XLI. Fifteen on the Dead Man's Chest
22 March, 1980
"Well, beautiful?" Caffrey prodded. "Where's the adventure?"
Harry's shoulders rolled in a helpless shrug.
"Azkaban. I need to break into Azkaban."
The wide-eyed silence seemed to stretch time.
And then it was as though time bent back the other way.
"—insane!"
"—a death wish?"
"Well, fuck that!"
"Let him speak!" Gideon roared over the din, and the room fell into a grudging silence.
"I need to go to Azkaban," Harry repeated as firmly and calmly as he could. "If anyone knows what Voldemort did to himself, it'll be the Dementors themselves. And so far as we know, only a few of them have joined his side, so maybe…"
Mutinous mutters broke out.
"We also have our new corporeal patronus spell. If things go pear-shaped, we can at least see how it works on real Dementors. Maybe get a clear idea how it can be used against Voldemort." He took a deep breath. "That's my plan. But I don't think I can do it alone."
No one said anything.
Lily made an impatient noise. "I've been part of the meetings with Dumbledore. Harry's right. We need real information. Unless someone else has another idea how to do that…"
Harry was suddenly very glad he'd run his plan by Lily, Pel, and Gideon first.
"Honestly, Lils, that's easy for you to say," Sirius said. "I'm pretty sure you aren't going, being up the duff and all." He shrugged shamelessly at her venomous glare. "And hell, Harry, why don't you just ask the Ministry to let you go?"
Pel snorted.
"Yeah, but there's no Minister, no Chief Warlock…no one knows who's in charge of anything right now," Harry said. "So who do I ask? And what if they say no?"
No one had an answer to that.
"I don't think I need to tell you how bloody illegal this would be," Alice cut in. "Hell, I don't think you can even make it in without an Auror who's been through the approval process—oh."
"Yeah, that's what I suspected," Harry replied softly.
She chewed her lip viciously, eyes. A moment later, she flung herself to the corner of the room and ignored them all.
Don't push her. Not yet.
"Harry," Remus spoke up. "I'm a werewolf. If we're caught, you all go to prison. I get executed. How can you ask me—"
"I don't want to," Harry sighed. "Really. But you and me are the only ones other than Lily who can cast improved patronuses so far. If something happens to me and we haven't tested their effect on Dementors yet…"
Remus blinked, but it was James who responded. "And Sirius and I? Why are we part of this madness?"
Lily grabbed James' arm and started whispering.
"You both can cast regular patronuses. And I trust you. And, well…" Harry winced. They sure as hell won't thank me for telling everyone. "You're both Animagi. I've heard that Dementors don't have as much of an effect on wizards in their animal forms."
He ignored the voice in his head that screamed at him for taking Sirius Black to Azkaban because he was an Animagus.
"How do you know about that?" Siriusexploded.
Lily continued whispering.
"Oh stuff it, Sirius," Harry shot back. "Yes, I know your big secret, deal with it. And yeah, your skills could be really helpful, so I'm asking you to come."
"Fine, I'm in," James' quiet comment hushed the room. "Mental as it is. And I expect that means these two are as well."
Remus and Sirius sputtered and glared, but eventually gave Harry grudging nods. "Fine, fine," Lupin muttered.
Lily seemed rather satisfied with herself.
Looking at his brother, Fabian rolled his eyes heavenward. "I reckon you already knew about all this, yeah? And that you're going?"
Gideon raised an eyebrow. "'Course."
"You know Molly's going to kill us if the Dementors don't, right?" Fabian swore gustily. "Fine then, I'll go. Don't get me dead, Harry."
"I'll come too," Loch said. "I owe you for Morar. And damn the consequences, the Dementors stole Guin…" The werewolf cut himself off. "I can't cast a patronus, but I'll do what I can."
"Thank you," Harry murmured, meeting the eyes of each of them in turn. "Really. Thanks."
A cultured voice broke the moment. "And why, darling, are we here?" Sanguini asked.
"You gave us information about Morar. I hoped you'd know something about Azkaban."
The vampire adjusted the lace on his cuffs. "I'm afraid not. Nasty place. Certainly not my style."
"I don't know anything either, Harry," Panty said slowly. "But I'm inclined to join your group."
Sanguini sat up from his languid sprawl so quickly he spilled bloodwine down his velvet coat. "Are you mad?"
"Seriously, Panty?" Harry gaped. "Of course, I'd welcome the help, but I didn't expect—"
The other vampire smiled grimly. "This Dark Lord is becoming a problem for everyone. Quite ruining the party, I'd say. And besides," Panty glanced in Loch's direction, "you helped Dark Creatures without being asked before. Perhaps it's time we honour that."
"I knew I should have never turned a Gryffindor," Sanguini spat. "The noble heroics are enough to make me want to kill you all over again."
"Oh, hush," Panty scoffed. "You adore noble heroics. Anyway, I'm with you, Harry, and I can cast a regular patronus as well."
"Hang on," James broke in. "How exactly are we supposed to get to Azkaban? I know it's an Unplottable island, and that Apparation, Floo, and Portkeys don't work, but—"
Here we go.
"We'll go by ship."
Harry took a deep breath.
"Fuck you."
The words blistered across the room.
He turned and met Caffrey Burke's betrayed eyes.
"You…you selfish little bastard," the pirate said in shock. "The Delight's all I have, and you want me to…Oh, fuck you, Harry."
That's fair.
Caffrey scowled, his hands bunching into fists. "You're really asking me for this."
"I am."
"I should just sod off back to somewhere warm. I'm a pirate, not a bloody hero," he spat. "You daft wretches can get yourselves killed without my company."
No one said anything.
The pirate's eyes narrowed, staring off into space. "Alright," he said abruptly, making Harry's jaw drop. "I'll be your transportation there and back, but nothing more. And chartering the Delight certainly won't be cheap. I hope you've been saving your knuts."
"Caff—I'm a pub owner without a pub!" Harry sputtered. "You know I don't have that kind of money—"
"Well, I do." All eyes were on Sirius, who shrugged. "Everyone else from the Noble and Ancient House of Black is either dead or in Azkaban already. I've more coin than I know what to do with." He sent a gleaming smirk at Caffrey. "I'll probably die, and I rather fancy going out a pirate. So you just name your price."
Merlin, Sirius, you can't say that to someone like Caff! You're supposed to haggle and—
"Two thousand Galleons. Up front. Plus all expenses—including any repairs to the ship after this madness."
Okay, Sirius will at least know that price is completely ridicul—
"Done."
Oh for fuck's sake.
Harry threw up his hands.
"And one more thing," The pirate added casually, though his eyes burned like twin stars. "Harry here will give me his word—right now—that he'll grant me one request, no questions asked."
Gideon made a rough noise in his throat. "Like hell he's sleeping with you—"
"Oh, so he can talk!" Caffrey barked out a harsh laugh, lounging back in his chair. "You flatter your lover, I suppose his arse is fit enough, it's hardly worth my life or my ship."
"Then what—"
"Muzzle yourself, Red, the big boys are talking." Caffrey kept his eyes on Harry. "What'll it be, kid?"
Dammit.
It would be unforgivably stupid to promise to grant a pirate an unknown request—Just imagine what Ab would say—
He chewed his lip.
Caffrey Burke is definitely not a good man.
But I just don't believe that he's really a bad man either.
. . .
I have to trust that. We need him, and there's nothing else for it.
He stuck out his hand. "Deal."
Caffrey's eyes were strangely soft as they shook on it.
"Sorry, Harry, but I'm not going into Azkaban," Marty Sorner spoke up, interrupting Pel and Gideon's furious murmurs. "I know my limits. But I'll help on the ship, do some healing if you lot need it."
"Thanks Mar—"
"Same for me." Everyone turned to look at Pel, who glowered back at them. "I can't stop you from throwing your lives away, but I can heal a bit an' be useful."
Harry blinked. "Pel, really you don't have—"
"Sod off with that, lad," the old lawyer snapped. "I know damn well I don't have to."
"The Bachelor's Delight welcomes her new crew members." Caffrey drawled. "But I'm curious how you all expect to actually get into Azkaban."
Pel flicked his eyes across the room. "You'll probably need an Auror."
"Yeah," Harry agreed.
Alice watched them all from the shadows, her face blank.
"My career would be over. It's probably treason, too," she said dully. "It's wrong."
"Technically, we're just breaking in to talk to the prison guards, that's all, it can't be that illeg—"
Her lips pursed as though she'd tasted something sour. "Merlin, you are just so full of shit, Harry!"
"Tell the truth," said a voice in his mind that sounded like Lily's.
Harry took a deep breath. "It needs doing, regardless of the consequences. And it's something we can do. So I'm asking you to help me. Please."
Her eyes bored into him. He didn't know exactly what she was searching for, but Alice eventually seemed to find it.
She laughed, a sound that was all edges and barbs. "I have nothing to lose, do I?" she said as she reached for the bottle of Firewhiskey. "Fine. I'll be your Ministry turncoat."
"An' me," Dalcop hiccoughed.
Harry gaped. I'd forgotten he was here. But Dalcop's…kind of useless, really. Why would Pel even bring him—
"Don' gimme tha' look, Harry," the man slurred. "I know 'm rubbish when it comes to fightin'. But I don't 'spect any of you knows anythin' about what it's like inside the place, eh?"
"You went to Azkaban?" Fabian gasped.
"Nah," Dalcop said. "But I did the whole lift maint'nance trainin' program for the Ministry way back when, didn' I? S' been years, but I remember what the 'structor said 'bout Azkaban."
Everyone stared.
The old drunk laughed. "Well, ain't no stairs in the place, is there? Just the pris'ner lift, an' however the Dementors get 'round. But if the young miss don't know the security runecodes 'n charms to operate the lift" —he smiled as Alice shook her head— "then you'll be needin' me to get 'er goin'."
Seriously?
"I said don't gimme that tha' look, Harry!" Dalcop snarled. "I let that bastard take my Vera, I did. You ain't stoppin' me from helpin' now."
Harry shot a glance at Pel, who nodded gravely.
"Okay. Right. Thanks, Dalcop," Harry said, still a bit baffled. "And thanks, all of you."
"Azkaban it is, then." Sirius' giggle was just the wrong side of hysterical. "So, when are we dying?"
Taking the bottle from Alice, Harry poured himself a drink. "Well…everyone free tomorrow?"
xoxoxox
24 March, 1980
"Portkeys?"
Harry held up the enchanted chess piece.
"Potions?"
He patted his mokeskin pouch. "Yeah."
"Jumper?"
He gave Lily a flat look. Yes Lily, I'm obviously wearing the jumper most suitable for springtime in Azkaban.
"Right, sorry," she said sheepishly. "I'm just worried. Anyway, I've made sure that everyone has a supply of potions, and I'll have this place ready to go if anyone needs more healing."
She'd already started turning the Dearborns' front room into a makeshift field hospital.
The transfigured hospital beds seemed rather like bad omens.
"Thanks, though hopefully we won't need all this."
She smiled with tremulous lips. "I hate not being there with the rest of you."
"I know. But at least you don't have to wait around here alone. Trust me, she's great company."
Lily turned and gave an awkward wave to Harry's portrait of Ariana, which he'd brought over and hung on the wall.
Ariana grinned and curtsied.
Rhys giggled in Harry's arms.
"Uh," Harry started, his mouth suddenly dry. "Just in case, I had Pel draw up a will. I mean, I'm sure everything will be fine, but if I don't make it, I—I want you to be Rhys' guardian. If you're willing. I know you have another baby coming and that it won't be easy—"
"Of course I will," she interrupted, taking his hand in hers. "You don't even have to ask. You're family, Harry. He's family."
He could hear James and Sirius greeting others from the front porch. With a sigh, he kissed Rhys' head and put him down in the nearby cot. "See you soon, little man. Be good."
Lily watched them, her smile fading.
"Look, Lily, it'll be okay. Really, don't worry—umph!"
Her hug was a sudden crushing thing, all bones and breathless anxiety.
"I'm not worried," she said. He could see right through her false bravado. "Just...just come back, alright? And bring them back. Please, Harry."
Harry could only nod.
James came inside. Harry took one last look at his parents, the two sharing quiet words he wasn't meant to hear.
xoxoxox
The biting wind of the North Sea left Harry's lips frozen and the tang of salt on his tongue.
"You about finished with your side?" the mercenary Red Nora asked.
"Yeah," Harry smiled at his old Fire Whip instructor as she set her own water-proofing charms. Across decks the Captain's first mate, Sticky Dag Borgin, was doing the same.
With the rest of Caff's normal crew given shore leave—"Keeping them aboard for this is just begging for a mutiny" —it was up to Harry, Sticky, and Nora to sail the Bachelor's Delight.
The Prewett brothers were examining the various charms on the ship and Sirius was hanging off the fore peak, whooping into the spray as they left port in Peterhead. Loch, Pel, and Dalcop had already opened a cask, while Panty grinned at everyone from underneath a lacy purple umbrella.
"Thanks Nora," Harry said as the woman erased the seam in their combined waterproofing charms. "And thanks, you know, for coming."
Her weather-beaten face cracked into a wolfish grin. "It's hardly for you, culicagado. If word of this gets out I'd be fucked ten ways to Sunday, but I could demand double my going rate."
"Provided you live through it," Caffrey broke in from behind them. "Anyway, we're off. I've no idea when to expect arrival, boss," he smirked at the word, "since no one knows exactly where Azkaban is. But we could make it to the Norwegian coast by the afternoon, so it shouldn't take as long as that."
"Wait—you don't know where it is? Alice didn't tell you?" Harry glanced towards the young Auror, who was quietly watching the sea.
The Captain shook his head. "She's gone by boat before, but she wasn't the navigator. We don't need her anyway, even though it's Unplottable. Not when I have this little treasure, the Raider's Rudder."
Harry stared at the bejewelled wooden box that Caffrey carefully flicked open. Inside a silver compass spun madly before shuddering to a stop.
"Wait—that's…yeah, that's not pointing north, Caff."
The pirate's smile gleamed too white in the grey day. "Not supposed to, love. No, this beauty points to one thing, and one thing only—the place within five hundred miles most magicked to keep people away. Only thing the Rudder can find is what really doesn't want to be found."
"So—"
"So unless there's a place in the North Sea less magically hospitable than bloody Azkaban, she'll guide us straight there. After that, your Auror can take you inside."
"Well," Harry licked the salt off his lips. "Brilliant, then."
Caffrey hummed. "Now that we're underway, I think it's time we chatted about my request—"
Gideon seemed to materialize out of thin air. "Harry…"
"—in private, of course," the pirate finished.
Nora sniggered.
"Sure, Caff, okay," Harry said.
Gideon frowned so deeply it looked carved into his face. "Harry, I don't trust him—"
I love you, but we don't have time for this.
"I don't care," Harry snapped, then took a deep breath. "Look," he continued more gently, "it's not about you trusting him, okay? It's about you trusting me."
"Oh, very nicely done, beautiful," Caffrey murmured.
Gideon attempted to glare Burke to death, but this time he didn't stop Harry from following him.
xoxoxox
"Your clockmaker is absolutely precious," Caffrey remarked as he closed the door to his stateroom. "I foresee many tedious years of domestic bliss ahead for you crazy kids."
"Hmm."
Concentrating on the Captain was rather difficult when every wall was covered with portraits of men in various stages of undress. It would be much easier to ignore them if they weren't winking and…wiggling quite so much.
The pirate flopped into an overstuffed chair. "Well, that aside, my request is a simple one. I told you I'm not going into Azkaban with you, nor is Nora and Dag, but I never said that I wasn't going into Azkaban."
"Huh?" Harry blinked.
"We're going into Azkaban too, love. And I require that you help conceal my intentions and any evidence of their success from the others. Especially your pet Auror."
"What? I—"
"Myrtle," Caff said, not meeting Harry's eyes. "I'd never be able to break into Azkaban on my lonesome, but since your little gang is already doing so, I figure we can use you as a distraction to break her out. If all goes well, I'll keep her hidden away in here until the rest of you disembark back in Britain."
Harry's shock at the idea of Caffrey Burke breaking Myrtle Cramer out of Azkaban was only equalled by the guilt blooming in him for not even thinking of the leader of the Nines.
"Do you need me to help? How are you going to—"
"You worry about your job, let me worry about mine."
"Wait, but Pel and Marty aren't going in. Won't they—?"
The Captain just raised an eyebrow. "I think we both know that Pel Pepst can keep secrets. I'm not worried about those two squealing."
He's actually going to try breaking Myrtle out of Azkaban.
"Why?" he managed.
Caffrey looked at his hands.
I've never seen him so…awkward.
"I did transport for Myrtle, all the stuff that she got pinched for selling to other governments…I was part of it, and my brother as well. None of us ever took vows—pirates can't trust arms dealers and vice versa, of course." He smoothed the black silk of his shirt. "People like us don't have friends. She should have offered up my head to the Ministry on a silver platter. It would have gotten her a milder sentence. But she didn't."
"You think you owe her?"
"Oh shut it," Caff muttered. "This is business, and we all know the score. Crazy bird should have rolled on me. And don't give me that soppy, moon-eyed look. I'm not doing this to be nice."
Liar.
And he totally thinks he owes her.
"Anyway, she had my back when she didn't have to. May as well have hers now." Caffrey smiled humourlessly. "Besides, I like that lady. Good jobs, good money, and good company all in one." He shook his head and sat up, suddenly all business. "That's my request. Don't tell anyone what we're doing, and keep your people away from my cabin. You'll do that, or I'll turn the Delight around right now."
I was right. Caff may not always be a good man, but he's definitely not a bad one either.
"Aye-aye, Captain," Harry said softly.
xoxoxox
"Well?" Gideon pounced the moment Harry left the Captain's cabin.
"Bit of Bruise Balm on your arse and your man won't even notice the marks, gorgeous!" Caffrey called behind him.
"Go bugger yourself, Burke," Harry shouted back with a roll of his eyes as the door closed.
Gideon sighed.
"It's okay, Gid. Really. I mean, I can't exactly tell you, but—"
"Is it illegal?"
Shit.
"No more so than what we're already doing, I think."
Pretty sure breaking someone out is way more illegal than just breaking in.
His boyfriend seemed to have read his thoughts and glared. "Uh-huh. Is it wrong?"
Harry frowned. "I don't…I don't think it's right. And it may not be good. But I don't feel like it's wrong either."
Gideon studied him for a moment before kissing him, no more than a brush of lips upon lips. "Fine," he said with a shrug. "Suppose that's settled then. Want to show me around the boat?"
"Ship," Harry absently corrected.
xoxoxox
Night stole the pale March sun two hours later.
"What the hell?" James cried. "It's only just past noon!"
Harry stared into a world gone suddenly dark, a flare of panic teasing his throat. The stars are gone.
"This is normal," Alice said dully. "The sun's still there, but the Dementors…it's some effect of theirs that creates an artificial cloud-cover." Everyone stared at her in the weak lamplight of the ship. "We're getting close."
"Merlin, next time give a bloke some warnin'," Dalcop breathed. "Think I need new pants already."
"Figured that pair could last at least until tea-time," Pel said with a tight smile.
There were a few weak laughs.
"How long?" Red Nora asked the Auror.
Alice shook her head. "I was below the deck of the Auror ship until a few minutes before we reached the island. I don't know when the black started. But it shouldn't be too long."
They sailed on, following Caff's compass towards a place that didn't want to be found.
xoxoxox
The Delight had been cleaving the waves for another half an hour when the ship just...stopped.
All fifteen onboard were silent as they moved to the railings and stared into the darkness.
Oh my God. This—this isn't possible, it can't be.
Lamplight from the ship was reflected in a sea that had gone completely, impossibly still. The surface shone back at them, smooth and unmoving as a sheet of obsidian.
"Burke?" Marty Sorner whispered.
The Captain cast a spell with a shaking hand. "It's…it's still just seawater," he muttered. "It's not us who've stopped moving, it's the sea itself."
"Panty, you ever heard of anything like this?" Harry said.
The vampire's eyes were just as wide and confused as everyone else's.
"This didn't happen when I came before, I'm sure of it." The trembling in Alice's voice matched the fluttering of Harry's stomach. "Maybe it's a security—"
"Oh my God," Fabian gasped as the sea suddenly burst back to life.
Oh what the fuck, Jesus Merlin.
All the water was silently racing at breakneck speed away from them, as if it were being sucked away towards some great drain.
"If the water's moving why aren't we moving, why aren't we moving?" Dag Borgin whispered.
"Captain?" Red Nora's voice caught. "Captain, what do you think?"
"I think," Caffrey said slowly, "that Azkaban knows we aren't supposed to be here."
Well, shit.
"Um…pirates? Sorry to interrupt, but what the hell is that?" Sirius pointed towards the horizon.
Something impossibly black was rising hundreds of metres above them in the distance.
Oh hell. Too dark. And way too fucking big.
"Dios mío," Nora breathed. "Captain—?"
Caffrey snapped his eyes away from the rising line of black. "Guess we're going to find out how good our charmwork really is. Alright," he said more loudly to the rest of the group. "Everyone get your arses below decks, cast Bubblehead Charms, and hang on to something! NOW!"
"Caff, what—"
The Captain grabbed Harry's shoulders and pushed him towards the stairs. "Water just doesn't disappear. Now shut up and move!"
"Wait, what about you?"
A cocky grin unfurled across the pirate's face. "Well, someone has to steer us through the fucking tidal wave coming our way."
Harry gaped as Caff positioned himself at the helm.
"Get yourself downstairs, green eyes. This isn't an hour for amateurs."
xoxoxox
Harry had barely managed cast a Bubble-head Charm and scrunch himself between Gideon and Pel in the galley when the ship dove sharply below the water.
"It's okay, the ship's charmed watertight to submerge," Harry gasped to Gideon, his own stomach roiling. "It's okay, it's o—"
His words were drowned out by a sudden, deafening roar. Harry was sent flying across the cabin, barely even noticing the crack of his shoulder against solid wood.
Then he was on the ceiling, legs tangled in the chain of the chandelier, and then there was more rolling, wrenching, his body hitting hard things and soft things that he fleetingly identified as his friends.
With a final jerk that sent him barrelling into someone—Loch?—the ship shuddered to a stop.
The galley was filled with coughs and groans of pain.
"V'ryone okay?" Dag asked, dropping the Bubblehead Charm and sputtering on the blood dripping from his mouth.
No one had come away unscathed, but their hurts could be treated easily enough.
A voice called down from above. "Get out here!"
Well, Caff's alive at least.
They limped up the stairs to find a soaking and scowling Caffrey Burke.
"I welcome your compliments on my greatness," the pirate drawled, "having just sailed us safely through a magical tidal wave with both style and grace. And you," he eyed Sirius, "will be obtaining a replacement shirt for me. This was my favourite, and the silk will never be the same again!"
Harry didn't really notice any difference in Caff's ruffled blouse, other than that it was wet.
Sirius just grinned.
"Dag," Caffrey continued in a disgusted voice, "your waterproofing charms on the port side had some minor holes in them."
'Minor' seemed an understatement, given the waterlogged decks.
"At any rate," the pirate fixed Harry with a serious look but moved aside with a flourish, "I give you-Azkaban."
Harry's breath caught in his throat.
"Oh my," Panty whispered.
Azkaban Prison loomed over the North Sea, a plinth of black that splintered the sky. No light shone from its few barred windows. Far above them, a grey fog wisped from the top of the tower like smoke.
The sight of it plucked oddly at Harry's memory.
"I thought it was an island," Remus said with a frown. "But the tower looks like it's growing straight from the sea."
Harry wrenched his eyes toward the base of the tower. All he could see were breakwaters battering the first few floors of the building. He's right. What the hell—
"It is an island," Alice said, her voice tremulous. "But there are only a few meters of land on this side. There's space enough for a pier and the little graveyard round the other side."
Yeah. Yeah, that's where they buried Barty Crouch's mother. Harry blinked at the memory.
"Okay," he said. "Okay, you all know the plan. We all stay together unless something forces us to break into teams. Everyone's on a team of three, with at least one person who can cast a patronus. Dalcop, Alice, and Panty, you three are on a team with me." Harry forced himself to sound calm. "No matter what, we stay with our teams."
Dag was already guiding the Delight towards the lonely dock.
Pel clamped Harry on the shoulder. "Don't prove me right that this was a ridiculously foolish idea, my young friend," he murmured. "Get in, get the job done, an' get your arse back here. I'm not keen on burying anyone else."
Harry could only nod before turning to Alice.
"Can we go in with our patronuses already cast, or will the Dementors take that badly?"
"Of c—course we can, it's fine as long as we don't send them at the Dementors," she said, goggling at him. "Without patronuses, how the hell do you expect us to even make it to the door?"
The others were murmuring in agreement, their faces unnaturally pale.
What? They're all feeling the Dementors already? I don't feel anything…
"Oh. Okay, good."
Moments later, a half-dozen silvery animals cut through the grey-black world around them.
"Well," Harry said, forcing a smile, "let's go, then."
xoxoxox
A single massive metal door broke the sullen black of the tower's base.
"Don't touch it," Alice whispered. "You have to be keyed into the enchantments."
"Or else what?"
"I never made it off the boat when I came last time, remember?" She shrugged and put her hand on the door.
Approved, a harsh voice whispered.
Harry jumped even as the great door heaved itself open. "Who said that?"
"Huh?" Alice gave him an odd look, then shook her head. "Let's get inside."
xoxoxox
The ten of them stood in a huddle as the door shut itself with a sullen groan of metal on stone.
"The fuck?" Fabian sputtered.
Spot-on, that is.
The ground floor of Azkaban stretched out before them, an empty, cavernous expanse of black on black. There were no rooms, no doors, no Dementors—
Nothing. There's absolutely nothing here.
"Should be over there, I reckon."
Harry startled at Dalcop's voice, but let his glowing albatross fly farther into the massive room.
There were a few strangled gasps at the sight of a large, free-standing cage in the middle of the room.
"Right then," Dalcop said. "Found the lift."
"But—it's just a cage," Loch muttered to Alice. "How—?"
"It does rather scream 'trap,' doesn't it," Remus said, shaking his head.
"Alice, what—" James started.
"All I know is that Aurors take the prisoners in, that's it," she snapped. "How many times do I have to tell you people I've never been inside?"
Dalcop was already shuffling towards the cage.
Everyone looked at Harry.
Gideon's hand brushed his side. "Forward or not at all."
"We came to talk to Dementors," Harry said firmly to the group. "They aren't on this level, so I'm guessing they're—"
"Up," several chorused back in incredulous voices.
"Merlin, Harry," Fabian said. "Can't you feel them, it's like they're—"
"Looming over us," Panty finished for him.
Huh?
"You don't sense them at all, do you?" Remus asked with a shrewd look.
"I, er—"
"You…yeah, come to think of it, you didn't seem fussed by the Dementor in your cell block back at the Ministry all those years ago either," Alice said slowly.
She's right. I didn't even notice it was there for a while. I don't think I've even felt Dementors at all in this world, except…
Voldemort on Level Eleven.
But this was not the time for pondering his apparent immunity to regular, non-Voldemort Dementors. "Yeah, I've never been much affected by them," he managed, fleetingly amused by the irony. "But you're sure they're above us?"
"Absolutely," Alice said.
"You all coming or not?" Dalcop called from over by the cage. He was waving his wand at an intricate array of silvery runes and golden numbers that seemed to be floating mid-air.
"Going up it is, I guess." Harry tried to smile at the group.
He felt less confident as they trooped into the cage.
"Oh hell," Sirius moaned at the unmistakable sound of a lock clicking when Dalcop clanged the barred door shut.
"Yeah, definitely not a trap," Remus muttered.
"Relax, kiddies," the lift-operator grinned. "I know what I'm about. S'gotta lock to work. It's for prisoners, see? I can open it." He waved his wand through a series of complicated-looking charms. A moment later, the cage lurched grudgingly upwards. "And we're off."
Harry craned his neck to peer upwards through the bars. For a terrifying second it looked like they were going to crash into the ceiling. Everyone but Dalcop dove to the floor.
Dalcop snorted as the ceiling simply vanished and allowed them to pass. "Eh, they do that."
"Merlin," Fabian scowled. "Little warning next ti—damn."
"Oh my, would you look at that," Panty breathed.
So this is Azkaban.
Harry hadn't realised until now that the prison was triangular. The long walkway in front of him turned at sharp angles at either end, and he could just make out rows of rough-hewn cells along the other two walls.
A strange, shining grey mist floated through the centre of the tower, curling and swirling far more slowly than regular fog or smoke. Above them stretched floor after floor of cells cut into the black rock, barely visible in the dull light of the mist.
"People! Look, there's people," a ragged voice called out into the silence.
Suddenly dark shapes rushed towards the bars of the cells, stretching out hands pale and too thin.
"Wait! I didn't mean to—"
"I'm sorry, I'm so—no, stop! Come back—fuck you, then, you Mudbloods!"
"Don't leave me, please!"
"Oh God," Fabian whispered as Azkaban woke up and began to beg.
xoxoxox
They caught sight of a Dementor on the third floor, but it simply glided past the cage lift without paying them any heed.
"No more with them, no more!" a woman whimpered from a cell near the lift. "I'll do anything!"
Gideon clenched his arm so tightly that Harry wondered if it'd leave permanent marks.
"Why haven't we been stopped yet?" Sirius worried, eyes locked on the receding form of the Dementor.
Curses and sneers greeted them on the fourth floor.
"Death Eaters," Alice sighed.
By the fifth floor, prisoners barely reacted to them.
On the seventh, there was only silence.
The ninth floor was nothing but unoccupied cells, the air as stale as an empty tomb.
"Up still?" Harry asked.
"Yeah." James pressed his face against bars, staring at the few remaining floors above them. "It's…it's really strong now. I—I don't think I can—I'm sorry, I have to…"
Without another word, he shimmered into the form of a stag. Seconds later, Padfoot shuffled up next to him.
The rest of the group watched them numbly.
"Neat trick," Fabian remarked in a distant voice.
Shit. If that's how they react to James turning into a huge bloody deer, they're in bad shape.
But Fabian, Gideon, Remus, and Panty still had their patronuses up.
On we go then.
xoxoxox
They passed through another floor and suddenly Harry was inhaling lungfuls of stale air.
"Shit," Fabian hissed, staring at the flat roof of Azkaban before them.
Dimly Harry heard the sound of the sea below but, enveloped in the great cloud of grey mist atop the prison tower, the real world seemed impossibly remote.
I still can't see the stars.
"This is wrong, this is so, so wrong." Alice's pale face glistened with sweat. "Please, Frank, I can't, I'm sorry—"
"Harry?" Gideon asked, a tremble curling around the last syllable.
"I don't kn—" Harry cut himself off as forms—in twos and threes, and then dozens—appeared in the column of mist that rose up through the centre of the prison and onto the roof.
Fabian's patronus fizzled into nothingness as the Dementors of Azkaban glided towards them.
"It appears we're expected," Panty said in a strangled voice.
Dalcop managed to open the lift before collapsing against its bars, hands over his ears and tears streaming down his face.
Alice was hugging herself, while Loch huddled in the corner of the lift.
This is not good.
Guilt gnawed at him as he watched friends fall apart under an agony he remembered well enough but apparently no longer had to suffer.
Lupin's wand was steady in his hand, though, and the other Marauders seemed to be holding up in their animagus forms.
Gideon and Panty flanked Harry, pale-faced but clear-eyed.
Well there goes the teams of three idea.
Just get through this.
"Okay," Harry breathed as some of the Dementors approached the centre of the roof and stopped, dozens—hundreds?—more circling slowly overhead. "Okay, I'm going to go…talk to them. If you can, come with me and watch my back, alright? If you can't, eat the chocolate Lily gave you and…just try to keep yourselves together until we get back."
"I can protect these three, I think," Fabian choked, gesturing to Alice, Loch, and Dalcop. "The rest of you, go on. Do what we came to do."
"Half a league onward…" Panty said with a sigh.
They went.
xoxoxox
Harry stared at the dozen Dementors hovering before him, more conscious than he'd ever been of Gideon's warm hand in his own.
"My name is Harry Aberforth," he said, "I've come to talk to you. If you would."
The moment stretched.
Remus licked his lips.
Next to him, James skittered his hooves, a growling Grim by its side.
"Granted."
And then the grey swallowed Harry whole.
I've been here before.
The Dementors, his friends, Azkaban, everything had disappeared.
But this…this was somehow familiar.
"You wished to speak with us, little wizard. Speak."
He'd prepared a speech full of diplomatic words that felt wrong on his tongue. But here in the grey, those words may as well have been wind written on water.
Deep breath.
"We…we think that the Dark Lord has done something to himself. Assumed your kind's powers. I've come to see if you know anything about this, and if you know how we can fight him."
Some of the grey mist around him spun into the form of a single Dementor.
"We do."
Oh, well then, brilliant. "So would you tell me these things?"
Harry couldn't see anything of the Dementor's face but the gaping maw of its mouth, but he could still feel it staring at him.
"You are a curious thing," it rasped in a voice like talons tearing into flesh.
Its mouth didn't move.
That's my mind, Harry reeled. It's talking to me in my mind!
"None of the Unkept that we have tasted have ever willingly sought us again," the Dementor continued, suddenly much, much closer to him. "Such a curious little wizard."
"You didn't answer my quest—wait—" It felt like a stone suddenly lodged in his stomach. All thoughts of Voldemort evaporated. "T—tasted? Are you…are you talking about when the Dementor Kissed me? And what do mean, 'the Unkept'?"
"Yes, we envy the ourselves in that world," it mused, raising a finger as though to trace over Harry's lips, "for taking such a taste now denied us."
Dementors are the creepiest things ever, Harry goggled.
"Yeah, well, too bad for you," he managed, stepping back and grasping to assert some control over the conversation. "But tell me what you mean by the Unkept bit."
"We abide by our bargains," it said, "and only taste those allowed."
"Allowed? Bargains? What are you talking about?"
"Our bargain with the wizards who came long ago to create this place as it is now. They would allow us to taste those their Ministry and Wizengamot ordered deserving, but no others."
Harry crinkled his brow. "Okay…er—that's good, I guess. But what's 'Unkept' mean?"
The Dementor circled round him. "We can taste with orders from just one of the two, Ministry or Wizengamot," it said slowly, "but the wizards who came cared for 'justice.' We may keep only those tasted with orders from both. Otherwise, we must restore, as you were restored."
Grey mist swirled chaotically, like it was mirroring the thoughts whirring through Harry's head. He could almost hear Pel and Ab, after the MacNair debacle, wondering if the Ministry had sent the Dementors against Harry that night in Little Whinging. But the Ministry people wouldn't have gone through the Wizengamot. Fudge would have done it in secret…
And Barty Crouch Junior… After the tournament, Fudge just had the Dementor suck out his soul. There wasn't a trial, no Wizengamot, nothing.
His stomach churned.
"Are you—are you saying that I'm here because some—some contract didn't let the Dementors in my world keep my soul?" he sputtered. "That—that all of this is because of a—a technicality?"
"The price is fixed," the Dementor said, "and we abide by our bargains. We are unable to return the Unkept to their meat, so we find vacancies elsewhere between the grey and construct new meat there for them to inhabit. A soul for a soul."
A loophole.
My whole life is just a fucking loophole.
Hysterical, furious laughter burbled out of Harry and cut through the mist, bright as a blade. The Dementor flinched back, and for a moment the mist bled away. Harry spied himself standing frozen on the roof, surrounded by his friends.
"No, wait—please, I'm sorry!"
The mist rolled back in, slow and grudging.
"I—I mean," Harry floundered, quashing the mad giggles in his throat. "What I mean to say—is being one of these Unkept why Dementors don't affect me anymore?"
"Souls are meant to leave their meat," the Dementor explained in a slow voice. "It is so easy to taste them, they are always stretching and straining to leave. But they are not meant to return. Restoration requires force, and binds the soul more tightly to the meat until its final departure."
Harry frowned, shocked that he nearly understood that. "My soul's more in my body because you had to return it? And so you can't—er—taste me?"
For a few long seconds, he was sure the Dementor wouldn't respond. "The difficulty," it finally spat, "is not worth the effort."
Well hell, I'll take that. But wait—
The thought struck like a blast of wintery wind. "Wait…you said 'vacancies'…so whose spot did I take? There aren't any records of anyone being Kissed in 1976. We searched everywhere."
Mist so dark it was nearly black roiled around them, a Dementors' chill that finally touched Harry's fingertips.
"Ours."
"Yours what?" Harry blinked.
"Ours was taken," the raspy voice ground out. "There was a vacancy."
He felt the blood drain from his face. Oh my God. "It was Voldemort, wasn't it? Whatever he did to himself…he took a Dementor's soul that day."
"There was a vacancy," it repeated.
I didn't even think Dementors had souls, Jesus, fuck.
"He—he really took a Dementor's soul? How did he even—?"
Black mist gave way to neutral grey.
"He was not the first," the Dementor remarked. "There was another."
Oh sodding hell. Albus was right. Ekrizdis.
"We are always. Wizards are not. There was another…" The Dementor trailed off for a moment as though listening to something Harry couldn't hear. "But that one came back to us. That one gave himself to the emptiness between the worlds, realized that he was of the tasted, not those who taste, and the one taken was released from the thief's meat. But…"
Harry wanted to scream in frustration. "But what?"
"But this time He came back. He did not give himself to the grey as is right, but he took from us again. And then again, tasting us and taking our power, chaining us in his meat." The Dementor's voice raked down Harry's spine like fingernails.
It can't mean… "Are you saying that Voldemort Kissed—or whatever—three Dementors?"
"He came, and then again, and then again."
A deep, shuddering breath racked his lungs, the air rotting on his tongue. "Okay. So—so how can I defeat him? Do you know? How do we fight against this?"
"Fight?"
It was an odd thing to hear a puzzled Dementor.
"We cannot take him. He tastes us instead. What is there to fight?"
"Well, I dunno, you must want him to stop!" Harry bit out. "I mean—"
"We are supposed to be always, but he makes us not. There is no fight."
It was as though a jagged piece of ice had lodged itself in his chest. "Are you—are you saying that you're just giving up? That you're on his side?"
The Dementor whirled around and reached for him, its skeletal finger leaving a trail of ice down Harry's cheek. "We are monsters no more than we need be, little wizard," it said with chilling gentleness.
Oh my God.
"And we need be monsters now."
Harry threw himself backwards, fighting off the mist trying to solidify around his wrists and throat.
"But you said you have a—a contract! You abide by your bargains, you said!"
The Dementor cocked its head. "We will not taste you. But we do not want to be tasted. We are supposed to be always."
He stared in paralyzed fascination as the mist forming the Dementor grew darker, blacker, its body more substantial.
It can't take my soul—it said it's too hard—it can't really do anything—
Clarity pierced through him.
"You called Voldemort here, didn't you?"
He didn't wait for an answer. Of course they did. They're too scared of losing their own souls to be anything but cowards. With a snarl he imagined the faces of his friends out on the roof, standing with him even though they were terrified. Suddenly Harry just knew that he'd get them all out alive.
"Expecto Patronum."
His albatross leapt into life and careened towards the Dementor, screeching as it targeted the thing's neck. A savage thrill shot through Harry's stomach as it tore into the Dementor's throat.
An agonized shriek rent the grey.
Exhaustion pushed Harry to his knees.
It was time to go.
Without stopping to wonder how he'd do it, he ripped himself away, dimly aware of his agony as he wrenched his soul, his mind, his whatever, out of the grey and back to the rooftop.
"—ry!"
Harry's head lolled as he blinked up at Gideon.
"You said you were going to talk to them!" Panty shouted, eyes wide and prowling tiger patronus ready to pounce.
Through swimming vision Harry saw the Dementors ringed around one who was floating limply, its head at an odd angle.
Corporeal patronuses can hurt Dementors. Thank God.
"What did you do?" Remus whispered.
I hurt it. I actually fucking hurt it.
He let the swooping feeling of success fill his gut and tasted blood on his teeth.
"Shit!" Gideon swore. Harry barely registered that the Dementors had rounded on them in a great horde of black cloaks and rotting mouths. Panty's and the Prewetts' patronuses shattered through grey mist, sending the Dementors scattering to the sky.
"We go-gotta go," Harry gasped, desperately forcing his lips to work and his muscles to let him stand. "Vol—Voldemort's—"
"But you were going to talk to them," Gideon echoed blankly.
Harry let him pour a Pepperup down his throat and pull him to his feet. "Wha—but I-I did. You were right here—"
"It was only about five seconds, Harry, before your patronus attacked the Dementor," Gideon said.
No time.
Harry shook his head viciously. "D—doesn't matter! They're on Voldemort's side. He's coming!"
Everyone stared.
"We go now, then!" Gideon barked. "Move!"
They rushed across the roof, with Padfoot and Prongs racing alongside them and the Dementors circling the blackness above.
xoxoxox
The cage lift appeared in the mist.
"Go now!" Gideon shouted.
"But—" Fabian started.
"Voldemort's coming," Harry panted, slumping down to the floor. "Dalcop, you with me? Can you get us moving?"
"Wha—?" The old drunk blinked bleary eyes at him. "Oh, you're such a good lad, Harry."
"Dammit, please Dalcop! We need to get out of here!"
For a moment Harry thought Dalcop would just curl into himself more, but then his eyes cleared. "Go…yeah, Harry. Okay." His wand found its way into his hand.
The pale grey mist that shrouded the roof of Azkaban swirled slowly into charcoal.
"Dalcop, please hurry.…"
The older man managed to start tracing spells, one eye on the darkening rooftop. "Yeah, Harry. Think you're right about that…"
Seconds later, the lift screeched into life, shrieking downwards at a speed that had Gideon's face going green.
They'd just flown past level eight when voices sounded from below, like waves crashing in the distance.
Why are they all yelling, what's—
The unmistakable sound of an explosion ripped through the prison.
Jesus, what the bloody hell is going on down there?
"Oh my God," someone gasped.
Harry whirled in time to see some grey mist break off from the column and lash out towards them like a whip.
"Dalcop, what's—"
He felt the mist impact the lift, an impossible pressure that set the whole cage spinning.
And then Harry's stomach was in his throat as the lift dropped like a stone into freefall.
xoxoxox
Everything was falling and spinning, spellshot and flashing lights.
Harry's Arresto Momentum had the aftertaste of bile.
He stared dumbly at the empty cell in front of him, the barred door hanging open.
What happ—
Pain rattled around his skull.
The lift was nothing but crumpled metal around them.
We crashed. Okay.
Scattered along the walkway, the others were groaning and sitting up.
He vaguely registered the din of voices from…somewhere.
"S' everyone alrigh—" Gideon's slurred voice cut off with a dull thud.
Harry whipped his head around, vision lolling with a turn of his stomach. Something was dripping into his eyes.
A hunk of stone narrowly missed his face.
What?
He was being pulled to his feet.
"—on, they're coming!"
Remus.
Some metres away, Harry caught sight of Fabian heaving his limp brother over his shoulder, Gideon's face a mess of blood.
Gideon? What?
Lupin cast a spell that made Harry's head start clearing.
Poppy taught me that one…'s for head wounds.
The world interrupted with a surge of sound. His ears were full of shouting and storms of stones pelting shields that someone had cast.
Oh God, Gideon.
There were way more people here than his friends, Harry realized with a jolt. Haggard figures with pale faces and unkempt hair.
They're throwing rocks at us.
Remus sent Stunners at the horde rushing towards them.
Dammit, get yourself together, Potter!
Somehow Alice was next to Harry now, screaming at Lupin.
"—get it? We're on Level Four! They're all Death Eaters!"
Hands grabbed at her, pulling her hair. Alice wrenched away and shot a spell that sizzled a too-bright green.
A man in prison garb fell and did not move.
Harry ducked another rock and threw up more shields.
"But they don't have wands!" Remus shot back, his Repulsion hex sending a half dozen of the prisoners into the wall.
"Idiot!" Alice's wand tip glowed green again.
Harry's severing charm sliced through the neck of the man creeping towards Lupin's back. The werewolf stared at him in shock.
"Voldemort's coming, Remus!" Harry called, finding his voice. "The Dementors must have released the Death Eaters on his orders! Every one we leave alive is one we'll have to face again!"
He nearly cursed Panty and Loch by mistake as they pulled Dalcop up behind them.
We have to regroup and get the hell out of here. Now.
"To me! To me!" Harry called over the din.
A stag and grim charged through the rain of stones, one viciously biting the legs out from under the prisoners, the other's antlers dripping blood.
Lupin sent up more shields to cover Fabian lumbering under Gid's dead weight; Alice's wand slashed spells through the Death Eaters.
Oh God, Gideon, please be—
"All here," Panty gasped in Harry's ear. "Now what?"
The group was backed up against an open cell, the unarmed Death Eaters still advancing.
Alice and Lupin kept casting curses.
This time, Remus' weren't Stunners.
After a moment, Loch joined them in casting.
In less than a minute the mob of prisoners had scattered down the walkways.
"Don't look like that, Harry, he's fine," Fabian huffed. Gideon wasn't moving, the red of his blood and his beard too bright against his pale skin. "Just a bad knock on the head."
He's okay, he's okay.
Now think, dammit!
The Death Eaters'll come back if they think they have an advantage.
Which they will, once Voldemort gets here.
"Okay," Harry said, "we're on Level Four. There's no way down without the lift, right Dalcop?"
The old drunk just shrugged.
We can't go up. We can't go down. And we sure as hell can't stay put.
Panic began to snarl at the edges of Harry's mind.
I need to be clever, please let me be clever. Maybe if I melt the floor or—
He blinked.
There was an explosion.
. . .
Why was there an explosion?
The answer came with a surge of adrenaline.
We aren't the only ones breaking out of Azkaban today.
Caffrey.
Caffrey had to get out too.
And he didn't have a lift in the first place.
The cell behind him was open. A tiny window offered a sullen view of the sea.
Harry smiled.
Caff, you crazy, beautiful bastard.
"Everyone in here now!"
"What's the plan?" Fabian asked.
"We're getting out of here." Harry looked out the window at the long drop to the sea below. Four floors. Bugger. Far to his left the Delight was shadowed in darkness. "But this…well, it's really going suck."
Fabian followed his glance with a resigned look. "Warming charms, Bubblehead Charms, and Arresto Momentum. Maybe Impervious too?"
"Uh-huh."
"What're you on about?" Alice called over her shoulder, her eyes on the walkway. James and Sirius shimmered into their human forms next to her and erected some sort of shield across the door.
"He means for us to jump and swim for the ship, dear," Panty said. "I'm starting to dislike you, Harry."
"I'm starting to dislike myself," Harry muttered. "Okay! You heard Fabian, cover yourselves with warming charms, cast a Bubblehead, and be prepared to slow yourselves down as much as you can. That water is freezing, but the spells should be enough to let you swim to the Delight. Fabian, you first with Gideon," he ordered. "Alice, Remus, you as well. Cover Fabian if he needs it."
The three started casting on themselves and Gideon while Sirius and James stood guard on either side of the door. Harry forced his eyes towards the window, away from his unconscious boyfriend.
"It's too small," he muttered to Loch.
The werewolf sighed. "I'll shield us from rubble."
At Fabian's nod, Harry sent a Blasting curse at the wall by the window.
His ears rang, but the opening was a lot bigger now.
"Go!" he shouted, and watched as the first group disappeared. Even before he heard the distant splashes, he was turning to his remaining friends. "Alrig—"
His eye caught movement just over his shoulder by the cell wall—
pain pain pain
Harry was on the floor screaming, his left arm devoured by an agony that burned to his bones.
pain pain pain
Through tear-filled eyes, he spied Sirius by the cell door—
the walls are eating him oh god they're eating him they're eating me
—being dragged into the walls by a dozen arms that oozed black as though dipped in tar.
Shouts and spellfire.
Someone else was screaming a song of their own.
The cell lit up with yellow and green, but Harry's arm was burning and burning and burning.
Flames shot past him.
With a choked breath, Harry realised the agony had quieted to a furious throb.
He blinked up to see Panty and Loch wielding their wands like flamethrowers, dousing the walls with fire so hot it burned blue.
Dalcop was scurrying away from the wall, frantically staunching his bleeding shoulder.
James was sprawled on the floor in a growing pool of blood.
His legs, oh fuck his legs, they're—they're shredded—
His father was shouting, ignoring the deep gouges on his own legs. "The wall's got Sirius, it's still got him!"
Oh my God.
Thick black arms had burst from the wall, clawing around Sirius' throat and wrists, wrenching his bloodied arms and legs into the stones of Azkaban.
Loch and Panty shared a glance.
No, please, they can't burn the wall without burning Sirius.
His Sirius had made breaking out of Azkaban sound so easy.
Just change and then slip out, that's all it was.
. . .
Dog. He was a dog then.
I don't know that spell, I don't know it—
"James, change him into Padfoot," he croaked over the din of flames. "Azkaban only cares about people!"
James coughed out some desperate Latin and then Padfoot slipped out of the wall, completely limp and matted with blood.
His father's counterpart fell back, bleeding and unconscious.
Loch and Panty doused the wall in flames, the black arms writhing in the fire before finally going still.
"The—the hell?" Harry managed.
Panty helped him up, wand still bathing the walls in fire. "Devs, Harry! In the walls. Undead things that are always hungry. They're left behind by broken souls." The vampire watched the flames with wide eyes. "And I know quite well that fire's best against undead things. "
"But why—" Harry staggered as he tried to move. Oh. Thick, dark blood streamed from his mangled arm. Well. That's bad.
"I think now we know one reason folks don't break out more often," Loch said as he fished healing potions out of his pockets.
You've got to be kidding me.
Sirius wasn't moving, James wasn't moving, and the walls were out to kill them.
Fabian's butterfly patronus burst into the room. "Dammit, Harry, where are you?"
On my way.
"Voldemort's still coming, we have to go, go now," Harry barked even as he cast messy healing charms on his arm. "Loch, take James. Panty, make sure the walls…don't do that again, and then we'll follow with Dalcop and Sirius."
A few hurried spells and some hasty potions poured down James' throat, and Loch disappeared into the sea with the wounded man. Gulping down a Blood Replenisher, Harry turned to attend to his fallen godfather.
He blinked at Dalcop, standing rigid between him and the animagus.
"I'm sorry, Harry," Dalcop whispered. "I was just...I just didn't see her."
"Wha—"
A mad laugh interrupted him. "Going so soon?" a woman's voice mocked.
Bellatrix Lestrange stepped out from behind Dalcop, his wand in her hand.
We don't have time for this!
The barest twist of her wrist sent Dalcop spinning towards Harry and collapsing near his feet.
Both Panty and Harry's wands snapped to the woman, but she was already aiming at Padfoot's still form.
The vampire frowned when Harry gave a tiny shake of his head.
"A Black animagus? Consider me impressed, cousin," Bellatrix murmured, nudging the dog with her toe. Her lips unfolded into a smile as she glanced at Harry. "Ah, Aberforth! Tell me, how're the Dearborns?"
"Don't give the bitch the satisfaction," Guin's voice snapped in his head.
"There are two of us, dear, and only one of you," Panty said quietly. "And that's not even your wand."
There was madness in the giggles that filled the cell.
"No wand can refuse me. Besides, soon enough it'll be you who are outnumbered," Bellatrix purred. "Master comes, I can feel him." Never taking her wand off Sirius, she raised her left arm to her mouth and let her tongue trace the Dark Mark. "I can taste him."
"Crazy bint," Dalcop growled. "Gimme back my wand!"
She shot Harry a blinding grin.
"There's not many who've vexed my Master and lived to tell the tale. Imagine how delighted he'll be when I present him your corpse, Aberforth." She erupted into a tittering laugh so ridiculously cheerful he barely heard her gleeful, "Avada Kedavra!"
Something heavy barrelled into him, sending Harry sprawling to the floor.
I'm dead then.
Except Harry opened his eyes to see Dalcop's staring ones, the man a dead weight atop his body.
No.
Harry lost himself in the lightless eyes of an old lift repairman.
No. Not like this. Please.
Dimly he heard the sound of Panty and Bellatrix duelling.
"—noble! But it's a new wand. Helpful to have a spare or two to practise on!" The gleeful voice carved the words on Harry's heart.
A spare.
A fucking spare.
He rolled Dalcop off himself and sprang to his fleet in a single motion.
Nothing mattered but her laugh, his rage, and his wand.
Will and magic.
Harry had both.
"Panemseco!"
Bellatrix Lestrange stopped laughing. But her smile remained, even as she started falling to the floor in perfect, two-inch sections, her entire body cut clean through like sliced bread.
Panty gaped at Harry, chest heaving great gulps of air. "Al—alright there, love. Y—you just get Black, I'll take care of…Mr. Shicker. It's time to go."
Harry nodded numbly, tearing his eyes away from the...the pile of Bellatrix Lestrange. "Okay."
xoxoxox
No warming charm could fully temper the cold of the North Sea.
Harry welcomed the chill. He welcomed the weight of the wounded dog kept tucked securely under one arm, heavy despite the lightening charms.
The cold and the strain kept him from drifting out of himself, floating to wherever Dalcop had gone.
I'm in the North Sea outside Azkaban.
Gideon's okay.
I have to save Sirius.
Voldemort's coming.
He didn't have room for anything else.
xoxoxox
Harry stared at the limp forms of Padfoot and James. Everyone buzzed about them, casting spells and pouring more healing potions down their throats, but all Harry could see was the bloody, mangled wreck that was Padfoot's entire right side. The dog's ear was barely attached to its head and—
Someone cast a spell that snapped a bone back into place.
No, I can't, I'm sorry, I can't.
Panty was gently setting Dalcop's body down on the decks. Harry closed his eyes.
He could feel Pel looking at him.
A moment later he heard the old lawyer go back to casting healing charms on James.
"You're okay!" Gideon, still too pale but very much awake, rushed clumsily across the desk and threw his arms around Harry.
Relief washed through him so fast he thought he might drown in it.
"I'm fine, really," Gideon murmured, but drew back. "But we have to get moving. Where the hell are all the pirates?"
Pel inclined his head towards the stairs.
xoxoxox
Harry banged into Caffrey's stateroom and froze. Red Nora's wand was digging into his throat.
A bundle of bloody black rags writhed on the bed as Sticky Dag attempted to cast charms on it.
The mass twisted.
Oh.
It looked like half of Caffrey Burke's face had been chewed off, his eye socket nothing but mashed pulp.
God, where's his leg?
A cauterized stump was staining the white sheets with congealed blood.
"Hell," Harry breathed. "What—"
"Walls didn't take to being blown up," Red Nora said. "Decided to eat us." She eyed Harry's mangled arm. "Guess they were still hungry."
"Hello Harry," a vacant voice said from the corner. "Long time, no see."
Myrtle was huddled in a chair, her prison robes so loose they seemed to swallow her whole.
"Oh, Myrtle…" Harry barely recognized the gravelly rasp of his own voice. "I'm—I'm really glad they got you out."
"Me too." Her eyes slid away to stare at Burke, then slipped closed.
"Is he going to be okay?"
Dag paused his spellcasting long enough to shrug. "He's movin' but sure as shite don't know what's happenin'. Had to burn his leg off to get him outta the walls. And that eye…well."
"Look, this looks…really bad, but Voldemort's coming. We have to get out, now, or—"
"Or we'll all look like the Captain," Nora finished darkly. "Let's you and me weigh anchor, culicagado."
xoxoxox
Caffrey Burked had once told Harry that he only needed a few people to actually sail the Delight.
Please don't let that be rubbish.
The others had stabilized James and Sirius and moved with them to the galley below decks, though Marty and Panty had stayed topside to help.
They weren't much help.
Red Nora practically threw Marty aside as she ran to seal her charms over the main deck. Panty hung awkwardly by Harry's shoulder on the quarterdeck, looking rather longingly at the ship's wheel.
Harry's wand flew as he set all the top sails and checked his charms.
"Oi, Nora! You get the jibs and handle the yards, yeah?" he called. "I can get us moving in a—"
A blast of cold struck Harry full in the face.
Far in the back of his mind, Lily's voice screamed, "Not Harry!"
"He's here," Panty breathed. "My God, he's here."
Above the tower of Azkaban, the sky swirled into a rumbling black vortex.
Voldemort had come in a storm.
No, Harry corrected himself. Voldemort's come as the storm.
"We gotta move, move, move!" Red Nora bellowed. "You!" she pointed at Marty, "Get your ass below decks and tell them to put on Bubblehead Charms and tie themselves to something just in case."
Harry was already weighing anchor. "We sealed up Nora?"
She sprinted to the far side of the main deck. "Almost! It's a messy job, so don't fuck up!"
He took the wheel and pushed them out from the dock as quickly as he could, chanting a prayer to Voldemort of all people.
Please don't notice us. This isn't a place we can win against you.
"Keep us moving, kid! I'll have us ready to dive in a few—"
"Terraeunda!" A shouted spell cut Nora off.
Harry hadn't noticed Alice come back topside. She was standing on the main deck, blonde hair blowing behind her like a flag, her wand set on the base of the prison.
What? What is she—
Harry's brain stuttered into silence.
A thunderous wave of earth burst up from under Azkaban. It ripped through the ground floor of the tower, rolling earth and stones headlong in a giant mass away from them into the sea.
Holy...That's…she took out the ground under the prison.
Azkaban shrieked into the storm.
One side of the tower slipped downwards, stone walls collapsing as it sagged away from the rest of the structure. Then, with an ear-splitting creak, the great black wall snapped and crashed down into the sea.
Oh my God, oh my God.
The other two sides of the tower shuddered and listed dangerously to one side. Floor after floor of cells hung open to the night air, exposed to the world like the broken spine of a gutted fish.
"Alice!" Harry screamed. "What the hell are you doing?"
A smile blazed on her face as she shouted over the wind. "He's going to free them, you know it! You said it yourself, every one we leave alive is another one who could kill innocents later!" She reared back and aimed her wand at the prison again. "Terr—"
"Stupefy."
Alice collapsed in a heap. Red Nora rolled her eyes and cast a Bubblehead Charm on the unconscious Auror, then tied her still form securely to the balustrade.
There's no way Voldemort didn't notice that, Harry thought numbly as he cast his own Bubblehead Charm and gripped the wheel. Gotta move now, now, now!
The sky above him turned green.
—"Lily, take Harry and run!"—
—"No, Ab. Get up Ab, please!"—
Harry's breath caught in his throat as he looked up.
Oh fuck.
Too late.
A crackling silver ball of energy as big as the ship dropped from the sky into the sea.
What? He missed us? How could he miss—
Harry's eyes widened.
Oh shi—
The Delight slid out from under his feet, hurtling helplessly towards the seething, gaping whirlpool that the spell had created.
—"Stand aside, silly girl!"—
Harry tumbled into the balustrade of the quarterdeck. He could only cling to it as the ship's wheel spun madly, the Delight careening around the vortex.
—"Please Ab! Please get up!"—
Circling the drain, we're circling the drain...
Through the sting of the salt spray, Harry caught sight of Panty crawling across the deck to the wheel. With a triumphant whoop the vampire managed to stand and wrench the wheel steady.
Panty grinned into the wind, hands desperately pulling the wheel so that the ship slowly, slowly seemed to pull away from the whirlpool.
The vampire's laugh rode the wind like a patronus.
Above them, the storm roared its response.
Icy blasts hurled into the ship, ripping through the sails and snapping the ropes.
A crack sounded from above, and the mizzen mast behind him shuddered.
Oh shit, it broke the mast, oh—
Panty was looking up as well, but the vampire didn't know the ship like Harry did, didn't know—
"Panty, get down!"
The vampire shot him a glance.
And so never saw the broken lantern rig swinging their way.
A second later and Panty was gone, toppling overboard and disappearing down into the churning vortex.
Oh my god no, no—
—Not Harry! Please, not Harry!—
The abandoned wheel spun madly and the ship careened towards the center of the maelstrom.
Harry cringed against the rising pressure of his memories, begging himself to do something.
But all he could do was desperately cling to the railing.
Far above them, he caught sight of a thin black figure. Voldemort floated serenely in the storm's eye.
Fury drowned the voices in Harry's head.
He's doing this on purpose. He's just playing with us.
Well.
Fuck him.
A frigid calm flooded Harry's veins. As the ship curved around the chasm, he waited, muscles taut and desperate, counting the seconds until it was just the right time, until the ship angled just right on the crest of the whirlpool—
Now!
Harry let go.
Hurtling toward the abyss, his body smacked hard off the ship's wheel. But Harry, with the unerring skill of a Seeker, caught hold of it and managed to find his feet.
Wrenching the wheel hard to the left did nothing. The ship still shuddered helplessly around the chasm.
Dammit, the pull's too much.
I can't… I can't get us out of this.
But maybe—
The whirlpool yawned open.
Harry spat in its face.
I can't get us out, but I can get us in.
It took everything he had to keep the wheel steady as he forced the ship dead-on for the centre of the maelstrom.
Here we go...
Winds roared and chunks of ice pelted down on the Delight, but Harry could only pray that Red Nora had done the charms well enough.
With a final, mad vision of Viktor Krum pulling a perfect Wronski Feint, Harry dove the Delight straight down the vortex.
xoxoxox
It was quiet and cold near the bottom of the North Sea.
The ship shuddered and stuttered slowly away from Azkaban.
"That was some fine sailing, culicagado." Red Nora's voice had Harry jumping out of his skin.
We're not dead.
He blinked as a school of fish swam past.
Calloused hands gently grasped his wrists. "You can ease up on the wheel now."
Harry looked into Red Nora's weathered face. "We're not dead?"
"Well. Not yet." The mercenary gave him an appraising look. "I'll take the helm, you check on everyone below decks. Your little Auror took a beating, but the ropes held. She'll be fine."
Her words hit him like an electric shot.
"Panty," he gasped. "My friend, the vampire! Panty saved us but then fell into it, Panty fell—oh God, we need to stop, we need to go back and look—"
"Christ," Red Nora sighed. "I'm sorry about your friend, kid. I am. But anyone went overboard in that…we aren't going to find them."
Harry felt like he'd never be warm again.
"Para dejar el pellejo, lo mismo es hoy que mañana." Red Nora always sounded gentler when she spoke Spanish.
"What's that mean?" he asked dully.
"It means…that your friend was brave. And that it was a good death."
Harry didn't really care about good and bad deaths.
xoxoxox
The pale faces of his friends snapped up when Harry opened the door to the galley. Some were bandaging new wounds.
"We got away," he said quietly. "Everyone okay down here?"
There were nods.
"Alice went back up," Gideon finally said. "I tried to stop her, but—"
"She's fine." Harry couldn't swallow the lump in his throat.
Pel was watching him. "And Panty?"
"Panty saved us." The dullness of his voice said all the words he didn't want to say. "Just like Dalcop saved me."
The barrister's shoulders sagged.
Lupin was staring at the unconscious forms of James and Sirius. "Did you learn anything from the Dementors?"
The real question went unspoken. Was all this worth it?
Harry closed his eyes. "Yeah. Maybe. I'll explain later. I have to help get the ship back to Scotland."
Was all this worth it?
He let the door close behind him.
xoxoxox
A few hours later, they'd crept close enough to the mainland to Portkey back to the Dearborns' house.
Nora and Dag said they'd patch up the Delight enough to take them somewhere far away. Somewhere Myrtle could be free. Somewhere the broken Captain Burke could heal. "Your rich boy should expect a long bill," Red Nora warned.
"I'll let him know," Harry said dully, watching the others carrying Sirius, James, and Alice upstairs. "Whenever he wakes up."
Red Nora followed his gaze. "You could come with us, you know. Captain wouldn't mind, even if you brought your man." She snorted and shook her head. "But you aren't going to do that, are you? Fine. Just try not to get dead, kid."
Harry shrugged and shook her hand. "I always try."
xoxoxox
Notes
This chapter's title is after "Fifteen Men on the Dead Man's Chest," Robert Louis Stevenson's made-up pirate ditty in Treasure Island. More familiar is its refrain "yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum.")
Sirius and the Black family money: Sirius' line about all the Blacks being dead or in jail is a product of me forgetting that Arcturus Black is still alive at this point in canon (Orion died in 1979, I believe, and I had to cut narration about that out of the story). So Sirius really shouldn't be in charge of the Black family vaults. However, I really, really don't want to rewrite this, so let's just go with "this is a different universe and Arcturus Black died… somehow… before 1980."
Caffrey Burke's compass: I'm obviously 'borrowing' from Pirates of the Caribbean here.
Panty's line, "half a league onward:" This is from Tennyson's "Charge of the Light Brigade," which commemorates the eponymous action at the Battle of Balaclava during the Crimean War (in which the famous "Six Hundred" nearly all perished). I've always pictured the young Gryffindor Panty as taking part in that battle (in a magical battalion or something) prior to becoming a vampire.
Dementors' souls: I know that Pottermore and sites like the HP wiki say that Dementors don't have souls, but this strikes me as something that wizards would incorrectly assume. So I ignored it.
Nora's Spanish quotation: Para dejar el pellejo, lo mismo es hoy que mañana: The idea is roughly "Today is as good a day as any to abandon one's skin." It's a Mexican proverb that encourages bravery—essentially meaning "we're all going to die anyway, so act well."
Next on The Second String: It all begins to end in Chapter 42, "This is Ourselves (Under Pressure)." Only four chapters left!
Huge thanks to the best beta ever, AverageFish (ffn ID: 8207725), who once again rose to the challenge of fixing yet another of my massive chapters. Please go look at their submissions for the ongoing International Wizarding School Championship (story ID:13484399), which tell Regulus' story and are really very good. Also, they just completed their multi-chapter story More than One Way to Skin a Cat (story ID: 13283547)- check it out!
