Chapter 48: Free as a Bird

"NOOO!" Faith sat up screaming in her bed. Her hair was adhered to her forehead by cold sweat. Her eyes darted madly about the small cramped cell until she remembered where she was. Taking a deep breath she rubbed a hand over her face. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see one of the few dementors that remained at Azkaban staring at her. It remained there for a minute and then glided off. Faith swung her legs over the edge of her small cot and placed them on the icy stone floor. It was her fourth night in this heartless prison. Remus had visited and told her they had a way for her to get out, but she would have to be patient.

That was easy for him to say. He wasn't stuck in here. She got little sleep, an hour a day if she was lucky. Every night was a nightmare. Reliving the night of James and Lily's death. Seeing Lily in that closet- Faith stopped and went to throw up in her small toilet.

"Can't you stomach anything mudblood?" a cold voice hissed from the cell across from Faith's.

"Why don't you shut your trap Malfoy before I do it for you," Faith snapped.

"I'd love to see you try," Lucius added smugly. Lucius had been in Azkaban for almost 5 months now, and it didn't seem to have affected him at all. It was hard for dementors to make the heartless remember painful memories. Faith ignored him and stood up on her cot. Just above her cot was a small window about as tall as her smallest finger and the length of her hand. She peered out it dreamily and took note of the moonless sky.

"New moon," she whispered to herself.

"What'd you say mudblood?"

"You know, Faith Black was the one that framed my father. He has never supported…you-know-who, Faith just wanted to put him in Azkaban because he knew about her alliance with the deatheaters," Draco Malfoy told reporters. The reporters nodded and their quick quills wrote furiously as they continued to throw out more and more questions.

"Ginny is back at school too," Ron added glumly as he, Harry and Hermione walked across the grounds to Herbology. They spied Draco feeding his propaganda to the reporters and simply glared at him.

"That's good," Hermione mumbeled at a loss of words for once. She walked unusally close to him so close in fact that their shoulders would collide together constantly; Harry took note of his friends new behavior. Suddenly the reporters crowding around Draco noticed Ron.

"Ron! Ron!" they began shouting and running over to join Ron as he walked to Herbology.

"Ron, what do you think of your two professors?"

"Ron! Ron! Is it true that Faith Black has been a close family friend of yours for some time?"

"Ron! Did you like Severus Snape? Was he a good teacher? Fair?"

"Ron! Ron! Daily Prophet! Who is this girl? Is it your girlfriend? What's her name?"

"Get away from him!" a stern voice, yelled. The reporters turned to see McGonagall storming towards them, waving her arms like a mad woman.

"Go on shoo. Leave the boy in peace," she snapped.

"I brought you this picture," Remus mumbled as he took the picture out of his pocket and went to hand it to Faith through the bars of her cell.

"Let me see that!" Fudge snapped and snatched the picture away. He looked at it, turned it over and then handed it back to Remus. Remus quietly handed the photograph to Faith. When she grabbed it he didn't let go. She looked at him curiously and he just gave her a stare. She blinked and he released the photo.

'This must be important,' Faith thought as she stared down at the photo. It didn't appear to be out of the ordinary. It was just a simple picture that she took 4 weeks ago of her and Sirius in a park. She looked back up at Remus and he nodded.

"I'll see you later," he stated and then got up to leave.

"What'd he give you mudblood?" Lucius hissed from across the hall, but Faith paid him no attention. She stared down at the photograph willing herself to figure out how it was supposed to help her escape.

"Are you sure that the picture will work?" Sarah asked nervously as soon as Remus returned home.

"We'll know by tonight," he added grimly as he took Catherine from her.

"And if it doesn't?" She ventured.

"Then we'll just have to run in there screaming for her to turn into a bird…"

Faith lay on her cot with an arm tucked under her head and the other holding the photograph out in front of her. A thin ray of moonlight from the new crescent moon shimmered onto her cell floor. She tried desperately to see what it was that Remus wanted her to see. Sighing defeatdly, she let her arm fall and the picture fall onto the floor into a patch of moonlight. She stared up at the ceiling and wondered how she was ever going to get out of Azkaban. 'I could fake dead…but surely the few dementors that are here would notice a dead or alive person,'

Her eyelids began to get heavy but she didn't want to go to sleep. She didn't want to dream anymore of that night. She willed herself to stay awake but slowly felt herself drifting into blackness.

Faith ran through a forest. She didn't know where she was going, all she knew was that a sliver of a moon hung in the sky and a light fog was clinging to the ground. A maniac laugh was driving her to run and run. Her heart beat and the pounding of her steps began to beat in rhythm until she stopped. Suddenly the woods ended and she was in front of James and Lily's house.

"What is their house doing in the middle of a forest?" Faith heaved as she leaned against a tree and stared up at the house. Through the small upstairs window she could see the light turn on. Suddenly an ear piercing scream broke the silence. Without even thinking, Faith ran towards the house and threw the door open. She thundered up the stairs and threw open the door to Harry's bedroom where the screams were coming from. There was a flash of green light and-

Faith sat up in bed, her breath coming in shallow and short. She ran a hand through her hair and breathed a sigh of relief when she realized it was a dream. She looked around the room and noticed the photograph sitting in the moonlight. There was something different about it. In the moonlight…it almost appeared….as if there was writing on it.

Cautiously, Faith bent down to take a closer look at the photograph. There were indeed words on it. Words the read 'Free as a bird'. Faith smiled to herself. Her first smile in 4, almost 5 nights.

"Bravo Remus," she whispered as she felt herself change.

There was a knock on the door that woke Sirius. He had managed to doze off while still at the kitchen table. Sirius yawned and looked at the clock that was in the next room. 3:47 a.m. in the morning. Who could be at the door this early in the morning?

Sirius yawned again and ran a hand through his hair as he stumbled over to the door. The knocking became more furious. Sirius gripped the handle and threw the large door open.

"Sirius," Faith muttered before collapsing.