Harry Potter & the Count of Azkaban

Chapter 15

Voldemort was doing something that he had not done in some time. He sat in lotus position and was meditating. Ever since he had seen the papers from the newly anointed count of Azkaban, he had been reviewing all that he had done in the last several years. Taking things in perspective and armed with the new intelligence, he could see several things that he had missed out on earlier. He had been altogether too much comfortable on the spell he had cast on Lucius. But now, he knew that he had to first set thing right with himself and in his house before venturing out to take over the world.

The foremost thing that was required out of him was to regain all the tenacity he had lost as well as his magical power etc.

So here he was, sitting down and trying to reconnect with his earlier self. He had already brewed a potion that would rid him of the extra flab he had accumulated over the years and give him back the strength of his youth. It did require a sacrifice of few wizards. Well, he couldn't be bothered about a few details. All he was worried about was that the potion be delivered to him as per schedule.

He had also thought about the enigmatic count and his intentions. He was sure that they were certainly more than what was apparent. He decided to invite him at the soonest available opportunity.

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Draco was growing impatient. It was nearing noon and still there had been no news of Ginevra. Jr had been in the library, studying. He had wanted to leave several times to the bank; however he was unable to do so. The count was his ticket to the stratosphere he aspired to. He had been waiting trying to fine tune his plans. With Ginevra as the key player, all he could do was wait. However, patience was a virtue he had always lacked. Especially for things he really wanted.

He decided to pay a visit to his friend of convenience. She had been a constant diversion from his other activities. Both were unattached and independent.

He had tried to divert himself, but was unable to do anything about the strange uneasiness which had settled in his stomach. He did not realize the feeling, but it was very uncomfortable. He was unaware that the fates were turning the table and nobody knew who would come out on the top.

Leaving a message with his personal elf that he should be informed as soon as the mistress returned, he popped away.

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The castle of Azkaban was a lively place. Joy just seemed to envelope the whole place.

A few hours earlier

Everybody was surprised at seeing the brilliant Hermione walk in the strange portal and enveloping Harry in a hug. Ginny was shocked but also relieved. For long she had tried to find Hermione. As a matter of fact, she had gone to US several times on elusive leads. Yet she had failed. She had felt in her heart that she would find a kindred soul in her.

Blade and Nkola were happy for Harry. They too had searched for Hermione for a long time but had found nothing. They had come to respect the brilliance of the young woman who was resourceful enough to hide even from them and all their contacts. Harry, on his return had been worrying about the fate of his best friend. Somewhere, down inside, he had hoped that she believed in him. But he had always wanted to know the truth.

Blaise and grace were actually shocked out of their boots, or rather sandals. They looked at the strange savior in front of him and saw the many things that he was. The elusive count, the magnanimous benefactor but his latest avatar was the most elusive. He was the boy-who-lived, the boy-thought-dead and actually the young man who saved all of them. However, Blaise could not totally crush a small seedling of disappointment at being kept from the fact.

Ever since she had seen Ginny in the morning, she had been feeling pangs of jealousy. She had realized that she had come to like the count. Reluctantly, she also accepted that she might even love him. But seeing Ginevra come out of his room in the morning, she had realized that there was competition. And now with Hermione making an entrance as well, she was not so sure of the dynamics of the circumstances.

She looked once again at the small huddle every one of them had formed in the den.

Hermione's Tale

Tears had been shed and embraces met. There was a happy sheen in the eyes of the normally placid Harry. Ever since his betrayal, and then his seeing the marriage of Ginny with Malfoy, he had lost hope in the wizard-kind. Even now, after he had seen the facts of the marriage of Ginny, he had not completely forgiven her. Absence of any information on the status of his other friends, Hermione, Neville, Luna etc had further added to his depression. Although, it was not shown to anybody, its presence could be felt none-the less.

So, after the initial shock and awe all of them had sat down in the den and Hermione began her story.

Hermione looked around, still feeling as if she was dreaming. She sat on a comforter, a cup of hot tea warming her hands. Around her were Harry, Ginny, Blaise and some knew people she didn't know. She had been introduced, but frankly, she was still in a shock. She knew that nobody had come out and said it out loud; however, she had been bottled up for so long, that it would be like catharsis to let it go. She should have felt some reservation about sitting in front of some strangers. But after hearing a summarized version of Ginny's story, she felt as if she should share hers as well.

She looked around once more, took a sip of hot tea and began.

"I was in the United States when I heard of the Harry's arrest." Hermione began. "We had gone to America because we found out that one of my uncles was a wizard. He had seen my picture in an out of date Daily Prophet. When he contacted us, we were also slightly shocked at Uncle Brian being a wizard. But after Hogwarts closed, we left. To make the long story short, Uncle Brian was working with the American equivalent of our unspeakables. We had a good time until the day we found out that Harry had been arrested.

We were out in the muggle world. We were in Florida on the wizard's portion of the Disney world when we saw the wizarding times (a wizard's newspaper). It had the story of Harry's arrest and conviction to Azkaban. I wanted to come back to try and help. I was sure that Harry was innocent. And even if he had killed somebody, he would have had a darned good reason to do so.

But Uncle Brian stopped me and took me to his office. Over the next few hours we found out that there was an informal notice for my apprehension and return to England. After finding out everything, I did the only thing I could. I went into hiding with some of Brian's colleagues. There are several underground cells there who work against Voldemort. As a matter of fact, there was an organization working against all the dark lords trying to come up in different parts of the world.

I joined them later and started to try and help the resistance network in the UK as well tried to find ways to get to Harry at Azkaban. We broke in once and several times had some volunteers commit minor crimes to search for Harry. But we could not find him. Though one of the spells I had cast confirmed to me that he was alive but his location was never there.

So I went in and looked for more and more powerful means to find Harry. I guess I succeeded."

Harry was internally smiling at the abridged tale Hermione had told all of them. His legilimency skills were picking up several details and emotions. She had masked all the grief, all the resolve, all the hope and all the despair. She had put her life on hold to find a friend. He also saw that she knew quite a lot more. But perhaps this wasn't the place to ask it.

Hermione looked at Harry. Now having told him her story, it was clear that the million dollar question was what was on her mind. Where the hell had Harry been?

Harry himself was not unaware of the enquiring looks being plastered at him. He looked around and saw the hearts and minds of people around him. Some of them knew only small parts of his story. He looked at them and then looked into himself. He was sure that all of them could be trusted with his life. He just wasn't sure that he had the right to tell them other people's secrets. Closing his eyes, releasing his breadth that he didn't realize he was holding, he made his decision.

He looked around at every one around him. He knew that this was going to be the core group of his fight against Voldemort. This had begun as a favor to the goblins, but maybe it could mean more than that. He started.

"What I am going to let you know is my story. Some of you know parts of it, but not all of it. Even now, I will hold back parts of it which are not mine to share. But before that, I would like to put all of you under an ancient secrecy charm which may not be broken by any means except if you are released from it." He looked up and saw that several of his guests didn't think at anything at all except for Ginny and Blaise. Both of them felt that they were trustworthy enough and careful enough. However, they had squashed this part of the thought. Strangely, Hermione did not find anything wrong with this. When Harry looked more carefully, he saw that she was already bound by two secrecy charms. However, his charm was far more powerful, and would supersede them.

Somewhere at the back of his mind he realized that he would have some trouble with Blaise and Ginny, but it was not something about which he could do much.

He waved his hand in a fluid gesture, or rather a chain of gesture and everyone in the room could feel a sense of comfort and well being fall upon them. Satisfied, Harry made a few more motions and cast several privacy charms.

Harry began his tale. From being thrown into the secret rooms to being found by a high elf. Not only that but the high elf turning out to be his ancestor; his life with his family and the reason for his return. The imbalance and his plans to do something about it. He said nothing about what he intended to do about it because frankly, he wasn't sure anymore. The dynamics were changing very fast. He had thought of doing this job and getting back to his world ASAP. But now, things were getting a tad complicated.

On the other side, there were several emotions that were running through all of the people sitting opposite to Harry. They ranged from a typical mixture of awe, pride, sadness and a very new emotion, love.

No. Harry wasn't much sure of what he was going to do anymore except for one thing. He was going to make Voldemort pay for separating him from his friends. His friends, who were his family. Well some of them anyway.

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Several hundred miles away, Ron was asleep in his bed. His wife, Cho was already asleep in her own room. Being a cultured couple, they had long ago decided to adopt the French practice of having separate living quarters. So much so that he had not entered her rooms without permission for years.

Hence he was unaware of the presence of his hated Malfoy very near to his room. He slept, tired, bankrupt and most of all, unaware of the changing times.

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In a hidden room of the ministry of magic, one could not help but see the glee filled malice on the face of the minister of magic, Lucius Malfoy. He had a file in his hand and he saw the transaction details of the sale deed of the island of Azkaban.

In all his attention, he failed to see that a copy of the file had just been checked out by the king himself, or that even his file was marked out.