James Potter took a deep breath, relishing the way the cool air filled his lungs as he gazed out at the dark sea below. He and his Aurors had arrived at Azkaban nearly an hour before and had immediately done everything in their power to make the prison as impregnable as possible. Realizing how undependable they were, and unable to properly trust them not to stab his Aurors in the back during the fight, James had also rounded up all of the Dementors in the prison and locked them away in the deepest bowels of Azkaban where they could do no harm, placing a magical shield over the cell just in case.

Now, he stood on the highest tower of Azkaban, where he had a 360 degree view of the prison, and stared out into the darkness that surrounded him. Mad-Eye and Sirius stood not far away, each copying their leader and staring silently into the darkness with firm resolve, mentally preparing for the fight to come.
Truthfully, James hated Azkaban; he hated the cold of the prison, he hated the wave of evil that seemed to permeate the entire island, but above all he hated the demons that haunted its halls.

Once Voldemort was finally dealt with, James would see if there was a way to deal with the Dementors as well; though he may hate the ones who followed Voldemort, even James would admit that no one should be left in the custody of those monsters. Well, maybe Bellatrix deserved to, but that was a separate matter. Thinking of the mad witch, James frowned, his hands clasped tight behind his back; he'd had Bellatrix moved to a more secure cell upon his arrival, currently guarded by half a dozen Aurors who had orders to kill anyone who approached.

Bellatrix had cackled madly as she was moved into the cell, proudly proclaiming to anyone who could hear that her master had finally come for her, and that all the Aurors in Azkaban were going to die.
Only seventy-five Aurors stood between Voldemort and the complete destruction of Azkaban, the fifty that James had brought with him, and the twenty-five that were on permanent detail. Seventy-five against the horde that would be soon descending on them, would it be enough?

A cold wind suddenly blew across James, causing him to shudder uncontrollably for a moment; James didn't want to be here, he wanted to go home and kiss his wife, to hug his children and never let go. It would have been all too easy for James to stay behind, to order others to go in his place; that's what Fudge would have done, let others fight and die in his place, but James didn't have it in him to send others where he would not go himself.
A sudden explosion from below brought James' attention back to the present, and he leaned over the battlements as he stared down at the ground below, squinting to see what was happening.

"He's here…" James said gravely as he watched dozens of black cloaked figures quickly making their way off the beach towards the prison; Sirius and Mad-Eye stepped beside him and stared down.
"Are those…" Sirius asked softly as he gazed at a dozen running figures before his face paled in horror, "Where the bloody hell did he get werewolves?!"
"The last of Grayback's pack, no doubt," Mad-Eye growled, "I imagine it wouldn't have taken much for Voldemort to convince the survivors to fight for him, and revenge themselves against the ones responsible for nearly killing them all."

Pulling his wand from its holster, James gave it a casual wave over his head; a moment later, the sound of a bell echoed throughout Azkaban, letting his Aurors know that the time had come. Four slow tolls echoed throughout the prison, and James couldn't help but shudder at the sound for it rang out like a funeral bell, and he knew that for some it was exactly that. Below him, James could hear shouts and yells as his Aurors prepared for battle, each taking position by the nearest available window, as they had been instructed.

As the dark robbed individuals reached the courtyard, James raised his wand to his throat and called out in what he hoped was an unwavering voice,
"HALT! YOU ARE ALL UNDER ARREST! SURRENDER NOW AND FACE JUSTICE, OR YOU WILL BE KILLED WITHOUT MERCY!"
James' thunderous voice roared across the entire island, causing the Death Eaters below to momentarily pause in their advance; a moment later, a single individual stepped forward and James suddenly heard a voice echo back, hissing almost snake-like.

"James Potter… It is you who will die tonight, you and all who follow you… But I am a merciful lord and will spare any man or woman who chooses to join me. Why die for those who are beneath you…? Join me, and we will wipe our world clean of the filth that has polluted it for far too long! Or fight me and die screaming! I am more powerful than I have ever been, you cannot hope to stop me from taking Azkaban! I will give you this one opportunity to save yourselves. After that, I will show no mercy. Join me or die! All except you, James Potter… You will beg me to kill you before I am done with you, but I won't. I want you to live and see what I do to this world, and to your mudblood and her brats!"

"IF YOU WILL NOT SURRENDER, THEN YOU WILL DIE!" James' voice roared back, "AURORS, OPEN FIRE!"
Instantly, dozens of spells flew from Azkaban, peppering the courtyard and sending several Death Eaters to the ground with screams and curses as the others ran for cover while at the same time trying to fire back.
Azkaban's courtyard became a virtual light show as spells and curses flew back and forth; the Aurors had much better cover, using the windows of Azkaban to fire indiscriminately into the courtyard.

The Death Eaters, on the other hand, were forced to hastily construct their own cover, transfiguring the stone courtyard into heavy walls, behind which they were firing at the prison and tearing its stone walls to bits, yet hitting nothing.
"KEEP IT UP, LADS!" Mad-Eye's voice roared out, his wand pressed to his throat and making both James and Sirius wince at the sudden explosion of noise, "POUR IT ON THEM! KEEP THEM BACK!"

For a moment, James dared to hope, they could win this! It was working! Those hopes were dashed a moment later when Voldemort stepped forward from behind his cover and snapped his wand arm out; a moment later, an enormous beam of light shot out of his wand and struck the prison. The door of Azkaban exploded in a blinding flash of light and roar of thunder that all but obliterated the stone entrance way and rocked the prison so that, for a moment, James actually stumbled and lost his footing. Once he had, he ran back to the battlement and stared down at the courtyard, his face paling as he saw the Death Eaters pouring into the now enormous hole that was once the front door; raising his wand back to his throat, James roared out,
"THE FRONT DOOR IS BREACHED! PREPARE FOR BATTLE!"

Turning to his oldest friend, James raised his hand to his chest, a look of determination on his face,
"Ready, Padfoot…?"
Instantly, Sirius clasped his hand into James', a smirk dancing across his face,
"Always, Prongs. Let's finish this, once and for all."
"Alright, enough of this maudlin behavior," Mad-Eye growled, "We've got a war to win! Let's go kill the bastard!"
With a final nod, the trio made their way down the dark stairs where the sounds of battle were already reaching their ears.
XXXX

Voldemort smiled cruelly as he made his way down the dark hallways of Azkaban prison, his followers mercilessly slaughtering everything that crossed their paths; a female Auror had just had her throat ripped out by one of his werewolves mere moments agon, and now lay gurgling and bleeding on the ground before him. Bending down onto one knee, Voldemort ran his hand almost lovingly across the woman's face, relishing the fear he saw in her eyes at not only his new appearance, but also at the knowledge that she was dying.
"I gave you the opportunity to live, and yet you chose to fight against me… Why? Why fight for the unpure?"
A look of defiance suddenly came across the woman's face and with the last of her strength, she spit into Voldemort's face, leaving a glob of blood and spit on his left cheek, which he wiped at angrily.

"F… Fuck you…" The woman gurgled before her eyes finally slid shut, and she fell to the floor with a soft thud; the strangest thing, however, was that her corpse now sported a small smirk, which infuriated Voldemort beyond words.
"Pity…" Voldemort hissed, his snake-like tongue flicking the air for a moment, "She died far too quickly…"
Rising back to his feet, Voldemort lazily flicked his wrist, urging his followers to move forward. With a roar, the Death Eaters charged down the dark hallway, unlocking all the cells they encountered and increasing their numbers as they continued their mad rush to slaughter all who stood in their way.
One freed prisoner, ripped the fallen Aurors wand from her dead hand and screamed out a crazed cheer as he followed the other Death Eaters; the sound made Voldemort smile with cruel enjoyment as he imagined how many new followers he would gain before the night was over, but there was only one who he wanted to see freed. And before this night was through, his angel of death would be returned to him, and her first 'plaything' would be James Potter.
XXXX

Sirius snarled with fury as he blasted a Death Eater into bits, turning the nearby wall into a collage of blood and gore; he had less than a second before another Death Eater took the previous ones place, sending a blast of green that missed Sirius' head by mere inches and blasted the wall behind him into pieces, leaving behind a deep hole gouged into the rock.
Dropping to his knees, Sirius fired a blasting curse that slammed into the Death Eaters chest, sending him screaming out of the nearby window.
Sirius simply couldn't wrap his head around it, how had they spread so fast! It seemed like mere moments ago, the battle had begun, and yet now, it seemed like the Death Eaters were everywhere! Sirius had personally killed four so far, and yet they just kept coming, it was mad! How many Aurors were left? Sirius had no idea; screams echoed from everywhere, and the darkened hallways seemed to perpetually light up with curses and spells that appeared to come from everywhere and nowhere.

Sirius had long since lost track of James and Mad-Eye, the battle forcing them apart almost immediately after they encountered their first Death Eater, and Sirius prayed to whoever might be listening that his best friend was still alive. If it had just been the few Death Eaters that Voldemort brought with them, Sirius wouldn't have been worried, but the bastard had ordered his followers to release every prisoner they encountered, thereby creating a continuous supply of fighters who would take the place of every fighter that Sirius and the other Aurors took out. If this continued, the Aurors would be overrun, and this battle would soon turn into a slaughter!

Breathing heavily, Sirius leaned against a nearby wall with one hand and tried to catch his breath; finally managing to regain control of his breathing, Sirius turned the next corner, only for something large and heavy to slam into him, knocking him onto his back, his wand flying from his hand and skittering across the floor as hot breath washed over his face.
Looking up at his attacker, Sirius felt his blood turn cold as he saw that it was one of the few werewolves that Voldemort had brought with him; the wolf snarled down at Sirius, drool falling onto Sirius' face as the wizard tried to hold the beast at bay by its throat with one hand while the other desperately reached for his wand.

The werewolf's clawed hand knocked Sirius's arm away, and it snapped its yellow teeth at him, missing his face by inches as Sirius used both hands to push it away; finally slamming his fist into the beast's jaw, Sirius managed to knock it off of him and desperately spun onto his hands and knees as he crawled toward his wand. Just as he reached it, he felt the beast's claws dig into his back, making Sirius scream in pain as it lifted him into the air and hurled him further down the hallway, slamming into the nearby wall and knocking him senseless.
Realizing that to stay still was to die, Sirius ignored the agony of his wounds and willed his body to act; spinning onto his back, Sirius saw the werewolf slowly stalking toward him, its lips pulled back into a snarl, drool dripping from its jaws as it relished the feast to come.
As the beast lunged at him, Sirius raised his wand and screamed so loud that it felt like his throat would tear,
"CONFRINGO!"

The spell slammed center mass, ripping an enormous hole in the beast's chest; the werewolf looked down at the wound for a moment, as though not believing what had happened, before falling to its knees, issuing one last snarl, and falling to the side, dead.
The danger now passed, Sirius leaned back against the wall behind him and slowly slid to the ground, his breath coming out short and ragged; his back was screaming at him in agony, and his left arm felt like it might very well be broken.
Willing his body to obey, Sirius pushed himself off the wall and began to limp down the dark hallway toward the sounds of screams; just as he rounded the next corner, he saw one of his Aurors being held under the Cruciatus curse by a laughing Death Eater. Snarling in fury at the sight of the female screaming as the man laughed, Sirius snapped his arm out and roared,
"Avada Kedavra!"

A streak of green slammed into the Death Eater's back, causing him to instantly drop to the floor like a puppet whose strings have been cut, leaving the hallway deathly quiet, save for the sounds of sobbing coming from the female Auror.
Quickly limping to her, Sirius pulled the woman into his arms; the woman struggled, at first, but then realized that she was no longer in danger and instead began to sob into Sirius' chest as he held her and tried to calm her down.
"Easy there, lass. You're alright, it's over, now…"
After giving the woman several moments to compose herself, Sirius asked in a ragged voice,
"Can you stand?"

"Yes, I… I think so…" The woman replied with a sniffle,
"Can you fight?" Sirius growled, causing the woman to look up at him; despite the pain that she'd been put through, Sirius was pleased to see anger and determination reflecting in the woman's eyes. An inner fire burned behind those brown irises that the Death Eater hadn't been able to put out, despite his torture, and Sirius couldn't help but smile as the woman nodded at once, pulling away from him and quickly rising to her feet before extending a hand and helping him to his own.

"Good lass," Sirius groaned as he slowly climbed to his feet, "Well, come on, then. Let's go kill some more of these bastards, shall we?"
"Sounds good to me," the woman growled back, bending down and picking up her wand; giving the Death Eater's corpse one final kick in the head, the woman followed Sirius as he limped slowly down the hallway, the sounds of screaming echoing throughout the prison.
XXXX

Mad-Eye Moody smiled cruelly as he sent another nameless prisoner to hell. Early on in the battle, Moody realized that Voldemort couldn't possibly hope to win this battle with the numbers he'd brought with him. That left only one avenue for him to win: release the prisoners.
Realizing this, Moody had made the executive decision to deny Voldemort his reinforcements by going from cell to cell and systematically killing every prisoner he came across, as well as every Death Eater that dared challenge him.

Any other person would call what Moody was doing, murder, but Moody was more pragmatic; he'd always hated sending Voldemort's followers to Azkaban, never believing that their master was truly dead. No, if Moody had his way, every single dark witch and wizard would have been sent through the veil, and the threat of them rising again ended permanently. It was only the disgusting politics of the Ministry that had stopped Moody from giving these filthy murderers what he felt they deserved; now, however, Moody was no longer under any such restrictions and so was indulging himself a small amount of pleasure as he rid Voldemort of any and all who might fight for him.

Striding to the next cell, Moody raised his wand and pointed it at a dark skinned witch who snarled at him and rushed the door, slamming into the gate and reaching out a yellowed claw at him, which swiped the air uselessly.
"Avada Kedavra," Moody growled, almost lazily, sending a green beam of light straight into the forehead of the witch, who fell to the floor of her cell with a soft 'thump.'
Turning away from the witch, Moody continued down the dark hallway to the next cell; there were dozens more on this floor alone and Moody was in no mood to leave a single one of them alive, who might aid the monster currently trying to kill not only him, but every Auror in Azkaban.
XXXX

James Potter was tired, more tired than he'd ever felt in his entire life; he was currently fighting three Death Eaters at once, and as his strength ebbed, he truly believed that his life was measured in mere moments.
As he dipped, ducked and jumped away from the curses that flew past him, he snarled in fury, refusing to let these bastards take him down without a fight; a green killing curse missed him by mere inches as he ducked down at the last second, feeling the curse breeze past his head and ruffle his hair. Rising back to his full height, James unleashed a killing curse of his own, which slammed into one of the Death Eater's face, and dropped the man to the floor, bringing his opponents down to two.

"Kill him! The Dark Lord will reward us greatly if we bring him this bastard's corpse!" A large Death Eater screamed as he unleashed curse after curse at James, "Die, Potter! Die!"
Hearing the sound of more Death Eater's approaching, and feeling the last of his strength waning, James felt his patience finally come to an end; there were no Aurors on this floor, he'd already sent the few there were off to secure other floors that were currently in danger of being overwhelmed, and so unleashed the most powerful spell he could think of,
"Fiendfyre!"

Immediately, an enormous wave of green fire roared out of James' wand and washed over his startled opponents, who only had seconds to scream in shock before the fire swept over them and turned their bodies to ash.
Pouring more of his magic into the wand, James sent the fire surging down the dark hallway like a green wave of death that consumed everything in its path; as the sounds of screaming reaching his ears, James couldn't help but smile as he finally ended the spell. The fire slowly died away, leaving nothing behind but ash and scorched rock and causing James to gasp with relief as he leaned against the nearby wall and gasped for air; how were there so many? James simply couldn't understand how Voldemort had managed to pull so many fighters together so quickly; suddenly, it was as though someone had smacked James across the back of his head as the answer finally came to him: the prisoners!

It didn't matter how many Aurors James had, eventually the constant battle would drain them of their strength and they would be overwhelmed by the unending number of prisoners that Voldemort had at his disposal. In a battle of attrition, James and his Aurors simply had no chance of victory.
With a growl of anger at how slow he'd been to figure out Voldemort's plan, James slammed his fist into the stone wall before pressing his wand to his throat,
"AURORS! THIS IS JAMES POTTER, VOLDEMORT PLANS TO OVERWHELM US BY RELEASING THE PRISONERS! AS YOUR ACTING MINISTER, I AM ISSUING AN EXECUTIVE ORDER! KILL ALL THE PRISONERS OF AZKABAN!"

James knew that he would probably face extreme scrutiny for that order once this battle was over, but if it came down to a choice between allowing Voldemort to win this battle, and quite possibly never seeing his family again, or winning and returning to them alive, then the choice was easy for James.
Stepping down the dark stairs, James descended to the next floor and narrowed his eyes as he saw the number of cells on this floor. Many of them had shuffling shadows within them. Grappling his wand tighter, James steeled his nerve and stepped into the hallway. He had work to do, no matter how much he might despise himself afterwards for it.
XXXX

Voldemort couldn't help but stare in shock as James Potter's words echoed throughout Azkaban. He didn't think the wizard had it in him to issue such an order; true, it made sense for Potter to give such an order, yet the fact that he'd actually done so made Voldemort's respect for the man rise, if only by the smallest of margins.
As an Auror charged at him, Voldemort hissed in anger and unleashed an overpowered curse at the unfortunate man. The curse blasted the Auror to pieces, leaving just a red mist behind, which quickly dispersed as his Death Eaters watched in shock.
"Find Bellatrix Lestrange before Potter's Aurors kill her," Voldemort hissed angrily, "Fail me, and I will suck the magic from your bones!"
The Death Eaters all seemed to quake with terror at the threat and quickly swarmed past him, wands held high as they rushed down the hallway, eager to fulfil their master's will, and save their own skins at the same time.

As Voldemort began to follow, he was suddenly overcome with an overwhelming sense of agony that shot from the top of his skull down to the base of his chest; it suddenly felt as though someone had strapped him to a rack and was pulling his body apart.
Placing a hand on the cold stone of the wall, Voldemort tried to breathe through the pain that seemed to be overwhelming his body until he suddenly found himself leaning full body against the wall.

When the pain finally came to an end, Voldemort slowly limped towards a nearby dirty mirror that hung on the wall; approaching it, Voldemort couldn't help but stare in shock at what gazed back at him.
His neck and head had extended slightly so that he almost resembled a king cobra, while his eyes had sunken deeper into his skull, so that they now had an everlasting shadowy appearance; added to this, the scales surrounding his face had increased so that they now nearly encompassed the entirety of it. His mouth had also grown larger, and jagged teeth now spread throughout the length of it. All-in-all, Voldemort now resembled a snake in all but name, and in the sight of this, Voldemort couldn't help but snarl in fury.

While he was never vain about his appearance, this was simply too much for him to bear, and he snarled as he slammed his fist into the mirror, shattering it to pieces and leaving it cracked.
Pulling his hood quickly over his head to hide his new features, Voldemort continued down the dark hallway, eager to find his greatest follower and be done with Azkaban, once and for all.

"My lord!" A Death Eater screamed as he ran towards Voldemort, "We've found the Dementors! It looks like Potter had them all locked away to keep them from siding against him, but the cell he locked them in is protected by a magical shield. We can't get through!"
Voldemort smiled at this, and the Death Eater took a step back in terror as the light shone across Voldemort's face for a moment, allowing the Death Eater a brief glimpse of Voldemort's new features.

"Show me," Voldemort hissed happily; no doubt the Dementors would be enraged at James Potter for taking away their food source, and would be eager for revenge for such an affront. Too terrified to argue, the Death Eater swallowed and nodded at his master before turning and hurrying back down the hallway.
XXXX

James leaned against shook as he bent over, his hands resting on his knees as he dry heaved, having nothing left to throw up; a small puddle of puke lay before him from where he'd already expelled everything that his stomach had to offer.
The reason for this was due to the horrible things that James had done in the past half hour; in that time, James had cleared nearly three floors of prisoners, killing everyone he'd come across so that Voldemort couldn't release them and resupply his dwindling numbers. Many had been too insane to do anything other than scream or laugh at him as James killed them; a few, however, had begged for their lives and James knew he would never get those voices out of his head, not until the day he died.

James knew that he had to stop Voldemort from releasing them, but it didn't make the act any less heinous to him; he felt dirty, defiled by what Voldemort had forced him to do, and it was simply another sin that James laid at the monster's feet. Now, more than ever, James wanted to go home to his family, but even as the thought struck him, James felt another dry heave run through him. Would Lily ever look at him the same way if she learned what he had been forced to do? Or would she see him as a monster, no less than Voldemort?

Unable to stop the despair that suddenly inundated him, James felt himself sink to the floor as he hugged his arms around him and began to sob; all his life, James had lived by a code, and now, thanks to Voldemort, James had been forced to abandon that code and kill defenseless prisoners just to ensure that they wouldn't join Voldemort against him and his Aurors.
"Prongs…?" a sudden voice called out, causing James to jump in alarm. His wand snapped into his hand as he turned toward the source of the voice.
Sirius Black stood at the end of the hallway, looking bruised and bloodied, behind which stood four other Aurors, all looking at James in alarm.
"Prongs, what's wrong?" Sirius demanded as he rushed toward his friend,
"Are you hurt?"

James couldn't help himself, when Sirius came near, he grabbed the man and pulled him into a tight embrace, hugging him as though he never wanted to let him go.
"Padfoot… I killed them… I killed them all…"
Suddenly realizing what had happened, Sirius wrapped his arms around James and hugged his friend as angry tears ran down his cheeks,
"Oh Prongs… I'm so sorry…"
"I'm a monster…" James whispered,

"No!" Sirius growled, "Voldemort is the monster, he's the one who forced us to do these things."

"I killed defenseless prisoners…" James whispered back as Sirius hugged him tighter,
"And if you hadn't, Voldemort would have released them and who knows how many of our people they would have killed," Sirius replied at once, "We're at war, Prongs, and in war you have to do things that make you sick to your core. But we do those things so that others don't have to. We do these things so that our children will never know the name of war, Prongs. Never forget that."

"Um… Minister Potter…" A female Auror said softly, making James look up at her, "I know you feel awful about what you've had to do, but you shouldn't. I can't speak for everyone here, but as for myself, I feel like you made the right call in ordering the prisoners killed. You're a good man, maybe the best Minister we've had in a good long time, and I'm bloody glad you're our leader. Voldemort is a mad dog that needs to be put down, and the quicker we do that, the quicker this war can finally come to an end."

"Exactly!" Sirius nodded, smiling at the Auror for saying what Sirius felt to be true in his bones.
Seeing no lie in the Auror's eyes, James couldn't help but nod in gratitude as he struggled to regain his composure; the other Auror's all mumbled agreements and James felt pride and gratitude swell within him at the loyalty that he saw shing back at him from his Aurors.
Slowly pulling himself to his feet, with the aid of Sirius, James nodded once at his men before clearing his throat with a deep cough,
"Any sight of Voldemort yet?"

"None, sir," Kingsley Shacklebolt replied, stepping forward, "Not for lack of looking though,"
Before James could reply, an inhuman shriek suddenly echoed throughout the prison, causing James to pale with horror,
"He's released the Dementors…"
"What do we do, Prongs?" Sirius whispered in horror, "There's over five hundred Dementors in this prison, if they all agree to follow Voldemort, we have no chance!"
Biting his lip in momentary indecision, James' thoughts raced as he tried to figure out what he should do, next; but each plan imploded in on itself with the realization that this battle was all but lost if Voldemort added the Dementors to his growing number of allies.
"I'm ordering a withdrawal," James growled finally, "Azkaban cannot be held, and I won't lose any more fighters trying to."
"You can't be serious, Prongs…" Sirius said in shock, "You would have us retreat!"

"We cannot win this fight!" James snapped back, "This isn't a defeat, Padfoot, simply a tactical withdrawal. How many of Voldemort's followers have we taken from him, tonight? He can ill afford to lose such numbers! I want this war to end tonight as much as you do, Padfoot, but we simply don't have the numbers to do so! This war will have to be concluded another day."
Loathe though he was to admit it, Sirius couldn't help but grudgingly admit the veracity of his friend's words; swallowing his anger, Sirius nodded once and replied,
"So, what's the order?"

"We'll head to Bellatrix's cell first," James growled, "First, we kill Voldemort's greatest follower, then we unleash a wave of Fiendfyre so great that it consumes this entire island and apparate back to the Ministry. That should rob Voldemort of the majority of his followers…"
Sirius nodded, seeing no fault in his friend's plan; the Aurors behind him shuffled anxiously, though, as though conflicted about being forced to retreat from Voldemort instead of killing them once and for all as they had intended.
Raising his wand to his throat, James swallowed down the bile of shame that seemed to come from being forced to retreat before Voldemort; finally seeming to regain control of himself, James finally gave the hated order.

"AURORS! THIS IS JAMES POTTER! AS YOUR MINISTER, I AM ORDERING ALL SURVIVORS TO RETREAT BACK TO THE MINISTRY! YOU ARE ORDERED TO UNLEASH FIENDFYRE UPIN AZKABAN AND THEN RETREAT! WE CANNOT WIN THIS BATTLE, BUT WE CAN BURN AZKABAN TO THE GROUND, RATHER THAN LET OUR ENEMIES CLAIM IT! BURN THIS HELLHOLE TO THE GROUND! THAT IS AN ORDER!"
Taking the wand from his throat, James nodded once at Sirius before spinning on his heel, and limping down the hallway,
"Right, let's kill Bellatrix and get the hell out of here…"
"Sounds good to me," Sirius groaned, his battle wounds making themselves known as he limped after his friend, the other Aurors following behind.
XXXX

Voldemort snarled in fury as he quickly made his way through the every growing inferno that was once Azkaban prison; the Aurors had seemingly followed James Potter's order with gusto and had poured Fiendfyre upon Azkaban with an almost unholy fury. Fire stretched in all directions, and more than once Voldemort had only been spared from the fire's destruction only by throwing one of his followers in its path so that he could duck down a hallway and escape. Where was Bellatrix? He should have found her by now! There were only so many places Potter could have hidden her! The Dementors had all fled from the fire with shrieks rather than stay and kill his enemies as Voldemort intended, and that seemed to only intensify his anger as he made his way down the smoke-filled hallway, freeing any prisoner he came upon as he sought out his greatest weapon.

As he rounded the following corner, Voldemort felt a grin spread across his face as he saw six Aurors standing in front of a nearby cell door; only one being could warrant such protection.
As the Aurors caught sight of Voldemort, they immediately opened fire, sending several powerful curses at the Dark Lord; Voldemort easily avoided these, and sent two Aurors to their grave in mere moments with two killing curses. Rushing forward, Voldemort grabbed one of the Aurors by the throat and raised him into the air before sinking his fangs into the man's throat and began to suck the magic from his as easily as a vampire would consume blood as the remaining Aurors watched in horror.

In a matter of seconds, the Auror's once youthful features were gone, and a withered husk hung in its place, held by the throat by Voldemort who carelessly threw the poor man's body to the floor as he felt the man's magic fill him with power. The three remaining Aurors stared at their friend's body in horror for a moment before seemingly coming to a unanimous decision and spinning on the spot, disappearing with a loud 'crack.'

For a moment, Voldemort stared down at the man's withered husk with a thoughtful expression on his face; no longer would he need to use the ritual to steal magic, it seemed. Now, he could do it simply by sucking the magic from them like a vampire feeding on blood; smiling cruelly at that realization, Voldemort turned to the cell door and slashed his wand through the air, causing the cell door to rip from the wall in a shower of dust and debris.

Stepping into the cell, Voldemort felt his gaze immediately drawn to the prisoner within; time had not been kind to his greatest weapon, it would seem. Bellatrix Lestrange's once youthful features had been ripped away; now, her once jet-black hair had streaks of silver through it and the beginning of wrinkles could be seen around her eyes and upon her brow. Voldemort didn't see any of that, however; what he saw, was the devotion in which Bellatrix was directing at him, kneeling before him with her wrists cuffed and a look of pure love upon her face.

"My lord…" Bellatrix whispered softly, "I knew you would come for me. I never lost hope that you would regain your powers…"
"My most loyal servant…" Voldemort hissed, "Are you ready to serve me, again…?"
"Yes, my lord," Bellatrix said at once, "I've done nothing but wait eagerly for your return!"
"Good," Voldemort nodded, "We have much to do."

With a lazy flick of his hand, Voldemort caused Bellatrix's cuffs to literally melt off her wrists. Rising to her feet, Bellatrix rubbed her wrists for a moment before smiling at her master.
"Come, let us away from here. I've got what I came for…"
As the pair stepped into the hallway, a sudden shout reached their ears, causing them to turn towards the noise's origin, only to see James Potter and several Aurors racing toward them.
"You lose, Potter!" Voldemort hissed as he grabbed Bellatrix, pulling her close before spinning on the spot and causing the pair to disappear with a 'crack.'
XXXX

As James watched Voldemort and Bellatrix disapparate, he couldn't help but stare in horror at where the pair had stood mere moments ago. With a roar of anger, James snapped his wand out and blew the wall opposite him to bits before sinking to his knees.
He'd failed; he'd failed to end the war before it could fully begin, and now, with Voldemort's greatest weapon returned to him, he could only imagine the horror that was to come now that the war had begun in earnest. Taking a ragged breath, James turned to his oldest friend and growled,
"Burn everything."
XXXX

Author's Note:
1.) OCansino- Yeah, the story got away from me, I had fully intended it to be solely about Harry regaining his family, but it quickly spread to be just about James' attempt to make a better world for his children. Hopefully the next few chapters will be about Harry, again.

2.) Kazikamikaze24- Thank you. I hope you liked this chapter as much as the last one.

I'm not going to lie; I'm not happy about this chapter. I've rewritten it three times, and this was the best one I came up with. I hope it holds up to your standards, but I feel like it could have been better. Please let me know how it holds up, and if there's something you think I could have done better, let me know. In the next few chapters, I plan to focus more on Harry and Rose while Voldemort prepares for war. Until next time!