Tackling it may have been a miscalculation, it turns out, as the moment he touches the mirror's surface he ceases to be where he was, and instead finds himself in an enormous cave, hovering above a lake practically boiling over with - people? Soggy, decaying people, making low moaning noises and shuffling, flopping, and dragging their way up onto a green-lit island in the center of the water. 

On the island he can just make out a pedestal, and a heap of dark cloth, covering what might be a human, though their face is obscured by a mop of sweat-soaked black hair and half-buried in the cloth of his sleeves. Whoever he is, he does not seem to be reacting at all to the approaching horde.

Aaaah. What the hell?

Teddy manages to recover his presence of mind to remember that the proper reaction to seeing a defenseless individual is rescuing them. He catches himself with a powerful wing beat, trying not to hit the cave's ceiling in the process.

When his wings come down a second time his feathers launch themselves like projectiles. They zip about and into the lake. The water parts like the red-sea, pushing the... zombies? Is he seriously dealing with zombies?! His control over the water should be enough for them to be kept at bay long enough for Teddy to close the distance to the likely-human.

There are Really A Lot of (indeed!) zombies! His methods do give him enough breathing room to reach the island safely, though, at least for now. 

The probable human's eyes are still covered, but from this close he can, at least, tell that they are in fact human. They're shaking, whether from fear, cold, or something else is difficult to tell, and they don't look up on Teddy's approach any more than they had in response to the zombies. 

Teddy spins a blasting wave around the island to wash the zombies further away. Then he turns his top half mostly human to check on the probable humans. How are his vitals signs? Any obvious injuries that mean he shouldn't be moved?

...Well, he's not injured. Physically. What Teddy can see of his expression behind the mess of his hair and his dirty robes is drawn tight with misery, however- he looks like someone who has just been told that everything he loves has been destroyed and it's all his fault. And he still isn't reacting to anything going on around him, apparently completely occupied by whatever is going on in the darkness behind his eyelids. 

Okay. Okay.

Not really okay, but okay. He can make it okay. Huh... Teddy will wrap feathery arms around the stranger. Water can be drained from the robes, that ought to help. He looks around the large cave for any signs of... anything.

He can see another light in the distance through the gloom, far off across the lake. Other than that - and the ever present, writhing zombies, determinedly continuing to make their way towards the island - there doesn't appear to be much else in the cave. 

The stranger stiffens in his arms, but doesn't make any move to resist. From this close Teddy can more easily make out the fast, panicked breaths, interspersed with near-silent sobs. He's still shaking, but at least it's probably not from the cold now. 

Teddy strokes the stranger's hair, trying to be comforting. How sturdy are these zombies. Can Teddy club them with his tail (kept carefully frictionless to avoid being grabbed).

The zombies are clubbable! They fly back into the lake with a satisfying sploosh when he whacks them with his tail, leaving room for the ones behind them to make their way up to take their place. They don't seem to be very smart, these zombies, but there sure are a lot of them!

The stranger shudders in his arms, finally reacting a little by leaning just the slightest bit into his hand and making a choked, confused noise. 

"Kreacher?" He croaks out.

"What? I am Teddy. Hold on, I will get you out of here." He will move towards the other light, maybe it's another island, or an exit or something.

He struggles a little, now, but so weakly it barely makes an impression, "No- told you- leave me-" and then he loses whatever coherency he'd managed to claw together for those few moments, and returns to sobbing into his hands. 

It takes a little while to get to the other light. Once he gets there, he'll find an empty shore, aside from a thick archway carved high into the cave wall just at the edge of the light's reach. 

"Take it easy." Teddy slithers the two of them through the archway. Does this look like an exit or a dead-end?

There's another chamber just inside the archway, which appears to have no other exits. 

His passenger quiets a little in response to his words, but can't really seem to stop shaking, and still has his eyes covered.

Damn it. Teddy spends sometime clobbering zombies out of frustration and then he and the stranger can go looking for some other exit.

Before he can leave the room, the strangers stirs a bit, finally opening his eyes to take in his surroundings blearily. He stares at the snake tail for a long moment, before following it up to the human upper body. He blinks, and then looks away again, deciding to ignore the clear delusion.

"-blood," he says then, staring at one of the walls. "Should- said-" he gropes at his waist under his overrobe, searching for something, and eventually comes up with a knife, "Blood to open the way," he says, making to press the blade of the knife against his own arm. 

Teddy blinks at the stranger, then wrestling the knife out of his hands. "Hey. Stay with me and don't hurt yourself, okay? Can you understand?"

He's still not in any shape to fight back, but he does try, and continues reaching for the knife as he answers, "I'm not- need to give the wards blood to open the path," he tries to explain, "Kreacher said-" he pauses, a little clearer headed now, and stares at the long, snake-like tail again. "Naga?" He gets out, "Another defense? Kreacher didn't mention..." 

"Wards? Kreacher?" Teddy says after a dumb pause. "I just found myself here. But I am trying to rescue you."

He sighs raggedly, reaching for the knife again, "The wards- keep us in the cave. One of us will need to bleed on the wall right- there-" he waves at the bit of cave wall in question, "To open them, allowing us to leave." He seems to be regaining strength as he speaks, though he's still quite unsteady. 

Teddy gives him a fixed smile. But considering he has no clue what is going on... "Should my blood work?"

"Should," he nods, "House elf worked. Thinks he's clever- bastard- abomination- deī how did I not see-" his eyes flick about frantically and he starts muttering to himself in another language, squeezing his eyes closed again.

Behind them, another wave of zombies starts clawing their way through the archway.

Alright. He will do the crazy blood thing. He will try not to flinch too hard at poking his arm with the knife - the stranger can be held by his tail - then... "Blood to open the way."

As soon as his blood touches the stone of the wall, it melts away, revealing a dark, rough stone passage and letting in a gust of fresh sea air and a trickle of light. The tunnel inclines down, a little bit, and he can see that the bottom of it becomes submerged a few meters in - it looks like they'll either have to swim out, or Teddy will have to fly carefully to stay between the roof of the passage and the water's surface.