Chapter Fifty-Two
When Ed arrived at the spot he was supposed to, he looked around. He could smell salt and hear rushing waves. The light, chilly breeze ruffled the bangs that framed his face and blew his ponytail. Ed was standing upon a high outcrop of dark rock, water foaming and churning below him. He glanced over his shoulder to see a towering cliff standing behind him, a sheer drop, black and faceless.
"Shit," Ed breathed.
"Quite amazing, isn't it?" Dumbledore asked, suddenly appearing with Harry beside him.
Ed jumped and looked at the duo.
"BE CAREFUL!" Ed shouted. "I COULD HAVE FALLEN AND DIED! AGAIN!"
Dumbledore chuckled.
"Do not worry, Edward, if you were to fall, I would be sure to save you," Dumbledore assured.
Ed grumbled and straightened out his coat.
"Anyway, they took the kids here for trips?" Ed asked in disbelief. "What was that woman on, drugs?"
Dumbledore chuckled again. Harry couldn't help but to grin himself.
"Not here, precisely," Dumbledore answered. "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?"
Ed scoffed.
"But his final destination – and ours – lies a little farther on," Dumbledore said. "Come."
Dumbledore beckoned Ed and Harry 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. Flecks of cold salt spray hit Ed's and Harry's faces.
"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 whispered, holding his wand a little higher.
There was a fissure in the cliff into which dark water was swirling.
"You two will not object to getting a little wet?" Dumbledore asked.
"No," Harry answered.
"Guess not," Ed muttered.
"Then take off your Invisibility Cloak, Harry – there is no need for it now – and let us take the plunge," Dumbledore said. "You take the plunge, too, Edward."
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 breast-stroke, toward the dark slit in the rock face, his lit wand held in his teeth. Harry pulled off his cloak and stuffed it into his pocket.
"Crazy bastard," Ed muttered.
Then he followed a moment later, Harry right behind him.
"Shit!" Ed swore. "This water is so cold!"
The fissure opened into a dark tunnel that Harry and Ed 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 it extended far into the cliff. They all continued to swim. A few moments later, they got out of the water and were standing in the middle of the cave. Dumbledore stood in the middle with his wand held high as he turned slowly on the spot, examining the walls and ceiling.
"Yes, this is the place," Dumbledore confirmed.
"How can you tell?" Harry whispered.
"It has known magic," Dumbledore answered.
As Dumbledore examined the cave and Harry shivered, Ed clapped his hands and pressed them to his chest. With a light blue alchemical flash, Ed's clothes had dried. This reminded Dumbledore of Harry being cold and wet and dried Harry's clothes. Then Dumbledore went back to examining the cave wall.
"Oh, surely not," Dumbledore suddenly said after two long minutes. "So crude."
"What is?" Ed asked.
"I rather think," Dumbledore said, putting his uninjured hand inside his robes and drawing out a short silver knife used for chopping potion ingredients, "that we are required to make payment to pass."
"Payment?" Harry asked. "You've got to give the door something?"
"You gotta sacrifice young virgins or something?" Ed remarked.
"Not quite," Dumbledore answered. "But it is rather crude as I have said before. It's blood."
Harry had his mouth open in shock: both at Ed's remark and at the blood payment.
"The idea, as I am sure you will have gathered, is that your enemy must weaken him-or herself to enter," Dumbledore explained. "Once again, Voldemort fails to grasp that there are much more terrible things than physical injury."
"Yeah, but if you can avoid it…," Harry started.
"Sometimes, however, it is unavoidable," Dumbledore answered, shaking back the sleeve of his robes and exposing the forearm of his injured hand.
Before Harry or Ed could protest, Dumbledore had cut his arm and the blood splashed onto the wall. Dumbledore healed his arm and then went through the archway that had appeared. Ed and Harry followed, both lighting their wands as they went. An eerie sight met their eyes: They were standing on the edge of a great black lake, so vast that the distant banks could not be made out, 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. The greenish glow and the light from the three wands were the only things that broke the otherwise velvety blackness, though their rays did not penetrate as far as Ed or Harry would have expected. The darkness was somehow denser than normal darkness.
"Let us walk," Dumbledore said quietly. "Be very careful not to step into the water."
"What'll happen if we step into the water?" Ed asked. "Voldebutt's zombies would come after us?"
Dumbledore didn't answer as he set off around the edge, making Ed scowl. He and Harry followed close behind Dumbledore. Their footsteps made echoing, slapping sounds on the narrow rim of rock that surrounded the water. 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.
"This is a freakish place," Ed muttered.
"Yeah," Harry agreed. "Professor, do you think the Horcrux is here?"
"Oh, yes," Dumbledore answered. "Yes, I'm sure it is. The question is, how do we get to it?"
"We couldn't…we couldn't just try a Summoning Charm?" Harry suggested.
"I doubt that it's that simple, Harry," Ed said.
"We could still try," Dumbledore said, stopping suddenly and turning to Ed and Harry. "Why don't you do it, Harry?"
"Me?" Harry asked. "Oh…okay…"
Harry cleared his throat.
"Accio Horcrux!" Harry summoned loudly.
With a noise like an explosion, something very large and pale erupted out of the dark water some twenty feet away; before Ed or Harry could see what it was, it had vanished again with a crashing splash that made great, deep ripples on the mirrored surface.
"What the HELL was that?!" Ed shouted.
"That, Edward, was something, I think, that is ready to respond should we attempt to seize the Horcrux," Dumbledore explained.
"Wonderful," Ed muttered.
The surface of the lake was once more shining black glass. The ripples had vanished unnaturally fast.
"Did you think that would happen, Professor?" Harry asked.
"I thought something would happen if we made an obvious attempt to get our hands on the Horcrux," Dumbledore answered. "That was a very good idea, Harry; much the simplest way of finding out what we are facing."
"But we still don't know what the thing was," Harry said, looking at the sinisterly smooth water.
"You mean things, Harry," Ed pointed out. "I highly doubt Voldemort would just have one thing guarding his Horcruxes."
"Edward is right, Harry," Dumbledore agreed. "Shall we walk on?"
"Professor?" Harry asked.
"Yes, Harry?" Dumbledore asked.
"Do you think we're going to have to go into the lake?" Harry asked.
"I hope not," Ed muttered.
Dumbledore chuckled.
"Only if we are very unfortunate," Dumbledore answered.
"You don't think the Horcrux is at the bottom?" Harry asked.
"Oh no…I think the Horcrux is in the middle," Dumbledore answered.
Dumbledore pointed toward the misty green light in the center of the lake.
"Let me guess, we have to cross the lake to get to the damn thing, don't we?" Ed assumed.
"Correct," Dumbledore answered.
Harry didn't say anything. A moment later, Dumbledore stopped and Harry walked into him. Harry was about to topple into the dark water, but Ed had automatically caught hold of Harry's arm and pulled him back.
"I thought you said you'd let me fall next time?" Harry said.
"Don't get the wrong idea, Harry," Ed remarked. "I just didn't want to get detention for letting you get eaten up by Volde-shit's zombies."
Dumbledore chuckled as he ran his hand through thin air, and then he closed his hand around something a moment later. Dumbledore moved closer to the water and raised his wand with the other hand 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 Dumbledore's clenched hand. Dumbledore 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. A 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 Ed, Harry, and Dumbledore stood.
"How did you know that was there?" Harry asked in astonishment.
"Magic is like Alchemy in this one part," Ed answered. "They always leave traces."
"Edward is correct, Harry," Dumbledore agreed. "And I have taught Tom Riddle, so I know his style."
"Is…is this boat safe?" Harry asked.
"Oh, yes, I think so," Dumbledore answered. "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."
"So the things in the water won't do anything to us if we cross in Voldemort's boat?" Harry asked.
"I think we must resign ourselves to the fact that they will, at some point, realize we are not Lord Voldemort," Dumbledore answered. "Thus far, however, we have done well. They have allowed us to raise the boat."
"But why have they let us?" Harry asked.
"Because they and Voldemort are stupid idiots," Ed answered before Dumbledore could. "And Voldemort is too full of himself to think that people wouldn't be able to get past his defenses."
"But the boat doesn't look like it was built for three people," Harry said.
"He's more concerned about the magical power, not the weight," Ed said. "You probably won't matter since you're not of age, but mine probably will. So you can go with Dumbledore, and I won't be able to… How boring to just stay here on this stupid bank…"
"On the contrary, Edward, you will be coming too," Dumbledore contradicted.
"How?" Ed asked, skeptically.
"Alchemy," Dumbledore answered simply. "There should be enough material here so that you could transmute a bridge for yourself without having to touch the water."
"But Teacher banned me from using Alchemy except during her class," Ed said.
"You had used it to dry yourself off, hadn't you?" Dumbledore pointed out.
"Oh, yeah, right," Ed muttered.
"Do not worry, Edward, I am sure that Professor Curtis will understand my giving you permission to use your Alchemy," Dumbledore assured.
Ed sighed.
"All right, but if she bitches at me, I'm blaming you," Ed muttered.
"I will accept full blame, Edward," Dumbledore promised.
"You better," Ed muttered. "Well, here goes."
Ed extinguished the light on his wand, put the wand back into his boot, clapped his hands, squatted on the ground, and pressed his hands against the bank. Electric blue light sparked as a narrow bridge of sorts expanded from their side of the bank to the small island in the middle of the cave.
"Just amazing," Dumbledore said, as Ed stood up.
"Yeah, I know I'm awesome," Ed boasted, straightening his coat. "Well, see you two on the other side."
Then Ed started walking on the bridge he had made for himself, his hands in his pants' pockets.
"He certainly does look like his father from behind," Dumbledore commented. "Except his father doesn't have that wonderful coat."
Harry looked with confusion up at Dumbledore. Harry wasn't sure if Dumbledore seriously liked Ed's gaudy (in Harry's opinion) coat or if he was just being nice.
"Well, let's go on, shall we?" Dumbledore said.
Harry nodded. They both got into the boat and started on their way to the small island in the middle of the cave. Ed had gotten there a minute or two before Dumbledore and Harry had. He was standing near a pedestal, looking into the stone basin that was sitting on top of it.
"Sure does have a thing for green, doesn't he?" Ed muttered, sensing the presence of Dumbledore and Harry.
"Much like your 'thing' for red," Dumbledore chuckled.
"I'm nothing like that bastard," Ed growled. "My style is a lot better than his."
"My apologies," Dumbledore said.
Ed grumbled a 'whatever' and sighed.
"Have you tried anything to get past this liquid, Edward?" Dumbledore asked.
"Yeah," Ed answered. "It's like there's a freakin' barrier preventing anyone from using magic or alchemy against it. And I can't touch it either."
"You tried to touch it?" Harry asked in shock.
"Yeah, nothing happened," Ed answered. "I think it has to be drunk."
"You might be quite right, Edward," Dumbledore agreed.
"Just once could you call me 'Ed', old man?" Ed asked impatiently. "It's getting annoying to always being called 'Edward.'"
"But your name is Edward," Dumbledore pointed out.
"Are you gonna call me 'Ed' or not, old man?" Ed snapped.
"I don't think I shall," Dumbledore answered. "Edward is a noble name. Your mother gave you that name because she must have thought so herself, and I shall call you by your full first name."
"Annoying old man," Ed muttered.
Dumbledore chuckled again and then conjured a crystal goblet.
"Don't drink it, Professor!" Harry protested.
"Only by drinking it can I empty the basin and see what lies in its depths," Dumbledore said.
"But what if – what if it kills you?" Harry asked.
"It won't kill him immediately, Harry," Ed said. "Voldemort would want to keep the person who found this place and his secret out alive long enough to find out how they did. But it's still a stupid idea to drink it, Dumbledore. You should let -"
Dumbledore raised a hand to silence Ed and Harry.
"Undoubtedly," Dumbledore finally said, "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, and create so much pain I am distracted, or render me incapable in some other way. This being the case, Edward, Harry, 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?"
Neither Ed nor Harry spoke.
"Do you two remember the condition on which I brought you here?" Dumbledore asked.
"But this is stupid!" Ed snapped. "I should drink it instead!"
"But are you not Father's precious sacrifice?" Dumbledore asked. "He would have Pride kill me for allowing you to get yourself -."
"I don't care about that!" Ed interrupted angrily. "I would rather die than let that bearded bastard use me and Al and Teacher in his stupid plans!"
"What about Miss Rockbell?" Dumbledore asked. "Wouldn't she be upset that the love of her life had given his life up for something that does not concern your country?"
Ed didn't say anything. Then Dumbledore shook his sleeves back and dunked his goblet into the stone basin. After watching Dumbledore drink a few gobletsful of the potion and then Harry forcing Dumbledore to drink a couple more, Ed couldn't take Dumbledore's screaming or protesting anymore.
"Stupefy!"