Journey to the Cave

Harry felt like he was about to break down; why hadn't he thought of that?

He actually wanted to delay it a bit.

While they were preparing things, they went to Sirius and told him everything.

But he forgot that this was Boiler Room —and there was plenty of wood.

Next door is the kitchen—it's full of oil.

Even rags were plentiful in Kreacher's house.

"Harry, we're all ready."

"Aren't there lots of logs outside? They're used for cooking."

"Kreacher is ready," Ron, Draco, and Kreacher said eagerly.

And so, Kreacher took a bottle of oil and soaked it in the pile of clean, colorful rags.

Even with the bag enchanted with the Undetectable Extension Charm, Harry didn't have a chance to find an excuse to take it—it was used to carry timber.

Draco had it on him, and for the first time, Harry realized that Draco's family being too rich wasn't a good thing.

Crack!

Under the familiar feeling of being squeezed, in the blink of an eye, they had arrived at their destination.

It was a smooth, rocky islet, about the size of Dumbledore's office—a large, flat, black slab of stone, empty except for the light source emitting that green glow.

Having already learned about the island's layout, Harry and his companions naturally understood that it could only be a stone basin.

Even so, Ron couldn't help but walk toward the green light, which turned out to be the emerald green liquid in the stone basin.

It shimmered with Winky.

There is a base under the stone basin, which seems to firmly set the stone basin in place.

"Alright Ron, let's review what we did first."

"We already know from Kreacher's story that the Inferi will attack people who are near the lake."

"All we need to do is find Regulus from the Inferi in the lake," Harry emphasized.

They all understood one thing: the most annoying thing about the Inferi is their contagiousness.

If there are three or more Inferi, any recently deceased living person who gets close to them will become the same being.

In the era when Voldemort was rampant, in addition to Dementors, Inferi were also a common method used by Dark Wizard.

And Regulus, without a doubt, has also become an Inferi.

"Okay, Harry, I'm just looking," Ron said, pulling out a bottle filled with Pumpkin Juice.

"Why not?"

"I remember it being full?" Ron said, looking at the empty bottle.

"Ron, I think this must be some kind of magic left by Voldemort. He did it so that those powerful wizards who still retained some magic after drinking that liquid would be unable to quench their thirst with their own liquid or the water they summoned."

"Vera Verto! (Latin: I transform, I exchange.)" Draco took a piece of wood from his pocket and used Transfiguration Spell to turn it into a cup.

That's all he can do; he can't do things like a higher-level Transfiguration Spell —turning air into a cup.

"Aguamenti!" Draco shouted, pointing his wand at the glass, which immediately filled with clear water.

But in the next second, the water in the cup vanished into thin air.

"Voldemort is so cunning!" Ron said indignantly, because he had rushed here and hadn't had time to replenish his water.

Keep in mind that he had just spent the afternoon playing with Harry and the Harry, and then spent almost an hour in the Boiler Room!

"Alright, let me assign tasks first."

"Kreacher, wrap these pieces of wood with oiled cloth." Harry looked at Kreacher.

"Yes, Master Harry!" Kreacher said, half fearful and half pleased.

The environment here evoked his fear, but the joy of bringing Regulus back filled him with passion.

The House-elf's magic was truly amazing. Kreacher waved his fingers a few times, and the pile of rags and wood that Harry had taken from Draco's bag quickly became tangled together.

"Ron, Draco, let's work together to push these pieces of wood into the ground along the lake."

"But we need to leave some behind and form a circle around us." Harry then looked at Ron and the others.

In less than ten minutes, a fence and a simple circle were set up, and Harry and his friends stood inside the circle.

Finally, I counted one, two, three.

"Ron, first use a spell to rouse the lake, and then light these logs when the Inferi gets close to me and Draco."

"Kreacher, you'll be in charge of finding Regulus."

"If not, we'll just burn them to Incendio."

"Ron, continue."

"But if we find it, Kreacher, you take Regulus and move toward us immediately!" Harry ordered.

Ron and the others nodded in agreement.

"One, two, three!" Harry said.

"Anything is fine, Wingardium Leviosa!" Ron cast Levitation Charm and aimed his wand at the dark, murky water.

Ron's magic disturbed something in the lake; the surface was no longer smooth as a mirror, but was violently churning.

They looked up and saw white heads and hands emerging from the dark water everywhere—men's, women's, children's—all with sunken, blind eyes, floating toward the rocks—a vast expanse of corpses in the pitch-black lake.

They climbed onto the rocks, their withered hands gripping the slippery surface, their hollow, misty eyes staring in Harry's direction, their water-soaked tattered clothes trailing behind them, and their sunken faces exuding an evil aura.

"Now! Incendio!" Flames erupted from Harry and Draco's wands, instantly igniting the surrounding wood.

The Inferi that had climbed ashore began to stagger and sway.

They couldn't move forward because Harry and the others were inside a circle of flames.

They could not retreat back into the lake either, for flames had also broken out behind them.

"Kreacher!" Harry said.

Before Harry could speak, Kreacher rushed into the horde of Inferi, a torch in his hand.

"Found him! Kreacher has been found!" Kreacher shouted.

Sure enough, Regulus was dragged down by the Inferi by the lake, and he should have been there too.

Harry looked in Kreacher's direction. Kreacher was holding a torch in his left hand and dragging a corpse with his other hand.

That must be Regulus's Inferi trying to embrace Kreacher, but not daring to get close.

"Petrificus Totalus!"

"Mobilicorpus!" Harry chanted to the Inferi using his wand.

"Kreacher, let's go!" Harry yelled.

With tears of joy streaming down his face, Kreacher pulled the immobile, floating Inferi towards Harry and the others.

Then came the familiar feeling of being squeezed.

The next second, they reappeared in the Boiler Room.

"Young Master Regulus! You're home! Kreacher —I'm bringing you home!"

Kreacher took out a towel that had been prepared beforehand and carefully wiped her face.

This gave Harry and the others a chance to look at Regulus.

Perhaps because he was a wizard, unlike other Inferi, his appearance was relatively intact, unlike other Inferi which had hollow, sunken eyes.

Aside from the marks left by rocks on his body and his deathly pale skin, he was almost indistinguishable from a living person.

He had the same black hair as Sirius, and although he wasn't as handsome as his brother, he was still quite good-looking.

"Harry, we actually succeeded?" Draco asked incredulously.

"Yes, now all we need to do is call Sirius." Harry nodded.