Coup de Foudre [Fred Weasley] [6]

⚡️ Chapter 49 ⚡️

"Blood?"

"I said it was crude," Dumbledore answered, who sounded disdainful, even disappointed, as though Voldemort had fallen short of the standards Dumbledore expected. "The idea, as I am sure you will have gathered, is that your enemy must weaken him- or herself to enter. Once again, Lord Voldemort fails to grasp that there are much more terrible things than physical injury,"

"Yeah, but still, if you can avoid it..." Harry replied, who had experienced enough pain not to be keen for more and Vega quite agreed with that.

"Sometimes, however, it is unavoidable," Dumbledore told him, shaking back the sleeve of his robes and exposing the forearm of his injured hand.

"Wait, wouldn't it be better if I did it, Professor?" Vega asked quickly before he could raise his knife. "I'm sure it will be okay for me to withstand than you,"

But Dumbledore merely smiled – there was a flash of silver, and a spurt of scarlet; the rock face was peppered with dark, glistening drops.

"You are very kind," Dumbledore said, now passing the tip of his wand over the deep cut he had made in his own arm, so that it healed instantly. "But your blood is worth more than mine. Ah, that seems to have done the trick, doesn't it?"

The blazing silver outline of an arch had appeared in the wall once more, and this time it did not fade away: The blood-spattered rock within it simply vanished, leaving an opening into what seemed total darkness. Vega stared into it with silence.

"After me, I think," Dumbledore said, and he walked through the archway with Vega and Harry on his heels, lighting their own wands as they went.

An eerie sight met their eyes: They were standing on the edge of a great black lake, so vast that Vega could not make out the distant banks, in a cavern so high that the ceiling too was out of sight. A misty greenish light shone far away in what looked like the middle of the lake; it was reflected in the completely still water below.

There was a greenish glow, and the light from the two wands were the only things that broke the otherwise velvety blackness, though their rays did not penetrate as far as Vega would have expected. The darkness was somehow denser than normal darkness. She could feel it deep inside of her – the presence of Dark Magic coursing in this place.

"Let us walk," Dumbledore told the pair of teenagers quietly. "Be very careful not to step into the water. Stay close to me, both of you,"

Dumbledore set off around the edge of the lake, and Vega and Harry followed close behind him, their footsteps made echoing, slapping sounds on the narrow rim of rock that surrounded the water. Vega could not keep her eyes away from what was ahead.

On and on they walked, but the view did not vary: on one side of them, the rough cavern wall, on the other, the boundless expanse of smooth, glassy blackness, in the very middle of which was that mysterious greenish glow. The silence was oppressive, suffocating.

"Professor?" Harry spoke up finally. "Do you think the Horcrux is here?"

"Oh yes," Dumbledore replied. "Yes, I'm sure it is. The question is, how do we get to it?"

"We couldn't..." Harry said. "We couldn't just try a Summoning Charm?"

"Certainly, we could," Dumbledore said, stopping so suddenly that Vega and Harry almost walked into him. "Why don't you do it, Harry?"

"Me?" Harry asked. "Oh... okay..." He had clearly not expected this, but cleared his throat and said loudly, wand aloft, "Accio Horcrux!"

With a noise like an explosion, something very large and pale erupted out of the dark water some twenty feet away; before Vega could see what it was, it had vanished again with a crashing splash that made great, deep ripples on the mirrored surface.