Chapter 752: Inferi (Edited)

On Sunday morning, after having breakfast in the Great Hall, Fish didn't go to Hogsmeade with the rest of the class. Instead, he stayed at the school under the pretense of playing with Hermione in the Forbidden Forest.

In reality, he transformed into a cat and was guided by Harry using the Invisibility Cloak to the gargoyle at the entrance of the Headmaster's office.

"Nya~"

After making sure there was no one else around, Fish softly meowed, and the gargoyle in front of them jumped aside, revealing the hidden door behind it.

Harry went through the door, took off the Invisibility Cloak, and together with Fish, they climbed the spiral staircase. Then they pushed the door and entered the Headmaster's office.

Dumbledore was already waiting inside, wearing a black travel cloak, the same one he had worn when he had picked up Harry from the Dursleys' house with Fish.

"We're here."

Dumbledore looked at the two of them, finally fixing his gaze on Harry.

"Harry, I must warn you in advance that this journey is likely to entail extraordinary danger. Will you still accompany me?"

"Of course!" Harry replied hastily before Dumbledore's words even left his lips, fearing that he would turn his back and leave him behind.

"Very well, then listen."

Dumbledore straightened up and made his demand to Harry: "I'm not sure if Fish told you beforehand, but I'm taking you on one condition: you must obey any order I give you without questioning me and immediately. That includes orders like 'run,' 'hide,' or 'return.' Are you in agreement?"

Harry glanced sideways at Fish and found him wearing a stern expression.

Obviously, the offer was not personal, and it was true that Fish had said yesterday that Dumbledore needed him to behave, but Harry had gotten too excited to take it seriously.

"I promise." Harry replied solemnly.

"Very well." Dumbledore nodded. "Then let us proceed." He extended his hand and said, "Take it, put your hand on my arm."

Harry and Fish held onto Dumbledore's arm, with Fawkes flapping his wings and perching on Dumbledore's shoulder.

With a blinding flash of fire, the three of them disappeared from the office together.

"Is this it? Where did Voldemort hide his Horcruxes?"

(°ω°≡°ω°)

Fish turned his head and looked around with curiosity, then said in confusion, "How strange, why does this place feel familiar to Fish?"

"Because this is nothing more than a small hill on the outskirts of Hogsmeade," Dumbledore let Fawkes return on his own before explaining to Fish, "Fawkes doesn't know the place, so he can't send us directly there, so don't let go of us."

A vortex appeared with Dumbledore at its center, pulling Harry and Fish along with him by the arm, and the three of them disappeared once again.

A few moments later, the three of them were at the bottom of the cliff, the cold, sea-scented water splashing their faces from time to time.

"Albus, where is the boat?"

Fish remembered Dumbledore saying that a boat was needed to reach the hiding place of the Horcruxes, so he wasn't surprised to see them in such a location.

Harry, who had already recovered, realized they were standing on a rocky ledge and asked, "Where are we?"

"The boat ride is a little further ahead. Voldemort has cast a counter-spell on the Apparition Charm, so we can't use the spell to get there," Dumbledore answered the questions in the order they were asked. "Do you remember something the matron, Mrs. Cole, mentioned once at the orphanage? When Voldemort was a child, he took two poor children to a cave, that's where we're going."

He pointed to a barely visible crack in the rocky wall a short distance away and said, "Do you see it? Now we have to swim through that crack... You don't mind getting wet, do you?"

"It's alright," said Harry.

Fish, who knew the spell to breathe underwater, was fine with it, but...

"Wait a moment, nya." He called out to Dumbledore, who was about to enter the water, and then pulled out three small golden glass bottles from his pocket, identical to the one Harry had in his hand. "Before we go in, let's have a bit of this potion!"

(ΦωΦ) Tsun

Fish handed the potion to Harry and Dumbledore. "Fish got this from Horace in exchange for various potion ingredients."

"Haha!" Dumbledore chuckled lightly and shook his head. "I can't believe I forgot about Felix Felicis Potion..." He reached out and took a glass vial, then drank the golden liquid inside without hesitation.

"It's a pleasant sensation," he said, licking his lips, "I haven't had one of these in years either."

Fish and Harry also separately drank the Blessed Elixir. Harry, who had been somewhat cautious, quickly became confident, while Fish had an immediate premonition...

It was the only way to ensure that Dumbledore would drink the potion.

"Let's go," said Dumbledore, who was also uplifted, with a relaxed expression. He then cast a lighting charm with his wand and waded into the sea with it in his mouth.

Harry followed Dumbledore's example, holding the glowing wand in his mouth as he smoothly glided over the smooth pebbles towards the sea.

Fish, on the other hand, transformed back into his cat form and dove into the water with a splash.

They rowed through the dark and narrow waterway, climbed the long stairs at its end, and finally arrived at the cavern Dumbledore had mentioned.

Dumbledore went straight to the rocky wall that concealed the hidden door and once again took out the silver knife.

"What are you doing, professor?" Harry asked, surprised.

"It's a way for Voldemort to protect the Horcruxes. Those who seek them must weaken themselves to achieve their goal," Dumbledore explained with a disdainful expression. "But he fails to understand that there are many things far more terrible than physical harm."

As he spoke, he brandished the knife in his hand. There was a flash of silver, and a stream of crimson burst from Dumbledore's arm, splattering the surface of the rock with shiny drops of dark red blood.

Fish immediately stepped forward and administered a rejuvenating slap.

"Thank you, Fish," Dumbledore acknowledged, while moving his fully healed arm. "No matter how many times I see it, your healing spells are always astonishing."

At the same time, a bright white outline of an arch appeared on the cave wall, followed by the sudden disappearance of the blood-splattered rock within the arch, revealing a doorway.

The three entered the cave, and Dumbledore retrieved the small boat from the bottom of the lake once again, with Fish transforming back into a cat and perching on Dumbledore's shoulder, while Harry joined him in the boat.

"What's in the lake?" Harry stared fiercely at the water, as Felix Felicis warned him to stay out of it.

"Inferi," Dumbledore whispered. "Voldemort has taken the bodies of some of the people he killed and turned them into walking corpses through dark magic, to use them as an army."

As he explained, both Harry and Fish saw the flickering of white figures beneath the lake, and although the Felix Felicis bolstered their confidence, Harry still felt a chill running through his body.

Fish, crouching on Dumbledore's shoulder, flattened his ears and arched his back, with his fur bristling and his green eyes fixed on the lake.

"Don't worry," Dumbledore calmly taught them how to deal with the Inferi, "Like many creatures that dwell in the cold and darkness, Inferi fear light and warmth, and when the time comes, we can resort to them if needed: Incendio."

Harry secretly committed this method to memory, as he had a strange feeling that this knowledge would likely be useful to him later on.