The Cave - 6

They waited several minutes, wands at the ready, to see if anyone would come. Eventually, Harry felt reassured that it had been his imagination. With the tension easing, the discomfort of being cold and wet returned with a vengeance.

He moved as quickly as he could towards the stone wall, trying to feel that now-familiar hum. He was again shivering so violently that he couldn't be sure of what he felt. Removing a knife from his belt, he quickly cut a thin slice along his arm.

"What are you doing?" Ginny shrieked, pulling the knife away from his bleeding arm.

"It needs a sacrifice," Harry said, hissing in pain as Ginny pulled the knife too quickly.

He let a few droplets of blood fall from his cut and smeared them along the wall of the cave. The bright white light of the archway flickered and formed the entrance. When the bloodstained wall disappeared, Harry quickly stepped through, beckoning the others to follow behind him. Ginny, Ron, and Hermione had all been stunned speechless, and they followed him with wide, wary eyes into the pitch-black darkness.

Once inside, Harry quickly healed the cut on his arm and dried his clothing while Hermione did the same for herself and Ginny.

"This is where you came that night," Ron said, his voice unnaturally loud in the stillness.

"Yeah," Harry said, grimacing as he looked at the motionless black lake. He was interested to see that its center still glowed eerily green. "Whatever you do, don't touch the water, or we'll have to deal with the Inferi sooner than expected."

"I don't want to deal with them at all," Ron said, shuddering as he looked at the lake. He had his arm wrapped around Hermione's shoulders, and he pulled her closer.

"Me, either," Harry said. Despite all the other horrors he'd seen thus far, there was just something about the Inferi that made his skin crawl. "I need to get out to that little island in the middle of the lake to try and destroy the locket. You'll need to keep watch in case Crabbe comes in here. I don't know if he regularly checks within the cave or not, but if he does, he's certain to notice the arch has been opened. You'll have to detain him."

Hermione adamantly shook her head. "You're not going alone, Harry. We're all going to do this together this time."

"We can't," Harry said flatly, his eyes already seeking out the spot where Dumbledore had summoned the boat. "The boat won't hold us all; it's too small."

"You went with Dumbledore," Ginny said. "It must be big enough to hold two, anyway."

Harry shook his head. "Only because my magic didn't register since I was underage and unqualified. Dumbledore said it's not the weight that matters, but the magical power."

"Technically, you're still unqualified; we all are," Hermione said.

"Do you want to take that chance by all of us getting into that boat and perhaps stirring up those Inferi if it doesn't work?" Harry asked, frowning.

"It doesn't matter," Ginny replied, shrugging. "I can go with you. I'm underage, remember?"

It irritated him that his own reasoning for not wanting to take Ginny along in the first place kept coming back to bite him. Still, leaving her on the shore with Ron and Hermione didn't mean she was any safer than if she came with him if those Inferi decided to attack.

"Okay," he said. "Ginny and I will go out to the middle, Ron and Hermione, you'll keep guard."

"Why can't you just destroy it here?" Ron asked, obviously uneasy with the decision.