Conversations Through the Walls
Disclaimer: I don't and never will own HP.
A/N: This is homework assigned to me by Professor Kayla at the Hogwarts Online II forum. Please enjoy!
The cold stone walls of Azkaban were a bleak gray with hairline cracks in the bricks. The soft pitter-patter sound the prisoners heard wasn't unfamiliar at all. The rats had always been there and would always be there and in most cases they outlived the human inhabitants. The floors were disgusting – as to be expected with rats and the fact that the prison was never kept in shape – with caked layers of dirt and Sirius could track the amount of time he had been in this hell from how many layers there were. After all, in a place like this what else was there to do, but count away the days?
The Dementors destroyed the happiness Sirius had and as he stayed in that prison, he felt his heart break. He wanted to run away from the nightmare he was thrust into under the false accusation that he had betrayed James and Lily. Sirius knew he hadn't and he knew he hadn't committed the murders he was sent here for. It was that blasted rodent's entire fault! Peter Pettigrew. Sirius was innocent, like his animagus he would be loyal to the death and he would never betray Lily and James.
Sirius had been in this hell for almost seven years and he was nearly driven to the brink of madness, but remained strong only because he was practically obsessed with the truth. He loved James like a brother and would have died before letting the Dark Lord kill them. Sirius wanted freedom, he wanted to clear his name, and find the little rat that put him in this hell were all his happy memories had been sucked away from him by those demons who thrived on despair and decay.
Damn, Peter! Sirius had never trusted him in the first place, but Remus and James did and look where James was now!
Sirius kicked the bars of his cell and screamed in frustration, joining other prisoners. He had a plan and he was going to break free soon. There was no failure.
"Sirius, stop that noise, you blood traitor! You've woken me up. If only I could get my hands on you!" His cousin, Bellatrix Lestrange, howled at him and Sirius was thankful in that moment that he could not see his vile cousin since the adjacent cells shared a stone wall. All cells had stone walls separating the cells and the bars were only placed in front of the cell.
"But you can't, can you?" Sirius shouted back in a twisted triumph. He had to make small moments like this count while they lasted before the Dementors stole them during their daily rounds.
"Don't you tease me, little cousin," She snarled and Sirius felt his blood boil. He hated speaking to her, but somehow over the years he had managed to speak to her more now than he ever had.
"We're not family, we just happen to be related." Sirius countered and he heard the sound of sick, cruel laughter taunt him.
"There's no denying your blood, Sirius. You were a fool to even try." Cruel laughter from Bellatrix taunted Sirius and he cringed with the noise. But the laughter made him wonder if there was ever a time that Bellatrix had laughed where it was genuine and kind – infectious laughter that could make anyone smile.
"Blood does not equate to family." Sirius countered, ignoring the bitterness and regret that were building up inside of him as he regretted – for his cousin – the path Bellatrix's life had followed. If only she had seen the truth and denied the nonsense they had been taught to believe in. Bellatrix had been rebellious and uncontainable in her teenage years, so why couldn't she see what Andromeda – the quiet follower – had been enlightened to?
"How can you deny us as your family when you betrayed your own best friend? I heard all about it cousin, and I must say I am quite proud." Sirius felt the sorrow and bitterness and regret and sympathy wash away and the infamous Black rage flowed through his body and he could truly understand the phrase "seeing red." Sirius flung himself against the cell bars and felt his upper lip curl back as he growled.
"I am innocent, you hag! I am innocent!" Sirius growled on repeat to the cackling witch, lost in his fury before the Dementors came to drain the strength he had slowly been recovering.
Sirius, in this hell, was not like his previous energetic self. Some days he slept for days at a time, other days he would have bursts of energy, and sometimes he was emotionally, mentally, and physically drained. Throughout his days in Azkaban though, Sirius was slowly regaining some strength – enough to almost come close to breaking free. He had the escape plan and all he needed was more strength, which would only com with time and a much needed patience to deal with his insane – Bellatrix had lost her mind while in Azkaban and had for a long time, while Sirius stayed strong with the conviction that he was innocent – cousin. He could not allow himself to fight her, otherwise the Dementors would drain all of his progress and have the chance to see into his mind. They couldn't know of his plan.
So Sirius had to do the one thing he was never able to do for most of his life: stay silent and bite back his sharp tongue (along with managing his fiery temper).
That was already a hard task, Sirius was already so impatient after waiting more five years, but Bellatrix wasn't helping the situation. He could her taunts, jabs, shouts, and screams in the cell besides his and could almost feel her there until they moved her and all the other Death Eaters in a separate wing that was "newly built." (Sirius doubted that it was new, more than anything what surely happened was that all the prisoners in that wing died and they had more room.) He didn't go with them though, because they didn't want the second in command, who might be still in contact with Voldemort, to follow them in isolation.
So the conversations between the estranged cousins ended with that. Sirius was forever grateful and considered it a good omen, since the Dementors spent more time with the Death Eaters and monitoring them constantly than the general population. Now that Sirius was free of those damned conversations between the walls they had shared, he was hoping he would be able to escape. From Fudge's visitations he was able to figure out that the year was 1993 and Sirius strongly believed that this would be the year he would finally be free.
"Goodbye, Bellatrix, Dementors, grime, rats, screams, and insanity. Sirius is coming home." He whispered to the air and silently wished for a light at the end of the tunnel. Candle light – a tiny spark of light from a candle - would be perfectly fine, it didn't need to be big and bright, it just needed to be there.
Kayla's Homework requirements:
Characters--Sirius Black and Bellatrix Lestrange
Plot/setting--Conversations in Azkaban
Prompts-Stone Walls, regret, cruel laughter, candle light
Quotes- "We're not family, we just happen to be related." "There's no denying your blood, Sirius. You were a fool to even try."