The terrain at the edge of the sea is abruptly high, revealing a black surface under the erosion of the sea, forming a straight vertical cliff.
The waves lapped against the reef, stirring up white foam and emitting a loud roar.
"Bang!"
On the top of the black cliff, three people suddenly appeared, two tall and one small figure. One of the three figures shuddered and almost fell off the cliff.
"Towing you in apparition is like dragging a huge mountain, Felix." Sirius said under his breath.
"Forgive me, perhaps I have too many enchanted items on me." Felix said, uncertainly, he still had a dozen dementors hidden in his ring. The prisoners were crammed into a small compartment with no magical isolation, so Sirius carried the equivalent of a group of people through an apparition.
They had time to observe the surrounding environment, black sharp cliffs, on one side is churning waves of the sea, the other side of the cliff is fall winds that push you down, Felix looked into the distance, vaguely saw a village halfway down the cliff.
In addition, all around looked bare, full of desolation, in addition to the vast sea and stone, you cannot see a tree, there is no grass and beach.
Sirius pointed to a cliff in the middle of the sea, "The cave entrance is directly below the cliff, it is not visible now, we can apparite to that rock to transit ..."
"Let's go."
This time, with Felix carrying them, they quickly jumped and shifted to the edge of a narrow slit below the cliff, and took a few steps forward before the curling seawater reach their feet.
Soon the crevice became a dark passage, with the slimy mud-stained rock wall two or three feet from them on either side. Now and then they could step on a shell or similar thing. The air smelled salty and rotten.
"It was brought in by the sea at high tide." Sirius said, raising his glowing wand and kicking a fish that is in their way, knocking it against a rock wall along with a small stone, "I cleared it before, but within a few days, it reappeared."
Felix carefully examined the rock wall, in the black and white perspective, the black rock wall overlaid with powerful magic, he detected a powerful curse.
I can tell that Voldemort is very good at Curse type of magic.
"I was simply got blocked here when I asked Kreacher, he also did not know, when he and Regulus came, they did not encounter this wall ...," Sirius explained.
"Kreacher, I remember you came here twice?" Felix asked softly, fumbling with the magic on the rock wall as he did so.
" Y-Yes, Mr. Hap." Kreacher said, a look of fear visible on his face, "The first time, Master Regulus found Kreacher and said that the Dark Lord needed an elf ... It was an honour to be asked by Master Regulus to complete the task given by the Dark Lord, and then he asked Kreacher to... ... return, to home after that."
"Kreacher followed the Dark Lord to this place, did not encounter the rock wall, so we went straight to a big black lake, there was a boat ... island, there is a stone basin, the basin is filled with a potion, the Dark Lord forced Kreacher to drink ... "
"Kreacher remembered a lot of horrible things, memories of punishment, visions of being driven out of the house ... internal organs were like being on fire ... Kreacher begged the Dark Lord, but he just laughed and made me drink all the potion ..."
Sirius went silent, he heard this story once, his heart still did not feel good about it. Felix whispered, "Testing, he was testing his defences."
"Kreacher felt like he was going to die, the Dark Lord left Kreacher behind and left alone in a boat ... but Kreacher kept in mind the Master Regulus's order to return home, When Master Regulus found Kreacher, he looked worried, and kept Kreacher hidden, and took care of me all alone... ..."
The house-elf huffed and puffed.
"After a while, Master Regulus came to see Kreacher ... in the night, and his manner was very odd, and I knew that his heart was very troubled at that time, and he seemed to be worried about something ... Master told Kreacher to take him to that cave, at that time we still did not encounter this rock wall, we got on the boat and came to the island in the lake, and then, then ..."
Sirius clenched his fist, he knew what happened later, Regulus drank the potion by himself, and told Kreacher to return home, not allowing him to return, and forbid him from revealing the secret to his mother, then he asked Kreacher to destroy the locket - that Horcrux.
As for Regulus, he was dragged into the water by the Inferi into the Black Lake...
Felix is also touched by this past, it is hard to imagine a pureblood giving up his life for a house elf. But he was contradictory, he once followed Voldemort fervently, sincerely believed that Voldemort could bring the wizard a better life.
"My brother - Regulus, he was young and gullible enough to believe Voldemort's lies, he was only eighteen ..." Sirius said in a hoarse voice. "What a ... fool."
The mouth of the crystal cave dripping drops of water, masking the sound of Sirius's sniffing, Felix pretended to be interested in the magic on the rock wall, concentrating on the appearance, without speaking for a while. After many minutes -
"Voldemort was quite confident that when he added the outermost protection later, he didn't check-"
"No, Mr. Hap, Master Regulus created an imitation of a locket, a fake ... dropped it in when he arrived, when he drank all the potion, and then the potion once again filled..."
"Well," Felix said softly, "that makes sense, he missed an opportunity to correct an error."
Sirius asked: "How do we get through this rock wall, I've tried some magic, all ineffective, and the closer I get, the more the spell casting is interfered with. You see--"
He pointed his wand at the rock wall, and a very thin spell flew out from the tip of his wand, and the outline of an arch appeared on the rock wall, radiating a dazzling white light, as if there is a strong light shining behind the crack. But soon the outline disappeared, and the rock remained as hard and thick as it had been a moment before, with nothing beyond it.
"My opinion is that the rock wall contains a hidden wicked design - I know a very rare curse that makes visitors pay the price and weaken themselves, and Voldemort wants us to paint the wall with blood tinged with magic. But," Felix said with a sarcastic expression and contempt, "all he has done is useless ... we have a better way."
Felix took off the ring, placed it on a conch shell aside, and said gently, "Kreacher, can you help us get across?"
Kreacher looked at him with surprise, "I, I can? I'm just a humble, lowly servant-"
"No, Kreacher, in some ways, you are more superior even to Voldemort."
Kreacher stared, his bat-like ears stirring restlessly, he didn't even have a decent dress, but he had been told he is superior to the dark lord that countless people feared.
"Will you, Kreacher? Do your part for Regulus?"
"Yes, of course! Kreacher is willing!"
Kreacher reached out his trembling hand, Felix took it, and then the ageing, wrinkled house elf looked at Sirius with expectation in his eyes, and Sirius held out his hand.
In the next second, the three disappeared in front of the rock wall.
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