Cornelius Fudge was NOT a very accomplished wizard.
Typically one would assume otherwise of someone who managed to become the Minister of Magic, but even that was a position Fudge only got because the man the public wanted, Dumbledore, didn't want the position. Aside from that, Fudge only got the support he had because he knew how to grease the right elbows, and how to appease the supporters he had managed to acquire.
That was why, still being fairly new to his position, Fudge was jumping at any and every oppertunity to improve his image to the people of wizarding Britain. So when he heard about THE Harry Potter wanting to confront the man responsible for his parent's murder, Fudge leapt at the chance to personally escort him to Azkaban, despite how much he hated the place, in what was surely a front page story that would tug at people's heartstrings.
However the Boy-Who-Lived was vastly different that Fudge thought he would be.
Instead of the innocent and naive eleven year-old that Fudge had been expecting, Harry Potter had a cold and calculated look in his eyes as he seemingly analyzed everything. He hadn't even seemed fazed when he met Alastor Moody, and the man looked like he could pass for a walking corpse!
Not only that, but Fudge also noticed the way that the boy acted with Dumbledore. As if the two of them were EQUALS.
Either the boy was so horribly naive that he acted that way with everyone, or he truly considered THE Albus Dumbledore to be equal to himself. The same Dumbledore who defeated the dark wizard Grindelwald in combat, and was purported to be the ONLY person You-Know-Who was afraid of.
But then there was the way he acted as they approached the island that housed Azkaban, as well as hundreds of Dementors.
As the power of the Dementors washed over them, Fudge, Skeeter and just about everyone else reacted the same, the way that a NORMAL person would react to their presence. Obviously Dumbledore and Moody were different, but so was Harry!
The boy didn't even appear fazed by their presence, only looking as if he had some kind of morbid curiosity as he continued chatting idly wth Dumbledore about the Dementors themselves.
But then it happened.
"W-what are they doing?!" Fudge exclaimed with a voice full of fear as the Dementors surged forward like a wave of fear and darkness.
"Aurors, protect the Minister and the civilians!" Moody barked out to the other Aurors, however there was next to nothing they could do without their wands.
"S-stop at once! I c-command you!" Fudge tried to order the Dementors, but they just ignored him as they glided towards the boat with a single-minded determination, even freezing the surface of the ocean beneath them.
"KYAAAAAA!" Rita Skeeter screamed as both she and her cameraman dove for cover.
Fudge and the others could only watch in horror as the Dementors swarmed over the boat, their eerie rattling breaths making each one feeling as if they themselves were about to be subjected to the Dementor's Kiss any second. But there was only one person they had their sights set on.
Harry Potter stared ahead at something only he could see, reliving the worst moments of his life as he was directly targeted by hundreds of Dementors.
One second he was back to that fateful night when the Thalmor razed the village that was his first home to the ground. The next he was in the Deadlands, breathing in the acidic, volcanic air as the intense heat scorch his entire body. Then he was back in Nightcaller Temple, being subjected to horrific nightmares by the followers of Vaermina with the Skull of Corruption. Then he was in the Soul Cairn.
One after another Harry was forced to relive the most horrific events and battles that he had experienced throughout his life, seemingly unresponsive even as one of the Dementors placed their cold, corpse-like hands upon his face while moving in for the final blow. The Dementor's Kiss.
Fudge and the others could only watch, helpless, as the Boy-Who-Lived was about to be Kissed and have his soul sucked out of his body. Even Albus, despite not having his wand, was prepared to act in any capacity he could to help Harry, when the boy suddenly moved.
"You're pathetic."
*WHOMPH!*
Golden light suddenly enveloped the entire boat and beyond, radiating from Harry as if he had become a massive beacon of golden power. Then came the screams.
Fudge, Rita, Moody, even Albus had never heard a Dementor scream before. Hell, none of them even know they COULD. And yet, they were screaming now as each one was set ablaze with what one could only refer to as holy fire.
That wasn't all though.
As the golden light washed over them, each one felt all of their fear evaporate on the spot. Instead, they all even felt good, better than several of them had felt in years.
"I cast Bane of the Undead and Guardian Circle on the boat, none of the Dementors will come near it for as long as it holds." Harry suddenly spoke, drawing their attention back to him as they saw him enshrouded in a brilliant golden light.
"Harry..." Albus began, his eyes wide as he finally got a glimpse into what Harry was capable of.
"One moment Albus. I'll be right back." Harry snarled as he walked to the front of the boat, though they were still frozen in place by the ice.
"WULD!" Harry Shouted, sending his body hurtling through the air with a noise like a thunder clap, moving so quickly that he seemingly teleported to the beach in an instant.
"HI FENT NI FILOK!" (You will not escape)
Harry's Voice filled the sky as the entire island trembled before him, his body radiating the light of Stendarr's Aura while balls of sunlight flew from his hands.
The dark, stormy atmosphere of Azkaban turned to day as numerous explosions illuminated the sky, setting the Dementors ablaze as they tried, yet failed, to flee. It was as if an invisible force was holding them all back, courtesy of Harry's Telekinesis magic.
Even while endlessly bombarding them with Vampire's Bane, Harry was also grabbing and pulling on over a hundred Dementors with Telekinesis as he maneuvered them to right where he wanted them all.
"DIR KO MAAR!" (Die in terror)
Again, Harry's voice shook the very island itself as he pulled all of the Dementors he could into a a single group, before he took in a deep breath.
"RII VAAZ ZOL!"
Harry's voice tore across the island, ripping into the Dementors while forcefully stripping them of every single soul they had ever consumed through the Dementor's Kiss. And while the Shout was not enough to destroy them, it did in fact inflict upon them the very same fear they themselves inspired into people for centuries.
But Harry wasn't done yet.
Even as the Soul Tear Shout ripped the souls they had devoured from their wraith-like bodies, Harry unleashed a Vampire's Bane spell so powerful that, when it hit them, it was as if the sun itself descended as it burned completely through the Dementors. Rendering them nothing more than a pile of ashes.
"Oh my god..." Fudge uttered as he and the others watched the Boy-Who-Lived slaughter the Dementors, something NO ONE had ever done before in wizarding history. And all without a wand.
"Tell me you got a picture of that." Rita hissed to her cameraman, who just nodded slowly in complete silence while being unable to tear his eyes away from Harry.
They all watched as Harry stepped towards the pile of ashes, ignoring the few remaining Dementors as they fled to hide from him, before scooping the ashes into a jar he pulled out of his bag. Only once he was done did Harry turn back towards them, and the boat suddenly broke through the ice as Harry pulled them the rest of the way to shore.
"Harry!" Rita exclaimed as soon as they were beached, climbing out of the boat and hurrying to Harry's side.
"Can I please get a word about the incredible magic you just displayed?! Something like that, wandless even, is far beyond what even the most powerful of wizards can accomplish!" Rita declared, her quill and parchment at the ready for anything Harry might say.
What she did not expect, was for Harry to actually grab her quill and parchment before scrawling two letters onto it irritably.
-No.
He then walked away from Rita with only that, leaving her speechless as he even took her quill and parchment with him.
"Are you alright Harry?" Albus asked with concern as they regrouped. Though, again, Harry used the parchment to answer.
-Fine. Just need to let my Voice rest, or I might accidentally destroy the island when I speak.
Albus blinked at the casual admission of power, even as he thought on everything they just witnessed from Harry.
Truthfully, Albus wasn't sure about the true scope of Harry's stories and the things he claimed to have gone through in the world known as Nirn. Even unintentionally, people tended to embellish the events they experienced beyond recognition of the truth. But what he just witnessed changed all of those notions.
The truly fearful part? What they saw was just a drop in the bucket of what Harry was capable of, and he was even weakned right now, physically speaking.
Albus began to wonder just what a fully powered Harry was capable of.
-Shall we go?
Harry held up the parchment yet again, showing what he had written to them all along with the bit about his Voice.
"Indeed." He answered, taking the lead as he ushered the group towards the tower that actually held all of the prisoners. Though Fudge and most of the Aurors appeared to still be too stunned to even think straight. Right up until Harry summoned a flash of greenish light that washed over them all.
"What was that?" Fudge asked in an uncharacteristically calm voice.
-A spell called Pacify. Its mostly used to calm enemies and remove their will to fight for easy dispatchment, but it is also useful for calming someone's nerves.
Harry wrote as they entered the tower, which Albus read out loud to the rest of them while looking Harry over curiously.
"Does anyone actually know where Sirius Black is imprisoned?" Rita asked suddenly as they reached the area where the prisoners were held, pointedly changing the subject.
"I do. Follow me." Moody, the only other person beside Albus to keep his head before the Pacify was used, growled as he led the way up the stairs to the prison proper.
Soon they were passing cells that held prisoners as they made their way upwards.
"Those we're passing now are the people with lighter sentences." Moody explained as he limped by them. "They'll be out in a few months or so, when their term is up, so they're closer to the exit. The lifers are up towards the top."
Harry nodded silently as he followed Moody up each flight of stairs, and analyzed the various prisoners as they passed them.
The people at the lower levels all looked gaunt despite supposedly only being here for a short time, their eyes desperate as they followed the movements of the group with wide eyes.
"Interesting. Usually they'd be begging to get out when we come through." Moody sneered as they passed them.
"Perhaps they are being more amicable due to the fact that Harry ran off the Dementors, as well as the lingering effect of his magic?" Albus suggested, as Harry was still glowing from the light of Stendarr's Aura.
As they climbed higher there was noticeable difference in the prisoners around them and how they acted.
Several of them began jeering at Harry when they realized who he was, calling him a variety of foul names while purporting continued devotion to the Dark Lord. Several even tried to claim that Harry wasn't going to leave Azkaban alive, which just made him snort lightly. Which then made the tower shudder slightly.
Finally, they reached the cell belonging to the man they had come to see.
"Black! You have a visitor!" Moody snarled as he smacked the bars of the cell with his knarled walking stick, stirring the man inside.
"Moody? Can't you let me sleep in peace?" Sirius grumbled as he tried to rub the sleep from his eyes. "I was having such a good dream too."
"Amazing..." Rita uttered as they crowded around his cell, each of them gawking at Sirius with unabashed curiosity.
Though physically he resembled the rest of the prisoners, Sirius Black seemed otherwise unfazed by spending a decade locked within Azkaban. He showed no signs of the madness nor depression that the other prisoners had, and his face displayed a certain rationale as he gazed upon each of them, until his eyes landed on the youngest one present.
"James..." Sirius uttered, his quivering voice filled with emotion as tears threatened to fall from his eyes as he looked Harry up and down.
"I feel as if I'm riding the Hogwarts express for the first time again..." Sirius uttered as he covered his face with one of his hands, tears running down his grime-covered cheeks as the memories returned to him.
It took a moment for Sirius to compose himself, but when he did he looked Harry up and down yet again even as the others all scrutinized him. This time though Sirius's gaze halted at Harry's face, specifically his eyes.
"Not James... Harry!" Sirius exclaimed as he sat up with a newfound sense of urgency, moving closer to the bars. Closer to Harry.
"My lord, Harry.... Its as if James himself was standing in front of me... except for your eyes of course. They belong to Lily."
As Sirius reminisced over his parents, Harry studied the man who seemingly betrayed them. Except now he was having his doubts.
Every single long-term resident they had passed on the way up here was borderline insane, especially those that once supported Voldemort as they yelled all kinds of colorful insults at him. Sirius was completely different though.
The man held none of the malice Harry had seen on the others, nor did he seem to be losing his mind either. In fact, he almost seemed sane. Almost.
Apparently Albus was thinking the same thing as Harry, as the two shared a look before the old man said to him, "You seem remarkably sane and composed for someone purported to be the right hand of Voldemort himself, as well as the reason the man who loved you like a brother died alongside his wife."
"I was never Voldemort's right hand." Sirius stated firmly, his eyes sharpening dangerously at the accusation, before they soften as he slumped down in his cell.
"It was however, my fault James and Lily died. If only I never suggested making Peter the Secret Keeper instead..."