章節 32: Surprise
Harry and Hermione were the third pair that Apparated into the open cell in Azkaban. They quickly secured the three guards that were on guard on the roof. They claimed to have no knowledge of any breakout and had not seen anything unusual. They had been on guard for 5 hours of a 7-hour shift. When they descended to the lower levels, they found that most of the other guards had been gathered in the dining hall by Barnsby, waiting for information about what had happened. The Aurors quickly took their wands and secured the prison, moving the remaining guards they found back to the Dining Hall as well.
Barnsby himself was waiting down on the docks with a few other guards. He had clearly not expected them to arrive this quickly, from inside the prison, and without warning, but he quickly recovered from the shock and made a large show of cooperating from the start.
Hermione took Barnsby into what had been her office when she was here last, after he had been searched and submitted to a Secrecy sensor. An Auror took his wand too.
She sat down behind her desk. She did not tell him to sit down.
"Five days." she said. "Not even a week. It only took five days since I left you in charge of this prison until the first security breach occurred. How many prisoners have escaped? And who was murdered? How was it done? Explain." The last word was a terse command that made even Barnsby's self-control falter a little. But he had his story planned out. Hermione hoped she would be able to catch him in a lie. Preferably without needing to tell him that Kevin was not Kevin.
The worst part was, if Barnsby had indeed placed Imperius Curses on all the guards, she couldn't be absolutely sure that Rose had not aided them in their escape. But how would she have been able to warn her about it, if she had succumbed to the Curse? Barnsby would have had to realise that it had failed and tried again. She would probably not know that for sure until Rose had been rescued.
"Madam Minister," Barnsby started, his voice a little shaken. "This is an embarrassing situation, both for me personally and for this establishment. However, no system is perfect. This breach did not occur due to any fault in the security, but from human error. It was one of the new guards, Kevin. He was doing his rounds as usual. I was on the floor below and suddenly heard a lot of motion. I feared the worst and ran to see what had happened. When I got there, I saw all the cell doors open and another guard, Thomas, dead on the ground. Kevin was standing over him. I immediately raised the alarm, but it was too late. The prisoners had stolen a boat and there was no sight of them. Kevin went with them once he realised that I had seen him. The guards on the dock were immobilised, but they saw the boat leave. It had no lights and was soon invisible in the dark. We sent out other boats after it, but we have not seen any sign of it. At that point, I didn't want any accomplices of this Kevin to be able to sneak away in the chaos, so I rounded up all the guards and called the boats back. I gathered them all in the dining hall to await further instructions from the Ministry on what to do next."
It all sounded very plausible. Harry had entered the room whilst Barnsby was talking. Time to up the pressure a little.
"You are sure that it was Kevin that did this? Did you see the murder occur?"
"No, as I said, I didn't see the murder, but he was the only one of them that have a wand. And I saw him standing over the body. It is a natural conclusion to make."
"I see. And do you have any ideas as to how Kevin got the cell doors open? Do all the guards have permission to do that? I thought that only you and three others had the authority? Neither Kevin nor the dead guard had that authorisation, unless you have changed that? And how did they get the chains off? Didn't the alarm sound when that happened?"
That was clearly something Barnsby had not thought of. She could practically see his mind racing. First mistake.
"I…I have no explanation for that, Minister. I will do the utmost to find that out. The alarm for the chains went off, that was why I went up there, but I haven't had the time to find out exactly how he managed to do so."
Hermione looked behind Barnsby. "Ah, Harry, do you have a report?" Barnsby jumped and looked behind him. He had not noticed Harry coming in. Harry also just happened to block the only exit from the office.
"According to the numbers you gave us Minister, it seems three guards are missing." Harry said.
"Three more guards?" Hermione asked. "Or three with Kevin? And I presume you counted the three that were on the roof?" Barnsby looked slightly uncomfortable when she said this. He had forgotten the guards on the roof. They said that they had not seen or heard anything about a breakout, which was probably true. But that didn't fit with his story of sending out boats. Second mistake.
"Yes, of course I counted the ones on the roof. They are now down in the dining hall with the others. They claim to have no knowledge of any breakout, nor have they seen any boats, which sounds strange when compared to your statement Barnsby. We will need to question them again it seems. It is three guards missing including Kevin, but the other two are not classified as top-security personnel." Barnsby paled when he heard the names. Peeky and Anslem. It was the two that he had worked closest with. They were probably not under the Imperius Curse. They had certainly not presented themselves in a good light when Hermione had interviewed them. She had considered firing them, but since they didn't have top-security clearance, she had concluded that they couldn't have been involved in the plan. Now, she was not so sure. "I also don't know the precise number of boats that were available, so it is impossible to say how many boats the prisoners escaped with." Harry continued. "Other than that, it seems we have 20 empty cells, all in the top-security ward and one casualty, a guard. I have placed my Aurors at all strategic junctions and we are working on interviewing and taking all the guards back to their rooms. Most of those are former cells, so they are easily locked from the outside, if needed."
Barnsby paled even further. "Locking them in their rooms? Surely, Minister, that is not necessary? As I said, it is clear that this was the work of the new boy Kevin. Our system worked, we just need to do some drills on what to do when the alarm is sounded."
"Can you be sure that none of the other guards were there, or saw something?" Harry asked, ignoring his comments. "Can they have talked together before we arrived, to agree on what to say?"
"No, not everyone at the least. As I told the Minister, I sent some of them out in the boats so there is a chance that some of them talked, but Mr. Potter, most of these people saw nothing until the alarm went off. None of the guards from top-security or the floor I was on was sent out in the boats. They have been in the Dining Hall at all times, so they have not talked to anyone."
"How can you be sure of that?"
"I placed them there myself."
"But you weren't there with them. You were down on the docks, waiting for us, even though we had not told you when we would be arriving, or how. So, who was in charge of the guards confined to the dining hall?"
Third mistake. Barnsby's story was falling apart, and he knew it. Hermione didn't even give him time to reply to that question.
"Wait, did you say Peeky and Anslem?" She frowned when Harry confirmed. "They were the two guards that were with you down at the docks, wasn't it Barnsby?" Barnsby clearly didn't know whether he should confirm or deny this. "In that case, they must still be here. I doubt that they have gotten away after we got here. We need to search the whole prison."
"We are already doing that. This gives me hope. Maybe it is only Kevin then, that went on the boat with the prisoners. Barnsby, how many boats did they take?"
This was one of the questions Barnsby had prepared an answer for and it came quickly. "We only saw one boat, but as it was dark due to the storm it is possible that more of them slipped away in the dark with no lights. We don't have a count on the specific number of boats docked here at any time, so it is impossible to know for sure. That is also something we need to be sure to have control of in the future."
One of the Aurors came in with a short note. Harry read it and gave Hermione a short smile and a nod. Excellent.
"It seems we found the other two guards," Harry said. "They were hiding in the hold on one of the boats. Exactly what they hoped to accomplish with that, I don't know. We also got confirmation on our theory on what most likely happened here. A few of the guards have become more talkative, when we were able to remove the Imperius curse that had been placed on them."
Barnsby took a step back, clearly surprised at this casual revelation. "I…Imperius Curse? What do you mean? What has happened?"
"One of the guards, one of the new recruits, was clearly fighting it. It isn't always obvious, as you would know, but Sam Crickey was clearly trying to tell us something. We managed to remove the Curse with a nice quick shock, probably because he has not been under it for very long. He remembers quite vividly that he was called into your office Barnsby, but everything after that is still a bit hazy. He seems very certain on one part though. He is sure that Kevin would never have killed Thomas, even if he had assisted in the escape. It seems the three of them had grown quite close."
Hermione nodded. She had seen that too. How awful it must have been for Rose, to see a friend die like that. No! She couldn't think about that now. She had to focus on the task at hand.
"Kevin could not have done this alone anyway. As I said, he doesn't have the authority to open the cell doors or remove the chains."
Harry nodded. "And one of the other guards told us that you, Barnsby, had been up at the top-security ward for over an hour when the alarm was raised. He didn't know the significance of that statement, but it is still problematic, wouldn't you say?"
Fourth mistake. Barnsby seemed to have no words left. It was time to end this.
"Barnsby, you are under arrest for aiding in the escape of several Dark Wizards, for aiding in kidnapping and under suspicion of murder." Hermione declared.
"Murder! I didn't kill him!" Barnsby seemed to forget to even protest the other accusations.
"Then who did? As you just pointed out, the prisoners didn't have wands. Or did you give them that as well? Or do you still want to claim that Kevin, a young man with little to no magical experience, killed a friend out of the blue like that?"
Barnsby didn't reply. He stood completely still, like a trapped animal searching for an escape. Then he suddenly leaped unto Harry in a desperate attempt to reach the door or get a hold of his wand. Harry stood firm between Barnsby and the door, but they both moved around trying to get away from the other.
After a brief struggle, Hermione got a clear shot and Stunned him in the back. Harry crawled laboriously out from under Barnsby's Stunned body.
"Your reflexes are getting slow" was all he said.
"You were moving around too much. I was trying to avoid hitting you instead." Hermione snapped back, but with a smile. This had been good for her. She felt like she had accomplished something. Unfortunately, it was the less important thing.
"Hopefully, this will cause some of the others to be released from their Imperius Curses as well. I just hope he hasn't done to them what was done to Scorpius." Harry said, looking down on Barnsby.
"I doubt it. His goal was to control them, not necessarily turn them. But I wonder how long this has gone on for. And was Perrot a victim or an accomplice? I need to get him detained as well."
"Yes, and the investigators we sent here. I suspect I know why they claimed to find no knowledge of a breakout now."
Hermione nodded. Everyone that had been near Azkaban would have to be checked. They were both avoiding the main question. Had Rose been given this same treatment? Had she been forced to be part of the escape, or had she seen something she shouldn't?
And, most importantly, did the Death Eaters know who she was?
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