Disclaimer: I do not own most of these characters.

Meetings and Greetings

Sitting on his Dark Throne, Voldemort was unhappy to say the least and when he was unhappy he tended to spread the feeling around, "Crucio."

Draco screamed as the curse hit him, though he had not yet been branded by the dark mark his father's incarceration had thrust him into a position of relative importance.

"I'm sorry master," he sobbed, "I'm so sorry for what ever I did to offend you."

"What ever you did?" the Dark Lord hissed, "there is only one reason that I tolerate your presence in my forces and that is the funding that your family can provide to me, where is my tithe?"

"I don't know master; it should have been given to you by now."

"Crucio," Voldemort held the curse, "find out where it is and bring it to me, now get out of my sight."

"At once master, I shall find it at once," Draco stammered out as he fled the room.

Voldemort smirked as he watched the boy go; while the short term loss of so much funding had been a nuisance but the excuse it provided to punish his newest minion and see the look of fear on his face was more then worth the temporary set back to his plans.

Draco shivered as he Apparated back to Malfoy manner, and after quickly changing back into his normal clothing, storming to the fire place he flooed to Diagon Alley.

Walking angrily through the doors of Gringotts bank he immediately accosted the nearest goblin. "You, drop what ever petty matter has your attention and attend to me."

"How may I help you…Sir."

"I demand to know what is wrong with my account and if you cannot tell me then I demand that you take me to someone who can."

"Right away…Sir, if you'll follow me."

The goblins lead him to a small desk and Draco grudgingly took a chair, "well on with it, or are you too simple to deduce what is wrong with my account."

Thumbing through the folder containing the Malfoy family's file the goblin soon found the answer, "I've found it."

"Well on with it." Draco interrupted.

"I'm afraid that the death of Sirius Black has caused the Black family to lose its head."

"Then fetch the necessary items to perform the Inheritance Ritual and be quick about it, I want to be out of this place as soon as possible."

"You misunderstand me," the goblin said smugly, "the house of Black has a new head and they have ordered that the payments made to you, your aunt, and you mother be immediately ceased."

"How, how can that be?" Draco asked losing a bit of his composure, "I'm the last male with any shred of Black ancestry so by the law and custom of the noble Black house I should be the sole inheritor of the Black fortune."

"I'm afraid that you were misinformed then, if you like then I could contact the newest head of the Black family and ask him if he wishes to continue the payments?" said the goblin who was enjoying this more then he should be.

"Do so," said a now white faced Draco in a whisper.

Standing the goblin walked away leaving Draco alone with his thoughts.

"I have received a reply from the new head of the noble house of Black," the goblin smiled at Draco's jump, "and he has instructed me to read it aloud."

"On with it." Draco snarled, becoming more confident that his cousin would continue to finance both the Dark Lord and the Malfoy family.

"It states, and I quote 'I have no intention of giving so much as a knute to that pasty little bastard or his half blood master' end quote."

Draco left the bank in a considerable less animated state then he had entered, without the allowance given to them by the Black family they were forced to rely only on the Malfoy fortunes which while large were nothing in comparison to the Black's, a fortune that would soon disappear under the weight of funding the Dark Lord.

Back at Castle Azkaban Harry chuckled to himself as he imagined the look that must be on the ferret's face.

Slowly he was adjusting to his life at the castle. "Becky, contact that wand maker you told me about and tell him to meet with me when he has a free moment."

"Yes Harry, he shall be here at once or I shall know the reason why."

"I meant it when I said 'when he has a free moment,' you said that my schedule is open today so I really am in no hurry."

"As you command Harry," she said making a quick notation in her book, "but I would assume that he will come as quickly as possible even without my prompting, you are after all his Lord."

"You do know that despite that I'm still just a regular person don't you?" he inquired mildly.

"Not to me Harry, Not to me or any other inhabitant of this Island to us you are our Lord and protector," she said with no small amount of intensity, "to us you represent our hope of a better life away from ministry control under your leadership, to us you are everything."

Not knowing how to respond to such a statement, Harry chose to remain silent.

True to Becky's prediction, the wand maker did not take long to arrive.

He was a short rather stout man wearing the traditional blacks and grays that the citizenry of Azkaban seemed to prefer, perspiration ran down his fat red cheeks indicating that he had come at a dead run and clutched in his left hand was a black leather 'carpet bag.'

"You have summoned me my Lord and I have come," the man said in an overly formal tone, "what may I your humble servant do for your Lordship?"

"Thank you for coming." Harry said with a smile designed to put the man at ease, "I am going to need another wand and Rebecca my assistant told me that you were the best."

Straightening his shoulders at the comment the man seemed ready to burst with pride, "I shall do my best to live up to your Lordship's expectations."

Opening the bag the man pulled out a thick book and opened it to reveal page upon page of wood samplesm "touch each one my Lord and tell me what 'feels right' after that we will know which wood to construct you wand out of."

Stopping at a small sliver of deep black wood he stopped, "this one."

"Not surprising my Lord, that is a sample of wood from the Ebon shade tree," he said while closing the book and placing it back into the case, "it is a mystical tree that grows only on the Island."

"With your permission my lord I would like to try something a bit unusual for your wand core?" seeing Harry's nod, "I would like to see if a hair from the tail of one of my Lord's own Nightmares might suit him the best."

"All right, we can visit the stables when we have a spare moment."

"Thank you my Lord, now," he said handing Harry something that resembled one of Fred and Gorge's fake wands, "wave that about sir and it will adjust it's self to your preferred wand length and handle shape."

"Thirteen inches my Lord," the man said absentmindedly. "All we have to do now is pick out the runes and the wand blank."

Over the next hour Harry handled blank after blank until finally he found the one that seemed to feel 'right' "this one" he said handing his chosen blank to the wand maker.

"This is the last thing before we go to your stables my Lord," the stout man said handing Harry a small rune covered stone, "it will pick which control and power runes should be carved into your wand."

The second the stone hit Harry's hand it began to glow with a strange eldritch light, "what does this mean?" Harry asked the now pale wand maker.

"All of them my Lord, it means that I am to carve all of them into your wand."

The stables were quite close to his private apartments, Becky explained that it was because the 15th Lord of Azkaban liked to ride and ordered that new stables be constructed closer to his chambers so that he would have less of a walk.

Entering a large paddock containing all of his Nightmares Harry again turned to the wand maker, "what do I do now?"

"Just pick one that you feel connected to my lord and remove one of the hairs from its tail," the old wand maker replied.

Walking up to a young colt Harry held out his hand palm up with the fingers straightened, "this one." He said with no small amount of certainty, "I don't know how to explain it but when I'm near this animal my magic … sings."

Taking one of the hairs from the colt's tail he handed it to the wand maker, "take your time with this wand; I want everything to be perfect."

"I assure you my Lord that it will be my finest creation, with your permission I will take my leave and begin my work."

"Do so"

"Harry," Rebecca said softly attracting his attention. "Commander Maxwell has requested a moment of your time; I can have him meet us here if you like."

"That would be fine," Harry said walking over to a wooden bench overlooking the corral, "have the kitchens send down some refreshment for our meeting."

"As you wish Harry, Commander Maxwell says that he will be here shortly."

Commander Maxwell was accompanied by another older man, "good afternoon my Lord, this is Simon Fletcher," he said gesturing towards the older man, "he's the man that I recommended to you."

"A pleasure to meet you Mr. Fletcher," Harry nodded to the older man. "I hope to learn a lot from you."

"Please call me Simon my Lord, and I hope to teach you a lot."

"I did have another reason that I wished to speak with you my Lord," Commander Maxwell interjected, "it is my pleasure to inform you that the 'watch' project was a success."

"Excellent, I'm glad that you were able to succeed but I must confess that I was surprised at how little time it took."

"It went so quickly because we were able to get the original design team with the patent, seems that they were feeling a mite under paid and under appreciated and they jumped at the chance to enter your Lordship's service."

"Here is one of the first completed models," the head of Azkaban's guard said presenting Harry with a small package, "it has several improvements; it has several different 'frequencies' I think the muggle borne called them, this means that your Lordship can have your own personal 'frequency' and different guard units can also have their own."

"And that's not all," the man said excitedly, "each one also acts as a portkey point and apparition point."

"Excellent," Harry said with genuine enthusiasm, "I will need two others for friends of mine which may have their frequency's restricted to my personal one, I can't emphasize enough how pleased I am by this."

"I shall have them sent over at once my Lord, along with an extra for your assistant."

At his departure Harry turned to his new instructor, "when would you like to start?"

"Now would be fine your Lordship," the old ex Auror said slowly, "what would you like to learn."

"Mainly I need to learn tactics that will allow me to survive a fight with a group of dark wizards, I am also going to need to learn Occlumency, and if possible I would like to become an Anamagus."

"If you like Sir I can do a spell that would allow me to know if you had an Anamagus form"

"I thought that it required several expensive potions and hours of meditation?" Harry asked curiously, "if I had known that all I had to do was perform a charm then I would have started this years ago."

"Better you didn't try it before Sir, the spell is classified as a level three dark curse by the Ministry," the instructor paused as if unsure to continue, "the minister of the time said that making the process more difficult and expensive would encourage people to register."

Harry just looked at him incredulously. "I guess that Fudge's policies are nothing new then."

"No they aren't Sir, now if you'll just hold still for a second," the man made several complicated wand movements while muttering the incantation under his breath, "I'm afraid that you do not have an Anamagus form Sir, I wouldn't feel bad about it as only a small portion of the population has the talent."

"That's all right," Harry replied a bit disappointed, "the only reason I was so keen to do it was because my father had the ability and I wished to follow in his footsteps."

"If it's any consolation Sir, I did find some talent for self transfiguration and I think that with time you could become a Metamorphmagus, you'll have to find another instructor for that though Sir as I wouldn't know how to begin teaching it."

"That's better than nothing I suppose," Harry replied thoughtfully. "I've got someone in mind to help me with my self transfiguration but until I have a chance to contact them lets work on the other things first."

What followed was one of the most painful and tiring things that Harry had ever experienced and in hind sight he decided that he needed to find a better catch phrase then 'do your worse' in his fights with the old man.

Crawling out of his shower he had barely enough strength to tell his assistant to deliver the watches to his friends before he collapsed onto his bed into a deep sleep.

Harry quickly fell into a routine over the next week; he would spend his mornings learning how to use his hands, his feet, and his dagger in a fight, followed by a working lunch where he would grant audiences to any of his subordinates, spend his afternoons learning Occlumency and how to fight with magic, and his evenings whispering a few words through his watch to Hermione or Ron before collapsing into a Deep slumber.

This routine was interrupted on the tenth day when he was informed that he had visitors from both the Order of the Phoenix and the ministry.

"Who did they send?"

"The Order has sent a Werewolf named Remus Lupin and the Minister himself has come on behalf of the ministry" Becky replied "how do you wish this handled Harry?"

"Seat Remus in a comfortable room and inform him that it will be some time before I am able to meet with him and have the Minister sent up immediately" shaking his head ruefully "much as I would like to put him in a tiny room and make him wait, I don't think it would be productive at this point in time."

"Yes Harry" she said making a notation in her ever present book, "are you going to be requiring your cloak or some other means of concealing your identity?"

"I had almost forgotten thank you Becky, yes send the cloak."

They met the Minister in one of the Castles many rooms designed for such a purpose.

"Good afternoon Lord Azkaban," the Minister said in a nervous voice while extending a sweaty palm, "so good of you to take time out of your schedule to meet with me."

"Minister." Harry responded with a nod, "I am always willing to take time out of my schedule to meet with so important a person, to what do I owe this meeting?"

"As you are no doubt aware," the Fudge began nervously. "He Who Must Not Be Named, has returned and I am here to ask for your assistance in the fight with him and his forces."

"I would be happy to grant your request but for one thing minister," Harry responded eyeing the man in much the way a shark eyes it's next meal, "by current wizarding law it is illegal for my forces to operate outside the Island in any official capacity save for matters of my safety."

Unfortunately for Fudge he was not able to penetrate the thick obscuring darkness created by Harry's hood, nor was he able to recognize the voce of the boy that he had only recently been trying to discredit, "yes of course, I shall immediately enact a law to grant them the same status as Aurors within the eyes of the Ministry."

"Excellent Minister, the only thing to do now is to discuss the matter of the identity of your liaison to me shall be"

"Liaison?" the Minister said slowly, "why would you need a liaison?"

"Because of the fact that we are both such busy men Minister and I cannot expect you to keep coming to the Island to receive updates on the status of my men, much better to delegate it to someone else."

"Yes much," the Minister agreed quickly, "do you have anyone in mind?"

"I do." Harry responded, "one of your current employees already has a connection to us, an Arthur Weasley I believe his name is."

"Why do you want him?" responded the Minister, curiosity overcoming fear.

"Becky?"

"Arthur Weasley; currently works in the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts at the Ministry, his Great grandfather's third cousin became a subject of my Lord Azkaban one hundred and fifty two years ago."

"Ah yes Mortimer, how is he doing Becky?"

"He died almost seventy five years ago, my Lord Azkaban."

"Hmm, I hadn't realized that but I do tend to lose track of time I suppose," Harry responded evenly to keep the laughter out of his voice.

"So you see Minister," Harry said returning to his earlier conversation, "in must be him, why he's practically family."

"Yes I see," said the Minister carefully, "but the problem is that the job requires someone that is several pay grades above Arthur so…"

"So you're going to promote him?" said Harry interrupting, "how generous of you, it may be a good idea to give him a small allowance of say five or six hundred Galleons to buy combat robes and such."

"Yes," the Minister replied weakly, "is their anything else that you wish to speak about?"

"No Minister, you have covered everything that could possibly come up in this meeting, would you care to stay for tea?"

"Much as I would like to stay, matters of state require me to return to my office," Fudge said through thinly disguised fear, "so if you will excuse me I must be going."

"Until the next time Minister," Harry replied to the Minister's retreating back.

Once Fudge had left the room Harry turned to his assistant, "right after that law is enacted I want him investigated for corruption and anything else that that my investigators think he might be guilty of."

"It shall be done Harry, now do you want to see the Order's envoy?" asked the girl with a slight smirk.

"I'm going to need some way of fooling his sense of smell first," Harry said cautiously.

"I shall have it taken care of my Lord, he shall arrive momentarily."

Harry's meeting with Remus was quite different from the rather strained meeting with Fudge, but no less enjoyable.

Walking into the room Lupin immediately dropped to one knee. "I thank my Lord Azkaban for granting his humble servant this audience."

"You do know?" Harry said with no small amount of amusement at his friend's actions, "that that is a formal greeting that is used exclusively by the citizens of Azkaban?"

Lupin looked like a fish out of water for a split second, "my apologies Lord Azkaban no disrespect was intended, the Order was able to find little information on the customs of Azkaban."

"Quite all right," Harry responded, "now unless it is some outsider custom which I am not aware of, would you please get up off of my floor and take the seat I had brought in for you?"

Nodding Lupin took the seat across from Harry, "if it wouldn't be rude may I get down to business?"

"Please do," Harry said motioning for Becky to pour him a cup of tea, "would you like some tea or some other refreshment?"

"Tea would be fine," the Order member said absently, "as I'm sure you know the Order of the Phoenix lead by Albus Dumbledore has been engaged in a fight with agents of the returned Lord Voldemort."

"Yes I am aware of that, however I fail to see what you wish with me."

"The Order would like you to provide a safe haven for its members and their families; we would also welcome any assistance that you would offer to combat Voldemort and his Death Eaters."

"Before I answer I would like to hear the answer to one question of mine."

"Only one?" Lupin said with a wry smile, "if I were in your position I would have several."

"Yes only one and I would like you to understand that this question is not meant to offend," he paused, "why is it that your Order sent a Werewolf as its representative?"

"No offence is taken, the Order sent me because among the scant facts that we have been able to unearth about Azkaban and its Lord was that you have always valued ability over all else," pausing to take a breath, "and that at various times throughout history you have been willing to provide a safe haven to persons such as myself that the normal wizarding world looks down upon, we in the Order had hoped that by sending a Werewolf we could show you the we shared the ideal that ability and not a supposed purity of blood was what was important."

"Very good Mr. Lupin, I will grant you your requests and more, in addition to what was requested; you may also use my medical facilities, you may use my Island as a staging ground, and you may call upon my personal aid should you need it as I have already agreed with the Minister to allow my forces to be used in this fight."

"Thank you my Lord I…"

"Don't thank me until you have heard my demands Mr. Lupin," Harry interrupted, "if I allow you the use of my medical facilities I shall in turn expect you to allow me the use of yours, grant me that and one other thing and we shall have an agreement."

"What other thing?" Lupin replied warily.

"I find myself in need of a Metamorphmagus to aid one of the people on this island in unlocking their ability and since I know that you have one in your forces…" he trailed off.

"I don't think it will be a problem to have her come here for some instruction," Lupin said a bit of his enthusiasm returning, "the decision will have to rest with her though."

"Thank you Mr. Lupin it has been a pleasure talking with you and now that business has been taken care of may I offer you a small token of my esteem which you may keep regardless of what may happen with our little deal?"

"Of course Lord Azkaban, though such a thing is unnecessary."

"It is nothing more then a trifle I realize but I've heard that you are a student of the Defense Against the Dark Arts and I would like to offer you unrestricted access to my main library," Harry said smiling under his hood, "it is one of the finest in the world and I have recently updated it."

"Thank you Lord Azkaban" Lupin replied surprised and excited that he was being given such an opportunity, "if you do not mind I would like to take advantage of your gift at once."

"Not at all Mr. Lupin, Becky will have someone waiting outside to show you the way."

"Do I have anything else to do today Becky?" Harry asked while watching his friend walk away.

"No Harry, no others have requested an audience"

"I suppose that it's back to practice then."

Later that night the Order of the Phoenix had convened to hear Remus Lupin's report on his meeting with the Lord of Caer Azkaban.

"Those were his demands, something that we would have offered anyway and Tonk's assistance in training one of his people to use their abilities?" Dumbledore asked, surprised that it could be so easy.

"That's all Albus," Remus replied with a grin, "he's also given me free and unrestricted access to one of his libraries regardless of what ever decision we come to regarding the agreement, it's amazing some of the things that I was able to find there."

"Thank you Remus, this is the first bit of good news we've had since Harry disappeared," Dumbledore said eyes twinkling madly, "it's up to you Nymphadora, if you don't wish to do this I will not force it."

"It's ok," said the clumsy young Auror, "it's not like he's asking anything that I wouldn't have done anyway."

"Then it's decided, Remus tomorrow you will inform Lord Azkaban to our agreement of his terms," Dumbledore said with a smile.

AN: Don't get your hopes up or down about Malfoy ending up in the poor house, he will find a way to keep the Malfoy fortune safe from Voldemort. In other news I can't really think of any thing to do to the Dursleys that does not seem overly petty or malicious so suggestions are welcome. May be a bit of time before some of the other characters from the books make their appearance as I don't have a good feel for writing some of them, Luna especially have no fear they will show but it may take a few chapters. Yes Harry is going to come away from his summer training with quite a bit of skill in dueling and hand to hand combat, to those who do not think that this is realistic I would like to point out the various basic trainings done by military s around the world. These give quite a bit of skill to large groups of untrained people quickly, Harry has a private tutor and he arrived partially trained. The reason that Harry implied that he knew Arthur Weasley's distant relative will be covered in later chapters, for now all you need to know is that he did it to mess with Fudges head. The 'Small' allowance of 5-6 hundred Galleons was a way for Harry to get a large amount of cash to the Weasleys and to annoy Fudge.

Thanks to all my reviewers, responses to some of them are below.

Fiery Pheonix – Don't know what if any match up will be in this story.

DaBear – Hedwig was left at the Dursley's place and was later picked up by members of the Order; I've got to remember to have Harry pick her up later.

Sorrow1 – Like I said, as you saw in this chapter I do have a reason to be giving them so much cash not to buy mansions but to finance the Dark Lord, who has just lost one of his larger sources. I do agree that I went overboard and it shall be fixed soon.

a reader – Thanks, first two chapters showed Harry's point of view and three had Dumbledore.

Kalorna Enera – Thanks, the reason that Harry is so distant to Ron is because of a lingering fear of rejection, not only did Harry just get more money and a title but he has inherited a position that many wizards assume is dark. Wither Harry's fears prove out will be written later as I haven't found a way to deal with this that I haven't seen (dark bigot Ron and brainless follower Ron wont even be considered.)

Merelan Harper – Thanks, English spelling and grammar have always given me trouble despite the fact that I am a native speaker. Ah well, something I still need to work on. Was worried that I was going a bit fast. As for Ron I'm not sure how I'm going to deal with him, I do know that this will not be a 'Ron betrays or turns his back on Harry' fic.

David M. Potter – The Order picked up his things as per his request to Dumbledore, Harry can't pardon Sirius but he can make him a Citizen of Azkaban posthumously, Umbitch will get hers, Hermione will see the Library and no one will see her for quite some time, Lupin will come into the picture soon. It may be H/Hr/B, haven't decided what if any match ups to have, as for the sexual harassment, well Becky thinks that it is part of her job to keep him happy in any way that he desires and is currently quite concerned about his stress relief – more on that later.

Jammer – She will disappear into it for quite some time.

athenakitty – Some of this was answered in this chapter, as for the rest…all in good time.

Saetan – Not sure how Harry is going to get through the library and while I have a few ideas I haven't settled on anything yet, not sure how long I can keep up my momentum of updating so much.

wadeki – Thank you.

DMP – Don't know yet what the match will be.