It had only taken Sirius a couple of minutes to complete the crossword using a sleek black quill which he had pick-pocketed from Fudge when being given the Daily Prophet. According to the paper, it was August the 1st 1993. It had taken so much effort to be able to acquire the pen. Too much effort. The dementors had been draining him of his energy for too long and it was starting to become too much. Anger, fear and depressions clamped around Sirius's heart as he closed his eyes and once again heard his mother's shouting

/FLASHBACKS/

"Sirius Orion Black," his mother shrieked from across the dining room table. Sirius met his mother's furious gaze

"Yes, mother?" he asked politely, setting his untouched dinner aside

"How dare you allow yourself to be sorted into a house full of Mudbloods and blood-traitors!" Sirius closed his eyes, attempting to keep his expression neutral and blank. "You have tarnished the Black name and you are no longer worthy of being part of this family," Sirius's eyes flew open in shock. Mrs Black then thundered across the room and seizes Sirius by the shoulders and dragged him from his chair to their respectful living room.

"Mother, you're hurting me," Sirius gasped as his mother's long fingernails dug deep into his flesh. His reply was a hard slap in the face. It took every ounce of self control Sirius possessed to not have any reaction or to show emotion.

"Stop your whining, you lousy excuse of filth," she then roughly let go of Sirius and he stumbled backwards, but quickly managed to straighten himself in time to see his mother drawing her wand

"Mother… please," but instead of the cruciatus curse which Sirius had expected, Mrs Black pointed her wand at the family tree and a spell shot wordlessly in a green light and a small fire appeared. It took a moment for Sirius to realise that the fire had burned out his place on the tree. Sirius began to frantically blow on the small flame, but it was already too late. By the time the fire had been extinguished, all there was left of Sirius's name was a black burn in the fabric. Sirius turned to stare at his mother, his eyes wide and glassy

"I disown you as my son," she said simply, "you are no longer a part of this family. Pack a back and leave this house and never return. You are no longer welcome to live here,"

/END OF FLASHBACKS/

Sirius remembered that that had been the last time he had seen his mother. He didn't even know if she was still alive, but nor did he really care. A sudden thought suddenly crossed his mind, if it really was 1993, then his godson would have already started attending Hogwarts. In fact, if he was correct, it would be Harry's third year. Sirius wondered what Harry was like. He knew that he had Lily's eyes and the messy trademark Potter hair, but he hadn't seen the boy since he was one. Did he look much like James? Did he look more like his mother? Which parent did he take after? Sirius figured that he would probably be an equal split of the two. He may even play Quidditch like his father had! Sirius smiled at the thought of a mini Prongs roaming around the castle at night and playing Quidditch to impress the girls. Just like James. Or maybe he was more like Lily, top in every class and had read every book in the library. He may even have a girlfriend by this age or a girl which he particularly liked. Sirius remembered that James had been in love with Lily ever since he first saw her.

Sirius opened his eyes, transforming into a dog again. His emotions were less scattered when he transformed; his emotions were pretty much the same but the fleece…

However, when he was in this form, the dementors didn't seem to have too much of an effect upon him. He considered himself lucky, but he still longed for the freedom he deserved, the freedom which he would never have. He was too weak. It was too hard to contain a happy memory within the cells of Azkaban.

But over time, Sirius had come to realise that when everything had become too much to bear, he could simply transform and remember all the good times with his fellow marauders. It was times like these when he brought himself back to times like when he would recall playing tag with werewolf or sitting down in the boy's common room to plot another prank or indeed the excitement they had felt when they had finished making the Marauders Map. He briefly wondered where the map was now. It had been many years since Remus (Moony) had suggested that they left the map behind so that the next generation of marauders could sneak around the castle at night or to sneak into Hogsmead when they ran out of sweets and butterbeer.

Just then, a sudden coldness penetrated the air, freezing his insides. Sirius didn't even have to open his eyes to know that when the door clicked open, a dementor would be hovering at the entrance delivering food.

Sirius could once again hear his mother screaming and saw the Potter's house torn apart. His breaths came rapidly and his chest ached with the energy it took for the rising and falling and the contracting muscles. Sirius forced one bleary eye to open and a dark eye rolled blindly around its socket before the colours came into focus and his gaze fell upon the dementors and tray of food it had left.

The dementors seemed to be watching him as if waiting for his approval. But that wasn't possible, dementors couldn't see and they most certainly didn't care of a convicted murderer ate his dinner. But the creature didn't move, still standing there in front of the food. Maybe it could probably feel how weak Sirius had become and wanted to help. Maybe it had felt how weak Sirius had become and decided to hang around to make him even weaker.

Black spots were appearing across his line of vision and his breathing became slower. This was probably what it felt like to die. If his life wasn't going to get any better than this then there was no point of clinging to life. He welcomed death, hoping it would take him away. But his insides were still frozen, meaning that he was probably still alive. That bloody dementor was probably still standing there too. Sirius forced to vision to clear and was saw that the dementor was indeed still there. What was it doing?

The dementor could feel a range of emotion from across the room, but the emotions were wrong. Most of the other prisoners were sad and angry and generally losing their minds, but this one felt relived and comforted. The emotions were also less like that of a human and more of an animal meaning that he had also lost his mind… but there was something else. The prisoner seemed almost at peace with himself. And then the dementors understood… he had accepted that he would die here.

Despite the fact that the dementors were under the complete control of the ministry, they were intelligent creatures and understood more about humans than humans did about them. They had long since realised that the man in the highest security vault was innocent and had not committed the crime of which he had been imprisoned for. It had taken time, but they had also found the one responsible for his imprisonment but were unable to do anything about it sue to the man's location. The dementor suddenly felt another pull of emotion. Confusion. The human prisoner had probably realised that the dementor was still there. He was wondering what the dementor was doing.

Sirius watched as the dementor then reached one slimy rotting hand towards the small bowl of food and glided towards where Sirius lay. It was too cold and he was sure that this was a hallucination. Sirius was positive that it was a dream. He was having a dream that a dementor was helping him because he was on the verge of death.

The dementor set the plate down next to where he assumed the prisoners head was swept quietly out the room, locking the door behind him.

The coldness seemed to warm slightly, as if the world was returning to him. Sirius could barely raise his head, let alone walk to the other end of the room to get the plate of food. His nose twitched slightly. Being a dog did sometimes have its advantages. Sirius forced his eyes open a crack and an audible gasp escaped his lips. The bowl of food was right in front of him! He didn't need to have the energy to stand anymore! Did the dementor really do that for him? If it had done then he was truly grateful, but he had no way of telling. Dementors didn't help starving prisoners.

But Sirius had more important things to worry about. Food being the first thing on the list.