Chapter 14-The site
The cave was partly hidden by brush and Severus showed the boys the entrance and they entered in single file. It was a good-sized limestone cave with interesting formations dropping from the ceilings and up from the floor.
Severus raised his wand.
"Lumos."
The boys gazed around looking at them.
Severus told them the formations dropping from the ceilings were known as stalactites and the ones on the floor were stalgamites.
Tyler asked how the Professsor could remember which was which.
Severus told him by a simple trick called Mnemonics. Jordan asked what that meant.
Severus told them "Mnemonics is a way of assisting you memory to retain facts. Such as stalaCtite has a "c" for "ceiling". And StalaG mite has a "g" for "ground". "
"Oh that is a neat way of memorizing." exclaimed Jordan
The professor set his bedroll down and told them to leave their bedrolls in the same area where the floor was clear and bring just the tools and equipment they were going to need in the knapsacks.
Professor Snape also told the boys "Put the elbow and shin pads on, then follow me and be careful. The pads will protect you from some of the sharp rocks but not all."
He walked forward approximately twenty feet turned to the wall on the left and there was a narrow fissure in the rock about two and a half feet wide, just enough space for them to squeeze through.
"Here is the fissure that I slipped through when I was younger." He turned sideways and slowly slid in and the boys followed behind him. They each had taken off their knapsacks and pulled them along beside them.
Jordan thought the Professor was fortunate to be as thin as he was because there was barely enough room to go through sideways. They did make it through and stood in a cavern where there were bones lying around.
The professor conjured up some bright lanterns so there was more light shed on the scene.
Professor Snape and Tyler laid out their tools. Trowels to remove the dirt, brushes spoons and dental picks.
Jordan had a small portable camera that he handed to Tyler who planned to take some pictures of the site.
The professor showed Jordan how to scrape the dirt away with the trowels and explained that they would use the brushes, spoons, and dental picks when excavating smaller features.
Tyler had already started observing the various werewolf skeletons and called out excitedly to the Professor.
"Look sir some of these skulls are shaped differently as if they had died in mid transformation."
"That does sound interesting, Jordan come with me and help clean away some of the dirt and strata while Tyler studies his find. Don't forget to mark our findings down carefully Tyler, we will take some scrapings from the different sources and we will study them back at the lab.
"What exactly are we looking for sir?" Questioned Jordan
"Tyler wants to see if he can improve on the wolfsbane potion and effect a cure rather than just preventing the person from transforming into a werewolf.
"It really is important to him isn't it sir?"
"Yes Jordan it is and I am willing to help him as is the staff at Saint Mungo's."
"There won't be any werewolves stalking around here now would there?" asked Jordan as he looked all around.
Professor Snape chuckled "No Jordan, --to affect a transformation there must be the full moon and that won't be for a couple of days yet so don't be fearful. We can work in peace right now.
"Yes sir." Jordan set to work carefully cleaning around the bones and brushing the dirt off as the Professor had shown him.
"Professor look at how these skulls have formed, I am trying figure out the order in which they started to transform. I have found what I think are five stages so far." Tyler exclaimed with excitement. He took and placed numbered labels on each of the five specimens he had chosen for study.
Tyler studied the skulls for specific changes and took pictures of each body with skull . He requested that the Professor to take small samples from each of them and mark on each package which skull and body it came from.
The professor had some sample packages filled out and ready. He set them down in a row. Each one was labelled carefully as to where the sample was to be taken. The sample was placed in them after the bodies were examined carefully along with its own skull. The hands and feet went from a human shape to paws with terribly large claws.
Jordan looked over the five skulls and the bodies they were once attached to and saw how they went from a human form to ones with longer snouts and heavier eye sockets. It struck him that though they were very misshapened now these were at one time live human beings like himself.
He realized the study was more complicated than it looked, as they sifted carefully over the area looking for clues on how and when each werewolf died.
They spent a long time carefully taking notes and samples and soon they got up to leave. The packages were divided and stored carefully into each backpack and they started back then the Professor removed the lanterns from the chamber, which went back to its peaceful darkened state.
They slid back through the fissure and back into the wide chamber where they had set their bedrolls.
The light was fading outside as twilight was forming. Jordan could hardly believe they had been there so long as it didn't seem like any time since lunch.
The Professor took his wand and said "incendio" a fire formed on the floor in front of him. The warmth and light seemed to seep to the corners of the cavern where they were sitting.
Tyler and Jordan retrieved the food that they had stored before going into the secondary cavern and they prepared to eat their supper and discussed their findings. Jordan noticed that Tyler was drinking something from a potion bottle, but didn't think any thing of it.
Eventually after it started to get really dark outside the cave they crawled into their knapsacks and fell asleep.