"Leave him." Dumbledore commanded to Bill with a slight grin creeping
across his face. Harry couldn't believe his ears. He would have asked
Dumbledore to repeat it just to make sure, if the situation hadn't been one
of terminal danger. "Dumbledore is going to leave me? Why would he do that?
Maybe he doesn't think I'm worth it?" Harry wondered as he risked a glance
down at the ground. "Maybe he is tired of helping me and he can't be
bothered any more." Harry knew that whilst these thought seemed ridiculous
there must be some reasoning behind Dumbledore's words to Bill, and at the
moment he couldn't think of any others. "It will all be over in a few
seconds. I will hit the ground ant that will be the end. After all these
years of battling Voldemort and I'm going to die from falling off a broom?
That sucks." Harry thought, maybe his last thought. "Hold On Bill."
Dumbledore said cautiously in his magically loud voice. "What does he
mean?" Harry wondered, but soon found out. Bill looked at Dumbledore and
then Down at Harry. He looked blank for a few seconds before his eyes
widened in realisation. He clutched tightly onto the broom. Not a second
later Harry suddenly felt himself slowing down. He glanced suspiciously up
at the adults and realised that no one had cast any sort of levitating
spell. Suddenly he felt a yank at his wrist before his descent slowed to a
stop. Harry was left dangling in the air, supported by nothing. But then he
realised, he was being supported. The magical charm that tied Harry and
Bill together. It really did act like a big piece of elastic. As with all
people who had faced death and lived to tell the tale, he didn't know
whether to start laughing or crying. Harry looked up at Bill who was still
on his broom but was now hanging upside down with having the force of Harry
hanging on his arm. Harry was left blowing in the wind and the rain, which
he seemed to have forgotten until just now. "Er could you help me up a
little?" Harry asked as his wrist began to protest. Remus and Kingsley both
flew to Bills aid and gradually they helped Bill raise his broom up. There
was something just slightly disturbing about hanging over jagged deathly
rocks by an invisible string. If Harry had to choose one thing he would say
it was the death part that bothered him. It didn't look like they were to
bothered about helping Harry up out of mid air. Instead they just flew on
with Harry dangling underneath like a piece of toilet roll stuck to the
bottom of your foot. All the time Harry's wrist was throbbing painfully.
"God I need to go on a diet." He thought to himself as he decided he
couldn't put up with much more of this. Thankfully he wouldn't have to as
he could see they were nearing the edge if the cliff. "Could you go up a
bit?" Harry asked nicely as he realised he was on a collision course with a
solid wall of rocks. Also to Harry's surprise he realised they were flying
much faster than he thought. If he had to guess he would say it was about
twenty miles an hour. He remembered when Dudley rode into him on his bike
which had been going at about that speed. Dudley was a solid wall of fat
and that hurt enough so Harry grimaced to think how much this would hurt.
As he neared the edge of the rocks however he felt himself rising, being dragged up by the people above him. "Where are we landing?" Harry asked slightly concerned. At the current moment the answer was going to be on the face of a cliff. "On the roof." He heard Dumbledore shout in a loud whisper. Harry took his hint that now they were close he had to be quiet. Harry tried to pull himself up on the invisible elastic rope into a more comfortable position, but as people tend to find in such situations their arms have a distinctly different intention than their minds. After a few moments of intense struggling Harry gave up, and looked down again to find that he had just flown over the rocks and his feet where now a few feet above the crumbly rock where patchy grass had managed to find life. "Probably about the only real life here." Harry thought to himself as the cold atmosphere cast a dark cloud upon them. Still they continued to rise. As Harry glanced over the fortress, or perhaps a citadel would be a more fitting name, he would have estimated it to be about two hundred feet high. If Harry tried to imagine it then he would have expected something quiet similar. It did however differ in a few ways. Rather than having spiky towers in each corner the whole place was scattered with round dome looking rooms. Each probably measuring between three and eight meters across. As Harry looked up he could just about make out the figures flying above him. It was easier to spot them by their shadows which glided soundlessly over the stone structures like a pack of Leithfolds. Harry watched as they flew on, towards the tower with the light on inside. "I' going to hit that if they aren't careful." Harry thought as the stone mass drew ever closer. He desperately hoped that whoever was in that room wouldn't look out, because if they did they would see him. Then Harry realised that he had on his invisibility cloak. "Well at least they won't see me." Harry thought as his attention was drawn away from the imminent acquaintance he was about to make with the wall. The first thing Harry noticed was a sort of tingling in his arm, shortly followed by what could best be described as excruciating pain, as Harry found himself suddenly flung against the wall. There was a dull thud on the cold surface as his body slapped into it like a sock full of custard. Harry looked to his side where the window was just a few feet away. The light was on and he could hear noises coming from inside. "Hey Pete, did you hear something?" He heard a male voice from inside. Harry held his breath as he heard a chair scrape and then footsteps. A medium sized man appeared by the window, who looked around and actually looked right through Harry for a moment. Just when Harry felt he could hold his breath no longer the man stuck his head back in. Harry relaxed and glanced up at the barely visible Order members he were hovering anxiously above them and out of sight of the window. "I don't know Bob. It must have been a cat or something." he heard a second voice say as he resumed something probably involving cards and biscuits.
Harry was tempted to pear round the window to see what the guards were doing, but found himself unable to as suddenly the magical bind pulled tight on his arm and he found himself pulled up the rounded wall and dragged along the roof. Harry probably would have complained but with the way things had been going today he decided that it would probably be best to save it until later, when undoubtedly more unfortunate events would have transpired. Harry, after a bumpy ride found himself on the highest looking flat surface there was with the other Order members. "Oh Harry. I'm glad your fine." Said Remus as he dismounted his broom. "For a minute I thought we might have been flying to low and you would be bumping into walls all over the place." He said with a bemused chuckle. Harry however, having experienced it first hand wasn't inclined to agree that it was funny. "Yeah heaven forbid if that happened." Harry said sarcastically, as would anyone who finds themselves in a lot of pain and in very cold rain. "Well now we shall be proceeding inside." Dumbledore said in a barely audible whisper as he glided across the stony roofs as silent as the night itself. Harry wasn't exactly how they were going to get from the roof to inside but he expected it wouldn't contain a large door leading to a pleasantly warming room with towels for wet visitors. Everyone followed after him. Trudging half asleep with the only sound splitting the otherwise deathly silence being the rain and the squelching from their wet shoes. They finally reached the edge of the roof, where they all lined up, anxiously awaiting the next instruction that would no doubt enlighten them as to how they would break in. "We shall be entering down their." Dumbledore said in a thoughtful tone, as if he had put a lot of consideration of this statement. Everyone leaned forward a few inches as they stared down into the black emptiness that was caused by four walls surrounding a square area and blocking out any light that may have been interested in wondering in the general direction. The whole area was as dark as could sensibly be considered, without using some sort of special anti light device. It was impossible to tell what was down there but Harry decided it wasn't likely to be an enormous entrance with a "welcome" doormat. He found his answers however, when a bolt of lightning ripped through the sky and illuminated the scene around them. Harry was quite thankful that this wasn't one of those times when a large monster would choose to be lurking near by. The same sort of monster that is only ever illuminated by lightning, and only for long enough so that you have time to notice its extraordinarily large teeth and its eyes staring at you. The same sort of monster that will make sure you never notice it again afterwards. This bolt of lightning however, revealed no such thing, and could therefore be considered a friendly bolt of lightning. In the fraction of a second that Harry's eyes managed to capture the sight below him he noticed only a few things. He noticed that there were a few small buildings located in one side of the court and a very dark door, perhaps even a door of death. The last and possibly most important thing was that there appeared to be a general spiky theme running throughout the area, as not a bare inch of wall or rooftop seemed to be left unguarded and un-pointed.
"So are we going through that door?" asked miss Weasley in a hopeful tone. Dumbledore remained silent for a moment before replying. "We could go that way, but if we do then we won't be coming back out the same way, or anyway for that matter." Harry felt that this would be an appropriate time to let out a gulping sound. So he did. It fell nicely into place with Arthur Weasley's comment of "Oh my." Snape gave the whole thing a thoroughly disapproving look that suggested he simply wouldn't contribute with such silly things. "Yup that whole bit is more charming than me!" said Tonks with a silly grin and a small laugh. "It is set as a trap for anyone that may be wanting to find away in. Very dangerous it is to. You would be better off trying to tunnel your way in, through fifty meters of solid rock under water that is!" said Moody in a way that suggested he was going to add the word "Ha" as he said it in a "I showed you tone" Harry stood wondering while Dumbledore turned and looked at him. "Can you guess Harry? What is it that always gets into Azkaban unnoticed?" Dumbledore asked him in a suggestive tone that involved eyebrow movement. "No I can't think of anything. Unless you mean the guards?" Harry asked hopefully. Maybe they were going to dress up as guards and sneak in. after all no one stopped and checked the guards did they? "No Harry. Whilst that is a good idea I do not believe it would succeed. Maybe if it were just one or two of us it could, but the truth is anyone would spot you or Alastor off a mile away. Think Harry what is there that is all around us?" Dumbledore said whilst continuingly staring at Harry with eyes that said he was going to understand the answer before anyone else, or be the first to say it at least. "The rain?" Harry asked in a completely clueless tone. "Yes that's right!" the headmaster replied in a triumphant expression. If the rain can manage it then so can we A key with prisons and situations of the sort is to look for something that has made its way in. if something can get in then it shows you can get out." Remember that Harry, it may be useful later in life." "so how will the rain help?" asked Bill who looked very confused over the whole idea of rain serving any practical purpose. "Well Harry it will show us the way." Said Dumbledore in a slow deliberate tone as he raised a long finger and once again pointed down into the dark courtyard below them. Harry strained his eyes as he tried to make out anything other than the rooftops of the two small building below him. Another welcome bolt of lightning flashed through the air, as if coming on Harry's demand, and revealing a small metal grid on the floor. He saw the rain that was pounding down on the roof was running off and onto the stone floor where it formed a stream. That stream of rain was running down into the metal drain.
"We shall be travelling through the drain." Dumbledore said as he confirmed Harry's suspicion. "It is very wet but relatively safe." He said as everyone exchanged glances. "Relatively?" asked Arthur Weasley on behalf of everyone else. "Well it is a prison. Of course it is dangerous." Moody said in his ruff growling voice. "What do you expect? To just stroll in there and have the guards greet you with tea and muffins?" he finished with a laugh that echoed through the cold night sky. "Hat hat hat hat hat hat!" "Yes thank you Alastor." Said Dumbledore in his commanding tone that said the level of noise was too high. "This is a thin drain only wide enough for one person at a time. Therefore we shall be going one after another in order. The drain will slope down at a progressing angle until it reaches the main water duct at the bottom of the fortress. The water is very cold and so we will only have about eight minutes before your bodies freeze to death. Therefore Harry, I want you to be the last down the duct, due to the fact that you are the most important to us." He said as he rested his hand on Harry's shoulder in a fatherly way. "Is it really that cold?" Harry asked as he started worrying about all the various things that could go wrong. "What if I get stuck and they wait for me until they all freeze to death?" Harry wondered. "Don't worry Harry we will be fine." Remus said as if reading his mind. "Well the drain is fairly simple. You must go straight forwards, ignoring all other turnings that in on from the sides. However!" Dumbledore said very clearly so there was absolutely no way he could be misunderstood, Not even by Neville who got things so wrong he once magically glued his head to his bed. "Just out of curiosity, how do you know all these things professor? All the stuff like the turnings and the eight-minute water thing?" Harry asked suspiciously. He had a feeling this wasn't the sort of information you would pick up in "Azkaban: A history," if there was such a thing. "Well Harry. The fact that you are likely to die after eight minutes, I know from past experience." An eerie silence followed this statement as everyone contemplated exactly what this meant. "Not all missions were as successful as we hope this one shall be." He said in a dull whisper. "Harry resisted the urge to ask what past experiences there may be ands instead decided to break the silence by saying. "Lets get going then shall we?" As if by Harry saying this in the way that he did, apparently the whole prospect seemed to become a lot more liked as everyone started saying things like "Oh yes of course." And "Oh yes I can't wait."
"So how do we get down then?" Bill asked as he peered over the edge of the rooftop at the courtyard where the drain was located some one hundred feet below. "Well I believe the best way would be to levitate down. Unless anyone has any better suggestions?" Dumbledore said as he glanced at each of tem individually. "Levitating is good. It will be silent." Kingsley said in a monotone as he stood with his arms crossed. "Ok then Molly, Arthur if you would care to go first." Said Dumbledore as he rolled up his sleeve and pointed his wand at them. He held it carefully between two fingers before he gave it a quick flick and the Weasley parents rose off the roof. After about twenty seconds they were safely on the ground and looking up at the others. "Harry would you like to be next?" Dumbledore asked politely. "Yeah ok then." Said Harry unsurely. Flying on a boom was one thing because with that you knew what to hold onto, where as this was completely different. Having nothing reliable and solid enough to stand on left Harry waving his legs in the air as he made a desperate dash back for the roof in the same way a cartoon character would try and run towards a cliff some several seconds after being suspended in mid air by their own stupidity and the fact the laws of gravity forgot that things were meant to fall. "Please hold still Harry." Dumbledore commanded with a look of concentration on his face. Harry finally gave up any movement and just closed his eyes whilst clutching onto the hem of his robes very tightly. The last thing Harry wanted in a situation was for a gust of wind to blow up and for him to loose his soaking robe that was apparently providing him with some sort of warmth. After what seemed like much to long in Harry's mind, he felt his feet touch down on the solid ground below him. It felt strange. Harry having been wobbling in the air had managed to get a lot of his blood to have a party in his feet, leaving him slightly pale and dizzy. As his feet touched down the first thing that struck him was just how solid it was. This wasn't just solid stone. This was super solid. It was the kind of solid that all sane objects wanted to be but could only ever dream of. It made all those other things like metal and wood that he had once considered solid to feel like they had been diluted with jelly and were only half sure of just how solid they were meant to be. This stone wasn't any different from normal stone, except perhaps colder and wetter, but to Harry he was glad to be back down on the ground. Once he was sure that his legs could support himself he took his wait off of the high wall that he had been leaning on and looked up at the sky. He couldn't see anything of the other members through work of the camouflaging charm and the rainy night as they stood high above him. As a bolt of lightning struck, it gave only just the chance for everything to once again show its real non black colours and for the shadows of the eight people above him to cast menacing glares across the stone floor.
Over the next two minutes the other members were levitated down beside Harry. He watched in interest as the various members all reacted in various ways. There was Arthur Weasley who looked rather like a wobbly jelly, then Tonks who spread her arms and flapped them occasionally like a bird, and then to the likes of Snape. He stood completely straight, probably straight enough to get a decent place in the straight standing Olympics. Finally Dumbledore drifted down through the night sky. Once they were assembled on the ground, round the drain Dumbledore spoke. "Furns." He said as an orange glow sprang from the end of his wand like a circular pyramid. It wasn't amazingly bright but given the fact that for the last half an hour they had been in near total darkness it burned there eyes for a few moments. Once Harry had finally got used to the light he watched in fascination as the orange light washed over the metal bars of the drain, until eventually they took on an orange colour, and then dripped down into the dark tunnel below. Everyone stood round closely as they warmed up a little from the heat. Harry could feel his trousers shrinking slightly as clothes do when washed incorrectly. He looked down at his soggy school shoes, which now had steam coming off them as they warmed his feet like a hot water bottle or an old dog that sneaks into the end of the bed as soon as you fall asleep. "We could do with some marshmallows." Tonks said as she giggled at the thought. She and a few other of the members were warming their hands over the liquid hot bars. Harry wasn't, and to tell the truth didn't see why they bothered. Being cold was bad, but when your hands are so cold you cant feel them then the coldness doesn't really seem to matter. Harry turned his attention to Remus who was no fumbling in his jacket pocket. After several attempts in which he produced a random assortment of tatty looking objects he pulled out a bag of marshmallows. Or at least Harry assumed they were meant to be. Now all that was left in that plastic bag was something only very slightly white, and looked as if it wasn't even entirely sure of what exactly it was supposed to be. "Here you go" Remus said as he handed the bag to Tonks. She looked at it for a few minutes before deciding the best way to avoid eating these diseased marshmallows (marshmallows so diseased they were probably, terminal marshmallows!) was to say "I will save them for later." The conversation was cut short when the light and warmth from around there feet disappeared and the rain seemed to return in full effect. "I believe that will suffice." Said Dumbledore as he gestured towards the now large melted hole. The corners had been bent down so that it was nice and safe, or at least as safe as can be when it is in the same sentence as words like "Azkaban" and "secret entrance." It measured about two and a half foot across and could probably just about accommodate for someone of miss Weasley's size. She must have been thinking the same thing because she was eyeing up the gap very suspiciously, as if it was personally challenging her to try and squeeze through.
Dumbledore crouched down by the whole and peered down into the empty darkness. He rummaged in his pocket for a moment before producing something small and rock like. Most probably a rock. He dropped it into the whole for a second. There were three distinct sounds, all of which Harry didn't particularly like. As they pulled their cloaks over their heads and shielded their ears from the rain the first thing they heard was a thud. It sounded like it came from about fifty foot below. The next noise that followed was the sound of the object bouncing from the sides of the dark drain. The last, and possibly most eerie sound, was nothing. Everyone stood listening intently for a sound that would signal everything was safe. After a long pause in which everyone anxiously awaited some sort of dull "thud" or maybe even a "plop" as the rock reached the end of its journey. "What are we waiting.." Harry asked after a long silence. He was cut off by Dumbledore who gave a brief "Shhh" sound and raised a finger to his side, signalling that no one was to talk until he said so. Harry watched the headmaster curiously as he was apparently counting something in his head, with his lips moving very slightly. After about another five seconds he stood up and turned to address everyone. "Well now that we know the root is safe we can go." Everyone exchanged glances. Apparently after hearing the stone bounce around down there they had every reason to believe their bodies would do something rather similar. "Kingsley and I will be first if you don't mind. It's a safety thing you see. Who knows what unnameable creatures are down there." Moody said as he hobbled over the short distance between him and the drain. "SHARKS and what nots!" He barked. "Can't have Potter endangered now. Couldn't live with myself." He started muttering. "CONSTANT VIGILANCE!" Moody shouted, making everyone jump slightly, including Kingsley, who with a little bit of a push from Moody had apparently jumped over the drain, and was now displaying the look of a knight who comes along and says "Never fear, I shall rid your kingdom of the dragon." In a heroic manner, whilst secretly knowing the kind would say. "Oh you don't need to worry about that. The dragon has migrated south for the winter. Here marry my daughter anyway." But then to the knight's horror, instead the king replies "Well you bloody well better. He is killing everyone in sight, and even those not in sight!" Basically Kingsley displayed the only to common face that said he wanted to be anywhere other than over a big pit of death (or at least one deep enough to contain an ill tempered elephant and a pointy stick). Harry watched as Kingsley disappeared into the hole, shortly followed by Moody who hoped in after a quick salute. After about twenty seconds Dumbledore instructed for Tonks and Snape to go. "Ooh it will be just like the slide at granny's house when I was little." She said excitedly as she bounced over the deep darkness. Harry wasn't sure what "Granny's slide" was but his mind flashed of images involving an old woman terrorising small children with her slide of doom and then chuckling manically. All the while Tonks, who in Harry's imagination acted just as childish as she did in real life, was jumping up and down in frenzies of excitement shouting in delight.
"Come here Harry" Said Dumbledore as Snape climbed down in drain in the most dignified manner he could muster. "Harry I just need to remove the binding spell from you and Bill whilst you go down the drain. I will put it back up once we are safely inside. It is just that should I not remove it then you would find yourself inclined to follow him down head first, which I must say would be a very dangerous thing." Harry didn't object and Dumbledore removed the spell with a simple flick of his wand. He gave his arm an experimental swing to check everything was working fine. It was. After about a minute in which they various members had slid down just Dumbledore Harry and miss Weasley remained on the roof. "You next molly." Dumbledore instructed as he gestured towards the hole. Miss Weasley glanced down as if doing a quick evaluation of her circumference. She gave Dumbledore a quick look as if saying perhaps he had forgotten to make the hole in the drain a little larger. "No it is fine." He said with a trace of impatience in his voice. Without another word she sat down on the wet floor and swing her legs into the drain, which was a feet in itself. She then pushed her self over the edge of the whole. Harry watched as she disappeared into the whole with the outer boundaries of her stomach following a few seconds later. "Now Harry I want you to follow after me about twenty seconds after me. It will be very cold down there and a fear a wait any longer could have terminal consequences. Suddenly there was a splash could be heard from what sounded like the very bowls of the earth itself, but was in fact only a few hundred meters lower than they were. It must have been a tidal wave if it could be heard all the way from up hear. This worried Harry at the thought of having a large drop into water. Harry had vague memories of Dudley watching a program about bad divers. People who jumped and landed on there stomach with dire consequences. "Still if the others can make it, so can I. I think." he thought as he braced himself. In one fluid movement Dumbledore had swung himself through the drain in a second as silent as space itself. Harry quickly started counting in his head what he imagined twenty seconds to be. The problem is that time doesn't always flow smoothly as many people believe. It actually moves in large dollops and oozes like a lumpy custard. This was one of those times where time slowly oozed itself along and whilst Harry only counted to ten seconds it felt like he had been standing on his own for about a year. He decided that perhaps he had been counting to slowly and in the end jumped in as he was. He kept his arms and legs tightly tucked together incase he would hit anything on the way down.
It was a strange feeling whizzing along as his body accelerated down the wet tunnel. It would probably be described as a water slide, except Harry having never experienced on before didn't know this. After a few moments he dared to open his eyes, just a little, after all there was no knowing what manner of unpleasant things he might see. Spikes, pointy things, long sharp poles. Jagged metal sticking down from the ceiling all ready to investigate the inner Harry. Luckily he saw none of this. What he did see was what can only be described as a lot of darkness. This was extremely dark. Like no darkness he had ever seen before. This wasn't like when you woke up in the middle of night and it would take a few seconds for your eyes to adjust. This was the darkness that if you found yourself in, it would take a few thousand years before you could make out the fact you are incredibly old. This wasn't black. If there was something black in here it would jump out at you like a glowing light bulb. Harry wasn't at all relieved to see this. For some reason whilst he had known there wouldn't be pleasant candles he had imagined the whole thing to be different. It was rather disturbing. At least when you saw yourself hurtling towards something pointy you knew what to expect. Here it was a whole new game. Whoever had constructed this tunnel had built it with the sole intention of making it dark. The walls were black and the turnings were black. The bricks were black and the ceiling was black. The floor? Well put it this way, it wasn't white.
As Harry hurtled down the drain he could hear a constant humming noise coming from his trousers. As he tried to pinpoint exactly what the cause could be it came to him that it was likely caused by the friction. When something rubs against material it will make a brushing sound. If this is speeded up the brushing changes to a "shwip" sound. Now as it gets faster still, two things happen. The first is the "shwip" sound becomes a constant hum and the second is your trousers start smoking. Now not many people have gone past this stage. Well not many that had lived anyway. But the few that have, would know exactly what Harry was experiencing. First of all the trousers in question attempt to remove themselves from the unfortunate person wearing them. The second thing is the rather pleasant humming sound elevates to the level where it can subconsciously speak into your mind. Generally, the first things it says is the phrase "Yikes my bum is on fire." The point being that Harry was moving very fast. A little faster than was considered enjoyable, and most certainly much faster than leisurely. But still not quiet as fast as Dudley eating. To Harry's luck fate intervened when suddenly he plunged out of the darkness into some cold water that was, whilst not light. The kind of darkness that you can manage with. Instantly his piping hot trousers fizzed with a satisfying sound that again spoke to his mind, this time saying "thanks guv."
As he neared the edge of the rocks however he felt himself rising, being dragged up by the people above him. "Where are we landing?" Harry asked slightly concerned. At the current moment the answer was going to be on the face of a cliff. "On the roof." He heard Dumbledore shout in a loud whisper. Harry took his hint that now they were close he had to be quiet. Harry tried to pull himself up on the invisible elastic rope into a more comfortable position, but as people tend to find in such situations their arms have a distinctly different intention than their minds. After a few moments of intense struggling Harry gave up, and looked down again to find that he had just flown over the rocks and his feet where now a few feet above the crumbly rock where patchy grass had managed to find life. "Probably about the only real life here." Harry thought to himself as the cold atmosphere cast a dark cloud upon them. Still they continued to rise. As Harry glanced over the fortress, or perhaps a citadel would be a more fitting name, he would have estimated it to be about two hundred feet high. If Harry tried to imagine it then he would have expected something quiet similar. It did however differ in a few ways. Rather than having spiky towers in each corner the whole place was scattered with round dome looking rooms. Each probably measuring between three and eight meters across. As Harry looked up he could just about make out the figures flying above him. It was easier to spot them by their shadows which glided soundlessly over the stone structures like a pack of Leithfolds. Harry watched as they flew on, towards the tower with the light on inside. "I' going to hit that if they aren't careful." Harry thought as the stone mass drew ever closer. He desperately hoped that whoever was in that room wouldn't look out, because if they did they would see him. Then Harry realised that he had on his invisibility cloak. "Well at least they won't see me." Harry thought as his attention was drawn away from the imminent acquaintance he was about to make with the wall. The first thing Harry noticed was a sort of tingling in his arm, shortly followed by what could best be described as excruciating pain, as Harry found himself suddenly flung against the wall. There was a dull thud on the cold surface as his body slapped into it like a sock full of custard. Harry looked to his side where the window was just a few feet away. The light was on and he could hear noises coming from inside. "Hey Pete, did you hear something?" He heard a male voice from inside. Harry held his breath as he heard a chair scrape and then footsteps. A medium sized man appeared by the window, who looked around and actually looked right through Harry for a moment. Just when Harry felt he could hold his breath no longer the man stuck his head back in. Harry relaxed and glanced up at the barely visible Order members he were hovering anxiously above them and out of sight of the window. "I don't know Bob. It must have been a cat or something." he heard a second voice say as he resumed something probably involving cards and biscuits.
Harry was tempted to pear round the window to see what the guards were doing, but found himself unable to as suddenly the magical bind pulled tight on his arm and he found himself pulled up the rounded wall and dragged along the roof. Harry probably would have complained but with the way things had been going today he decided that it would probably be best to save it until later, when undoubtedly more unfortunate events would have transpired. Harry, after a bumpy ride found himself on the highest looking flat surface there was with the other Order members. "Oh Harry. I'm glad your fine." Said Remus as he dismounted his broom. "For a minute I thought we might have been flying to low and you would be bumping into walls all over the place." He said with a bemused chuckle. Harry however, having experienced it first hand wasn't inclined to agree that it was funny. "Yeah heaven forbid if that happened." Harry said sarcastically, as would anyone who finds themselves in a lot of pain and in very cold rain. "Well now we shall be proceeding inside." Dumbledore said in a barely audible whisper as he glided across the stony roofs as silent as the night itself. Harry wasn't exactly how they were going to get from the roof to inside but he expected it wouldn't contain a large door leading to a pleasantly warming room with towels for wet visitors. Everyone followed after him. Trudging half asleep with the only sound splitting the otherwise deathly silence being the rain and the squelching from their wet shoes. They finally reached the edge of the roof, where they all lined up, anxiously awaiting the next instruction that would no doubt enlighten them as to how they would break in. "We shall be entering down their." Dumbledore said in a thoughtful tone, as if he had put a lot of consideration of this statement. Everyone leaned forward a few inches as they stared down into the black emptiness that was caused by four walls surrounding a square area and blocking out any light that may have been interested in wondering in the general direction. The whole area was as dark as could sensibly be considered, without using some sort of special anti light device. It was impossible to tell what was down there but Harry decided it wasn't likely to be an enormous entrance with a "welcome" doormat. He found his answers however, when a bolt of lightning ripped through the sky and illuminated the scene around them. Harry was quite thankful that this wasn't one of those times when a large monster would choose to be lurking near by. The same sort of monster that is only ever illuminated by lightning, and only for long enough so that you have time to notice its extraordinarily large teeth and its eyes staring at you. The same sort of monster that will make sure you never notice it again afterwards. This bolt of lightning however, revealed no such thing, and could therefore be considered a friendly bolt of lightning. In the fraction of a second that Harry's eyes managed to capture the sight below him he noticed only a few things. He noticed that there were a few small buildings located in one side of the court and a very dark door, perhaps even a door of death. The last and possibly most important thing was that there appeared to be a general spiky theme running throughout the area, as not a bare inch of wall or rooftop seemed to be left unguarded and un-pointed.
"So are we going through that door?" asked miss Weasley in a hopeful tone. Dumbledore remained silent for a moment before replying. "We could go that way, but if we do then we won't be coming back out the same way, or anyway for that matter." Harry felt that this would be an appropriate time to let out a gulping sound. So he did. It fell nicely into place with Arthur Weasley's comment of "Oh my." Snape gave the whole thing a thoroughly disapproving look that suggested he simply wouldn't contribute with such silly things. "Yup that whole bit is more charming than me!" said Tonks with a silly grin and a small laugh. "It is set as a trap for anyone that may be wanting to find away in. Very dangerous it is to. You would be better off trying to tunnel your way in, through fifty meters of solid rock under water that is!" said Moody in a way that suggested he was going to add the word "Ha" as he said it in a "I showed you tone" Harry stood wondering while Dumbledore turned and looked at him. "Can you guess Harry? What is it that always gets into Azkaban unnoticed?" Dumbledore asked him in a suggestive tone that involved eyebrow movement. "No I can't think of anything. Unless you mean the guards?" Harry asked hopefully. Maybe they were going to dress up as guards and sneak in. after all no one stopped and checked the guards did they? "No Harry. Whilst that is a good idea I do not believe it would succeed. Maybe if it were just one or two of us it could, but the truth is anyone would spot you or Alastor off a mile away. Think Harry what is there that is all around us?" Dumbledore said whilst continuingly staring at Harry with eyes that said he was going to understand the answer before anyone else, or be the first to say it at least. "The rain?" Harry asked in a completely clueless tone. "Yes that's right!" the headmaster replied in a triumphant expression. If the rain can manage it then so can we A key with prisons and situations of the sort is to look for something that has made its way in. if something can get in then it shows you can get out." Remember that Harry, it may be useful later in life." "so how will the rain help?" asked Bill who looked very confused over the whole idea of rain serving any practical purpose. "Well Harry it will show us the way." Said Dumbledore in a slow deliberate tone as he raised a long finger and once again pointed down into the dark courtyard below them. Harry strained his eyes as he tried to make out anything other than the rooftops of the two small building below him. Another welcome bolt of lightning flashed through the air, as if coming on Harry's demand, and revealing a small metal grid on the floor. He saw the rain that was pounding down on the roof was running off and onto the stone floor where it formed a stream. That stream of rain was running down into the metal drain.
"We shall be travelling through the drain." Dumbledore said as he confirmed Harry's suspicion. "It is very wet but relatively safe." He said as everyone exchanged glances. "Relatively?" asked Arthur Weasley on behalf of everyone else. "Well it is a prison. Of course it is dangerous." Moody said in his ruff growling voice. "What do you expect? To just stroll in there and have the guards greet you with tea and muffins?" he finished with a laugh that echoed through the cold night sky. "Hat hat hat hat hat hat!" "Yes thank you Alastor." Said Dumbledore in his commanding tone that said the level of noise was too high. "This is a thin drain only wide enough for one person at a time. Therefore we shall be going one after another in order. The drain will slope down at a progressing angle until it reaches the main water duct at the bottom of the fortress. The water is very cold and so we will only have about eight minutes before your bodies freeze to death. Therefore Harry, I want you to be the last down the duct, due to the fact that you are the most important to us." He said as he rested his hand on Harry's shoulder in a fatherly way. "Is it really that cold?" Harry asked as he started worrying about all the various things that could go wrong. "What if I get stuck and they wait for me until they all freeze to death?" Harry wondered. "Don't worry Harry we will be fine." Remus said as if reading his mind. "Well the drain is fairly simple. You must go straight forwards, ignoring all other turnings that in on from the sides. However!" Dumbledore said very clearly so there was absolutely no way he could be misunderstood, Not even by Neville who got things so wrong he once magically glued his head to his bed. "Just out of curiosity, how do you know all these things professor? All the stuff like the turnings and the eight-minute water thing?" Harry asked suspiciously. He had a feeling this wasn't the sort of information you would pick up in "Azkaban: A history," if there was such a thing. "Well Harry. The fact that you are likely to die after eight minutes, I know from past experience." An eerie silence followed this statement as everyone contemplated exactly what this meant. "Not all missions were as successful as we hope this one shall be." He said in a dull whisper. "Harry resisted the urge to ask what past experiences there may be ands instead decided to break the silence by saying. "Lets get going then shall we?" As if by Harry saying this in the way that he did, apparently the whole prospect seemed to become a lot more liked as everyone started saying things like "Oh yes of course." And "Oh yes I can't wait."
"So how do we get down then?" Bill asked as he peered over the edge of the rooftop at the courtyard where the drain was located some one hundred feet below. "Well I believe the best way would be to levitate down. Unless anyone has any better suggestions?" Dumbledore said as he glanced at each of tem individually. "Levitating is good. It will be silent." Kingsley said in a monotone as he stood with his arms crossed. "Ok then Molly, Arthur if you would care to go first." Said Dumbledore as he rolled up his sleeve and pointed his wand at them. He held it carefully between two fingers before he gave it a quick flick and the Weasley parents rose off the roof. After about twenty seconds they were safely on the ground and looking up at the others. "Harry would you like to be next?" Dumbledore asked politely. "Yeah ok then." Said Harry unsurely. Flying on a boom was one thing because with that you knew what to hold onto, where as this was completely different. Having nothing reliable and solid enough to stand on left Harry waving his legs in the air as he made a desperate dash back for the roof in the same way a cartoon character would try and run towards a cliff some several seconds after being suspended in mid air by their own stupidity and the fact the laws of gravity forgot that things were meant to fall. "Please hold still Harry." Dumbledore commanded with a look of concentration on his face. Harry finally gave up any movement and just closed his eyes whilst clutching onto the hem of his robes very tightly. The last thing Harry wanted in a situation was for a gust of wind to blow up and for him to loose his soaking robe that was apparently providing him with some sort of warmth. After what seemed like much to long in Harry's mind, he felt his feet touch down on the solid ground below him. It felt strange. Harry having been wobbling in the air had managed to get a lot of his blood to have a party in his feet, leaving him slightly pale and dizzy. As his feet touched down the first thing that struck him was just how solid it was. This wasn't just solid stone. This was super solid. It was the kind of solid that all sane objects wanted to be but could only ever dream of. It made all those other things like metal and wood that he had once considered solid to feel like they had been diluted with jelly and were only half sure of just how solid they were meant to be. This stone wasn't any different from normal stone, except perhaps colder and wetter, but to Harry he was glad to be back down on the ground. Once he was sure that his legs could support himself he took his wait off of the high wall that he had been leaning on and looked up at the sky. He couldn't see anything of the other members through work of the camouflaging charm and the rainy night as they stood high above him. As a bolt of lightning struck, it gave only just the chance for everything to once again show its real non black colours and for the shadows of the eight people above him to cast menacing glares across the stone floor.
Over the next two minutes the other members were levitated down beside Harry. He watched in interest as the various members all reacted in various ways. There was Arthur Weasley who looked rather like a wobbly jelly, then Tonks who spread her arms and flapped them occasionally like a bird, and then to the likes of Snape. He stood completely straight, probably straight enough to get a decent place in the straight standing Olympics. Finally Dumbledore drifted down through the night sky. Once they were assembled on the ground, round the drain Dumbledore spoke. "Furns." He said as an orange glow sprang from the end of his wand like a circular pyramid. It wasn't amazingly bright but given the fact that for the last half an hour they had been in near total darkness it burned there eyes for a few moments. Once Harry had finally got used to the light he watched in fascination as the orange light washed over the metal bars of the drain, until eventually they took on an orange colour, and then dripped down into the dark tunnel below. Everyone stood round closely as they warmed up a little from the heat. Harry could feel his trousers shrinking slightly as clothes do when washed incorrectly. He looked down at his soggy school shoes, which now had steam coming off them as they warmed his feet like a hot water bottle or an old dog that sneaks into the end of the bed as soon as you fall asleep. "We could do with some marshmallows." Tonks said as she giggled at the thought. She and a few other of the members were warming their hands over the liquid hot bars. Harry wasn't, and to tell the truth didn't see why they bothered. Being cold was bad, but when your hands are so cold you cant feel them then the coldness doesn't really seem to matter. Harry turned his attention to Remus who was no fumbling in his jacket pocket. After several attempts in which he produced a random assortment of tatty looking objects he pulled out a bag of marshmallows. Or at least Harry assumed they were meant to be. Now all that was left in that plastic bag was something only very slightly white, and looked as if it wasn't even entirely sure of what exactly it was supposed to be. "Here you go" Remus said as he handed the bag to Tonks. She looked at it for a few minutes before deciding the best way to avoid eating these diseased marshmallows (marshmallows so diseased they were probably, terminal marshmallows!) was to say "I will save them for later." The conversation was cut short when the light and warmth from around there feet disappeared and the rain seemed to return in full effect. "I believe that will suffice." Said Dumbledore as he gestured towards the now large melted hole. The corners had been bent down so that it was nice and safe, or at least as safe as can be when it is in the same sentence as words like "Azkaban" and "secret entrance." It measured about two and a half foot across and could probably just about accommodate for someone of miss Weasley's size. She must have been thinking the same thing because she was eyeing up the gap very suspiciously, as if it was personally challenging her to try and squeeze through.
Dumbledore crouched down by the whole and peered down into the empty darkness. He rummaged in his pocket for a moment before producing something small and rock like. Most probably a rock. He dropped it into the whole for a second. There were three distinct sounds, all of which Harry didn't particularly like. As they pulled their cloaks over their heads and shielded their ears from the rain the first thing they heard was a thud. It sounded like it came from about fifty foot below. The next noise that followed was the sound of the object bouncing from the sides of the dark drain. The last, and possibly most eerie sound, was nothing. Everyone stood listening intently for a sound that would signal everything was safe. After a long pause in which everyone anxiously awaited some sort of dull "thud" or maybe even a "plop" as the rock reached the end of its journey. "What are we waiting.." Harry asked after a long silence. He was cut off by Dumbledore who gave a brief "Shhh" sound and raised a finger to his side, signalling that no one was to talk until he said so. Harry watched the headmaster curiously as he was apparently counting something in his head, with his lips moving very slightly. After about another five seconds he stood up and turned to address everyone. "Well now that we know the root is safe we can go." Everyone exchanged glances. Apparently after hearing the stone bounce around down there they had every reason to believe their bodies would do something rather similar. "Kingsley and I will be first if you don't mind. It's a safety thing you see. Who knows what unnameable creatures are down there." Moody said as he hobbled over the short distance between him and the drain. "SHARKS and what nots!" He barked. "Can't have Potter endangered now. Couldn't live with myself." He started muttering. "CONSTANT VIGILANCE!" Moody shouted, making everyone jump slightly, including Kingsley, who with a little bit of a push from Moody had apparently jumped over the drain, and was now displaying the look of a knight who comes along and says "Never fear, I shall rid your kingdom of the dragon." In a heroic manner, whilst secretly knowing the kind would say. "Oh you don't need to worry about that. The dragon has migrated south for the winter. Here marry my daughter anyway." But then to the knight's horror, instead the king replies "Well you bloody well better. He is killing everyone in sight, and even those not in sight!" Basically Kingsley displayed the only to common face that said he wanted to be anywhere other than over a big pit of death (or at least one deep enough to contain an ill tempered elephant and a pointy stick). Harry watched as Kingsley disappeared into the hole, shortly followed by Moody who hoped in after a quick salute. After about twenty seconds Dumbledore instructed for Tonks and Snape to go. "Ooh it will be just like the slide at granny's house when I was little." She said excitedly as she bounced over the deep darkness. Harry wasn't sure what "Granny's slide" was but his mind flashed of images involving an old woman terrorising small children with her slide of doom and then chuckling manically. All the while Tonks, who in Harry's imagination acted just as childish as she did in real life, was jumping up and down in frenzies of excitement shouting in delight.
"Come here Harry" Said Dumbledore as Snape climbed down in drain in the most dignified manner he could muster. "Harry I just need to remove the binding spell from you and Bill whilst you go down the drain. I will put it back up once we are safely inside. It is just that should I not remove it then you would find yourself inclined to follow him down head first, which I must say would be a very dangerous thing." Harry didn't object and Dumbledore removed the spell with a simple flick of his wand. He gave his arm an experimental swing to check everything was working fine. It was. After about a minute in which they various members had slid down just Dumbledore Harry and miss Weasley remained on the roof. "You next molly." Dumbledore instructed as he gestured towards the hole. Miss Weasley glanced down as if doing a quick evaluation of her circumference. She gave Dumbledore a quick look as if saying perhaps he had forgotten to make the hole in the drain a little larger. "No it is fine." He said with a trace of impatience in his voice. Without another word she sat down on the wet floor and swing her legs into the drain, which was a feet in itself. She then pushed her self over the edge of the whole. Harry watched as she disappeared into the whole with the outer boundaries of her stomach following a few seconds later. "Now Harry I want you to follow after me about twenty seconds after me. It will be very cold down there and a fear a wait any longer could have terminal consequences. Suddenly there was a splash could be heard from what sounded like the very bowls of the earth itself, but was in fact only a few hundred meters lower than they were. It must have been a tidal wave if it could be heard all the way from up hear. This worried Harry at the thought of having a large drop into water. Harry had vague memories of Dudley watching a program about bad divers. People who jumped and landed on there stomach with dire consequences. "Still if the others can make it, so can I. I think." he thought as he braced himself. In one fluid movement Dumbledore had swung himself through the drain in a second as silent as space itself. Harry quickly started counting in his head what he imagined twenty seconds to be. The problem is that time doesn't always flow smoothly as many people believe. It actually moves in large dollops and oozes like a lumpy custard. This was one of those times where time slowly oozed itself along and whilst Harry only counted to ten seconds it felt like he had been standing on his own for about a year. He decided that perhaps he had been counting to slowly and in the end jumped in as he was. He kept his arms and legs tightly tucked together incase he would hit anything on the way down.
It was a strange feeling whizzing along as his body accelerated down the wet tunnel. It would probably be described as a water slide, except Harry having never experienced on before didn't know this. After a few moments he dared to open his eyes, just a little, after all there was no knowing what manner of unpleasant things he might see. Spikes, pointy things, long sharp poles. Jagged metal sticking down from the ceiling all ready to investigate the inner Harry. Luckily he saw none of this. What he did see was what can only be described as a lot of darkness. This was extremely dark. Like no darkness he had ever seen before. This wasn't like when you woke up in the middle of night and it would take a few seconds for your eyes to adjust. This was the darkness that if you found yourself in, it would take a few thousand years before you could make out the fact you are incredibly old. This wasn't black. If there was something black in here it would jump out at you like a glowing light bulb. Harry wasn't at all relieved to see this. For some reason whilst he had known there wouldn't be pleasant candles he had imagined the whole thing to be different. It was rather disturbing. At least when you saw yourself hurtling towards something pointy you knew what to expect. Here it was a whole new game. Whoever had constructed this tunnel had built it with the sole intention of making it dark. The walls were black and the turnings were black. The bricks were black and the ceiling was black. The floor? Well put it this way, it wasn't white.
As Harry hurtled down the drain he could hear a constant humming noise coming from his trousers. As he tried to pinpoint exactly what the cause could be it came to him that it was likely caused by the friction. When something rubs against material it will make a brushing sound. If this is speeded up the brushing changes to a "shwip" sound. Now as it gets faster still, two things happen. The first is the "shwip" sound becomes a constant hum and the second is your trousers start smoking. Now not many people have gone past this stage. Well not many that had lived anyway. But the few that have, would know exactly what Harry was experiencing. First of all the trousers in question attempt to remove themselves from the unfortunate person wearing them. The second thing is the rather pleasant humming sound elevates to the level where it can subconsciously speak into your mind. Generally, the first things it says is the phrase "Yikes my bum is on fire." The point being that Harry was moving very fast. A little faster than was considered enjoyable, and most certainly much faster than leisurely. But still not quiet as fast as Dudley eating. To Harry's luck fate intervened when suddenly he plunged out of the darkness into some cold water that was, whilst not light. The kind of darkness that you can manage with. Instantly his piping hot trousers fizzed with a satisfying sound that again spoke to his mind, this time saying "thanks guv."