Content Warning: Graphic depictions of violence. Additional content warnings have been applied to the AO3 version of this fic.

It was with some degree of relief that Harry packed his things to leave for Hogwarts. While Grimmauld Place was leagues better than being at Privet Drive, it was still a bit stifling. Being around so many people who were concerned about an encroaching war that… might never come, or at least not in a way they expected. Harry almost wanted to reassure them of that, but… well, there was no way he could do that without talking about the first half of summer.

That did remind him that he needed to look into Voldemort's motives this year… and he needed to try to remove that trace on his wand… and Defence was likely to be self-study since the professor this year was some Ministry stooge sent to keep an eye on Dumbledore. Harry was honestly relieved that he didn't get the prefect badge this year — he was likely to be busy enough as is. He wasn't necessarily sure that it should have gone to Ron, though. Ron wasn't stupid by any means, but he wasn't academically minded, nor was he exceptionally responsible. Still, he'd probably do a better job than Percy did, at least.

Harry grabbed the last of his socks and shut his trunk with a satisfying thud. "Ready to go back to Hogwarts, then?" He asked Ron.

"Anything's better than being stuck here doing housework. I know Hermione's really peeved that she never got to have a go at that library."

"Is she? I hadn't noticed." Harry said honestly.

Ron laughed. "Of course not. You've been busy working through your own problems, so we've been trying to spare you our woes."

Harry really had been focused on his own issues. As a matter of fact…

"What do you think about Voldemort?" Harry blurted out before he had a chance to second-guess himself.

"What do I think of her?" Ron repeated, confused.

"I mean… What do you think she's doing? What do you think makes her tick?"

Ron sat back down and rested his chin on his hands. "I don't have a lot of personal knowledge to go on — research is more Hermione's area than mine. Based on what I've heard mum and dad say, though, I think she's just after power. She says she supports blood purity, but most of the people who died in the war were purebloods. She just claimed to be a blood purist to get the dark families to swear fealty to her, then she uses them to kill of all the light families, and next thing you know, everyone in the Wizengamot is subservient to her, making her the de facto ruler of the entire country."

That did make a certain amount of sense — more sense than her being a blood purist, at least. Yet Harry's interactions with Voldemort seemed slightly incongruous with that picture. If anything, she seemed to despise politics and corruption, and Harry wasn't sure if she was enough of a hypocrite to engage in that level of corruption herself.

Moreover… Harry was skeptical that Voldemort wanted to be involved in politics at all. He'd seen her talk passionately about her love of research, and while she could have been lying, he didn't think it likely.

Still, that was something to think on. "Thanks for the answer, Ron. I guess I'm just realising how little I know about her beyond the basics. I feel like I'm going to need to know how she thinks and what motivates her."

Ron nodded sagely. "Knowing your enemy is an important step in any conflict. Well, it's important in chess, but I'm pretty sure that it's also true for real life stuff, too."

Harry laughed. "I'll take your word for it. Come on, we need to get going soon."

"Madame Umbridge." Albus greeted genially. "It's a pleasure to have you with us this year."

"Of course." She said in a voice so saccharine that Albus felt like he was being force-fed pepto bismol. The pink hue of her clothes really wasn't helping on that front. Perhaps he should spread that around as a nickname suggestion, actually…

"Now, most of the other teachers are busy finalising their lessons, so introductions will have to wait. Would you care for a tour? I'm sure you recall how…dynamic the architecture can be, so I thought you might like an update on the building's layout."

"I hardly think such a thing would be necessary." She replied.

Albus nodded. "Very well then. In that case, I'll have one of the house elves following you at all times for when you inevitably get lost."

"You will do no such thing!" She shouted, her composure melting instantly.

"Well if you don't want a house elf reporting your every move to me, then we'd best get on with the tour. Let's start with this room. This is the Entrance Hall. It's where people enter the castle, unless they use one of the other entrances, but we'll get to those later." He gestured to the left. "These stairs go to the Grand Staircase, a room that has even more stairs in it. It's all quite fascinating."

Umbridge's face was already turning a deep reddish-purple shade, much to Albus's delight. Antagonising her may have been a bad idea, but it was also a fun idea.

"Come along, now. We have lots of other rooms to tour."

Albus stretched the tour on for as long as possible, noting Umbridge's souring mood with great glee. A little over an hour later, he was finally wrapping it up.

"This is the transfiguration classroom. It's where transfiguration classes are held, and sometimes where they aren't held. Is that too confusing? Do you need any further clarification on the transfiguration classroom?"

"For the hundredth time, no, I do not need any further details on the use of the room!"

It was the hundred and thirty fifth time, actually. Albus had been keeping track. "I see. Then in that case, we only have one more stop and then the tour will be concluded."

"Thank Merlin." Umbridge hissed under her breath.

Albus guided her down the hall and turned down a rarely used hallway. "These are the guest quarters. They're quarters where the guests stay. Do you have any questions about the-"

"NO!" She yelled.

"There's no need to raise your voice, Dolores. I may be old, but my hearing still works perfectly, except when it doesn't."

Umbridge continued to seethe.

"Now, normally the guest quarters don't see much use because Hogwarts doesn't often have guests who need quartering. However, they are seeing use at the moment, so I'd like to take another moment of your time to introduce the two of you. I'm sure you won't mind."

She looked like she very much did mind, but Albus elected to ignore that. He opened the door and gestured to the guest.

"Sirius Black, this is Madame Dolores Umbridge, our new defence professor. Madame Umbridge, this is Sirius Black, who sought asylum at Hogwarts after Peter Pettigrew was arrested."

"Hey-" Sirius began, only to be interrupted.

"What do you mean he's seeking asylum here!? This man is a criminal and I demand you turn him over to the Ministry immediately!"

"I believe I established that there's no need to yell, Dolores. My hearing is still fine."

"I'll have you removed for this! You have no grounds with which to harbour this man!"

Albus cleared his throat. "Actually, that's not true. While Hogwarts is a part of Magical Britain for most intents and purposes, it does have certain rights of sovereignty." He pulled the enormous treaty out of his pocket, where he'd been keeping it for just this occasion and flipped to the appropriate page. "If you look here, you can see that Hogwarts is legally entitled to harbour fugitives from the Ministry if the headmaster has reasonable cause to suspect that said fugitive is being persecuted without due cause. Given that one of Sirius Black's supposed victims is currently in Ministry custody, I believe that I have due cause."

Umbridge snatched the treaty from him and began to look it over. "That may be, but you've not fulfilled this condition here! This treaty says that the Ministry must be given formal notice and forty eight hours to choose to deny your proposal!"

Dumbledore folded his hands. "Well, I did actually file a formal notice two days ago. It's hardly my fault that Cornelius left work early and spent yesterday out of the office to celebrate his anniversary. Do give him and his wife my best wishes when you next see them, by the way."

"You won't get away with this!" She yelled, thoroughly losing her composure.

Albus looked pensive and pulled out his pocketwatch. "Well, I suppose there is a chance that I won't get away with it. After all, I filed the paperwork forty seven hours and fifty nine minutes ago. If you can get Cornelius to file a formal counterproposal to my notice within the next forty three seconds, then I'll be forced to turn Mister Black over as the Minister wishes."

Umbridge stared at him in disbelief before rushing out of the room, no doubt in some vain attempt to do just that. Sirius started laughing the instant the door closed behind her.

Albus smiled to himself. "This is going to come back to bite me in the arse later, but it was worth it."

"Totally worth it." Sirius said in between laughs.

Harry sat in his compartment in the Hogwarts Express with Neville and the odd Ravenclaw girl who never gave a straight answer when he asked her name. The atmosphere was incredibly awkward, and Harry decided that asking the question that was on his mind couldn't make it any worse.

"So, mind if I ask you a question, Neville? What do you know about Voldemort? You've lived in the magical world longer than I have, and I'm trying to get a feel for her motivations."

Neville flinched at the use of Voldemort's name, but answered the question nonetheless. "Er… is she back, then? I heard the results of your trial, and it sounded like you rescinded your claim."

"I… I don't know, Neville. Whether she's back or not doesn't matter to me at the moment. But all of this talk about her has made me realise how little I know about the war. I'm just trying to educate myself."

He sighed. "I really don't know much more than you. Lots of books are scarce on details, and Gran never likes to talk about it. I think it's still a sensitive subject to her."

Harry nodded. "I see. Well, thanks anyway, Neville."

"It's pretty obvious what Voldemort's doing." The odd girl said without looking up from her magazine.

Harry raised an eyebrow. "Is it?"

The girl nodded. "She's obviously a false flag operation being used by the Ministry to cover up their wrongdoings. When there's a Dark Lady on the loose, then it's easy for them to blame her for all of their problems. Inflation? Dark Lady. Unemployment? Dark Lady. Tax increase? Dark Lady. They just needed a bogeyman to use as a scapegoat."

"Er…"

"The Ministry lost their scapegoat when she blew up while attacking you, and now they're trying to get revenge by making you the new scapegoat." She put her magazine down for the first time during the entire train ride. "Fortunately, we at the Quibbler will always be here to expose the Ministry's lies. Viva la revolución! Can I interest you in a subscription?"

"Um… I'll need some time to think about it."

The girl shrugged and went back to reading her magazine.

"You… do know that your magazine is upside down, right?"

She stared at him with the same odd look she'd had the entire trip. "Is it? Such things are all relative, so perhaps the magazine is right side up and everything else is upside down."

Harry had no idea how to talk to this girl.

Thankfully, Ron and Hermione got back from their prefect meeting, sparing him from any further awkwardness.

"You'll never believe this, Harry. Malfoy made prefect." Ron vented. "He's less qualified than I am, and I got two trolls on last year's exams."

Harry shrugged. "To be fair, Ron, I don't think a Gryffindor has done well in Snape's class for years, and I don't think anyone has gotten above an A in History for over a century."

"Malfoy was acting really odd, though." Hermione said. "I mean, he was polite to us the whole time. No name calling, no snide remarks, nothing. I'm worried that he might be up to something. Ron and I were discussing whether Voldemort could possibly be involved."

Harry raised an eyebrow. "What, you think Voldemort recruited him? Of all the people in school, she wanted him? He's not even of age."

"Actually, I think it fits her MO." Ron replied. "I mean, Voldemort liked to recruit people when they were still in Hogwarts. Take advantage of youthful idiocy to bind others to her before they knew better. Besides, you know what a sycophant Malfoy can be. If he found a way to get in her good graces, he'd do it."

Well, that much was undoubtedly true from what Delphini had told him. She'd frequently vented about her desire for her cousin to stop hitting on her.

And speak of the devil, there was Malfoy now. He opened the door to their compartment and looked around. "Potter, Weasley, Granger. I… hope you have a good year."

He looked hesitant for a moment and then closed the door.

"See? What was that about?" Hermione asked.

Harry couldn't keep the amusement off of his face. It seemed Voldemort was making sure Malfoy stayed in line this year. Harry couldn't resist the urge to not mind his own business and decided to make Malfoy squirm. "Excuse me for a moment." He said before following after him.

"Goodbye, Harry Potter." The Ravenclaw girl said. "My name is Luna Lovegood."

Harry stopped and stared at her.

She looked befuddled. "Oh, that's supposed to go at the start of the conversation, isn't it? Well, maybe I'll get it right next time."

Harry shook his head and focused on following after Draco. He'd just entered the next car when Harry caught up with him and tapped him on the shoulder. Draco whirled around, glaring. "What do you want, Potter?"

Harry grinned. "Is it true that you spent most of the summer trying to hit on your cousin? And that your best line was 'strengthening your bloodlines through union'?"

His eyes widened. "How did you…?"

Harry couldn't contain his laughter. "Oh Merlin, you really did! I thought Delphini might be embellishing a little, but nope, you're really that hopeless!"

Draco stared at him in shock as he put the pieces together. "You're her penpal!?"

"Her mother introduced us." Harry said nonchalantly. "Did she forget to mention that to you?"

Draco's shocked expression took on a tinge of fear and bewilderment. "Her… mother… introduced you."

This was way too much fun. "Yeah, we went out to a sushi place with one of her associates."

Draco leaned against the wall and slumped down. "Why did everything end up being so complicated?"

Harry's smile faded and he leaned on the wall next to Malfoy. "Tell me about it. You know I spent most of the summer questioning my sanity?"

Draco huffed. "Honestly? Same. Father always talked about the Dark Lady and blood purity together as if they were inseparable, but she's so different from everything I expected. She gets really mad about people even using the, uh, the M-word. Father insists that working with her is in our best interests, but I can't even see why."

"There's a bigger picture here. I just can't see it yet."

"I guess I'll just take your word for it."

"Am I correct in guessing that she's also the reason you're not being a complete prick?" Harry asked, lowering his voice as several people left one of the compartments further down the hall.

"Father was the one who asked me, actually, but I suspect that he was relaying a message. This is so weird. Whatever, I'll see you around, Potter."

Harry never thought the day would come where he would have a pleasant conversation with Draco Malfoy, but it seemed that his expectations were being defied a lot lately.

Albus waited for the chatter of the feast to calm down before addressing the students. "Hello, everyone, and welcome to yet another year at Hogwarts. Now, I'm sure you'd all like to get to your common rooms, so I shall try to get through the announcements quickly. First of all, our caretaker Mister Filch has extended his list of banned items, and the full list can be viewed on his door. Next, I must announce that Rubeus Hagrid, our Care of Magical Creatures professor, is currently on sabbatical, and his classes will be taught by Professor Grubbly-Plank instead. Alastor Moody, our previous Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, has returned to his retirement, and the position has been filled by Madame Dolores Umbridge, the current Senior Undersecretary to the Minister of Magic. I hope that her classes will be as thorough and effective as our Ministry."

Dolores made a cough as if to interrupt him. Albus ignored her.

"Lastly, due to a small legal kerfuffle, Sirius Black is going to be staying in the castle until such time that he is able to receive his long-overdue trial for the crimes he was accused of thirteen years ago."

Sirius entered the room from the side door near the head table. Dolores began coughing louder and more insistently. Albus continued to ignore her.

"I'm sure that many of you have not-unjustified concerns regarding the presence of Sirius Black in the castle. Rest assured that one of the conditions behind his asylum is that he is sworn not to harm any of the students here. Should he attempt to break any of the terms he is under, he will be immediately expelled from the grounds."

Dolores stood up and began to speak, but Albus cut her off.

"Now, let's all enjoy the school song! Everyone pick your favourite tune and lyrics, and let's begin!"

Albus smiled contentedly at the ensuing cacophony. He'd like to see Dolores get in a word through that.

"Peter Pettigrew, you have been accused of the following crimes — one count of unlicensed animagery, one count of high treason, twelve counts of manslaughter, two accounts of accessory to murder, and one count of accessory to attempted murder. Upon review of all the evidence, you are hereby found guilty on all charges. Let it be known that on this day, the fourth of September, that Peter Pettigrew has been sentenced to life in Azkaban for his most heinous of crimes." Fudge banged down his gavel. "The Wizengamot is now adjourned."

Peter whimpered as the guards picked him up. What was happening? How was this happening? He was sure that his plans had been foolproof, yet he was captured nonetheless. His mind felt full of holes, voids in his memory that he couldn't fill. Where had he gone after fleeing Hogwarts when he'd been exposed by Sirius and Remus? He was missing a whole year of memories except for the vaguest of feelings.

The ride to Azkaban was a cold one. The North Sea was never warm, but the stretch near Azkaban was always the coldest. The presence of so many dementors in one area was enough to ensure that the sun never shone on Azkaban. Storms were frequent and the cloud cover was constant. The guards kept their patronuses up for the duration of the journey, but the moment Peter was placed into his cell, that protection was gone and the dementors' influence leapt onto his psyche like a pack of hungry wolves.

It was his fault. Everything was his fault. James and Lily were dead, his mother was dead, Sirius and Remus hated him. Peter ruined everything he touched. Life would have been better if he'd never existed. Everyone would be happier without him.

He wasn't sure how long he stayed like that. It was impossible to tell the passage of time. Meals came inconsistently and there was no discernable daylight cycle. He only stopped wallowing in his self-pity when the screams started rocking the whole prison.

Harry was wary as he entered the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom. It had long been his favourite class, but he remembered how the teacher had accused him of sedition during his trial. He hoped she wasn't holding some sort of grudge about that.

The teacher was standing at the front of the room, watching everyone as they entered. The few people who'd arrived early were being shushed by her anytime they tried to start up a conversation.

Harry groaned mentally. She was one of those teachers.

Once everyone was seated, she still waited several moments before addressing them. "Good morning, students." She said in a voice so saccharine that Harry felt like it would give him diabetes.

Predictably, no one said anything in response.

"Now that won't do. When I say 'Good morning, students', you should reply with 'Good morning, Professor Umbridge'. Let's try that again. Good morning, students."

"Good morning, Professor Umbridge." They muttered with varying levels of discontent.

"We'll work on that more later." She said. "Now, everyone please open your textbooks and quietly read chapter one."

Harry rolled his eyes and began looking through the book. After reading the chapter in its entirety, Harry concluded that this book was very boring, and that the entire thing could be replaced with the sentence "Run away and let the Ministry handle things".

Hermione seemed to notice that too, as she raised her hand and held it up for several minutes before the professor acknowledged it.

"Is there a problem with the reading, Miss…?"

"Granger." Hermione said. "Professor, there isn't anything in this book about using defensive spells."

"Now why would you need to use defensive spells? The Ministry has everything perfectly in hand." Umbridge insisted.

"Because the Ministry can't be everywhere at once, and it's vital for us to be able to defend ourselves if we're ever in a situation where we can't escape or get help. How can we be safe if we're totally reliant on others?"

"That is none of your concern." Umbridge snapped. "The Ministry has things completely in hand."

"What about those of us who are interested in becoming aurors?" Ron asked. "If we're going to be the ones protecting people, shouldn't we be learning how to cast spells?"

"Practical spell use will be covered in the auror academy. I'm sure you can wait a few years."

Ron scoffed. "We're supposed to enter the auror academy with no practical spell experience? How are we supposed to even qualify for the auror academy if we aren't getting practical experience for our OWLs? Do you expect us to be able to cast spells perfectly just by reading about them? We're not all Harry Potter."

Harry usually needed to see someone cast a spell once to pull it off, but the point was valid.

"That is enough!" Umbridge yelled as she slammed her fist on the table. "You will all sit and read quietly or I will see you in detention!"

There was some minor grumbling, but everyone went back to their books. Harry saw Hermione pull a book out of her bag and shield it from Umbridge's view with the textbook. Harry decided that was a good idea and did likewise. He had finally managed to find a book on the Trace and was trying to determine how one would go about removing it from a wand. He continued this for a while before the door at the back of the room opened up.

"Don't mind me." Sirius said as he stood at the back of the room. "I was bored, so I thought I'd observe this class."

"Mister Black." Umbridge hissed. "Your presence is not needed here. Please leave."

"Ah, actually, I am allowed to observe so long as I don't disrupt the class. Just pretend I'm not here."

"I refuse to permit you to observe. Leave now."

"You can't force me to leave unless I'm being disruptive, actually." Sirius pulled out an outrageously thick book and flipped it open. "Surely someone as competent as yourself would have read through the Hogwarts bylaws. See? Parents and godparents are legally entitled to quietly observe classes in which their children or godchildren are being taught. As Harry Potter is my godson, I'm allowed to observe. Like I said, just pretend I'm not here."

Harry barely managed to hold in a snicker.

"Your presence alone is disruptive enough! I will not abide by this lawlessness in my class!"

Sirius held up his hands defensively. "Now listen, Madame Umbridge-"

"No, you listen, you murderous cretin! Your presence is disrupting this class and I demand you leave this instant!"

Amusement flickered across his face before he pointed at Umbridge. "No, your presence is disrupting this class and I demand that you leave!"

Umbridge's face contorted in anger. "How dare you…?"

"All I have done is come to observe a class as I am legally entitled to do, and in response, you have been loud and confrontational, continually disrupting the class, and I demand that you leave this instant!"

"I will not!"

Sirius crossed his arms and glared. "Madame Umbridge, if you do not stop disrupting this class, then I will be forced to take this matter to the headmaster!"

She stuttered in anger before storming to the front of the room, up the stairs into her office, and slamming the door shut behind her. The entire class sat there in awed silence.

Sirius strode up to the front of the room and crossed his legs as he sat on the desk in the front. "So, who wants to learn how to murder thirteen people with a single curse?"

Harry couldn't contain himself any longer and burst into laughter. Ron and Hermione followed, and the rest of the class slowly joined them.

"I'm all in." Barty said, pushing his remaining chips to the centre of the table.

Fenrir looked hesitant. "I think I'll…"

"Barty's bluffing." Delphini said. "His hand is crap."

Barty pointed an accusing finger at her. "You shut up!"

Delphini shrugged. "Like I said, I can't turn it off. Tough luck, Barty."

"You could at least shut up!"

Delphini smiled. "Nah, this is too much fun."

Lucius leaned over to Voldemort. "Is this a good hand?"

Voldemort sighed. "Lucius, the rules to this game are not hard. Please at least make an effort to learn. Also, I should add that Barty's hand is very bad. It's a single pair of twos."

Barty slumped onto the table. "I am so glad that we're not playing for money."

Delphini continued smiling. "Nope! All you lose is honour."

He looked at her. "If you can't turn it off, then why aren't you winning?"

Delphini pointed at Fenrir. "Because he's a werewolf, which makes him resistant to mind magic, even passive stuff like mine," She pointed to Voldemort, "And she's occluding her emotions somehow, which I didn't even know was possible."

"Impossibility is the vice of fools." Voldemort said.

"I bet ten chips that Barty loses." Narcissa said.

"That's not even allowed!" Barty groaned.

Voldemort smiled and leaned forward. "No, but I like the way she's thinking. Let's make that a valid move under house rules."

Delphini couldn't keep the grin off her face even if she wanted to. Recommending poker for game night was the best choice she'd ever made.

Sirius waltzed into the Great Hall during breakfast and slammed a copy of the morning paper down in front of Umbridge. "See! I told you I was innocent! Pettigrew was just convicted for literally every charge I was accused of! Suck it, Pepto Bismol!"

Harry, Hermione, and several of the other muggle-raised students snorted at that. It was better than any other nickname that had been proposed for her, and Harry felt an idea starting to formulate in his head.

"Now, now, Mister Black." Dumbledore said with a mirthful expression on his face. "There's no need for any name calling. I believe that we had best be getting to the Ministry, as there is no longer any grounds for the kiss-on-sight order. Is there anything else you'd like to do before we head out?"

Sirius looked hesitant for a moment, but his resolve hardened when Dumbledore gave him a nod. Sirius turned and marched towards the Gryffindor table and seized Harry in a tight hug.

"I'll see you this Christmas."

"See you, Sirius." Harry said, his mouth feeling oddly dry. He wanted to tell Sirius the truth. If anyone deserved to know about Voldemort's role in this, it was him. But Harry couldn't bring the words out. He didn't even get a chance to do so before Sirius pulled back and, with a look to Dumbledore, the two disappeared in a burst of flame.

Harry rubbed his temples to assuage the headache he could feel coming on. Moments like this made him feel trapped between two opposing sides. He didn't want to be forced to pick a side, but he didn't want to stay on the sidelines, either. Whatever this war was about, it was important. Harry just needed to figure out which side was in the right, though he doubted it would be that simple. He only had the vaguest idea what was really going on, and it didn't seem like it would be a matter of black and white.

Harry shook his head and pushed that emotional conflict to the back of his mind, like he'd been trying to do for the past few months. He could deal with that later. For now, he needed to learn how to break the Trace, and ask more people what they thought about Voldemort. The sooner he got the answer to that question, the more he felt like he'd be able to draw his own conclusions.

Voldemort looked at the newspaper, taking in the headline.

Sirius Black Found Innocent!

Ex-con cleared of all changes! Reparations being discussed in the Wizengamot!

She slid the paper across the table to Barty. "I've fulfilled my end of the unbreakable vow. The timing couldn't be better, as the full moon is tomorrow. Ready to kick ass, Greyback?"

He gave a bellowing laugh. "Damn right I am. What's our strategy?"

"Scorched earth." She said as she summoned several colourful lights in her palm and began to bounce them between her fingers. "Come Sunday, the Ministry won't have a prison anymore."

"Whom all are we bringing?" Barty asked. "As strong as you, me, Greyback, Karkaroff, and Lucius are, I doubt five people would be enough to get ten prisoners off the island, especially if one of them is a werewolf."

"Bring in some of the cannon fodder, then." She grinned. "Kill two birds with one stone. How about… Avery, Travers, and the Carrow twins?"

Barty nodded. "All solid choices. They're certainly the most competent members we have available outside this room."

Voldemort sighed. "It will be so much easier planning missions once we've freed them. I hate relying on the cannon fodder for important jobs. Hell, even taking you into the field isn't the best use of your talents, but we're short on skilled people, especially with Severus turned traitor."

He shrugged. "You're going to want a healer on-site regardless, and I am the best healer you have available. I wouldn't bet on any of them being in good shape to transport without being stabilised first."

"Right. Okay, so let's review the plan of attack. Barty, Fenrir, and myself will go in first. Our goal is to kill the small contingent of aurors and break down the wards. Once the wards are down, the others will be free to enter on broomsticks. With the aurors gone, the dementors are likely to go on a rampage. Everyone capable of destroying dementors will take out as many as possible, and those capable of casting patronuses will prioritise protecting the offensive casters."

Delphini was looking at her in shock. "How many dementors do you expect to be able to destroy?"

Voldemort thought it over. "If I use the Banishing Cage? Probably forty to fifty. I could probably destroy more than that if I used other spells, but…" She shuddered. "I'd rather it not come to that."

Delphini gave her another weird look. "I have no idea what goes on in your head."

Voldemort resisted the urge to get snippy with Delphini and instead spoke calmly. "Delphini, my eyes are scarred red because I acted in hubris once. Do you have any idea the forces it takes to induce changes like that?"

"Um… no? I mean, is it really that odd? Mages tend to have lots of eye colours that muggles can't have. Even my eyes are purple."

Voldemort sighed. "Mages have unnatural eye colours due to periodic tampering in our bloodlines by unrestrained blood alchemists, and these changes usually take generations to reach their full effects. Even Salazar Slytherin didn't have parseltongue fully integrated into his system the way that we do. He couldn't speak the language intuitively, and it was not until his great-grandchildren that anyone in his line began to do so. This change was instantaneous and unnatural because people do not have red eyes. This is not a case of albinism where the blood vessels are giving red colour to my eyes — the melanin has been warped to become red, a colour that it is not naturally able to do. Moreover, the colour eats away at any attempts to obscure it. Glamours rarely last more than a few minutes, and coloured contact lenses start to dissolve with less than an hour of continuous wear. Even sunglasses lose their tint after a few hours. Do you have any idea what could induce that kind of scarring in such a short period of time?"

Delphini gaped at her. "Um, I could come up with a few ideas…"

"Exactly. I am abnormally powerful and have tested my limits in ways that few others dream of. If I have odd standards of what is appropriate or challenging, it's because I have an extremely intensive understanding of what I can and cannot do. Believe me when I say that I could kill hundreds of dementors in an instant, but the process would be beyond unpleasant for me."

"I understand." Delphini said, looking cowed.

Voldemort sighed again. "Look, Delphini, I understand that you're unnerved by me because I don't experience emotions in the usual fashion. I know how annoying other people can be when you're an adolescent mind mage and you can't turn off your abilities. You get to see all the worst parts of people that they don't show to others. Just know that even if I don't feel it in the usual way, I do care about you, and I want you to be safe in a world full of very dangerous magicks."

She breathed out, the tension leaving her body. "Yeah, I know."

"Good. Now come along, we need to make sure you don't fall behind on lessons since you won't be attending school this year."

Delphini rolled her eyes. "Alright, mum. Let's go."

Delphini,

The new defence teacher is really, really awful. She speaks to all of us like we're misbehaving children and she refuses to actually teach us anything. The entire class is just silently reading the most boring textbook ever, and she doesn't even let us get in any practical work. Our OWLs are this year and she won't even let us cast the spells we're going to need to know!

Fortunately, the constant cycle of poor quality defence teachers means that there are already several established study groups. Ron, Hermione, and I have been asking around to find one suited to our purposes, but I'm honestly just inclined to make our own at this point. We're pretty good about working on our own when we get the motivation, and pissing off the shitty teacher is one hell of a motivator.

In other news, I got a chance to tease Draco about some of the stuff you've told me about him. The look on his face was priceless! I was also surprised to find that he can be a pleasant conversationalist when he's not being a huge prick. We got to commiserate about how confusing these past few months have been.

Hope you're doing well,

Harry

Harry,

Yeah, Lucius has complained about how obnoxious Umbridge is. Apparently, she's a really big suck-up, which is why she's advanced so quickly through the Ministry. I'll see if I can get him to spill any of her weaknesses. I know as well as anyone the joy of making a shitty teacher uncomfortable.

Mum, Voldemort, that is, not my other mum, has been… tolerable lately. She's teaching me some of what she knows and she really is a skilled teacher, even if you wouldn't think it. Between her and Barty, I actually feel like I'm progressing much faster than I was at Durmstrang. It's kind of exhilarating.

I'll have to see if I can also get Draco to have a pleasant conversation with me. It's been a lot more pleasant staying at Malfoy Manor now that he's off at Hogwarts, and I'd really prefer it if he wasn't being a huge pain in the arse when the holidays arrived. I suppose that's going to be my new goal.

Also, congratulations on your godfather being freed! Voldemort has spoken admirably of him, although she's also complained that with him free, the Order of the Phoenix is likely going to be a lot more competent. Apparently, he had the second-highest kill count of anyone in the Order, surpassed only by your mother.

Voldemort's gone for the night, as are most of the Death Eaters who have been staying here, so I'm just hanging out with Aunt Narcissa. She's nice, but very obsessed with comportment. She keeps telling me that I should be wearing robes instead of the muggle clothes I brought with me. Can't she see that I have a style going on here?

Good luck shoving it to that shitty teacher,

Delphini

Voldemort stood on the cliff face and stared out at the horizon, waiting for the others to be ready.

Moonrise would be soon, and it wouldn't be safe if Fenrir transformed while airborne, so they had to wait at least that long.

"So, what's our approach going to be?" Barty asked. "We weren't able to get any detailed blueprints of anything besides the cell blocks."

"Our first goal is killing the aurors." Voldemort said placidly. "The wards block external divination, but I should be able to scry their locations once we're inside the ward boundary. From there, I just need to drill through the rock."

"The walls of Azkaban are over ten metres thick." Lucius said from beneath his Death Eater mask. "You really expect to be able to drill through them with such ease?"

She didn't bother looking away from the horizon. "Of course I can."

"You weren't in the field much, Lucius." Barty said. "You haven't seen some of the stuff she can really do."

Fenrir moaned from her right. Voldemort broke her gaze for the first time that evening to move next to him. "It's time?"

"Yeah." He groaned. "You might want to step back. It's been a while, after all."

She did so and watched as Gryeback transformed. It was a sight she'd long since grown used to, spending nearly every full moon with him after he was turned in their third year. It didn't take more than a minute for a large, muscular wolf to be standing where Fenrir had been just a moment before.

The wolf entered a defensive pose and growled at them.

Voldemort held her hands up and slowly stepped closer. "Easy there, Grey. It's me. You remember me, don't you?"

The wolf stared at her for a moment before he stopped growling and whimpered at her instead.

She kneeled next to him and began petting his head. "See, you do remember me. It's been a very long time, hasn't it?" Voldemort had been forced to miss Greyback's last transformation due to her foray into the Realm of the Fae. She was sure this past decade and a half hadn't been easy for him.

He gave a brief snort and rested his head on her leg.

She smiled at him. "Much as I'm sure you'd love to just spend time with me, we really need to be going. Do you want to hunt?"

His ears perked up and he let out a howl.

"That's what I thought." She unrolled a magic carpet that she'd enchanted some years before. "Get on and let's go."

He did so obediently as Voldemort turned to the others. "Take flight. We leave now."

Voldemort didn't bother with a broom, nor did Barty. Unassisted flight provided greater agility and couldn't be blocked the way broomsticks could. As they were the only two among the assembled Death Eaters who had the skill, they'd be the main strike force. Flying carpets had multiple levitation systems, so they weren't blocked as easily, but Grey was going to start losing altitude the moment they crossed the ward line.

The sea became increasingly stormy as they got closer to their destination. Lightning periodically flashed through the clouds closest to the island. Voldemort smiled. That would be perfect.

Everyone sans Voldemort stopped when they reached the wardline. She floated past it and began scrying the building. It didn't take her more than a minute to identify all twelve of the aurors in the building, and fortunately, they were all in the same room — a subterranean barracks, from the looks of things.

"Twelve people in two shifts of six." She yelled at Barty through the torrential rain. "Lower right side of the building. Get ready to move."

Voldemort positioned herself so that she had a clear shot at the room. She closed her eyes and focused on the power flowing through her. Calling on Void magic was always a challenge, but she could do it with a greater degree of reliability than most. Her eyes opened slowly and moved her wand in a wide circle through the air before silently speaking the incantation.

"Nihil esset."

A large black orb with an aura of grey static appeared in front of her, and with a small flex of her will, was sent barrelling downwards toward the base of the building. She didn't wait for it to make contact before she barked the order to move.

The Void Drill was a mass-destruction tool designed to burrow through extreme amounts of wood, metal, stone, and earth. It was practically unstoppable, but didn't work on living beings.

Still, Voldemort didn't mind having to kill the guards herself.

Grey leapt off of the plummeting carpet into the hole, and Voldemort dove in after him. The moment the Void Drill punched through to the barracks, she dispelled it and cut off her flight to slide down the sloped tunnel and land on top of the table in the centre of the room. One of the aurors with faster reaction times already had a communication mirror in her hand, so Voldemort identified her as the highest priority target. An overpowered ribbon cutter sliced through her and sent her splattering through the room in bloody chunks. One of the other aurors had raised his wand to her by the time that had happened, but Grey leapt at him and ripped out his throat. An auror opposite the table sent a killing curse at Greyback, but Voldemort flipped the table into the path of the curse and jumped off of it as it exploded from the force of the killing curse. Barty entered the room at that point and elongated the splinters from the table and impaled the auror repeatedly.

Two of the three remaining aurors focused their fire on Grey. One fired another killing curse and the other shot a fire lance. Grey bit into the neck of his last victim and hurled the body into the path of the killing curse, then leapt off the wall to avoid the fire lance. Voldemort shot several frostfire blades at the one who'd cast the killing curse while Grey crushed the skull of the other auror between his teeth.

The sole remaining auror was so shocked by the sight that she didn't even notice as Barty conjured a giant stone spike from the ground and impaled her.

Six aurors down in less than ten seconds. The DMLE really had gotten lax.

The six remaining aurors had just started to wake in this time. One of them had enough time to fully stand and realise what had happened before Voldemort cut him down with a killing curse.

None of the remaining aurors put up anything close to a fight. In less than half a minute, every auror in the prison was dead.

Now they just had to deal with the dementors.

Voldemort summoned her patronus while Barty did likewise. The snake and the mink circled around the three of them as they made their way deeper through the barracks to where the wardstone was most likely to be located. They emerged from the tunnel into the central area of the prison, known only as "the pit".

Hundreds of dementors swarmed in the air around them, diving in and out of the area from various holes in the walls. A particularly daring one swooped close and tried to push past their patronuses, but Voldemort trapped it in a banishing cage and removed it with minimal effort.

The ground was rough and uneven rock, basalt from the look of it, and rain poured down on them once again. Lightning flashed from overhead, and several of the dementors flinched back from the sudden illumination.

"So, where's the wardstone?" Voldemort asked. "We need to take it down quickly. I don't think these dementors will let us be for too long."

Barty looked around the landscape before his eyes settled on a crag in the middle. "Down there. Split it open for me, would you?"

She let her magic seep into the earth beneath them, feeling the terrain and searching out the wardstone. It was easy to identify, a bright and vibrant heart of magic beating deep beneath the bleak earth. She felt out the fissures and hairlines in the earth before flooding it with her magic and breaking open an enormous hole through the clearing, exposing the wardstone. They jumped down through the crack and took in the sight.

Most modern wardstones were carved in either basalt or granite, depending on the nature of the ward scheme in question. Both materials conducted magic unusually well and were fairly durable. Older wardstones tended to use enormous raw gemstones. The regular crystalline structure interspersed with other chemical compounds made them abnormally powerful conductors of magic. Voldemort had happened upon the Hogwarts wardstone once during her time at Hogwarts. It was an enormous piece of raw rose quartz held in suspension between thirteen pillars of identical composition. She'd never been able to find it again, but the sight had been burned into her memory.

Raw gemstones large enough to make into wardstones had been exhausted long ago. There weren't many naturally occurring ones over several feet in diameter, and they had been coveted throughout history. No building newer than five hundred years old had a gem wardstone, but Azkaban was much older than that.

Voldemort was in awe at the sight of the enormous piece of aquamarine embedded into both the cave's ceiling and floor. Magic sparked through it, continually feeding life into the wards.

"You know, I originally planned to destroy it, but that would be such a waste. I think we need to steal this instead."

"Well, we need to break through the wards on it first." Barty replied. "I'll try to figure out how to undo them, then we can portkey it out of here. Cover me."

Voldemort sighed. That was easier said than done. She could already feel the dementors pressing against her patronus, trying to force their way to her. She walked towards the entrance to the cave that she'd unearthed and looked up at the countless shadows coming out of the woodwork to get at her.

She used occlumency to split her consciousness. One part would focus on maintaining her patronus while the other would start Banishing as many dementors as possible.

"Fine. Come and get some, you filthy parasites!" She yelled into the sky. One swept at her, but she shot a banishing cage at it, crushing it in an instant. Three more swept in after that, and she struck every one of them down as they came.

"Yeah, keep that up. I shouldn't be that long… I hope. I just need to figure out which ward to take down first and the rest should unravel with relative ease."

Voldemort sighed and continued to strike them down, but she knew that she couldn't keep this up forever. She could cast the banishing cage a lot more effectively now that she was back at her full power, but even with the increased speed and effectiveness of her casting, there were just too many of them closing in too quickly. Fifty dementors in, she was starting to feel the wear of casting that spell so many times. The view of the sky was slowly being blotted out by the shadows of dementors closing in on them.

"I'm almost there! There are only a few wards left! I just need a little more time!"

Voldemort groaned. "Oh, fuck me." There was only one way out of this, and she was going to hate herself for doing it. She pointed her wand straight upwards and screamed. "Sanctae Lancea Luminate!"

An enormous beam of unimaginably bright light shot into the sky above her, branching and piercing through every dementor in the air. For a brief moment, the air was filled with the holy light and the unholy shrieks of dementors as they were annihilated, and then, nothing.

Voldemort lowered her wand and looked up. The dementors were all gone, even their cloaks. No new ones were coming out of the walls. Satisfied that she was safe, Voldemort keeled over and vomited.

"And done." Barty said from behind her. She felt his hand on her back as she continued to dry heave on the ground.

"Water." She croaked when she was finally able to speak.

Barty handed her a canteen that she took an immediate sip from. She swished it around in her mouth before spitting it out and repeating the process. She started dry heaving again after the third go, and only Barty's steady grip kept her upright.

"I hate light magic." She groaned when the vomiting seemed to have passed.

"It is poisonous." Barty said idly.

Voldemort pulled out a phial she'd filled with Elixir of Life and downed it. "Well, that should help to purge my system of the remaining toxins. I just need a few minutes for it to take full effect."

Grey, who'd been cowering in a corner as the dementors launched their offensive, whined and nuzzled against her hand.

"I'm fine, Grey." She said, rubbing his head. "I just had a moment."

"Let's get out of here." Barty said. "That light was probably visible for miles."

Voldemort nodded. "Right, we just have one last piece of business to take care of." She pointed her wand at the giant aquamarine. "Portus."

The stone disappeared after a few seconds, leaving her content to move on.

"Help me up out of here, Barty. I still don't feel very steady."

The two floated out of the cave and stared up at the still rainy sky. Voldemort pulled the hood on her robes up and stretched. Grey scrabbled at the stone as he climbed out of the pit before sitting down next to them.

She smiled. "I did make it rather steep, didn't I? Sorry for not being able to give you a hand."

He harrumphed and rubbed against her. He then began whining while looking at the door back into the prison.

Voldemort laughed. "Okay, fine, we can go inside. No sense standing out here in the rain, anyways."

They walked back through the barracks, trying to avoid slipping on the various pools of blood.

"We made quite a mess in here, didn't we?" Barty remarked.

"Murder is rarely clean, Barty. Besides, messy kills can easily shock additional combatants into inaction."

He grimaced. "I know, but I hate stepping in pools of blood. It's so… gruesome."

Grey lapped at a few of the puddles, but lost interest when he saw them moving towards the other end of the room and followed after them.

Once they reached the entrance, Voldemort gently pushed herself away from Barty. "Okay, I think I can stand on my own now. Thanks for your help."

"Normally, I'd make an inappropriate comment here, but I don't want to ruin the mood."

She rolled her eyes. "Much appreciated."

Lucius and the others landed on the dock near the entrance. "Is everything alright? I was rather alarmed by that light."

"The dementors are all gone." Voldemort said. "There might be a few scattered ones out there, but the hive has been destroyed."

He gaped at her.

"It was not a fun experience, and I am in no mood to repeat it. For now, we prioritise retrieval of the imprisoned Death Eaters. Barty will provide any necessary treatment until they're stable enough to be moved. Top priority targets are Bellatrix, Rookwood, Dolohov, and Pettigrew." The rest could die for all she cared. "Grey and I will be dealing with the rest of the prisoners. Move out!"

They started moving up the stairs to the top level while Voldemort stood there, rubbing Grey's ears.

"Come on, Grey. Let's go enact some vigilante justice."

Azkaban was going to be destroyed by her own hand, which left Voldemort with the question of what to do with the remaining prisoners. She certainly could just kill them all, but that seemed like such a waste. While many of the prisoners were undoubtedly deserving of their sentences, the Ministry's corruption practically guaranteed that many others weren't. So she decided that the simplest approach was to use her legilimency to root through the heads of every prisoner. Those that were innocent or only guilty of petty crimes would go free, and those guilty of more heinous crimes would be killed by Grey.

It was the perfect solution.

Voldemort yanked the first door off its hinges and watched at the prisoner scrambling to the back of the cell. It took her less than a second of rooting around in her head to see that the only crime she was guilty of was petty theft.

"You're free to go." Voldemort said as she turned around and left.

The next prisoner was less clean. Several accounts of premeditated murder.

"Kill." She said, and Grey was ripping the man's throat out before she'd even finished speaking.

Voldemort worked her way through the cells, moving upwards through the prison as she freed or killed every prisoner she came across. She yanked open the first door on the second highest level and dove into the man's mind. She didn't recognise him until she came across several familiar memories.

Voldemort gazed down at the man and smiled cruelly. "I had no idea you were still alive… Uncle."

Morfin Gaunt gazed at her uncomprehendingly.

She sighed. "§Still only able to speak parseltongue, you inbred cretin?§"

That seemed to spark something in him. "§Who the hell are you?§"

"§Don't you recognise your own niece? It's been a very long time since we last met, but I'm certain that the dementors wouldn't have been interested in that memory.§"

He sneered at her and slowly pushed himself up to his feet. "§You're Merope's mudblooded whelp. The hell are you doing here? Did the Ministry finally gain some sense and decide to start putting mugglespawn away?§"

Voldemort laughed. "§Uncle, the Ministry could not contain me even if they wanted to. No, I'm here to perform a jailbreak.§"

He tried hobbling toward her but had to stop after a few steps. "§Finally took some pity on your old uncle Morfin, did you? Well, I'm not about to question any good fortune that comes my way. Help me out of here.§"

She tapped her chin, looking pensive for a moment. "§Hmm… No, I don't think I will. Sorry, uncle, but your death will serve me far better than your life ever could.§ Grey? Kill."

Morfin barely had a chance to scream before Grey was tearing him apart. Voldemort couldn't keep the grin off of her face as she watched.

She snapped her fingers when Grey had thoroughly reduced the man to a pile of limbs and viscera. "Grey, come. We still have prisoners to take care of."

He whined and followed after her as she moved to the next cell.

There were a total of fifty seven prisoners in Azkaban outside the upper level where her followers were imprisoned. Four of them, her uncle included, were innocent of the crimes they were accused of, but guilty of much worse, thirty five were guilty of heinous crimes, fourteen were guilty of only petty or justified crimes, and four were completely innocent.

The eighteen whom she spared were directed to the barracks where the dead aurors — and more importantly, their wands — were sitting. Voldemort left them to it and made her way to the upper level.

"Well, if it isn't the woman of the hour!" An obnoxious voice greeted her when she stepped out of the staircase.

She sighed. "Rookwood. You are in… bizarrely good health."

They shrugged. "The dementors couldn't get into my head, so they just gave up on me after a while."

She looked them over. "I see that you're looking as androgynous as ever. And… bizarrely well-groomed. How did you manage that?"

"Magic."

"Right." Voldemort huffed. "If you don't mind, I'm going to check on the people who actually need help. Grey, make sure they don't disbehave."

Grey sat down next to Rookwood and glared at them.

Voldemort scratched his ears. "Good boy. You two behave."

"When don't I?" Rookwood shouted as she walked down the hall. She shot a rude gesture over her shoulder in reply.

Dolohov was the first person she found. Lucius was standing nearby, so she looked at him expectantly.

"According to Barty, Dolohov is as well as can be expected." He explained. "Malnourished, mildly delirious, and severely atrophied. It will take at least a month of continuous potion regiment to return him to normal form. I'm unsure of the state of the others."

She sensed she wasn't going to like the news she got about the others. She moved further down the line to Pettigrew, who was being restrained by Karkaroff. "How is he?"

"Suicidal." Karkaroff replied. "He tried to kill himself the moment he was freed."

Voldemort winced. "Do we know if he's going to be okay?"

He shrugged. "We'll need to look inside his mind to know, and neither you nor Rookwood were available at the time. I do not recommend doing that here, though."

She rolled her eyes. "No shit? Of course we're not going to be doing mind healing in the field! I'm going to catch up with Barty, and then we're getting out of here."

Voldemort pushed her way past the other people. She really didn't care about any of them. She resisted the urge to step on the Lestrange brothers as she walked down the hallway, but she couldn't afford to arouse suspicion with so many sensitive eyes on her.

Bellatrix was lying on the floor as Barty was performing several diagnostic charms on her. Voldemort crouched next to them. "How is she?"

"Bad." Barty said quietly. "She was suffering from a stress induced breakdown when she was brought here, and the dementors basically kept her in that state. Being trapped like that has caused severe damage to both her body and her mind. I slipped her some Elixir when no one was looking, but she's too malnourished for it to have substantial effects on her system at the moment, and that's not even getting into the state her mind is in."

Voldemort clenched her fists. "You know, I'm finding myself wishing that some of my earlier victims were still alive, as I'd really like to kill someone right now."

"Voldie…" He said warningly. "Your aura is flaring."

She took a deep breath and slowly reined in her magic. It was tricky to do when she was this angry, but never let it be said that Lady Voldemort is not capable. "Is she stable enough to move?" She asked once she had her magic under control again.

Barty looked back down at Bella. "Barely, but yes."

"Good, then we're leaving." She scooped Bella up and started walking towards the exit. "Get moving or you'll be left behind!" She yelled to everyone else.

Bellatrix was far too light. Voldemort was just barely keeping her temper in check. Destroying the island when she was done would be therapeutic.

The stragglers were waiting on the dock. Voldemort wandlessly conjured a boat for them, not wanting to put Bella down to grab her wand. "Go, and mention this to no one if you know what's good for you. I'm feeling far less merciful now than I was earlier."

As the stragglers pushed out to sea, the Death Eaters slowly began to file onto the dock. She turned to face them. "Fortunately, Rookwood is in good shape, leaving us with nine capable fliers and nine people incapacitated. Each capable flier will be bringing one of the weaker with them. Bellatrix is with me, Pettigrew is with Rookwood, Dolohov is with Karkaroff…" She continued to pair them off at random, not caring about any of the results except the last two. "Avery and Travers, you each get one of the Lestrange brothers. I don't care which."

Voldemort gently placed Bellatrix's feet on the ground, still clinging tight to her with her other arm. Bellla shivered against the rain, making Voldemort want to hold on tighter. She summoned the magic carpet from where it had landed on the rocks and unrolled it for Greyback's use. She then pulled a two person broomstick out of her bag and made sure Bella wasn't at any risk of falling off.

"Holding formation!" She yelled at them. "I have one final piece of business to take care of."

As they took to the sky, Voldemort circled back around the building. Twelve aurors had been murdered, followed by thirty nine prisoners, their blood spilled on the stone. Fifty one people had been killed, and a sacrifice of that magnitude was more powerful than most people would have believed possible.

The history of Azkaban was murky and muddled. Dementors were known to cling to the place and protect it with fierce territorialism. The fortress had been there for as long as the island was known to exist. Voldemort had done her own digging, and the truth seemed to be more complicated than most people realised.

Dementors weren't native to the material plane, which was why they couldn't be killed through conventional means. They were creatures of death and darkness, Demonic in origin.

Azkaban's construction defied any attempts to be dated and matched no known architectural styles. Voldemort had explored far further than most would have dared, though, and she had once encountered buildings of identical construction. Deep in the Demonic plane, dementors built stone hives in the shapes of giant vertical triangular prisms, full of tunnels for them to fly through and cells for them to harvest memories and emotions from the souls unfortunate enough to be trapped there. The largest one was several orders of magnitude larger than Azkaban, stretching so far in any direction that it couldn't be fully seen through the smoggy air that filled the place.

Somehow, at some point in the past, an entire hive had been displaced from the Demonic realm. Whether it was some misguided attempt to control the dementors or a failed incursion into the material plane could never be known. But it did explain why the island's composition didn't match any of the surrounding rock, and why it was the only such location on earth.

Fifty one sacrifices would not have been enough to bring the island to its current location, but it would be enough to put it back where it belonged.

Voldemort focused on the island, the blood bleeding into the stone, and narrowed her thoughts to a single idea.

This does not belong here.

She could feel the ancient ritual circle deep beneath the ground drinking the blood, flaring to life for the first time in aeons.

"Go back from whence you came." She spoke to the island.

A wall of darkness flared upwards from the ritual circle, lapping at the clouds as the island sank downward through the opened portal. As the highest peak of the fortress sank through the opening, the portal closed for good with a resounding flare of darkness, and the ocean rushed in to fill the void.

Azkaban was gone, an empty hive that would no doubt be torn apart by other dementors as it was looted for raw materials.

"Okay, We're clear to leave." Voldemort told the Death Eaters as she moved back towards them. "Scatter in different directions and apparate away one kilometre out. Our trails will probably be cold by the time the DMLE gets here, but we don't want to take the chance of our apparitions being traced. Barty, you're responsible for getting Greyback out of here as well." She wandlessly cast some minor compulsions on Avery and Travers. "Move out."

Everyone scattered and moved in different directions. Voldemort pretended to do likewise, but disillusioned herself and Bellatrix and began moving towards Avery, Travers, and the Lestrange brothers. She'd compelled them to stay close to each other and move deeper into the storm. Voldemort's magic reached out into the storm, feeling all the pent up energy in the clouds, and forced its hand.

The first bolt stuck Travers, blasting apart the broomstick and sending him and his passenger plummeting into the sea. Avery looked to his right to see what happened, causing him to miss the second bolt of lightning coming from his left. He was hit right in the chest, sending him and the other Lestrange brother to tumbling into the sea as well.

Two birds with one stone indeed. Or four birds, in this case, and all of it a completely dismissable accident.

Voldemort gently rubbed Bella's head, massaging her scalp through her hair. "That's my part of the deal fulfilled. If only it didn't take this long."

The two of them apparated away, leaving nothing behind but a stormy sky, and four bodies in the ocean.

Voldemort didn't waste time dealing with the others, and instead carried Bellatrix straight to her own personal chambers. The last thing Bella needed was to be around people. She'd always found social situations stressful.

She changed the sheets to better suit Bella's tastes — cotton with a low thread count, Voldemort knew her preferences offhand — and once she was certain that Bella would be properly comfortable, she pulled a small notebook out of her pocket. She flipped to the middle of the book, grabbed a pen from her desk, and crossed out two of the lines.

Well, that was some notable progress. Voldemort's priority for now was making sure Bella recovered, but she'd be able to get back to business soon enough. This country's reckoning was long overdue.

A/N (Tendra): Luna is such a complicated character in fanon. The most common portrayals of her are seer Luna, which I don't like because it makes her "secretly right all along", and nymphomaniac Luna, which is just… ew. An oft forgotten part of her character is that Luna is a conspiracy theorist. I can understand why authors would be hesitant to work with this aspect of her, as modern conspiracy theories tend to be either rife with racism and antisemitism, or actively harmful to society (looking at you, anti-vaxxers), but it can be a fun way to work with her character if handled delicately.

Harry has been incredibly tricky to write in this fic. On one hand, he's a lot more carefree since he no longer has reason to believe that his life is in danger. On the other hand, his entire worldview has been completely upended and he's no longer sure what to believe in. It takes a delicate balance between these two things, and I often feel like I'm barely managing it, if at all.

The scene with Dumbledore giving Umbridge a tour literally only happened because one reviewer on ffn asked the sensible question "Why didn't Dumbledore offer Sirius asylum during third year?", so I had to invent several reasons why that wasn't an option. I don't do evil Dumbledore. He's just a wacky dude, as I hope this chapter shows. I did think that Dumbledore's absolutely terrible tour was really funny, even if it wasn't planned.

Umbridge is already living in her own personal hell of no one taking her seriously, and you can bet that people are going to jump on that.

The most fun part about writing Voldemort in this fic is the human moments. Sure, she's unreasonably powerful and morally dubious in her actions, but I love showing moments where she's out of her depth, like vomiting on the ground after casting light magic, being very protective of Bellatrix, and whatever the hell happened in the Nameless Woods.

I dislike the usual "dark magic is just another type of magic" and "dark and light magic depend on the intent of the caster" tropes. My personal take is that both light and dark magic are dabbling in forces that mankind was not meant to wield, and they take a tremendous amount of will and control to perform without taking a major toll on the caster.

I don't know shit about geology, so the "Destruction of Azkaban" scene had to be reworked after several complaints about it on my discord. If you join my discord server at 6YwQewK, then you too can complain to me about inaccuracies in my fics until I change them.

E/N (Xgenje): The title of the chapter should be "Delirious gets rekt, except when she doesn't". I was heavily distracted throughout the chapter, at the start due to ADHD and at the end cause this got Wilde.

While Beta-ing this chapter for Ten I casually said "What are you doing Step-Cousin?" at the Draco hitting on Delph part. It is now canon. Except for when it isn't.

When Ten randomly asked me about the Wardstone for Azkaban I recommended making it a giant perfect slab of basalt. I'm kinda glad with the way she went with it though.

E/N (Foadar): Personally as Voldemort, I would have kept these prisoners alive for later use, but destroying that island is long past due.