A/N: My schedule is to try and write a chapter once a week. I'm not very good at that.
Chapter 40: Journey to Azkaban
Just shy of three weeks into term is when Albus finally finishes arranging our outing to Azkaban to inspect Barty Crouch's cell. This seems to have involved a great deal more effort due to the fact that I will be accompanying them as a minor, but Albus always has his ways of assisting me into dangerous, and potentially fatal, situations. To further hamper his efforts, and maybe in an attempt to protect me, the only day they could offer him is today, Wednesday the 21st, which is a school day. Albus didn't budge, readily agreeing to the date, and graciously saying that I can be excused from my lessons tomorrow. Even if I feel perfectly fine, I'll be taking that offer. A free day with no classes? I'd be stupid to give it up – Ravenclaws are the clever ones, after all.
I'm taking advantage of the weather before it gets too cold and are sitting out by the lake with my violin, and Hedwig. I'm nervous about tonight, Who wouldn't be? Sirius has never really spoken about his time in Azkaban, but every other account I've read about the place indicates that it is an icy hell on Earth. The prison guards generally don't tend top stay more than a couple of years without a long break in a hotter climate to work the cold out of their bones. I checked out the Warden's journal I read in my first year to refresh my memory, the dementors seem to be the bit that makes the whole place so utterly unbearable. Turning even the most hardened of criminals into crying children. Quite how Sirius isn't completely insane is beyond me.
One of the largest points of concern is how psychometry will respond to the torments and horrors of the prison. Hopefully my 'worst memories' will only be selected from my own life, which pale compared to what the Elder wand has been used for since it's creation. If all else fails, I can probably whip up a pretty potent patronus.
"You know you're just visiting and not being sentenced, right?" Hedwig lazes on the grass beside me. "You should be playing something more upbeat, not trying to become the Pied Piper for dementors."
"I'll have you know that this is a classical masterpiece by none other than the great William Boyce!" I say indignantly, pointing the bow at her. She rolls her eyes.
"Why are we all the way out here anyway?"
"Thought it'd be funny to make Moody walk all the way out here to collect me." I turn back to the lake to hide my smug smile.
"That's it – Piss him off again so he makes you the classes' moving target."
"He shouldn't have asked me to try and jinx him in the demonstration." Watching him trying and limp around with his wooden leg reduced by eight inches will forever be burned into my memory. As will the evil glint in his eye when he joined in the practice. 'Even veterans have to practice! Constant vigilance!' He'd shouted when I questioned it.
"Potter!" Speak of the devil… "If think I'm going all the way out there to get you, you'll have another thing coming! Get your arse back up to the castle. Now." Moody's growling voice plays from his patronus. I let out a dramatic sigh.
"The man has no sense of humour about these things."
Two portkeys later finds Moody, Albus and myself on a beach awaiting the boat. Moody doesn't quite believe me about Barty, but I think it's more because he just doesn't want it to be true. Barty did unspeakable things in the war, nobody wants that to happen again… Except Barty.
Both Albus and Moody wear heavy frowns as the boat appears in the distance. A rickety old thing, perhaps once fit to hold ten people, but now it's clear that the only thing keeping it afloat is magic. The water is eerily calm around this section of the beach, completely unnatural with the added light from the quickly setting sun. I bet they time these to happen like this.
As the boat draws closer, I realise that it's empty. I shouldn't be so surprised, but I thought an Auror or one of the guards from the prison itself would be on it. Maybe that's only when a person is being imprisoned?
"Is it bad that I was hoping for a dementor with a captain's hat?" I ask Albus. He smiles weakly.
The boat eventually reaches the beach, the end props itself onto the sand of the unlikely staging area. I was expecting a little wooden gangway at the very least, not just the rickety boat. Moody goes first, climbing into the boat with a thud as with false foot steps down onto the wood. Albus follows him a moment later, looking up at me expectantly as he seats himself. I reach out for the edge and climb in.
It's cold, not in temperature, but it just feels so cold. Similar to when I first met Sirius, but so much more. The dementors seem to have a way of working their ice into everything they touch. The boat itself was built by a man named Julian Gill and his son, Joshua, in 1955, they used it for a few years before it seems to have been stolen and enchanted to act as a prison boat for Azkaban. Julian looks to have gotten out and the wizard that took it appeared only two minutes later. I can see that the Gill family used it for leisurely fishing as I sit down on the bench opposite Albus. I lean forward.
"Well, the boat's stolen, been in service since 1959, carried Sirius to and from prison, and also keeps the water calm." I tell him quietly as the boat pulls itself away from the shore. A strange twinge of fear sits in my stomach as we move further and further. I don't actually know how to swim. I settle for a tight grip on the bench. "How far in was Barty's cell?" I ask Moody, who I standing at the opposite end of the boat, staring out to the sea.
"Deep." Comes the response. I'd poke at him a bit, but I get the feeling he hates this place almost as much as Albus. "Should only take 10 minutes to get to the island, about the same to get to the cell." He turns around and sits on the bench with Albus.
"That's not so bad, right? Could be an hour to get there and back, plus the time inside." I shrug. "At least the boat keeps the water calm at these speeds." And stops the wind, but it is getting colder.
"Used to be rougher than this." Moody rubs his hands together, perching his staff against his shoulder. I'd given up my walking stick after a week back. I didn't need it to walk after the first few days, but McGonagall saw me tripping Fred and George simultaneously and confiscated it. They'd look bewildered until I took the disillusionment charm off it. The eye-patch went at around the same time, Hedwig had tried to fly with it on first which led to her almost getting lost in the forest. Turns out that birds need both eyes to navigate, who knew?
"Can you see wards with that?" I tap just under my own eye. He shakes his head. "Wonder what they will look like." A galleon says they are pink. A bet against myself? I'm losing the plot. "When do we pass the ward … line..." I watch my breath fog in front of me as we pass the line. "What in God's name..." I climb off the bench and climb to the prow to get a better view.
Black.
The entire island is surrounded in a black shroud of wards.
"Harry? What do you see?"
"Magic isn't supposed to be black..." It's beautiful in a dangerous and unknown sense. Does the magic being black make it different to any other colour? Even the Elder Wand, which is a pretty bad piece of business, is the same purple as my cloak. I flinch again as we pass a secondary line. I quickly turn to Albus and Moody. I point to the boat, then tap my ear, repeating the motion again. They seem to understand that there is a charm allowing somebody, I'm not sure who at this point, can listen to the boat. If there wasn't any chance they fire at us, I'd pretend to make a plan to break out a load of people. Dementors suck the fun out of things. Literally. I'd guess that the ward blocks scrying, an art I don't know much about, but it works both ways, so the folks inside Azkaban can't 'see' out.
"Black?" Albus seems a bit put out by that.
"It's like a slick, watery ichor floating around the island." The temperature seems to be getting colder each second we get closer. A patternless whirl of magic around the triangular prison. But why black? The island is small, so maybe the wild magic in the water makes for wards vastly different than what I have previously experienced. Perhaps it's the ley lines themselves. "Hmm." I climb up onto the edge of the boat, holding onto the prow, and look down into the ocean, straining my eyes trying to see the ley lines through the water. It's no use. I turn back to the fortress. Hopefully they weren't listening to us, but I don't think it would make much sense out of context. Maybe the ley lines will be clearer if I try looking once we are on land again.
We pass through another line of wards, more protections no doubt. I've gotten better at spotting what some wards tend to look like, but it's mainly blacks and greys. "Look." Moody is pointing into the sky, his wand is in his other hand. I squint, looking where he's pointing. It looks … to be a floating figure. A dementor. The creature is hard to make out in the low light, but it's icy presence is the unmistakeable chill that lingers on Sirius even to this day. The dementor isn't the only one patrolling the outer limits of this ward, there are others dotted around the sky, just lazily floating. They don't really look in the direction they are going, do they even have eyes? I can see the skeletal hands of the nearest one, just metres above the water. Tattered black cloaks draped over what appear to be their shoulders. Who gives them the cloaks? Do they come pre-tattered? Life-long to do list: Touch a dementor's cloak.
"Should I have my wand out?" I ask after realising that both of them do. I glance back up at the dementors. It looks like some of them have slowed down near us, I hope it's just my imagination.
"Constant vigilance." Moody growls, looking at the island with his real eye, no doubt judging the distance, whilst his prosthetic eye spins around in his head.
"Albus?" Anyone that has really studied the way Albus fights, or have directly fought him multiple times, will recognise the way he is standing. It looks casual enough whilst still being menacing. Feet apart, wand slightly pointing to his right, the way his head is facing. From this state, he can choose, aim, and cast a spell almost faster than anyone can see. He's hit me many times when I'm not fully paying attention to him. I think he is ready to be attacked.
Bugger.
I look over at Azkaban, willing the boat to move faster than it already is. Whilst the charms make it cut through the water extremely fast, the island is still far away. Looking between the dementors and the island really isn't helping my current anxiety on the matter. A glimmer of colour catches my attention. A wispy orange, but it's tied to something… A piece of wood? "Moody, You seeing that?" Must be handy to have a magical eye.
"Wha- runes!" He tries to flick his wand at the plank, but we pass through the orange ring.
Bugger.
The last time the three of us were on an adventure together resulted in us tripping some runes and triggering a trap. The boat stops. Fuck.
"Is this a bad time to say I've never cast a patronus before?" I ask, popping the Elder Wand into my hand. "We past through a ring created by that plank. Looks like it cut off the connection to the prison, and something else. Can you summon it before we get our souls sucked?" Trying to move the boat might cause it to sink or trip something else nasty.
"No use." Moody grunts, retraining his wand skywards. The dementors have started to slow around us in the sky. "The boat stops if something happens or a prisoner tries to escape. Set that charm off and the dementors swarm like bloody rats, sink the boat, then kiss you. If you're lucky." I have to hand it to 'them', this plan looks like it will be more effective.
"Why aren't they?"
"I don't know." He says. Wonderful. I point my wand to where we were.
"Accio plank." I try. Maybe the Elder Wand will have better luck summoning-
"It burnt up." Damn it.
"Albus?" I ask, not taking my eyes off the sky.
"I cannot cast a patronus." He says softly. Oh God.
"Cannot? Mentally or magically?" If he's having a dementor freak out, that's not going to help our chances.
"Magically." Moody answers for him. "Neither of us can. Few decades ago another form of protection was added to stop a patronus being formed in case an escapee managed to get a wand." His arm falls against his side. "Guess they never thought it'd be used against a visitor." He actually manages to laugh a bit at his joke. I look up again, they are definitely getting closer.
"They are confused. Just enough sentience to realise we are not their prisoners, but not enough to not attack when they grow bored." Albus explains. "Our time grows short." He turns to me.
"You want me to cast a patronus through a ward designed to prevent it?" I ask in disbelief. Idly I see that the ward is also black. I could tear the ward down, or overpower it, but then I still have to perform the spell, one that isn't as easy as others.
"Your happiest memory, you should be able to fill the rest in yourself." His eyes flick up to the sky briefly.
I know the practical way of casting a patronus, I've felt it cast hundreds of times, but it takes a powerful happy memory to power it. In essence, I know the theory. I don't have an overpowering happy memory though. Plenty of happy ones, but nothing that stands out. When Sirius was released from Azkaban?
"Expecto patronum." Shit. Not even a glow. I should've practised. I sit down to think as the dementors shift in the sky. Moody tries a couple of times, to no avail. When I got my wand. "Expecto patronum." When I met Tonks for the first time. "Expecto patronum." This is hopeless. Goodbye soul. "Albus." I say, standing up. He turns to me. "I think I'm suffering from depression. This upsets me." I look skywards to the ever nearing dementors. I hold my wand, my elder one, in front of my eyes. I've seen this wand cast the spell a lot, and I've seen people in their happiest, most elated moments of their lives.
I can feel the cold clawing at me as I grasp for an idea that doesn't end with our untimely deaths. Much closer and they will be 'too close' for Ministry approved standards, which means draining range. Think, Harry, think! Where's Hermione when I need her? Where are the prison guards? Why are we being assassinated? This is the third time somebody has tried to kill me in the past few weeks. Twice by, who appear to be, the Black Crows and then the Death Eaters first. Rabastan Lestrange could've actually succeeded if he wasn't trying to prolong it.
"That's it!" I jump to my feet. All it takes is a powerful memory, not a happy one. I have plenty of really bad ones. The cruciatus, the basilisk, the world cup, Voldemort in the forest, and everything associated with my Aunt and Uncle. So much hate and anger, all the raw emotion. "Expecto patronum maxima!"
A loud crack signals the anti-patronus ward breaking far too quickly. The light pours from my wand and the dementors screech as one, the otherworldly cry bites at my bones as the deep blue light coalesces into a wolf, Scar, larger than the boat. It's much darker than the other patroni I've seen. It runs through the sky in a rough circle, scattering the dementors easily. Andros the Invincible once cast giant patronus, the only person ever know to do so. Whilst mine isn't quite giant, it's a lot bigger than it ought to be. The boat is moving again, which causes my patronus to follow, bounding through the sky.
"Well done, Harry." Albus rests a hand on my shoulder.
"I think the wand resisted the use of happiness to fuel the spell."
"It did?" He sounds surprised. That never happened for him, he used his patronus to pass along message frequently in the war. "How did you overcome this?"
"You want me to say love, don't you?" I smirk a little bit. "Hate. Anger. They can be used for bad but also for good."
"So this..." Moody trails off.
"Is a patronus of negativity." It's quite impressive to look at really. A big blue wolf, my big blue wolf. The maxima modifier can be a tricky thing to pull off, and it isn't usually used with spells ruled by emotions, but I don't normally do things by the book. I think I've earned the right to be smug at the moment. If it hadn't worked, I'd have just had to collapse the ward to allow Moody and Albus to defend us. It didn't sink the boat, so it worked out in the end. Of course the size means absolutely nothing in terms of power, it's just impressive to look at. It seems to have shrunk slightly now anyway. So – Maxima will increase the size of the patronus.
This is probably high in the list of 'Ridiculous and/or dangerous things that happen to Harry Potter'.
"So, who are you going to shout at when we get inside?" I ask Moody as we get closer to the island, a faint light can be seen on the shore.
The grin Moody puts on is the one he tends to use before he hexes me.
A/N: A spell Harry has trouble with, not something that happens a lot.
This chapter hints at Harry taking joy in irritating Moody in and out of lessons, but Moody gets back at him with bodily harm.
I kind of like the idea of this trio and their dangerous hi-jinks, particularly Harry's poorly timed jokes, I think i will steer away from too many of them though.
The next chapter (whenever that may be) will involve the inspection or Barty's cell, and Harry's views of Azkaban.
Enjoy.