Time Room

The **Time Room** is a room in the Department of Mysteries. It is located on the ninth level of the Ministry of Magic in London, England. The mystery of time and all related subjects are studied in this chamber. There is a door leading off of this room to the Hall of Prophecy, as the study of time is closely related to the study of predicting the future.

## Description

This room is filled with beautiful, dancing, diamond-sparkling light. Clocks can be found on every surface, "large and small, grandfather and carriage, hanging in spaces between the bookcases or standing on desks ranging the length of the room, so that a busy, relentless ticking fill[s] the place like thousands of minuscule, marching footsteps." A huge crystal bell jar stands at the far end of the room, and it is from this that the sparkling light comes.

Many Time-Turners of various sizes rest on shelves inside a large glass-fronted case standing against a wall. The path through this room, toward the bell jar, is a narrow passage between the many desks. There are also small offices just off the main chamber. At the far end, where the Time-Turners are located, is another door which pushes to open.

### Bell Jar

The bell jar stands on a desk and appears to be full of a billowing, glittering wind. Inside the jar, rising and falling on the glittering current, a tiny object moves through an endless loop. The object is a small hummingbird. At the bottom of its circuit, the bird is within its egg. As it rises, it hatches and grows into a mature bird by the time it reaches the apex of its cycle. On the way back down, it becomes a fledgling bird and then reenters its egg, which reforms around it. This progression of time repeats over and over within the jar.

### Time-Turners

A Time-Turner is a device capable of time travel. The Time-Turner resembles an hourglass on a necklace. The number of times one turns the hourglass corresponds to the number of hours one travels back in time. A stock of Time-Turners were kept in the Time Room on a large glass-fronted case against a wall, but this store was destroyed during the Battle of the Department of Mysteries.

## History

In 1996, part of the Battle of the Department of Mysteries was fought in the Time Room. At first, Harry, Ron, Hermione, Luna, Ginny, and Neville entered this room as they searched for the Hall of Prophecy. After trying other doors in the entrance room, including the Brain Room, the Death Chamber, and the Love Chamber, they found themselves in this room and realised it was the one that would lead them into the prophecy room where they believed Sirius Black was being tortured. They passed through this room into the prophecy room, where they were ambushed by Death Eaters.

> "*They were all gazing, open-mouthed, appalled, at what was happening to the man's head. It was shrinking very fast, growing balder and balder, the black hair and stubble retracting into his skull; his cheeks becoming smooth, his skull round and covered with a peach-like fuzz… A baby's head now sat grotesquely on top of the thick, muscled neck of the Death Eater as he struggled to get up again; but even as they watched, their mouths open, the head began to swell to its previous proportions again; thick black hair was sprouting from the pate and chin...*"
> ― Description of a Death Eater whose head fell into the bell jar[source]
>
>

During the course of the battle, Harry fled the Hall of Prophecy and re-entered the Time Room, where Hermione sealed the door behind them; but only Neville was still with them; Ron, Ginny, and Luna had become separated. Death Eaters Crabbe and Rabastan entered the hall; Harry Stunned Crabbe, and Neville, while disarming Rabastan, unintentionally disarmed Harry as well. Attempting to Stun Rabastan, he hit a rack full of time-turners. Hermione Stunned Rabastan and his head fell into the bell jar and rapidly turned into a baby and then back into a grown man and then back to a baby. Rabastan was able to pull his head out, but he was incapacitated as a grown man's body with a baby's head. During this battle, the department's entire stock of Time-Turners was smashed.