Chronicles of Azkaban
Chronicles of Azkaban
Forgotten Assistance
by DawningStar


Cold, dark-cold. Quiet mostly except for the screams...but they fade, slowly. And metal, the faint scrape of metal, and the air heavy with despair.

Was it always like this? I forget...

Don't try to remember. Easier that way. Forget...sit and rock, back and forth, back and forth.

What was my name? Dara, Dara...no matter. No name, not anymore.

Push long tangled hair away, out of my face, look out of my cell. Black-robed figures glide through narrow passageways, I feel their chill, and memories start to surge, but I don't remember anymore. What did I do, to be put here? I don't remember...I don't think I'm supposed to be here. I think they're hiding something.

Don't think. Back and forth. Back and forth. No thoughts, only the motion.

Across the hall the tall man sleeps, a sleep haunted by nightmares--Hogwarts, he mutters, he's at Hogwarts. Sleep isn't restful here, I'd give it up entirely if I could. I cannot remember my own past but as I sleep I seem to share the nightmares of those around me...

The prisoner in the cell across the hall is different from most, I think. Clearer somehow, more sane, perhaps.

He wakes. How long has it been? I don't know, doesn't matter. He's Named still, one of the few who are, Sirius Black. He says again that he is innocent, that it was not him. I believe him, and say so. There is no reason to lie; whether or not he is innocent, they will never let him out, and he knows it. Long-time prisoner, that one, the dog-star, the black dog. I was here when they brought him in. I have been here forever, I think.

He turns into a dog now. I have seen it before, and I wonder if that perhaps is the difference, why he is sane though hollow-eyed and we are not. I know well enough I've gone mad.

There was an inspection of the prison and they took me to a different part while it was done, deep, deep below, in tunnels never used even by the dementors. They were hiding me, I think, hiding me from the Ministry of Magic.

Don't think. Back and forth.

They bring food and I tight-close my eyes, rocking faster. They come to me first and open the door and slip the small bowl in. I might run if they did not stand there...I cannot bring myself to stand, to move. The air is colder now, icy stone. Then they have moved on.

I open my eyes. Something is going to happen, I feel it in the way the air presses down...they open the door across the hall, blind to Sirius's form, and begin to place the food down within.

Then an explosion of movement! The black-dog rushes through the narrow opening, and I know well how hard it is to move against dementors. He drags himself past them, and they turn, confused, then begin to glide swiftly after. I pick up the food they bring and throw it. It strikes the hood of the first one, and they pause, turning to find me, but I have closed my eyes and am rocking, rocking again. No emotions. They have drained me long ago, and now they cannot see what I have done.

I see the black-dog now, hear his padded feet far away. Up he climbs, up the stairways, then to the top, and I feel a breath of fresh air. A clean cold, a real cold, blowing away the dementor chill for an instant, and I know what he is doing. There is no way down but one.

A black speck falling, feather-light it seems, striking water and surfacing. I cannot see. I wish him luck, the black-dog, the dog-star. Shore is not too far, not too far to swim for freedom, and the seawater can only be a real-cold, nothing compared to the dementors.

He will not remember me, and there is nothing he could do if he did. Still I hope he remains free. Perhaps he can convince others of his innocence. Perhaps he will find the godson he has spoken of, young Harry Potter.

I rock, back and forth, back and forth, and for the first time, I feel hope. The food is spilled in the hallway. A pity. For once I might be able to eat more than a bite or two.

A dementor passes. Hope, I find, seems not to be an emotion, for I still have it.

Perhaps it is only my madness, but the cell seems somehow warmer...