Disclaimer: I do not own harry potter
Chapter 2. No place like home…
The distant drops of water had lulled him into a false sense of ease. The monotonous noise ushering a singular formality he had come to depend on to maintain any semblance of sanity as he had lost nearly all grasp of reality. Between the growing fits of discomfort as nearly every day his head threatened to explode from Voldemort's sheer elation, and the onslaught of cold and sadness the demontors assailed him with, he wondered why they hadn't simply given him the demontors kiss. Wasn't that the most viable option? Anything could be better than this, right? As they had come to the conclusion of his apparent 'darkness' he had been placed in a most unpleasant ward of the prison. Here the constant and lingering presence of the dark creatures was felt the most. Any thoughts of happiness had slowly eroded into an empty and somewhat delirious hate.
He was given a few moments reprieve everyday as a small light would poke through the door as a plate of bread, water and some semi translucent broth were forced through the opening. He dove for it hungrily. Who cared how he looked now, right? Fallen from grace, treated worse than an animal, he sunk to his knees and clawed at the bread, finishing his food, though disgusting in record time. He went back to his corner once he had finished and pushed the empty dish and cup near the door. Closing his eyes as he listened for the faint drop to lull him into a nightmare filled sleep.
He was startled awake, shaking uncontrollably, the inky black closing in on him, sadness ensnaring every thought. Fear permeated from his gaunt, emaciated frame. He couldn't do this for the rest of his life, he thought as he shook uncontrollably. The dementors had made their way back into the fortress castle, clearly taking pleasure in the waves of pain he seemed to exude with ease. He shut his eyes tightly and tried to think of the happiness he had once felt, the proud moments that made him feel complete, but they wouldn't let him. Finally though, this time after only lingering for twenty five minutes, did they leave the boy to shake uncontrollably on the hard grey floor. No comfort was given here, only cold pain and burning anger. Softly he let out a sigh before a rather grim chuckle.
He now understood why no one was ever the same when they left Azkaban.
Dumbledore paced the length of his office rapped in abject silence as he looked to the potions master and the ex-auror before looking back at the floor. He was slowly formulating what to say, he had been caught in thought as they entered his office a few moments ago. One and a half years had passed so quickly, one and half years as he continued to wonder if there was any way to salvage the situation at hand. Without Harry or Auron, the prophecy could not be fulfilled, so it seemed futile to be hung up on that. Finally he stopped, sitting on his desk, his hand falling to either side as he propped himself up.
"I'm at a a loss." He finally admitted. "I know the to boys had begun to dabble in dark magic, but I had only wanted them to end up in Azkaban where I could keep and eye on the pair and hopefully aid in their rehabilitation. But unfortunately that mental weakening potion I had you administer to them in order to allow me to use mu Legilimens seemed too powerful." Snape nodded knowingly. he had done it on purpose. To say that his loyalty to the Dark Lord had been proves was the least, but for now we content to find solace in a Potter free world.
"I had not expected that kind of reaction in the Potter brother." Snape said silkily.
Moody eyed him carefully with his normal eye, while his magic eye darted to Dumbledore, surveying the aged magician. "Are you sure this was the necessary course of action, Albus? Maybe they were doing what you thought they were doing." Moody finished as he turned both eyes to the headmaster.
"You must not grasp the situation. We acted in order to avoid the ascension of something worse than even Voldemort. You saw how quick he resorted to the killing curse when he felt the trouble coming. One cannot deny that he used it too easily, too readily." The old wizard finished, watching his old friend and fellow order member nod in agreement.
"I understand Dumbledore, but although I hate to say this, I would probably react the same if I saw my brother was alone, facing Voldemort." Alastor paused, "I just hope that what we have done is right, because if you are wrong, I think you may have just created an evil that we will all regret." He sighed, palming his cane as he shifted uncomfortably.
Snape took this as a chance to chime in his own thoughts. "What I find to be surprising was the willingness of Ronald Weasley, and Hermione granger to turn on their friends. I wonder how you managed that Headmaster." He asked coyly.
Dumbledore had made his way to his chair where he looked at the potions professor over his half-moon spectacles. "Ronald Weasley was rather easy, for claiming to be Harry and Auron's best friend; it only took the promise of a small fortune to turn on them. Hermione though…" He paused after her name. "Miss Granger has an exceptional moral compass and infallible honor. She, I had to strong arm, with the right threats regarding her future life in the wizarding world. She was a smart girl and knew that my influence stretched far and wide. So after a few 'conversations' she was on board. After all it was in her best interest. "Finished Dumbledore, leaning back in his chair as he brought his hands together.
The trio remained silent as finally Dumbledore nodded to the pair. "I think that's enough today, I'm sure you are both busy men. "He said as the pair knew that this was their cue to leave.
Hermione was sitting quietly in number 12 Grimwauld place reading the daily prophet on a bright Saturday afternoon. It had been 16 months since she finished her Hogwarts education, and 18 months since that day. Even thinking about it made her stomach clench for the briefest of moments. That look of defeat Auron had when he was taken away and in the last moment before they pulled him around the corner, that glare…That heterochromic stare full of anger and rage. Hate. She shook her head. It wasn't her problem anymore. She had tried to convince herself.
"You hungry?" Ron said, coming in the room with two sandwiches as he set one down in front of her. She absent mindedly shook her head as she continued to read. Her feelings for the man that now sat beside her had changed drastically since then. She had always believed him to be a man with a bit more virtue than that. But to be controlled so easily by the thought of wealth, it disheartened her. If he could so easily turn on his friend, what would stop him from turning on her? She sighed, thinking that she was no different, who was she to think that she was above scrutiny. But she had been forced into it, she rebuked, inwardly fighting herself. You still could have said no… She finally conceded, knowing that what she had done was wrong, and one day she would pay.
"You gonna eat that?" Ronald said, breaking her from her thoughts. Finally she set the newspaper down and eyed the sandwich. "No Ronald, I'm not." She said quietly, folding the paper before leaving him in the room alone. She made her way to the stairs, passing Ginny. She smiled at the girl, but Ginny didn't even glance at Hermione, she simply muttered, "traitor" as she passed the muggleborn. Hermione's smile faltered before it dropped. She continued up the stairs. The two girls were no longer friends. Since the day at the ministry, Hermione had caught Ginny looking at her with utter disgust on a few occasions. She had expected Ginny to be angry, but to look at her the way any pureblood would look at a muggleborn, really rattled her.
That wasn't even the worst to her. The twins, who she had found so charming and endearing, hadn't even spoken to Ronald or the rest of their family. Since that day she had seen them twice, the first time George actually ended up getting into a fight with Ron. The second time they had told her and Ron that they were no longer welcome in their shop. They had blindly believed in Auron's innocence, along with Remus, Ginny, Tonks, and Kingsley. She sighed as she made her way to the top floor and headed to her room. She passed a myriad of doors before opening hers and shutting it once she was in.
Not knowing what else to do, she lay down and buried her face into her pillow as she began to cry softly. How could things have turned out like this, she thought.
How could they…
A flash of light, and then the echo of thunder as the walls of his cell shook violently. He had been startled awake by the storm. How long had he been asleep? There were no windows in this room, only abject silence and eternal darkness, multiple shades of black and grey. He sighed knowing that sleep wouldn't reach him tonight. He couldn't hear his droplets of water. He laid on the floor, resting his head on his arm, closing his eyes, the ever present pressure in his head buzzing like a million flies. He had succumbed to the pain, to the loss it embodied and represented. Even though, so long as his scar remained, he was vaguely aware that he was never truly alone.
"Alone…" he finally choked out before he closed his eyes, thinking to the destruction of the last Horcrux they had found. Any happiness he could squeeze from it he had already done so. It was nothing but a vague memory, devoid of any singular emotion, except the fleeting knowledge that they had come so close, and even then they were always together. He barely had the energy to sigh…..
"You know…we can get out of here…"
A soft, smooth and silky voice found its way to him. His eyes jerked open. He wasn't sure if he had finally snapped. It was quite possible; he wasn't even sure how long he had been in Azkaban.
"Is someone there, or have I finally flown over the cuckoo's nest?" Auron questioned.
"You're sane…"
"So someone is there then?" Auron replied.
"Yes someone is here; this isn't in your head, Potter."
His eyes opened wide for the briefest of moments as he noticed that all too familiar elitist drawl. "Who are you?" he finally asked, fully aware of the answer he would get.
"Does it matter?"
"Yeah, it matters." Auron responded.
"I'm pretty sure you already know who it is." He began "But if you must know its Lucius Malfoy." The man whispered.
Auron chuckled. He already knew who it was, surmised it by the particular way he said his name. Only he and his son had a penchant for making his surname sound like a curse. "Who would have guessed I've been next to the all-powerful, Lord Malfoy this entire time." Auron croaked. His parched throat making it hard to be heard. He chuckled again, though painfully. "How come I can hear you so easily?" he asked.
Lucius stayed quiet for a while and then finally responded. "This place has a way of draining you. So I've been gathering what magic I could waiting for a chance to break out of this place, then you got here." He paused collecting his thoughts. "Turn around and look at the north wall. I punched a hole through it using wandless magic, that's why you can hear me so easily." He finished as Auron turned over and faced north, he guided himself through the blank darkness until he found the wall and slowly felt around until he felt the hole. "I see…" he croaked, gently clearing his throat.
"You said something about getting out of here?" he choked out before coughing. It had been so long since he spoke that he was surprised he even had the ability.
"Yes I did." Lucius replied. "But it's going to take some time…if you're willing, Potter, then I'll show you some skills that were going to need to get out of here." He finished.
"Why don't you just escape on your own?" Auron rasped.
Lucius chuckled in the darkness "As much as it pains me to admit this, you're stronger than me…" Lucius said dejectedly.
Auron shook his head. "I doubt it anymore." He replied
"So this is what's left of Auron Potter then?" Lucius spat out, "The arrogant Auron Potter." He laughed, harshly. "Here I thought you would gladly take any opportunity to get out of this place, considering it's already been over a year since you came."
A shocked gasp escaped Aurons lips as he closed his eyes and mentally repeated what the man had said. It had been that long since his brother died and his friends abandoned him, that long since he lost what semblance of a life he had, that long since he had felt any emotion besides fear and anger... "Damn…" was all he could say.
"Yeah…" Lucius replied.
After a moment of silence Auron replied…"I'm in"
"Good." Lucius said with a smile, a small measure of hope giving him strength. "Tomorrow, I'll begin instructing you on what wandless magic you will need to use to get us out of here. "
"Okay…" Auron replied, leaning against the wall, unable to believe that it had been that long.
It had been nearly two weeks now. Slowly and steady Lucius was training him. Training him in wandless magic, the few spells he could master that would be of absolute necessity in order for their escape to go off without a hinge. "So when are we going to do this?" Auron Asked through the hole in the wall after they had been served dinner.
"During the next storm." Lucius replied, "From what I've gathered from the guards, which should be in a few days, hopefully." He finished, he himself also finishing his food. He had thought of what it would take, and certainly a storm would be the perfect cover. If they were able to time it correctly, any explosions could coincide with the thunder, but he still didn't have anything up his sleeve to counter the debilitating effects of the dementors. He would simply have to make do he finally concluded.
A few days was correct. Lucius told Auron to do nothing at all, which considering before the impromptu lessons, that's all he did, wasn't too hard for him to do. The only twist was that Lucius told him to continue to gather magic. Half way through the day, they were brought their food; Auron took it greedily, knowing that he was going to need the energy for this evening. "Here" Lucius said, pushing his bread through the hole. "You're going to need it more than me." Auron eyed it wearily. "Are you sure?" he asked "Take the fucking bread, Potter!" Lucius snapped. So he took it and quickly finished it off as he returned to gathering what latent energy he could.
The hours seemed to pass quickly. Auron sat in the middle of the room, preparing himself. He was breathing slowly and calmly as Lucius had explained.
"The guards are about to switch, when you hear them bring you the food, that's when you do it. Afterwards, take his wand and release me. From there is when we run, hopefully you can still cast a patronus because that's the only thing we can use to get past the dementors. If we run into any guards, do not hesitate to kill them, because they won't hesitate to do the same. If it's possible ill snatch a wand as well, that should help alleviate the stress on you." He finished.
Auron stayed silent for what seemed like hours until he heard faint footsteps. They were approaching quicker than he would have liked. It was now or never, he thought as the guard opened the tray opening and pushed his food in. "Dinner, Potter." He said pushing it in. The guard turned to leave but only made it a few feet before he heard a yell…"Bombarda" and the door of the cell flew off its hinges, connecting with his back with enough force to snuff him of life.
Auron sprang forward, everything was happening so fast, he thought as he scrambled in the hall way, the growing chill of the dementors beginning to swallow him as they had been alerted of his escape. He searched frantically for the guard's wand, finding himself losing all hope and desire as they came down the hallway, he turned to his left and saw what looked like a wall of death and shadow. They were so close. He was panicking; he stumbled forward moving his hand to support him as it landed on exactly what he needed.
"Expecto Patronum" he yelled as a massive white winged lion sprang from the wand tip and bounded down the hall way issuing a soundless roar as it drove the dementors away. He quickly sprang up and moved towards Lucius door. "Alohamorra" he said quietly, the door springing open. Lucius was already on his feet. "Good job, now we run." He said, darting past the younger wizard. It didn't take long for the guards to catch on, now as they turned the corner, two Auror's were standing there. In that moment it seemed natural, his right hand sprung forward, he twisted his hand and flicked his wrist, the words escaped his lips before he knew what was happening. Both men fell to the ground, devoid of life. Lucius could only smile.
"Let's go." He yelled, Auron still standing utterly surprised, but eerily proud of himself. "Hold on, I have an idea." Auron was already implementing his plan; he turned and faced down the hallways, noting that there had to be a few more Death Eaters in this ward. "Maximus Alohamorra" he bellowed, dropping his arm as the contingent of cell door all sprang open. Slowly the other wizards and few witches stepped out.
"What's going on?" one of them asked suspiciously.
"We're getting out of here." Auron replied as the Dark Wizard didn't hesitate to agree. He simply nodded as the others all agreed, following him around the corner where Lucius was waiting. "Come on, we need to hurry." He yelled, panicked as they made their way through the fortress prison. Running into a few guards, letting curses fly as they eagerly destroyed anyone that stood between them and their freedom, the 12 or so prisoners behind them picked up what wands they could as they made their way out. They finally made it to the entrance, but to their dismay, a small contingent of 8 Aurors stood between them and the door.
"You aren't getting anywhere." One of the cloaked men said with a serenely menacing voice.
He brought his wand to eye level…"I suggest you go back before we are forced to kill you."
Auron was not going to be stripped of what chance he had to regain his freedom. Regardless of what the world thought of him, it was certainly better than Azkaban. He stepped forward and took his more relaxed dueling stance, spreading his legs slightly, pivoting on his right foot. His arms casually resting by his side with his wand facing the ground. It was a very unorthodox style, but worked very well for him. The remaining prisoners with wands stepped forward, taking their places beside him. It happened in an instant, his wand hand snapped forward, the killing curse escaping its tip as he twisted, exceedingly fast for a man that had been imprisoned for so long, to the left, crouching as he let another dark curse escape the wand, he dodged to the right and wove an intricate dance of red green and black as curse after curse escaped his wand. It was like a dance, and the remaining prisoners could do nothing but watch in awe as Auron dispatched the small contingent with what bordered excessive ease. It took less than a minute or two, but Auron had finished, breathing heavily, only glancing up to survey his work. They were all dead, some were missing limbs, but they were all on the floor. His eyes gleamed with a feral hunger. He looked at the prisoners who were still utterly shocked by this man's impressive skill.
"Let's go" he said, stumbling forward, that much magic use in so long left him a bit more tired than he had wanted, but he didn't care, there it was; freedom. He stepped through the door as the cold nights air, riddled with rain stung his face. He didn't care, he fell to his knees as he began to laugh, it seemed like he couldn't stop.
"Let's go!" Lucius yelled at him, grabbing him by the arm "We aren't out of it yet." But he too couldn't help but to smile. The remaining prisoners, the majority of them being death eaters turned to Lucius, waiting for his orders. He said nothing but walked forward, helping the excessively tired young man. Another prisoner, Antonin Dolohov, went to Aurons right side and helped Lucius prop him up.
Together the group made their way to Azkaban's docks, killing the two remaining guards as they boarded the boat that would return them to the mainland.
They were free, Auron thought as they sat him up, yells of elation escaping ever prisoner's lips as they propelled the boat through choppy water. "We can't go back to Britain yet; we have to go somewhere and lay low for a time." Lucius yelled to the crowd. None of them cared. They were just free…
Auron closed his eyes, a small smile crossing his face, unaware of a pair of violet eyes keenly studying him.
"I'm free" he whispered…
A/N: New Chapter up tomorrow, hopefully with my time off I can get two chapters a day. I want to keep things progressing. Let me know what you all think.
