possible-
But standing in front of them... wasn't that Harry Potter?