The first Sunday of the new semester.

"Gidro, I'm not going to waste time on Voldemort's Horcrux hiding on the ground," Dumbledore called Lockhart to the office, "Today, you will accompany me to break the last barrier. ."

"I don't promise..." Lockhart paved the way first, "but you can go and have a look first."

"That's good." Dumbledore nodded, "Grab my arm, and I'll take you there."

————

There was another slight discomfort, a sea breeze came blowing, the strong smell of the sea got into Lockhart's nose, and he could hear the sound of choppy waves. They came to an outcropping of rock in the sea, the cold wind blowing Lockhart's hair and Dumbledore's beard, the waves rolling and foaming under his feet.

In front of them stood a cliff, and the steep rock wall fell straight down, so dark that they could not see clearly.

"In a hole under this cliff," Dumbledore introduced, "it was covered with a concealment spell at first, and the opening of the hole could not be seen, but the breath of black magic revealed the location of the hole."

Dumbledore took the lead to the edge of the rock, the many jagged indentations in the rock for stepping on, leading to the giant pebbles below, around the cliff, half out of the sea.

"Originally it shouldn't be able to fly here, but the no-fly magic was broken by me a few months ago." Dumbledore's body was lifted off the ground by the magic power, "Follow me."

The two used the flying spell to fly directly to the pit half buried under the sea below the cliff. After landing, Dumbledore took the lead and walked towards the stone wall on the other side of the pit. There was a slight fluctuation of magic power, and he actually walked in directly. This stone wall was just a trick. They entered a dark crack.

"Fluorescent flickering!" Dumbledore raised his wand and illuminated the pitted rock walls on both sides, which could be seen as the traces of the spell attack, "There used to be several powerful protective magics here to prevent people from entering, but all of them were It was destroyed by me, and now there is only the last one left, I can't figure out the principle of it, and I don't dare to forcibly enter."

Dumbledore took the lead, and the crack turned into a dark path: "This place will be submerged when the tide is high, so let's hurry."

They walked forward step by step, and finally came to the deepest part of the cave. Dumbledore pointed at a dark red wall with his wand and said, "This is it, but I don't know why I can't open it."

Lockhart pretended to walk up to this wall to observe, this wall revealed a gloomy aura, which made people feel very uncomfortable. The defensive magic on it is quite advanced, and it will not be clear in a while.

But Lockhart knew what to do.

"The wall is clearly meant to weaken the visitor," Lockhart said. "From the spell on it, I guess blood needs to be smeared on it, and then it will open."

"You saw it so quickly!" Dumbledore was obviously surprised by Lockhart's speed. "Yes, although it's a bit complicated, I also saw it. It needs blood to open."

"You see, so what am I doing here?" Lockhart asked strangely.

"At first, I got some animal blood from the outside, but it didn't work; so I guessed it needed fresh blood, so I brought in a chicken and got it on the spot," Dumbledore told Lockhart, "but still Useless."

"Maybe it needs the blood of a magical wizard?"

"I thought so too." Dumbledore nodded, "So I tried my own blood, but it still couldn't open."

"How is that possible?" Lockhart said in surprise. He tried to recall the plot he saw. It was indeed Dumbledore who opened it with his own blood.

"Don't worry, Gilderoy, you can think about it slowly." Dumbledore comforted.

"Why do you keep the illusion spell at the door?" Lockhart couldn't think of the reason, so he could only ask casually, "Since all other magics have been eliminated."

"Because the protective magic has been broken, I am afraid that other people, including Muggles, will accidentally break in." Dumbledore explained, "Why, is that the reason for the illusion spell?"

"Maybe we can go back and have a look." Lockhart and Dumbledore returned to the entrance and carefully observed the illusion spell at the door.

Dumbledore looked at it for a while, and suddenly exclaimed in surprise: "Yes, Gilderoy, you guessed it right, it's the ghost of this illusion."

Lockhart hurried over to study the enchantment on the wall, and a minute later, he also saw the doorway: "This illusion spell is just a cover! It conceals the magic power fluctuations of another alarm magic!"

"That's right, if you guess correctly, the blood of any wizard who walks past this spell cannot be used to open the stone wall." Dumbledore took out his wand: "It's torn apart."

The great wizard is the great wizard, and the surging spells smashed the entire stone wall, including the illusion spell and detection magic attached to it, all torn apart, the gravel was thrown into the sea, and the hole was widened all at once. a lot.

"This will definitely open up that rock wall," Lockhart told Dumbledore confidently.

Sure enough, when Dumbledore smeared his own blood on the stone wall again, it began to vibrate, and moved to open a door, revealing the small world inside.

"Success!" Dumbledore said happily, used his wand to heal his wound, lit it up, and stepped inside.

Lockhart also lit his wand and stepped in. In front of them was a very strange scene: they were standing on the shore of a large black lake. The cave they were in was so high that they couldn't see the top of the cave when they looked up. In the distance, like in the middle of the lake, a dim, green light flickered, reflected in the dead lake below.

Except for the green light and the light from the two magic wands, there was an inextricably thick darkness all around, and the penetrability of these lights was not as strong as the outside. The darkness here seemed to be denser than ordinary. heavier.

"Let's go forward," Dumbledore reminded, "be careful, there are strange things in that water."

The two walked around the lake shore, Lockhart following behind Dumbledore. Their footsteps echoed on the narrow rocks by the lake. They kept going, but the scene around them did not change in the slightest: the rough cave walls on one side, and the endless, mirror-smooth black surface of the lake on the other, with the mysterious green light shining in the center of the lake.

"It seems that we have to find a way to get past it," Dumbledore said firmly. "It's rare that you are here too. We must finish this matter today."

"I'm free." Lockhart shrugged, "How do I get there?"

Dumbledore pointed at the lake with his wand: "Left and right."

The mirror-smooth lake surface seemed to be torn apart by a huge force, and the huge amount of water inside began to surge towards both sides, and it seemed to be blocked by an invisible wall of air, hanging firmly in mid-air, revealing a direct path to the center of the lake. lake bottom road. ——Dumbledore actually accomplished the feat of Moses dividing the sea by magic!

The two looked at the bottom of the separated lake, and a piece of white flowers was twisting below.

"It's the Inferi." Lockhart recognized it.

"That's right, there are quite a few~lightnovelpub.net~ Dumbledore shook his head, "It seems that you can't fly here, the Infernal corpse will jump up, and you can't walk from the bottom of the lake. "

"It would be better to kill them all." Lockhart didn't understand why he had to think so much. "No amount of Infernal corpses can pose a threat to wizards of our level."

"No, no," Dumbledore shook his head, "let alone how long it will take to kill them all, I need to keep this place intact. Next time, I hope I can bring Harry over to get the Horcrux."

"...Why do you need to do this." Lockhart complained, he was anxious to take out the Horcrux he was hiding in a reasonable way.

"You don't understand, Gilderoy." Dumbledore shook his head. "It's time for Harry to know something. You need to involve him, train him... let him become more mature, let him have a sense of harmony with him. A sense of honor for the enemy to fight ... and then to be sure ... that when the final moment came, he was ready."

Hearing Dumbledore's suddenly incoherent words, Lockhart sneered in his heart: Are you ready? Are you ready to die?

Lockhart has always disapproved of Dumbledore's practice of arranging the fate of others. This is simply treating people as chess pieces, and no one has this qualification - even if the chess player himself has the consciousness of sacrifice. There are so many excellent Aurors willing to make an effort to defeat Voldemort, but Dumbledore didn't. He was superstitious about the power of that prophecy and insisted on letting Harry deal with Voldemort.

But then again, as a Horcrux, if Harry doesn't "die" once, he really can't kill Voldemort completely. Lockhart can only choose to watch, after all, he has already messed up the normal plot, and if he intervenes, he might have to deal with Voldemort himself.

"Okay, then how do we get there?"