Azkaban Black

Goodbye Azkaban...

Hogwarts was a stately silhouette on the landscape, looking for all it was immovable, an unshakable ground of reason.

That was about to change.

"Albus! Albus! "

Headmaster Dumbledore looked up from his paperwork with a wary eye. It wasn't often he heard Minerva sounding so panicked. The door burst open and Professor McGonagall stumbled in, holding a first-year's acceptance letter in a shaking hand.

"Yes, Minerva?" he questioned, looking at her over his half-moon spectacles.

She wordlessly held out the letter so he could see the address.

The headmaster blanched.

Azrael Regulus Black

Cell 12, North Tower

Azkaban

"I see," he said, and pushed his glasses up his nose. "Do you require assistance dealing with this, Minerva, or shall I leave it to you and the Aurors?"

McGonagall paled. "You're not the slightest concerned that a first year will be coming in from Azkaban?Shouldn't there be some sort of... " she trailed off. " regulation in place for this?"

"I do believe it is a rather uncommon circumstance," Albus said, eyes twinkling. "Of course, the boy will need to stay with someone during the interim until the school year starts," he mused. "Perhaps the Weasleys would be amicable to such a placement?"

McGonagall didn't respond.

"If you need anything from me in regards to handling him, I assume you will come to me," Dumbledore stated. "Now, if you will excuse me, I need to make plans regarding young Harry Potter, who will be joining us this year."

The deputy headmistress looked up sharply. "Potter?" she asked.

"Indeed. In fact, I ought to be going now. I plan on hand delivering his letter, you see," Albus explained.

Minerva nodded jerkinly. "Of course," she murmured. "I'll be going, then. I need to speak to Amelia Bones regarding young Mr. Black."

"You do that."

Another Black and Potter together. Merlin, I do hope they aren't too similar to the last generation's bearers of those names. And at the same time as the Weasley twins? Maybe I ought to start planning retirement.

The Weasleys would indeed take Black in until September first. " Oh, Merlin, Azkaban, you say? The poor dear, of course, we'd be happy to let him stay and we'll bring him to Diagon too, yes. You wouldn't happen to have any funds on hand for him, though, would you? We're rather tight right now. He has a vault, you say? Wonderful, we'll let him go to Gringotts first. No, we don't need any payment, of course not, just with Ron's things too I wasn't quite sure. Yes, of course, we'll be ready when he gets here. I assume you'll be accompanying him? Lovely, Minerva, we should have tea more often."

Professor McGonagall, along with two Aurors, sat in a skiff over pounding waves motoring toward the huge stone prison looming out of the darkness. Rain lashed the boat and thunder boomed ominously, providing the perfect setting one might imagine when approaching the monstrous building squatting on the island bashed by waves.

Minerva felt an increasing sense of apprehension as she and the Aurors assigned to assist her tromped up the muddy path to the gates. The wards passing over her rain-slicked skin felt oozy and slimy, as if allowing her passage past the property line in the most begrudging way possible, yet determined to make the experience as miserable and yucky-feeling as they could.