A day at the Beach

As it so happens, we could now breath a sigh of relief, because we had set our sights now on the Slytherin's locket.

Believe it or not, when it was not robbed by Regulus, because the Dark Lord asked his House-elf Kreacher to test the defences, this locket was the most difficult piece of the puzzle.

The cave was an obscure one, near one of the picnic spots Tom visited as a child, with his orphanage, and it was a place not marked, known in any sense or known to anyone who is not Tom Riddle.

The greatest feat of Dumbledore in cannon, in taking down Horcruxes, was simultaneously the least useful one, as he was able to find a cave, which could be one of the places, where a Horcrux is stored.

And yet, to follow in his footsteps, we did the only thing we could think of.

I had visited the Wool's Orphanage in London, before I returned home. I had copied a directory of records to locate the timeline, when Tom Riddle was staying at the orphanage, and the number of beaches that were visited by the orphanage during that period.

It could not be, when he was three or four years old, since he had manipulated a few kids for something there. So, it must narrow the window, from eleven years, to less than five or six years.

There were apparently three beaches they visited, but two of them were quite populated, so chances are those were not the ones we are looking for.

The second beach, on the list, is a less visited one, and could be near the rocky shores and cliffs, where there would be a cave nearby.

After apparating nearby, we traveled to the location on fast magical carpets. They were slower than brooms, but were comfortable to sit on. And we had to travel a lot!

We reached the location, and started looking around for a cave, after a few minutes, father hollered, and we reached to see the cave, which was apparently warded off, which required blood sacrifice to enter.

I forgot about this part!

Fortunately, I had a steady supply of blood, and knew where to find it.

We made a portkey to the location to tag it, and reached London, where I knew the one Snatcher who was part of the Ministry, and also a loyal dog of the Dark Lord worked.

We hit him with the same curse as the one father used on Lucius, and we took the portkey to the Cave.

When we reached the mouth of the cave, we slit his wrists, and sprayed some blood on the mouth. As the way parted, father cauterized the man's wound, and we brought him to the cave, while rowing the boat.

We reached the centre of the Lake, where there were innumerable bodies of Inferi resting below, waiting for the ignorant one and the desperate one to lean in for a drink.

The four of us reached the centre of the Crystal Cave, where my father scooped up the Emerald Potion, after diagnosing it and it's effects. It seems to use something akin to LSD, Methamphetamine and Nightmare Potion working in conjunction.

As the man thrashed and resisted, but was chugging down the potion, we saw the Locket appear. Mom bottled the remaining potion, used a silver stick to life the locket, and placed it into the Jade Box, while we were all under the Cloak.

We had obtained three of the five contemporary soul anchors, and it wasn't even time to return home yet!