Chapter 189: Regulus Black
Chapter 189: Regulus Black
At the spot indicated by Dumbledore's wand, an archway appeared in the rock wall, emitting a dazzling white light from within.
"We did it!" Sirius exclaimed excitedly.
But as soon as he finished speaking, the outline vanished. Dumbledore frowned slightly, focusing intently on the cave wall.
"Oh...so it is," he muttered to himself, "Crude, but undeniably useful..."
He turned to the group and said, "I believe we need to pay a price to pass through."
"A price?" Lupin asked.
"Yes," Dumbledore said disdainfully, "If I'm not mistaken, it's blood. The one who set this trap wanted to weaken their opponents in this manner... Hence, I call it a crude method."
As he spoke, he conjured a small knife and rolled up his sleeve.
"Let me do it, Professor!"
Sirius stepped forward, snatched the knife, and without hesitation, cut his arm, causing blood to gush out.
Voldemort wanted to speak but ultimately remained silent.
Within his wardrobe space, he kept several magical creatures, most of which were gifts from Scamander and Steven Mori, and a few small animals he had found at the maze's edge.
There were always young creatures abandoned due to illness, injury, or stunted growth, and Voldemort would pick them up to enrich the biodiversity of his wardrobe space.
With the help of magic and puppets, taking care of the animals and cleaning was not difficult.
Before coming here, Voldemort had intended to find some large animals to provide blood. But seeing Sirius' action, he ultimately said nothing.
It wasn't that he had no opportunity to stop him... Sometimes, sacrifice and bloodshed could help ease the pain within.
Dumbledore did not stop Sirius. He murmured a spell, and the blood splattered on the rock wall, causing the archway to reappear.
In the dazzling white light, the rocks disappeared, revealing a pitch-black cave entrance.
"That's it," Dumbledore said, pointing his wand at the gruesome wound on Sirius' arm, immediately healing it.
Lupin walked in with his wand raised, illuminating the inside of the cave with light. Then, Voldemort and the others followed.
Before them lay a black lake, its vast surface smooth as a mirror, without a ripple.
Only near them did the water reflect the light from the tip of their wands.
The darkness here seemed substantial, thick, and heavy. Lupin's wand light seemed suppressed, and the white light illuminated only a small area around them.
"Is there such a large underground lake hidden beneath the cliff?" Lupin slowly moved his wand, marveling. "Or has someone cast an Imperturbable Extension Charm here?"
He saw no traces of the charm nearby.
"I think it's a combination of both, Remus," Dumbledore said, his eyes fixed forward.
Something in the middle of the lake seemed to glow with a greenish light, standing out in the darkness.
"There's definitely something there," Sirius said as he mounted his broom. "I'll fly over and take a look. If it's clear, you can join me."
"Wait, Mr. Black."
Voldemort held him back and released another old broom.
"Let it scout first."
Under their watchful eyes, the flying broom whooshed out. Halfway through its flight, it suddenly stopped like a dragonfly caught in a spider web and then plummeted straight into the lake.
Several pale hands reached out from the water, grabbing the broom and pulling it down.
"Inferi!"
Sirius drew in a cold breath, and Lupin's face paled.
"Is this...Voldemort's army he prepared for himself?" Lupin asked.
He did not hesitate to speak Voldemort's name, but in this oppressive atmosphere, Lupin lowered his voice unconsciously.
"An army? I think they are more like guardians," Dumbledore mused.
"They guard something for Voldemort day and night, ready to eliminate any intruders."
"It's sad that these people still serve the one who killed them even after death," Lupin said.
Sirius snorted, "Aren't those who study dark magic all like that? They deal with corpses and stink of death all day."
Voldemort remained silent, observing the lake's surface intently.
To an ordinary person, the cave held only still waters.
However, Tom could see that the space above the lake was covered in intricate spell patterns, making it impossible to invade from any direction, not even a bird could get through.
There was only one concealed passage left, and Tom could see a trail of green light extending deep into the lake's depths.
Within the lake, in addition to the Inferi, there was also an incredibly powerful curse.
Not only would it cause rapid weakening and eventual death to anyone who came into contact with it, but it would also transform any bodies that fell into the lake into more Inferi.
This curse far exceeded Tom's beginner level, and there were many aspects that he couldn't comprehend at all.
In the center of the lake, the dense magical patterns intertwined to form golden pillars of light, preventing him from seeing the green light in his normal field of vision.
Sirius and Lupin cautiously avoided touching the lake as they each explored in one direction, returning to report, "There's nothing but the lake."
Dumbledore had already figured out how to cross the lake, but he didn't rush to share his conclusion and instead looked at Tom.
"Tom, what have you discovered?"
"The way through is hidden within the lake," Tom suggested. "But since we have plenty of time, why don't we deal with the Inferi first and then explore the center of the lake?"
This was a little different from what Dumbledore had expected, but he nodded amicably and said, "Let's do that."
Sirius crouched by the lakeshore and suggested, "We might not be able to drain this lake, so let's lure them out first?"
He looked around and added, "...but we only have three brooms left."
"We don't need brooms," Tom said.
He tapped his backpack with his wand, and a firebird flew out. It perched on a protruding rock on the cave wall, tilting its head as if curiously examining the group.
"Allow me to introduce you," Tom said. "This is my magical partner, Mikhail."
Lupin marveled, "Your alchemy skills are becoming more and more impressive."
Dumbledore silently watched the firebird, his blue eyes flickering slightly. Hearing Lupin's words, he turned to glance at Lupin thoughtfully.
Dumbledore remained silent.
Tom approached Mikhail and whispered a few instructions. Mikhail retracted his fiery wings and took off, hugging the lakeshore as he flew before suddenly diving towards the lake's surface.
Two or three pale hands broke through the water and grabbed Mikhail's claws, but they let go as if burned by a hot iron.
Sirius seized this brief moment and, with a flick of his wand, dragged the two Inferi out of the lake.
They were a slender man and a woman in sleepwear. Their eyes were dull and gray, their pale faces devoid of blood color, and their wet clothes and hair clung tightly to their bodies.
The Inferi, forced out of the water, were thrown onto the rocks by Sirius. Without hesitation, Mikhail spat a mouthful of fire, completely engulfing the two bodies.
The fierce fire crawled up the walls a little before failing to spread further, then enveloped the two corpses entirely.
Although both were forms of dark magic, the Inferi feared nothing more than fire and light. The fierce fire was indeed fire, and it was even more powerful than ordinary flames, causing the Inferi to struggle only twice before becoming still.
The orange-golden flames burned quietly.
Although the fire breathed by Mikhail was indeed fierce fire, it did not take on the form of a fire beast and, at first glance, looked similar to ordinary firewood.
But Dumbledore, of course, could recognize it.
He narrowed his eyes slightly, his attention mostly on the firebird, his eyes reflecting admiration.
Mikhail seemed to find this amusing, and it quickly rushed towards the lake's surface, almost skimming the water like a stone.
The firebird's body emitted only the heat of an ordinary torch, and through the cold lake water, the mindless Inferi did not realize that this was their mortal enemy. They reached out to grab it, but from the shore, the group was quick to react, using magic to pull the Inferi out of the water and into the fire.
The action of clearing the Inferi gradually became a mechanical process, and although Sirius' spellcasting movements remained agile and fluid, his eyes had begun to wander.
Another pale figure leaped out of the water, chasing after the free-flying figure.
Sirius subconsciously cast a spell to pull it towards the shore, but his brain seemed to have been suddenly struck by a whip, and he heard a soundless explosion.
Sirius's whole body stiffened, his eyes fixed on the Inferi that had been thrown into the flames, his limbs rigid and his mind blank.
Fortunately, Dumbledore noticed the anomaly and waved his wand to stop the Inferi, placing it on a dry rock.
Lupin stared in astonishment, his eyes widening.
"It's him..." he exclaimed, shocked. "...Regulus. How is it him?"
Voldemort also looked over.
It was a young man who resembled a teenage Sirius, with black hair and grayish eyes, and similar features that formed a face that could only be described as delicate.
It landed on the ground and seemed to have lost its target. After standing still for a while, it began to walk unsteadily towards them, its steps slow and faltering.
Dumbledore sighed.
Sirius subconsciously took a few steps forward, his lips quivering as he looked at the vacant, dull eyes that seemed veiled in a filthy spider web, unable to speak.
In fact, more than a year before he was imprisoned, he had already known that Regulus had died.
The ancient pure-blood family naturally had their ways of finding out about the life and death of each of their members, even though they had never found Regulus' body.
Around the time of Regulus' death, Sirius' father, who valued blood status greatly, had also passed away in the same year.
His mother, Walburga, could not accept the sudden death of her youngest son, and with these successive blows, she went insane with grief.
One day, she sent Sirius dozens of howling letters, crying and cursing at him, asking why it wasn't him who had died. That was when Sirius learned that his younger brother's status had been changed to "deceased."
To be honest, although he had felt sad at the time, he was not really surprised.
He knew that Regulus was weak-willed. Even though he had been instilled with ideas like "pure-blood supremacy" by his family, his views on the world and war were naive and simplistic.
His mind was filled with thoughts of "making pure-bloods even greater," but he did not understand the true cruelty of Voldemort, nor was he prepared to become equally cruel and evil himself.
Sirius and Walburga did not know the details of how Regulus had died.
But they both guessed that Regulus must have been frightened by what he was asked to do, wanted to withdraw from the Death Eaters, and was then killed by Voldemort or other Death Eaters.
Sirius did not know if his mother ever regretted having encouraged Regulus to join the Death Eaters.
But from then on, the mentally unstable mistress of the Black family never left her home and even refused to let her only remaining son visit her.
Sirius accepted this news more easily.
Ever since graduating, he had joined the Order of the Phoenix and had been fighting on the front lines.
He had witnessed the deaths and cruel torture of his comrades-in-arms countless times, and some of them had even been caused by his own younger brother.
Sirius had long been prepared for the enmity between them, and for death.
But now, seeing Regulus' corpse with his own eyes, seeing him stumble forward under the compulsion of magic, the grief that had been delayed for thirteen years surged forth, overwhelming Sirius to the point where he could barely breathe.
Regulus had already reached him, and up close, those sunken, vacant eyes were even more heartbreaking.
"Regulus... what did Voldemort do to you..."
Sirius murmured.
Of course, the corpse could not answer him. Two cold, pale hands grasped Sirius' shoulders, firmly and slowly dragging him towards the lake.
"Sirius!"
Lupin rushed over and cast a spell, sending Regulus flying backward, almost falling into the lake, but Voldemort caught him.
The tip of his wand shot out a long rope that bound Regulus tightly from head to toe.
Regulus struggled on the ground.
But the Inferi were not really that powerful as dark creatures; they were only feared because of their numbers. Now, the corpse wriggled on the ground but could not break free from the ropes.
Sirius stood stiffly, watching, until Lupin gripped his shoulder.
"Sirius, are you alright?"
"I... I'm fine..." Sirius said haltingly. "...I knew... I knew he was dead... I just... didn't expect to see him here..."
He came back to his senses as blood flowed from his aching heart to his cold limbs, warming his trembling body.
Sirius pushed Lupin's arm away and gripped his wand tightly.
"Let's continue," he said, looking at the lake that was rippling with waves and the pale figures reaching out from the water. His voice was calm, but there was a strangeness to it that even he found unfamiliar.
(End of Chapter)
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