It was the explosion that caught his attention, dragging his consciousness back from the stupor the dementor floating in his cell had caused. Wrenching his gaze away, his breathing ragged from the effort, he slowly stretched up a hand from where he was on the cold stone floor and shakily got to his feet, his fingernails digging into the wall for purchase, his legs shaking when he was finally stood up. As the dementor left his cell to find another victim he stumbled the couple of steps to where the door was and grabbed the bars, using them to stay on his feet as he stared into the hallway outside. Normally kept pitch black, blacker than midnight, the hallway now was awash with light, the everlasting candles blazing making Rodolphus wince and turn his head a little as he got used the unfamiliar light. Blinking his eyes as he tried to focus he strained his hearing and turned back to the door as two of the guards ran pas, snippets of conversation reaching him in his cell; "they worry that you-know-who has returned", "the bloody wall fucking collapsed in her cell".
Reeling back a little as he heard that his back connected with the wall and helped support him he turned his gaze to the tiny glassless window on the far wall, though he wasn't looking at the grey sky beyond as his sluggish mind tried to catch up. In another few moments clarity finally returned to him; their master..returned? Surely not, it had been too long, yet inside there was hope. Not so much for seeing him again but of seeing his wife and maybe holding her in his arms again. Stumbling across the tiny cell he gripped the bars just above his head and shook them; if his wife's wall had fallen perhaps his would too. About to shake them again he hesitated as he felt the bars giving then tipped forwards as the entire back wall of his cell collapsed into the ocean far below. Flailing his arms he managed to get himself back into the cell just as he heard a noise from above followed by his world going black.
