94 hp Diagon Alley

Concentrating on something Harry couldn't see.

"This is just the vestibule, the entrance hall," Dumbledore said after a moment. "We need to go inside... What is blocking us now is the mechanism set by Voldemort, not the obstacles set by nature..."

Dumbledore approached the cave wall, stroked it with his blackened fingertips, and whispered something in a strange language Harry couldn't understand.Dumbledore walked twice around the cave from the left, touching the rough walls as best he could, pausing occasionally to run his fingers up and down in certain places.Finally, he finally stopped and pressed his palms flat on the cave wall.

"Here," he said, "we go in here. The entrance is hidden."

Harry didn't ask how Dumbledore knew.He had never seen a wizard solve a problem like this: only with his eyes and with his hands.But Harry had known for a long time that what made the puffs and smokes were usually the traits of the lesser, not the masters.

Dumbledore stepped back from the cave wall, pointing his wand at the rock.Suddenly, the outline of an arch appeared there, emitting a dazzling white light, as if there was a strong light shining behind the crack.

"You made—successful!" said Harry, his teeth chattering, but before he could finish the words, the outline was gone, and the rock was as hard and thick as ever, with nothing on it .Dumbledore looked over his shoulder.

"Harry, I'm so sorry, I forgot," he said, and he pointed his wand at Harry, and Harry's clothes were immediately dry and warm, as if they had been hung in front of a roaring fire to dry.

"Thank you," said Harry gratefully, but Dumbledore had turned his attention to the solid cave walls again.He didn't try any other magic, just stood there, staring at the cave wall intently, as if there was something extremely interesting written on it.Harry stood there motionless, not wanting to interrupt Dumbledore's train of thought.

Then, after a full 2 ​​minutes, Dumbledore said softly, "Oh, of course not. It's too low-level."

"What did you say, Professor?"

"I think," said Dumbledore, drawing from inside his robes with his uninjured hand a short silver knife, the kind Harry used to cut potion ingredients, "we'll have to pay to get through."

"The price?" said Harry. "You have to give the door something?"

"Yes," said Dumbledore, "blood, if I'm not mistaken."

"Blood?"

"That's why I said it was too low-level." Dumbledore said, his tone was contemptuous, even disappointed, as if Voldemort had not met Dumbledore's expected standards, "I believe you understand that the reason is to let the opponent You have to weaken yourself to get in. Once again Voldemort failed to understand that there are many things far more terrifying than physical damage."

"Yeah, but if it can be avoided..." said Harry, who had suffered too much to be willing to go through more.

"Sometimes it's unavoidable." Dumbledore said, shaking up the sleeve of his robe, revealing the forearm of the injured hand.

"Professor!" Harry saw Dumbledore raised his dagger, and hurried forward to stop him, "Let me do it, I—"

He didn't know what he was going to say—younger, stronger?Dumbledore, however, only smiled slightly.A silver light flashed, and a stream of dark red sprayed out, and the surface of the rock was immediately covered with shiny, dark red blood beads.

"You are very kind, Harry," said Dumbledore, running the tip of his wand across the deep gash he had made on his arm, which healed instantly, just as Snape healed Malfoy. The same scenario as in "But your blood is worth more than mine. Ah, it does seem to work, doesn't it?"

The outline of the dazzling white arch reappeared on the cave wall again, and this time it did not disappear.The blood-stained rock within the arch disappeared suddenly, revealing a doorway that contained what seemed to be endless darkness.

"Come with me," said Dumbledore through the doorway, and Harry followed him in, hastily lighting his wand.

It was a very strange sight before them.They were standing on the shore of a great black lake, so wide that Harry could not see the far shore beyond.The cave they were in was so high that they couldn't see the top of the cave when they looked up.Far away, as if in the middle of the lake, there was a dim, green light shining, reflected in the dead lake below.Except for the green light and the bright light from the two wands, there was an indissoluble darkness all around, and the penetrating power of these bright lights was not as strong as Harry expected. The darkness here seemed to be darker than normal. Denser and thicker.

"Let's go on," said Dumbledore softly. "Be careful not to step into the water. Follow me closely."

He walked around the shore, Harry right behind him.Their footsteps echoed on the narrow rocks by the lake.They kept going forward, but the surrounding scene didn't change at all: on one side was the rough cave wall, on the other side was the boundless, mirror-like black surface of the lake, and the mysterious green light shone in the center of the lake.Harry found the place and the silence oppressive, unsettling.

"Professor?" He couldn't help asking, "You think the Horcrux is hidden here?"

"Oh, yes," said Dumbledore, "yes, I believe it is hidden here. The question is, how are we going to find it?"

"Can't we... can't we try the Coming Charm?" Harry said, knowing it must be a stupid suggestion, but although he didn't want to admit it, he couldn't help but want to get out of this damn place as soon as possible.

"Of course," said Dumbledore, stopping so suddenly that Harry nearly bumped into him, "why don't you try?"

"Me? Oh... well..."

Unexpectedly, Harry cleared his throat, raised his wand, and said loudly, "Horcruxes are coming!"

With a bang like an explosion, a huge white guy jumped up from the pitch-black lake twenty feet away.Before Harry could see what it was, it disappeared again with a splash, splashing deep ripples in the calm water.Harry jumped back in shock, hitting the rock wall.He turned to Dumbledore, his heart still beating wildly.

"what is that?"

"I figured if we tried to grab a Horcrux, it would react."

Harry turned to look at the lake again.The surface of the lake became as bright and smooth as black glass again.The ripples faded uncannily quickly, but Harry's heart was still beating like a drum.

"Did you know something like that was going to happen, sir?"

"I knew for a long time that if we blatantly tried to get that Horcrux, something would happen. Harry, your idea is very good, and you have figured out what we are facing in the easiest way."

"But we don't know what that thing is," said Harry, looking at the calm and menacing lake.

"You should say those things," said Dumbledore, "I don't believe there's only one of them. Shall we move on?"

"professor?"

"What's the matter, Harry?"

"Do you think we need to go down into the lake?"

"Going to the lake? Unless our luck is particularly bad."

"Don't you think the Horcrux is under the lake?"

"Oh no... I think the Horcrux is in the middle of the lake."

Dumbledore pointed to the dim green light in the middle of the lake.

"Then we have to go to the middle of the lake to get it?"

"Yes, I think so."

Harry said nothing more.All he could think about were water monsters, water demons, water ghosts, giant pythons and ghosts...

"Aha!" said Dumbledore, stopping again, and this time Harry actually bumped into him.Dumbledore grabbed Harry's arm with his good hand and pulled him back as Harry staggered on the edge of the dark lake and looked about to fall. "I'm sorry, Harry, I should have said hello. Please stand back and stick to the rock wall, I think I've found my place."

Harry didn't understand what Dumbledore meant.In his opinion, this dark lakeshore was no different from other places, but Dumbledore seemed to have noticed something special.This time, instead of stroking the rock wall, his hand was slowly moving in the air, as if he wanted to find and grab something invisible.

"Ho ho!" said Dumbledore happily after a few seconds.He closed his hands and grabbed something in the air that Harry couldn't see.Dumbledore moved slowly towards the lake, and Harry watched nervously as Dumbledore's brass-buckled shoes moved over the edge of the rock.Dumbledore still clenched that hand in the air, and with the other he raised his wand, and tapped his fist with the tip of the wand.

Immediately, a thick green copper chain suddenly emerged from the depths of the lake and rushed towards Dumbledore's clenched fist.Dumbledore tapped the chain with his wand, and the chain began to slip through his fist like a snake, coiling up in a heap on the ground, and the tinkling sound echoed loudly as it hit the rock wall.The chain pulled something up from the dark bottom of the lake.Harry watched in amazement as the prow of a small boat emerged from the lake like a ghost, glowing green like a chain, and floated, barely a ripple, towards the shore where Harry and Dumbledore stood.

"How do you know it's there?" Harry asked in surprise.

"Magic always leaves its mark," said Dumbledore, and with a soft bang the boat hit the shore, "sometimes right and wrong