Chapter Three: Falling to Pieces

Atropos's lip curled slightly at the smell of the fortress. It wafted through the small, barred windows and down to where he crouched, in the shadows of the rocky beach that surrounded the prison of Azkaban. It smelt of decay and death. It smelt of corruption and pain. It smelt of the slow fall of the prisoners' minds into insanity.

And he hated it. He could see the faint aura of the Dementors that had been used to keep the prisoners in line. He could feel the imprint of their anger written into the very stones of the prison; their anger at not being able to feed properly, their slow starvation and desperation. And he could barely contain his own will to destroy the fortress, brick by spell-covered brick.

He held back, though. Just barely. If he destroyed the prison, the prisoners inside would be destroyed as well. First, had to get them out, then he had to pay his respects to the mass graves behind the prison. This took precedence over his loathing.

The air around him grew colder as his form lengthened. The shadows twisted around him and grew solid, blocking his body from view like a ragged robe. His hands, clenching around a single folded parchment, a letter holding three portkeys, darkened in color, becoming almost the same color as the walls of the prison itself. His face was hidden by the shadows, with only his eyes, bright green and shining, visible to the night sky.

He slipped through the night, making no noise, his feet leaving no prints. As a nightmare would surface in a child's dreams, he emerged next to the stone of the fortress. The guarded doors gave him no difficulties, as he merely walked through them, his form solidifying on the other side. He didn't particularly like the feeling of having no solid form, but he did see its purpose as his cousins, the Dementors, often did.

Reverting back to his true form, Atropos stretched and began to make his way down the rows of cells, looking for the ones the snake speaker had requested.

All the cells were in a row, carved into the very stone of the castle, with steel bars that were just wide enough that Atropos could have stuck his hand through, if he wished. To the side of each cell was a notch in the wall where the wand of the inhabitant was kept. Foolish, he thought as he walked past. Very foolish.

Each cell held one person, as if the - what had the snake speaker called them again? Mikry… Missrey… Ministry! - as if the people in the Ministry were afraid that his pack would escape if given the opportunity to work together. Atropos's eyes looked into the dark cells, adjusting to see in the pitch blackness. The snake speaker had said to look for one of his pack in particular, saying that he would be the one that the others in the pack would follow once they had escaped, one of the rare few with ambition. The snake speaker had said he that would be easy to find, since he looked like the one Atropos had shown interest in.

He was in the last cell of the row, the darkest and gloomiest, as if he had done something particularly horrible. His wand was different than the others, almost… decorated. It looked like a cane, topped with a snake's head… Atropos's fingers easily detached it from its spot on the wall before he looked through the bars at the cell's inhabitant. Atropos stood there for a minute, looking at the human that sat against the wall.

"L-Lucius?" a voice spoke out from the silence. It was the voice of a human, the one in the cell Atropos had just passed.

"What is it, Nott?" the man, Lucius, drawled.

"There... there were eyes watching me - green ones."

"They were watching me, too," another human commented from two cells down, "then they disappeared."

"And they are currently watching me," Lucius interrupted, although Atropos could almost taste a thread of fear in the man.

He hissed into the darkness, telling the human to come to the bars of the cell, even though he knew that the man would not understand him.

"A snake?"

"It's a Basilisk! Our Lord wants to kill us all!"

"Shut up, you fools," Lucius snarled. "You've already looked at the eyes, haven't you? If it was a Basilisk, you would all be dead by now."

Atropos lightly scratched the stone next to the bars of Lucius's cell, placing the note from the Dark Lord that explained his purpose and the human's wand just inside the cell.

Curious, Lucius began to make his way towards the bars of the cage, one hand held outward to feel his way in the dark. When it got close enough, Atropos grabbed it through the bars in one of his claws and guided it down to the parchment and wand.

The man lost no time, pulling out his wand from its sheath and whispering "Lumos"(lit. light). The light from the wand illuminated the shadows that had hidden Atropos.

"I didn't think the guards were coming for another hour or so," a man from another cell commented, seeing the light in the hallway. "They must have changed the routine."

"No, you moron, it's Lucius! How did you get a wand?"

Lucius didn't respond for a moment, looking down at the words that the Dark Lord had written for his pack in the cells. "The Dark Lord's newest ally gave it to me."

There were shouts of confusion in the halls, as the others asked Lucius what he was talking about. Atropos ignored them, setting to work on the bars of Lucius's cage. He felt his body draw into itself, his form lengthening and his skin dissolving into scales. His eyes burned with a new power, and he focused their gaze on the steel bars of Lucius's cell. They shattered like glass.

Lucius followed the Basilisk down the hall, as Atropos destroyed the bars on the other cells of the imprisoned pack in the same way. When they had all joined Lucius outside of the cells, Atropos reverted back to his true form, nodding once to Lucius before disappearing into the shadows of the fortress. All except Lucius were to apparate out on their own. Lucius, though, was needed to make sure that the other pack members Atropos was to free made their way back to the snake speaker.

Atropos didn't even wait to hear them leave, as he began the walk outside to the mass grave behind the prison, the soft footsteps of the blond human sounding faintly behind him.

There were three other humans that the snake speaker wanted Atropos to bring back to him. Two of these had died and were entombed in Azkaban because they were part of his pack and their families wanted nothing to do with them(1). One of these had been kept alive and imprisoned away from the snake speaker until a few years ago. He had been kissed by a Dementor and was now kept in one of the lower holding cells of Azkaban(2). Atropos first went to bring the two dead pack members back to life.

Though a lost art, Necromancy had gained a reputation in the world, among both wizards and muggles. The idea of a man commanding an army of skeletons dressed in ancient armor against an army of living men was a common topic for novels, artwork, and muggle movies. The idea of blood rituals, of sacrificing the young and beautiful to bring people back from the dead was another popular image of the Necromancer. But Necromancy was none of these things, as the young Lord Voldemort had learned from reading the tome of the last Necromancer.

Necromancy was much less flashy than such depictions. Blood, though a nice addition to the ritual, was not necessary. A Necromancer didn't even need a body to bring someone back from the dead, just willpower and magic. During the ritual, the body of the deceased was summoned back into the form it had appeared as when the spirit passed out of the land of the living.

Lord Voldemort knew that the spell he had used to give his soul a body was nothing compared to the powerful magic that Harry - or rather, Atropos - would perform tonight. This was one of the reasons he had ordered Lucius to accompany the Necromancer. One reason was, of course, to hand the portkeys to the newly-revived Death Eaters immediately after their reanimation, which would bring them to him so he could explain the circumstances of their rebirth. The third reason was he knew Lucius, who loved power in any form, would watch the ritual closely. He could then find out the exact details of the ritual, and even see it for himself since Lucius's mind was a rather unguarded one.

If the human was uncomfortable with Atropos's Necromancer form, he didn't show it, which Atropos only passively noticed. Of course, his Necromancer form was the most human-like. In fact, in body, he was human. What revealed him as a Necromancer were the runes that appeared on his thighs and upper arms. These symbols glowed silver in the dark, a dim pulsating glow, as Atropos surveyed the land, which was loosely covered by dirt. The night air felt cold on his skin, but Atropos pushed such thoughts out of his mind. He was no human, and therefore needed no protection on hisskin, unlike the human who pulled his robes closely around himself to block out the chill of wind and sea.

Lucius watched as the creature prowled the ground, as if looking for something. As Atropos walked, his footprints remained in the dirt, glowing silver in the same way that the strange markings did. Lucius was sure they were runes of some kind, but they were not of a type he knew.

Atropos stopped walking, and Lucius realized that the Necromancer had created a circle of footsteps on the dirt which glowed silver. Atropos stepped outside of the circle and began to speak, his words a long stream of unknown sounds, merely snarls and hisses to Lucius.

The ground shook, and the silver glow intensified, spreading to cover all the ground inside it. The dirt began to bleed out of the silver circle, flowing out and away from the mass of skeletal heads, hands, feet, and other bones it had concealed. The first of these were not, Lucius noted, buried six feet into the ground, but lay just under the surface.

The Malfoy patriarch stepped back involuntarily as the mass of bones began to move, as he heard the shifting of marrow on marrow and small pops as joints that had long remained motionless willed themselves to work again.

Skeletons that were only half or quarter formed began to pull away from the pile that seemed an endless mass of moving bone. Slowly, as the bones pried themselves away from their neighbors, two complete skeletons emerged near the bottom of the mass grave.

They sputtered and writhed, as nerve endings sprouted from bone marrow, first silver in color, then turning flesh-like. From these, veins began to map their way across the skeletal structure. Finally, muscles, sinew, and flesh filled in the small gaps and holes to hold everything together.

The other skeletons, in various forms of completion, pushed the two bodies up to rest at Atropos's feet. The silver glow intensified to a glare, its blinding light fixating on the two corpses. Lucius fought to see through the light, and fought back a grimace as the bodies began to move.

At first, the movements were sharp and jerky, as if they were magnified twitches, but the movements became more fluid as they continued, faster and faster, until the spasms could have been those of a living person.

Then Lucius heard the first scream. It was the scream of a woman as her soul was forced back into a body that it had left, forced back into the world of the living, forced back without a choice of its own, forced back harshly by a Necromancer who cared nothing for the feelings of the dead. Another scream joined hers, male, but just as loud and painful.

Their shrieks continued, louder than any from a person under a Cruciatus curse, and Lucius began to wonder why none of the guards had come to investigate. Then again, nothing in this world could have made Lucius himself come to investigate the source of this scream had he been in their position.

The shrieks stopped just as suddenly as they had started, and the area was forced back into darkness as the glow faded. The silver footsteps disappeared so the only light came from the strange markings on Atropos's skin.

There were sounds of ragged breathing at the creature's feet as Lucius warily approached. Quickly, he knelt and placed the two gold charms in the slightly shaking human hands, stepping back as soon as he could, as if expecting the bodies to suddenly attack him.

Atropos shifted back into his true form as the humans disappeared, as the snake speaker had said they would, before turning and grabbing the human's arm to tell him they were leaving. There was one more place he had to go tonight, and he was only getting colder as time passed.

Rumors spread quickly through the ranks of the Death Eaters. Many had speculated what the Dark Lord could do with such a creature such as the one that had appeared so broken and bloody in the ballroom-turned-audience-chamber that night.

They acted like school girls speaking of the latest gossip, Snape thought with a grimace. And here he thought he didn't have to deal with that anymore.

But there was one Death Eater that Snape had not heard of since the night before, and it worried him. Though he didn't believe any of the strange rumors about Atropos, the one that said the Dark Lord had given Draco Malfoy to his new pet, the part-Necromancer creature, worried him. Draco had gotten off lightly, too lightly, for failing the Dark Lord. Snape had assumed that it had been because the Dark Lord had just been in a good mood because of Dumbledore's death, no matter who had killed him, and because if Draco was pushed too far away, he would loose the support of the Malfoy family with Lucius in Azkaban. Now, Snape wondered if the Dark Lord had executed Draco's true punishment. He wouldn't put it past Lord Voldemort to have planned such a thing, and yet he could also see Lord Voldemort not caring who the creature, Atropos, devoured, as long as he was willing to work for his cause.

Finding out where Atropos was staying was an easy task. He was again reminded of Hogwarts. It's a secret, so of course everybody knows. But he pushed those thoughts out of his head as he walked through the dark corridors of Riddle Manor.

Death Eaters were everywhere, speaking in low voices and waiting for the real meeting to start. Lord Voldemort had sent Atropos on what everyone considered an impossible mission: retrieve all the captured Death Eaters from Azkaban, bring back to life two who had died in Azkaban after the first war, and give Barty Crouch Jr. back his soul.

Everyone had thought it impossible… at least until the first of the Death Eaters had apparated into Riddle Manor. As if anyone could miss Bellatrix's screams when her husband apparated into the entrance hall, Snape thought snidely as he walked quickly through the dark hallways. With everyone spread throughout the manor, waiting for the others from Azkaban to return, and with Atropos himself still away, this might be the only opportunity he got to make sure Draco was still living.

For the umpteenth time, Snape cursed the stupid Unbreakable Vow, most of which he had already completed by finishing the mission to kill Dumbledore. Damn that Malfoy woman, he cursed as he remembered the little smile that she had directed in his direction when he agreed to the vow. Keep Draco safe. Bloody hell, he should have just told her to get out of his house and leave him alone.

He reached the door that supposedly opened to Atropos's room, and pushed it open, surprised when he realized that it wasn't even locked. Then again, he was thinking like a wizard, and Atropos wasn't a wizard. Despite all that Voldemort had said about Atropos being a Necromancer, he was still a dark creature.

The room was lit by only one candle, leaving it darker than the hallway outside. But, in the light of that one, solitary flame, Snape could see the boy lying on the bed, sleeping. He crossed the room to the four-poster bed, letting the door swing shut behind him, and gently roused Draco from sleep.

"Professor?" The boy blinked, "What's going on?"

"I'm continuing to follow that Unbreakable Vow your mother guilted me into," Snape replied in a monotone.

In spite of the situation, Draco smirked. "You must really hate that by now."

"Indeed. I will apparate us out of here, and then return. I don't know where they've stored your wand."

"Oh, it's right here," Draco replied, pulling it out of his robes. "No one took it off me."

"Then I would also assume you can still use it?"

"Yeah." Draco's lip curled slightly as he pictured where he was going to go, "You really need to clean that place, you know."

"If you wish it cleaner, Mr. Malfoy, you may clean it yourself," Snape replied, "Just get out of here before Atropos gets back."

Draco nodded, disappearing with a pop.

When a Dementor Kisses a human, or any other creature possessing a soul, they consume it. Yet, Dementors themselves have no stomach to speak of, only a broken soul and solid shadows to complete their form. So, the soul's energy is transferred to the Dementor's soul, and then is free to go wherever it pleases. Normally, it stays right by its former body, and does not cross over from the living world, because its body is not dead. Only if the body dies, naturally or unnaturally as the case may be, does the soul cross over like other souls.

Giving back a soul works much in the same way as taking one, but no Dementor has ever cared to return a soul once he drains it. It wastes too much energy, more than is gained by consuming it in the first place.

Atropos did not bother to hide his disgust as the stench of the lower cells assaulted his senses. Next to him, Lucius was a silent follower as he lead the human deeper into the cells.

There were strange moans from these cells, while the rest of Azkaban had been silent. This was because these pathetic creatures had no control over themselves; they just existed. They were despicable. They should have been killed long ago for just taking up space, Atropos thought.

He found the cell of Barty Crouch Jr. rather quickly. It was near the door to the stairwell, as he had been the most recent person to be Kissed. After breaking the bars on the cell, Atropos let his form shift into that of a Dementor, looking for the soul that would be his.

It was there, hovering worriedly about its former body. With a deft motion, Atropos grabbed it out of the air, and stuffed it back into the human's open and drooling mouth, summoning enough energy to rebind the soul to its human body.

The man coughed and sputtered, falling from where he'd been sitting, and hitting the cold floor. Lucius was next to him in an instant, and dropped the charm into his hand as if he would rather not be nearer than a meter's length from the man. Silently, Atropos agreed. He would not have wanted to touch the man either, but he had to. Even as a human, he should have expected such taste from the man who had sired his aetherius. Yes, he had realized why this man and his aetherius were so similar. It would be something to tell his aetherius when he returned, Atropos guessed, considering that most humans worried about their parents. It was a stupid custom, and one he would have to break his aetherius of sooner or later.

As he melted back into the shadows, the human apparated away, leaving just the creature for the long trip back.

It was almost dawn when Atropos arrived at the building which the snake speaker called Riddle Manor. Atropos deftly avoided both the snake speaker and his pack, who were all milling about talking about something unimportant, and headed for his own room, intent on getting warm again.

But when he opened the door, there was no one in the room. The one candle had been blown out, but Atropos did not have to search the room to know that his aetherius was not there.

The cry that assaulted the ears of the assembled Death Eaters was something between a shriek and a roar. All conversation stopped as many of the Death Eaters turned to look at their Lord, who looked nonchalant about the situation. Outwardly calm, Snape winced at the sound, the only one in the room to understand exactly who was making that sound and the reason for it.

Footnotes:
(1)Death Eaters in Azkaban - If you remember back to the Fourth book Voldemort says that there are 3 Death Eaters "killed in his service". One of these, we learn in the Fifth book, is Regulus Black whom Voldemort killed himself. The other two are not mentioned, so I chose this death for them.
(2)Barty Crouch's sentence - With both his mother and father dead, I decided the Ministry would have the vegetable Barty Crouch put into a cell in Azkaban. He was, after all, a confirmed Death Eater and murderer.

status: beta'd by Ayeshah Harvey-Lomas