The Butcher of Hogsmeade

Chapter 131 Professor Kroc's Time Travel (Part 2)

Even in the magical world, renowned for its wonders, and even within the Department of Mysteries, known for its enigmatic nature, Professor Crocker's account of his experiences was nothing short of bizarre. Not only the three young men, but also Dumbledore and the Minister for Magic present were eager to hear more details.

"Don't rush, I need to make sure no one else hears what's coming up." Kroc temporarily stopped everyone's eager questions. "Please come with me, there's something else I need your help with, and it can't be told to anyone else."

With that, Professor Kroc led the way toward the completely broken black door, crossed the threshold, and went inside. The others quickly followed.

Inside the door was a square room, very bright. The room was almost empty, except for a table against the wall and a huge glass tank filled with dark green liquid in the very center of the room, large enough for a person to swim in; many white things were slowly floating around inside.

Through the liquid, Shen Hou saw a huge brain, with many strange tentacles bobbing up and down in it: apart from the tentacles, it looked exactly like the structure of a human brain, but the problem was that no one could grow such a big brain, not even the largest giant Shen Hou had ever seen.

The brain in the vat was so unusual that Shen Hou didn't even notice that there were doors in this room leading to other rooms.

"Please do me a favor, Professor." Professor Crocker looked at Dumbledore, "Seal off this room and make sure that no one enters for the next fifteen minutes—or perhaps a little longer, about twenty minutes."

"Of course, as you wish." Dumbledore didn't make any further moves, simply sweeping his wand around the room to ensure everyone was within reach.

Every door was pointed to, until finally the door leading to the outer rotunda; that door was now just a broken frame, but as the wand pointed, the fragments on the ground automatically sprang up and pieced themselves together, quickly managing to recreate the shape of a door and blocking the doorway.

Professor Krock asked somewhat uneasily, "Are you sure it's sturdy enough? I don't want anyone to see or hear what's happening in this room."

"Don't worry, unless it's Voldemort who comes." Dumbledore's calm voice revealed his complete confidence.

"Alright, let me tell you what happened." Professor Kroc breathed a sigh of relief and pulled a silver pocket watch from his pocket. "It all started this morning when I came to work. As soon as I entered the Department of Mysteries, I noticed something was wrong. The door to the Time Hall was locked tight and couldn't be opened at all. You know, I'm in charge of the Time Hall, and I have the only key, yet it wouldn't open the door. At first, I thought the protective magic on the door was broken, then I thought someone had tampered with it, but in the end, I discovered—"

Professor Kroc paused slightly, seemingly still somewhat incredulous at his discovery.

"What did you find?" the minister asked eagerly.

"I realized that the person who tampered with it was very likely myself," Professor Crocker said. "I conducted a thorough examination of the door and found no additional magical effects beyond the existing protective measures. I immediately realized that it wasn't an external force that tampered with the door, but rather that someone activated the protective and identification magic at the entrance to the Time Hall. Given that I am the highest-ranking person in charge of the Time Hall, I can only conclude that it was me, even though I have absolutely no recollection of it."

Dumbledore was once again the first among the audience to react, asking, "Was it from that moment that you realized you had time-traveled at some point in the future and activated the protective magic of the Time Hall?"

"Yes." Professor Kroc nodded approvingly. "The Time Hall is one of the most heavily guarded rooms in the Department of Mysteries. The protective magic is not usually activated, but once activated, it is very difficult to break through by external force. This is mainly to protect the time converter inside."

"Then why didn't they issue a warning earlier? Maybe we could have stopped the attackers beforehand." Millison hadn't grasped the crux of the matter. She was more concerned about the damage this attack would do to the Ministry of Magic and her own prestige, so when she heard that Professor Crocker had taken precautions, she instinctively started complaining.

Professor Crocker immediately pointed out the minister's mistake: "That's time travel, Minister; as far as the rules of time travel are concerned, the fact that I myself have foreseen that I might have engaged in unplanned time travel in the future is already an extremely dangerous situation. How can we let more people know about this and then have everyone frantically searching for a time traveler? Besides, this is the Department of Mysteries; we must be extremely careful in everything we do."

As he said this, Professor Kroc glanced at Shen Hou subconsciously, but quickly regained his composure and looked away from him.

"So you're just going to sit here and wait for the attack to happen?" the minister asked, still dissatisfied.

"Of course not, I did make some preparations," Professor Krock waved his hand, "such as carrying an extra time-tamper with me."

Dumbledore frowned slightly, catching the key information in the Silent Man's words, and immediately asked, "What do you mean by having an extra Time-Turner?"

"Ah, I'll explain that later. Let me first clarify the events that led to the attack."

"However, there is a crucial issue I must inform you of." Professor Krock glanced at his pocket watch again. "At least one of the attackers was our colleague, acting as a traitor within the Death Eaters."

"Oh, what's so big of a deal?" the Minister said, displeased. "The Aurors who investigated the scene already discovered it. Without a mole to guide them, the attackers wouldn't have been able to avoid the Ministry's sentries at all; the fact that there's a Death Eater mole in the Ministry is already common knowledge among all wizards in Britain. The key issue is that we didn't catch the culprit on the spot, making it much harder to identify them later."

"That traitor is a Silent One, I'm absolutely certain of that," Professor Crocker said. "Only a Silent One could open the entrance to the Department of Mysteries so silently."

"We know that. The key question is who that person is. Chief Crouch has ordered the Aurors to investigate the whereabouts of every Silent One, determined to find the traitor who ran away with the attackers, but so far there has been no news."

"In fact, the traitor didn't escape," Professor Crocker interrupted the minister, making a startling statement. "He's been in this room the whole time."

At this point, Professor Krock looked at the pocket watch in his hand once again.