"I think we'll have to swim across. Fortunately, the weather is nice today, so it shouldn't be too cold. None of you mind getting wet, do you?" Dumbledore looked at everyone.
"Why don't we use magic? I mean, conjure a boat or something," Harry couldn't help asking.
"Tch..." Snape gave a thoroughly derisive snort.
"Because an invisible layer of magic surrounds the perimeter here. Try feeling it and see whether you can draw on the magic inside you." Sirius glared at Snape, but, unusually, he didn't snap back at him. Instead, he explained gently to Harry.
Then he too looked toward the pitch-black passage in the fissure in the rock face, his gaze complicated. Had his brother spent decades in there? How lonely that must have been.
After hearing Kreacher's story, Sirius's impression of Regulus had changed. Together with their close blood ties, that left Sirius unable to entertain any other thoughts.
Besides, when they were little, Regulus had always followed him around like a shadow.
That emotional bond, which truly existed in his memories, was something Sirius could not ignore either.
Splash... Although the weather was indeed fairly nice, the seawater was still very cold. Accompanied by the pungent smells of the sea and seaweed, they soon reached the depths of the fissure, where it had become a pitch-black passage.
The sluggishness in the flow of their magic disappeared.
Dumbledore released a pearly-white ball of light while in the water. It floated unsteadily above the surface, casting a soft glow that wasn't dazzling and lighting the way ahead for them.
After swimming forward for another few minutes or so, Dumbledore stood up out of the water ahead of them, his silver-white hair and black robes gleaming with moisture.
Everyone soon gathered on the steps, with no one missing. Ahead