With everyone on the same page for now, Hermione nodded with all seriousness as she led everyone out of the room once again.

Just before they left the office, however, Ethan spoke-

"Good luck."

-without even looking at them.

"You too.", Ron said on reflex before he continued to walk further, leaving Ethan having to control the end of his twitching lips, but he shook his head and continued working on his papers.

Astoria, however, wasn't going to let this go.

"Seriously? You too?"

Ron appeared confused for a moment before his eyes widened as everyone heard him whisper, "No way! How stupid am I!?"

Everyone snickered before Loki calmly patted his shoulder as he walked ahead and moved side by side with Hermione.

"So…where are we going?" Loki asked, grabbing the file Hermione had in her hands.

"The location is hidden. We need to use some sort of floo network by the looks of it to get to the entry point of the Department of Mysteries in the first place."

"So the fireplace in the Ministry of Magic then?"

"No. We can't access the Department of Mysteries in such an easy manner. We need to go to the clearance office and get our Auror training passes from there, and then show the Aurors our training passes to sneak into a hidden cupboard that no one uses in the office. It holds a fireplace that will be our entry point, for today. There are a few steps after that too."

Loki had questions, but by the time Hermione finished, they'd reached the clearance office, and Hermione started leading everyone in getting their passes.

So Loki simply opened the file to check if the reason for such an elaborate was mentioned anywhere.

'It can't have been because of secrecy, right?'

'....wouldn't there be several mystical items that could conceal the place better?'

Loki's gaze sped through the lines in the files as he noticed something peculiar.

The 'Floo Network' didn't require one to speak their destination as simply stepping in it would take them wherever they needed to be taken to.

Every step in the process after that was rather convoluted and confusing too.

They had to do several random things after using the 'Floo Network' like scratching the belly of a gargoyle, filling an unlit lamp with multiple Lumos spells until it was so bright that it became hard to see, and even speaking to a painting and making sure to sneak past it, into a door, while it was busy talking.

It was clear to Loki that someone had made it so on purpose, but he couldn't immediately see this vague 'purpose'.

'Is it to make us not remember the steps?'

'But nearly everyone here apart from Ron probably has pretty decent memory…so it can't have been that.'

'A hazing ritual?'

'....I doubt they would be allowed to do such a thing when the matter is as serious as guarding mystical items.'

'Ethan did say though that we were just bait.'

'....do all the Unspeakables have different rituals like this then? So that whoever catches the bait can be caught depending on how they enter the department?'

'That's not very farfetched but it still seems like I'm missing something important.'

Loki shifted his attention to the desk receptionist behind the counter and walked over to him after everyone else was done getting a pass.

The man simply flicked his wand to cast a charm that caused the camera behind him to flash a bright light directly into Loki's sensitive eyes before the soft screech of a printer emitted from the camera as a small card popped out of its base like a Polaroid.

"This is your pass. Sign here if you want it." The man said, pushing a book towards Loki while pointing at a pot of ink with a quill in it.

Loki's spirituality quickly checked through the book to make sure it wasn't some cursed artifact, which surprised the receptionist, but since Loki signed his book, he didn't care to mention it.

The rest of the process was just as Loki read in the files, causing them to have to enact obscure ceremonies like they were trying to please their overlords so that they would be granted passage into their secret territory.

Ron was the most amused by it all. He nearly laughed when he saw Hermione pet a gargoyle while telling it, "Who's a good boy!?" with a lot of excitement, even though her hands were trembling with fear.

Loki, however, was most interested in the magic around him.

Although none of the other students had noticed it, Loki almost immediately noticed all the various runes and wards laid out in front of everyone.

He tinkered with the wards without letting anyone know about it as he carefully studied their purpose and focus.

But, none of them truly did anything.

They were simple wards that only let up when the exact steps written in the file to unlock them were followed. They were easy to fool for anyone decently knowledgeable about ancient runes.

'Is it meant to keep the Aurors away?' Loki pondered as he thought about the Auror office they had just passed on their way here, since becoming one wasn't very hard.

Loki shrugged his shoulders and continued to move deeper and deeper into the Department of Mysteries.

The deeper they moved though, Loki began noticing that the seals started to get a lot more complicated.

They were still simple to him, but for someone not very well versed in the language of Ancient Runes, they meant practically nothing and seemed like hieroglyphics.

It was as if the deeper they walked into the place, the more someone professional had worked on them. It was to a degree that Loki stopped being able to find errors by the end.

Loki understood that the earlier runes were probably the works that emerged out of current known magical capabilities, while the flawless ones were from someone as ancient as magic itself.

But that wasn't what surprised Loki the most.

What did was what happened when they opened a rather lonesome door, waiting for them at the end of the corridor and stepped through.

The room they had walked into was deathly cold with confines made out of polished dark glassy obsidian. There was no other door out of there which Hermione didn't mind as she walked up to the centre of the room and stood there waiting for something to happen.

As soon as Loki followed the last of his group of students and arrived at the centre, he instantly felt a strong sense of suppression from the room for a moment before it vanished and turned into an affable sense of familiarity and spiritual significance.

However, things weren't as easy for the other students.

They all felt suppressed, Ron started trembling before collapsing onto Harry, those at Sequence 5 bore the pressure but had to clench their fists to force themselves to remain standing.

Harry recognised what was happening instantly.

'Divinity!'

It was something he felt when he had first become a demigod himself and when he was near Voldemort during his advancement to an Angel.

But the most surprising for Loki was Hermione.

Even though she was still a measly Sequence 7, Hermione grit her teeth and remained standing through sheer will.

All of them looked at Hermione first since she hadn't warned them about anything like this happening, but when they saw that she was barely standing straight herself, they started to look around for something to help themselves out of this situation.

Some looked for an exit, and others looked to see if this was some sort of a test.

The few who looked towards the door they had just entered for an exit, however, suddenly panicked when they found that it had vanished.

The place they'd entered the room from had turned into glassy obsidian stone and fully become a part of the wall.

But they didn't have to panic much longer since a cubic box rose above from its flush state with the floor.

It looked much like a telephone booth, just made out of obsidian, whose heavy door swung open gently. Out of it came a dashing young man who could be mistaken for a Dark Academia aficionado given his deep dark circles and singed hair.

Loki met eyes with the boy and smiled.

"Didn't expect to see you here Dominic."

Dominic's eyes narrowed with happiness before he wished him and everyone else there back-

"Welcome to the Department of Mysteries." Before tagging on "Loki." at the end, a little softer, to ascertain their friendly bond.