A black-haired boy of about twelve years old was sitting at a chair in the Ministry of Magic that was much too big for him.

Sirius Black was on his summer holidays and as there was nobody at home to take care of him he had ended up in his dad's office for the day. His dad, Orion Black, was the head of the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures.

When he was younger, going into his dad's work was an exciting adventure, so many witches and wizards and once someone brought in a dragon to show him! But as a twelve year old trouble-maker, Sirius was getting rather bored sitting in this dull office.

So, naturally, as his dad left to go to a meeting, Sirius stood up and picked the lock on the office door. Muggle tricks like lock picking were handy skills to have.

He wandered down corridors, sneaking into interesting looking rooms, in one room there were two harassed looking wizards discussing what to do with an angry poltergeist they had locked in a box that was bouncing off the walls and floor, in another he saw a plump man with a large beard trying to defend his right to own a fire-breathing duck.

It was a strange door at the very end of the corridor that stuck out to Sirius the most.

It wasn't polished wood like the others; it was thick stone and blended right into the wall. He tried the handle, it wouldn't budge. There were no locks to be picked on this door, but a year at Hogwarts had taught him that there might be a secret latch or lever. He tapped the bricks on the side of the door, but nothing happened. A few minutes later and Sirius was about to give up, when it miraculously opened. Looking down at his feet he had stepped on the button, rather than tapped it on the wall.

The sight that greeted him was not pleasant.

It was a prison. As far as he could see along a single passage there were cells with arched entrances guarded by cold metal bars. It was almost pitch black, only a few candles lit the place. The prison was filled with weary cries, muffled sobs and high-pitched sounds that resembled howls. But the worst part of the prison was the smell, the metallic stench of blood.

Sirius Black was brave. He plucked up all his Gryffindor courage and began walking down the prison passage.

As he walked, he noticed several cell occupants moving back against the walls, as if frightened of Sirius. He noticed a few things, the prisoners near the front of the passage were the oldest, and each cell had a plaque next to it which stated a name, age and number. On the left side the prisoners were all girls, on the right they were boys. All of them wore the same brown rags, dirty and ripped.

Sirius was starting to lose his courage now, he wanted to get out of this room and soon. This was mainly because he had reached the end of the corridor; the last cell had a plaque that read, "10086, Madison Greendale, 4 years old."

A tiny girl was lying unconscious on the hard stone floor of her lonely cell.

The cell opposite her, where "10085, Owen Samuel, 3 years old," should have been, according to the plaque, was empty.

Sirius felt sick, he turned and tried to get back to the door, but a sound made him turn.

"Help me…" a weak voice croaked, "Please."

Sirius went back to the cell where a boy about his age was curled up in the corner. He had sandy-brown hair that was too long and dirty, bright amber eyes and three large scars running across his face.

"What's going on here?" Sirius asked the boy, whispering.

"They- they took me," the boy replied, his voice was breathless and it seemed to be hard for him to talk, "they keep us here."

"Who is "they"?" Sirius asked, crouching down and moving towards the cell.

"I-I haven't done anything w-wrong," the boy said, suddenly sobbing, "I-I want my p-parents."

"Where are they?" Sirius asked, alarmed, "I want to help, I'll get you out of here, I'll save you."

"You can't, no one can," the boy replied.

There was a thin line of light as the door to the prison opened.

Sirius quickly looked up at the plaque, "10052, Remus Lupin, 12 years old."

He reached in and clutched Remus' wrist, the boy gasped and looked at him, amber eyes met grey ones and Sirius said, "I'm going to help you, Remus Lupin, I promise," before letting go of his wrist and sneaking past the two Ministry officials who were busy inspecting a cell near the door.

A snippet of the conversation of the two officials-

"Gertrude Halderman, two weeks until she's seventeen, mark her plaque," one official dictated to the other, who put a large red cross beside poor Gertrude's plaque.