Chapter 212 Challenges To Face
"Kreacher, Regulus, that year..." said Sirius sadly.
"Yes, young Regulus was drinking this green liquid here." Kreacher dried his tears and said, "This should have been done by Kreacher. That's what the Dark Lord asked Kreacher to do, but young Regulus disagreed. He let Kreacher return home alive. He drank the potion himself. How good and kind he was..."
As he spoke, Kreacher suddenly burst into tears.
Since he set foot on this island, tears had been swirling in his eyes. Now, upon hearing Dumbledore's assessment of Regulus and recalling what happened, he could no longer contain his tears. He punished himself by hitting his head against the ground.
The scene was chaotic, and Sirius and Hermione hurried to stop him.
"Professor!" Seeing Kreacher out of control, Harry was filled with panic. He hesitated for a moment and continued to ask, "But if any of us were to drink this liquid, what would happen? Would we be poisoned?"
"Oh, I doubt it would work that way," Dumbledore said calmly. "Lord Voldemort would not want to kill the person who arrived on this island."
Harry blinked. He couldn't believe it. Was this another example of Dumbledore's insane determination to see the good in everyone?
"Sir," Harry said, trying to keep his voice reasonable, "sir, we are facing Voldemort..."
"I apologize, Harry; I should have said he wouldn't want to immediately kill the person who arrived on this island," Dumbledore corrected himself. "He would want to keep them alive long enough to discover how they managed to penetrate so deeply into his defenses and, most importantly, why they were so determined to empty the basin. Remember that Lord Voldemort believes that only he knows about his Horcruxes."
Harry prepared to speak again, but this time Dumbledore raised his hand for silence, frowning slightly at the emerald liquid, clearly deep in thought.
"Undoubtedly," he said finally, "this potion must act in a way that prevents me from taking the Horcrux. And based on Kreacher's description, we can infer that it could paralyze the user, make them forget why they are here, cause them so much pain as to distract them, or render them incapacitated in some other way."
"You will feel like your internal organs are burning, you will want to drink water, and the only nearby place with water is this lake," Evan added. "But the lake is full of Inferi and is also under dark magic..."
"What if the magic alters the water?" Harry asked.
"It won't work. Voldemort has planned for it. There is only one way to get water on this island. If you don't believe it, we can try," Evan said, drawing his wand and saying softly, "Aguamenti!"
Clear water gushed from the tip of his wand and fell to the ground. The water splashed, but vanished in an instant.
The water that fell to the ground evaporated at an incredible speed. And there seemed to be an invisible force from the bottom of the ground upwards. The water on Evan's wand tip flowed, quickly returning at a speed visible to the naked eye.
"Aguamenti, Aguamenti!" He shouted hastily.
He increased his magical energy, but it didn't work much. The water on the tip of his wand became smaller and smaller until it disappeared completely.
He could feel an invisible force preventing him from using that magic.
Harry watched in amazement at what was happening before him. He also tried with his own wand, and the end result was exactly the same as Evan's.
"Excellent reasoning, excellent reasoning." After witnessing Evan and Harry's experiments, Dumbledore praised, "Both of your thoughts are very good. This is likely the essence of Voldemort's design. To obtain the Horcrux, one must drink the potion in the stone basin. After taking the potion, you will feel extreme heat and thirst, and you will want to drink water. But as we just saw, spells like Aguamenti are prohibited here. There is only one way to get water, and that is the lake. And people near the lake will be dragged by the Inferi, just like what happened to Regulus..."
Everyone listened to Dumbledore's description, and the horrifying images returned to their minds. Each of them wore a truly grim countenance.
Contemplating this gloomy island, surrounded by the silence of the oppressive dark lake and the occasionally surfacing floating bodies, the lurking fear within everyone awakened.
They pondered on Regulus, the handsome 18-year-old youth. He drank from the stone basin and was dragged into the lake by the Inferi. He drowned in despair and turned into one of them.
For the past 13 years, his body had been immersed in the dark and cold waters of the lake relentlessly. That was the truth of his demise.
An overwhelming sense of infinite sadness gradually took hold, and everyone fell silent.
In the darkness, only the occasional strange sob from Kreacher could be heard.
"In this lake, Regulus..." Sirius said sorrowfully.
"We will find him. First and foremost, I wish to retrieve those individuals from the lake," said Dumbledore, drawing his wand and turning his gaze towards Kreacher, who had just calmed down. "Kreacher, please, tell me where they took Regulus to cast him into the lake."
"Here, sir!" Kreacher wiped away his tears and pointed to a spot.
"Very well, when you are ready. Pull out your wands!" said Dumbledore, "Sirius, you and Kreacher are responsible for finding Regulus; Evan, Harry, Hermione, the three of you can stay behind me and help me deal with those Inferi."
All focused, they gripped their wands tightly and nervously gazed at the lake.
Facing the Inferi would surely not be a pleasant experience.
Evan tightened his grip around his wand, his heart beating like a drum. He saw Harry and Hermione standing beside him, trembling slightly, with pale and drained faces.
For them, confronting thousands of Inferi at once was simply overwhelming.
Just the thought of it made them feel suffocated.
This was undeniably a scene not fit for the school. Except for the three of them, none of the young wizards would experience it.
It was not only their age that made it challenging. In fact, confronting thousands of gruesome and bloody Inferi at once would also pose a very difficult challenge even for trained Aurors or operational wizards like Sirius, and Dumbledore should not be able to handle this alone.