The next day, as she had promised, Azalea visited Sirius in the cave. Upon leaving Hogwarts she flew over to the cave which was quicker than walking. Apparating would have been quicker still but she had not yet taken her apparation test and didn't want to risk Sirius' discovery just to save a few minutes. She was still slightly nervous about the dangers of apparating but had not been splinched again in any of the lessons so was slowly gaining confidence.
Azalea slipped inside the cave and announced her presence. Sirius was sitting on the floor staring vacantly into space but jumped up when he saw her. "You came!" he exclaimed.
"Just like I said I would," she assured him. "And I've brought you some more food." She handed over a bag containing a selection of food and drink, including a bottle of wine, plus a plate, cup and some cutlery. "I even managed to scrounge a sheep carcass from Hagrid to give to Buckbeak. I've left that outside though, you don't want your cave to look like a charnel house. You can let Buckbeak have it when it gets dark and then dispose of the bones."
Sirius looked through the bag she had given him and picked out a loaf of bread which he cut into slices and then layered pieces of cheese on to it. He sat back down on the floor and just before taking a bite he asked "However did you persuade Hagrid to give you a sheep carcass?"
"Without much difficulty, I just told him the truth; or half-truth anyway. I said that you'd been forced to return from your exile, with Buckbeak, and you were having trouble finding food for him. He asked loads of questions about how Buckbeak is keeping; far more than he asked about you."
Sirius looked at her with some alarm, "You didn't tell him where we were did you? You know that Hagrid is the world's worst person at keeping secrets."
"No, I didn't tell him. I think he'll be OK with this secret because if he lets information slip then Buckbeak is at risk," she replied.
"I hope so," said Sirius not entirely convinced, "I shall set alarms and wards around the cave just in case."
"You should have done that already," Azalea admonished him. "While you're at it, why don't you make this cave more comfortable?"
"This is comfortable compared to Azkaban," he commented.
Azalea sat down beside him on the floor of the cave, "What was it like there?" she asked gently.
He paused in his eating and once more stared vacantly in to the distance. "It was hell." he said simply. "I only survived because I knew I was innocent of the deaths of the twelve muggles in the explosion, I didn't care that Pettigrew had died except I needed him to prove my innocence. I felt guilty for being the cause of James and Lily's deaths and so thought I deserved to be there." He turned to look at her with a haunted look in his face, "I should have gone mad in there, so many others did, but I concentrated on my innocence, it was more an obsession than a happy thought." He then changed tack, "You know that dog you followed to the cave yesterday?" Azalea nodded. "That was me, I'm an unregistered Animagus. Sometimes I'd change into the dog and then the Dementors couldn't touch me as deeply as they could when I was human." He gave a short laugh like a bark, "Ironically the penalty for being an unregistered Animagus is imprisonment in Azkaban."
Azalea felt moved with pity for this man who had lost 12 years of his life for a crime he had not committed and would now never be able to prove his innocence unless Peter Pettigrew could be persuaded to tell the truth. She wrapped her arms around him and pulled him into an embrace to show she understood but that no words she said could alleviate his pain. He relaxed into her hold and they remained like that for several minutes until Azalea was struck by an idea. She let him go and facing him said, "You must be sick of your own company by now."
He gave a curt snicker, "I certainly am, and with seeing the same four walls day in day out."
"Well let's take you out somewhere for a change of scenery," she said.
"You forget I'm a wanted man, the second anyone recognises me, I'll be back in Azkaban."
"Not if you're in disguise. What about polyjuice potion?"
"That takes a month to brew, and then I'd have to find some to impersonate," Sirius complained.
She thought for a moment and continued "I could make the potion quicker than a month but I've never seen it before, only heard about it. I'll see if I can find some completed potion to speed it up so we can get out sooner. I can get the ingredients and find someone for you to impersonate. I suggest we go somewhere where there aren't many wizards but a lot of people – a muggle city perhaps?"
Sirius was enthusiastic about the idea "Yes, let's do it. I'll take the risk and why not go to a muggle city and lose ourselves in the crowds. I assume you're going to come with me?"
"Someone's got to keep an eye on you to make sure you don't get into trouble, haven't they? Since it's my idea I'll be that person. Now in the meantime, let's use a concealment charm and go for a walk in the glen. Just don't do anything to draw attention to yourself while we're out will you?" she told him.
True to her word, within the next few days she brought to the cave the kit and ingredients needed to make polyjuice potion. She had purchased the ingredients from the shop over several days, along with other items, so as not to draw attention to the exact recipe she was buying for. She had even taken some of the more common ingredients from the school supplies, along with an old cauldron she found at the back of a cupboard.
Obtaining a part of person to impersonate was surprisingly straightforward. She found a pretext to visit a barber's shop and whilst there she scooped up some hair cuttings. The man whose hair she had taken was someone she didn't know aged around 40 years and of medium height, black curly hair and chocolate brown skin.
Now that she all the ingredients, Azalea knew she needed to find a completed potion so she could use her quicker method. The only place she thought she might find one nearby was in Snape's office. She sat with Sirius outside the cave, discussing the problem. Buckbeak was grazing nearby; they had put a camouflage spell on him so any casual observer would see only a sheep. Azalea described the problem to Sirius, "I think I could sneak into Snape's office but I don't want to do it if he's in there. I had thought about going in while he's teaching but his classroom is close to his office and he might nip back to his office for something. I wish there was a way I could know where he was and then be able to judge how much time I've got."
Sirius raged against the fates and said forcefully, "How is that Snape, a known Death Eater, got a cushy job at Hogwarts while I was incarcerated at Azkaban for twelve years for a crime I didn't commit?"
Azalea responded evenly, "I can't answer that, Sirius. You wizards seem to have a strange notion of justice. Where's the concept of "innocent until proven guilty" in wizard law? Why should Dumbledore's word be accepted above everyone else's as to who is or isn't guilty. The Dementors seem to be able to administer summary justice by sucking out souls at whim."
"I wish one of them would suck out Snape's soul, assuming he's got one," Sirius said bitterly.
Azalea didn't want to be drawn into a discussion of Severus' characteristics with Sirius who hated him when Azalea's feelings were the exact opposite; instead she went back to the matter in hand. "Soul or no soul, can you think of any way to detect where he is to give me time to get into his office?"
Sirius thought for a while and then exclaimed, "The marauders map!"
"The marauders map? What's that?" Azalea queried.
Sirius explained, "When we were at Hogwarts, James, Remus, Peter and I managed to enchant a map of Hogwarts using a homonculus charm to show where everybody was in Hogwarts. I've no idea what happened to the map once we left, but it might be possible to find it."
"That could take ages, I wouldn't know where to start," began Azalea then she continued excitedly, "Could you make another one? Look I've got a normal map of Hogwarts." She pulled out of her pocket the floor plan that Dumbledore had given her on her first day. "I still have to refer to it from time to time so I carry with me," she said as she handed it to Sirius. He took the map and looked at it with an expression of longing on his face as he pointed at the rooms and reminisced about the happy days he had spent there in his youth. "Can you do it, can you make another one?" Azalea repeated impatiently.
"Yes, I think so," he said. He pointed his wand at the floor plan and said the incantation. Azalea saw the colours fly from his wand but the map remained unchanged. "I'm sure that's right," he said in a disappointed voice. "Four of us did it last time because we were a team, but one person can do it."
Azalea was also frustrated with the lack of success, it had seemed like a perfect solution to the problem. Another part of her liked the idea of being able to spy on people's whereabouts and she could guess what type of use the boys had put the map to after they'd created it. "Where were you when you made it?" she asked him.
"Gryfindor common room, I expect," he replied, then he realised why she'd asked that question. "Do you think you might need to be actually in Hogwarts for the magic to work?"
"It's worth a try isn't it? Here give the map to me, I've seen what the spell looks like, I'll go and try it out. I'll be back in an hour or so," Azalea said eager to try out her idea. Sirius handed her the map which she returned to her pocket and then levitated and flew off in the direction of Hogwarts Castle. She went into her chambers for privacy, pointed her wand at the floor plan and spoke the charm. The map flew from her hand; rising to the ceiling glowing with a white light so bright that she couldn't look directly at it. A few seconds later she heard the map flutter to the floor and the light dimmed. She picked the map up from the floor and it felt warm to her hand, when she looked at it more closely she could see tiny footprints dotted over the map with a name next to them. She could see that Filius and Charity were in their offices as was Severus. The dormitories and common rooms were full of students and the footprints so close together she couldn't make out one name from the next. She'd ask Sirius if they could be magnified so she could read them. She looked for her name on the map, but there were no footprints or name in her room, again it was something she could ask Sirius.
She flew back to Sirius at the cave and showed him her success with the map. He pored over it looking for people he knew, starting with Harry. Between them they worked out how to magnify the names so they could discern them from a jumble of letters. They also devised a search spell to find a particular name out of the hundreds on the map. Sirius commented, "I wish we'd thought about a search spell with the original map, we used to spend ages trying to find names, especially Filch, you never knew where he could be and he was the main person we were trying to avoid."
Azalea asked, "Why do you think my name doesn't appear on the map?"
"It must be because you created it." Sirius suggested.
"Could you see your name on the one you made?" she asked.
"Yes, but the four of us did the spell together so that might be the difference."
Azalea pointed out other absences on the map, "I can't see the house elves either."
"I don't know why that is, but they're not the same as people are they?" Now he'd seen the success of the map Sirius was eager to use it and get on with making the polyjuice so he questioned her on her plans. "Once you've made sure Snape is well away from his office, how are you proposing to get into it and when are you going to do it?"
"I'm not telling you all my secrets, Sirius. I might need to get into other places by the same method," she said light heartedly. "Now I've got the means I want to get it done as soon as possible before I lose my nerve. I shall do it at the first convenient opportunity."
As it happened, the first convenient opportunity came later that day. Azalea was in her chambers studying and proof reading. She had been frequently checking on Severus's movements, more frequently than she needed to but by doing so she felt connected to him in a way he hadn't permitted since the New Year. She saw his footprints leave his office and head off to the other side of the castle. She knew the return journey would take about 15 minutes plus whatever time he spent at his destination. Now was a good a time as any to put her plan into action.
She called out aloud "Winky."
In a flash Winky was there as Azalea had known she would be, "Yes my lady, Winky is here to help," she said.
"Winky, I need to you to take me inside Professor Snape's office, now please," Azalea said hoping that Winky would not put up an argument. House elves had access to all parts of the castle so they could fulfil their housekeeping duties. Azalea knew she was asking a lot of a house elf who were required to respect the privacy of the staff and students at Hogwarts and quite rightly so in Azalea's opinion.
Winky said nothing but looked at Azalea with an expression of complete trust. She held out her hand in unquestioning obedience; Azalea clasped her hand and in a flash Winky had apparated into Snape's office. Azalea had only been to his office on a couple of occasions and this was the first time she'd seen in daylight, or at least such daylight as could get in through the high level small windows. Against the walls were cabinets filled with bottles and jars of dried herbs and plants, others contained strange shapes floating in fluid, which reminded her of visits to museums as a child when she would stare in macabre fascination at pickled body parts and ill-formed foetuses. She took this in at a glance and walked quickly round seeking the potions themselves.
"Winky," she whispered, "do you know where Professor Snape keeps the potions he's already made?"
Winky nodded and silently pointed to a glass fronted case in the darkest corner of the room. Azalea noticed at once that it was securely locked and, she had no doubt, warded with spells and hexes to deter thieves. She didn't want to steal anything just look at it, but which was the polyjuice? Azalea peered into the cabinet and looked at the labels on the bottles, they were alphabetically arranged. Azalea smiled at Snape's pre-occupation with order and was grateful for it today. Scanning down the rows of bottles she found the polyjuice, luck was once more with her because it was in the front row. She studied it carefully committing the colours and appearance to memory. "Let's go now Winky," she said holding out her hand and in a flash Winky took them back to her chambers.
Snape returned to his office a few minutes after Azalea had left. As soon as he walked in the room he had a feeling that someone had been there. The lock on his door had not been tampered with and the windows were still shut. An experienced and highly accomplished wizard, he knew that magic left a trace and he looked carefully to detect any sign that magic had been used recently but there was no sign. He prowled around the cabinets to see if anything was missing or had been moved but again nothing. When he reached the cabinet where he kept the finished potions he smelt a faint aroma of vanilla and honey which he instantly associated with Azalea. No, she couldn't have been in here; she didn't have the skill to get past his defences. He inhaled another breath but this time there was nothing, any smell had dissipated or, worse, he had imagined it. He didn't want to admit that were some of his defences that she could get past and they were nothing to do with locks and hexes.