Chapter Text
Amelia Bones had gone to sleep on January 1 st feeling rested. Now that Yule was officially a Holiday, she was able to get a much-needed break to spend time with her family. Due to the nature of her job, she still had to work just not as much.
But now she was back to work bright and early on the 2 nd . She should have known her uneventful holiday was too good to be true because the second she stepped through the doors of the ministry she was accosted in a panic by someone who she was sure should be in Azkaban right now.
“Madame Bones, I reported for my shift at Azkaban to find the previous guard kissed and the dementors gone.”
Amelia held back her sigh, this was worse than she could have ever expected. She wasted no time, gathering a team of aurors to go to Azkaban with her to scope out the situation. When they arrived they learned that the guard had missed one detail, a whole wing of people had been kissed. The death eater wing. And the dementors were nowhere in sight of the whole island.
Had they gone rouge all by themselves or was someone controlling them? How could they just disappear overnight without a single sighting? Amelia didn’t have an answer to those questions, she just knew that she had her work cut out for her.
Barty walked into the infirmary just in time to see Marigold place a spell that chained Bellatrix down to her bed as the woman jumped at her. Marigold hadn’t even flinched, she had stepped back and had her wand out in an instant. That type of reflex was impressive. She had also put her back to sleep right after.
This room had been transformed into a proper infirmary; there was a bed for each person and they were each separated by a barrier. Barty stood off to the side, waiting quietly as Marigold finished with Bellatrix, when she was done, she walked over to him.
“Hello. How can I help you?”
“Hi, I was just checking in on you. How’s everything going here?”
“It’s alright, the ones that have woken up are alarmed to be in a strange place but I’ve just been administering their potions and putting them back to sleep until your lord comes down to speak to them.”
“And how are they?”
“In even worse shape than I imagined. Prisoners or not, they shouldn’t have been treated like that. I’m sure you know what I mean.”
He did, he had experienced Azkaban himself. Putting prisoners there was cruel and unusual. He had seen the state of himself when they had come in. He had been in here most of the night on the initial healing team. He, Marigold, Mei, Severus, and Narcissa were here as each one arrived, taking care of any immediate injuries as well as getting them situated in their beds.
Marigold had commanded that room like a seasoned war healer who was used to multiple critical patients at once. Barty had gained a ton more admiration for her seeing that.
“Could I get you anything? Breakfast?”
“I’m good, but feel free to keep me company while I stay here.”
“Sure thing,” Barty agreed. That was no hardship. He hadn’t really been able to sleep when he had been sent off so he tossed and turned in bed until he could come back.
“Could I ask you not to talk to them for a few days? The mental state that they are in right now is going to be incredibly fragile, seeing you when they thought you were dead is going to shake them.”
Barty wanted to say no, he wanted to talk to his friends but he knew she was right. But he knew she was right. They were going to be incredibly lucid when they woke up, they might not even believe that he was real.
“I understand.”
Marigold smiled at him, he could see the tiredness in her face. She had slept in an extra bed in the infirmary so she could be here if anything went wrong. She straightened up when they heard a groan coming from one of the beds. “I’ll be back.”
Hadrian had wanted to sleep in today, he had needed to, but he was up just after a few hours of sleep. When they finished with Azkaban, he had checked up briefly with the healing team before going home and collapsing into bed. But he wanted to make sure Marigold was doing alright. Plus she would need his help dealing with the effects of the dementors on her patients. With the lengthy exposure, this could not be done with the ease he had done so for Sirius and Barty.
Hadrian got ready for the day, as he left his room he was unsurprised that Julio was waiting to come along with him. Marigold and Julio knew that they were both very strong and capable, but that didn’t mean they wouldn’t work for each other when they were doing something particularly taxing.
Dorian was still sleeping and Hadrian saw no reason to wake him up, he would come along later. So he and Julio went on their way. They flooed over to the manor and entered the infirmary, Marigold was engaged in a serious conversation with the dark lord. They both looked over as Hadrian walked to them, greeting them.
“How’s it looking over here?”
Marigold sighed, “not good. Worse than you warned me.”
Hadrian winced, what he had warned her about was already bleak.
“I know, you’ll help move the recovery process along, but my scans are overwhelming.” For Marigold to admit it was overwhelming to her rather than just power through, was told it all. “I’m not letting you or Dorian take on too much, it will be a process for all of us.”
“Okay, can I take a look?”
“Be my guest.”
Hadrian approached the first bed, he recognized the man as Augustus Rookwood, he had done his research. He hadn’t taken the time to examine them too much last night, he was focused on his task. But he could see what Marigold meant. Rookwood was thin and frail, he looked malnourished and sick and Hadrian could feel his pain from the dementor’s influence.
Hadrian placed his hand on the man’s forehead, he began to absorb some of the residue that was causing pain, he trashed painfully in his sleep, Hadrian watched as his veins turned black, he took his hand off of the man, realizing that he was only on the first person. An idea sparked in his mind as he tried to think of a way to make this easier.
Hadrian turned back to Marigold who was watching him, “I’ll be back.”
“Where are you going?”
“I have to check out some books and talk to my father. This is just not going to work… but I think I might be able to make it work. A cleansing ritual could work.”
“You can do that?” The dark lord asked.
“Well no such ritual exists but I believe I can create one. I just need to do some research. It will be easier on me and will help the recovery process along.”
“Then, it sounds like a good idea.”
Hadrian smiled at him, “if it works. I’ll keep you updated.”
As Hadrian was leaving, Narcissa arrived to help out. He greeted her happily before heading home and straight to his library. Dorian joined him about an hour through his research session.
“I was thinking about something along the lines of an exorcism,” he told his father.
“I could see that. Are you aiming to cleanse all of them at the same time?”
“It would be ideal, but perhaps we could do a few at first. We could have the others participate to strengthen the ritual.”
Hadrian did not get the time to further discuss the ritual as he received a summons for an emergency Wizengamot session. Hadrian went over immediately, not wanting to miss one bit of the drama. When he arrived, the wizards and witches were all chatting amongst themselves attempting to figure out what this could be about and what they knew.
“Do you know what this is about?” Lord Greengrass asked as he took his seat in the grey party section.
“No clue, do you?”
“No, all I know is Amelia called this session.”
“Must be something DMLE related then.”
“I believe so too. You know, the last emergency session she called was about you.”
“Hmm, I’m sorry to have missed it then.” He would have been delighted to see the chaos that was caused by his ‘disappearance’ all those years ago.
Hadrian looked around the room, Dumbledore had still not arrived, he was sure the man would make a late dramatic entrance. He was serious about what he would think about this. Hadrian was sure he would like to blame it on Voldemort returning but how would he explain the loss of the death eaters? Hadrian could tell the dark lord was wondering this himself as they locked eyes, Hadrian smiled at him.
Dumbledore finally casually strolled in once everyone was seated, waiting impatiently. He took a seat in the light since he was not leading this meeting. Their ‘leader’ had moved over so he could sit in that spot.
Amelia was sitting where Dumbledore would usually sit, she stood up and called the session into order, and got straight to the point.
“This morning I went into work and was alerted that the dementors had disappeared off Azkaban,” the room broke out into shock and outrage.
Hadrian watched it go down out of the corner of his eye, there was shock and disbelief from all sides. Carefully crafted masks broke in an instant at the news, Hadrian let himself look surprised as if he was shocked that something like that could happen. But he was mostly giddy inside of how well he had pulled that off.
The members of Wizengamot forgot their decorum at this, attempting to demand answers.
“How could this happen?”
“Where are they now?”
“Who is guarding Azkaban now?”
“Did anyone escape?” That question was no surprise coming from Dumbledore.
Amelia did not let any more questions get through before she called to order. “I know this news is shocking but it does not mean we can forgo the rules of this court. I will explain and then you can follow the proper procedures to ask questions.”
Amelia took a moment to collect herself before continuing with her explanation. “When I arrived at work this morning, our day Azkaban guard reported that she reported for her shift only to find the guard she was meant to replace kissed and the dementors gone. Upon further inspection of the prison, a whole wing of prisoners met the same fate. I sent a team flying around the country and surrounding areas but they have found nothing. In addition, I spoke with law enforcement from other countries and asked them to keep an eye out, so far they have not spotted anything.”
If Hadrian were a better person, he would feel bad for making Amelia’s job so difficult, she was on a wild goose chase. He was curious to see where it would lead her
“We must discuss what to do with Azkaban now that the dementors are missing as well as how to alert the public about this.” Amelia outlined the purpose of this session. “But first you may proceed with your questions. I will do my best to answer them in all this confusion.”
“Who were the prisoners that died?” Lord Greengrass asked, many others were still so shocked at the events that they couldn’t even muster up a question to ask.
“Bellatrix Lestrange, Rodolphus Lestrange, Rabastan Lestrange-”
There was a loud gasp from the light section, Hadrian could see Lady Longbottom clutching her chest, tears streaming down her face at the news that her son’s torturers were finally all dead. And she would be reunited with her son eventually, as far as she knew, life was good.
But on the other side, certain lords and ladies on the dark side looked disturbed. The people being listed were family members or friends and they had yet to know that they were truly alive.
“Is this supposed to be bad news?” Someone from the light side called out once Amelia finished her list.
“That’s what I was thinking, they should have been kissed years ago. If someone is controlling them, we ought to thank them.” Lord Dodge said bluntly.
Oh, that was going to start fights. Some of these people had relatives who just died, criminals or not. Family was important to wizards.
“Have we confirmed that these people are who they are meant to be? The disappearance of the dementors is very troubling and it is a bit suspect to me that they had only chosen to kill a certain group of people in the middle of the night as we were celebrating the new year.” Dumbledore was stroking his beard, his eye had a twinkle in it, and he was no doubt scheming.
“What are you trying to say, Lord Dumbledore?” Lord Nott asked.
“It’s not farfetched to wonder if someone has broken these prisoners out and taken control of the dementors.”
“And just who would have the power to do that?”
Dumbledore was more than prepared to answer, he looked eager, but Amelia interrupted.
“Enough! I would hold back the conspiracy theories, we have tested the bodies and they have not been tampered with. Their deaths were caused by a dementor’s kiss, I have the reports of their testing if you so desire to look it over.” With a wave of her hand, reports of the examinations done on the bodies were laid in front of them all. “All of those prisoners were kept in a separate high-security wing as they were dangerous. They were guarded by a large number of dementors at all times, other prisoners only had dementors patrolling their wings on a schedule. It was much more likely for those prisoners to be kissed.”
“I’ve always been horrified at the treatment of prisoners regardless of the severity of their crime. Azkaban is the most harsh prison in the wizarding world. I think now that ten prisoners have died, I think now is a good time to discuss alternative measures. Looking at these reports, the prisoners died from the dementor’s kiss but they were also in terrible shape… Malnutrition, untreated injuries, and more. Regardless of what you think of the prisoners, this is unacceptable. And what of the people serving light sentences?” Hadrian thought that if they were to keep Azkaban they needed a complete change to make it humane.
“I never did like that Azkaban was the only option. It did seem cruel for those with lighter sentences.” Lord Abbott, from the light party, commented.
“We are planning on moving the prisoners to the holding cells in the ministry and either expand more of a prison down there. Or just until we secure a different type of security in Azkaban. We will most likely improve the prison so it’s habitable for guards to stay there for more than a few hours at once.”
“If it wasn’t possible for guards to stay there for more than a few hours at a time, was it humane to keep prisoners there? I do think wherever we place them, there needs to be better regulations so that the prison is not inhumane. Prisoners suddenly dying when it could have been preventable, does not look good.” Lord Slytherin says.
“I agree,” Hadrian said, not surprising anyone. The two of them had become quite known for what people were recognizing as an alliance in these meetings. They did often agree and use each other to springboard their ideas off of.
“I looked into the rehabilitation of prisoners when they leave Azkaban as I had actually planned on proposing a bill on this. But the longer their sentence the less likely it is that they will ever rehabilitate into society. A lot of them end up homeless or dead.”
“While the Death Eaters may be dead, it’s important to remember that they are still criminals. Some are more severe than others. I think I and many others would feel more comfortable if they were still isolated rather than close to us.” A lady from the light side says.
The conversation around the prison continued for some more time before Amelia called for a vote on the future of the prison.
Renovating Azkaban to be a humane place won. Hadrian had voted for it as well, there were just so many issues with making a prison in the ministry that he hadn’t even addressed.
As the meeting ends, he watches Amelia and sees the stress in her eyes, he almost feels bad. Almost.
Amelia is having a horrible day, she has to deal with the dementors and Azkaban then the Wizengamot meeting, and then back to her previous issue. When Albus Dumbledore all but barges into her office later, she wants to curse him on the spot.
But she’s a professional so she asks instead, “how can I help you, Albus?”
“Amelia I must see those bodies for myself, surely it is a trick…”
“What are you trying to say, Albus?”
He strokes his beard and looks her in the eye, “Lord Voldemort has never been truly dead, I’ve been waiting for the day that he would come back and the dementor’s disappearance has him written all over it.”
Amelia stared at him, there were so many implications of what he had just said. “Why would he return and kill his most loyal followers?” She settled on asking. Dumbledore was a powerful well respected figure as much as she was doubting him, she would be foolish not to hear him out. It seemed like he knew some things she didn’t and hadn’t felt like sharing with the class.
“I don’t believe they’re truly dead. It must be a trick. Who else would be powerful enough to somehow take control of the dementors.”
“Albus, I examined those bodies myself as did she unspeakables. There is no trick, you can’t fake blood testing. Just this once I will allow you to see for yourself because I cannot have you believing this baseless claim. Lord Voldemort is dead and his followers have followed suit. If anything you should be celebrating.”
“I will believe it when I see it.”
Amelia shook her head at the stubbornness. She hoped that the man would not go around spreading this insane theory of his. She brought him to the cellar where they had transported the bodies for further testing. She allowed Dumbledore to do his own tests. When each one told him what Amelia had already said, he had the nerve to look surprised.
He didn’t look satisfied when he finally finished all his tests, Amelia was just glad that he left without a fuss. Amelia goes back to her office and sits in her chair with a sigh. She has a feeling that today is just the beginning of her troubles.