MUCH MAGIC MUCH FUN

Madness. Complete madness. I'd never been afraid of the dark as a child, but now I could understand why the darkness had plagued so many a child. It was bloody scary being down here all alone. Did the Ministry go out of their way to make the Department of Mysteries as gloomy as possible? I had no idea how the Unspeakables found their way around these deep bowels of gloom. (Okay, so maybe the dark unknown made me a bit prone to histrionics. Don't judge – you'd be doing the same thing).

So, you might be wondering how deep into the Department I was. Was I in some frightening, claustrophobic room filled with deadly spikes? Maybe in some secret dragon lair? At the bottom of some chasm?

…Well, not exactly. I was approximately three and an eighth meters away from the stone entrance. What? I was just…thinking of a strategy. No need to rush head first into a situation I knew nothing about.

…

Okay, I was scared. Terrified, actually. Frightened. Intimidated. Nervous. Afraid.

I could keep spouting synonyms for "scared" all day, but that wouldn't stop whoever it was who was attacking the Ministry (unfortunately).

So, summoning up all my courage once more, I took a deep breath and forced Numberita to calm down (slightly).

I allowed myself one last longing glance to the dim light filtering from the narrow staircase. Even the rickety, stained stairs were preferable to this. Where was everyone? You'd think that at least some Aurors would be down here…unless they'd already entered. I studied the eerie depths of the Department, biting my lip as I rolled my wand between my sweaty hands. Well, this looked like a maze if I'd ever seen one.

Right, I didn't want to get lost. Taking another deep breath, I racked Numberita for some spell that would allow me to retrace my steps if – when – the time came. …Nothing. Why in Merlin's name did the Wizarding World not have a "create-a-magical-glowing-rope-so-Adela-doesn't-get-lost-in-the-bowels-of-the-Ministry" spell? Honestly.

A dull thump came from somewhere deep within the Department. I jumped, my eyes widening as I stared unblinkingly into the darkness in front of me. Right. Enough stalling. They couldn't get to the phoenix – I still didn't know why they wanted it, but if they wanted it this badly…well, it couldn't be anything good.

Thinking back to the events at the prison and how well combining the spells had worked, I decided to splice together a new spell. After all, what were spells but words to focus our power? Note to self: study how spells came to be. If combining a spell of that difficulty had worked before, why couldn't I combine a simple light and rope-summoning spell?

Lifting my wand carefully, I narrowed my eyes and murmured, "Lucis funem." The wand grew warm beneath my fingers and jerked slightly, the tip glowing bright blue. No rope appeared. I frowned, widened my stance, and tried again.

"Lucis funem," I repeated, this time more firmly. A thin white rope flew out of my wand and onto the cool stone floor below. Perfect. After fastening the end to the iron railing next to the stairs, I turned once more to face the dark depths of the Department.

"Right, I can do this," I murmured. Then, swallowing my nerves, I walked boldly into the depths.

The narrow dark hallway soon led to an unassuming dark stone (apparently they really liked their stone) door. The inky stone was shot through with silvery veins that winked in the soothing light of my rope. I swallowed, reaching out a tentative hand. My fingers brushed against the strangely warm stone. Pushing the door open with a soft whisper of stone against stone, I stepped gingerly into the cavernous room beyond. As soon as I'd traveled a meter away from the door, it slammed shut behind me. I swallowed again. Merlin, this was exactly how all the classic Muggle horror movies went. Forcing myself to stay calm, I walked carefully back to the door at a pace only slightly faster than normal, my hands clawing uselessly at the silent stone. There was no doorknob, no bump on the door that I could hold on to. Only slick, smooth stone waited. Right. Whatever. I'd figure out how to open that again later.

Forcing myself to turn away from the door, I surveyed the circular room I'd entered. It was huge – Numberita quickly estimated that it was around thirty meters in diameter – and filled with stone doors identical to the one I'd just entered from. The whole room was filled with an eerie blue tint, lighting the room just enough to allow menacing shadows to wrap around the crevices. These shadows slithered out of the pitch-black floor. I glanced down and sorely regretted the action; the floor was so dark that it looked like the stone was rippling underneath my trainers. Great. Just great. Note to self: don't look down.

There were twelve doors including the one I had just entered from. Well, the phoenix – and the Bulgarians' sponsor – was behind one of these doors. After making sure my rope still lead to the right door, I moved seven and three quarters of a meter to the left.

To my surprise, the door opened easily underneath my fingers, sliding open silently to reveal – what else? – more darkness.

I entered the room carefully, keeping a tight grip on my wand. Whoa. The room was around ten meters wide and was irregular in shape. Though there were no torches in this room, throbbing light still pulsed from the floating objects drifting lazily through the air. Numberita quickly labeled the objects – the sun. Earth. Venus. Mars.

Merlin, who knew the Ministry had this room? It was brilliant! It was…breathtaking. Tiny galaxies sped past me, twirling through the air and throwing bright light across the room. The room pulsed with irregular light. I drew closer to the sun, my hand rising involuntarily as the immense, fiery object grew larger and larger as I approached it.

I stopped after three steps, realizing suddenly that the sun, which had seemed so small before – seven centimeters long at the most – was now huge, swallowing up my whole field of vision. The mild heat was now scorching, and I quickly dropped my hand. I looked around frantically, trying to find the rest of the small planets, but all I could see was a large expanse of scarlet flames that only grew larger. The sun still spun, though now this movement was more threatening than lazy. It spat out the occasional scorching flame, hissing loudly as its heat bit at the darkness surrounding it. I was a tiny ant – no, the tiniest atom – facing this huge entity of raging gas and fire. My heart jumped to my throat as I felt my mouth drying, my lips being to crack in the radiating heat. What was this room? I looked down and saw only the lower half of the sun spreading farther and farther down.

Wait. Was the sun expanding to its normal size? My heartbeat quickened as I stood still, frozen in place by the sheer terror that gripped my body with burning claws. The sun was 1.392 million kilometers wide. There was no way that it could fit in this tiny room – and yet…I looked around wildly once more, letting out a soft, strangled whimper when I saw that the walls had disappeared. I only saw blinding darkness and flames. I stumbled backwards, my foot catching on something. I went sprawling downward, shrieking as I fell down, down, down into the bottomless darkness as the sun spat angry fire at me that threatened to incinerate me –

My hand brushed against something cool and reassuring in its solidity. I held it up blindly, staring at it for an indeterminable amount of time before Numberita could register its presence. My rope. It glowed with a steadfast blue light, bathing my burned hands in soothing coolness. My breathing slowed slightly as I stared at it. I had no idea how long I sat there, sprawled on the ground and staring at that rope…

But at some point I registered that I was sitting on the ground, not falling through the depths of space. My breath came out in a strangled burst, tearing from my hoarse throat – how long had I been screaming? – as it escaped into the once-more cool expanse of the room. How…? Had it all been an illusion? The small planets floated serenely once more, and I spotted the sun twinkling innocently near the center of the room. I jerked backwards as a small cluster of asteroids traveled dangerously close to my arm. I hissed as my hands slammed against the stone. Bringing my fingers shakily up to my eye level, I winced when I saw that there were an angry red. Constellations of tiny white blisters dotted my palms, mapping galaxies onto my skin.

So it hadn't been an illusion. I scrambled to my feet, my fear banishing pain from Numberita as I ran backwards, dodging the occasional planet until I reached the door. Jerking the door open, I tumbled through it. I barely registered the harsh sound it emitted as it slammed shut behind me, catching my glowing rope between the wall. A low whine sounded as the circular wall began to shift before my eyes, slowly at first but gradually increasing in speed until I could no longer make sense of the objects blazing before me –

I breathed heavily, watching the walls spin with wild eyes, desperately trying to hold on to my wits. My sanity was a cornered animal trying desperately to flee forever, and all I had to hold on was a rickety cage of blurred memories that grew fainter with every passing second. Seth. Rose. Scorpius. Vane.

Al. The memory of his comforting hold, the scent of refreshing, crisp pine that followed him everywhere he went –

My breathing slowed, my lungs no longer threatening to escape out my throat as I collected my memories of Al's reluctant smile, his green eyes, his annoyingly perfect hair, into armor that wrapped my every crevice.

The walls had finally stopped spinning. Now that Numberita had calmed down somewhat, she could reason that this was probably a defense mechanism against unwanted intruders. Luckily, my glowing rope still marked the two doors I'd passed through already. I murmured a temporary cooling spell and directed the soothing green light to wrap my injured hands, wincing when the magic hit my wounds. After tending to my burns, I lifted my wand once more and advanced to the next door.

Thankfully, this room was devoid of any lethal burning balls of gas. Unfortunately, it appeared to be my childhood bedroom. Thoroughly freaked out, I stared at the familiar four-poster bed, the pink princess-patterned pillow, the wide window that looked out on the lush green expanse of the lawn –

What was this? Why in the bloody hell was I here?

The phoenix couldn't be here. I'd just leave – I moved to retreat but found only my flowered wallpaper behind me. No stone door. Nothing. I looked frantically around the room but saw only infuriatingly cheerful smiley-faced pajamas draped against my desk.

My lip was quivering, and it was all I could do to resist sinking to the ground in a pool of catatonic tears. I gripped my wand tightly, ignoring the jolt of pain from the wood colliding with one of my blisters. I approached my desk gingerly, my eyes widening when I saw the familiar rolls of parchment that had been my journal laid out on the wooden surface.

I bent over, my fingers shaking as I unrolled the closest roll.

Dear awesome journal,

'Ello! Today was as awesome as always. I managed to nail Seth in the head with ol' Bessie – the bugger won't be putting worms in my bed any time soon! Father says he'll take me shopping for some more quills tomorrow. I can't wait! I need more Slytherin coloured quills, after all. I wonder if the Professors award extra points for House gear? Scorpius says that Looney Lovegood used to wear a ridiculous lion hat all the time even though she was in Ravenclaw. I think that's rubbish. Why would anyone wear gear from another House? You won't catch me in Gryffindor red…or Hufflepuff yellow…or even Ravenclaw blue. What would Fa-what would everyone say? No, Slytherin green is the way to go.

I reckon sixth year is going to be the best year yet. I can't believe school begins tomorrow! I think I'm going to curse all of Seth's clothes so they turn bright yellow…no insult better than accusing him of being a Hufflepuff! They're a bit off, if you ask me.

I couldn't read any more of this…this…Numberita couldn't come up with a fitting word to describe this blasphemy. The roll slipped unbidden from my shaking hands. What…what was that? Numberita couldn't remember ever writing that. Ever. And…why did I sound so…weird? And why was I a Slytherin? Feeling thoroughly freaked out, I backed away from the desk, letting out a strangled squeak when my back bumped into something soft. I turned, flinching when I saw a wide expanse of Slytherin green. It was a Slytherin tapestry, complete with menacing snake and emerald jewels. A Hogwarts robe hung neatly from my wooden wardrobe, a green and silver striped tie draped against its shoulder.

Where in the bloody Merlin's beard was I?

A sudden rustling came from the hallway. My eyes widened, and I leaped behind the bed quickly, automatically raising my wand.

The door opened, revealing two smiling teenagers. One had gleaming blonde hair – Seth – and the other had shining, smooth brown hair. My mouth dropped open; what? Why did weird-Adela have neat hair while I was stuck with this tumbleweed of a mess?

"Oh, come on, Seth. Everyone knows I'm the better Quidditch player," weird-Adela said. Seth rolled his eyes.

"Whatever, less-bright-twin. I'm off – Scorp should be here any minute now with Nott."

Other-Seth left, turning only to stick out his tongue at weird-Adela. My heart ached as I watched their antics longingly; Merlin, how different those times were. That was before all of the events of sixth year, all of the goblins, betrayals, werewolves…

Wait. Nott? What about Al? Al was Seth and Scorp's best friend. Why weren't they going to Hogwarts together?

Weird-Adela approached the wardrobe, humming as she scooped up her uniform lovingly. Then she took it to the bathroom, closing the door firmly behind her. I was up in a flash, tripping over the nightstand in my haste to get out of this twisted world. As I passed the desk, however, I spotted a single line of neat – since when was my handwriting neat? – script:

Nott, Scorp, and Seth are planning on sabotaging the Gryffindors. They're sick of losing – unfairly – to them in the Quidditch finals. I must find some way to warn Al; he and the rest of the Gryffindor team can find some way to fend them off if it comes to that.

Al? What…? Conflicting emotions warred within Numberita. Fear of discovery – I had no idea where I was, but everyone knew that you could not let an alternate version of yourself see you – conflicted with my natural curiousity.

Oh, sod it all. I quickly ran back to the desk, casting another nervous look at the closed bathroom door. I opened the roll, quickly scanning its contents.

Merlin. Apparently other-me was having some illicit relationship with Gryffindor Al. This was getting weirder and weirder.

The bathroom door began to slide open behind me, and I hurriedly shoved the parchment rolls back to their places. A bare foot appeared from behind the door, and I looked around frantically for another hiding space. My bed was too far away – a good three meters – for me to reach. Then other-me (OM for short) fully exited the bathroom, looking up until her eyes rested on me.

Shi-shitake mushrooms.

I froze, opening my mouth to spout some nonsense about "HI I AM THE OFFICIAL WIZARD 2000 SPELL HERE TO SERVE YOU IN YOUR EXACT LIKENESS EXCEPT MAYBE A FEW YEARS OLDER AND WITH WORSE HAIR WOOSH MAGIC WHOA MUCH MAGIC MUCH FUN."

Then her hazel eyes skipped over me unseeingly, her red mouth (was she wearing lipstick?) frowning as she spotted the disordered nature of her desk.

"Ugh, Seth," she muttered, stomping over. I stared at her disbelievingly. Did she really not see me? Merlin, the Ministry certainly was keeping some weird stuff down here.

I stepped out of her way gingerly as she tidied up her desk with painstaking care. Wow. I was a total slob. Why was she so bloody neat? It was just going to get messy again anyway.

More footsteps sounded outside the door, and I immediately crouched, my heartbeat racing as I prepared to face whatever menacing foe was about to enter the room. I was done with hiding. Goblin, werewolf, whatever. I'd face it…even with this weird Slytherin version of me here.

"Honey?" a feminine voice called.

My heart skipped a beat, my wand almost falling from my frozen fingers. M-mother? Sure enough, my…birther appeared from behind the door, smiling endearingly down at her beloved daughter (and why wouldn't she? This Adela was the perfect, neat Slytherin). I watched with a slight tinge of bitterness as she hugged the other-Adela warmly.

"Are you ready?" she asked, pulling away and smiling down at her daughter. Other-Adela nodded, pulling away with a slight wrinkle of her nose.

"Mother, you don't have to hug me so much," she complained.

I flinched. She had no idea how much she had. No. Bloody. Idea.

I watched disbelievingly as a third person entered the room – this one wearing carefully tailored robes. Father. I swallowed nervously, watching as he bent down to give other-Adela an approving pat on her shoulder.

"How is my darling today?" he asked.

"Father," she complained. Then he happened to look up in my direction. I didn't react, expecting his eyes to slide over me in the same way his daughter and wife's eyes had.

They didn't.

He froze, his blue eyes widening in shock. His mouth dropped open as he began to splutter, lifting a shaking hand to point in my direction.

"Wh-wh-" he stuttered. My stomach dropped as I gripped my wand tightly, my legs cemented in place. Why was he the only one who could see me?

He looked wildly from his daughter to me.

"Honey? What's wrong?" other-Adela's mother asked, looking blankly at the wall behind me.

"You-you don't see her?"

"No, Father. What are you talking about?"

I stared at the man who had given me so much pain, so many nights spent obsessing over Houses and honor and a bloody category that said nothing about my worth as a person –

He looked so small now. He drew out his wand shakily, brandishing it around like a crazed person, his balding – had he always been balding? – head flashing in the sunlight streaming from the window.

"What's wrong?" the woman repeated. His mouth worked silently, his carefully-tanned face deathly pale as he stared at the older, silent version of his daughter. The older version who was proudly wearing not a shred of green, or yellow, or blue, or red. The older version who was wearing whatever color she damned please.

Gripping Al's necklace with one hand and my wand with the other, I slowly raised my chin defiantly, looking down on the man who had once caused me so much pain.

"I pity you," I said coldly. For once, the words were true. His face folded into a twisted mask of rage, and he raised his wand shakily.

"A-avad-" he began hysterically. Other-Adela's eyes widened, and she leaped forward, grabbing at her father's arm with sobbing sincerity.

"Father, what are you doing?" she shrieked. "There's no one there!"

I silently lowered my wand, watching the scene unfold before me. A frantic mother, fluttering around the father. The father, shoving away his worried daughter as he stared at nothing. The daughter, sobbing as her perfect hair falls over emerald green. The sounds were muted now, the luridly bright pajamas, the saccharine sunlight, the cheerful blanket – everything was fading, becoming bathed in a familiar blue glow until I was left staring at nothing in a dark room lit with blue torches.

Author Note: Whew, it felt really good to get that last scene out. Adela deserved some closure on her family problems. Thank you all for reading! I really appreciate it so much :D As always, all reviewers will get a teaser of the next chapter! C:

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