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Chapter 204: Traces of Magic

“One…Two…Three…”

Dumbledore’s voice just fell, and Evan felt that he was spinning. He had the same uneasy, bad feeling that he had back when he time traveled into Salazar Slytherin’s room.

Evan could not draw breath, He felt as though he had just been forced through a very tight rubber tube, every part of him was being compressed almost past endurance.

And then, just when he thought he must suffocate, the invisible bands seemed to burst open, and he was standing in cool darkness, breathing in lungfuls of fresh, salty air.

Evan could smell salt and hear rushing waves. He looked up, he found himself standing upon a high outcrop of dark rock, water foaming and churning below him.

A light, chilly breeze ruffled his hair. In the distant sky, the winter sun, with its faint, warm temperatures was shining on him, making him feel comfortable all over his body.

Then he turned his head and looked backward. A towering cliff stood behind them, a sheer drop, black and faceless.

A few large chunks of rock, such as the one upon which they were standing, looked as though they had broken away from the cliff face at some point in the past.

It was a bleak, harsh view, the sea and the rock unrelieved by any tree or sweep of grass or sand.

“Hermione, are you all right?” Evan said with concern, supporting Hermione standing beside him. She had just Apparated for the first time in her life.

“I’m fine, Evan, have we just experienced Apparition?” Hermione rubbed her ear and said, “Well, it is like being suddenly stuffed into a tube and forced to compress into a liquid…”

“The sensation does take some getting used to. When you’re grown up, you can pass the Apparition Licence Exam.” Dumbledore said slowly, “We should be at the destination, what do you think of this place?” He asked, looking carefully at the cliff.

It seemed as if he was asking their opinion on whether it was a good site for a picnic.

“If it was summer, it would be a good site for a picnic.” Harry shook his head, his face mixed with emotions of tension, excitement, anxiety, and so on.

Then he noticed that Sirius standing next to him did not look very good.

“How do you feel, Sirius,” Harry hurriedly asked. “You look a little…”

“Very bad, isn’t it?” Sirius’s pale face was very ugly. He said disgustedly. “I just remembered some bad things. Azkaban also has such a cliff. It was the only sight that could be seen from the narrow window of my room.”

“Azkaban!” It was the first time that Evan heard Sirius mentioning the place.

“That’s right, it was almost exactly the same, the dark sea and the black rocks are endlessly desolate, and no one would go there, apart the Dementors who were ready to throw the dead from there…”

“Oh, Sirius!” After hearing him, Evan, Harry, and Hermione were worried. They went up to hug him.

“I’m fine, everything is over now!” The fragile side of Sirius got back into hiding. He instantly returned to normal. He said loudly, “Kreacher, is this where my brother died at the time? Where is the cave?”

“On the cliff over there, young Master!” Kreacher pointed at the steep cliff, and they hurriedly looked there, but they didn’t see anything.

“I don’t see anything. Why don’t you take us directly into the cave?”

“Kreacher can get in, but he can’t get you in. There is magic in there to stop Kreacher from doing that!” Kreacher stared anxiously and said, “Master Regulus climbed from here.”

“Yes, it’s Tom Riddle’s magic that prevents others from entering the cave through Apparition, but he neglected the magic of the house-elf, which is like his style. He always dismissed the house-elves.” Dumbledore said briefly, and asked again, “How do you feel about it, Evan?”

“I agree with Harry, this is a good camping place right here!”

“It’s really a good idea; it gives me a lot of inspiration, very magnificent!” Dumbledore pondered for a moment, and calmly said, “If I remember correctly, there should be a village nearby. In the summer, they usually bring the orphans here for a little sea air and a view of the waves. ”

Harry and Hermione looked at Dumbledore puzzled. Only Evan knew what he was talking about.

“Riddle certainly had been here before he went to Hogwarts,” Dumbledore carefully observed the bare cliffs. “It’s perfect that no Muggle could reach this rock unless they were uncommonly good mountaineers, and boats cannot approach the cliffs, as the waters around them are too dangerous. I imagine that Riddle climbed down; magic would have served better than ropes. And he brought two small children with him, probably for the pleasure of terrorizing them. ”

They walked a few steps forward to the very edge of the rock.

Evan saw a series of jagged niches that made footholds leading down to boulders that lay half-submerged in water and closer to the cliff.

It was a treacherous descent. The lower rocks were slippery with seawater. Evan could feel flecks of cold salt spray hitting his face.

“Where is the cave?” Sirius asked Kreacher again.

Kreacher looked anxiously at them, muttering the entrance of the cave, but Evan saw nothing but the black rock and the rough waves.

“It must be right here, we must be close to it, we can…”

“That way, I already feel its position.” Dumbledore suddenly said.

He pulled out his wand. “Lumos,” he said, as he reached the boulder closest to the cliff face.

A thousand flecks of golden light sparkled upon the dark surface of the water a few feet below where he crouched; the black wall of rock beside him was illuminated too.

“You see?” said Dumbledore quietly, holding his wand a little higher to control the light.

Below the water surface, Evan and Harry saw a fissure in the cliff into which dark water was swirling.

It was so hidden behind the big rock, and with the reflection of the sea. If it wasn’t for Dumbledore’s guidance, it would have been impossible to notice it.

“Professor, have you been here before?” Harry wiped his eyes and asked in surprise.

“It’s my first time, like you, “Dumbledore stood up.

“But how did you see the fissure?”

“Don’t look at it with your eyes, Harry!” Dumbledore whispered. “With the heart, magic will always leave a trace, sometimes very obvious, I have been able to feel the magic of the fissure, but it was more obvious than a candlelight in the dark.”