Chapter 10: The Race to the Island
As much as Harry would have loved to say he did, he couldn't say he enjoyed
flying in the night sky, miles high above the land in the freezing cold. Here he was, flying
point towards the coast of Great Britain where he would then place himself and all his
friends in a canoe in the middle of a cold sea against the most powerful wizard the
magical community had ever faced. It simply wasn't fair! Why was it always he who had
these duties? He had done the same his first, second, and third years at Hogwarts and,
luckily, everything had turned out alright. But it seemed like each year the stakes rose a
little higher. Each year, someone close to him was placed in greater danger. Last year
the worst had finally happened: Harry had led Cedric Diggory to his death.
There hadn't been a single night after that when Harry hadn't wondered how things
would have ended had he told Cedric to duck, had he abandoned all pretense of chilvary
and just taken the trophy himself. Maybe Cedric would still be alive.
He shook himself out of his steadily darker thoughts as a cold wind blew threw his robes
and froze him. „Ok," he turned and shouted to his teammates."I think we've reached
maximum altitude!"
„Ladies and Gentlemen, we have now reached cruising altitude and the seatbelt signs
have been turned off. We ask, however, that you please wear your seatbelts when
seated. Thank you," Hermione said in her best flight attendent's voice. Without
exception, the entire Order of the Phoenix turned and starred at her. „What?" she said,
„none of you have heard—„ she realized her company was filled with 5 members of a
magical family and looked to Harry in desperation. „Surely you've heard it! You've lived
with Muggles your whole life!"
„And spent most of it in a closet," Harry reminded her.
Fred let out a snicker. „So, you mean to say you've finally come out of the closet,
Harry?" He yelled at Ginny now. „Sorry, Ginny, but it seems you're out of luck. Harry's
attentions are directed elsewhere!"
To her credit, Ginny didn't blush and continued to look directly ahead as though she
hadn't even heard. Harry decided to do the same. The twins , however, were oblivious.
„Maybe they didn't hear!" shouted George.
„I think you may be right!" Fred shouted back and pointed his wand to his troat to
produce a voice of loudspeaker quality. „Ginny," he shouted, „I said that Harry's not—„
Hermione cut him off quickly by shouting, „Quietus!" Fred's voice was reduced to a
thankfully inaudible whisper. „Thank you," Hermione said with a note of satisfaction and
Harry and Ginny threw her looks of gratefulness. Sometimes, (well, when he wasn't
thinnking of Quidditch) Harry couldn't wait until the twins graduated.
They were flying above the clouds now and the sky grew darker as daylight faded and
night set in. The temperature, already cold, plummeted and Harry gave a silent prayer of
thanks when Hermione cast a spell of warmth upon them.
Sighing, Ginny said, „I really don't know howthe Muggles manage without magic. They'd
freeze out here."
Ron gave his sister an appraising look. „First of all, Ginny, they wouldn't be up here on
broomsticks anyway. They'd be in a--- in a --- What's it called again, Hermione? A
Skybus?"
„You mean an Aeroplane, Ron?"
„Yes, that's exactly what I mean."
„You know, maybe if you'd taken Muggle Studies, you'd know that."
„Well, gee, thank you for that amazingly helpful tidbit of information. Maybe if I could
just go back in time and get myself born to a muggle family this wouldn't be an issue,"
Ron replied sarcastically.
Harry rolled his eyes and glanced down at his navigational instrument. He was pretty
sure Ron and Hermione couldn't go a day without bickering. Then again, they had been
spending a lot of time together lately.
Luckily, the Navigator chimed just then signaling that it was time to begin their descent.
„Hey, everybody," Harry called," we're descending!." He angled his broom downwards,
„Now!" He couldn't help but admire the smoothness of their descent and take credit for it
himself. He was just a really (really) good flyer.
They landed smoothly on the rocky beach before Harry was quite finished patting
himself on the back. The seven of them quickly dismounted and the ropes were quickly
magicked away, the brooms stowed away in the boat, then the Order of the Phoenix
hopped into the canoe and, casting nervous looks around them, set off.
In Harry's mind, they had good reason to be nervous. They'd only had one
practice in a real canoe and only a week of regular practice with Marvin. Then there was
Harry's perpetual fear of canoing. He hated water. He hated boats too. They all went
back to the horrible night they spent on that rock in the middle of the Ocean. Riding
there had been hell…the storm all around them, Duddly complaining, the rocking of the
boat, Uncle Vernon with a crazed look on his face, the water stinging his face…Harry
surpressed a shudder as he placed his foot in the boat carefully and forced himself to get
all the way in. "Okay, everybody in," he said, trying to push down his nausea. "Just take
your places and—and we'll try to do this just like we did in practice yesterday only—" he
glanced at the water nervously"-a little faster."
"You're the boss," Fred responded easily and bounded into the boot, quickly
scooping up an oar and plunging it into the water along with half of the boat. Harry felt
even sicker.
"Fred!" He yelled, "Sit down! Don't—ever—ever do that again."
George, who had just sat down, looked over at Harry and noticed the green look
on his face. "Are you okay, Harry?"
Harry opened his mouth to reply but realized he probably couldn't risk it at the
moment and just shook it instead. George took over the lead. "Come on, get the oars,
get in place, Ginny, you're up here with me and Fred will take the back, Ron, you and
Hermione are in the middle, Harry will guide at the front." Harry nodded and took up his
oar and waited until everyone was in until he began to count. "One!
They were perhaps halfway to Azkaban when they first heard the other canoe. It
was moving at a leisurly pace through the dark water and Harry strained his eyes, trying
(but not wanting) to get a glimpsse of it. Night had fallen and the fog with it, giving the
whole place the same eeire atmostphere as his dream. But this was worse than his
dream. All excess noise, such as the counting, was gone. It was just the splash of the
oars hitting the water and the whoosh of the canoes gliding forward, punctuated
periodically by someone's heavy breathing.
Suddenly, a loud BANG sounded over head and lights hit the Order of the Phoenix.
Harry shielded his eyes against the blaze and looked up to see Sean's Yugo bearing down
upon them. A jaunty wave from Sean before he cruised by them was enough to raise the
spirits of everyone on the team. He and Satchel would lay the groundwork for their
infiltration into Azkaban.
An hour later, the Gream Flame bumped into t he shore of Azkaban, Voldemort's
canoe far behind them. Sean was standing next to a hole in the wall, waving them
forward. "Come on! Hurry up! No, don't try to take the boat with you!", he yelled at
Hermione. " Satchel's already gone ahead to find Sirius. He'll get him, we'll bring him
out, watch Voldemort rot and be on our way." One by one, they crawled t hrouhg the
hole in the wall and were not followed by Sean. Instead of seeing his head poke through
the wall, they heard a bump and then cursing from the other side of it. Ginny looked at
Harry apprehensively and suddenly Sean appeared in the hole. Damn prisons....this one's
guarded against morphing." The twins gaped at Sean and probably would have made him
a god right then had Sean not reminded them of the urgency of their situation.
Azkaban was built as a fortress prison whose importance as a holding place for the
worst memberso f the wizarding community could simply not be overestimated. The
Dementors, the traditional guards, had abandoned the prison along with many of ist
unsavory criminals to join Voldemort when he returned but the echoes of their stay still
lingered, chilling all who entered. Still. the newer guard, made up of Ministry Officials
were hardly faultless and escapes were at an all time high, which wasn't saying much
since the all time high before had been one, and that was set by Sirius.
As the eight of them drifted through Azkaban's corridors, thew were given ample
opportunity to appreciate the benifits of having a vampire on their side: every guard they
met along their way had been knocked unconscious, the barred doors bent open with his
superhuman strength, leaving the path clear. Satchel was also immune to nearly all
spells any wizard would think to throw at him as well as poison, which was why wizards
(and so-called supersticious Muggles) used garlic and other instruments to ward them
off.
"Man, they need to work on their interior decorating,"Fred observed quietly as they made
their way through the dark hallway of Azkaban. It really was an understatement:
Azkaban reeked of despair and misery. The musty stinch of former and present inmates
clung to the walls and refused to let go. The Dementors were gone but their presence
lingured along with the wastes and dirty straw that clumbed up at places along the
corridor which was splotched with mirky puddles. The only light was supplied by their
wands.
"Here, we've reached it," Sean said finally. "Reached what?" Ginny's voice held a
strain in it that Harry also felt.
"The door to where Sirius is-- careful, you'll find three steps directly in front of it."
Deciding not to question his knowledge, the eight of them felt their way forward
gingerly, stumbling up the stairs and through the door. What Sean didn't know about,
however, were the two stairs on the other side of the door and all of them stummbled
down them in surprise, only to look up to an even greater shock: A skinny, dark manned
man pinned against a wall staring in fright at a wand held up against his chest. The man
was Sirius and the one holding the wand was none other than Satchel.
As much as Harry would have loved to say he did, he couldn't say he enjoyed
flying in the night sky, miles high above the land in the freezing cold. Here he was, flying
point towards the coast of Great Britain where he would then place himself and all his
friends in a canoe in the middle of a cold sea against the most powerful wizard the
magical community had ever faced. It simply wasn't fair! Why was it always he who had
these duties? He had done the same his first, second, and third years at Hogwarts and,
luckily, everything had turned out alright. But it seemed like each year the stakes rose a
little higher. Each year, someone close to him was placed in greater danger. Last year
the worst had finally happened: Harry had led Cedric Diggory to his death.
There hadn't been a single night after that when Harry hadn't wondered how things
would have ended had he told Cedric to duck, had he abandoned all pretense of chilvary
and just taken the trophy himself. Maybe Cedric would still be alive.
He shook himself out of his steadily darker thoughts as a cold wind blew threw his robes
and froze him. „Ok," he turned and shouted to his teammates."I think we've reached
maximum altitude!"
„Ladies and Gentlemen, we have now reached cruising altitude and the seatbelt signs
have been turned off. We ask, however, that you please wear your seatbelts when
seated. Thank you," Hermione said in her best flight attendent's voice. Without
exception, the entire Order of the Phoenix turned and starred at her. „What?" she said,
„none of you have heard—„ she realized her company was filled with 5 members of a
magical family and looked to Harry in desperation. „Surely you've heard it! You've lived
with Muggles your whole life!"
„And spent most of it in a closet," Harry reminded her.
Fred let out a snicker. „So, you mean to say you've finally come out of the closet,
Harry?" He yelled at Ginny now. „Sorry, Ginny, but it seems you're out of luck. Harry's
attentions are directed elsewhere!"
To her credit, Ginny didn't blush and continued to look directly ahead as though she
hadn't even heard. Harry decided to do the same. The twins , however, were oblivious.
„Maybe they didn't hear!" shouted George.
„I think you may be right!" Fred shouted back and pointed his wand to his troat to
produce a voice of loudspeaker quality. „Ginny," he shouted, „I said that Harry's not—„
Hermione cut him off quickly by shouting, „Quietus!" Fred's voice was reduced to a
thankfully inaudible whisper. „Thank you," Hermione said with a note of satisfaction and
Harry and Ginny threw her looks of gratefulness. Sometimes, (well, when he wasn't
thinnking of Quidditch) Harry couldn't wait until the twins graduated.
They were flying above the clouds now and the sky grew darker as daylight faded and
night set in. The temperature, already cold, plummeted and Harry gave a silent prayer of
thanks when Hermione cast a spell of warmth upon them.
Sighing, Ginny said, „I really don't know howthe Muggles manage without magic. They'd
freeze out here."
Ron gave his sister an appraising look. „First of all, Ginny, they wouldn't be up here on
broomsticks anyway. They'd be in a--- in a --- What's it called again, Hermione? A
Skybus?"
„You mean an Aeroplane, Ron?"
„Yes, that's exactly what I mean."
„You know, maybe if you'd taken Muggle Studies, you'd know that."
„Well, gee, thank you for that amazingly helpful tidbit of information. Maybe if I could
just go back in time and get myself born to a muggle family this wouldn't be an issue,"
Ron replied sarcastically.
Harry rolled his eyes and glanced down at his navigational instrument. He was pretty
sure Ron and Hermione couldn't go a day without bickering. Then again, they had been
spending a lot of time together lately.
Luckily, the Navigator chimed just then signaling that it was time to begin their descent.
„Hey, everybody," Harry called," we're descending!." He angled his broom downwards,
„Now!" He couldn't help but admire the smoothness of their descent and take credit for it
himself. He was just a really (really) good flyer.
They landed smoothly on the rocky beach before Harry was quite finished patting
himself on the back. The seven of them quickly dismounted and the ropes were quickly
magicked away, the brooms stowed away in the boat, then the Order of the Phoenix
hopped into the canoe and, casting nervous looks around them, set off.
In Harry's mind, they had good reason to be nervous. They'd only had one
practice in a real canoe and only a week of regular practice with Marvin. Then there was
Harry's perpetual fear of canoing. He hated water. He hated boats too. They all went
back to the horrible night they spent on that rock in the middle of the Ocean. Riding
there had been hell…the storm all around them, Duddly complaining, the rocking of the
boat, Uncle Vernon with a crazed look on his face, the water stinging his face…Harry
surpressed a shudder as he placed his foot in the boat carefully and forced himself to get
all the way in. "Okay, everybody in," he said, trying to push down his nausea. "Just take
your places and—and we'll try to do this just like we did in practice yesterday only—" he
glanced at the water nervously"-a little faster."
"You're the boss," Fred responded easily and bounded into the boot, quickly
scooping up an oar and plunging it into the water along with half of the boat. Harry felt
even sicker.
"Fred!" He yelled, "Sit down! Don't—ever—ever do that again."
George, who had just sat down, looked over at Harry and noticed the green look
on his face. "Are you okay, Harry?"
Harry opened his mouth to reply but realized he probably couldn't risk it at the
moment and just shook it instead. George took over the lead. "Come on, get the oars,
get in place, Ginny, you're up here with me and Fred will take the back, Ron, you and
Hermione are in the middle, Harry will guide at the front." Harry nodded and took up his
oar and waited until everyone was in until he began to count. "One!
They were perhaps halfway to Azkaban when they first heard the other canoe. It
was moving at a leisurly pace through the dark water and Harry strained his eyes, trying
(but not wanting) to get a glimpsse of it. Night had fallen and the fog with it, giving the
whole place the same eeire atmostphere as his dream. But this was worse than his
dream. All excess noise, such as the counting, was gone. It was just the splash of the
oars hitting the water and the whoosh of the canoes gliding forward, punctuated
periodically by someone's heavy breathing.
Suddenly, a loud BANG sounded over head and lights hit the Order of the Phoenix.
Harry shielded his eyes against the blaze and looked up to see Sean's Yugo bearing down
upon them. A jaunty wave from Sean before he cruised by them was enough to raise the
spirits of everyone on the team. He and Satchel would lay the groundwork for their
infiltration into Azkaban.
An hour later, the Gream Flame bumped into t he shore of Azkaban, Voldemort's
canoe far behind them. Sean was standing next to a hole in the wall, waving them
forward. "Come on! Hurry up! No, don't try to take the boat with you!", he yelled at
Hermione. " Satchel's already gone ahead to find Sirius. He'll get him, we'll bring him
out, watch Voldemort rot and be on our way." One by one, they crawled t hrouhg the
hole in the wall and were not followed by Sean. Instead of seeing his head poke through
the wall, they heard a bump and then cursing from the other side of it. Ginny looked at
Harry apprehensively and suddenly Sean appeared in the hole. Damn prisons....this one's
guarded against morphing." The twins gaped at Sean and probably would have made him
a god right then had Sean not reminded them of the urgency of their situation.
Azkaban was built as a fortress prison whose importance as a holding place for the
worst memberso f the wizarding community could simply not be overestimated. The
Dementors, the traditional guards, had abandoned the prison along with many of ist
unsavory criminals to join Voldemort when he returned but the echoes of their stay still
lingered, chilling all who entered. Still. the newer guard, made up of Ministry Officials
were hardly faultless and escapes were at an all time high, which wasn't saying much
since the all time high before had been one, and that was set by Sirius.
As the eight of them drifted through Azkaban's corridors, thew were given ample
opportunity to appreciate the benifits of having a vampire on their side: every guard they
met along their way had been knocked unconscious, the barred doors bent open with his
superhuman strength, leaving the path clear. Satchel was also immune to nearly all
spells any wizard would think to throw at him as well as poison, which was why wizards
(and so-called supersticious Muggles) used garlic and other instruments to ward them
off.
"Man, they need to work on their interior decorating,"Fred observed quietly as they made
their way through the dark hallway of Azkaban. It really was an understatement:
Azkaban reeked of despair and misery. The musty stinch of former and present inmates
clung to the walls and refused to let go. The Dementors were gone but their presence
lingured along with the wastes and dirty straw that clumbed up at places along the
corridor which was splotched with mirky puddles. The only light was supplied by their
wands.
"Here, we've reached it," Sean said finally. "Reached what?" Ginny's voice held a
strain in it that Harry also felt.
"The door to where Sirius is-- careful, you'll find three steps directly in front of it."
Deciding not to question his knowledge, the eight of them felt their way forward
gingerly, stumbling up the stairs and through the door. What Sean didn't know about,
however, were the two stairs on the other side of the door and all of them stummbled
down them in surprise, only to look up to an even greater shock: A skinny, dark manned
man pinned against a wall staring in fright at a wand held up against his chest. The man
was Sirius and the one holding the wand was none other than Satchel.