Cell thirteen wasn't a very nice place to be. Indeed it is agreed by all whom have visited it that cell thirteen is one of the worst places known to all of Wizarding kind. This is because cell thirteen was one of twenty cells in the maximum security block of Azkaban, the Wizarding prison. This wing of the prison had a constant Dementor presence which generally caused any prisoner in the north wing, or as the guards knew it; the point, to go completely insane.

However, despite the constant presence of the Dementors, the resident of cell thirteen was, arguably, in full control of his mental faculties and most probably sane. Unlike his fellow prisoners, the resident of cell thirteen was not screaming manically, sobbing uncontrollably or even protesting his innocence. Sirius Black knew very well the effect of the guards of Azkaban and though he could feel their constant presence dragging him down, he toiled by candlelight writing letters to those important to him, seemingly unaffected by the sinister robed wardens.

Sirius Black, resident of cell thirteen at Azkaban prison knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt that he was innocent of the crimes he had been accused of. This fact would not help a prisoner in most criminal institutions in the world but Azkaban was far from an ordinary prison. The constant presence of Dementors, foul creatures clad in long tattered robes they glided about the prison soaking up any and all happy thoughts until every prisoner eventually went mad, meant that this prison was undeniably the worst place to be if you had ever committed a crime.

The influence of the Dementors forced all the prisoners to sink into despair and depression during their incarceration. Even the wizards who stood guard at the processing station on the island could feel the influence of the Dementors despite being separated by over two hundred feet of solid rock penetrated solely by a small tunnel big enough only for a warden and prisoner to walk side by side.

As such the semblance of sanity which was possessed by the prisoner in cell thirteen made many people uneasy, even his fellow prison mates. Sirius Black was all too aware that he disturbed his fellow prisoners and guards so much with his lack of reaction that they believed him to be a great dark wizard trained by the Dark Lord Voldemort himself. Black found this rumour laughable, he was in fact a great opponent to those who called themselves 'death eaters' and their master; Lord Voldemort. Several of his prison mates had actually been put in this very place by Black himself, as he had been a trainee Auror for the Ministry of Magic.

When he had first been accused of being a servant to Lord Voldemort Black had laughed, hysterically. Just hours before he'd lost his best friend, James Potter, and his lovely wife, Lily Evans, to Lord Voldemort himself. The man whose family had taken him in as a second son, why would he possibly join Lord Voldemort and go against such a friend? No, he had no such desire but it had been common knowledge that the potters had chosen him as their secret keeper and so everyone assumed that he was the one who had betrayed them. In actuality Sirius hadn't been the secret keeper for the Potters at the time of their death so there was no possible way that he could have betrayed them.

Despite this Sirius did feel partly responsible for their deaths, for it had been he who had convinced James to change the secret keeper thinking that using his best friends was far too obvious. He had suggested instead that they change to one of their other close friends, Peter Pettigrew. As nervous a man as he was a child, Pettigrew would be the one whom Lord Voldemort would least expect to be the secret keeper. Being completely incapable of trust, Lord Voldemort would simply assume that the Potters had used their strongest and most skilled friend, Black himself, yet he would not be able to comprehend them using Pettigrew, a man so nervous and shy one might forget him altogether. It was the perfect trick.

Or so they had thought.


Everything had been going fine until the night of Halloween, as was his usual method of operating Lord Voldemort had ordered his death eaters to attack all over the country on the Wizarding Holiday. However there had been little damage as Voldemort himself had not been sighted anywhere; this in itself was unusual as he usually was at least present for the larger attacks if not participating for the very sight of him would inspire terror in the masses. But on a day where he had reliably caused mayhem and destruction personally five years running, it was unsettling. And so the Order of the Phoenix, a secret organization run by the only wizard which Lord Voldemort had ever feared; Albus Dumbledore, met to discuss the damages and speculate on Voldemort's absence, it was noted that there were several other people absent. Aurors Frank and Alice Longbottom were missing as were James and Lily Potter as well as Pettigrew himself.

The absence of the Longbottoms and the Potters caused a major panic in the Order for all of them knew that some kind of prophecy had been made, telling of one with the power to destroy Voldemort and there were two eligible candidates. The young child of both the Longbottoms and the Potters.

Once the Order had realised that the two families were missing they decided to check the homes immediately, yet there was a problem, Lily Potter was a prodigy in the field of charms and had proceeded to put the cottage she, her husband and their child lived in under the Fidelius Charm so that only people who had been told of the location by the secret keeper could find the property. So strong was the charm that Lily had boasted that Voldemort himself could be stood in their front garden and still not find the cottage.

So when the Order set out to check on the Longbottoms and Potters there were only two people who had been informed of the location by Pettigrew. Black himself and their old friend Rubeus Hagrid. When Black had been asked to tell them where the Potters lived, that they might check on them Black of course could not comply, yet the charm was so strong that he could not even tell them that he wasn't the secret keeper anymore, or who was. Instead the two men had simply rushed out to get to the cottage as fast as they could. Using the Floo system, a method of travel wizards employed to go from one fireplace to another, Hagrid beat Black to the cottage only to find the door blasted in and the entire left side of the cottage blown out.

Hagrid let out a sob at the sight but was heartened by the lack of Dark Mark, surely if the Potters had been killed then he would have left his mark in the sky to say so? Rushing inside however Hagrid quickly came across the crumpled body of James Potter in the hallway, looking around he could not see a sign of Lily though, just scorches on the walls and floor from a the impact of various spells. Moving further into the house Hagrid saw the door to the nursery blown in and quickly ran through only to let out a mournful wail. In there on the floor lay Lily Potter completely still and unmoving. There was no outward reason for her stillness but Hagrid knew that she had fallen victim to the Killing curse.

Lily's body was curled protectively around a small bundle, a small bundle that would shift every few seconds. With great care Hagrid pulled the bundle free and gave a watery smile when he saw a set of bright green eyes staring up at him. The child was unusually silent and just stared at Hagrid as if he knew his parents were gone and he was asking Hagrid what he would do about it.

At this moment Hagrid hear a familiar sounding muffled roar, Black had arrived on his flying motorbike. Grabbing a few blankets and toys for the child Hagrid went outside and met Black just as he set the motorbike down outside the cottage.

Seeing the destruction of the cottage Black fell to his knees and wailed. It was a mournful sound which clearly conveyed the heartbreak he felt. Several neighbourhood dogs took up the howl and residents all across Godrics Hollow that night knew something awful had happened.


Shaking himself from his reverie Sirius looked over the letters which he had penned. One of the letters had been easy to compose, that one to Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts and the greatest wizard of their time Dumbledore would have the pull to get him out of this place if he could be convinced that Sirius was innocent. However seeing that he had yet to visit Sirius in prison it seemed like he too believed that Sirius had sold out James and Lily. Sirius felt slightly betrayed that all of his friends and allies so easily thought he was capable of selling out his brother in all but blood, yet the small rational part of his brain (and it was small) told him that they didn't know that Sirius had encouraged James to change the secret keeper.

The letter he'd had to write to his other best friend Remus Lupin was much harder to compose. After all how does one tell their best friend that you had suspected they were a traitor and because of this you had suggested a switch without telling them and thus you weren't the one who betrayed their friends? Though difficult he had muddled through and tried to convince him that he hadn't betrayed James and Lily, he had however warned him to stay away from the prison and ministry, knowing full well that if it came out that a werewolf was trying to get a 'known' betrayer and murderer off the hook he would very quickly be joining Sirius in Azkaban. Such was the common attitude toward werewolves after so long of hearing about werewolf attacks every full moon.

The last and most difficult letter he had to compose was to his grandfather. Knowing that his father Orion Black cared very little for him Sirius had decided it would be a much safer bet to write to Arcturus Black instead. The fact that Arcturus was the current head of the Ancient and Noble house of Black meant that he was in more of a position to help Sirius anyway, he just had to convince his Grandfather (and by extension the rest of his family) that he was worth saving. If they decided that he was worth saving Sirius knew they could have him out of Azkaban by simply paying his way out. He had heard Lucius Malfoy who had been brought in the day after him talking about how his father would be buying him out of this place, Sirius knew that the Malfoys were rich enough to grease the gears of justice enough to get Lucius out of Azkaban easily so it intrigued him that Lucius was still here now.

Sirius' heart sped up as he heard keys jangling in the lock which led to the corridor for the maximum security wing. Every week a warden came through to collect outgoing post, this was mostly a joke as the majority of prisoners in this wing could hardly remember their names let alone still put pen to paper in a coherent manner. He watched through the bars as the warden walked up the corridor quickly, clearly wanting to be gone from this area as soon as possible. He collected mail from both Lucius Malfoy and Bellatrix Lestrange before coming to Sirius' cell. Hands perfectly steady Sirius gave the warden the three letters he had penned and gave him a respectful nod of thanks.

Looking shocked the warden simply nodded back and walked briskly back to the door he had come through and banged on it in a very specific pattern. This pattern had changed since last week Sirius noted. He hoped he wouldn't have to endure many more weeks here but he was curious to find out if they changed the knock every week in case a prisoner had somehow caught a warden as a hostage.

Letting out a deep breath Sirius watched the thick iron door close once more and sent out a prayer that his friend, mentor or family would be able to help him.