Dumbledore realized his slip of the tongue and stopped speaking.
"Exempt from what?" Harry asked curiously.
"Exempt from letting you skip a grade." Dumbledore quickly changed the topic: "But that's not the point. We need to cross this lake and head to the island in the center where the Horcrux is stored—now, you go first, be careful not to touch the water."
With that, he stepped aside, and Harry carefully climbed into the small boat, followed by Vivi and Sirius, who had transformed into a big black dog.
It was a bit cramped, but there was enough room to stand. As a competent Seeker, Harry's balance was steady, and he even managed to wrap one arm around Vivi's slender waist to help steady her.
Vivi's face showed a hint of pink, but she remained silent, pretending not to care as she gazed at the pitch-black surface of the lake, lost in thought.
Seeing this, Sirius nudged his nose against the edge of the boat. Knowing he couldn't stop any of this, he decided it was best not to worry about what he couldn't see.
Can't manage it, but could avoid it, right?
Dumbledore placed the chain coiled on the ground and then stepped in.
There were too many people inside to sit down, so they stood in the boat.
Soon, the small boat set off, and apart from the soft rustling sound as the bow split the lake water, there was complete silence around.
The boat moved automatically, as if an invisible string was pulling it toward the green light in the center of the lake.
Soon, they could no longer see the cave walls, and except for the absence of waves, it felt as if they were sailing on a calm sea.
"Do we need to use a Light Spell?" Harry asked softly.
"That's not a good idea," Dumbledore said, "Let's wait until we reach the shore."
The purpose of this trip wasn't to clear out the undead creatures in the cave, nor was it to find that fake Horcrux, but to find Regulus.
So they could only resort to this strategy, not because they couldn't handle these undead, but because it was an enormous task.
Yes, picking out Regulus Black from thousands of undead creatures.
It really was one heck of a huge task.
"Look, there's a hand in the lake," Vivi suddenly pointed at the lake surface and said, "Right there, it looks quite pale..."
Harry followed Vivi's pointing direction and saw a hand indeed, reaching out. The hand was deathly pale, a color that no living person should have.
"Oh, undead," Harry said as if it were nothing unusual, "Seems like we should have brought Hermione and Ron over, to test their learning in real life—let's not forget, in second year, Lady Rozier taught us how to deal with an undead..."
"It's not too late to bring them over now, if you want to," Vivi said, "These undead are indeed good learning materials. What do you think, Professor Black, should we keep the undead around to be your helpers in the Defense Against the Dark Arts Class?"
"Woof!" Little Sirius barked happily, and it was clear that he was very pleased with this suggestion.
"Then it's settled, Harry," Vivi said, lowering her head, "Remember not to use large-scale destructive magic later; it wouldn't be good if we damaged these teaching materials, understand?"
"Alright," Harry nodded in agreement.
Their tone was extremely relaxed, as if they were about to catch a few frogs for teaching materials, to the unknowing observer.
Dumbledore was also quite relaxed. Among the wizards present, Harry's magic power was abundant, Vivi's combat capabilities matched his own battle-hardened experience, and Sirius... well, Sirius had a good sense of humor.
This journey to the cave wasn't too stressful for him.
"We're almost there," Dumbledore suddenly said.
Sure enough, the green light appeared brighter.
A few minutes later, the small boat gently bumped into something and stopped.
Harry raised his magic wand, lighting up a cluster of light at the tip.
He realized they had reached the little island formed by flat rocks in the lake center.
"Be careful not to touch the water."
As Harry climbed out of the boat, Dumbledore reminded him again.
The island wasn't much larger than Dumbledore's office, and on this huge flat black rock, only the green light shone glaringly.
Harry squinted at it, at first thinking it was some kind of lamp, but quickly realizing the green light came from a stone basin with a base, similar to a Meditation Basin.
At this moment, Vivi and Dumbledore also got off the boat and approached the basin with Harry, standing shoulder to shoulder to look at it.
Little Sirius stood upright, paws on Dumbledore, stretching his head to look at the glowing green basin.
The basin was filled with phosphorescent liquid, resembling emeralds. It was something of magic and dark crafts.
"What is that?" Harry asked.
"I'm not certain," Dumbledore replied uncertainly, "But it should be something more threatening than blood and corpses, looks like a magic potion?"
With that, Dumbledore rolled up the sleeve on his injured arm, stretching his finger towards the surface of the liquid.
"Dumbledore!" Harry shouted, trying to stop Dumbledore from doing something foolish.
"Don't worry, Harry, I can't touch it," Dumbledore smiled, "See? I can only get this close. You can try it too."
Watching the water's surface, Harry tentatively reached his hand into the stone basin.
However, an invisible barrier stopped his hand at a foot away, no matter how hard he pushed it, he could only touch what seemed like solidified, elastic air.