Chapter 163: Breakout

Chapter 163: Breakout

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I would like to thank my beta, Akisu, for his help in this chapter.

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1st November 1995, Hogwarts Earth 2

(Harry Potter POV)

Harry was especially cautious today. It was the day after Halloween, and for some reason nothing horrible had happened to him yet. This had never happened before, ever since he came to Hogwarts. For some reason the day was cursed. It was bad enough that it was the anniversary of his parents' deaths, but dangerous situations and inconvenient surprises kept following him every year. He fought a troll in his first year, found the first Basilisk victim in his second, Sirius Black who he thought to be a criminal at the time had broken into his dorm room I his third year, and he had been chosen as a champion to a dangerous and deadly tournament the previous year.

So yeah, Harry Potter was waiting for the shoe to drop, for the surprise to unveil itself and darken his day even further. For some reason, nothing happened when he woke up and got down to the common room. He had thought that the Halloween curse was broken.

He should have known better, and realized that it was still a thing when he entered the great hall and his suspicions were proven right by Hermione who had given him today's daily prophet.

In big bold letters was the title of 'MASS BREAKOUT FROM AZKABAN, BLACK CONSIDERED AS THE MAIN SUSPECT.'

The news had shocked the Boy-Who-Lived to the core. How the hell was the Ministry this incompetent, that they lost pretty much every inner circle Death Eater in a single night. Harry knew from Sirius that Voldemort had allied himself to the dementors during the previous war, but he thought that the Ministry had at least a minimum of competence, so as to not let just anyone stroll into the prison and break out some of the worst wizards and witches in recent history. Considering the crimes that were listed in the article, Sirius' supposed crimes would have made him a boy scout in the Death Eater squad.

From torture, flaying, treason, mass murder, use of the unforgivable curses, they were monsters. Hell, every single one of them had at least fifty kills under their belts and those were only the ones where the victims were wizards, that the Ministry knows of. How people thought that Sirius was Voldemort's right hand man was a joke. It was probably an actual Death Eater who had started this rumor. And as you know, rumors might as well be considered fact in the wizarding world.

Harry looked up and noticed that most of the students didn't seem to care about the Azkaban escapees. Apparently since the Ministry didn't make a fuss about them, like say that they would guard Hogwarts or do something stupid like send the dementors to Hogwarts again. The other students kept talking about their everyday lives, like Quidditch or homework, completely ignoring the danger that awaited them outside these halls.

The last Potter looked up to the teacher's table, where the atmosphere was unsurprisingly grim. McGonagall and Dumbledore were deep in conversation looking extremely grave. Professor Sprout had the Prophet propped against a bottle of ketchup and was reading the front page with such concentration that she was not noticing the gentle drip of egg yolk falling into her lap from her stationary spoon. Most curious though was Professor Sayre's reaction who had simply raised her eyebrows for a second before going back to normal. It was like she was slightly surprised but not overly so.

Harry was disbelieving, his mother and Snape were childhood friends? "Then why does he treat me like this?"

The woman smiled warmly, "You have no idea how much Severus Snape hates James Potter. I know that he has saved your life out of respect for his friendship with your mother, he still couldn't bare to like someone that looked like James Potter. I'm not defending him; it's petty, childish, and pathetic for a man his age to take his anger with a dead man out on his son. But you have to realize that the white knight image that people describe your father as, is not true. He was a person with flaws just like anyone else."

"But, didn't he save Snape's life? Dumbledore said so, himself."

The woman snorted, "yes, but what he didn't tell you is what he saved him from. Black ended up taking a prank too far and invited Snape to the Shrieking Shack during a full moon. Snape was almost killed by Lupin but your father saved his life. He didn't know what Black had done and acted by instinct. Dumbledore hushed things up, and the most they got was a detention. Understandably, Snape was furious about the encounter."

Harry was floored. Everything he had learnt about his parents was a lie. Professor Sayre continued, "the truth of the matter is that your mother was too good for your father, even if he came from an old rich family. I was surprised when she started dating him in her seventh year. A shame what happened to her, but at least, you're proof of her brilliance. Your survival is proof that a muggleborn was able to trick a dark lord into killing himself, and giving her son one of the most powerful protections ever made."

Harry looked at the woman in front of him pleadingly, "Then why won't you fight her murderer? Why wouldn't you oppose Voldemort?"

The woman's face softened, "I would say that this doesn't concern me, and it doesn't, but I don't think that you'll accept that as an answer. The truth is quite a bit simpler, other than me not trusting Dumbledore, for many reasons, I think that defeating Voldemort before he reveals himself would be a mistake. As I told you, Voldemort is a movement where the entire premise revolves around people's fear over Voldemort. Him coming back from the dead is something like that. Everyone thinks that your survival was a fluke of magic, that Voldemort is still all powerful. The only way to stop a movement, an ideology, would be to defeat its core in public, which means that someone will have to defeat Voldemort in single combat in front of a crowd. If I just snuck into his base and killed him, then no one would even acknowledge what happened and another dark lord would rise decades later picking up from where Voldemort left off."

"You told me about the prophecy, I'm supposed to fight him"

Professor Sayre snorted, "Kiddo, you're a fifteen year old brat that hasn't even completed his OWLs and you think that you'll beat a magical genius with decades of experience? He might be half mad, but it's more than enough to snap you like a twig in seconds. For Merlin's sake, your magic hasn't even matured properly yet. He was messing with you before and you had luck on your side, fighting him directly will get you nowhere."

"But what about his Death Eaters, can you teach me how to fight them?"

The woman sighed and nodded, "Alright. Consider this to be your first lesson."

"What is it?"

The woman chuckled, "Reality as you know it is but an illusion. You need to hone your senses, to differentiate between what is true and what is false."

Suddenly, gravity seemed to have reversed itself, and Harry was pulled away to the side. The wall sort of separated itself, revealing a familiar dark damp room. This was the chamber of secrets. But there was something wrong, something horrible, the basilisk wasn't dead. Harry ran for his life with his eyes closed.

What the fuck was going on? nove(l)bi(n.)com