Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Chapter 8: Dumbledore's Sacrifice
By: Sirius Potter
A/N: Thanks to Zam for catching a typing error that had Hermione, and Tonk's married. So sorry, it has been fixed they are not married. Also a lot of you want to see Hermoine come into play. Starting with next chapter you will see her a lot more!
Order Meeting Last Day of August
"Alright now all that is left to do is for me to fill a teaching position." Albus said scanning the crowd.
"Teaching positions? Albus there are no empty slots to fill." Minerva asked slightly confused
"Ah, that is where you are wrong Minerva, I need to fill a Transfiguration, and head of Gryffindor house."
"Albus! Are you firing me?" Minerva asked she looked like she was on the verge of tears.
"Definitely not! I'm promoting you Minerva, you are the new Headmistress of Hogwarts." Albus said smiling broadly.
There was a collective "What?" From the Order, including Harry.
"Yes, I'm sorry to admit that I am resigning as Headmaster. The mission, that myself and young Mr. Potter are currently going on will take me away from the school too much, and the research that I'm doing for it will occupy my mind too much where it would not be fair to the students. I am sorry."
"Albus, I'm honored that you would have me replace you, but it's too soon, you can't leave Hogwarts!" Minerva protested
"Well, I wont be leaving, I still need Hogwarts, and my office, I will have you to oversee day to day activities, but I will remain to help you with anything you need. Now, I have thought long and hard as too who the new transfiguration should be. I believe the perfect person to fill this post is Sirius Black, would you mind Sirius?" Albus said his eyes twinkling madly at the former Azkaban resident.
"Yeah, of course I will Albus." Sirius was barely able to speak, he was in a state of shock.
"Excellent, now for head of Gryffindor house, Remus I believe, you are the senior Gryffindor, am I correct?" Albus asked turning his smile to the werewolf.
Remus wasn't able to respond, so he just nodded his head yes.
"Excellent this meeting is adjourned, Sirius, if you could meet up with Minerva sometime tomorrow so she can give you her lesson plans, and you can change them as you wish, but since students arrive tomorrow, and classes start the day after, I suggest you don't do too much tweaking at first. Now Harry if you could join me in my office in a few minutes, I need to talk to Minerava, and I am sure you want to talk to Sirius, and Remus." With that Albus, and Minerva left the Great Hall, leaving the rest of the Order to talk amongst themselves over what just transpired.
"Sirius! Remus! Congratulations!" Harry said walking over to his two roommates.
"Harry, are you going to be ok all alone, with me, and Remus at Hogwarts?" Sirius asked he was concerned for his Godson.
"Well, now that I am allowed back into the wizarding world, that means I have access to my funds at Gringotts, so I am thinking of renting a house in Hogsmeade, then you guys can stop by all the time."
Remus, and Sirius smiled at this and looked at each other and Sirius suggested "Why don't you buy the Shrieking Shack from Albus, and fix it up, we will have even easier access then." They all thought of the secret passage from under the womping willow where the young marauders used to sneak into.
"HAHA I love it!"
"Harry.. Um sorry to interrupt your celebration but can I talk to you?" Hermione asked as she appeared out of nowhere right behind Harry.
"Hey, Hermione, where is Ronald?" Harry asked slightly annoyed.
"He is helping Ginny get ready for her seventh year."
"Um Harry, we will stop by the Shack after the first day of classes to see how you are doing, but ah, yeah, we will let you two talk." Remus awkwardly said and dragged Sirius away.
"So Harry, you're going to buy the shrieking shack? You know it is haunted right?" Hermione asked concerned
"Well, that is just rumors, trust me I have an inside source, they just spread that rumor to keep people out."
"Oh, what was it used for?"
"Oh well, I can't really reveal that information at this moment." Harry said grinning
"Wait a minute! Is that where Remus goes when he transforms?" Hermione asked putting two to two together.
"What you know about that!?!" Harry asked he was extremely surprised.
"I figured it out in my third year, Snape would substitute for him a lot, and he would always have us to essays on werewolves."
"That bastard! Does anyone else know!?!" Harry swore
"No, I kept it to myself, and no one else has figured it out."
"Thanks Hermione" Harry said smiling at her
"Um, Harry, I'm sure you know that I'm stationed here at Hogwarts, I was um… wondering if I could come and visit you at the Shack sometimes? I really miss hanging out with you.
"Yeah, sure Hermione, anytime you get bored, or want some company you're more then welcome to stop by." Harry said, he was about to pull her into a hug, but felt rather awkward about it and pulled back.
"Thanks Harry, I better let you go, I'm sure you don't want to keep Albus waiting." Hermione said grinning ear to ear, and slightly blushing.
Harry walked up to his former headmasters office in a stupor, he felt extremely happy that Hermione, wanted to come and see him, he didn't know why. Sure she used to be his best friend, and even lately she started to grow on him again. But why was he this happy? Why did he almost have butterfly's in his stomach.
"Mr. Potter, good to see you finally made it, I was afraid that you forgot about little old me." Albus said smiling.
"Sorry, I was a little sidetracked, so are we going after another Horcrux tonight?"
"We certainly are. There is a cave by the sea that Tom and his orphanage visited, and Tom did a bit of nasty magic there. I believe we will find one there."
"Great let's get going, oh before we go I wanted to ask you something."
"Sure, what is it Harry."
"Well, I was wondering if I could buy the Shrieking Shack from you?" Harry asked hopefully.
Albus looked inquisitively at Harry, and then smiled and responded. "I assume, this is because you want to be closer to your friends, well as of now all the Shrieking Shack is doing is rotting away. I am sure you know what it was once used for, so do you have a Galleon on you by any chance?"
"Sure do." Harry said pulling out a gold coin.
"Excellent, you are now the new owner of the Shrieking Shack." Albus said taking the Galleon from Harry, and smiling.
"Thank you Albus."
"Alright, now let's get going. This one is going to be hard to explain where to apparate too, so I'm just going to have you side-along with me. So if you would Harry please grab onto my arm, and I will lower the wards, and we can apparate out of here."
Harry didn't respond he just grabbed onto Albus's shoulder, and felt the sickening sensation that is side-along apparation. Once the sickening sensation was over, Harry opened his eyes, to see the pitch black country side, and the wild see crashing against the rocks below.
"Why would an orphanage take kids to a place like this?"
"Well they didn't come her exactly, there is a muggle village nearby. Tom, forced a couple of fellow orphans out here, and hurt them."
"That's terrible."
"Come on Harry, we have a ways to go." Albus said taking off at a jog, to the edge of the steep cliff. "We have to climb down this Harry, of course you can use magic to help you if you need."
"How in the hell did Tom get down here with two other Orphans?"
"Tom had an extreme grasp for magic even in his early childhood."
"Amazing." Harry mumbled
"Lumos" Albus muttered and stuck the wand in-between his teeth and started to climb down the cliff. Harry followed the former Headmasters lead and light his wand up, placed it between his teeth and started to descend down the cliff.
Harry heard a splash below him, he looked down to see Albus swimming in the water. 'Fuck' Harry thought, and pushed his self away from the rock edge, and free flew into the water. Harry instantly felt bone chilling cold, since his wand was still in his mouth to light up the way, he took one of his hands and ran it down his body, thinking of the warming charm. Instantly he felt warmer, and started to swim hard, with a little magic adding him, he soon caught up to the great white wizard.
After a few more minutes of swimming they reached an opening to a cave. Albus was the first to climb out of the water, and onto the hard rock, Harry followed the next moment. Both wizards immediately cast drying, and warming charms.
"Well Mr. Potter, glad to see that you were able to keep up." Albus said jokingly
"Yeah, and I'm surprised an old man could go that fast." Harry joked back
"Touché Mr. Potter, touché." Albus replied laughing, and started to walk farther down in the cave.
They walked for only about a minute when they all of sudden found themselves facing an unnatural looking rock wall.
"This isn't supposed to be here, is it Albus?"
"No Harry, no it's not. Give me a minute to figure out how we can get past." Albus said, and started to slowly wave his wand around, muttering under his breath.
Harry at first wondered, why the hell not blow the wall down. He quickly realized however that big bangs, and such usually wouldn't work. Especially if a wizard like Tom Riddle erected the wall.
"Hum, interesting how crude." Albus said interrupting Harry's thinking.
"What is it Albus? Did you figure out how to get past it?" Harry asked
"Yes I did, Harry come over here, I want to teach you something. Run your hand along the wall and tell me what you feel." Albus said taking a few steps back away from the rock wall so Harry could try and figure it out.
Harry slowly made his way over, and ran his hand over the rock wall. He could instantly feel a sort of leeching effect taking place from it. He immediately pulled his hand back alarmed from it.
"So what did you feel?" Albus asked inquisitively
"It felt like it was trying to suck the blood out of me or something like that."
"Well, you're right, in order for this wall to let us pass it needs some blood."
"Wow, that is crude. So should I just cut myself, and put my hand against it?"
"Yes, that is what you would do. However…" Albus paused ran his wand over his wrist and then put his hand up against the rock wall, and it immediately opened for them. "… I can handle it, I'm not too old yet." Albus said and he and Harry chuckled.
The wizards stepped through the newly made entrance and were greeted by a small lake with an island in the middle of it, and a small little beach right before the lake started.
"Well this is unexpected. Harry if you would please, could you summon the Horxrux for me?"
"Yes Professor, but is it that easy?"
"No, something will stop it but I just want to know what is in that lake before I attempt to swim it."
"Accio Horcrux." Harry said shoving his wand up high. On the island in the middle of the lake, an object, which Harry assumed was the Horcrux jumped into the air, and started to fly towards Harry but something, or things from the lake jumped up and grabbed the object.
"Well, I'm definitely not going into the lake with those things in them, follow me Harry." Albus said and the two of them walked to the edge of the lake.
"Albus, do you feel that? I feel some sort of magical signature."
"Very good Harry, now watch and learn." Albus walked a few feet to the side and waved his wand over a patch of sand, and a small little rickety boat jumped out from under the sand.
"Excellent, alright only one of us can take this boat over to the island. You stay here and provide cover fire for me if I need it."
"Albus, let me go over there with you if those things attack when you're by yourself it could be trouble."
"Yes, that is true. But this boat will only allow one magical signature on it, and I daresay it would have no trouble detecting, both of our signatures."
Harry exhaled softly, and nodded slowly. "Alright I will stay here."
"Excellent." Albus said yet again and pushed the boat into the water and hoped in, and stuck his wand behind him, and he slowly made his way over to the island.
Harry watched Albus cross the small lake, minutes seemed like hours. His wand was constantly ready for anything. However Albus made it over with nothing going wrong. He slowly walked over to the middle of it, he was standing over something in the middle of the island. He started to wave his wand over it, but still nothing. Harry watched Albus try to get the Horcrux for a good ten minutes. Suddenly however Albus's magically magnified voice rang out.
"Harry? Can you hear me?"
"Sonorus. Yes, I can hear you." Harry's own magically amplified voice answered.
"There is a potion protecting the Horcrux. I am going to have to drink it. There is no other way. I know what this potion does. If I drink the whole thing, and you take me back to Severus immediately I will be fine. However I will not want to drink this potion. There is only one way for this to work. You must use the Impervius curse on me. Do it now, while I will offer no resistance and you should be able to hold it."
"Albus! I can't!" Harry argued back
"Harry, this is the only way! Please, we can't stay here to much longer."
"Fine, I'll do it. IMPERIO" As soon as Harry said that a blue spell shot out of his wand, and entranced Albus.
"Drink the potion" Harry said, and Albus heard it inside his head.
"Yes" Albus responded, not arguing back, because he really wanted to drink it. Harry knew though that it would soon get a lot harder.
Harry watched from across the lake as Albus sat there and drank the potion, or at least the first part.
"NO" Harry heard Albus's voice rang out.
"YES!" Harry shouted back and flicked his wand, and Albus went back to drinking the potion.
A few seconds later however Albus fought back "NO! I WONT!"
Harry hated doing this but he through pure raw magic into the spell to make it stronger. "YES FINISH THE POTION!" It was hard to use the Impervious curse on a intelligent powerful wizard, even on the level of Remus, and Sirius, he had practiced on them but could not do it. Now on a wizard of Dumbledore's caliber he couldn't believe it was working. He figured however that it was because deep down he really wanted too, he knew he had too.
"No…No….NO!" Albus tried to fight, but it was futile, with Harry's raw magic pumping into it, and Albus really wanting to drink the potion, it was no use.
"Finish it Albus!" Harry commanded
Albus took one final drink, and in his mind he said "It's done"
Harry broke the spell and Albus snapped back into his self instantly. Although Harry noticed he nearly fell over, Harry guessed that the potion was already taking effect. He slowly reached down, and grabbed the Horcrux. As soon as he did, Inferi jumped to life, and started to encircle the island.
"Incendious Tracktatious" Harry said and flicked his wand. Immediately several fireballs jumped out of his wand and came in contact with the Inferi that were surrounding Albus.
"Hurry get in the boat!" Harry shouted at Albus, though no longer was under the Impervius curse Albus still did it. It was his life at stake! As soon as Albus climbed into the boat, he passed out.
The Inferi were starting to grow in numbers and they were encircling the boat. "INFERNO!" Harry shouted and a firestorm erupted out of his wand. At the same time, he moved his hand up and thought 'Accio' and the boat slowly made its way to Harry.
As soon as Harry's Inferno spell subsided, more and more Inferi climbed out of the water, and started to grab onto the boat.
'Fuck!' Harry thought, he could easily take out all the Inferi, but the boat, and Albus would go with it. "Incendious Tracktatious" Harry said and flicking his wand, again several fireballs shot out of his wand, and made contact with the Inferi that were currently trying to climb into the small boat that Albus occupied. However as soon as these Inferi burned up, more climbed out of the water to attack the boat. Harry just sighed, and did it again, and again.
After what seemed like ages Albus's boat hit sand, Harry immediately stopped the 'Accio' spell. Hundreds of Inferi now surrounded the boat. Harry took a few steps back to give him some room. Harry motions his free hand forward and levitated the unconscious Albus to the ceiling of the cave, where he would be safe.
"INFERNO MAXIMUS!" Harry yelled, and the whole cave erupted in a fire storm. Every single Inferi in the cave was burnt, and disintegrated. Once the fire subsided Harry lowered Albus to about five feet off the ground, and positioned him in front of him. Harry then took of at a full run for the cave entrance. Luckily they encountered to no more Inferi, they made it to the cave entrance with no trouble at all.
"Enervate!" Harry shouted flicking his wand right over Albus.
"Harry… wards… down…" Albus stammered and then passed out again.
Harry immediately grabbed the former headmaster and apparated to Albus's office. When Harry opened his eyes he could see that Albus was still unconscious, and he was turning pale fast.
Harry sate there for a minute thinking how to do this. "Ah… HOUSE-ELF!" Harry yelled.
It took about two seconds, and then there was a loud crack and a house-elf appeared right in front of Harry.
"HARRY POTTER SIR! DOBBY is so HAPPY TO SEE YOU SIR!" The House-elf named Dobby squeaked.
Harry instantly recognized the house-elf that he saved from the Malfoy's in his second year. "Uh… Hi Dobby, no time to talk. Take Albus to the Hospital wing immediately!"
"Yes sir HARRY POTTER SIR!" Dobby said grabbing Albus and with a loud crack apparated away.
'Where is Snape?' Harry thought to himself. 'Could it be hear? After all of those years could it be here? It has too be!' Harry again thought to himself.
"Accio Marauders Map!" Harry said concentrating hard, hoping that the infamous map that Sirius, and Remus told him oh so much about was still in the castle. Harry waited a full minute and finally gave up hope and was about to run down to the dungeons when an old ratty looking piece of parchment zoomed to him. Harry grinned wickedly at this and tapped it with his wand and said "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good!" Harry said and took off at a dash down the stairs not bother to read whatever intro the map had to say. Once he was at the bottom of the stairs Harry looked at the map for Snape. To his surprise he was not in the Dungeons he was on the second floor, in a part of the castle that Harry had never seen. Harry took off as fast as he could go.
Harry soon reached the second floor, and to where he would find Snape, however before he could he ran into a wall, and in front of that wall was a large stone Gargoyle similar to the one guarding Albus's office. He knew this must be the entrance to the teacher's rooms.
"Open, it is an emergency!" Harry commanded the Gargoyle.
No response. "OPEN NOW!"
Still nothing "REDUCTO!" Harry yelled and the spell jumped out of his wand smashing right into the Gargoyle, the spell was just absorbed and it still didn't budge.
"Who dares to force entry into this corridor?" The Gargoyle asked slowly.
"Harry Potter, this is an emergency, open up!"
"Password please."
"I don't know it! This is an emergency!"
Upon hearing that Harry didn't know the password the gargoyle returned to his stone state and was silent.
"FUCK THIS!" Harry spat in rage, his wand vibrating in his hand. "REDUCTOOOOOOO…" Harry yelled holding the spell at the tip of his wand while it gained power. "…OO MAXIMUS!" A huge bolt of blue light shot out of his wand, once again the spell was being absorbed by the Gargoyle. Instead of letting go Harry just kept sending more and more magic into it. Soon it overloaded the gargoyle, and it shattered into a thousand pieces.
"Protego" Harry quickly put up a shield charm to protect himself from the debris.
As soon as the Gargoyle was out of the way, Harry pulled his map out and started to run to the room that Snape was in. Harry reached Snape's room only after a few moments, it was the second on the left. Harry turned the doorknob to find it was locked. Harry ran his hand over the knob and the door burst of off its hinges, and Harry stepped into Snapes room.
Snape's room represented him pretty good, it was dark and greasy, how a room can be greasy still remained a mystery but Snape pulled it off.
Severus Snape laid happily sleeping in his bed, suddenly his door burst off of its hinges and woke him up. He laid still for a few more minutes, and turned to face the culprit his wand appearing out of now where. Sadly for him before he could even think of a spell to send, the culprit shouted…
"Expelliarmus!" Harry yelled instantly disarming his former potions teacher. "Come on Snape, to the hospital wing, Albus needs you it's an emergency!"
"POTTER! How dare you…"
"SHUT IT SNAPE! Let's go now!" Harry ordered brandishing his wand in a threatening matter.
Snape mumbled something under his breath, and took off at a run to the Hospital wing. The two wizards said nothing to each other on the way, their mutual hatred kept them quiet. After several quiet minutes they made it into the Hospital wing. The burst open and the two of them ran over to Albus's bed, where Madame Pomfrey was waving her wand over Albus's unconscious body.
"Potter my wand please?" Snape said, Harry didn't say anything he just tossed the Potions Master his wand. "Enervate!" Snape said flicking his wand right over Albus.
Albus stirred in his sleep, and his eyes flickered open. "Severus… Contabesco… potion…" Albus said and then passed out again.
"The slow death potion? He had me make an antidote to that a while ago, stay with him, I will be back." With that Snape ran out of the hospital wing.
Harry waited several minutes on the side of Albus's bed in silent, Madame Pomfrey did the same. After what seemed like hours Snape returned with a small vile of clear white liquid in his hand. He moved quickly and quietly, he unscrewed the vile, and opened Albus's mouth and dumped the vials contents into Albus's mouth. The antidote worked almost immediately, Albus started to regain some color in his skin, and he seemed to rest more peacefully.
"He will be out for thirty six hours. I suggest we leave him alone, and let him rest." Snape said, and then turned and left the hospital wing.
Harry copied Snape and left the hospital wing in quiet. He walked slowly out of the castle, and out into the moonlight grounds. It was pretty bright for the time of night, it light up the path to his new acquisition, the Shrieking Shack. It took a good ten minutes to make his way to his new home, but finally he was standing just below it.
Harry pulled his wand out and pointed it right at the shack. In an old wizarding tradition he took ownership of the Shrieking Shack. "I command you! I am your new owner, recognize me Harry Potter. You are now part of the great Potter family! Do you recognize?"
The house's way of recognizing was not in words, but in action. A bright red, and gold light shined from inside the house, and worked its way out. The outside of the house was now in perfect shape, the once half fallen apart house was now immaculate, and Harry was sure the inside was also.
Harry wasn't done yet, with his wand still pointed at the house he said. "Noble House of Potter, erect standard protection wards!" Harry again commanded and flicked his wand. Once again the house glowed a brilliant red, and gold light from inside out. This time however it did not stop at the house, the light kept going past Harry to where all the defensive charms where to start.
A/N: Well I hope you guys really liked it. Sorry it took along time, but it is nice and long. So I bet you all thought Dumbledore's sacrifice would have him die huh? Got ya! It was only him stepping down as Headmaster. Well that is all I have to say so please review!!