Azkaban was hell. There was simply no other way to describe it. Every day of Peter Pettigrew's life since coming to this hellhole was the same. He'd wake up in his uncomfortable bed in his dank, dark, tiny cell, with the toilet and sink in the corner. He had no cell mate, just like everyone else in the high security wing. High security meant more dementors and more misery.

At least Peter had the option of transforming into his animagus form, a rat, from time to time. When he was a rat the dementors didn't affect him so much.

His only human contact was with the young witch who delivered all his meals to his cell. Her visits were the highlight of his day, even though he never spoke more than a "ta" when she gave him his food. She was a pretty young thing, with long silvery blond hair, sparkling blue eyes and a cheerful face, despite her working conditions.

One day, when she came in to deliver his dinner, she tried as usual to strike up a conversation with him.

"Here you go, I'm about to clock out," she said, waiting a moment to see if he would reply. He did not, she held out her copy of the daily prophet, "I'm finished with this do you want it?"

Peter said nothing, his mouth full of food, he merely nodded.

She placed the newspaper on the bed next to him and turned to walk out.

"See you in the morning," she said, flashing him a quick smile.

And with that she was gone. Peter ate up the rest of his dinner; cabbage soup and a crust of bread; he had grown used to unsatisfying meals in his time here. He picked up the newspaper and peered at the date: April 10th 1993, had it really been more than eleven years since he came here?

He though back to the events that brought him here. It had been the perfect situation, He was the Dark Lord's spy in the Order of the Phoenix, no one would ever have suspected it of pathetic little Wormtail. The Dark Lord had been pleased with him when he told him exactly where he could find the Potter family. He wished to eliminate the baby, Wormtail did not understand why but he was eager to please his master and gladly obliged. He felt nothing for the baby and the older brat irritated him. James and Lily's deaths would be somewhat of a shame, but the Dark Lord would reward him greatly when he returned he was sure, only something went wrong. Not only did James survive, but the two Potter brats as well and his master, the one who would have protected him in the aftermath, was gone. The Aurors soon came after him, he tried to create a diversion so he could transform and escape, killing several muggles on the process, but it did not work. He was hauled away to serve a life sentence in Azkaban without a trial.

If only James and the brats had died…everyone else believed Sirius to be the Potter's secret keeper; Peter could have escaped and Sirius would have been the one locked away in Azkaban.

Peter unfolded the newspaper; his heart skipped a beat when he saw the front page photo. He could have sworn, at first glance, that it was a photograph of James. The he read the headline. HARRY POTTER SAVES HOGWARTS FROM SLYTHERIN'S MONSTER. He read the article, about how it was his second time stopping You-Know-Who from returning. Peter threw the paper to the floor infuriated, not only had he killed the Dark Lord in the first place he was actively preventing his return. He was sure that his only way out of his predicament was if the Dark Lord returned to power again.

As the next couple of months went on Peter started conversing a little more with the young witch. He learned that her name was Antonia Malfoy, daughter of prominent Death Eater, Erasmus Malfoy, who had his own cell in the high security wing. Unlike his brother Lucius, Erasmus had not been able to feign being imperiused to escape prison. Antonia always left his dinner delivery until last, so she could chat with him before she clocked off. Eventually, in late June, she made a proposition to him.

"How would you like to get out of here?" she asked.

Peter stared at her, dumfounded.

"Get out of here?" he said, "There is no way out of here."

"Not unless you have help," she replied.

"Why would you help me?" asked Peter, "You know I'm a murderer right?"

"That's exactly why you'd be the perfect fit to help us."

"Us?"

"Me and my brother," she said, "I will help you escape if you agree to help us."

Peter had not idea what she needed help with, but he was willing to do anything to escape this wretched hellhole.

"How can I escape though?" he asked.

"Well, first I need you to transform –"

"What, now?"

"I'm about to clock off, and it's better to do it quick before anyone suspects something," she looked at him impatiently, "well come on, I haven't got all day!"

Peter stood up and transformed into his rat form.

"Now stay still," she said, reaching down to pick him up, "I need to hide you in my pocket, I am going to clock out as normal so no one suspects anything. Stay quiet."

Antonia placed the wriggling Peter into the inside pocket of her robes, and left work in the usual manner.

It was not possible to disapparate off the island, so Antonia and the other human staff would leave on a boat.

"Hurry up Antonia!" came the voice of the old cleaning witch. She and three other people were waiting in a small boat. The boat sailed to shore by itself, and finally Antonia was able to apparate out of there. The dementors had probably already notice Peter was missing and she had no time to lose.

She appeared on a London street in front of a posh four storey townhouse; she rushed up the steps quickly and opened the door without knocking. She stepped into a tastefully decorated house.

"Leon!" she called.

She stepped into the living room and took Peter out of her pocket, placing him on the floor so he could transform back.

"Leon!" she called again.

"For goodness sake, I'm coming!" came Leon's voice, "Is he here?"

"He's in here."

"Excellent," he said walking into the room, "I suppose you're tired after your journey, sit down and warm yourself by the fire, I'll have some refreshments brought in. Cooky!"

A house elf apparated into the room, "yes master Leon?" he asked.

"Bring in some tea and a change of clothes for our guest," said Leon sharply

"As you wish master," said Cooky, before disapparating again.

Cooky reappeared moments later with clean robes and a tray holding a teapot and three teacups.

"Now get started on dinner and be quick about it!" he snapped.

Leon turned to Peter, "Get yourself changed, and help yourself to some tea" he said, motioning for Antonia to leave the room with him "I just need to speak to my sister."

"He's on board?" asked Leon, as soon as they were standing in the entrance hall.

"I haven't filled him in yet," she said, "there was no time. But he agreed to do whatever it takes to get out of there. I don't think there will be a problem."

"There'd better not be," he hissed, "If I'm found out to have anything to do with this it could ruin my reputation!"

"Your reputation?" said Antonio, "I'm the one who broke him out, and when I don't go back to work tomorrow –"

"Who said anything about you not going back," said Leon, "If you don't go back that will look suspicious."

"They'll want to question all the staff I'm sure!"

"Then you deny any involvement."

"What if they interrogate me with verituserum?"

"Truth is subjective," said Leon, "You will only say what you believe to be true, and after I have altered your memory, you will believe that you had no involvement with Pettigrew, you will have no idea where he is or what he's up to."

"You can't alter my memory!"

"I can and will, I can't have this coming back to me, I will undo it when the heat is off. In the meantime…" said Leon, lifting his wand and pointing it at his sister, "Obliviate."

Antonia's face went blank for a moment, and then she looked at her surroundings.

"What am I doing here?" she asked.

"You just popped around for a cup of tea," said Leon, "don't you remember?"

"Oh yeah," she giggled, "silly me!"

"It's that place you're working," he said, "those dementors must be doing a number on you."

"No, I can manage a respectable patronus now," she said.

"Perhaps you best get home and have a good night's sleep," said Leon.

"Yes," she paused for a moment and then turned to walk out the front door, "goodnight!"

After Antonia had left, Leon returned to the living room, where Peter was wearing the clean robes and sipping a cup of tea.

"Where's Antonia?" asked Peter.

"She had to go home," said Leon.

At that moment Cooky reappeared, "Master, dinner is ready."

"About time!" he snapped at the elf, he turned back to Peter, "Let's discuss what will happen next over dinner."

Cooky had prepared a magnificent roast dinner; Peter could not remember the last time he ate so well. He gorged on chicken, vegetables, roast potatoes and Yorkshire puddings until he was ready to explode.

"I'm sure you are wondering why we chose to break you out of prison?" asked Leon.

Peter, caught off guard, had a mouthful of carrots.

"Don't worry about answering, keep eating," said Leon, "you look like you need it."

Peter, who had at one time had an ample frame, had lost a lot of weight in all his years in Azkaban and was now a mere fraction of what he once was.

"You have a certain skill which will be very helpful to our cause," said Leon, "your ability to transfer into a rat will be most useful. I trust you have been read the newspaper that Antonia left in your cell for you?"

Peter nodded; his mouth full of Yorkshire pudding.

"I will get straight to the point," Leon continued, "there are a number of people who wish to see the return of the Dark Lord. We have reason to believe he is hiding in the forests of Albania. We plan to track him down and help him to return, but first we need to eliminate one small obstacle."

Leon picked up the edition of the Daily Prophet from April, the one with Harry Potter on the front page.

"Twice now, this little brat has thwarted the Dark Lord's attempts to return to full power," he said, "we need you to stop him before we even think about bringing him back!"

Peter swallowed his mouthful of chicken, "Why me?"

"Being able to turn into a rat allows you to move about undetected," said Leon, "It will allow you to sneak up on him and kill him."

"Kill him?"

"Yes Peter," said Leon, "we need you to kill Harry Potter."