Disclaimer: J.K. Rowling owns these characters; I do not.


It was hard to believe. They had dreamed about being free for so long, but Azkaban wore away at their hopes, making it so they often felt they were going to be kept there for all eternity.

And yet hope was there, and it had come to them. The Dark Lord had broken them out, and they were together for the first time in many years, in the house that had once been Bella's parents'. When they had died while Bella and Rodolphus were in Azkaban, it had passed to Bella, their oldest daughter. They would employ a Secret-Keeper to ensure that it would remain safe while they were there.

They don't know what to say at first, as it all seems rather dreamlike, as if it's a hallucination of some sort. "Rodolphus," she manages to whisper, her voice hoarse.

"Bella," he whispers back, and puts his thin hand around hers.

"It happened, didn't it?" she asks weakly, with a trace of a smile. "We're free."

"It happened, Bella," he says, smiling back. It felt extremely odd, as he hadn't smiled in years; Azkaban had seemed to have taken away the ability to smile or laugh. Besides, there had never been any reason to.

She kisses him, and they're pleased to see that the passion that they share had not been weakened by Azkaban. When she pulls away, they both really smile, and suddenly it seems to be the most natural thing in the world, not feeling odd at all.

Right then, there was no risk of being captured again. In fact, there was no outside world at all. There was just each other, together and free at last, after so many years of waiting.

They kiss again. Together, they can forget about everything. When they're together, Azkaban doesn't exist, and neither does anything even remotely troublesome.

He runs his fingers through her hair, and she laughs.

"Tonight, let's forget about the long years that we've spent apart," she murmurs to him. "Tonight, let's only think of each other."