The water truly seems odd—
Yes, the obvious method of flying across it apparently has been patched by whoever built this place. Even a falling leaf drifting over the water surface would cause ripples on this apparently tranquil surface—and any slight disturbance—
"…So many."
Riding another broom and following behind William, Lupin looked down at the Inferi rising from the lake, subconsciously "admiring".
"Like playing 'Minecraft', just that these guys aren't holding tridents—"
"What the hell is that?"
William also "admired", but sadly his sentiment did not resonate with Lupin.
Though the atmosphere sounded light-hearted and pleasant, clearly Mr. Inferi…and the ladies who just appeared weren't happy to see this scene. They started piling up on each other, with the Inferi below propelling them by swimming furiously, while those on the "zombie cushion raft" extended their hands, painted in black nail polish (not), reaching for the ankles of the two—
"Partis Temporus! (Periculum)"
Though he wanted Norbert to do the task, seeing its throat smoking due to "opening the door", William stopped this animal abuse and didn't take out his Pokémon from his pocket again, instead swung the magic wand himself. A scalding, blue flame surged from the wand tip, roaring toward the group of Inferi—
The Inferi: "?"
Looking at the deep blue flames that clearly couldn't be trifled with, the Inferi didn't know how to react—they couldn't react, futilely flailing their arms then being roasted into charcoal—"Holy crap!"
Lupin almost got his leg hairs singed, quickly changed the broom's direction.
Thus, this flight was unusually smooth. The two soon reached the small island at the center of the lake, which was even smaller than Lucius described. Jagged black rocks were dry (just recently roasted) and warm, with the island's center having a gray stone basin like a silent tombstone, inside filled with a pitch-black liquid glowing with abnormal light.
"Is this the magic potion Malfoy described as…uh, drink and you'd rather just die?"
Lupin, of course, saw the information Lucius sent back, which included Malfoy's simple and straightforward description of the magical potion—so horrible that life seemed worse than death.
"…Just smelling it is quite something…hmm, Lucius drank a whole basin?"
William fell silent momentarily, then extended his finger, dipped a bit of the potion and tasted—"Actually—it's not that bad?" He smacked his lips, commented.
"Really? Malfoy almost died here."
Lupin looked somewhat skeptical, stared at the suspicious potion in the basin for a long time, still hesitating.
"You could try it, maybe it's a matter of personal taste."
William's face showed a perplexing smile, then he lured with a very "tempting" tone.
"..."
Lupin stood there, torn between the choices for quite a while, finally curiosity outweighed everything else. He mimicked William's action, dipped a finger into the potion, stuck it into his mouth…"Holy @*!" Lupin couldn't even describe the taste of that stuff, his limited vocabulary prompted a two-and-a-half-minute output of interjections—
Finally, Lupin, whose face turned pale, stopped. He looked up silently at William, seemingly demanding an explanation.
"Looks indeed awful."
Witnessing Lupin's performance, William nodded, confirmed the intel was accurate, "What? Oh, I just put in my ring finger earlier." William naturally demonstrated again how to switch fingers, thus, Lupin's pupils were so shocked they lost their sparkle.
"So, what shall we do with it now?"
He swallowed his saliva, evidently still "reminiscing" the recent taste.
"Dump it—"
William extended the magic wand, pointing at the bottom of the stone basin. Following a soft explosion sound, the basin fell over, the potion inside spilled out—originally at this moment, Voldemort's final cards would activate, and hordes of Inferi would crawl out of the lake, screaming—
But regrettably, most of the Inferi were burned to crystals due to the earlier blazing thence no backup plan to crawl out.
The potion scattered on the ground, while the empty basin bottom once again verified William's conjecture—
"Revelio." (Prototype revelation)
Then, he wielded the magic wand—the Rune Stone in his hand turned into powder, a new stone basin filled with silvery liquid rose beside, the liquid surged, next moment, two figures around them took shape, the stone basin just shattered by William restored to its original form simultaneously.
"Malfoy?"
Seeing a figure almost overlapping with himself, Lupin, recovering from the potion taste, quickly got up, wiped his mouth, looking at the man lying on the ground half-alive, instinctively called out—spoken, Lupin realized after scanning his surroundings, he then looked at the new stone basin—
"Uh, Meditation Basin?"
"Upgraded version, didn't you see it?"
William seemed puzzled, this thing seemed to appear over two hundred chapters ago.
"…I forgot."
Lupin waved his hand, and with his movement, the surrounding scene began to wobble. Lucius got up from the ground, then crawled to the basin side, while the other shadow began to use a ladle to scoop potion from Lucius's mouth…"?"
"It's a reversal—I added a new function."
William casually explained, waved his hand through the air, the surroundings similar to a 3D projection began rapidly changing—it finally stopped, Lucius Malfoy once again lay aside, while the figure in black extended his hand into the empty stone basin, then from within took out a pendant box, then forcefully…
"Stop!"
William snapped his fingers, the scene paused. He extended his hand, took that pendant box from the "projection" black figure's hand, "Seems…and yeah, indeed, it doesn't look like an authentic one…Voldemort's Soul Artifact wouldn't look so…new."
"I see."
Lupin nodded.
"..."
Lupin suddenly realized something was wrong.
"?!"
Lupin blinked dazedly.
"Wait a minute, adding a little new function?!"
Lupin pointed at the entity pendant box pulled from the "projection" by William, instinctively asked.
"Oh dear, tiny bit, don't mind these details—"
William waved his hand, "Magic is not such an inconvenient thing, though unclear of this pendant box's origin, according to the plot's direction, there should be quest guidance and hints now—"
Saying that, William activated the pendant box's mechanism, a dust-covered note dropped out from the middle of the box.