94 hp Diagon Alley

very obvious traces.I taught Tom Riddle and know his style. "

"Is this... is this boat safe?"

"Oh, I think it's safe. Voldemort needs a way to get across the lake in case he needs to visit or take his Horcruxes, so as not to irritate those he's planted in the lake."

"Then if we go across the lake in Voldemort's boat, those guys in the water won't be trying to get us, will they?"

"I think we have to be prepared that if they find out we're not Voldemort, they're going to kill us. So far, though, we've had a good time. They've allowed us to get the boat out of the lake."

"But why would they let us do it?" Harry asked, unable to shake the terrifying image in his mind of tentacles poking out of the dark water as they moved far from the shore.

"Voldemort was justified in his belief that only a highly skilled wizard could discover the boat," said Dumbledore. "I think he was prepared to take the risk of the boat being discovered - which seemed to him almost impossible. Impossible, and he knows he's put some obstacles ahead that only he can cross. We'll see later if he's right."

Harry looked down at the boat.A very small boat indeed. "It doesn't seem to be for two people, can it bear the weight of the two of us? Will the two of us be too heavy?"

Dumbledore laughed softly. "Voldemort doesn't think about weight, he only thinks about how much magic has crossed his lake. I think the boat may have been enchanted so that only one wizard can take it at a time."

"That--?"

"I don't think you'll be counted, Harry, you're underage and unqualified. Voldemort would never have imagined that a sixteen-year-old boy would come to this place. I think, compared with my strength, Your strength is probably negligible."

Hearing these words, Harry was downcast, and Dumbledore probably realized this, and he added: "Voldemort is wrong, Harry, Voldemort is wrong... The old people underestimate the young people, they are stupid and forgetful... Alright, this time you go up first, be careful not to touch the water."

Dumbledore moved aside, and Harry climbed cautiously into the boat.Dumbledore stepped in too, coiling up the chains and piled them on the bottom of the boat.They were so tightly packed that Harry couldn't sit comfortably, but squatted down with his knees on the side of the boat.Immediately the boat set off, and there was silence save for the soft rustle of the bows through the water.The boat was moving automatically without their hands, and it seemed that there was an invisible rope pulling it towards the green light in the middle of the lake.Soon the walls of the cave were out of sight and they felt as if they were on the sea, only without the waves around them.

Harry looked down, and as the boat advanced, he saw the wand's light reflected in the dark water, flashing golden light.The boat cut deep ripples on the glass-smooth surface of the lake, like grooves on a black mirror...

That's when Harry saw it - white as marble, floating inches below the surface.

"Professor!" he said, his terrified voice echoing loudly on the still water.

"Harry?"

"I think I see a hand in the water—a human hand!"

"Yes, I believe you did," said Dumbledore quietly.

Harry looked down into the depths of the lake, looking for the missing hand, and a nauseous feeling rose in his throat.

"So, that thing that jumped out of the water just now—?"

Before Dumbledore could answer, Harry found the answer himself.The wand's light flitted across the surface of the water again, and this time Harry saw a dead man lying on his back a few inches from the surface: his open eyes were clouded with cobwebs, his hair and robes were like smoke It whirls and floats around his body.

"There's a dead body in here!" said Harry, his voice sounding so shriller than usual that it hardly seemed his own.

"Yes," said Dumbledore calmly, "but we needn't worry about them just yet."

"Temporarily?" Harry repeated the word, looking away from the lake and looking at Dumbledore.

"As long as they're just floating quietly under our boat," said Dumbledore, "a dead body has nothing to fear, Harry, any more than darkness has nothing to fear. But Voldemort didn't think so, he was sure Secretly afraid of both. Once again he has exposed his lack of intelligence. When we face death and darkness, we fear nothing but the unknown."

Harry said nothing.He didn't want to argue, but the thought of dead bodies floating around them and under their boat was terribly frightening, and he didn't believe they were harmless.

"But one jumped out just now," he said, trying to make his voice as calm and natural as Dumbledore's. "When I tried to summon the Horcrux with the Flying Charm, a dead body jumped out of the lake."

"Yes," said Dumbledore, "I'm sure when we get to the Horcruxes we'll find them less quiet. But like many creatures that inhabit cold and darkness, they fear light and warmth." , we can turn to them if we need to - fire, Harry." Dumbledore added with a smile seeing the bewildered expression on Harry's face.

"Oh...yeah..." Harry said hastily.He turned his face to look at the green light, and the boat was still heading inexorably towards it.Now, he could no longer pretend that he wasn't afraid.The endless black lake, with dead bodies floating in it... He felt that it was a long time ago when he met Professor Trelawney and gave Ron and Hermione the Felicia... He suddenly wished he had been well Say goodbye to them... and, he didn't even see Ginny...

"We're almost there," said Dumbledore cheerfully.

Sure enough, the green light seemed to finally become bigger and brighter. After a few minutes, the boat bumped into something lightly and stopped.Harry didn't see it clearly at first, but when he raised his lit wand, he saw them on a smooth rocky island in the middle of the lake.

"Be careful not to touch the lake water," Dumbledore warned again as Harry got off the boat.

The island was about the size of Dumbledore's office: a large flat black slate, empty except for that green light source.Looking closer now, the green light appears much brighter.Harry squinted at it, at first he thought it was some sort of lamp, then he saw that the green light was coming from a stone basin resembling a Pensieve, with a pedestal beneath it.

Dumbledore approached the stone basin, and Harry followed.They stood there side by side, looking into the stone basin.A basin full of emerald green liquid, glowing with phosphorescence.

"What's this?" Harry asked softly.

"I'm not sure," said Dumbledore, "but there are more things to worry about than blood and dead bodies."

Dumbledore shook up the sleeve of his robe that covered the black hand, and the tips of his withered fingers stretched out to the surface.

"Sir, no, don't touch it—!"

"I can't touch it." Dumbledore smiled faintly, "See? My hand can't go any further. Try it."

Harry squinted and reached for the stone basin, trying to touch the liquid.But he encountered an invisible resistance, and his hands couldn't get close to the liquid.No matter how hard he stretched his hand down, what his fingers touched seemed to be extremely hard and indestructible air.

"Get out of the way, Harry," said Dumbledore.

He raised his wand, made some complex movements on the surface of the liquid, and muttered silently.There was no movement, but the light from the liquid seemed brighter.Harry watched Dumbledore in silence, and it wasn't until Dumbledore retracted his wand that he felt he could speak again.

"Do you think the Horcruxes are hidden there, sir?"

"Oh, yes." Dumbledore gazed more intently at the stone basin.Harry saw his face reflected in the smooth green liquid. "But how do you get at it? The liquid, you can't squeeze it in, break it up, scoop it up, or pump it up, or make it disappear with a Vanishing Charm, or magically deform it, or otherwise. change its nature."

Dumbledore seemed to be absent-minded and raised his wand again, spun it in the air, and conjured a tall crystal goblet in his hand.

"I can only come to the conclusion that this fluid needs to be drunk."

"What?" said Harry. "No!"

"I think it's this: Only by drinking it can I empty the stone basin and see what's hidden underneath."

"But what if—what if it poisons you?"

"Oh, I'm sure it wouldn't have that effect," said Dumbledore lightly. "Voldemort wouldn't be willing to poison anyone who came to this island."

Harry couldn't believe it.Could it be that Dumbledore is so absurdly thinking of people's good side again?

"Sir," said Harry, trying to sound reasonable, "Sir, we're dealing with Voldemort—"

"I'm sorry, Harry. I should have put it this way: he wouldn't be willing to kill anyone who came to this island right away." Dumbledore corrected himself. "He'll let them live a little longer and find out how Those defenses that can penetrate him, and most importantly, get