Chapter 2 Jailhouse Rock

The cell door slammed shut behind Sirius with a loud, ominous CLANG!

The trip to Azkaban did not provide any chance to escape. He was kept tightly bound and manacled and all four hit wizards kept a constant watch on him. McNair seemed just itching for an excuse to blast Sirius to dust.

"There will be another time." Sirius thought. "You can't escape if you're dead and Harry sure wouldn't like that." He sighed and looked around.

"Home, sweet home." He muttered to himself. "Well, at least they gave me a room with a view."

He grabbed the bars on the window and hoisted himself up to look out. All he could see was ocean and the constant rain. The weather around Azkaban always seemed stormy. Sirius suspected that it was kept that way on purpose to add to the prisoners gloom and to make escape as difficult as possible. He could not see how far it was from his cell window to the ground below, but he knew it was a long way down, much too far to even consider jumping even if he could get out the window.

There was a click of the lock on his cell door. Sirius let himself down and turned as the door opened. In walked a wizard with his wand at the ready flanked by two dementors.

"Come with us, Mr. Black." He announced.

"Where?"

"Relax," the wizard said loftily, "The warden wants to see his most famous prisoner."

"Nothing like a hero's welcome." Said Sirius getting up and walking out with him.

In the twelve years he had been in Azkaban before Sirius had never been to the warden's office. He was not even sure where it was. It wasn't like the warden made a habit of interviewing new residents. So what was going on? They continued to walk for almost twenty minutes climbing stairs and the going down again. Sirius wondered if this was just to confuse him so he would have trouble finding it on his own. At the top of the south tower the finally stopped outside a door. The wizard knocked three times.

"Come in." said a voice. They opened the door and entered a very nicely furnished office with a large fireplace and a roaring fire with two chairs facing it.

"Ah, Mr. Black. Come in. Come in." Said a short stocky wizard. "I'm warden Jeremiah Cromwell. Please have a seat."

Sirius sat down in an armchair opposite the warden's desk.

"You may leave us gentlemen." He said to the wizard and the dementors.

"But, sir." The wizard began, "That's Sirius Black. He's a convicted murderer."

"I am well aware of who this is and the nature of his crime." Said warden Cromwell firmly. "Please wait outside. If I need you I shall call."

"Very well, sir." Said the wizard obviously not pleased to leave the warden with the likes of Sirius. "We will be right outside if you need us." He and the dementors opened the door and left.

Warden Cromwell crossed to his desk and sat facing Sirius. "How were you treated on your trip here?" He asked, "Any problems?"

"You mean other than being shipped back here for a crime I didn't commit?" Sirius asked back.

"Ah, yes." Cromwell leaned back in his chair. "The first thing one learns in prison, Mr. Black, is that everyone is innocent. I do not make the sentences nor do I judge guilt or innocence. I merely see that what the court imposes is carried out."

"You see," He went on, "I, like you, am a recent arrival. Apparently my predecessor was not looked upon with favor for allowing the first escape in the history of Azkaban to occur on his watch. He is now cleaning dungeons in Dracula's Castle in Transylvania."

Sirius shivered. Azkaban was no garden spot but at least the ghost of the most terrible vampire ever to walk the earth did not haunt it.

"I have read your dossier, Mr. Black and talked to more than a few people at great length about you. It seems that the consensus is that you are not a threat to, at least, the majority of society."

"And who might I be a threat to?" Sirius inquired.

"I'm told you might have a small problem with one Peter Petigrew."

"Since he is in the company of one Lord Voldemort, that is somewhat problematic itself."

Cromwell smiled. "Mr. Black, we have a little proposition for you. Are you interested?"

Sirius looked at him suspiciously. "What sort of proposition and who is 'we'."

"Mr. Black, whether you know it or not you have friends of some influence. I think you may know my other two guests."

The chairs in front of the fireplace turned to reveal Cornelius Fudge, Minister of Magic and Hogwarts headmaster Albus Dumbledore.