Harry Potter, The Jedi That Would Not Die
Chapter 5 – Breaking and Force Entry
"There is nothing we can do Secura."
"Yes there is, we can break him out!" she countered hotly.
"We are Jedi!" Qui-Gon replied loudly at the suggestion. "We make sure others keep to the law, we do not break it ourselves."
"We are supposed to uphold justice, THIS is NOT justice!"
"He was tried by their legal system and sentenced to life imprisonment, Dumbledore is working on it now, let him handle things. Harry can survive a short while in prison."
"It's not a prison Qui-Gon, it's torture," she replied madly. "Did you not hear Hermione's description of the so called 'prison guards', they feed off of all their bad thoughts and make them relive them again and again, and considering what Harry has just gone through that is torture plain and simple and he's already been there a week."
She paced up and down several more times before turning to them both again.
"I'm going to break him out of there."
"Secura, you ca-"
"I don't care!" she snapped back. "I made a promise to that boy that I would keep him safe and this is anything but, I am getting him out if I have to walk to this prison on foot, you can either help me or stay out of my way because you know you cannot leave me behind so you have only those two options so I suggest you make up your mind quickly because I am leaving as soon as I know exactly where the prison is."
They were interrupted by Hermione charging up the exit ramp, panting furiously with a bag in her hand. The nearly unresponsive distraught girl they had brought back from the graveyard had completely gone since she heard of what happened to Harry, according to most after going to both McGonagall and Dumbledore frantically demanding they do something, she had gone straight to the library and had barely left for anything other than classes and calls of nature since which was proven by the dark bags under her eyes and the dishevelled hair that surrounded her face, several times prefects and professors had discovered her huddled in a corner sleeping against a bookshelf with a scroll in lap or completely out of it sleeping onto a tome at one of the tables at all times of the day and night.
"What is it Hermione!" asked Qui-Gon.
"I heard you hardly ever ignore a plea for help?" she asked.
"That's normally true," he nodded, sending a look at his padawan who suddenly found an speck of invisible dirt on the bulkhead most interesting.
"Well I have one for you."
With that she dropped the bag, moved towards him and flung herself to her knees in front of him and grabbed at the hem of his robe.
"Please please PLEASE help me free Harry, he's never going to be let out, Minister Fudge is too worried about how powerful the truth would make Harry and the panic of the public if they found out Death Eaters were really still active. He's going to spend the rest of his life suffering for some politicians insecurities and his desire for the Death Eaters to keep his vault full of gold. It's not just, it's not fair and it's not right. He's lost his godfather and we have both lost our best friend, I have nothing to live for without Harry. I'm going to try to get into the prison either way but I will almost certainly fail on my own and then I will be locked up in their as well, so really I am trying to blackmail you, help me save him or we will both end up being tortured for probably the rest of our lives and you will all have to live with the knowledge that two innocent people are being tortured every minute of every hour of every day for the rest of our lives and all you had to do to stop it was help us get him out of the prison."
There was silence for a few seconds as she continued to look up pleadingly at the slight stunned master before Aayla broke it.
"Oh come on Qui-Gon we all know you are going to say yes so stop stalling."
The master let out a slow sigh before nodding.
"Alr-IGHT," he gasped as the young girl hugged him extremely tightly.
"Thank you," she grinned, before running back over to the bag she had dropped and carrying it over to the nearest table and emptying the contents onto it, which consisted mainly of books as scrolls of notes. "Right I have managed to roughly pinpoint the island on this map, I have also looked up all I can find on the design of the prison and on the amount of aurors and dementors stationed there. There are only a few aurors stationed at the docks and a couple more at the doors, other than that it's just a few hundred dementors floating around. Now that might seem like heavy odds but I have just spent the time since Harry was sentenced pouring over the library and consulting with the a few of the portraits and ghosts for the best way to fight off dementors and the best ways is a patronus charm which can either shield us against them or drive them away if strong enough, though apparently fire should also work as they have flesh which can burn, now fire is easy and your lightsabers as I understand them use a plasma blade which should have the same affect. Now the patronus charm is very difficult and I can't say that I can even cast it, but Harry can cast it really well so when we get to him he will be able to assist with this, is that all clear?"
She barely stopped for an answer as both the adult jedi opened their mouths to speak before she continued the seemingly never-ending explanation.
"Right, now as I understand it Knight Secura you were going to take Harry back with you, I think this is a very good idea as he will need a new start away from this and without Ron and Sirius here he has no real tie that binds him to this planet, he of course has his friends but as he will be an escaped convict he can hardly stay here. Now I have packed all Harry's stuff and shrunk it down and I understand that you Knight Secura have Harry's wand from when he dropped it in the graveyard so we have that and I have all my stuff packed as well so we are both all ready to go as soon as we get Harry out, any questions?"
This time both the adult jedi waited to see if she was going to start again before speaking.
"Can we slow down a bit please," asked Qui-Gon. "I think we must have missed out on several important steps here."
"What steps, it's very simple; we break into the prison, get Harry out, then we all leave on the Radiant VI."
"Well let's start with who said you were going with us?" asked Qui-Gon.
"I did, it's obvious when you think of it. Both Harry and I have lost our best friends and we are now each other's only link to this planet and if he is going I've got to go with him to make sure he behaves himself, he is bound to get himself in more trouble and I've got to be there to get him out of it, besides I will really be a criminal at that point and will get locked up anyway if you don't take me with you."
"What about your parents?" asked Qui-Gon, still trying to catch up with the whole conversation.
"My parents never really knew what to do with a child really. I was one of the points on their 'what do couple do' list, shortly after get married, buy a house and get a cat. When I came along they looked after me ok but most of my time I spent with a nanny then reading as they never really knew how to relate to me. They knew they had to come to pick me up from school and come to awards evenings and things like that but that was about it, which is why I started spending all my time reading and studying. I sent them a letter as soon as I realised what we had to do saying I am going travelling with my best friend and that I might not be able to contact them for many years. I have already received a response telling me to be careful and they understand that every child has to leave home at some point. All we have to do is stop at home on the way to pick up the rest of my stuff quickly so the Ministry does not detect the illegal use of underage magic I will be doing outside of Hogwarts. Is there anything else you wanted to ask me?"
By this point Obi-Wan and Aayla were both struggling to contain their laughter at Qui-Gon's dumbstruck expression.
"What do you plan on doing when we get back to the Republic?" he then asked.
"Well I can go into research or something, there's a whole galaxy for me to investigate, I'm happy either way. It doesn't really matter as long as Harry's alright and he's happy. Besides if I have an midi-chlorian reading as high as I was told then I am eligible for the entry into the Order as well."
This time when Qui-Gon sent a glare at his apprentice he found that the spec of dirt had moved from the wall to the shoulder of his robes and judging by Obi-Wan's concentration on it, it must have been a very serious invisible spec of dirt.
Qui-Gon tried and failed to argue her decision several more times and each time he lost until finally he had to accept it.
A ghostly like spirit spotted its destination on the horizon and made best speed towards it. The looming fortress meant nothing to those without bodies.
The spirit rapidly entered the fortress and started searching each cell, finding many of his old loyal servants. Unable to help them at this time he reluctantly moved on after swearing one day to free them from this torment.
As he descended through the rows of cells he found one with rust freshly scrapped off the bolts, looking inside he found his quivering and shaking quarry, barely aware of anything around him, so buried in his own mind he was that he was not even aware when the spirit descended towards him and passed into his mind, but instead of attacking the spirit did something unexpected, it burrowed its way down into the boys mind and found a safe place to sit and watch from. There it would wait...until the time was right.
And so it was the after midnight, and after the jedi had forced Hermione to have a good meal, to have a good wash and had used the Force to knock her out for a few hours desperately needed sleep, that the girl in question left a modified letter similar to a howler with a house elf, which was only to be delivered at breakfast to Professor Dumbledore and that would when he received it at breakfast announce to the entire hall what they had done (or were about to do) and where they were going.
Then after Hermione had borrowed Obi-Wan and sneaked up to the library where they 'borrowed' quite a few books on permanent loan before taking off and heading to Hermione's house.
They flew to a field near Hermione's house and while Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon used their mind control abilities to turn away curious night time residence who found a one hundred and five meter space ship a curious thing to find in a park, a cloaked Aayla and Hermione went to her home, let her parents know in person that she was going and after gathering everything of hers into one huge pile shrunk it all down and legged it before the Ministry could send the letter about illegal under age wizardry.
On their way to the north coast of Scotland Hermione went over the specifics of her plan again. The three all knew the plan very well by now and so let their minds drift, Aayla specifically was quite shocked by how calmly the girl's parents had accepted her decision and after wishing her well had gone back to bed.
When they arrived at the island which was heavily fogbound, Hermione had two of the Jedi jump down from the ship onto the dock and incapacitate the guards before they could raise the alarm, she also had one borrow one of the aurors wands so that the tracking charm on hers would not be picked up by the Department of Magical Law Enforcement which might make them wonder what she was doing on the island.
They then landed the ship near the dock and after telling the crew to guard the ship and contact them if there was any trouble they began the long walk up to the prison.
All four of them were feeling the effects of the large mass of dementors as they approached and all four were having trouble with their worst memories beginning to surface before their eyes.
Hermione was experiencing the graveyard all over again and seeing the killing curse strike her best friend.
Qui-Gon was reliving what happened to his last apprentice Xanatos.
Obi-Wan was reliving the shame he felt as he turned thirteen and hadn't been picked as an apprentice before being reassigned to be a ploughman for the AgriCorp wing of the Order, his dreams of becoming a jedi knight seemingly shattered.
And Aayla worst of all was experiencing the shame she felt when her memories of being a jedi returned to her and she realised she had fallen to the dark side for a time.
They continued on in silence until they got to the doors where the jedi once again used their mental powers to subdue the guards before using their lightsabers to open the doors.
The inside of the fortress was like one huge spiralling rusted metal staircase that wounded itself up and down the hollow centre of the castle in a double helix to the ceiling and down under the ground into the depths of the earth.
They encountered no resistance until they started trying to search the rooms where they first encountered a dementor. When they first saw one the jedi were surprised that what looked like a skeletal looking men in a torn robe could achieve such a horrible feeling there permeated every fibre of their being.
Obi-Wan who was at the back of the procession was the first to engage one after hearing its hollow breath and swung his lightsaber round in an arc that passed straight through where the head should have been. The creatures let out a scream before the robe it had been wearing dropped to the floor empty.
The dementors scream was followed by angry screams from elsewhere in the prison and the others realised that the others now knew that something was wrong.
Doubling their pace they split into groups of two and each took a side of the helix, working their way passed each room, checking each cell for Harry before running on.
They had to ignore the wale's and cries of the residence and the pleading by some of them to take them with them or kill them outright, they knew nothing about any of the others so could not risk doing either.
They encountered more and more dementors as they went on and either flamed, Force pushed them off the staircases or sliced them in half each time they encountered one. This sounded easy but each time one got closer the feeling of dread, terror and misery increased and further inhibited their ability to fight to the point where when Aayla tried to Force push one chasing her and Hermione over the side of the sloping staircase that she missed badly and took out a huge section of the staircase behind them, causing them to end up hanging onto the end of the piece they were on dangling over the abyss like pit down the centre of the structure until the two managed to pull themselves up.
They met the others at the top and realised much to their dismay that they had gone the wrong way and that Harry must be below ground level, which was passed the hordes of dementors that were swarming up the inside of the structure towards them.
"We have to jump," determined Qui-Gon. "It's the only way passed them."
"Are you serious, you might be able to jump that far but I can't," protested Hermione.
"We jump down several levels at a time and I will carry you, Obi-Wan you and Secura jump down ahead of me and clear a path please."
"Yes Master," they said simultaneously as they leapt of the highest level and descended at least six floors in one jump, each slashing out with their lightsabers and taking out several enemies with one swing, both were having to rely on the Force despite the fact that it was thick with the dark side here as their physical senses were highly affected by the presence of these dark beings.
It did not take them long to descend to the bottom of the tower, they must have killed at least a hundred dementors by the time they had got there, Hermione while she was being carried let a continuous stream of fire out behind her and Qui-Gon which caught many of the dementors that they descended passed leaving them flailing around, setting each other on fire trying to put out the flames.
They finally made it back to ground level and began doing the same thing in the other direction.
It did not take them long before they found the cell they were looking for and after Hermione's attempt at opening the door failed the jedi cut through it.
"Harry," called Aayla and Hermione as they rushed in and cradled the shivering and almost lifeless boy between them.
"Harry," Hermione tried again. "It's Hermione, Aayla, Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon. We have come to take you away Harry, you will be safe now."
He barely responded but what response he did give made both a relieved feeling.
His eyes that before had seemed little more than empty holes seemed to have life rekindled in them for a brief second, his hands both extended towards them both slight which they both took. and squeezed reassuringly.
"Than...k you...angels," before his eyes returned to their former state and his hands dropped back to the ground.
Both the ladies sighed in relief and slightly in shock before nodding at each other, Harry was still in there and it was now their job to get him out.
"Ladies, I don't meant to rush you but we have a bit of a problem out here," called Qui-Gon from outside the doorway as the sound of lightsaber swings was heard.
Hermione quickly cast a levitation charm on Harry's prone form and threw her coat over him before they went outside to find themselves in the middle of a battle. Each of the other Jedi were battling at either end of the staircase against a thick wall of dementors and both were obviously suffering from the concentration of emotions flowing over them.
"We cannot hold them much longer," shouted Qui-Gon, the strain in his voice was evident. They could see at the other end that the Obi-Wan was on his knees and the only reason that he had not been overcome was that he was using very inaccurate Force pushes to shove the dementors away from him.
"Aayla look," shouted Hermione, drawing the Twi'lekian's attention to the dementors that were now floating across the gap from the other side of the descending staircase.
Thinking quickly Aayla Force pushed them all back before Hermione filled the air with fire, but it wasn't enough, Qui-Gon was being forced back towards them by the endless hordes descending from above and Obi-Wan had to be Force pulled towards them as he was barely conscious.
Turning Hermione leant down over Harry.
"Harry, Harry do you hear me? We need you to cast a patronus. Harry we need your help, here's your wand," she said pressing it into his hand then closing it around it. "Please Harry, I know your weak but we will all be kissed if you don't help us, now."
Deep in the recessed of his mind, surrounded by all the terrible memories of his life and especially of the last two weeks, Harry thought he heard a voice calling to him somewhere amidst the darkness of his mind.
It sounded like Hermione, he had just seen her hadn't he?...Yes, she was there...and so was Aayla. They said they were there to take him away, yes.
Hermione sounded like she was in trouble, like they were all in trouble and they needed his help. Dementors.
He would not let anyone else die, but he had no memory to draw on...Yes...Yes he did, they were rescuing him from hell and taking him away to a new life, never was there a better memory.
EXPECTO PATRONUM
Aayla and the others had to shield their eyes as a huge explosion of light illuminated the castle.
It they has been able to see it, the Muggles that were living along the shore would have seen the every crack and window emitting bright beams of light high into the nights sky and that a pair of roughly antler like shapes extended up on either side of the castle, accompanied by the sounds of hundreds of screaming creatures.
As they were slowly able to open their eyes again, which was not easy considering the blinding light and the almost pitch black it had been before, Hermione and the others could just see a dim light being emitted from Harry's skin before slowly fading as he dropped into unconsciousness.
Looking around they noticed that the room that had previously been full of dementors was now full of nothing but fluttering robes.
"Did...he just?" asked Aayla, looking around stunned.
"Evidently," replied an exhausted Qui-Gon who was leaning heavily upon the wall as he walked. "How's Obi-Wan?"
"He seems fine, he was just overwhelmed by the number of them and the cumulative effect," explained Hermione, not looking away from Harry who she was staring at in shock.
"Told you he was powerful," grinned Aayla.
Shouts were heard further up the tower as well as the overjoyed cries of many of the inmates at having a huge amount of the dementors destroyed, reducing their suffering greatly.
"I suggest we get out of here quickly," pointed out Qui-Gon, "Our presence here might not of gained attention yet, but I am pretty sure that bit of magic did."
Casting more levitation charms on both Qui-Gon, who was barely able to stand, as well as Obi-Wan, Aayla and Hermione led them out of the prison and back onto the waiting ship.
No sooner were they aboard that the Captain took off and set a course for the edge of the solar system. By the time the wizarding world found out what had happened they would be long gone.
AUTHORS NOTE: Right, I am going to pre-empt a question here, several of you reviewed and said things along the lines of ship vs prison, easy win, and yes while it would be there are several problems with that. These are the reasons that I did not do that: one the whole scene would have been less than three paragraphs and it would have been two easy and would not have been that entertaining to read. Two they did not know where in the prison Harry was so they could have easily targeted the bit of the prison that he was in and killed him instead of rescued him. Three although they wanted Harry out they could not risk letting the other prisoners out by just blasting open the walls as that might have let people like Bellatrix Lestrange out which would not have been good especially because at that time neither Harry or Hermione knew who she was or what she had done. And four; while a ship landing quietly and a small strike force might have gone unnoticed if they were careful, I am sure that anyone on the mainland shore would notice a hundred and five meter ship flying around and firing bright futuristic blasters at a castle and that would be almost certain to get the attention of the DMLE and the aurors.
Secondly, just to let you know I have actually written about four chapters ahead of this but I am holding them back as I like watching the review numbers go up, so here is a tip the more your review and the more detailed the reviews (whether negative or positive) the faster I update the story, think of it as bribing me for an earlier release of what I have, all authors love reviews and I have seen LOADS of you add me or this story to favourites in the last few weeks so I know it's being read so in exchange for me writing a whole chapter write me a couple of lines.
Thirdly point is a thank you to Darksnider05 who prompted a small addition to chapter 4 (forgot to mention it then) when he pointed out how awkward it would be to stab someone lying on the floor with a lightsaber which when I thought back on it is quite true, so in response to this I added a minor lightsaber injury to Harry's wounds were he slipped and caught himself during his frenzied stabbing, so thank you for that Darksnider05.
Lastly, and this one is a question for Andor Swiftblade who reviewed on me exaggerating, on jumping from one extreme to the other and lastly on using clichés. I have no problem with the criticism, it's always good to get it so I can improve my writing, but I could use examples of where I have done the above as I have obviously not noticed that I have done this, thanks.