September 2, 1997
"Quit pouting."
"I'm not," George pouted. He crossed his arms and stuck his lower lip out, trying to look as pathetic as humanly possible as he stared at Fred. "It's just, you bloody well could have told me so I could do it too."
Fred rolled his eyes and tried to explain, again. He'd had to explain it to his brother twice in the last few days, since the most recent thunderstorm, and now, while they gathered up broomsticks from the shed, George wanted to rehash it again.
"There weren't enough leaves," Fred said patiently. "Harry's giving the rest to the others."
"But they aren't here!" George whined. "He could have gave me Ron's! You know he'll never be able to become an animagus anyway!"
Fred laughed and counted the brooms he and George had.
"Eight… nine… ten," he said cheerfully. "C'mon, you can whine at Harry about how unfair he is and how dim Ron is on our way there, eh?"
"Oh yeah, he seems like he's in a right cheery mood," George hissed as they made their way back to the front of the massive house. "Freddie if you don't figure out how to properly shag your husband, he's going to end up snapping and killing us all himself."
Fred didn't bother dignifying George's remark with a response. As if a good shag would release all the weight his Harry carried on his shoulders.
Harry carried the weight of every muggleborn on his shoulders. Every member of his gang. Every body buried that he had once called a friend. Every baby being operated on and killed when their mad experiments failed.
And what would Harry's reward be in the end? After carrying all that weight for so long?
Death.
Best not to think about.
Not before an important mission where Fred would need to keep a close eye on his exhausted husband anyway. Those sort of thoughts were best saved for late nights when Harry finally slept for a few restless hours and Fred stared at the stars outside their window.
Fred focused on the mission ahead of them, the one that was as exciting as it was terrifying. Breaking into Azkaban and stealing all of Timmy's prisoners? Hilarious. Harry going back to the place that once broke him, surrounding himself with the monsters that did it?
Not so funny.
The twins joined the others in the front yard. Everyone that was leaving for the mission - Fred, Harry, George, Bill, Tonks, Luna, Susan, Lucius Malfoy, Sirius, and Snape - stood in a semicircle around Harry. They were all wrapped up in warm clothes, Fred spotted more than a couple Weasley sweaters from Mum, and had anxious expressions.
Harry, Susan, and Luna didn't, but they were their own brand of insane. And Fred had witnessed Harry pacing late in the night, muttering the plan to himself multiple times, so he figured a lot of Harry's current calm was a show.
"Brooms," Fred announced. He began handing them out to everyone, only stopping when Sirius waved him off.
"I'm bringing the bike," Sirius said. Fred hadn't noticed Sirius' bike parked up front, taking the place where Harry's usually sat for quick and careless drives around the area, but he looked over and twisted his lips thoughtfully at the side cart added to it.
"Bringing a passenger?" Fred asked, glancing over his shoulder to Harry.
Harry shook his head and checked the pocket watch he'd taken to carrying since Snape gave it to him for his birthday.
"He's got the bombs," Harry murmured. Fred grinned at the careless way Harry said it, as if grenades and other explosives from armories were as common as the grass on the ground beneath his boots. And in Harry's world where laws were never as important as results, they were.
"Alright, everyone clear on the plan?" Harry looked around at them all and nodded when nobody disagreed. "Brill. Sirius, take your potion. See you in a mo'."
Fred saluted everyone with a cheery wink before he turned on the spot and followed after his husband.
The rendezvous spot was nothing more than a cold stretch of beach in Edenburg. Fred popped in existence an instant before the others, stepping over beside Harry to whisper to him before he got distracted.
"You know how I got here so quick?" Harry lifted a brow in a silent response. "I just imagine coming home and somehow I always find you."
Harry grinned, the soft one he saved just for Fred. "You know how I always find you?" he whispered.
"How?"
"The tracking charm in your ring." Harry leaned up and pressed a swift kiss to Fred's surprised lips before pulling away and smirking at him. "Cost me 25 galleons too."
Harry danced away to the others while Fred slowly grinned. It should have sounded barking mad, being tracked without knowing it, but coming from Harry? It was practically romantic.
After a few minutes of waiting, nobody saying much and instead eyeing the smog filled distance that hid the sunset that they'd soon be flying toward, a quiet pop was all the warning their group had before the rumble of Sirius and his motorbike filled the air.
Or… Remus and Sirius' motorbike.
"Harry, was the potion you gave Sirius Polyjuice or did we pick up a stray?" Tonks asked as Remus smoothly parked the bike on the sand.
Harry gave Tonks a look that was perfectly exasperated and insulted. "Don't be fuckin daft, we couldn't have Sirius Black, Hogwarts Professor, show up tonight, could we?"
"So where is the wolf?" Snape asked slowly, eyeing the very un-Remus like grin on 'Remus'' face.
"Hogwarts, as Sirius, isn't he?" Harry said, just as slowly. Fred and George grinned at each other, always amused to hear Harry use Snape's own voice against him. "Use your heads, guys. I needed Sirius here and Tonks here, best option was to send Lupin there."
Harry shook his head as if it all made sense. And, to him, it probably did. But Harry's brain worked on a different level than everyone else's did.
One of the many brilliant things about him.
"Here's how this works," Harry called to the group after waving his hand and erecting a nearly invisible shield around them. "Tonks takes point, she knows where she's going, doesn't she?" Harry paused to look at Tonks, "Yeah?"
"Yes," Tonks nodded firmly, all business for once. "I've made this trip hundreds of times."
"Brill. 'Kay, so then I need Luna and Sirius in the middle, the rest of us circle them. It's what- a two hour flight to the prison? Let's make it in one. When we get there, Luna gets on the bike, Sirius, Susan, and Fred land with me—,"
"I will as well," Snape interjected smoothly with a pointed look at Harry. "I believe you will desire to have as many of us able to cast the Patronus Charm on land as you can have."
"Not until after we," Harry gestured to himself, Fred, Sirius, and Susan, "take down the wards. Once I give the signal, I want everyone except Lucius and Luna to land and start casting their patronus and apparating the muggleborns to Moon Lodge." Harry gave Lucius a harsh look, "And you will stay beside Luna and help with the bombs. Don't fuckin' throw them until I give the signal. Green for patronus people, red for bombs, got it?"
Lucius, who looked a bit green in the diminishing light, nodded tersely. "I understand," he bit out. He gave Luna a quick and considering look. "You are quite safe with me, Miss Lovegood."
"Oh I know." Luna smiled sweetly at him. "Draco would be terribly unhappy if I got hurt. I don't think it's fair that he would blame you, but life is very unfair at times."
"Right," Harry smirked. Luna grinned at him, her eyes glowing in a mischievous way. "If anyone has any fuckin questions, any at all, ask now because once we get there I don't have time to hear them."
George, idiot that he was, thrust his mittened hand in the air and began jumping up and down. "Ooh! Ooh! Harry! Me!"
Fred wrapped an arm around Harry's waist, trying to loan him some patience when Harry sighed loudly.
"Is it a real question about the mission?"
"No."
"Then shut up and focus."
Susan dug in the bag crossed over her shoulder and pulled out Harry's cloak.
"Don't be daft, if they see you we'll never have time to blow anything up," she snapped when Harry didn't immediately take it.
"She's right," Bill said. "Ritters said it's Gale on duty tonight, and old Gale's a smoker. If he see's you on his break, who do you think his first call is to?"
Harry scowled and then snatched the cloak, tossing it over himself and disappearing from sight. "If the Minister shows up, everyone go home."
Snape's hand clenched on his broomstick. "That does mean everyone, Harry."
"Yup," Harry said, convincing no one. "Let's do it then, yeah? Nobody die, I'm fuckin sick of funerals."
Harry was obnoxious, Fred adored him.
Everyone mounted their brooms, Sirius on his bike, and waited for Harry's signal.
"Let's go to prison," Harry drawled.
That was that and they kicked off, flying straight to the last place Fred wanted his husband to ever return to.
The flight was bitterly cold for the first twenty minutes while they all flew in silent formation. It wasn't until Luna shivered from where she flew beside Sirius that Fred heard a quiet "Jesus fuckin Christ" as the only warning before they were all hit with a warning charm.
"Try not to forget you are wizards when we get there," Harry's voice hissed from where he circled the group beneath his cloak. Fred heard a quiet sigh from Snape on Tonks' right side, but he figured it was Snape's fault for refusing to stay behind at Moon Lodge with the 'healing team'.
Fred didn't say so, as much as he preferred to not remember the dark months when Harry returned from Azkaban without a piece of himself, but the 'healing team' was a bit of a park in his opinion. They might be effective for whatever innocent kids that only arrived in Azkaban yesterday, straight from Platform 9 3/4, but the others? The ones who spent weeks, months, in there, as Harry did?
Well. They'd never really been able to heal Harry, had they?
And Fred wasn't the only one who thought so. He and Susan had a nice chat about it as soon as Harry decided that bombing the prison was their best option. Neither Fred nor Susan wanted Harry to return, both of them worried what the side-effects would be on him.
But Fred's Harry was a stubborn bastard and said that he had a foolproof method in the form of his hilarious animagus, so Fred dropped the matter and privately decided to not leave Harry's side. If all else failed, Fred would just grab him and apparate away.
Harry would be pissed, but he usually always forgave Fred so he wasn't too worried.
Fred knew they were close when the smog increased and the temperature dropped ten degrees. When Azkaban came in view, Tonks slowed to a stop directly above it.
Fred was caught in a sort of abstract horror when he squinted though the eerie fog to see the place that Harry still screamed about in his sleep sometimes.
It was as massive as it was terrible.
Azkaban stood alone, a solitary island in the middle of the dark and unforgiving ocean. The waves lapped up against the black brick walls, traveling as high up on the building as they could. The lower walls held no windows, allowing in no light, and they were still sparse the high up they went. Fred counted what was probably three floors - Tonks said the main floor was 'administration' and 'dementor housing' - before a tall tower, crooked and ominous, shot up in the sky.
"There," Tonks called, her voice still barely heard over the sound of waves crashing against the prison. She pointed to a small dock, barely visible, attached to what had to be the main entrance of the prison.
"Catch." Harry ripped his cloak off and tossed it to Luna. Fred heard Snape let out a pained noise, probably imagining the cloak falling had Luna not caught it. Harry turned on his broom and Fred caught a sick expression twisting his features. "Ready?"
"Ready," Susan said, frowning at Harry just as Fred was.
"Let's get it over with," Sirius sighed. Fred hadn't noticed until he looked at him, but Sirius looked just as haunted beneath his disguise as Remus as he had right after being pardoned. Sirius took a long draw from his silver flask, probably Polyjuice, but Fred wouldn't blame him if he brought along something stronger either. "Luna, come here."
Luna floated over to Sirius, as graceful on a broom as she was on her feet, and the two of them carefully exchanged seats.
"Black." Sirius looked up from Luna's broomstick to where Snape called his name. Snape's face was grave, none of his usual animosity present when he stared Sirius down. "You can handle this?"
"Aww, they're friends," Susan whispered to Fred with a giggle quiet enough to not be noticed.
Sirius glanced toward where Harry was floating beneath Fred and Susan and then set his jaw and nodded at Snape.
"Wouldn't be here if I couldn't, mate," he said flatly. "C'mon, Harry, stick close. I know the layout better than you."
Fred felt his stomach swoop and a wave of nausea wash over him as the four of them descended toward the prison. He glanced over to where Harry flew, a layer of sweat always coating his ghostly pale face, and opened his mouth to say something. He snapped his mouth shut when he, for one of the few times in his life, could think of nothing to say.
The four of them landed on the very edge of the wooden and weather beaten dock. Susan silently collected their brooms, shrinking them and stuffing them in her bag. Fred stared at the entrance to the prison, great metal doors, as black as the walls.
He wondered how Harry felt when he was first brought there and saw those doors for the first time. Fred looked at where Harry's eyes were trained to the doors just as his had been and wondered how Harry felt in that moment.
Was he backsliding in his memories? Were the shadows in his eyes stronger than the firmness of his shoulders? Was he scared?
Would he ever admit it if he was?
Harry's eyes pulled away from the door and up to Fred's. "Ready?" he asked.
Fred reached out and grabbed his hand, squeezing it briefly before regretfully having to let go.
"Fred and I will take the window around back," Susan said, reminding them of the plan they'd formulated as soon as they discovered their animagus forms. "Harry, Sirius, go through the front. Take down the wards, okay?"
"I know," Harry snapped. Harry sucked in a harsh breath and then released it after a moment. "I know," he repeated, more calmly. "Once you see a patronus, start guiding people to the exit and getting them out."
"Aye, aye." Fred saluted Harry then pulled him in for a quick kiss, one that felt frantic in a way. "Stay safe, darling."
"You too." Harry stepped away from the others and shook his hands out. "Fuck." Harry huffed, his breath visible before him. He looked at his godfather and the two of them exchanged a look loaded with shared memories of torment. Harry's voice was uncharacteristically quiet, "Siri…"
Sirius stepped over and placed both hands on Harry's shoulders, blocking him from Fred and Susan's view.
"I know," Sirius said quietly. "Pup, if you can just get those wards down, you can get your arse right back in the air and help Luna - protect her - with the bombs, alright? Two steps in, shift back long enough to just destroy their wards, and then you're home free. I'll keep the dementors back, you just do the wards."
"Yeah," Fred could hear Harry's harsh breathing and the quiet chatter of his teeth that had nothing to do with the cold. "In and out. Destroy the wards, bomb the prison."
Fred felt unease settle low in his stomach.
This was a mistake, it told him.
Bringing Harry to Azkaban was a mistake.
"I'm ready," Harry said.
Fred pushed away his unhelpful thoughts and centered himself as Susan did, none of the new animagi were as talented as Sirius at instantly shifting, but Fred wasn't bad either. Fred closed his eyes and envisioned his form; the long and lean coyote with the red fur and blue eyes. It had been confusing, Fred thought he'd be a chimpanzee like his patronus, but Sirius had been the one to tell him about the history of the coyote.
The mischief king of animals, the trickster in old tales, the sneaky and playful spirit of the animal.
It made a damn lot more sense after that. Much more sense than Harry's hysterical animagus form.
Fred felt magic wash down his limbs and smiled to himself as it felt like it was welcoming him, embracing him.
You'll be safe as the coyote, he liked to think it said. You'll keep him safe too.
Fred shimmered and his limbs gave a harsh twist before he settled and opened his eyes. Everything was sharper as the coyote, every line in the walls of the prison were clear to his clever eyes and every wave sounded a hundred times more powerful. He looked over toward where Sirius stood at attention, his black snout pointed at Harry while Harry tried to clear his mind and transform.
Even though Harry was the best at occlumency, he was the slowest at transforming. Sirius explained that it was because it took a lot of self-acceptance to embrace your inner animal and let it change you, but Fred wasn't sure how much of that was just Sirius trying to sound wise.
Susan changed next. In a split-second she changed from the tall and fierce girl to her twitchy little bird animagus. She looked tiny and unassuming, her one wing fluttering while she opened and closed her beak repeatedly.
It surprised nobody that Susan was a breed of bird nicknamed the 'Butcher Bird'.
The three of them watched Harry, waiting for his face to go slack and his heaving chest to slow. When it happened, Fred couldn't help the raspy laugh that escaped his snout when his beautiful husband transformed to a massive, glorious, green-eyed, polar bear.
Harry shook his white fur out and pulled his muzzle back in what was either a smug smile or a look of irritation. He'd been in a right pissy mood when he first transformed and Susan and Sirius told him what his form was. Apparently Harry wanted to be an owl or a snake, something as subtle and unobtrusive as Susan's little bird was.
Harry Potter wasn't a person who could be missed in a room though, and neither could his animagus.
Fred privately thought Harry made an adorable polar bear. All snowy white fur and glowing green eyes. There was a scar on the right side of his heart shaped face, a crooked line to match the silver one on his human face. Another one, a little zigzag of a scar, marked his forehead. Fred would know that bear, not quite fully grown, was his husband, but he hoped nobody else pieced it together for their current mission.
Susan hopped over and did an odd jump and flutter to land on Fred's head that he dipped low for her. It was sad, in his opinion, that Susan was a bird that couldn't fly, but she hadn't complained so Fred didn't mention it. He let out a raspy call to Harry and Sirius and then he and Susan turned and began moving to the back of the prison, in search of the single window on the ground floor.
A trilling chirp let Fred know when he'd nearly ran past it, stretching his legs that seemed to be built for speed. He sniffed his way cautiously to the window, whining between his sharp teeth when the air smelled cold the closer he got to the window. Every instinct in his mind screamed to get further from the smell, not closer, but Fred still crawled toward it.
Susan hopped from Fred's head to the window with bars just wide enough for Fred's thin form to slip between. He had to immediately clamp his mouth shut to keep a whine from escaping his lips once his paws hit the freezing and damp floor.
The room they'd entered, a cold cell that was lit by a single candle, a holding cell, Tonks said, held only an inkling of the misery that Fred knew the other cells held. The cell that Harry had been in, the one on the upper level of the tower, for the worst offenders, would somehow be worse. But, Fred looked around and used all his senses to take in the slimy walls and the concrete slab that was used as a bed, the stains on the floor that stunk like human waste… Fred wasn't sure how anyone survived Azkaban.
If the conditions weren't enough to make him sick, the chill of the dementors did. It was thick and choking, their cold auras seeping in every crevice of the building. Fred's fur stood on end even before he heard the moans and screams from the prisoners, silent to him before he'd breached the walls.
Fred wasn't sure how Harry ever managed to come back to him.
Susan led them forward, her feathers bristling as her claws hopped quietly through the empty cell and between the bars. They moved quickly, Susan following the route they'd memorized while Fred kept their backs safe. They'd nearly reached the stairs that would take them up to the levels filled with cells when there was a shiver in the air that tasted bitter followed by a snap that cleared the bitter air away all together.
Fred didn't need Susan's chirp to tell him that the wards were down. He'd never doubted that Harry would be able to do it.
A growl ripped through the air just a fraction of a second before a scream split the silence. A scuffle, a bark, another growl that masked the scream—
Silence.
Birds couldn't really convey emotion, but Fred saw his own panic reflected in Susan's dark eyes. They didn't have to wait long before a lumbering and heavy gait pounded the corridor and nearly crashed in then where they waited to ascend the stairs together.
There Harry stood, on four paws in all his polar bear glory, a ferocious snarl exposing his sharp teeth that dripped with blood. Sirius caught up a moment later, shaking his dark fur to expel the drops of blood that soaked him.
Fred assumed that Gale had chosen a pretty damn poor time to go for a smoke break.
Fred whined at Harry, go wait with Luna, and Harry growled. He twisted his great white head to look at Sirius, the two of them conveying some silent message, before Sirius barked and suddenly appeared as himself.
Merlin. Sirius looked terrible. If the few minutes they'd been inside had the ability to make Sirius look so pale beneath the blood, his hands to tremble when he brandished his wand, Fred didn't want to know how Harry would look when they finally got out.
Sirius sent his patronus charging up the stairs, leading the way with a warm white light, and he waited for a moment as his shadowed eyes followed it.
"Harry sent the signal, let's get as much help as we can before we go up," he said hoarsely, not explaining why Harry was still there or why Sirius had been the one to send the patronus when Harry's was more typically solid.
Sirius just shifted back to his dog form when Fred felt his heart lift and warmth flood his body.
As a group, a swarm of patronus' surrounded them. Snape's fox attached itself to Harry's side, giving him as searching of a look as its caster typically did. Bill's jackal hovered beside Fred, enveloping him in the love of his eldest brother. A silver rabbit found Susan, circling her with all of Luna's joy. George's chimpanzee, the identical match to Fred's own patronus, bounded eagerly in the air beside him. A pretentious peacock and a little silver chameleon stood in front of them, Lucius and Tonks' addition to the protection against the dementors.
Spurred on by the warmth and the support, their group began charging up the stairs.
At the first turn off, Harry went left and Sirius followed. Fred figured that if he could trust anyone to keep Harry safe in Azkaban, it was Sirius.
The man would die for Harry and Fred truly appreciated him for it.
Fred and Susan went right, barging in a corridor filled with screams, cries, and dementors. Fred skid to a stop - the stench overwhelming his senses. It smelled like complete misery. There was no better way to describe it. Fred shivered when the patronus' that followed them charged down the corridor, easily clearing away the five dementors that had been gliding toward them.
With the corridor cleared, the patronus' lingered, offering warmth and light to illuminate the corridor.
"What is it?" a raspy voice asked followed by a wracking cough. Susan chirped softly when faces began poking between the bars; young faces, faces of the first year muggleborns and possibly even some half-bloods, no doubt.
They were meant to be having their first day of classes. Learning to use lumos and change matchsticks into needles. And instead, they were being fed on by dementors in the bleakest place on earth.
It was an injustice that fueled Fred with a burning desire to fix it.
"Dunno." A boy with sandy blonde hair and terrified eyes stared at Fred as he reported to the kids in the cage behind him. "Some sort of dog thing and a bird?"
Fred yipped, not even offended.
"Tell it to eat us or piss off," another tiny voice called, holding just enough of Harry's accent to make Fred pull his lips back in a smile.
Susan, brave witch that Fred knew she was, shook out her single wing before her bird shifted to her normal appearance. Fred couldn't change back, he'd have to guide them rather than carry anyone. If he changed back then his senses would be dulled and he wouldn't be able to hear if Harry needed help or if Ministry workers appeared.
"Please don't be scared," Susan called to the dozen or so kids lining each side of the corridor, filling the miserable cells. "We're here to help you."
A girl with dark skin and a mess of black braids with tiny red beads on the end stuck her face right up against the bars.
"I know you!" she cried, her eyes flicking quickly to Susan's golden arm. "You're Susan Bones! Which means…" her face lit up when she looked at Fred, "Is that Harry Potter?!"
A few others smushed their faces against the bars, maybe the ones with siblings or other ties to the magical world that recognized the name, and they all held hope on their faces as they looked at Fred.
Fred wished he were Harry, he wished Harry could see how much hope he inspired in these future witches and wizards who considered him to be a hero.
"Harry's here, but not him," Susan said. She stepped up to one of the cells and gripped the metal bars with her golden arm and pulled on it harshly. "That's his husband though," she added after she bent the bar enough to make a child sized gap in it.
The girl with the beaded braids stepped through and grinned at Fred in a familiar way.
"You're Fred then," she said knowingly. "I'm Cheyanne Thomas, your sister's dating my brother."
Fred barked softly at the girl and twisted his head toward the staircase.
"Come on, guys," Cheyanne yelled to the others. "Let's get out of this crazy place!"
There were a few cheers, a few sobs, and Fred led the group of eleven year olds back down the staircase and toward the exit. Susan followed on foot, carrying a shivering and unconscious little waif of a girl in her arms. Fred hoped none of them noticed the bloody and mangled corpse right by the door, but the boy with the sandy hair skid to a stop right beside it.
"Better him than us," the girl with Harry's accent and purple tipped short hair told him. She grabbed his arm and yanked, hard. "Come on, let's go."
Fred waited outside long enough for Bill, George, Snape, and Tonks to each take a few of the kids and pop away from the dock and toward safety. Then, he turned and followed Susan right back inside.
They passed Harry on the stairs - him and Sirius leading out another group of young kids, maybe second years - and Fred swore that he would never forget the sight of Harry's polar bear self carrying two kids on his back for the rest of his life.
By the time they cleared two more floors, Fred was certain that all of the students had been evacuated. It stung when he saw familiar faces; Dean Thomas, Colin Creevey, Dennis Creevey, and Justin Finch-Fletchey were all there. Fred assumed there were more, but perhaps they'd been smart enough to flee when the new orders came in instead of trying to obtain a magical education.
The fourth floor, the second to last one, was filled with all the dementors that the two teams had driven away. It was also a single corridor, which let their group stay together to clear.
Fred saw that while his hackles were raised, Harry and Sirius looked exhausted in their animal forms. Harry somehow managed to make his polar bear look weary, his paws dragging slowly on the floor. Susan, who never changed back and became the mouthpiece for the group, sent her badger patronus down the corridors with the others, audibly grinding her teeth when she forced her magic to hold and chase away the dementors.
It was a truly unhelpful thought, but Fred didn't relish the idea of facing what would doubtlessly be hundreds of dementors on the final floor, the floor that had once been Harry's.
With the dementors gone, Fred focused his senses on the cells, trying to pinpoint how many people they would need to clear out. It was difficult to tell without looking, as quiet as the shuddering breaths were. Fred assumed they'd made it to the muggleborns who had been there for longer than two days, the adults who had been arrested when Timmy first took office.
The ones who would be nearly as catatonic and lost in themselves as Harry had been.
Susan stepped up to the cells while Fred, Harry, and Sirius protected the doorways, and her chin wobbled at whatever she saw.
"Next floor," she whispered weakly, practically fleeing from the prisoners to where the three animagi waited. She shook her head when Sirius barked in a questioning manner. "Nothing to do," she said. Harry growled when a tear slipped from one of her eyes.
Sirius transformed back quickly enough to dart down and confirm what Fred suspected. "Damn it all," he swore. Fred inched closer, crawling on his stomach, and whined at the bodies he saw.
There were nearly ten of them; laying across one another in stinking heaps of human waste and putrid sores. Men, women, teenagers- all laying with their chest's moving to create their ragged breath sounds, but their eyes open and unfixed.
Soulless.
Fred slid back beside Harry when Sirius changed back; the four of them stood in solemn silence for the ones that were past saving. Then Harry let out a furious snarl, the sound echoing around the room, bouncing off the walls like a war cry, and he shimmered and shrunk until he was Harry again.
"Fuck this." Harry's eyes flashed with anger and he stormed forward, looking more alive than the pallor of his skin and the shaking arms would have made him seem. "Go, Sirius, Susan, get to the top floor. I'll meet you there."
Susan nodded and grabbed Sirius by the ear when he didn't leave. She gave Fred a look over her shoulder, watch him, it said, and then moved to evacuate the last floor of Azkaban.
Harry looked down at Fred and stuck his hand on Fred's neck, curling his fingers in the fur. Fred tried to send Harry support, assurance, love, but Harry merely held on while he stared at the broken bodies in the pile.
"It's fuckin sick," Harry said. His voice shook, but Fred couldn't be sure what caused it. Harry blinked at the bodies for long enough that Fred was about to shift back, drag Harry out by his hair if he had to. Then Harry lifted his empty hand, held it in front of himself, and closed his eyes.
A flash of green.
The ragged breaths ceased.
And Harry let out a shaking sob.
"Abracadabra," he whispered. His face looked wrecked and his shoulders slumped after he put the husks of the witches and wizards permanently out of their misery.
Fred whined and carefully bit Harry's jumper, pulling enough to shake Harry back to his senses.
Come on, darlin, let's go, Fred thought viciously when Harry stared down at him and didn't seem to see him. Let's get out.
Harry nodded and closed his eyes again; he inhaled slowly, pushed the air back out just as slow. He did it a few times and then snapped his eyes open.
"I can't," Harry admitted, his voice as pained as his eyes looked. "I…" Harry trailed off and wiggled his fingers. "Fuck," he swore. "I- I can't get- my magic isn't listening, Fred!"
In the face of Harry's rising panic, Fred felt a sense of calm fill him. He used the calm to focus his magic, envisioning himself tall and lanky, red-headed and with a silver ring on his left hand.
Fred's fur had just receded and his limbs grew to human length when Harry's eyes rolled in the back of his head and his legs collapsed beneath him. Fred didn't move fast enough and Harry's head struck the stone floor with a sickening thud that triggered a loud bark from the floor above them.
"I'll send my patronus to them, they can do one floor alone," Fred said, the only assurance he could give Harry, hopefully breaking through his consciousness. He tossed Harry over his shoulder, not at all liking how limply Harry's body was, and grabbed his wand from his pocket. Fred fought against the memories of Harry, broken—
"You aren't real."
Of Harry, missing during the fourth task—
"Harry's a survivor. He's going to be fine, he's going to come back to us. He can survive anything."
Harry's unbearable burden—
"When it's all said and done, when I've disabled Timmy and tore down as much of his work as possible, I've got to die."
His mum's broken sobs when she told them his dad died—
"He's gone. He's gone. He's gone."
Fred pushed the memories the dementors aura brought up and focused on the happiest day of his life.
"I do."
"I now pronounce these two husband and husband."
"Expecto Patronum!"
Fred's goofy looking chimpanzee burst from his wand, bouncing in place and ready to do his bidding.
"Go help Susan," he ordered it. "I'll be fine, you go."
Fred followed his patronus to the end of the corridor, keeping a steadying hand on the back of his worryingly silent husband. Once the patronus flew upward, Fred began sprinting downward as quickly as he could. He didn't encounter any dementors, but the aura of the dementors seeped in his bones and clouded his thoughts.
"YOU'RE NOT REAL!"
"Dad- I want dad back."
"Stop. Please. Stop."
Fred bit his tongue to keep from screaming at the worst memories in his life as they attacked him and reminded him how powerless he was.
Night had fully taken over when Fred burst through the exit, running full tilt toward Snape on legs made of jello. Bill met him halfway though and swung Harry in his firm arms when he saw Fred stumble.
"Take him home," Fred ordered his brother just before he focused long enough to drop down on four legs and let out a commanding bark. He sent a last searching look at where Harry was unconscious in Bill's arms, then ran back in the prison, protected from the dementors in his animal mind, with Tonks on his heels.
Tonks waved her wand, charging ahead of Fred, and cast a new patronus. For such a small creature, it let off just as much warmth and light as any other patronus.
"Faster," Tonks called, grinning over her shoulder as she ran up the stairs. "I want to get Susan and Sirius and get the hell out of there."
Fred let out a howl of agreement and put all his focus away from his poor husband and toward finishing the mission so that Harry never had a reason to return.
Fred and Sirius were trembling in the air once the last of the prisoners were cleared away and their team could rise to the sky with Luna and Lucius. Snape didn't return when he apparated away with two more liberated muggleborns, Fred assumed he'd stay with Harry while Fred made sure Harry's mission was completed.
Susan sat on Luna's shoulder, chirping to Luna as she deigned to not change back. Fred figured it was fair, Susan had spent the most time human around the dementors in the prison, she'd earned the right to collect her mind as her little shrike form.
Sirius, back as himself, sat on a broomstick on one side of Luna while Fred and Tonks shared a broomstick on the other side. Fred hadn't felt confident in his ability to fly, and he'd have preferred to share with George or Bill, but Tonks was bloody insistent.
"Gotta keep you safe," she said cheerfully, her unflappable energy still high despite her brief foray in the prison. "Harry'll kill me if I don't."
Fred shivered and held on to Tonks' sides a little tighter, trying to steal her warmth.
George floated beneath Luna, doing tricks and twirls on his broom, and grinned at her once he flipped upside down and flew directly in front of her.
"I think it's bombs away, Luna-Loo," George said brightly.
"Let's get it over with," Sirius said shakily. He reached in his jacket and pulled a pack of smokes out. He held it up to Fred after popping one in his mouth, but Fred shook his head.
He needed Harry, not tobacco.
Luna dug in the side-cart and carefully pulled out a green metal contraption that Fred knew Harry called a grenade. She held it up and smiled as she squeezed the trigger in and then pulled the pin out.
"Bombs away," Luna quipped before she pulled her arm back and threw the grenade down toward the prison as hard as she could.
Fred followed it with his eyes while he clung to Tonks' back and propped his chin on her shoulder. The grenade flew… flew…
BOOM!
The metal grenade struck the tower, Fred sucked in a sharp breath when the air was suddenly filled with flames so hot that Fred very nearly felt as if he were burning.
Fred closed his eyes, keeping his face from scalding in the flames, and only opened them when the heat and the sound of the explosion diminished.
"What the fuck?!" Fred yelped, adopting Harry's favorite expression. He frowned and rubbed his eyes until he saw stars. Then he opened them and saw that nothing had changed- Azkaban was still standing massive and unharmed.
"Why didn't it work?!" George demanded as he continued to fly around and do barrel rolls around their stunned group.
Susan, in a move so graceful that Fred would forever be jealous, leapt off Luna's head and transformed back just as she landed on the seat behind her.
"Magic," she said as a simple response to George's questions. She pulled Luna against her chest, hugging her for a moment, then both girls reached in and grabbed a grenade. Susan handed one to Sirius then dug in the side cart and handed one to Tonks.
"All together, squeeze the triggers to the side, pull the pin out, and we throw them on three," Susan commanded after securing her own grenade. "Squeeze, one!"
Fred held the broom steady, reaching around Tonks to grasp it firmly, while the four others squeezed the silver triggers to the sides of their bombs.
"Pin out, two!"
Fred shook his head and grinned at little at his twin while George continued to fly around. He was pleased George didn't go in the prison, one of them needed to feel happy at the success of their mission. Fred doubted if his happiness would return until later when he had Harry in his arms.
"THREE!"
Fred ducked his face and closed his eyes once more as the four grenades flew through the air. He tried to pretend he was his coyote once more, using his ears to track the sounds and their success.
Whoosh, the grenades flew through the air-
Someone hissed between their teeth-
An explosion so loud that Fred only barely heard a jubilant cry spill from his twins mouth, "YESSS!"
Heavy and ominous splashes as what Fred imagined were chunks of black bricks flew from the prison and landed in the water, never to be rebuilt.
Bill let out a scream- "GEORGE!!"
Fred's eyes flew open and, like a magnet, zeroed in on his twin- too far from the group, too close to the inferno of fire -just before George was engulfed by the flames, hidden in the flying rubble, and pulled in the dark water filled with the remnants of what had once been the most feared place on earth.
splash.