The Unspeakables || N.Scamander

The Issue with Time

Japan's Ministry of Magic, The Unspeakables Department of Mysteries, 2020. 

Lila Ling was not having it today. 

Stepping out of the elevator and walking up to a huge stone door that was twice her size, her hand reached out to press atop its cold surface before she murmured a soft 'alohomora'. The timbre of her voice caused the door to rumble in acceptance and they slowly slid open. 

Lila glanced right and left, then stepped through the doorway. She waited patiently until the doors were sealed shut. 

"Lila," her senior and close colleague known as Faolan turned as her heard her footsteps echo throughout the room. His face was clean-shaven as usual, the slightest bit of dark stubble across his chin and dark aprons imprinted under his eyes.

"Found anything?" Lila said while shrugging her coat and letting it float away to the coat hanger. She approached the circular granite table that swirled with tendrils of mist that rolled off the table edges. It greeted her as she leaned against the table's edge, mist slowly winding up her wrists in an affectionate manner. 

The Well of Time, as they liked to call it. Nobody knew of it, not even people from the Ministry of Magic in Japan. It was some kind of being that lived within their chambers and allowed them to peek into the future or spiral into the past and it was by studying its mechanisms that they'd managed to conjure up time-turners. 

But the Well of Time wasn't keen on many, for it choose the wizards with whom it felt was easiest to communicate. It was an entity in its own and Lila had learnt of its playful nature ever since she was granted a promotion to become part of the Unspeakables.

While the other Unspeakables Departments from all over the world had come to know of their most recent acquisition, Japan's Unspeakables had ultimately claimed it as theirs. Thus, they were the bearers of good and bad news, the ones that knew which prophecy turned out true and ones that were allowed to play with time in such a manner. 

"It really wanted to see you for some reason," Faolan spared her a glance, "didn't show me shit since morning." 

"And they say the early bird catches the worm," Lila teased, allowing the tendrils to reach out to caress her face, "so, what have you got for us today, little guy?" 

The Well of Time shifted before her very eyes, mist clearing as both wizards leaned forward to see what had caught its interest this time. 

Her eyes focused on a particular silhouette decked in black. Around him was a troop of figures wearing similar garments and masks that caused alarm bells to ring through her mind. 

"Are these--" Faolan cut her off before she could finish, "Death Eaters." 

Lila's legs almost gave out underneath her, "I thought they didn't exist anymore." 

They kept on staring at the series of actions playing out before them, an attack on Hogwarts, fire blazing everywhere as Death Eaters marched through, people screaming and cowering away and amidst it all, a dark figute encompassed by strings of black matter.

The table suddenly blasted with cold air that threw them both back. Mae fell onto her backside and winced at the pain that tore through her butt. 

"I need to speak to Augustus," Faolan muttered before he was off to speak to their British counterpart without so much as a backward glance whatsoever. Lila sighed at her colleague's determination to get things done as quickly and as efficiently as soon as he possibly could. It was one of the things that fell in-between being something that she thoroughly loved and admired about him and a habit that irked her.