47 - Liberty
Chapter Forty-Seven
Liberty
Sunset floated closer to the cell so her aura extended into it through the bars. The moment Black stepped up to the bars, hearing her response, she could see hope flare up in his eyes, now that the dementors could no longer touch him.
Another click sounded through the hallway as Madam Bones tapped her key against the crystal locking the cell. They all cringed at the loud squeaking of the hinges. Clearly the door hadn't been opened in years.
Black let his gaze rove across the cell a final time, then turned to the door. Sunset made sure to float beside him on the other side of the bars until he made it out the door, ensuring that he never left her aura.
Black turned to see the two men that were with them. "Albus. Good to see you again. Taking good care of Hogwarts I hope? Kingsley! Is that you? Auror, huh? Not bad. It suits you."
The two nodded silently, even Sunset understood that Black was rambling, doing his level best to think about anything other than Azkaban and the circumstances that had landed him here. From Pettigrew's story, she understood what was going on. Now that the one who had truly betrayed the man who had been like a brother to him would meet justice, a fate he had endured for ten long years, he could afford to think of other things.
Closing the door behind him, Madam Bones returned to the head of the group, leading them back to the entrance and locking all the doors behind them. Sunset did her level best to ignore the looks of disappointment she received from the inmates. And the looks of jealousy they shot towards Black.
They made their way back across the rainy courtyard, the drops running off the barrier the light magic formed above their heads. The dementors' eyeless gazes followed them, but they paid them no heed.
The moment Sunset passed back into the tower that held the staircase back down to the underground harbor, the aura around her faded and she lightly touched down, still not quite feeling the full might of gravity. She was still glowing, but didn't look so much like an angel anymore.
They made their way down the stairs and settled into the boat that was still waiting for them. Dumbledore and Shacklebolt sat to both sides of Black, so the severely weakened man could lean on them for support should he need it. As such, Sunset took a seat opposite them, Madam Bones sitting down beside her once she had turned around to tap on the lantern with her wand, lighting it once more and causing the boat to ferry them back to the smaller island that held Azkaban's four human wardens.
Sirius watched the glowing girl sit opposite him beside Amelia. He didn't know her name, but Azkaban really wasn't a good place for introductions. He would learn it later. He absently munched on the large piece of chocolate Amelia had handed him as he watched the girl’s hair settle down on her shoulders and the glow fade more and more the further they got away from Azkaban and the mass of dementors it housed. The golden fire in her eyes was hypnotic to watch, but he still managed to spare a glance at the four patroni accompanying them.
He might not have regained all of his mental faculties back quite yet, but he realized that one of them had to be hers. The golden one probably. That alone was evidence that this girl was more than she seemed. As if the floating and the golden aura hadn't been a dead giveaway.
As they drifted into the cave beneath the smaller island, he turned around to take a final look at the fortress that had been his prison for the last ten years. Then he turned back forward to face the future.
Was it odd that the future looked like an eleven year old girl?
Back in the watchtower, the group split up. Madam Bones told Mr. Shacklebolt to return to the Ministry to try and find Black's trial records, the snort that got from the man did not bode well. Dumbledore told Sunset to return to Hogwarts and to come to his office after her last lesson the following day. The other two would take Black to St. Mungo's Hospital to recover from his stay at the dementor infested fortress.
As such, Sunset phased into the Gryffindor Common room a few moments later, finding her friends gathered in a corner. She saw her sister curled up in Harry's lap snoring softly, a quick scanning spell revealed a familiar perception filter over the form of the small unicorn. With a wave of her hand, a nearby armchair floated over and she joined the group.
"Sunset!" Ginny was the first to notice her, causing the others to turn and startling Hermione awake. "What happened?"
Sunset shuddered a bit. "Dementors are a lot darker than I expected. It'll take days before my well is filled back up after how it reacted to them." Seeing the questioning expressions she got from everyone but Hermione, Sunset summarized the explanation she had given on the boat, before continuing to describe the trip to Azkaban to get Black.
"Madam Bones sent the auror who came with us to the Ministry to look for Black's trial records. But after how Black reacted to that ... well I'm not entirely certain there actually was a trial. And then she and Professor Dumbledore took Black to the Hospital and I teleported back here."
Seeing Hermione yawn, she chuckled a little before yawning as well. 《You got the right idea sis, We really should get to bed.》
Neville, Dean, Lavender, Seamus and Pavati stared at her questioningly. She just chuckled tiredly. "Oh yeah, remind me to teach you lot Equestrian at some point." Picking up Hermione out of Harry's lap, she carried the little unicorn up the stairs to the girls' dorms.
Clarice Cornile stood at the reception desk of St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries, staring at the door on the opposite wall in boredom. Nothing exciting ever happened at this hour.
She was startled from her monotony when, in a flash of flame, a wizard and a witch appeared, supporting a second wizard stood between them. She immediately recognized Albus Dumbledore, his phoenix proudly perched on his shoulder. She tried and failed to put a name to the witch on the other side of the group. Still, she read the news and was fairly certain that she had the Head of the Department for Magical Law Enforcement before her.
As she hurried around the counter and over to the group, she tried to put a name to the man in between them. He looked familiar, but she just couldn't figure out who he was. He wasn't looking well.
"What happened?"
The woman turned to her. "Dementors."
Clarice stopped and drew her wand. "Accio chocolate. Here you go. That should help."
Healer Maverick sat behind his desk in his office on the ground floor of the hospital. A knock on his door pulled his attention away from the paperwork that always seemed to pile up from somewhere. "Come in."
One of the assistant nurses made her way into his office. "We have a new case, sir." Without any further preamble she handed him a clipboard.
He let his eyes wander over the essential information. Malnourishment wasn't something St. Mungo's treated often, but daily application of nourishing potions could correct most cases in a few weeks at most. Unremarkable, all things considered. The phrase 'long term dementor exposure', however, gave him pause. He could only think of one place where one could be exposed to those abominations for any amount of time that would constitute 'long term'.Azkaban.He flipped to the first page of the stack of papers to find the name of their newest patient.
The name 'Sirius Orion Black' was not what he had expected to read.
"Sirius Black?"
The nurse nodded solemnly. "That was my reaction as well. Turns out he was innocent. I expect we'll read more about it in the Prophet a few days from now at most."
"Sirius Black is innocent?" The nurse nodded again. "And he was falsely imprisoned in that hellhole for ten years?!" When the nurse nodded again, Healer Maverick jumped from his chair. "Show me to him!"
The nurse hurriedly left the room, the healer right behind her. That those abominations were used as prison guards was bad enough and something healers up and down the land had been protesting for centuries, almost since Azkaban's opening, but someone innocently imprisoned there? Such a thing was unthinkable. And they didn't need to talk to know that they had to do their part in setting it right.
They arrived at the room in short order. Sirius Black looked like they always imagined an inmate of Azkaban to look, skinny and with messy hair he sat on the bed in the room. But, surprisingly, he didn't act at all like they would have expected an inmate of Azkaban to act.
Outside of the dreaded 'kiss', dementors took quite a while to leave lasting damage, but that damage was to the mind and very challenging to treat, permanent in many cases. Many inmates of that prison went insane before too long, but Black, surprisingly, showed very few signs of that.
He sat on the bed, surprisingly clean, in a hospital gown that had been provided for him, seeing how his other clothes were no longer suited for such an environment, and was greedily eating the meal the head nurse had brought him. In chairs beside the bed sat Amelia Bones and Albus Dumbledore.
Madam Bones was explaining how they had come to know of his innocence in her usual, serious tone. She finished right when Black had cleared away the last vestiges of his meal. He looked at the two seriously.
"So that girl was the one who found him? I knew she was special – I mean, the glowing was hard to miss – but still, I didn't realize she was the one." He chuckled quietly. "To think, that after ten years of hiding, without anyone ever even suspecting anything, he'd be found out by a first year. Am I the only one who thinks that's a bit surreal?"
Dumbledore was in full 'benevolent grandfather mode'. He chuckled wryly. "Miss Shimmer may be young, but she already has a comprehensive magical education. She is actually at Hogwarts mostly for comparative studies and because her friends are there as well, I suspect. She is certainly more than meets the eye."
Madam Bones nodded. "She certainly surprised me a few times. Then again, if she really does have a full magical education, maybe not that surprising."
"Oh, I don't know. She is certainly well studied, but I suspect she has a good measure of talent as well and a pinch of luck never hurts either."
The nurses and the healer had no idea whom they were talking about, but they nodded anyway. That last part was hard to disagree with.
Rested as she was from her nap cuddled to Harry, Hermione was cuddled into bed next to her sister. She quickly noticed that Sunset was quietly crying and shuddering a little. She carefully moved closer, giving Sunset a questioning glance.
Sunset noticed her and gave her a shaky smile.
《Are you okay, sis?》Hermione asked in quiet Equestrian.
Sunset shook her head. 《It's a side effect of the Lumineum defending me. Negative emotions, anger, fear, jealousy, things like that, can't manifest while the pool is so active. The amount of light magic doesn't allow that. So they build up, and when the pool calms back down, they catch up to you after a while. To be honest, I'm surprised I managed this long.》
Hermione listened quietly and cuddled closer to Sunset. She may be a skilled, talented and studied magician, but, at her core, she was still an eleven year old girl, even if she didn't usually act like that. She had heard Sunset's descriptions of the dementors, of seeing what was under their robes, of seeing what happened in Azkaban.
She couldn't imagine how afraid she would have been. And if all that was now catching up to Sunset, she would need all the support she could get.
Sunset wouldn't be getting much sleep tonight.
Hermione, probably wouldn't either. But that was okay.
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Another awesome chapter. Great work.
I think"exiting" should have been spelled "exiteing" but not sure. Exiting is to leave a building. Not sure how to add ing to exite. Maybe phase that sentence differently.
9642630
The word is 'exciting'
9642641
And of course since exiting is also a word my spellcheck didn't point it out ...
9642641
Thank you. I was drawing a complete blank on it.
9642726
Perhaps so ... but it is also canon ... so there ...
Loved the update as always! Keep up the wonderful work!
It's so refreshing to know such a downside to such a powerful defense exists. Most writers, especially the really amateur ones, wouldn't think of that. It helps to humanize her powers.
9642940
Uhh ... which one do you mean? The power drain, the emotional build-up, or the inability to use dark magic?
9642975
The power drain and emotional build up.
Do you suppose that Sybill Trelawney has a side business in Optometry of the Inner Eye, and makes house calls to prisons? Or perhaps Black has a talent that no one realized?
9642991
Well, they just seemed to make sense. Magic doesn't happen for free (except when it does; see Elements of Harmony) so the power has to come from somewhere. And if you're powered up like that, those kinds of emotions just don't work. So she doesn't feel them then. Still, they gotta go somewhere and once they're no longer blocked, they come back. All at once.
9643018
You have a bit of a talent for coming up with odd concepts, don't you?
Tertiary Optopmetry ... now how do you extrapolate that. A third eye monocle? Laser third eye surgery? An implated contact lens?
9643046
You should see the eye chart she uses…
To get started… One must think about what the Inner Eye does. Which is: seeing the future in some capacity, or doing something that can be mistaken for such.
If we go with it being based on foresight, then it may have something to do with intuition, conscious analysis, or both. And so we must then think of what could possibly affect those things. A person may train to trust intuition, and to notice insights presented by intuition. It's possible that there is also some metaphysical mechanism that results in true intuition of the future, in which case, it's not unreasonable to think it possible for magic to be capable of affecting it. Conscious analysis of events, and the direction of the world, though, is a purely cerebral affair, but one which can benefit from many techniques, and a broad knowledge of how the world works. For example, there are many many systems at work within the world, including but not limited to: Evolution, Astrophysics, Economics, Social Dynamics (Political and Personal), Weather Systems, and Memes (ideas that spead through minds; with language being an important example). There are tools to analyze these systems, including but not limited to: maths (including statistics and calculus), the scientific method, rationality, and computer systems (also ironically being a system itself).
If we go with true prophesies as being an artifact of Time (and probably Space, too, in many worlds based on our own, given what our best scientific models of physics say), as some phenomenon where the ends of some structure existing in Time, attract eachother to avoid a paradox, like a pathway of ionized air may be a preferable path for a lightning bolt, then there may be some kind of construct that will aid this process. Perhaps a magical thing that affects time in some way. (Timeturner, anyone?…) Honestly… Cause and Effect become hard to make sense of in these situations.
Maybe it's as simple as a prescription for a (spicy) melange tea?
9643125
Well ... as far as I'm concerned, divination consists of two parts:
Genuine prophecies, granted by a gift very few people have and, even then, not particularly often, are one part.
The other, is, effectively, everything else, which amounts to little more than glorified guesswork. Centaurs claim to know more about divining the future, but really the only thing they know that most wizards don't seem to quite understand is that there is a direct proportion between the chances to be wrong and the times you actually are wrong.
In other words: They may only be wrong ten percent of the time, but they're also only unambiguosly right ten percent of the time. The remaining eighty percent of the time what they predict is so vague that it's practically impossible for them to be wrong. And for anyone to get some actual use out of their predictions.
nice work.
That last part was heartwarmingly cute. And helped drive home that, even with all that power and training, seeing sick darkness and suffering is bound to hurt an eleven years old that rarely ever saw things that could even come close to that.
I quite expect the emotional effects to last for days, if not weeks.
9643479
I agree wholeheartedly.
Sunset may be "OP," but not so far as to remove what makes her human. Or rather, sapient. That part needed to be there.
Hmm, I wonder what this spell does.
One thing that always irked me in Harry Potter was that Sirius wasn't angry at Dumbledore. Dumbledore knew that Sirius didn't have a trial and even if Dumbledore believed him guilty never visited Sirius, not even to ask "why". If he had Dumbledore might have had reason to ask for Sirius to be questioned under veritaserum to determine if he was really guilty.
Transform and roll out!
This always gets me when it is written by someone
A real man for sure
LOL