The Future Will Be Better Tomorrow

The Future Will Be Better Tomorrow: Chapter Fourteen

Percy was slightly late, as he had always been for such meetings. Percy Weasley is never late, only fashionably late.

Everyone else was already there. Their little group consisted of Antonin, Rabastan, Marcus, Adrian and Percy.

Antonin tried to make some conversation, and was asking them random questions.

"So, what do you do usually?"

And Percy noted he wasn't the only person giving Antonin a dark look. Marcus leaned over to Antonin and said something, and they ended up having some argument.

Rabastan decided to continue on and he tried to get them talking about the books they read.

And really, Percy saw no point in this dinner. Also, Adrian's father had just been captured. You wouldn't expect him to behave normally, would you? Percy was starting to feel quite annoyed at their insensitivity.

Upon seeing that they were so uninterested, Rabastan joined in on Marcus and Antonin's argument, of which Percy heard snippets.

They seemed to be arguing over some plan, that wasn't going as expected, and Marcus kept accusing the two of them for being too obvious.

And so Percy turned to Adrian, who was looking around the restaurant as if he was looking for an exit.

Adrian looked back at him, and then stared at some blank spot on the wall.

"Are you all right?" Percy asked, trying to sound concerned.

Adrian let out a little huff, and said that everyone's been asking him that.

"So I take it that you're OK?"

"I didn't say that," Adrian replied, with a little smile to show that he was joking, although the smile was somewhat forced.

Percy poked around in his food, and fidgeted a little.

"Aren't they getting to you?" He asked Adrian.

"Er, kind of," he replied, as if he were too scared to offend them.

And they went back to poking at their food and looking around the restaurant.

"Was Umbridge really that bad?"

Adrian looked at him for a while, as if he had forgotten all about his schooling years.

And maybe he had, because he laughed and said, "It all seems like such a long time ago, doesn't it?"

And Percy couldn't even begin to agree. All the memories of school were long dumped in boxes left alone in the attic.

"Well, she isn't that bad if you do what she says," Adrian started.

But even Umbridge was so far away for Percy too. And they looked at each other and laughed.

"Being a Death Eater sure ages a person."

Percy considered that for a while, and realised that Adrian might have meant that he looked far too old for his age.

So he asked Adrian if he did.

"Well, I don't know," he replied.

But Percy was somewhat aware that Adrian wasn't one to hurt others' feelings, which made him feel even worse. Percy wanted to run into the toilet and examine every inch of his face, but it would be too inappropriate for him to do so.

"So, um, what do you do now? I heard you did quite well in your N.E.W.T.s."

"I work in a bakery."

Then Adrian flashed him this sort of wild grin and Percy laughed.

And there the two overachievers with nothing important to their name formed some odd bond with each other.

Percy noted that Marcus, Antonin and Rabastan had stopped their heated discussion, and Rabastan was grinning away stupidly.

"What are you looking at?" Percy asked, obviously annoyed.

"Nothing!"

But Rabastan continued to grin away, and Percy felt very uneasy.

So Percy tried to make some conversation to stop Marcus, Antonin and Rabastan from gawking at them like that.

"I heard that you went to Durmstrang, how was it like?"

It took Antonin a while before he realised that Percy had asked him a question.

"You're asking me?"

"Who else?"

Antonin laughed incredulously, and then said that if Percy went there his grades would only be average. And it was a highly oppressive place with very strict rules and a rigid structure.

"I don't suppose you had a good time there?" Adrian piped up.

"Oh, of course I did," Antonin replied sarcastically,

And he went on about the punishments students could receive for breaking the slightest of rules.

They didn't have a House system like Hogwarts. Students of the same year stayed in the same dormitory. The subjects they took were also quite different to Hogwarts'.

And well, Antonin did get into lots of trouble at school, although he was quite a brilliant student. Antonin was telling them of the time he was made to stand outside in the blizzard because he talked back to a teacher, then after recounting several more incidents Percy thought that he must have exaggerated a little. Then again, Durmstrang's reputation wasn't particularly good.

"So, how did you end up here?" Marcus asked.

"Huh?"

"How did you get out of the Soviet Union?"

"Oh. Because my parents were in prison? My dad was caught for tax evasion and in my last year in Durmstrang, the KGB arrested my mum."

"Why?"

"Um, political dissent?"

"Oh. Really."

"Well, they had a slight anti-wizarding agenda too, I think. So anyway, Karkaroff arranged for me to follow the people who were returning to West Berlin."

"Why?"

"Well, they could be after me too? Actually I think he was trying to get more supporters of the Dark Lord, which was why he put me up with Rookwood."

"Oh. And?"

"I moved in with the Lestranges?"

Marcus, Percy and Adrian whipped their heads round to look at Rabastan.

"What?"

"So that's how the two of you ended up together?" Marcus asked eyebrows raised and a grin on his face.

"Did we say we're together?" Rabastan snapped.

"Well, uh, you're not?"

"No," Antonin said hurriedly, then tried to change the subject. "Do you guys want to go watch a movie?"

Marcus and Percy shot him a dark look.

"I watched a movie once in a Muggle studies class," Adrian piped up.

"Oh really, what movie?" Rabastan asked.

"Citizen Kane."

"I got to watch Casablanca," Percy said.

"How was it?"

"I don't know. I don't particularly take a liking to fictional stories."

"You don't?" Marcus asked, shocked.

"Well, I don't see the point in them. Bit of a waste of time to me."

Marcus still looked somewhat aghast.

"To each his own?" Percy suggested.

Marcus nodded vaguely.

"You know, there's a question I've always liked to ask. How was Azkaban?" Marcus changed the subject.

Percy and Adrian leaned in. They were obviously interested as well.

"It was horrible. A complete nightmare." Antonin said.

"Well, there were some slightly amusing parts." Rabastan added.

"Oh. Ohh. Well, we were made to do hard labour. And you know that most of us came from well to do families?"

"In short, we're rich, spoilt brats." Rabastan said.

"Bellatrix coerced Rodolphus into doing the work for her. We're supposed to grow the food we eat."

"But Rodolphus can't do manual labour for anything. Ever." Rabastan said, a smirk crawling across his face.

"Well, he still tried, but the Dementors caught them. And they had to do more work. And at the end of it all, the plants still died."

"And so on, but in the end they bribed the Dementor and the Dementor made them do the cooking."

"Oh, that was the worst part."

"And we begged them to bribe the Dementors some more, so in the end they did the cleaning."

"It's very funny, seeing them work their arses off."

"Well, but they do have a natural disposition towards Dementors."

"Oh, but the best was Lucius Malfoy."

At that, all of them started sniggering.

"The Dementors didn't take to Lucius much, and he was forced to do all this horrible work. And because he was so bad at it, the Dementors decided he needed more practice and they made him do our work." And Antonin and Rabastan burst out laughing.

"Well," Percy said. "What about the two of you? Didn't the two of you have difficulties?"

"We took it all in stride," Rabastan said proudly.

"Don't believe him," Antonin said, and Rabastan promptly attacked him.

Marcus, Percy and Adrian laughed sadistically, at Antonin's plight, and he told them that they would meet a fate like this someday.

"How did you escape from Azkaban anyway? Both times?" Adrian asked.

"For the first the Dark Lord came down personally."

"He did?" Adrian, Marcus and Percy all exclaimed at the same time, leaning in even further.

"Well, he did. And with him of course we got out easily," he said proudly.

"The second time around, we all got out through different ways. The more 'respectable' ones were bailed out and put on probation, and the ones like us escaped a while later through Dementor help."

"The Dementors are really useful, aren't they?" Marcus asked.

And after that, they decided to leave the restaurant. Rabastan suggested that they go clubbing, and dragged them into some queue.

"Where are we going?" Percy asked, somewhat horrified.

"Clubbing," Antonin answered, as if they had any inkling of what it involved.

"Which is?"

But Antonin told them to stand there and ran off.

"What's clubbing?" Marcus asked.

"Don't know."

Marcus tapped the shoulder of the person in front of them and asked what 'clubbing' was.

The person only gave them this odd look, and did not reply.

"What are we queuing for?" Adrian asked.

Rabastan popped out of nowhere and dragged them past the queue and inside the building, where they were met with obnoxiously loud music and dizzying flashing lights and throngs of dancing people. Percy was on the verge of a throbbing headache.

"Listen," he said--no, shouted at Rabastan.

Rabastan didn't seem to have heard him, so he yelled at him again and tapped him violently on the shoulder.

"LISTEN, I'M GOING OUT." Percy almost ruined his vocal chords trying to be heard.

"OH, OK."

And Percy left the area, feeling very annoyed. What were they trying to do anyway? And Percy understood why the Muggles called it clubbing. It felt like your head was repeatedly clubbed. Percy rubbed his temples, trying to ease the pain. Then he realised that Marcus and Adrian had followed him out.

"Honestly. Remind me never to go out with them again," Marcus commented.

Adrian sort of giggled, and asked if they had anywhere to go, or did they just want to return home.

They walked around for a while, and then Marcus suddenly said that he wanted to go to The Cavern Club, since they were in Liverpool.

Percy and Adrian both gave him looks of horror.

"But you just came out of a club!"

"This is different."

"But, but..."

"You don't have to follow me."

"Oh. See you then!" Adrian said, seeming rather relieved.

Percy and Adrian both exchanged these part-amused, part-horrified looks.

"So um, going anywhere?" Percy asked.

Adrian shrugged, and so they continued walking about Liverpool.

"You know, I've always thought that Antonin and Rabastan were a couple," Adrian started, in hopes of making conversation.

"Um, yeah," Percy answered noncommittally.

Then the silence got to him.

"So where do you live?"

"I rent this room from this lady who lives in Hogsmeade."

"Oh. Well, how is it?"

"Well, she makes me do chores for her and all," Adrian said with a shrug.

Percy wished that they could have a more interesting point of discussion.

"Well, I wonder where the magical part of Liverpool is," he mused, in hopes of livening up the conversation.

"Oh, we could use the Knight Bus to get there," Adrian suggested.

And so they did.

It wasn't too different from Diagon Alley. There were more or less the same types of stores, except that this had people busking on the streets. There was a man who promised to sketch a moving picture in less than ten minutes, and there was this woman who was selling some of her sculptures. Adrian paused to look at her miniature wire sheep, which were made out of steel wires but behaved like real sheep. She also had these colourful cubes that would change colours to suit the overall atmosphere it was in. Percy found them quite useless, but Adrian seemed so interested in them.

And the street was bustling with people, even though it was nine o'clock in the evening. By nine at Diagon Alley most shops would have closed, except for the restaurants and pubs, and the street would be quite deserted. The one in Liverpool was crowded, slightly chaotic, and full of witches and wizards in showy robes and flamboyant hats.

Percy didn't quite take to the atmosphere. He did not belong here, and he wanted to leave. He turned to look for Adrian, who was chatting merrily away with this pair of wizards who were selling hats. Adrian had bought a pageboy hat that played music for the wearer whenever it was put on.

He told Adrian that he would be going, and Adrian bade the two wizards goodbye. Adrian then put on his hat and headed to the public fireplaces.

"What kind of music does your hat play?"

"Bit of jazz, and some oldies."

Percy raised an eyebrow in amusement, and Adrian put the hat on his head.

Surprisingly, Percy quite liked the music. Percy never listened to much music, because they only had one radio and his mum used it to listen to all these talk shows. And all his brothers seemed to like music of the loud kind, while Ginny liked music sung by these groups of good-looking wizards who, in Percy's opinion, couldn't sing all that well.

When the reached the Floo grates, they said goodbye and went on their own way.

*

When Adrian entered the bakery the next day Mr. Chamberlain said that he had to talk to him. Adrian sat down at a table, and Mr. Chamberlain began to talk.

"Well, I'm getting kind of old, so I was thinking that it's high time I retired and travelled around the world. I've always wanted to do that, you know."

Adrian paused for a while before replying, "Oh, so what's going to happen to the bakery?"

"Well, the landlord wants it back anyway. The lease is ending soon."

"Oh. So it means that I have to look for another job?"

"Sorry, but you have to. You could try the Ministry. They have been in need of workers ever since the explosion."

Upon hearing "the explosion" Adrian was struck with guilt all over again, but he didn't seem to have any other choice. Plus, the Ministry paid quite well and he could spy on them for the Death Eaters. And Percy would be there too, so he need not feel that scared.

"So um, when do I stop work here?"

"Well, at the end of this week? I'll give you a full salary for this month to keep you going for the time being."

Adrian tried to decline the offer; it felt as if he was cheating a poor old man out of his money.

And so Adrian went back to work, until he suddenly realised how much he would miss Hogsmeade and he almost burst into tears.

*

And once again, there was another large-scale attack on the horizon. The strategic planning team had called all the members for a meeting, and they would be presenting to them their plans for rescuing Mr. Pucey.

It wasn't even supposed to be an attack, but sometime during the meeting, Antonin declared that he had had enough of Azkaban and that he was going to raze it to the ground. All of them had been taken aback by the sudden outburst, but then, hey, it was a good idea, and all the Dementors inside were all on their side, except that they pretended to still be working for the Ministry on the Dark Lord's orders.

And so, when all the Death Eaters gathered, Marcus opened the meeting. Marcus was sorely tempted to play some dramatic music before starting, but knew better than to do it.

"Um, OK. We'll raze Azkaban to the ground!"

All the Death Eaters instantly looked up.

Silence.

"We are going to raze Azkaban to the ground."

Silence, then Mulciber spoke up.

"Are you mad?"

"No," Antonin said firmly, taking over.

"Who's sick and tired of going to Azkaban? Raise your hand."

"Can I raise both?" Rodolphus said with a laugh.

"So none of you want to go back there, right?"

"Too right you are."

"So, we release all convicts and raze it to the ground!"

There was some chattering, then Nott, ever the practical one, raised a few questions.

"Will there be enough time to do so? And how are we going to do it? Is it even possible? I mean, really."

And so they shared with the rest of the Death Eaters the details of the plan.

*

All the Giants and Dementors had been mobilised. They had managed to concoct enough explosive powder again; this time with Adrian giving much more help because it involved his father.

And when everything was prepared they got ready to destroy Azkaban once and for all. The Lestranges and Antonin were the most enthusiastic of all the Death Eaters about destroying Azkaban. Marcus wondered if it was because they were such sadistic people or they resented the place so much. But then he realised it was most likely a combination of both.

The army of Giants and Dementors were backing them up, and they marched towards Azkaban once more.

All human guards were killed instantly, and so their presence wasn't made known to the Ministry. The Dementors working inside had already removed all safety charms and alerting charms and all the charms. In fact, all the convicts were already lined up neatly in contingents ready to be released.

Then there was a slight glitch in the plan. None of them could find Adrian's father. The Dementors said that he had never been sent into Azkaban, while the newspapers clearly stated that he was.

Marcus began to worry for Adrian. Where could his father be if not in Azkaban? What was the Ministry trying to do? Marcus was avoiding the fact that this time, the Ministry could have outsmarted them. He half-expected Ministry personnel to pop out any moment and arrest them, but nothing happened.

Rodolphus asked the Dementors again. No, this was not a trap, and no, Mr. Pucey was never sent in here despite the court ruling. Marcus started to have an uneasy feeling about this. Things weren't going as planned, and--and this wasn't supposed to happen!

They decided to carry on with the plan and demolish Azkaban, which they managed quite easily because they were so undetected. No one lived anywhere near Azkaban, and the human guards were never given the chance to ask others for help.

And with the Giants and Dementors and the convicts who were enthusiastically helping, Azkaban was soon nothing more than a heap of rubble, and the Giants threw the larger pieces into the sea surrounding it. Everything else was burnt in a huge bonfire, and the convicts and Giants and Dementors celebrated.

Right before the convicts left, they told the convicts to cause as much mayhem as possible, to which they enthusiastically agreed to.