A long, dark metal corridor stretched toward a stark white cell.
Bellatrix Lestrange sat motionless, bound to a chair by magic.
Lucius Malfoy stepped into the room. Two Aurors left him and Bellatrix inside, closing the door behind them and standing guard outside.
As long as Malfoy didn't kill Bellatrix or let her escape, they wouldn't interfere with anything else.
Half an hour was plenty of time for Lucius Malfoy to deal with any matter at hand.
The moment he saw Bellatrix, he froze for a split second. He scrutinized the woman strapped to the chair, trying to determine if this was truly her.
The Bellatrix he remembered had been a beauty: with smooth, jet-black hair, piercing eyes full of life, and an untamed, wild charisma.
A woman like that could easily ignite a man's desires, a primal urge to conquer.
But Bellatrix had fallen for a man she could never conquer.
And now?
Her once radiant appearance was reduced to skin stretched over a skeletal frame. Her sunken face held two crazed, black eyes that burned with a terrifying madness.
"Why is it you…? Where's Cissy?" Bellatrix rasped, her voice hoarse.
"She's very ill," Lucius said softly.
"Ill? Hah! Too scared to come, isn't she? I must've given her quite the fright last time."
Bellatrix's voice turned shrill as she mocked, "Oh, sister, how did you end up like this? Ha! She's better off hiding away at Malfoy Manor like the little darling she is."
"Don't speak of her like that. She cried for you many times after returning," Lucius sighed.
"Oh, how touching." Bellatrix gave a derisive smile before cutting to the chase. "Did you bring what I asked for?"
Lucius pulled out a pouch enchanted with an Undetectable Extension Charm and retrieved a sausage from it, tossing it to the floor.
The sausage landed with a dull thud.
"I can't move… You'll have to feed me," Bellatrix said, staring intently at the food, her throat convulsing.
Lucius hesitated, then took out a turkey sandwich and brought it to her mouth.
Like a feral animal, Bellatrix opened her cracked lips and bit down hard. Turkey juices oozed from the sandwich as she devoured it in seconds, swallowing it whole.
Lucius retrieved more food and handed it to her.
For five minutes, she ate ravenously until every item Lucius had brought was gone.
Her gaze then shifted hungrily to the sausage on the ground.
Suppressing his disgust, Lucius picked up the sausage and held it to her mouth.
Bellatrix extended her tongue, curling it around the sausage and drawing it into her mouth. At the same time, she lunged forward, sinking her yellowed teeth into Lucius's wrist, tearing off a bloody chunk of flesh.
Lucius let out a cry of pain and punched her in the head, then stumbled out of the room, calling for the Aurors to stop the bleeding.
It took him five minutes to return, his face dark with rage.
Bellatrix had already swallowed the sausage, along with the bloody piece of his flesh. She opened her mouth, chewing on air as if savoring the memory of the meal.
Still unsatisfied, her eyes burned as they fell upon Lucius again, treating him as though he were nothing more than… food.
Lucius felt a chill crawl up his spine. "You're insane!"
She licked the blood from her lips and stared at him without emotion. "Your flesh is delicious. Far better than the garbage they feed me."
"You… eat people?" Lucius gasped.
"Of course. How else could I survive?" Bellatrix erupted into maniacal laughter. "Do you think I could live on the scraps the Dementors bring me?"
"Sometimes, wizards with lighter sentences are sent to my cell. The Dementors can't kill them outright, so they leave them to me.
"I enjoy them first, and once they're on the brink of death, the Dementors devour their souls. All the blame falls on me…"
"We've reached an understanding!" She bared her yellowed teeth in a grotesque grin.
Lucius's scalp tingled with fear as he involuntarily took two steps back. "Have you given any thought to what I asked Cissy to talk to you about last time?"
"What's that?"
"Transfer your gold from Gringotts to me. I'll use it to pull some strings and convince Fudge to release you."
"Release me?" Bellatrix burst into wild laughter, the sound echoing off the walls. "Why would I want to leave?!"
"I've been in Azkaban for twelve years. I am the Dark Lord's most loyal servant. I endured this suffering for him. He will remember… He will come for me. He will reward me."
Suddenly, tears began streaming down her face.
"I've endured this torment for him, all for him! Just thinking about it makes me tremble with joy.
"Lucius, you'll never understand.
"It's a kind of ecstasy… The more pain I endure, the more pleasure I feel. When the suffering becomes unbearable, I imagine it's the Dark Lord himself torturing me, breaking me… and it feels wonderful."
"You're mad!" Lucius recoiled, taking another step back.
"Of course I'm mad. I'm as mad as the Dark Lord himself… But why… why doesn't he see me?"
Bellatrix forced a smile, a mixture of black blood and saliva spilling from her lips. She spat it directly onto Lucius's face.
With disdain, Bellatrix sneered, "Get out of here. Don't waste my time… Let me enjoy myself."
She was taken away, and Sirius Black was brought in to take her place.
To be honest, after seeing Bellatrix in her current state, Lucius Malfoy held little hope for Sirius.
As expected, the once-dashing Sirius Black had withered away into little more than skin and bones.
His dirty, matted hair hung in tangled clumps down to his elbows, and his waxy skin clung tightly to the sharp contours of his face.
His sunken eyes, devoid of light, stared blankly into the distance, as if he were nothing more than a walking corpse.
If Bellatrix still retained a flicker of hope for survival, Sirius seemed to have become the living dead.
No matter what Malfoy said, Sirius merely muttered the same thing over and over, "I killed them… I killed them…"
Cornelius Fudge stepped into the room, speaking softly, "Are you done, Lucius? We need to leave. I can't stand another second here."
"By Merlin, Azkaban is truly dreadful."
Lucius gave a small nod. This would probably be his last visit to Azkaban.
As for the Black family fortune? He could forget about that.
Suddenly, Sirius stirred. His gaze locked onto the Daily Prophet in the hand of an Auror standing beside Fudge.
"Want to see it?" Fudge raised an eyebrow.
"Give it to him, Minister," Lucius interjected quickly. "Let him have a glimpse of freedom. After all, the air outside is sweet."
Perhaps reading the newspaper might change Sirius's mind, might even make him willing to leave.
Fudge considered for a moment before nodding. He couldn't refuse such a generous benefactor.
"Take him back to his cell," Fudge instructed, tossing the Daily Prophet onto Sirius's chest.
Two Aurors dragged Sirius through the corridor, shoving him into his cell with force. He collapsed to the floor as the cell door clanged shut.
Sirius didn't get up. Instead, he eagerly spread the newspaper out before him, searching for the image he had glimpsed earlier:
The Weasley family standing in front of a pyramid, waving enthusiastically. In the middle of the group stood a boy with a rat perched on his shoulder.
Sirius's face darkened, his expression terrifying. He knelt on the floor, clutching the newspaper, and threw his head back in a guttural, animalistic roar that reverberated throughout the room, shaking loose dust from the ceiling.
"He's at Hogwarts…"
Tears streamed down Sirius's face.
James had once said to him, "Sirius, if I die, I die. There's no shame in dying fighting Voldemort. But you can't die, you're my son's godfather."
Sirius had joked in response, saying he'd die first and leave James to take care of the kid himself.
Over the years in Azkaban, as he grew less human and more like a ghost, Sirius had come to think of it all as penance.
Penance for James and Lily.
Twelve years of penance… but now, he wanted to leave.
Still for James and Lily.
That night, in a haze of exhaustion and despair, Sirius dreamed of the Hogwarts Express.
Every time they traveled to or from Hogwarts, the Marauders had always sat in the same compartment, from their first year to their seventh.
For six years and twelve journeys, Lily Evans had walked past their compartment with an air of superiority. On the thirteenth, she gave James a smile. On the fourteenth, she joined them, sitting in that very compartment.
In that moment, Sirius and Remus had shared the same thought, that they should probably just find another compartment.
If he could return to Hogwarts, he'd want to sit in that compartment again.
Late that night, the prison door creaked open, and a Dementor glided silently into Sirius's cell.
It dropped a moldy piece of food onto the ground, savoring the faint traces of joy that lingered in the air.
But it paused abruptly, as the joy vanished.
The eyeless creature sensed its surroundings, searching for Sirius Black.
A skeletal black dog slunk past the Dementor, squeezing through the narrow gap between the iron bars of the cell.
Not a single Dementor noticed him.
The dog made its way to the shoreline and, without hesitation, dove into the vast, frigid sea.
Sirius's goal was simple: swim from Azkaban back to England.
The straight-line distance between the two was just over 300 kilometers.
They say cherry blossoms fall at a rate of five centimeters per second. At what speed would Sirius have to dog-paddle to cover that distance?
He didn't care.
His immediate priority was figuring out… which direction England was in!
Probably southwest.
After observing his surroundings for a moment, Sirius plunged headfirst in the direction he thought was "southwest."
England… I'm coming back!
Waves crashed against him as the black dog dove under, dog-paddling tirelessly onward.
Judging by his chosen direction, if all went well, Sirius Black would make it to… France.