CHAPTER 10
Rabastan leads us through large glass doors, past an ornate garden, and down to a dock on the shoreline. I glance back over my shoulder and take in the sight of the Lestrange Estate. It reminds me of Malfoy Manor but with the ocean here behind the house instead of the lake. What would Zoe have thought about it? Had life been kinder, we could have visited this place together. She would have loved it. Severus's hand comes to a rest on my shoulder and turns me toward the water. I need to focus on the task at hand, not dream about what could have been.
Floating in the water is a small wooden dinghy. "Why—what—are we not just Apparating there?" Daphne asks, eyeing the little boat skeptically.
"This is safer." He looks at me, then back to Daphne. "And I'm guessing that's something we all want?" Rabastan turns and enters the boat without another word, and I follow close behind him and take a seat beside him. Daphne and Severus climb in behind us. "You might want to hold on."
"To what?" I ask.
"Anything." He waves his wand, and the wooden boat blasts off so fast that I fall backward onto Daphne and Severus, who each struggle not to fall overboard. The water splashes up, stinging painfully as it connects with any exposed skin.
"Is this necessary?" I call over the wind.
"Do you want to get there fast or risk someone finding out that the two of you are missing?" he yells back.
Severus pushes me forward so I can grab Rabastan and pull myself back into my seat, my hair whipping my face. I don't remove my hand from his arm, and he looks over at me and smiles, which manages to instill some courage into me. I brace myself for whatever might happen when we arrive.
By the time the little dinghy comes to a stop, my stomach is churning dangerously, both from the nerves and my refusal to eat this morning, and my grip on Rabastan's arm is tight enough that he's wincing when I look over at him. I force myself to release him and stand up on shaky legs. The boat wobbles when I do, and Rabastan pulls me back down. In the distance I can see Azkaban, the horrid place. The stone structure juts into the sky as if someone pierced the ocean with it. The waves beat against its side furiously as if trying to destroy it but doing no more damage than a child hitting a steel pillar. The magic will never allow Azkaban to crumble to something so mundane as crashing waves.
"Is that it?" Daphne asks.
"Yes," Rabastan and I answer at the same time.
"How do you suggest we get over there?"
"See that rock?" He points to a smaller black mass sticking out of the water close to the prison. "We'll Apparate to that."
"Why didn't we Apparate straight there then? Why the ride?" I ask.
"At the risk of sounding like I don't trust the combined ability of the three of you," he says, his eyes alive with anticipation as he stares at the prison that held him for so many years, "if this goes poorly and we are weakened, I didn't want us to attempt Apparating back to the estate." A grimace comes to his face, nerves radiating off him. "And because I doubt your friends would have trusted me to bring each of you here separately, and none of you knew where this rock is, did you? This was the best option." He looks over at me. "Now come on. My brother—your father—is waiting for us, he just doesn't know it yet." With that, he Disapparates, and a small figure appears on the black mass near prison.
I look to Severus and Daphne. Severus Disapparates immediately. Daphne takes a deep breath, releases it, and we Disapparate together. The four of us stand on the rock, looking at the looming fortress of no real shape that is Azkaban. I had truly hoped never to see it again, and yet here I stand. "Now what?" I ask.
"We go through that door." His voice is raw with emotion, his shaking hand pointing to a large metal rectangle nearly thirty feet away. "You three wait here." He Disapparates without another word and appears on a small ledge by the large metal door.
The minutes tick by, and the anticipation in me begins to make me quake. Daphne slides her arm through mine, but I can't bring myself to look over at her because I can only watch the prison. "We'll be fine," she whispers.
Finally, after what seems to be a yearlong wait, the metal door opens, and Rabastan waves us over. We Apparate to him.
Rabastan walks to the entrance, then stops and turns back around. "This is where it gets dangerous." His eyes land on me. "Are you all ready?" I nod at him. "When the dementors show up"—my legs start shaking—"and they will, though there are fewer than there were before because so many of them are working for the Dark Lord now, I need you three to keep them off of me and yourselves while we search for Rodolphus. He should be in the cell he was in last time. It'll take us a while to get there, it's toward the top. Stay close."
The tip of his wand shining brightly, he enters the prison. We follow him into Azkaban. With the first step into this hell, I am immediately taken back to when Narcissa and Bellatrix escorted me through here. The silence from Bellatrix. The fear that consumed me at the thought of staying here. And now I've entered willingly. What would my mother say if she knew I was walking through this place again on behalf of my father? No, I know what she'd say, and it wouldn't be good. She'd likely lose her temper at you and hurt you.
No, she wouldn't, I argue with myself. Just because she's okay with the Dark Lord killing me doesn't mean that she herself would hurt—you're being stupid. She doesn't care about your death, so why would she care about hurting you?
I push the though aside and focus on the task at hand.
Our pace is slow, but I find myself appreciating that. Why I ever thought we'd be walking through here is beyond me. Any sort of energetic movement would catch the dementors' attention quicker than a slow trudge through this icy terribleness. Also, it's comforting that we're all closely walking together rather than moving too quickly and getting separated easily.
Rabastan continues his lead through the prison, Daphne and I falling in just behind him, and Severus trailing behind us in his Draco disguise.
It doesn't take long before the first wave of dementors attacks us. Ice crawling along the walls alerts us before we ever actually see them, and the three of us who can each produce a Patronus ready our wands. The creatures turn the corner, and three voices ring out, "Expecto Patronum!" Three animals spring forth and lunge at the dementors. It's been a long while since I've seen my little panther, and I smile as it gracefully runs alongside a doe and what appears to be a platypus. Together, they take no time in warding off the four dementors.
Once the Patronuses return to us, we continue our journey through Azkaban. My eyes remain glued to the little slots in the doors, the only way to see into those cells. I remember screaming for my mum through that slot—she didn't return to me. I will not leave me dad behind the same way.
A warm hand, one that feels like fire compared to the frozen room around me, rests on my shoulder. "A panther," Daphne says with a smile. "I like it."
I smile at her. "A platypus?"
"Don't judge me."
"Pay attention," Rabastan snaps at us.
Daphne makes a horrified face and removes her hand from my shoulder. We turn a corner and ascend a level. "Why is he near the top?" I ask my uncle.
"The higher you go, the more security. The Dark Lord wanted Rodolphus as guarded as possible."
I swallow down the guilt in the part I played in getting him thrown in here. "I'm assuming that means more dementors?"
"Yes."
The next wave of dementors flies at us as just a moment later, almost twice as many as there were last time. The blackness that travels with them blocks my vision, and I just hope that the three Patronuses can find them without too much of a struggle. A cold thickness hangs in the air, and I can almost feel the ice forming on my skin. Terrible thoughts flood my mind: Zoe's dead body being burned to ash; a child with red eyes staring up at me; McGonagall lying in a pool of her own blood; Severus falling to the floor, lifeless. Too late, I realize I never casted the spell, and I shout the incantation. The panther joins the other two and tackles one of the dementors.
The bitter cold drifts away, and with it go those horrible thoughts.
"We should hurry," Rabastan says.
Our pace quickens, and our tightknit group begins to separate slightly. While I want to rescue my dad as quickly as possible, slowing back down to bring our group close together rather than allowing us to drift apart during our jog feels like a much safer idea. I don't want to get trapped in here again.
The next few levels of Azkaban are all the same—a group of dementors attack, horrifying thoughts fill me, our Patronuses ward them all of it off for a short time, the dementors return a few minutes later.
The largest attack of the guards yet comes when we reach the eighth floor of the prison, which is when I wish we had brought more people with us to help fend off these vile creatures. Three Patronuses hardly seem enough to protect us from the thirty dementors coming toward us. We likely would have died here had Daphne not forced her way into this expedition.
Not only does the number of dementors attacking us seem to increase with each floor but also their strength, as if the most dangerous dementors reside on the higher levels. That makes sense, I guess, considering the fact that the worst criminals are locked away up here. With each new floor, it takes longer now for the Patronuses to ward off the dementors, and with each extra second that it takes to get rid of them, the iciness clings to me longer, filling my lungs and burning my chest and bringing terrible nightmares upon me and taking even longer to dispel once the dementors are gone. My spirit breaks more and more. Everyone I love will die. I will lose everything. No one will be able to help me escape Voldemort.
Every cell that we pass and ignore pulls at my heart. I know what it's like to be in those cells, to try to fight off the horrible feelings, to lose all hope. And I'm leaving those people behind without doing anything to free them. None of them deserve the torture they're suffering from. How can I live with myself? How can I just leave these people in here like this?
Rabastan suddenly stops, and the three of us who had been following him so quickly nearly collide into him. "What is it?" Daphne asks.
"You haven't gotten us lost, have you?" Severus asks impatiently. It seems weird to me to see Draco talking to Rabastan like that. The real Draco would likely never risk taking a tone with a hardened Death Eater.
"No," my uncle whispers. He stares at a very particular door for a long minute. Then, just as quickly as he had stopped, he says, "Hurry!" and takes off again.
The three of us rush after him, but a certain cell catches my eye. A cold sweat runs down my spine. This is where I almost died, where I tried to take my own life. "Charlotte?" Severus asks, reaching out to me. I walk toward the cell, stretching out my hand to open the slot to see inside, when I hear both Severus and Daphne call for their Patronuses.
Someone shouts my name, but it's too late. Something cold and icy consumes me. I know this feeling: a dementor is attacking me. The thoughts that bombard me are no different than the ones that have been doing so since we first entered the prison, but this time they're worse. They're more vivid.
My knees buckle, and I hit the stone floor. I force myself onto my back and look up in the face the dementor that is slowly getting closer to me, going for a Kiss. My body has stopped working—my muscles no longer carry strength. This is it. This is how I die, not by Voldemort's hand or even my own but by a dementor in Azkaban while on a fool's mission to save my dad. I close my eyes and wait for the inevitable.
"Charlotte!" Severus shouts.
A bright flash, and then suddenly the cold is gone, but I still cannot get up or move at all. Two warm hands pull me upright and put my back against the wall. "Charlotte," Severus says, his eyes distraught and full of terror. "Charlotte, you cannot die right now, do you hear me?"
My voice fails me, but I wrap my arms around Severus's neck. He circles his arms around me and pulls me to my feet. "I can't breathe," I say to him.
"I know, I know," he says, holding me up.
Daphne appears by our side, and Severus transfers one of my arms to her so that they can support me as we try to make our way back through Azkaban. Rabastan comes up to us and puts his hands on either side of my face. "Are you all right?" he asks. I nod weakly. He takes my arm from Severus and motions for Severus to lead. "We need your Patronus. I'll tell you where to go."
I rest my head on Rabastan's shoulder, and, with me propped between my uncle and Daphne, we work our way through the prison, Rabastan telling us where to turn. A few more times, Daphne and Severus shout the incantation for the Patronus Charm, but I don't have the strength to do any of that. So I don't.
Finally, we come to a stop. "Rodolphus!"
A weak bang on the door is our only response. Rabastan points his wand at the door and whispers some incantation, and it opens. We hobble into the cell, and Rabastan places me on the floor against the wall. By the door, my father curls on his side, gasping for breath, weakened. Rabastan helps him sit upright and hands him a wand. "You came for me," Rodolphus says quietly.
"Of course we did," Rabastan says.
"Aurelia?" my father asks softly.
"She's fine." Rabastan reaches into the bag I saw earlier and brings out some chocolate. He gives some to his brother, then hands some to Severus who brings it over to me and sits down. "Eat it quickly; we don't have much time."
Daphne sits down beside me as I begin to eat the chocolate.
"What happened to her?" Rodolphus asks.
"She was attacked, but she's fine," Severus says.
Rabastan stands by the door, watching with open fear for any dementors. "Eat faster," he snaps.
As soon as I finish the chocolate bar—which actually made me feel a little better—Severus and Daphne help me to my feet while Rabastan helps Rodolphus up. "We have to leave now." Rabastan aims his wand at the wall and blasts a hole in it, sending dust all around the room.
Severus leads me to where the wall was. Far, far below, the ocean churns angrily. For a moment, I think we're going to fall, the prison is going to collapse, like it did when Severus helped return my memories to me, but instead, he pulls me back from the edge and toward the still-standing wall. I look into the gray eyes of my cousin and long for the moment when Severus is himself once again, when I can look into his black eyes once more.
Without a word, Rabastan, supporting my father, Disapparates. "Does he expect us to follow?" Daphne asks, staring wide-eyed at the place where my uncle once stood. "Did he go to the dinghy or the rock?"
Her panic is palpable. And understandable. A cold air blows into the room, and we turn to see more dementors than I can count. Certainly more than three Patronuses can take on alone, but we cast the spell anyway and watch in horror as the dementors move in closer. I look at Severus, and just as I think he is about to grab the two of us and Disapparate, Rabastan reappears and grabs the three of us instead. I lose sight of the place, and a peace I've never known washes over me.
I quickly move toward my father and sit down beside him in the dinghy. He smiles at me weakly, then takes my hand. Severus, Daphne, and I cast our Patronuses and let them sit in the dinghy with us just in case the dementors follow us from Azkaban. As we speed away from the prison, no one speaks. My father and I lean against one another. The strength from the chocolate is wearing off, and all I want to do is sleep. But we're calmer now than we were before. We've accomplished what we came to do, and I haven't felt this relieved in months.
The dinghy arrives back at the estate seemingly much quicker than it reached Azkaban. Rabastan is the first out of the boat and on the dock, pulling Rodolphus out as well, before any of the rest of us have a chance to move. "Come on," he commands us impatiently, as if we should have automatically emulated his quick movements.
When I try to stand, my legs buckle, the muscles refusing to do anything else right now. Severus and Daphne prop me between the two of them and help me walk up to the estate. My eyes grow heavy, my breathing labored. "I want to sleep," I whimper.
"I know," Severus says. "Just a bit farther. You can do it, just a bit farther."
My eyes droop shut, and I lose consciousness.
Sometime later, I awaken and half expect to be in Azkaban, but there is only darkness and warmth, which immediately tells me I am not back in that prison. Trying to move proves fruitless because my body is so tightly tucked with blankets on top of what seems to be a bed. A little effort and squirming loosen the sheets enough to allow me to roll onto my side, at which point I exhale, close my eyes, and fall asleep. I wake later to see a candle burning in the room and someone slouching down in a chair beside the bed. It takes a few seconds of staring to register that the person in the chair is my father. Smiling, I clear my throat. He immediately looks up at me and sigh sin relief. "Aurelia." He stands weakly and moves to sit on the edge of the bed. "I can't believe you did something so unbelievably daft. And for me, no less. I didn't deserve your rescue."
"You didn't deserve to be in there," I whisper.
He bruses my hair behind my ear. "You'll need to leave soon. Your day at Hogsmeade is almost over, and I'd hate for people to get suspicious of you."
I nod. "Yeah. Where's Draco?"
"You mean Gideon?" he asks, laughter in his voice.
Oh, Severus. "Yes."
"He had to leave. The Polyjuice Potion was wearing off. Your friend Daphne is downstairs with Rabastan."
I nod and sit up on the bed. "Are you going to be all right?"
"Of course."
There's a knock at the door; then it opens to show Daphne and Rabastan standing in the doorway. "Charlotte, you're awake!" She rushes over to me. "Do you have any idea how worried I've been?"
"I didn't mean to frighten you," I say, grinning at her.
"It's fine, but we should go." She helps me to my feet.
Rodolphus pulls me into a tight hug. "There's one thing we need to show you before you go." He puts his arm around me and leads me from the room, through a large corridor, down an elegant marble staircase, and into an oversized sitting room with a fireplace, two recliners, three sofas, and a large window overlooking the garden and the dock down by the shore. Rabastan and Daphne are not following us. "We know that the Dark Lord will learn about my escape, so we have a plan to conceal me. Only, we intended to use it for you."
"Before you knew I was your daughter?" I ask.
"After the first time we met and you said something about not wanting to fulfill your duty to him," Rodolphus says. "It's hidden with the Fidelius Charm. I'm the Secret-Keeper."
"So you'll be safe?"
"Yes. And I'll tell you where it is, because I want you to visit when possible. We've used an Undetectable Extension Charm on the house here. Charlotte's Safehouse—yes, we named it that—can be found under the Lestrange Estate, only accessible through"—he walks over to the fireplace and pushes a stone into the wall, and the fireplace moves back to reveal a set of steps—"this." He taps his wand against the sunken stone, and the fireplace shifts forward to conceal the steps once again.
Only when the safehouse is hidden again do Rabastan and Daphne finally make their way downstairs.
Rodolphus walks over to Daphne. "Thank you for being a good friend to her," he says to her. "And I truly appreciate the effort you went through to help me. It was dangerous, and you didn't have to do it, but you did it anyway. If you ever need anything, let me know." He shakes her hand.
Then he looks at me and pulls me into another tight embrace. "My sweet girl," he says. "I can't believe you risked yourself in such a dangerous manner."
"It was for you, Dad. Of course I was going to help you in any way possible."
He kisses my cheek. "When this is all over, Aurelia, we'll be a proper family."
"I'd like that."
I look to Rabastan. "I'm sure I'll see you later."
He nods at me and claps his hand onto my shoulder. "Take care of yourself."
I take Daphne's hand, and we Apparate to Hogsmeade. "How are you? I mean really?" Daphne asks me when we come to a stop.
"I've been better."
"I don't know who that was, but I know it wasn't Draco. Talking to Rabastan like that? You don't have to tell me who it was, just tell me it wasn't someone I—"
"I think I'm going to go lie down again for a while," I say, cutting her off. "Didn't Astoria wanna meet you at the Three Broomsticks?"
She narrows her eyes at me. "Yeah, I said I'd get a butterbeer with her. I don't have much time."
"I'll see you later."
She smiles. "Okay."
I leave her in Hogsmeade and slowly head toward the castle, planning to visit Severus's office.