Harry chuckled softly but his voice held an edge, "I know somewhere to take you that right now only two, maybe three people can get into, and I intend to restrict that to one person very shortly."
Regulus shook his head slowly, "While that might seem like an excellent solution… my dark mark has been darkening slowly for the past few months. If the Dark Lord manages to return, I can still be summoned through all but the very strongest of wards, wards like the ones Azkaban has. He will definitely do so if I don't go to his side."
Harry shook his head, "What I have in mind is under some of the safest wards imaginable. More powerful than even Azkaban's wards. And besides, if he comes back, you know assaulting Azkaban will be near the top of his priority list, so it's not like you're safe here." Harry resisted the urge to rub his temples, how many people would argue to stay in this hell on earth.
Regulus nodded slowly, as he considered Harry's words. "If you can do that, and help me destroy that locket, I will be in your debt. Though… I'd appreciate it if you could unpetrify me first."
Harry nodded and with a wave of his wand, unfroze the rest of Regulus body, which fell to the ground in a heap. "Now… to get you out of here." Harry stepped forward to help Regulus to his feet.
He was preparing to flame them both out of there. Harry knew he could probably overpower the anti-apparition wards around the prison, though there were more powerful than the ones at the world cup, by a level of magnitude. But Harry thought if he did that, the ward might take a bit to come back to full power, and other convicts could apparate out. He was just about to gather his concentration to flame, and was considering the outcry that would occur when another convict escaped from Azkaban as an idea struck him. He immediately tried to discard it, but couldn't help the small grin that crossed his face as the idea refused to go away.
He turned to the door of the cell and cast several diagnostics on it, to figure out exactly what wards were on the door. He frowned, the wards would take quite a bit to take down completely. Of course any above average wizard with a wand could probably blow the door out, but that would ruin his newly conceived plan.
"I could just get you right out of here with no muss and fuss… but how would you like to cause some old… friends of yours some trouble?" The grin that crossed Harry's face was almost maniacal. Regulus frowned speculatively, the look on Harry's face making him cautious, but he slowly nodded his head before Harry began to explain what he wanted.
Gregor Hamish was serving five years in Azkaban because of a crime he stupidly committed shortly after exiting school. He was lucky, if one could be called that, to be imprisoned in one of the lower levels of the fortress prison. The lack of a continued Dementor presence meant that he had kept his mind relatively intact during his stay, for which he was through three years of his five year sentence. He knew it could be worse except for the extreme boredom that encompassed his day to day life.
On this particular night, Gregor woke up from a restless sleep, to hear raised and excited voices coming from the hallway that led past his cells. He opened his eyes and peered through the cell bars, and saw a pale man with a scraggly unkempt hair and beard, being led by Minister Cornelius Fudge of all people. Green bowler hat and all. Though oddly the Minister didn't have any other of his retinue that he brought for his yearly visits.
"I cannot thank you enough for this, Minister!" the dark haired man was practically shouting so every person in the cell block could hear.
"Oh, nonsense m'boy." the Minister responded in an irritating nasally voice. He practically strutted through the hallway with a wide smile on his face.
How such a man could achieve a position of power was beyond Gregor's knowledge.
"Who is responsible for this?" asked the unknown man. The minister coughed, and it was easy to see he was uncomfortable with the question., "Ah. Yes well you see... My good friend Lucius was concerned about the cousin of his wife. He paid quite well for me to get you out of this place! He was most insistent. Of course, Lucius Malfoy is a very good friend, I am only too happy to help!"
The Minister paused and then chuckled "He paid me good galleons like he always does when he wants me to get something done for him. He knows the value of friends in high places!" Fudge continued arrogantly.
"It's amazing how simple it is for a man in my position to get things done." he paused slightly and looked abashed and tacked on somewhat lamely, "Of course you are innocent of the crimes we convicted you of!" "I'll have to be sure to thank Malfoy in person very soon. Perhaps a visit to his manor is in order," the prisoner chuckled, his voice filled with amusement.
Gregor and several other prisoners in the low security cells all watched in shock, and no small amount of jealousy as Fudge essentially admitted to taking a bribe from Lucius Malfoy to set whoever that man was free.
Two days later, when the escape of Regulus Black was reported, nearly every prisoner in the section gleefully told the investigating Auror teams exactly what they had heard as the duo walked by their cells. That they were eager to do so under veritaserum only made things better.
Once they got out of earshot of the cells and passed toward the warden's office. Harry, glamoured to look like Cornelius Fudge, whispered, "That was brilliant."
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