The Necromancer

Chapter 33

“Whoa,” Harry said, raising both hands to calm Sirius down. His godfather’s eyes were practically blazing and Harry had no doubt Sirius meant what he’d just said. “I honestly have no idea who those people are who you just mentioned.” Harry quickly brushed his thumb across his amulet and summoned his parents, who knew Sirius better than he did and could perhaps calm him down.

Sirius took a few steps back from Harry and gave James an accusatory look. “Prongs, your kid wants to free Bellatrix from Azkaban.”

James blinked as he looked from Harry to Sirius and back. “What?”

Lily floated over to Harry, her face full of worry. “Harry, why would you want to free Bellatrix?”

Harry briefly clenched his jaws before releasing a long, tired sigh. “Let me make this clear one more time. I have no fucking clue who that is. Marvolo wanted to free some of his followers from Azkaban. That’s all I know.”

Lily turned to James and mouthed ‘Marvolo?’. James shrugged in response and then gave his son a look that was probably meant to project patience and understanding but instead looked just a bit worried. “Harry, we know you’re still new to this world, and that you’ve made friends with Voldemort, but you are not a naïve man. Voldemort’s followers are not good people.”

Harry stared at his father with wide eyes and then snorted with laughter. “I just spent a whole week moving Voldemort’s people to this island and none of you said a word in protest. You even spent the evening with some of them in the pub just the other night.”

“Bellatrix and the brothers Lestrange are of a whole different calibre than Lucius or Theodorus or even Corban Yaxley,” Regulus said in a quiet voice, his stare intense. “Not all of the Death Eaters serving time in Azkaban are bad people.” Regulus quickly held up his hand when Sirius looked about to interrupt him. “People like Dolohov, Rookwood and Mulciber have done no worse than what Lucius got up to during the war, and you accept him as your neighbour just fine, Sirius.”

Sirius seemed to deflate a little and sipped his whiskey without comment.

Barty sat up a little and gave Regulus a brief smile before taking over the story. “Let’s put it this way, Harry. If Bellatrix and the Lestrange brothers moved here you would seriously risk the lives of every single muggleborn and werewolf on this island. I can practically guarantee they will never agree with the laws of this country. And since they always had the Dark Lord’s favour, they would believe they could get away with breaking the rules and torturing and murdering as they please.”

Regulus nodded in agreement. “To be fair, there’s always been something wrong with Bellatrix. Even as children, long before she ever met the Dark Lord, she loved to inflict pain on others. Rodolphus was exactly the same since he was a child, and Rabastan quickly developed a taste for torture as well, though it’s hard to say if that would have happened if he hadn’t spent all his time with his brother and sister-in-law.”

Harry sat back in his chair and reached for his glass of whiskey. He took a long sip while looking between everyone in the room. “I will discuss this with Marvolo and I will make it clear to him I won’t tolerate people like that on the island if they cannot control their urges and go along with the laws of the land.” Harry gave Sirius a steady look and slowly raised his eyebrows. “Is that acceptable?”

“Yeah, I guess,” Sirius said, and drained his glass of whiskey in one go. “I suppose I can put up with Dolohov and Rookwood, since they are no worse than Lucius. But I spent years and years listening to Bellatrix cackle and scream while the three of them reminisced about their glory days and I can’t have her here on the island, Harry, I just can’t.”