To the Place Where the Saviours Go

To the place where the saviours go - Chapter two

The darkness closed in from all sides, smothering and choking Harry. It was worse now that he knew - that he was aware. It had taken months for him to slip into his own reverie and then that fool Dumbledore had so cruelly pulled him from it, made him face the harsh realities of his heroic existence. He came day after day with always the same message - "we need you Harry."

But what about what he needed? Where were the people he risked his life to save when he needed them, where were they when he was rotting in Wizard prison with only Draco Malfoy and rats as company? You know, it probably wouldn't be so bad if it was only the rats.

It was nearly midnight which meant that the Dementors would be coming past soon. It didn't matter what Dumbledore said, or how many times he ordered them. They would always come. Their hunger for Harry in his better state far out weighed anything Dumbledore may do to them. Harry shivered unconsciously at the thought of them drifting past, trailing their cold shadow behind, and tried to prepare himself for the memories he knew were coming.

The Dementor Draco had named Bob drifted past and Harry jerked on his bed twitching and desperately trying to stop the memories that were even now coming almost violently into his mind. Finally after the Dementor had left, Harry looked up to see Draco shuddering in his sleep. It was worse when you were asleep. The memories invaded your dreams and there was no way to fight them - or to wake. You could only watch the worst scenes of your life played in every detail in front of you, with full sound and colour.

Knowing that he would get no sleep Harry gazed out the high window of his cell at the moon and the stars and wondered just how long ago he had been able to see all of the sky, not just the bits between rusting metal bars. Truth be told Harry didn't know how long he had been in Azkaban. Other inmates kept a count but as Harry had been in a near coma like state he had neglected it and his own count only went up to 1233 days which meant approximately four years - give or take a few months. He knew Draco kept an exact count but the one time he did ask all he got was a riddle that was along the lines of 'well when you double me and add by 24...etc.' Harry had quickly gotten frustrated and in the end gave up. The riddle has kept him thinking how much better Hermione was at things like that and Hermione was something he tried to keep from thinking about.

Several hours later it was almost dawn which meant that food rations would be coming round soon - if you were lucky that is. The Dementors gave just enough food so that you would survive, but not enough so that you could do something like plan an escape, and seeing as there hadn't been any food deliveries for almost three days, it was most likely Draco and Harry's turn to eat. Sure enough a little while later the house elf that Draco had named Igor came, bringing the usual gruel and stale bread that Dementors seemed to think were the only thing humans ate. Draco welcomed the horrible little elf with a gracious "Ahh, room service," which only served to make the elf glare at him. Harry didn't feel like eating, the cold feeling the Dementors brought was still holding his stomach but he knew that if he didn't eat it Igor would tell who ever was running this hell hole, and then a whole swarm of Igors would come and make him eat it. So he accepted the gruel and ate it ignoring the cold feeling and the fact that Dumbledore had given him food yesterday afternoon - but he saved the bread.

*

Albus Dumbledore walked down the corridors of Azkaban for what he knew would be the last time. It was Halloween, the anniversary of Harry's parent's death, if he wouldn't give in today then he would never give in. He stopped in front of Harry's cell and realised that there would be no point in sitting here if Harry had no intention of going, so instead of conjuring a chair as he usually did he remained standing and said "Harry, I need your decision."

Harry still appeared to be thinking. He was chewing his bottom lip and gazing at the wall - but not in a distant way.

"Harry, do you know what day it is?" Dumbledore asked tenderly.

Harry shook his head slightly but remained gazing at the wall.

"It's Halloween, Harry."

There was still no response but Dumbledore felt if Harry chewed his bottom lip any more it would bleed.

Dumbledore waited, about five minutes later it finally looked like Harry had finished his inner war.

"I will come, but on conditions," he eventually said.

"Yes, we will deal with that later," Dumbledore said, feeling more relieved than he had in weeks.

"No, you need to hear them now," Harry said firmly.

"Fine, proceed."

"Move all the inmates to another prison and let out to the public that they were all killed in a fire-" he began and was interrupted.

"That may not be possible..." but Harry continued over the top of his words.

"-and then really start a fire so this dreaded place burns to the ground, and destroy all the Dementors."

Dumbledore stood there for a second before asking "Anything else?"

"Not at the moment," Harry said and then added, "but I'll let you know."

For a moment Dumbledore just stood there and then, after a second's thought cast a spell on the lock of Harry's cell. The hinges creaked loudly and the iron door opened slowly, as though it didn't want to let him go.

Inside Harry's heart felt lighter than it had in years - he was free, but Draco interrupted this wonderful feeling as always.

"Hey! where are you going Potter?" he asked. "Well, well, you're leaving, ha finally gave in aye? Oh well it doesn't matter you'll be back here the moment you're done."

Harry was slowly getting off his bed, making towards the open door, and pointedly ignoring Draco.

"Aren't you even going to say goodbye, Potter?"

There was no response but Harry kept on moving for the door.

"After all these years of being neighbours not so much as a 'Goodbye Malfoy, I'll miss you?'"

Harry had finally reached the door, the joy of leaving was making him light headed, he was leaning heavily on the bars as he made his way towards Draco's neighbouring cell, with a parting gift concealed within his palm.

When he was finally in front of Draco he threw to him what turned out to be his uneaten bread.

"Goodbye Draco, I know you wouldn't want me to lie and say 'I'll miss you' so I thought you should have something to, you know, remember me by."

Harry left the now scowling Malfoy and slowly made his way down the corridor he had been dragged down almost five years ago, secure in the knowledge that nothing was ever going to make him return.

Three months later:

Harry had made great progress. He had almost doubled his body weight, was able to do most spells again and only needed a little time to be able do more difficult and draining spells. He had a new wand in replace of his old broken one, and was not relying on return spells cast by Dumbledore to remain 'normal' anymore. In short Harry's progress was nothing short of miraculous.

The Azkaban inmates had been moved to another prison somewhere in the depths of Siberia and the prison and its Dementors destroyed all as per Harry's orders. He had made sure - Harry himself had cast the inferno spell which incinerated the old fortress, but Dumbledore had held firm about sinking the island.

Harry was recovering in Hogwarts, Dumbledore said it would help in 'emotional healing' as this had been the place Harry had been the happiest. (Harry suspected it was because you couldn't Disapparate on Hogwarts grounds) Despite Harry's feelings for the old wizard, he couldn't deny that this was the best place for him.

It was only a month later when Dumbledore called Harry to a meeting. He informed him that they had the first solid evidence of Voldemort's whereabouts. He had already sent a team of Aurors but they had failed to report back and were now feared dead. After the last time Harry had no real desire to go after Voldemort, but a team of innocent men was something he could not walk away from, so he listened to the directions Dumbledore gave, left his office silently and Disapparated when he got over the Hogwarts boundary.

Harry appeared in front of a small castle that had obviously been repaired and redone lately, quickly taking shelter behind a large tree he looked around for anyone. Seeing no one he continued towards the castle under an invisibility charm. He reached the castle and realised that there were no doors save the front door - which would undoubtedly attract undue attention. So he climbed in through a now silently broken window and immediately made for the nearest death eater, who was leaning against the wall guarding the door. He grabbed him from behind and 'encouraged him to speak' with the death eater's own wand.

Eventually they made some progress and Harry had learned that the men where still alive and not in the dungeons as the cliché goes but in the one of the estate rooms being guarded by five death eaters. Harry stunned the man, removed evidence of the body and recast his invisibility charm before heading off in the direction the death eater had given in between 'please don't kill me'. Sure enough he soon came across a room being guarded by four death eaters.

'The fifth will be inside,' Harry thought. He crept up as close as he could and cast a silencing bubble on them, the four death eaters immediately began to try to get out but failed when they hit the walls and bounced off harmlessly. With another wave of his wand the bubble started to shrink until they had to crouch and then with a final wave of his wand Harry simply threw it away as though it was some kind of enlarged beach ball and startedinspecting the door.

The door was rigged with pollen from a rare plant that Harry knew to be very toxic - if entered into the system of a witch or wizard it would start to kill them by disabling the lungs; fortunately it was harmless to muggles. Instead of doing the obviously near impossible task of trying to disarm the trap, Harry knocked on the door.

After a minute he knocked again and the door was opened by a death eater who received a wand in the eye for his trouble. Harry then stunned him while he was hunched over and stepped over the body and into the room. It had been turned into a makeshift dungeon, five men were shackled to the wall with cuffs that were still silver and new. The men looked injured but once released they all insisted they could walk.

They left the room and the men watched as Harry went over to the ball full of dark wizards and separated one from the bubble. After some questioning Harry put the man back in the ball and extracted another one.

"Can you speak English? Because if you can't then I suggest you learn quick if you know what's good for you."

The man looked defiant for a moment but then the will to live kicked in and he revealed that he could. After further questioning they had the location of Voldemort and Harry put the man back with his fellow wizards.

When that was done he turned to the men.

"You don't have to come with me. I have a Portkey that will take you directly to Hogwarts if you wish."

The men discussed this with each other for a moment before the obvious leader declared, "Nah mate, it's the least we can do."

Harry gave them the Portkey anyway and asked if they were sure.

"And miss a chance to see the great Harry Potter at work. Never!" was the reply.

Chuckling slightly to himself, Harry led the way. They continued in the direction the man had given. Eventually they came across a statue of a snake eating a badger, there was a bit of debate as to whether or not this was actually it but in the end they decided that it was worth a try - seeing as they hadn't found anything else even remotely close. A minute later the statue was in pieces as repeated attempts to guess passwords both in English and Parseltongue failed but sure enough behind the rubble was a passageway.

*

All five men told different tales of what happened next but they all agree that Harry ran down the passageway, by the time they caught up the fight was well and truly started. It's the final part of Harry's life that they never agreed on, two of the men were adamant that they saw Harry get hit in the head with a curse and fall to the floor. Two others say it was the chest but the last man - the leader - he was sure that Harry didn't get hit with anything that it was just someone who looked like him and he revealed on his death bed that he saw Harry Disapparate with a smile on his face.

Only Dumbledore was ever sure - he was the only one who viewed the body, he was the only one there when the illusion spell wore off and the true identity of Harry Potter was revealed as a simple death eater, with scorch marks on his chest and face and written across his chest in black was 'there will be no cell this time.'

Eventually the war was won, it took almost five years and many casualties on both sides but at the end there was a moment where you truly could say that there where no more death eaters - though to those still alive it felt like anything but victory.

And through it all the great deceased Harry Potter, saviour of the wizarding world sat in his house reading peacefully with a content smile on his face, pictures of his long gone friends surrounding him. All the pictures were smiling, knowing that Harry was finally truly happy, he had finally found a peace that all saviours seek - he found his in being a dead man.

The end