Chapter 10: The Azkaban Takeover
The next morning when Harry woke up, he saw that everyone who shared a room with him was already awake. He quickly dressed, then went into the kitchen, where everyone was gathered around the table, eating.
"Good morning," Harry said, sitting down at the table.
"Nice of you to finally wake up," joked Ron. Harry smiled.
Everyone else at the table was eating their eggs, quietly. Dumbledore was reading the newspaper, the Wizard World. After a while, he put the paper down and said, "When was Fletcher supposed to be coming?"
"Either today or tomorrow," Lupin answered.
"Who's Fletcher?" Harry asked.
"Mundungus Fletcher. He's an Auror, and one of the people who are in on our plan," said Sirius.
"It's not much of a plan," said Ms. Figg.
"I agree, but there's not much else we can do, Arabella," sighed Dumbledore.
The day went by quickly. There was not much to do except homework, which the teachers had given the four to work on while they were away. Dumbledore had told the teachers the students would be out, but he only told Professors Snape and McGonagall why. Dumbledore had no idea how long they'd be gone, so the teachers had given them as much homework as they could carry. It was all very confusing because they hadn't learned it yet, but with a lot of help from Hermione, they did a few assignments.
Harry and Ron were also sore because they were missing Quidditch practice. Although Harry promised he would be back for the next game, he was the team captain. He put the Weasley twins in charge while he was gone. However, it would be hard to practice if you had no Seeker and no Keeper. He left that with the twins to deal with.
Night came quickly, and before they knew it, it was time for bed. Harry tossed and turned in his bed. He couldn't sleep. He kept on thinking. Everyone relied on him. What would he do if Lord Voldemort took Azkaban and he didn't notice? What was Voldemort doing tonight? Late into the night, he fell into a restless sleep.
"Tonight's the night, Wormtail. The dementors wrote that they are still loyal to me, and have told me to meet them tonight. But, Dumbledore might already suspect me; we must go in disguise."
"Disguise?"
"Like this." Lord Voldemort took his wand and tapped himself on the head with it. He was transfigured into his sixteen-year-old self.
"Now you. Let's see… What shall you be, Wormtail? Not your sixteen-year-old self, no, too many who might recognize you. You shall just stay the same. Now, as much as I hate Muggles, their clothing will come in handy tonight." He was already wearing a T-shirt and jeans, and he tapped Wormtail with his wand, and he was soon wearing them, too.
"We can Apparate to the mainland, and then the dementors will take us across to the island," Voldemort said.
"My Lord, I…"
"Don't tell me you don't know how to Apparate!"
"Oh, no, Master, not that. I know how. It's just that…you have my wand." The last few words Wormtail said were full of shame. Voldemort took the wand out of his jean pocket and threw it to Wormtail. With a small pop, they both Apparated to the mainland.
It was a foggy night. A hooded figure hurried toward the two as they stood at the dock. The figure bent into an unmistakable bow. Voldemort smiled. The dementor led them to a small rowboat. All three of them climbed in, and they used magic to speed the boat along.
After a few minutes, the boat came to a stop in front of a large building. They walked inside. There was a long hall way with many barred doors on either side. Voldemort walked up the dark halls of the prison, looking it each cell to see who it contained. The first cell held a young man, sitting quietly and staring into space. Voldemort walked up to door and waved his hand. The man continued to stare.
"Avada Kedavra," Voldemort whispered. The man dropped to the floor, dead.
Harry woke up, screaming, a bad pain in his scar. Dumbledore and the girls rushed into his room, and Sirius, Lupin, and Ron bolted up in bed. Everyone stared at Harry.
"It's happening," he said.
The effect of these two words on the cabin was astonishing. Dumbledore, Sirius and Lupin got up, grabbed their wands, and rushed toward the door. Ms. Figg, the girls, Ron, and Harry rushed after. Dumbledore turned in the doorway.
"Arabella, you stay here with Hermione, Lauren, and Ron. Harry, you come with us."
"But-" Ron protested, but Dumbledore stopped him.
"It's too dangerous. There's no time to talk, now. Let's go." Sirius, Lupin, Dumbledore, and Harry walked out the door. Ron walked sadly back to his bedroom.
"How do we get there?" asked Harry.
"We Apparate," said Dumbledore shortly.
"But I can't Apparate!" protested Harry.
Dumbledore was not paying attention. He was muttering words with his wand pointed at Harry. He tapped himself, and suddenly they were off.
It was the strangest way Harry had ever traveled, even weirder than Floo Powder was. Apparating was like being thrown. It happened instantly. Harry was traveling through an all-white space, when suddenly, he was standing on a foggy shore.
"This is the place I saw in my dream!" Harry said. "Wormtail and Lord Voldemort met a dementor out here and he took them in a boat."
There was no boat to be seen. Dumbledore conjured one from thin air, and they all climbed in. Dumbledore used the same magic Voldemort had used to speed the boat.
When they got to the island of Azkaban, the stepped out of the boat. "Watch yourselves," Sirius warned. They went inside.
The place was deserted. There were no Dementors, no prisoners, no Voldemort, no Wormtail. The three men split up, Sirius taking Harry with him, to search the building. But when they met up an hour later, they found there was nothing but dead bodies in the place.
Dumbledore walked into a small office in the front of the prison. There were many tall filing cabinets and papers. Dumbledore took a thick packet from the desk. Harry watched silently as they looked at all the dead bodies (still in their cells) and checked them off on the sheet. Then Dumbledore took the chart and led them back to the boat. Once at the mainland, they Apparated back to the cabin.
"What happened?" asked an anxious Ms. Figg, as they walked back into the cabin.
"He did it," said Sirius sadly. "Cleaned the place out."
"The Dementors must have gone with him. The prisoners he either killed or took," explained Lupin.
Harry yawned, and bypassing Hermione, Ron's and Lauren's questions, went straight to bed. The others stayed up late, talking.
"We should bring them back," said Sirius. "They're missing school and Quidditch. They're not of much use."
"I agree," added Lupin, "but I think you should go back, too, Dumbledore."
"Yes, I have been away for a while, but we shouldn't go back unless there is a way we can get messages to each other instantly."
"What if we connected to the Floo Network? Then we'll have contact through the fire," suggested Ms. Figg. "I really should be returning home, too."
"That's a good idea," said Sirius.
"It shall be arranged, then," said Dumbledore. "That way we can be here instantly."
It was decided that Harry, Hermione, Ron, Lauren, and Dumbledore would go back to Hogwarts until any news was heard. That afternoon, they got on the Knight Bus, which took them back to the castle. Since Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Lauren had missed a few classes, they needed a little help to catch up, but since they had done some work, they were soon back with the rest of class. Quidditch practices resumed under Harry's authority, and went well.
It had been a week since they had come back to Hogwarts, and Harry wanted to write to Sirius. He planned to write the letter and give it to Dumbledore, who could read it to him when they talked over the Floo Network. He was walking up to Dumbledore's during his lunch break, when he heard other voices coming from the office.
"Crazy! That's just crazy!" came a voice, which sounded like Cornelius Fudge, the Minister of Magic.
"If you don't do something now, you will not be able to do anything later," said a second voice, Dumbledore's.
"I told you not to go meddling in the Ministry! Don't think I don't know about you telling Arthur Weasley to convince everyone in the office! I'll let you do what you want with your school, but this is going too far!"
"Did you go to Azkaban like I requested?"
"No! I have business to attend to! I have no time for such outings!"
"Then you would not have seen what I saw there. The place was deserted. The only people who were there were dead! Lord Voldemort took his followers and the Dementors! Didn't I tell you to take Azkaban out of their control? Yes. But did you? No. Harry has told me that Voldemort also sent word to the giants. If you don't offer them more, it's back to fourteen years ago."
"Harry's just a boy. You can't say you really believe him? He always comes up with strange stories!"
"If you refuse to take the necessary actions, then you can be sure Voldemort will come back to power. Do you understand that? Everything we have worked for to get the world straight will be lost. Is that what you want?"
"Dumbledore, I can't offer friendship to the giants. The people would hate me!"
"Like I said before, Cornelius, if you did not love your job so much, you would ignore what the people said about you and take action!"
Fudge didn't say anything, and it sounded as though he knew Dumbledore was right. "What do you want from me, Dumbledore? I'm not a great sorcerer like you. I don't know what to do."
"I am no great sorcerer compared to Lord Voldemort at his full power. I'm telling you what you must do. Extend friendship to the Giants."
"But what if it's too late?"
"Then there is nothing we can do. We can only hope it's not too late. So do it now."
Harry, still standing in the doorway, realized he had better move before Fudge came out and realized he had been eavesdropping. He walked back out into the corridor.
"Hello, Harry," said Fudge, walking hurriedly towards the exit.
Dumbledore followed Fudge out of the office. "What is it, Harry?" he asked.
"Nothing serious," answered Harry quickly. "I just wanted to give you this letter to Sirius." Dumbledore took the letter and went back into his office, shutting the door behind him. Harry walked back to the common room to tell the others.
The next morning, Harry and Ron were walking back from Quidditch practice when Malfoy came up to them, out of breath.
"Have either of you seen Scott?" he asked bitterly, as though he didn't really want to talk to them but was forced to.
"Not lately," answered Harry.
Malfoy grumbled something, then sped off.
"Wonder what that was about," said Ron.
"Let's follow him," said Harry. The two boys walked down the hall after him.
It wasn't long before they had figured out where Malfoy was going. He was taking a staircase down to the first floor, and turned into a hallway, where, on the wall was still written, "The Chamber of Secrets is opened. Enemies of the heir, beware." Malfoy ducked into the door, first looking around to see if anyone was watching him. He saw Harry and Ron.
"What are you two doing here?" he asked.
"Following you," Ron said plainly.
"Well, go away! I don't need you!"
"Gladly," sneered Ron. He and Harry began to walk away.
"Wait!" Malfoy shouted. They turned around. He looked at the ground.
"Oh, so are you admitting you do need our help?" asked Harry.
"Shut up, Potter," Malfoy said, but it was not his usual tone. It seemed like he had lost something in making fun of them.
They followed him into the bathroom. Before they could even say hi to Myrtle, Malfoy opened the Chamber of Secrets and led them down the slide.
"What makes you think he's down here?" asked Harry.
"He was here last time," said Malfoy.
"Wormtail wouldn't try to kidnap him again, and take him to the same place! Even he's not that stupid!" Ron shouted.
"Shut up, Ron," said Harry.
"Oh, so now you're siding with Malfoy, eh?"
"I didn't say that!" Harry shouted back.
"Well you're sure acting like it!"
"Stop arguing!" shouted Malfoy. "We don't want to let everyone know we're down here!"
"Sorry, Ron," said Harry, "but if we're gonna stop Lord Voldemort, we have to work together." Ron nodded and apologized.
"Now hold on, there!" said Malfoy. "What's all this stuff about stopping the Dark Lord? That's not what I came down here for!"
"Listen up!" said Ron. "Your so-called Master is kidnapping your cousin! Now let's think about it. Let's side with someone who's trying to kill people in our family! Great idea!"
"The Dark Lord does what he thinks best!" Malfoy argued.
Harry sighed and leaned against stone wall of the corridor. "We're not getting anywhere, here."
"Fine," said Ron. "Fine! Do what you want, Malfoy! Think what you want! But when your cousin gets killed, don't complain to us! Come on, Harry!" Harry and Ron left the Chamber and started towards their common room.
"He's the one who asked us to help!" said Ron. "The way he says it, you'd think we followed him!"
"We did follow him a little in the beginning, but he did tell us to come down there with him," said Harry.
Ron nodded, and opened his mouth to comment, but before he could say anything, they heard footsteps and a voice behind them.
"Harry! Ron! Wait up!" Malfoy was coming towards them. He looked defeated. "I need your help."
"Wow," said Ron, "he knows my first name!"
"Shut up," Malfoy said. "I heard my cousin down there, but he wasn't there when I went down."
"You said you didn't need us!" Harry said, and he and Ron kept walking.
"I never said that!" shouted Malfoy.
"Shut up! You're gonna attract a teacher!" Ron hissed.
Sure enough, who came down the corridor then but Professor Snape.
"What do we have here? The first class has already started. What are you two doing out of class?"
Harry, already angry, was about to shout at him that Malfoy was out of class, too, but he didn't get a chance.
"Sorry, Professor," said Malfoy. "I was just showing them something."
"Better be off to class then, boys." Snape walked back down the hallway he had come from.
"There!" said Malfoy. "I saved your skins! Now will you help me?"
Harry sighed, then walked off with Malfoy. Ron followed. They walked down to the Chamber again. Scott was there, in the bottom chamber, lying motionless on the floor. Malfoy rushed over to him, and lifted him up.
"Scott! Are you okay?" Scott opened his eyes, but was too weak to get up. "What happened?"
"He…he told me to follow him. I came down here with him and he attacked me or something. I don't remember," Scott explained weakly.
"Who?" asked Malfoy urgently.
"Your dad."
