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  and touchg but harry had long sce learned that bangs and soke were ore often the arks of eptitude than expertise dubledore stepped back fro the cave wall and poted his wand at the rock for a ont, an arched outle appeared there, bzg white as though there was a powerful light behd the crack
  ”you39ve d-done it!” said harry through chatterg teeth, but before the words had left his lips the outle had gone, leavg the rock as bare and lid as ever dubledore looked around
  ”harry, i39 rry, i fot,” he said he now poted his wand at harry and at once, harry39s clothes were as war and dry as if they had been hangg front of a bzg fire
  ”thank you,” said harry gratefully, but dubledore had al-ready turned his attention back to the lid cave wall he did not try any ore agic, but siply stood there starg at it tently, as though thg extrely terestg was written on it harry stayed ite still he did not want to
  eak dubledores ncen-tration then, after o lid utes, dubledore said ietly, ”oh, surely not crude”
  ”what is it, profesr?”
  ”i rather thk,” said dubledore, puttg his unjured hand side his robes and drag out a short silver knife of the kd harry ed to chop potion gredients, ”that we are reired to ake paynt to pass”
  ”paynt?” said harry ”you39ve got to give the door thg?”
  ”yes,” said dubledore ”blood, if i a not uch istaken”
  ”blood?”
  ”i said it was crude,” said dubledore, who unded disdaful, even disappoted, as though voldeort had fallen short of higher standards dubledore expected ”the idea, as i a sure you will have gathered, is that your eney t weaken hi- or herself to enter once aga, lord voldeort fails to grasp that there are uch ore terrible thgs than physical jury”
  ”yeah, but still, if you can avoid it  ” said harry, who had ex-perienced enough pa not to be keen for ore
  ”tis, however, it is unavoidable,” said dubledore, shakg back the sleeve of his robes and exposg the forear of his jured hand
  ”profesr!” protested harry, hurryg forward as dubledore raised his knife ”i39ll do it, i39 —” he did not know what he was gog to say — younr, fitter?
  but dubledore rely siled there was a fsh of silver, and a spurt of scarlet the rock face was peppered with dark, glisteng drops
  ”you are very kd, harry,” said dubledore, now passg the tip of his wand over the deep cut he had ade his own ar, that it healed stantly, jt as snape had healed alfoy39s wound, ”but your blood is worth ore than e ah, that sees to have done the trick, doesn39t it?” the bzg silver outle of an arch had appeared the wall once ore, and this ti it did not fade away: the blood-spattered rock with it siply vanished, leavg an openg to what seed total darkness ”after , i thk,” said dubledore, and he walked through the archway with harry on his heels, lightg his own wand hastily as he went
  an eerie sight t their eyes: they were standg on the ed of a great bck ke, vast that harry uld not ake out the distant banks, a cavern high that the ceilg too was out of sight a isty greenish light shone far away what looked like the id-dle of the ke it was reflected the pletely still water below the greenish glow and the light fro the o wands were the only thgs that
  oke the otherwise velvety bckness, though their rays did not perate as far as harry would have expected the dark-ness was how denser than noral darkness
  ”let walk,” said dubledore ietly ”be very careful not to step to the water stay close to ” he set off around the ed of the ke, and harry followed close behd hi their footsteps ade echog, sppg unds on the narrow ri of rock that surrounded the water on and on they walked, but the view did not vary: on one side of the, the rough cavern wall, on the other, the boundless expanse of sooth, gssy bckness, the very iddle of which was that ysterio greenish glow harry found the pce and the silence oppressive, unnervg
  ”profesr?” he said fally ”do you thk the horcrux is here?”
  ”oh yes,” said dubledore ”yes, i39 sure it is the estion is, how do we t to it?”
  ”we uldn39t we uldn39t jt try a suong char?” harry said, sure that it was a stupid estion but he was uch keener than he was prepared to adit on ttg out of this pce as on as pos