Melody Riddle and the Order of the Phoenix

Chapter 34: Hall of Prophecies

Seraphina's mansion was gorgeous.

Immaculate marble coated the floor in spiral, ghosty waves, and the matching pillars gave it the aura of an old greek building. The walls were a smooth navy blue, covered in all types of paintings and other works of art.

There wasn't time for me to marvel at all of it. I followed her through the hallways, and up many staircases... or shoes, mainly hers, were clicking soundly against the floor... until we made it to a study.

Shelves of books were set up similar to rows in a library, and at the center of all of it was a long table that dad stood at with his back toward us.

As we walked down one of the aisles, beige carpets muffling our footsteps, I had to notice as I studied him that he was poring over a piece of parchment nearly as wife as the table itself. The parchment was old, too. If the visibly yellowing tint wasn't an indication, then the various cracks along the edges and the slight fading of the words certainly were.

It was when we got closer that he did the barest of glances over his shoulder at us before returning his eyes to the parchment before him. "Good. You're here."

"And you're welcome, might I say," Seraphina said, walking up next to him and smiling innocently when he glared at her.

I came over on his other side, my attention going straight to the parchment.

It seemed to be a map, but it wasn't like any ordinary map. It was titled 'Department of Mysteries: The Hall of Prophecies', and depicted multiple shelves full of orb-like objects. The map itself, as I touched it, seemed to move with my hand — as if by dragging it one way, I could walk through it without actually being there.

I may never get used to how amazing magic can be, I thought as I moved it back to where he originally had it. "So this is..."

"Yes," dad replied, placing both his pointer finger and thumb against the map before pushing them away from each other. The act caused the map to zoom in on a few sets of shelving labeled between rows 90 and 99. He gestured unceremoniously along the line of drawn orbs, "The prophecy must be around this area — if the information Lucius received through Bode has any merit."

"I've already told you it does," Seraphina asserted, her tone irritable. "One of my followers just recently acquired a position as an Unspeakable, hence why you'll be able to get in undetected tonight."

'Unspeakable' was the name of those who worked in the Department of Mysteries. This was because their work was so top secret that they couldn't discuss it outside of the confines of their department. Not even to their own families. That was just how classified their experiments and studies were.

I'd heard about Mr. Malfoy's attempt to get someone else to retrieve the prophecy for dad. The last thing Seraphina told me was how much of a struggle he went through to lock down his control over the Unspeakable named Broderick Bode.

"If that's the case, then whatever happened to Bode?" I asked curiously.

Seraphina answered, "The problem remains that — as a highly trained Unspeakable — Bode was rather resistant to Malfoy's Imperius Curse. He almost couldn't get him to find the prophecy off the shelf but, then, considering what happened when he did pick it up... it suddenly made sense why he fought so hard against the curse."

"Oh? What happened?"

"It seems — as was explained by my follower after the incident — that no one can pick up a prophecy unless it is related to them specifically. When Bode picked it up, the defensive spells protecting it went off and caused some damage to his brain.