Talking to Charlus turned out to be as easy as sending him a letter telling him they needed to talk. Charlus knew them both well enough to know they wouldn't have called him back to the school unless it was important, so now the three of them were sitting in Charlus's office.
Charlus looked tired, like he had barely slept in days, so it was unsurprising when he bluntly demanded, "What's going on?" It wasn't that he was trying to be rude, more like he just didn't have the energy needed to be polite.
"We know who stabbed Harry and how to remove the knife without killing him," Ron answered.
This cut through Charlus's fatigue instantly. "Explain."
"It was Draco Malfoy, and the knife can only be removed by the hand that wielded it," Ron said.
"How did you learn this?"
"I took some of your Veritaserum, kidnapped Malfoy yesterday, and poured it down his throat. I had a few other people to try after him, but I got lucky on my first guess." Ron didn't sound at all guilty as he said he broke quite a few laws. It said something about Charlus that he seemed to have no issues with what Ron had done either. However, he did glance at Hermione when Ron said he was the one to take the Veritaserum. He obviously knew he couldn't have done it and that Hermione must have done it.
"Then once Ron finished questioning him, he had me Obliviate Malfoy so he didn't know he had been kidnapped. But now we don't know how to handle this going forward," Hermione explained
"You aren't going to do anything, let me take it from here. You two are to keep a low profile. Do whatever it was you were doing before you had this plan of yours." He got up and started to leave but just before he reached the fire he stopped and turned back to say. "Good work kids. You did well, just let me deal with it from here."
-ϟϟϟ-
Ron and Hermione were on edge for most of the day waiting for something to happen, but it was quiet all day until dinner. Ron and Hermione, believing that Harry would be safe now, no longer had the depression fueled drive that had them ignoring their hunger, so they went down to dinner. The two were about halfway through inhaling everything within reach, Hermione doing a far more elegant job than Ron but she was no less hungry, when the doors to the Great Hall burst open and an extremely angry-looking Sirius black stood there, looking like murder was the least worrying crime he was contemplating committing.
Sirius's voice boomed through the hall. "Draco Abraxas Malfoy, Heir to the House of Malfoy, son of the House of Black, I, Sirius Orion Black, Warlock of the House of Black, make a declaration. The House of Black invokes its right of regency of the House of Malfoy as the House of Malfoy is currently without an active Warlock, and all current free members of the House of Malfoy are also of the House of Black. As your regent, Heir Malfoy, I accuse you of the attempted murder of the Heir to the House of Black. How do you answer this charge?"
The whole hall was stunned. Lots of the students were whispering to one another about Sirius just taking control of the House of Malfoy like that. Some seemed to think it was straight line theft, but others were pointing out it would only last until Draco came of age in less than two years, and technically both Draco and his mother were still considered members of the House of Black. Draco had been pretty adamant for years that he was to be the next Warlock of the House of Black when he came of age, and for that to have even had a chance Draco would have needed to be a member of the House. Whether it held up in the Wizengamot would be a matter of how Sirius handled the Malfoy's assets. If he managed them well, then the Wizengamot would likely see it as family helping family and uphold Sirius's claim. If Sirius started trying to strip the house of its assets, then they would likely sever the tie between the families and grant the regency to Narcissa
Malfoy stood up, looking nervous. Even if he had been innocent, he was still being accused of attempted murder, and by implication the attempted theft of the House of Black, as he was the next in line after Harry. Anyone would be nervous in such a situation. "Warlock Black, first I would refute such an allegation. I would also argue that the House of Malfoy is just fine taking care of itself without your interference."
Sirius got a predatory grin then. It was becoming increasingly apparent why just so many people had believed the man capable of earning himself a life sentence in Azkaban. Before Sirius could say any more, though, Headmaster Greengrass stood up.
"Warlock Black, this is a school and Mr. Malfoy is one of our students. As much as I have sympathy for you and the predicament of your godson, I need to ask that you leave and return with the proper authorities." The man didn't look combative towards Sirius at all, just like he was doing his job.
"Headmaster Greengrass, as the Regent of the House of Malfoy, I claim guardian's rights over Draco Malfoy. As such, the school cannot interfere unless I do something legally considered abusive," Sirius said, his eyes not leaving Malfoy for even a second.
The Headmaster leaned down to quickly whisper a conversation with the Deputy Headmistress. No one could hear what they were saying, but McGonagall was nodding her head solemnly. Hermione guessed a law like this had been used by some not-great parents more than once in the past. The Headmaster realised that because Sirius had legally claimed guardianship over Malfoy as the Warlock Black, there was little he could do, so he sat back down. Sirius nodded to the man and said, "Don't worry Headmaster, I will have this cleared up in no time. In fact, we will find out if Malfoy is guilty or not in but a moment."
He then turned to Malfoy. "Malfoy, you are currently disinherited from the Black warlock succession. If you can now prove your innocence you will once again be the second in line." Sirius pulled out a bottle of Veritaserum. "If, however, as I suspect, you are the one responsible for what has happened to my godson, then you will face the full legal repercussions of your actions."
It took Hermione and Ron only seconds to understand what Sirius was doing. By offering the way back to being the heir of the House of Black, something nearly everyone in the hall knew Malfoy would never turn down if he had an opportunity to achieve it, when Malfoy didn't eagerly accept it, it would condemn him in the eyes of everyone save for a few younger students who had been lucky enough to avoid the blond git.
Predictably, Malfoy tried to run. With Sirius standing in the main doorway, Malfoy ran for the side entrance that led to the trophy room. However, he didn't get very far because two Gryffindors were faster with their wands. Fred and George's combined leg locker and tickling jinxes had Malfoy rolling on the floor laughing as he desperately tried to claw his way toward the side door.
Headmaster Greengrass stood up again, more determined than last time. "I may not be able to stop a Warlock from questioning a member of their House, but I certainly can say you won't be doing it here in front of my students. Come with me Warlock Black, Mr. Malfoy, and is Head of House as well. We can use my office for some privacy. Mr. and Mr. Weasley that will be ten points each from Gryffindor for attacking a fellow student. No matter your view on the subject, this is a matter for the Houses Black, Malfoy and Potter. The name Weasley is distinctly absent from that list."
Sirius was quickly able to stun Malfoy, and the two of them and the needed professors soon left the hall, the Headmaster floating Malfoy along still out cold, his limbs and robes waving beneath him like a rag doll in front of them. Hermione completely ignored the sudden jump in volume as every student started to ask questions of everyone close enough to them who could possibly have any kind of answer. Instead, she turned to Ron as they left and asked. "Do you think we could follow them?"
Ron shook his head as he speared a piece of chicken with his fork and pushed it through a puddle of gravy on his plate. "If it was anywhere but the Headmaster's office it may be worth a try, but didn't you once say it was always one of the most protected places in the castle?" He then ate the gravy-covered chicken.
That reminded Hermione. "Yes, it said in Hogwarts, A History that it used to be Godric Gryffindor's private rooms and office. He wanted a space where he could see any approaching muggle armies. He put a load of protective enchantments on the room, even enchanting the grim that guards the door."
"It's a gargoyle," Ron teased Hermione, knowing it would get her to go on about the difference between a grim and a gargoyle. At least if she was doing that she wouldn't be stressing over what was happening upstairs.
-ϟϟϟ-
"You can't do this to me, it's illegal to force someone to take Veritaserum!" Draco shouted after he had been woken up in the Headmaster's office.
Sirius shook his head. "Someone has seriously neglected your education Mr. Malfoy. It is illegal for the ministry or Wizengamot to force you to take Veritaserum, and it's illegal for some random wizard to give it to you, but House law isn't covered by those laws. Both the House of Black and the House of Malfoy allow a warlock or acting warlock to use the potion when seeking the truth of internal matters. That means I can do this and there is nothing you or the professors here can do to stop me. And considering we are talking about finding out if you tried to murder a student, I'm pretty sure they are more concerned with learning the answer." Sirius didn't sound angry or upset. Instead, he sounded like he was ordering his lunch at a food stand.
"I want my mother here. Surely you have to wait until my parent gets here," Draco desperately asked his Head of House.
"We already tried to contact your mother before we woke you," Professor Sinistra said sadly. "She said the Warlock of the House has her full confidence in this matter and she is deferring to his authority."
Sirius smiled. "Cissi always knew when to toe the House line. A few words from the Warlock of House Black where I reminded her that, with the House of Malfoy on the verge of collapse, she would only have one place to go. You should be grateful though, she was the one who insisted on the Veritaserum. She actually believes you didn't do it. I know better though. Harry woke up today, not for long but long enough to tell his grandfather and I exactly who it was that stabbed him. That's the problem with stabbing someone in the shoulder, you have to get right up close and personal. Kind of hard to hide who you are like that." Of course, Sirius was lying about Harry waking up. That was just a cover story he and Charlus had made up to cover for the information Hermione and Ron had gotten them. Sirius was also the only one in the room who knew that.
Sirius quickly gave Malfoy the truth serum, and a series of questions had Malfoy relating the same information to Sirius that he had told Ron the day before. Once Malfoy was given the antidote, he slumped down defeated. He was barely listening as Headmaster Greengrass expelled him and confiscated his wand for the D.M.L.E. The wand would be given to the Ministry, and they would decide if his wand was to be snapped at his trial.
Sirius loomed over him, and his voice was as cold as ice when he said, "You have a choice to make. You can either come with me and remove the dagger from my godson, or I cut off your hand and see if wearing it like a glove will let me remove it. Either way, I will be taking you to the Aurors directly after, it's up to you whether you arrive whole or without having taken steps to mitigate your crime." With that, Malfoy agreed to help remove the dagger from Harry.
-ϟϟϟ-
Harry woke up screaming as the blade was pulled from his flesh. The magic keeping him unconscious gone, he was left to suddenly feel the full effect of a length of steel making an opening in his shoulder. The healers in the room quickly stunned Harry and began working on the wound. Meanwhile, the Aurors in the room quickly grabbed Draco, and one disarmed him of the weapon, putting it in a bag as evidence. The other quickly put a set magic suppressing handcuffs on the teen and he was quickly led away while being informed of his rights, his mother trailing behind looking like she was going to burn the next person who dared to talk to her to a crisp.
Sirius and Charlus were waiting outside the healing room, watching through a small window in the door that was supposed to be there so healers could see if a room was in use without having to open the door and risk interruption of any healing going on inside. Even without the dagger in Harry's shoulder, it was still a wound infected with dark magic, and that made any healing difficult. Harry was unfortunately not out of danger yet. In fact, it could be said that as the dagger also worked to sustain him so that his blood could be drained slowly over time, the fight for his life was only now starting.
Sirius and Charlus stood around for hours just waiting. They didn't notice when Malfoy was dragged off by the Aurors, they barely registered when a mediwitch brought them each a bottle of water to keep them from getting dehydrated. The only thing that marked the passage of time was the clock in the healing room, but neither Charlus or Sirius even noticed it existed let alone used it to see how long they stood there.
It was well past visitors' hours when the head healer walked out of the room looking exhausted. She leaned back up against the nearest wall, looking like she wanted to just crawl home and into bed, but she knew she had family to inform first. The question and answer didn't even need words, Sirius and Charlus just stood there hoping for the best and dreading the worst. The healer summed up just enough strength to smile and nod. For Sirius and Charlus, it was like a troll had been lifted off their shoulders. Harry was okay.
The healer left the two men to revel in that bit of news while she took the opportunity to recover just enough to give them the full news. "The patient is stable now but not out of the woods entirely yet. The dagger cut deep and did a lot of damage. The dark magic infection is preventing most of our healing. We needed to reconstruct sections of his circulatory system and his nerves, but a lot of the rest needs to be done naturally or we will need to wait a few weeks until it clears enough to finish the healing. Whatever we do, there is going to be some permanent damage. He will lose some motion in his arm. I can't be sure how much, but most likely expect only about seventy-five to eighty-five percent of what he can do now. Luckily it's his left arm not his right, so it won't affect his spell-casting."
"How long will he need to stay here?" Charlus asked.
"We will want to monitor him for the next forty-eight hours, but after that we can release him to either your care at home or to the Hogwarts hospital wing. He does still have a large hole in his shoulder, so although it isn't bleeding much he will need a one-third dose of blood replenishing potion a day, and he will need to be on pain-relieving potions until his shoulder is healed. He should take it easy to prevent the wound from reopening. However, he should be healed before Yule," the healer informed them before drawing herself off to go find somewhere to rest.
"I'll stay, you should get back to the school. Tell Greengrass what's happening. Fill in Ron and Hermione. Let everyone know Harry will be okay," Sirius told Charlus.
Charlus shook his head. "You should go. I want to be here when he wakes up."
"No good. One, it's too late for any visitors to the castle, but you're a professor and you live at the school so you have the twenty-four hour all-access pass. Two, after what I did to Malfoy this morning, I'm more than likely banned from the school for student safety or some such nonsense. Plus I doubt he will be awake before tomorrow afternoon, and I'm sure Hermione and Ron would like to be here as well."
Charlus looked through the now open door to where a couple of mediwizards were prepping Harry to move him back to the ward. Already Harry's skin looked a little less pale and more lively, yet to Charlus he still looked fragile. "You're right Sirius. I'll go let everyone know what is happening."
-ϟϟϟ-
Hermione and Ron woke up on Halloween morning and were not surprised to find Uncle Charlus waiting for them in the Great Hall. After Malfoy had been barged away the day before, they expected some news today. The only question on their minds was whether it was good or bad news. But even before Uncle Charlus spotted them, they knew it was good news. He was standing straighter, there was a lot less worry on his face, and best of all he looked like he had gotten more sleep last night than either Hermione or Ron had had in the last week.
Once he had spotted them, Charlus made a beeline for the two teens and explained everything that had happened after Sirius left the castle the day before. He also told them that he had permission to take them both out of the school today to go see Harry. So after breakfast, where Charlus sat and ate with them rather than up on the head table, they left via the Floo in Charlus's office, which was a lot easier than having to sneak out to Hogsmeade so that the professors couldn't monitor the Floo to stop you leaving.
-ϟϟϟ-
For Harry waking up was like trying to climb his way out of a deep hole, like sleep didn't want to let him go. Yet as he was gradually coming around, he became more and more aware of the things around him. Not that he could see anything with his eyes closed, it was his other senses. First was the smell, that clean and disinfected smell that only came in hospitals. Then it was touch; someone was holding his hand. Someone with small hands with smooth soft skin that felt really familiar. Then he started to hear sounds. At first, it was just people talking, but as his head got clearer they started to sound familiar, and then he recognised them. Grandfather Charlus, Sirius, Ron, and of course Hermione.
Slowly Harry opened his eyes and tried to say something. However, it had been days since he had said anything and the words were unrecognisable. Still, immediately his family was all over him asking if he was alright and genuinely being very happy to see him awake.
Over the next hour, Harry woke up enough to question why he was in the hospital. He was told how he was stabbed with a cursed blade that both kept him alive and unconscious while slowly draining his blood. They told Harry how Malfoy had been forced to confess and how he was now in the D.M.L.E. cells waiting on his trial. When they told Harry about Malfoy stabbing him, it felt familiar to Harry but he couldn't remember any of it clearly.
The most distressing part for Harry was finding out about the hole that was still in his shoulder that he currently couldn't feel due to the potions he was on. Worse yet, when told about how it would affect his mobility going forward, Harry could see that the Quidditch career that he had started to look forward to waving its goodbye as it flew off into the distance where he wouldn't be able to keep up. Hermione did suggest that muscle physiotherapy might help, but that was more an afterwards thing, something for after his shoulder was healed, not something to think he could do any time soon.
-ϟϟϟ-
Voldemort stood on the prow of the small fishing ship that his faithful Death Eater Randall Parkinson had acquired for him. Parkinson was currently providing the magic that was propelling the tiny fishing vessel as fast as any muggle speedboat. Voldemort watched the horizon ahead of them waiting for that moment when the line that separated the sea from the sky would be broken by an island that was currently shielded from view.
The trunk that was on the deck next to Voldemort's feet shook, and Voldemort looked down at it and smiled. "Not long now. Soon I will unleash you and I will have my followers back. Then I can get my revenge on the Potters, finally fix this face of mine, and get back to the business of taking control of this country." He idly scratched at the half of his face that was still very much dead and animated by his will and magic, not unlike the horde of Inferi he had in the chest next to him. He had managed to heal a lot of his dead body using the small supply of Potter's blood, but that had stopped yesterday so either the healers had found a way to stop it, the Potter brat was dead, or the Malfoy brat had cracked.
Suddenly a mist started to form around the ship, which sped on until three minutes later the mist cleared and the rocky shore of Azkaban Island was in front of them.
The two Aurors on the dock quickly fell to Voldemort's wand, and as Parkinson got the boat ready to leave again Voldemort stepped onto land alone but for his trunk floating along in his wake. He walked up the narrow wet slippery steps that had been cut out of the rocky stone of the island until he got to the gates. Then Voldemort did the simplest thing in the world to get them to open the gate: he knocked.
When the guard inside the gatehouse heard the knock, his first thought wasn't that the island was under attack, it wasn't that one of the most terrible dark lords the world had ever known was on the outside of the gate. His first thought was that Higgins, one of the guards from the dock, needed to get something from the storeroom and had managed to forget his wand to open the door. So while the man followed all the protocols that were in place, he still froze momentarily in terror when he saw the gruesome half-dead visage of Voldemort grinning at him when the gate opened. That one moment of hesitation was all Voldemort needed, and the battle for Azkaban began.
As the guard died, Voldemort only had seconds to cancel the automatic gate alarm before it went off and told a hundred Dementors that there was an intruder they were allowed to eat. However, he actually had no plans on stopping that alarm. Instead he only opened his trunk and watched as the horde of Inferi started to surge from the opening.
Within a minute the alarm had gone off and the doors of the prison burst open. The horde of Inferi spewing forth from the trunk met the horde of Dementors coming out of the building. The Dementors tried to attack, but there were no emotions to exploit, no soul to steal. Just bodies of decaying rotting flesh vs more bodies of decaying rotting flash, and the Inferi had numbers on their side and started working together to grab a Dementor and rip it apart.
There was some question of what would happen to the Dementors at this point. The literature on the creatures had them as immortal, impossible to kill, but Voldemort knew he couldn't have been the first person with a thought of ripping them apart. He suspected that they would slowly pull themselves back together, no worse off after than they were to begin with, but he didn't know for sure. However, Voldemort couldn't keep the manic grin off his face as the first Dementor was swarmed by eight Inferi and screamed as it was ripped apart, the non-being apparently succumbing to pain and fear.
A few flicks of his wand and he had his horde reacting like an orchestra responding to their conductor. They ploughed ahead of him and cleared the Dementors, sometimes ripping them apart, sometimes just pinning them to the ground. They also acted as a seal against the Azkaban forces. There were twenty-one witches and wizards stationed at the prison, three shifts of seven. The magical world loved the number seven. Voldemort had already killed three, but the other four on shift were quick to respond, summoning fire to drive back his horde.
But as much as the Inferi instinctively drew back from fire, Voldemort, their master, was right there able to exert his will on them directly. He used the Inferi like human shields to keep himself safe, and while fire was effective at obscuring anything behind it, it was no barrier to magic. A pair of well placed Bombarda curses had the four scrabbling surprised guards in disarray, and he was able to quickly finish three of them off. The last was wearing a gold pin and was obviously the one in charge for this shift. He would be useful, so a quick death wasn't his fate, not when he could so easily be Imperiused to open doors for him.
The battle continued on for another forty minutes. The other fourteen guards showing up towards the end had been the hardest part, they had had a few minutes to collect their wits and plan. But Voldemort still had hundreds of Inferi, and sometimes in war it matters little who has the strongest weapons or the straightest shot but who has the overwhelming force of scale.
With all of the island's defenders dealt with, Voldemort stood in the graveyard of the prison, the repurposed central courtyard of the castle that the Ministry had adapted lifetimes ago. He cast a quick charm to amplify his voice and spoke. "My fellow witches and wizards, the downtrodden of this broken society, I come before you now as a liberator. Shortly I will be taking my loyal followers and leaving this place, and I offer you all the chance to do the same. Stand with me and we will build a better tomorrow together. One where we don't need to bow and scrape to the vermin who dilute our culture. A future where the foul petulant of dirty blood can no longer defile our children. A world where you no longer need to resort to petty crimes that get you sent here because the mudbloods have taken our jobs, leaving us without the gold to feed our families. I offer you the freedom of service, the grace that comes by serving your fellow witches and wizards to build a brighter future for us all. Will you join me in this vision, or will you remain here to rot for the rest of your miserable existence?"
By the time Voldemort finished talking, there was a lot of loud cheering going on around him and he couldn't help but feel satisfied at a well executed plan. He went around freeing his people and anyone who pledged themselves to him and his cause, executing a few who mouthed off at him calling him a monster. Most of them were unworthy of the honour of his attention, but foot soldiers and cannon fodder were always needed. One surprise was that he found young Draco Malfoy in one of the cells awaiting a trial for stabbing Potter. That at least explained what had happened to the flow of Potter's blood. Voldemort was of course angry that the brat had failed, but did concede to Lucius (who had already been freed among the first as one of the faithful) that his son could do nothing to prevent Potter waking up for a few minutes and nothing he could have done against the Veritaserum. The boy would be given another chance to prove himself in time.
All of the Death Eaters and the new recruits were bundled into the expanded chest that Voldemort had used to bring in the Inferi for the trip back to the mainland. The Inferi would stay here as a surprise for whatever team of Aurors showed up to investigate the prison when they missed their next check in.