The Admiral of Hogwarts

The next morning, after breakfast, Hugo and the others set off. The twins had been clamoring to go with them during breakfast, but Mrs. Weasley easily suppressed them.

As they walked to the door, Sirius, preoccupied with his thoughts, didn't watch his step and tripped over the large umbrella stand made from a troll's severed leg. As a result, he instinctively grabbed the two moth-eaten velvet curtains, pulling them open.

"Oh, blast—" Sirius began, realizing what he had done, but before he could finish, a terrible, deafening, spine-chilling shriek erupted from a portrait behind the curtains.

"Beast! Slut! Filthy, wicked spawn! Mongrels, freaks, ugly brutes, get out of here! How dare you defile my ancestral home—"

"Shut up!" Sirius grabbed the curtains. "You horrible old hag, you killed Regulus, killed my brother. I've finally found him, and I'm going to bring him home."

"What, my child, Regulus, dead?" The old woman's face turned deathly pale, revealing a sorrowful expression. Every portrait in the wizarding world, once painted, possesses its own incomplete consciousness, often instilled by the portrait's original subject.

This portrait of Sirius's mother must have been painted before her death. Besides a set of pure-blood ideals, it contained her dissatisfaction with her eldest son, Sirius, and her longing for her missing younger son.

Therefore, upon learning of Regulus's death, the portrait immediately displayed a heartbroken reaction.

"Yes, it's all your fault, my dear mother. You caused him to die," Sirius said, forcefully pulling the curtains shut. However, this time, the woman in the portrait didn't roar as usual but sat there blankly.

In the silence, the four people and a house-elf left the mansion. Afterwards, they met up with Radiance and her two companions, and Kreacher transported them one by one to a large cavern.

As Radiance raised the wand in her hand, Hugo could see a pool of water at one end of the cavern, illuminated by the milky white light.

A stone staircase extended upwards from the water. The surrounding air was still and cold, carrying a briny scent, indicating that the place should be near the sea.

"This is it," Kreacher said in a somewhat somber voice. "The door that requires blood is ahead, but unfortunately, strange magic is in place inside. Even Kreacher's Apparition can't pinpoint the exact location inside, so one can only come out from there but not enter from the outside."

"This is enough," Radiance said in a low voice, then stepped forward and tapped the rock face indicated by the house-elf with her wand.

Instantly, the outline of an archway appeared there, the inside of the outline radiating a dazzling white light, as if intense light shone from behind the crack.

"That's right, this is it." Radiance nodded, then took out the wizard's blood she had bought earlier from her pocket and poured it onto the outline of the archway. In an instant, the surface of the rock was covered with shiny, dark red blood droplets.

After the rock wall absorbed the blood, the outline of the archway did not disappear as before. The blood-soaked rock inside the archway suddenly vanished, revealing a doorway, inside which seemed to be endless darkness.

"Saint George, you're at the back. Everyone, it's best to stay close together. The situation here seems a bit off," Radiance earnestly instructed everyone present, then raised the wand in her hand, emitting light to lead the way.

Because they had heard Radiance's reminder, everyone prepared for battle.

For example, Sirius raised his wand, while Hugo and the others not only raised their wands but also held a silver plate carved with runes in their other free hand and activated it, ready to use it at any time.

Under the illumination of the light source in their hands, a very bizarre image unfolded before their eyes: they were now standing on the shore of a vast black lake, so wide that they could not see the opposite bank in the distance.

The cavern they were in was very high; looking up, they couldn't see the top. Far away, as if in the center of the lake, a hazy, green light flickered, reflected in the still, dead water below.

Even more strangely, apart from the light sources in their hands and the green light in the distance, the surroundings were completely filled with an almost palpable darkness. Even the light with divine power emanating from Radiance's wand couldn't illuminate very far.

Radiance tried to increase the input of magic into the wand, and unexpectedly found that the light emitted from her wand actually clashed with the surrounding darkness, and a large number of white sparks burst out at the boundary between the two.

Obviously, the darkness around them wasn't because the place was very sealed, but because a certain type of magic with dark attributes had gathered in the area.

"Keep moving forward." Feeling the surrounding environment's rejection of her, Radiance immediately reduced the range of her magic's coverage to a suitable area, and then prompted everyone.

"But everyone, it's best to stay vigilant, especially to avoid touching the lake water, because I can feel that the evil power mainly comes from within the lake."

After adjusting their formation, they began to walk along the narrow rocks by the lake, their footsteps treading on the lakeside. Finally, they came to the edge of a section of the lake shore.

This shore was no different from other places, all the same dark and cold. However, Kreacher recognized this place through some means. Under his guidance, the group found the boat that Voldemort had hidden here.

"We must go to the island over there. Regulus was dragged into the water there. But this thing only allows one wizard to ride across the lake, so—"

As the only alchemist present, Hugo naturally stepped forward to inspect the boat in this situation and brought everyone some not-so-good news.

"Just let me go." Hearing Hugo say this, Sirius impulsively said before he could finish, but was immediately stopped.

"Don't make trouble. We're here to bring your brother home, not to leave you here too," Radiance said with a serious face, then looked at the small island in the distance.

"We'll go together in a while. After all, this place is too strange. It's not a good idea to act separately. If we encounter any dangerous situations, it's better to take corresponding countermeasures together."

"But how do we get there?" Sirius asked, helplessly looking at the boat in front of him. "You clearly said just now that this thing can only carry one person."

"Can't you let me finish speaking?" Hugo looked at Sirius helplessly and said, "The few of us have a way to go directly across the lake, so only you and Kreacher need to ride this boat."

"But there are Inferi in the lake!" Sirius's eyes widened.

"It's okay, we have a way to solve this problem," Veneto said from the side, while inspecting the lake water and walking towards the lake. "We have a way to isolate our aura and won't trigger the Inferi's attacks."

Just as he was speaking, Veneto stood on the water in Sirius's astonished gaze.

"Alright, let's set off!"