Yet just as that magic was about to force him to complete that blasphemous act, Douglas suddenly released his hold on him.
"Forget it."
There was a trace of weary disinterest in Douglas's voice, like a master chess player who instantly lost interest in the game after his opponent made a dreadful move.
"Forced fruit is never sweet. Forced humiliation, too, lacks some of that heartfelt flavor."
He turned away, no longer looking at Barty Crouch Jr., who lay limp on the ground, gasping for breath.
His gaze turned to the seamless rock wall, which radiated an ancient aura of confinement.
"After all, the next lesson will be more interesting than this."
Douglas's fingers traced intricate paths through the air, as though he were picking an invisible lock made of space itself.
Rumble-
With a low, teeth-grating sound of friction, the enormous rock wall that completely separated the inside from the outside slowly withdrew inward, like a curtain drawing back on a grand stage.
The entrance to the cavern opened fully.
A colder, damper current of air, thick with moisture and deathly stillness, rushed toward them from the darkness beyond.
Barty Crouch Jr. raised his head from the ground with difficulty and stared blankly into that deep darkness.
Old Crouch also held his breath, his fingers turning slightly white as he gripped A Brief History of Time.
"This is..."
Barty Crouch Jr. narrowed his eyes.
The sight before him felt eerily familiar.
It was a vast underground space that seemed to stretch on without end.
An enormous expanse of still, ink-black lake water filled most of their view.
Not a ripple disturbed its surface. Like a piece of exquisitely polished obsidian, it reflected the jagged, indistinct outlines of the cavern overhead.
At the very center of the lake stood a