Chapter 10
Note: Thank you to Inachis and Hawklan for looking over this chapter.
(Riddle Manor)
Voldemort looked around as his followers prepared themselves for the strike against Azkaban. Tonight he would see his most devoted followers freed from that wretched prison. To have the likes of Bellatrix and the Lestrange brothers back in his army would swell his confidence, as they had never rejected him to escape being sent to the dark prison like so many others had. All he waited for was his supposed new demon allies. He was still very skeptical about the demon's claim of helping him, but he would use it to achieve his goals all the faster before removing them from being a threat.
"Master, we are ready to assault Azkaban," Lucius reported as he moved to his lord's side.
To the Dark Lord the man still looked half-drunk as he had been for a while since his wife and son had left him. He found it amusing that Narcissa had found the inner strength to run, taking her son and half of the Malfoy fortune with her. Worse for Lucius was the fact that Draco had renounced the Malfoy name, and had instead become a Black, which meant that when Lucius died, the Malfoy name would die with him. While it amused him to see the once arrogant pureblood reduced to an angered drunk, it didn't mean that Narcissa and her son would not pay for their actions. By taking half the Malfoy fortune the bitch had halved the money going into his cause, oh yes she would pay as would her son, he swore.
"Good, but until my new allies arrive we can't go," Voldemort told him as he looked over his followers and nodded, pleased to see they all seemed ready for a fight.
"My Lord, these demons, can we trust them?" Lucius inquired, still unsure what to make of these new allies the Dark Lord had told them about.
"No, we can't, but that doesn't mean we can't use them for our own ends. We can always remove the threat afterwards," Voldemort answered calmly.
Before either of them could speak again Cole and a group of ten demons appeared before them. The Death Eaters pulled their wands, but halted as Voldemort raised his hand to motion for them to stop.
"You are late," Voldemort growled as Cole stepped forward, transforming into his Balthazar form as he did so.
"It took time to pick the demons which would be of the most use in assaulting this prison complex of yours," Balthazar replied with a growl of his own. "I picked the most powerful of my brethren to aide us, be grateful for our aide," he said with finality.
Voldemort only smiled in response, having expected the demon to respond in such a way. He didn't want weak allies. He needed strong, forceful allies and these demons might just be exactly what he wanted. Dumbledore and the Ministry wouldn't know what hit them.
"Good, we leave in five minutes," Voldemort finally responded. "Ensure your friends leave no one alive, I want to send a message to my enemies," he ordered coldly.
"As you wish," Balthazar replied, wishing he could incinerate this Dark Lord for his tone, but he had to wait until he was no longer needed. He had to remember his own plans. Turning to his fellow demons he smirked as each of them had been let in on the plan to kill the Dark Lord and most of his minions once they had killed the Charmed Ones, their cousin and their allies.
+WOM+
(Halliwell Manor, San Francisco)
Harry awoke to find his mother standing over his bed with a troubled look in her eyes. At first he was surprised, but it was quickly replaced by a feeling of contentment. He could imagine her doing such a thing when he was a kid, had he grown up with her and his father, as he should have done.
"What's wrong Mom?" he asked as he wiped the sleep from his eyes.
"The Dark Lord has new allies Harry," Lily told him as she sat on the side of his bed and gently ran a hand through his hair. "It seems your cousins' enemies have made an alliance with the Dark Lord to counter your own team up. Already he plans to assault Azkaban and free his more dangerous followers," she explained. "You need to warn Sirius and the others so they can be prepared. I'm afraid this makes things far more dangerous for you Harry," she admitted as he pulled back.
"Damn it!" Harry cursed as he pushed himself into a sitting position. "Does he know about my new abilities?" he asked.
"No or at least not right now," Lily answered and Harry could tell she was relieved by this. "While we can't watch the mortal world all the time, a friend of mine from the first war was able to see the meeting between Voldemort and this demon who calls himself Balthazar," she told him. "She told me as soon as I got back," she added.
"From where?" Harry asked, confused.
Lily hesitated in answering this, but decided to get it over with. "I oversaw your conversation with your friend Fleur," she admitted with a sigh and couldn't help but notice how Harry went a little red in the face at this.
"Oh," Harry responded, unable to believe this was happening, but again there was the feeling of contentment that this was something she would have done anyway.
"I'm not going to get in the way if you like this girl Harry," Lily told him gently. "I just worry. I think she is interested in you and seems nice, but you must be careful," she advised him. "I know what it is like to be in a teenage romance, but here and now you can't afford to be distracted," she added.
Harry did his best to keep the nerves out of his voice before he responded. "I understand, but Fleur and I are just friends, I don't really know what I feel in that regard," he said as he ran a hand through his hair. "What would I know about romancing someone like Fleur?" he asked, his tone somewhat bitter.
Lily couldn't help but smile at that. "Do you think James really knew how to romance me, Harry?" she asked with an amused look in her eyes, making Harry look at her with some confusion in her eyes. "No one really knows how to romance the person they are falling for, they just do the best they can to form a connection with them and keep making it until they both know in their hearts they love one another," she explained. "I know you've had a horrible life thanks to that idiotic old man's choice to send you to my sister Harry, but you do have the capacity to love," she assured him with a soft smile which he couldn't help but return.
"How can you be so sure?" Harry asked as this had always bothered him. His upbringing had made him very unsure if he could ever have a real relationship with someone.
Lily continued to softly smile at him as she heard the vulnerability in his voice as he spoke. She again cursed Dumbledore for daring to send her son to her wretched sister. "Because we are all born with that vital need Harry, to find someone to love. To share our life with someone because it is written into our DNA," she assured him. "Don't worry about it, if this Fleur is the one you want then it will work itself out and you will find yourself in a relationship whether you are trying or not. She does not look like someone to pull away from a difficult task," Lily told him. "In fact she might thrive in dealing with a relationship that challenges her. Anyone who wants you Harry will have to be able to help you deal with your background," she added.
Harry was somewhat reassured by his mother's words, which gave him a far more optimistic look on the future, well as far as relationships were concerned anyway.
Lily ran her hand through his hair one more time before she got up and placed a small kiss on his forehead. Then she vanished from the room. Harry rubbed his forehead for a minute before he reached over to the mirror on his bed side table and called out for Sirius.
+WOM+
(12 Grimmauld Place, London)
Sirius grunted as someone seemed to shout his name from nearby. Blinking rapidly as he opened his eyes he looked around his darkened room. He suddenly realized the shouts were coming from the communication mirror on his bed side table and reaching over he grabbed it and accepted the call coming through.
"Harry, what's wrong?" he asked in a tone still very weighed down by sleep.
"Sorry for waking you Sirius, but I've just got some bad news," Harry responded with a sigh. "Voldemort has made an alliance with a bunch of demons, probably the same group my cousins are fighting," he explained. "They plan to hit Azkaban soon. You have to warn as many people as you can to be careful should they go to help when it is hit," he warned him. "These demons are like nothing they have fought before," he stated.
"Oh hell," Sirius growled in response as he went on instant alert. "This makes things a lot more troublesome for us all. I'll give the warning, but there is no telling what Dumbledore and the rest of the Order will think of this," he pointed out with a frustrated sigh.
The old man's attitude of late made it hard to predict how he would respond to this. Tonks and Remus would of course take the warning seriously as they had fought the demons that had assaulted them at the Halliwell manor when they first met Prue and her sisters. Dumbledore should by rights be wary of this news. If he recalled his history lessons correctly, Grindelwald had used demons during his time as the Dark Lord. Likewise Moody and a few of the other older members of the Order, who had been alive at that time, would be alerted by the news of demons allying with Voldemort. But even knowing that, could Dumbledore be counted on to really take this threat seriously? Sirius scratched his chin because he really didn't know the answer to this.
"Sirius," Harry said, regaining his attention. "Tell Dumbledore the warning came from me, tell him I expect him to take it seriously or I might not come back to Hogwarts at the beginning of term," he told him with a smile that reminded Sirius of James when he did something really sneaky.
"Are you sure you want me to do that?" Sirius inquired with a raised eyebrow. "It will put a lot of attention on me. How would you have contacted me?" he pointed out.
"Just tell him you received a letter by owl which then destroyed itself after it was read," Harry told him in response. "Ensure you tell it that it was from me, either by saying Hedwig brought it or that the note contained something only I would know," he suggested.
"Yeah, that'll do," Sirius replied as he leaned against his head board and hoped this next discussion with Dumbledore would go better than the last. "Let's hope he's in a listening mood," he said.
"Just make sure you tell him if he doesn't take my warning seriously, he may be responsible for me not coming back," Harry told him. "Now I suggest you either go back to sleep or get to work on alerting the Order because more than likely that attack on Azkaban will come soon," he suggested.
"No, I think I better get the alert out now, you go back to sleep Harry," Sirius told him as he got up. "Thanks for the heads up," he added before he signed off.
After a quick trip to the bathroom he headed out to wake Remus, Tonks, Narcissa and the other two Order members staying at headquarters who happened to be Emmeline Vance and Mad Eye Moody. He decided not to bother with the Weasleys as they would just cause problems about Harry getting in contact and him not doing anything to try and bring him in.
+WOM+
(Azkaban Prison)
The prison was silent as the prisoners slept. The guards on duty either made their rounds or sat in their rooms reading. Usually guard duty on the prison island was boring. The presence of the Dementors made it a very creepy duty, but they put up with it. However, as one of the guards checked the main entrance he was stunned when the doors were blasted off their hinges. Just as he pulled his wand to sound the alarm he felt a burning pain in his back before he collapsed dead to the ground with a hole right through him. Balthazar smirked at the corpse before he turned and headed into the prison, his fellow demons following after him. Behind them Voldemort led his Death Eaters into the prison as well. He smiled, eager to find some guards to kill.
+WOM+
(Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry)
Dumbledore frowned as his floo activated and Sirius appeared, he had warned the man not to use the floo just in case someone managed to trace the call.
"Before you say it Dumbledore, don't," Sirius said, cutting him off from telling him off. "I have a good reason for calling. I just got a letter from Harry," he told him.
Dumbledore instantly went on high alert and moved closer to the fire place. Finally, he had a break. Hopefully the letter was the boy telling them he was coming back. He'd have to punish the boy for leaving the Dursleys, but still it would ease his concern about his plans to have the boy back where he could be watched.
"It was a warning Albus," Sirius reported with a frown showing through the green flames of the floo connection. "Voldemort has somehow allied with demons," he stated.
"Impossible," Dumbledore instantly argued. "We drove the demons off when we defeated Grindelwald, they wouldn't come back," he added confidently. "And how would Harry know what Voldemort is doing?" he inquired.
"He didn't explain that in the note Albus. However, it did state he expects you to take the warning seriously or he'll refuse to come back to Hogwarts when the new term begins," Sirius replied.
"WHAT?" Dumbledore shouted, suddenly very angry. "Is the boy trying to blackmail me?" he demanded to know.
"Albus, what the hell is wrong with you?" Sirius growled in response. "Harry just expects you to take things he says seriously. Clearly he might have a point in not coming back if you won't take such warnings seriously," he stated coldly. "Why he should trust any of us if we don't trust him? His life is supposed to be in our hands, remember?" he added pointedly.
Dumbledore frowned at this and had to fight to keep a grimace off his face as he realized Sirius had a point. Why should Harry trust him or the Order if they did not take such warnings to heart? Letting out a sigh he came to the conclusion he had no choice but to do as Harry wanted. He would put the Order on alert and attempt to warn the Ministry as well, even if they were unlikely to listen to him. Fudge and the majority of the government had stuck their heads in the sands about Voldemort's return.
"Very well. I will do as Harry says and put the Order on alert Sirius," he finally said, even if saying the words made him feel sick. "However, I want him to come back in return," he added.
"The message destroyed itself once I read it and there was no way to reply to it," Sirius explained with a shake of his head. "Hopefully, once he sees how you've responded to his warning, he'll come back on his own," he suggested with a hopeful look.
Before Dumbledore could respond Sirius cut the connection, leaving him staring at a normal looking fire. Frowning, he had to fight to control the anger he felt at both Sirius and Harry. Getting up he went and sat back down at his desk. When the boy finally showed himself Albus would make sure he paid for forcing his hand.
+WOM+
(12 Grimmauld Place, London)
Sirius had to fight to keep a grin of his face as he savored the look on the old man's face as he realized he had to do as Harry wished. Clearly his godson was growing up and taking charge of his life with the help of his cousins and their new friends. Probably the fact he could talk to his parents was helping him too. He glanced back to where Remus, Tonks and Narcissa sat with Emmeline and Moody.
"So what did he say?" Tonks inquired as she sipped the coffee Remus had made for them all.
"He has no choice but to do as Harry said and to put the Order on alert," Sirius responded as he joined them.
"I'd think he would take it seriously anyway, demons are not easy to kill," Moody said, having to suppress a shiver. He had been a young Auror during the last year or so of the war against Grindelwald, but he had seen plenty of demons during that time.
"Yeah well, he didn't at first and when I told him what Harry said, he blew his top," Sirius responded with a shake of his head. "Accused Harry of trying to blackmail him, when I think Harry just wants to know that Dumbledore takes him seriously and will do whatever he can to protect him and everyone else," he stated.
"That doesn't sound like Dumbledore," Emmeline argued with a frown, marring her features. "But then he has been acting odd lately, we all know it," she pointed out.
"Yeah and it has me worried, girl," Moody agreed. "But there isn't much we can do about it unless he puts any of us at risk," he reminded them.
"Do you think it will come to that Alistor?" Remus asked as he finished his own coffee.
"I hope not or we are in some real deep shit," Moody responded darkly and the others couldn't help but agree.
+WOM+
(Azkaban Prison)
Voldemort couldn't help but smile as he tortured the warden of the prison who he had found in his office still fast asleep. The man screamed and begged for mercy, but of course he ignored the cries. Two guards lay dead on the ground from two well-placed killing curses while Lucius and McNair stood guard outside as he focused on the warden. Elsewhere in the prison Balthazar and his fellow demons fought side by side with the Death Eaters as the guards tried to put up a struggle.