As the sun started to creep up over the horizon, the five brooms tried to stay in front of it as much as possible. That way anybody that woke up early wouldn’t be able to spot them all too easily. They also kept high and near some cloud banks for extra cover.
About half an hour after taking off, Lupin gave the signal to descend. As Harry went lower and lower he began to spot an extension off the coast in the water. Soon enough he was able to see that it was a rickety old harbor just waiting to be swallowed by the sea. The land connected to it was a desolate beach filled with rocks that no family could have a holiday in.
After everyone touched down Lupin waved everyone over behind some rocks. “Come on. While we wait for the barge, we can’t take the chance of enemy will show up and spot us.” He then took each of their brooms, and vanished them with a wave of his wand. “No point in keeping these around.”
Harry looked out at the sea and tired to catch a glimpse of the island. But it looked as if nothing was out there except cold, choppy water.
“You know, they could already be on the island,” Hermione pointed out. “Kostas said Voldemort was having it patrolled for eight months.”
Bethany and Geoffrey cringed at the name. Lupin grinned as he looked over the rocks. “In that case we catch whoever’s there by surprise.”
“Sure hope this all goes as planned,” Baxer said, looking tense.
“Relax, we’ve barely started,” Bethany told him.
“Easy for you to say,” he retorted. “You’re so hooked up on that boyfriend of yours that you aren’t giving a second thought about falling into the water if the harbor collapsed.”
“Too right,” she said, slightly impatient. “Because after this it’s just a matter of finding out about a couple of initials, and then we strike.”
“It won’t be that simple,” Hermione put in. “I scoured the library at Hogwarts and didn’t find a clue about who he was.”
“Then we’ll keep on looking,” Lupin said reassuringly.
The five of them waited behind that rock for about an hour on the look out in case Death Eaters dropped by. They had no idea when the guards changed shifts, or how many escorted the replacement. Finally, through the mist, Harry was able to make out something drifting their way. And the lone figure on it seemed to be moving its arms mindlessly.
“Wait,” Lupin said as Harry tried to make his way towards it. “Let’s see if anyone else is on it so we can get the jump.”
When it got clearer the hairs on the back of Harry’s neck stood on end. The barge that he heard about docked on the harbor, and on it was a single Inferi. Its skin was completely pale, the arms were holding a ratty oar, and it looked as if the body was going to fall apart at any moment. The barge itself seemed to be in no better shape, barely looking like it could support another body.
They all waited there for another minute with the Inefri doing nothing but just standing…waiting. Finally after a while of staying completely still, it lifted the oar out of the water, and went to the other end of the barge putting it back in.
“Go,” Lupin ordered. The five of them then cautiously moved their way to the harbor with their wands up. One-by-one they climbed aboard when the Inferi began to row back the way it came with surprising speed. If Harry had to guess, it had the same exact routine even during the years after Voldemort’s first fall.
“Phew, this thing stinks,” commented Bethany, covering her nose and moving as far back as possible. “My guess it wasn’t just the Dark magic the kept the seagulls from picking at it. Doubt even they’d eat it.” The Inferi just kept forward and rowed like the Dark puppet it was.
“Really wish we could have followed it from the sky,” Lupin said.
Harry, however, didn’t really care about the stench. After so many years of doing nothing but steering the barge out at sea, it came as no surprise. If he had any chance to get smell the ones trying to kill him, he doubted they’d be any more pleasant. Harry just stared forward wishing for the barge to get him to the island faster. And if there was a Horcrux there, not only would it be another one down, but also they’d have a possible lead to R.A.B. He still didn’t consider Regulus Black a worthy candidate, but anything was possible.
Hermione then came up next to him with her arms crossed. “This may sound selfish,” she said, “but I wish Ron was here.”
“Wish I was here alone,” Harry said, not looking at her. “If this place has a Horcrux, I would’ve found it eventually.”
“Really?” she said skeptically. “What would be the chances that you would capture a Death Eater who patrolled the island, and that he’d find you so threatening that he would divulge such sensitive information?”
“Shut it,”Harry griped, annoyed in knowing Hermione was right. “Besides, I was right about the orphanage, wasn’t I?”
“Let me break it down for you,” she said, testily. “If you didn’t join the Order it would have taken weeks for you, me, and Ron to find it. And if you were completely alone then you’d be searching around London for months. It may have taken a while for the Order to pick up some sort of trail, but it would have taken you so much longer.”
“I know, okay?” Harry blurted out. “I know that letting the others into this made it go faster. Nobody knows better than me that the faster Voldemort is killed the better.” He exhaled heavily. “I just don’t want anyone to die doing the job meant for me.”
“Dumbledore may have passed this to you, Harry,” Lupin said, coming up to them, “but don’t be as conceded to think that we aren’t willing to lay our lives down for the cause.”
“I never said you didn’t””
“Two of my best friends were killed by Dark forces, and one was corrupted by them,” he interrupted. “Bethany lost her parents and an uncle. As for Geoffrey…well, I’m not exactly informed, but I’m sure he has his reasons for being here.”
Harry snorted. “Moody forced him.”
Lupin smiled. “Yes, but he joined the Order.”
All of a sudden it felt as if Harry was forced through a sheet of freezing water. As he cringed so did Hermione and Lupin, and the same went for Bethany and Baxer behind them less than a second later. When he recovered, Harry saw a landmass that appeared out of nowhere coming up in front of them. The Inferi just kept rowing towards it.
“Whoa!” Harry exclaimed. “When did that appear?”
“It’s obvious, isn’t it?” Hermione said, looking straight ahead. “We passed through the barrier that Draker was talking about.”
“Damn it,” Behtany exclaimed, shivering. “It’s going to stink having to go through it again.”
“If we have to go through it again,” Baxer corrected.
Behtany threw him a dirty look. “Don’t make me throw you overboard.”
“Everybody down,” Lupin suddenly ordered. Everybody in the barge then dropped to their stomachs as Lupin supported himself on his elbows to look over the side. Harry looked over too to see that on the harbor ahead there was person there. When the barge got closer he saw that it was only a single Death Eater pacing around impatiently. Behind the Death Eater was a large wall with stairs leading up to the top.
“Why is he so jittery?” Harry inquired, producing his wand again.
“Well you would be too if you were stuck in this place,” Baxer said, coming over to inspect as well. “I know I would.”
“I see your point,” he agreed.
As the barge neared the harbor, the Death Eater seemed to grow more and more anxious. Harry could tell that his hooded eyes were on the Inferi, and he backed off slowly. In the barge Lupin tapped his Harry’s shoulder, and mouthed, “On my signal.”
When they finally docked, Lupin jabbed his thumb up, and both and Harry stood up shouting, “Stupefy!” The two jets of red light found their target knocking him off his feet.
“Everybody out,” Lupin told them, stepping onto the dock and ushering them all out. “Damn, we should have asked whether or not more than one person was stationed here at a time. Wands up!”
With Lupin taking the lead and Harry right beside him, the five of them moved forward cautiously. Along the way they tied up the unconscious Death Eater, and Bethany pocketed his wand incase she needed it later. There was no sense in taking any chances.
They all went down the dock with their wands at ready. The first priority was to check every inch of the area under the wall for anybody that they could have missed. The five of them then walked down it towards the bottom of the stairs. It was there that Bethany got in front, and climbed up step-by-step with her wand pointed up. Harry and Hermione guarded their rear just in case.
“Remember that feeling we got back at the orphanage and forest?” Hermione asked.
“Yeah,” Harry answered, knowing what she was thinking. “I have it too.”
When they reached the top, right in front of them, they saw was a bare, patch of land that lead straight to an aging building. And on either side of it was a large fence that blocked the area beyond it from the harbor behind them. There seemed to be no need for the fence to go around the perimeter since they were surrounded by water. The five of them then went on forward inside.
“What is this place?” Bethany questioned after entering. Around the building were fragments of filing cabinets, ashes, and rusted railing. There was no question that it hadn’t been used in years.
“I think this is where the people imprisoned were divided up,” Lupin said with distaste. He pointed at the three doors in the back of the building with signs under each. “Look: ‘torture development’, ‘murder development’, and ‘potions development’.”
“Not a pleasant place to be,” Harry said, stating the obvious. “And Draker wasn’t joking when he said that they destroyed all records of their involvement. What if the Horcrux that possibly could’ve been here was moved too?”
“I doubt it, but just to make sure check under everything here,” Lupin ordered, going over to the nearest pile of rubble. And there began to the first of what would most likely end up being many searches.
When nothing was found inside, the five of them went outside through one of the three back doors. Beyond them were three buildings that coincided with the three doors, and past those were several smaller buildings.
“Beth, go around the left side of the island,” Lupin said. “Geoffrey, you take the right. Check those structures that are on the corners of the fencing. Harry, Hermione, and I will go up the middle to check out the buildings. If you run into trouble, then break the egg and send up sparks.”
“See you on the other end,” Bethany said to Baxer, taking off.
“Yeah sure,” he responded, looking around uncertainly before leaving.
“And we,” Lupin told Harry and Hermione, “ will search every bit of the buildings here.” He pointed straight forward to the middle building that had to be for the murder development. “Let’s get started before some enemies show up.”
When they got inside all they found were cages on either side of the crumbling building that had bunk bed with many rows. Everything was covered in dust, the doors to the cages hung on their hinges, and the wood that it was made of was probably rotten. On the floor were an innumerable amount of worn out tread marks.
“These were probably caused when Death Eaters had to drag away their victim,” Hermione surmised, kneeling down to run her hand across them. “This most likely being the barracks that held people that were chosen to be experimentally killed, their eventual fate was obvious.”
“I have to agree with you there, Hermione,” Lupin said, going over to one of the bunk beds, and shoving aside some blood stained sheets to find some bones. He shook his head in remorse and put the sheets back. “Well…start looking again.”
Harry began to look under every single lump that he found on the sheets of the bunk beds. Hermione looked under the actual bunk beds, and Lupin tore up the flooring. It was then on the top bunk that Harry noticed that a ceiling board was undone. It was too dark to see when he raised his head through it, so he brought up his wand.
“Lumos!” When the tip of Harry’s wand lit up the first thing he saw was a human skull staring right at him. “Whoa!” he yelled, falling down. He then heard a creaking noise, and the bunk bed instantly collapsed under him.
There were cries of, “Harry!”
He started to choke on the dust, and when it settled a worried Hermione and Lupin came into view.
“Harry, you okay?” Lupin asked urgently, helping him up.
“Yeah,” he answered, coughing one last time. His head and back were aching, and his left hand was bleeding, but everything was in order. Harry just counted himself lucky that no nails went into him, and that Hermione decided to inspect another the other cage in the room.
“What did you see?” she asked curiously, fixing Harry’s hand.
“Get back to the door,” he said. When they did so, he raised his wand to the ceiling, saying, “Reducto!” The Blasting Spell shattered the ceiling, sending dozens of skeletons crashing down.
“Those poor people,” Lupin said, his eyes wide. “They must have been taken care of along with all the other records. No witnesses left behind.”
“And its probably the same story everywhere else,” Harry predicted. “Look, there are a lot of buildings here, so it’s probably best that we split up to cover more ground.”
“I don’t know about that, Harry,” Lupin said skeptically. “It might be too dangerous. Bethany and Geoffrey can take care of themselves, but it’s best if we stick together.”
“Then you and Hermione stick together,” Harry persisted stubbornly. “If this place has a Horcrux, I want to find it as fast as possible.” Harry turned on his heel and headed for the similar building that was marked for torture development. “I’ll look around the right half of the island.”
“Harry, we’re safer in a group,” Lupin argued.
“And the search would be faster if we looked in different places,” he argued. When it came to the chance of locating a Horcrux, Harry wasn’t about to let an adult tell him he knew best and hold his hand. “And personally I want to get off of this desolate rock as quickly as possible.”
“Have it your way,” he heard Lupin say. “Let’s check over there, Hemione.”
Grinning slightly despite the environment, Harry made his way to the other building across the one they were just at. It didn’t surprise Harry that it also had cages used to hold prisoners”guinea pigs, he corrected himself. As before he tore up the entire place to find even the slightest hint that a Horcrux was there. And similarly there was only dust on the covers and tables, and skeletons hidden in the space between the ceiling and roof. Harry didn’t expect it to be any better in the other buildings he was going to check.
As he went on to inspect the other buildings under the “murder development” section of the island, it was apparent Harry was right. In those buildings all that he found were more destroyed records, even more skeletons, and blood stained walls.
“Damn it,” he cursed, as he sifted through another demolished filing cabinet, but it was the most intact one that he ran into so far. The only reason that he bothered to do so was because it might contain any kind of clue to the area Voldemort closed off, and that meant a possible clue to the Horcrux.
It was then that he found a folder that only had singed edges, and it was dated about a month before Voldemort’s first fall. Intrigued, he flipped it open and found a relatively brief letter:
(Copy)
To the Dark Lord:
As instructed, the new recruits you wanted to be turned efficient purifiers of the Wiazarding race, they have begun making progress. They are using our newly discovered methods of killing on the prisoners, and shall be ready for a raid on Muggle London by November the seventh.
Harry actually recoiled. By the look of it the island was also used to harden any Death Eaters with weak stomachs. And if Voldemort had just waited another week to go after him, then it was possible numerous lives would’ve been lost. He read on.
A complete list of recently developed spells and potions to gain further advantage in the fight against Mudbloods and blood traitors can be viewed on the next page.
Now, pertaining to the testing done to break the will of our prisoners at a much faster rate, more test subjects are needed. There are some people that have been suggested to us by a loyal servant, and his choice of candidates for the testing seems reasonable. A list of the requested subjects is on page three.
The letter went on, and Harry skimmed through it without finding anything useful. So, went to the page with the list of people, and took it. If any of them were captured before Voldemort disappeared, then the families would want to know what happened. He doubted that Voldemort would have done the job himself, it wouldn’t take much for him send some cronies to run the errand.
So who are these unfortunate people? Harry asked himself, heading out the building. He took a quick glance at each of the names. “Barkman, S; Donovan, L; Grather, P; Inglet, H””
Harry stopped when he saw the next two names: “Longbottom, A; Potter, L?” he read horrified. Potter, L? Potter, Lily? Lily Potter? It didn’t seem possible, but how many other Potters first name began with L? And if Harry remembered correctly Neville’s mother’s name was Alice. What were the mothers of the two possible “Chosen Ones” doing on the list? It almost seemed as if someone purposely setting Voldemort up for the fall.
But as confusing as the situation was, Harry didn’t have time to just stand there and think about it. He had to remember that he was looking for a Horcux. He’d have to ask Lupin for his thoughts about it later. After folding the list and pocketing it, Harry left the building to continue the search.
Half an hour later, after digging through everything on his side, Harry felt that his only hope was in the others or that the Horcrux was still in its original location. Then to his dismay Harry found that he had reached the end of the buildings with nothing but a rocky shore ahead.
“Damn it!” Harry exclaimed in frustration, kicking a nearby boulder. He ignored the pain and instead decided to pay more attention to his surroundings. There had to be something that he had missed”anything!
He placed his palms on the boulder to support himself while thinking. And then while moving his thumbs he felt something odd, but Harry didn’t look up. He just continued to twirl his thumb around and it felt like there was a hole in the rock”but it couldn’t have been formed naturally. It was perfectly circular and went in rather deep.
Finally he looked up and backed up a little. He adjusted his glasses, and took out his wand. “Alohomora!” he said, knowing that it wouldn’t work. ”Reducto!” he yelled. The spell bounced off the boulder, and after Harry stood back up from ducking he smiled. Any other rock would have just been blasted to pieces.
So what’s the hole for? Harry asked himself. A thought occurring to him, he raised his wand to eye level. Deciding that it was worth a shot Harry stuck his wand in the hole, and it was a perfect fit. But nothing happened.
If the hole was just the right size to fit a wand then some sort of spell might have gone along with it….
“No way,” Harry whispered to himself in amazement. It couldn’t be that obvious. But again it was worth a shot. “Um…Lectun repalo.”
All of a sudden a brilliant flash of red light emitted from the wand. Harry was blinded for a second but then when he got his eye sight back a surprising sight met him: a door with a handle had suddenly appeared on the boulder.
Withdrawing his wand, Harry grabbed the handle and pulled the door back. And he couldn’t help but smile when he saw a golden cup sitting on a cushion.
Not wasting another second Harry snatched the cup out of its safe. It didn’t take long for him to verify that it was indeed the cup that he’d seen in the Pensieve.
It was done, Harry thought valiantly. Now all we need is to find out the fate of the locket through R.A.B and”
“Crucio!”
Harry Potter and the Secret Spell by Phoenix 86
Chapter Notes: reviews would be really nice