Book 3 Dementors in Paradise

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

From Hogsmead Station to Kings Cross station in London was nine hours long, and the survivors of the Chamber of Secrets had set that time aside for finally sharing their truths about what had happened on that fateful day.

Narcissa Black, while comforting a very badly damaged Draco had communicated to Hermione and Milicent two very important facts. First, that House Black held itself in life debt to the four of them for the life of Narcissa Black (and House Malfoy's) heir. Second, and more troubling. Everything said a Hogwarts was overheard. How much of it Dumbledore could sift through, even with a mind as advanced as the Champion of Light, was anybody's guess, but she advised that a head of Hogwarts Board of Governors her ex husband Lucius routinely received transcripts of conversations that could not possibly have been overheard from individuals or pairings that Dumbledore spent the time to track.

Most had managed to sneak off the Chamber of Secrets to share their information, but Hermione had more important things than basilisks or Dark Lords to worry about. Until her year end exams were over, the fate of the world could sodding wait its turn.

Draco huddled in the corner of the compartment, unaware if he should affect his public Slytherin superior sneer, or his more open and human face worn with friends and close family. They knew his weakness and shame, but outside of that most terrible intimacy, they didn't actually know each other. Honestly, even sharing a house with Milicent he hadn't bothered to learn anything about her until she took the Selwyn house by conquest.

Harry was sprawled out with Noodle's back half and a healing ointment, while Hermione was seated more properly, and working the same ointment into the more prestigious part of Noodle, as Mouse Giver was Mouse Giver, and Speaker should of course not be surprised since he put other snakes first that Noodle should find a better quality monkey.

Milicent slid open the door with a smirk and slammed it behind her. She worked herself through the charm she had learned from all the Aurors interrogating her, and set up a privacy ward about their compartment.

"We lost Neville. He's gone for the trip. The Firsties got him." Milicent reported with a shrug and a quick superior smile.

Harry frowned. "What do you mean the Firsties got him? They can't be homesick. He played cuddle-badger for them for weeks when they got to Hogwarts, but they have been fine for months!"

Milicent gave a very soft and dark Slytherin laugh. "Well he did too good a job didn't he? Now they are riding the train station home and the idea they will be separated for two whole months has them in tears. Mostly all over Neville's fur. Honestly, I am going to have to scourgify him before I allow him within hugging distance."

Draco Malfoy was actually shocked out of the dark spiral of his thoughts as his mind worked through what his companions had been saying and the sudden image painted itself in Draco's battered brain, and broke his Pure Blood control.

"Are you telling me that Longbottom of Longbottom, Heir to that Most Ancient and Noble House, one of the Sacred Twenty Eight is playing teddy bear to a bunch of sniveling Hufflepuff first years?" Draco said sharply, sounding quite offended.

Milicent shrugged. "Teddy badger actually. Not just a house totem, but a super soft animated cuddle magnet. Honestly Longbottom makes an improbably large badger, and yet somehow managed to look cute, even with claws like a furry dragon."

Draco shouted. "He's a lord. What about his dignity?"

Harry snickered. "He's a Hufflepuff, and they are scared. From our point of view he is lording right now."

Draco folded his arms and looked like he wanted to keep objecting. "You cannot rule and snuggle at the same time."

"$ Yellow Haired Prey cannot rule and snuggle at the same time. Observe my majesty. Mouse Giver snuggles as well as any Hufflepuff ever born, and rightly receives my full attention. Speaker is not totally incompetent, and may make himself useful in those places Mouse Giver cannot easily reach. $" Noodle said firmly and Draco got a puzzled look upon his face, as if he could follow the gist of the conversation, but not all of it.

Harry sighed, and slowly took Draco through Noodle's speech, making Draco hiss back the bits he initially missed. Tom Riddle had been fairly far along writing his memories into Draco's physical brain when Draco pushed out the dissolving remnants of the Dark Lord as Harry was digesting him.

Noodle and Neville had been working with both Harry and Draco to process the toxic leftovers of Tom Riddle's mind and soul. Draco got none of Voldemort's powers, but the scraps of memory that dug deepest into Draco's brain, and thus tended to remain were Tom Riddle's most emotionally charged and formative memories. To say they were deeply traumatizing the sheltered Malfoy sprog was putting it mildly.

Noodle was teaching Draco the parselmagic version of Occulemency, which had a very reptilian view on any knowledge contained in the violating memories. If its shiny, we keeps it. If its not shiny, we destroys it. Draco very much wanted parseltongue, and while the gift itself was not planted in Draco, memories of speaking and understanding it, memories of thinking in it, were present in his brain. Noodle was teaching Draco to take those scattered bits of trauma and build a working language structure out of it.

Neville was trying to teach Draco how to live with what is inside him. Oh the occulemency lessons were going far to build the reflexive distancing from memories once identified as foreign. The real problem was that Draco had been a nasty little boy who played at being a future monster with no idea what his words and actions meant. Now he had a full understanding of the pain he caused, and the harm his casual cruelty had caused, far beyond his intentions. He could not simply distance himself from those memories, because they were his. The memories had not changed, the Draco looking back on them was no longer as blind to the harm he did, nor willing to lie to himself about it.

Draco had lost the battle for his soul to a monster. A monster that had been his goal, his future master, his chosen ruler and the wellspring of his morality. Tom Riddle had deceived, defeated, and discarded Draco Malfoy as simply another nameless, faceless, and worthless victims. Draco had not been important or valuable. Draco had not been special. Draco had been prey.

Harry Potter had not simply defeated Tom Riddle's soul fragment in the diary, he had eaten it. Draco was busy dying when Harry's dead mother dragged him back to his body, and forced him to fight for it. Fight to live.

Now he had to live in a world he didn't understand, as a person he was no longer proud to be.

"$ Yellow Haired Prey $" Draco hissed in parseltongue. "I really was nothing but prey, and my dear Death Eater father offered me up on a plate, so happy the Dark Lord would be wearing my corpse like a set of robes for his return."

Noodle head butted Draco firmly in the forehead and hissed at him.

"$ All hatchlings are prey. Learn, grow, learn when to hide, when to hunt, when to flee, when to fight, and when to wait patiently and in silence. You need not always be prey. $" Noodle hissed in what passed for Rock Viper parenting.

Milicent, who was a better Slytherin than Draco had been, because she began powerless and had to learn and grow into the powerful force in the house she was today, knew it was time for a subject change.

"Speaking of waiting in patience, Hermione you are not human. You have waited weeks to find out what happened in the Chamber of Secrets after you were petrified. No Slytherin could have stayed away from a secret that long!" Milicent said in exasperation.

Hermione blushed and focused on salving Noodle. "I spent two of those weeks petrified, so they don't count. Then it was only two weeks before exams and you all had weeks more revision than I had. I needed all of my thoughts focused on the exams, or all the hard work I put in all year would have been wasted."

Hermione frowned. "Besides. Once you tell me, and pretty sure I will be angry and not talking to you for the dangerous and stupid things you did without my supervision. Clearly, this would have impacted my study time and exam results." Hermione said firmly.

Draco burst out "You can't be serious!"

Harry laughed and Milicent patted Draco on the hand, muttering. "Hufflepuffs. You get used to it."

Harry began to explain the fight and the after effects.

Hermione, in fact, did get mad.

"I can't believe you got a basilisk pregnant! Harry that is so irresponsible. You are twelve!" Hermione raged.

"Thirteen in a month and a bit!" Harry protested, but Noodle hissed at him in support of Hermione's point.

"You aren't even old enough to take a girl to Hogsmead, let alone make a girl pregnant. Then it's not even a girl, it's a basilisk. That is so wrong on so many levels. Didn't you pay attention in Health Class when Madam Pomfrey made all the boys demonstrate the prophylactic charm?" Hermione raged.

Harry held up his hands. "Hang on, that isn't fair. No one told me you could get pregnant from biting each other. Plus I was a basilisk at the time, it's not like I could wave my wand around. It's not like I exactly consented."

Hermione waved a finger at Harry. "I killed one pervert already this year, and we got a second one arrested, do not tempt me to make it three. You potioned that poor innocent basilisk with Amortentia, special ritual enhanced Amortentia with Noodle's magic snake venom in it to make it especially powerful against basilisks. You took advantage of that basilisk, and now you have to take responsibility."

Then she looked troubled. "She was already treated badly and messed up mentally by the Heir of Slytherin. Salazar set her up as guardian, then Riddle comes along and compels her to hurt and murder the students she was raised to protect. Parselmouths were supposed to guide her in defense of this school, instead they have abused and used her. Do better." Hermione said, and Harry suddenly looked serious.

Harry was called Speaker by the snakes, not a speaker. The Speaker. From him came the gift of Parselmagic to share with others. The last one called that way had been Salazar Slytherin who sought to bind his gift to his bloodline so that it would always be present among wizards. He was the bridge between serpents and wizards, and his duty was to both in equal measure.

Harry looked up at Hermione and smiled. "I am a Goblin of Gringotts. I am Harry Potter, son of Griphook, and no child of mine will go hungry, nor stand alone before its enemies. While you were busy being petrified, I spent weeks hunting Acromantula."

Milicent rolled her eyes. "Oh yes, he hunted them, but Neville and I had to help drag them back. Do you know how awkward dragging an eight legged monstrosity through heavy woods is at night?"

Harry shrugged and blushed. "It is the mate's job to bring the kills back to the brooding mother. Honestly, that's about all she cares about. She ate about sixty Acromantua and went to sleep. Probably won't lay her eggs for about twenty years Noodle says. I have to be gainfully employed by then. Lots of little snakelets to feed and educate."

Hermione frowned. "So you aren't married or anything?"

Noodle laughed. "$ She is the Queen of Basilisk. Honestly, she only made him hunt for her to show he values her. Male snakes know enough to stay far away once the female snake has what she needs. If she calls him back a second time, it won't be for several hundred years. $"

"Sort of a bite-bite-bye-bye, whirlwind romance. Two snakes passing in the night. If you think about it right, you are totally just her rebound guy after Salazar Slytherin. Nothing personal Harry, but he's a hard act to follow." Milicent offered kindly.

Draco looked from face to face of his companions in growing horror. To them, this was a normal conversation. This was now his world. How sheltered had he been?

Harry was the one frowning now. "One thing I pressed Dumbledore on and got nothing but the run around about, was the release of Sirius Black. Moody confirmed he was never tried, never even interrogated. His "trial transcripts" were forged after the fact and two of the three judges who were supposed to be on the three-person tribunal had been dead for months already."

Harry was getting angry enough that the air of the compartment began to crackle with electricity.

"Amelia Bones said her attempt as head of the DMLE to submit a request to retrial from the Wizagamot was blocked by Dumbledore as Supreme Mugwump. Dumbledore said it was at Minister Fudge's request, which means Lucius Malfoy who basically bought Fudge outright when he was first trying for the job.

Dumbledore swears it is because Sirius Black's transcripts are responsible for several very important house lords getting released, and should those cases get opened up again, not only wil the government fall, but there might be civil war."

Milicent snorted. "So, sacrifices have to be made, not him of course, but Sirius, his supposed loyal follower. Coincidentally, Sirius is simultaneously Harry's godfather, which would make him not Dumbledore the House Potter proxy in the Wizagamot, and House Black lord, which would take away Lucius Malfoy's proxy for the Black vote in the Wizagamot."

Draco sneered. "You forget cousin, he is also my uncle and the legal Lord Black. With my mother's divorce, as Lord Black he would have the right to challenge my father for the Malfoy seat in my name. The seat and the fortune."

Draco looked up, his eyes bright and hard. "I watched mother deul father twice. She was easily his equal, possibly better, but during both fights Mother swore that Lucius wouldn't last ten seconds against Sirius if he returned. Cousin Bellatrix was Sirius only equal with the wand."

Hermione frowned. "So Peter Pettigrew who was the "innocent victim" who died as the reason for sending Sirius to Azkaban never died, and turned out to be a marked Death Eater has been found. No evidence that Sirius ever betrayed Harry's parents has ever been presented, and of course Peter Pettigrew has the Dark Mark everyone confirms Sirius never had.

There is zero evidence Sirius was ever guilty, every evidence that Peter Pettigrew was guilty of betraying James and Lilly Potter, every reason to suspect the muggle killings at Pettigrew's fake death were in fact done by Pettigrew, but Sirius rots without a trial in Azkaban because gosh so very many people would have to stop spending other people's money if he came back."

Milicent straightened up in her seat and shouted happily. "Oh Hermione, that was brilliant. We will make a proper Slytherin of you yet!"

Hermione frowned but continued. "Is there nothing we can do for Sirius?"

Milicent smiled coldly. "Of course not. There are no legal means to extract him from Azkaban. Sadly, we are powerless." Milicent said almost primly.

Draco's eyes went wide, and Noodle turned to look at her before nodding.

Harry sighed and changed to a less troubling subject.

"So, did you girls have any luck with your Animagus potions this year? I know we brewed a better version this time, and you took yours off with the whole witches coven on that women's weekend back after midterms."

Hermione's eyes lit up. "I get the strong impression of fire, and wings. I can hear the cry, but I can't quite sink into it. There is something I have to change about my fire before it will really fit. I have been spending every spare moment either in the library looking at magical birds or bothering Hagrid because he's like a Merlin of dangerous creatures."

Harry nodded. His own journey to unlocking the basilisk was the same. The magic was more instinct than thought. You had to feel it first, understand it second, then learn it last of all. Your mind got in the way more than anything else.

He turned to Milicent. "How about you Millie?" Harry asked

Milicent Bulstrode smiled broadly, then examined her nails as if making sure her manicure was still impeccable or her nail beds hadn't concealed the secrets of the universe while she wasn't watching.

"No progress at all sadly. Very disappointing." Said Milicent, not at all sounding disappointed.

Harry blinked, too Hufflepuff to have caught the several layers of implications.

"No luck at all, did you need Neville and I to help?"

Draco was at his limit of Hufflepuff communication failures and finally snapped at Harry.

"Potter, your father manages half of Gringotts. For Merlin's sake, have him buy you a clue!" Draco said in exasperation. How can someone so good at reading motivations, fears, and pains in other people be so utterly incapable of picking up on Milicent's very clear (for Slytherin) establishment of the fact she was absolutely not an Animagus, and getting Sirius Black out of Azkaban was clearly impossible.

Honestly. No wonder Uncle Severus had to use Gryffindors to break them out of jail. How can two reasonably intelligent Hufflepuff's miss the fact that Milicent Bulstrode, Lady of House Selwyn by right of conquest had just announced to anyone with two braincells to rub together that she was going to break Sirius Black out of Azkaban.

Hufflepuffs were going to drive him insane.

Draco started to laugh. Not bitter ironic laughter. Not terrified half hysterical laughter. Just honest to Merlin humour. They were so Hufflepuff it almost hurt to hear them think, yet somehow they kept defeating the Dark Lord, Dumbledore and any number of powerful and feared factions that by all rights should have crushed them utterly.

The picture of Lord Neville Longbottom, passed out asleep as a badger with a pile of no less than nine first year girls burrowed into his fur stuck in his head like the picture Colin Creevy snapped and promised to send to all of them.

Hufflepuffs were just wrong, but maybe he needed it. Just a bit.