Standard Disclaimers Apply.

Author's Notes:
Hey, for those who read my Harry Potter fan fics I apologise for not updating in ages but I am swamped in school work and I just got addicted to Bleach and Naruto. As I said in some other fics, I will be able to update more regularly starting from May. So this is just to tide you over. So, enjoy!

Chapter Two
The Monsterof Azkaban

Azkaban is an island far out in the North Sea, practically secluded from the world it had features similar to the Bermuda Triangle (which for your information is the area of the Atlantic Ocean that still suffers from the magical backlash of the fall of Atlantis).

Benjamin Azkaban, the 11th century Soul Magician (being able to manipulate the magic of the soul- this eventually was outlawed in the 12th century when a Soul Magician used his knowledge of Soul Magic to create the Avada Kedavra curse which tore out a person's soul, thus killing them) who built a prison on his ancestral lands in reparations for what his family (a prominent pure blood family that had allied themselves with the Dark Lord Nemaides and had conspired in the killing of countless innocents and the overthrow of the Ministry) had done.

Benjamin had in fact been disowned from his family even though he was one of the only Soul Magicians of his age (like most of the noble ancient arts, the amount of people who were able to and willing to learn them had dwindled) because he had fallen in love with a muggle. Even so Benjamin believed it was his right to do something to dispel the bad name of his family.

He built the prison and the Dementors that guard it (using Soul Magic), and offered them to the Ministry of Magic to use. The Dementors of course were only ever loyal to the blood line of Azkaban but unfortunately that had died out during the 17th century (the Black Plague was what got them) and so the Dementors will now only follow those that will supply them with enough humans to feast off (their emotions not their souls). As of 1998, the Dementors had officially joined Voldemort's side and the Isle of Azkaban had since then become part of Voldemort's territory.

Ten years afterwards the Light side had discovered the original blueprints (though they were actually sandy coloured but you get the idea) for the Island of Azkaban. Even though it had been altered, the prison-turned-fortress was still based on its predecessor's structure that was kept together by a keystone that was protected in the centre of the structure. If they were able to destroy the keystone, the whole of the building on the island would collapse on itself, crippling the strongest of Voldemort's strongholds.

The plan was for three assault squads to stage three different attacks simultaneously on the island each with the mission to destroy the keystone; with the defences split between three separate attacks one of the squads will be able to succeed at achieving their objective (most of the money was on Harry's squad to be the one that succeeded). Their attacks would be from the air, from the ground and from the sea. Harry's squad attacked from the sea.

On the night on question of the attack, under the raging currents and waves that were besieging the shores of the Isle of Azkaban was a large creature surging its way towards the fortified island. It was about 12 foot long, decked in armour that kept sliding over itself as it moved. It had an exposed ribcage which enclosed a black armour clad man with an air bubble over his head. Tied to the dorsal fin of the creature were two pieces of rope and on the opposite end of those, two lightly armoured men were holding on for their dear lives.

As the creature reached land, its liquid like body lid onto sure and Harry climb out of the water filled chest cavity. He took the two pieces of rope that were still dangling out into the sea and quickly reeled his comrades in. Ron and Paul found themselves on the shore thanking God that they were on land again after they dispelled their Bubblehead charms.

"Why do you get to have the comfortable ride while we were the ones being dragged along?" asked Paul Jones who had been on their team for only one mission beforehand. He was a former M16 agent but during the eradication of the British Forces (which included the police, firemen, royal guards and most of the military) he had found himself helpless to save his friends and family. Taking training in the Magical Forces, he trained hard to be able to combat those who killed his family. "That's not fair."

"Hey, my afrit, my rules" stated Harry simply; they couldn't find anything wrong with his logic on the matter.

After Harry sealed his water afrit in a small jar for later use, the trio stealthily made their way towards the outer walls of the fortress and used grappling hooks to get past the large stone walls of the fortress. Having vaulted the wall, they stole their way across the small and decaying courtyard towards the main building.

Hiding and sneaking behind the pillars the trio had made it to the walls of the walls of the actual fortress. Placing a palm against the rough granite wall, Harry forced a small amount of fire magic into the wall melting a doorway out for them. The inside of Azkaban was as dreary as the outside: the long and dimly lit hallways were bare and void of life. They hurried along the corridor with a hurried pace sticking to their earlier agreed path.

They had no need to fear that the Dementors would be there. Nine years prior, they had abandoned their post and joined the ranks of Voldemort as part of the elite squadrons. The dementors now were busy fighting on the front lines and the only thing guarding the island of Azkaban were a troop of death eaters and some summoners (the name given to those who specialise in summoning demons). This however would still be a problem however as they would find out.

A loud crash was heard emanating through the fortress and a roar sliced the silence that was left in its quake. Harry turned to his confused comrades and after the second crash, he took a vile of a silver coloured liquid from his equipment belt and drank it in one gulp. This was a psychic stimulant that boosts the powers of seers. For Harry, it allows him to selectively see what is happening in another place. The only drawback was that it was quite hard to make and also damages the body; taking too much too often would result in death. Harry's eyes glazed over for a few moments until he fell to his knees, coughing up blood.

Ron quickly went to his side and quickly asked, "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine" replied Harry wiping some of the blood from his mouth with his sleeve. "But we have some bigger problems now. Squad B were just eliminated."

"What? But Squad B was made up of heavy assault specialists. How could they be defeated?" stuttered Paul.

"For some reason, they knew we were coming. The summoners had pooled their powers together and summoned ten afrits. There's no way we can gat to the central atrium now with some many high level demons floating around now" conformed Harry. He started heading towards the wall that separated them from the outside of the fortress.

Ron was open mouthed in astonishment. "Ten? There are ten of them? And I thought that one was bad enough. So I'm guessing that this mission should be aborted then."

"Yeah, but we don't have to be sneaky getting out now" replied a grinning Harry. Bring back his arm he punched at the wall leaving a great sized hole for them and the floor outside littered with debris. "Let's go."

Ron however was hesitant and seemed to be in a trance like state. Paul went to him and shook him out of it. When he looked back up to Harry and Paul, there was a glint of fear in his eyes. "I just got a message spell from Squad C. They have been ambushed by a death eater squadron and are pinned down at the moment. They need our help. We have to help them Harry, Ginny and Neville are on that squad."

"Ron, if they need our help then we're going after them. Come on." As they all jumped out of the hall into the courtyard, a beeping was heard from Paul's Techie Watch. He checked it and informed the others, "We have another serious problem."

"What now? It can't be as worse as those ten afrits and the death eater squadron" exclaimed Ron.

"Well, according to this, those ten Afrits are heading our way." True enough the group of afrits had just come from behind the corner to their left. They were all fire afrits, all of their faces concealed by pure black masks, their flaming red armour plates glistened in the intense light of their burning limbs and their massive claws were very intimidating. Seeing a group of ten of these, Harry said the only thing that one could say in such a situation, "Shit!"

Obviously this was a mistake as the demons noticed the noise and immediately charged down the courtyard towards them with their hands held up high and their summoners running after them. They were however blocked by a huge wall of rapid wind that blocked their paths which caused them to pelt fireballs at the wall in rage.

"Guys, this is not good. I don't have enough power to keep up that shield for much longer if they keep this up" said Harry.

"There's got to be something we can do. I mean you can summon some afrits for yourself right?" screamed the panic stricken Paul.

"Right now, even if I used all the extra essence that I brought with me I would only be able to summon five afrits and we need at least one to escape unless…" He paused as a weird look glinted in his eyes and a grin appeared on his face. Summoning demos require a person to conjure essence from the Other Realm and form it into a demon. The more essence you use, the stronger the demon is and essence can be stored up in specialised containers.

"Oh no" said Ron. "You have that look. The look that just says we're about to do something very dangerous and almost impossible. What is it this time?"

"Well, when I was learning how to summon demons, the rule for not forming a demon of higher than an afrit level was only a guideline. It would only take the essences of four afrits to be able to break the barrier into the next stage of demons. That would be able to take care of these guys."

"Very well, I can't stop you if I try." With that confirmation, Harry began to start the summoning process: taking out a piece of chalk on a string he swung it around to draw a quick circle on the floor. Discarding the chalk, Harry took three of the jars from his belt, he threw them at the centre of the circle and then forming some hand patterns, his hands started glowing and outshining the shining gas fuming from the cracked jars.

"Spirits of fire, phantoms of lightning, spectres of wind, ghosts of earth and poltergeists of water. From the Other Realm I beseech the essence to call forth the power of the demons." The mist inside the chalk circle started to swirl and conjoin. The other demons had just gotten past the shield.

The mist formed into a thirty foot behemoth roaring into the sky. It had a large black mask covering the top of his face and the bottom jaw was completely bone. He was clad in armour with serrated spikes and his body was made out of deep red fire. There was a dark orb affixed to his chest. His large claw reached out and tore the head off the first afrit that reached them. Its essence was cast to the winds and would soon find its way to the Other Realm.

A dark spectral energy convened at the behemoth's orb which he fired upon the attacking demons wiping out another two in a fell swoop. In short they were getting massacred. Harry wasn't looking as happy as he should have been. "We have to go. NOW!"

He ran for it out of the courtyard in the direction he had seen the other team were in during his vision. Ron, after hesitating, followed. Paul however did not. "Why should we run, we're winning. We can take them on properly now."

He ran into battle only to be snatched up by the claw of the behemoth and being pulled towards its jaws. That was the last anyone saw of Paul. He should not have worn that red shirt underneath his uniform that day.

Running down another corridor, they ran into the second team; Neville, Ginny and another unimportant add on character that I am too lazy to even name. Let's also say that she will also get killed on route towards the cliffs of the island.

"Hi guys. Work is so bothersome, no?" shouted Neville as they ran towards the exit.

"Guys, we may not have to worry about completing the mission anymore" said Ron

"Why?" asked Neville. A huge explosion and the pain filled screams of about 30 death eaters reached their ears.

"That's why" replied Harry.

Ginny groaned and had to ask the all too often phrase, "What did you do this time, Harry!"

"No time for that now." They had reached the cliff. The others got out their securing lines from their equipment belts and tied it to themselves before passing the other ends to Harry. Once done, Harry threw his last container to the ground and went through another summoning the water demon that had brought his team there. It engulfed Harry and he tied the lines to the exposed ribs. As another explosion rocked the island, they all dropped into the sea.

And so they escaped the largest weakening of Voldemort's forces for years. The monster rampaged and set up home in the ruins of the prison/fortress. The next day there was a small service for the five who were just not lucky enough.

"Harry!" shouted John waking Harry from his reminiscing. "Will you stop daydreaming and tell me the bloody story or not?"

"No time for that, we have work to do." They had finally walked the two hundred yards to the door. "I'll tell you it later."

"If this mission turns out like the Azkaban one, there won't be a later for him" said Ron to Harry.

And with that they all went on confidently (well, John was very pale) to try to complete one of the most important missions ever that may just win them the war.

End Chapter Two

Author's Notes:
I don't know why but this chapter was so hard to write. I had most of it already done but I left it for a couple of months because of a writer's block. I'm just glad this is out of the way. In the next chapter, we get to meet the new and improved Voldemort and finally start the main bulk of the plot instead of these prologue-ish chapters. Anyways, hope to be writing soon.