The Admiral of Hogwarts

Soon, Hugo and the others waited for another elevator, then went inside and pressed the button with the Arabic numeral nine on it. The gate slammed shut.

The elevator made a loud noise again, but again no one came to check. When the elevator stopped, the indifferent woman's voice said, "Department of Mysteries."

The gate opened, and they walked out into the corridor. Besides the torches nearest to them flickering in the draft caused by the elevator, there was no other movement. Walking down the corridor to the end of the road, only an extremely plain black door stood before them.

"The door is locked. The security system of the Ministry of Magic is working," the ship girls quickly discovered a major problem after pulling on the door.

Obviously, the reason Harry and the others could enter by simply pulling the door open before was because Voldemort and his subordinates had tampered with it. But now that Harry had entered, the door naturally closed and became a solid barrier.

"How long will it take to open it?" Because there was a complex spatial barrier behind this door, they couldn't jump through space. Therefore, Hugo and the others' only option was to open the door.

"About ten minutes," Salem said, tapping the magic nodes with her wand. "Fortunately, this door is just a simple door and isn't connected to the entire Ministry of Magic through the security system."

From this, it could be roughly deduced that the closing of this door was actually done by an automatic system, rather than a pre-emptive defense set up specifically for them.

In any case, the Department of Mysteries is the highest scientific research system in the entire British wizarding world, so it is very common to have some automatic defense systems. Fortunately, it is not too difficult to unlock this kind of daily defense.

So, in the following time, Hugo and the others could only wait for Salem's actions while contacting the other ship girls.

"Good news, I've found an opportunity to contact Professor McGonagall," Enterprise's voice rang out in the admiral's network five minutes after Salem started working. "Three minutes ago, I informed Professor McGonagall of the current situation."

"Professor McGonagall said she would contact Dumbledore as soon as possible. Considering she knows about our previous failed attempts to contact him, I guess she must have some way of reaching Dumbledore that we don't know about."

As the only remaining member of the Order of the Phoenix at Hogwarts, and the Order's only remaining informant at Hogwarts, Professor McGonagall always had a way to contact Dumbledore.

And less than a minute after ending the call with Enterprise, the two-way mirror in Hugo's arms vibrated. When he took out the two-way mirror, he saw Professor McGonagall's face appear on it.

"I'm sorry, but I need your help now?" As soon as the two-way mirror connected, Professor McGonagall's anxious voice came from the other side. "Harry has gone to the Ministry of Magic, but we in the Order of the Phoenix can't get there in time, so you in the Mutual Aid Association—"

"We are already at the Ministry of Magic. After receiving the information, we have mobilized everyone we can temporarily to prepare for battle in this place," Hugo said, turning the mirror to let Professor McGonagall see their personnel.

"We are now at the entrance to the Department of Mysteries, trying to break through this door that Harry just pushed open so easily, which may take another five or six minutes."

"Why is Harry so impulsive? I told him to stay at school," Professor McGonagall, an old woman who had experienced two wizarding wars, naturally knew what the current situation meant. Then she said to Hugo with a serious face.

"Our reinforcements may take 20 minutes to arrive, so please protect Harry as much as possible. We will always remember your kindness in this matter."

"Please rest assured, Professor McGonagall. Since everyone has made the decision to form an alliance, we will naturally fulfill our responsibilities as allies," Hugo smiled and said.

"The door is about to open. It's time for us to act," Hugo said, closing the two-way mirror and looking at Salem. At this time, Salem had completed the final analysis and cracking work, and then opened the door in front of them.

Stalingrad took the lead and walked into the room, followed by the others. Soon, they found themselves standing in a huge circular room. Everything in here, including the ceiling and the floor, was black.

The surrounding walls were evenly inlaid with identical black doors without any markings or handles. Some candles with blue flames flickered on the walls. The cold, flickering candlelight was reflected on the polished marble floor, making the floor look like a calm and deep surface of water.

Richelieu, who was at the back, closed the door, and the mechanism in the room was activated. With a rumbling sound, the candles began to move to the sides. The circular walls began to rotate.

In a few seconds, the walls were spinning rapidly, and the blue flames blurred around them, forming a blue band of light. Then, as suddenly as it had started, the rumbling stopped, and everything returned to stillness.

Obviously, this kind of moving door was also part of the overall security system, designed to confuse intruders and provide the defenders with enough reaction time.

However, because Harry and the others had entered before, some of the doors had flame-formed 'X' marks on them, allowing Hugo and the others to successfully eliminate some possibilities.

"What should we do next?" Hermione asked nervously, looking at the identical doors.

"We need to find a time research room filled with various clocks and hourglasses," Hugo said to his sister. "What Harry dreamed about before should be the Hall of Prophecy in the Ministry of Magic, and that's behind the Time Chamber."

"Understood," Hermione nodded seriously. After all, they had three ship girls acting as insiders in the Ministry of Magic, so it wouldn't be too difficult to find out this simple information.

Although there were 'X' marks formed by flames on three of the doors, it wasn't too difficult to find the door they were looking for from the other nine doors.

After all, ship girls were different from humans. After quickly twitching her nose and sniffing, Stalingrad quickly determined which door Harry and the others had opened before, and then walked to an unmarked door and suddenly pulled it open.

Inside this door was a very bright room. There was a constant, busy ticking sound all around, as if thousands of tiny feet were walking.

Looking around, various clocks were hanging in the gaps between the bookshelves or placed on tables as long as rooms. The clock faces were shining, and the most eye-catching thing, sparkling with diamond-like brilliance, was a tall clock-shaped crystal case at the end of the room.

Under Stalingrad's lead, everyone quickly walked through the narrow gaps between the tables, past the clock-shaped crystal case, and to the only door behind it.

"Get ready to fight next," Stalingrad said, taking out a PPSh submachine gun that came with her ship gear. "I can feel that the battlefield is ahead."

Soon, everyone prepared their respective weapons, then spread out in an attack formation, and then opened the door in front of them.