Harry Potter and the Obscurus

Chapters 89 and beyond are yours.

"Oh? You've been in there for so long?"

A slightly surprised voice suddenly rang out from Sol Crocker. As his words fell, the clocks in the Time Hall of the Department of Mysteries transformed into flickering torches, illuminating the boundless darkness surrounding Mo Ran.

"Come on, tell me where you went just now? How many times did you jump through the timeline? Tell me all this and I won't pursue the matter of you using the Imperius Curse."

"I can't remember. You can look it up yourself."

Mo Ran casually responded and tossed the compass in his hand, which he was holding, over.

Having just collaborated with Dumbledore, Mo Ran, in a state of sudden inspiration, unexpectedly grasped the essence of manipulating time magic. However, unfortunately, there is still a considerable gap between a momentary enlightenment and true mastery, which is why, upon returning to the Time Hall, he focused all his attention on the hummingbird in the crystal dome.

"Why are you showing me this? It's useless to me! This compass is just something to remind you that the timeline is about to change; it has nothing to do with which specific moment you return to or where you go. Hey, you little brat, are you even listening to me?!"

Despite saying that, Saul Crocker was still taken aback by the extent of wear and tear on the parts of the compass after receiving it.

"That shouldn't be the case..."

As he skillfully disassembled the compass, he muttered to himself:

"I'm sure I didn't misremember the time. It's only two days at most. How could it be used like an ancient relic? Did this little brat go back to the time before he was even born?"

"I went to the future."

"what?"

The feeling of having one's long-held beliefs shattered with such a nonchalant tone was terrible, almost as bad as the theft of the time magic fragments that one had painstakingly collected.

Since Thor Crook became the Silent One of the Department of Mysteries at the Ministry of Magic, he has devoted almost all of his time to the study of time magic. There have been successes and setbacks along the way, but in any case, he is undoubtedly a leading authority on time magic.

But now, a little wizard who hasn't even grown a beard yet is casually mentioning a possibility he never even considered, and he's even touching his precious crystal dome.

"Stop!"

Saul Krock almost roared:

"Fragments of time magic cannot be preserved in a normal linear timeline. You opened the shield, and the bird can no longer maintain its loop. I absolutely cannot let it return to reality! Damn it! Why didn't I come back to help me stop this scourge?"

Ignoring Thor's hysteria, Mo Ran had already begun to concentrate fully on gripping the outer surface of the crystal cover.

Judging from the excited gleam in his eyes, he was practically no different from a robber who had broken into a vault in the Muggle world.

......

The hands of countless clocks turned and turned, and after an unknown amount of time, Saul Crock sat down quietly beside the now-open crystal dome. Looking at the sleeping Harry, he slowly rolled up his sleeves and removed the watches he had once treasured, one by one.

Everything was so unexpected.

The fragment of time trapped inside the crystal dome did not disappear. On the contrary, with Mo Ran's help, it flew into the Pocket Forbidden Forest with the hummingbird inside, thus breaking the shackles that prevented it from existing in an infinite loop.

"The future...yes, the future."

Sol Krock muttered to himself as if waking from a deep dream.

What did all that effort to uncover the secrets of time, all those journeys through the rifts of time, ultimately yield?

Aside from a face etched with the marks of time and eyes that never seem to lose their weariness, there's almost nothing left.

......

"Cough, cough, cough!"

Accompanied by violent coughing, it was as if a soul that had slumbered for countless ages since time immemorial had opened its eyes. Before Harry could even figure out what had just happened, a wave of profound amnesia, like that of a hangover, washed over him.

"I... cough cough cough!"

Harry, choked by his own saliva and unable to speak, managed to sit up using one hand to support himself. Judging from his current state, he probably felt even worse than if he had eaten pure black pepper Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans.

"Catch your breath first, don't cough yourself to death."

"Are you kidding me! Cough cough..."

Harry staggered to his feet and said, his right hand already secretly reaching for his wand at his waist.

"What exactly did you do to me? Why did I feel like I was unconscious for so long?"

Faced with Harry's questioning, Saul Crock didn't dwell on the phrase "unconscious for a long time" as he usually did; instead, he replied:

How did you know you hadn't actually been unconscious for a long time?

"The hands of all the clocks on the wall have hardly changed; I don't believe it's just a coincidence."

As Harry's breathing gradually calmed, his sharp mind returned. Besides the clocks around him, he also noticed Thor Crook's change. As a Silent One of the Time Hall, he didn't consider exploring time magic his most important task. This leisurely state was completely different from when he first arrived here with Moran.

"You're quite observant, no wonder he trusts you so much."

"You've spoken with him?"

Upon hearing Thor Crocker mention Moran, Harry immediately became even more cautious than before. Although Moran had already revealed his identity to the old man before he lost consciousness, he hadn't heard the other's voice once since waking up. Now, suddenly hearing his old friend mentioned by a stranger, he felt surprised and rather uneasy.

Having no longer been engrossed in studying time magic, Thor Crocker now showed a more human side. Noticing the subtle change in Harry's expression, he surprisingly spoke in a tone that resembled comfort:

"We did talk, but it's a real shame I didn't have a chance to talk to him more. He seemed to have something very urgent to deal with at the time. Apart from asking me for a special crystal test tube, he didn't say anything else... Ah, what a pity, such a pity!"

"Then why did you take off your watch?"

Saul Crook shrugged, seemingly expressing helplessness and understanding at Harry's distrust.

“I don’t need these things anymore, so I will naturally take them down.”

"It's that simple?"

"It's that simple... But if I had to explain further, I think it's because I've realized that my previous research into time magic was putting the cart before the horse. You know what? No matter how many times a wizard can travel back in time, the starting point is always to make the future move as we hope. But once we go back to the past, we find that the regrets in life are endless. After that, the time-tamper transforms from a magical artifact for changing fate into a torture device for imprisoning souls..."

As he spoke, Saul Krock seemed to suddenly realize something. He pinched the bridge of his nose between his eyes and shook his head, saying:

Why am I telling you all this? Do you think a little kid like you could understand it?

Such remarks, which weren't even taunts, naturally had no effect on Harry, who was constantly bickering with Draco Malfoy. However, considering his strange experience of suddenly falling unconscious and then waking up again, Harry sensed a sense of crisis.

He then asked:

"According to you, sir, isn't my current situation very dangerous?"

"That's not entirely true,"

Sol Krock waved his hand and continued:

“You are not caught in a vortex of constantly correcting the past, and to some extent, you are not the one who really needs to travel through time to complete the mission.”

"Not me?"

Harry was completely bewildered.

Whether it was from the moment he approached Professor Snape or from deciphering the point in Hermione's memories that he had to return to, he never imagined that he wasn't the protagonist of this journey.

Could you elaborate further...?

"Alright, you've got what you wanted now, and there's nothing left in the Time Hall for you to miss. Instead of wasting your time thinking about all that nonsense, you might as well go back to where you came from. I still have a lot of work to do, and almost all of my research reports need to be scrapped and rewritten, so don't get in my way."

The sudden dismissal interrupted Harry's plan to continue questioning. He touched the most important items hidden inside his robes, making sure nothing was missing, and then nodded to Thor Crocker:

"Okay, thank you for your help. I'll be going now... Huh?"

Sol Krock: "......"

How could that be?

"Apparate!"

"Apparate!"

"Are you out of your mind? This is the Department of Mysteries! Even if Gringotts' vault has been broken into, there's no way a wizard could apparite through here. The door's over there, don't tell me you've forgotten how you got in."

Thor Crocker had never seen Obscurus's Apparition using the black mist, and even if he had, given his extremely specialized magical abilities, he probably wouldn't have understood its intricacies. As for Harry, whose personality had drastically changed compared to the original story, he certainly wouldn't casually reveal one of his trump cards to outsiders. Therefore, even though he couldn't connect with Obscurus's magic, he didn't reveal the slightest flaw in his panic.

"I see..."

Harry tried to put on an "I've learned something" expression and muttered:

"I was hoping to get in here and figure out the Ministry of Magic's layout so I could easily use Apparition to come and go later. Ah, what a pity..."

......

pat.

As the doors to the Hall of Time closed again, Harry was back in the circular, black room.

According to the original plan, he and Mo Ran should have been able to get some clues about the Invisibility Cloak bandits from Thor Crocker, or at the very least, find out where the Invisibility Cloak was. But now, not only have they not found any useful information, but they have also completely lost contact with Mo Ran.

"Disillusionment."

call out!

With a wave of his wand, a Disillusionment Charm concealed Harry beneath his robes into the darkness like a chameleon.

Seeing the invisibility effect that was so different from usual, Harry realized that without the support of the Obscurus's immense magic, his strength had not improved since he came to the Department of Mysteries; in fact, he had become weaker.

"Should we go back to Hogwarts to find Dumbledore? No, if the current situation is something that was bound to happen in history, then even finding Dumbledore won't reverse the situation. That's right!"

In a flash of inspiration, Harry took out the Unmarkable Stretch Charm pocket that had been made to resemble the Forbidden Forest.

Unlike all his other important magical artifacts, which were carefully preserved, this pocket was the only one whose location he had changed during his "brief" coma. If Mo Ran had left himself any clues, it was most likely hidden in the Pocket Forest.

Ding.

A crisp sound, not from the friction of fabric, confirmed Harry's guess.

Near the bag's opening, there had appeared sometime during the day: a crystal test tube and a Galleon engraved with the words "Brain Room."

"The Brain Hall? The Brain Hall? Could it be...?"

The blue flame flickered slightly in the black room. The Galleon exposed to the air of the circular room unexpectedly transformed into a wisp of golden ash, which then precisely located the Brain Hall among the twelve solemn black square doors.

The next second, just like before, the walls, sensing the presence of foreign wizarding magic, began to spin on their own again, as if being toyed with by a mischievous Peeves. Looking at the Time Hall door, which had long since disappeared into the distance, Harry finally abandoned the idea of ​​leaving immediately. He gripped the crystal test tube in his hand and followed the direction indicated by Galleon.

Swish!Swish!Swish!

As the door, shimmering with a pale golden light, spun rapidly, it gradually transformed into a shooting star with a golden tail. Without Mo Ran's magical perception to assist him, Harry had to rely on his eyesight and agility, much like a child struggling to jump rope, to predict the exact moment the Golden Gate would turn right in front of him.

"one two Three!"

Seize the opportunity and leap!

With a creak, an unsettling atmosphere, reminiscent of an abandoned hospital, swept over Harry. As the door opened, a completely square, almost empty room, devoid of any magical or mystical aura, appeared before him.

"Protego!" (Protego armor)

Using the momentum of his lunge to perform a forward roll, Harry cast an armor spell on himself as he stood up.

Without Mo Ran's assistance, he had to be more cautious in his actions than before. However, despite the invisible magical shield protecting him, Harry still felt an indescribable sense of crisis lingering in the Great Hall.

Quiet......

It's so quiet!

Apart from the clatter of black leather boots on the greyish-white floor, Harry couldn't hear anything else. Moreover, in this empty, brightly lit room, all his senses felt dulled, unable to gather any external information.

We need to resolve this quickly and get out of this awful place!

"Aparecium." (Appearing in a hurry)

“Specialis revelio.” (The true nature is revealed.)

After a few chants, several white lights flashed from the tip of Phoenix Ruixin's wand. Contrary to Harry's expectations, the tables in the Brain Room were not where the Pensieve was hidden.

The wooden tabletop was still just a tabletop, and the stacks of documents were nothing more than research reports written on kraft paper with ordinary ink.

"whispering sound."

A soft spit came from between Harry's teeth, expressing both his dissatisfaction with his misjudgment and his disgust for what he would have to face next.

From the moment Harry entered the Brain Room, he noticed the enormous water tank, as big as an aquarium pool, located in the very center of the room.

The large glass tank contained a dark green, viscous liquid, with many strange, pearly white things floating lazily in and out of the tank, looking like sticky, melted cheese.

Cheese?

No, it's the brain.

It is a brain that has detached from the skull, grown tentacles, and gained the ability to act on its own.

Even without Moran's highly accurate magical perception, Harry could sense just how dangerous those living brain monsters were. That's why, upon entering, he avoided the most conspicuous objects in the Brain Hall at all costs.

"Protego Horribillis." (Super armor protects you)

“Salvio hexia.” (Peaceful garrison)

After reinforcing the defenses with two additional spells, Harry took a deep breath.

Trusting Mo Ran, he slowly raised his wand and chanted towards the glass tank:

"Accio Brain."

The green liquid in the tank seemed to solidify, and after a short while, a brain so round it was almost impossible to tell its oval shape leaped out of the tank like a fish. It hovered in the air for a moment, then spun as it flew toward Harry.

puff!puff!

Tentacles danced, and colorful brain matter began to spurt from the folds and crevices of the brain. Then, the moment they touched the air, they turned into ribbon-like rolls of film, spreading out the memories stored in the mind piece by piece.

Seeing this, Harry, who had been holding the crystal test tube in his hand, seemed to understand Moran's intention. Before the tendrils on his brain could reach him, he had already opened the cap of the test tube and poured all the memory inside onto it.

hum!

The deafening roar, along with lines of light and shadow, erased the original content of the "film," replacing it with the important memories that Mo Ran had sifted out from the cracks of time.

Grindelwald, the Dark Curse, the Seaside Cave, Horcruxes, Fiendfyre, Thunderbird, the Invisibility Cloak, the Opal Curse Necklace, and Peter Pettigrew.

Mo Ran didn't reveal many details; there wasn't even sound in his memories. The reason he did this was to convey the most important message to Harry—you must walk the rest of the road in your own way.

I'll leave the rest to you.