Chapter 1205 Inconsistent Past, Eternal Future - Darcie's Present!

Midnight.

A door materialized out of nowhere along a stone wall within Hogwarts.

The moment it opened, it was kicked shut.

Then, it vanished.

Inside the Room of Requirement, Harry slipped off the Invisibility Cloak as Darcie stepped past him.

She was the last.

He had already escorted the others inside, one by one, ahead of her.

Darcie, wearing a white top over blue jeans, draped Lilith like a vibrant yellow cloak around her shoulders, the Lethifold folding itself into a hood over her head.

Watching her, the other children experienced the same terrifying sense of déjà vu that had gripped Harry.

It was as though the Yellow Warlock himself stood before them in some grotesque twist of fate.

The comparison itself was sickening.

Darcie Malfoy was the last person who deserved to be named in the same breath as one of the darkest wizards alive — a sorcerer darker than even Voldemort, perhaps.

Still, the presence of Lethifold, ever since she had revealed its nature, deeply unnerved the boys.

Daphne had already known about the supposedly nightmarish entity.

For years, she had watched Darcie use the Lethifold like a scarf or a bedsheet; the nightmare had long lost its terror in her eyes.

Hermione’s perspective was simpler still.

The Lethifold’s presence among them was no different from her own.

If she allowed herself to harbor prejudice against the creature based on folklore, how was she any different from those who looked upon her werewolf nature with disgust?

In contrast to the girls’ silent acceptance of the revelation, Ron and Draco had nearly jumped out of their skins when Darcie had told them of it.

Had Darcie not pinned them on the spot with a quick Leg-Locker Curse, they would have bolted down the corridor, abandoning Harry, who hadn’t possessed the faintest clue what a Lethifold even was at the time.

He had learned soon enough.

Despite having several hours to come to terms with it, Harry’s pale complexion made it abundantly clear how unsettling that walk beneath the Cloak with Darcie had been.

“Should we…” Draco hesitated, “… bring Black along?”

Ron, who had already debated the matter with Draco and Harry, nodded quickly. “His Spell is leagues ahead of ours when it comes to a real fight.”

“We will not be fighting,” Darcie said, fixing the boys with an icy glare. “Hear me now. Hear me clearly. No matter what you see, hear, or sense over there, none of us will engage a single soul.”

She swept her gaze across every face until all of them gave firm nods of agreement.

Only then did Darcie continue. “The Ministry has placed strict surveillance on every student currently outside the Castle,” she explained. “If Black were to vanish from his parents’ side and the guard stationed with him raised the alarm, then…”

The children exchanged grim, understanding glances.

Conditions weren’t ideal at Hogwarts, but they were still vastly more comfortable than the chaos outside.

Even now, Muggle soldiers from various nations were pouring onto the Hogwarts grounds like an avalanche.

It had been one of the few executive decisions made public after the summit in the Great Hall earlier that afternoon: bolstering their ranks by outsourcing combat personnel from the non-magical world.

The professors and recruited Muggle scientists had already synthesized a Potion to grant these soldiers temporary magical resistance comparable to that of giants.

Before the next offensive began, the Order planned to arm them fully.

In fact, Professor Dumbledore had strongly hinted that they had discovered a method to drastically enhance the offensive capabilities of their witches and wizards — an edge that would level the playing field against the Pillars.

Darcie — being one of the most vital figures in the Order of the Black Phoenix at present — was right in the thick of these happenings.

Thus, they had no choice but to move not only under absolute secrecy, but also faster than a Golden Snitch.

“Fine, we leave Black out of this — ugh… he’s going to murder us when he finds out…” Harry grimaced. “… But I still don’t understand why we are here. I have a feeling this isn’t just about Leth—about Lilith’s ability to Disapparate straight into enemy territory, is it?”

Draco, Ron, and the girls turned to Darcie, silently demanding the same answer.

“It hasn’t been made public yet, but Professor Dumbledore shared the nature of the Pillars’ headquarters with me,” Darcie revealed.

“Its nature?” Daphne repeated.

“It’s Hogwarts,” Darcie said, leaving the rest of the group speechless. “They constructed a replica of Hogwarts atop Mount Greylock. And unlike living people, stones do not undergo personality shifts between parallel timelines.”

Harry instantly pictured their invaders — older counterparts of himself, Ron, Draco, Black, Hermione, and the professors — stalking the castle corridors without the crushing weight of innocent deaths burdening their consciences.

His blood simmered with rage.

Beside him, Ron flushed crimson with fury, while Draco muttered venomous curses under his breath. Daphne and Hermione frowned at the profanity, yet their tight, hardened expressions mirrored the same burning indignation.

Even so, that tactical intelligence didn’t explain their presence in the Room of Requirement, drawing every questioning gaze back to Darcie.

“You’re all picturing the Pillars casually strolling through the corridors of that castle, aren’t you?” she asked, catching them off guard.

“Hey — you swore you wouldn’t read our minds!” Draco protested.

“I didn’t use Legilimency,” Darcie snapped. “Your thoughts are written across your faces. The real question is: why didn’t any of you picture them gathered right where we are, inside the Room of Requirement?”

Daphne’s eyes went wide with sudden realization.

Hermione instinctively raised a hand to speak.

Harry, Ron, and Draco felt completely lost, not daring to admit they hadn’t connected the dots as quickly as the girls had.

Darcie exhaled a weary sigh.

“It’s the Room of Requirement,” she reminded the boys. “The Pillars — blinded by their own arrogance and absolute dominance — do not require it. But we do. We require not only this chamber, but its exact reflection inside that foreign Hogwarts.”

Harry shook his head, baffled. “I don’t follow…”

Darcie lightly brushed her fingertips against the hem of her cloak, and Lilith expanded outward, hovering inches above all six of them like a shroud of living darkness.

“The Room of Requirement never materializes until someone has a genuine need for it,” she explained coolly. “Yet when summoned, it manifests instantly… regardless of whether you call it from the outside, or from within.”

Every face in the room, including the girls’, drained of color.

Harry and Ron instinctively stepped back.

“You…” Ron stammered.

“… have completely lost your mind,” Harry finished.

“It’s a gamble.” Darcie’s lips curved into a dark smirk as Lilith descended over them like a ravenous beast, swallowing them whole. “But…

“… in the present, it’s the only hand we can afford to play.”

*************

This Tier also offers ALL the compiled Original Images of this novel up to Volume 22 [The Fate Borrower].