Please read 'Keeping the Light' by my good friend Nonezumi!

Sorry this took so long. Let's just blame it on computer problems and leave it at that. As an apology for how long it took to get this up I have already written the next three chapters and plan to post them ever day after briefly proof reading. I'm not a BETA so I'm sorry if there are lots of mistakes.

Summary- 2011 NaNoWriMo Harry was betrayed and left to rot in the darkest corners of Azkaban biding his time as Voldemort rose to power. But a far darker and more powerful threat approaches that even the Dark Lord can not defeat, the world looks to Harry for rescue. But Harry's not ready to save them. A twist on the usual Azkaban fic. Probably VoldemortXHarry.

Dark Intentions

VanityIre

Chapter Four

Enlisted

During a normal interview process, enlistees were asked to bring certain forms of identifications with them.

Since most of Harry's records were in the Muggle world, and never transferred over when he turned seventeen like they should have been when he reached adulthood, Harry didn't have any form of I.D., neither did the ministry. This would have been confusing for Harry, seeing as he was born in the wizarding world, but then he would have to take into account Dumbledore.

As far as he knew, Dumbledore had his records closed and secured the year he entered Hogwarts. Whether this was to keep suspicious people from gaining access to unneeded information, or just a way of controlling him, Harry was unsure.

Whatever happened to his record were lost long ago, the Wizengamot were bright enough to provide Harry with new ones. Why they gave them over to Harry now he didn't know, but he wasn't about to curse his good luck. It also held certain instructions that Harry had been keen on reading through before he reached the office. So while in the lift he pretended to be checking Lily's diaper, and slid the vanilla folder open bypassing the weak security spell. It listed his name, ancestry, and age. Nothing much. One paper was surrounded in a swirly blue paisley, it seemed to be his new birth certificate. The only notable thing in the file was a paper that laid out a few clear and simple instructions.

Harry Potter to be placed in the in the Royal Wizarding Navy. Potter is to remain on staff after completing basic training as a convey.

The rest of the record was lacking. It held only another paper that was title health records, but the rest of the document was blink. A hand sized photo of him leaning back completely relaxed in the interrogation chair was clipped to the health form. They must have taken that at some point during his trial.

All things aside, the most interesting part was the fact that the ministry didn't want Harry to see any action. If not to fight for them, then why have him join? Harry had his suspicions. He would confirm them later. For now he slid the paper out of the folder and under Lily's blanket then he merely checked that the spells were still in place and closed the folder.

The registration offices were located on level five. It once was only a small corner office manned by one lone wizard named Jeremy, a man no one bothered to learn the last name of. The offices were used rarely, if ever. Maybe a few Aurors, just starting out, or ones who thought they might contribute a little something in their retirement decided to register for the wizarding military. In fact, the last draft to be enacted was during Grindelwald's time. About the time of the Muggle World Wars. It had been ages since anyone was required to put their names down.

Time had done something else, it had mellowed the people from the experiences of war. When the draft was issued no one was ready for it, not even the former members of the military, ones who held high ranks in the past. Back in 40's and for a few years in the 50's the BMW held a capacity of 2000 Soldiers. By the ninety's the majority had retired and there was possibly 150 left. Wizarding Britain had been untouched by outside wars for so long, left to fight their own civil wars.

Then a new minister was elected in 1990. Fudge had been a fool for too many years ignoring outside relations, ones that Dumbledore had tried to hold onto for Britain's sake. Hence the reinstatement of the Triwizard Tournament in 1994. It was how he had gained the title of Supreme Mugwump, which was the wizarding version of the leader of the UN. It came as no surprise to anyone that after Dumbledore's death most countries saw fit sever ties to Britain. These former relations were trying to be mended by the current ruling government but they had made little lead way.

Harry knew from word of mouth that Agostino Greco , the Italian Minister of Magic had been in negotiations with Britain for the last few months. However, whatever bonds that had been mended were destroyed after the draft. No country wanted to get involved with one that was declaring war.

It seemed it was getting harder and harder for the British to gain allies, and in face of a possible war with an unknown enemy, no one in the the magical world wanted to get entangled.

Harry's main concern wasn't how much the offices of the registration had changed, nor was it how the war was progressing outside of the papers, which had only reported that the battle field was little more than a few dozen skirmishes a week between both side. No one knew who the other side was exactly.

Harry only wished to know, why he was being forced to enlist. What ever the enemy was, the Dark Lord was scared of them. Scared enough to retrieve his greatest enemy from inside his own prison.

That and that alone, was one of the reasons he had agreed to the whole charade. And if it happened to also free his name, which was the only things locked away in Azkaban for the last five years since he was definitely not, then so be it.

The offices had been expanded and in place of Jeremy who had been forcefully retired, not that the man was complaining after the amount they agreed to pay him, were a dozen old recruitment officers. They each had an office space to themselves. Small little corner desks lined the walls and a great amount of space was left in the center for others to mingle. The entire set up looked oddly comfortable for a military registration office. It honestly appeared to be more of a lounge area than anything else with many couches placed about. There was even a fountain.

It was also extremely crowded, so crowded that it proved near impossible to maneuver a baby stroller through the mass of bodies. Even with two Aurors escorting him through the thong. As he rolled the stroller over a young man's left foot and listened to his curses he wondered just how many men were being drafted around the isles...

Harry was led to one of the cubicles, bypassing many who had probably been waiting in line for hours. Of course few were willing to argue against two Aurors on duty, so Harry was left listening to their grumbling. He shrugged honestly not caring.

Instructed to take a seat, he once again found himself checking on Lily who was very much awake and cooing over her stuffed dragon.

"Right," began the officer behind the desk. "My name is Nathaniel Midgen. I'll be taking care of you for now until the sign up process is through. What would your name be lad?" The man asked, paying no attention to the Aurors flanking him, or not seeing them. Harry's eye zeroed in on the thick mustache the man was sporting above his lips. What was with Wizards and large amounts of facial hair?

The man coughed to gain Harry's attention. His Auror guards merely stood on either side of both Potters hands clasped together and unmoving.

"Yes, sorry. My name is Harry Potter."

Oh, there was that silence again. It first encompassed the the first few recruits nearest to him then a few of those around began whispering and suddenly a hush fell over the room. The recruitment officer well past his prime merely blinked though. Harry wasn't sure if he was previously notified and was just putting up pretenses, but he figured the man was just good at schooling his features. The man in the cubicle behind him was not. Harry could see his blond greying head peak up from behind the wall before ducking back down.

With the kind of reaction his name seemed to garner Harry was beginning to believe the wizarding world had cast him into legend well before they should have.

Most soldiers who were enlisted signed up not truly knowing what to expect. With a draft being on call, there wasn't much choice anyway. So they marched themselves down to registration after receiving the letter in the mail and expected to be thrown into battle immediately. That didn't happen. The military had a process that could not be deterred by any kind of war.

First an initiate would be interviewed, a long list of questions about their personal life and future goals. After the interview process the next day they would tolerate endurance and medical testing to judge their fitness levels. Then finally came phase one and two. Phase one was a twelve week boot camp that pushed most wizards to their limits physically and magically. Phase two was selective training. They would sit a wizard down to train them thoroughly in a certain field like air mechanics, or field espionage.

Back to the present however, Harry was being introduced to the interview process.

"Do you happen to have any form of identification?" Nathaniel asked to begin with. Harry slid his folder across the desk.

Drumming his bony fingers on the desk Harry was left wondering if the man would notice the missing paper, but Nathaniel merely opened the file, flicked through and closed it.

"Well, I want you to know that this interview process isn't long. Just normal questions then. The purpose of the interview is for me to get to know you."

Harry wondered how many times the man had spoken these lines, because they came out off stiff and rehearsed.

"Well, let's get started then. Uh, your file seems rather empty, so there will be a few questions to fill in some gaps."

Harry leaned back already sure this was going to be amusing.

"So have you had any major injuries in the past? Magical mishaps that have effected you physically?"

"Well I suppose I could start with the killing curse. You know having that cast on you as a child might be considered a 'magical mishap'."

Nathaniel's eyes blinked rapidly, and Harry was beginning to associate this with nervousness he decided further testing was in order.

"My Uncle also managed to break several of my bones before I reached age eleven. Quite a few on my arm and my ankle once. They've all been healed the Muggle way, I can move them so I suppose they're fine. What else? Oh yes, I crack a few ribs during my first quidditch match, had all the bones in my left arm removed when I was twelve. I've cracked my skull on numerous occasions and may have had my something else fractured...You know this may be too long a list for one sitting."

Yes, Harry concluded, the rapid blinking was definitely a sign of nervousness.

"Err, well my boy why don't we just skip the medical questions, they can all be answered later on during your physicals. Why don't you tell me a bit about your personal life, family?"

Harry was seriously wondering if the man just wasn't all there. "Do you want to know anything about before or after the wizarding world threw me into prison?"

Though, it hadn't been the world, just Britain.

"You might be asking about my life before prison. I was abused for the first few years before Hogwarts. You know the regular things; sleeping in a cupboard, snack from the neighbors being my only meal ever few weeks. Or maybe you mean my life in prison. Been struck by Aurors on a daily basis, getting passed over for food most days and having to sleep in a mold infested cell. Why I was living the life of luxury! As for family all the Potters are dead, though I suppose you could make a note that I have a daughter," he gestured to the stroller.

Quite a few of the men around Harry gasped. They began whispering amongst themselves.

"We could move on," Nathaniel said, sounding like he was begging, before Harry could add more. The man's face was now pinched as if he were trying to digest everything that Harry was saying but having a tough time of it. "Maybe you can tell me about your future goals."

What? Did the man think Harry held any true plans or intentions right after being released? If Harry was still an angry seventeen-year-old boy that question would have caused some accidental magic on his part.

Harry leaned forward, bent his head down low and spoke with conspiracy. "I was thinking about becoming a dark lord, do you thing Voldemort would apprentice me?"

Nathaniel seemed to finally understand that Harry was messing with him. " I suppose in all truth and honesty, there is little need to interview you. Why don't we just move onto paper signing so you can get the hell- I mean be on your way."

A handful of papers were place in front of Harry for signing. Most new recruits signed the papers without first reading them, but Harry knew better. The contracts were magical and nature, and in that case binding.

And more importantly quite a few were not required for signing. To the annoyance of the officer and Aurors guarding him, Harry took his time read each document and skipped signing a few more.

He had no intentions of signing his name to suicide missions. So he flipped through that section without care.

Some of the other clauses were absolutely ridiculous.

"If a wizard with a higher and purer blood count is injured I entitle him to being aided before me. No matter how small the injury may be," he read out loud incredulously.

Harry snorted, a clause like this would be too much trouble in the middle of a war. It would lead to a Pure-blood who was injured by little more than a scratch to be attended to before a soldier who had their arm severed. He noted a few wizards, dressed in Muggle clothing shifting about nervously after hearing him say that. A few began serious looking through their contracts. Good maybe they too would refuse to sign, the more problems he gave to the army the better.

Many of the other rules were like that as well. They gave Pure-bloods more power and rights.

Magical creatures could be used as canon fodder.

Harry snorted, Remus would have had a field day with that one. He could just imagine the werewolf throwing a fit and storming down to the ministry to demand talking with those in charge on the Creature Rights Department. Despite a new government dark creatures were still struggling to gain their own advantages.

Muggleborns were required to sleep in separate tents, and had their own units separated from Pure-blood units.

It was so discriminating that Harry had only agreed to sign his name to two documents.

One that would insure his body if recoverable was shipped back home, and that any promotions and demotions were basically okay in his book.

By the end, Harry had taken so long, no one bothered to check any of his signatures and the entire contract was place in his folder and stored away.

Harry knew he could count on the British Wizarding World for inefficiency.

"Well then," Nathaniel spoke standing up and offering Harry his hand. "I suppose you'll be in for three days of rest, then your be off to phase one training. I look forward to working with you in the future." The man seemed to truly mean it, Harry noted. And realized for the first time how awestruck the man had been the entire time they were talking.

The recruitment offices were left behind, and Harry followed the two Aurors, (two names) in silence. Lily had dropped off once again. He was a little worried by how much she was sleeping lately. He would have Alice check her over when he returned later that night.

"Hurry along Potter," one of the Aurors snapped to him since he was taking his sweet time wheeling the stroller along.

"Aw, leave him alone Captain Carrow. It's probably been ages since the man's seen daylight," The younger of the two said. He was a dark haired brunette with sharp aristocratic features Harry associated with Pure-bloods.

Harry snorted realising he hadn't honestly noticed Carrow was even the Auror leading him along. The an had spent a few terms as the Dark arts Professor at Hogwarts. He along with his sister Alecto who still was made Deputy Headmistress ran the school with an iron grudge against Gryffindors.

As far as Harry knew both Carrows had failed to maintain loyalty to the Dark Lord after the first war. The fact that they both held high positions in the ministry and education systems must have meant they were very influential, highly powerful or both.

"If I wanted you opinion I would have asked for it rookie," Carrow sneered. The young boy, for he couldn't have been older than twenty, made a face at the Auror Captain who didn't see or ignored it.

Harry didn't know who the other Auror was, but he felt a sense of companionship with him after he dropped back to walk slowly beside him and the stroller. The boy didn't bother to say anything but truly, it was the most sincerity he'd felt since he entered the ministry.

A/N: Oh dear, I seem to be on a slow track with this story. Harry won't be going to boot camp until about chapter 8 or 9, but I do plan on covering his time there. I hope you enjoyed it. Please look forward tot he next chapter which has that surprising character you won't be expecting.

Question-I'm a bit confused about how to include Voldemort into the story. I know how I want Voldemort to be but am unsure at which point I should have him come in. What do you guys think? Should Voldemort make his first appearance early on or not until the middle of the story?