Harry Potter is property of JK Rowling. I write this out of pure personal pleasure, and the desire to bring happiness to other fans. And my pockets don´t want anything in return. Thanks.
Warning: This story contains yaoi, it means love between men. As much as drama and suffering, supernatural creatures and sex related scenes.
Summary: When seven years after the war, Draco Malfoy escapes from his cell in Azkaban, the ministry has no choice but to send his best Auror, Harry Potter, to capture him again. Between the walls of the world's toughest prison, Harry will discover not only the origin of the most terrifying creatures, but a love against time.
Dementor Kiss
Chapter 4 – Soul
Before them, dark as the deepest of nights, terrible and powerful, stood the Dementor Lord.
The air in the corridor grew even colder, their breath condensed in ghostly white mist. The light from the wands dimed to a withered glow. And the place became something actually nightmarish, in the presence of him.
Harry felt the cold creeping inside his bones. Freezing the breath in his lungs, his hands wet with cold sweat, the wand heavy between his fingers… Angrily, he grabbed it harder, digging his nails in his palm. Taking pain instead of fear. Gritted his teeth, and painfully, with the steel will only acquired at the expense of surviving a war, as bloody and painful as the one he had to fight, dominated it... barely.
Harry looked up gasping, still haunted by the voice whispering him to flee, trying to drown his mind.
The Dementor… was human shaped. Tall and muscled like Ron. But there ended, any remotely human resemblance. Black as a ravens coat, eaten by insects and time, the tunic embraced his body like a kings gear. Only his bonny long fingers, with nails like a hawk, were visible under it…
The aura of utter despair and terror around him, enveloping his form like a blanket, was much more terrible than any other of its kind. So much so…
Next to him Ron was struggling to dominate the sudden panic attack, gasping like a fish out of water. Henry, however, more accustomed to the dementors, seemed to have regained his composure, though pale and trembling.
"What brings you to our domain, men?"- The voice, the whisper of the Dementor made clear. Hissing, dark, attractive. It melted on your senses like butter on skin. He felt a shiver of total disgust. Beside him, Henry took a step forward with a plaque identifying him as a guard, clearly visible in his stretched hand.
"My name is Henry Cleawater, guard of Azkaban." - His voice tried to sound firm, but Harry could apperceive a slight tremor in it. The Lord nodded faintly, just a gesture of acknowledge.
"I know who you are. What remains unanswered is the cause of your presence at our home door."
Henry fought the urge to kneel before the oppressive presence that threatened to seize his body. And squared his shoulders.
"U ... one of the prisoners of the fourth level, Draco Malfoy, has escaped." - The Dementor hissed, prompting the guard to take a step back involuntarily.
"I know. We were asked about it. And we haven´t seen him yet, you would had known if it were the case." – The malicious whisper had a very dark undertone.
Harry listened, and knew exactly what the monster would have done at finding Malfoy, and under what conditions the slytherin would have returned to his cell ... or to the morgue. Henry shuddered, and the creature emitted something like a sinuous laugh, enjoying immensely the growing discomfort of the guard.
Furious, Harry took a step forward, unable to see the Dementor Lord so cruelly playing with the friendly man… and maybe, just a little, also driven by something else.
"What we want is to be allowed to register the tower." - The words left his lips before he could stop them. The hood turned sharply in his direction, but Harry was adamant, refusing to show any sign of fear, although breath refused to enter his lungs.
"And why would you have to do such a thing?" - The cavernous voice enveloped the Auror, pressing him, making Harry start gasping convulsively for breath. The frightened little voice in his head, growing louder, but he refused to be intimidated. "It's just a Dementor, I have faced dozens before, this is no different," he said to himself, and took sharply the air he needed.
"We think there are chances for Malfoy to have been able to hide inside." - His voice hoarse from the effort.
The Dementor Lord threw his head back, a sinister laugh, like the screech of metal against metal, came from his throat and slithered under their skin with spider like fingers.
"There's no living in our tower." -He said.
"Still, we have to be sure."- Harry insisted stubbornly.
The Dementor Lord refused at once.
"No." - His tone admitted no argument.
The darkness of the hall seemed to intensify. The cold began to frost the moisture in the floor and walls... Harry opened his mouth to reply, but Henry put a hand on his arm as a warning.
"Please, pardon our impertinence." - Henry whispered, voice choked with terror. He bowed and began dragging Harry with him, Ron at his heels completely terrified. The Dementor Lord didn´t even turn to look at them as he walked back inside the tower, closing the door behind himself, taking with him the cold and darkness.
Henry quickly took them to the guard rest room, ignoring any further attempt at conversation from a very annoyed Harry.
"What were you thinking?! I told you to be polite!" - Henry was red with anger. Harry faced the guard irritated by his attitude.
"In case you didn´t realize, I was trying to help! That dementor was laughing at your expense!"
"Don´t you dare imply I needed protection! Because you don´t know anything about how Azkaban works! We were in his territory, it was his right!" – Henry gestured angrily toward the door they had just entered.
"No, it was not! You are a guard and..."
"HE IS THE DEMENTOR LORD! You have to remember that if these creatures are controlled is because he wants it that way! Maybe it doesn´t matter to you, but I have to live here!" - Harry closed his mouth abruptly. Henry sank exhausted on the sofa next to Ron, who had scarcely begun to recover from the experience.
Harry took the words in, and understood Henrys way of thinking, even if he didn´t like it.
"... I'm sorry. I shouldn´t had intervened." -The black haired man approached the guard contrite.
Henry sighed.
"It's okay. I guess now we can´t register the tower."
"Don´t be so sure." - Harry smiled.
Henry looked up. At the same time the flames of the fire roared letting Hermione in.
"Hi. How was the visit to the Dementor Lord?" – She asked.
The aurors and the guard looked at each other.
Sunlight, a dim grey glow behind the clouds and the fog coming from the sea, poured from the dirty window to cast its sad presence inside, barely enough to dimly illuminate the room.
"A depressing light, for a depressing place." – He muttered, using his sleeve´s edge, to clear a small circle in the thick dust covering the window glass. The landscape outside was no more than a rough sea lost in fog. Even at noon, the sun could rarely be seen here. But even so, he loved looking outside. So much years inside a rock cage, made the man appreciative of even the saddest outside vision.
The figure sitting on the stone seat, at the foot of the window, was shaking.
"So cold." –He murmured.
Finally, unable to ignore the frigid temperature anymore, got up from the window and went to knelt beside the fire.
The room was old but well preserved. In fact, the only dirty element was the window. But that was because the towers windows were never cleaned. A security measure so nobody from outside could see inside.
A stupid thing if someone asked him. But here he had no voice or vote. What a familiar situation. Hadn´t it been like that all his life?
The bed was an antique of solid wood, every inch carved with lions and plants. Motive present, even, in the worn by time magnificent canopy curtains, of crimson velvet and gold embroideries.
A comfortable and gold baroque mirror, a small table against the wall with a chair, and the thick carpet placed before the fire on which he had sat, were all the furniture in the room. A decadent room, maybe worn, but still noble.
"An environment that suits me" He rubbed his hands and spread them to the warm fire, apprehensively noting the extreme pallor of his skin. The way he could almost follow the path of veins under the surface. "Yesterday I wasn´t so pale" He swallowed convulsively and rose, coming closer to the mirror.
Dropped the hood that covered his face.
Silver blond hair spilled out to rest on thin shoulders. Grey eyes surrounded by dark circles, stared back from the crystal surface. High cheekbones, thin lips, pale skin ... so pale. Draco stifled a groan of despair.
"No. No, no, nonononono...ENOUGH!" Put his forehead against the cold surface of the mirror, trying and failing to cool down, while catching his breath. "I can still stop it, I have time." He looked into his eyes, determined.
Yes, he still had time. But not much more. And he just couldn´t do this alone. He needed help.
Draco left the mirror, needing to focus, needing to think. He sat again by the fireplace, wrapped in his white robe. The heat of the fire wasn´t a relief, but the flames offered him something to watch while plotting.
"I will not become one of them." If anything was left oh him after seven years in hell, it was his pride and determination. "I have lost everything. Power, wealth, magic, freedom, even my body has been ..." He looked at his hands, so thin, he knew that his ribs under the cloak would also be prominent. Little remained of the handsomeness that he had previously taken for granted. "If the only thing I have left is my soul ..." He touched the palm of his hand to his chest, feeling the beat of his own heart "I will defend it with all my might. Whatever It Takes"
Draco observed the white robe that covered his battered body. White... for now. If he didn´t want it ending black, he had to act quickly.
When Hermione entered the room she could immediately see, that the interview with the Lord Dementor hadn´t gone well. Ron looked cat-atonic, Harry guilty-looking, and Henry sat avoiding her gaze… And after hearing the story, she felt like kicking her friend.
Hermione rubbed her temples to try to dispel the headache.
"So, only to make it clear; you insulted the Dementor Lord?"
"I didn´t insult him Mione. I just went… a little rough." - Harry tried to defend himself.
" ... "– Hermione took a deep breath; she wasn´t going to obtain anything by getting angry with Harry. What was done, was done.- "I guess we can´t do anything about it."
Ron had finally recovered, but was busy undoing the suitcase Hermione had brought him. Just so he didn´t have to admit, that he had been paralyzed by fear when they saw the Dementor Lord.
"How about you? You found the new spell?" – Henry asked the brown haired Auror.
"Of course." - She pulled a thick volume of the backpack she carried, titled: "Spells detectors and sniffer" And opened it from the marked page.
"I think this will serve our purposes. – She pointed the paragraph - It's a very powerful spell that detects magical presences and flows of magic. If this isn´t enough, nothing's going to be.
"Can we prove it?" - Asked Ron livelier. Harry nodded, smiling.
"Hermione, what's happened?" - Ron shook the unmoving girl.
He and Harry had been accompanying her while she tested the spell on Malfoy's cell. When, suddenly, at finishing it, she had fallen directly into the red head arms. Totally of.
"Put her here." - Harry spread his coat on the floor, so Ron could put Mione in it.
If anything happened to her ... Harry got up to go in search of a mediwitch, when a cry made him look back.
"Hermione! You had us so worried! - Ron was squashing a blushing Mione – Don´t you scare us again." - And smiled relieved, it had just been a little faint. Thank god.
"Yes, yes. I'm fine. Ron please, let me go, you're suffocating me." - She tried to hide the blush coughing, while the redhead let her go.
"What happened?"
Mione shook her clothes, trying to keep her composure despite the colouring of her cheeks.
"It was just an overload, I didn´t expect the spell to reveal so much information. Next time I'll be more careful."
"Have you learned anything interesting?" - Ron was ecstatic.
Hermione nodded soberly, her face serious.
"We hadn´t noticed the dark aura before, because it´s masked in the one natural of the prison. But something ... someone has practiced dark magic in that cell. And not just any spell. Never, never I have feel anything like that. Whatever he did, it couldn´t be good for Malfoy."
Harry frowned thoughtfully.
Ron just smiled.
"Well, somebody did something to Malfoy before he escaped. So what? He deserved it."
Mione looked at him, with disgust.
"You don´t know what you're saying Ron. This isn´t like a stinging spell; it could be even darker than the unforgivables." – But the red-haired Auror seemed deaf to the words of his companion.
Harry felt a wave of hatred and disgust against whoever had been so wicked to use that kind of magic.
"Who could have done that?" – He said almost to himself.
"I don´t know. - Murmured Mione.- But this complicates matters."
"For now we can´t do nothing. Better stick with the original plan and register the different levels of the prison. Back to the room, it's time to get going."
In the lounge they met with Henry and his partner Tomas, who was still looking at them with superiority.
"Well, then all´s clear. -Harry said pointing to the large map of the prison, that had been returned to its spread position on the table. - Hermione and Henry will register the four levels underground, me and Ron the top four, and Tomas will watch the kitchen. Remember, all doors must remain sealed to keep Malfoy from going from one level to another, unable to move freely within the prison. Register meticulously each level before proceeding to the next, so we can corner him. Questions?" – No one said anything. - "In that case we can start now. Stop at eight, come back here for dinner, if there´s any problem, send your patronus. Good luck!" - All nodded and split up to go to their respective duties.
"At last the hunt begins!" - Ron said cheerfully.
It will continue.