The Entrance Chamber

[grumpy cat]

Your head hurts. That’s the first thing you realise when you come to. Your eyes are closed tightly, and you don’t want to open them. The last thing you remember before the world went black in front of your eyes was the strange hooded man that you only briefly saw in the Atrium of the Ministry. At the time, you thought it strange that no one else was about, but you weren’t there on exactly official business, so you simply thought yourself lucky. Now you wonder if your luck had run out.

You open your eyes and see that you’re lying on a dark marble floor, your companions in similar positions lying around you. The only light comes from the floating candles, and it’s a cold blue light, not giving off any warmth. Much like the room you’re in. The peculiar thing is that your robes have been changed, they now represent your House colours.

Sitting up, you look around and acquaint yourself with your surroundings. The room you’re in is circular in shape and there are a dozen doors lining the wall around you. You start racking your brain on the blueprints you managed to steal before you came to the Ministry, trying to remember where this room could be, but your head hurts too much. You must’ve hit it on the floor.

“It’s the Department of Mysteries!” One of your companions exclaims in a terrified voice, and you go cold at the words. The Department of Mysteries was certainly not your intended destination when you came here, and you can’t help but wonder how in the worlds you ended up here, and more importantly, why.

You get up and walk around the room, trying the door directly opposite you, but it’s locked. You’re obviously trapped here, which is very bad, to say the least. If you don’t disappear by the time the night ends and the day guards find you, you’ll be spending the rest of your life in Azkaban. And who knows what lurks in the Department of Mysteries? After all, everyone knows those Unspeakables are out of control loons.

The moment you touch the door, a faint glow appears in the center of the room and you run towards it, hoping to find some answers, the circular wall rotating before your eyes, making it impossible to know which door you already tried. You obviously need to gather your wits about you before proceeding, because these beginner’s mistakes might just cost you your life.

In the middle of the room, you find a piece of parchment, burnt around the edges, as if it just appeared out of a burning fireplace. On it, a handwritten message appears.

The rooms are three, the path before you deadly.
Each will help you, each will curse you.
Time, fortune and death.
Enter, but beware of the evil that lurks deep.
The tools you need will be given, though not freely,
So hone your mind and look out,
At the end of your path, a quill and parchment you will use.
For a map and a plan are your greatest weapons,
Be wise, my friend, and do not tarry,
for the other Houses will be your adversary.
Quickly you must go,
the path to victory is hidden in shadow.

You re-read the message in befuddlement and look to your companions for an explanation.

“I think… I think we have to find things, these escape tools, in the three rooms mentioned,” One of them starts and the rest start nodding along. “And, well, I can’t be sure, but it seems as if we will need to plot our escape and write it down as well as make a map.”

You all look at each other in dread. None of you have missed the part in the message about the evil that lurks deep, and it seems as if you’re in some sort of competition with other people, other Houses. Shaking your head, you look around the room and immediately notice the change.

Where there used to be a dozen doors that all looked the same, three of them are marked with burnt symbols.

A clock, an orb and a skull.