Disclaimer: Characters and places, with the exception of Wallace, Jimmy and Pondex, belong to the most brilliant J.K. Rowling. Like-wise, all unfamiliar ideas and what not belong to me, the rest for Rowling.
Now, to the story!
Sirius spent the rest of the day reflecting on his two memories. He drew the conclusion that the Lily and James in both memories had been the same people, and that Harry, his Godson, was their son. Seemingly their only son, as neither Dumbledore nor himself had mentioned any other children. As hard as he strained his memory, however, no explanation of what a Secret Keeper was came to him.
He realized, with little resolve, that if he wanted to know, he would probably have to ask one of the other prisoners.
He had begun to wonder if they were the only four in the place. Then, he realized this was highly unlikely. Especially since he often heard screaming that didn't come from Jimmy, Wallace or Pondex. This place, Azkaban (he had concluded), which was guarded by the Dementors (which he knew thanks to his memory of himself as a teenager), seemed to be full of other Wizards.
Sirius stood up and stretched. The heavy chains rattled around his ankles. He felt for the bandage on his head, and pulled it tighter, as it had come lose. Then, he realized there was nothing else he could do to waste time before asking the other prisoners what he wanted to know.
He thought about his three options, about who seemed to be the most likely to answer. Jimmy didn't really have much to say, so Sirius ruled him out, and Pondex wasn't exactly the brightest. Wallace, whom had so nicely explained to him why he was a desperate man, seemed like the best choice.
Sirius stood up and walked to the cell door. He was mildly surprised to see Pondex laying flat out sleeping. Since he couldn't see either Wallace or Jimmy, he simply spoke out. "Wallace, can I ask you something?"
He heard Wallace come to the door of his own cell. "I suppose so."
"Well, see, the thing is… Do you think Jimmy is asleep?" Sirius choked.
"I beg your pardon, mate?"
"I have something important to ask, but I don't want everyone to hear, is all." Sirius muttered, feeling rather stupid.
"Well, not like these two lowlifes would care, mate, but all the same… He's been quiet for awhile, I don't expect that he's awake." Wallace murmured, obviously wanting to go to sleep himself.
"Oh, good then. I just wanted to know… What's a Secret Keeper?" Sirius sputtered very quickly.
"You don't know?" Wallace asked, shocked.
"Hmm, well… I don't remember."
Wallace cleared his throat and sighed. "You don't remember?"
"Nope. See, I think I hit my head really rather hard last night." Sirius lied.
"Ah, well, I suppose I can explain it then, mate. A Secret Keeper is someone who keeps someone else's secret. But they're the only person who knows the secret, the only person who can tell other people. Most Secret Keepers are used to hide people. The people go into hiding, and using a spell, are hidden from the whole world, no matter where they are. Their Secret Keeper would be the only one who knew where they were, and would be the only one who would be able to find them. Why do you ask, mate?"
"Hmm, I don't really know. Can I ask you something else, if you don't mind?" He heard Wallace sit down, but noticed that he didn't hear any chains. "You're not chained?" He asked.
"No. Is that what you wanted to ask?"
"Oh, no! It's just, I didn't hear any chains rattling when you sat down. I had to ask because I'm chained."
"Like Pondex said, you're a high security prisoner. There'll be precautions used on you that aren't used on us, mate."
"Oh." Sirius said glumly. Whatever he had done, it must have been bad. "Anyway, I wanted to ask, you didn't really steal wands did you?"
"You're a very smart man, Mr. Black. It's true mate, I didn't steal the wands."
Sirius thought hard for a few minutes before speaking again. "Than why agree when Pondex said that you did?"
"Well, mate, that would be because Pondex has created his own little, sordid version of me and Jimmy, and he gets very upset if we say it's any different." Wallace explained.
"Why does he do that?" Sirius questioned.
"You don't know much about Azkaban, do you mate? About the Dementors, how the effect you."
"I forget?" Sirius made his answer come out as a question, hoping Wallace would remember his earlier lie about losing his memory when he hit his head.
Wallace sighed again. "It won't be long before Jimmy's like that I expect." He paused and drew in a breath, which made Sirius sure he was going to explain a lot to him. "You see, the Dementors, they do bad things to you. Simply by walking into a room they suck all the happiness out of you, mate. I expect you felt that earlier when that Dementor brought Dumbledore in."
"Like I'd never be happy again." Sirius muttered.
"Yes, exactly. Well, if that happens multiple times a day for many days, you start to crack, like Pondex has. Your mentality drops, and you stop caring. Well, Pondex, he still cares, but not about the right things. He cares that he's in here for the wrong reasons. See, he's in here for Muggle Baiting, and for stealing the wands. He thinks people care why he's here, so he says he killed someone, while he puts his real reasons to be why Jimmy and I are here. It makes him somewhat happy."
Sirius reflected on this, before he asked, "Then, how come you and Jimmy aren't already like that too?"
"Ah, excellent point, mate. It's all about timing. Pondex has been here a lot longer than Jimmy or me. While, Jimmy's been here longer than me. He's starting to show sings already, when he talks, he includes a lot of uhhh's, and he doesn't talk as much anymore." Wallace finished.
Again, Sirius asked a question. "You seem perfectly normal, how long have you been here?"
He heard Wallace sigh and say "A week."
Sirius thought it would be better not to ask how long he was in for.
"So, if Jimmy wasn't Muggle Baiting, what is he in for?"
"He, well, mate, he used an Unforgivable Curse. He won't say which one, but he swears up and down that it's not Avada Kedavra. But still no matter which he used, it's still enough to get him a life sentence here." Wallace said.
"Erm, Wallace?" Sirius asked, rather apprehensively.
"Yeah, mate? And you can call me Hoots, if you like."
"Oh, well, I think I'll stick with Wallace. I'd rather not call you something like that..." Sirius trailed off, before picking up where he had previously left off. "Why are you here?"
"Ah, you and me mate, we're birds of a feather."
Oh, interesting... Well, assuming you all know what "birds of a feather" means.
We'll just leave off with replies to my readers.
Icequeen99: My stalker! You've tracked me to here! Glad you're still reading. Even more glad that you're reading and rating both places. Thanks!
AMG: Of course I'll keep it going for Sirius to get his memory back. Interestingly enough, I was actually thinking about writing POA from his POV. Thanks for suggesting it, it gives me incentive to write that too!
Sword And Magic: Don't mind long stories? Excellent, because I think this one's going to go on for a while :)
mmelbear: Less than fifty? I can try! Oh, so far so great. Thanks!
Actually, I have another question! Who is the one character you would like to see Sirius have a memory of? (Yes, this is me taking ideas from my readers!)