The Marauders: Year Five #Wattys2017

The Chamber

Tears soaked Maryrose's face.

"I made my first kill here," he hissed, and he pulled her down, over the rock where the Inferius had grabbed James Potter's ankle over the summer.

Maryrose saw there, on the rock, washed up after all this time, his broken glasses - the ones he'd lost that night and without the Dark Lord seeing, Maryrose caught them up quickly and held them tight in her free hand. She felt somehow less lonely holding them, as though a part of James was now with her, and she felt a lump rise up in her throat thinking of him... of how much she wished she could ever have meant as much to him as Lily Evans meant to him.

"A little girl," Voldemort was continuing, "Not much different than you."

Maryrose shivered as he pulled her along the narrow pathway along the side of the cave. He waved his wand and sent a ball of eerie green light to hang in the air and illuminate the darkness. The water was thick and dark black, undulating slightly and Voldemort pulled her deeper and deeper into the cave, where it narrowed and the stalactites and stalagmites nearly touched.

"I left her body here in the water... floating for eternity...." he laughed lowly and he paused and waved his wand and a ghostly, horrible figure - a girl - rose up toward the surface of the water, eyes glassy and wide, mouth in an eternal moan, her arms extended, animated, grabbing toward Maryrose, who gasped and jumped back. Voldemort laughed even harder at he fear and he lowered his wand and the girl sank back into the depths of the pitch blackness. "And so began my collection."

"C-Collection?" Maryrose knew she'd regret asking, but she also knew she needed to keep him talking long enough that somebody might figure out where she was, might be able to help her. His habit of talking was the only thing that could save her.

Voldemort grinned wickedly, "Yes, my collection." And he waved his wand again, another ball of green light flew forward... and with a swish of his wrist, the ball descended into the water, glowing brightly, setting the whole pool to glowing brilliantly green and illuminating even the darkest depths and in the water were hundreds and hundreds of corpses. Bodies pressed and packed together, laying on top of one another, with horrible faces that stared up at her with disembodied expressions of horror and fear... They swept about, mixing and stirring, like giant ingredients in a horrible potion. "I collect the bodies of those I've murdered... those whose bodies were remained at all, that is." He smirked and he waved his wand and there was Orion Black. "You were there when I killed him, weren't you?" Voldemort smiled at her, as though he were showing her a photograph of a happy time they'd shared.

Maryrose felt like she might throw up.

Voldemort let Orion Black sink back into the depths,

"They are countless," Voldemort whispered, "And with but a wave of my wand I can command them to rise up from the waters and fight. An army of inferius so great that there would be no defeating it. And soon, one day very soon, I shall do exactly that and Albus Dumbledore, the old fool, will have no way of stopping my rise to power then."

It struck Maryrose as odd that Voldemort said Dumbledore, of all the names he could've said.

He whipped her around suddenly to face him and the light in the pool beside them continued to glow and he glared into her eyes. "Now. I have need of this place to hide something very precious to me. I had planned to submerge it beneath my collection, but it seems... messy, unelegant, and I desire something better, something more." He looked her over, head to toe. "In your mind, child, there is a chamber. A secret chamber here that you found as a child. I command you - if you ever wish to see your precious little boyfriend again - to show me where it is and how to get inside of it."