Chapter 43: Into the Cave
Cressida and Sirius sit in the lounge room, waiting anxiously with near full cups of tea in their hands. It was cold by now. She went over everything in her head so many times that she was anticipating and answering her own thoughts before they even formed. They have their brooms, their wands, she knows where they're headed. Spells. Escape plans. All they had to wait on was James and Bastian.
"It's going to work."
Her eyes lift slowly up from the stained carpet. Sirius sits on the edge of his seat, elbows pressed into his knees. "I know it will. It has too." With a grim smile, she adds, "I'm just trying to figure out at what cost."
"Time," he answers quietly. They're the only things making sound in the entire house. "That's all."
Cressida nods and forces herself to sip the stone-cold tea. Bastian would be their first priority. All three of them agreed. But Cressida begins to question in her mind what would happen if it were between Bastian and James. All she can see in her mind is herself reaching for James first and it makes her so sick to the stomach but at the same time…grateful because she would still have him.
Sirius perks, eyes flickering to the window behind her that displays the front hundred yards of so to the road. "They're here."
Cressida swiftly places her teacup down and rises to her feet. She opens the front door before James and Bastian even reach it. The young boy smiles, his broomstick in one hand. James rubs the boy's back affectionately, letting him pass into the house first. Cressida stands to the side, watching as Sirius engages him with a wink and witty line.
"You ready?"
She forces her eyes away from the now empty spot in the front room. James stands just inside the threshold as she is. "Are you?"
No. Cressida tracks down Bastian once more, asking him again if he truly understood what they were doing. To his credit, he gave nothing but swift and confident answers – but they just reassured her less. Nobody should be that confident going into something like this.
Their preparation to leave is quiet and tense but they move together like worker bees in a hive. There isn't much else to take other than their brooms and their wands. The four wizards and witch line up outside the front porch and mount their brooms. "We stay high and out of Muggle sight. We shouldn't face any danger in the air but if we do get split up for any reason, James' house is the safe-house." The four boys nod and her instruction, hovering the ground. "It's a long journey but we cannot apparate directly into it and I don't know the area well enough to get us anywhere close." And this way, they could analyse the grounds before they make their landing and presence possibly known.
They zip into the sky – four trained and talented riders with a natural flair and years of training keeping them easily working together. At first their eyes stay planted on the path ahead, weaving near the clouds and avoiding the airspace of towns and villages. They'd pass as large birds in the sky as long as they kept their distance.
But after an hour of flying, they begin to look at each other like their nerves are beginning to radiate and be felt. Cressida urges her broom closer to James. "How does it feel to be flying again?" she asks, barely heard over the wind.
"Natural," he answers with a short smile. "But I keep imagining a Quaffle is going to come out of nowhere. Or a Bludger."
"Good thing we've got a Beater with us. He wasn't any good though, was he, really?" The pair send their cringing faces towards Sirius who is oblivious to their conversation but sees their expression. Their laugh is soft and short, but a moment of serenity before what is to come.
Cressida knows that there are nearing their destination as the sea comes into view. There is no beach or soft waves. There is a breakwall of stone and land from a cliff's face. The ocean's water is dark blue, almost blackening in some spots. It crashes against the cliff's face, white foam engulfing the rocks. She glances to Bastian and for the first time, sees a flicker of unease. She leads them lower along the rocky cliff, their speed drifting back to let her investigate the rocks closer, looking for an entrance. It takes her another twenty minutes to find a cavern's opening.
"There."
The four of them narrow their line. The wind howls, sending Cressida's hair flapping about, even in her tight ponytail. Her eyes squint as they fly lower and the swell of water splashes up against her legs and sprays against her arms and face.
The cavern is cold, but the air is frighteningly fresh. She puts it down to being so close to the ocean and harsh breeze. The soles of her shoes scrape against the rock and she dismounts her broomstick, lighting her wand and holding it up to the cavern's walls. The three boys land just behind her, their own wands lighting as well. "Further in," she tells them.
At first, there is still the deafening sound of the ocean's wrath, but it soon turns to the dripping of saltwater from stone to almost nothing but their own footsteps. The more they travelled in, the more Cressida could feel the tang of magic on her lips and on her skin.
"Can you feel anything?" Sirius calls out, breaking their silence.
"Yes," she whispers, though her voice echoes. "Just up here."
She feels it – the centre. Or rather, the concentrated pulsation of magic. She runs her hand along the jagged rock wall. Turning back to the boys, she nods. Now they have to offer up a price of blood. Sirius steps forward. "I'm already bleeding anyway," he mutters.
Cressida's lips part. She hadn't realised how hurt he still was. Lifting up his shirt, Sirius drags his fingers across the cut along his torso. It wasn't bleeding out, but he also hadn't let it heal properly enough. With the red-painted fingers, he scrapes them across the stone.
Dusted rock begins to fall as the wall shifts. Sirius steps back in line with her, head tilted up but she stares at him. "You should have told me," she whispers. "Maybe you should stay on this side."
Sirius shakes his head. "No. I'm coming with you. All the way."
The stone wall crumbles away completely, leaving a narrow entrance into a hidden cave. Cressida watches Sirius stride through first, leaving her to move at James' urge.
The hidden cave spans far beyond their wand light's reach, though it does not seem to shine as far as they normally would. Like she had expected, in front of them lies a vast lake. Its surface is so flat and still that it's mistakable for a traversable surface, if not for the reflective shimmer that wriggles ever so slightly. The path they stand on is uneven and made of strangely shaped rocks like carved geodes. The far end of the lake is covered with blackness, including the island they need to reach.
"Let's find the boat," James instructs. "But don't touch the water, whatever you do." There isn't much to search. They can see the entire shoreline of the water from where they stand. "Cress. You said it's hidden. Maybe you can feel its magic?"
Cressida licks her drying lips. "I can try, but… there's a lot of magic here." She steps forward, the tips of her shoes a mere inch away from the water. Two hands grasp at her elbows, and she doesn't pull away. "I-I don't…"
How could she not be able to find the boat? How stupid would it be if she could find Horcruxes but not a hidden boat?
It's the panic getting to her.
The hands on her elbows rise to her shoulders soothingly then rub back down.
It's not strong, but it's there.
Cressida steps a foot to her right and holds out her arm. The water below where it hovers starts to bubble profusely like giant blowing bubbles underneath the surface. A chain shoots out and her Seeker fingers snap around it before even thinks of the action.
She tugs on it and the length of the chain rises out towards something further into the lake. Cressida heaves on it, soon joined by the efforts of James and slowly, a boat begins to rise from the depths. It is shallow and the middle is barely sunken – the rim of the edging just a few inches above the surface of the water.
"I'll go first," she says. Bastian is already standing at her side. Sirius tosses his light forward and they watch it float far into the cavern, lighting the walls until it settles over the small island. Cressida steps into the boat first. It is more stable than is appears to be and barely rocks underneath her. "Bastian?"
The young blonde steps forward, placing his first foot onto the boat to test it then launches from the shore. The boat sways, a trickle of water falling down the sides and puddling near their shoes.
The boat moves slowly but even if she could, Cressida would not dare urge it faster. She watches the water as though the Inferi would jump out at them any second.
The front of the boat scrapes against the shoreline of the only other island in the cave. It is sloped and had a large pedestal made of stone but otherwise flat. Cressida climbs out with her wand unsheathed. Confident that it is clear, she nods to Bastian. "Bring someone next."
Bastian nods quietly as Cressida pushes the boat away with her shoe. He floats away, sending ripples of current outwards. Sighing, she strides up to the pedestal and peers in. It forms a basin of some sort, filled with a clear liquid. And there; the locket, sitting at the bottom. One of them would have to drink it. It's the only way.
Nevertheless, Cressida reaches out to see if she could reach in, but her fingers scrape across the surface like it is as solid as the pavement of the path in front of her home.
James was the next to arrive. Cressida crept towards the bank and held her hands out for him. Bastian gave them both a short nod and soon enough, he was gliding back across to the dark silhouette of the cave entrance.
"You alright?" James breathes into her ear. Cressida nods, gripping hard at his fleece jumper.
"It's so quiet," she muses, staring down at the lake. Not even a ripple from anything other than the boat.
"Bit unnerving," he agrees. She continues staring at the one spot, imagining something leaping out at her from its depths. "Cress?" Inferi were created from the bodies of the dead. It is necromancy. The lake is filled with the bodies of people that had been killed by Death Eaters. Marlene. Gideon. Fabian. Regulus.
She knew that it wasn't possible that they were in there since the cave's protection had been created long before their deaths, but that did not prevent the mangled images of their corpse bodies leaping from the water from capturing her mind.
James rubs Cressida's back slowly, watching her carefully as she doesn't move an inch at his coos.
What if she used the Resurrection stone? Not to bring them back – Regulus had read her the entire story one night. But just to peek into the world of the dead, or have them come to hers. Just so she could speak to them one last time.
Bastian and Sirius arrive just a few meters to their right. Both boys disembark and drag the boat onto the rocky mound. Bastian quickly finds interest in the basin, striding up to it. Sirius traverses over to James, raising a querying brow. James shrugs subtly.
"Is that what we're here for?" Bastian calls.
Cressida breaks from her thoughts and spins on her heels. "Bastian I need you to get back into the boat and go wait back at the entrance."
The younger boy's brows burrow over the bridge of his nose. "What? No, I don't want to. I want to help here."
She stalks up to the basin, leaning forward. "I don't need you here. I need you at the entrance." He looks over her shoulders for support from James and Sirius.
"Do as she says," Sirius instructs.
Now with a bitter expression, he mutters, "Fine."