Escape

Harry nodded and studied the guards and the door they needed to exit from. So far, they had not noticed them in the shadows. After a minute, an idea came to Harry. "The Dementors are afraid of me, right?"

"Yes. . ." Bellatrix said, giving him a questioning look. "They avoid your presence as much as possible. Over the weeks, I've noticed that they've entirely quit patrolling the corridor our cell is situated on."

"I think, that it would be a crushing blow to the Ministry of Magic if we were to walk out of here as if we owned the place. We have the element of surprise, they won't want to argue with us, and the Aurors aren't on the island during the night so there won't be enough time to sound the alarm." Harry said slowly.

Bellatrix thought it over and nodded her agreement. "Let's do it then."

Harry and Bellatrix walked out from the shadows and walked straight down the center of the corridor toward the doors and the Dementors guarding it. "Open the doors." Harry commanded as he drew on his power to make his aura a little more menacing.

The Dementors plainly didn't want to obey Harry. This was mostly because he was supposed to be their prisoner. It would be embarrassing to let him go, even though they weren't particularly loyal to the Ministry. As he approached, they quailed and opened the gigantic doors and let them out into a raging rainstorm. The door closed the instant they were outside the prison.

"We weren't counting on this!" Harry yelled to Bellatrix over the noise of the wind.

"We have no choice but to proceed." Bellatrix yelled loudly. "There might be a boat down at the dock."

Harry grabbed her hand and they made their way down the long path toward where boats destined for Azkaban landed. When they arrived at the old stone dock, they found to their disappointment that there was no form of transportation.

Another jolt of magic had gone through Harry as he had stepped onto the stone and he wasn't paying attention because he was trying to figure out what was going on. He stopped wondering when he noticed that the storm had suddenly intensified. Magic was definitely at work. "We should find shelter somewhere!" Harry called out to Bellatrix.

She nodded and they turned to go back to the island but it was too late. A gigantic waved washed over the dock and the couple found themselves being plunged to the bottom of the sea. When it subsided they managed to get to the surface. They clutched each as another wave hit them. Within a few minutes, Harry and Bellatrix who were holding onto each other for dear life, found themselves being washed out to sea.

...

Neville had decided to rent a private meeting room at the Hogs Head and was placing privacy charms on it as the first people to join the meeting straggled in. Neville quickly finished up and went over to welcome them.

"I hope that you don't mind that I brought a few extras." Luna said vaguely as she surveyed the small room with sharp eyes. Neville had decided long ago that her oddness did not necessarily mean that she lacked smarts.

He surveyed the 'extras' and noted that they were mostly comprised of younger Ravenclaw females. He arched his eyebrow and looked at Luna. "I see."

She motioned for them to take seats toward the front of the room and stayed behind to talk to Neville. "You are basically founding a Harry Potter fan club." she stated with a grin. "I suspect that the vast majority of recruits will be girls because of that." She pulled out a copy of the Quibbler from her robes and joined her classmates in the front.

Once everyone had gathered and Neville was ready to begin, he had to admit that Luna had been right. There were about ten boys from various Houses sitting at the back of the room joking among themselves. However, there were nearly fifty teenage girls madly giggling and talking amongst themselves.

Neville cleared his throat. "I would like to call this meeting to order. As many of you know, Harry Potter did not return to Hogwarts after Christmas." Everyone began to murmur but a quick gesture and they all quieted down. He then began to explain everything that Snape had told him and then made the proposal to create a group called 'Potter's Legion.'

"What will we do as a group?" asked one of the more solemn boys toward the back.

"I'm glad you asked that." Neville said, trying to hide his nervousness. "If Harry ever gets out of Azkaban, he'll be angry at certain people. We want to be able to make it clear that we supported him and that we are his friends. We'll take any and all opportunities to defend his character and reputation. Last of all, we'll train as a group to become extra proficient in Defense spells and techniques. I've convinced two professors and two Aurors to help train us."

Excited whispers broke out instantly. It wasn't often that one got first-hand training and experience with an Auror. Not only that, the type of organization appealed to them all. It kind of felt nice to belong to something. This would lead to talk and bragging however.

After the talk died down again, Neville pulled out a sheet of parchment. "To join, you all need to sign this."Snape had given it to him and instructed Neville to make sure everyone who knew anything important had their signature on it. He then pulled out a bag of Sickles. "Everyone who signs gets one of these. They'll display the date and time of each meeting."

"What about Quidditch practice?" called out one of the boys.

"I'm sorry," Neville said, "but we'll have the meetings regularly despite Quidditch. Attendance is not mandatory, so you can just skip the ones you can't attend. Be sure to talk to someone who did attend to get any important information however."

Everyone seemed to think that was fairly reasonable and after a few more matters of business were covered, namely speeches about secrecy, Neville dismissed them all to go about their business. I wonder what Harry would think, Neville mused.