Boom!
As the flames that filled their vision vanished in an instant, Avada and Dumbledore once again appeared inside the Horcrux cave left behind by Voldemort.
Because of Dumbledore's schedule, he had not yet allowed reporters into the cave, so those horrifying Inferi had naturally not made it onto the front page of the Daily Prophet yet. However, he had already deliberately leaked word ahead of time, claiming that he had obtained yet another damning piece of evidence of Voldemort's crimes. The invitation for reporters to enter the cave would probably go out within the next few days.
Still, he clearly would not have time to make too grand a spectacle of it, because before long, the top wizards from all over the world would be arriving at his invitation and gathering here.
But that had been the original plan.
Hufflepuff's Cup now effectively provided an entirely new way to transfer the potion without consuming it. In essence, it was equivalent to having Voldemort hold the potion in his mouth for a while and then spit it back out. So by using Hufflepuff's Cup, Dumbledore could simply transfer the basin of potion into a more professional laboratory with better equipment for specialized research, without having to go through the trouble of remodeling the Horcrux cave.
But at the same time, that also meant a large part of the work Avada's group of seven had done had all gone to waste.
Originally, every time those big names entered or left the cave, they would have had to pass through the routes opened up by the seven students, which would subtly improve their impression of them. But now that opportunity had simply vanished...
"Please hand Hufflepuff's Cup over to me for the time being, and stay where you are, Mr. Ken."
Dumbledore stepped in front of Avada on his own initiative, his tone extremely serious.
"We cannot yet confirm whether that basin of potion is truly the final trap. If Voldemort still possessed even a bit of cunning, he may very well have hidden another vicious safeguard inside it, designed to catch intruders off guard after lulling them into carelessness with the earlier, simpler obstacles..."
"...All right, Professor."
That possibility had never occurred to Avada.
After all, Voldemort really was not that clever.
Who could possibly imagine that, in Voldemort's intended sequence, the person who drank the potion would not die until after obtaining the Horcrux and safely allowing their companion to move it away—only to then be dragged into the water by the Inferi?
"Fawkes, stay with Mr. Ken."
After taking the Cup from Avada's hands, Dumbledore beckoned to his phoenix as well.
"If anything unexpected happens, take Mr. Ken back to Hogwarts immediately, then return to me. Mr. Ken, step back a little farther as well... the final barrier is often the most deranged, and the most destructive."
"..."
Under Fawkes's watchful gaze, Avada could only silently retreat to the entrance of the cave, watching as Dumbledore waved the Elder Wand and layered himself with a host of protective spells—each one, taken on its own, would have been considered nearly impregnable.
Only then did he carefully walk across the bridge Avada had built and finally stop in front of the stone basin. With painstaking caution, he used his wand to levitate the Cup, slowly bringing it toward the surface of the potion...
Under Dumbledore's unprecedentedly serious gaze, the rim of Hufflepuff's Cup touched the surface of the green potion without the slightest obstruction, sending a small ripple across it.
He halted the Cup in place and began observing it with great care. After confirming that the potion would not damage the precious Cup in any way, he hesitated slightly before continuing to lower it further.
More and more of the green potion flowed into the Cup, yet the tiny interior space—which looked shallow enough to be seen through at a glance—seemed impossible to fill. The green liquid poured in endlessly, while the level in the basin began to drop at a visible rate.
Dumbledore slowly stepped back a little and casually added several more layers of incredibly sturdy protection to himself.
But what he had feared never happened.
As the liquid level kept dropping, the surface of a golden object gradually emerged. More and more of its true form revealed itself from within the green potion... and when the very last drop of potion in the stone basin had been completely absorbed by the Cup, the golden object seemed as if some kind of seal on it had been broken, suddenly giving off the feeling of having been unbound.
Now, it could be moved freely.
"I think you can come over now, Mr. Ken."
Dumbledore first stared blankly at the golden object for a while, then spent another moment looking at Hufflepuff's Cup, now filled to the brim with green liquid and floating steadily in the air under his magic. Only then did he turn back and call to Avada in the distance.
"There are no additional traps. It's safe here now."
"What's inside, Professor?"
Avada quickly crossed the bridge and stepped onto the island in the middle of the lake, then immediately used his magical senses to inspect Hufflepuff's Cup.
Fortunately, the result was just as he had concluded before. The green potion had not caused any essential damage to the soul fragment or the Horcrux enchantments within. And because the Cup had not been granted awareness or the ability to act by Voldemort, it would not even feel the agony brought by the potion, nor would it struggle and create additional complications...
This thing had practically been made to deal with that potion.
"You've done me another great service, Mr. Ken."
Dumbledore gave him a deep look.
"You have moved Voldemort's date of death forward by a very large step. In my original estimate, the Horcrux here was almost certainly one of the most difficult to deal with, and as long as Voldemort's soul remained alive, it would continue to give hope to his old followers and create needless variables... Now I can breathe a little easier."
"And the laboratory conditions can be improved considerably as well—you won't need to renovate this cave anymore."
After subtly reminding Dumbledore to throw a few benefits to the students involved, including himself, Avada turned a curious gaze toward the golden object at the bottom of the basin.
"What is it, Professor?"
"If I'm not mistaken,"
Dumbledore also looked at the object and let out a sigh.
"This should be a relic of Salazar Slytherin—the legendary Slytherin's locket... It too was defiled by Voldemort."
"But that is not especially surprising. He seems to have deliberately targeted the relics of Hogwarts' founders for conversion into Horcruxes, and as Slytherin's descendant, this locket would have been the easiest one for him to obtain... Fortunately, Godric Gryffindor's relic was not tainted by him. Gryffindor left behind only a single commemorative object, and that object has long been kept safely at Hogwarts..."
Of course it has. That thing's been hiding inside the Sorting Hat this whole time... Come to think of it, what if the Sword of Gryffindor's actual function is to stab out of the hat and send a student straight to the afterlife whenever the Sorting Hat decides to sort them into Azkaban?
After silently making that joke to himself, Avada looked once more at the gleaming golden locket.
"Can we try opening it and taking a look, Professor?"
(End of Chapter)