Author's Note: Thanks to all my lovely reviewers. Your kindness knows no bounds. Ready for the next exciting installment of HPATDOA? Yeah, I know, but the title's really long to spell out, and I wanted to see what it looks like shorthand. Oh, well. Anyway, on with Chapter 3; warning, it's a long one.

Blue Skyes101

Disclaimer: "Can I have it?" "No" "Can I have it?" "No" "Can I have it?" "NO" "Can I-" "NO, you can not; nor will you ever own Harry Potter!" "Darn." "Darn is right." "…Are you sure I can't have it?" "….ARGGGH!"

Chapter 3 – Wait, What?

"Ok, so you know who the founders of Hogwarts are, right?" Juan asked. Harry nodded mutely. Who didn't know who they were? "Good, so you know who Salazar Slytherin is, right?" Harry nodded again; this was getting boring, and he barely held back a yawn. Juan smirked. "Yes, I am actually going somewhere with this, Mr. I-Can't-Keep-My-Attention-On-Something-For-More-Than-Five-Seconds."

'Great,' Harry thought tiredly, 'More hyphens.'

"Anyway, you probably don't know that before he helped create to Hogwarts, Salazar Slytherin made Azkaban."

Harry looked up at Juan. He hadn't known that. "How do you know that?"

Juan grinned. "When you're around for awhile, like a lot of dementors, you tend to pick up obscure facts, even though that one wasn't so obscure. Did you that it was Godric Gryffindor who named Hogwarts? He was drunk at the time, at Vegas; he got the idea from some random chick and cast an irrevocable spell to name the school. Needless to say, the other founders weren't too happy; and that's why he got stuck with the Gryffindor."

Harry looked at Juan, enraptured despite himself. It made sense though, when he thought about it. After all, who other than a Gryffindor would name an entire school after a mud-covered (those darn hyphens) male pig and a skin condition? I mean, Ginny did name Ron's owl Pidwegeon. And Hermione named her cat Crookshanks. It had to be a curse on all Gryffindor. (He, of course, must have been skipped by the curse because Harry Potter is just awesome like that)

Harry opened his mouth to ask if the other founders had done just that when Juan started talking again. "Most people didn't know that Salazar did that. He made it that way to keep safe one of his most secretly guarded secrets (A/N: Yes, I did that on purpose) -one only his heirs know."

Ok, so now Harry was getting irritated. "What's the secret?" He growled through gritted teeth. He hated people (Does that term apply here?) Not telling him things.

Cindy turned to look Harry in the eye, completely ignoring his growing (and obvious) anger. "Dementors."

"What?" Harry's eyes widened considerably in confusion, and Juan held up a hand to quell the imminent barrage of question.

'Well, well,' Harry thought interestedly 'He's getting to know me already.'

"Let me continue. Now, Salazar had already picked out the very island we are standing on to build and did indeed build Azkaban when he realized something. He needed jailors. He, of course, could not use corruptible jailors, such as wizards, goblins, or house elves."

"Elves aren't corrupt-" Harry broke off as he realized the house elves would probably just do whatever the prisoners say, a), making Azkaban a place that not only was actually habitable (which is not the point of Azkaban) but actually quite nice and b) they would probably let the prisoners out if they asked to be let out. (Which, once again, is not the point of a desolate, impenetrable, and inescapable wizard prison in the middle of nowhere.) So, Harry decided to drop the point because in the long run, it didn't matter whether or not house elves were corruptible, as the end result would be the same.

"Now at this point," Juan continued, ignoring Harry's outburst. (Harry pouted; he kept getting ignored.) "We dementors were different than we are now. Instead of sucking the happiness out of people, we sucked out negative emotions, such as sadness, anger, or hate.

"Wait, what?" Harry face faulted.

"We suck out negative emotions." Juan repeated amusedly.

"You're kidding me."

"Nope!" Cindy put in happily. "Happiness actually tastes terrible. Give me some good old fashioned grief, and I'm a happy girl."

"The creatures, who I used to have nightmares about, originally were not better than, than, Care Bears!"

"Yep," Juan said. "Of course, we did, though, look the same as we do now. So Salazar, being the stupid Pure Blood Elitist he is, found us repulsive despite our natural charms and goodness and came up with an idea. Yes, Harry, we know how your kind views us. We've been around long enough, and you guys aren't quite above vocalizing your prejudices." Harry had the grace to blush slightly (though he would be loathe to admit it.).

"And let me tell you, you humans aren't that good looking to us either. You guys resemble pink, hairless rodents." Cindy jumped in.

Harry snorted, and Juan shot Cindy a look that clearly said, 'Shut up before I lock you in the closet,' or something to that effect. 'Does Azkaban have closets?' Harry wondered absently.

"Anyway, so Salazar decides to make our abilities match our looks. Because we look like monsters, to you at least, he turned us into monsters. He cast a very powerful spell to turn us and all our offspring, plus future offspring, into creatures who suck happiness and souls to get by. We are good creatures who only want to help people, even if our diet is changed. So, we were going to try to force him to change us back. But Salazar was crafty. As soon as he was done with the first spell, he cast a spell to make us forced to obey his heir and him; and he made it so that only his heir (and him) could understand us. Also, that we would not affect him or his heir. That's how Voldemort has controlled us when we would really rather not follow him."

"But wait," Harry said, head spinning wildly. "I can talk to you. So I guess I really am an heir of Slytherin, even if only by default." Juan a nodded, and Cindy clapped both her hands enthusiastically. "But why did it wait until now to come into effect?"

"You are not truly an heir until you become an adult. You become an adult at the age of seventeen. That's how pureblood families work, and Salazar probably figured all his heirs would be pureblood, the arrogant prick." Juan replied.

Harry looked at Juan, who looked sad and tired after the terrible story, and at Cindy, who had been so adamant and sincere in her dislike of their abilities and decided. "How do I undo the spell?"

Cindy jumped up with a large smile on her face and pulled Harry up with her. "I knew you'd say that!" she laughed joyfully, dancing up and down while holding Harry's hand. Harry was rather stunned. He'd never expected to see a dementor so happy. Juan grinned too.

"I was hoping you would say that."

"So there is a way." Harry pressed.

"Yes, there is a way." The laughter left Juan's voice. "Salazar told us the counter spell to release us incase the need came…well, either that or to torture us- I'm not sure." Juan's voice turned bitter. "Only an heir can use that counter spell. It must also be used wandlessly. I guess that Salazar also figured all his heirs would be powerful enough."

"What? That's not pos-"Harry broke off as he remembered the wand less lumos.

"You were always quite powerful, Harry; but when you came into your powers, you became easily twice as powerful as Dumbledore and quite possibly Voldemort, too. All you need is training."

Harry ran his hands through his hair. "And who's going to be teaching me? In case you hadn't noticed, I'm in Az-Freaking-Kaban!"

Juan gave a feral grin "Us, the dementors. You didn't think we'd spent centuries around wizards without learning anything about magic, did you?"

"Erm, well, yeah. Sorry." Harry blushed slightly.

"No need to be sorry," Juan said cheerfully, slapping Harry on the back. "Now, there is one small problem. You can't free us from the spell until you kill Voldemort. You see, Salazar made it so that if two heirs were alive at one time, the elder would control the dementors; and we all know how old Voldy is."

"But I can't defeat Voldemort from Azkaban." Harry pointed out. "And I still need to train to defeat him somewhere."

"We know," Cindy said. "We'll train you to defeat Voldemort here, in Azkaban."

"You're so sure I'll defeat Voldemort?"

"Yep, the dude's positively ancient. Besides, you have the dementors on your side." Cindy grinned happily. It struck Harry as extremely weird to hear a dementor use the word 'dude.'

"But what about the little problem of me being in Azkaban?" Harry was getting frustrated. They just seemed so sure he could do this. 'Oh, well. At least they didn't expect him to solve all their problems for them with no help and no real training,' thought Harry, thinking of Dumbledore.

"Simple," Juan explained. "We, the dementors, are going to prove your innocence. It'll take a while because we don't exactly have a free reign, and we are dementors after all; but we should be able to. Plus, you can train as you wait. We no longer affect you, and we'll make sure to bring you some at least half-way decent food; and we'll have time to practice since the aurors only come once a week!"

Harry cocked his head, thinking. "But how will you possibly prove my innocence? I mean, yeah, the evidence is shoddy; but as you said, you're dementors. I don't see how you'll be able to do it."

Juan and Cindy shared an evil grin. "You're right; it'll be hard, but we have our ways."

"Well, alright, but how long do you think I'll be in here?" Harry asked. (He had no choice but to believe them.) The dementors might not affect him anymore, but this was still a pretty disgusting and demoralizing place.

Juan looked thoughtful. "If I'm right, this plan shouldn't take longer than two or three years."

"What?" Harry yelped unhappily.

"Hey!" Juan said, shooting him a look. "It's better than a lifetime here." Harry stopped grumbling under his breath. He had a point. Besides, why anger the people going to prove your innocence?

"But seriously, how are you going to prove my innocence?"

Juan flashed Harry a feral grin. "Do you really want to know?" He asked, eyes flashing. Harry decided he didn't want to know. "Okay then," Juan said getting up. "Your training starts now."

"Now?" Harry asked, surprised.

"Mmm-hmm, right after you've eaten. Cindy, you take care of him while I tell the others what's happened." With that, Juan glided out of the cell; and Cindy guiltily held out Harry's breakfast- two slices of stale bread and one moldy banana.

"Oh, um, yum?"

Cindy sighed. "I know its bad, but this is all they send us. We'll try to do better now that you're here, though. None of the elders cared enough to risk it for prisoners. But for you, they will try to get some good food." Cindy sighed again. "I just hate having to feed this crap to people who don't belong here."

Harry looked up at her. "D-do you remember a S-s." Harry swallowed the lump of hurt stuck in his throat. "Sirius Black?"

Cindy smiled fondly. "Yes, I remember him. He was innocent too, poor guy."

'You mean you aren't mad at him for escaping?" Harry asked in surprise.

Cindy coughed and leaned in conspiratorially. "Well, I, er, kinda let him escape." She coughed again. "Please don't tell him about it, okay?"

Harry gave a chuckle but stopped quickly. "I'm not likely to tell him seeing as I'm planning to never speak to him again."

Cindy looked surprised. "You'll have to face him sometime."

"Maybe," Harry said bitterly. "But I when I do, I can't guarantee I won't be yelling; and my fist won't be in his face."

Cindy nodded absently. "Details, details. Besides, they do need to be punished for what they've done to you; but you'll have to forgive them eventually." Seeing the glare Harry sent her way, she hastily amended. "But it's not like you ever have to trust them or be friends with them again. Still, you will need to forgive them. If you don't, those feelings of hate and pain will eat you up inside until you're no better than old Voldemort himself."

Harry stared. "Well, I'll be darned. It's true. Even the dumbest people say smart thing occasionally." (A/N: That is true, believe it or not.)

"I am so smart!" Cindy said indignantly.

Harry grinned suddenly, ignoring her. "I may have to forgive them eventually, but that doesn't mean I can't drive them insane first." Harry went back to his meager breakfast, pondering this strange, new development in his life. He shook his head. 'Only me.'

Dumbledore's POV

Dumbledore sat in his office, stroking Fawkes' head absently. He sighed; so many thoughts were swimming through his mind. Most of them had to do with Harry. Where had he gone wrong? Harry had turned out just like Tom. Dumbledore had thought better of Harry. But what if he had been tricked by Harry, just as Tom had tricked so many before. Harry. Harry. What were they going to do now that he had gone dark? He was the one from the prophecy, so who would save the wizarding world now?

Memories came to him. Harry pleading with them, yelling his innocence, grief and hurt evident in his eyes as the aurors dragged him from his home in Surry. They had arrived just in time to see this, before Harry had been locked in a cell to await his trial. Harry, stone cold and silent at his trial, apathy and lack of will to live (or care) evident in his entire demeanor. He had been resigned to his fate.

Would he not have been joyful to go to Azkaban if he were Voldemort's? And why hadn't Tome tried to break him out yet? They hadn't even used veritaserum. Maybe…No! He couldn't 'what if' himself. He couldn't have taken the chance of creating another dark lord. If Harry were innocent, he might understand Dumbledore's own actions. Dumbledore couldn't bear to think about Harry.

It's that one he'd truly cared about who had rejected him so deeply. Tom, he had never really trusted; but Harry he had trusted completely and wholly. The deepest part inside of him said Harry was innocent, but his rational part told him not to chance it. He sighed. As a leader, he had to make many such choices. He could only hope he was right.

And now, no matter how much he wanted to grieve, he had to make plans. Without Harry in the way, Voldemort was basically free to do what he wanted. What was he going to do next? Dumbledore sighed again, feeling more tired and old than he ever had before. Had he done the right thing?

Next to him, Fawkes gave a soft rill and rubbed his head on Dumbledore's hand. Dumbledore smiled. Fawkes still believed in him, and Fawkes is, after all, a phoenix, a pure manifestation of good. Maybe there was hope yet.

Authors Note Numero Two:

Thanks for reading. Please review; I love input. Oh, and on a completely unrelated note, I also LOVE parentheses. I noticed I use them a lot. They just really add to the story quite well, don't they? Until next chapter!