Suffocating In Darkness

Chapter 28

I could smell salt and hear rushing waves; a light, chilly breeze ruffled my hair as I looked out at moon-lit sea and star-strewn sky. I was standing upon a high outcrop of dark rock, water foaming and churning below me. I glanced over my shoulder. A towering cliff stood behind us, a sheer drop, black and faceless. A few large chunks of rock, such as the one upon which we were standing, looked as though we 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.

"What do you think?" asked Dumbledore. He might have been asking us opinion on whether it was a good site for a picnic.

"They brought the kids from the orphanage here?" I asked, not imagining a less cozy spot for a day trip. "Wow, really spoiling them weren't they."

"Not here, precisely," said Dumbledore. "There is a village of sorts about halfway along the cliffs behind us. I believe the orphans were taken there for a little sea air and a view of the waves. No, I think it was only ever Tom Riddle and his youthful victims who visited this spot. No Muggle could reach this rock unless they were uncommonly good mountaineers, and boats cannot approach the cliffs, 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 terrorising them. I think the journey alone would have done it, don't you?"

I looked up at the cliff again and felt goose bumps.

"But his final destination - and ours - lies a little farther on. Come."

Dumbledore beckoned us to the very edge of the rock where a series of jagged niches made footholds leading down to boulders that lay half-submerged in water and closer to the cliff. It was a treacherous descent and Dumbledore, hampered slightly by his withered hand, moved slowly. The lower rocks were slippery with seawater. I could feel flecks of cold salt spray hitting my face.

"Lumos," said Dumbledore, 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. I saw a fissure in the cliff into which dark water was swirling. "You will not object to getting a little wet?"

"No," said Harry.

"Define little." I instructed.

"Then take off your Invisibility Cloak - there is no need for it now - and let us take the plunge," And with the sudden agility of a much younger man, Dumbledore slid from the boulder, landed in the sea, and began to swim, with a perfect breaststroke, toward the dark slit in the rock face, his lit wand held in his teeth. Harry pulled off the cloak, stuffed it into his pocket, and followed. I groaned before diving in head first.

The water was icy; my waterlogged clothes billowed around me and weighed me down. Taking deep breaths that filled my nostrils with the tang of salt and seaweed, I struck out for the shimmering, shrinking light now moving deeper into the cliff. The fissure soon opened into a dark tunnel that I could tell would be filled with water at high tide. The slimy walls were barely three feet apart and glimmered like wet tar in the passing light of Dumbledore's wand. A little way in, the passageway curved to the left, and I saw that it extended far into the cliff. I continued to swim in Dumbledore and Harry's wake, the tips of my benumbed fingers brushing the rough, wet rock.

Then I saw Dumbledore rising out of the water ahead, his silver hair and dark robes gleaming, followed closest by Harry. When I reached the spot I found steps that led into a large cave. I clambered up them, water streaming from my soaking clothes, and emerged, shivering uncontrollably, into the still and freezing air. It was a shame, I was rather fond of this jacket.