Truth and Lies

Truth and Lies

'Guilty. Take him away.' Cornelius Fudge's voice rang out through the courtroom, and several people gasped. The skinny, black haired boy in the middle of the room looked up in horror. Words failed him as he raised his eyes to his defender, Albus Dumbledore.

Two burly looking Aurors burst through the huge oak doors and seized Harry Potter by the arms. They lifted him to his feet, and waited for instructions from Fudge, who was shuffling his papers.

He cleared his throat. 'The sentence, for his crimes of persistently lying to the Ministry of Magic and the rest of the wizarding community, about the return of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, will be to remain in Azkaban until he confesses to lying, and denies the return of the Dark Wizard mentioned previously.'

Several more people gasped, and there was silence. Fudge cleared his throat again.

'Your wand will be confiscated,' he continued, 'and will be returned to you when we see fit.' The Aurors started to drag Harry away, and Dumbledore took a few paces forward.

'No, Professor, don't.' Harry mumbled.

'Do not worry, Harry, you will be out of there soon.' Dumbledore failed to keep the anger out of his voice.

A pit formed in Harry's stomach. He was going to be taken to the Dementors. Everyone knew that they affected him more than most. And without a wand to defend himself, he was in deep trouble. He started to struggle, and one of the Aurors snapped, 'Stop that now, or we'll both hex you.' He grinned, showing yellow teeth. 'And we wouldn't want you to miss the Dementors as we passed them.' He cackled.

But Harry didn't take any notice. They were taking him through a long hallway, and eventually, they reached some steps.

'Watch your head,' the other said sharply, but Harry wasn't listening. His head collided with a low ceiling, and he knew no more.

~ • ~

Harry moaned and rolled over. He was lying on something hard and cold. He felt completely drained. He opened his eyes (with a lot of will power) and found his glasses, lying a few feet away. He put them on, but found everything weirdly blurred, and distorted. He sat up, and looked around.

Everything in the room, if you could call it a room, was grey. There was a small toilet and sink behind a jut of wall, a small window with iron bars, and there was a single bed pushed up against a corner.

Oh well, Harry shrugged; at least I know I'm not sharing a cell with anyone. There was no door, but just about eyelevel, there was a small gap.

Harry walked over, and pushed his hand against it. Just as he had expected, a few inches away, his hand felt a force field. He could not get his hand to the hole.

Harry looked through the gap out onto a type of hallway. It was made of the same, grey, crumbling stone, and like his cell, was incredibly dirty. It was as if the prison was actually in a run down, old building. But then, Harry considered, thinking of how Hogwarts was disguised as the unsafe ruins of a castle, it probably is. He could see similar eye-holes exactly opposite his, and many more stretching as far as Harry could see, because a little way down, there was a slight bend in the passageway. He could also see several pairs of eyes looking out.

Some were humming or talking to themselves, but most were whispering to each other.

'Ooh, have you heard? They say the famous Harry Potter has been banged up!'

'Yep, saw him being dragged in myself. Do you reckon he's turned into a Death Eater and joined the Dark Lord?'

There was a shrill laugh. 'No one can stop him now, not with the Ministry blundering about, locking up their own people!'

Harry sighed, and another person spoke.

'Look! There he is!'

'Where? Where?!'

'Over there! The cell with the bright green eyes looking out!'

Harry withdrew quickly and slumped onto the hard bed. There were jeers echoing down the halls from other prisoners.

'Hey, Potter! Not so strong now are you?'

'You can't interfere with the Dark Lord's plans from inside a prison cell, can you?'

Harry sighed again. How had this happened? He was only telling everyone the truth. It wasn't his problem if they didn't choose to believe him. Even Dumbledore's defence had failed him. He had no friends here. That was for certain. Not among the Death Eaters and convicted murderers.

Harry was suddenly aware that it had gone very cold in his cell. Too cold. Harry didn't think it was because the sun had set. A chill crept over him that seemed to freeze his very blood.

A Dementor slowly and silently swept past his cell, its face, (where there would have been eyes) peering through the gap. Even though it gave the appearance of seeing, Harry remembered Sirius telling him that they were blind.

Harry could hear the disturbing screaming of his mother, but it was fainter than normal, and as the Dementor left, it disappeared entirely.

Well, Harry thought, at least I didn't pass out. He turned over, and tried to get some sleep.

~ • ~

He was awoken by a flash of fire.

Harry jolted awake, looking for the source, and slid out of bed. He walked over to the barred window, and mused on how it was so similar to Muggle prisons. He looked out onto the angry, dark sea, but didn't see anything out of the ordinary.

This is it, he thought, I'm cracking up already.

He sagged against the wall, feeling a bit let down. Suddenly, there was another flash of fire, and a letter dropped to the floor. Harry quickly stooped and picked it up. He opened it, and read the extremely short note.

Dawn, grab on.

It was in the familiar thin, slanted writing. A feather fluttered from the envelope.

Harry stared at the letter in confusion. 'Dawn, grab on...dawn, grab on...' he muttered, mulling it over. Well, he was obviously meant to hold on to something at dawn, but what? Then he spotted the feather. He inspected it more closely, and had to stop himself from crying out in amazement, 'It's a phoenix feather!'

Dumbledore was sending Fawkes! He glanced outside; the sky was already getting lighter.

Harry felt himself getting excited, and immediately, the room got colder. He forced himself to calm down, to not give the Dementors anything to feed on, and he lay down on his bed. His lack of energy made him fall straight into a deep sleep, full of Dementors, feathers, and many pairs of eyes.

~ • ~

Harry got to the window, just as the sun was rising over the sea. There was an even brighter flash of light, and Fawkes appeared on the tiny inside window sill.

'Oh, you don't know how glad I am to see you, Fawkes.' Harry murmured, stroking his magnificent head. Fawkes blinked up at him as Harry wearily grabbed his tail, and he felt himself being pulled from his navel, almost like a port key. The cell dissolved in a swirl of greyness, and Dumbledore's office swam into view.

He let go of Fawkes, and fell to the floor. He still lacked energy, and felt weak and shaky. He lay there, with his cheek pressed against the stone floor, which he found to be surprisingly warm.

'Harry! Harry!' Dumbledore came from no where, and pulled him to his feet. Harry swayed, and Dumbledore helped him into a comfortable, squashy chair.

Harry was vaguely aware of others in the room, but felt too weak to look around. He shivered, even though he could tell there was a fire roaring in the fireplace, and his vision flickered.

'Harry! Oh, how are you dear?' It was Mrs Weasley's voice. Harry couldn't speak, so he just nodded slowly. His head pounded.

'It must be the after effects of the Dementors. I should know, I felt like that when I broke out. Until someone sensibly suggested that I ate some chocolate.' Sirius' voice came from somewhere behind him. Someone pushed their way forward, and knelt down in front of Harry.

'Harry? Can you hear me? Eat this,' said the person loudly, 'It'll help.' Harry took the thing they were holding out in front of him, not caring what it was, and nibbled some. He instantly felt the heat in the room, and his vision improved. He no longer felt he was looking at the world through a soft focus lens.

Lupin was the person sat in front of him. He ate the rest of the food he recognised as chocolate, and he was able to think more clearly. He was suddenly very hungry, and licked his fingers, wishing for more.

Harry rubbed his eyes and smiled. Lupin smiled back, and Harry asked in a shaky voice, 'What happened?'

'Well, Harry,' answered Dumbledore, 'we sent Fawkes. Firstly with the cryptic message that we knew you'd understand, and then secondly, to be, in effect, a port key.'

Harry's head nodded as he struggled to keep awake, he hadn't got much sleep the night before, and his headache came back.

'Albus,' someone muttered, 'he needs rest, and food. I mean, look at him.'

'I know, Molly, I know. He-'

'How did you get me out of there?' Harry looked at their confused faces. 'Sorry, I mean, I thought Azkaban was meant to be, high security, with charms and spells, like Hogwarts, but to stop people getting out.'

'Yes Harry,' Dumbledore replied gently, 'but what you are forgetting, is that Fawkes is an incredibly rare and unique creature. Firstly, phoenixes are pure creatures; they will not consent to be owned by evil. So most people that are locked up in Azkaban would not posses one, so the Ministry don't think to block them out. Secondly, Fawkes has an incredible link to you, Harry, since one of his feathers resides in your wand, so he knew exactly where, out of the billions of cells, to find you. And lastly, phoenixes have amazing internal strength, so I doubt any enchantments placed around Azkaban would be able to stand up to them.' Dumbledore stroked Fawkes' majestic head.

There was a commotion at the foot of the revolving stairs. It sounded like footsteps. They were coming closer...

They were right outside the door.