Harry Potter and the Four Lights

Chapter 4: The Escape from Azkaban

Harry did not know what to make of what the young witch had just said, and instead he merely stared at her – his wand still raised and pointed at her. "I don't believe you."

"Harry!" She cried out as she turned to him, her dark brown eyes were wide and her nostrils flared. She had the appearance of being in the utmost state of dismay, as she wailed in an unusually high pitched voice, "You can't say that, you've got to believe me!"

"Well, I don't." And Harry didn't. How dare this stranger barge into his house, act like she knew him, claimed his only living relatives were dead, and ordered him to come follow her and not expect some sort of argument, it was laughable really. "I won't come unless you tell me what's going on."

The woman faltered, but opened her mouth to speak when there was a sudden crack against the window. Harry's eyes followed the noise, and he saw a tawny colored owl beating on the window with it's beak, barely staying aloft in the heavy rain outside – the girl's eyes followed as well.

Harry nodded at the window, "Open it."

"But-"

"Open it."

She didn't look as if she wanted to, but she hurried over to the window and flung it open. Instantly the owl fluttered in, and rain flew in behind it. She closed the window down, and they both looked at the owl. Clutched in his claws was a rolled up newspaper, and Harry recognized it to be that of a Daily Prophet, the wizarding newspaper.

The owl flew over to Harry, and dropped the newspaper at his feet, before settling down on the top of Hedwig's cage, fluttering it's wings in an effort to dry them. The woman wrung her hands together nervously, but said in a slightly eager voice, "Open it, open it, it might have some news on the situation…I only know a bit."

Harry, without letting down his guard, picked up the newspaper and unfurled it, and instantly was chilled for in bold letters, the headline of the front page read;

"MASSIVE ESCAPE FROM AZKABAN"

Harry, forgetting about the girl, immediately began to read the rest of the article, his gaze dancing from side to side as he read faster then he ever had in his life.

'As the sun sets on the island of Azkaban last night, little did we realize that it would never rise on a tranquil Azkaban ever again. According to sources here at the Prophet,  At an estimated 11-o-clock this evening, the Dementors that guard Azkaban disappeared and in that time over a third of the prisoners in Azkaban escaped, including that of the recently captured Deatheaters…'

They went on to list the names of the prisoners, and the names went on for quite a while with a picture of a scowling wizard of witch on the side of them, with warnings for what to do if you spotted any of them…Harry stared and stared at the paper, before looking up at the anxious girl in front of him, "You…you…knew about this?"

"What's it say?" She demanded, reaching for the paper.

"There's, there's an escape at Azkaban…"

"I know that!" She said in an agitated voice, "Did they not have any other information besides that?"

Harry stared at the paper, and reread the entire article. "No," He said after a short deal, "There's nothing else, it just says there's been a breakout…"

"Did the Ministry say anything?"

"No comment." Harry said, reading from the paper and glancing up at her, "But, how did you know about…"

"Like I said, Dumbledore sent me!"  Harry stared at her for a long moment, not knowing what to believe. She grabbed at his arm frantically, "Look, Harry, we don't have time for this…we've got to get you OUT OF HERE!'

He winced at her voice, it didn't sound like one that was used to yelling and as a result it was strained and harsh against his ears, but for some reason he was compelled to believe her. After all, if she said Dumbledore had sent her…then all of a sudden he blinked, "What? Does this have to do with the Dursleys?"

She nodded as she began to flutter around the room, looking around for something when she came upon his trunk she threw it onto the bed and flung it open, and immediately began stuffing whatever she could find into it. "C'mon Harry, get a few things!"

"No…" Harry said slowly, surprising even himself and from her flared nostrils and wider eyes, he had surprised her as well. He balled up one of his hands into a fist, "Tell me what happened to the Dursleys or I won't go."

"Bloody hell, Harry!  Isn't it obvious?! They found out who they are!"

"Who did?"

"The-the DEATHEATERS!" She sputtered, staring at him incredulously, "Are you bloody daft? COME ALONG!"

Even if Harry hadn't wanted to, he didn't really have a choice as she grabbed his arm, her pointed nails digging slightly into his skin as she began to drag him down the stairs with one hand and his trunk in the others. She was pulling so hard that she was almost pulling his arm out of his socket, and he found he was stumbling as he struggled to keep up with her and pull his arm out of her grip at the same time.

Although he fought her, it was only a matter of time before she had dragged him down the stairs and was pulling him out of the door into the rain towards a red sports car. She hissed a garbled word under her breath and the door to the car flew open without a touch, and then for the first time she turned and faced Harry dead on.

"In the car," She whispered, her breath short and her voice quick and barely audible against the heavily falling rain, "You must lay down and get under the cloak and say nothing."


Harry opened his mouth to protest, but she had smacked her hand across it and was already shoving him bodily from under the Dursley's porch and into the cold rain – steering him blindly into the direction of where he had last seen the car in a flash of lightening. He grappled with her hands as she shoved him into the backseat, but there was a sudden loud crack that wasn't accompanied by a flash of lightening, and he fell silent.

She stiffened, as they both recognized the crack for what it was – not from thundering, but by a wizard or witch magically appearing. In a swift movement, Harry found himself being covered by a cloak, and before it covered his eyes, he saw his body disappearing and recognized his own invisibility cloak.

He lay rigid, as he heard the girl say in a chirpy voice, and he saw her hesitate over the car, "Allo there, mate!"

There was a low growl, followed by a familiar low voice muttering, "You there," And then a word that sounded strangely like 'muggle', "Do you know where the… 'Dursleys' live?"

"Dursleys?" She repeated slowly, and then in a bright voice she said, "Oh yeah, the Dursley's they live on the next street I think…but it's a bit late for them, they're probably sleep already."

"And you…you aren't." Harry could hear the grass squishing beneath what sounded like boots, as the other person muttered in a whispery soft voice "What, pray tell, are you doing out in such a hurry at this time."

Harry didn't even dare to breathe, as he saw a cloaked figure moving next to the woman in the reflection of the window, but she seemed completely calm. He could practically see the smile on her face as she said chirply, "Oh, I've got a late flight, you know, airplane rides, and I'm already late…" She laughed brightly, as if it was a funny joke. "…so I've really got to get out of here, sorry. I would show you the house myself, but you know."

There seemed to be some sort of more movement communication then, because in an instant the girl had half jumped into the car, and was speeding away and Harry didn't hear a voice hiss out 'Advadra Kedavra'. Instead he looked up just in time to see the hollow face of Lucius Malfoy above the window, glaring at the woman in the car.

~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~

They drove for quite some time, Harry not daring to move as part of him felt as Lucius Malfoy was driving along side behind him, with one of the Weasley Twins extendable ears. And the other part of him was still playing over the matter of the Dursley's in his mind, and it was actually her who broke the silence with a long sigh of relief several minutes, maybe even an hour, later, "Lucky that was!"

"Yeah." Harry muttered, stiffly, starting to pull the cloak off of himself since it was getting rather sticky there.

"Hey, no! Keep it on!" She said sharply, glaring back at the bit of him that was suddenly visible through the rearview mirror.

Harry kept it on, but she kept on talking – more to herself than Harry, since he wasn't putting up much of a conversation as he lay sweating and invisible beneath the cloak. It was a bit after her talking that Harry cut in, and muttered – in a low voice – "What happened to the Dursleys?"

The silence that came after contrasted with her normal eager talking, but after a bit she said in an uncertain voice, "Well, the, I don't know…what they did…but, I think they thought you were with them."

"Who?"

"The Deatheaters…the Deatheaters had escaped, and they thought that you were with the Dursleys, and they…" She stared at the road for a while, her eyes suddenly dark in the mirror, but then in the same bright voice she said to Lucius Malfoy, she said chirply in a complete change of topic "Well, Harry, I hear you're a big fan of Qui-"

"-But I thought I was safe from Voldemort on the holidays…" Harry muttered, more to himself then to her.

She winced visibly at the name, but said in an unsure voice, "Dumbledore…well, Dumbledore explained but…well, I was in a hurry and didn't get most of it. I think they counteracted the spell."

"But…Dumbledore said tha-"  

"-Look, Harry, I don't really know, but it's no sense worrying about it now. Dumbledore will give us the sign, and then we'll go to…London."

"Right." Harry muttered, flexing his hands under the cloak. He understood what she meant by 'London', she meant 12 Grimauld Palace, the location of the Order of the Phoenix; a secret organization that were plotting against Voldemort. He tilted his head up so he got a better view of the sky through the window; it was hard to make out anything from the way the rain was pattering against the window and he found himself blinking for longer and longer extended periods, before he finally closed his eyes.

When he opened them, he found he was no longer in the back seat of the car, instead he was in a large dark room, and the only light he could see was flickering candle in the corner. He felt his mouth twist into a wry smile that wasn't his own, as a pale and small figure stood before him shivering the sweat on their face gleaming in the candlelight.

In his ears, his own voice was harsh and jagged, "So, you are the Malfoy boy…"

Draco Malfoy, gave him a curt nervous nod and Harry found himself amused at the sight. The Malfoy boy was quite worthless, nowhere near as helpful as his father, but would do well in his plans…yes, in fact, his information had already proved helpful.

"Your father is out now, did you know…" Harry muttered in that cool jagged voice.

Malfoy nodded once more, looking as if his knees would buckle at any moment.

"And, you no doubt know, that I require you for my plans."

"Y-yes, I know."

Suddenly Harry felt a hot surge of anger, how dare that impudent child have the audacity to refer to him like that, as if he were one of his school mates. Harry pulled out his wand, and pointed it squarely at Malfoy, who let out a little gasp and took a step back.  "What. Did. You. Call. Me?"

"N…noth-oh!" Malfoy's face looked horrified with recognition, "I'm sorry, M-m-m" He didn't look as if he wanted to say it, and Harry felt his lip curve into a sneer. His father wouldn't mind the boy's death all too much, he could barely tolerate him – cowardly thing. "MASTER!" Draco suddenly shrieked out, his voice hitting a sharp on the word and cracking.

The sound so amused Harry that he found himself laughing, almost hysterically and his voice echoed in the room – loud and harsh, but it began to change to his average laughter, and it filled Harry's ears and head. However, it was suddenly interrupted by the woman's voice, as she snapped, "Harry, what's so funny?"

As immediate as the laughter had come, it disappeared almost instantly – leaving Harry feeling somewhat empty inside and rather odd.

"Well, you gonna tell me or not?" The woman said irritably, and as she turned to face him he saw she had bags under her eyes that had not been there when he fell asleep.  His eyes instinctively flew to the window, where the sky was a muddled sort of white gray of a day where rain had just, or was just about to fall.

"It's stopped raining." He muttered, the sight of the pale white yet still alarmingly bright sky hurting his eyes.

"Yeah, around 4." She muttered, wiping at her eyes tiredly.

"Have you gone to sleep…?"

"Don't be daft, I can't." She said shortly, "I have to lookout."

"Oh." Harry said, "Are we going to…London…now?"

"Nope." She said brightly, gassing the car and shooting past a family in a Ford to the right of them. "Dumbleodre's not sent the okay yet," Then she added in a thoughtful voice, "Another reason to stay awake."

"So, where…are we going?"

"My place," She said, as she threw back a bottle of pills at him. "We're not that far away, really. You'll be able to eat something there, open that for me will you?"

Harry glanced at the label, which read 'Stay Awake Pills (Includes the Antidote to Sleeping Draughts)', and then stared up at the lady. "You've been taking these?"

"Mmmmmmm, just open them." She muttered, sinking down into the seat and blinking tiredly.

Harry obliged and poured the bright pink pills into his hand, she reached back blindly and grabbed the handful and stuffed into the entire handful into her mouth causing Harry to stare at her. "Is that…that safe?"

"Dunno," She said chirpily, and then sat up suddenly, and peered over the steering wheel into the mid-day traffic, "Probably not, but they work quicker if you take more…I'll probably sleep for days when I finally get to sleep."

Harry blinked, slightly taken aback, and decided it would be a good place to shut up. He stared at her for a long time, she was really a chubby girl with a round face – she couldn't be older then 25, but had a tired look in her brown eyes – probably because she hadn't appeared to have slept at all the night. She was wearing jeans and a t-shirt, and had the appearance of a Muggle but he remembered seeing her pulling out her wand earlier that day, "Who are you?"

"Huh?" She said, glancing back at him and taking her eyes off the road, "You mean I haven't told you?"

"Yeah, uh, who are you?"

"Artemis Warde." She said, her eyes going back to the road, "I'm a friend of Nymph and Pixie."

"Uh…Nymph and Pixie?"

"Oh, you know, Tonks, and Pixin."

Harry only recognized one of those names, and that was Tonks – she had been one of the members of the Order that Harry had met a year ago now. She had been by far one of Harry's favorites, mostly because of her cheerful exterior and partly because he respected her since she was an Auror, and that was the only thing he wanted to do after leaving Hogworts.

"They're both members of you know what!" Artemis said, glancing back at Harry in surprise, "Don't tell me you don't know them!"

"I…I know Tonks…" Harry said thoughtfully, "But I've never heard of 'Pixin'."

"But!" Then she trailed off, and leaned back into the seat relaxing again "Oh, right then, she's just joined with me – of course you haven't heard of her yet."

Harry shifted under the cloak, choosing not to respond and pressed his cheek into the leather exterior of the car, thinking to himself silently, and he stayed quiet for quite a long time. In fact, the next time they spoke, it was several hours later, and after she had slowed down to a stop.

He watched Artemis as she stretched, thrusting her arms up behind her head and she smiled back at Harry, "Well then, we're here."

A/N: I swear to fucking god, I won't Mary-Sue. She's not ending up with Harry/Ron/Draco, or something like that, and pleeeeeeeease review. The more reviews I get, the better chance of me having a next chapter ^^;;;