Disclaimer: Haven't had one of these in while so I thought that I would remind everyone out there that I don't own Harry Potter.
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Bellatrix and Harry were probably the happiest people in Azkaban. Well, as close as you can get to happy whilst encased in the grimy stone walls.
A week had passed since Bella had first transformed and Harry had changed into his second form. Both were now able to change into their given animals almost instantaneously now, after all, practice makes perfect, and they had plenty of time to practice whilst they were in Azkaban.
They had chosen to wait until they tried to escape, in order for them to hone their skills with their forms. They had to make the most of their only advantage.
Sure, Harry did know a bit about wandless magic, he even discovered he had a natural talent for the subject during the private studies that he was under taking before he was unceremoniously thrown into prison. However, no amount of affinity for wandless magic would bypass the magic suppression wards and runes that affected the prisoners, and even he could overcome said problems, he wasn't at the level to cast a patronus wandlessly, he didn't even know if it was possible!
It was because of this that they were relying on the animagus forms. Harry didn't like to put all of his eggs in one basket, as the Muggles would say, especially after the farce of a trial and subsequent betrayal, but he had no choice.
He turned to face the figure that was sleeping beside him.
'She looks so peaceful,' he thought. 'Wow that's cliché.' He chuckled at his internal ramblings. If he didn't know that the Dementors presence hadn't been affecting him since he first set foot on the island, he might have thought he was slowly going insane.
Harry and Bella's hadn't progressed very far physically in their relationship over the last week, instead choosing to get to know each other better.
They told each other stories from their childhood, times at Hogwarts and what each other's thoughts were on certain issues and people. Most of the latter subject revolved around Dumbledore, and occasionally Voldemort, but they didn't broach either of these subject often, since Harry would have trouble containing his anger.
Harry had learnt that Bellatrix had grown up in a Black property out in the country. Her and her two sisters, Andromeda and Narcissa, were as close as they come. They did everything together, even after Andromeda was sorted into Ravenclaw at Hogwarts.
It turned out that Bella was almost as close with Sirius as she was with her sisters. The tree girls and their mother used to frequently visit the Black mansion in Grimmauld place, which, Harry was told, was much more glorious in those days than it is now. Sirius always used to play with her despite being almost nine years older. She always wanted an older brother, and he fit the position perfectly.
She told him how she forced into marrying Rodolphus Lestrange. She had touched on this subject when she was giving Harry her story of how she ended up in the prison, but she gave more detail this time, how she had told him that she didn't love him, how he was initially angry, but then, in his own words, realised that he could 'never force myself on someone who didn't love me, even if I love them.'
She told him how her husband was the closest thing she had to a friend whilst she was forced into forcing the Dark Lord. Andromeda had been disowned, Narcissa had been told not to talk to her, instead told to be the perfect trophy wife for Lucius Malfoy. On top of this, Sirius, as well as being disowned from the Black family, hated her. He didn't know that she had no choice but to do as ordered.
In return , Harry had told her everything he could remember about his childhood. His abuse and neglect at the Dursley's, the way he was ignored when he tried to warn Professor McGonagall about the Philosophers Stone, how he was dubbed the Heir of Syltherin in second year, how Dumbledore had told Harry that a dangerous mass murderer was after him in third year, despite knowing that said 'murderer' was innocent.
How he was forced into the Triwizard tournament in forth year, which climaxed in Cedric Diggory's death and Harry, duelling, getting tortured by and being placed under the Imperious Curse by the Dark Lord himself.
Next, he told of how no had written to him over the summer before his fifth year, not one letter. He returned to school only to find that the Daily Prophet had been slighting him all summer, calling him a liar. No one believed him.
He told of his torture sessions with Umbitch and how Dumbledore had avoided him like the plague. How his 'friends' had slowly started avoiding him around Christmas, after he had the dream about Nagini and Mr. Weasley, and his dreadful sessions with Snape in the dungeons. Bella had gasped at this, but told him to carry on.
These sessions and his loss of support from his friends had been what caused him to withdraw to the library most nights, studying.
He then got to how he, Luna and Neville, who seemed to be his only friends left, had travelled to the Department of Mysteries. He told Bella what happened, every detail, since she could remember none of it.
Finally, he got to his trail. How he had been accused of murdering his Uncle, Aunt and cousin, whom he hadn't even known were dead.
He had never told anyone about his memories so thoroughly before.
Bella had been their next to him as he broke down into silent tears. She held him close until he managed to pull himself together. This only brought them closer.
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It was the next night and their plan to escape was about to be sprung.
Harry was pacing in the small cell, his nerves getting the better of him, despite his Occlumency techniques.
"Harry, you're going to wear a rut in the ground if you don't stop pacing."
The soothing voice broke through his scattered thoughts. Bella could always calm him when he got worked up. He sighed.
"Yeah, you're right." He slumped down next the petite woman, who snuggled into his side.
"The Dementors feeding time is almost over, we can leave soon." Bella said, excitement leaking into her voice.
Harry cracked a smile. He was looking forward to the fresh air and freedom that would come with getting out of this cell. He was certain he was beginning to go stir crazy.
The minutes passed in silence, the anticipation in the air was so thick you could smell it.
Soon, the screams that were coming from the cells nearby gave way to whimpers, signalling the Dementors had stopped feeding, sure enough, two small bowls of slop was pushed through the bars to the cell.
The Dementors had long since abandoned their cell, when they found that they were unable to feed off of the occupants. Harry was unaffected, and he did everything he could to protect Bella from the ghostly aura that was emitted, and if it ever got too much, Bella would transform into the black phoenix.
The gruel lay untouched as both Harry and Bella prepared to execute their master plan. In all honesty, their escape plan seemed almost too simple, too easy.
Bella transformed into the beautiful bird and perched on Harry's shoulder, who was now standing.
Harry took a moment to check that the Dementors were far enough away before giving the all clear.
Bellatrix had only ever used the phoenix method of travel to travel short distances. The first time was accidental and she only ended up a few centimetres from where she started. The second time was much more successful. She managed to flash from one side of the cell to the other. She had practiced for weeks after that, but she never ventured outside the cell, in case she was unable to get back.
So this was the first time that she would go outside. The plan was for her to transport both herself and Harry down to just outside the prison gates, at which point Harry would transform into the lighter basilisk form and and wrap himself around her legs. Bella would then fly in the general south-western direction, until they reached land, which would be Britain.
Since they knew that the gates to the prison faced south, it wouldn't be a problem figuring out which way to fly. No, the problem was that they weren't sure if Bella could fly all the way to Britain.
"Right, let's do this."
With that Harry grabbed one of Bella's tail feathers and she disappeared in a flash of black flame.
When they reappeared though, it wasn't where they had planned to be. Taking a quick glance around, he noticed that they were still in the prison. However judging by the fact that the prisoners were shouting at them, and were most definitely sane, they were on one of the auror controlled lower floors.
Bella changed back into her human form when she noticed this.
"Harry! What are we going to do?" The panic edging her voice was clear to anyone who was listening.
Before he could answer though, another voice interrupted them.
"HEY! What are you doing out of your cell!"
Harry turned to see an auror standing about 50 feet away, wand drawn.
Before anyone noticed, Harry changed into his lion form and charged at the lone guard. He didn't want to kill him; otherwise he would have just used his basilisk ability. He just remove the auror from the game.
As he got closer the auror turned to run, but was to slow. Harry sliced open his chest with his claws and he fell to the floor, writhing in pain.
He returned to Bella and jerked his head upwards, gesturing to his back. She immediately caught on and climbed onto the magnificent beasts back.
As soon as Harry felt the miniscule weight on his back, he set off. He sprinted as fast as his four legs would carry him, navigating the narrow passageways with ease. To any onlookers, he would appear to be a golden blur. He could feel his muscles tensing and relaxing with every stride, rippling under his pelt.
Harry followed the passages until he came to the main flight of stairs in the centre of the fortress.
He flew down and down and down, past countless amounts of floors, all full of cells.
'I thought we were lower than this considering the lack of Dementors where we were.' He mused. He was brought back to reality though when the reached the bottom. Looking around, he noticed that they were in a huge hall, the same hall that he was brought in through. Looking towards the vast double doors in front of him, he noticed that there was a guards post there. The aurors inside had obviously noticed him as well, since they were fumbling around, presumable trying to draw their wands.
Harry once again marvelled at the incompetence of some Ministry employees, before pouncing on the group that had just come outside of the separate guards building.
A slash and a swat with a paw later and there were five bleeding people rolling around on the floor.
Bella quickly jumped off of Harry and made her way into the room to open the doors that led to freedom.
When they slowly started to creep open, she came back. She didn't climb back on though, instead choosing to walk.
The light outside was blinding. Both Bella and Harry, who was now back in his human form had to shield their eyes. After spending all of their time in a dark, dank cell, even the dark grey, almost balck sky was too bright for their sensitive retinas.
Bella laughed happily at being outside again, and Harry couldn't help but let out a small smile.
"We aren't done yet, Bella. Come on."
With that he transformed into a basilisk, making sure to keep his inner 'eyelids' firmly closed. As Harry had grown more confident in his basilisk form, he was able to manoeuvre much faster. He was still huge for a normal snake, easily bigger than Nagini and weighing just less than a person, but he was small in comparison to other Basilisks that he had read about over the years.
Apparently, the basilisk that was in the Chamber of Secrets, which was about 60ft long, was only about average in terms of length, with the biggest that was ever recorded being around 130ft. The scary thing was that it was still alive somewhere, since basilisks don't just die of old age.
Seeing that Harry had changed, Bella also changed into her phoenix form.
Harry coiled his head and the first 50cm of his length around Bella's legs and then allowed he to grab his tail in her talons, to prevent it dangling ridiculously low. The end result looked somewhat like a huge hangman's noose hanging in mid-air.
Bella leaped into the air, which was quite an achievement considering her legs were essentially bound together.
She had no trouble lifting Harry's weight, due to that fact that phoenixes could carry a huge load.
Bella carefully angled herself diagonally away from the prison, heading south-west, before flying forward, as steadily as she could, trying not to think of the huge journey ahead of her.
A/N: Well there's chapter 7. Sorry for the long gap in updating this story, I have been working on my other story and since haven't had a chance to update this chapter. I hope you are all enjoying it, but I would appreciate some feedback! I've had 10,179 hits on this story but only 18 reviews. That's not very many. Anything will be appreciated, just review! Thanks for reading.