The Return to Hogwarts

Voldemort probably wants to weaken the wizards who have come here.

Seeing out of the corner of her eye that Remus's confusion hadn't disappeared, Amosta continued.

"If there's more than one wizard coming here, then the purpose of this door is quite limited. Of course, I don't think Voldemort would allow a large group of people to get close to the dark magic artifacts he's hiding and protecting, so there are probably some other methods behind this door—"

Chapter 268 Ferry

Amosta led the way, with two people and a pet Pokémon fish through the portal. Instantly, time and space shifted, and a very strange scene appeared before them.

Although I had heard Kreacher describe it before, the shock to my soul from the real scene I saw with my own eyes was far more powerful than any words could describe.

They stood on the shore of a vast, black lake. The lake was so wide and boundless that the opposite shore could not be seen in the distance. One could imagine that there was probably an underground river at the bottom of the lake that connected to the sea.

This was a huge cavity inside the mountain. The cave was so high that even though the light emanating from Amostella's wand was bright enough, they couldn't see the top of the cave.

Far away, seemingly in the center of the lake, a hazy, emerald-green light shimmered, reflected in the still water below. Apart from that green light and the glow emanating from Amosta's wand, the surroundings were completely enveloped in an impenetrable darkness, a darkness that seemed denser and heavier than ordinary darkness, enough to instill despair simply by looking at it.

Kreacher cowered in fear, while Sirius and Remus were stunned by the breathtaking sight and speechless for a moment.

Anti-Apparition, No Flight, No Summoning, Magic Seal, Curse—Amosta narrowed his eyes, gazing at the space above the lake, shrouded in countless powerful sealing spells, his expression slightly somber.

Such a massive magical project could not have been accomplished in a day.

One can imagine how much effort Voldemort put into protecting his Horcruxes back then.

When Amosta's gaze fell upon the mirror-like surface of the black lake, he narrowed his eyes, a hint of menace emanating from his entire being.

It's a corpse!

Infernals aren't anything scary; in fact, Amosta himself has used them to teach young wizards.

Within the area covered by his gaze, Amosta 'saw' hundreds of Infernals. Judging from their clothing, they were all Muggles. Among these Muggles were men, women, the elderly, and children. Amosta even saw an infant who looked only one or two years old and whose body was swollen with water!

By extension, at least several thousand to tens of thousands of Muggles perished in the entire lake and were magically transformed into Inferi!

A massacre—only a brutal massacre of Muggles could create such a number of Inferi. The magical world has no record or report of this extremely brutal massacre, perhaps because it was so inhumane that if it were reported, it would be condemned worldwide and could even demoralize the entire magical community. Therefore, both the Ministry of Magic and the Muggle government chose to cover it up.

"what happened to you?"

Remus and Sirius asked the same question at the same time.

They weren't recent Hogwarts graduates, but experienced adult wizards. They could sense the intense, palpable killing intent emanating from Amostella, who stood gazing at the black lake. This killing intent was so chilling that it even stirred within them a faint urge to turn and run away.

"nothing--"

Amosta let out a soft breath, suppressing his emotions.

“Kreacher, Regulus back then.”

Sirius, preoccupied with his younger brother, quickly stopped worrying about Amosta's strange behavior. He looked down at Kreacher at his feet, his voice thick with nasal emotion and tinged with suppressed sorrow.

"Where was it back then?"

"There's an island in the middle of the lake, where Sirius Black lives—"

Kreacher whimpered, unable to bear the sight of Regulus's death. It covered its large, grayish eyes and pointed with its slender fingers in the direction of the green light.

“Kreacher was there and saw young Regulus being dragged into the water by the hands of those corpses.”

Upon hearing Kreacher's words, Sirius immediately rushed forward, seemingly wanting to slide down to the shore and swim across as before.

"Wait, Sirius!"

Remus grabbed his arm.

"Have you forgotten what Kreacher said? There are indestructibles in this lake, and probably quite a few!"

"Let me go, Remus!" Sirius cried. "I'm going to find Regulus, and those Infernals can't stop me!"

Remus wanted to persuade her further, but Amosta said calmly,

"He's courting death, why are you stopping him?"

When Amosta said that, Sirius fell silent and stopped trying to jump into the lake.

"Do you remember the location of that ship, Kreacher?"

Seeing that Sirius had quieted down, Amosta turned her gaze to Kreacher.

“Kreacher remembers it over there, Mr. Blaine.”

For years, Kreacher had been secretly trying to destroy the locket. Each failed attempt would evoke memories of Regulus's death that it didn't want to recall. Hearing the question, it jumped out from beside Sirius, its body pressed against the rock wall, and led them to the right.

A few minutes later, they stopped at another location, but there was nothing there.

"Kreacher has forgotten the ship's exact location."

"Kreacher's voice trembled as it punished itself by banging its head against the rock wall," it said.

Remus stopped it from self-harming, and as he was about to question Amostella, he saw Amostella walk past Kreacher, hurrying forward and finally stopping thirty feet away from them.

"I think I've found it."

Amosta reached out into the narrow, rocky path, grabbed something, and then tapped his fist with the wand in his other hand.

Immediately, a thick green copper chain emerged from the lake and quickly extended towards the shore, reaching into Amosta's clenched fist. Upon seeing this, Amosta pulled back sharply with his outstretched left hand, and the copper chain suddenly went berserk, making a loud noise as it swiftly pulled a small boat from the bottom of the lake.

“If Amosta hadn’t known the situation beforehand,”

Remus hurried over, staring at Amostella's expressionless face, and said in a strange voice...

“I might have thought you’ve been here many times before.”

How did you find it?

Sirius was also expressing his bewilderment.

"Where magic exists, the concentration of magical energy will differ from the surrounding environment. Any wizard with even a slightly superior sense of perception should be able to detect this."

Amostella gazed thoughtfully at the wizard leaning against the shore, a structure that could barely hold two people.

"This is probably an obstacle Voldemort set up to prevent too many wizards from getting close to the locket at the same time."

Why can't we make this ship run a couple more times?

Sirius said, puzzled.

"I believe that once this ship reaches the island, it won't automatically return unless it senses that the people who landed on the island are dead, and, well, magic power measurement. I see, it's not about weight, it's about magic power—"

No one could understand what Amosta was saying to himself, so Remus and Sirius gave up trying to figure it out and waited anxiously for him to tell them what to do next.

Without hesitation, Amosta took a step forward and nimbly jumped to the center of the small boat. The moment he landed in the cabin, the boat slid heavily downwards, the waterline rose by a full five or six inches, and the hull began to rock violently, looking as if it would capsize at any moment.

"Come back quickly, Amosta!"

The two men on the shore shouted in unison. They reached out to grab Amosta, who was standing in the middle of the cabin, trying to pull him back to shore, because it wasn't hard to guess what would happen if he fell into the water.

But after the initial rocking, the small boat eventually stabilized, and nothing happened.

Amosta glanced at the hull and saw that there was only about an inch left before the lake water would overflow the gunwale and flood the cabin. He then looked at Sirius and Remus on the shore and made a rough estimate, immediately understanding the situation.

“Kreacher can Apparate to the middle of the lake. You two come up here. There shouldn’t be any major problems.”

In reality, the problem still exists.

Sirius and Remus are both adult wizards of normal size. Although their magic won't put too much of a burden on the ship, their size is indeed a significant problem for the cramped cabin.

Amosta went through another round of trouble to turn Sirius into Lenny, and Remus, holding Lenny, stepped onto the boat. And just as Amosta had said, the boat swayed for a while after descending half an inch, and then returned to calm.

Let's go--

As Amosta spoke calmly, the small boat hummed and gently accelerated from its standstill, slowly heading towards the island in the lake.

Chapter 269 Method

The small boat sailed on the lake, the surroundings were quiet, with only the soft rustling sound of the bow cutting through the water. The boat was moving automatically, without their help, as if an invisible rope was pulling it toward the green light in the center of the lake. Before long, the cave walls in the direction they came from disappeared from sight, as if they were floating on the sea, only without any waves around them.

The small boat was not moving fast, which gave the people on board enough time to 'admire' the corpses floating on the water.

Amosta squinted, his cold and focused gaze fixed on the unseeing corpses that drifted past him, without uttering a word.

Remus pressed his lips tightly together, each breath seeming like a desperate effort, including Sirius in his arms. At this moment, that dark and bloody era leaped back into their minds.

No one likes the swaggering celebration of death. After watching for a while, the few people in the cabin looked away, hoping to reach the other side as soon as possible.

A few minutes later, the green light in the center of the lake became brighter, and the boat shook as if it had hit something and stopped.

Kreacher was crouching on the lake, eagerly awaiting their arrival. Amosta didn't waste any time; he jumped off the boat and took a few steps forward, looking around the island. Remus also carefully carried Sirius down the boat.

As Amosta said, the ghostly little boat did not return to the other side after it ran out of passengers; it simply lay there silently, waiting for them to return home or die.

The island in the lake is not large, about the size of Dumbledore's office in the school, and the ground is a flat black stone slab, which does not look like it was formed naturally.

Standing on the island, they all noticed that the green light they had seen on the shore earlier had become brighter. Amosta blinked, knowing that this was the stone basin filled with green liquid described in Kreacher's story. Out of curiosity, he walked over.

Sirius Black had a sullen face. Now that he was here, he didn't shout to find Regulus. Instead, he walked into the area covered by the green aura together with Remus.

Three people stood around the base of the stone basin. Inside the basin was a shimmering, emerald-green liquid.

Amostah glanced at it a few times before looking away, tilting his head to examine the base connecting the stone basin. He seemed more interested in this, his fingertips tracing the curved lines downwards until his palm touched the smooth, cold, black stone slab.