Red dragon

92

Godrics Hollow

"See you soon, Remus." Harry gave the werewolf a tight hug. "Be safe."

Remus looked down at the young man. He was already in his school uniform, ready to go to the station. "You too. Have a good term, Harry."

"I'll be fine." Harry gave a convincing smile. "Look after Sirius, for me, will you?"

The boys godfather rolled his eyes. "Come on, Pup, let's get you to that train."

Remus stood by the fire as the two disappeared in green flames. Harry was the closest thing Remus would ever have to a child, he couldn't allow himself to get close to any woman. It had been a long time since he had given up on that dream. Then he found Harry again. After so many years of begging Albus to see the boy. He was so old for a boy.

Remus trusted Harry without question, the boy held a natural aura of knowledge. Remus would do anything for him. It didn't matter to him that Harry was James and Lily's son. Not the way it did for Sirius. Remus just Trusted him.

"Hey, Lupin." Nymphodora Tonks clapped him on the back. "Feeling alright?"

"Yeah." Remus nodded turning away from the fire. "Just going to miss having him here, you know?"

"They're all waiting for you. Come on." Tonks grabbed Remus's arm and dragged him into the shed outside. It had started to get colder once again but a lot of work had been put into the cave. A set of the carpets and mats Harry had removed from the cottage had been returned and placed on the floor. It was a collage of colours and textures, but it warmed the room, and muffled the echoes. There were now lamps lining the walls, rather than just charms, and it added more warmth to the room.

Bill had given Fleur and Viktor a piece of parchment with the runes he needed on. They were now carving them into wax tablets. Bill was setting a circle of complicated runes in one of the corners of the cave. He had been working on that for almost an hour.

"Thanks Tonks." Moody nodded to Remus. "Mornin'." A large sketch of Azkaban was laid out on the table in front of Moody and Snape.

"We're having one last look over, it's not going to be easy for you." Severus rubbed his face. He would be staying there; he wasn't yet ready to safely leave the cottage. Well at least according to his healers he anyway; Severus wasn't going anywhere for a while if Rachel had anything to say about it.

"I know; anything new. How we getting in?"

Tonks grinned. "I got that covered. Bought a muggle speed boat." She gave a loving smile. "It's beautiful."

"We use the boat to get to the island. Then on the shore Bill will put another of those." Moody pointed to the runes on the floor. "Whilst he does that you, Tonks and Viktor have to climb the building."

"Alright." Remus agreed, they had been through this before.

"My brothers have given us some stuff to help with the climb." Bill mentioned from the floor. "It should speed up the process."

"Great, then we pull you three up, right?" Remus recalled easily. He had his werewolf proof rope that they were using, much stronger than regular rope.

"Once we've been round the perimeter placing the ward stones. You yank us to the roof." Bill reminded them, he was in charge of the technicalities of the magic involved. "Where I put my last travel Circle."

"Then we go down into the top floor." Moody continued "We're going to have to be quiet. Aurours have been placed on top and bottom floor."

"We have made ten of these vax runes ready now." Fleur explained dusting off the stray wax from her last tablet.

"One will go by the door on the roof. One for each of the Lestranges doors, Dolohov, Mulciber, and Macnair." Moody continued. "The Lestranges are on second to top floor and the other three are one down from them."

"If there's time you should move down to Travers, and Cronk." Snape pointed to the blueprint that had been roughly sketched. "They shouldn't be as important to him. But they're two floors down from Mulciber."

"Right if all goes perfectly we place a rune tablet with the bottom floor and get the hell out of there."

"Bill has got that one covered." Fleur gave a smile not unlike the one Tonks had given when talking about her new boat.

"Don't worry I'm seventy three percent sure this will work." Bill said rising from the floor to walk over to Fleur and Viktor so he could cheek there work.

"Only seventy." Not a number that instilled confidence.

All Bill did was shrug. "It has only been done once in the past six hundred years. It's really old but the ancients used to use it all the time so…" He trailed off as he picked up a shoe box from beside him.

"You fill me with confidence."

"It will work, here." He passed a leather cuff to the werewolf. On the underside was a wax rune- a little square spiral- and on the outside was a rune that reminded Remus of a trident. "If you're in any sort of trouble, pore some magic in there and it should get you out."

"Should; great..."

"It will work." Tonks nudged him with her elbow as she stuffed the chocolate into her pockets. "Have some faith."

Riddle Manor

Lord Voldemort looked across at his death eaters. The all knelt, many were eager to see their children off to school, but Lord Voldemort came second to no one. If he wanted his servants before him they would be there, children or no children.

They all looked sufficiently afraid. This was good it would not do to have slip ups. He illiterate one last time before sending them on their way. "I want the boy brought to me, alive."

Azkaban Prison

The boat crashed across the waves in elegant succession. Remus wondered how Tonks had the time to learn how to pilot a boat, but seeing her at the helm he knew she had more than just basic training. The spray from the sea became colder; like shards ice on their bodies.

"There it is." Moody kept a firm expression on his face as he looked up at the building, finally visible from the fog. Specks of black made his heart harden.

"Mamka mu, e studeno."

Bill nodded to Viktor. "I have no idea what you just said, but I agree with the sentiment." The two shared a look of comradery, as they gripped their wands tighter.

The island grew closer, the air turning to ice; the cold broke right through their warming charms and a feeling of dread settled into their bones.

"Shit, Shit, Shit." Tonks cursed her voice pure panic. "Braise yourselves!" She twisted the wheel back and forth trying to regain control of the boat. Water crashed onto the deck. Tonks turned to the propeller for a second to see a swarm of almost demonic kelpie's ramming the boat into the rocks.