Rosabella Black |Daughter of Sirius Black| (Book 6)

The Cave

Rosabella's Point of View:
I could smell salt and hear rushing waves. A light, chilly breeze ruffled my hair as I looked out at the moonlit sea and star - strewn sky. I was standing upon a high outcrop of dark rock, water foaming and churning below me. I glanced over my shoulder. A towering cliff stood behind us, a sheer drop, black and faceless.
A few large chunks of rock, such as the one upon which Harry, Dumbledore and I were standing, looked as though they had broken away from the cliff face at some point in the past. It was a bleak, harsh view, the sea and the rock unrelieved by any tree or sweep of grass or sand.
    "What do you think?" Dumbledore asked.
He might have been asking Harry and I opinion on whether it was a good site for a picnic.
    "Definitely not on the top ten places for tourists to visit." I said.
    "They brought the kids from the orphanage here?" Harry asked.
    "I could not imagine a less cozy spot for a day trip or ever." I said.
    "Not here, precisely. There is a village of sorts about halfway along the cliffs behind us. I believe the orphans were taken there for a little sea air and a view of the waves. No, I think it was only ever Tom Riddle and his youthful victims who visited this spot. No Muggle could reach this rock unless they were uncommonly good mountaineers, and boats cannot approach the cliffs, the waters around them are too dangerous. I imagine that Riddle climbed down; magic would have served better than ropes. And he brought two small children with him, probably for the pleasure of terrorizing them. I think the journey alone would have done it, don't you?" Dumbledore said.

Harry and I looked up at the cliff again and I felt goose bumps.
    "But his final destination - and ours - lies a little farther on. Come." Dumbledore said.
Dumbledore beckoned Harry and I to the very edge of the rock where a series of jagged niches made footholds leading down to boulders that lay half - submerged in water and closer to the cliff.
It was a treacherous descent and Dumbledore, hampered slightly by his withered hand, moved slowly. The lower rocks were slippery with seawater. I could feel flecks of cold salt spray hitting his face. Harry and I held hands as we carefully descended.
    "Lumos." Dumbledore said, as he reached the boulder closest to the cliff face.
A thousand flecks of golden light sparkled upon the dark surface of the water a few feet below where he crouched. The black wall of rock beside him was illuminated too.
    "You see?" Dumbledore said quietly, holding his wand a little higher.
I saw a fissure in the cliff into which dark water was swirling.
    "You both will not object to getting a little wet?" Dumbledore asked.
    "No." Harry said.
    "Nope." I said.
    "Then take off the Invisibility Cloak - there is no need for it now - and let us take the plunge." Dumbledore said.
And with the sudden agility of a much younger man, Dumbledore slid from the boulder, landed in the sea, and began to swim, with a perfect breaststroke, toward the dark slit in the rock face, his lit wand held in his teeth. Harry pulled off his cloak, stuffed it into his pocket, and we followed.

The water was icy. My waterlogged clothes billowed around me and weighed me down. Taking deep breaths that filled my nostrils with the tang of salt and seaweed, I struck out for the shimmering, shrinking light now moving deeper into the cliff. The fissure soon opened into a dark tunnel that I could tell would be filled with water at high tide. The slimy walls were barely three feet apart and glimmered like wet tar in the passing light of Dumbledore's wand. A little way in, the passageway curved to the left, and I saw that it extended far into the cliff. I continued to swim in Dumbledore's wake, the tips of my benumbed fingers brushing the rough, wet rock.
Then I saw Dumbledore rising out of the water ahead, his silver hair and dark robes gleaming. Harry reached the spot before me. Harry rise out of the water a little but he stopped and waited for me. When I reached the spot I found steps that led into a large cave. Harry was waiting a couple of steps up. He reached out a hand and we clambered up the stairs together, water streaming from our soaking clothes.
We emerged, shivering uncontrollably, into the still and freezing air. I pulled out my wand and did the hot air charm to dry Harry's and mine's clothes. I was seventeen now and could fo magic outside of school.