Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter; nor am I affiliated with any owners. (Unfortunately.)
Chapter Twenty-Eight: The Cave
"Really, Molly," Harry protested, stuffing yet another knit jumper into his trunk. "We have enough sweaters to keep an army warm!" The Weasley matriarch huffed, and handed Remus (who she firmly believed to be the only responsible one in their posse) a wooden box full of clattering glass vials.
"Warming Potions," she explained with a disapproving glance. "Since you absolutely insist of running off to Merlin knows where while you're still ill and burned!" Next to Harry, Sirius rolled his eyes in annoyance. Harry grinned. It seemed the two never really would see eye-to-eye - no matter the decade.
"Thank you, Mrs. Weasley," Remus said politely, stowing them into their communal trunk. Molly smiled at him warmly.
"It's no problem, dear," she said, giving him, then Harry, then Sirius (though grudgingly) a hug. "You're all sure you don't want any more food for your trip? I could just nip down to the kitchen and-" Harry interrupted her before she could get carried away.
"Thank you, but no thank you, Molly," said Harry. He turned towards Arthur Weasley. "And thank you, too, Arthur." The man smiled, wrapping his arm around Molly's waist.
"It's good to meet you, Harry. I hope I get to see you again. You've all been excellent guests." Arthur Weasley had been mostly quiet during their time at the Burrow, but now seemed determined to make his gratitude known.
Giving Molly and Arthur one last hug (and Charlie an affectionate ruffle of the hair), Harry, Sirius, and Remus jogged down the rickety wood stairs with haste. The three men strode through the overgrown garden, Sirius punting a garden gnome aside with a disturbing amount of amusement, until they reached the whitewashed gate.
Harry tugged the latch open and stepped outside the carefully constructed wards surrounding the Weasley home. Of their group, only he could feel the complex magic wavering and briefly sliding aside as they stepped out.
Once out of the gate, they looked around, feeling much more vulnerable than when they'd been in the Burrow. Then, they disappeared in a loud, "CRACK!"
Sirius Black, Remus Lupin and Harry Potter arrived in Basildon, England exactly four seconds later.
Basildon, population 18,000, was located around seventy miles from London - the location of Tom Riddle's "home," St. Mary's Orphanage. Incidentally, approximately three miles from Basildon was a small strip of rocky beach where local teenagers often came to have bonfires and drink the occasional bottle of alcohol taken from their parent's cabinets.
Once in a while, a tourist or two would happen upon this narrow area and stay for a picnic. To get the "authentic British feeling" of eating with the salt soaked air flying every which way. A school group had also been known to come here for a cheap field trip, not wanting spend money going to the local Aquarium or History Museum.
However, if one were to follow a bramble-covered trail upwards away from this tiny seaside beach, one would find a dark, damp cave. And inside this cave, Tom Riddle had left the locket of Salazar Slytherin.
This same trail was where three of the four (live) Marauders were walking, each with wands at the ready.
Harry could already feel the chills traveling slowly up his spine. The last time he was here, Albus Dumbledore had been within his last hour of life. Harry was only glad they'd managed to navigate around having to do the taxing swim once again.
"Are we almost there?" Sirius whispered, seemingly unsure why he was being so quiet. Harry nodded morosely. He could see the rough, rock mouth of the cave around eighty yards ahead with his magically enhanced eyesight, though his friends couldn't yet. Thirty seconds later, Remus gave a small gasp.
"There it is," the werewolf said. For a second, the three stood side by side, simply staring at the gaping, stalagmite and stalactite encrusted entrance. Harry gulped. This was the first time they were pretty much running in without a plan. Had Snape been there, he surely would have sneered at the pure "Gryffindor-ness" of their plan. Or, rather, lack of a plan.
In a rush, Harry's mind was full of flashbacks; Dumbledore and he clambering up out of the freezing water crashing and howling barely twenty feet away from their current position. Harry shivering until Dumbledore cast a Warming Spell on him. The blood sacrifice. The boat. The potion... the Infiri.
Without a doubt, the defences were the same. The only difference was that this time, the actual Horcrux was there, and not just a replica planted by Regulus Black.
Next to Harry, his friends sized the cave up with cautious eyes. "This is it, then." Sirius stated rhetorically. Harry took a deep breath and stepped forward towards the dark chasm. He had taken only a couple steps when Remus said,
"Wait!"
Harry halted immediately, searching around the dense trees for any sign of danger. There seemed to be none. He turned his head to Remus, cocking it slightly in confusion.
"Here - each of you take one of the Warming Potions Molly Weasley gave us," Remus said swiftly. "Getting cold slows your joints and reactions. Also, I've read about Infiri." Harry had already briefed them about the dangers of the cave. "They have two weaknesses, open flame and extreme cold.
"However, a simple 'Incendio' or 'Flagrante' curse won't cut it." Sirius and Harry paid close attention to Remus's grim words. "I've researched some more... effective fire conjuring spells in the past, however. A larger-effect one is 'Flamma Orbus.''
Harry was already familiar with several larger effect fire and ice spells, so he didn't pay too close attention. Sirius, however, was eagerly taught the wand motions. He practiced for a couple of minutes before deciding he knew it well enough.
"Come on," Harry said, motivated once again. "Let's go."
The cave was just as Harry remembered. Despite the fact that it was only about 1:00PM, and that the sun was uncovered by clouds, all natural light seemed to disappear only a few yards into the tunnel; as did the sound of the crashing waves against the rocks outside. Instead, they were treated with the resonating sound of dripping water as it echoed off the walls.
"Lumos," whispered Harry. His friends did the same. Holding his wand in front of him, they proceeded into the dark cave, studiously avoiding deadly sharp stalagmites shooting up from the stone ground. Finally, they reached the apparent end of the cave.
Remembering what needed to be done, Harry held out his arm with a grimace. "Diffindo," Harry said, twirling his wand and pointing it towards a small portion of his wand. Unlike other Dark cutting spells, this was meant for non-humans and was therefore less powerful. Sirius and Remus realized what he had done and made small noises of outrage.
Harry grimaced in pain as a few droplets of blood fell from his lightly lacerated arm. Immediately, the seemingly solid stone wall before them fell away into chalk-like dust. It piled in heaps on the wet ground, having no wind to blow it away. Tentatively, the three friends stepped forward.
They needed to walk barely a couple yards until they found it. Or rather, Sirius very nearly fell into it.
The Lake.
It seemed even larger than it had upon Harry's first visit here. The Lake was dark beyond belief, its surface so smooth and motionless one may have believed it was glass. Harry stared into it, almost hoping to see tell-tale signs of movement in its depths.
"Lumos Maxima!" Remus whispered, throwing his wand arm forward as if tossing the light. The larger than normal ball of light flew from the tip of his wand over the water. It hung brightly above the sinister body of water like a ghost, casting eerie shadows.
"You said there was a boat, right?" Sirius confirmed, looking around the rocks but finding nothing.
"Yeah, Dumbledore pulled an invisible chain out from somewhere around here," replied Harry, feeling around the ground. It couldn't be that hard to find...
After a couple of minutes searching, Sirius found it. Remus, his strength having dramatically increased (the full moon was in three days, after all) pulled it from the water with little effort.
"Dumbledore said only one person could pass over," said Harry, frowning at this conundrum. "Or, at least, one person of age. And unlike before, all three of us here are over seventeen."
There was silence. Harry was loathe to admit it, but he hadn't thought this as far thorough as he should have.
"You don't think we could just... you know... pile into the boat, do you?" Sirius asked, poking the boat as if to test its sturdiness.
"It's not a weight measurement, Sirius," Remus replied for Harry, walking around to look at the silver rowboat from a side view. "It's measured in magical power. If we all just got in, I have no doubt we'd sink once we got far enough out so we couldn't protect ourselves from the Infiri."
Harry nodded. This was what he'd been thinking. "Theoretically, we could just fight our way through," Sirius suggested after a couple more seconds. "I mean, who ever said we had to use the boat?"
"What about he Infiri?" Harry asked speculatively.
"I did say fight our way through, Harry," Sirius teased. "And I didn't just mean through the seaweed." Remus rolled his eyes at their friend's bad (not to mentioned ill timed) joke.
"That could work, I suppose..." Harry said with a doubtful tone. "However, before we do anything we need to discuss the potion itself."
At once, the mood took a dark turn. Sirius's eyes clouded. "I'll take it," he offered firmly. He bit his lip. "I don't have as much... hardship in my life as you two. My family may not have been the best, but they weren't as bad as yours, Harry - and that's not even going into the Voldemort issue!" Harry opened his mouth to argue, but Sirius interrupted again. "Plus, we only know for sure that this doesn't kill people with completely human blood. I hate to play this card, Moony, but you're a werewolf. For all we know, this could be fatal to you!"
Remus shut his mouth, seeing no good argument against Sirius's point. It was very true. Many potions Harry had learned of in Hogwarts and the Auror Academy had come with warnings not to be used on people with creature blood in them. Not only werewolves, but Veela, Giants or half-giants, vampires, mermaids... just because a person had full human intelligence and cognitive abilities didn't mean their internal systems worked the same way.
This lacking was the reason it had taken so many years for the Wolfsbane Potion to be created. Harry bit his lip. He hated to admit it, but Sirius was right. Remus was out of the running for sure; as was he. Merlin only knew what Harry would see when he took that nightmare of a Potion.
And Harry absolutely refused to use a house elf or another creature they could possibly get to take the potion. That was what Voldemort had done. If Harry stooped to his level, he was no better than the mass-murderer; using people and creatures only as tools. Harry gulped, grimacing as he tried to imagine what Sirius might see... luckily, he hadn't been in Azkaban yet, but he would surely still have terrible memories from Grimmauld Place.
-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/
"Leo Flammus!" Harry yelled, using the same fire lion he'd defeated Voldemort's water snake with in their battle. Albeit smaller. They were in an enclosed space, after all. The red-hot mammal roared deafeningly and pounced through the air, incinerating Infiri left and right.
Harry, Sirius, and Remus had been battling the seemingly endless army of Infiri for nearly ten minutes and the onslaught was showing no signs of slowing. Next to Harry, Remus and Sirius were casting a Combination Spell using a Frost Charm and an Aguamenti to create a deadly ice spear. The weapon was expelled and slammed through several of the undead before freezing them. Like stone statues, they iced over and sank like rocks into the dark water.
Harry physically kicked one of the sickly looking, pale creatures away, sending a Freezing Charm after it. Harry's mind wandered. All this fighting lately was getting rather boring... first Voldemort (though he could hardly call that one "boring"), then Death Eaters, then Peter Pettigrew, and now these Infiri... not to mention the various Horcruxes, all of which had put up a valiant fight.
Exhaling in an annoyed manner, Harry sent a particularly strong Flame-Freezing Hex towards a group which had gotten uncomfortably close to Sirius. Really, how many Infiri were under this lake? His guard let down a little, Harry turned, managing to dodge just in time to avoid an Infiri which had flung itself towards Harry bodily - its flaccid, bony arms dangling.
Harry released another fire-lion. Then an eagle, a badger, and a snake, as he felt a bit guilty for his House preference. After all, though lions were the most fierce of the animals listed, they weren't necessarily the best.
Finally, the number of Infiri seemed to be dwindling. Less of the zombies were leaping and hissing out of the water, and more were sinking down into it, imprisoned souls released. And that was another thing that made Infiri-fight so much less... real. It was almost like a video game or a movie in that the other side wasn't "real," or thinking. Harry was doing them a favor by allowing their souls to pass onto the next life.
When the last (visible) Infiri had been cut down by an impressive orb of flame, compliments of a rather self satisfied Sirius, Harry allowed his muscles to relax. They were still on the bank leading to the pounding Ocean only around 100 yards away. Instead of undertaking the risk of going by boat before attempting to battle against the Infiri, Harry, Sirius, and Remus had decided to beat them while they were still on shore.
The island and lake now looked considerably less scary with one of the main defenses gone. The only reason Harry had decided Sirius would be the one to take the potion was because now, without the Infiri guarding it, it would be simple to acquire the water needed to soothe his mind. In concept, at least.
"Come on," Remus urged. "Let's get to the boat just in case there are more." Harry frowned.
"The boat won't work," he said. Remus started, as did Sirius, who was halfway into the silver rowboat. He jumped back out of it as if Harry had said it was poisoned.
"But... you said-" Sirius contested, but Harry interrupted.
"Dumbledore told me that it can only hold one adult magical signature. All of us here are over seventeen, and therefore adults. Voldemort was counting on the Infiri keeping us from crossing without the boat, but I think we'll be okay now."
Remus nodded shakily, and flicked his wand wordlessly. A large brown boat appeared out of thin air. It was less elegant than the eerily beautiful, streamlined boat Voldemort had provided - but Harry could see it was far better protected. The sides were high, and three wooden slats crossed the sides of the boat as seats.
Wordlessly, the three friends piled in. Remus in front, supplying the power, Sirius in the middle (Harry had insisted that he was already doing enough by taking the potion), and Harry in the back, steering with a paddle.
They made good time, as it was just a straight shot to the little island. Ignoring his instincts, which were telling him not to look into the inky water, Harry bent his neck over the side and peered into the water. It was impossibly still. Not a current, nor fish, or even drifting plant moved. Even the surface ripples their boat was causing were tiny, and they disappeared in an unnaturally short time.
It was as if the water, like its only inhabitants, was dead.
Finally, the boat scratched up onto the little pebble beach of the island. Harry jumped a little. He hadn't realized they were nearing the area. In front of him, Sirius was pale. For all his chivalry and determined facade earlier, it was clear that he was petrified of having to down the potion.
They stepped ashore, wands out. Immediately, Harry's eyes fixed upon the green-glowing Pensieve-like pedestal which held the locket Horcrux. Though he couldn't see it from this slightly lower ground, Harry knew it would be filled to the brim with clear liquid. And, most importantly, that at the bottom would reside one of Voldemort's two remaining Horcruxes.
A little thrill of excitement ran through Harry's nerves as he realized that they had indeed destroyed nearly all the Horcruxes.
Then, a second later, he returned to his serious demeanor. This wasn't the time for good humor.
In silence, they walked up to the illuminated pedestal. When they finally reached the rock on which it was perched, Remus and Sirius began to seem nervous. Gritting his teeth, Harry learned his head over the bowl of liquid. It looked nearly exactly as it had before.
Experimentally, Harry neared his hand towards the liquid. As it had before, his hand was repelled before it got within eight inches of the bowl.
"You don't have to do this, Sirius," blurted Remus, looking frantic. He gripped Sirius' wrist in an attempt to stop any movements he might make towards the potion. Sirius' face was stony.
"What other choices do we have, Remus?" Sirius asked gravely. "We're running out of time! We've already decided that neither of you can take it, and we're not going to force-feed it to a magical creature. Harry's told us how that messed up Kreacher."
Harry noted that his godfather didn't speak with the normal venom he used when talking about his family's house elf.
Remus's eyes clouded as he thought furiously. Then, an understanding expression dawned upon his face.
"Harry, you said that the potion needs to be drunk, right?" He said excitedly. Harry nodded, wondering where his friend was going with this. "Well, what if it wasn't a human who drank it?"
"We just said that we're not going to use-" Harry reminded a bit harshly, but Remus interrupted him.
"I'm not talking about house elves! What if we used an Infiri?" Harry's heart jumped. He'd never even thought of that... would it really work? Infiri were dead, after all. It wasn't as if they had any conscious. They were humanoid puppets. The point of the potion was presumably to bring about bad memories... but what bad memories could a soul-less creature have?
But just when he was getting excited, his stomach dropped in disappointment. "But we just killed all the Infiri in this lake, Remus," he reminded the excited werewolf. His friend seemed to droop at this realization. "It was a good idea, though."
Sirius, however, didn't dismiss the idea nearly as quickly. "What if we could make an infiri?" he said, sounding half ashamed at his idea. After all, the creation of Infiri, even for such a good purpose, was some of the darkest magic you could cast.
"We don't know how to make Infiri," said Remus sharply, not liking where this was going. "It's not exactly school-approved material." Sirius shifted uncomfortably.
"I know how," he mumbled, staring at the steely gray stone beneath his feet with concentration. Harry's eyes softened. Sirius' family must have taught him... Sirius had earlier admitted to knowing how to cast Fiendfyre, and several markedly dark curses. However, Harry had never actually seen him cast them.
"Your parents?" Remus confirmed softly. Sirius nodded, looking ashamed. "They taught Regulus and I how to create several types of golems to bring into battle... but Infiri was the darkest type. It's relatively simple, actually, especially since we have all these pre-prepared b-bodies right here." His normally strong voice stumbled a bit over the word "bodies."
After a hesitant (yet unanimous) decision to at least try, Harry drew his wand.
"Accio Infiri!" he said, pointing his wand towards the inky water. At first, nothing seemed to happen. Then, with a quiet splash, a pale corpse flew out of the water. It flopped in front of them like a dead fish, pebbles crunching beneath it.
Gulping and looking like he'd rather be almost anywhere else, Sirius stepped forward, wand pointed at the body.
"Mortuus Genero," he whispered throatily, his wand twitching. A thin, pale green beam of light came from the end of his wand and hit the very center of the body's chest. The light continued to stream from Sirius' wand, as if it were liquid pouring into its chest. The sickly green color filled the former human, and over the course of about a minute, it began to inflate with the green magic, as if the spell were flowing into its blood stream.
Finally, Sirius ended the spell, wand arm shaking. The spell had obviously taken a lot out of their friend. Remus steadied him, patting him on the back. Harry, however, was focused solely on the newly created Infiri lying motionless before them.
"It won't hurt us," Sirius said, voice exhausted. "We're its creators. We hold the strings. It's not like all Infiri are automatically evil - it's just how they've been used." Harry was suddenly glad Hermione wasn't here. Who knew - the "Society for the Promotion of Infirius Welfware" might have been on its way.
Sure enough, a second later, the Infiri's eyes snapped open, pupils adjusting, and stood up. No expression was on its face as it looked sightlessly at the three friends. The Infiri's naked body and decaying skin stretched against protruding bones were sick, but even worse to Harry was the fact that they were using a dead body to do their dirty work. He grimaced, but managed to hold his stomach down.
Sirius wordlessly flicked his wand towards the pedestal. The Infiri walked zombie-like towards the clear potion. Though Sirius gave no verbal instruction, the Infiri seemed to know what to do. Harry held his breath in anticipation as it picked up the cup Sirius had conjured and dipped it through the force field and into the bowl, scraping it against the bottom of the potion.
Still without emotion, the Infiri brought the goblet to his bone-white lips and poured it into his throat. The liquid trickled down his esophagus without a swallow. Harry let out a breath. It seemed to be working. Seven more times, the Infiri - who was looking more sickly by the second - drank the potion. Finally, the clear liquid seemed to be gone. The hollows under its eyes now as deep and dark as canyons, the Infiri reached a shaking hand into the bowl and withdrew the locket.
Harry's eyes zeroed in on the necklace, searching it desperately. He gave a barely perceptible sigh of relief. It was Salazar Slytherin's locket, not a knock-off. The green emeralds forming a stylized "S" on the front proclaimed it as such. Though all his senses screamed at him not to put anything other than a wand point near the terrifying Infiri, Harry stretched out his hand. In a final burst of stumbling movement, the Infirius dropped Slytherin's locket into Harry's hand.
Harry grasped it, his body temperature and mood lowering instantly.
Sirius, from behind Harry, pointed his wand at the humanoid in front of Harry. "Absentis," he murmured. Harry thought he saw the briefest flash of relief in the Infiri's blank eyes before it crumpled to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut.
"Let's go," Remus said quietly, staring mournfully at the fallen Infiri before him. Sirius, too, was looking at the golem, pale faced. Harry was reminded painfully that, were it not for Remus, Sirius would have been the one to have taken the potion which had reduced Albus Dumbledore to a barely conscious wreck. The fact that it had had an effect even on an Infirius, which was (in essence) a soulless creature, only increased Harry's fear of the liquid.
At least, thought Harry, it's gone now.
Just as they were turning away to pile into the boat again, Harry withdrew his wand and pointed it again at the Infiri.
"Duro Induco," Harry said. An orange jet of light sprang from his wand. The color startled Harry for a second. He'd gotten used to the dismal atmosphere of the cave. In a quiet movement of soil, a rectangular shaped hole was cut into the rocky ground of the island. "Wingardium Leviosa," Harry said nostalgically. The limp body floated upwards just as smoothly as Hermione's feather had, so many years ago, and dropped softly into the grave.
The Infiri's open eyes shut, and his arms crossed over his chest. Harry twitched his wand once more, and the dirt and pebbles from the tiny beach flew back over the body, hiding it from sight. Only a small, unmarked rock was left as a makeshift headstone.
Remus and Sirius had been watching this with silent despondency. Without saying another word, they piled into the boat. Harry stowed the locket deep into his robes pocket, buttoning it up afterwards.
With barely a scraping noise, their boat pushed off from the island, leaving it looking almost just as it had when they arrived.
Harry closed his eyes in both physical and mental exhaustion.
Only one more to go.
END OF CHAPTER
Well, I hope you enjoyed chapter twenty-eight. It was fun writing it. :)
Reviews, as always, are much appreciated! A little constructive criticism or encouragement go a long way.
I'll try to update soon, if at all possible. Happy Holidays!
