Melody Riddle and the Order of the Phoenix

Chapter 38: Azkaban Breakout

 Preparations were well beyond anything I had ever expected.

Meetings between dad, Seraphina and myself took a few hours in the morning and, by the afternoon, we were doing drills with our allotted teams to practice how the breakout would work. Seraphina had swiped the map of Azkaban during a visit to the Ministry of Magic, so discussions as to which team would search which corridors led to quick memorizations of the building plans — easiest task for me, of course.

A scheduled meeting took half a day once because, under a special illusion of Seraphina's, the three of us went to the island Azkaban rested on to work through how our separate ways in would go on the night of the breakout. Due to dad's recognizable energy, the Dementors blissfully ignored us as we cased the outside of the building from a safe distance. That was also proven easy.

The problem that remained was getting Marcus not to act so careless during our drills. I'd ask him to take my orders seriously only for him to say that my commands didn't make any sense. It was frustrating, to say the least, because I worried that not even Becky's threats would work on him once the operation was underway. I couldn't wait to get the breakout started, just to see if he'd ignore me then... that way, I would have every right to leave him there with the Dementors and some memory loss.

I even practiced holding the aging spell over Marcus, Draco and myself for hours at a time just to lengthen the time I could hold it — Marcus wouldn't need it during the operation, at least, but I had to practice on somebody until the actual breakout when Becky was able to come. Eventually, it got to the point that it took five hours before I passed out from exhaustion. Which, as good as they told me it was, just wasn't enough to me... even though I had strained myself further than needed by making Marcus an eighty year old man for all those hours. As funny as that was, I felt nervous that I didn't have any more time to practice.

The fateful day came all too quickly, and yet also passed by far too slowly.

Most of us waited around by the entryway of Seraphina's mansion, sitting in chairs we conjured up only to impatiently tap our toes against the ground. Late in the afternoon, and the hours slowly ticked by as we waited. The deep, black robes we all wore felt ominously like another trip to a funeral for me, which may have been part of what added on to the feeling of waiting forever.

Becky sat next to me, bouncing giddily in her seat about as innocent as if we were getting ready to go on a school field trip. Draco was on my other side, pale as the moon and keeping a tight grip on my hand... I was probably squeezing back just as much, our intermingled hands dangling in between our seats.

Marcus sat on the other side of the room next to Barty, eyeing me longingly every once in a while before bringing his attention back to my ecstatic, former teacher. What brought them together boggled me just as much, unless dad had something to do with introducing them. Considering how everything had been happening, it seemed the more likely occurrence.

Barty was part of dad's team, of course, which also included Draco's dad and the Ministry's executioner, Macnair. Said two paced around the room, deep in thought on the night to come.

Jessamyn, Ash and Cassandra were Seraphina's automatic shoo-ins but, also sitting next to Jessamyn was a tall, buff man with spiky brown hair and green eyes. Despite his tough appearance, his eyes showed worry as he held Jessamyn's hand just as tightly as Draco held mine.

Technically, the only people missing from our waiting party were dad and Seraphina. By those calculations, I felt like I should've been missing as well.. but there I was.

"I'm bored!" Ash suddenly moaned, standing up to pace around.

Cassandra glared up at him, "So am I. You don't see me crying about it."