Harry Potter - Series Fan Fiction ❯ Harry Potter and the Ashes of Hope ❯ Chapter 3: The Visit ( Chapter 3 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

I do not own Harry Potter....yada yada please read Chapter 1 if you want the rest.

Chapter Three

Visit

Three people, two of which were Aurors, navigated through the twisting and ill-lit corridors that were flanked with jail cells on either side. Finally, they all stopped before an obscure cell in the deepest, most well protected portion of Azkaban. One of the guards tapped the bars a few times and yelled something illegible inside. No response. They unlocked the doors and motioned for the third man to enter the cell. As soon as this man, with graying brown hair and shallow cheeks as if anxiety had been eating him from the inside, stepped completely inside, the cell door shut noisily behind him.

In one of the far corners of the cell sat a shadow-wrought figure. An uneaten serving of disgusting looking food lay near his feet and the his legs were covered with a shabby grey blanket that vainly attempted to save him from the oppressing coolness of the enclosure.

Remus looked into the sunken face of the boy before him. Even through the darkness he could make out the sickly pale shade of the boy's skin and the unruly hair that lay flat against the child's forehead. Most disconcerting of all was the dullness by which the eyes were taken. If Remus had not known the child before, he would have doubted that this person was ever the famed, courageous, lively boy-who-lived… for this boy looked anything but alive.

“Hello Harry” Remus ventured to say. No response. “It's Remus… Moony… I'm here to visit you.” No response. No movement. The boy sat there like a corpse. A passing dementor in the corridor sent a shiver down Remus' spine.

“Harry, I know you aren't well but please respond!” Nothing. “Harry! I think you're innocent. I know it.”

Still nothing is heard or seen...

“You would never have hurt anyone. I know it. I know you.” The corpse lay propped up against the wall. “Harry please respond! That's all I ask! Move! Breathe! You must listen to me!”

Although there was no outward sign that Harry heard a word of what Remus said, Harry had indeed processed the words, even if only in disconnected tangents. The boy's mind was broken by the nearly-constant presence of the dementors and his thoughts were now ground into disconnected ideas, most of which revolved around the horrors of his life. However, the dementors were not near his cell and he could listen to what Remus was saying.

Harry knew Remus was there. He knew Remus was different. Hermione hated him. Ron hated him. Dumbledore hated him. Remus didn't. This brought some semblance of happiness to Harry's mind, however muted it was.

Giving the youth some measure of knowing that somewhere out there....

Someone still cared.

Grabbing Harry's shoulders and forcing the boy to look face to face with him, Remus began speaking again in a low whisper. “Listen. I know you are. You alwaysare… you're observant. Please! Listen!” With a bit of shaking, Harry still failed to show physical response and his eyes remained as distant as before.

Remus would try to get his message across… but he could only hope that Harry comprehendedwhat he was saying. “Remember the lessons, Harry. Remember Sirius. He was here, too… locked up. I know you can't resist the dementors like Padfootdid… Padfoot… the grim… a dog… you aren't a dog…. But you're something, remember? It will help! Remember what Sirius did! Do what Sirius did! Change!Save yourself!”

Harry's head tilted backwards a little because the support of the wall was removed. Remus grabbed it and brought it to his own face. “Animagus! You can be an AnimagusHarry! The dementors... you don't like them, but the Animaguslessons will help you! Practice… when I leave, you must try to complete the transformation! You can… escape! Like Sirius… you must escape! You're innocent! You're not supposed to be here… transform!”

By this point the hysterical Remus was desperate to get some acknowledgement out of Harry. He shook the boy helplessly and tears began to roll down his cheeks. “Please, Harry!” he muttered over and over again. However, the boy was as unresponsive as before, as he had been since being locked up in that cell, and made no sign that he heard a word of Remus. The guards then came and escorted Remus out of the cell and out of the prison.

When Remus returned to Hogwarts, he did not speak a word of the visit to Dumbledore. Consequentially, Dumbledore correctly assumed that the visit was not as satisfying as Remus convinced himself it would be. In the next few months no one visited Harry but Remus held onto his hope that Harry would be discovered innocent and be freed from his undeserved misery.

Nobody but Harry and Remus even suspected Remus's intentions that day. Dumbledore and the rest of the Order of the Phoenix assumed the pitiful man was simply trying to spark some response in the boy. They believed Remus had simply needed to see the child. Nobody knew that Remus was trying to get Harry to escape the prison.

However, no one, not even Remus nor Harry, knew how important that meeting really was. No one at the time knew that it would come to save Harry's life.

Harry had absorbed the information Remus told him. He understood that Remus wanted him to attempt the Animagustransformation. He understood that Remus wanted him to escape. However, his mind, at the time, was too fuddled to process a means to utilize this information. It would not be until another 11 months that Harry would use this informationand not a moment too soon either.

After all legends say that history can and does repeat itself...