Amosta took the lead, leading two people and a house elf through the door. In an instant, time and space changed, and a very strange scene appeared in front of them.
Although I had heard Kreacher narrate it before, the real scene I saw with my own eyes shocked my soul much more powerfully than words.
They were standing on the shore of a large black lake. The lake was so vast that it stretched as far as the eye could see. They could not even see the other shore in the distance. It was conceivable that there was probably an underground river at the bottom of the lake connected to the sea.
This is a huge hollow inside the mountain. The cave is very high, and even if the light from the wand in Amosta's hand is bright enough, they cannot see the top of the cave.
In the distance, as if in the center of the lake, there was a hazy, green light, reflected in the dead lake below. Except for the green light and the radiance of Amosta's wand, everything was completely dark. The darkness is so thick that it cannot be broken away, and this darkness seems to be denser and thicker than ordinary darkness. Just looking directly at it can make people despair.
Kreacher cowered up in fear, while Sirius and Remus were also shocked by this miraculous sight and were speechless for a moment.
Anti-Apparition, no-flying, no summons, magic power ban, curse - Amosta narrowed his eyes and stared at the space above the lake, filled with countless powerful magics of various types, with a slightly gloomy look on his face.
Such a huge magical project cannot be accomplished in a day.
One can imagine how much effort Voldemort put into protecting his Horcruxes.
And when Amosta set his sights on the black lake that was as flat as a mirror, he narrowed his eyes and his whole body exuded a faint aura of violence.
It's the Inferi!
The Inferi is not a scary thing. Amosta himself even used the Inferi to teach young wizards, but...
Just by covering an area with his gaze, Amosta 'saw' hundreds of Inferi. Judging from the clothes of these corpses, they were all Muggles, and among these Muggles, there were men and women. , there were old people, there were children, and Amosta even saw a baby who was covered in edema and looked to be only one or two years old!
By analogy to the entire lake, at least tens of thousands of Muggles were buried in the lake and transformed into inferi by magic!
Massacre, only the inhumane massacre of Muggles can create such a large number of Inferi. However, there is no record or report of this extremely brutal massacre in the wizarding world today. Perhaps because it is too cruel and inhumane, once it is reported, it will be heard all over the world. The situation of condemnation would even make the entire wizarding world feel distraught, so the Ministry of Magic and the Muggle government chose to conceal it at the same time.
"What’s wrong with you?"
Remus and Sirius both asked in unison.
They were not students who had just graduated from Hogwarts, but experienced adult wizards. They could all detect the strong murderous intention lingering around Amosta who was standing staring at the black lake. The killing intent was so cold that both of them had a vague urge to turn around and run away.
"nothing--"
Amosta breathed out softly, suppressing his emotions in his heart.
"Kreacher, Regulus was there."
Sirius missed his younger brother, and soon stopped worrying about Amosta's strange behavior. He lowered his head and looked at Kreacher at his feet. There was a strong nasal sound in his voice, mixed with a trace of uncontrollable sadness.
"Where was it then?"
"There is an island in the middle of the lake, Master Sirius--"
Kreacher sobbed. He did not dare to face Regulus's death. He covered his big gray eyeballs and pointed in the direction of the green light with his slender fingers.
"Kreacher was there and saw Master Regulus being dragged into the water by the hands of those corpses."
Upon hearing Kreacher's words, Sirius immediately rushed forward, as if he wanted to slide down the shore and swim over like before.
"Wait, Sirius!"
Remus grabbed his arm,
"Have you forgotten what Kreacher said? There are Inferi in this lake, and there may be quite a few of them!"
"Let me go, Remus!" Sirius shouted, "I'm going to find Regulus, and those Inferi can't stop me!"
Remus wanted to persuade him again, but Amosta said calmly,
"He wants to die, why do you stop him?"
When Amosta said this, Sirius fell silent and stopped trying to jump into the lake.
"Do you remember where that boat is, Kreacher?"
Seeing Sirius quiet down, Amosta turned to Kreacher.
"Kreacher remembers being there, Mr. Blaine."
For so many years, Kreacher has been secretly trying to destroy the locket. Every time the action fails, it will trigger the scene before Regulus's death that it does not want to remember. When it heard the question, it jumped out from Sirius's side and turned sideways. With his body pressed against the rock wall, he led them to the right.
A few minutes later, they stopped at another location, but there was nothing there.
"Kreacher has forgotten the exact location of the ship."
Kreacher said with a trembling voice, and he punished himself by banging his head against the rock wall.
Remus stopped it from harming itself, and when he was about to ask Amosta, he saw Amosta passing by Kreacher, walking forward in a hurry, and finally stopped thirty feet away from them. .
"I think I found it."
Amosta reached out of the rock path that could only be used by one person, grabbed something, and then tapped his fist with the wand in his other hand.
Immediately, a thick green copper chain suddenly emerged from the lake, quickly extended towards the shore, and reached into Amosta's clenched fist. Seeing this, Amosta's outstretched left hand jerked toward With a last pull, the copper chain suddenly went wild. It made a loud sound and quickly pulled a small boat out from the bottom of the lake.
"If I hadn't known the situation beforehand, Amosta,"
Remus hurried over. He stared at Amosta's expressionless face and said in a strange voice,
"I might have thought you'd been here many times."
"How did you discover it?"
Sirius was also expressing his confusion.
"Where there is magic, the concentration of magic power will be different from the surrounding environment. As long as a wizard with a slightly better perception should be able to detect the clues--"
Amosta looked at the wizard leaning on the shore, which could only carry two people at most, with a thoughtful expression on his face.
"This is probably an obstacle set up by Voldemort to prevent too many wizards from approaching the locket at the same time."
"Why can't we give this boat two more trips?"
Sirius said in confusion.
"I don't think the ship will return automatically once it reaches the island, unless it senses that the people on the island are dead and, well, the magic meter. Understand, it's not the weight that's taken into account, but the magic power -"
No one could understand what Amosta was saying to himself, so Remus and Sirius also gave up thinking. They eagerly waited for him to tell him what to do next.
Amosta did not hesitate. He took a step forward and jumped neatly into the center of the boat. At the moment it landed in the cabin, the boat dropped heavily, and the waterline increased by a full five or six inches. Moreover, the hull It was shaking violently and looked like it would topple over at any time.
"Come back quickly, Amosta!"
The two people on the shore screamed together. They used their hands to fish out Amosta, who was standing in the middle of the cabin, trying to drag him back to the shore, because it was not difficult to guess what would happen if he fell into the water. matter.
But after rocking, the boat finally stabilized and nothing happened.
Amosta looked at the edge of the boat. There was only about an inch left before the lake water would cover the side of the boat and flood into the cabin. Then he looked at Sirius and Remus on the shore. Amosta made a rough guess. After a moment, I suddenly had a better idea.
"Kreacher can apparate to the middle of the lake. You two can come up. It won't be a big problem."
In fact, the problem still exists.
Sirius and Remus are both adult wizards of normal size. Although their magic will not cause too much burden on the ship, their size is indeed a big problem for the small cabin.
Amosta went through a lot of trouble and turned Sirius into Lenny, and Remus stepped onto the boat with Lenny in his arms. In fact, just as Amosta said, the boat was halfway down. Inches later, it swayed for a while and then calmed down again.
"Let's go--"
Following Amosta's calm words, the boat shuddered, gently accelerated from a stationary state, and slowly sailed towards the island in the lake.
(End of chapter)
