"Can you see it?" Dumbledore pointed ahead and said, "There's a staircase there. As long as we walk past that staircase, we can enter the cave... However, there's a problem. Do you mind getting a little wet?"
"Wet?" Harry frowned and asked, not understanding what Dumbledore meant.
Why get a little wet?
"Oh, the entrance to that cave is already submerged by seawater, so if we want to get through, we need to swim underwater," Dumbledore said nonchalantly, as if he were not the one about to swim.
"I mind."
Before Harry could answer, Vivi spoke up first, "But I have a better way. We don't need to pretend to be mermaids."
She then drew her magic wand and looked at Harry.
"Harry, do you remember the spell I taught you?"
"What spell?" Harry asked, bewildered.
"It's in the second half of fifth grade." Vivi guided Harry to recall the scene from before, "When the two of us went to rescue Fiona..."
Harry remembered. At that time, the poacher's camp was underwater, and Vivi had taught Harry a spell to drain the lake effortlessly, wiping out that group of poachers.
He remembered clearly, how when they appeared dryly at the poacher's lair, the leader's expression was of terrifying disbelief.
Thinking of this, Harry also took out his magic wand.
Holly Wood, Phoenix Tail Feather.
The ruby at the tip of the wand glowed with an eerie light.
"Together then." Vivi stood beside Harry, and the two aimed their wands at the water in the underground cave.
Ripples suddenly appeared at the entrance, followed by a long water dragon soaring from the entrance and falling into the sea not far away.
The momentum of the water dragon grew stronger, seemingly relentless.
"Seems like Voldemort put some protection here," Little Sirius said, "maybe he just has this twisted taste, wanting us to enter the cave by swimming, instead of using magic..."
Just as he finished speaking, the diameter of the waterspout shortened a bit.
The waterspout became thinner and thinner, and in the end, it turned into just a thin line of water.
"Of course, I could be wrong," Little Sirius quickly changed his tune. He wasn't one to stubbornly insist, especially in such matters.
"Looks good," Harry chuckled, regardless of any magical protection; as long as the brute-force breaking spell is strong enough, it will suffice.
The legendary powerful flying brick, that's the idea.
"It does look good," Little Sirius gave his godson and Vivi a thumbs up, sincerely praising them.
He didn't know about the godson absorbing the magic stone, but he could see the surging magic in the spell.
Not to mention James; even if they tied all the graduates of Gryffindor from that year together, they might not have one-tenth of the magic strength of this godson.
"Let's continue then," Dumbledore said to them.
They followed the wall of the cave downward, it's dark inside, but with the light emanating from Dumbledore's spell, they could see the walls around them well enough.
Following the downward path, they finally reached the real entrance of the cave.
Upon stepping on the stairs, Dumbledore raised his wand and began inspecting the walls and ceiling around.
"This should be a foyer," Dumbledore said softly, "We need to go further in... Now, we're facing obstacles set by Voldemort himself, no longer just those natural ones."
"So, the water just now wasn't an obstacle set by Voldemort?" Little Sirius asked with a frown.
"Perhaps, or perhaps not." Dumbledore answered ambiguously, employing the language of nonsense.
He walked close to the cave wall, gently brushed his hand along it, muttering some strange language no one could understand.
Dumbledore circled the stone wall twice, touching as much of these rocks as possible, occasionally stopping to stroke a particular spot repeatedly, until he finally halted.
He placed his flat palm on the wall, turned back to Harry and said, "Here, the entrance was magically hidden by Voldemort."
He then withdrew from the wall and pointed his wand at the rock.
Moments later, an arc appeared there, bright and dazzling, as if a powerful light source was hidden behind the crack.
"Looks like you succeeded, Professor," Little Sirius said with a grin.
"Not quite," Dumbledore said, retrieving a small silver knife from his pocket and slashing his palm, blood flowed rapidly from the wound.
He pressed his hand against the wall, and the gap from which light emerged shook violently, moments later revealing an entrance wide enough for two people to pass through side by side.
"Just as I thought, we need to pay some price to pass through."
After speaking, he withdrew his hand and pointed his wand at the wound on his palm.
A miracle occurred, the wound on his hand began to heal rapidly.
"Perhaps we have even better ways, Dumbledore," Vivi frowned and said, "I can feel that after sacrificing a part of your own blood, your body has weakened somewhat... I hope you can notify us before taking action, after all, you're not just the headmaster of Hogwarts, but also my junior."
"I understand, Miss Grindelwald." Dumbledore didn't feel offended, rather he enjoyed the feeling, "But such situations are sometimes unavoidable."
"You never know until you try," Vivi said softly.
Dumbledore nodded toward Vivi, looked up at the rock wall, then at the open door, and turned back to say, "Then, we may proceed... If my guess is correct, inside is where Voldemort wanted to place Slytherin's pendant box, and... also Regulus's final resting place."
Little Sirius's throat moved, though he was about to get an answer, he couldn't help but feel nervous.
This is understandable, anyone about to see the body of a close relative would feel the same.
The passage they just walked through was very narrow, only allowing one or two people to pass side by side, but after a few steps, it suddenly widened. As they walked to the end, they found themselves standing by a huge black lake, so large that they couldn't even discern the distant shore.
This was a cave with an unseen ceiling, a flickering green light far away shimmering, reflected in the perfectly still lake, it appeared as if it were in the center of the lake.
This green light and the glow from the wand pierced the velvet-like darkness surrounding them, despite the wand's light not reaching that far.
For some reason, compared to other places, the darkness here was much denser.
It's so oppressive, it feels almost suffocating.
"Is this where the soul artifact is hidden?" Little Sirius asked cautiously, "I can see that this place doesn't feel quite right, at least that's how I feel..."
"I still can't imagine an eleven-year-old Voldemort daring to come to this place," Harry said, looking around, "let alone planning and scheming to harm his two orphanage companions... I think what Vivi said is indeed true, some people are inherently evil, and this cannot be changed."
As he spoke, the roaming green light in the distance suddenly intensified, projecting patches of ghastly green across the lake surface.
"The center of the lake is where Voldemort hid the fake soul artifact." Dumbledore looked toward the small island in the lake's center and said, "And he hid the Yin Corpses at the bottom of this lake. I don't know how to draw out the Yin Corpses, but I know how to retrieve the soul artifact."
(Request for monthly ticket)