The Auror office was packed to the brim with everyone available. Even the latest trainees were in the office, looking frantic, in both fear and enthusiasm. Everyone else just looked downright terrified. The oldest Aurors all looked like they were going to throw up or were in the verge of tears.
Molly couldn't stand the restrictiveness of the room and while waiting for Harry and the rest of the Aurors flooded in, decided to make a coffee run.
She hadn't gone ten feet before she heard the footsteps of a particular trainee.
"Slow down, would you, Molly," Scorpius Malfoy called to her.
Molly rolled her eyes, but did as he said.
"What do you want, Malfoy?"
Scorpius hissed, "Malfoy? That's cold."
Molly smirked, "I'm sorry. Do you want me to call you Scorpy? The way that Albus does?"
He blushed, "Who told you that? He only does that in-"
He cut himself off quickly.
Molly snickered, "You wouldn't believe the stuff you hear people tell each other during family gatherings. Especially when they let James and Fred feed them a whole bottle of Firewhiskey."
Scorpius shook his head, "He's such a lightweight. Got to work on that."
The boy then pulls a small pad of yellow sticky notes out of his back pocket and a pen out of his front. He scribbled down a quick note and stick the note on his tan colored robes, to the join the other eighteen he had already placed on there.
Scorpius had a terrible memory since, well, forever, so from the age of six on, his mother gave him a pack of self-regenerating sticky notes that would never unstick from his clothes unless he himself pulled them off (Molly couldn't imagine what kind of money it took to have something like that made, not that the Malfoys wouldn't have it). He had since started writing everything he heard down and stuck them to himself, so that way the notes were always available to him.
It was rather strange, but many Aurors hoped that after he finish his training that he would be great on cases, as he rarely missed a detail and never forgot them.
Molly shakes her head at the peculiar boy, but then asked, "So to what do I owe the pleasure of being able to stand in the presence of such a magnificent being?"
Molly took an abrupt turn down a hall, opened the door to the lounge, and found herself in front of a coffee (and tea if anyone was feeling it) station. Unlike Scorpius, Molly had an excellent memory naturally and didn't have to write down any of the requested drinks (especially since she had memorized everyone's favorites).
Scorpius leaned against the table and knocked over the bucket of creamers and then the sugar tin as he tried to clean up his mess. Clumsy was a another adjective one could use to describe Scorpius Malfoy.
"Uh, well, I came to help you carry the drinks."
Molly raised an eyebrow. She was certainly capable of carrying all the drinks herself, even without magic. It was art she had mastered after her first month at the office.
The blond peered around, even though no one was in the small lounge with them. He scooched closer to Molly (his elbow knocking over the sugar tin again) and spoke to her in a hushed manner, as if they weren't the only two people within twenty feet of the coffee station.
"Molly, I'm sorry to say this, but I don't think you'll get out of this mission."
Molly latched a lid onto Niobe Rosen's tea with milk and lemon before turning toward him.
"Did you really just follow me here to tell me that?" she paused, but he gave no answer, "Well, I must inform you, dear Scorpy, that there is no way in hell that I am going to be part of this mission, no matter what Harry or anyone else says."
Scorpius shook his head at her in the same way she had to him earlier.
Molly finished the last drink and, despite being able to easily take all drinks back on her own, reluctantly handed Scorpius some of them. He, unlike Molly, used a levitation spell to take his back to the office.
Molly eyed the floating cups up until they reached the office, when Scorpius waved his wand and the cups zoomed to their owners.
Molly handed out each cup to each person. She enjoyed the contact of handing the person the cup and seeing their face light up.
No one's face was lighting up today though. Even Harry, who always tried to make everyone feel hopeful and jubilant, was grimacing unpleasantly.
All the desks had been cleared out of the way. Harry and his second-in-command, a terrifying older woman named Gerda, flanked a blank white board and stared at the group in front of them. Everyone was uncomfortably clumped in front of the stack of desks, waiting for Harry or Gerda to speak.
Molly found herself squished between Scorpius and (unsurprisingly considering he showed up everywhere) Declan.
Gerda cleared her throat as if to silence the room, though no one had been speaking.
Harry stepped forward a bit, "Might as well jump right into it," he paused, taking a deep breath, "As you may have heard, there has been an escape from Azkaban."
He halted his speech, looking at everyone's reaction. By some facial expressions, apparently everyone did not know. Dead silence. Then the voices rang out loud and all at once.
"An escape! From Azkaban!" screeched Heidi Boot.
"How?" called another voice, Amadeus Matlock.
"Who is responsible-"
"What are we doing about-"
"How are we-"
The room was filled with so many unanswered questions. Harry stepped back a little and look to Gerda.
"SHUT IT!"
Gerda shouted over the noise, instantly cutting it off.
Harry spoke again, "We will be splitting into teams of five to check out different locations."
He plucked a list out of his back pocket to read off of.
"The escapees include Antonin Dolohov," Molly glanced over the crowd to find a turquoise head. Teddy's face has frozen in a painful expression. The man who murdered his father, "Walden Macnair, Roderick Travers, Rodolphus and Rabastan Lestrange," She glanced at her blond-haired companion for this one, as did many other people from the office. He looked almost as pained as Teddy, but for an entirely different reason. He might not have been blood related to the brothers, but he was to Rodolphus's wife, Bellatrix, and that was enough for many of the people to look at him suspiciously.
Harry waited until the attention was back to him, "Edward Yaxley and Evan Mulciber."
Molly stiffened.
Mulciber.
Like the man in the alley.
The men in the alley.
'Come, Mulciber, you are holding us up. Do you want us to get found?'
"Harry!" Molly called. She had apparently interrupted something because Gerda gave her a dirty look.
Harry turned his attention to his niece and said patiently, "Yes, Molly?"
All the eyes in the room were on Molly and she deflated, less cocksure with everyone's panicked eyes staring her down.
"Uh, you said Mulciber?"
Harry nodded.
"Um, well, uh. Obviously everyone knows I was in Knockturn Alley earlier, little, uh, apparition mishap," she tried to laugh it off, but quickly stopped when she saw all the grave faces, "A group of men came by me before I found Declan. I didn't think too much of it because I didn't know of the escape. I just assumed they were smugglers or simple thieves, but I clearly remember one of them yelling at another about not keeping up with the rest of the group. 'Come, Mulciber, you are holding us up. Do you want us to get found?'"
Harry's eyes grew about three sizes.
"Knockturn Alley," he muttered to himself, along with a few other inaudible words.
Harry quickly pulled himself together and started dishing out orders.
"Gerda will be investigating Knockturn Alley. Boot, Jackson, Capper, and Matlock will join her."
Gerda took her team and left as soon as they were given the order.
Molly shifted fretfully. How was she to get out of this one?
Harry issued three other units until it was only a handful people left in the room.
"I will have my own unit, as will Lupin. I will need a few people to stay here and run the office while we are away. Make sure the small things are taken care of, take any tips, etc."
Molly brightened. This was her chance.
Harry saw Molly's cheery face and immediately continued the team assignments.
"My team will include Swann, Thomas, Denshaw, and Macmillan and we will be at the Lestrange mansions."
The four moved out of the way of the remaining people.
"Lastly, Lupin's team will be questioning the guards at Azkaban, and will consist of Montague, Rosen, Malfoy, and Weasley."
Shit, shit, shit. Molly felt her heart race. She had to tell Harry that she wanted to stay behind, but Teddy ushered them all out of the office quickly and down to the empty Atrium. Molly couldn't get a word in at all over Teddy's orders.
"Move fast. This is serious case. No messing around. Rosen, Montague, go to that fireplace over there. Malfoy, Weasley, follow me."
Declan pulled Niobe toward the nearest fireplace and he disappeared with one quick motion.
"No- I," Molly started, but before she could say anything Teddy shoved her into the fireplace and she disappeared.
If there was one thing Molly Weasley II hated above all, it was dust. Dust made her allergies act up. It clung to her clothes and her favorite books. It was just rude and inconvenient.
So when she flipped out of a fireplace into a pile of dust, she couldn't have been more annoyed. Add to that that she didn't even get to talk to Harry about working on the tip line and Molly was ready to explode.
Just as she was pulling herself up, Scorpius landed on top of her and forced Molly to expel all the air in her lungs.
"Oh, Merlin, sorry, Molly."
"It's fine," Molly gasped as she sucked in more air. Niobe came out after them, looking frazzled. Her kinky black hair was stick all over the place like she had been electrocuted.
"Holy hell," commented Declan, standing over by the door of the hut they were standing in. Or at least what Molly hoped was Declan. All she could see was a Declan-shaped shadow at this distance.
Niobe moaned, "I hate Floo."
She moved toward a broken mirror on the wall and started trying to contain the mess despite the fact that there was little to no light in the dark shack.
Teddy stepped smoothly out of the fireplace next.
He looked most like an Auror out of all of them. He looked serious and ready for the fight while the rest of them... well, they were a little less than satisfactory.
Teddy walked out of the door to the hut without a word and the rest of group followed him obediently (though Niobe was still pretty pissed about her hair).
The ramshackle hut was the only thing for miles on the hill. Until the hill ended with that Molly thought a small dock with five or six small boats. Hard to tell at this time of night.
Molly stared at the water as they walked, but something else caught her eye. A massive thing in her peripheral vision. She turned her gaze until it hit an island and then a massive fortress.
Azkaban.
She had no idea how she missed it before, no matter how dark it was out. The prison was colossal and loomed over them like a threat. The darkness of it caused Molly to have chills even at this distance. Her dignity was the only thing holding her back from running back into the hut and diving into the fireplace.
But she would find a way out of this case. No way she was going to have a freaking prison break as her first case. She would tell Harry when they got back to the office that she couldn't work it.
Molly has stopped and stared at the building and had to be jostle out of her trance by Scorpius.
Niobe and Teddy took one boat while Declan, Molly, and Scorpius took another.
Molly hadn't had very good experience with boats. Last time she was in a boat was in her seventh year when James had shoved her out of the boat for gloating about how Hufflepuff had won more House Cups over their years at Hogwarts. She swore that something tickled her ankle before Fred pulled her back in.
Molly eased herself slowly into the boat, taking quick breaths as she sat down in the very back. She avoided Declan's smirk at her fear by staring at the prison, but that almost made her feel worse.
The boats moved on their own just like the ones at Hogwarts, but Declan made a sport of pretending to rock theirs forward.
"Stop," Molly moaned, hugging her knees to her chest. She already felt sick enough without Declan making her fear dying via unknown lake critters.
"Couldn't we have just apparated?" she mumbled to herself, but Declan heard her and laughed.
"Weasley, you can't apparate onto Azkaban. Don't you read up about anything?"
Molly glared at him. Of course, she read anything and everything. Just not books about the fundamentals of traveling to Azkaban. She has never planned on visiting.
Scorpius leaned over slightly from his side of the boat and patted Molly's knee.
"It's almost over," he said with a somewhat pained grin.
This must have really been the worst for Scorpius. He had been told (from strangers nonetheless) his whole life that his family belonged in this nightmare of a place. And here he was traveling to this building that had once held his (albeit psychotic) deceased great-aunt and his grandfather, who Molly had seen on the platform giving Scorpius a massive hug and sending him off to the train during fourth year.
That didn't seem like a man who should be in such a dark place.
Molly touched Scorpius's hand gently, "Yeah, almost over."
She gave the boy a reassuring smile and he did the same to her.
Scorpius was one of the sweetest people Molly knew and she couldn't understand how he was a Slytherin. That was, until she saw how he subtly tripped that seventh year who made fun of him and Al when they first started dating. Or how he could persuade anyone into anything, like the time he convinced Molly to drink a whole bottle of firewhiskey in one go at his birthday party. (She spent the whole weekend in her bathroom with a raging headache. Her and Al seemed to have that lightweight thing in common).
The boats pulled into the dock on the prison's island. Teddy was the first one out and helped Niobe out of the boat before taking off up the flagstone path leading up to their destination.
Declan heaved himself out of the boat quickly and nearly tipped the thing over. Molly could feel her dinner rising up her throat. Scorpius got out as smoothly as possible and offered Molly a hand, which she gratefully accepted.
She teetered a little on her heels and cursed. This just had to happen on the night of Harry's birthday party. Molly reached down and yanked off her heels, opting to carry them.
Declan had already taken off toward Azkaban, but Scorpius had waited on her.
"We all look incredibly stupid. Coming to Azkaban in our nicest dress robes," Scorpius mumbled to her.
Molly's own robes had now torn and was covered with water and dust. She sighed. These were her nicest robes.
Is this what missions were always like? Messy... and creepy. She tacked on that last bit after getting a chill the moment she stepped through the guard's door into the prison.
Dementors hadn't been there in nearly thirty years, but the prison still felt just as morbid and dismal. Their presence left a melancholy feeling in the prison long after departure.
The darkness outside did not compare to the darkness inside. The hallway the group was being lead through was so dim Molly could barely make out Declan's head in front of her.
To make it worse, it was freezing. The summer weather hadn't warmed it at all. Molly could see her breath in the form of a little cloud. She just about put her heels back on for fear of frostbite on her feet.
The guards leading them was an Auror that Molly recognized. Oliver Thimby. He was a chai tea kind of guy (something Molly completely identified with). But he was also a bit of a bore and loved to ramble on about his pet turtle, Maximus.
"Were you here during the breakout?" she asked him. She had been shoved next to him and given the duty of questioning because of her "kind Hufflepuff nature". Even though Teddy was also a Hufflepuff. And despite the serious nature of this, he still didn't want to be the one to talk to Oliver.
Even in the dim lighting, Molly could see Oliver redden.
"Uh, yeah. I was, uh, knock out by a stray spell. So I don't really remember much that happened. You should ask George. He nearly fought them off."
Molly sighed as silently as possible. Oliver had been in her trainee group and it was a struggle to stay under him. He had been the nine of the ten and that should say a lot about the other people training.
Most of worse ended up here as a guard. Molly was sure she was only still in the office because of Harry.
Oliver lead them up a staircase onto the first official floor of the prison.
Inmates lined the walls. Low level ones, of course, but it still perturbed Molly to see the dirty faces of witches and wizards staring at her through the barred windows on their steel doors. Some of them made nasty comments through the bars at the group. Molly glanced at Teddy for guidance, but he was just staring forward, ignoring it all. Molly tried to do the same, but she nearly lost it when one spit on her.
It was worse for Scorpius. It seemed some of them recognized him as a Malfoy and scorned him for being an Auror (trainee). He took it like Teddy did though, with a head held high.
"Sorry," Oliver apologized to them as they reached another staircase, "George is on the second floor guard."
Teddy waved his hand, "It's all part of the job."
The next floor was nearly silent, despite the fact that these were higher level criminals. All that could be heard was the occasional whisper and a creak or two.
George Ramkin was a rather formidable man, so it didn't surprise Molly that the floor was being docile.
Ramkin stood at the end of the hall. The massive man stood taller than even Scorpius (who was nearly 6'4) and wider than the door he was in front of. His buzz cut and mean dark eyes add to that gave him the look of a muggle army man. And he had the attitude of it.
Ramkin eyed them up before stepping out of the way and letting them into the room.
All that inhabited the sparse room was a table with a few chairs.
Oliver left quickly after they were in the safe hands of Ramkin. Niobe instantly dropped into one of the chairs. Declan and Teddy opted to stand while Ramkin leaned against the wall in front of the table. Molly and Scorpius perched on the remaining chairs.
Teddy started the questioning unhesitatingly.
"You were here for the breakout? And the last person to see the group?"
Ramkin nodded and spoke in a deep rumbling voice, "Yes."
Teddy glanced over at Scorpius to see that he had pulled out his sticky notes and pencil.
Teddy cleared his throat and said, "Can you describe that night for us? In detail?"
Ramkin crossed his legs as he leaned back, "I was working on the third floor that night. It's three floors under the floor that holds the ex-Death Eaters. I arrived later because I had a problem with a woman on my floor, but I was there just after they broke out Macnair. The Lestranges and Yaxley were already out. Rodolphus and Yaxley were the ones breaking him out with the wand from the guard on that level while Rabastan was fighting off two guards with the second's guard's wand. I attempted to stop Yaxley, Macnair, and Rodolphus from getting Travers, but that's when Thimby showed up and was hit by a stray stun from Bletchley before he could take another step. I was able to engage Yaxley, who had the wand, for a minute, but during this, Macnair stole Thimby's wand and was able to catch me off guard and slam me against a wall. I lost my visions for a minute or so and they had gotten both Travers and Mulciber out by the time I was able to get back up. All that was left of the guards now was Bletchley and Watkins. Rabastan had taken out nearly everyone else and now each of the escapees was armed with a wand and we were severely outnumbered. I attempted to duel with Rabastan and Yaxley and while I was able to easily stun Yaxley, Rabastan was much better. I was able to disarm him at the very last second, just as Macnair had killed Watkins."
Scorpius gasped. Molly had a hand over her gaping mouth while Niobe's eyes were bugged. Declan and Teddy's expressions hadn't changed other than a clenched jaw and a darkening in the shade of hair respectively.
None of them had been informed of deaths.
Ramkin continued his story despite all of the shock, "Bletchley had fallen into one of cells and Mulciber and Travers had locked her in. So now I was just me, a disarmed Rabastan, and five armed Death Eaters. But none of them tried to take me. They just stared at Rabastan and waited. To which Rabastan responded by waving his hand and I was blasted against the staircase and once again knocked out. They were gone by the time I had gained consciousness. There had been no guards left downstairs to fight them off, so they had an easy escape."
Molly furrowed her brow. 'Rabastan responded by waving his hand and I was blasted against a staircase.'
"How many survivors were there?"
"Four. Thimby, Bletchley, myself, and Davies."
Five guards guards dead.
"Is that floor available for searching?"
Ramkin looked uncomfortable for the first time during the whole questioning.
"We haven't, ah, finished cleaning it up."
Read: the bodies still hadn't been picked up by the morgue yet.
Molly thought she was going to be sick. But she was still stuck on the thought of Rabastan. He waved his hand and Ramkin flew across the room. That's not possible. He didn't have a wand on him.
Teddy cleared his throat once again, "Was there anyone who witnessed the breakout that we can speak to?"
"Bletchley. She was a guard on that floor."
Ramkin pushed off the wall and walked across the room in two strides.
"She's guarding the third floor now. I can fetch her for you."
Declan whistled, "Merlin, these Azkaban guards have no breaks, do they?"
Merlin's right.
Merlin.
Merlin!
Molly jumped up, knocking her chair over.
Her teammates eyed her, bewildered.
"Merlin!" she yelled.
She was faced with many raised eyebrows and she realized she hadn't actually articulated any thought.
"Ramkin said something that confused me a little. Rabastan simply waved his hand and he flew across a room, just after Ramkin disarmed. Doesn't that bother anyone else?"
Niobe had a bit of understanding on her face, but everyone else looked confused.
Molly moaned, "He performed wandless magic, guys. Wandless magic."
Scorpius shrugged, "So? Children perform wandless magic all the time. I levitated our cat when I was five and I didn't have a wand."
"It's different. Children perform wandless magic, because they don't have a conduit for their magic like a wand. Plus children are developing so their magic tends to flow out of them in powerful burst. But full-grown wizards have stabilized their magic. They can control it, so wandless magic is no longer an option," Niobe remarked.
Thank Merlin for Niobe Rosen and her Ravenclaw tendencies.
"Niobe is exactly right, except for that last part. It's not impossible, but it's extremely hard to do. It's like regression, going back to before you could properly control your magic, and then trying to learn how. Every wizard, if they try hard enough, can do the little things. Levitation, summoning, etc. The last person to successfully perform large scale acts such as being able to throw enough person was Merlin."
Teddy who had looked rather confused before, stepped forward with a distressed expression.
"You are saying we aren't just facing a group of ex-Death Eaters, but also a man with powers not seen since the likes of Merlin, the most powerful wizard in history?"
Molly nodded meekly.
Teddy collapsed into Molly's empty chair and threw his face into his hands. His hair had turned black.
"Are we doomed?" asked Scorpius.
Behind his hands, Teddy nodded.
/
Edited: 6/4/17
