"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.
Harry leapt backward in shock and hit the wall, surprising Vega before the male turned to look at Dumbledore, questioning, "What was that?"
"Something," Dumbledore replied and Vega followed his blue eyes to the water. "I think, that is ready to respond should we attempt to seize the Horcrux,"
The surface of the lake was once more shining black glass: The ripples had vanished unnaturally fast; Vega's heart, however, was still pounding and every instinctual nerve inside of her was telling her not to go near it – not that she would ever want to.
"Did you think that would happen, sir?" Harry asked.
"I thought something would happen if we made an obvious attempt to get our hands on the Horcrux," Dumbledore replied. "That was a very good idea; much the simplest way of finding out what we are facing,"
"But we don't know what the thing was," Harry said, looking at the sinisterly smooth water.
"What the things are, you mean," Dumbledore said and Vega shivered uncomfortably. "I doubt very much that there is only one of them. Shall we walk on?"
"Professor?" Harry spoke up again.
"Yes, Harry?" Dumbledore replied.
"Do you think we're going to have to go into the lake?" Harry asked.
"Into it?" Dumbledore responded. "Only if we are very unfortunate,"
"You don't think the Horcrux is at the bottom?" Harry questioned.
"Oh no... I think the Horcrux is in the middle," Dumbledore answered. And he pointed toward the misty green light in the centre of the lake.
"It's not in the lake but we will still have to cross the lake to get to it, no?" Vega inquired, her eyes returning to the misty light. "Isn't that right, Professor?"
"Yes, I think so," Dumbledore answered.
At once, Vega's mind rang with the thoughts of all the water monsters that she knew of – Kelpies, Kappas, Grindylows, the giant Basilisk-like serpents that she, at this point in time, knew that Voldemort was so very fond of and wouldn't resist using.
"Aha," Dumbledore said suddenly.
Dumbledore stopped again; this time, Vega and Harry really did walk into him. Harry was about to trip into the water when Vega pulled him back, the force of which caused to almost fall forward into the dark water until Dumbledore's uninjured hand closed tightly around her upper arm, pulling her back before she could brush the edge.
"So sorry, I should have given warning," Dumbledore said to the suddenly-clumsy pair. "Stand back against the wall, please; I think I have found the place,"
Vega wasn't sure where Dumbledore was looking due to his robes obstructing the way but she more than glad to move back as he had instructed, followed closely by Harry. She felt safe with the wall pressing next to her, and her wand casting light in front of her.
The patch of dark bank in front of them was exactly like every other bit as far as she could tell, but Dumbledore seemed to have detected something special about it. This time he was running his hand, not over the rocky wall, but through the thin air, as though expecting to find and grip something invisible.
"Oho," Dumbledore said happily, seconds later.
Dumbledore's hand had closed in mid-air upon something Vega could not see. He moved closer to the water; Vega and Harry both watched nervously as the tips of Dumbledore's buckled shoes found the utmost edge of the rock rim.
Keeping his hand clenched in mid-air, Dumbledore raised his wand with the other and tapped his fist with the point. Immediately a thick coppery green chain appeared out of thin air, extending from the depths of the water into his clenched hand. He tapped the chain, which began to slide through his fist like a snake, coiling itself on the ground with a clinking sound that echoed noisily off the rocky walls, pulling something from the depths of the black water.
Harry gasped next to her and Vega stared in silence as the ghostly prow of a tiny boat broke the surface, glowing as green as the chain, and floated, with barely a ripple, toward the place on the bank where Vega, Harry and Dumbledore stood.
"How did you know that was there?" Harry asked in astonishment.
"Magic always leaves traces," Dumbledore said, as the boat hit the bank with a gentle bump. "Sometimes very distinctive traces. I taught Tom Riddle. I know his style,"
"But would you consider this... boat safe?" Vega asked as she eyed the boat with suspicion and distrust as it floated closer to them. "... for us, I mean?"
"Oh yes, I think so," Dumbledore assured her. "Voldemort needed to create a means to cross the lake without attracting the wrath of those creatures he had placed within it in case he ever wanted to visit or remove his Horcrux,"
"And the things in the water won't do anything to us if we cross in Voldemort's boat?" Vega questioned, still not completely won over.
"I think we must resign ourselves to the fact that they will," Dumbledore replied. "At some point, realise we are not Lord Voldemort. Thus far, however, we have done well. They have allowed us to raise the boat,"
"But why have they let us?" Harry asked, who could not shake off the vision of tentacles rising out of the dark water the moment they were out of sight of the bank.
"Voldemort would have been reasonably confident that none but a very great wizard would have been able to find the boat," Dumbledore said. "I think he would have been prepared to risk what was, to his mind, the most unlikely possibility that somebody else would find it, knowing that he had set other obstacles ahead that only he would be able to penetrate. We shall see whether he is right,"
"It doesn't look like it was built for three people," Harry asked as he looked down into the boat. "Will it hold three of us? Will we be too heavy together?" Dumbledore chuckled.
"Voldemort will not have cared about the weight, but about the amount of magical power that crossed his lake," Dumbledore replied. "I rather think an enchantment will have been placed upon this boat so that only one wizard at a time will be able to sail in it,"
"But then –?" Harry said.
"I do not think you will count, Harry: You are underage and unqualified," Dumbledore told him. "Voldemort would never have expected a sixteen-year-old to reach this place: I think it unlikely that your powers will register compared to mine. Voldemort's mistake, Harry, Voldemort's mistake... Age is foolish and forgetful when it underestimates youth... combined with that, and with the fact that Vega's internal Obscurial makes her just that – obscure to deduction – you two are safe with me. Now, you first this time, and be careful not to touch the water,"
Dumbledore stood aside and Vega climbed into the boat first, followed closely by Harry and then the Headmaster stepped in, coiling the chain onto the floor.
They were crammed in together; Vega could not comfortably sit, her knees jutting over the edge of the boat, which began to move at once.
There was no sound other than the silken rustle of the boat's prow cleaving the water; it moved without their help, as though an invisible rope was pulling it onward toward the light in the centre.
Soon they could no longer see the walls of the cavern; they might have been at sea except that there were no waves. Vega looked down and saw the reflected silver of her wandlight sparkling and glittering on the black water as they passed. The boat was carving deep ripples upon the glassy surface, grooves in the dark mirror...
"Professor!" Harry exclaimed suddenly, and his startled voice echoed loudly over the silent water, so much so that Vega jumped slightly, steadying herself.
"Harry?" Dumbledore asked.
"I think I saw a hand in the water – a human hand!" Harry exclaimed. "Look, Vega!"
Vega did not want to look but Harry's desperation to make sure that he was not imagining things made her peer over the side of the boat, and she saw it – marble white, floating inches below the surface. She averted her eyes away just as quickly.
"Yes, I am sure you did," Dumbledore said calmly.
"So that thing that jumped out of the water –?" Harry asked but the answer was given before Dumbledore could reply.
For Vega's wandlight had slid over a fresh patch of water and showed them, this time, a dead man lying faceup inches beneath the surface, his open eyes misted as though with cobwebs, his hair and his robes swirling around him like smoke.
"There are bodies in here!" Harry shouted, and his voice sounded much higher than usual and most unlike his own while Vega remained frozen in her place.
"Yes," Dumbledore said placidly. "But we do not need to worry about them at the moment,"
"At the moment?" Harry repeated, tearing his gaze from the water to look at Dumbledore just as Vega turned to do the same incredulously.
"Not while they are merely drifting peacefully below us," Dumbledore said. "There is nothing to be feared from a body, any more than there is anything to be feared from the darkness. Lord Voldemort, who of course secretly fears both, disagrees. But once again he reveals his own lack of wisdom. It is the unknown we fear when we look upon death and darkness, nothing more,"
Neither Vega nor Harry said anything.
Vega did not want to argue, but she found the idea that there were bodies floating around them and beneath them horrible and, what was more, she did not believe that they were not dangerous. Not with Voldemort involved. That could not be so.
"But one of them jumped just a few minutes ago," Vega spoke up quietly. "When Harry tried to Summon the Horcrux, a body leapt out of the lake,"
"Yes," Dumbledore said. "I am sure that once we take the Horcrux, we shall find them less peaceable. However, like many creatures that dwell in cold and darkness, they fear light and warmth, which we shall therefore call to our aid should the need arise. Fire, Harry," Dumbledore added with a smile, in response to Harry's bewildered expression.
"Oh... right..." Harry said quickly.
But Vega kept her grey eyes ahead at the greenish glow toward which the boat was still inexorably sailing. She could not pretend now that she was not scared. She was sure things will turn out to be okay but she still disliked things that came suddenly.
The great black lake, teeming with the dead.
It seemed hours and hours ago that she was doing her Herbology home, that she had met Professor Trelawney, that she and Harry had given Ron and Hermione Felix Felicis.
And it was now that Vega's mind was working overtime – maybe she should've taken her time and not being so hasty. She should've given her friends a better goodbye and told them she believed in them. And if something was to happen to her tonight... Vega had imagined that she would get to see Fred one last time before it was her time.
"Nearly there," Dumbledore said cheerfully.
Sure enough, the greenish light seemed to be growing larger at last, and within minutes, the boat had come to a halt, bumping gently into something that Vega could not see at first, but when she raised her illuminated wand, she saw that they had reached a small island of smooth rock in the centre of the lake.
"Careful not to touch the water," Dumbledore said again as Vega climbed out of the boat and she held out her hand to Harry to help him along as well.
The island was no larger than Dumbledore's office, an expanse of flat dark stone on which stood nothing but the source of that greenish light, which looked much brighter when viewed close to. Vega squinted at it; at first, she thought it was a lamp of some kind, but then she saw that the light was coming from a stone basin rather like the Pensieve, which was set on top of a pedestal.
Dumbledore approached the basin, and both Vega and Harry followed.
Side by side, they looked down into it. The basin was full of an emerald liquid emitting that phosphorescent glow. Vega had never seen such a liquid before.
"What is it?" Vega questioned, staring at the emerald liquid. "Could it be a potion?"
"I am not sure," Dumbledore said. "Something more worrisome than blood and bodies, however," He pushed back the sleeve of his robe over his blackened hand, and stretched out the tips of his burned fingers toward the surface of the potion.
"Sir, no, don't touch –!" Harry exclaimed.
"I cannot touch," Dumbledore said, smiling faintly. "See? I cannot approach any nearer than this. You try,"
Vega placed her hand into the basin and attempted to touch the potion. She met an invisible barrier that prevented her coming within an inch of it. No matter how hard she pushed, her fingers encountered nothing but what seemed to be solid and inflexible air.
"Out of the way, please, Harry, Vega," Dumbledore said. He raised his wand and made complicated movements over the surface of the potion, murmuring soundlessly.
Nothing happened, except perhaps that the potion glowed a little brighter. Vega and Harry remained silent while Dumbledore worked, but after a while Dumbledore withdrew his wand, and Harry felt it was safe to talk again.
"You think the Horcrux is in there, sir?" Harry asked.
"Oh yes," Dumbledore said as he peered more closely into the basin. Vega saw his face reflected, upside down, in the smooth surface of the green potion. "But how to reach it? This potion cannot be penetrated by hand, Vanished, parted, scooped up, or siphoned away, nor can it be Transfigured, Charmed, or otherwise made to change its nature,"
Almost absentmindedly, Dumbledore raised his wand again, twirled it once in mid-air, and then caught the crystal goblet that he had conjured out of nowhere as he said, "I can only conclude that this potion is supposed to be drunk,"
"What?" Vega asked, shocked as she looked at him. "You can't do that – that'll be crazy!"
"Yes, I think so," Dumbledore went on anyway and Vega looked at Harry to do something. "Only by drinking it can I empty the basin and see what lies in its depths,"
"But what if – what if it kills you?" Harry asked.
"Oh, I doubt that it would work like that," Dumbledore said easily. "Lord Voldemort would not want to kill the person who reached this island,"
"Sir," Harry said, trying to keep his voice reasonable as he and Vega shared a quick yet concerned look with each other. "Sir, this is Voldemort we're –"
"I'm sorry, Harry; I should have said, he would not want to immediately kill the person who reached this island," Dumbledore corrected himself. "He would want to keep them alive long enough to find out how they managed to penetrate so far through his defences and, most importantly of all, why they were so intent upon emptying the basin. Do not forget that Lord Voldemort believes that he alone knows about his Horcruxes,"
Vega made to speak this time, but this time Dumbledore raised his hand for silence, frowning slightly at the emerald liquid, evidently thinking hard.
"Undoubtedly," Dumbledore said, finally. "This potion must act in a way that will prevent me taking the Horcrux. It might paralyze me, cause me to forget what I am here for, create so much pain I am distracted, or render me incapable in some other way. This being the case, Vega, it will be your job to make sure I keep drinking, even if you have to tip the potion into my protesting mouth. You understand?"
Their eyes met over the basin; each pale face lit with that strange, green light. Vega could not speak. Was this why she had been invited along – so that she could force-feed Dumbledore a potion that might cause him unendurable pain? She couldn't do it.
"You remember," Dumbledore said. "The condition on which I brought you, and Harry, with me?"
But Vega hesitated, looking into the blue eyes that had turned green in the reflected light of the basin until she found her words, "But what if –?"
"You swore, did you not, to follow any command I gave you?" Dumbledore said.
"Yes, sir," Vega replied. "But –"
"I warned you, did I not, that there might be danger?" Dumbledore interjected.
"Yes, Professor, that is correct," Vega confirmed. "But –"
"Well, then," Dumbledore said, shaking back his sleeves once more and raising the empty goblet. Vega stared at him in disbelief. "You have my orders,"
"Maybe I can drink it," Vega suggested quickly. "Why can't I drink the potion instead? Wouldn't it be better for me to have it? And what if we need you after the potion has finished?"
"Because I am much older, much cleverer, and much less valuable," Dumbledore said. "I trust you will be able to make quick decisions on your own, as you did when you were twelve. Now, once and for all, Vega, do I have your word that you will do all in your power to make me keep drinking?"
"Professor," Vega said. "Wait –"
"Do I have it?" Dumbledore repeated.
"But!" Vega said. "Please –"
"Your word, Vega," Dumbledore said firmly.
"I – all right, but –" Vega said but before she, or Harry, could make any further protest, Dumbledore lowered the crystal goblet into the potion.
For a split second in fear, Vega hoped that he would not be able to touch the potion with the goblet, but the crystal sank into the surface as nothing else had; when the glass was full to the brim, Dumbledore lifted it to his mouth.
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