Chapter 748: The Cave (Edited)

Dumbledore had been busy ever since Lupin brought the news about Greyback, as did the rest of the Order of the Phoenix.

After Tonks informed Kingsley, the Aurors found some traces of Greyback, who had appeared near London and had taken a Muggle captive.

However, the Aurors couldn't find the Muggle or his body, which seemed to have disappeared with Greyback.

A few days later, Greyback returned alone to the werewolf colony and, as if nothing had happened, resumed his old routine of spreading his theory of werewolf dominance throughout the colony.

As for the unfortunate Muggle, members of the Order of the Phoenix speculate that he was likely killed by Greyback, but it remains unknown why Greyback would have taken him.

Furthermore, Greyback would leave the werewolf colony on full moon nights with some of his men in an attempt to increase the number of werewolves.

Lupin would inform the Order of the Phoenix whenever this occurred, so all of Greyback's attacks failed.

If it were not for Lupin's warnings, the Order of the Phoenix wouldn't have needed to exert much energy, as the werewolves were far away from the crowds, requiring a considerable amount of time to travel back and forth—enough time for the Order of the Phoenix to react.

However, in addition to the werewolves, several Death Eaters had begun to move, carefully concealing their tracks and dispersing in the surrounding areas, forcing the Order of the Phoenix to work hard to uncover their actions.

But the Order of the Phoenix was far from as numerous as the Death Eaters, and most of them had jobs to attend to and didn't have as much free time as the pure-blood nobles or dark creatures like werewolves. The Order of the Phoenix was stretched to its limits.

Dumbledore had to dedicate time and effort to the search for Horcruxes while seeking useful clues to cover his own tracks.

Then, after examining it closely, he realized that Greyback, whom he had previously dismissed as a distraction, seemed to be connected to the whereabouts of the final Horcrux.

Dumbledore wasn't sure if Voldemort was intentionally hiding his intentions using such tactics or if he was taking the trouble to set a trap. Nonetheless, with a lead on the Horcruxes, he couldn't abandon it.

So he followed Greyback and the other leads he had gathered to a village near London, close to the sea, that could hardly be called a village.

The village, entirely inhabited by Muggles, was built halfway up a cliff and was rarely visited. But according to the clues Dumbledore had found, Greyback had been in the area.

However, Dumbledore was familiar with the area because he had followed the memory of Mrs. Cole, the headmistress of the orphanage where Voldemort had been adopted, one of the several outings the orphanage had organized.

Little did he know that the orphanage had been demolished, but the small village still existed off the beaten path.

Dumbledore didn't enter the village but instead avoided its inhabitants and headed to the edge of the steep cliffs.

He peered over the cliff in the howling sea wind, his white hair and beard billowing so wildly that he had to gather them in his hands and pull them firmly.

When he was young, Voldemort had taken two orphans named Dennis Bishop and Amy Benson to a cave and terrorized them inside. It was that cave Dumbledore was now seeking.

Fortunately, Dennis Bishop was still alive, so Dumbledore was able to obtain the exact location of the cave from him.

Dumbledore took a long time to find the place Dennis Bishop remembered, but his beard and the waves below hindered his view.

Upon finding the location, Dumbledore used the Apparition Charm and arrived at a high black rock exposed to the sea, waves rolling and foaming beneath him. The landscape was bare and desolate, without a tree in sight, no grass or sand, only the sea and rocks.

Time and the erosion of the waves had slightly changed the surroundings of the rock from the scene they remembered, but the path to the cave remained recognizable.

Dumbledore checked his direction and crawled down through the jagged gaps in the edge of the rock.

After a difficult climb, Dumbledore reached the base of the cliff where, in a scarcely visible spot, there was a hidden crack, concealed amidst the shadows of the rocks and the turbulent waters, which Dumbledore wouldn't have noticed if it weren't for Dennis's memory.

Dumbledore illuminated his wand with a lighting spell and then held it in his mouth before smoothly sliding into the water and swimming toward the dark crevice.

As he swam farther and farther inside, the crevice turned into a dark tunnel, with walls covered in slime and barnacles, only a meter wide on each side, glistening wet like tar under the bright light of Dumbledore's wand.

At the end of the waterway, there was a distinct set of stairs that Dennis didn't remember, and Dumbledore looked towards the stairs, which led to a cavern he recalled.

Dumbledore ascended the stairs with a sigh of relief.

The steps bore the telltale marks of a long wash of seawater, which at least meant it wasn't a temporal trap prepared by Voldemort, or one of the secret places he had used.

But that didn't mean it wasn't a trap; after all, Voldemort had always seen the werewolf as a useful tool, and Dumbledore found it hard to believe that he would reveal his Horcruxes to Greyback.

Even if Voldemort had told Greyback about his Horcruxes, that wouldn't be a good thing, as Voldemort now knew that several of his Horcruxes had been destroyed, yet he still didn't seem too concerned about them, suggesting that he was already working on a new Horcrux... and he might have even made one.

Regardless of the situation, Dumbledore wanted to make sure everything was fine inside. With a heavy heart, he waved his wand to dry and warm himself before walking towards the center of the cavern, raising the wand in the air and slowly turning in place, examining the walls and ceiling.

The magical mechanism here wasn't of the same kind as the one in the Gaunt house, and it wasn't offensive but rather concealed the true entrance.

Dumbledore approached the wall, gently stroking it with his fingertips and murmuring some strange language softly. He circled the cavern twice from the right, touching the rough walls as much as he could, pausing occasionally to run his fingers up and down in certain places. Finally, he stopped and pressed his palm against the wall.

Dumbledore took a few steps back and pointed his wand at the rock. Instantly, the silhouette of an arch appeared there, emitting a dazzling white light as if a strong beam was shining behind the crack.

But as the light dissipated, the silhouette vanished with it, leaving the rock as hard and thick as before, with nothing on it.

"Too weak," Dumbledore said with disdain, even disappointment, in his words.

It was clear that Voldemort hadn't set up the mechanism here to the level Dumbledore expected.

He pulled out a short silver knife from his robe, which he usually used to cut potion ingredients, and without hesitation, he cut his arm.

As Dumbledore's blood spilled, the dazzling white silhouette of the arch reappeared on the cave wall, this time without hiding. The blood-spattered rock inside the arch suddenly vanished, revealing a seemingly endless door of darkness.

Inside the cave was a large, black lake, vast and endless. In the middle of the lake, a misty, greenish light shimmered.

Dumbledore silently walked along the lake's shore, and after walking for who knows how long, he suddenly stopped. Then he extended his hand and slowly caressed the air, as if trying to find and grasp something invisible.

After a few seconds, Dumbledore's face showed a delighted expression, and he closed his hand, grabbing something invisible in the air. At the same time, he raised his wand with his other hand and tapped the tip against his closed fist.

Immediately, a thick chain of green copper surged suddenly from the depths of the lake and leaped toward Dumbledore's closed fist. Dumbledore struck the chain with his wand, and it started to slide through his fist like a snake, coiling into a pile on the ground with a resonant echo as it hit the rocky wall.

A moment later, the chain pulled a small boat from the bottom of the lake, a boat that gleamed green like the chain and had a very unsettling appearance.

But Dumbledore didn't hesitate to board it, and the boat immediately started moving on its own, carrying Dumbledore toward the green glow in the middle of the lake.

After about ten minutes, the boat gently collided with a smooth, rocky island in the middle of the lake and came to a stop.

The island was roughly the size of Dumbledore's office: a large, flat, black stone slab, empty except for the source of the green light, which came from a kind of meditation bowl with a pedestal underneath.

Dumbledore approached the bowl and looked inside. The bowl was filled with a bright green liquid that glowed with a phosphorescent light.

Dumbledore reached out his hand and tried to touch the liquid but realized he couldn't. He attempted everything, but he couldn't empty the basin of the liquid.

Only when he used a cup to pour it with a ladle could the liquid fill the cup, but when Dumbledore poured the cup to the side, it reappeared in the stone basin.

"I think... I probably know exactly what happened to that poor Muggle," Dumbledore murmured as he set the cup aside and gazed at the dark lake around him. "But... would Voldemort really leave such an important matter in the hands of a werewolf?"

Dumbledore stared at the lake for a long time, and finally, he nodded heavily as if he had made a decision.

He looked back, deeply contemplated the green liquid in the stone bowl, then boarded the boat again and carefully followed the same path to exit the cavern.