Disclaimer: You want to know who's the owner? It's J.K. Rowling.
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Chapter 16: Horrors of Azkaban
"Harry, wake up....wake up." Harry let out a groan and stirred a little. "Come on mate, open your eyes."
Harry's eyes fluttered open. The first thing he saw was the concerned face of Sir Ronald Weasley. "Great," he grumbled. "Your face just had to be the first face I get to see in the afterlife."
Ron grinned. "Well Harry, as guide to your first day of being dead, it is my painful duty to inform you that you are still very much alive!"
Harry suddenly bolted up right. "What?!" he shouted. "I'm alive?! But I was hit by the killing curse!" He finally registered his surroundings. The position of the sun indicated that it was late morning, and he had been lying right outside of the now sealed entrance to the Caverns of Power.
Ron's grin grew wider as he pointed at Harry's chest. The experimental protection charm Snape had given Harry was glowing with an eerie green light. As soon as Harry picked it up, it crumbled to dust.
"Snape's protection charm. It must've absorbed the Avada Kedavra curse, causing it to simply knock me out rather than kill me." Harry looked up at Ron and grinned. "I can't believe I'm going to say this but thank God for Snape."
Ron snorted. "Oh yeah, thank God for Snape. He added some of his specialty flavors to the mandrake draught he made for me. Wonderful taste, yech!" He pulled Harry up to his feet. "I came here as soon as the petrification wore off and found you lying on the ground. By the way, where's Hermione?"
Harry suddenly turned pale and his eyes widened in horror. "Oh my God!"
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Hermione woke up with a headache. She groaned as she stirred and tried to pull herself up.
"Good morning, my little mudblood," came a voice from a shadows. Startled, Hermione quickly stood up. Her legs were weak and she nearly fell back down. She had been lying on the cold stone floor of a dark, gloomy dungeon cell. The only source of light came from an open door, and it was extremely cold.
Icicle emerged from the shadows with a smirk on her beautiful face. Hermione glared at her as she took a step towards her. "Of course, you can't really tell if it's morning or night here in this dungeon. Welcome to Azkaban fortress."
Hermione shuddered a little but managed to hide it. "What do you want with me?"
"It's not you that we want, my little mudblood," snarled Icicle. "It's those rings that we want." Hermione looked down at her hands and saw that the two rings of the Lion and the Phoenix were still there.
"I suppose you're wondering why we didn't take the rings from you," said Icicle. "Well, as it turns out, they can only be removed if you remove them yourself. I only found this out after you blacked out. That's why I brought you here." She took a step towards Hermione. "Now would you kindly hand me the rings?"
Hermione hissed "Over my dead body!"
"You know, that can be arranged," said Icicle, stroking her chin. "But if that happened, nobody would be able to take the rings off of your fingers." Icicle stepped back and said, "I suppose I must use more drastic measures." She raised her staff and said "Imperio!"
Hermione went into a daze as a feeling of tranquility blanketed her mind.
"Remove the rings," commanded Icicle. Hermione's hands started moving towards the rings. But just as she was about to remove the rings, she heard a voice in the back of her head: Wait a minute. I don't want to take the rings off. Why am I doing just that?
"Remove the rings."
No, I think I'll leave them on, thank you very much.
"REMOVE THE RINGS!"
"I WON'T!" Hermione felt the curse lift as she shouted.
Icicle grinned. "I'm impressed," she said. "There are not too many people who can fight off the Imperius Curse. Never mind, I still have other methods. Crucio!"
Once again, Hermione collapsed in sheer pain! The screams that she issued and the tears that leaked from her eyes were not enough to show just how much agony she was going through! After what seemed to her was an eternity, but was actually only a minute, the curse was lifted.
"We have plenty of time," sneered Icicle. She yanked Hermione to her feet. "You can only take so much pain before you will be begging us to let you take the rings off." She raised Hermione's arms and placed her hands in shackles that were hanging from the ceiling. Hermione whimpered as pain ran through her arms and shoulders. She was hanging from the shackles, the toes of her shoes barely touching the floor. When Icicle removed her shoes, she had no contact with the floor what so ever.
Icicle placed her hand on Hermione's chin and lifted her face up. "I will see you again, my little mudblood." She slapped Hermione in the face and tore off her white and blue robes! She then stormed out of the dungeon cell and slammed the door behind her!
Hermione was left alone with her thoughts in the pitch dark. For the first time, she recalled the events that had led up to her predicament. She recalled how Harry had taken the killing curse to save her life. 'But they weren't able to kill me anyways,' she thought. Tears were falling down her cheeks. 'Harry died for no reason! I'm all alone now! Harry's dead!' Hermione started sobbing.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Back at Hogwarts, Harry was pacing back and forth across the meeting room. Seated at the table in the middle of the room were, Ron, Hagrid, Dumbledore, McGonagoll, Sirius, Remus, and Draco.
"I'm going to Azkaban," said Harry with grim determination. "And none of you are going to stop me."
"Right," said Ron. "You're going to barge into the fortress, fight off the dementors and Death Eaters, and save the damsel in distress."
"Exactly."
"Uh, Harry, I was being sarcastic."
Harry ignored him and continued pacing. "We won't barge in there, that would be too dangerous. It'll probably be best to sneak in somehow." He stopped in mid pace. "Ok, I've got it. We'll take a ship from Bueaxbaton Port and sail to the island where Azkaban Fortress is located. We can sneak in through the north side where the guard is always the weakest. It may take time to locate her but I have a hunch that she's in one of the dungeons on the north western sides, that's where they imprison muggle-borns." He promptly turned to the others. "Whose with me."
"I am," said Ron straight away with no hesitation. Harry beamed at him.
Sirius spoke up, "Remus and I will go with you..."
"No!" said Harry. "We need you and Remus to stay here and mobilize the armies. If all goes well, we'll be prepared for the final battle right when we return."
"But Harry," said Remus. "What about the dementors."
Harry grinned. "You forget Remus, that you're the one who taught me how to use the patronus charm." He took on a more stern tone as he said "All right, who else?"
Dumbledore suddenly spoke up, "I request that you take Sir Draco Malfoy with you."
"WHAT?!" Draco looked absolutely horrified. Dumbledore simply beamed at him.
"Would it not be the perfect chance prove where your loyalties lie?" he said.
"Fine," Draco grumbled. "I'll go, but only because she has the rings with her." Ron didn't look too pleased.
"All right then," said Harry. "We'll take Floo Powder to Bueaxbaton first thing tomorrow. In the mean time, we should get some sleep."
* * * * * * * * * * * *
That night, Harry was out on the balcony of his room, looking up at the stars while stroking Crookshanks.
"You seemed troubled, Harry." Harry turned around and so Dumbledore with his pet phoenix, Fawkes, on his shoulder.
Harry sighed. "I can't help but think about Hermione in Azkaban. Nobody deserves that, especially her." He looked back up at the stars. "I love her."
"Ah," said Dumbledore. "I figured as much. She was also just as fond of you as you are fond of her. But she was very self conscious about her social standing."
Harry sighed again. "I should've known how she felt about me, after she kissed me at Ginny's celebration. It was after that kiss that I started developing feelings for her." He made a weak smile. "Guess I don't blame her about being so self conscious of our social standings. I mean, the idea of a Gryffindor prince marrying a farm girl would sound absurd if it hadn't happened before."
Dumbledore smiled as Fawkes flew up and perched himself on Harry's shoulders. The phoenix started singing his enchanted song, inspiring hope and courage to build up in Harry's heart. "I'll save her," declared Harry. "I swear that I will get her out of Azkaban on my parents' souls. I'll love her with all my heart and I promise to make her happy!"