The Marauders and the Prisoner of Azkaban

2 | Escape

~July, 1993~

Sirius Black

"He's at Hogwarts."

"He's at Hogwarts."

"He's at Hogwarts."

It was dark outside when he woke up to the sound of the sea crashing against the rocks surrounding the fortress, and felt the wind make it's way through the small window of his cell, crashing against his body and forcing his hair away from his face. Sirius Black pressed his knees closer to his chest, trying to maintain his body warmth as efficiently as he could. 

The photograph he had discovered in the Daily Prophet a few days ago was now ripped out from the newspaper and safely secured in Sirius's fist.

He sat up and looked at the photograph yet again, staring into the eyes of the friend who had betrayed him 12 years ago and immediately felt his body react to the rage passing through it. 

He heard the faint sound of the doors of the neighbouring cells being opened and closed, which meant it was 'mealtime'. 

He felt his pupils dilate and his heartbeat increase. This was it. He was going to escape. 

Without giving it a second thought he tucked the newspaper cutting into his 'robes', transformed into his Animagus form - a big, shaggy black dog - and positioned himself next to the door of his cell. He then waited patiently for the dementor to open it. 

Sirius was not sure how long he had waited for the dementor to open the door of his cell. He wasn't even sure what exactly he was doing, let alone what the consequences of his actions would be if he was caught. It didn't matter. He had one thing to do and if he lost his soul trying, so be it. He had nothing to lose.

The door cracked open and Sirius took a deep breath as he slipped through the opening, while the dementor was pushing a sad bowl of food inside of the cell. Sirius slowly leaned against the wall, trying to not produce a single sound as he watched the dementor close the door and move to the next cell.

It didn't notice him.

Sirius allowed himself a sigh of relief and wagged his tail ever so slightly to congratulate himself. It felt odd - wagging his tail - he hadn't wagged his tail since the year 1981. After his momentary triumph, Sirius looked around the dark and narrow passage. Which way was the way out? He decided to turn to his right and walked past the cells. It was very quiet, almost too quiet, since all of the prisoners had woken up when their food was brought in. Still, nobody seemed to have noticed a large black dog roaming the halls of Azkaban, or perhaps they had noticed him and merely thought that he was the grim and that they were going to die.

After a few minutes, he finally discovered a staircase and made his way downstairs. The stairs were narrow, damp and slippery - he had to be very careful not to fall over as he trotted down them. He needed to find a way out on one of the lower floors, since jumping from the top of the tower into the sea full of sharp rocks would just mean instant death and would be quite counter-productive. 

Finally he reached the ground floor of the fortress and entered the hallway. He glanced at the prisoners in their cells and was surprised to see that they were just as bad as the prisoners on his floor. That surprised him, since the bottom floors were not high-security cells. Sirius had always thought that perhaps the conditions there were better, but it didn't seem like it and to be frank, Sirius didn't really understand what the point of a high-security cell was. 

As he reached the end of the hallway, Sirius saw a barred window. He approached it eagerly, lifted his front paws to the window-sill and pulled his body upwards. He slipped through the bars and jumped to the other side of the prison walls.