Chapter Six

Harry was naturally a light sleeper. Add to that the months spent at Auror training honing his reflexes and anyone who walked into his room unannounced in the middle of the night was going to be lying in St. Mungo's for a week recovering.

When the door to his room did indeed burst open without warning, his wand was in his hand and a curse flew out of his mouth before he was even fully awake. But fortunately his aim was poor and he only hit the doorframe.

"Remind me to never do that again."

Harry sat up and let his eyes adjust to the darkness. Ron was standing in the doorway, his own wand out.

"Ron? What's going on?" He asked groggily.

"Tonks just appeared in the fireplace. The Dementors have gone back to Azkaban."

Harry was alert in a matter of seconds. He grabbed his glasses off the nightstand, saying, "how long ago?"

"No one knows for sure. The warning was only received twenty minutes ago," Ron said, who was already dressed in his Auror uniform. "Moody wants us at Grimmauld Place now for an emergency meeting. We're to meet Lupin first and then apparate over."

Harry hurriedly pulled on his black turtleneck and trousers, snatching his cloak and weapons belt from his closet, putting them on as he left his room.

They used the fireplace to get to Lupin's, who was already waiting for them as soon as they stepped out. He looked uncharacteristically anxious.

"Hermione left with Tonks before you got here. Arthur went in to the Ministry to gather what information he could gather and Molly's upstairs. She's going to stay with Ginny."

No sooner had they made it to the door when Mrs. Weasley appeared at the bottom of the stairs, looking even more worrisome than Lupin.

"You will be careful, won't you?" She said to the boys.

"Mum, we'll be fine. Harry and I are always careful," Ron answered for the both of the,

"Alastor will make sure they're safe?" She said, turning her attention to Lupin.

"Molly, we have to go now," Lupin said gently, knowing he couldn't promise her anything.

Ron watched as his mother bravely held back her tears before stepping out the front door and disapparating.

The three of them reappeared at the end of the dark street, using the burnt out lamp bulbs to help mask their sudden appearance.

Harry was shocked to see that for the most part Lupin was able to keep up as he and Ron sprinted the remainder of the distance to Phoenix Headquarters. Ron was the first to reach the spot between house eleven and thirteen where it took a brief moment for a shabby-looking door to appear. Ron wasted no time in walking up the weather worn steps and tapping his wand against the door. When the numerous locks had all open, he grabbed the door handle and almost ran head first in to Charlie.

Charlie was supposed to be off somewhere in Europe at the request of Dumbledore. "When did you get back?" Ron asked his brother.

"About an hour ago," he replied instantly. "Dumbledore came to get me. Come on, everyone's already in the dining room."

Lupin locked the door behind them, and they followed after Charlie. Harry soon found himself in a room with a dozen maps open on a table and about that many Order members gathered around it, including Hagrid, who Harry had not seen in many months. But the most startling sight was Albus Dumbledore hunched over with the others, pointing at a moving spot on one of the maps. He was the first to look up at their arrival. He met Harry's gaze briefly and Harry stared back unflinchingly.

"We don't have much time if we want to keep the Dementors from freeing the prisoners at Azkaban," the Hogwarts Headmaster said to them.

"Moody and Kingsley couldn't wait," said Tonks, her face grim. "They're already there with Mackenzie and every available Auror trying to fight them off."

"Are they just going to free the prisoners and leave?" Harry asked.

The Auror acknowledged him with a nod. "We've gathered that's their big plan. But we can't allow even one of those prisoners to go free."

"I thought it was more important we stop the Dementors." Ron knew that every person in Azkaban was dangerous and should not be allowed to escape back to the wizarding world, but he thought the Dementors were their first priority.

"It is, but you have to remember that a lot of those witches and wizards have been in there since Voldemort's last reign of power – some even longer," Hermione said to him. "They have virtually no souls left, which makes them as dangerous as Dementors and in some ways even worse. A human being without a soul would commit unspeakable horrors."

"She's right, Ron," Lupin said from beside him. "If the hundreds of prisoners in there were to escape, it would be like adding that many new Dementor's to Voldemort's army."

"How do we get there?" Bill asked.

Tonks gestured to the map in the centre of the table. In the middle was a large island with a fortress built on it that looked to be the haunted equivalent of Hogwarts. It was completely isolated by water, as the moving waves on the map showed. The closest land was a set of cliffs to the north of the prison.

"Normally, the Aurors fly dragons to get across, but we can't take the chance they'll be affected by the Dementors," said Tonks. "We'll have to get across by brooms."

"It's safe to assume the Dementors are working under the control of Voldemort," Dumbledore said to them. "They are at Azkaban with a purpose. This makes them more dangerous then any of the times you've faced them in the past," he said, looking directly at Harry before moving on. "Severus, Remus, and Hagrid, I need you three to guard the cliffs. If any prisoners make it back to the mainland you must use whatever means to stop them.

"Ron, Harry, Bill and Charlie, you're to accompany Tonks into Azkaban," he said, looking around at each one of them. "I will be leaving now to go there myself. "

"Professor, I think I would be much more useful out there. You're going to need every available person – "

"Hermione, listen to Dumbledore." Tonks ended her protests. "How are you're going to explain your presence at Azkaban to the other Aurors? No one outside the Minister's Office and Auror Department are supposed to know what's going on yet. You'll risk exposing the Order, not to mention bring suspicion towards Ron and Harry."

"What about Bill and Charlie?"

"They both have emergency Auror status. In time of crisis the Ministry can call them in to action – which Mad Eye did. I'm sorry, Hermione, but you have to stay here," Tonks concluded, her tone final. She turned to the others. "We need to move now. Too much time has already been wasted."

As they filed out, Hermione gave one last look in Ron and Harry's direction – a cross between pleading to be allowed to go with them and to tell them both to be careful. Regret was already beginning to seep in that she had done nothing to mend things between her and Ron. But he had already disappeared with Harry before she could say anything to him.

Azkaban was quite literally situated in the middle of nowhere. Though the prison itself was surrounded by water, the rocky cliffs that were the closest piece of land to it, housed no wizarding or muggle communities for at least twenty miles.

Tonks had explained that Azkaban had the same illusion charms around it as Hogwarts. Any muggle who laid eyes on it would see the remaining bricks of an old mansion that had long ago burned down, and that the current was too rough to try taking a boat to the island.

There was a small, concealed Auror outpost on the cliff side that Harry was not able to see until Tonks removed the concealment charm from it. It was empty, but it had what they were looking for inside. He had been wondering how they would get across since none of them had brought brooms, when Tonks led them to a wall covered in mounts that were just the right size to hold brooms. At least a dozen of them were already empty.

When they were back outside, Tonks gave the order for them to mount their brooms. "It's just like riding a broom in heavy wind during a Quidditch match," she instructed Ron and Harry, since Bill and Charlie had obviously done this before. "Just keep a tight grip and don't look down."

Then she took off, with Ron, his brothers, and Harry following suit, leaving behind Snape, Hagrid, and Lupin at the Auror station.

Harry soon found Tonks words to be a bit of an understatement. He had played Quidditch in every kind of imaginable weather, but flying over a large patch of water in the dead of night, with practically no visibility was something new altogether. He constantly had to steady his broom to keep from veering off course.

The closer they flew to the wizarding prison, the more he began to sweat and felt his skin go clammy – and it had nothing to do with fear.

When the five of them landed on the island, they found it to be eerily quiet. Tonks raised her wand and unlocked the massive gate that was the only entrance to the prison. "Bill, Charlie you're together. Harry, Ron you do the same. I'll find Moody." She had to shout to be heard over the howling wind. "No heroics. We're here to repel the Dementors and make sure the prisoners stay in their cells. Dumbledore should already be in there. He's probably the only one that can force them away, but we need to weaken the Dementors to make it easier for him. Remember, there's Aurors already in there so get a clear visual of your target before you start blasting off curses. Let's go!"

She took off at a jog down the left access way. Bill and Charlie took the center pathway, leaving Ron and Harry to take the right.

The moment they were fully inside and the gate clicked shut behind them, locking them in, Harry had to clutch one hand to the moss covered concrete walls to steady himself. The Dementors had always affected him horribly, but being in the place – the corridors that they had roamed for years was almost unbearable. He could feel every ounce of the despair and pain they had brought to this place.

Ron shot him a worried look that he pretended to ignore before starting to move forward, putting as much concentration into keeping the hand steady that was holding his wand as remembering to put one foot in front of the other.

Screams seemed to ricochet off the walls and follow them wherever they went. The air was damp and it reeked of mold and rotting flesh. Harry tried to fight off thoughts of Sirius spending twelve years rotting away in there.

There were loose and cracked stones everywhere, making it necessary to carefully watch each step they took. Torches burning bright on the walls seemed to cast moving shadows off of everything. There were no windows or any other sources of illumination. Harry and Ron used their wands to shed some extra light, but it still only provided limited visibility at best.

It wasn't long before they were passing by prisoner cells, each one holding a single witch or wizard. All were sallow faced and little more than skin and bones. The ones that weren't still stunned, sat hunched in a corner with a catatonic look on their face. It was difficult to picture any of them as human beings full of life at one time. Harry quickly reminded himself that they deserved their fate. They had committed horrifying atrocities and would spend the rest of their lives paying for it. But then he wondered briefly if any of them had been innocent like Sirius.

Both boys heads snapped around when they heard a faint scratching sound.

"Nox," Ron muttered and the light went out on his wand. Harry quickly did the same.

Ron concealed himself around one corner, and Harry found a crevice on the opposite side to do the same. Their wands were out, waiting for whatever or whoever was making that noise to reveal themselves.

The torches above them continued to flicker and the first sallow faced prisoner limped towards them.

Ron hit him with a stunning spell, but it was only the first of many prisoners that were moving towards them. That was just the beginning of his problems. The wall where he standing was hit with a green flash of light, erupting into flying pieces of debris that narrowly missed his head. He looked over his shoulder to see what had done it.

"Shit, Harry, one of them has a wand!" He shouted.

But Harry didn't hear him. He was fighting off a Dementor that was coming straight for him.

"Expecto Patronum!" Harry yelled at the top of his lungs. A bright beam of light shot out but it barely even slowed the Dementor down.

Ron tried to stun the prisoner holding the wand, but for someone who had been a lifeless shell for years, it moved pretty fast and avoided getting hit with Ron's wand fire. It was going for Harry now but he was too busy trying to ward off the Dementor to see it. Ron's Auror training went in to action and did the only thing he could. He lunged at Harry and tackled him to the ground, feeling the curse burn a hole through the back of his cloak as he did so.

From his knees, he shouted, "Stupefy!" This time the spell hit its intended target right in the midsection, knocking him out cold. Before Ron could count that as a victory, the feeling of dread and misery that had been threatening to overtake him since setting foot in Azkaban came rushing at him in intense waves as the Dementor swooped down over him and Harry.

Together they shouted out the Patronus Charm, and though their Patronus' didn't take on corporeal form, the combined force of the two spells sent the Dementor staggering back.

A third beam of light was added to theirs, hitting the Dementor from behind. It swooped down over Ron and Harry and flew off down the corridor. Bill came rushing towards them.

"All right, Ron? Harry?"

They both nodded, but it was Ron who recovered from the effects of their encounter with the Dementor first. "One of the prisoners had a bloody wand!" He indicated to the stunned heap on the ground behind them before going over and pocketing the fallen wand.

Bill gave a weary sigh. "They killed a few Aurors and got their wands. That one that attacked you was the last of them. The rest are either dead or back in their cells. Moody's got a list of the prisoners here and has got a team of Aurors doing a head count. Dumbledore's getting things under control."

"What's he doing?" Harry said, his voice betraying how drained he looked.

"He's driving out the Dementors, while Moody, Charlie, and the others are stunning the remaining prisoners. I always knew Dumbledore was powerful, but his Patronus is beyond anything I've ever seen," Bill said in awe.

"Where are the last of them?" Ron asked.

"The bottom tunnels. The prisoners fled down there when we cut off their escape to the outside. You feel like going down there and helping to round up the last of the escaped prisoners?"

Ron nodded an affirmative, and so did Harry, though with much less enthusiasm. If Dumbledore was driving the Dementors away why was he still feeling so horrible? He couldn't ponder it for long because Ron and Bill were already walking off, and he had to do his best to keep up with them. The sooner the prisoners were stunned and locked away, the sooner he could be far away from Azkaban.