"If your whole life turns out to be a lie, what will you do then?"
"If everything you knew turns out to be a hoax, what will you do then?"
Graciana Duerre Weasley, twin sister of Ron Weasley, is a troublemaker. Mischievous but a little introvert, bo...
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GRACE COULD SMELL SALT and hear rushing waves; a light, chilly breeze ruffled her hair as she looked out at moonlit sea and star-strewn sky. She was standing upon a high outcrop of dark rock, water foaming and churning below her. She glanced over her shoulder. A towering cliff stood behind them, a sheer drop, black and faceless. A few large chunks of rock, such as the one upon which Grace, Harry and Dumbledore 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.
"What do you think?" asked Dumbledore. He might have been asking their opinions on whether it was a good site for a picnic.
"They brought the kids from the orphanage here?" asked Harry, who could not imagine a less cozy spot for a day trip.
"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 terrorizing them. I think the journey alone would have done it, don't you?"
Grace looked up at the cliff again and a darkness emanating from it.
"But his final destination — and ours — lies a little farther on. Come."
Dumbledore beckoned Grace and Harry 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. Grace could feel flecks of cold salt spray hitting her face.
In the cave, Grace saw the same shadows she saw in the Dumbledore's office in the dark corners. They were darker, more sinister, and whispered to her. She could feel them enclosing around her, as if they were trying to mold into her. The ominous air caused goose bumps to rise on Grace's skin, creeping up her spine and neck, until she shook from cold.
The cave sunk deep into the cliff, a cavernous expanse that almost entirely undisturbed.
