Harry Potter and the Sorceress of the Stars

Oleandra stepped out of the black-bricked fireplace and peeked past its ostentatious golden decorations, green flames still licking at her ankles. During the day, the Ministry of Magic's Atrium would be jam-packed with Ministry employees heading to work— because as far as Oleandra could tell, most of the Wizarding population was employed by the Ministry— but tonight, it appeared completely devoid of human life.

"The coast is clear," Oleandra whispered into the fireplace behind her, signalling for her friends to follow her through the Floo Network.

It was strange, though— even at night, there ought to have been someone manning the receptionist's desk, or at least the security booth, but the entire place seemed well and truly deserted. What in the world was going on, here?

One after the other, Astoria, Tracey and Theo hopped out of the fireplace. None of them but Theo had ever had cause to (properly) visit the Ministry before, so Oleandra looked to him for directions.

"Past the fountain there'll be a lift, which we can take down to the ninth level," said Theo confidently. "That's where we'll find the Department of Mysteries."

Now that they knew where to go, Oleandra and her friends hurried down the dark hall, past the golden Fountain of Magical Brethren, which featured statues of sentient of magical creatures (a Centaur, a Goblin and a House-Elf) huddling at the legs of the statues of a Wizard and of a Witch, and looking up in adoration at them.

Oleandra didn't look twice at the gleaming statues— the Malfoys had a much more impressive water feature on their estate— but she did take note of the plumbing, which drew its water directly from the Thames (ew).

Her connection to the stars was already growing tenuous, and the Atrium was only one floor beneath the surface— and supposedly, the Department of Mysteries would be nine floors below the surface. Now, even without runic magic, Oleandra would still remain an accomplished duellist, but if she could also access large volumes of water for her Lake powers, that would prove an enormous boon to her fighting prowess…

Astoria was the first to reach the lift, and by the time that Oleandra and the others had reached her, she had already pressed on the 'down' button and summoned a lift for them. One by one, they all entered the gaudily decorated lift. Once they were all in, Theo pressed the number nine on the number pad, and the lift clattered into action, rapidly descending into the depths below.

After a few seconds, Oleandra and Tracey shared a glance— they couldn't feel the stars any more. Looking at Arondight clutched in Astoria's hands, Oleandra found that the runes that she had engraved on the Sword of the Lake were still shining softly, fuelled by the sword's own magic. However, the same did not extend to the other protective trinkets that Oleandra had made— without starlight to replenish their power, their magic would be depleted after one use— and unfortunately, this also applied to the Book of the Stars, which Oleandra had strapped to the sash tied around her waist.

And a few seconds later…

"Department of Mysteries," the lift's female voice said coolly, its golden doors sliding open.

The group hurried out of the lift and into the corridor that led to the Department of Mysteries' entrance. It was quite dark, despite the many lit torches lighting the way, but since the corridor was basically only a straight line that led to a black door, there weren't a thousand ways to get lost in it, so they all made it to the other end with issues.

"I really hope this is locked," Oleandra muttered to herself, but as she went to push the black door open, it swung open on its own.

Oleandra led the others through the doorway, and they soon found themselves in a perfectly circular room, which featured twelve perfectly spaced doors along the length of its circumference; just like numbers on a clock. Harry's lot had clearly already been through here, judging by the fiery crossed drawn on three of the twelve doors.

"They don't know where they're going, either," said Oleandra, thinking out loud. "But we know it's not one of these three."

"How'd you know?" Astoria quipped.

"I can feel powerful rune magic behind this door," said Tracey in wonder, as she approached one of the three marked doors. "How is it possible? We're so deep underground…"

Oleandra's mind flashed back to her first year at Hogwarts, all those years ago…

"There's a gateway behind that door," simply said Oleandra.

Astoria and Tracey stared back at her in surprise, while Theo cocked his head curiously.

"Never you mind how I know," said Oleandra crossly. "We need to check the other doors."

There was a slight problem, however; the only thing that Harry had told her about his vision was that 'Voldemort's got Sirius,' which really wasn't helpful. It would be fine if each of the twelve doors led to rooms that were small and easily searchable, but what if they were too big to explore in a timely manner? Or what if those rooms possessed more doors? They might be at it for hours, and by then, it might have already been too late to save Harry and company…

At any rate, they had to start somewhere, so Oleandra picked an unmarked door at random and opened it and peered inside. The Unspeakables had put up a miniature (relatively speaking, the planets were larger than Oleandra was tall) model of the solar system in this pitch-dark room— and the night sky, along with all of its stars, was also represented on the walls…

The instant that Oleandra set foot in the room, she felt her stomach lurch, as her feet left the ground; as if gravity had suddenly forgotten that it existed. At the same time, she felt the runes in her soul humming to life and the Book of the Stars strapped to her waist heating up. For some reason, this room appeared to have a special connection to the world above ground…

"Where are you going?" asked Astoria curiously, as she watched Oleandra doggy paddling in midair, in a fruitless bid to return to solid ground.

"I'm obviously not doing this on purpose," Oleandra snapped; she was now upside-down, making it very hard for her to be taken seriously. "A little help, maybe? There's nobody else in this room, so there's no need to keep looking here."

Astoria summoned a light gale with her Wind Weasel magic, which gently pushed Oleandra back to the entrance; which Tracey promptly marked with an 'O,' rather than an 'X,' before slamming it shut.

'O' for Oleandra, of course.

"That was the Space Room, if I'm not mistaken," said Theo, as the circular room spun around them dizzyingly, like a carrousel. "Space and Time count among the most mysterious branches of magic…"