"I was hiding down there just like you. What could I possibly see?"
Gale retorted irritably and glanced again at the distant sea. Just then, he spotted a shark swimming past the side of the ship, which made him quickly duck his head back in fear.
"Anyway... that must be a powerful wizard—an Animagus, no less. I saw a bird fly out of the sea."
"What kind of bird?" Lockhart asked again.
"An eagle, maybe," Gale guessed.
He wasn't particularly knowledgeable about birds.
The two of them fell silent for a moment, and looked at each other.
"Peter's dead. What do we do now?"
The scene of Lockhart grabbing a wand and escaping from his cell had naturally been noticed by the surrounding prisoners, who all clamored for him to release them as well.
However, during his time in prison, Lockhart had not only been drained of happiness and consumed by despair due to the patrolling Dementors but had also frequently suffered abuse and bullying from other inmates.
His appearance and fame, which were once his halos of glory, brought him no benefit in this morally bankrupt place. Instead, they relegated him to the very bottom of the hierarchy.
So, after escaping, Lockhart not only refused to rescue his fellow inmates but also went around casting Obliviate on them one by one.
The strength of his Memory Charm was enough to leave those prisoners as mindless fools for the rest of their lives.
Then, Gale, who was in a cell diagonally opposite his, called out to him.
Gale was also a relatively minor offender. He was a vampire who knew a bit of magic.
He had been sent to Azkaban for the serious crime of violating the Statute of Secrecy and theft after being caught using magic to steal blood from a Muggle hospital's blood bank.
Lockhart hadn't planned on letting him out, but Gale said something that changed his mind—
"You might know how to break out of your cell, but do you know how to deal with Dementors?"
Lockhart assumed Gale knew the Patronus Charm and decided to free him.
But in reality, Gale didn't know the advanced spell. In fact, he had never even attended school.
When faced with Dementors, his only strategy was to transform into a large bat and ram straight into them.
These creatures, which fed on human positive emotions, seemed rather clumsy when confronted with simple-minded animals. ɪꜰ ʏᴏᴜ ᴡᴀɴᴛ ᴛᴏ ʀᴇᴀᴅ ᴍᴏʀᴇ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs, ᴘʟᴇᴀsᴇ ᴠɪsɪᴛ novel-fire.net
After colliding with three Dementors in succession, Gale became so dejected he might as well have turned into a mushroom. Left with no other choice, Lockhart had to carry the dispirited giant bat on his back as they fled.
During their frantic escape, they stumbled upon Peter Pettigrew, who was imprisoned in a specially designed cell.
News about Peter had once dominated the front pages for a time, and both Lockhart and Gale immediately recognized the infamous traitor and loyal subordinate of the Dark Lord.
At that moment, Peter was pacing in circles within his cell. When he saw the two of them, his beady little eyes lit up instantly.
He rushed to the iron bars and and pleaded, "Help me! Get me out of here!"
Peter's cell was tightly secured, with small grid-like windows that could barely fit a finger through. Food was delivered via specially designed tubes.
The metallic sheen of the floor and walls gave the narrow, confining space an impenetrable appearance. The cell was designed so that even if Peter transformed into a rat, he wouldn't be able to dig his way out. But this also meant he was living in unbearable conditions.
When Lockhart and Gale made no move to unlock the door, Peter pressed his face tightly against the bars and shouted:
"Even if you escape, you'll just become fugitives! Who else but... but the Dark Lord can protect you? Dumbledore?"
In the end, they became a trio.
Peter wanted to release more prisoners, but most of those serving short sentences refused outright.
If they stayed put, they'd eventually return to normal society. Breaking out, however, meant being hunted down and potentially facing the Dementor's Kiss if recaptured.
Besides, escaping Azkaban wasn't exactly a guaranteed success.
The prison was located in the vast, isolated ocean, and no one had ever successfully escaped before.
As for the long-term inmates, most had been drained of all vitality by the Dementors. Some had even gone mad, making them unfit to be allies and more likely to be dead weight.
Gale then suggested that Peter seek out his former comrades.
Everyone knew that Azkaban had a section for Death Eaters serving life sentences. Those lunatics had been mad even before their imprisonment and, despite being locked up for over a decade, hadn't entirely lost their wits.
Peter's face turned deathly pale, and he vehemently rejected this insane proposal.
At this point, Peter feared no one more than his former Death Eater comrades—not Voldemort, not Dumbledore.
Particularly the most fanatical among them... They knew Peter had passed information to Voldemort and were also aware that shortly thereafter, their master had disappeared.
In some of their eyes, Peter Pettigrew was the true culprit behind the Dark Lord's downfall.
Take Bellatrix, for instance...
If she were released, Peter had no doubt that that madwoman would subject him to a dozen Cruciatus Curses, if not outright kill him.
Peter believed his only hope of survival was to find the Dark Lord. Only under his protection would he dare to face those crazed "colleagues."
He dangled a grand vision in front of Lockhart and Gale—if they assisted the Dark Lord in his resurrection, they would no longer be criminals but would instead reclaim power, wealth, and fame!
The Dark Lord, Peter promised, was never stingy when it came to rewarding his followers.
The three of them began their escape together.
Peter and Gale could both transform into animals—Peter as a rat, who could hide easily, and Gale as a bat, who could fly. Dementors seemed almost incapable of "seeing" them in these forms.
Lockhart, lacking any talent for Animagus transformations, relied instead on his Memory Charm, which, surprisingly, worked on Dementors as well.
When struck by the spell, the Dementors would forget what they were doing and stand motionless for several minutes. Using this method, the trio miraculously managed to escape the wizarding world's most inescapable prison.
However, crossing the vast ocean to reach safety was no simple task. Fortunately, Gale could fly and soon located a nearby fishing boat.
But, it seemed their luck ran out after that.
"Peter's dead. What do we do now?" Lockhart asked.
With the one who had promised to lead them to the Dark Lord gone, Lockhart immediately felt lost, unsure of where to go next.
"We need to figure out how to survive in the Muggle world first," Gale said after thinking for a while.
Then, with a grimace, he added, "The city's so big that the Ministry of Magic might struggle to find us... but we can't use magic recklessly anymore. We might even need to find normal jobs..."
Lockhart felt a deep pang of longing for his fans and his bestselling books, but at that moment, he had no other options and could only go along with Gale's plan.
The two devoured the fishermen's dinner, ravenously stuffing their stomachs.
"What about these fishermen? Toss them into the sea?" Lockhart asked.
"No, leave them be. They can help cover for us. Just use your Memory Charm to make them forget they saw us," Gale said anxiously. "Otherwise, if that killer comes back..."
Both shivered in unison, gripped by fear.
With their decision made, they crept back into the cabin to hide, letting the old fishing boat carry them toward an unknown future.
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⭐Harry Potter: Becoming a Study God (HP:BSG)- +235 Chapters
⭐MCU: Druid's Adventures (MCUDA)(⭐COMPLETE⭐) - Total Chapter 460
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