Chapter Text
Chapter One.
Harry didn't see how all the students had gathered in the hallway, he barely felt how professor Umbridge held his upper arm in a tight grip that would definitely leave bruises.
“Make way, make way.” Umbridge said with a high pitched voice and happily smiling. “We are bringing a pregnant delinquent…” She paused for the extra dramatic effect and to give everyone the time to let that news sink in but she spoke before the whispers could start up. “To his new home in Azkaban.” Professor Umbridge giggles, “Make way, make way.” Professor Umbridge repeated again with that high pitched voice that made Harry’s skin crawl.
They entered the grand hall followed by the students. “What is going on here?” Professor McGonagall asked, and she frowned deeply when she saw Harry in handcuffs. “Why are you arresting one of my students?”
Umbridge giggled. “Because he is a delinquent and now on his way to Azkaban.” The Aurors that she had called from the Ministry started to push people away to make room for her and Harry to pass. Professor McGonagall was not having it as she stepped in front of them with a raised wand. “You can't take him to Azkaban, he didn't have a trial and you still haven't clarified why you are arresting Mister Potter.”
Professor Umbridge giggled and Harry shivered but he looked hopeful at McGonagall; she wasn't going to allow Umbridge to take him to Azkaban. “I'm completely in my rights as Mister Potter is confirmed to be pregnant so no trial is needed as the law is very clear on that.” Professor Umbridge smiled brightly and McGonagall’s wand dropped a few inches.
“Ohh, Harry.” She sighs sadly, Harry looked up at his teacher and for the first time he saw through the fog he had been walking in and he saw tears in her eyes. He had never seen her show that much emotion and now he got really worried. McGonagall ignored the Aurors, Umbridge or the fact that Harry was handcuffed and she wrapped her arms around him in a hug. “Don't lose hope, we will get you out.”
Harry was now starting to panic. This wasn't how McGonagall normally acted and he fumbled with his handcuffs but he was cuffed tightly he searched the crowd for his friends and then he saw them pushing people away to get towards him but Umbridge was already leading him away.
“HARRY!” Hermione screamed. “WE WILL FIX THIS, DON'T LOSE HOPE!”
“WE WILL GET YOU OUT, MATE!” Ron shouted as he pushed a few elder students away but no matter how they tried they didn't get any closer while Harry was pushed inside a carriage where an Auror sat in front of him with his wand pointed at him as if he expected Harry to escape, but even if his brain somehow managed to work through the fog his wand had been taken and he was handcuffed.
The door slammed behind him and the last thing he saw was how Hermoine was crying while she and Ron still fought to make their way to them, even though it was too late as the door of the carriage slammed close.
Harry looked down at his worn sneakers as he didn't want to look at the Aurors or Umbridge who looked so incredibly happy.
Harry had no idea how long the trip had taken before he was pulled out of the carriage and he saw that they stood at a dock at the shore of a beach. “Enjoy your view, it will be the last you see.” Umbridge laughed and she pushed him in a small boat where she took place in front of him with one Auror in front of him and the two others sat behind him.
Harry ignored Umbridge as he watched dreadfully, how the dark form of Azkaban prison came closer and closer and as it became closer he could also feel the cold and the despair creeping underneath his skin and as the days would pass settle deep inside his bones..
Harry was brought to an office with a guard who looked at him and with a frown but in the end just shrugged. “Change into these.” He held out a gray prison uniform Harry looked around but there was no place he could change one of the Aurors grinned. “Strip, Potter so we can see that you have nothing to hide, you can do it yourself or we can help you.”
Harry knew that there was no way out of it as he slowly undressed himself and after the guard made sure with a quick wave of his wand that he held no contraband he was allowed to dress himself in the uniform that was thin and was everything but comfortable and he felt his skin immediately started to get irritated and itchy.
He was led out of the office with a small package that contained a toothbrush, toothpaste, a small bar of soap and a thin blanket.
“Uhm…uhm.” Umbridge said and the guard looked at her. “Are you not forgetting something?”
“What ya mean?” The guard snapped as he looked Harry over. “We did everything according to protocol and we are bringing him to his cell.”
Umbridge took out a scroll and held it over. “As you can read for yourself Mister Potter is to be branded like every other criminal here in Azkaban and again as you can read the Minister himself assigned Mister Potter his cell.”
The guard read the scroll and frowned. “We never brand underage prisoners and this cell is in the highest security with Death Eaters, this doesn't feel right.”
“Well, lucky for you your job isn't feeling. You can do your job or you can pack your belongings and consider yourself fired.” Umbridge said and her girly voice was gone and she stared at the guard who looked at her, the aurors and then at Harry before he apologetic shook his head. “Family got tha eat.” he mumbled and he brought Harry back to the office. Umbridge painfully gripped his arm and put it down where the guard branded his new prison number on his arm and he recognized the runes he had seen with Sirius’ tattoo. When the guard was done after a few painful minutes he rubbed the spot with some potion and wiped it clean leaving the dark prison numbers for all to see.
Harry blinked away the tears as he stared at his ‘new tattoo’ at the black runes and numbers. ᛈᛉ390 had been Sirius’ number his was ᛈᛉ413. He hated the mark, he hated it even more than the thin lines on his hand that said, ‘I must not tell lies.’ Harry didn't register when Umbridge chuckled and said, “See you soon for your check up, Mister Potter.” Then he was led through the dark cold halls of Azkaban to his cell.
The cell door slammed behind him and Harry looked around his cell, there was not much light but enough to see inside the other cell but the person inside didn't move at all so Harry thought they may be sleeping. Behind a half-wall that didn't really give any privacy was a toilet and a sink built in the wall. On the other side of the cell was his bed, or what he thought was his bed as I was just a large flat stone that barely resembled a bed. He put the brush and toothpaste next to the sink (that only gave a muddy-slop) before he scrambled onto the bed -for the lack of a better word- and wrapped the thin blanket around him, not that it did much in this place. He was already shivering and the dementors hadn't even been on their rounds.
Harry just sat there and stared at his prison number he snorted as a thought crossed his mind, uncle Vernon had been right all the time, he did end up being a convict and he was in jail the man finally got his wish.
Then it suddenly hit him he was pregnant why had no one ever told him that that was possible and while their at it they could also have informed him that it was illegal with the punishment being him being forced to carry to term, give birth and then watch how his baby would be killed and he would spend his life in prison and if they were already on the explaining path they could explain to him why it was illegal and how they had come up to such a horrible punishment.
A sob escaped him and he tried to muffle the sound with his thin blanket but it was too late as he heard a woman's voice speak in a high pitched little girl's voice and Harry shivered as if Umbridge hadn't been enough, “Who’s the new itty-bitty baby that is crying in his cell?” Harry ignored her as he made himself as small as possible and tried to hide in his too thin and too small blanket. “Does itty-bitty cry-baby not want to talk with Bella? That is not very nice.”
Harry turned his back further against her, he was now sitting in the corner of his bed facing the wall with the blanket over his head, he knew he couldn't hide for ever but for now he could try and block it all out for a while as he tried to progress everything that had happened in the last few hours.
If he could have held his temper, learned to shut his mouth then he would never have gotten detention with Umbridge and if that detention hadn't had happened he wouldn't have passed out in her office. Umbridge had done her ‘job’ when Harry had started puking and then passed out before he had even started writing his lines and had brought him to the hospital wing, Madam Pomfrey had cast a diagnostic charm while he was slowly waking up. He saw how a quill was writing down the diagnosis but even before it was done Umbridge had snatched it away before Madam Pomfrey could object Umbridge had started laughing and told him that he was under arrest.
She had called the Aurors from the Ministry through the Floo and they had arrived almost immediately; he was handcuffed and taken away, not through the Floo as the Aurors had arrived but he was walked through the entire school where Umbridge could parade him around.
Harry whipped away a few tears as he remembered how McGonagall had looked when she had heard the news and when he heard the words of his friends echo through his mind he broke down in silent sobs as he didn't want the woman who called herself ‘Bella’ to have anymore reason to pester him even further.
Half upright Harry slightly dozed off, tired of all the events and shock he had gone through.
Harry ‘woke up’ the next morning tired and everything but well-rested. You would think that one would be used to the sleeping sounds of others after his years in the Gryffindor dorm but he had woken up at every little sound and when the dementors had passed by in the middle of the night and he had almost passed out with his mother screaming loudly he had barely slept after that and the whimpering and soft crying of the other prisoners didn't help either.
Lights turned on and he could somewhat see now, but that he had a better look at how horrible his surroundings were wasn't something to be happy about. Two guards entered and they slammed on the bars. “Breakfast, Dolochov.” Then some noise before Harry could hear the sound of a tray shoved over the stone floor before the guard said, “Breakfast Lestrange.” This was repeated until the guards were at his cell, “Breakfast, Potter.” All around him the scraping sounds of food being eaten stopped.
“What did the nice guard call our new itty-bitty baby?” The woman the guards had called ‘Lestrange’ asked with a disgusting sweet voice and in a flirty tone that made Harry sick and almost lose the little bit or blend porridge he had already eaten.
One guard turned around and said, “None of ya business, finish your breakfast before it vanishes.” The second guard grinned mean as he waited a few moments as the first guard left their small block. “That's, Harry Potter. The savior of the wizarding world.” The guard said and then. “The knocked up savoir…” The guard barked out a laugh that was short and humorless but full of sarcastic amusement and then he left.
Lestrange stared at him in shock and Harry quickly hid again in the corner of his hard, cold bed and ate his breakfast while the tears burned behind his eyes as the prisoners asked him questions that became ruder and ruder the longer he ignored them.
It was after lunch that existed out of a slice of thin stale bread and some soup with something that needed to pass for vegetables but were soggy and slimy that Bella started to ‘sing’ instead of asking questions.
“A curvaceous boy named Harry
Just loved having sex in the dairy
When he smothered with whipped cream
His beau would lick him clean…
His calorie intake was scary!!!
After every little song of whatever you would call it ‘Bella’ cackled loudly if she got the right response she repeated it a few times until other prisoners started shouting that she ‘needed to change her tune’ then she would sing it one or two more times before she started on the next.
It really didn't get any better as Bella went on;
“Rookwood’s wife is the apple of his eye
But there is no sex lately and here's why…”
Bella cackled as the man who a few cells next to her cursed loudly and told her to shut up but she ignored it as she just started her song again.
“Rookwood’s wife is the apple of his eye
But there is no sex lately and here's why
She told him that he's lame
Every night it’s the same
There are other options she wants to try.”
Bella cackled so loudly that one of the guards came back and told her to shut up, not that it really matters as she just started a new one and beside how awful they were Harry still learned that her ‘songs’ were officially called limericks and her husband Rodolphus or ‘Dolphie’ as Bella called him laughed at each and everyone of them no matter how many times she repeated them.
Around dinner time she finally shut up and Harry enjoyed the few moments of silence while he ate a mishmash of ingredients that had been mixed together into some kind of puree that was again tasteless. The texture was unlike anything he had ever had and he had a lot of horrible things when he was really hungry.
When the guards came by for their last rounds of the day and turn of the little bit of light they had during the day, Harry sighs he had only been here for one day and it already felt like forever with Bella’s singing the dementors who came on their rounds every few hours and the overall misery of Azkaban.
At the least he had survived his first day and as long as he didn't think about the fact that it was just for life he stayed relatively calm, but as he laid underneath his thin blanket on the hard stone bed he wished, he wished with everything he had for someone to save him even though he knew it was useless as he had tried the same thing many times before in his cupboard and no one ever came to rescue him but perhaps, maybe this time was different Harry hoped as he fell in a restless sleep long before Bella had stopped her singing.
“I wish I had a bed
I sleep on the floor instead
It's such a small place
With no room or space
I'll suffocate and soon be dead…”
Harry was brought back to his cell by the guards and he was in a complete state of panic. It felt as if his heart was trying to escape from his chest while his lungs just had stopped working as he couldn't breath.
His cell door slammed behind him and the guard left without saying a word or giving him a second look. Harry just fell down at the spot.
“What's wrong with him?” Dolochov asked as he leaned against the bars to get a better look. Things had changed a little in the last few weeks as the prisoners started to get used to him and even tried to involve him in their conversations about quidditch. He replied sometimes but when they started asking questions about his pregnancy or how he got pregnant and such he retreated back into the corner of his bed and stayed silent for a few days.
“I'm not sure.” Rabastan Lestrange said a little concerned. “It looks to me that he's having a panic attack.”
Bella chuckled. “Did Azkaban drive itty-bitty Harry finally insane, like us normal people.”
“Alright, this isn't helping him.” Rabastan said as he gave a stern look at his crazy sister in-law but she only laughed. “Harry, listen to me. Try to take a deep breath. Through your nose like you are smelling flowers and then after a couple of seconds you let gently go of your breath, like you are blowing out candles.” Rabastan started breathing loud and slowly while he said, “you smell the flowers and then blow out the candles, you can do it Harry.”
Harry tried as best as he could to follow the instructions but it was hard as his mind was still panicking from the news he just learned. Rabastan kept talking to him and Harry could finally breathe again he broke down crying and the sobs echoed through the cellblock, he wasn't the first person to break down and cry and he would definitely not be the last but he was the first to cry so desperately and heartbroken that it made the other prisoners really uncomfortable. “Harry, please talk to us.” Rabastan begged and he and Bella gasped in shock when after a couple of minutes the crying slowed down and after a little while two emerald green eyes looked and it was as if all life had been sucked out of them.
“I'm carrying triplets. They told me that I'm almost twenty-one weeks pregnant and that I will get a c-section around the tenth of April next year if I'm not going into labor early and then I have to watch as all three of them will be killed and I will be held alive with magic until the end of my triple life sentence.” Harry said and his voice sounded so cold and distant it was as if he was already gone.
The other prisoners gasped and Rabastan started crying. “Oh Harry, I'm so sorry for you.” Harry just sat there looking at them feeling nothing at all. “I have been where you are now. When I came here I didn't know I was pregnant, we tried to hide it but the guards found out and gave me my second life sentence.” Rabastan said with a broken voice but Harry just blinked and didn't respond anymore as he just sat there on the stone cold floor not even trying to cover himself with the thin blanket to give himself some comfort.
“Why is it illegal?" Harry asked after a few minutes. “How did they come up with such a horrible punishment? Why couldn’t they just have killed me?”
Rudolphus sighs. “It’s because of those filthy muggles and their witch hunts.”
“Filthy little muggles.” Bella sang, but she was ignored.
Rudolphus sighs. “There was once a time where we lived side by side with muggles but everything changed, people started to fear people with magic. It was when the International Statute of Secrecy came into effect and the Wizarding world got into hiding to avoid persecution that it was decided that males were to hide their pregnancy in order to keep the secret. It was in 1692 when the law was put fully into effect that it was made completely illegal with the death of your children and a life in prison as punishment. Dark and horrible times and it is only in the last decade or so that a few countries are returning to the original law, we're the pregnancy is just to be hidden. It was one of the few things the Dark Lord wanted to change.
“I didn't know that.” Harry said sadly. “I thought Voldemort (-”Don’t say his name!-” Bellatrix yelled) Harry sigh, “I didn’t know he wanted anything else than to kill all the muggles and muggle-born.”
“And those filthy half breeds!" Bellatrix giggled crazy.
Rodolphus sighs again. “Not now sweetheart.” He kissed his hand and blew the kiss to her which made Bella giggle even louder.
“The Dark Lord wanted to change the law and worked really hard on his but people like Dumbledore held him back. Dumbledore thought it to be a small sacrifice for man to give up being pregnant to stay safe and hidden.”
“Dumbledore wanted that law to stay!?” Harry asked in shock, he always thought that Dumbledore of all people would have wanted that law to be gone.
Rodophus nodded sadly. “Dumbledore told the world that the means justified the end, and for men to give up their pregnancies would keep the Magical World safe, the means justified the end.”
“Man could just stay home or hide it with a glamour.” Rabastan said angrily. “But that wasn’t good enough…”
“There have been multiple protests over the years and now man who are pregnant or want to start a family just leave the country are dozens of lands have changed the law.”Rodolphus said.
Harry shook his head sadly. “I wish someone would have explained it to me earlier, perhaps it wouldn’t have made a difference but it could have…If I had known I could have left.” He started crying again and retreated back into himself, he closed himself off from the other prisoners and the horrors of Azkaban.
The prisoners tried everything they could in the next few days to get a response from Harry, but no matter what they did or what they said Harry didn't move from his spot on the floor, he didn't eat, he didn't sleep he didn't go to the toilet he just sat there.
“Harry, you can't give up hope.” Rabastan tried even though he knew it was idle hope and he wasn't even believing it himself.
“Itty-bitty Harry just has to hold on until our Master comes for us.” Bella said confidently. “He will come to rescue his most loyal followers and while he does that itty-bitty Harry comes along.”
Dolochov snorted in disbelief, “Why would he come now, he hasn't done so before.”
Instead of Bella it was her husband Rodolphus who replied, “Because he has more reason than just saving us.” he sighs when he sees the confused look of Dolochov. “Potter is what changed, how would the world respond if the Dark Lord was the one to save Potter and give him the chance to give birth and raise his triplets as he sees fit.”
Rookwood burst out laughing. “As if the Dark Lord would allow that, he will kill Potter on sight.”
Rodolphus shook his head, “if that is what you think then you don't know our Lord as we do, Potter don't lose hope until the very last moment and if it comes to it I will kill you myself before you have to see your children to be murdered.”
Harry suddenly looked up and with a hoarse voice he whispered, “you promise? You promise to kill me before I have to watch?” Harry asked. He had already given up hope to see his children alive or ever growing up and the spells kept him from ending his life or pregnancy prematurely as this was part of his punishment but he got a little hope when Rodolphus said he would kill him before he had to see.
Rodolphus swallowed and looked at his younger brother who had been falling into a depression ever since he had mentioned what had happened to him and he nodded, not again no mother should be forced to endure this kind of torture, if they were so against it they should just kill the offensive person and be done with it. “Yes, I promise you will not have to watch like Rabastan had.”
Harry swallowed and for the first time in days he scrambled to his feet, drank some water and went to the toilet -not at all embarrassed anymore, it was not as if he had another choice- and to the immense relief of the other prisoners he ate his dinner.
“So if you got pregnant on 31 July and they told you yesterday that you were twenty-one weeks pregnant and they scheduled your c-section for April tenth…well then I have to say Happy Christmas everyone.” Rodolphus said fake cheerful and moans all around them were heard.
“Of all days we manage to figure out the date it's today….” Dolochov said and he cursed loudly.
“Stop whining,” Rookwood snapped. “Alright twenty one weeks…it's hard to remember it's been a while for me. If I remember correctly they should now be the size of a pomegranate and you should feel them kicking and such.”
“Well they move around a lot and sometimes it feels as if there is not enough room but they're not really kicking.” Harry said back as he rubbed his belly that was starting to get huge and he wasn't sure how it could grow more but that was something he had been thinking for weeks.
“I hope it lasts for you, I remember how she almost broke my ribs.” said Rabastan, he didn't like talking much about pregnancies in general and who could blame him but he was the only one who could understand what Harry was going through as he had gone through it himself so he tried to help as much as possible.
“Me too.” Harry said from the toilet as he couldn't go ten minutes without needing to pee. “My only concern is that I won't be able to get up by myself if I get any bigger.” Harry said worried and he was right to do so as his stomach had grown so much and looked even bigger with his small frame and the weight he lost from his time in Azkaban.
None of the prisoners could answer that, for the last few weeks it was clear that Harry’s baby-bump was huge and now they knew why as he was carrying not one or two but three babies.
Bella decided to start singing Christmas songs and Harry wondered how the woman knew songs like ‘jingle bells’ he just listened and rubbed his stomach while his thoughts started to drift to happier times and memories becomes wishes he knew would never come true but he loved to imagine how he would raise the Triplets in a nice cottage in the woods, he had seen pictures of places like that in the magazines of his Aunt Petunia. Where he once loved to dream of the beach and the sea and thought he would like to live there one day, those thoughts now gave him shivers. As the sound of the waves breaking on the rocks would always remind him of Azkaban. Now in his dreams he was surrounded by trees and he lived in a little house in a small meadow, perhaps a few animals but those changed with every ‘dream’ but one thing didn't change and that was his owl Hediwg flying next to him. He really hoped that Ron or Hermoine took care of her.
As the day went by as every other day in Azkaban with the only difference that Bella sang Christmas songs instead of dirty limericks even though she managed to combine those two as she sang;
“I'm dreaming of a bad Christmas
Just like the ones I used to know
Smoking marijuana
Beating up Santa
Crucio-ing victims in the snow
I'm dreaming of a bad Christmas
With all the Christmas-joy I steal
Leaving young, and old folks quite sad
Making all their Christmases quite bad…”
Harry tuned her out again as he saw how his dirty plate vanished and he realized that this was the worst Christmas meal he ever had not including the one Christmas the Dursleys ignored him completely as he was locked in his cupboard and could smell all the delicious food on the table, it was two days after Christmas when he finally got some stale bread and cold soup from a can.
With a sigh Harry tried to get off the bed as his bladder screamed at him even though he just went and he wondered why he left the toilet in the first place as it was starting to get impossible to get up, he waddled to the toilet and he was glad that it were just a few paces.
He heard how the guards were doing their last rounds for the night and when the guard passed his cell he looked worried as he saw how Harry waddled back to his bed.. “Are you alright, Potter?”
Harry turned around and wanted to snap but then he saw that it was a young, new guard. “I will be alright, it's just getting harder and harder to get up by myself.” The guard nodded but looked doubtful as he bit his lip and shot a quick look at his colleague who was already at the next block before he quickly ‘ran’ back to the office leaving a confused Harry behind.
A little out of breath the guard returned a minute later and he held out a walking stick. “It's not much but this will help you get up, it's spelled so you can't use it as a weapon or anything like that but…yeah I hope it helps.” Harry took the stick and looked at the guard, they had never been kind to him before so why now? “Uhh, thanks.” said Harry and he tried the walking stick, it really helped him keep balance and it was a little easier to lift himself up from the bed to his feet when Harry wanted to thank the guard again he was already gone. The other prisoners had seen the exchange but didn't comment as they all turned in for the night when the lights went out.
Harry closed his eyes and tried to make himself as comfortable as he could on the stone bed with his thin blanket and huge bump, the Triplets sure knew where his kidneys were and somehow they always kicked the same bruised rib and he worried sometimes he would break a rib but that hadn't happened. He fell in a restless sleep having survived not only another day in this miserable place but he also survived Christmas without his friends.