The Perfect Azkaban Breakout

10 September 1999

After much negotiation and trading of insults, Snape and the Inner Order had sworn Unbreakable Vows to help each other defeat Voldemort and allow Snape to disappear afterwards. There were enough conditions and exceptions to make the whole process of actually swearing the Vows more boring than a Binns lecture, especially since Snape insisted that he hear everyone else swear individually.

The exception that caused the most argument was the Kill If Captured one. If any Order member - other than Harry - was captured by the Death Eaters and Snape was given a direct order to kill them by Voldemort, he would be permitted to do so.

On the other hand, Snape's information seemed worth it. After all, nothing was going to bring Dumbledore, or the others Snape had killed, back to life.

The Faux Animagus Potion, as the human-animal transformation draught was called, caused the most excitement. Fleur and Hermione spent several hours discussing its properties, while Remus and Bill hunted for ingredients. The ingredients were nowhere as hard to come by as, say, boomslang skin (which was now illegal in Britain and France), but there were dozens of them. The blood of the person drinking the potion was also required, but only half a standard vial. There were several pairs of ingredients that neither witch had seen in the same Potion before, though they supposed Snape had.

It was a remarkable concoction, especially given its dual nature. If the witch or wizard drinking it already had a natural Animagus form, drinking the Potion would allow them to take the form almost instantly. If they had no such form, then the Potion would have no effect other than nausea - unless it was brewed with the blood of a non-magical creature as an added ingredient. In that case, the person became an Animagus with said creature as their form.

No-one knew what Harry's form was, as he had only been in the barest beginnings of Animagus training when he was imprisoned. It was likely, though not certain, that he had a form. Most wizards and witches had forms; the difficulty was in activating them.

Much to Minerva's chagrin - she being a firm believer in working for something rather than having it handed on a silver platter - there was a flurry of interest amongst Inner Order members on what animal they wanted to become. Mutterings of "I hope I don't have a natural form" were common, though never in the Headmistress' hearing.

The Weasley twins had delivered a pair of healthy male chimps from London Zoo to Hogwarts almost immediately. The apenappers returned to the Zoo for the next two days, mostly spending time around the aviaries. It was known that the Weasley twins no natural Animagus forms (they had investigated the possibility two years before) and Tonks started a betting pool on their eventual choice. All the popular choices were birds, and it was clear that headwear with self-Scourgifying charms would soon become very popular.

Since Hermione was now helping Fleur with brewing, the task of helping Shacklebolt find a suitable Muggle prisoner to abduct fell to the two Muggle-raised Gryffindor dorm-mates of Harry, Dean Thomas and Seamus Finnigan, who were both Outer Order members. Since they could easily guess the eventual purpose of the prisoner from the search parameters, they were sworn to secrecy. They even asked, much to Moody's approval, to be Obliviated every night. Normally, for the purposes of plausible deniability, they would just be Obliviated at the end of the mission.

Tonks had been given the task of procuring of blood from Harry while he lounged in Azkaban. She had planned to kidnap a guard and take their place. However, a series of fortunate circumstances made an easier alternative possible.

Thanks to Scrimgeour's overturning of various Umbridge restrictions, many Azkaban guards were Werewolves. Their jobs for the five days surrounding the Full Moon were taken over by a contingent of Auror trainees. Fortunately, the first Full Moon of Harry's imprisonment was fast approaching, and some of the Auror trainees were former DA members and now Outer Order members.

One was Ernie Macmillan, who had been Headboy in what would have been Harry's Seventh Year had the Boy-Who-Lived stayed in school. He was on Harry-watching duty on the shift two days before the full moon. He was also willing to get some blood from Harry while on duty, since there were no laws forbidding the taking of blood from Azkaban prisoners. Tonks told him the technically true story that the blood was required for a Potion they were using to fight Voldemort, who shared the same blood as Harry, since that made a good cover story.

However, the person on duty with him, Rowena de Villiers, was an unknown Dutch witch who had moved to London after attending Durmstrang. A nice person, Ernie said, and probably trustworthy, but not an Order member.

The plan was fairly simple. Near the start of the eight hour shift, Ernie would ask de Villiers to fetch them both cups of coffee, or something of the sort. Guards and prisoners were forbidden to have unnecessary conversations, a practice enforced by those remotely watching the cells with Azkaban's long-range Scrying charms. Ernie would angrily throw a stone at Harry, complete with verbal insults. Harry would read it and follow its instructions.

Catherine calling. Plan ready. Needs your blood. You must fake suicide. Slit your wrists. Pufferfish will collect. All cats purring for you.

Catherine was Hermione's pseudonym within the Order. Pufferfish was Ernie's, much to the Hufflepuff's dismay. He really was far less pompous than he used to be, thanks to Auror training.

Harry looked at Ernie in shock when the stone hit his arm. He knew Ernie was in the Order, and was hoping for a whispered conversation to pass the time - high-security Azkaban inmates were only permitted one visitor a month. His jaw dropped further when he heard Ernie yelling obscenities about him being a murderer and Dark Lord in training. (Insults were not considered conversations, so the remote watchers would pay no attention to this.)

Ernie was shocked as well, though to a lesser extent and for different reasons. His aim was terrible, and he had therefore intentionally tried to hit Harry. For all the times for bloody Gudgeon's Law to strike...

Harry picked up the stone to throw it back, when he seemed to realize the stone was flat and sharp. Flat meant messages could be written on it...

Recalling that he was being watched, Harry stopped in mid-throw, and chucked the stone in a disgusted manner into a corner that was out of sight of the guards. Making a rude gesture at the pair - de Villiers had since returned with the coffee - he followed the stone and sat down heavily in the same corner. After five minutes, he idly picked it up, staring at it with an expression that a despondent five year old boy once used to gaze at spider webs in his cupboard. He waited for half an hour, and then slit his wrists and lay down.

A couple of minutes later, there was a flurry of activity. The remote Ministry-based watchers had noticed Harry's plight and alerted Ernie and de Villiers.

"Damn the bastard!" shouted Ernie as he dashed into the cell. "Rowena, go fetch Summerby and a Replenishing Potion! I'll stop the bleeding!"

De Villiers scuttled for their supervisor, while Ernie rushed to Harry's slumped figure. Making sure his back covered Harry's arms from the remote scryers, he presented the perfect picture of a panicked guard, loudly swearing about trying to remember Healing spells and making wild swishes of his wand in an effort to prod his memory. Meanwhile, he Banished the blood spewing from the prisoner's wrists into the vials he carried. When his four large vials - equivalent to eight standard vials, since Ernie was a firm believer in spares - were full, he heard hurried footsteps in the distance and suddenly 'remembered' the correct Healing spell.

He was levitating Harry to the bed when de Villiers turned up with the Prison mediwitch and a couple of supervisors.

12 September 1999

Two days later, Ernie proudly read the Daily Prophet's headline "Potter Tries Suicide in Azkaban!" The article stated that "The healing expertise of Auror Trainee Ernie Macmillan, and the quick footwork of Auror Trainee Rowena de Villiers, saved Potter's life. We commend them on their diligence."

It was fortunate, Ernie thought ruefully, that the public did not know about the remote watchers. He and Rowena had been chewed out for not realizing what Harry had done, and having to rely on the remote watchers. He didn't think it was their fault that not all of the cell could be seen from the guard locations.

In retrospect, a couple of other details did not make sense. After leaving Azkaban yesterday morning at sunrise, he had found a couple of empty vials in his pocket. That was most odd. Secondly, why had Harry tried to off himself just after reading the message Hermione had sent with the stone? Perhaps the stone said that she was angry with him and blamed him for Ron's death. He hoped she was not feeling too broken up about it, now that it had driven Potter to such lengths.

Oh well, that was yesterday. Today had been a good day. Shacklebolt had even nodded to him, as if in appreciation, in the cafeteria at lunch. Hmmm - perhaps the Order had sent him on some mission and had modified his memory since. Yes, that was probably it. And the mission had something to do with vials. And Azkaban. Now, that did not sound good. Nothing to do with Azkaban sounded good, especially since it would definitely have something to do with Harry. He remembered throwing a stone at Harry; perhaps there was a message written on it. That made sense, and was not illegal enough to cause much concern, but it didn't explain the vials.

Then he remembered that he would not have agreed to any mission that was too illegal, and felt much better.

His mind turned to the the far more important thought of where to take de Villiers' younger sister. She had just moved to London and Rowena had asked him for help with 'showing her around the place'. A perfect job for Ernie Macmillan.