Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters, plots…
A/N: Sorry for the long wait, got a sudden influx of work x) plus redoing To Hope To Win to sort a few issues, changes will be posted soon. (Not a big change, will stay the same for the most part)
Chapter 4: Plans
The sky was overcast and the air full of quiet anticipation of rain, Harry strode purposely through Diagon Alley, his now shoulder length blond hair blowing behind him in the gust. The place was eerily empty, but without obvious signs of danger he saw no fit reason to put his shopping trip on hold. Riddle wouldn't achieve anything attacking just now, not enough civilians to kill and torture pointlessly. The mist building on the coast of England was worrying though, huge numbers of dementors had been gathering and the ministry had put an official warning out. How was having all magical folk abandon the area useful? It left literally every muggle exposed and defenceless, sure it was a difficult charm to master, but he'd taught it to teenagers without any problems, it really was just the motivation an individual put behind the spell which counted.
Maybe I should take the DADAs positions at Hogwarts. Shaking his head, not until he got a better grip of the area, Dumbledore was a brilliant man, but too suspicious for his own good. Send someone to research his records and they'd find them delightfully empty. Wouldn't that be a lovely thing to try explain.
By the time Harry was done purchasing his kitchen and bathroom, the rain had started to pound and distant rumbles of thunder could be heard. Staring at the sky he supposed it did make the place a touch foreboding, but really, people were afraid of the weather? Pulling his hood up, time for a journey into the darker parts of wizarding Britain, no doubt the back market would be thriving in these conditions.
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Leaving the dank pub over four hours later, information hadn't been too difficult to come across. He hadn't got the blueprints but a map issued to Death Eaters after a raid three years ago, it wouldn't be perfect but Riddle was fussy, the layout would be 90% accurate.
Not to mention he had managed to get the next three weeks' Auror guard rotation, the oath to get into the ministry had flaws, and depended on how you perceived the words. The Death Eaters where gathering info on the ministry, alarming amounts at that, he'd heard several suspect locations of the Order of the Phoenix, and the exact time the Minister of Magic left his house every morning, what body guards were assigned, and what the poor bloke had for lunch, along with a pile of information on the altered flow entry points. Probably how Voldemort would target the ministry, currently considered a 'safe heaven,' it wasn't immune to attacks, it has target written all over it.
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Appearating outside and entering his living room, Harry dumped his trunk on the floor and enlarged it, he had a kitchen and bathroom to fit. His house was reasonably well furnished; he'd managed to acquire all the basics to form a functioning home, all it lacked was the personal touch.
Two hours later and looking round his new home, it was completely unrecognisable to the house he'd crashed in the first day. The kitchen cabinets where made of dark wood, with a black stone work surface and cooker, and his bathroom was sparkling white, nice blue fluffy towels stacked neatly and rugs on the floor. Now he was set up he could begin the proper work, a new fidelius charm needed to be cast around his vegetable plots and what would be his potions garden, needed to set a plan to rescue Sirius and nurse him back to health, and tract down Gavin Kindler. Not to mention start tracking down the horcruxes.
Gavin was a squib, but a genius nonetheless, he'd developed the one way listening orbs which he'd used to monitor noise levels at key point in wizarding Britain. They were small white orbs, easy to conceal and hide, and came in pairs. You placed one at a location and kept the other at 'base', the idea being that an alarm would sound should the noise level rise significantly higher than a set level. When people panic they start to scream, the pair orb would immediately alert anyone in the surrounding area of the problem so it could be checked and people sent to help tackle the Death Eaters.
This proved to be a big help in his dimension, during attacks the flow would become mysteriously out of service, anti-appearation and portkey wards would be set, cutting off people's means of escape and contact. It did have a few flaws, at night the level limit dropped and could be set off more often over nothing, but it was better safe than sorry.
The only really reliable contact method was the patronus charm, but if your fighting dementors and such, you don't send the patronus in the opposite direction. Not to mention if there's no one present that can cast it, or are disarmed or knocked out…it was just an all round easier method to use the orbs.
Lifting the kettle and pouring himself some rich, hot tea, Harry settled in his sofas spreading the Azkaban plans out across the coffee table. With the wizarding wireless playing in the background, sometimes the easiest way to gather information was the most obvious and innocent, listen to the news instead of snooping, it only draws unwanted attention.
Azkaban wasn't all that difficult to break into, with the majority of the dementors gone and only Auror patrols, there wasn't all that much to worry about. Flying would be the most obvious method to use, disillusion yourself and fly in on one of the clearer nights, the wards did prevent this but you could get close enough to drop in, maybe use a parachute or something, muggle inventions were never detected, well, unless they saw him.
At least he knew how to leave, broom again, after the last attack Aurors could also fly out, but not in, this allowed them to chase escapees and Death Eaters, or run. The apparition point was suicide; one of the most highly regulated and monitored ones he'd ever seen.
Rubbing his temples, getting inside required more thought, maybe one of 'old' Fred and Georges inventions could help? Portable swamp to fall into, or distract, landing in it doesn't seem too appealing. Only other problem was avoiding Moody's shift, his eye would see him in a flash.
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Placing a small orb down behind a statue on the bright white building of Gringotts, his invisibility cloak hid him from the few people upon the street below but the Goblins knew he was there. He gave them an oath and a bribe before they let him up the side of the building. The wards shielding the bank were incredibly strong, they could be broken, but stood the least chance of his orbs being found or destroyed.
Harry only had two pairs left, the majority lost as buildings fell in his old dimension; with some luck Gavin would still live in the same place and he could buy some more. He could still find places like Grimmauld Place, so cross-dimensional fidelius secret keeping worked. He wouldn't even be able to remember the address if he wasn't given the secret.
Placing a permanent sticking charm and floating himself back down to the ground; the other orb would be placed within the ministry, he didn't know if he could help, but even raising the alarm would be beneficial to everyone involved.
Harry would just have to rely on the radio to warn him of the immanent Dementor attack; no way was he going to abandon a few hundred thousand people to their fate. How did the ministry expect to hide the wizarding world from muggles with stuff like that happening? They weren't blind; already satellite photographs of Britain were appearing in the muggle newspapers, why announce an explosion killed three thousand people if clearly, there is no evidence of any explosion whatsoever? It wasn't helping with the governments problems either, only forcing inflation up more and losing peoples' trust.
It was one vicious circle.
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Soaked through with rain water and a constant bitter shivering of his muscles, Harry still held onto his broom. Unfortunately, weather at Azkaban was rarely pleasant, or remotely calm. He was beginning to regret even making any attempt to 'stake out' the wizarding prison and get a feel for what he was up against.
All he could see was a grey blob, surrounded by huge black waves crashing violently of the shore. The wind was relentless, zapping what little heat his body held out of him, how did Sirius survive any time here at all? He'd have to come back another day and find a suitable point of entry, he could barely make out anything in this.
Appearating on a broom took time to master, but Harry had got the hang of it after being forced to leave Hogwarts., Wasn't the first time he'd left half the broom behind, and imagined himself arriving standing up, that just did not work. Disappearing with a crack, a long hot bath ad plenty of hot drinks and a pepper up potion were all to inviting.
A/N: Azkaban break-in in next chapter, bit of action at last, and then some focusing on the Horcruxes, they've been kinda neglected in this story so far. X) not to mention finding out some of what happened in the first dimension, and some meeting of 'old friends'