It’s likely impossible to map the Department of Mysteries; after all, the revolving walls sure make it seem like the rooms move around a lot. But once inside, even though there are a heck of a lot of doors, space still seems pretty linear. Also, we’re missing at least half the picture (all the empty white space). But if the Department of Mysteries can be mapped, I think the parts we know would look pretty close to this. — Josie Kearns

Ministry of Magic Headquarters, London

Level 9 – The Department of Mysteries – Map 1

Map and notes by Josie Kearns

References

(all notes U.S./Scholastic Hardcover)

Circular Room

There are 12 doors out of the room.

“There were around a dozen doors here,” p770
“They had a one-in-twelve chance of getting the exit right the first time,” p796

The Time Room door is directly across from the exit.

“Harry had walked…to the door immediately opposite the entrance,” p770

The Brain Room door and Time Room door are possibly near each other.

The first time the walls spin, Harry “marched straight” ahead, or close, p771

The Time Room door is probably next to the Locked Room door.

“Harry…pushed the next door open,” p776

When walking out of the Time Room, the Planet Room is to your right.

“A door to their right sprang open and three people fell out of it,” p795

Bellatrix Lestrange comes from a room across from the Brain and Planet Rooms.

“He heaved Ron toward a door” (likely next to the one he came from) when “another door across the hall burst open and (Bellatrix) sped into the hall,” p796

Brain Room

The “long rectangular room…” (p771) “was long and quite empty except for a few desks and, in the very middle of the room, an enormous glass tank.” (p772)

“Back in the brain room” there were doors all around the walls,” p797

There only seems to be one room on either side of the Brain Room.

There were footsteps running along behind the doors; every now and then another heavy body would launch itself against one,” p797

The doors on the side Luna Lovegood sealed lead into the Death Chamber.

Five Death Eaters were surging through the door (Luna) had not reached,” p797
He dashed through the only door still open, the one through which the Death Eaters themselves had come,” p799

Death Chamber

The sunken pit in the middle is quite large.

“The center of it was sunken, forming a great stone pit,” p773
“His footsteps echoed loudly as he walked slowly toward the dais,” p773
Most of the Battle of the Department of Mysteries takes place here, p799-809
Even on the dais is enough room for Sirius Black and Bellatrix to duel, p804

The benches (probably about ten) circle the entire room.

“stone benches running around the room and descending in steep steps,” p773
“stone pit some twenty feet below them,” p773
Ten steps assumes a 2 ft (~60cm) height for each one

Note: This room is huge.

If each step is 4 ft wide, the dais is 12 ft across, and there’s a 20 ft radius around the dais before reaching the bottom step, the room is at least 132 feet across – almost half a football field.

Locked Room

We don’t really know anything about it, but based on all the hints that “size is no guarantee of power,” I’m guessing that the room is fairly small.

Time Room

The room is really skinny.

“He led the way forward down the narrow space between lines of desks,” p776

“a towering crystal bell jar stood at the far end of the room… on a desk,” p776

After the bell jar is only one door – leading to the Hall of Prophecies.

Ginny Weasley “followed him past the bell jar to the only door behind it,” p777

The door is probably on the right side of the room, not the end.

When leaving the room: “‘We need to go right, I think,'” p777
On returning: “The door through which they’d come was straight ahead,” p788
Then Lucius Malfoy, directing troops: “Crabbe, Rabastan, go right…” p788. According to Kendall Smiley’s essay, these two then enter the Time Room. If Malfoy was facing the wall (see also under Hall of Prophecies), this door had to be to his right.

There is at least one office (maybe more – see Office) on the right side of the room.

“They had run halfway (out)… Veering left he burst into an …office,” p791

The Office

All we know about the office is that it is “small” (p791), with a desk, bookcase, and stone wall (p792), and that it’s big enough for five people to fit in at once (p792). It doesn’t seem like a boss’s office, so I’m guessing it’s an Unspeakable’s office, and that there are more like it in the same area.

The Hall of Prophecy

Has at least 97 rows of shelves, each of which are quite long.

The prophecy is in row 97, and “you can’t see (the row’s end) properly,” p778

Row 53 is nearest to the Time Room door.

“At the end of the closest row” glimmered the silver figure FIFTY-THREE,” p777

The numbers count up as you go right.

“‘We need to go right, I think,'” whispered Hermione, “Yes, that’s 54…'” p777

The Hall probably has at least 6 doors out of it, including 3 together. Lucius Malfoy is directing the Death Eaters, not knowing which way the kids ran, and presumably is facing the wall (looking at the doors nearest him).

“Bellatrix, Rodolphus, you take the left” (into the unknown room on the map)
“Crabbe, Rabastan, go right” (into the Time Room, where they find Harry)
“Jugson, Dolohov, the door straight ahead” (leading them into a small closet, which they search; they then run past Bellatrix to the circular room & see Harry)
“Macnair and Avery, through here” (a door nearby, perhaps the Death Chamber)
“Rookwood over there” (a door further away, perhaps past Bellatrix’s room)
“Mulciber, come with me!” (Either a further door or to search the Hall)
Note: See also the Time Room for notes regarding this door’s placement.

Note

There is one passage that does not make sense with the way I’ve placed the rooms, while Harry is in the Time Room: “There was a shout from a room nearby, then a crash and a scream.” This is probably from the Planet Room, which I placed several rooms away. It’s possible that it is between the Time Room and the Death Chamber, but this causes two problems: first, it would mean that when Luna comes “from the right” she’s actually coming more from behind Harry; second, it would mean that the Planet Room door isn’t next to the Brain Room door, and Harry would have dragged incapacitated Ron and Ginny farther than necessary. I prefer to think instead that sound just travels well inside the Department. of Mysteries.