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// 9258
//== The Stanford Prison Experiment, Pt 2

// 9259
//The adrenaline was already flowing in Harry’s veins, his heart already
//hammering in his chest, there in that darkened and bankrupt store. Professor
//Quirrell had finished explaining, and in one hand, Harry held a tiny wooden
//twig that would be the key. This was it, this was the day and the moment when
//Harry started acting the part. His first true adventure, a dungeon to be
//pierced, an evil government to be defied, a maiden in distress to be rescued.
//Harry should have been more frightened, more reluctant, but instead he felt
//only that it was time and past time to start becoming the people he had read
//about in his books; to begin his journey toward what he had always known he was
//meant to be, a hero. To take the first step on the road that led to Kimball
//Kinnison and Captain Picard and Liono of Thundera and definitely __not__
//Raistlin Majere. So far as Harry’s brain knew from watching early morning
//cartoons, when you grew up you were supposed to gain amazing powers and save
//the universe, that was what Harry’s brain had seen adults doing and adopted as
//its role model for the maturation process, and Harry very much wanted to start
//growing up.

// 9260
//And if the pattern of the story called for the hero to lose some part of his
//innocence, as the result of his first adventure; then for now, at least, in
//this still-innocent moment, it seemed time and past time for him to experience
//that pain. Like casting off clothes too small for him; or like finally
//advancing to the next stage of the game, after being stuck for eleven years on
//world 3, level 2 of Super Mario Brothers.

// 9261
//Harry had read enough novels to suspect that he wouldn’t feel this enthusiastic
//afterward, so he was enjoying it while it lasted.

// 9262
//There was a popping sound as something near Harry disappeared, and then there
//was no more time for heroic brooding.

// 9263
//Harry’s hand snapped the small wooden twig.

// 9264
//A hook yanked motionlessly at Harry’s abdomen as the portkey activated, feeling
//like a much harder pull this time than the smaller transports between the
//Hogwarts grounds and Diagon Alley -

// 9265
//- and dropped him into the middle of a huge roll of thunder dying away, and a
  //lash of cold rain whipping him across the face, the water coating Harry’s
//glasses and blinding him in an instant, turning the world into a blur even as
//he began to fall toward the raging ocean waves far below.

// 9266
//He had arrived high, high, high above the empty North Sea.

// 9267
//The shock of the blasting storm almost made Harry let go of the broomstick that
//Professor Quirrell had given him, which would not have been a good idea. It
//took nearly a full second for Harry to get his wits together and bring his
//broomstick back up in an easy swoop.

// 9268
//“I’m here,” said an unfamiliar voice from a patch of empty air above him; low
//and gravelly, the voice of the sallow lanky bearded man Professor Quirrell had
//Polyjuiced into before Disillusioning himself and his broomstick.

// 9269
//“I’m here,” Harry said from beneath the Cloak of Invisibility. He hadn’t used
//Polyjuice himself. Wearing a different body hindered your magic, and Harry
//might need all of his little magic about him; thus the plan called for Harry to
//stay invisible at nearly all times, instead of Polyjuicing.

// 9270
//(Neither of them had spoken the other’s name. You simply didn’t use your names
//at any point during an illegal mission, even invisibly hovering over an
//anonymous patch of water in the North Sea. You simply didn’t. It would be
//stupid.)

// 9271
//Carefully keeping a grip on the broomstick with one hand, while the rain and
//wind howled around him, Harry raised his wand in an equally careful grip and
//Imperviused his glasses.

// 9272
//Then, with the lenses clear, Harry looked around.

// 9273
//He was surrounded by wind and rain, it might have been five degrees Celsius if
//he was lucky; he’d already had a Warming Charm cast on himself just from being
//outside in February, but it wasn’t standing up to the driving cold droplets.
//Worse than snow, the rain soaked into every exposed surface. The Cloak of
//Invisibility turned all of you invisible, but it didn’t __cover__ all of
//you, and that meant it didn’t protect all of you from rain. Harry’s face was
//exposed to the full force of the driven water, and it was driving straight into
//his neck and soaking down into his shirt, also the sleeves of his robes and the
//cuffs of his pants and his shoes, the water took every bit of cloth as an
//avenue to sneak in.

// 9274
//“This way,” said the Polyjuiced voice, and a spark of green light lit up in
//front of Harry’s broomstick, and then darted away in a direction that seemed to
//Harry like every other direction.

// 9275
//Through the blinding rain, Harry followed. He lost it sometimes, that small
//green spark, and each time he did, Harry called out, and the spark would
//reappear in front of him a few seconds later.

// 9276
//When Harry had caught the trick of following the spark, it accelerated, and
//Harry kicked the broomstick into high gear and followed. The rain whipped him
//harder, feeling like Harry imagined it must feel to get a faceful of shotgun
//pellets, but his glasses stayed clear and protected his eyes.

// 9277
//It was only a few minutes later, at the broomstick’s full speed, that Harry
//caught a glimpse of a huge shadow through the rain, towering far across the
//waters.

// 9278
//And felt a distant, hollow echo of emptiness radiating from where Death waited,
//washing over Harry’s mind and parting around it, like a wave breaking on stone.
//Harry knew his enemy this time, and his will was steel and all of the light.

// 9279
//“I can already feel the Dementors,” said the gravelly voice of the Polyjuiced
//Quirrell. “I did not expect that, not this soon.”

// 9280
//“Think of the stars,” Harry said, over a distant rumble of thunder. “Don’t
//allow any anger in you, nothing negative, just think of the stars, what it
//feels like to forget yourself and fall bodilessly through space. Hold to that
//thought like an Occlumency barrier across your entire mind. The Dementors will
//have some trouble reaching past that.”

// 9281
//There was silence for a moment, then, “Interesting.”

// 9282
//The green spark lifted, and Harry inclined his broomstick slightly upward to
//follow, even as it steered them into a fogbank, a cloud hovering low on the
//waters.

// 9283
//Soon they were hovering above and slightly oblique of the huge three-sided
//metal building, as it loomed far below. The triangle of steel was hollow, not
//solid, it was a building of three thick solid walls and no center. The Aurors
//on guard roomed in the top level and southern side of the building, Professor
//Quirrell had said, protected by their Patronus Charms. The legal entrance into
//Azkaban was on the roof of the southwest corner of the building. Which the two
//of them wouldn’t use, of course. Instead they would use a corridor that ran
//directly beneath the northern corner of the building. Professor Quirrell would
//go down first, and puncture a hole in the roof and its wards right at the
//northern tip, leaving behind an illusion to cover the gap.

// 9284
//The prisoners were kept in the side of the building, in levels corresponding to
//their crimes. And at the bottom, in the uttermost center and depth of Azkaban,
//lay a nest of more than a hundred Dementors. Loads of dirt were occasionally
//dropped in to keep up the level, as the matter directly exposed to the
//Dementors broke down into mud and nothingness…

// 9285
//“Wait one minute,” said the rough voice, “follow me at speed, and pass through
//with care.”

// 9286
//“Got it,” Harry said lowly.

// 9287
//The spark winked out, and Harry began to count, __one one thousand, two
//one thousand, three one thousand…__

// 9288
//__…sixty one thousand,__ and Harry dived, the wind shrieking around him as
//he dived, down toward the vast metal structure, down toward where he could feel
//the shadows of Death waiting for him, draining light and radiating emptiness,
//as the metal structure grew larger and larger. Plain and featureless loomed the
//vast grey shape, but for a single raised boxlike structure in the southwest
//corner. The north corner was simply blank, Professor Quirrell’s hole
//undetectable.

// 9289
//Harry pulled up sharply as he approached the north corner, giving himself more
//safety margin than he would have bothered with in flying classes, but not too
//much. As soon as he’d come to a halt, he began to slowly lower his broomstick
//again, toward what looked like the solid roof of the tip of the north corner.

// 9290
//Descending through the illusory roof while invisible was a strange experience,
//and then Harry found himself in a metal corridor lighted with a dim orange
//light - which, Harry realized after a startled glance, was coming from an
//old-fashioned mantled gas lamp…

// 9291
//…for magic would fail, be drained away after a time, in the presence of
//Dementors.

// 9292
//Harry dismounted his broom.

// 9293
//The pull of the emptiness was stronger now, as it parted and flowed around
//Harry without touching him. They were distant but they were many, the wounds in
//the world; Harry could have pointed to them with his eyes closed.

// 9294
//“__Casst your Patronuss,__” hissed a snake from the floor, looking more
//discolored than green in the dim orange light.

// 9295
//The note of stress came through even in Parseltongue. Harry was surprised;
//Professor Quirrell had said that Animagi in their Animagus forms were much less
//vulnerable to Dementors. (For the same reason the Patronuses were animals,
//Harry assumed.) If Professor Quirrell was in this much trouble in his snake
//form, what had been happening to him while he was in the human form that let
//him use his magic…?

// 9296
//Harry’s wand was already rising in his hand.

// 9297
//This would be the beginning.

// 9298
//Even if it was only one person, just one person that he could save from the
//darkness, even if he wasn’t powerful enough yet to teleport __all__ of
//Azkaban’s prisoners to safety and burn the triangular hell down to bedrock…

// 9299
//Even so it was a start, it was a beginning, it was a down payment on everything
//that Harry meant to accomplish with his life. No more waiting, no more hoping,
//no more mere promising, it would all begin here. Here and __now.__

// 9300
//Harry’s wand slashed down to point at where the Dementors waited far below.

// 9301
//“__Expecto Patronum!__”

// 9302
//The glowing humanoid figure blazed up into existence. It wasn’t the sun-bright
//thing that it had been before… probably because Harry hadn’t quite been able to
//stop himself from thinking about all the __other__ prisoners in their
//cells, the ones that he __wasn’t__ here to save.

// 9303
//It might be for the best, though. Harry would need to keep this Patronus going
//for a while, and it might be better if it wasn’t quite so bright.

// 9304
//The Patronus dimmed a little further, at that thought; and then further again,
//as Harry tried to put a little less of his strength into it, until finally the
//brilliant humanoid figure was glowing only slightly brighter than the brightest
//animal Patronus, and Harry felt that he could dim it no further without risking
//losing it entirely.

// 9305
//And then, “__It iss sstable,__” Harry hissed, and began feeding his
//broomstick into his pouch. His wand stayed in his hand, and a slight,
//sustainable flow from him replaced the slight losses from his Patronus.

// 9306
//The snake blurred into the form of a lanky, sallow man, holding Professor
//Quirrell’s wand in one hand and a broomstick in the other. The lanky man
//staggered as he came back into existence, and went to lean against the wall for
//a moment.

// 9307
//“Well done, if perhaps a trifle slow,” murmured the gravelly voice. Professor
//Quirrell’s dryness was in it, even though it didn’t fit the voice, nor did the
//grave look on the thickly bearded face. “I cannot feel them at all, now.”

// 9308
//A moment later, the broomstick went into the man’s robes and vanished. Then the
//man’s wand rose and tapped on his head, and with a sound like a cracking
//eggshell he disappeared once more.

// 9309
//Within the air blossomed a faint green spark, and Harry, still enshrouded in
//the Cloak of Invisibility, followed after.

// 9310
//If you had been watching from outside, you would have seen nothing but a small
//green spark drifting through the air, and a brilliantly silver humanoid walking
//after it.

// 9311
//They went down, and down, and down, passing gas lamp after gas lamp, and the
//occasional huge metal door, descending into Azkaban within what seemed like
//utter silence. Professor Quirrell had set up some type of barrier by which
//__he__ could hear what went on nearby, but no sounds could pass outward,
//and no sounds could reach Harry.

// 9312
//Harry hadn’t quite been able to stop his mind from wondering __why__ the
//silence, or stop his mind from giving the answer. The answer he’d already known
//on some wordless level of anticipation that had prompted him to futilely try
//not to think about it.

// 9313
//Somewhere behind those huge metal doors, people were screaming.

// 9314
//The silver humanoid figure wavered, brightening and dimming, every time Harry
//thought about it.

// 9315
//Harry had been told to cast a Bubble-Head Charm on himself. To prevent himself
//from smelling anything.

// 9316
//All the enthusiasm and heroism had worn off already, as Harry had known it
//would, it hadn’t taken long even by his standards, the process had completed
//itself the very first time they passed one of those metal doors. Every metal
//door was locked with a huge lock, a lock of simple unmagical metal that
//wouldn’t have stopped a first-year Hogwarts student - if you still had a wand,
//if you still had your magic, which the prisoners didn’t. Those metal doors were
//not the doors of individual cells, Professor Quirrell had said, each one opened
//into a corridor in which there would be a group of cells. Somehow that helped a
//little, not thinking that each door corresponded directly to a prisoner who was
//waiting right behind it. Instead there might be __more__ than one
//prisoner, which diminished the emotional impact; just like the study showing
//that people contributed more when they were told that a given amount of money
//was required to save one child’s life, than when told the same total amount was
//needed to save eight children…

// 9317
//Harry was finding it increasingly hard not to think about it, and every time he
//did, the light of his Patronus fluctuated.

// 9318
//They came to the place where the passageway turned left, at the corner of the
//triangular building. Once again there were descending metal steps, another
//flight of stairs; once again they went down.

// 9319
//Mere murderers were not put into the lowest of cells. There was always a lower
//place you could go, an even worse punishment to fear. No matter how low you had
//already sunk, the government of magical Britain had some threat remaining
//against you if you did even worse.

// 9320
//But Bellatrix Black had been the Death Eater who inspired more fear than anyone
//save Lord Voldemort himself, a beautiful and deadly sorceress absolutely loyal
//to her master; she had been, if such a thing were possible, more sadistic and
//evil even than You-Know-Who, as though she were trying to outdo her master…

// 9321
//…that was what the world knew of her, what the world believed of her.

// 9322
//But before then, Professor Quirrell had told Harry, before the debut of the
//Dark Lord’s most terrible servant, there had been a girl in Slytherin who had
//been quiet, keeping mostly to herself, harming no one. Afterward there had been
//made-up stories told about her, memories changing in retrospect (Harry knew
//well the research on that). But at the time, while she still attended school,
//the most talented witch in Hogwarts had been known as a gentle girl (Professor
//Quirrell had said). Her few friends had been surprised when she’d joined the
//Death Eaters, and more surprised that she’d been hiding so much darkness behind
//that sad, wistful smile.

// 9323
//That was who Bellatrix had once been, the most promising witch of her own
//generation, before the Dark Lord stole her and broke her, shattered her and
//reshaped her, binding her to him on a deeper level and with darker arts than
//any Imperius.

// 9324
//Ten years Bellatrix had served the Dark Lord, killing who he bade her kill,
//torturing who he bade her torture.

// 9325
//And then the Dark Lord had finally been defeated.

// 9326
//And Bellatrix’s nightmare had continued.

// 9327
//Somewhere inside Bellatrix there might be something that was still screaming,
//that had been screaming the whole time, something a psychiatric Healer could
//bring back; or there might not be, Professor Quirrell had no way of knowing.
//But either way, they could…

// 9328
//…they could at least get her out of Azkaban…

// 9329
//Bellatrix Black had been put into the lowest level of Azkaban.

// 9330
//Harry was having trouble not imagining what he would see when they got to her
//cell. Bellatrix must have had almost no fear of death, in the beginning, if she
//was still alive at all.

// 9331
//They descended another flight of stairs, coming that much closer to Death and
//Bellatrix, the clacking of their invisible shoes the only sound that Harry
//could hear. Dim orange light coming from the gas lights, the faint green spark
//drifting through the air, the shining figure following with its silver light
//fluctuating from time to time.

// 9332
//After descending many times, they came in time to a corridor that did not end
//in stairs, and a final metal door, and the green spark halted before it.

// 9333
//Harry’s heart had calmed a little, as they descended far into the depths of
//Azkaban without anything happening. But now it was hammering his chest once
//more. They were at the bottom, and the shadows of Death were very close at
//hand.

// 9334
//A soft metal click came from the lock, as Professor Quirrell opened the way.

// 9335
//Harry took a deep breath and remembered everything that Professor Quirrell had
//told him. The hard part wouldn’t just be getting the pretended personality
//right enough to fool Bellatrix Black herself, the hard part would be keeping
//his Patronus going at the same time…

// 9336
//The green spark winked out, and a moment later a meter-high snake shimmered
//into existence, no longer invisible.

// 9337
//The metal door moved with a slow creaking sound as Harry pushed on it with his
//invisible hand, opened it just a crack, and peered through.

// 9338
//He saw a straight corridor that terminated in solid stone. There was no light
//there but what crept in from Harry’s Patronus. That was bright enough for him
//to see the outer bars of the eight cells set into the corridor, but he couldn’t
//see the insides; more importantly, though, he didn’t see anyone in the corridor
//itself.

// 9339
//“__I ssee nothing,__” hissed Harry.

// 9340
//The snake darted on ahead, swiftly twisting across the floor.

// 9341
//A moment later -

// 9342
//“__Sshe iss alone,__” hissed the snake.

// 9343
//__Stay,__ Harry thought to his Patronus, which took up a position just to
//one side of the door, as though guarding it; and then Harry pushed the door
//open further, and followed within.

// 9344
//The first cell Harry looked at contained a dessicated corpse, skin gone grey
//and mottled, flesh worn through in places to expose the bone beneath, no eyes -

// 9345
//Harry shut his eyes. He could still do that, he was still invisible, he wasn’t
//betraying anything by shutting his eyes.

// 9346
//He’d known it already, he’d read it on page six of his Transfiguration book,
//that you stayed in Azkaban until your prison term was done. If you died before
//it was up they kept you there until they released your corpse. If your term was
//for life, they just left the body in the cell until the cell was needed, at
//which point they threw your body into the Dementors’ pit. But it was still a
//shock to see, that corpse had been a __person__ who’d just been
//__left__ there -

// 9347
//The light in the room wavered.

// 9348
//__Steady,__ thought Harry in his core. It wouldn’t be good for Professor
//Quirrell if that Patronus went out from his thinking sad thoughts. This near to
//the Dementors the Defense Professor might just fall dead where he stood.
//__Steady, Harry James Potter-Evans-Verres, steady!__

// 9349
//With that thought, Harry opened his eyes again, there wasn’t time to waste.

// 9350
//The second cell he looked at contained only a skeleton.

// 9351
//And behind the bars of the third cell he saw Bellatrix Black.

// 9352
//Something precious and irreplaceable inside Harry withered like dry grass.

// 9353
//You could tell the woman wasn’t a skeleton, that her head wasn’t a skull,
//because the texture of skin was still different from the texture of bone, no
//matter how white and pale she’d become, waiting in the dark alone. Either they
//weren’t feeding her much, or what she ate, the shadows of Death drained from
//her; for her eyes seemed shrunken below their lids, her lips looked too
//shriveled to close over her teeth. The color seemed leached out of the black
//clothing she had worn into prison, like the Dementors had drained that too.
//They’d been meant to be daring, those clothes, and now they lay loosely over a
//skeleton, exposing shriveled skin.

// 9354
//__I’m here to save her, I’m here to save her, I’m here to save her,__
//Harry thought to himself, desperately, over and over with an effort like
//Occlumency, willing his Patronus not to go out, to stay and __protect
//Bellatrix from the Dementors__ -

// 9355
//In his heart, in his core, Harry held to all his pity and his compassion, his
//will to save her from the darkness; the silver radiance coming in through the
//open door brightened, even as he thought it.

// 9356
//And in another part of him, like he was just letting another part of his mind
//carry out a habit without paying much attention to it…

// 9357
//A cold expression came over Harry’s face, invisibly beneath the hood.

// 9358
//“Hello, my dear Bella,” said a chill whisper. “Did you miss me?”