— —

"The ambitious citizen in a commonwealth seeks at the outset to secure himself against injury, not only at the hands of private persons, but also of the magistrates; to effect which he endeavours to gain himself friends. These he obtains by means honourable in appearance, either by supplying them with money or protecting them against the powerful. And because such conduct seems praiseworthy, every one is readily deceived by it, and consequently no remedy is applied. Pursuing these methods without hindrance, this man presently comes to be so powerful that private citizens begin to fear him, and the magistrates to treat him with respect. But when he has advanced thus far on the road to power without encountering opposition, he has reached a point at which it is most dangerous to cope with him"

Niccolò Machiavelli. "Discourses on the First Decade of Titus Livius."

— —

The next few days seemed to blur together for Harry. There hadn't been any part of him that had really doubted whether or not Marvolo was telling the truth about his encounter with Death, and yet part of him had still had trouble believing it was possible, right up until he used the ring and summoned the seven foot tall walking skeletal figure, and saw him for himself.

He'd confirmed all that Marvolo had already asked, as well as attempting to dig out a few more details, but apparently Death wasn't very interested in elaborating too much on the 'apocalypse' that Harry's past self had died during. He did say that it was a natural global event, and it was not man-made or man-caused in any way, which Harry considered arguably good news. Honestly, he'd found that man-made disasters were far harder to prevent.

If it were truly some sort of natural disaster… perhaps he really could do something about it. Maybe it was a giant comet, or a huge solar flare, or some sort of enormous seismological event? Maybe a reversal in the planet's magnetic poles… honestly, the possibilities were endless, and the idea of trying to effect some of them through magic seemed daunting… but not impossible. —Not with enough power.

With enough power, magic could do nearly anything.

It was when the global population of muggles were the problem that things got complicated. Hell, a global population of anything was enough to make things complicated. Harry would take a giant volcano, or ten-mile wide space rock any day, over dealing with altering the actions of a hundred million people.

Harry had also confirmed during his meeting with the walking-talking skeleton, that he really truly could summon Death at any time, and call off their deal. It didn't necessarily mean instant death, however. It would just mean that the next time Harry died, would well and truly be his last.

And yet, he still didn't think he wanted to do it. Not… not yet. Which was just… insane to him. Something he'd wanted for so long, and now that it was available to him, he couldn't…

Harry chocked it up to cold feet and the reassertion of the natural human instinct towards survival. He was sure his better sense would win out at some point, and he'd end up calling Death up at some point in the coming years to call it all off. He just wasn't sure yet how far off that day would be.

Marvolo had also followed through on his original promise, and had translated the book written by Avitus of Syracuse into english, so Harry could actually read it for himself. Admittedly, Harry was rather impressed with how quickly the man had done it, but Marvolo said he was fluent in Latin, and the only time consuming part was actually writing the words, and he had enchanted a quill to transcribe it for him, so it hadn't really been that involved a process.

Since that point, Harry had poured over the book more out of the need to distract himself, than anything else. It was fascinating, of course. —Reading the accounts of another person who had gone through a similar set of circumstances as Harry had, was a big deal. The biggest different between the two of them was that Avitus had kept his version of the Hallows in his life, and had encountered Death when he'd died after his second life - and his first that he remembered. This detail wasn't made clear in the book, however, but was easily inferred now that they understood how the repeating life cycle worked.

There were other small details in the book that were interesting, but over all it's largest benefit had been the ritual included near the end of it that detailed how to summon Death using the three Hallows, and it's description of the repeating life cycles being the result of a deal made with said being.

It wasn't a very long book, however, and there was only so much that Harry could do with it to keep his mind distracted. When Harry found himself alone, his mind would begin to mull over things, and he'd realize that some part of him felt as if the entire world had tilted on its axis - everything had changed - and yet… nothing had changed at all. He wasn't sure how to handle it. It made him dizzy and disoriented. Everything that had been such a huge part of his life for so long had shifted. Things had been proven wrong, or inconsequential, and he now had his answer. A question he had been chasing after for literally hundreds of years had now been answered, and part of him just couldn't wrap his head around how everything hadn't changed. Or more so, how he didn't want things to change…

It was as if this entire thing had managed to catch him right at one of those unique moments where he was actually enjoying himself. He was busy. He had things in motion! Interesting things! And this thing with Marvolo… it was new and so unexpected and yet… quite wonderful.

The cynical part of his mind reasoned that at some point their relationship would surely dissolve or shift focus, or Marvolo would lose interest (or Harry would lose interest), and things would stop being so fun and exciting. He knew that surely his normal maudlin misery would take over again, and then he would happily take Death up on his offer to call an end to their deal.

But that thought didn't make him feel any better. It was rather depressing, actually, and he usually squashed it from his mind as quickly as possible.

Once it became clear that using the book to distract himself had officially run its course, Harry decided to distract himself with his work on the Azkaban breakout, and the island, and to just try and pretend that the whole unraveling of his universe thing hadn't even happened.

Draco, Lucius, and Severus had all given him space over the last few days, and he appreciated that, but they were all giving him looks, all the time, and it was obvious that all three wanted to ask him for details.

Harry wasn't surprised that Lucius and Severus had both held their tongues, but he was surprised that Draco hadn't come whining for information. But then again, Draco knew the least of the three of them. Harry actually contemplated initiating the conversation, but that would mean thinking about things, and he was trying not to do that just yet. It was easier to stay busy.

The Death Eaters assigned the task of rounding up a group of muggles had all completed their job and a group of ten men and one woman were now gathered in the basement wine cellar of Marvolo's manor house, all docile and properly imperiused, awaiting the potion that Snape was just now finishing up, and a drop of blood from the subject of whom they would be replacing.

Harry had created a set of portkeys powerful enough to reach to the docks of Azkaban island, and had also finally gone to the trouble of forcefully removing the Trace from his person and his wand. Not that the Ministry tracking spell had ever worked within the confines of the heavily warded Malfoy manor, nor Marvolo's home, but traveling to Azkaban was a bit less certain and Harry wanted to be able to use his wand without hesitation, while on the mission.

Finally the morning of the raid dawned and Harry found himself standing before a full-length mirror in his bedroom, frowning over his appearance. He'd taken an aging potion and looked to be in his mid-20s, but he knew that wasn't going to be sufficient for this.

Marvolo appeared from out of Harry's wardrobe holding and examining a black doublet and short over-robe, with a look of skepticism.

"You're sure you want to wear this?" the man drawled.

Harry rolled his eyes at the man's reflection in the mirror over his shoulder. "Yes. I'm sure. Unlike you, when it comes to something more involved than standing and talking, I rather prefer something lighter and shorter. At least I made it black; that's something right? I'll take mobility over appearing intimidating, thank-you-very-much. Don't forget the trousers."

Marvolo let out a small scoff and shook his head skyward before tossing the clothes in his hand onto Harry's bed and going back into the wardrobe.

Harry reached up, aiming his wand at his face and began to cast a series of transfigurations and glamours, changing the shape of his nose a bit, sharpening his cheekbones, making his eyes brown and lightening his hair to a more chocolate-brown, instead of his raven black.

"You think this is enough?" Harry asked in an unsure tone, as Marvolo reappeared in his mirror.

"Well, you no longer look like a duplicate of James Potter," Marvolo mused.

"Yeah, but er… do you like it?"

"Do I like it? Harry, it's your face. You're the one who has to like it."

Harry rolled his eyes. "Actually, you're the one who has to look at me the most, so your opinion actually does matter here."

The corner of Marvolo's mouth turned up into a knowing smirk and he stalked forward a bit. "Self conscious? Or are you afraid I won't find you as attractive with a different face?"

"Oh, forget it," Harry said with a huff, turning back to the mirror.

Marvolo chuckled and stood behind Harry, looking over his shoulder and into his eyes in the mirror. "I like it," he said in a tone that was both amused and oddly reassuring. "It's enough of you that I still see you in there, quite clearly, but different enough that I doubt anyone else could possibly connect this man, to the teenaged Harry Potter… well, so long as you keep that scar covered."

Harry grimaced in annoyance. "Yeah, it's always been a bother. The power of the horcrux interferes too much with most glamours. I intend to put on my actual cover-up make-up. Aside from that, I figured a hairstyle that covers my forehead was my best bet."

Marvolo hummed, examining Harry's appearance in the mirror for a moment before taking a step back and aiming his wand at Harry's head. A few flicks of his wand and the shaggy mop that had sat atop Harry's head was suddenly trimmed and styled. What had before been a fairly long style that dusted his shoulders was now cut quite short, buzzed at the neck and trimmed at the tops of his ears. To the front, however, it was considerably thicker and brushed forward, giving him a thick fringe of layered, feathery hair, that covered down to his eyebrows and even a bit over the tops of his glasses.

Harry blinked at his reflection in the mirror a couple times before letting out a surprised-sounding hum and nodding his head. "Nice."

Marvolo smirked. "You should either change the shape of your glasses, or perform a transfiguration on your eyes to correct your vision while using this appearance."

"I hate trying to correct my vision through transfiguration," Harry said shaking his head as he aimed his wand at his glasses and gave them a quick tap. The thin-rimmed round frames transfigured into thicker black-rimmed glasses with wide but short squarish frames. "Different enough?"

"It's a good look. I like the cheekbones too."

Harry blinked had to fight the urge to duck his head a bit, but did let a small smile through. "Thanks. I'll probably be using this appearance a lot this summer, since I'd rather the Death Eaters see as little of Harry Potter as possible."

"A precaution I agree with wholeheartedly. How easy will it be to accurately replicate the appearance repeatedly?"

"It should be simple enough to replicate."

"So long as you can keep it consistent every time you switch to it, this look should work quite nicely for you."

Harry nodded, heaved a small sigh, and turned to his bed while stripping off his shirt. Marvolo leered at him, making Harry grin and chuckle as he proceeded to strip down to his pants before grabbing the clothes from his bed and getting dressed.

"I'm considering the value of applying some glamours, myself," Marvolo said.

Harry frowned and glanced towards him as he finished buttoning up his doublet. "Please tell me you're not talking about making yourself look all snake-faced. I mean, I'm doing this because I have no intention of doing the big hooded face-obscuring getup every single time I might encounter a Death Eaters staying at your home or the manor. If you intend to spend the next two months at your house, looking like that —"

Marvolo gave Harry a rather unimpressed glare. "No, I have no intention of doing any such thing. I am no more fond of that appearance than you are, but for the actual raid on Azkaban it might be prudent. It will be less of a shock to my followers that we'll be freeing, and will conceal my identity as Marcus Veras from those Death Eaters in the raid party who have not been made privy to that information yet. I can demonstrate to the escapees my true appearance after most of the raid party have been dismissed."

Harry frowned and twisted up his mouth in apparent displeasure for a moment before sighing and nodding. "Yeah, okay, it's probably a good idea. You're just so pretty like this, I hate to give it up for even one day."

"I am not pretty," Marvolo sneered.

Harry smirked and leaned forward, pressing his lips against Marvolo's in what started as a light, chaste kiss, as Harry just barely brushed against the other man's lips. Marvolo growled after a few moments of teasing and pressed forward, crushing Harry's lips and holding his hand against the back of Harry's head to hold him there. Harry moaned, pressing forward and reaching into Marvolo's hair and shoulder as well, feeling a wave of desire flood him as the contact mingled with echoes of Marvolo's own need came across their mental link.

Finally they pulled apart, though they still remained quite close and neither had fully let the other go. Harry panted in Marvolo's face for a moment before grinning cheekily. "You are too, pretty, and you damn well know it."

Marvolo snorted a bit, but smirked back.

Finally they pulled apart and Harry let out a small sigh before gesturing towards the mirror. "Well, if you're going to resurrect ol' snake-face for the day, you'd best get to it. The others will start arriving soon, even if you don't summon them first."

Harry stood back and watched as the handsome man he'd come to feel so strongly for, slowly dissolved away under glamours and transfigurations to make way for the face of the man he'd literally murdered, numerous times in his past lives.

It was more than a little disturbing.

Harry was actually relieved when Marvolo pulled the heavy hood of his cloak up and over his face, casting the obscuring charm the man always used when dealing with any of his followers who were still in the dark about his identity as Marcus Veras.

The members of the Azkaban raid party would be gathering at Malfoy Manor instead of Marvolo's home, as the portkeys were keyed to take a person to the docks of the island and return them back to where ever they'd initially left from. They wanted to be returning to Malfoy Manor rather than Marvolo's manor because it was better equipped to serve as a temporary hospital.

A large hall in the home had already been setup with beds and medical supplies in preparation for the prison escapees, and the two Death Eaters with mediwizard training had been by the day prior to make final preparations, and would be arriving shortly where one of them would wait at the manor while the rest of the group went to the prison.

Harry pulled the hood of his shorter over-robe up over his head and cast the same obscuring charm, just for consistency, even though he intended to take it down after the others had arrived.

"I suppose we'd best check on the muggles," Marvolo drawled, sneering the last word rather derisively. Harry nodded and the pair left Harry's bedroom and made their way down the hall, towards the eastern wing, and to the large hall that held the temporary medical beds and equipment. Along the back wall were eleven muggles, already dressed in the distinct grey stripped clothes of the Azkaban prisoners, all sitting down on the floor and looking dazed and unresponsive. In addition to having each one under the imperius, they'd also been drugged, to numb them up a bit in preparation for entering the prison. Even under the imperius curse, it was difficult to keep anyone calm when exposed to dementors for the first time.

Harry did a quick check of the muggle's vitals while Marvolo began to activate the magic of the Dark Mark, summoning the specific group of followers for this mission. They should have all already known the time and place, but there was no harm in the extra incentive.

"This one old man isn't going to last long once we get him in the prison," Harry remarked as he walked over towards Marvolo at the center of the room. "Which ever of the prisoners looks to be in the worst health should be replaced by him."

"Which one is he?"

"The old guy with the long thinning grey hair," Harry said, pointing towards the man in question. Marvolo glanced over and nodded.

"You'd best stop masking your magic. I've already cast the summons and they'll be arriving any minute."

Harry rolled his eyes mildly and sighed but did as told, letting down all of his masks and suppressed magic. Well… not all of it. He kept it masked enough that he didn't overshadow Marvolo.

The pair continued speaking quietly on a few details of the plan for a couple minutes longer before the first few telltale cracks of apparition could be heard coming from the entrance hall of the Malfoy family home.

Severus was apparently the first to arrive, though he entered with Lucius who had been waiting in the entrance hall. They entered the room, both already garbed in their Death Eater robes and masks, and came to stand before Harry and Marvolo at the center of the room.

"Is Narcissa ready for your house guests?" Marvolo asked Lucius.

"Yes, my Lord," Lucius said with a short bow of his head.

"And your son? He's been informed?"

"Yes, my Lord. He knows that he cannot invite any guests to the house for the rest of the summer, and I have instructed him to keep his distance from the southern wing of the manor."

"Very good," Marvolo replied before turning his shadowed gaze on Severus. "The potions are ready?"

"Yes. I have thirteen vials prepared in the appropriate doses. All that remains is for each to get a drop of blood from each of the escapees."

"Thirteen?" Harry asked.

"I thought it prudent to have the extras in case someone should bumble handling any of the others and break a vial."

"Good idea."

A few more cracks echoed from down the hall and the room slowly filled with the raid party. The two mediwizards arrived early on, Meridith Spinnaker and Porter Grimwig had both been introduced to Marvolo's secret alter ego in previous meetings, which was good as both would be making frequent visits to check up on the recovering inmates over the next two months. Only Grimwig was coming on the raid, while Spinnaker would remain behind to await their return.

Aside from Grimwig, Lucius, and Severus, the party included Barty Crouch Jr., Wilton Chaimberlain, Edwin Steele, Thorfinn Rowle, Elmore Gibbon, and Adrian Yaxley, though of course, they were all cloaked and masked. That made them eleven, including Harry and Marvolo, so each one would be responsible for taking one of the muggles to the prison, and one of the prisoners back. The portkeys were handed out and final instructions given.

Lucius released the tight wards on the hall they had all gathered in, making allowances for portkey travel, and with one final word from the Dark Lord, they all grabbed a muggle and then left.

Harry had grabbed the one woman in the group, having already decided he would be the one to retrieve Bellatrix. They all appeared, one by one, on the damp rickety dock at the base of a steep and jagged staircase, carved into the cliff face of the island that held Azkaban Prison. Once everyone had appeared, Marvolo took the lead and quickly began to scale the stairs, his blank-eyed imperiused muggle trailing behind him.

Everyone followed, each instructed to make sure their muggle made the journey in tact, which was complicated by their lack of coordination under the spell and sedatives, and the steepness of the stairs. Finally, they all reached the top and began to approach the imposing gate. The air was bone chilling, and the mist and overall miserable aura of the island was thick and suffocating.

Several Patronus charms were cast, causing a small parade of silvery white animals to dance around the group, guided in the lead by the Dark Lord's giant misty serpent.

At the gate, they were greeted by two rather horrible looking dementors, hovering in the air on each side. Marvolo approached them alone and lowered his hood, revealing his serpentine visage to both the dark creatures, and to the Death Eaters behind him, for the first time.

He spoke with the dementor that greeted him, though it was difficult to hear it over the howling wind. Finally the dementor made a sweeping bow and floated backwards, leaving the gate open.

The Dark Lord turned back and looked imperiously over the group behind him before nodding his head in a jerking motion and leading them all through the stone archway and down the path towards the prison.

The island had already been infested with the creatures when the Ministry chose it as the location for it's prison, and the dementors had agreed willingly, perfectly pleased with the prospect of having a population of people whose emotions they could feed off of. They agreed, as part of the arrangement, not to give any of the prisoner's the kiss unless directed to, but this suited them as well, since slowly feeding off of the prisoners extended the time the dementors could gain nourishment from them.

There were quite a decent number of dementors floating around, many seeming to pace just beyond the range of their patroni, skulking and brooding at the intrusion.

"The women are in the southern-facing wall," Harry said as the group came to a junction in the entry hall. The Dark Lord nodded his acknowledgement, as this had already been discussed. Harry then turned to Severus. "I need a vial of the potion."

Severus reached into his inner pocket and pulled out one of the small glass vials and handed it over with a low bow of his head. Harry half-expected the man to say 'Yes, my Lord' by his body language, but Severus remained silent instead. Harry wasn't sure how he'd react if Severus were to do something like that. It would just be really weird.

Satisfied that he had what he needed, Harry took his muggle and broke off from the rest of the group. He decided to cast his own patronus, since he hadn't bothered before. He extended his arm and paused, deciding on what memory to use and found that his mind kept offering up that moment when Harry had fully given in to Marvolo's arguments that the two of them really could… pursue this… thing, that was developing between them. Another part of his mind - a far more perverted part - kept offering up the moment when Marvolo had first tied him up and made love.

And so the spell came to his lips without even consciously trying. The white misty form that emerged from his wand wasn't one that resembled any patronus he had had before, but the form it took didn't surprise him much, either. Harry chuckled as a very large misty-white snake slithered through the air, circling him and hissing threatening at the few dementors that lingered at the end of the long narrow corridor that ended in the south wall's atrium.

The interior layout of Azkaban was comparable to that of many victorian era prisons - only adding the horror and misery of dementors into the equation. The building was in the shape of a huge imposing triangular tower with no windows anywhere along the outside, and an open courtyard in the center. Each of the three walls was a separate wing and the one along the southern face of the prison housed the women. The towering prison housed stacks of four-story sections of cells that were open in a central atrium with cells lining the outer walls. From the higher floors of each section, you stood on a narrow walkway with cells on one side, and a railing on the other, overlooking the lower floors and central atrium. Across the open space you could see another narrow walkway and then cells lining the opposite wall. A spiral staircase was located at each end of the long atrium that could be seen going far up the four-storey section and disappearing in the ceiling to emerge in the next stacked section.

Their intel said that Bellatrix's cell was located on the third floor of the first section and Harry quickly made his way up the steep spiral staircase and began making his way along the walkway of the outer side, searching for the correct cell.

The doors were solid except for a small barred window, but each door had a number above it. Bellatrix's cell was #13 and as he came upon it he stood closer and peered in through the small window, hoping to confirm it was the right cell.

Confirmation was clearly going to be difficult as he could only see a filthy huddling mass in the corner with a mess of matted hair covering any revealing features. Harry huffed, hoping their intel was right because if this wasn't Bellatrix, he was going to have one very disappointed woman to deal with.

He aimed his wand and cast the high-end unlocking spell he and Marvolo had agreed on, and it worked without any problem. He pulled the door open slowly, eyeing the figure in the corner. She jerked suddenly as if just woken and her mess of a head raised up and looked his way. A face could just barely be made out from the mangy curtain of matted curls. Her eyes were wide and filled with the madness he had long ago come to associate with this woman, but there was hope and relief there as well.

"My Lord?" she rasped. "My Lord! I kn-knew you would come for m-me. I knew it!"

"Sorry Bella, wrong Dark Lord. But I will be taking you to him. But first —" Harry reached to the side and grabbed the wrist of the blank gazed old muggle woman that he'd brought with him. "— first I need a drop of your blood."

"Wha—?"

"This woman is going to be taking your place," Harry said as patiently as he could manage. "We have't got a tremendous amount of time here, so any further explanations will have to wait. Suffice it to say, we don't want anyone to realize that any of you have left, so replacements are necessary."

"Y-you're not… the Dark Lord?" she said, sounding confused.

"No, I'm just the man who shares his bed. Can you stand?"

She continued to look very confused, but Harry hardly expected anything less. He walked forward and grabbed hold of her arm, guiding her shakily to her feet. He pulled the vial that Severus had given him out of his pocket and removed the cork. "I'll need a drop of your blood. I'll add it to this potion and give it to the woman. After she drinks it, she'll change and look like you. Then we'll leave her here. Do you understand?"

She seemed to blink at him and her brow was furrowed as if she were trying very hard to think through a thick mental fog, but she did nod her head and offer her hand. Harry used his wand to make a small slice in her finger and held it over the top of the vial long enough for a drop of blood to fall in. He then pointed his wand at the muggle woman, mentally instructing her to come forward. He held the vial out to her, she took it and downed it without any hesitation.

The transformation was just as unpleasant to watch as it was with Polyjuice. The skin seemed to bubble, bones looked to stretch and grow before the skin did, only for it to catch up a moment later. The woman moaned rather miserably but then fell silent again as soon as the transformation had finished.

"Who is she?" Bellatrix asked in a hoarse voice.

"A homeless muggle woman suffering from schizophrenia. She was already mad out of her mind, so she'll fit right in here. I doubt she'll last more than a couple months after this, though."

"A muggle?" Bellatrix managed to sound disgusted despite her own rather wretched condition.

"Come on, we need to meet up with the others," Harry said, giving her a gentle shove out the cell and leaving it himself. He turned and relocked the cell door before moving around Bellatrix and starting to walk down the narrow walkway.

"Others?" she asked, following behind him hunching slightly and looking around rather franticly, as if she were searching for any sign of guards or dementors. Dementors could be seen floating around the large open atrium, but none of them would get very close to them while Harry's serpent patronus continued to slither around them through the air.

"The Dark Lord has brought a group of Death Eaters here. They're spread out in the other two wings getting any other of his followers who are currently incarcerated here."

"You're not…? No… you said that already…" she said, her voice sounding hesitant and bewildered. Harry figured his rather significant and oppressive magical presence wasn't helping her confusion any. "But the Dark Lord is here?" she asked a few moments later, her voice sounding rather worshipful when she said Dark Lord.

"Yes, he's here," Harry said in a mildly exasperated tone. They reached wrought iron spiral staircase and Harry quickly began to make his way down, pausing at each landing to make sure she was keeping up. Finally they'd reached the bottom and made their way out and down the hallway towards the main entrance hall.

Several others were already there, each with a ragged looking prisoners beside them. Rowle had Travers, Barty Crouch was standing there with Rookwood, Lucius had Dolohov with him, and the mediwizard Grimwig was just coming in with Hanbury.

"Grimwig, good, you're here," Harry said, walking forward, but before he could say another word, Hanbury and Dolohov both gasped and fell to their knees.

"My Lord!" Hanbury exclaimed.

"Thank you my Lord, thank you for coming for us —" Dolohov gasped, prostrating himself on the cold stone floor.

Harry heaved an annoyed breath and rolled his eyes skyward, not that anyone could see, given the concealment charm placed on the hood that hid his face.

"This happens because he insists I go to these things without my magic masked," Harry grumbled under his breath, extending his foot and kicking Dolohov off of it. "I'm not your Dark Lord. Get up you idiots."

Both men looked bewildered and remained on their knees. The heavy and powerful aura of Marvolo began to tickle the back of Harry's senses and he looked up the corridor to his left expectantly. The others in the room took a moment longer to detect it, since Marvolo was actually still relatively far away and Harry was rather specially attuned to the man's magic. But soon enough the man became visible as he rounded a corner and began walking down the hallway with a quick and powerful stride.

He still had his hood down, making his identity undeniable. Rookwood and Bellatrix both fell to their knees, joining the other two filthy, underfed, wizards on the floor. Grateful exclamations were made but the Dark Lord paid them little mind as he entered. Both Lestrange brothers were behind him, along with Severus. Behind them were Mulciber, Travers, Scott and Shepperd, each accompanied by another member of the raid party.

"Grimwig, I want you to take a quick look at Shepperd," The Dark Lord said, not wasting a moment paying attention to the prisoners. "The man is clearly very ill. I want to know if he can handle the trip to the dock and survive the portkey."

"Yes, my Lord," Grimwig replied instantly with a quick bow of his head before moving over to examine the main in question.

Marvolo turned to face the group as a hole, and gave Harry a look that said he wanted him to stand by his side, which Harry did a moment later. All eyes were trained on the Dark Lord, but the curious side-ways glances at Harry from the various prisoners were clear to see as well.

"My most loyal followers, for years you have suffered in this miserable stone fortress - suffered for your loyalty to me and to our cause, and for that you will never be forgotten. I honestly am filled with great regret that it has taken this long for an opportunity to arise to permit me this chance to free you all. But now that it has, I swear to you all that I will look after you, and give you all a new sense of purpose as we work towards the greater goal of saving our world and restoring it to it's proper greatness. Now, each of you were rescued by one of us, you will stay with your assigned partner as we leave Azkaban. Once we reach the dock, you and your partner will portkey back to our base where you will receive medical attention."

He turned his gaze on Grimwig and Shepperd. "Will he manage the trip?"

"Yes, my Lord," Grimwig said with a nod as he pulled a vial out of his pocket and handed it to the ragged looking wizard beside him. "Drink this, it will help restore your strength," he said to Shepperd who quickly accepted the potion.

The group quickly left the fortress, the prisoners all especially wary of the dementors, hovering just beyond the boundaries of the group's patroni. Harry was walking beside Marvolo, so Bellatrix was directly behind him, and Rodolphus was beside her, trying to get some form of acknowledgement from her, though she had eyes only for the Dark Lord.

The escapees had varying degrees of difficulty managing the steep stone steps that traveled down the side of the cliff. The fact that they were damp with sea spray didn't help matters, but the large group finally made it to the bottom and began to walk out to the edge of the dock in groups. Harry took Bellatrix first, disappearing from the rain sodden rock in the sea and reappearing in the make-shift hospital in the large hall in Malfoy Manor.

She wavered in disorientation as they landed in the room, and Harry quickly shuffled her to the side so as to not be in the way of the next pair to portkey in.

"The Dark Lord?" she asked, blinking about the room in confusion.

"He'll be last. He's waiting to come until all of the others are off the island," Harry explained as he began to guide her to one of the beds.

She looked up at him, blinking in confusion. "Who are you?"

"The person who just dragged your ass off that miserable rock," Harry drawled. "I'm sure it'll come up in a bit, just sit here and rest."

It only took a few minutes for the room to fill up, and for Marvolo to finally appear with his charge, whom he instantly discarded, expecting one of the others to deal with him. Healer Spinnaker took him and led him to the bed beside his wife while his brother Rabastan was led to the bed on his other side.

"Healer Grimwig and Healer Spinnaker will be looking after you all tonight," Marvolo spoke, causing the rest of the room to fall instantly to silence. "Those of you who were members of the raid party are now free to go - though Severus, you need to stay behind."

"Yes my Lord," Severus nodded in acknowledgement.

"The rest may leave. You have done your fellow Death Eaters a great service tonight. You have all done well and your efforts are appreciated. I will call you, should I be in need of your services again, but I doubt another endeavor such as this will be necessary again for some time. Dismissed."

The members of the raid party bowed deeply before quickly vacating the room, leaving behind the prisoners, the two healers, Lucius, Severus, and of course, Harry and Marvolo.

"You are presently in the ancestral home of the Malfoy family. You will all remain here for tonight but tomorrow half of you will be moved to another location so as to not over-impose on poor Lucius's generosity. Healer Grimwig and Healer Spinnaker will be looking after you tonight and will be making periodic visits to each of you over the next two months to check on the progress of your recovery.

"It is of the utmost importance that you all remain hidden in the locations we will be housing you in. As I'm sure you all noticed, great lengths were gone to in order to avoid the world discovering your absence from the prison. You cannot be seen. We cannot risk it becoming known that there was any sort of breakout from the prison. In two months time you will all be moved to another location that we will discuss in further detail later."

Marvolo turned his attention on Severus next. "Severus, I want you to work with Spinnaker and Grimwig. I want you to supply them with any potions they need."

"Yes, my Lord," Severus said, bowing deeply.

"Good, now before I leave, I want you all to be introduced to the man beside me." He turned his head and looking at Harry, arching a single rather insistent, hairless brow.

Harry reached up and pulled his hood down, canceling the concealment spell as he did so.

"Pleasure to meet you all. You can call me Helvidius," Harry said in a rather droll voice that said it was likely anything but a pleasure.

"You will refer to him as Lord Helvidius," Marvolo then cut in, earning an almost incredulous arched brow from Harry. "You will treat his word as if it were my own. You will likely see a lot of him in the coming two months, treat him with respect, or I will make my displeasure on the subject known very intensely." He glared at the group for a long moment before pressing on.

"I will also take this opportunity to inform you all that I am taking a starkly different approach this time in my efforts to gain control of wizarding Britain - a far more Slytherin approach, if I do say. Rather than a violent frontal assault, I am working to take the Ministry from within. In that vein, I have created an alter ego of sorts."

At this, he raised his hand and waved it over his face wandlessly canceling the various glamours and transfigurations, returning his face to the visage Harry was far more fond of.

"Both to that end, and as a result of the method I used to return to living human form, I now look like this."

Bellatrix looked as if she were about to fall out of the bed she had been sat in earlier. As it were, it was only Healer Grimwig standing beside her, resting a hand on her shoulder that kept her from getting out of it and likely trying to crawl across the floor lay before Marvolo's feet.

"The public currently associates this face with the name Marcus Veras. The fact that Marcus Veras and Lord Voldemort are one and the same is a secret known by only a very small, select, group. This knowledge is to remain secret above all else - am I understood?"

"Yes, my Lord," many of the prisoners echoed together. Bellatrix's sounding perhaps the most enthusiastic of the lot.

"Very good. I will return tomorrow to move half of you to the other location. Until that time, rest. I have a most vital task for the group of you to tackle at the end of the summer, and I will need you healthy for it."

"My Lord," Lucius spoke up hesitantly.

"Yes, Lucius?"

"Should they be informed of… my houseguest?"

"Ah… yes," Marvolo turned back to the rest of the group. "This may come as a surprise, but Harry Potter has become a vital ally. He played a significant role in my return to physical form and has been assisting me in secret for years. He is also currently Lucius' legal ward and as such, he lives here in this house. Any hostile actions taken towards him will earn you my most intense anger and wrath. Actually try to hurt him, and whatever he does to you, you deserve. His alliance with me is also, of course, extremely secret. Am I understood?"

"Yes, my Lord," the group echoed in unison, though there were quite a few rather confused sounding voices in that mix.

"Good. Now get some rest and do as the healers tell you. Good night."

— — —

Harry let out a long yawn as he walked down the hallway towards his bedroom in Malfoy Manor. He'd just gotten back from Marvolo's home where the two had been discussing their plans for the coming days for the last few hours. Harry had been sorely tempted to stay the night, but had opted to come back to Malfoy Manor just to make sure one of them was here if anything went screwy with the escapees.

"Just where do you think you're going?" Draco's voice caught Harry's attention, just has he'd reached out to take the doorknob into his hand.

Harry tiredly looked over his shoulder at the blond teen as he stomped his way down the hall authoritatively.

"Uh… my room?"

"Your room?!" he exclaimed incredulously before he paused, narrowed his eyes and stared at Harry for a moment. "Wait… Harry?"

"Oh, duh… the glamours," Harry said, shaking his head somewhat. "Yes, Draco, it's me. Sorry, sort of forgot about them."

"Why do you look… oh. The Death Eaters?"

"Yup. Come on in, I hate talking in corridors." Harry pushed his door open and walked inside, quickly followed by Draco who closed it behind him.

"Honestly, I'm surprised you recognized me at all," Harry said as he removed his outer cloak and went over to his wardrobe to hang it up.

"Well, you're voice still sounds the same… well, the same as it did the last few times I saw you with the aging potion," Draco said.

"Ah, yes, good point. But I don't see much point in altering it. My voice at this age is deeper than my younger voice, and the only people I've been around while using the aging potion are all people who would know about this identity anyway."

"Yes, that makes sense. I can still see some of your features in your face too. You just changed bits and pieces, not the whole thing."

"It's simpler that way - and again, only a person who was close to me, or had seen my aged face would have any likelihood of recognizing me. Most would just dismiss the idea. Besides, I'll likely have to repeat this appearance regularly, at least while the houseguests are here."

"Speaking of our houseguests, were you with the group that went to Azkaban?"

"Of course," Harry said unbuttoning and removing the form-fitting black doublet and finally leaving himself only in the loose black poet shirt he'd worn underneath, which he considered significantly more comfortable.

"Merlin," Draco whispered with a mixture of awe and horror. "What was it like?"

"The prison?"

Draco nodded.

Harry shrugged. "Same as ever, I suppose. It was hardly the first time I'd been there. The building is shaped like a giant three-sided prism standing on it's end, but it's hallow down the center except for the entrance hall which makes up the bottom floor of the whole thing."

"I don't care about the architecture," Draco drawled and rolled his eyes.

Harry chuckled and shook his head. "Fine, it's filthy, infested with rats and bugs, and smells foul. The air is thick with misery and there are dementors everywhere. The building is all stone and wrought iron, and the cells have no windows except for one small barred window in the door. The prisoners get their food only once a day and it's delivered by magic - admittedly, I'm not even sure by what mechanism since I don't think the place has a house elf staff, but I could be wrong, and the dementors are certainly not doing it. So they basically have nearly no human contact at all aside from the one or two times a week when one of the human guards come on duty and happens by their cell. It's just about the most horrible place on earth to ever get stuck in."

"Bloody hell, that sounds awful. So you got some big group of Death Eaters out of there?"

"Eleven to be precise, though only five of them will be staying here over the summer. The other half will be staying at Marvolo's home."

"Why did you get them out now? Won't a mass break out sort of screw some things up?"

"No one is going to realize that anything has happened at all - or at least, no one should. Marvolo struck a deal with the dementors and they let us in without any resistance, and we went on one of the days with no human guards. Even on a good day the place only ever has a few - no one wants to be on that island if they don't have to be. Anyway, we left replacements and used a potion to alter their appearance so it looks like nothing has changed."

"Oh, wow. But… well, still - why now?"

"We've got a plan brewing and we'll need the man power for a rather involved task. They've got the next two months to recover before we ship them off to deal with it."

"What plan?"

Harry waved his hand dismissively, "Maybe I'll get into it later. We're still working out the details. In fact, Marvolo and I will be out all day tomorrow and probably the day after that, getting things started. As soon as the group of Death Eaters gets moved over to his place, we're taking off. I might not be back tomorrow night, actually - just so you know not to be worried." Harry grinned playfully at Draco, who just rolled his eyes back.

"The first meeting of the Wizengamot is later this week, isn't it?" Draco asked, shifting the discussion.

"Yes, it's on Wednesday, so we've got plenty of time. Is Lucius taking you too?" Harry asked as he made his way over to his writing desk and began shifting papers about, seeming to sort the things there.

"Father mentioned something about it last week, and I think he might do it," Draco said, puffing up and looking excited. Draco was only fifteen, but it wasn't unheard of for peers that held multiple seats to bring their heirs to the first and last meetings of a seasonal session, as they neared seventeen. This was to expose them to the workings of things before the actual responsibility was dropped on their lap. Lucius would likely start letting Draco control one of his seats when the teen came of age, so he would start preparing him for that responsibility in the coming two years.

"This will be your first time?" Harry asked and Draco grinned smugly nodding. "Well, just know that it's usually very boring. This meeting, however, might prove to be a bit more entertaining than usual." Harry smirked.

"I can't wait," Draco said, his smug grin only growing in size.

Harry returned his focus to the desk, appearing to create a small pile of parchment papers littered with complicated looking runes and diagrams.

"Hey, Harry?" Draco's voice broke the temporary silence that had filled the room during Harry's distraction.

"Hm?"

"Are… are you okay?"

Harry turned, his brow furrowed in confusion and looked at Draco. "Uh… yes? Where'd that come from?"

"It's just… the last few days you've been especially distant, is all. I know that something happened… I just don't know what."

Harry heaved a sigh, pulled his desk chair out and turned it around some so he could sit and face Draco. He sat for a moment, looking thoughtful and conflicted before sighing again.

"Something did happen," Harry began, nodding his head.

Draco sat down on the padded chest that lay at the foot of Harry's bed, watching him expectantly.

"I told you that I've been living all of these lives, searching for the explanation for why I can't seem to die properly. That… that I've just been trying one thing after another in hopes that the next time I die, it might be the last."

Draco frowned and nodded his head somewhat solemnly.

"Well… I got my answer," Harry said with a weak chuckle and a shrug. "I know now the hows and whys of it all. I know how to die, and have it be for good."

Draco's jaw dropped and his eyes widened almost comically.

"What? How did you find out?"

"Your father, actually," Harry said, chuckling lightly. "Here I've been having so much fun keeping him in the dark, but it was telling him the truth that led me to my answer."

If anything, Draco appeared even more shocked at this revelation. "I — okay… so… what's the answer?"

Harry waved his hand almost dismissively. "Honestly… it hardly matters. It wasn't anything I'd thought or expected, and it's not something I'll have to deal with any time soon. I think whats throwing me off the most is that… it was like, my reason for existing was my search for this answer. Everything I did, I did telling myself it was all in hopes of figuring out the truth and finally being able to die. And now I know. Now… now I could die. I could die tonight, if I decided to."

Draco's face flushed with fear and concern. "You're not thinking of doing that, are you?!"

Harry chuckled and shook his head. "No… no, Draco, I'm not. Look, I promise I'll warn you guys if I decide to call an end to it all. Okay?"

Draco nodded but his brow was still deeply furrowed with concern.

"I guess it's just weird for me because I suddenly have to redefine why I'm doing this, and it's just… it's messing with my head. I don't have the mental resources right now to get all reflective and introspective. I'm mostly just trying to not think about it. I'll just… deal with it later," Harry said heaving a sigh and leaning back in his chair.

"Wow…" Draco said in a quiet voice. "You know you can talk about it any time if you want. It might help you wrap your head around it if you talked about it."

Harry grinned in mild amusement and nodded. "Yes, Draco. I know. And thanks for the offer, but I think I'm fine for now."

"Well, I'm always available if you need me."

"I'll keep that in mind. You're a good friend, Draco. Thank you."

Draco's face flushed and he looked a bit thrown by the statement for a moment before he smirked proudly instead.

"Hey, I'm gonna get some sleep soon, okay? I had a long day and Dementors really take it out of me."

"Oh yeah, of course," Draco said, standing and nodding his head.

"Good night Draco."

"Good night, Harry."

— — — —

"I've got to admit, I'm surprised you were willing to take a broom," Harry called out over the wind rushing past his ears. "I know you can fly without one."

"Are you suggesting that you can't fly without one?" Marvolo called back incredulously.

"Well, of course I can, but I actually have a history of enjoying flying by broom."

"The biggest reason I ever had for flying without a broom was for the sake of intimidation. I'm far more interested in practicality here. The broom is actually more practical in situations where a lot of multi-tasking will be necessary."

Harry grinned and gave an amused, conceding shrug. "So tell me more about this spot you picked out."

"There is already an island there - though it's a rather small island. It will serve as a base of operations and a more suitable living place while the rest of the island mass is being formed. The region is called the St Kilda archipelago and its made up of four islands. Hirta is the largest of the islands and it actually used to be inhabited, but the whole island was abandoned in in 1930. The two smaller islands Soay and Dun are directly beside Hirta and only separated by small gaps of sea. Boreray is the second largest of the islands and is some distance to the north-east of Hirta. It is directly between these two islands that we will form our initial volcanic formation. The whole island chain is a volcanic archipelago - right on the British Tertiary Volcanic Province, which was a spot of intensive volcanic activity around 60 million years ago. We'll be taking advantage of ancient fissures to summon our volcano."

"Fascinating. And this is located near Scotland?"

"About 41 miles west of the Herbides and 100 miles to the west of the Scottish mainland."

"And you said it was inhabited at some point? Why was it abandoned?"

"Even at it's height, it's population was only just a bit under 200 muggles. But disease, severe weather, and starvation had become major problems for the small population. Also apparently nearly two-thirds of them were wiped out by Small Pox, and at the time of island's final abandonment, Tuberculosis was going around."

"But it's totally abandoned now?"

"Well… not entirely."

Harry frowned over at the other wizard and maneuvered his broom to get a bit closer and keep pace with him. "Okay, details."

"During the cold war the muggle military installed radio towers there in order to track any signs of soviet missile launches. A small military base made up of a couple small dormitory buildings, a shop, and an office, are also in place for the manning of those towers, but the muggles rarely visit the island these days, and I've already begun working on the document altering spells and memory spells to make them forget it's even there.

"The islands are notoriously difficult to get onto, as they feature the highest sea cliffs in the British isles. Village bay is the only reasonable place to get on the island by boat, and even with modern day boats, it takes three hours for the muggles to get to the island in the first place. Apparently it has been made a World Heritage Site and is protected, primarily due to it's population of some endangered bird that nests on the cliffs. All-in-all, very few muggles ever go there, and with our spells, they'll forget about it all together."

"Sounds like you've really done your homework on the place."

"Of course I have. This was a major decision to make."

"One you apparently didn't feel inclined to include me on," Harry said airily.

Marvolo frowned and looked away from Harry for a moment before grimacing and looking back at him. "My apologies. I'm still not entirely accustomed to the idea of including another person in the development of all of my plans in such a way. I will endeavor to include you more, earlier on, in the future."

Harry blinked at him, more than a little surprised by the response. "Er… okay then. Uhm, good. So… so this place is called St. Kilda?"

"Yes, though there is some dispute over whether or not that's really what it was called, traditionally. It has been suggested that at some point a muggle was making a new map and when it came to the island's name, a crease in the map they were referencing obscured part of the word, leading to the name being accidentally changed. Several sources I found suggested the island's name might have traditionally been Sakilda or Sakilder, a Scandinavian word which describes a row of shields, which the archipelago's appearance apparently resembles when it's approached by ships."

"So, Sakilda? Or shall we rename the place once we really start to grow some landmass?"

"Sakilda will work for now. Once we have started to substantially increase it, we'll re-examine the name concerns," Marvolo said shrugging.

"This is your first trip there too, right? I mean, that's why we couldn't just apparate there."

"Yes, I will admit that this is my first physical visit to the island, but as you pointed out, I've done my homework. The volcanic fissues combined with the fact that Hirta lays over the intersection of several prominent ley lines - one of which it shares with Hogwarts - has only served to solidify my certainty. It's the perfect place."

Harry grinned and shrugged. "I'm fine with it. You put a lot more thought into it than I'd bothered to. I think we're almost there, aren't we?"

"Yes, we should be able to see it soon."

The two weren't on their broom for much longer before the islands finally came into view. In addition to the main island chain of Hirta, Soay, and Dun, the waters around them was littered with tall rock stacks, jutting out of the water more than a thousand feet into the air, and covered with birds.

"Apparently the muggles who lived here, were entirely self sufficient. They grew grain on Hirta by Village Bay, had sheep, and mostly ate the birds and their eggs," Marvolo called over to Harry as the pair swung around the outer edge, making a loose sweep of the coastline.

Harry grinned over at the other man, feeling a fond amusement for Marvolo's tendency to try and learn every little detail about anything he got even mildly interested in. The man was a knowledge sponge.

"Is that the Bay?" Harry said, pointing down at a the large circular inset along the south-eastern corner of Hirta where the land actually came down in a big slope low enough to meet the sea level with a small rocky beach.

"Yes, and those buildings are the military base - they're the only semi-modern buildings on the island."

Harry looked out over more of the ground below them and saw several sites where the skeletal remains of stone buildings could be seen in a row along what vaguely looked like it might have once been a road. The buildings were nothing more than four crumbling walls made of stone, as any roofs that had once been on them were long gone. Stone walls traveled far and wide around what was likely various grain fields or grazing ground for the sheep.

"Well it's certainly a better situation than I'd initially envisioned," Harry remarked. "I think I had this picture in my mind of tents sitting on a bed of blackened lava rock."

"Yes, that's probably the primary reason I decided to search for small islands or rock stacks to expand from, rather than just starting from nothing but ocean."

"So… shall we get started?" Harry asked, grinning over at Marvolo, perched upon his broom.

The man grinned back. "I suppose we shall."

"What's first?"

"The wards. I want to make sure that the muggles and their surveillance technology will not detect the volcanic activity before we start."

"Great. I've got the rune workup in my bag. It will prevent any of their present-day technology from picking us up, including their space satellites and seismological equipment. I've done quite a bit of future-proofing it as well, guarding against some tech they haven't even developed yet. We just need to decide where to put the ward stones."

"Lets do a survey of the island and then fly over to Boreray island to the north east. I believe we can make a very strong triangular ward by placing one stone on Boreray, one on Dun, and one on Levenish rock stack to the south."

"Sounds like a plan," Harry nodded and the pair took off, beginning what would likely be a very long day of work.

After several hours of surveying, measuring distances, and some brief debates over placement, they took a break to eat the packed lunch that Marvolo's elf had prepared for them. They chose one of the old blackhouse shells from the long abandoned village, and ate and talked while Harry pulled out his notes and made the necessary adjustments to his arithmantic equations to take the exact distances between the stones into account.

Marvolo checked over his work afterwards and was satisfied that Harry clearly knew what he was doing, so once they were both satisfied with their lunch, they mounted their broom again and headed for the first location they'd chosen to begin the first ward stone.

The sun was starting to set when the pair finally called it a day. They flew back to the old abandoned village for a quick stop-over so that Harry could apply his glamours and transfigurations, before the pair apparated to Marvolo's home. Milly the house elf appeared straight away, asking if they would like dinner. Marvolo said they would and to notify him when it was ready. Then the pair went directly to Marvolo's study, avoiding the hall that housed most of the escapees.

They talked, discussing their plans for the next day, and plans for the coming week. They had dinner, relaxed a while in the study while each of their snakes were curled up together in front of the hearth, though it was a very small fire that they lit almost solely for the snakes' benefit, as it had been a rather warm day.

They both went to Marvolo's bedroom without the subject even being brought up. It was just assumed that Harry would spend the night, and Harry was perfectly fine with that. The truth of the matter was, now that Bellatrix would be staying at Malfoy Manor for the next two months, Harry felt he'd rather avoid spending anymore time there than necessary.

Though he knew that would upset Draco, so he was going to have to squeeze in some time there.

The day was concluded with some very enjoyable sex, and then lazily falling asleep, while draped over the side of Marvolo's naked body.

All in all, Harry considered it a very productive day.

AN: Okay, I hope I've got everything sorted right now. The first time through I managed to get all sorts of pages screwed up (had a couple chapters duplicated and one chapter totally missing).

Anyway, this happened because I had to replace and reupload every single chapter. I went back and made some changes and fixes. I'm sure I missed plenty of typos, but I did catch a decent number of them. Mostly I made minor tweaks that I'd been wanting to fix for ages. I also replaced Tory with Cavalier. Using the name of an existing (current-day) political party wasn't something I'd intended to do in the beginning. I don't want stuff colored by real-world politics too much.

I've got the next chapter started, but I'll probably wait until I've got a decent chunk more before I post again.