Third Time's a Charm

Chapter Eight: The End at Azkaban

On Sunday night Hermione was allowed to go home. To carry out the plan that would return Voldemort to a physical body, she needed to go to work the next day. Voldemort needed a soulless body, and soulless bodies were to be found in one place: Azkaban. A Dementor's Kiss drew the soul out of a person's body, so any victim of the kiss would be a perfect host for Voldemort. Before Hermione had agreed to help, she had figured out on her own what Voldemort intended.

Voldemort, once he had gone to Hag's Hill, realized that he had very little time left and immediately sent the Serpent Eaters, under an invisibility potion, to watch the comings and goings of Azkaban. With the exception of the Dementors, the guards of the prison fortress, the only people who were regularly there were the Aurors who escorted people back and forth from the mainland to the island. Draco had been watching for two months when he realized that there were no more than six different Aurors who performed this task. The only way the Serpent Eaters could gain access to the heart of the prison, where the Dementor's Kiss victims were held, and bring one of them back without attracting too much attention from the Dementors was to brew the Polyjuice Potion and disguise themselves as the Aurors.

The trouble was getting bits of the Aurors' hair. Visits to two of the Aurors' homes had been unsuccessful, in fact, there had been only two successful visits, and before Hermione had agreed to help, Voldemort was deteriorating so much that he was planning on sending Draco and Emma to Azkaban alone. But Hermione had agreed to help. They were surprised when they found out she was no longer an Auror, but they decided that it would not have much of an effect on what she needed to do. Her task now was to collect hair from three of the other Aurors, and she was to slip a slow-acting poison into the drinks of the five Aurors the Serpent Eaters were impersonating. It wouldn't do to have them show up at work the next day, when the trip to Azkaban was planned. The poison was Hermione's idea, because it was much less likely to fail than what Draco had wanted to do: simply show up at the Aurors' houses that night and kill them. There wasn't an Auror Hermione could think of who couldn't be counted on to have at least a slight caffeine addiction and a cup of lukewarm coffee sitting on his desk.

Hermione made a trip to the Department of Mysteries first. She told Draco, whom she suspected was tracking her, that she couldn't just not show up. She had an excuse to give them, which would also explain her presence in the Auror Division that day. She had forgotten to pack up her office, which, in truth, she had. She had been a bit distracted at the time events had driven her from the Auror Division to the Department of Mysteries.

The Department of Mysteries and the Auror Division were both plain, brownstone Ministry buildings. They looked nearly identical, though the Auror Division had far more people going up and down the steps in front of the building. The Department of Mysteries was called the Department of Mysteries for a reason, Hermione thought as she walked out of the Department and across the people-filled courtyard to the Auror Division.

In her old office she had very few things of value. There were some framed pictures of her parents and herself with Harry and Ron, and there was a potted houseplant and some quills and good ink in her desk. She shrunk those so they would fit into a shoebox with the pictures, and every thing else--mostly bits of parchment--she threw away. Hermione's office was on the first floor, as she had been a fairly high-ranking Auror. The Aurors she had to visit were upstairs. She walked to the end of her hallway and went up a rickety wooden staircase to say goodbye to just five people. Atalanta Dark, Carla Wainstock, Ramone Tanner, Michael Ellison, and Simone Kendall. Only Simone was in her office. Hermione made sure to pull a hair off her robes when she gave her a hug goodbye.

"Where are Atalanta and Carla?" Hermione asked. They were the two whose hair she still needed.

"They're taking visitors to Azkaban today," Simone answered.

Hermione stopped in their cramped offices anyway and found one of Carla's red hairs in the short grey carpet and one of Atalanta's brown hairs on the surface of her desk.

~~~

The next day Blaise ladled out the Polyjuice. They had been brewing it for months, making sure there was always a fresh batch around. "Bottoms up," he said.

Hermione felt her features change to those of Carla.

"And you're sure the real Aurors won't show up?" Draco asked.

"Positive," said Hermione.

Voldemort alighted on Draco's transformed body and disappeared inside of it. He could stay there for the short amount of time it took to Apparate, at least. When the others transformed, they Apparated to Azkaban.

The island was small, and the surface was bare, windswept rock. The only notable feature of the island, besides the palpable despair and pain in the air, was the grey fortress that dominated the landscape--except for today. There were people, most of them in golden robes, fanned out across the flat area in front of the high walls of the prison.

"APPARATE BACK, NOW!" Draco yelled so loudly his--Michael's--face turned red. He shimmered briefly, but didn't go anywhere. When he realized what was going on he said just, "Hermione." An accusation or a desperate plea, Hermione wasn't sure.

Hermione looked at the people. It looked like the entire Auror Division had shown up, including Carla, Ramone, Michael, Simone, and Atalanta. Dannon Dagmar and a few of the other Unspeakables were there, as well as Albus Dumbledore and Severus Snape from Hogwarts. She sighed in blessed relief. There were a few Dementors, but not many. She wasn't sure where the rest were--possibly inside the fortress.

Hermione turned to Draco and said, "Wards. You can't Apparate out of Azkaban." He knew, of course, but that hadn't stopped him from trying.

Before the Serpent Eaters could escape they were placed in magical chains, out of none other than Violet Quisenberry's wand. Their wands were snapped.

Albus Dumbledore and Dannon Dagmar came to stand next to Hermione.

"There, there, almost over," Dumbledore said. "Now, where is Voldemort? Inside one of them, I expect?"

"Yes. Draco--the one who looks like Michael Ellison."

Dumbledore went and talked to the head of the Auror Division, who motioned to one of the other Aurors, and then he walked back to Hermione and Dagmar. The assembled company watched as one of the Dementors, guided by the Auror acting on Quisenberry's orders, pulled back its hood and lowered its gruesome skull-like head to Draco Malfoy's mouth and devoured both of the souls inside. All the while, Draco slowly reverted to his normal form. Hermione stopped watching as soon as his blond hair emerged. When it was over, a cheer went up, wild and happy, before Quisenberry yelled that the working day was not over, but when it was there would be a very large party at the Auror Division.

"What's going to happen next?" Hermione asked the two standing with her. "Will we guard the Dementor so Voldemort can't get out?"

"Oh, no," Dumbledore said. "There's no need. Dementors are empty, bottomless. People who are lost to the Dementors are truly gone forever."

Dannon Dagmar motioned to Hermione to follow him to one of the boats waiting on the edge of the island. "Back to the Department with us."

"Well done, Miss Granger," Dumbledore called after them.

Hermione wasn't sure yet that she had done well, but she turned and said, "Yeah, thanks."

THE END