Preparations were well beyond anything I had ever expected.

Meetings between dad, Seraphina and myself took a few hours in the morning and, by the afternoon, we were doing drills with our alotted teams to practice how the breakout would work. Seraphina had swiped the map of Azkaban during a visit to the Ministry of Magic, so discussions as to which team would search which corridors led to quick memorizations of the building plans — easiest task for me, of course.

A scheduled meeting took half a day once because, under a special illusion of Seraphina's, the three of us went to the island Azkaban rested on to work through how our separate ways in would go on the night of the breakout. Due to dad's recognizable energy, the Dementors blissfully ignored us as we cased the outside of the building from a safe distance. That was also proven easy.

The problem that remained was getting Marcus not to act so careless during our drills. I'd ask him to take my orders seriously only for him to say that my commands didn't make any sense. It was frustrating, to say the least, because I worried that not even Becky's threats would work on him once the operation was underway. I couldn't wait to get the breakout started, just to see if he'd ignore me then… that way, I would have every right to leave him there with the Dementors and some memory loss.

I even practiced holding the aging spell over Marcus, Draco and myself for hours at a time just to lengthen the time I could hold it — Marcus wouldn't need it during the operation, at least, but I had to practice on somebody until the actual breakout when Becky was able to come. Eventually, it got to the point that it took five hours before I passed out from exhaustion. Which, as good as they told me it was, just wasn't enough to me… even though I had strained myself further than needed by making Marcus an eighty year old man for all those hours. As funny as that was, I felt nervous that I didn't have any more time to practice.

The fated day came all too quickly, and yet also passed by far too slowly.

Most of us waited around by the entryway of Seraphina's mansion, sitting in chairs we conjured up only to impatiently tap our our toes against the ground. Late in the afternoon, and the hours slowly ticked by as we waited. The deep, black robes we all wore felt ominously like another trip to a funeral for me, which may have been part of what added on to the feeling of waiting forever.

Becky sat next to me, bouncing giddily in her seat about as innocently as if we were getting ready to go on a school field trip. Draco was on my other side, pale as the the moon and keeping a tight grip on my hand… I was probably squeezing back just as much, our intermingled hands dangling in between our seats.

Marcus sat on the other side of the room next to Barty, eyeing me longingly every once in a while before bringing his attention back to my ecstatic, former teacher. What brought them together boggled me just as much, unless dad had something to do with introducing them. Considering how everything had been happening, it seemed the more likely occurrence.

Barty was part of dad's team, of course, which also included Draco's dad and the Ministry's executioner, Macnair. Said two paced around the room, deep in thought on the night to come.

Jessamyn, Ash and Cassandra were Seraphina's automatic shoo-ins but, also sitting next to Jessamyn was a tall, buff man with spiky brown hair and green eyes. Despite his tough appearance, his eyes showed worry as he held Jessamyn's hand just as tightly as Draco held mine.

Technically, the only people missing from our waiting party were dad and Seraphina. By those calculations, I felt like I should've been missing as well.. but there I was.

"I'm bored!" Ash suddenly moaned, standing up to pace around.

Cassandra glared up at him, "So am I. You don't see me crying about it."

The man next to Jessamyn looked up, his thick eyebrows furrowed in confusion, before turning to Cassandra. "What are you talking about? He's not crying."

Cassandra rolled her eyes with a sigh of exasperation.

Jessamyn held back her laughter, patting his leg with her free hand as she said, "It's a figure of speech, honey."

"Oh," was his only response, though he continued to look lost.

Ash clapped his hands together, commanding the attention of the entire room back to him. "We should play a game to pass the time!"

"Are you sure you're a grown adult?" Cassandra sneered. "Maybe you should go back to Hogwarts."

"Shut up," he snapped before grinning at the room at large. "Who's with me? Doesn't have to be a childish game. It could just be something along the lines of someone asking a general question, and everyone else answers. You could consider it a 'getting to know each other' sort of game."

I held back my own groan. I hated those games in Muggle school.

It seemed I wasn't the only one unwilling as everyone shuffled awkwardly, and Ash continued to encourage it, "Come on, it'll be fun! I promise!"

Surprisingly… it didn't turn out to be all that bad. Once Ash broke the ice with enough questions, Becky even jumped in — of course — and what was basically the game of truth and dare (with only truth) actually helped the time pass by rather nicely.

It was through this that I found out the man next to Jessamyn had been her boyfriend since Hogwarts, and his name was Barnaby. Seraphina didn't allow for him to join the mission because his parents happened to be a few of the Death Eaters that we were breaking out. She has more heart than she'd like to let on, I thought with a smug grin as I watched the two of them together, sensing that he wasn't just worried about his parents getting out… he also hoped Jessamyn would make it back to him in one piece.

In all honesty, though, I mention the truth game merely to note the question I remember most. And it also came from Ash:

"Who knew which House they would be sorted into, and why?"

Considering basically all of us were Slytherins — unsurprisingly, including Ash — it was more fascinating to see how everyone considered their own placement rather thoroughly. Draco and Lucius were both, as expected, always certain that they'd be in Slytherin… I would know, since Draco had boasted about it on the train our first year and the sorting hat had barely touched his head before it proclaimed 'Slytherin!'

I had thought Becky and I were different enough to be the only ones to say that we thought we'd be in Ravenclaw, but I couldn't have been more wrong when Cassandra spoke up.

"My family's always been a mix of Ravenclaws or Slytherins, so I already knew I would at least be one of those two options. My passion for learning about every possible poison is what landed me as a Ravenclaw, according to the hat."

I perked up, "That's sort of like my grandfather. His whole family have been Ravenclaws for generations, and I'm pretty certain it's due to their passion for wandlore."

Cassandra returned a small smile in response.

"Bah, don't butter her up so much!" Ash said with a wave of his hand. "She's a Ravenclaw because she has an obsession. That's all Ravenclaws are is obsessed with learning something. I, on the other hand, was in Slytherin because I have natural killer instincts."

"Wouldn't killer instincts include the ability to avoid things that will kill you?" she asked, eyebrows raised questionably. "Not so easy with me — a Ravenclaw — around or something?"

Ash stared blankly back at her for a few moments until his eyes wandered, and he found his subject change. "Mistress Seraphina!" he called out, the witch in question just exiting the ballroom by herself. He waited until she walked over to us to ask, "How'd you know you'd be in Slytherin?"

Leaning against the back of my chair without another thought, she said, "Well, I didn't."

"Really?" I asked. "Which one did you expect to be in?"

"Good heavens, dearie, none of them. Matter of fact, I even told the hat that I didn't want to be in any of the four Houses."

"How did it react?"

"Well, it asked me what I was expecting."

"And what did you say?"

"I told it to make a new House. I'd gladly join House Azkaban. I would've been the lone queen."

It took perhaps a minute of us staring at her in stunned silence before we all burst into fits of laughter. At the same time it was such an unexpected answer, it was also so Seraphina to want to be unique in everything she did.

The jovial atmosphere was broken minutes later when the ballroom doors opened again, silence pursuing all our laughter out the door as dad stood there. He gazed imperiously around the room before nodding to the Death Eaters assigned to join him on the mission. They fled quickly to his side while Seraphina and I stood straight, waiting with bated breath for the go ahead. With a wave of Seraphina's wand, the front doors opened to a cool breeze and darkened sky.

"Tonight…" dad began steadily, "… we add on to our growing numbers a group of witches and wizards that have proven their loyalty to our cause against all odds. We build our family back up to its original strength, and also prove the capabilities of our new recruits."

I felt Becky's hand reach over to snag hold of my hand, allowing her to take and squeeze it as dad's eyes trailed from Seraphina and her followers… to me and mine. It was too serious a situation for my friend to be mocking Draco — his hand in particular holding mine tighter than usual — so I could safely assume this time around that my dad actually was pretty scary to her.

That was a new thought.

Dad's eyes finally moved away from us as he smiled, raising one arm up in excitement. "Let us take back that which belongs to us!"

There were hoots and hoorays of excitement before everyone got themselves ready:

Death Eaters pulled their hoods over their heads, and set their silver skull masks up on their faces.

The Nightmares… well, they transformed. Jessamyn, Ash and Cassandra were obviously Animagi as they each, with a wave of their wand — or scythe — morphed into varying animals. Jessamyn was soon a type of leopard, spotted black all over and with black marks framing her eyes where her glasses had been; Cassandra's wolf form was as heterochromatic as her eyes — with her right blue eye, half of her body was pure white… and with her left red eye, the other half was pitch black — the scratch over her red eye showing as a random white streak of fur; and Ash's form as a black and white husky was more normal until his eyes, which stayed as brown as they normally were when he fully transformed, changed to an ice blue as he growled warningly at Cassandra for edging too close to him.

Seraphina was a different story entirely. Skeletal, long black wings sprouted from her back as well as a thin, black tail. With a consistent wave of her hands in front of her face, her features slowly blurred until a shadow covered her like a mask. Her outfit was shaped into a set of tight, black robes, too.

When she turned to me and asked in a distorted voice, "Everything all right, dearie?" I realized I'd been gawking.

Composing myself, I pulled my new cobra mask out of a large, magicked pocket in my robes and put it on. Looking at my crew, I felt a sense of pride in the fact that Seraphina had been quick to create masks for them so we had a way of discerning that they were with me.

Becky's mask was the face of a Himalayan cat, something Seraphina was somehow able to derive from the form that my best friend's Patronus took form of. Despite the fact that any Patronus is just white magic, with a bit of study she was able to properly tell the correct breed…. Truly, it was for the best, for my best guess was a Persian cat.

Draco's mask had thrown me off when she first showed it to us, and it caused Draco to promise multiple death attempts when Becky finally showed up. It was the face of a white ferret. A story she could have only ever gotten out of Becky, perhaps during the nights I asked the two of them to focus on Occlumency together. Whether it was by accident through her thoughts or on purpose by word of mouth, Seraphina wouldn't reveal.

It was, however, my first time seeing the mask she got for Marcus… and I was just dying to laugh out loud. I could barely even hold back the snorts that escaped as I stared at a green-skinned troll face; the ugly thing open-mouthed with yellow, rotting teeth like a true troll. The look on both the mask and Marcus was dumbfounded as, added with a scowl, he put it on.

Placing one hand on Draco's shoulder and the other on Becky's, I took a deep breath and closed my eyes before I mentally thought the spell to age us up. Miscuere… the change in our bodies was not as immediately tiring as it used to be, but I wasn't about to get ahead of myself for there was a possible many hours ahead. My arms raised slightly as they both grew an extra inch and I inwardly rolled my eyes at my luck.

I opened my eyes to stare between dad's gaze and Seraphina's… well, nothingness. With a unified nod; dad, Seraphina, and all their followers Disapparated.

I glanced at Marcus, his posture awkward as he slowly edged closer to me. "Still haven't figured out how to properly Disapparate?" I asked. As he mumbled something about still needing some practice, I suppressed the urge to sigh as I jerked my head for him to come over. "Put your hand on my shoulder, then. We don't have all night."

I stared at the ground in anticipation, all too ready to get everything over with. As soon as I felt his warm palm rest against my robes covering my shoulder, I felt darkness flow through me as I silently Disapparated to my designated spot on the west side of the tall, triangular shaped, gloomy building.

Due to the three sides of the fortress, there evidently were three entrances into Azkaban. Each one was heavily guarded by a horde of Dementors, all of whom expected our… um, visit. And, considering Azkaban sat on an island in the middle of nowhere, the depressing feeling of the Dementors nearby wasn't the only thing to make me shiver. The smell of salt in the air mixed with the freezing wind only added on, along with the sound of the waves crashing against the shore nearby blocking out any other possible noise.

We trekked ahead along the wet, cobblestoned path, the despair pressing against us as we ventured closer and closer. The amount of Dementors that had searched Hogwarts for Sirius Black two years before had to be practically nothing compared to what we were about to see inside. That was a terrifying thought.

Once at the wrought iron gate, the darkness behind it so deep I felt like we would be swallowed, it slowly creaked open… What I thought was darkness turned out to literally be so many Dementors that we couldn't see the hallways behind them.

The chills crawling up my spine worsened as they stared at us, a familiar voice echoing through my mind:"My daughter… I trust you to heed my warning and my rules." Yeah, great, the one I care about and do everything for is also the root of my worst memories. Great reminder. "I'm here to break out the Death Eater prisoners in the southeastern wing," I said as sternly as I could muster.

They continued to stand there, edging toward us slightly as we stood there staring back at them.

Yeah, that's not a good sign of them listening to me. I'm not the same as dad, for one, and obviously, I turned to look at my crew. Despite not being able to see their faces, I could tell by the slump of their shoulders that they were lost in their worst memories. They're just happy to have more people to feed on.

With a sigh, I shook Becky awake. She jolted up in surprise, grasping my arm.

"Remember your best memory! Strongest happiness you can muster!" I shouted in her ear, hoping she could still hear me over the mixed sensation of waves crashing against the shore and despair crashing against our hearts.

Becky's reaction was hesitant, but then she gave a vigorous nod.

After giving a nod in return, we both pulled out our wands and pointed at the army of Dementors. As one, we shouted the incantation and waved, "Expecto Patronum!" The silvery cat and cobra sprouted out of our wands, making quick work of the crowd of Dementors by either ejecting them out of the building or backing them into the shadows of the inner hallways.

Draco and Marcus came to with a few shivers, my silver cobra slithering over to Draco to warm him up.

"All right," I said with a few heavy breaths, "let's keep moving forward." Becky's hand on my arm made me pause and turn to look at her.

"You need to reserve your magic," she said, pointing to my Patronus which actively moved away from Marcus every time he tried getting closer to it. "Just focus on the age spell. I'll handle this."

"Are you sure?" I asked worriedly.

She gave me an energetic two thumbs up, so I relaxed myself lightly with a chuckle. The cobra disappeared, and we began walking inside through the hallway of dimly lit candelabras.

As we went, Marcus asked, "Was I the only one hearing Melody say something while the Dementors were in the way?"

For a prison, one would expect that the cells wouldn't be easily opened by Alohomora.

Well, that was a wrong assumption.

I suppose it made sense that the Dementors were all the security measure needed. The only breakouts occurring had outside help, or it was done by an unregistered Animagus. But, if there was always people that could handle the Dementors with ease, then it was not enough of a security measure. It was a bad way to go out, too, with the severe lack of windows and the smell of death and depression extremely heavy on the senses despite Becky's Patronus emanating warmth and happiness.

I did the rest of the trip by memory, making it to the meetup point near the very top of the fortress that dad drilled the route into me numerous times. Sometimes I had to pause for a few minutes just to run through the steps I took in my thought, and what remained.

The four Death Eaters I had rescued from the middle of the fortress — after many, many exhausting and depressing staircases — were named Sebastian Selwyn, Mulciber II, and Dominic and Annalisa Snyde.

Sebastian was a male carbon copy of Seraphina, negating any reason for me to ask him of their relation to one another — brother, cousin, uncle; it didn't matter to me right then.

Mulciber II… he was… nothing much. Even behind bars, he covered himself with the hood of his robes. All I really had any information of on him was that he was very near the brim of going mad when I finally arrived… so yeah, that answered my unasked question as to why Dementors surrounded his prison cell like bees looking to harvest honey from the last, untouched flower in the field.

Moving on.

Dominic and Annalisa were husband and wife, the man with reddish brown hair and the woman with hair so dirty I wasn't sure if I should assume the color was brown or blonde. They held hands, eagerly following every step I took even when I paused. They had spent so many years in separate cells that being back together was nearly beyond their desperate belief.

The crew was pretty quiet, to be sure. I'm certain it was mostly because they were so happy at the thought of getting out, and that any words from their mouths might ruin the best dream ever. Thankfully Becky's Patronus was still holding strong for us — it pranced through the hallway ahead of us as nonchalantly as any cat would.

Around the last time I stopped to refresh my thoughts, and take a few breaths to help hold up the heavy aging spells, I nearly lost my focus when I noticed something idiotic my troll of an ex was doing.

"Would you stop that?" I snapped at Marcus, glaring at him as he poked the hollowed cheek of an imprisoned man leaning sickeningly still against the bars.

"What?" he asked defensively, leaning away from the poor man. "I'm bored!"

"We are in a prison. What is wrong with you? Do you want me to leave you here?"

"I know tha — ow!"

Becky, who had roughly whacked him upside his head, gave me a thumbs up.

With a relieved chuckle, I continued leading us forward and around corners. Moving quickly until we finally reached our destination — everyone else already there. Death Eaters, Nightmares, and other escaped prisoners all blended together in a widespread sea of oddly dressed people. Dementors flew haphazardly through the air, making dives mainly at those with the prisoners' gray striped clothing.

Cassandra the wolf chased Ash the husky ceaselessly around the room at such a speed that I was seeing them pass by me every twenty to thirty seconds. It made me wonder what dad thought of their lack of professionalism… or, well, just how little Seraphina cared about what he thought to be enjoying their rivalry so much.

I noticed, in a far corner of the room, Jessamyn back in human form speaking animatedly with another couple like Dominic and Annalisa in prisoner clothing. Seraphina, wings still large and widespread, stood with them until she spotted me and waded easily through the crowd with those same wings brushing past others' faces as she went. She grinned with pride as she made it over to me before she spotted Sebastian over my shoulder, the smile lowering into a frown.

"Horrible to see you, brother," she said dryly as she wrapped a cool arm around me to pull me along with her.

"Likewise, little sister," he countered, crossing his arms as we walked away.

I would've asked what we were doing, but I didn't even have enough energy to spare for curiosity — so much time had passed since we walked into the fortress that the aging spell was taking its toll well beyond what it had when we snuck into the Department of Mysteries.

I didn't have to wait long, however, as she leaned close to me to whisper, "Brace yourself darling. Your father found a prisoner here that he's longed to have killed since he betrayed him fourteen years ago. He wanted you to be the one to decide his fate, and you know he'd love for it to be an atrocious one. Give me your best shot before we make it over there."

I furrowed my eyebrows in pained thought, looking up at all the Dementors flitting back and forth like wasps. "Uh… Dement —"

"Perfect," she interjected, "I was thinking the same." Seraphina glanced over our shoulders, wildly gesturing her wing, "Come, come. You can't be too far away from her or the spell might not hold. She needs all the support you can give, you know."

Becky and Draco's footsteps raised their pace and sound until they walked right behind us.

It was once we reached a corner of the room that I saw the person that Seraphina was talking about. Dad and Barty stood above a ragged man that knelt at dad's feet… quite literally… soft mutters escaping his lips as he begged forgiveness.

Brown, matted hair on his head and face proved that, even if he hadn't been in Azkaban from the start, he had certainly been in there for a while.

"Barty, explain to Melody about this man," dad said coolly, staring down at the man in disgust.

Barty, smirking giddily, turned to me, "Theodore Jones; one of the worst snitches to come into my Lord's ranks. Gave up multiple names so he wouldn't end up in Azkaban with the rest of us. Pointless when, a few years later, he was caught mind-wiping several Mudbloods beyond repair. Wants to be forgiven for his transgressions."

I automatically sneered down on the man, though my face couldn't be seen, pushing down my struggle with the aging spell to kick the man away from dad's feet. He moaned painfully.

"Who told him he had the right to even touch him?"

Barty smirked… proudly.

Dad looked proud, too, interestingly enough. Ruby eyes glimmered as he glanced at me, a smile forcing its way to his face. "Take off your mask, my daughter. Show him the face of the young woman to whose palms his fate rest in."

With a thick swallow, I did as asked to glare coldly down at the twitching man on the floor. He cowered under my gaze, my Dark Magic induced red eyes likely glowing dangerously.

"Your verdict, princess?" Barty asked.

I took a deep breath, pushing a smile forward for show purposes, "The Dementor's Kiss."

Dad's agreeable grin was all the go-ahead one Dementor needed to swoop down on the man, blubbering and screaming still on the floor, and leaning into his face. I watched as a white mist formed between him and the Dementor, pulling from his mouth and eyes for about a minute until the mist disappeared and the Dementor flew off as quickly as it came. All that remained was a newly emptied body.

I let my mask stay off, forcing myself to keep my cool as the tears threatening to escape my eyes added a pressure to my head that I didn't have the patience to deal with just then. I had to keep the charade going… I have to… show mercilessness….

Dad finally gave me a curt nod, giving me the permission I sorely needed to fasten the mask back up to my face.

He then turned to the room at large; just that, alone, brought everyone's attention to him. "We have our faithful friends back, and our revenge, tonight!" He pulled out his wand, pointing it at a wall, "Now for us all to destroy a piece of this prison! Give those fools something else to talk about!"

As one, the Death Eaters and even the Nightmares — of which two quickly reformed back into humans — pulled out their wands. I pulled out my own, sensing the sheer amount of power reverberating through the room as we all waved. With a loud BANG, a chunk of the building broke off and revealed a stormy sky along with the CRASH of the piece landing heavily on the ground. Lightning flashed back to back with the CLASH of thunder every ten seconds.

A woman with curly, bedraggled hair and the prisoner clothing on walked over next to dad, grinning about as madly as Barty. Then she began to laugh, a maniacally ecstatic laugh that only proved being in Azkaban had made her go crazy or she'd already been that way. It sent a shiver through my spine.

With another elated nod from dad, everyone began Disapparating. I snagged hold of Becky and Draco's hands, quickly Apparating just outside Seraphina's mansion along with everyone else. Marcus arrived with Sebastian, who handed his wand back to him.

There was utter silence as the newly freed prisoners of Azkaban soaked in the night breeze, smiles and sighs of relief under the bluish black sky.

"Tonight…" dad said with a large grin, slowly turning to look at the faces of everyone around him, "was a success!"

Cheers erupted all around me as my stomach took a sick twist.

Hi everyone, LJ back again!

It… I mean… it has been a while since my last update. I promise it's not on purpose, and I'll NEVER give up on Melody (I know the annoyance that comes from anyone just stopping a story at any given place).

I've just been, for lack of a better word, lazy — and I knew from the beginning that this would be a long chapter… just didn't realize it'd be TWO chapters.

I feel like the last part of this chapter is slightly rushed, so let me know if you feel the same. There's just a lot I wanted to cover, and to compact it into all this made me kinda nuts and — strangely enough for my irl calm temperament — impatient.

Back to a happy note, to those of you that know the game Hogwarts Mystery, I bring a small guest appearance from Barnaby Lee — the sole love interest I gave to Jessamyn as the main character of the "Jacob's sibling" school years.

Also, to anyone who noticed, the prison breakouts of both Barnaby's parents AND the parents of the first bully in Hogwarts Mystery, Merula Snyde. She'll eventually be introduced to Melody, but it probably won't be in this book.

I've technically never finished the game — Jessamyn's in her fifth year at the very moment — but I have seen spoilers (by pure accident) so I don't want to give away too much to those that DON'T like spoilers. In the end, I am just making things my own way (well, technically MY way and THE way of the original creators of the other characters in this book).