Harry and Amelia Potter

6.26

The sound of waves fill our ears. A giant wave crashes over a jagged outcropping. As the spray clears we see it. The towering cliffs drop and opposite, the cave.

"It's there, isn't it?" Harry asks.

It is quiet here, eerily so, the waves merely distant thunder. As Harry glances about, Dumbledore moves to an archway, passes beyond. I follow, finding Dumbledore standing below a towering dome of rock, probing its mysteries with the light from his wand.

"This is the place. Oh yes, this place has known magic." He looks back to me. "Where you stand, Mia, Tom Riddle once stood many, many years ago, when he was but a poor orphan boy with a penchant for cruelty..." Dumbledore's wand stops briefly in its arc and his face registers pain, as if detecting some past unpleasantry. He begins to trace his fingers over the surface of the rock. "One wintry afternoon, he lured two younger classmates to this cave. What happened is unclear. But this much is known: the children were damaged."

Dumbledore begins to murmur in a strange whisper as his fingers play over the rock, then stop. His eyes open. He takes a dagger from his robes and draws the blade across his forearm, speckling the rock face with scarlet beads.

"Sir!" I yell, moving to try and stop him. The rock face sizzles like acid and begins to crumble, forming a narrow opening.

"In order to gain passage, payment must be made, payment intended to weaken any intruder."

"You should've let me, sir." Harry says.

"No." I say, looking to my brother. "Me."

"Oh, no, Harry, Mia. Your blood is much more precious than mine."

Dumbledore, Harry, and I emerge onto the rim of a vast lake teeming with mist. A chill hangs in the air.

"Careful. The water." Dumbledore warns.

Harry and I peer into the lake. It is black as ink. Then we follow Dumbledore around the rim of the lake. In the center, a greenish glow shimmers in the mist.

"It's there. The only question is how do we get to it?"

"We couldn't, perhaps, just try a Summoning Charm, sir?" I ask, half jokingly, half completely serious.

Dumbledore smiles and motions as if saying "Be my guest." I lift my wand.

There is an explosion and something pale erupts out of the water. Harry nearly sheds his skin. Dumbledore calmly watches it vanish beneath the surface.

"Accio Horcrux!" I shout. Nothing happens. "Perhaps not."

Dumbledore leads Harry and I on. Stops. Takes a step back. He closes his eyes and to our horror walks right to the lake's edge. As the dark water laps over the toes of his shoes, Dumbledore passes his wand slowly through the air, then closes it, as if gripping something invisible. Taking his wand, he gives his clenched fists a tap and a thick coppery-green chain appears out of thin air, extending from the water to Dumbledore's hand.

"If you would, Harry..." Quickly Harry grasps the end of the chain and together he and I pull, end over end, until the prow of a small boat pierces the surface, green with algae.

In eerie silence, the boat cleaves the water, ferrying Harry, Dumbledore, and I towards the greenish glow.

"Sir... have you ever taken Felix Felicis?" Harry asks him.

"Only recreationally. You see, I believe one creates one's own luck."

I look down into the water, watches a face skim by beneath the surface. "Professor... there are bodies in this lake."