KenderCleric's Challenge #15 - Sins Repaid

Summary:

The final battle between the Dark Lord Voldemort and Harry Potter was over. Harry and his friends Hermione and Ron had located and destroyed the Dark Lord's Horcruxes, and had only been waiting for a time to confront the Dark Lord himself. Their chance had come when they had arrived, unannounced, at the Order Headquarters at Number Twelve Grimmauld Place. The Order of the Phoenix had been under attack by Voldemort's forces.

During the battle no one had a chance to consider how Voldemort and his Death Eaters had found the house, much less entered it. Everyone had been too busy fighting for their lives in a hopeless situation. Of the Order members trapped in the headquarters during the attack all perished, but not without taking down the majority of their attackers. Ron and Hermione had put up an excellent fight and cleared the last of the Death Eaters while Harry tried to keep Voldemort occupied.

The Dark Lord had anticipated the plan though. Ron and Hermione fell to two back-to-back Avada Kedavras before Harry could even shout a warning. It was down to Harry, Lucius Malfoy, Bellatrix, and Voldemort. The odds were not looking good for Harry, but as Voldemort began his usual gloating over the situation Harry acted.

Unfortunately Bellatrix and Lucius had been anticipating something similar and had him disarmed and bound before the spell had finished on his lips. Voldemort decided not to waste any further time and shouted what should have been his final Killing Curse of the evening. Harry closed his eyes in acceptance of his fate, but glad that at least Voldemort was mortal once again and could be defeated.

A familiar voice screamed, "NO!"

Harry opened his eyes again just in time to watch Ginny Weasley throw off his Invisibility Cloak and leap into the path of the curse. Her entire body flashed with a halo of green light for the span of a heartbeat before crumpling to the floor. As callus and cold as the thought was Harry couldn't stop it passing through his mind, "What an idiot."

Voldemort cursed the stupid girl and again cast his spell. The instant the light of the curse emerged from his wand he knew his mistake. Harry couldn't believe his eyes as the spell struck him, seemed to melt into itself, and then strike back at Voldemort. The pain was intense, but not worse than one of Voldemort's cruciatus'. He couldn't believe Ginny had loved him enough to provide the same protection for him his mother had. He felt a little worse about his thinking her an idiot in that moment.

History repeated itself as Voldemort's spell again backfired upon him. This time, however, he had no Horcruxes to protect him. His tattered soul departed for the afterlife and his magically created body exploded in jade flames. Lucius and Bellatrix apparated away with cries of disbelief and panic as the house quickly became engulfed in the magical flames.

Harry began to panic as the flames crept closer and closer. In a rare moment of panic his magic acted of its own accord as it had so often when he was young. The magical ropes binding him snapped like dry twigs and he was free to make his escape. He had once again survived and defeated Voldemort, but the cost of victory was to be far greater than he anticipated.

He had barely made it onto the muggle street outside Number 12 when the sound of multiple apparating wizards and wizards filled his ears. He blinked at who he saw. Among a horde of Aurors and the Minister of Magic stood Lucius Malfoy, and though he was convinced it was a trick, Albus Dumbledore.

The fake Dumbledore's appearance, Harry had to admit, was masterful. His sad and disappointed expression was a perfect match for the deceased Headmaster's own. Harry was perplexed, tired, and now supremely pissed. He had lost many good friends that night and now the Minister was stupid enough to stand beside an obvious fraud and a known Death Eater?

"I see you were right Albus. I'm sorry to have ever doubted you," the Minister said in a gruff voice and motioning to the Aurors.

In the blink of an eye Harry found himself once again bound, but this time he was at the Mercy of the Aurors. "The Minister must have been in league with Voldemort," thought Harry. It was the only possibility. A flash of red light of the fake Dumbledore's wand was the last thing Harry would remember of that night.

When he awoke again he was in an all-too familiar location: Courtroom Ten, Level 9 of the Ministry of Magic. His head felt foggy and his eyes refused to focus. An attempt to move his hand to rub his eyes revealed the chains securing him to a familiar seat. Voices that seemed to be miles away to Harry were speaking. He struggled to remember what had happened or why he was there, but soon the fog of his mind thickened again and blackness took him.

The next conscious thought Harry had was of hunger. His eyes once again opened to an unfocused world. His mind strained to identify his location, but for the life of him he couldn't even remember what he'd been doing last. The oppressive darkness around him wasn't helping matters either. A deep cold seemed to fill his bones and he thought for a moment that he heard a distant scream.

While he struggled to make sense of where he was and recall what had lead him there a faint sound of jingling metal drew his attention. A groan of iron eclipsed the jingle for a moment and footsteps soon followed. The sounds seemed to Harry to be a clue as to his whereabouts, but he just wasn't thinking clearly enough to put the pieces together.

When the footsteps halted they were close, very close. Another jingling of metal and a murmured set of words he couldn't make out held his attention riveted on the far side of his pitch black environment. Suddenly a rectangular, door-shaped, outline of light appeared. Light flooded over him in the next moment and he squinted his eyes shut tightly and covering them with one hand.

He never had a chance to open his eyes again as a flash pale red lit up filtered through his closed eyes and he fell, once again, unconscious.

Harry slowly opened his eyes and sat up. His vision remained blurred and his head and body ached fiercely. The room he found himself in was of ancient white stone and there was no visible door. A small barred window offered a stream of sunlight and a flow of air which held a sticky humid warmth. In one corner a small bucket held water while a plate with bread sat beside it. In the opposite corner sat a slightly larger, empty, bucket. Against one wall sat a small cot.

Then it dawned on him. Events unnaturally fogged in his mind became clear and he knew what had happened. He had been put on trial for something and put in prison. Yet, as he looked around, he knew this was not Azkaban. Memories of an all-encompassing darkness in a cold small space returned. He had been in Azkaban, but someone had moved him.


Harry had been seventeen when he killed Voldemort and was thrown in prison. It had been fifteen years since he last saw more sunlight than what filtered in through his tiny window; fifteen long years of thinking, of remembering, and of plotting. Now as he gazed sadly at the peaceful face of his friend of ten years he knew the time was close; he would have his freedom back and take his revenge.

José de Faria, named for a muggle priest ancestor from the 1700s, had been his only companion in the hell of Château Prison d'if Magique. It had been five years into his lonely stay on the island prison when one of the large stone blocks of his cell wall had begun to shift and move. Surprise would not even begin to describe what Harry had felt.

When José poked his head through the hole in the wall he had created by shoving aside the block Harry had found the first occasion in two years to speak aloud. José had introduced himself and welcomed, a little late, Harry to their lovely prison. The two had struck up a conversation and soon a close friendship. Who else did they have to talk to after all?

Many of Harry's suspicions had been proven true during his conversations with José. The prison they were in was ancient; it had been the model for the more "modern" Azkaban. Magical wards and a Fidelius charm hid the island and insured its prisoners remained, but the isolation of the island the prison sat on added to its security. No Dementors or other foul creatures resided in this prison. The isolation and prisoner's own minds were more than enough torture it seemed.

The cells, as José explained, were sealed with a Life Force charm. So long as the prisoner assigned to that cell lived the cell remained sealed. The magical plate would conjure a slice of bread three times a day, the water bucket refilled itself as needed, and the waste bucket cleaned itself twice a day. It was meant to be total isolation for so long as the prisoner lived. "No one even knows this prison exists any longer," José had said bitterly one day.

That had been the spark for a conversation on how the two had ended up in the forgotten prison. José had been a gifted Magical Bookbinder and Conservator once many, many years prior. The now one hundred and twelve year old man had once been hired by Albus Dumbledore to restore a collection of tomes. He had gladly taken the job for the well known Hogwarts Transfiguration teacher and restored the ancient and crumbling works.

To his great shock the tomes had been a collection of ancient forbidden magic. Not Dark Magic, per say, but magic that the various Ancient civilizations had outlawed for various reasons. José was a professional though and did not question Dumbledore as to how he came into possession of the forbidden books. Two days after the completion of the restoration job José's home was invaded by the Italian Ministry of Magic's Aurors and he was arrested for consorting with Dark Wizards.

His trial, he had explained, was a sham and Dumbledore had been the prosecution's chief witness. José had been convicted to a life sentence in the Italian Ministry's prison, but Dumbledore had offered the services of Azkaban. The elder man had told Harry that he had spent only a single night in Azkaban before Albus himself had moved the Bookbinder here; gloating over the nature of the prison.

Harry wished that he could have been shocked over the revelations, but in his five years of solitude he had thought a great deal about the night of his arrest and Voldemort's death. If Dumbledore was alive then he would have still been Grimmauld Place's secret keeper. He had sold the Order out to Voldemort. The question was why did he imprison Harry?

"You already have the answer, you just told me yourself," had been José's reply. Then it dawned on Harry. Dumbledore knew that Harry would figure out he had betrayed his own followers.

In the years that followed José and Harry became much as a mentor and student. José had been from a long line of purebloods, though not nearly as old as even Harry's own family. He instructed Harry in many of the details of Wizarding culture the young man had never been privy to. Though neither could practice magic in a practical sense José also taught Harry what he could of spell incantations and wand movements.

Harry had been amazed to discover that José had managed to tunnel his way through the ancient and crumbling mortar of the walls with only his plate. "Chipped a corner by pounding it on the wall for a few days. Gave it enough of an edge," he had said smugly. It had taken the ancient man nearly seven years just to tunnel into Harry's cell. While he had been disappointed that he had not found an escape to outside the walls of the prison, he was at least happy to have found company.

Now, after ten years of friendship José had passed away. Old age and nothing but bread and water had finally caught up to him. However, in a sad way his death was a gift to Harry as much as his mother's or Ginny's had been. José's death meant that his cell's door would now have opened. It meant that Harry could escape.

José had left Harry with far more than a means of escape, however. With his final breath his friend had imparted to Harry a great secret. In the days that the man had been restoring Dumbledore's forbidden tomes he had found among the crumbling pages a map. It was a map which gave directions to a once opulently rich wizarding village on the Isle of Crete. The village was said to have been home to untold riches. Its location was a secret known only to its citizens thanks to the use of an ancient variation of the Fidelius. When a plague struck the island that touched even wizards and witches the secret location of the village had died with its people.

The map, however, held the secret. The riches and knowledge of the ancient city could be Harry's. It would be a safe place to go, to live, and to prepare for his revenge. José truly had given him everything he could have asked for.


The Challenge:

After reading god-only-knows how many horrible Harry escapes Azkaban fics that were "supposed" to be based off Count of Monte Cristo I've had enough. Thus, I present you this challenge. Using the above summary and the Counte of Monte Cristo as a guideline write a fic worthy of the tale created by Alexandre Dumas.

The Rules:

1. Using what is provided here create a backstory for the following:
   1. How Dumbledore survived the attack on Hogwarts in Harry's 6th year.
   2. Why Dumbledore would have faked his death.
   3. How Lucius Malfoy was in league with Dumbledore.
   4. Why Dumbledore betrayed the Order's location to Voldemort.
2. Key terms, locations, and plot elements outlined in the summary above must remain. Feel free to write your own version of the events so it fits with your fic, but keep the important details whole.
3. You must create a reasonable method for Harry to escape the island the Prison resides on and then makes his way to the Isle of Crete and the lost wizarding village.
4. No Slash Pairings.
5. Remember that thanks to Harry's trial the Wizarding World believes him locked away in Azkaban. Using Count of Monte Cristo as a reference develop a plot for how Harry gets around this issue in order to achieve his revenge.

An excellent resource for help if you are not familiar with the story is The Count of Monte Cristo Wikipedia entry.

Good luck!

Edit: Forgive the really sub-par writing in the summary. Little off my game tonight it seems.

 

I would definitely like to see a decent Count of Monte Cristo crossover as well. I hope a good writer takes up this challenge.

 

And the King of Plot Bunnies strikes again! I've actually never read The Count of Monte Cristo but I plan to this summer after I finish the Dresden files. (Read six of them and the seventh HP book just this last week.) It sounds awesome though and I haven't seen a good Escapee!Harry in a long, long time. I believe rep is due.

 

Someone write this please. I'm now going to go out and grab a copy of Counte of Montie Cristo I've been looking for a book to read and almost grabbed a used copy of it before. Now my instrests are really striked. Would make for a much better plot then most Azkaban fics.

 

I'm actually helping another DLPer write a fic sort of like this one...

 

Do you have a link to that particular story?

I wasn't aware that there were a lot of stories based on Monte Cristo. The only one I read was The Count of Azkaban, which was accepted into the library. It was somewhat promising, but only just got off the ground before the author stopped.

 

I want to see this.

 

Andromalius, its still in the process of getting written and hasn't been posted anywhere.