More missions
The next morning Harry got a note with loopy handwriting Harry recognised as Professor Dumbledore's.
'Immediately after dinner, my office, ice-mice. We will be travelling.'
The note, thought Harry, pretty much ruined his entire day. Not that it was a great day – Transfiguration with McGonnagall, and she always watched him like she expected him to do something dreadful. Harry couldn't understand her. As if he'd do something dreadful while she was watching.
Harry found his appetite quite dulled at Dinner, and after roast beef and Yorkshire pudding, he ignored the dessert offerings, going back to dorms to get a cloak and try to think what he should take.
The gargoyle stepped aside when Harry said 'ice mice'. Harry rode the moving spiral staircase upwards, and opened the door.
"Ah, Harry" said Professor Dumbledore, who'd changed out of his robe into a darker robe, and a heavy cloak. "Come along" said the Headmaster, and he lifted one arm "Fawkes?"
The phoenix lifted its head from under one wing and blinked at Harry and the Headmaster.
"Would you take Harry and I for a little trip?" asked Professor Dumbledore.
"Caw" went Fawkes, and the phoenix leapt from its perch, flapped once and landed on the Professors raised hand. The Professor's other hand landed on Harry's shoulder in a rather… condescending way, thought Harry.
"Now Harry, Fawkes is going to – " started the Professor, but was cut off as the world was consumed by reddish gold fire.
The fire faded, and Harry found himself standing with Professor Dumbledore on a cliff , which from the sound of waves and smell of salt, might be the sea. It was a bit dark to make out the scenery.
Fawkes cawed once, flapped its wings and took off, flying in a circle above Harry, then vanishing in a burst of flames.
"– take us by flame travel" finished Professor Dumbledore, sounding, to Harry's ear, a little peeved. Like someone, a phoenix, perhaps had stolen his thunder.
"Where are we?" asked Harry, as that seemed relevant.
"Near a sea cave that Tom Riddle went to as an orphan. Some of the other orphans went in with him, and did not find the experience … one they every wished to remember." said Professor Dumbledore. Harry was seized with curiosity. What had young Voldemort done? Not killed them… but something powerful, and while underage too. Harry filed away the thought that Tom Riddle had been much better at controlling the world before Hogwarts than Harry. Still Harry had caught up a little. Though precisely how, he didn't know, Harry had only a vague sense of achievement, with no attending memories or context.
"There is, I believe a track" said Professor Dumbledore, and he led Harry down a narrow track through wind-twisted bushes and scraggly grass, scarcely wide enough for one foot, let alone to walk down. The track ended on a beach edged with covered in rounded off pebbles, but the sea dominated it, surging back and forth, the edges covered in white foam.
"The cave is accessed, I believe from the sea, round that point" said the Professor, pointing at a small peninsula, like a scruffy goatee of rock, that stuck into the sea. "We will walk over it, and make our way in."
Harry followed, wondering why a trip to the seaside mattered so much. In daylight, at least there'd more to look at. The rocky finger they stood on fell away sharply on the other side, and a gap between it and the next rock finger had a splashing surge of sea rushing in and out.
"That" said Professor Dumbledore "Is our entrance."
"The sea is in the way" observed Harry. Professor Dumbledore tapped himself with his wand, and then Harry. "We're water-resistant now. The waves will try to pull you out to sea, or crush you against the walls."
"And we can't fly or apparate in?" asked Harry.
"There are defences" said Professor Dumbledore obliquely "The less magic we do going in, the less likely we are to get an unwanted visit, or trigger a trap."
Harry discontentedly followed the professor into the water, which failed to wet him, and he half waded, half paddled into the cave, fringed with seaweed and smelling of seaweed and rot.
The cave sloped up a little, and they left the water, walking over shallow puddles in the rocks. The Professor's wand cast light on the rough, naturally occurring rocky walls, the lower parts covered in sea plants.
Professor Dumbledore cast some sort of charm and nodded, "Over here" he said, and tapped the side wall with his wand. "Now, to open, we need to do something."
Harry waited.
Blood from the Professor's hand made a section of wall vanish utterly, opening a gap into a much larger cave, dark and vast, with glittering crystals on the ceiling, reflecting an eerie green glow, which seemed to come from something on an island… as the cave had a dark, motionless lake.
"Do not" said Professor Dumbledore "Touch the water."
Harry itched to cast a detection spell, to know what was going on, but the trace meant he was powerless.
"I can't help, the trace" said Harry.
Professor Dumbledore extended his arm to the fullest, and spun on his boot-tips, waving his wand in a vast circle, and said "This cave is now beyond the reach of the trace."
Harry gritted his teeth. Of course the old berk had done that silently – Harry needed to know that spell. If only to sell the knowledge. Where 'only' loosely translated to hundreds and hundreds of galleons from his fellow students.
Harry lit his wand. It helped quite a lot, as the floor was uneven, and the lake malignant. The Headmaster walked about, searching for something, so Harry went to the lake, lifted his wand and increased the light output. White… somethings, large white somethings lay in the water one it was deeper. Harry threw his lumos into a witch-light, and floated it out, and the white somethings were more clearly illuminated… as drowned humans.
"Sir" said Harry "The lake is full of drowned people."
"Ah. As I said, do not touch the water." said the Headmaster. And the tone was a bit chiding.
The Headmaster found what he'd been looking for – a disillusioned bronze chain, green with verdigris that led into the lake. That he proceeded to pull on. Harry waited for a body to be pulled out, and was surprised when instead, a small row-boat came out of the lake, and bobbed, suddenly empty of water. The Headmaster waved his empty hand "Come along Harry, as you're underage, the protections won't detect you." And got onto the small row-boat. Or was it a dingy?
Harry walked over, and climbed in, careful not to step into the lake.
Professor Dumbledore dropped the chain, which slithered over the side of the boat, and the boat slid silently across the lake to the small rocky island in the middle. The greenish glow was stronger as they got closer, and Harry risked a glance over the side of the boat. Drowned corpses floated just under the surface, their eyes dark. Harry peered closer, and spotted runes cut unto the chests. Not corpses, inferii. Part of Harry's brain started to gibber at the thought of being in a tiny wooden boat floating over a lake full of inferii. Harry concentrated on not panicking. The boat finally crunched into the gravel of the island's shore.
Professor Dumbledore pointed to the island and Harry got out first. The old git got out, and stepped over to the … stone pillar which had a hollow on top, filled with glowing green liquid.
"Now, this liquid may only be drunk." explained Professor Dumbledore "Once I start, don't allow me to stop, and don't touch the lake, or allow me to do so."
"Allow you?" asked Harry.
"I fear, it will make me rather thirsty, and cause some discomfort." explained Professor Dumbledore rather blandly.
"And why?" asked Harry.
"Look into the liquid" offered Professor Dumbledore. Harry picked his way over and looked in. At the bottom of the bowl of glowing green liquid, something glittered, metallic and rounded.
"Can't just… vanish it then?" asked Harry, for forms sake.
"And it must be drunk." added Professor Dumbledore, conjuring a goblet.
The first sip clearly tasted terrible. The second goblet-full had Professor Dumbledore grimacing and shuddering.
"Tastes bad?" offered Harry.
Professor Dumbledore, who'd stopped drinking blinked and shuddered, and let out an unexpected groan. His eyes were glassy, then he blinked. "Not the bad taste, but the visions it brings" offered Professor Dumbledore, closing his eyes and concentrating, and gingerly taking another cup-full.
Two cups later the professor was a cold, sweating heap next to the pillar, and Harry had to fill the goblet.
"Please no…. Don't make me" groaned Professor Dumbledore.
Harry tried not to grin, and topped off the goblet and offered it to Professor Dumbledore's hairy lips. Two goblets later, Professor Dumbledore's pleas were ghastly, and Harry felt slight remorse as he poured another cupful into Professor Dumbledore's mouth. "No, not Araina!" cried Professor Dumbledore.
Whatever the potion did, thought Harry, he was glad it wasn't him drinking it, and, having to hold Professor Dumbledore in a sitting position, he managed to pour all the last goblet-full into the professor's mouth. Harry snatched up the golden locket from the bottom of the bowl.
"I'm so thirsty" gasped Professor Dumbledore, lying on his back, his blue eyes unseeing. "Some water."
Harry waved his wand, and his water-summoning charm failed to make water into the goblet.
Harry tried to pull the prostrate professor upright, but the old git rolled over and crawled shakily towards the water "Water" groaned Professor Dumbledore.
He herded the clearly hallucinating headmaster towards the boat, and managed to lift his arms, which led to Professor Dumbledore crawling into the boat. He felt quite pleased with his success, but the boat started moving, and Harry had to dash to get in. Something grabbed at the boat, making a thud. Harry looked down at his ...wet shoe. Ooops.
The boat travelled slowly, and the … inferii started clawing at the edge of the boat, slowing it further.
Harry knock-back jinxed them away, and the boat resumed its travel. But the inferii of the lake were restless now, the ones in shallower water standing up. The all looked quite dead. And like they'd been kept in the lake for years. And all headed for Harry and the boat.
Knock-back jinxes were not enough, and the Headmaster was lying in the bottom of the boat groaning to himself, so Harry cast a particularly nifty inferii ripping spell he'd learnt last year. The inferii he hit with the black, dripping ray was torn to bits.
"They fear fire" whispered the headmaster.
Harry eyed the wooden boat, and decided he feared fire too right now.
By the time Harry got to the shore of the lake, the inferii were mobilised, and maybe usefully, Professor Dumbledore was sitting up a little, and waved his wand , throwing a fiery whip across the inferii.
Harry helped Professor Dumbledore, who could barely crawl out of the boat, and flame-whipped inferii, and forced them all back to a better, non-clawing or biting distance. Then Harry switched to the inferii ripper spell, and really let it go. The blackish blade-like light cut swathes through the army of inferii, leaving the smell of rotting pork, and apart from the desperate panic to not be eaten by animated corpses, after a few utterly terrifying minutes, Harry had a good feel for the inferii ripper spell , and no more inferii. And no desire to take on inferii again, ever. Some sources claimed the scratches or bites were cursed. Given that these were Voldemorts inferii, it was a sure bet that if they weren't normally, Voldemort would have 'improved them' anyway.
Harry banished all the dead, stinking corpse bits he could into the lake.
"Harry, where did you learn that spell" coughed Professor Dumbledore, lying shakily on the cave floor.
"Curses most vile, or maybe De Re Necroamancia?" said Harry "One of those."
"And where did you read that?" gasped Professor Dumbledore.
"Restricted section" said Harry "Saved our arses right now."
Harry helped Professor Dumbledore to his feet and helped him stagger to the open mouth of the sea-cave.
"Harry… you must help me to the rock, the one we swam from. Once there, you will have to apparate us back to Hogsmeade, where we can get some help getting to medical attention." said Professor Dumbledore.
"Can't we leave from here, sir?" asked Harry nervously "The tide is higher, and I am … well I'm not much of a swimmer, and with you as dead weight?"
"Appraration is blocked by some quite nasty protections" gasped Professor Dumbledore "Tom was very clever."
"Kreacher?" Harry called out, and with a loud crack, the aged house-elf from Grimmauld place appeared in front of Harry, looked about, and fell to its knees, sobbing.
"Kreacher is a good elf" sobbed Kreacher "Don't make me go back to the lake, Master"
"What?" asked Harry.
"Master Regulus made me go with the Dark Lord, to test the potion" croaked Kreacher "And then I brought master Regulus later, and we took the locket, and put the Master's locket. The things took Master, but he ordered Kreacher, he ordered – "
The elderly house elf collapsed into a sobbing mess.
"What did Master Regulus order you?" Asked Harry.
"He ordered me to go home and destroy the locket. And the things took Master." said Kreacher from his position prostrate floor of the cave.
"Oh my" croaked Dumbledore. "What a fool I've been."
"Me too" said Harry "Kreacher could have taken me places. Where's the best place to get medical care?" he added more flippantly than he really felt.
"The Hogwarts infirmary, but the elf cannot take us there." said Professor Dumbledore.
"Well, how about a hospital?" Asked Harry.
"St Mungo's would be able to treat this, yes, but Hogwarts will be more discreet" croaked Dumbledore.
Harry grabbed Professor Dumbledore by one limp hand "Kreacher, take us to St Mungo's. Professor Dumbledore drank the potion."
"Oh it's dreadful" cried Kreacher "Kreacher had such bad thoughts."
"Now Kreacher, take us there Right Now" said Harry, and Kreacher stood and grabbed Harry's other hand, and they vanished into a dark pressure much like appraration, to land in a green painted waiting room, sick witches and wizards sat around looking bored.
"Some help please, Professor Dumbledore's been poisoned" said Harry loudly.