“Miss Chang, I want you to sort these files of underage use of magic from the last five years and then put them in the designated filing cabinets,” Mafalda Hopkirk said.

She tipped a four foot tall stack of manila folders onto Cho Chang’s desk. Cho stared at the mountain of papers before looking up at her superior. She had just finished filing out five, FIVE, separate incident reports of the misuse of magic. They were not special incidents. They were mostly reports of transfigured teacups and illegally performed hovering charms. When she was sure Madam Hopkirk was out of hearing range, Cho let out a huge sigh and reluctantly began to sort the files.

“I have been working in boring as hell desk job for the last six months, and all I’ve been doing was sorting out…files,” Cho muttered under her breath. “When will something exciting happen to me?”

“But remember, dearie, a million wizards would kill to be in the Ministry,” a tiny voice crooned inside her head.

“Yes, but its not as glamorous as it looks,” Cho thought. She started to set the files aside and organizing them by date. “You don’t really see anyone famous or go on any missions. You just sit at a desk all day, doing paperwork and nothing else. Where is the excitement in that?"

Then, right at the moment she said “Where is the excitement in that?", a piece of parchment folded into a paper plane flew onto the mountain of paperwork. Making sure that Madam Hopkirk was still in her office; Cho took the paper plane and unfolded it.

Do you want to fulfill your destiny? Meet me and the others at the entrance to the Department of Mysteries at 2:00 this afternoon.
Jenna

Cho’s watch read 1:45 PM.

Madam Hopkirk, I have to make several errands today. I won’t be back for several hours. Cho wrote down on a sheet of paper and left it on her boss's door.

She slipped out of the department and into the lift. Five minutes later, the doors opened to the Department of Mysteries. She walked down the stone corridors with a faint inkling of what she was going to do in the Department of Mysteries. At the end of the corridor, she spotted a small group of people, one girl and two boys. The girl had a shock of strawberry blonde hair sticking out of her head. Her name was Jenna Barker, and she worked for the Department of Magical Games and Sports. The others were Charlie Lee and Paul Rousseau, other Ministry workers that Cho had befriended since starting her work six months before.

“You know the procedure, right?” Paul asked his friends.

‘We draw straws,” Charlie croaked through his thick Irish accent. He produced a bundle of straws out of thin air. “Bastard with the shortest straw goes first.”

Jenna reached forward and took a straw, followed by Cho, Paul, and Charlie.

“Poor Cho, you get the shortest straw,” crooned Jenna.

Cho gulped, but composed herself. She didn’t want to embarrass herself in front of her friends.

“You remember what you have to do, right?” asked Charlie.

“Yes, I go into the Department of Mysteries and get something from the bowels of it to prove that I was in there,” Cho said, trying her best to hide her reluctance. It was a game she and the others had started to play months before to relieve the boredom of working at the Ministry. “Then Paul will go into a different room because he has the next shortest straw, as does you, and then Jenna.”

“So, go on then,” Charlie said.

Cho began to walk down the corridor and didn’t look back. It was getting darker in that tunnel with each step she took. The air was so cold she could feel her teeth chattering. She started to regret leaving her brand new trench coat behind at her desk. Finally, after twenty minutes of walking, she could see a single plain black door at the end of the tunnel. Cho started to break into a run and was close to falling several times on her high heels. She just had to get to that door. Only, when she got to the end of the tunnel, she found out there were three doors.

“Screw it, I’ll just take the middle door,” Cho muttered as her hands gripped the handle and jerked the door open. She walked in and fell onto her butt.

“Ow,” she grumbled. She tried to get up, but she fell down again. The room was spinning around her as if she was on a carousel that was going at a super fast speed. The room was a blur of bright, neon colours. Her brain was spinning inside her skull. She wanted to get off of this bad carnival ride and back into the corridor.


Trying her best not to throw up, Cho crawled out of the spinning room and into the hallway. When she safely inside, she fell onto her back and began to breathe heavily on the floor.

When she recovered enough, she got back on her feet and walked to the door on the right hand side. Her head was spinning. It was hard to move. It was as if some one had cast a jelly-legs curse on her. Despite that, Cho was able to latch onto the handle of the door on the right hand side.

“Here goes nothing,” she said as she opened the door and crawled inside.

The room was a blinding white circular chamber. Everything was white, down to the tiles. Large glass bubbles filled with a white light floated in midair. A large, white leather armchair sat in the center of the room. The setting was so peaceful, so tranquil, so white, Cho thought she was in Heaven.



“Ouch,” she shouted. Her feet started to act up again. There was a blistering pain that shot up from her feet up her legs and up to the rest of her body. She shut her eyes for a minute and opened them again when the pain subsided. Cho slipped the high heels off of her aching feet and held then in one hand as she walked across the floor in nylon clad feet. She was so tired from walking for so long; all she wanted was for a soft place to sit in.



“I’ll just rest in that chair for a little bit,” she thought, “then I‘ll leave."



The chair was so comfortable; it was like sitting on top of a cloud. Cho sunk into the warmth of the chair. The high heels fell from her hand and hit the floor with a clatter. She closed her eyes in pure bliss. All thoughts slipped away from her mind. All sense of urgency vanished. All Cho Chang wanted to do now was to sit in that chair, forever.



“You know, you need to get out of that chair sometime,” a tiny voice whispered into Cho’s ear.

“No, it is too comfortable here. Five more minutes?” Cho continued to relax in the chair and stare at the wall.



“No, get out of that chair right now. You’re keeping the others waiting for you to return.”



“Well, they can leave if they want to. I just want to sit here, forever. So leave me alone.”



“No!”



“Yes!”



“No!”



“Oh, all right!”



Cho took a deep breath and relaxed her muscles.



“Okay, on the count of three, I’ll get off,” Cho said. “But, then again, staying in this chair isn’t so bad.”



“JUST DO IT,” Cho’s conscious screamed.



“Fine.” Cho gripped the armrests tightly and preparing to spring out of the chair.

“1...2...3!”



The next thing Cho knew, she was lying facedown on the white tiled floor. There was a taste of blood in her mouth.



She hoisted herself onto her feet and picked up the shoes that where still lying next to the chair. She slipped them onto her feet and started to walk to a new door that had just appeared out of nowhere.



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



This new room was paved with identical grey paving slabs and the only source of light was from a hole in the ceiling. The feeling was like being trapped in the bottom of a well. As soon as Cho closed the door, it disappeared amongst the stones.



“Damn it,” she shouted. She ran to the spot where she was sure the door had been seconds ago and then started to bang on the wall.



“Come on, open up,” she shouted before hearing a grinding sound of stone against stone. The wall seemed to be pushing against her. The soles of her shoes were sliding backwards. A dreaded sense of fear and panic registered in Cho’s mind. The walls are moving in, and I am going to be crushed to death .



Cho started to push against the wall, but it was no use. It kept slowly pushing inwards. There was nothing in the room that could stop the walls from moving in and then allow her to escape. She took out her wand from the pocket of her skirt and shouted, “Immobilus!” But it did nothing to stop the walls. She took a step back. They were so close, only a few yards from colliding into each other. Blood was rushing into her head, and her heart was pumping furiously against her rib cage. The back of her heels hit something and she fell onto her back. Cho got up and glanced at what she had stumbled over. It was a large grey stone that was set loosely in the ground. She took the stone and pushed it aside. There was a good-sized passageway set into the ground. It looked like it led to somewhere deep underground. The walls were confining Cho into a very tight corridor. Without any hesitation, she jumped into the passage way and started to fall like Alice down the rabbit hole.

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



Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, Cho hit a hard surface. A heel of her shoe snapped, which she instantly repaired with a muttered “Reparo” and a flick of her wand. After she fixed her shoe, she looked down on the ground and realized that she was sitting on top of a ceiling grate. It was impossible to see what the grate led to, for a thick golden mist clouded the room below.



“I've seen this mist before, I just can’t remember where,” Cho whispered to herself. “All I know about this is that it’s harmless and that it won‘t kill me.”



She jerked the grate open and hoisted herself into the portal of gold mist.



“On the count of three, I'll let go,” she said. “One, two, three!”



She fell once more and was completely surprised by where she landed.



Cho Change found herself standing on the ceiling.



Below her were rows upon rows of benches surrounding a chair with chains attached to the armrests. On the other side of the room, high above her head is the door. Her long hair stood on its end and she grabbed onto her skirt to prevent it from slipping.



“Oh my God,” was all Cho could muster.



Come on, Cho, you silly girl, think! You were in Ravenclaw! You are supposed to be intelligent. Find a way to get out of this predicament without breaking your neck.



Blood was rushing to her head and was pounding in her ears. She was starting to get dizzy. It was almost impossible to think. She tried to recall if there were any spells to bring a person hanging on a ceiling safely to the ground. There were none. Except for one. She vaguely remembered hearing this from her Charms class in seventh year. It was a simple move to combat the reversal of ground and sky. The move was to simply move ones foot from the ground.



Cho closed her eyes, in case she was to fall and break her neck. Then she yanked her right foot from the ceiling.



She fell, but not onto the hard wooden benches or the cold stone floor. She landed in a cushioned armchair that faced the chained chair.



She hoisted herself off of the chair and onto her feet. She massaged the small of her back where she fell onto and looked at her surroundings. It instantly reminded her of the wizarding courts where the Wizengamot would meet to hear and prosecute cases. She realized that she had also fallen into the special armchair where the Minister of Magic would sit in during very important cases.



Without another thought on her mind, Cho ran over to where yet another door was waiting. She wondered where this new portal would lead to.

Arcadia is a reference to a Twilight Zone episode from 2002 where one of the characters (Jenna, played by Amber Tamblyn) is sent to a place known as Arcadia as punishment for being a noncomformist. I just wanted to let you readers know.





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





The room eerily resembled the courtroom that she had just left. There were row upon row of stone seats lining the walls of the rectangular room. Only, something was different. The stones were a lighter shade of grey. The lighting was dimmer. The special chairs where important members of the Wizengamot would sit were positioned at the opposite wall. And at the very bottom of the room was not a chained chair, but a raised stone dais, upon which stood a crumbling stone archway that was unsupported by any sort of buttress or wall. A ragged black veil fluttered gently from the archway in which it was hung. It was the dreaded Veil Room.





A shiver of fear ran down Cho’s spine as she walked along the topmost tier of the room. She heard stories about it. About how people would go into the Veil Room and were never seen again. About how the Veil led those unfortunate enough to fall through the ragged material into another dimension. About how the Veil meant instant death for those who dare enter it.





“Cho? Cho? Is that you, Cho?”





A voice echoed through out the room. It came from the Veil.





Before she even realized it, Cho started to walk down the steep granite steps. The feeling while walking down those stairs was like someone had cast an Imperious curse upon her to make her go to the Veil and to vanish within its ghostly material.





Go to the Veil, go to the Veil, a low, deep voice chimed in her ears, compelling her towards the Veil. Meanwhile, the ghostly voice continued to call out her name. Shadows were darting across the room, gently whispering incoherent words. As Cho descended to the depths of the room, the stones started to shimmer, as if it was submerged in an underwater chamber. When she reached level ground the voice seemed to be stronger. It was a male voice, and it sounded so familiar to Cho’s ears. She almost broke down in tears when she realized who it belonged to. It was Cedric’s voice that was calling out from the Veil.





“Cho, is that you?” Cedric’s voice called out from the Veil.





Cho bit her lip and held back her tears. “Yes, Cedric. It’s me. I missed you so much.”





Cho was ready to jump into the Veil to join her long lost love when Cedric yelled, “Stop! You can’t go through this Veil.”





“Why not? Can’t you see that I love you and that I miss you so much? I cried so much after you died. I still think about you every day. Why can’t I go in to see you?”





“Because, if you go through this Veil, you will die and you’ll enter the purgatory known as Arcadia.”





“What is Arcadia?”





“Arcadia is purgatory, an afterworld dimension for those who were murdered and for those who fell through the Veil,” Cedric whispered. Cho strained her ears to his voice. Tears were rolling down her cheeks. “It is so dark and lonely in here. I miss you so much, Cho, but I need to warn you to not jump into the Veil. If you do, you will die and you will never return to the living world. All you can do is just watch and see their grief.”





“But I want to be with you!”





“I know, but I do not want to kill you. I’d feel bloody guilty if I did. But you need to get out of this room. Non-Unspeakables aren’t allowed to be in here. A whole group of Unspeakables are going to enter this room in just a few minutes. I don’t know why, though. But you need to get out of this room. If they catch you and find out where you work, then you’re going to be fired.”





“Then I’ll go through where I came from and retrace my steps again.”





“NO! Cho, listen to me. You can’t retrace your steps because it is bloody impossible to do it. You need to use a different door.”





“But there is just one! And that’s the one the Unspeakables will be going through.”





“There is a revolving door fifteen paces to the left of where you are standing. When you get there, touch the gold flecked stone and it will take you to the next room.”





“What will I find there?”





“I don’t know. I just know about this trap door because I can see it right now and I have seen people use it before. I can’t remember where it leads to because I could never see where it went to.”





Cho nodded. She trusted Cedric with all of her heart. There were voices high above her, nearing the doorway.





“I love you, Cedric,” she whispered. Tears continued to stream down her face.





“I love you too, Cho,” the voice of Cedric murmured.





She turned from the Veil and ran fifteen paces to the left. She slammed her hand against the gold-flecked stone and the next thing she knew, the wall was turning and leading her into a dark opening.





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





The wall spun into a totally new room.





Or did it lead to the outdoors? Cho wondered. She found herself floating in the azure sky, several yards above a field of tall grass and wildflowers encrusted with jewels. It was so peaceful just to be up in the heavens, to feel the soft bucolic breeze on her face and to dart across the clouds. Cho looked down to see the beautiful pastoral setting that was spread out like a patchwork quilt. Two things caught her eye. One was a lone stone wall that looked like it had once been part of an ancient stone cottage. The other was a petite figure lying in the grass, as if she was asleep.





“What the heck,” Cho muttered as she made her way to the ground. “OW!”





She crashed right into what looked like a shield of glass that separated the heavens from the ground. While she rubbed a sore spot on her nose where it hit the glass, the other hand frantically searched for an open hole for her to slip through. There was none.





Even though Cho was a good fifty feet above the ground, she got a good look at the figure lying spread eagled in the grass. It was herself.





“Oh, Merlin,” Cho shouted. She crawled across the glass, hoping that there was some way to get out.





An idea clicked inside of her mind, and she pulled out her wand and aimed it over the glass.


“Reducto,” she shouted before being hurdled several yards away from the boundary. When she opened her eyes again, she could see that the glass remained unbroken.





“Wait what about that spell you learned in Charms in fifth year,” a tiny voice in her head inquired, “the spell to reverse an out-of-body experience.”





Of course, Cho thought. The idea was so obvious, she could have smacked herself in the head with the palm of her hand for being so ignorant. But I can’t remember how the spell went. All I can remember was that it consisted of two words, but that was it.





“Now what,” she asked out loud to no one in particular.





She stepped off of the glass and began to rise into the atmosphere. A gentle wind softly caressed her skin as she continued higher up.





It’s a strange and yet fascinating experience to be hovering up in the clouds and to be watching your own body lying miles below, Cho thought, I wonder who Jenna and the others would react when I tell them about where I’ve been. But what was the name of that blasted spell?








She leaned backwards and fell onto her back. For several minutes, she floated on her back, chewing her pointer finger as she contemplated the name of the spell that could end an out-of-body experience. But the only thing that even came close was an old friend.





Klutzy little Tina Somerhalder, Cho thought, a grin spreading across her lips. Klutzy, ditzy Tina Somerhalder. Her mind went blank as she recalled the misadventures of her friend.





“Merlin, how does Professor Flitwick even expect us to remember these spells by tomorrow?” Tina moaned to Cho.





They were alone in the girl’s dormitory. A rainstorm was raging outside during that April night. Tina was standing in the center of the room, screwing her eyes tightly as she tried to memorize the spells that she was having trouble with. She was constantly running her hand through her thick brown hair highlighted with blonde streaks. Cho was sitting on her bed and reading a back issue of Witch Weekly, trying her best not to burst out into laughing.





“I mean, I totally get the first part about inducing the out-of-body thingy,” Tina said, fingering her wand as she spoke, “but it’s the last part that gets me. You wanna see?”





Before Cho could say anything, Tina pointed her want over her heart and shouted “Ex somes usus.”





A second later, Cho could see two Tina’s. One was lying on the floor while the other was standing over the body.





“I bet I could ace the first part of that quiz tomorrow, but I will really flunk the reversal spell,” Tina explained. She sounded extremely nervous when she said that. Charms were never her best subject. “I wonder why I am even in Ravenclaw if I suck at Charms.”





Cho set aside her magazine and walked up to the standing Tina.





“Here, let me show you how to reverse an out-of-body,” Cho said softly. She pointed her wand at Tina and shouted, “Tenus terra.”





“Tenus terra,” Cho murmured. “Tenus terra. Merlin, how that spell reminded me of Tina."





Cho sat bolt upright. “That’s it! That’s the name of the reversal charm!”





Cho gleefully reached for her wand from her pocket and pointed it at her head and then recited the incantation.





A second later, she awoke to find herself lying on the ground. A bit of grass was tickling her cheek. She got up from the field and brushed the dirt and grass off of her clothes, but not before plucking a small flower out of the ground. It was a daisy iced with tiny diamonds and topazes. It was perfect to show Jenna, Charlie, and Paul when she got back. She started to walk around the field when she noticed a small stone hut standing amid the grass The door was open and becoming her to come inside. She stood there for several minutes, contemplating whether or not she should go through it.

The cottage was empty, save for a round, stone corral and a door that stood at the end of the corral. A large, white swan was chained to the door at the end. It was asleep; it’s long neck bent down, and its head in its breast. Cho held her breath at the sight of the swan. It was her favorite animal and also the form of her patronus. She marveled at the swan’s beauty as she walked a little closer to it. She reached her hand out to stroke its snow white feathers when the bird woke up and started to shriek loudly. It flew towards Cho and tried to bite at her, but the chain restrained it to the door. The swan continued to honk loudly and attempted to attack the intruder nonetheless. Cho backed against the door where she first came through, trying her best to keep a safe distance away from the marauding bird.

“How am I supposed to get across the room, unchain that swan from the door, then chain it to the other door, all without hurting either of us,” Cho asked herself.

Even though the bird was still trying to peck at her for getting into its territory, Cho just couldn’t bear to harm that beautiful creature. She had this connection with swans that existed ever since childhood. Swans were smart, beautiful, graceful, and ready to attack when threatened, the same traits that Cho could identify with.

“Of course, why didn’t I think of it,” she thought. Then she drew her wand out and pointed it at the swan. “Immobilous.”

Instantly, the swan froze in midair. Its wings were outstretched, its mouth open and ready to bite at its intruder. Cho got up and unchained the creature from its post but hesitated for a moment. She gazed sadly at the swan, wondering whether or not it was right to chain it to the other door. That poor creature didn’t need to be restrained like that. But then again, what would happen if someone was to open one of the doors? Something inside of her knew that the creature in this room would take the form of one’s patronus. What would happen if a person’s patronus was that of a lion or a wolf?

“I don’t want to be responsible for someone’s death, “Cho murmured to the frozen swan as she tied the chain around the loop of the entryway. Then she left the corral, her eyes never leaving the bird.
**************************

“Crap…it’s so… so co…cold… in… hee… eere,” Cho gasped through chattering teeth. Her arms instantly wrapped around her body, trying her best to conserve as much heat as she can. She regretted leaving her coat behind at her desk that was so far away now.

SLAM! Cho whipped her head around to see that the door had been shut behind her. The room was instantly pitch black for there was no light. In the few moments that there were light, she saw the small room with its steel walls and the ladder propped against one of the walls. It was so dark and freezing and confining, like being trapped inside of a meat locker. Suddenly, she felt like she wanted to break down in tears. She didn’t know why, she just wanted to cry. There was a feeling of hopelessness blanketing her like a funeral shroud. She didn’t know what to do. She just couldn’t think with all of the sadness lingering around her. Every single tragic moment that ever happened in her life was bombarding her now fragile mind. Cho got down and curled herself into a fetal position.

Somewhere, to the left of her, was rattling, like chains. She angled her head to the left, and she was next made her panic. It was a Dementor.

“Oh... Merlin,” she croaked.

The Dementor was cloaked in ragged black cloth and it towered over her. Its hands were grey, mottled and scabby, like something that had been dumped in water and left to fester.

It was gliding to where she was. It was as cold as it neared her. The cold was being absorbed inside of her. Her insides were turning into ice. Her frozen eyes were fixed on the Dementor as it reached for its hood.

Cho immediately reached for her wand and pulled it out. She pointed it at the Dementor as she lay on the floor.

“Please, think of something really happy. Your life depends on it,” the voice in her head shouted.

“But I can’t think of anything happy,” Cho thought. “I can hardly think of anything! Except… the Yule Ball, with Cedric.”

She shut her eyes and concentrated on that memory.

We were out in the garden. Music was pouring out from the Great Hall. I was in a beautiful Chinese dress and Cedric looked so handsome in his tuxedo. The night was so clear and starry out. Snow was everywhere. It was just so perfect. But what made it even more magical was what happened while we were out in the garden.

“Cho, I need to tell you something,” Cedric said. “I love you.
“I love you to,” I whispered in response.

And then we kissed. Merlin, that was so exciting to get your first kiss. It is like you have just been shocked five hundred volts of electricity that is now running wild inside of you. And with the man that you loved in such a beautiful setting. It is like a scene out of one of those romance movies that Tina and Marietta used to love so much.

“EXPECTO PATROMUN,” Cho roared. Courage was pumping through out her veins. Her eyes were bursting with fire. She jumped up and pointed her wand at the Dementor. A silver swan burst out of the wand tip and soared towards the Dementor. Then, as suddenly as the Dementor had appeared, it was gone, followed by a huge flash of silver light. The room grew warmer and the feelings of depression that Cho had harbored were gone. The light emitted from the swan patronus illuminated the ladder that led to an open hole in the ceiling. While there was still light out, Cho ran to the ladder and began to climb it up carefully into the hole.

It not was for the fact that Cho was heading upstairs; she thought that she was underwater. The walls in the room above were paved with a dark, shimmering material that gave the appearance of an underwater chamber that casted a greenish glow over everything. Cho climbed out of the hole and walked over to one of these strange walls. One finger stroked the smooth silvery blue-green material. It was like touching cold metal. Just as her fingers brushed the surface of the wall, it began to produce tears of silver in front of her eyes. The molten silver spilled onto the floor from the wall and formed a puddle at her feet. Panic struck a chord in Cho’s heart.



‘Oh, snap. How am I going to explain this to the Ministry when they find out that I destroyed something I wasn’t supposed to know about,” Cho asked herself frantically.



She held her breath as she saw the silver puddle began to rise up into the air. It towered over her like a tsunami about to crash into a tiny island village. But instead of crashing onto the girl, it began to shape itself into a long rectangle. Ribbons of gold sprung up from the ground and began to twist into an ornate gold frame that surrounded the silver rectangle. Cho gazed in wonder as she saw the mirror formulating in front of her. When it was over, she took a step forward and cautiously looked into its silvery depths.



The mirror bore her exact resemblance, but with some major changes. She was older, and dressed in a set of purple robes of the Wizengamot instead of the sweaty light blue shirt and khaki pencil skirt that she had on. A shiny gold wedding ring circled her left ring finger. Cho raised her left hand in front of her face. She saw no ring, but there was a reflection of that hand in the mirror. When she looked at her reflection again, she saw herself surrounded by a small group of people. More were walking out of the walls and were coming to the mirror. In the reflection, Cho could see a heavy set Chinese man with thinning hair helping a younger woman dressed in a silk dress out of the wall. Many of these people looked like Cho. They bore similar Oriental features to her. One of the middle aged women assembled near her had her eyes. Cho peered closer into the mirror.



Yes, they were the same. Large, almond shaped brown eyes. An elderly man who stood behind the middle aged lady with Cho’s eyes was around Cho’s height. A teenage boy in a pair of torn jeans and features like hers waved from the back. A young woman who could have easily passed as her identical twin sister grinned broadly. Then, she saw someone she thought she could never see again. A plump girl with brown hair streaked with blonde strands and a very bemused smile on her face.



“Tina,” Cho asked the mirror. It was impossible. Tina Somerhalder died during the Final Battle three years ago. She saw Tina die!



“Cedric is coming really soon,” Tina said, “he told me that he saw you earlier. By the way, you never told me about your cousin Derek. He is hot!”



‘Who is Derek,” Cho asked her friend.



“Duh, he is the guy in the ripped pants,” Tina exclaimed.



“I don’t remember any cousin Derek,” Cho muttered. She turned around to see even more people pouring out of the walls. Many of them looked like her while others bore strong resemblances to people that she had once known.



“Cho, is that my little niece,” shouted a tall woman with extremely short black hair. She ran up to Cho and hugged her very tightly. “Dear gods, the last time I saw you, you were just a toddler!”



“Auntie An-Mei,” Cho gasped. Auntie An-Mei was her mother’s sister who had died of cancer when Cho was only three.



Peering over Auntie An-Mei, Cho looked over the sea of faces. Some of them she instantly recognized as the faces of relatives and friends who had died.

“What is this room,” Cho asked her aunt.



“This is the room where the Mirror of Erised is kept,” explained An-Mei. “The Ministry keeps it here in this room.”



‘There is a charm that allows the relatives of those who have passed on to come back in spirit form to see the person looking into the mirror. Oh, Cho. I missed you so much.”

“Cho, is that you,” a male voice called out. It sounded so familiar to Cho’s ears.



“Excuse me, Auntie,” Cho said. She broke away from her aunt’s embrace and walked into the crowd. Standing right next to a heavily mustached man was Cedric.



“Oh, Cedric, I thought I would never see you again with my own eyes.”



Cho ran to him and threw her arms around his chest.



“So, where did that room lead to,” Cedric asked softly.



“It went into this field that induced out-of-body experiences,” Cho explained. “But that’s not important. I’m here with all of my friends and family. Oh, it is so good to see you again.”



They started to kiss on the lips. Many cheered while a small boy groaned very loudly. When they broke apart after, they continued to gaze into each other’s eyes for a very long time.



If you want to stay here, you are very welcome to,” Tina said.



“That would be a very wonderful idea,” Cho said. There was nothing more that she wanted to do than to stay here, in this room, surrounded by her loved ones, forever. She didn’t want to go home to a life with a dull desk job and a life void of any friends. But, something inside of her told her that she needed to go home.



“Please stay,” the tiny boy who had groaned very loudly while Cho and Cedric were kissing begged.



“Please do,” one of Cho’s aunts urged.



Cho looked around the sea of faces, taking mental pictures of each relative and each friend that she saw. Oh, how she longed to stay with these kind people, but her time was not up. She had to go back to the world of the living. It was not time yet to join these people. She just had to go back.



“I am so sorry, but I have to go home, back to where I came from,” Cho said apologetically. She shook her head in sorrow as she tried her best to avoid contact with these disappointed people.



“To go home, let me show you way there,” Cho’s grandfather said. He took his granddaughter by the hand and led her to the mirror. “This mirror is door to home. You walk into mirror and keep on walking. Then, you are home.”



He let go of her hand and stood back. Cho had one foot on the frame before turning around. She gazed at their faces for a very long time.



“I want to thank you very much for coming to see me. You can’t believe how much I missed you all,” Cho said. “But, I have to go home. I hope you understand. Again, I want to thank you so much. I really enjoyed seeing you again. Till we meet again, adieu.” Cho turned around and didn’t look back. She didn’t want to them to see her tears. Slowly, she walked into the mirror and continued to walk on.





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I really want to thank those who left reviews. I really appreciated them so much. Chapter 6 is coming up ASAP.

“Oh, Kitty! How nice it would be if we could only get through into Looking-glass House! I’m sure it’s got, oh! Such beautiful things in it!”- Lewis Carrol, Through the Looking Glass.

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“AARRRRGGGGHHHH.”

A loud, blood curdling scream issued from Cho’s lips as she fell twenty feet into a pool of water. With a loud splash, she fell into the water before her head broke the surface.

Cho began to cough up water as she tried to regain her bearings. She thought that the mirror would lead her back to the corridor where she had started at, but with heaviness in her heart realized that there was just one more obstacle course to conquer before that could be possible. Cho realized with shock and fascination that she was floating in a lake that covered the entire floor space. The chamber was like an underwater cavern. The water and the rough walls were sapphire blue. A beacon of light shone from a large skylight in the curved roof of the cavern. The mirror that Cho had fallen from was positioned twenty feet above the lake-like floor. A large gold was positioned across from the mirror. It didn’t rest on water, but on a small gold platform. A large gold key hung from a hook next to the closed door. Cho looked down and saw another gold key resting on the lakes floor. She looked around again and saw yet another gold key hanging from a hook in the ceiling.

Cho knew in her heart that the two keys which were the easiest retrieve will not open the door. She just knew it. It was just a decoy for the unlucky person to be caught in this cavern to be imprisoned here forever.

“But how am I supposed to get that key. It is twenty feet above me. I can’t reach it,” Cho wondered as she concentrated on that key. “Of course, why didn’t I think of it?’

She drew her wand from her skirt pocket. She raised it over her head and pointed it to the ceiling.

“Accio key!”

Nothing happened. She repeated the incantation again. Still nothing.

Magic was useless in this setting.

“Now what,” Cho asked. She started to float on her back, gazing longingly at the key that hung so far above her head.

Cho started to swim to the wall and closely observed it. It had several deep crevices where the mortar that held the stones together had long since broken away. It was perfect to climb up on. Cho slipped one high heeled shoe from her foot and gripped it with her teeth. Her cold wet fingers clung onto the sandpaper like rocks. She nervously began to crawl up the wall with the grace and agility of a cat.

There were a few moments when she was scaling the wall that she was close to falling again, but the thick texture of the wall and the instant dryness of her fingers regained their hold. It took thirty minutes to reach the place where she had fallen from. When Cho felt the cold metallic frame, she hoisted herself up and climbed onto the platform. She got up and looked down from the mirror. It was so far up from where she had originated from. The lake was about the size of a coffee lid. She looked ahead to see the tantalizing key hanging in front of her.

Cho took the shoe her mouth and, with one hand gripping the frame and the shoe in the other, began the attempt to remove the key. The heel of the shoe combined with the length of her arm was still not enough to pull the key off of the hook. So Cho slipped her shoe back on and resorted to using her wand instead. This time, it was just enough to pull the key off, but it resulted with the key falling into the lake with a “plunk” followed by a loud scream and a larger splash.

Cho opened her eyes and found herself underwater again. The pool was rather deep. The two keys resting at the bottom of the twelve foot pit. It was easy to identify the key that had fallen because the other one was tied up with a length of gold ribbon.

Cho swam even deeper and snatched the gold key. Then she made her way back to the surface. It was getting harder to get to the surface because the weight of the key held her down so much. But a burning fire inside of her made her keep on going. Soon, she saw the glorious beacon of light again as she kicked her way to the platform.

Cho clambered up onto the platform. She shivered slightly from the cold as she pulled the wand out of her mouth and performed a simple drying spell before placing it back in her pocket. With the key, she poked it into the keyhole and turned it clockwise.

“Thank Merlin,” Cho exclaimed when she heard the long awaited click. The gold door swung open, but it the corridor that it led to was so dark, it was impossible to see.

It took several minutes for her to summon enough courage to go through the door. After what she had gone through, she just wanted to go home.
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Cho’s jaw almost dropped when she stepped foot into the new room. It vaguely reminded her of the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles in France. The chamber was decorated in a manner that was better suited for a French chateau rather than the Department of Mysteries in England.

Persian carpets covered the wooden floor while an ornate fireplace took up one wall. Fine antiques, gold clocks, and priceless paintings decorated the room, giving it the impression that Cho had stepped through a time warp and found herself in pre-Revolutionary France. Cho strode over to one of the tall French windows hidden away by floral drapes. She pulled back the drapes covering one of the windows and peered through them. She instantly recognized the setting that lay beyond it. It was the Chair Room. But as she remembered, there were no windows, just doors that appeared at random moments. Puzzled, she continued to investigate further. She pulled back the drapes of other windows and saw rooms that she had been in and rooms that were unfamiliar to her and did not want to enter. She just wanted to find a way back to the Corridor of the Three Doors and to the place where she had met with Jenna, Charlie, and Paul only hours ago (it felt like years in her mind). As she wandered around the fancy room, she wondered how she was going to get back. As she had already found out, the Department of Mysteries was an unpredictable place. One door that one would hope would lead to one place would take the traveler to another.

Upon further investigation, Cho noticed that many of the elaborate mirrors that hung in the Hall of Mirrors led to some place or another within the Department of Mysteries. One of those mirrors depicted a dark room filled with shelves and pearly crystal orbs. Another mirror set in a frame decorated with tiny stars and moons and suns showed an inky black void filled with the planets and the stars. A plainer mirror led into the Veil Room (this one gave shivers down Cho’s spine as she was painfully reminded of her brief encounter with Cedric). But there was one mirror that caught her attention. It hung over the fireplace in a frame with hearts, spades, diamonds, and clubs engraved in the dull silver surface.

Cho gave a squeal of joy, like a small child who had just opened up a birthday present to find a puppy inside. This time, she was sure this was the final room before going home. And she knew how she was going to get back. She ran to the mirror and peered closely into it. It led into the Corridor of the Three Doors. Jenna Barker, Charlie Lee, and Paul Rousseau were standing in front of the three doors.

“Where the hell is Cho,” Charlie asked out loud. “It’s been three hours already. Why don’t we just leave right now? She could be dead or something.”

“No, we are not,” Paul shot back, “she probably got lost or something. Remember when you went into the Department of Mysteries and didn’t come out for twelve hours, Charlie? Huh? Huh? What do you say about that?”

“Cut it out you two,” snapped Jenna. She shook her fist at the two boys. “Give her ten more minutes. If Cho doesn’t come back in ten minutes, we’ll send some one to go find her.”

“Fine.”

Cho stared at the mirror.

“I’m coming guys,” she said. She clambered onto the mantel piece and gripped the mirror frames. At first, she was hesitant to walk through another mirror. The last time she did so, it led her into falling twenty feet into a lake. But, then again, that mirror was so dark, it was impossible to see where she was going. This mirror offered a clear view of its destination.

Taking a deep breath, Cho braced herself for the return back into the average world.

“As I was saying, if Cho doesn’t come back, we let some one else know. I mean, what can happen,” Jenna asked.

“Jenna, you dumbo, we are going to get fired. We are going to get sent to Azkaban. It’s your entire sodding fault,” Paul accused her. “You started this stupid game. Now, we’ll never see Cho again!"

“I highly doubt it,” Cho said as she walked out of the wall.

Paul’s jaw dropped. Charlie looked like he was going to pass out. Jenna had a look of pure relief as she saw her friend come back again, alive and well.

“Oh Merlin, where were you? You were gone for ages,” she shrieked as she hugged Cho tightly.

Cho gasped out loud.

“Oh, sorry mate,” Jenna hastily apologized.

“So, what happened there,” Charlie asked.

“It is such a long story,” Cho said. She reached into her skirt pocket and drew out the bejeweled daisy. “But guess what I found in one of the rooms.”

“Oh, it is so pretty,” Jenna exclaimed.

The four friends turned their backs to the three doors and began to walk out of the corridor as each friend recalled their adventures in the Department of Mysteries.

Though that was such an amazing adventure, I don’t think I would like to come back there ever again, Cho thought to herself, gazing at the gem encrusted flower in her hand as she walked out of the place forever.

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I really want to thank Ritta and Bertiebott12 for helping out with this fic. You guys are the greatest.