Chapter 44 – The Cave

With one last look at her map for whereabouts on Draco, Lizzie headed down to meet Dumbledore in the entrance hall with her cloak. She slipped it on, and they walked together down to the Hog's Head in Hogsmeade in silence.

Rosemerta caught sight of Dumbledore and waved enthusiastically. Lizzie felt an odd demeanor shift from her that made her uneasy. Ever since the incident with Katie, she wasn't sure she really knew the woman.

Dumbledore gave an odd gesture to the bar keep at the Hogs Head before he took her arm and they apparated to their actual destination.

The familiar sensation of her body being crushed in apparition was broken with a wave of salt water that stung her nose. Lizzie pulled off and tucked her cloak away as they looked straight on toward the front of a large cliff that looked like God had taken a large chisel and broken it straight down the center.

"Lizzie, this place is going to know dark magic if it's the hiding place. Be prepared. Are you ready for a dip?" He asked, gesturing to the water.

"I'm still an awful swimmer, honestly," she admitted, and he chuckled. Dumbledore waved his wand and a bubble charm affixed to her face as they dropped down into the water. Lizzie made it across the choppy waters and hoisted herself up onto a large rock at the base of the cave and helped Dumbledore onto the ledge. She was surprised he managed the trek and realized when they got there why they could not apparate.

"We would have been spliched," she said, unable to affix her mind around a destination once she felt the foreboding atmosphere which no doubt contained dark magic barriers. Dumbledore nodded as he waved them dry.

Lizzie looked around at the black stone wall of the cave and felt an odd sensation of falling. She could hear young children laughing and yelling as though enjoying themselves on the beach. She turned around to look out at the rock they had apparated to and momentarily saw an eleven-year-old girl standing where they just had. Lizzie's ears were pierced with blood curdling screams from at least two children, followed by a girl who giggled and a boy who smiled menacingly with just his eyes.

Water snakes slithered near them, and Lizzie felt a strange sensation course through her blood stream. Her body went cold and clammy and Dumbledore stared at her anxiously.

"He came down here with her. Then I think they brought down another boy and girl that they terrorized. The others didn't know how they got here and were afraid they'd never be able to leave," Lizzie explained, as she caught flashed images of the children in the cave. She was surprised to see a darker side to little girl she knew from her visions as Leah, but had already assumed she was a witch, and did gather that Tom had exerted a great deal of control over her.

Dumbledore looked at the cave wall for signs of an entrance. "It requires payment... payment intended to weaken the intruder," he said after a few moments.

When he pulled out a knife to cut his hand, Lizzie stopped him. "What if we're not intruders?" she whispered. Lizzie closed her eyes and tried her best to fall completely into his headspace before asking it to open in parseltongue. The cave wall broke open as the rock blocks began to crumble around a small passageway.

Once through the shallow tunnel, they looked out on a vast black lake that seemed to extend for miles under the cliff. The water was completely still and foreboding. She could almost hear it whispering. Though it was the middle of May, Lizzie couldn't remember ever being quite as cold as she was in this cave. It was so deep into her skin her body felt like it stuck in a spasm or seize.

"Don't touch the water," Dumbledore ordered abruptly.

"Wasn't planning on it," Lizzie said quietly, her body had already broken out in hard goosebumps. "How do we get across?" She asked. "Do you think it's at the bottom if this lake?"

"No... I think it's at the center," Dumbledore looked around intently for signs of a boat or raft. Lizzie held up her hand for him to pause so she could listen to the water snakes for clues.

"We can't summon it can we?" She asked.

"Try... but try in parseltongue," Dumbledore said eagerly.

Lizzie closed her eyes again and muttered the spell in the language she dreaded, she hoped the magic would again mistake its master. There was a sudden lurch from out of the water and it came crashing back, which caused a large ripple in the water's surface.

"There's a chain," she whispered, and pointed to a small metal ring that peaked out under the now moving water. Dumbledore held up his arm and the chain shot up into his hand. Lizzie helped him pull a wooden boat from the depths that was just big enough for the both of them, and only because Lizzie was still rather thin and small in overall stature.

"What do you think that was?" She asked. Dumbledore didn't say anything but looked down into the water where they saw hair and outlines of hands as bodies appeared to be face down just under the surface of the water. Lizzie shivered involuntary around intruding memories of bathtubs.

"They're bodies," she whispered in horror, then looked back onto the rock ledge they had departed from to see the same girl staring back. Dumbledore didn't appear to see her.

They reached a small island where a white marble basin sat in the center and stepped off the boat and out onto the mound. Dumbledore cast a large light above them so they could examine the contents. Lizzie looked around her nervously then down at the basin full of a dusty purple potion.

"Think it's in there?" She whispered. He nodded and tried everything he could think of to siphon the liquid, transfigure it, displace it, but nothing budged. His hand couldn't even reach the surface of it.

"Can I try, professor?" She asked. He hesitated before nodding.

"Don't use your wand hand, Lizzie," he advised. Lizzie moved her hand toward it and it seemed to break the barrier and down into the fluid without objection. Just before the tips of her fingers could touch a chain she felt at the bottom, her hand burned furiously as though dipped in acid. She screamed and yanked it out quickly. It dried when it hit the air rendering none of the liquid lost from the basin. Lizzie watched as a few layers of skin melted around her hand and panted in pain as Dumbledore desperately attempted to mend it. He was only able to stop it from progressing and numb the pain.

"This is set to react without anecdote... it has to be drunk. All of it," he said apprehensively.

Dumbledore conjured a goblet and dipped it into the basin until it was full of the liquid.

"Professor, don't, it could do this to your insides... don't," Lizzie pled as she swallowed back the worry.

"I don't think it will. I don't think Voldemort would have wanted anyone who reached this point to die," he explained.

"But... this is...Voldemort, it's not as though he would've been impressed and given them a prize," Lizzie panted incredulously.

"No... he would kill them, but not before knowing how they knew about this place or his secret, see? This potion could do a number on me nonetheless. Lizzie, you need to promise me you will force this down my throat if I stop drinking, you understand?"

"But -" Lizzie protested.

"Azalea, you swore at the castle that you would trust me. That you would follow any command," he said sternly.

"Sir...I... if it does kill you..." she gaped.

"Lizzie, please trust me..." he pled. She nodded.

"I promise," she muttered, and he took a sip. He wasn't phased. He drank several goblets without reaction until his eyes suddenly went black and he began to seize.

"Professor," she exclaimed, and caught his collapse into a scrunched-up position on the floor. He was muttering and sputtering through cries of pain. To her it seemed more emotional pain than physical but was surely a mixture of both.

Lizzie grabbed for the goblet and got another down his throat before he shrieked in more pain.

"It was my fault," he cried. "Don't kill them, kill me...my fault... it was my fault," he said between sobs.

After another he grabbed Lizzie's wrists and looked angry. "What are you planning?" he hissed. "How much of her is left?" He added reproachfully. "Where is she?! How much of that little girl is left?!" He roared. His eyes were black as tar, and he looked ready to strangle the life her.

"Sir, please, it's me... I'm here, it's Lizzie! This next one will help, I promise!" She lied.

"I created monsters..." he sobbed. "She should kill me, not you, but how do we make her understand?" He cried. Lizzie froze momentarily to listen.

"Understand what, sir?" She asked, crouching down to eye level.

He shook his head violently and cried. "The - difference," he panted.

Lizzie gave him the last goblet and he toppled over into a fetal position. Lizzie snatched up the locket at the bottom of the basin in a hurry and then rushed to his side.

"Professor! No, no, no..." she said, and tried to prop him up and tap life into his face.

After a moment he opened a very dry mouth and hoarsely muttered the word 'water.' Lizzie attempted to fill the goblet using the spell, but it ran empty when the goblet touched his lips. She then touched her wand near his mouth and mumbled "aguamenti," a short stream spilled out over his face, and he managed to catch some. It wasn't enough.

Lizzie had the foreboding feeling that something was standing behind her and looked over her shoulder to see the girl. Lizzie froze unable to move or stop staring at the milky white frosted eyes. Her hair was wet and red, and her body had decayed. She snatched the chain from Lizzie's hand and scurried back into the water like an animal. Lizzie had a feeling that if she had been anyone else the girl would have tried to kill her. She looked out onto the lake as the light went out and everything around her went black.

I should have said a better goodbye to everyone. Nobody is going to even know where to find us, Lizzie thought in a panic. She looked at Dumbledore and back at the water. It couldn't be for nothing, she reasoned and dived into the water after the girl with a light lit at the tip of her wand.

She sunk in the water and moved her wand around. The girl was a meter away and stared at Lizzie with a menacing smile, then oddly extended a bony hand and handed the necklace back to her. When she plunged toward the surface, Lizzie felt a hand wrap around her ankle and pull her down into the depths. There were swarms of them from what she could see in the dim light.

Lizzie sent a stinging jinx downward and broke her foot free, then used an ascendio charm to quickly break the surface. As she clambered up onto the rock, she shot madly at the swarm of inferi with every spell that came to mind.

With a loud crack the air around them became blistering hot and a large ring of fire swarmed around them like a lasso. She looked back to see Dumbledore, pale and frail, managing to summon the large ring.

Lizzie pointed her wand at the boat to draw it as close as possible and helped him into it. When they approached the rock gate, it had sealed but no longer responded to parseltongue.

Lizzie had a cut on her leg from the rock on the mound and ran a bloody hand over the rock to reopen the passage.

It sealed behind them, and she struggled to get Dumbledore back to the rock offshore before they could apparate. It was completely dark, only the moon lit their path to the spot they could escape from. The current of the waves felt stronger, and Lizzie cast a weightless charm to back paddle him to the rock safely when she felt it impossible to keep her head above the surface under his weight.

He curled up like a limp rag doll on the surface and Lizzie waved her wand to dry them off. It didn't stop the bone chilling cold that was deep in her body. "Pr-pr-professor? Are y-yo-you still with me?" She asked through chattering teeth at eye level with him. She was rubbing warmth into the side of his face and Dumbledore nodded weakly.

"I got it," she panted. "We can go, just hold on for a moment, a-alri-ght?" She said reassuringly and patted his head.

With a loud crack they were back in the center of the Hogsmeade main road. Dumbledore collapsed again in her arms and Lizzie called for help. She noticed windows and curtains were drawn and there wasn't a light to be seen on in any of the buildings. The same bone-chilling feeling of foreboding from the cave washed over Lizzie, and her eyes widened in horror at a large dark mark lit above the castle.