In Silence We Walk
Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to Harry Potter or any of its characters.
Breaking Chains
"Harry," She whispered stretching her pale bony fingers through the bars, "Harry, please, answer me."
He shivered uncontrollably every limb feeling heavy and painful as pins and needles shot through them. His bright green eyes were open as widely as they could go as he convulsed on the hard, cold, damp, stone floor. His breathing shuddered against his ribs and cold sweat matted his black hair to his forehead.
"Ron," She pleaded, "Can you reach him?"
A thin bony white arm slipped though the bars on the other side of the cell and padded the ground around it as far as they could reach. The knuckles were scarred and the nails were chipped and broken.
"I can't 'Mione," Ron's voice filtered through the eerily quiet corridor, "He should come out of it soon. They're done with their patrols for the night…At least he isn't screaming anymore."
As if talking about it helped him Harry's heavy breathing began to calm down. The sound that echoed off the stone walls a moment ago was quieting down. He still shivered but the convulsions began to lessen and his muscles began to still. He began to become aware of the cold wet fabric of his striped stained shirt and pants. His green eyes began to focus and he shivered once more as he realized just how cold he was.
He moaned, "Ron? 'Mione?" His voice scratched against his vocal cords, the result of hours of screaming.
"We're here mate." The roughened hand beckoned on the right side of the cell.
Harry dragged himself across the floor grasping the callused hand of his brother. He clasped the hand to his forehead exhausted.
"Merlin Harry," Ron breathed tiredly, "You're ice!"
"I assure you," Harry croaked, "If I were ice, you would know."
A breathy chuckle answered Harry. The sound was tired and filled with sorrow. It held Harry tightly to the harsh reality of the hell he and his friends were in. Harry let Ron's hand fall from his fingertips and it withdrew back behind the cold wall that separated their cells.
"Harry, are you lucid?" Hermione asked quietly from the other cell to Harry's left.
"For the moment," He said a dry chuckle hovering at his lips.
"Then you know what we need to do." Hermione said quietly.
Harry's gaunt face grew serious and he stood shakily listening as the other two stood as well. He moved to the center of the cell and bit his thumb until he drew precious blood. He sat down shuddering in the center of the floor and pushed the thumb to the floor of his cell. Slowly he dragged the thumb in a circle around him renewing the red stain that sat silently on the floor. He closed his eyes breathing carefully as he thought of warm sun beams, open skies with a gentle breeze and the green smell of grass. He thought solely upon these things, these pieces of freedom that he had lost months ago. He thought of them until he swore he could feel the heat of the sun on his clammy skin and hear the whisper of the wind as it flowed through the trees.
"Good job Harry," A pair of warm arms encircled him from behind and Harry leaned back into Hermione's warm embrace smiling quietly.
"We're getting better at this," Ron said as he joined the hug and Harry turned so that he could encircle his arms around both of his friends.
"Our bodies?" Harry asked moving out of the embrace, "Have they fallen asleep yet?"
Hermione shook her head, "In a few moments they will be completely asleep. You know it takes a while."
Harry nodded relishing in the warm sunlight and the scratchy feel of grass beneath his bare toes. He pulled off his shirt and lay down in the grass closing his yes briefly and allowing his tight muscles to relax. This place the three of them may have built within their minds was not real, per say, but it was their refuge and the mind was a powerful thing.
"Harry," Hermione prodded his bare side with a finger, "I'm sorry, I know you want to recover from the Dementors but right now we have work to do."
Harry sighed, "I know," He sat up, "Have you found it yet? You're totem?"
Hermione shook her head, "I thought I glimpsed it last night in the trees but I could only glimpse its shadow. It was flying. Ron?"
Ron smiled secretively at his friends and shook his head, "I saw it, but I want to get a closer look at it before I tell you what it is." He grinned broadly at the two of them, "I can tell you though, it's not a weasel."
Harry and Hermione grinned back.
"Harry?" Hermione asked, "Have you?"
"No." Harry stated, "Not even a glimpse."
"You'll find it mate," Ron said clapping Harry on the back, "It's only a matter of time."
"Well then," Harry stood dusting off his prison cell pants, "We'd best get too it. We only have five hours until the Dementors start their patrols again."
He took a few steps forward and almost fell. Hermione and Ron braced him and he smiled sadly at them.
"This might just be a dream but I still feel so weak." He sighed, "Maybe that's why I'm having more trouble then you guys at finding my totem."
Hermione shook her head, "Physical well being has little to nothing to do with it. Harry we've been in Azkaban half a year. You're mind is starting to finally break down." Her brown eyes were filled with worry as she regarded Harry.
"Then I have to hurry." He stated grinning darkly.
Hermione and Ron looked at each other fear for their friend clouding their eyes and drawing lines upon their brows. Harry gently touched their hands and moved away from them toward the dark forest that loomed in front of them.
He turned to regard Hermione and Ron with a wide grin, "Happy hunting."
After a moment of uncertainty Hermione and Ron smiled at Harry, "You too." Hermione said.
They watched Harry enter the woods and then followed each going their own way once they entered.
The sound of his mother's screaming ripped Harry out of the forest. His back arched as pain shot from his forehead through his spine. He fell out of the circle to writhe on the ground clutching his forehead. His mouth was opened wide as he screamed in terror and anguish. The bars of the cell grew ice on them as three Dementors swept up to Harry's cell to feast on his despair.
Hermione closed her eyes and clutched a thin scratchy grey blanket to her shoulders as she leaned against the wall that separated their cells. She leaned her head back upon the cold stone. Tears that froze upon her bony cheeks fell out of her eyes as she listened to his screams.
Ron too leaned against the wall separating him and Harry. His eyes stared determinedly at the wall opposite him. One leg was bent at the knee and a fist rested stiffly upon it. His body was tense and the blanket that he should have been using sat unoccupied upon his bed. He was unshaven, his hair a nest of long red tangles. He listened unmoving and without expression as the new day began.
"I found it," Hermione sat down upon the grass and rolled up the striped sleeves of her shirt, "My totem, it's beautiful."
Harry's eyes would dart at her when she spoke. Hermione feared the dark circles beneath his eyes were becoming permanent.
"What is it?" Harry asked his voice had grown week, tired.
Hermione smiled secretly and looked at the forest raising an arm. A large dark shape flew out of the trees silently. It circled the trio that were sitting in the sun and rested gently upon her arm. The brown spotted Owl caulked its head and regarded Harry and Ron with a deep knowing penetrating its yellow eyes.
"My Totem," Hermione smiled, "I'm half way there."
Harry smiled at her and Ron reached out a finger to stroke the dark brown and grey feathers of the bird.
"I suppose if we asked you to, you'd send messages for us?" Ron teased.
The Owl nipped Ron's hand and he drew back with a yelp holding his offended fingers to his chest.
"I think the answer to that would be no." Hermione grinned.
Harry held out his arm and the owl regally stepped onto it wrapping its powerful talons around the whole of his forearm. Hermione looked away knowing without a doubt that all of them really were that thin.
Harry stroked the breast of the owl and it crooned gently for him, "She suits you 'Mione."
The Owl spread its wings and silently leapt from Harry's bony forearm to soar back to the forest. The trio watched it fly wistfully wishing for the freedom it naturally possessed.
He didn't scream this time. He couldn't, even if he wanted to. The tears came, they always came, but this time they were silent. He couldn't move…couldn't speak. He just opened his eyes to see not the grey stone above him, but the hell that was memory. He was re-living the deaths of the people he loved, knew. Sirius, falling through the veil. Cedric never had a chance. His mother, her screams held him captive through it all. Then those eyes, terrible snake eyes that shone like blood beneath a full moon…And all of these things…they were all the result of him existing.
"Let me die," He croaked, "Please, let me die."
Hermione moved from her dismal cot toward the bars listening. Her small hands wrapped around the metal of her cell and her pale forehead fell against it.
"Ron," She said quietly her voice filled with the despair that permeated the air, "He's getting worse."
She stared hatred at the Dementors memorizing their bony figures beneath flowing smoky robes.
"I know 'Mione," Ron stated across the cells doing the same as she, "I know."
A burst of hysterical laughter rang from the cell between them and the two friends of Harry Potter closed their eyes in dread.
"Do you want to know what my totem is?" Ron asked the small group sitting in the grassy field of their dream sanctuary.
Hermione ran her fingers through Harry's matted hair. Said boy lay with his head in her lap staring unblinkingly into nothingness. He'd become practically catatonic within the past three weeks. Hermione and Ron had literally pulled his consciousness into their dream world. They no longer needed to spill blood to get there. The trio were linked in a way none of them could understand. They merely had to think about their sanctuary and there they were, within the gentle breeze and clear, sunny, skies of their mind.
"I would like to know," Hermione said after glancing at the unresponsive Harry.
"It's a stallion." Ron grinned, "A big reddish brown stallion. I don't even bloody like horses," He laughed, "Can you believe it?"
Hermione smiled, "Better that then a mule."
Ron opened his mouth to protest at the hinted insult but stopped and looked at Harry. A small smile played on his otherwise stoic lips. The first either young adult had seen in weeks.
"I suppose I am a little mulish aren't I?" Ron asked quietly.
The screaming from Harry's cell was particularly bad that evening. Hermione ran to the doors of her cell and screamed over Harry.
"Ron!" Her voice was desperate.
These screams were different somehow then the others. He'd been catatonic for a month since that last smile. Nothing had penetrated his mind. He'd drawn completely within himself. In the sanctuary he'd wander unresponsive to anything Hermione or Ron would do or say. These screams though…Hermione and Ron knew he was about to break.
"Ron! Now!" Hermione shed her blanket and slammed her palms against the bars of her cage desperately, "We can't wait any longer!"
Tears were falling freely from her eyes as she concentrated reaching out at Harry's retreating mind through the tentative link she shared with him. She heard a loud animalistic squeal coming from Ron's cell and the sound of something hard and heavy crashing against the bars. She didn't wait for the clatter of metal as she grabbed onto Harry's struggling mind.
"Don't you dare Harry!" She yelled angrily, desperately.
Her mind clung to Harry's with a vice like stubbornness that left no room for argument. Every ounce of her being was screaming at him not to leave her. She forced the peaceful image of the sanctuary through their link, felt him stop, turn toward its warm sunny fields and flee into them.
Hermione let go allowing him into that world knowing he'd expect her there waiting for him but knowing she couldn't yet join him. She dethatched herself from Harry, slamming back into her own mind in time to see a large tawny stallion rearing at the bars of her cell. She stumbled backwards running to the far corner of her cell as the stallions large hooves crashed into the metal. The Dementors were flying around in confusion sweeping at the Stallion not understanding what it was. It reared again ignoring the wraiths in favor of knocking down the bars of her cell.
With one last animalistic scream the stallion's hooves finally made the walls holding the bars buckle. The bars fell with a defining crash and Hermione didn't have time to think as her body folded in on itself and changed from a thin malnourished human woman into a small beautiful brown spotted owl. She soared around Ron and hovered in front of the bars holding Harry captive. Several Dementors were bending over Harry; their hoods had been pushed back showing off the hideous gaping hole where mouths should have been.
Hermione screamed in fury turning her body so that she could fly through the bars of the cell. Her small aerial body made painful contact with the bars. She was still too large to fly through them. She screamed again in frustration. A Dementor reached out its bony fingers to grab onto Hermione. She swerved to avoid it instead flying at the creatures face with her talons raised. Her claws sunk into a cold unlike anything Hermione could ever put into words. She squawked in surprise pulling herself away from the creature as fast as her wings would carry her.
The stallion thundered toward Harry's Cell ramming his large body against the bars. He reared on his hind legs and slammed all of his weight onto the bars three times until the door to the cell buckled and fell. Hermione wasted no time in swooping into the cell and ramming herself at the three Dementors surrounding Harry. The cold she experienced as a result froze her hollow limbs and made her fall clumsily to the floor where she transformed herself on instinct back into a human.
Ron pounded his way into the room causing the Dementors to stop their kiss and scatter. Hermione shakily pushed herself up and shuffled to Harry. He was cold, so unbelievably cold. Hermione feared for the worst. She checked the link in her mind and breathed a deep sigh of relief that the Dementors had failed in their kiss. She could feel him there, hovering with uncertainty at the edges of the sanctuary. Hermione lifted Harry up into a sitting position and draped his arm over her shoulders.
"Ron!" She yelled.
He turned and fell fluidly from the towering form of a stallion to a frail human. He rushed over and helped Hermione lift Harry onto his own back.
"Can you transform with him on your back like this?" Hermione asked breathlessly.
The oxygen in the room was thinning the colder it got as more Dementors began to swarm into the small cell. Hermione and Ron's limbs were beginning to feel heavy and their determination was beginning to falter.
"I don't know!" Ron growled, "These blasted Dementors are messing with my head!!"
"Then you can!" Hermione ground out, "If they are making you feel like you can't do it then you definitely can. Try!"
Ron stared into Hermione's eyes, still stubbornly determined despite all the fear and despair she was feeling. He nodded once.
"Hold him to me will you?" Ron asked.
Hermione moved behind Ron and wrapped her arms around Harry and Ron nodding against the back of Harry's unresponsive head. A spell hit the wall behind them and Hermione knew without a doubt that the human guards had finally arrived to see what the disturbance was.
"Hurry Ron," Hermione warned.
Ron nodded concentrating. Hermione found she and Harry were moving upwards as Ron grew beneath her fingertips. His shirt turned to a silky hide that was hard to grasp onto. Her fingers, along with Harry, were slipping.
"Ron..!" Hermione yelled as Ron suddenly shot up beneath her.
For one terrible moment Hermione thought she and Harry were flying and then they crashed hard onto Ron's large back. It was all Hermione could do to keep herself from falling off let alone keeping Harry on Ron's back. She was vaguely aware of the shouts of guards and the cold in her finger tips. All that mattered was staying on Ron and keeping Harry from falling. She somehow pushed Harry and herself into sitting positions straddling the stallions back. She could barely remember how she did it as she grabbed onto Ron's red mane, she only knew they were in the right position to be balanced and that they needed to book it if they wanted to get out of Azkaban alive.
"Go!" Hermione screamed and Ron lurched forward beneath her.
She grabbed Ron's mane tighter and clenched her jaw trying to stay balanced as Ron thundered through the Wizards and Dementors that were after them. She grabbed a sconce from the wall they passed and began using it as a blunt object slamming it into the skull of whoever got close enough to try to grab her or Harry.
She didn't look back at their pursuers as they continued down the twisting corridors of the prison. Gaunt confused and insane faces watched them pass without so much as a flicker of surprise. Hermione shuddered knowing that Harry was most likely going to end up like one of them. She clutched him more tightly to her.
When they entered the Prison's storage room Hermione leapt off of Ron's back and grabbed a chair smashing it against the lock that held the prisoners' things captive. The metal links buckled upon the first strike. Years of cold had made the chains brittle and easily breakable. Hermione grinned grimly and hurriedly grabbed a bag shoving clothing into it and pilfering through looking for Ron and Harry's wands.
She found their wands and shoved them into the bag as well then ran her fingers over the other wands until she found one that felt suitable enough for her to use. Her wand had been snapped on account that she was muggle born and therefore a "thief" of magic. She was vaguely surprised Harry's wand was there as his wand was wanted by Voldemort.
The door was blasted off its hinges and Hermione ran to scramble back onto Ron's back. She tied the bag to her waist and then to Harry's waist. Hopefully that way she could use both hands to hold onto Ron instead of one. The wand she'd stolen for herself was clutched in her teeth. Ron didn't wait for her to get settled as he leaped at the two guards at the door. He ran head first with teeth bared into flying cutting hexes and useless stupefies. A multitude of thin cuts adorned his face and neck as he trampled over the soft human flesh of the wizard guards. He didn't pause as he shot toward the entrance of Azkaban.
Hermione pulled the wand she'd stolen out of her mouth and waved it in a complicated pattern around Ron. The air shimmered and distorted around them for a moment before fading. Her mouth turned downward in a grim frown as she readied the wand in front of her. She was going over the many hundreds of defensive spells she had learned or taught herself nearly two years ago before they were caught at the ministry and thrown into Azkaban Prison. She fervently hoped that she wasn't rusty after two years of not practicing with a wand.
As the entrance approached Hermione's breath hitched. There stood two Wizards that were fervent followers of the dark lord. She could tell their status by the skull masks they wore hiding their faces. They watched the large stallion and his charges approach with slowly growing grins of anticipation.
"Keep running Ron," Hermione commanded, "I'll get that door open. Just ignore the bastards in front."
She said it, but she didn't completely believe it would ever be easy to get past them. Death Eaters would not stop at simple hexes and stunning spells. They would be prepared to kill the prisoners without mercy. Hermione hugged Harry to her with one arm and made the shielding motion with her wand once again this time just around Harry. If anyone had to survive this, it would be him. She knew the prophecy, Harry had told her and Ron after they'd been incarcerated in the prison. They both knew that they had to get him out of this place if he were going to fulfill that prophecy. Well, if he was going to be sane enough to do so at least.
Ron thundered across the stone floor without pause as Hermione shot two powerful stupefies at the Death Eaters. They leapt to the side avoiding her curse shooting curses of their own. Ron swerved to avoid them and Hermione focused on opening the large heavily padlocked door. Hermione threw one cutting curse after another into the wooden beams that glanced across the front of the door. Ron stumbled as a curse slammed into the shield that Hermione had placed around him. Hermione angrily shot a blasting hex at the Death Eater in retaliation. The blasting hex missed the Death Eater but glanced the side of one of the beams shattering the wood.
With a heavy creak the large beam began to slip sideways out of its holding. Hermione's eyes lit up on discovering that the blasting hex could do so much damage to the aged wood. The two Death Eaters looked at the beam, then at her. She raised her arm to fire off another blasting hex just as the Death Eaters threw a bludgeoning hex her way. Hermione screamed as the hex slammed into her shield and threw Harry and her off of Ron. She hit the floor in a cloud of dust and scrambled to untie herself from Harry. Ron reverted to his human Form and dove at Hermione pushing her flat to the ground as a sickly violet curse flew over her head. She untied the bag and reached in handing Ron his or Harry's wand, she wasn't sure.
The two stood summoning shields around themselves and positioning themselves in front of Harry.
"Focus on the door as much as you can," Hermione commanded.
Ron nodded, "Right, Blasting or bludgeoning hex?"
"Blasting," Hermione stated slipping into a dueling stance slowly.
"What about these two?" Ron asked.
"You take one and I'll take one, but keep at the door if you can." Hermione answered.
"Ok." He nodded and leapt at the Death eater closest to him.
Hermione stayed in front of Harry making sure the shield she'd placed around him was still strong. She waited for the other Death Eater to make his move. He moved slowly chuckling as he came knowing she was in a vulnerable position considering she had to protect Harry's catatonic form.
She brought up her wand brandishing it as a knife and not taking her eyes off the Death Eater approaching her. Then one step and her arm fell in a deadly slice leaving behind a trail of dark blue. The Death Eater dodged the magic as it crashed into the stone floor feet behind him leaving a long violent gash in the stone. He countered with a slicing hex of his own. Hermione twirled moving her wand up the length of her body as she turned causing a violent wind to surround her and diffuse the hex.
She fell out of the wind slamming the wand on the ground sending waves of ice at the man's feet. He stumbled and slipped as the ice grew into sharp spikes along the floor. Hermione wasted no time jumping to her feet and sending a torrent of water from her wand at the Death Eater. He sliced downward cutting the torrent in half and sent another slicing hex at Hermione. She ducked the ends of her hair dropping to the cold floor.
She concentrated on his robes shrinking them and constricting the movement of the Death Eater's legs. She jumped up moving a little to the side to avoid whatever curse he threw at her and threw a bludgeoning curse at him. It hit his shield causing him to first stumble then slip on the ice falling backward onto the icy spikes Hermione had made then strengthened with her water. The ice impaled him and he screamed.
Hermione yelled, "expelliarmis" and grabbed his wand snapping it then throwing it to the ground. She ignored the cursin, writhing man in favor of blasting the door open. She was counting on the fact that there were boats in the harbor. If there weren't…Hermione shied away from that thought deciding determinedly that they'd have to figure out something else if it came to that.
A scream to her left caused her to realize that Dementors were just now flowing into the large entrance room. She turned around to see Harry's body arched awkwardly over the ground and a Dementor swooping down from the rafters toward him. She ran over to Harry and fell over him taking his head in her hands and looking directly into his eyes.
"Go back!" She screamed pushing him into their sanctuary with all the panic she could muster.
The cold at her back gripped her and a pain unlike any other stabbed up her spine and into the core of her being. Her head shot back to scream but no sound was coming out. She stared into the black pit that was a Dementor's gaping maw. She felt light and heavy at the same time. The sound of her heartbeat within her chest was the loudest sound she'd ever heard. It was detached as though it was no longer a part of her. She could feel Ron and Harry's alarm as distant as it was but could not understand why she had become so light.
Fear, pain, cold, despair…the emotions and feelings were falling away with the remains of her body. She couldn't see any longer but she could feel. The resonating world around her was amazing. Everything had an energy that swirled and danced. The very air was a song of feeling and light that Hermione could feel and identify with. The absent being in front of her was the only thing not resonating. For one terrifying moment she knew that she too would no longer resonate, that she would no longer be if she grew any closer to that absent being.
Then it was as if Harry was a powerful energy that filled the entire room and she was slammed back into being. She could see with sudden clarity the blinding light that had saved her and feel the cold and pain that had soaked into her very bones for the past two years. Tears sprang to her eyes as her disorientated thoughts re-aligned themselves.
"Ron! It's open! We have to go!" Harry's voice boomed from above her.
She felt the thundering hooves of Ron's animagus form and could see and feel herself getting lifted up by the frail arms of her formerly catatonic friend.
"Harry--?" She asked confused.
"Don't talk, just get on," He urged his voice though strong a moment ago sounded gravelly and unused, "I know, ok? I know you're disorientated. Believe me, I know."
He helped her shaking limbs grab onto Ron and pull herself up onto him. Harry got on as well behind her handing her the bag and her wand. His own wand was clutched tightly in his fingers and his brilliant green eyes were dark with exhaustion and fear.
Harry glanced to Ron's right and wordlessly slashed his wand through the air. A loud "crack" was heard and the second Death eater Ron had been fighting fell the rest of the way to the floor from where he'd been struggling to rise. Hermione closed her eyes dizzy and clutched her wand. She shook her head once, opened her eyes and stared ahead determined and ready.
"You ok?" Harry asked.
An ironic grin pulled the corners of her lips upwards, "Are you?" She asked.
Will no one ask how I am? Ron's voice whispered through her mind.
Hermione jerked and she stared at Ron worriedly, "Did you just--?"
Ron lurched forward cutting off Hermione as he rammed the large doors open by slamming his side into the wood. The ancient prison door creaked open and then a rush of cold salt air rushed into the trio's lungs and the dark twinkling of the night sky greeted them.
Ron stopped for one second as the vast ocean and sky spread out before them overwhelming the three escapees. Each breathed deeply the un-constricted air before coming to their senses and realizing that pursuit was once again on its way.
"There!" Hermione pointed to the line of boats moored to the island.
One boat looked to have a cabin on it and was in excellent repair. She wondered briefly if anyone important was visiting the Island before Ron galloped toward the boat. Harry whipped his wand across the front and ropes all along the dock snapped. Hermione used her wand to push the boats out to sea. Ron ran as fast as he could.
The guards behind them began throwing spells at the trio. Sand exploded to their right and left and spells sailed over their heads barely missing any three of them. Harry turned and sent retaliating spells back while Hermione worked complicated shields around the three of them. Ron leaped off of the shore his hooves taking on a height that quickly deteriorated. The boat with the cabin came closer and closer until all the three of them knew was the harsh reality of a solid piece of wood and entangled limbs.
Ron was quickly human again and it was all Hermione could do to breathe. It was Harry who pushed himself up to peak over the edge of the boat and mutter a spell that propelled the boat forward out into the open sea.
Then it was once again just the three of them with fading shouts in the background lying in the deck exhausted, out of breath and together.
Hermione searchingly grabbed Harry and Ron's hands squeezing them and closing her eyes as she fell into her mind. Not to the sanctuary, just to unconsciousness.
Ok, I've just broken my own rule not to start a story when I am all ready working on another. But this was an experiment/idea I simply could not ignore. The first chapter may seem a tad cliche to some. The classic Harry's in Azkaban idea...but I hope it's has unique enough elements to keep people intrested. I'm currently having alot of fun writing this so I hope you have fun reading it. Constructive criticism is welcome. Thank you.
-Red