The Marauders - Order of the Phoenix - Part Two

LXX: 23 June, 1994

There was a ringing silence.

"Oh," Hermione gasped. Her eyes were wide. She looked at Sirius, then looked to Remus, her mouth open just the tiniest bit. "Oh." She bit her lower lip, holding it between her over-large front teeth and her eyes softened and she teared up slightly. "Oh."

Ron and Harry looked at one another. Then Ron put his hand on Hermione's arm and their eyes met for a moment, while Harry turned back to Remus and said, "It - it must've been very hard... believing your, erm - your husband was - was the murderer of your best mates.... yeah?" 

Remus stared into Harry's eyes. "Excruciatingly hard."

Harry nodded.

Peter whimpered and looked between Sirius, Remus, and Harry - a sort of scowl on his face a, and he twitched uncontrollably, his eyes darting then back around the room - to the windows ad the door.

The silence fell over the room again.

"Er - Mr. Black? - I -  Sirius?"

Sirius whirled to look at Hermione with a look of surprise on his face and looked at her with a sort of wide-eyed wonder - as though shocked to be addressed politely.

"Y-yes, Hermione?" Sirius asked.

"If you - you don't mind me asking.... how did you... get out of Azkaban? Without using Dark Magic, I mean?" Hermione flushed.

"EXACTLY WHAT I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW!" Peter gasped, "Thank you - thank you that's - that - is - that's an excellent - excellent question! It's precisely the --" 

Remus glared at Peter and he stopped talking mid-sentence.

Sirius considered the question, his mouth twisted in a frown, brows come together, struggling to piece together his answer - it had been years since someone had asked him a question so important, so deserving of his full attention. "Honestly... I - I don't know how I did it," he answered. "I - I never lost my mind because... because I had somebody that believed me that I was innocent."

Remus looked at him with confusion.

Sirius kept his eyes trained on Hermione, though. "I stayed sane... I mean, barely, sure, but I did it somehow... and... when it got to be too much, I - I was able to transform into a dog and the Dementors aren't as aware of dogs. They sensed something was different, that I had lesser emotions at times, but they thought I was just losing my mind slowly, like so many other prisoners." He paused for a very long moment, staring sadly at the floor as though remembering something that gave him chills, and he finally closed his eyes and shook his head, discarding whatever thought had come over him. He took a breath and continued, "I - I was very, very weak. I couldn't escape. There was no way I could escape without my wand."

"But you have your wand," Hermione said quietly.

"Yes," Sirius murmured, "I do."

"How --"

"I rarely had the energy to do anything, even as a dog, besides lay about and concentrate on keeping myself breathing... But sometimes, when I'd had a particularly good day, when I'd received a letter --" he paused, "This letter, actually --" he held up the heart that held the newspaper clipping with the photo of the Weasley family in Egypt.

Remus's face lit with understanding.

"I slipped out of the bars of the cell. I found my way into one of the guards rooms - left over from when witches and wizards patrolled the island, before they had dementors as full time guards... and I - I found my wand. I couldn't believe it." He looked it over. "They burned it with these ridiculous prison numbers identifying whose wand it was, but there's no mistaking it was mine." He paused. "With my wand, my powers grew stronger, only bolstered knowing that - that if I could just find a way out, then I could avenge James, just as I'd intended to all those years ago." He looked at Peter.