Disclaimer: I do not own the Harry Potter franchise. I do own my right to fantasize. See what I did there?
Chapter 3 - Brick
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"Are you..are you hear for my case? Is my case..being reviewed?" I ask with uncertainty.
"Well, yes. It has been five years since you entered Azkaban. You are now under the process of leaving. I am here to orient you about your exit." Mr. Groot tells me.
"Five years?..It has been five years? I have been here for only five years?" I say with urgency, my voice going stronger as I learned the exact duration of my stay in this prison.
My questions were not answered. Instead, I hear the clicking of several locks and the clanging of metal.
The doors..the doors of my prison are opening.
And then I see fire, fire that exists just inches from my face. The fire hurts my eyes, so much so that I feel like my eyes are burning. For a second, I thought that they opened my doors in order to burn me like they burn my father's remains.
Terrified, not wanting to burn while I am still alive, I back away and cover my eyes.
"Now, now. It's alright. It's just a lamp." The stranger explains.
"Wh-why are you here?" I ask him, dragging myself to one corner as they go inside.
I suddenly feel this urge to preserve my privacy, I didn't want them to intrude.
Although hearing people and watching people in front of me is so intriguing, I do not want them to be inside my place. My place is too dark and..moldy. I sleep a few inches away from my toilet, a few inches from where I shit and piss.
I started to shiver uncontrollably. I feel immense shame.
My room has mold, mold everywhere.
I sleep a few inches away from my toilet, a few inches from where I shit and piss.
The cleansing did not happen for a while, I haven't had a bath for days..or weeks.
I don't know what I smell like. But based on the man's scrunched nose, I smell disgusting.
Ghastly..putrid. I probably smell worse than a thousand rotten eggs that have been rotting for months.
Rotten eggs.
Why am I using rotten eggs in a sentence?
Never mind. I feel ashamed.
I feel ashamed, because I stink and I live and breathe where I shit and piss.
I want to be like that fly which now lies on my grimy lice-infested floors.
I am so ashamed that I just want to crawl in a hole and die like that fly.
Stop. Stop. You're doing it again. Calm down.
Calm down..breathe. No one's hurting you. This person is not hurting you.
It's okay. You'll be fine. You'll survive this..and then..and then once you survive..
Once you survive..your shame will go away.
Everything will go away..
Everything can change. You'll survive this..and then you can have a different life.
"Mr. Malfoy, you have finished five years in Azkaban. Based on your agreement which was witnessed by Chief Warlock Lennard Hopps in June 24, 1998, you will now be banished to the muggle realm." Mr. Groot states while trying to keep a straight face, covering his nose from the stench of my filth.
Tapping my chains with his wand, my chains unravel from my ankles.
He simply tapped the chains with his wand.
It was easy..so effortless to be out of the shackles. It just needed a wave of a wand.
I raise my ankles slightly, shifting my feet. My feet feels light, lighter than my entire body.
"I..I can leave this place? I can leave Azkaban?" I ask weakly.
"Yes. Now if you don't mind, I have other things to attend to. Best that we leave as soon as possible." He says, trying to cover his disdain for merely standing in my space for a few seconds. He attempts to pull me from my spot, but I step away. He is looking more of an anomaly as he make his presence more real.
"Guards!" He shouts, clearly not wanting to stay any longer.
Bastard One and Bastard Two enters, their faces look more irritated than usual. Normally they would not even give me a glance, simply kicking me to get to where they want me to stay. This time, they look furious, immensely disappointed, dragging me out of my room.
I started screaming, panicking. Bastard One and Bastard Two persist to drag me despite my protest.
Eventually they pause, only to kick my gut. I cringe and drool from the pain.
Seeing as I stopped shouting, they resume to pulling me away until I left my space which I have lived for five years. As they drag me, I gaze at my prison which grows distant from each pull they make on my legs. My fear of the unknown dissipates for a moment, replaced by the feeling of sadness.
Despite the fact that I am leaving my cage which I hated for years, watching as I am separated from those familiar walls and that small window is causing unwanted nostalgia. For reasons I am not sure, my cage was a part of me. And now..now I am losing the cage. A part of my self.
"Finally leaving Azkaban eh, Malfoy?" Bastard One says as we move to another corridor.
"Don't expect your life to be any better than what you had here." Bastard Two adds; giving me another tug so that I would lit the wall nearby.
The wall has a stray brick. As soon as I hit the wall, my face scraped at the loose brick.
I can taste my blood which drips from my cheek, along with dirt and some traces of an insect's web. My face starts to hurt and swell. Mr. Groot is too busy to notice this conversation or assault, skimming his papers as he walks in front of us. Or maybe he is just pretending not to notice.
The last time I was going through these hallways was when I first got to this prison. I was so scared that I actually peed myself, but I kept walking because one of the prisoners was screaming so loud that I wanted to get away from the screaming as fast as possible.
As I was going to my cage, the pee continued to drip. The liquid was warm, and I welcomed it.
My pee was warm..it felt nice because everything about this place was cold.
My pee was warm though, I felt the warmth go down my legs and between my toes.
I relished the warmth, took comfort in it.
I took comfort on my pee.
Unlike last time, I don't feel like peeing. I don't have the liquids to piss on myself this time.
And even if I do, I am not as afraid as I was back then.
Like the cage that I was in, this entire place became so familiar to me.
The endless screaming..the endless darkness. The suffering, the pain of being completely along.
Everything about this prison is familiar.
And I know, I know that this prison will continue to be familiar to me.
I know that this prison will continue to haunt me until I die.
We carry on with this process of going through corridors until we reach a peculiar wall which reminds me of the walls I saw in a train station. The wall had light grey bricks instead of black or brown. The grey bricks look a lot cleaner and new compared to the bricks that surrounds us.
Mr. Groot taps the wall with his wand, and then the grey bricks of the walls shift.
The grey bricks are shifting, turning the wall into an entrance.
We enter the great wall without hesitation. Unlike my cell, I couldn't even give a last glance at the hallway. I did however, hear one last scream which sounded like someone is being kissed by a dementor. I thought that hearing the scream would frighten me, but instead I feel excited.
Despite the pain on my face, despite being dragged, I feel anticipation.
Hearing the grey wall shift to a close, my anticipation becomes stronger.
And then, out of nowhere, I started to grin. And then..and then I started to laugh.
I started to laugh uncontrollably. So much so that even though Bastard One and Two started kicking in order to shut me up, I still persisted to laugh. It was like I was cheating someone off, I was getting away from the place without kissing a dementor.
I was getting away from endless darkness and being burned once I die. I was cheating, clearly I was.
I was cheating someone off and it feels great.
I was..I am cheating death.
So I laughed and laughed until I was forced to stand.
As soon as they were able to get me up, Bastard One and Two started hitting my face repeatedly.
Seeing as we are already in a different location, Mr. Groot decides to interfere.
"That's enough! Someone might see you." The man with thick brows and small eyes warns.
"Azkaban may not have killed you, Malfoy. But you will kill yourself someday." Bastard One says, giving my face one last hit before leaving me to fall on my knees. Standing up for a long time is too much for my weak legs, let alone being beaten.
Satisfied in bringing me to my knees, the guards back off.
Just like the first time we met, Mr. Groot hesitantly regards me at his presence.
"This is the copy of your agreement from 1998, please go over it as soon as you..get acquainted to your surroundings. Should you break your agreement, please be reminded that you will be tried and hanged without chances of appeal." He offers me a scroll which I tried to take, but my fingers are trembling too much. He decides to put the scroll on the floor.
"I sure hope that I don't see you again, Mr. Malfoy. Because if I do, I can only watch you on the gallows." The man says without any form of empathy.
I decide not to reply to his advice, wanting him to leave as soon as possible.
"Don't waste this second chance, lad. Not everyone in your position would be given a second life." He pats me on the back, reminding me of my former barrister who also was just as indifferent as he is.
And then, followed by Bastard One and Bastard Two, Mr. Groot leaves me on my own.
Without looking at their direction, I hear the grey wall shift into an entrance. And then, they left.
They left.
They left.
They left.
I am now completely alone at a foreign location, with no one around.
No one is around.
No one.
I lie on the ground, the ground that feels like smooth enamel instead of cold grimy stone.
I let it all sink in, my isolation. I relish it.
So much so that when the ground started to tremble, and a large mass of metal passes by, I was not deterred. I let the large mass of metal pass eight times, before I decided to stand up and look around my area. The area is quite narrow, constricted with bricks and pipes. Far better than the dungeons.
Picking the scroll that Mr. Groot left me, I put the parchment on the pocket inside my coat. I didn't bother to look through the scroll, it's not like I don't know what the parchment states. Besides, I'm sure my vision is so affected by the lights above me, I could not read the agreement even if I want to.
I'll have to go through the scroll some other time.
I see a wooden bench a few feet away. Not bothering to stand up, I drag myself to the bench and did my best to sit down and keep my back straight. I then try to wipe the blood off my face with the sleeve of my coat, but my sleeve was too caked up with dirt that I only made the mess on my face worse.
And then, I remember that I have a handkerchief.
Weakly, I pull the light blue cloth out of my pocket. I was about to dab my face with the handkerchief, but I noticed how clean and pristine it is. The handkerchief is a light blue color, reminding me of the sky. I look up, unconsciously searching for the atmosphere, only to find pipes and vents.
It appears that I am underground, underneath a real surface.
Not wanting to ruin the cloth, I put it back on my pocket and decide to concentrate on my surroundings.
I realize that I am a platform, a platform for a set of rails. Beyond the rails is another platform.
There are no stairs or any other exits. Just opposite platforms and the rails.
The ground started to shake again, hinting that the large mass of metal will arrive soon.
Unsurprisingly, the large metal mass arrives, using the railings in front of me.
The metal mass is a train.
I am actually at a subway. At a platform of a subway.
Specifically, based on the painted numbers of a beam nearby, I am at Platform 6 and a half quarters.
Seeing as I cannot get off the platform through a flight of stairs to the surface, nor can I cross the other platform which also has no flight of stairs to the surface. I painstakingly make my way to the train as soon as it opened its doors.
Inside the train, I take the nearest seat. The seat feels nice, cozy due to the felt lining.
I sink into my seat, completely and utterly satisfied.
The train starts moving again, moving to leave the platform.
I glance outside, looking at the grey wall from which I originated from. I watched as I passed the wall, the train is moving at a fast pace. I watched the grey wall, the spot where Mr. Groot and the guards originated, thinking that they would come back any second to tell me that this was all a mistake.
I was thinking that they would come back and take me form here.
But no, they didn't come back. I watched the wall until I could not see it anymore, moving through the tunnel until we reach another empty platform..and another, and another. And then..realizing that they are never coming back for me, realizing that I will never be back in that damned prison, I started to make a wretched smile. The smile started to snicker.
And then, I started to laugh. And laugh. And laugh.
I am laughing again, at no one in particular.
I keep laughing, even though people other than myself went inside the train.
I laugh even if strangers were looking at me funny, choosing to move as soon as they realized that I am some mad man.
I am a mad man, laughing and laughing endlessly.
I cheated you see, I cheated.
I can't believe it.
I really cheated death.
I cheated.
I cheated.
And then I started to cry, to cry uncontrollably.
I cried, I cried and ignored people who are asking me if I have a problem.
I cried even though they wanted to know what was wrong.
I cried. I simply cried. I cried so much.
I cried even though I was running out of energy.
Eventually, I cried myself to sleep.
.
In Hawaii…
And kicking back
Is where you'd find me
Somewhere underneath the palm tree
On the island of Hawaii…
- Tom Felton