Chapter Forty-Six
Prison
An eternal storm raged over two small islands in the north sea. Muggle repelling charms and notice-me-nots hid the islands from non-magical eyes and ancient visual illusions kept even the storm itself hidden from everything that wasn't within their range.
Under the roiling clouds, a fortress had stood for centuries, powerful enchantments keeping the storm from chipping away at its walls. The island it stood on was barely larger than the expansive fortress itself. Once the home of a muggle torturing madman, it now housed the sole high security prison facility of Wizarding Britain.
This was the fortress of Azkaban, an infamous prison known for throwing its inmates into despair and madness ever since it was opened on the suggestion of Minister for Magic Damocles Rowle in Seventeen-Twenty-Four. The reason for this reputation were the numerous dementors flying over the island and the stormy sea surrounding it.
The only place within miles that wasn't hounded by the spectres of fear, was an even smaller island, really little more than a rock in the ocean, housing a single structure. A solitary watchtower stood atop it and where the dark shapes of dementors were gliding through the air all around it, focused on the fortress on the bigger island, the silvery shapes of patroni circled around its base and stood vigilant on its roof, heedless of the unceasing downpour.
Four aurors sat around in the comfortably furnished room at the base of the tower, the unnatural cold of the dementors held at bay by the patroni outside. None of them expected anything interesting to happen in the few hours remaining of their shift, so they were all huddled around the happily crackling flames of the circular fireplace that sat in the center of the room.
Their expectations were subverted when a gout of flame delivered another auror, the Chief Warlock, the head of their department and a young girl they had never seen before. The presence of another auror was nothing special, they had all met Kingsley before. The presence of Madam Bones set them on edge. The presence of Albus Dumbledore almost guaranteed that something very important was going down. The presence of a random first year just confused them.
Madam Bones approached the head of the little team. "We need to get over to Azkaban. Peter Pettigrew has been found alive and has, under the influence of Veritaserum, admitted to the crimes Sirius Black was accused of. We'll hold his trial during the next session of the Wizengamot, but for now we need to get Black out of Azkaban."
The four aurors exchanged glances, then the head warden nodded and took a heavy key from a ring on his belt. He walked over to a door opposite the entrance, unlocking it with a loud 'clunk' before returning to his colleagues. With a nod to them, Madam Bones waved for her three companions to follow and went through the door.
Once the others had followed the door swung shut and the room was once more in silence.
After a few seconds, the youngest of the four spoke up. "So Black's been here innocently for ten years? Oh boy, wait 'til the Prophet hears of that."
After walking up the small mountain atop which Castle Hogwarts sat for several minutes, Professor McGonagall and Ron stepped first into the Entry Hall and then into the Great Hall. Their arrival turned heads on all five tables.
McGonagall went through the central corridor between the Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw tables up to the head table where the other Professors immediately began badgering her with questions. Ron went along the wall and found a seat with his friends at the Gryffindor table where the same thing began to happen.
"Ron!"
"Where did you go?"
"What happened?"
"Is something up with Scabbers?"
"Where is Sunset?"
"Do you know why Professor Dumbledore isn't here?"
A shushing from Hermione stopped the onslaught of questions. "Give him a moment to respond, would you?"
Ron shot her a grateful smile. "Thanks Hermione." He took a bite of the food he had piled onto his plate, and began to explain what had happened. "Yes. Something was up with Scabbers. He isn't a rat at all. He's an animagus called Peter Pettigrew."
And so he continued to explain what had happened, how Pettigrew had been revealed, how he had tried to kill McGonagall – that part resulted in several startled gasps around the table – how he had been disarmed and subdued, how they had brought him to the Ministry and what they had learned in the interrogation.
When he got to the part about Pettigrew betraying Harry's parents, Ginny and Luna, sitting at his sides, put a caring arm each around his shoulders. Seated as they were, a hug wasn't quite feasible.
The group retired to the common room after dinner. Seeing Harry's downtrodden state, Hermione sat down on the armrest of his chair with a thoughtful frown. Finally she nodded to herself, stepped into the narrow space between the backrest of the chair and the wall and assumed her unicorn form. With a few moments' focus, she cast a spell.
Satisfied with her work, she came out behind the armchair and jumped easily over the armrest, curling up in Harry's lap. Absently the boy began to stroke her mane. She watched carefully as his troubled expression, while still there, slowly lightened up. She cheered inwardly. Petting a pony was always a surefire way of getting someone to cheer up. There was simply something about curling up in someone's lap and letting them pet your mane that let them know that you cared. There was probably magic involved at some point in the process, but Hermione didn't care at the moment.
After a few minutes of absently stroking her mane, Harry quietly spoke up in Equestrian. 《So, are you not worried someone will see your animagus form?》
Hermione shook her head. 《I used a small perception filter Sunset taught me. In theory they should be able to see me just fine, they just won't realize that I'm not currently human.
《In theory, at least.》
The staircase behind the door led them to a small underground dock, similar to the one beneath Hogwarts, but much smaller, housing only two small, wooden boats. Already Sunset could feel an unnatural chill in the air.
"Patroni." Madam Bones curtly ordered as she picked up a clipboard from the wall. "Expecto Patronum." The greyish-silver raven that sprang from her wand was quickly joined by a bluish-silver Lynx from Mr. Shacklebolt, an almost white Phoenix that sat down on Dumbledore's shoulder, mirroring Fawkes on the other. The small golden lizard that silently climbed up onto Sunset's head rounded off the set.
Seeing how she already had her wand drawn, Sunset cast a light magic scanning charm to learn what she could about the dreaded dementors that seemed to frighten the wizards of this world so. She had been getting a lot of practice with those charms recently.
In the unnatural darkness around them, her eyes glowed with golden light as did the patroni.
The four of them stepped into one of the boats. Even in the shielded cavern it was clear that the water around the boats was much calmer than elsewhere. Once the four of them had taken a seat in the boat, Madam Bones tapped her wand on a lantern at the prow.
The large clear quartz crystal in the lantern lit up and the boat began moving from the pier and off towards the mouth of the cave. At the same time, the storm outside seemed to get quieter. Looking at the lantern with interest, Sunset was slightly disappointed that her specialized scanning spell didn't allow her to learn much about the enchantments on the lantern. She did see, however, that it was meant to do much more than provide light.
Its other purposes became clear as they left the cave. In a wide circle around the boat, the rough sea calmed into small waves, the wild winds slowed to a gentle breeze and even the howling storm seemed to be muffled. They sat in silence as the boat crossed the distance to the larger island.
Until, that is, Sunset began to glow. The three adults watched with slight worry as the girl's glowing eyes began to burn with golden fire, her entire form beginning to glow with a soft golden light emanating from her chest. Seeing their gazes, Sunset looked down, noticing the glow herself.
"Woah. The dark magic here must be stronger than I thought if my well is responding this strongly." Seeing questioning glances, she moved to explain. "A part of my training with light magic. In addition to the normal two reservoirs all magical creatures have, Princess Celestia found a way to modify one's arcane nature to allow for a third reservoir specifically for light magic called the Lumineum. It recharges passively whenever I feel the positive emotions that generally power light magic.
"Basically, it's a workaround for the inconvenient problem that the situations where light magic is the most useful tend to be the ones where it is hardest to call upon."
The other three thought about her explanation for a moment. They understood what she meant, every wizard with a N.E.W.T. in charms knew of the two reservoirs, even though wands made spell casting so efficient that most wizards rarely used their secondary reservoir. And all of them knew how hard it was to summon a patronus when a dementor was already bearing down on them, to power their magic with the very emotions the dark creatures drained from them.
"And this 'Lumineum' reacts to dark magic around you?" Dumbledore asked with interest.
Sunset nodded. "Well all light magic has a bit of a mind of its own. That your patronus charm is an animated construct amplifies that, of course, but all light magic seeks, by nature, to protect its user. In an area with strong dark magic, my luminous well reacts to protect me from it. It wouldn't work against a spell, it isn't fast enough for that, but ambient dark magic? It works wonders against that. We'll see how much stronger it gets. Let's just hope it doesn't get too intense or it'll burn through my reserves like nobody's business."
With rising interest, Dumbledore cast his own scanning charm, watching Sunset carefully as the boat continued to glide through the calm waters that followed it. Fawkes and his patronus still sat on his shoulders, while silver lynx walked over the surface of the water beside them without disturbing it and the silvery raven flew circles above their heads. Sunset's own patronus seemed to be formed from golden fire at this point.
After a good ten minutes, the boat drove into another cave, docking in yet another subterranean port, this one vacant of any other boats. It lightly touched against the pier and the light of the lantern died. As they stepped off the boat Sunset noticed that she was much lighter on her feet than usual, as though gravity couldn't quite grasp her. Still she had no trouble moving. A sure sign that her Lumineum was acting to protect her.
She could see the dark magic in the very air around them. No wonder that the wizards of this world feared the dementors. No wonder that Azkaban was so feared. Had she not had such powerful light magic to protect her, fed from weeks spent around her friends, she would have been scared as well.
If it wasn't for all the dark magic around, the staircase hewn into the rock of the island would have felt distinctly reminiscent of the one she and the other first years had followed Hagrid up on their first day. The tower they arrived in was not unlike the one they had left earlier, but the stone it was made from was much older.
Madam Bones took out the clipboard she had picked up and fished a metal rod with a crystal on the end from her pocket. "Alright. Across the yard, in through the door, turn left, follow the corridor, go up the stairs two floors, take the right corridor and he should be in the seventh cell on the left. Come along then."
She tapped the crystal against a matching one set into the rim of the cast-iron door that separated them from the yard, exactly where a lock would be. With an audible 'click' the door unlocked and she pushed it open on squeaking hinges. The dark shapes of dementors slowly floated backwards from the light of the patronus that had sat down on her shoulder, glowing like a lantern.
Dumbledore followed her, both phoenixes on his shoulders glaring at the floating specters, causing them to move back further. Mr. Shacklebolt waved for Sunset to go next, clearly intending to bring up the rear. They were in a place filled with the worst British wizards had to offer, though Sunset wasn't sure whether he was worried about the inmates. Or about the wardens.
The moment she stepped out into the rainy yard, the glow surrounding her pulsed and she was lifted off her feet, wobbling in mid-air for a moment before she got used to floating a few inches above the ground. Her hair was floating behind her, though not at all like the sparkly, ethereal mane of Princess Celestia. More lifting off her shoulders as though gravity couldn't hold it anymore than it could hold her.
The light around her coalesced into a visible aura creating a glowing golden ring where its edges met the floor. The dementors jolted back a bit before stopping and turning away from the light. It didn't seem to harm them where they were, but it was as though they understood that entering the illuminated area would be a grave mistake.
From behind the golden fire around her eyes, Sunset watched them carefully, cataloging everything she saw. They were clearly undead and at least partly corporeal. The magic, empowered in response to their plentiful presence, let her see through their long, tattered robes, revealing sunken, eyeless faces with wide, gaping maws, gray, sallow skin and bony, long-fingered hands, nervously moving as though to grab them. Yes, she decided, she probably wouldn't be getting much sleep tonight.
Still, for the moment she felt no fear. The light magic had detached her from such emotions. She knew that they would come back with a vengeance. But for know, she couldn't seem to care.
Amelia stared in complete bafflement at the floating girl behind her. They all stood in the golden aura surrounding her and, while normally even a powerful patronus wouldn't be enough to fully banish the unnatural cold of so many dementors, here, in this light, she felt none of it.
Even the rain would not intrude on this island of peace.
Still she had a job to do. An innocent man had spent ten years in this place, she wouldn't keep him here a minute longer than necessary. With a grunt she turned around and walked off, a highly intrigued Albus Dumbledore walking behind her. When Miss Shimmer soundlessly floated behind them, easy to see from the golden glow that effortlessly kept up with them, a bemused Kingsley Shacklebolt brought up the rear.
Another click resounded when she tapped the crystal on her key against another door and pushed it open. Of course, in a place like this, squeaking doors were almost obligatory. She lead the group down a corridor in between two rows of cells, some of the prisoners were asleep, but most of them stared at the girl behind her as though she was an angel come to save one of them.
In a way she had, and while she was fairly certain that Ms. Shimmer was not of any divine origin, Amelia couldn't fault their mistake. The glow made for an uncanny resemblance. She kept an eye on the girl behind her, noticing how she floated up the stairs until they turned into another corridor.
The seventh cell to the left, overlooking the courtyard, held the man they had come for. Sirius Orion Black sat on a mattress woven of moldy straw, wearing tattered clothing and looking at them with the faintest glimmer of hope in his eyes. The last spark the dementors hadn't managed to steal. How he had protected it from them was a mystery to her.
Sirius saw the light coming down the corridor. The floating girl looked at him with eyes burning with golden fire, he had seen her gaze into the other cells with detached interest, shuddering at the sight of the sole dementor in the hall. When the group stopped before his cell, her gaze turned into one of sympathy.
"Did you come to get me?"
His voice was rough. Broken. Eroded from years with barely any use. Still, Amelia Bones understood. He recognized her. She had grown up into a strong woman. She held the key to Azkaban. And she nodded. "Yes, Sirius. We did."
"Did you find Peter?"
All eyes turned to the unknown, glowing girl. When she spoke, her voice held an otherworldly echo.
"We did. We learned the truth from him."