Rated M: Mature, although from this point it gets a little easier to take.

Updated: 5/25/09

WELCOME BACK POTTER

Ch. 4: Escape from Death

"Please don't be dead, please…wake up, just wake up," spoke the unfamiliar soft feminine voice as she brushed the overgrown hair out of the younger wizard's filthy face.

"Wh-Where…am I?" croaked out the unused voice of the seemingly dead young man.

"You're alive. I don't believe it," she exclaimed excitedly as she pulled the man into her embrace comfortingly. Much had changed in her opinion of the younger man in the last week, and she couldn't believe that he had managed to survive the unsurvivable killing curse yet again.

"Who…who are you?" he asked with a cloudiness to his face and voice as he tried to take in the appearance of the gentle woman who was comforting him. She had very dark, long black hair and violet eyes, and her face was very pretty despite its filthiness.

"It's me, Bellatrix. Don't you remember, Harry?" she asked disbelievingly to the apparently still out of it younger wizard.

"Bellatrix? Whose Harry?" he asked clearly as he seemed to be fully waking up and coming out of his daze, but nevertheless still completely in the dark.

"What do you remember?" she asked softly as she continued to brush his bangs off his face as she held his head in her lap.

"A pair of red snake eyes…a weird glowing stick…and a disgusting green light…why, what happened? And where are we?" he spoke slowly as he tried to remember anything before or after that bright green light.

"The Dark Lord tried to kill you again, that green light was the killing curse he hit you with," she replied sincerely as she tried to gage his response and reaction which remained a blank wall.

"Dark Lord? Killing Curse? What are you on about?" he replied skeptically, none of this seemed to make any sense.

"You don't remember anything, do you?" she asked as her eyes almost seemed to light up at the possibilities of Harry not remembering how much he hated her or wanted her dead.

She would be able to start over with the younger green-eyed wizard, and maybe able to have a normal relationship with him. Harry was still her master that much she did know. When he had killed Rudolphus all those years ago, she felt the slave bond transfer to the younger wizard, something she didn't feel when Voldemort thought he had killed Harry, and the reason she knew Harry had not died, yet.

After a week where he didn't so much as move, except for the very slow rise and fall of his scarred chest, she had begun to worry that even if he wasn't dead, he might not wake up at all or was just dying slowly. That was another problem altogether, they were entombed in rubble and stone, and had nothing else to eat. She had only survived this long because of some food she found on the dead body of Crabbe, that in itself was not too pleasant either, the smell of the three dead former Slytherin's was thick in their dingy and confined stone tomb, and the breathing air and hygiene was at a fatal level. Looking over at the younger wizard, who was sickly thin and disgustingly filthy and in obvious pain, but who was still trying hard to remember anything.

"What should I remember?" he asked sincerely.

"Anything, your name? Hogwarts? Azkaban? Lord V-Voldemort? Dumbledore? Sirius? Ginny? Anything?" she asked almost hysterically, she couldn't believe that Harry wouldn't be able to remember anything about his own life. His blank look however, confirmed her fears, it was like ha had been obliviated, did he even remember magic, she couldn't even comprehend those horrible thoughts or they were dead.

"I can't remember anything, even if I try all I see is that horrible green light," replied Harry after a short and painful pause where he reflexively grabbed his chest and let out a small gasp at the painful contact. He glanced down to see the widest and longest scar he could imagine cutting right through his pale and boney chest, starting at his left shoulder and continuing to his right hip. And dead center of this scarred chest was another fresher scar, jagged and intersecting the longer thicker one in three separate places.

"Well, we need to get out of this tomb if we are going to have any chance at surviving another day, do you know if you can move?" she asked softly but with a desperate need in her pretty violet eyes.

"How long have I been here?" asked Harry as he met her shinning violet eyes and tried testing out whether or not he could move his limbs and body.

"We've been in this tomb for over a week, but you've been in Azkaban now for almost seven years," she replied weakly to the bewildered wizard.

"Seven years? What's this Azkaban you keep mentioning?" he asked amazed and confused over everything that's happened in the five minutes or so he could remember since waking up.

"Azkaban is the wizard prison," she replied very softly.

"I'm a wizard? And in prison?" Harry asked completely confused and unsure of what was going on.

"Yes Harry, you are a wizard, but we need to get out of here before we both die. I'll tell you everything when we get somewhere safe, but we don't have any food and I can't last much longer," she replied quickly trying to stress the urgency of their need to escape.

"I'm Harry?" he asked softly not wanting to further upset the almost crying and hysterical woman who was so nice and friendly towards him. He could not understand why, but he felt safe in her company, almost like they belonged together, but he couldn't for the life of him remember anything about her or himself.

"Yes, you're Harry, I'm Bellatrix, and a witch, but first we need to find a way out of here, and soon," she replied politely but with a growing sense of anxiety and urgency. "I've started shifting some of the rocks, but most are too heavy, and they seem to go on forever."

"I can move my legs a little and could probably walk, but my left arm won't even budge, I can't seem to feel it at all. I don't think I'm any stronger right now to help, but I can try," said Harry as he slowly and gingerly got to his shaky feet.

"I know you can't remember right know, but you have to try something for me okay, Harry?" she asked with concern evident in her beautiful eyes. "I want you to get really mad at the rocks over there and try to push them away with your mind and will. I've already tried since all the wands have been destroyed, but my magic is too weak, and I have nowhere near the accidental or wandless powers that you seem to."

"Okay, I'll try," spoke Harry as he stared at the enormous rocks that Bellatrix said were blocking their easiest exit. However, after more than a half-hour of staring at the rocks, he was starting to grow weary on his feet as a headache set in and he became increasingly frustrated until he threw up his right hand and shouted, "JUST MOVE."

Instantly, bright white light erupted from Harry's right hand and literally pushed all the rocks to the sides, leaving an enormous pathway wide enough for the both of them to easily stumble through. The pathway was immediately filled with a light fresh breeze and the brightest natural light that filtered in through the now perfect escape route.

"You did it, oh thank Merlin, we're free," she shouted happily as she felt the slight breeze and inhaled deeply, savoring the clean and fresh air that she never thought she would ever get to breathe again.

"That was fun," replied Harry with a large smile on his tired and dirty face after seeing the joy it brought to the beautiful Bellatrix. "So what's next?"

"We get the hell out of here is what," she replied as she grabbed the younger wizards good arm and began leading him down the now clear escape path.

Making their way through the stone path, they discovered that the island was in complete disarray, and covered in destroyed stone from the former Azkaban fortress. After leaving the rubble, the pair found themselves overlooking a large body of water that stretched past the horizon in every direction. The light of the day was blinding to the pair that had been living in darkness for so long, and it took several minutes before their eyes adjusted to the natural light. By this time, the exhaustion of the last hour hit Harry like a hammer as he swayed on his feet before collapsing into the arms of Bellatrix. With a final glance at the decimated island prison, Bellatrix located a washed up log, and propped Harry up on it, and secured the sleeping wizard with a rope around his waist. Pushing it off the shore and jumping on behind the sleeping wizard, the pair was finally making their way off Azkaban Island, a place that had stolen so many years of both their lives.

AN: They're free, finally.