AN: Long space between updates...
"PETTIGREW!" howled Sirius. A small man darted through the crowd on a city sidewalk, his body trembling with fear. He stumbled desperately through the mass of humanity in front of him, all of whom were quite unaware that Lily and James Potter were dead, and they had taken the most evil wizard in existence with them on their way out.
"Where are you going, Wormtail?" screamed Sirius. His voice was hoarse, and his eyes were blazing with fury and bulging out of his skull. For once, Harry could almost see the resemblance between Sirius and the mad, bitter old crone hanging on the wall at Grimmuald Place. A strangled scream tried to escape from Pettigrew's throat; he looked backward in horror and tripped, sprawling headfirst onto the middle of the street. Sirius stepped out in front of him. He couldn't have been more than 20 yards away, and he was still screaming like a mad man.
"Blood, Wormtail," said Sirius in a quieter voice. "It's on your hands, and you will pay a very high price for it." Pettigrew scooted backwards on the ground, still terrified. He was fumbling for something in his pocket. Many people on the sidewalk had turned their attention towards the two lunatics in the middle of the street.
"There's nowhere on this Earth you can hide from me!" hollered Sirius. Pettigrew began muttering something under his breath. Sirius threw him a sharp glance.
"You—you—you killed them!" said Pettigrew his feeble voice growing stronger. Soon, he was screaming and sobbing. He slowly raised his wand behind his back. "Lily and James, Sirius!! Our friends!!" Harry noticed Pettigrew refused to look at Sirius. He stared at the ground.
"WHAT?" roared Sirius. "I'm going to send you screaming to Hell, you traitorous little b—"
"HOW COULD YOU?!" shrieked Pettigrew. He was standing on a sewer grate. This was it. Harry was going to see it all. The explosion— cutting off his finger—the little rat scampering into the sewers—
BOOM!
Harry threw his hand up instinctively. He was wrong. He couldn't see anything at all—except the fiery inferno that had consumed the street. People were screaming, crying out in pain, confusion—death—
When the smoke cleared, thirteen Muggles lay dead in the street. Harry squinted through the smoke until he found his godfather. Sirius was standing at the end of a jagged, gaping tear in the middle of the road. He stared down into the hole, not really looking at anything, and he began to laugh. It wasn't the laughter Harry remembered. It was cold, merciless, and empty. So that was it. He had nothing left. He laughed.
Ministry wizards quickly descended upon the scene, horrified looks upon their faces. At least a dozen of them fell upon Sirius and roughly dragged him away. Sirius didn't struggle with them. A couple of the wizards moved to disarm Sirius, but his wand fell limply to the ground before they could touch him. He was still laughing. It was a horrible sound that twisted Harry's stomach into knots.
The laughter of a man who had lost all hope.
&&&
Harry was in a dank, poorly lit hallway. Rows of dull metallic gates seemed to stretch infinitely in either direction. Lupin, who was standing next to him, muttered something hatefully under his breath. It was a location, but Harry already knew where they were.
"Azkaban..."
There was a clanking, clamoring sound. A door at the end of the hallway swung open and a small crowd began moving slowly down the hallway. There was a rustling sound in the cage next to Harry. As he looked closer, he saw a pair of pale eyes glinting in the darkness in the corner of the cell. Sirius suddenly stood up and rushed forward, pressing himself against the bars of his cage. He didn't look much different than he had in the last memory; he couldn't have been there for more than a few days.
"Bartiemus Crouch, I presume," said Sirius, carefully. His voice was still hoarse, but from screaming or lack of use—Harry wasn't sure. Mr. Crouch's lip curled in disgust. He stood in front of Sirius's cell door, flanked by two dementors.
"Sirius Black," replied Mr. Crouch coolly, pulling an official-looking piece of parchment out of his pocket. "By order of the Ministry of Magic, your temporary detention pending trial has been extended indefinitely."
"What the bloody hell does that mean?" growled Sirius.
"It means you don't deserve a trial. You don't deserve to live. I'm locking you up and throwing away the key, you murdering piece of filth," hissed Crouch.
"You—you can't—do that—" said Sirius his grip tightening on the bars of the cell.
"You're all the same," growled Crouch. "Death Eaters." He pulled his cloak around tightly across his shoulders and started down the hall.
"You've got the wrong man!" cried Sirius, his voice rising in desperation. He began furiously shaking the bars. "I need to talk to Dumbledore!"
"Dumbledore has already spoken on your behalf," called Crouch as he pushed open the door at the end of the hall. "I believe I speak for all decent wizards when I tell you I hope you rot in hell. Good day, Mr. Black."
Sirius slid down to his knees. He leaned against the bars, his face almost vacant with shock. The door slammed shut behind Crouch, leaving behind only an echoing sound that reverberated in the emptiness of the shadowy corridor.
&&&
Much to Harry's distaste, he found himself once again within Azkaban. He and Lupin were still outside Sirius's cell. Sirius was backed up into the corner farthest from the cage door, leaning his head against the wall. He looked like he hadn't shaven in a while and his clothes were dirty.
Harry passed silently through the cell bars and sat down next to Sirius. He wasn't moving at all, and there was a dark, closed expression on his face. In fact, he looked almost as if he was dead, except for his shallow breathing. Harry remembered that look, he had seen it in passing a few times in Sirius's face.
"Bloody hell, he looks...dead," observed Harry, searching Sirius's face for some sign of life. He had been alive when he came out, hadn't he?
"This place can do that to a man," replied Lupin sadly. He crouched down and leveled his gaze with his lost friend, an infinite sadness on his face.
"He was in here for so long," muttered Harry. "And then he left. He escaped! Why didn't escape earlier? Why didn't he tell people the truth? What's wrong with him?" he finished miserably.
Lupin shrugged. "Who would have believed him? The evidence was gone. His friends were dead. He had nothing to fight for, except you."
"He came back for Pettigrew," said Harry softly. "He came back for vengeance; to settle old scores. He came back for my father, not for me." It was true, wasn't it? After all, he didn't care that much why Sirius had come back, it just felt so right to have him there. And now...
Lupin looked at him sympathetically. "He came back to for you, Harry. To save your life."
"After 12 years? What about you? Didn't you deserve to know the truth?" demanded Harry.
A pained expression crossed Lupin's face. "I...we didn't...I mean, before that day...he and James thought...that I..." he sighed heavily.
"It doesn't matter why he came back," said Harry firmly. Lupin stared at him. "Honestly, it doesn't. I don't care if he thought I was my father, or treated me that way, it felt so wonderful just to have known him at all."
Harry's thoughts were abruptly interrupted as the door at the end of the corridor swung open, crashing loudly into the opposite wall as it went. A cluster of dementors was dragging a few ashen-faced youths down the wide stone hallway. The noise seemed to stir a sense of awareness in Sirius, his head snapped up towards the cell door.
An attractive young girl with long black hair was wailing at the top of her lungs, adding to the din. With some astonishment, Harry recognized her as the aged, evil-looking woman who would emerge from Azkaban 15 years later.
"THE DARK LORD WILL RISE AGAIN! I WILL WAIT! WE WILL ALL WAIT! THE DARK LORD! HE—"
Bellatrix stopped shrieking and stared into the cell on her left. She locked her gaze with Sirius's and smirked.
"Dear cousin," she crooned. "How nice to see you again." The dementors had stopped moving down the hall, and they all turned their sightless gaze towards Sirius. They crowded slightly closer to the cell, perhaps hoping to feed off of the sudden increase in Sirius's emotional distress. Sirius opened his mouth to speak. It took a few moments before any sound came out, as if he hadn't uttered a single word for a long time.
"I have no family left, least of all you," he spat, glaring at her from underneath a mop of filthy, black hair. Bellatrix simply smiled.
"What a pity, I heard you were serving our glorious master, the Dark Lord." Sirius simply glared at her, gritting his teeth. She leaned closer to the cell and whispered.
"He begged on his knees when the Dark Lord killed him. His whore and his baby filth were weeping for mercy...just like I'm going to kill you someday."
"You're lying!" shrieked Sirius. He jumped forward and rammed his arms through the bars, trying desperately to reach Bellatrix, to hurt her in any way possible. Bellatrix didn't even flinch.
"I look forward to spending some quality time together," she giggled, an insane glint in her eyes. The dementors dragged her slowly down the hall.