Hogwarts: Harry Returns from Azeroth

Chapter 127 126. Harry's First Visit to Azkaban
You don't even need to set foot on it to get a deeper understanding. Just a quick glance will tell you that this island is definitely not a place for people to stay.

The sky seemed to be covered with dark clouds that would never disperse. It was very gloomy, as if the sky would collapse at any time. It was extremely depressing. Coupled with the extremely low visibility and chilly fog surrounding the island, the whole island seemed to be completely wrapped up, filled with a sense of restraint, as if the entire island was a prison.

There is not even a decent port, just a small pier made of wooden boards leading to the sea, and both sides are covered with reefs of various sizes. The reefs that are exposed above the water alone have blocked the ships' way to the island, not to mention the reefs hidden under the water.

Not only that, in the distance you can see some weathered and old shipwrecks, leaning against the sides of several huge reefs, covered with moss. It is unknown how long ago they sank here, as if they would be completely shattered by a big wave... Perhaps they can be traced back to the period before Azkaban was established.

Harry guessed that the small pier he saw, including the surrounding reefs and even the shipwrecks, were actually the means used by the Ministry of Magic to protect the prison of Azkaban. However, what people were more concerned about was the tall tower on the island - where the dark wizard Axtis once lived.

There is a tower that looks like a lighthouse, taller than the hills on the island. A Gothic castle is built with the tower as the center. Time has left deep marks on this complex of buildings. Harry can still see the vines climbing on the castle and the tower.

These vines even looked black, without any greenness of plants. Instead, they looked as if they had been scorched by a fire. They climbed on the outer stone walls of the castle and the towers, and those walls were covered with cracks and scorch marks from unknown sources due to the erosion of the sea breeze.

It was ancient, dilapidated, and eerie, as if it could collapse at any moment, and it had a feeling that its guards were very weak - but these were all illusions.

Harry had already seen several figures in black robes moving between the gaps between the tower and the castle. Those should be the Dementors that wizards were so afraid of.

"No wonder you all don't want to stay here." Shrugging, Harry sent a sympathetic look to the two strikers.

"Who said it wasn't?" Dias sighed heavily. He led Harry and the others onto the small pier, pointed to the tall tower and said, "See that tower? At the beginning, the strikers sent by the Ministry of Magic lived in that tower, and the prisoners were in the bottom of the tower and in the castle."

"And then you moved away?" Harry asked.

"Yes," Baldwin said expressionlessly, "That place is not suitable for human habitation. You can hear the weird screams of the prisoners all the time."

"The weird screams are nothing, they are just a bunch of lunatics." Dias interrupted his companion and said through gritted teeth: "The most important thing is those damn things - Dementors! They keep flying around in that tower. Even if you clearly say not to come to the top of the tower, they will always come - damn it!!"

Perhaps because they had stayed in this remote place for too long, the two batsmen became particularly talkative after getting to know each other.

"I bet they're trying to give us a kiss!" Baldwin couldn't hold back and waved his fist excitedly, "You know, they love this!!"

Dementor's Kiss refers to the Dementors sucking away the soul of the target, causing their death.

Regardless of whether Harry and Lucius wanted to hear it or not, Diaz and Baldwin simply wanted to say these words and vent their anger. Harry listened to the stories of the two strikers and followed them towards the tower. When Lucius wanted to stop these two talkative strikers, Harry stopped him.

"...Can you imagine that you are dreaming and getting colder and colder, and then suddenly you open your eyes to find a monster in a black robe floating above your head? You can even see its disgusting appearance under the black robe, dry and rotten, just like a mummy!" Baldwin was so excited that his lips trembled when talking about his past experiences.

That was definitely a nightmare he would never forget in his life.

"Yeah," Dias sighed deeply, "So we have moved down from that tower and live on the other side of the island. I don't want those monsters to sneakily suck away my happiness."

Of course, there couldn't be only two strikers sent by the Ministry of Magic to Azkaban.

"But if you all move away, then there will be no one left in the castle to guard the prisoners?" Harry asked curiously, "What if someone breaks into the prison or escapes?"

Diaz and Baldwin looked at each other and suddenly burst into laughter.

"No, Harry, the Dementors are always here, no one can escape." Dias explained with a smile: "As for the deeper reason - Hey! Go away! They are not prisoners! Leave! There is no food for you here!!"

When they were about to enter the castle, Dias suddenly put on a fierce face and scolded the Dementor who had come out from some gap because he noticed several people approaching. Harry finally saw the Dementor's appearance up close.

He was wearing a black cloak, but Harry felt that it was more like a large, dense, not very transparent black gauze. He also had real flesh and blood. The hands that appeared from the holes in the cloak looked like they had been soaked in water and had scabbed over. His flesh and blood had rotted away, and he had lost his facial features. His muscles had atrophied, and there was only an empty hole on his face.

Dementors are able to understand human language and respond accordingly, otherwise the Ministry of Magic would not have been able to reach an agreement with them to let them guard Azkaban - but it is unlikely that Dementors will completely obey human instructions.

The most intuitive manifestation was that even though Dias was waving his wand and scolding them, these Dementors were still approaching at a very fast speed. In the blink of an eye, they were only two meters away from Harry and his companions.

"...Sir, are you okay?" Lucius approached Harry and asked in a very low voice, "Would you like some chocolate?"

Lucius handed Harry a piece of chocolate.

"Chocolate?" Harry asked in surprise.

"Chocolate can alleviate some of the...adverse effects brought by Dementors," Lucius said palely.

"I see. Don't worry, I'm fine." Harry nodded slightly. Under Lucius's surprised gaze, Harry remained calm as usual. He even thought of commenting, "Is this a Dementor? Interesting."

Lucius was already stuffing chocolate into his mouth. When the Dementors approached, he seemed to remain calm, but Lucius's condition at the moment was definitely not good... Memories of the past were rapidly surging in his mind.

Green light, a man constantly shouting the spell in various voices, some louder, some softer, some heavier, some quicker, some slower - Avada Kedavra, and various figures falling down after the green light faded, horror, fear, fear, shrinking...

Lucius even felt like he couldn't breathe.

Under the impact of these horrific memories from the past, Lucius subconsciously looked at the boy next to him, only to find that the boy looked normal, as if nothing had happened - was this reasonable?
"…I'm glad you're okay." Thousands of words were condensed into one sentence, and Lucius stood aside again.

In his heart, Lucius felt that his previous decision to simply slide down and kneel and treat Harry as an existence equal to Voldemort was absolutely correct - this performance at the moment was not something that ordinary people could have.

Those who have never stood in front of a Dementor in person cannot possibly imagine the power of this monster. The ability to deprive all creatures around it of their joy or positive emotions simply by existing there is like a natural phenomenon that cannot be resisted.

The Ministry of Magic still had a certain degree of deterrence and control over the Dementors, and Dias finally drove away the Dementors that approached him... Well, it was hard for Harry to tell whether these Dementors were driven away or left on their own after they had eaten enough, but in any case they did leave.

"Sorry, they're just used to it." Dias wiped the sweat from his head and put the wand back into the wand bag. He was also having a hard time just now. "Are you okay, Harry?" To be honest, the two strikers were quite caring towards the boy who survived the disaster.

"Thank you, I'm fine... I just remembered some bad things." After a vague answer, Harry continued to ask: "But what does it mean to get used to it?"

"Oh, it's a greeting gift." Leading Harry and the other man continued to walk into the castle, Dias explained simply: "Whenever a new prisoner arrives, we will let the Dementors get close to him... Of course, it won't be as close as a kiss, but let the Dementors get close to his face and suck away all his hope and happiness."

"Some of the more timid or weak-willed prisoners are almost crazy at this stage," Baldwin shrugged and said, "What's the word? Mental breakdown?"

"So this is why you're not worried about any prisoners escaping?" Harry said knowingly.

"Yes, very few prisoners have the energy to move around when surrounded by Dementors. Those creatures want to suck out any happiness from your body, and then you will feel as if all your strength has been drained away, and you won't be able to do anything extra." Diaz chuckled, "No wand, no full meals, no sunlight, tsk tsk tsk."

"And even if someone can survive the meeting gift, we will bet on how long he can last before going crazy. Well, even if he is locked up in the outermost area, two or three years should be the limit, right?" Baldwin suddenly became serious as he spoke, "Except for the most vicious guys who are also locked up in the deepest area, those Death Eaters."

"Oh, don't mention those guys anymore," Dias shuddered suddenly. "I dare say their souls have been completely devoured by the dark magic. Even if it's the Dementors... well... forget it, let's not talk about them."

Suddenly becoming vague, Diaz was unwilling to say more on the issue.

"How horrible," Harry followed the words of the two strikers and said, "Fortunately, the Ministry of Magic was able to control the Dementors and confine them to this island - I heard that Dementors are immortal?"

He was indeed curious about dark magic creatures like Dementors.

After all, when the Dementors approached just now, Harry was not unaffected. He seemed to see a flash of green light, a woman's scream, burning houses and trees, torn wounds, gushing blood, and soldiers falling... but he always held on to his own mind.

Compared with the whispers of the Old Gods and the battles against them, the impact of the Dementors was nothing but a drop in the bucket.

However, even though the bad memories that were evoked were quickly suppressed and had no effect on Harry, the ability to force those memories to be brought up under his will was worth studying in itself.

Not to mention that in the wizards' research, Dementors are immortal - ha, how fresh, immortal?
"Well, at least no one can kill them at the moment." Not knowing what Harry was thinking, Dias continued, "So in order to prevent them from causing any trouble outside, the Ministry of Magic simply reached an agreement with the Dementors and let them serve as guards of Azkaban."

"Yes, the emotions of those prisoners are food for the Dementors, so the Ministry of Magic doesn't have to pay a large amount of Galleons as guard salaries." Lucius smiled sarcastically and continued, "It's cheap and efficient, and you don't even have to worry about the prisoners escaping - even if they die, no one cares. There's nothing more cost-effective than this."

He might go crazy or die, but there is no way he can escape from prison.

"Almost. If these Dementors weren't always looking for opportunities to secretly suck some of my happiness, I think they're doing a pretty good job." Baldwin shrugged and said, "At least those wizards who have been imprisoned in Azkaban swore that they would never come back after they got out."

Petty thieves are locked up to experience this, and then the crime rate in wizarding society will go down, right?

What a good deterrent.

Before coming in just now, Baldwin had pointed out to Harry an area on the island far away from the castle and close to the hills. It was the cemetery of Azkaban. If a prisoner died, he would be buried directly there without even a report.

This is the wizarding society. Beneath the seemingly civilized surface, many things are actually very... barbaric.

In other words, the wizarding society itself is a patchwork society, extremely loose - Harry's understanding of wizards has deepened.

As Voldemort's most loyal Death Eater recognized by the wizarding world, Sirius Black was imprisoned in the center of Azkaban, which is also the lowest and most difficult to escape area, deep in the dungeon of the tower.

A special cell.

The closer they got to the dungeon, the less Diaz and Baldwin spoke. This was a change that even they themselves didn't notice. They were becoming serious and alert.

At the same time, Harry also noticed the changes in the prisoners being held in the corridor.

If before in the outermost area, the prisoners locked in the cells still had the strength to grab the iron bars and shout to Harry and his friends who were passing by outside that they were innocent or begging for mercy, then these prisoners imprisoned in the dungeon all looked like they were about to die.

They were either lying on the stone slabs or leaning against the wall, occasionally letting out strange laughs and mumbling crazy words that no one could understand.

"…They are all Death Eaters, Harry, just ignore them." Perhaps worried that Harry would burst into sympathy, Dias bent down and whispered in Harry's ear.

Harry certainly had no sympathy for these followers of Voldemort who had been cast in twelve years ago.

Perhaps they once took advantage of Voldemort's power to do all kinds of evil, but after so many years of imprisonment and torture by Dementors, these people have become exhausted - a row of cells that should have been full now has only a few empty cells, and the fate of the people inside is naturally needless to say.

They didn't even have the strength to yell. To be more precise, they didn't even have the strength to make some meaningless roars. The person in the best condition Harry saw was just slowly raising his arm and continuously hitting a crack on his side.

"Oh, that's Rufus." Baldwin sneered without any sympathy. "At least two Muggle families died at his hands. Look at what he looks like now. Ha, he still regards that crack as his hope of escape. How ridiculous."

"It seems that dark magic can't save them," said Harry, shaking his head slightly.

When Dias mentioned it before, Harry thought that those wizards who were proficient in the dark arts could greatly weaken the impact of Dementors on themselves, but now it seems that is not the case.

"Of course they can't be saved," Baldwin sneered. "In fact, even those who seem to be able to move or say something are essentially crazy - the Dementors have changed them forever and destroyed their souls."

What about Sirius?
Such a question suddenly flashed through Harry's mind, because his godfather - the godfather who thought he was atoning for his sins was imprisoned in the deepest part of Azkaban.

Every day, he had to endure the rounds of the Dementors, which sucked away any happy memories and emotions in his mind. His mind flashed back to those tragic and painful memories endlessly, and the food he ate was moldy bread and sewage...

Is Sirius really normal like this?
(End of this chapter)