You walk down the dark musky hall. You walk past the eyes staring at you from behind cell bars. You look straight ahead of you not taking notice to anything. Your footsteps make echoes on the damp floor as you walk past the lifeless creatures that during one time or another you were, yourself.
They are thin and frail, with every bone in their body visible through the thin pale skin that hardly covers their figures. Rags hang off their gauntly limbs. They crawl on the floor to the bars to stare at you as you pass. You pretend to not take any notice. You pretend to be emotionless as you pass by these ghosts. But you're not. You swallow your tongue to keep from screaming at these horrid faces that you haven't noticed since the time you arrived at this wretched place.
It has been seven thousand two hundred and ninety nine days since you have seen the natural light. It has been seven thousand two hundred and ninety nine days since you have smelt fresh air or felt wind on your face. For the past seven thousand two hundred and ninety nine days you've smelt the musky smell of rotting bodies and listened to the hungry howls of each cell's inhabitant. But on the seven thousand and three hundredth day you will finally step out of the hollow world you have grown so accustomed to for the past twenty years. And you can't wait.
Your bones are trembling with excitement. Your stomach is squirming with anticipation. Your legs are quivering with exhilaration. You have been numb for the past twenty years, and the feeling is slowly coming back to you. Feelings of happiness, sadness, sorrow, joy are slowly coming back to you. They are coming back to you painfully, but you are ecstatic about it. You feel it with every step you take and it burns you. You feel the surges of pain you had been dying to feel the past twenty years.
There are two dementors on both sides of you. The feeling of satisfaction hits you hard as a smile forms on your thin lips. The hall takes forever to pass through. And it finally ends. You wait for the ghastly creatures open the large metal door in front of you. You smirk at them, which pains you to do so, but completely worth it. Your eyes narrow as the feeling of triumph comes wailing back at you like a blow to the face.
The door takes an eternity to fling open. Your face yearns for the rush of air from the outside. The door opens and the cool night air rushes all around you. You step out inhaling deeply; making every breath make up for every breath you lost. Your hands are bound tightly behind your back and you step on a platform that will float you to the mainland. You look all around you. There is nothing to see, yet you have never seen something so beautiful. The sky is dark, mysterious waiting for you back in its presence.
After another lifetime you are shuffled off the platform, making your way to your first step on real land. It is everything you expected it to be, and more. Your leg feels as if it is about to break off when you touch the river bank. You are shuffled into another musky hallway. The stench of rotting bodies isn't as bad as it was on the island, but it's still apparent. The inhabitants still have body fat on them. They look almost half-human.
You walk through the hall like you had before, only with a little more power and pride. You feel as if the old you is coming back. The cold-hearted, mean-spirited man you once were before. You step out of the hall into another room where you are thrown in front of a man behind a desk. He looks at you emotionless and asks you for your name.
"Lucius Malfoy."
The words sting as they spill from your lips. You look at the man with your cold eyes. He shoves a basket into your arms and you are pushed out the door. The dementors have left your side and now you are alone in a dark alley. A chill runs through your spine as it passed through the rags hanging off your body. You look into the box to see a familiar looking cloak. You carefully drape it around you, afraid of damaging it. You pick your wand up and put it in the pocket on the inside. You also take out a piece of paper with an address scrawled on it.
Yes, you think. It is all slowly coming back to you now. You toss the basket to the ground and walk to a deserted street corner. You step into the nearest telephone booth and dial a code of numbers. The line starts to beep and you hang up. You step out of the phone booth to wait at the corner.
A few minutes later a tall black bus parks in front of you. You see a dim reflection of an alien like creature with thin skin wrapped tightly around its skull. Horrifically, you realize that it is you. You carefully pull the hood of your cloak to hang over your head. You climb aboard feeling a sudden pain on your forearm. The pain is nothing you have felt in a long time. The driver asks you your name.
"Lucius Malfoy."
The words are as if poison is spilling from your lips. There is a hush from the other passengers on board as you search for an empty place to sit. The creatures on this bus are nothing like you have ever seen before. Some look as if they had just come out of what he had gone through. Others were large and looked as if they had been pigs transformed into humans. With your hood laying on your head you feel your legs taking you to the back of the bus, although you don't know what is back there. There is another sharp pain on your forearm and with every step you feel it grow more and more.
Your eyes are darting around scanning everything that moves. You pass creatures that look somewhat familiar to you and some that don't. You arrive in front of a dark door, matching with its other dark, mysterious surroundings. You feel yourself push the door open as the pain grows and grows. You find your self climbing up a spiraled stair case. There is a room at the top of the stairs with dim candlelight coming out of it. Your heart is hammering at your thin chest. You reach the top of the stairs and enter the candlelit room.
"Welcome back, Lucius."
You feel a painful smile form at your lips. A smile in a form of pain you haven't felt ever before.
