Title: Shattered Glass and Broken Hearts

Author: charredsunshine

Warning: M/M, angst, hurt/comfort

Summary: The Wizarding World has finally performed their last betrayal. Labelled a traitor, the-boy-who-lived is thrown into Azkaban without a trial. Can the dark lord fix what's lost, or will his efforts be entirely too late?

Chapter 2: The Faith to Listen/center

"What the future holds is dependent on the past, so make the best of your present."

A week seemed to pass by slowly. Severus worked day and night on the night-vision potion, barely showing up for breakfast. Lucius was busy setting up a game plan for what they would do come mission day. Tom...Well, Tom was busy maintaining his newly regained sanity. Death eaters watched in jealousy as Severus and Lucius seemed to all the world, knee-deep in work. In order to perfect his plans, Lucius worked for permission to enter the basement level of Azkaban. Finding that Harry's door was a mere five prison-cells from their intended entrance, he was able to effectively plan out how they would reach it. They would have time to escape if someone came from the inside entrance. If someone shocked them from the outside entrance, however, they would be in a tight corner.

Severus found a million ways to create the potion, but none of them were stable. They either blew up in his face ten minutes later, turned his skin green, or resulted in temporary blindness after a mere 3 minutes of use. Frustration ate at him from the inside out as mission day came closer and closer. People consequently, gave him a wide berth.

Sunday afternoon saw the result of the anxiety that had been building for over six days. Lucius and Severus could not talk for fear of jinxing the day. Tom was so anxious he kept forgetting the plan, and therefore repeatedly asked Lucius to remind him, an action that very rapidly grew to irritate the nervous death eater.

"Lucius, you should calm down."

The sound of Rudolphus's platitudes did little to calm the irritated man. This was his plan. Sure it's the dark lord's mission, but it's his plan moving them. It's like playing chess. One wrong move, and you lose. If Lucius' plan fails, the dark-side is doomed. They'll be sitting ducks. They might as well have turned themselves in!

"My apologies Rudolphus, but that tongue you're using to mouth useless words is about to come off in under a minute. Leave me in peace."

The man sniffed at the scorn, turned up his nose and quietly walked away. He knows when his services aren't yet needed.

When evening dawned, and everyone's nerves were suitably frayed, they set off and apparated to the mainland. From there, they climbed into the boat they magically fashioned from a tree, and rowed their way to the left side of the little island. From there on, they entered the break in the wards and entered the break in the fortress. Tom, Lucius, Severus, Rudolphus, and Bellatrix all acknowledged the accuracy with which Lucius reported the darkness of the basement. There was no light. The only light in the room was whatever managed to stream through the porthole.

"We should've taken the potion outside."

Their fumbled into their pockets, and quickly found their own faces -- drinking the potion.

Meanwhile, Harry sat in his little prison cell feeling oddly delirious. The voices, since this morning, had been on overdrive. "Soon" was whispered perhaps a million times in his ears.

"Soon our precious. Soon you shall be free!"

Harry still didn't feel he could believe them. After all, he's in Azkaban. Who would free him in this impenetrable fortress? Who would free him in this darkness?

"Have faith, love. Soon!"

He lost faith when his friends picked up their wands and pointed them in his direction. As he grows weaker, he can clearly remember the shock that gripped his heart as spells were shot in his direction. Pure instinct was what kept him alive for so long. It was a full half hour later that they caught him. He didn't go down easy, but when Shacklebott joined the fray, there was nothing more Harry could do to free himself. He'd already used up his wild magic blasting Dumbledore off of him.

"Have faith!"

Harry oddly considered in that moment that he was starving. Not just any starving. He was truly, truly starving. He hasn't eaten for the past four weeks, possibly five. He isn't really sure anymore. It's been so long, the faces of the house elves are lost in a void of haziness and disuse. Maybe it's the hunger making him so weak. How uncharacteristic for him to become so weak over something that's been happening to him since the tender age of four. But then again, the Dursleys never forced him to go without food for more than 3 weeks. The challenge is getting to be a bit much.

As Harry grew weaker and weaker, he failed to hear the sound of the door open. He failed to hear the sound of spoken curses. All he acknowledged was the feel of warm hands lifting him up, and a sturdy chest pressed to his face. After that, all was darkness.

Tom handed Harry off to Lucius, and took his place in the fray. They were surprised from the outside by three prison guards who had finally acknowledged the break in the wards. Misfortune seemed to be upon them. Tom had managed to kill one of them when something amazing happened. Trees, dead trees, approached the prison guards from behind. Their branches waved and swayed in what could have been the wind, except there was no wind in the still, moonless night. Not even the stars had dared to blemish. The branches grew longer, and like arms reached out to grab the men in their wooden grasps. The death eaters stood there in abject shock as the life was squeezed right out of the remaining two death eaters.

Voldemort grew wary of the trees that had saved them. They have saved them, but that does not mean that the wooden creatures would not turn on them within a second. It was then that he heard the voices and saw the trees turn and disappear.

"Take well care of our child, dark one. Betray him not, for his only hope is you."

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Later that evening, while Harry was being nursed by Severus, Tom thought carefully on the mysterious voice's words. After the sentient oaks had walked away to stand in unsuspicious silence, they never returned. Tom and his death eaters were able to row to the mainland without another distraction.

"Betray him not, for his only hope is you."

"My lord, I'm sorry to disturb you, but Harry has finally woken. He's quite confused. I explained the situation, and now he's asking for you."

The dark lord rose immediately to his feet at the words "Harry" and "woken" in the same sentence. Now, he would finally get the chance to make things right. Perhaps this is what the maiden voices meant. Perhaps this is his only chance, and he should work not to waste it.

He walked quickly down the corridors.

"How is he, Severus?"

"Considering the fuss he made, I take it he's well. His nutrition levels are dangerously low, but I doubt he's been eating properly while in Azkaban. I'll be making nutrition potions for him to take three times a day. It'll be a while before he can eat anything more than soup."

"I see..."

"Otherwise, nothing has changed. He has a headache, but that should disappear with the pain potion that I gave him. It's actually quite fortunate they put him in solitary confinement. He might be a lot worse otherwise."

Tom walked quickly into the guest room next to his personal chambers. There, on the bed, sat the boy staring around himself in confusion and wonder.

"Potter?"

"Voldemort?"

Harry stared at him in obvious surprise and at the same time, there was a hint of appreciation there. It was quite the odd mixture of a reaction in Tom's opinion.

"You're the one who rescued me?"

"If my memories have not been tampered with, yes, I do believe it was I who carried you out of Azkaban. Is that a problem?"

Tom tried to size up the boy's reaction to see how much work he would have to do. Is he completely adverse to the idea that the dark lord busted him out of jail, or is he grateful and receptive to news.

"No, no. It's just...I'm so...surprised..."

Harry turned to stare at the crimson wall before him and seemed to give a brief smile. The voices had been practically screaming at him to "have faith," but he'd never believed them. Could they have known that the dark lord would come to rescue him? Or is it a mere coincidence, and he's reading too much into it. The thought of Azkaban as a sentient being was an abstract one. Sure he knew Hogwarts was a sentient being, but Hogwarts is special. Hogwarts is...well...Hogwarts. There's no other way to describe. It's just to strange not to be something even stranger. Human attributes seem to suit it.

But what human attributes does the wizarding world's most abominable prison have. It certainly seemed pretty nice to Harry.

"Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why did you save me? What purpose do you have for rescuing me? Did you rescue me because you want something from me? Did you rescue me just so you can kill me?"

Harry shifted over as the dark lord approached. He didn't seem to have a wand in his hand, so Harry was only too willing to listen. The situation was so curious. Here he is, sitting with the dark lord, about to have a normal conversation that doesn't involve yelling or flying streams of light.

"Well...Those are heavy questions. I intended on answering them, but they'll take a while to answer. You have to promise me you'll be patient."

"Okay."

"Well, it started a long time ago when I was starting out my regime. In the beginning, I was not what you are familiar with. In fact, the person you see right now is the true version of myself."

"True version?"

"Yes. I believe that on the immediate halloween after your first birthday, I supposedly walked in and killed your parents. The problem is, that that wasn't me that walked into your room that night."

Tom watched with dismay the skeptical look on Harry's face. What should he have expected? After all, it's not like Dumbledore hasn't been brainwashing him for the past six years. He's bound to have doubts.

"Before that night, Dumbledore and I had been bitter enemies. Your parents were only one of our arguments, but they were a major defeat between us. Your parents, Harry, were large political contenders. After their marriage they had both made the conscious decision that they disliked Dumbledore, and would rather join me. Dumbledore was, of course, furious. They held within their grasp so many political connections. Dumbledore wanted to use those connections to his advantage, and your parents were aware of that."

"So you're trying to tell me that my parents were...that my parents were..."

"Death eaters? No. They, unfortunately, did not get that far. The week before they were supposed to get their mark, I sent them into hiding. Dumbledore had decided that he was going to steal from them their first born child. That was you. You were supposed to be a ransom. They either join the side of the light, or lose their child. When they went missing, he scoured for them everywhere. The one who betrayed their location to Dumbledore, was Remus Lupin. He'd long been promised protection from Dumbledore, and scientific research on a cure for his lycanthropy. Dumbledore was lying, of course, but Lupin failed to see that. Dumbledore burst into the safe haven I created for your parents, and attacked. When the alarms sounded, I arrived to see both your parents dead, and you in "my" arms. I didn't know what to make of the situation. I just started to curse Dumbledore."

"So then...How did you die?"

"Interestingly, I tripped over one of your baby toys. I went down, and Dumbledore threw the killing curse at my back. That scar, isn't from me, Harry. That scar is from Dumbledore. Due to my horcruxes, the killing curse had an adverse effect when I came back to life. I grew insane for a certain amount of time. Four months ago, the effects wore off, and...well...here I am."

"Wow...um...well..."

Harry knew it must've been strange that he was taking this too easy. To be honest, he'd been having dreams of similar situations for the past four months also. Every time, there would be two voldemorts in his room, and his parents would've been already dead.

"I think...I think I remember that happening."

"What?"

"Well four months ago, I started having dreams of two Voldemorts in my room, and my parents already dead. I dreamed that one of them morphed into Dumbledore. It was actually these dreams that sent me to Azkaban. I thought the dreams were a manifestation of my distrust for Dumbledore. I unfortunately explained my approval of certain parts of your regime to my friends, and...well...they handed the letter over to Dumbledore. When I went to the Weasleys, they captured me, and threw me in Azkaban for something I never did. They claimed I was a death eater, and that they had no choice but to throw me in jail. They used the letter as major evidence, and I went without a trial."

"I'm sorry about what you went through."

"Well, it's alright, I guess. I guess I'm not really surprised, because I've had four months to think about it. I'm sure you were expecting me to rant and rave about how you're a bloody liar."

"That's true. To be honest, I'm a little disappointed. Happy, but a little disappointed."

Harry's lips quirked up into a smile at the thought of the dark lord being happy at his approval. What would he have done if Harry threw a fit?

"I'm still kind of tired, though. Just sitting here's taking a lot of my energy."

The dark lord's eyes widened, before he quickly apologized. Tom and Severus both quickly departed, and shut the door. The last thing Harry heard before he fell asleep, was the sound of Tom's voice calling out that he need only walk through the connecting door if he needed anything. All else, was nothing.

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A/N:

I want to thank everyone who reviewed my first chapter. Your reviews definitely warmed my heart and made me smile! ^_^ See? The following review responses will be for those who had questions.

Wolfwhispers,

I'm familiar with the cliche you're talking about. Unless I have some kind of major inspiration for an uberpowerful Harry, and it's majorly important to the plot, I won't really fall into it. It's really kind of overdone. I'd have to have something spine-tinglingly innovative to balance it off.

As for the grammatical errors, I'll try and fix them in future chapters. I try really hard not to make spelling errors. I'm a bit of a grammar nerd myself, but tenses are the one problem I can admit to. I think I'll just end up hiring a beta. It's my logic that's warped. I think that a tense should be one way while grammatically, it should be another.

Thanks once again for the review!

Lady X,

The writing at the beginning and end of the first chapter is an original poem. It was kind of what inspired me to write this story. I was thinking of what to write for an assignment, and that's what popped out. The next thing I knew, a rather insistent plot bunny was poking at my brain. It was rather annoying, actually. Thanks so much for the review!

Until Next Time!