The Count of Azkaban

Chapter 1

The year is 2010 and there is no more war in the wizarding world.

It is a well known fact that history is written by the winners. Guess what, it's true.

However, as expected, the winner was not the side led by Dumbledore or the side led by the ministry of magic. The winner was the heir of slytherin, Tom Marvolo Riddle, aka Lord Voldemort and now the reigning king of the Wizarding world.

One would have thought that there would be a mention of the boy who lived as one of the key players but alas, it was not to be. Here is what happened.

In the summer of 1996, Harry Potter was a veritable reflection of how he felt inside, dead, or at least emotionally. His godfather was dead and he had been betrayed by none other than his own headmaster, the beacon of light, Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore. Due to his grief, the passage of time had lost its meaning to him and it had been so for some time. Actually, he had gone under a magical comatose.

He was never aware that somebody had entered the Dursley's home and killed someone using his wand, actually his guardians. He was not even aware that sensing underage magic, the ministry of magic had sent him an owl. Then again, sensing the unforgivables, aurors had come and found him on the floor of the hall, his wand in his hands and his relatives killed all over. There had been three Avada kedavras, an Alohamora and a crucio found during the priori incantem which had been performed during his trial.

(((o)))

Due to the visibility of the crime and the fact that Fudge wanted nothing more than to discredit the boy-who-lived. One law that had been overlooked was to allow for a trial was to allow trials of persons who were medically unfit.

Seeing the proof and also the fact that Harry was in magical coma, which can only be caused by over use of magic as in three Avada Kedavras at one go, headmaster did not even attempt to wait for or look for an alternative explanation. He let the trial go ahead and betrayed the trust of an innocent child.

The only reason that the dementor's kiss had not been administered was that Madame Bones was on the Wizengamot. She was the sole dissenting vote and by the laws of the Wizarding world, only an unanimous vote of the wizengamot can give a dementor's kiss decree.

They did the next worse thing. At the very bottom of the Azkaban are thirteen rooms. They are encircled by an unknown magic which makes the occupant face their own fears. It is rumored that the dementors were created due to a failed experiment where a well known alchemist had tried to replicate the magic surrounded here. Every one who had ever been put in one of these rooms had gone insane and died a few days after coming out. Harry Potter was thrown here and forgotten. Thought about as a mad deranged killer, the Wizarding world washed its hands off him.

(((o)))

It did not help that there had been no attacks from the dark lord's minions. For the whole one year, nothing was done. Without any movement, the resistance weakened and everybody forgot until a year later, on the 31st day of July 1997, the enormous forces of the dark lord infiltrated the Hogwarts with the help of Wormtail using the tunnel at the back of the sweetshop in hogsmead.

Dumbledore barely escaped the attack. Similar coordinated attacks were held on the ministry of magic, St. Mungo's and the residences of various members including Cornelius fudge.

Twenty four hours later, the minister of magic, after an emergency session of Wizengamot, introduced monarchy over the wizard kind. Lucius took over as the minister of magic. Cornelius was given a dementor's kiss. Many of the pure light families fled the land and settled in various neighboring countries. Barring the inclusion of muggleborns into the Wizarding society, nothing changed. That is nothing that was ever mentioned.

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The goblins fled and the Gringotts vanished. That place is still like a black hole in the middle of the Diagon alley. Over a period of next few days, several owls appeared in the houses of all the wizards having an account at the Gringotts. All the gold and contents of the vault were given after a magical receipt in a bottomless trunk.

Lucius, with his son Draco, opened the new bank for the Wizarding kind.

Everything was the same. The daily prophet was being controlled by the dark lord instead of fudge and ninety nine percent of the population didn't give a damn. These were the people doing ordinary jobs in their ordinary lives. Their lives had been reduced to going office and coming back.

The entire Wizarding prison was emptied and the dark lord made decisions to the many lives as per his wishes. No sign of the young wizard was found there. Probably the only person, who remembered his nemesis, did ask for him. But there was no sign of existence. The secret rooms at Azkaban were a secret as is. In absence of aurors and other officials, no record was found of the young boy who lived. As the connection between both of them had broken very soon after, he did not think much of it.

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After a few years, in the way of preparing for his new conquests, lord Voldemort forgot all about the green eyed boy and indulged in the fruits of his labor. With the help of scrolls at the department of the Unspeakables, he had gone through a ritual whereby his body had stopped aging. He was not an immortal, but he was not far from it.

With the center of the Wizarding world in his fief, he was now running for the position of the chair-man of Le CIGS, the International Council of the Wizarding Kind (Le Conseil International du Genre de Sorcellerie).

By now, even a footnote as to the life and times of the boy who lived had been erased. All that was left were legends and stories. It was as if he was a fictional character, a creation of some over imaginative mind. But still a few minds held the brave accounts, the minds those who had been there, the unimportant many.

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When the attack at the Hogwarts started, Dumbledore was in his office with Poppy. By the time he could see anything, the school was under siege. Hogwarts had many defenses as well as a few offences. Using everything he had, he fought valiantly. Soon he was joined by the potions master, Severus Snape.

But it was a loosing battle. Soon they were cornered. They would have died, had they not disappeared mysteriously.

The Weasleys were hit the worst. Arthur was caught and executed during the siege at ministry. His closeness to Dumbledore was all too well known. Charlie was exiled to Romania. He was declared persona non grata. If he ever entered the Great Britain again, he would be executed.

Bill had disappeared with the Gringotts. Percy & Ron had joined the Dark Lord. The twins disappeared after an explosion at the WWW, presumed dead. No body was found in the wreckage. Both Molly and Ginny were at home during all this. Molly died a few months later out of grief.

Ginny was forced into marriage with Draco by both Ron & Percy. It seemed he had lusted after her and Lucius would give anything to his son, especially if it's free.

Mad-Eye, practicing his constant vigilance disappeared and so did Nymphadora Tonks.

Hermione had been in America with her parents. They never returned.

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Years passed, everybody living there lives. Percy was an ambassador now. Ron was wealthy after playing as a keeper for chuddley cannons and a few years after he quit, he bought them with a loan from Draco. He had fulfilled both of his life's dreams. Being wealthy and owning the chuddley cannons. He was married to none other than cho chang.

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Muggles have a saying, "truth is stranger than fiction." Oddly enough, it applied to the magical world as well.

The thirteen chambers under the darkest place on earth were the sole remaining dwellings of the purest of beings, the high elves. When they had separated their plane from the Wizarding plane of existence, they took everything away, except their meditation chambers. Here, a high elf comes, when he had done something wrong. These highly magical chambers were the only thing that had remained behind.

When, an innocent and comatose Harry was put in, he began to absorb the light magic within him. It has been rumored that only someone pure of heart can even smell the high elves magic. Hence, no one that had ever come here could see or identify the strange magic.

But for the first time ever, the chamber accepted someone who was not their own. And instead of trying to scare them away as it did to all the other who had come here, it started to heal him. That chamber never opened again and after a few tries, everybody forgot about it.

(((o)))

What happened remains a mystery till now, but here is what is happening right now.

The room that Harry had been put in started to glow. It was a bluish light. Soon, the door was created in the walls of the room. Out stepped an immaculately dressed, powerful looking man of about twenty three.

He had a few rings on his fingers but had no wands or anything. Magic seemed to be whirling around him. The air was buzzing. The atmosphere was dinghy due to lack of proper ventilation. All the charms had worn of as the island had fallen into disuse.

The strange man looked around and a second later, the air cleared up. he closed his eyes and breathed the fresh air of England after so many years.

Then he opened them and one could look at the sparkling green eyes. They remind us of the hero who had been nearly forgotten. A scar was there as well. It would have given positive identification of the man. They would have known, Harry Potter had returned.

Author's Notes:

This is my second work of fiction and is a sort of a cross between Harry Potter & my favorite novel, The Count of Monte Cristo. The first time I had read it, it was the smaller version for young children. I had been 13 at the time. Later, I bought the full unabridged version and read all 1200 pages in one go. My parents were pretty sore on me that day. So today, I am attempting to write this story as my personal tribute to one of the best pieces of fiction I have ever read.

Hope you like it.

gt

My other story, Harry Potter & the True Power will run together with this. Though the updates on this might be a bit slower.