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"They were standing in a large, circular room. Everything in here was black including the floor and ceiling -- identical, unmarked, handle-less black doors were set at intervals all around the black walls, interspered with branches of candles whose flames burned blue, their cool, shimmering light reflected in the sining marble floor so that it looked as so there as dark water underfoot."
— Description.[src]

This room is a circular room in the Department of Mysteries. It is located on the ninth level of the Ministry of Magic in Whitehall, London. Many doors lead off of this room to other places within the Department.

Description

Dpt of Mysteries

The corridor leading to the Department of Mysteries, through that door is the circular Entrance Room.

This chamber is a large, circular room where everything black. There are identical, unmarked, handle-less black doors are set at intervals around in walls. It has a highly polished black floor that looks almost like standing water and twelve handleless doors. Whenever a door closes, the walls rotate, making it impossible to determine which door is which.

Dimly lit by blue flamed branches of candles hang on the walls. Whenever one of its doors is shut, the room's walls rotate, disorienting its occupants for several seconds. This is presumably a security device to keep non-employees of the department from reaching a desired room. The room responds to a verbal request for an exit by opening the correct door. There are twelve doors leading off the Entrance Room. The known doors leading into other Chambers are the following:

History

Early History

Not much is known about this room before 1996, but it presumably where the Unspeakables (employees of the Department of Mysteries) would enter before entering the room in which they worked.

Search for Sirius

In 1996, Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, Ron and Ginny Weasley, Neville Longbottom, and Luna Lovegood arrived in the Department of Mysteries in search of Sirius Black. They enter a door at the end of the corridor Harry had been dreaming about for months, and the six Dumbledore's Army found themselves in the Department of Mysteries's entrance room, a circular room with twelve identicle doors. Harry is unsure of which door to choose, and as soon as the door behind them closed, the walls of the room rotated. When the doors came to a standstill, the group entered through one them, but this turned out to be the Thought Chamber, a room with a large tank full of floating brains, and so they went back into the Entrance Room.

"She drew with her wand in midair and a fiery X appeared on the door. No sooner had the door clicked shut behind them than there was a great rumbling, and once again the wall began to revolve very fast, but now there was a great red-gold blur in amongst the fait blue, and when all became still again, the fiery cross still burned, showing the door they had already tried"
Hermione Granger's clever idea to use the Flagrate spell[src]
Veil - Death Chamber

The veil in the Death Chamber

Intelligently, Hermione casts the Flagrate spell on the door they came out and labeled it with fiery X, so that they will know they have already looked there when the room spins once more. The next room they try is the Death Chamber, a large stone amphitheater with an ancient stone archway on a raised dais at the center is. On the archway is a tattered veil fluttering in some unseen wind. Hermione, in particular, seems frightened, and calls Harry back to the circular room.

Prophecy copy

Harry holding the prophecy about him and Voldemort

The next doorway refuses to open; Harry uses Sirius' knife that will "open any door", but the door remains shut and the knife's blade melts away. Going through the next door they choose, Harry recognizes the sparkling, shimmering light from his dreams: the Time Chamber. Passing through this room, they reach the huge chamber containing the shelves loaded with glass orbs that Harry recognizes from his dream: The Hall of Prophecy. The students are ambushed by Death Eaters in this room, and ended up fleeing through multiple chambers in the Department.

Battle of the Department of Mysteries

"Very good, Potter. Now tun around, nice and slowly, and give that to me"
Lucius Malfoy announces his presence as the Death Eaters ambush the students[src]

Harry, Neville, and Hermione are separated from Luna, Ron, and Ginny as they go into the Time Room and seal the door behind them. Two Death Eaters enter the hall; Hermione Stuns one, and Neville, while Disarming the other, disarms Harry as well. Attempting to Stun the Death Eater, he hits a rack full of Time Turners. Hermione Stuns the remaining Death Eater. As they try to get into the circular entrance room, two more Death Eaters appear and they veer into a side office when battle recommences.

DeathEatersBattle

Antonin Dolohov firing curses alongside Lucius Malfoy at Harry and Sirius for during the battle

Harry and Neville (dragging a Hermione incapacitated by a curse by Dolohov) enter the circular room, where they find Luna, Ginny with a broken ankle, and Ron hit by a curse that makes him act drunkenly. As they search for an exit (Hermione's fiery X's having faded away) several Death Eaters enter, including Bellatrix Lestrange, and start attacking. During the ensuing fight, Harry finds himself in the Brain Room and then back in the room with the Veiled Arch, and a few moments later the Order of the Phoenix arrives to help in the fight. However, Bellatrix kills Sirius by hitting him with a spell that sends him through the veil.

"He wrenched upon the door into the circular black hall and saw Bellatrix disappearing through a door on the other side of the room -- beyond her was the corridor leading back to the lifts. He ran, but she had slammed the door behind her and the walls had begun to rotate again. Once more he was surrounded by streaks of blue light from the whirling candelabra. "Where's the exit?" he shouted desperately, as the wall rumbled to a halt again. "Where's the way out?" The room seemed to have been waiting for him to ask. The door right behind him flew open, and the corridor toward the lifts stretched ahead of him, torch-lit and empty. He ran..."
— Harry pursuing Bellatrix through the Department of Mysteries[src]

Enraged because Bellatrix killed his godfather, he ran after her through the Brain Room, ducking her curses. Bellatrix runs through the circular chamber into the hallway with the lifts. Harry follows, but the door slams behind her and the room's walls are already spinning In desperation, he asked the room "Where's the way out?" and a door behind Harry pops open, revealing the hallway. Hearing a lift clattering upwards, Harry presses a call button for another lift. He then took a lift to the Atrium and witnessed the Duel in the Ministry Atrium between Lord Voldemort and Albus Dumbledore themselves.

Behind the scenes

  • The Entrance Room, as well as the Thought Chamber, the Love Chamber, the Space Chamber, and the Time Chamber, were omitted from the film version.

Appearances

Department of Mysteries
Level 9, British Ministry of Magic
Room of Doors · Hall of Prophecy · Death Chamber · Brain Room · Time Room · Space Chamber · Love Room
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