Alaric led the girls down a narrow dirt path, flanked by even taller and denser hedgerows than the ones they had previously passed.
The dirt path was winding, uneven, and strewn with loose stones.
It descended steeply, seemingly leading to a small, pitch-black forest below.
Sure enough, not far along, the path connected with the shadowy woods, and Fawley came to a halt.
The three of them stopped behind him.
Despite the clear sky, the ancient trees overhead cast cool, dense shadows, and it took a few seconds for their eyes to adjust and reveal a house partially hidden among the gnarled trees.
The large trees grew next to the house, blocking all light and obscuring the valley below.
The house appeared to be uninhabited: the walls were covered in moss, many of the roof tiles were missing, exposing the rafters inside.
Dense nettles surrounded the house, reaching up to the windows, which were very small and coated with thick, years-old grime.
"This is the Gaunt family home," Fawley said, turning to the three.
"Do you need me to accompany you inside?"
"No, that's enough," Alaric replied. "Your task is complete; you can go back now."
"Well then, good luck," Fawley said, seemingly relieved, and took out his wand, preparing to Apparate immediately.
It seemed Alaric had made quite an impression on these Aurors.
However, Alaric was quicker and pointed his wand at Fawley.
"Obliviate."
The tip of Alaric's wand flashed with white light, and the next moment, Fawley's expression went blank.
He stared at the three of them mechanically before continuing to Apparate.
With a "pop," the memory-wiped Auror vanished before their eyes.
"To prevent the Dark Lord from knowing we were here, I had to resort to this method," Alaric explained, noticing the girls' puzzled expressions.
"Penelope handles it this way too when she investigates."
They turned their attention to the decaying house in front of them.
Hermione and Fleur took out their wands.
They knew that if there were indeed any Horcruxes here, Voldemort would surely have set traps.
Fleur raised her wand first and aimed it at the grimy door, giving it a gentle wave.
"Alohomora."
The door swung open immediately, and a red light shot out... but Hermione, already prepared, calmly cast a Shield Charm, blocking the red light's threat.
The red light exploded against an invisible barrier, and everything around them, especially the shrubs and grass, turned to a grayish-white.
"That's a fearsome curse," Hermione observed after a brief examination.
"These plants are all dead."
"After all, it's the Dark Lord," Fleur said, shivering at the sight of the desolate surroundings.
"We have to be extra cautious."
The three of them stepped cautiously into the house.
Inside, everything was in disarray; all the furniture and belongings were broken and scattered.
In such a shabby and messy house, it seemed unlikely that anyone would have the desire to search, except perhaps for a vagrant.
Suddenly, noises seemed to emanate from all corners of the house, as if disturbed by their footsteps.
"It sounds like people," Hermione said after listening for a while.
"Is someone living here?"
However, what appeared before them was not people—or rather, not people in the conventional sense—these "people" were men, women, and children, with pale faces, dressed in tattered clothes.
They all had sunken, sightless eyes and moved with a stiff, lifeless quality, resembling corpses.
"These are Inferi!" Hermione concluded after a close inspection.
"What are those?" Fleur took a step back, disgusted by the zombie-like figures.
"I thought they were ghosts!"
"Inferi are corpses reanimated by dark magic. They have no life and are merely puppets used by dark wizards to carry out their commands," Hermione explained.
"I read about them in a dark magic book, 'Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Defense.' They fear fire and light and prefer dark, damp places."
"Really? So, we need to use the Fire-Making Charm against them," Fleur said, lifting her wand and eyeing the emerging figures with anticipation.
"I don't want them touching my new clothes."
"No! The Fire-Making Charm would burn down the entire house," Hermione stopped her.
"We need to use safer methods."
Thus, they used Incarcerous Spell, Petrification Charms, and Disarming Charms against the Inferi.
The hollow, foggy eyes of the Inferi stared at them as their withered hands reached out.
They lunged at the three living beings, but each was hit by a spell—some were immobilized and fell to the ground, others were shattered into pieces.
Despite their numbers, the confined space of the house prevented them from fully exploiting their numerical advantage.
The two girls stood at the door, dealing with no more than three Inferi at a time.
They methodically cast spells, efficiently dispatching these frightening but weak guardians.
Soon, the floor was littered with stiff Inferi and debris.
"This is disgusting," Fleur complained, stepping over the piles of debris with disdain.
"Why did the Dark Lord put these guys here? They're so weak; any moderately skilled wizard could handle them."
"Probably to drain the intruders' magical energy," Hermione theorized.
"In a wooden house, you can't use the Fire-Making Charm or large-scale destructive spells, so intruders have to deal with these Inferi one by one.
With so many Inferi, it would consume a lot of magical energy for an ordinary wizard.
How would they have the strength to handle the next challenges?"
However, this tactic had no effect on the magically abundant Alaric and Hermione.
But upon hearing Hermione's analysis, Fleur realized she had indeed used up too much of her magical energy.
In the next moment, Alaric tossed her a small glass vial filled with a blue potion.
Fleur recognized it immediately—it was one of the spoils distributed by Alaric after defeating the monsters in the Triwizard Tournament final, designed to replenish magical energy.
At the time, Fleur had been impressed by this potion, as no potion-maker had ever invented a magical energy replenishing potion in the wizarding world.
Everyone had relied on rest to recover their magic.
She had wondered why Alaric had distributed such unusual and extraordinary spoils during the tournament.
But now she understood that Alaric had merely been testing his new inventions on them.
Now, this blue potion was likely a finished product from those experiments.
Without hesitation, she uncorked the vial and drank it in one gulp.
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