Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter

We ran for a bit, not too far. We could still hear the Aurors in the maximum security wing.

"They're not here! Where are the dementors? Somebody must have gotten rid of them! Ask the prisoners!"

"But sir-"

"Do it!"

Next, we heard shouting.

"Froider! Froider, have you seen anyone here?"

They got no answer from whoever Froider was.

"Froider!"

Suddenly we heard a loud crash.

"LET ME OUT OF HERE! I'M ROTTING AWAY IN THIS GOD FORSAKEN PLACE! I DON'T DESERVE IT! NOBODY DESERVES IT! LET ME OUT! YOU MONSTERS! LET ME OUT!"

"Come on," I said to Lily.

"Wait," she said.

"All right, Black, I'm going to ask you something. Answer me truthfully," said an auror.

Sirius grunted.

"Have you seen any people run by in here?"

"No," said Sirius.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

"There's no chance you're lying to me?"

"I DIDN'T SEE ANYONE!" shouted Sirius. "EXCEPT YOU – YOU HORRIBLE PEOPLE, RUNNING BY, SEARCHING FOR PROBABLY INNOCENT VICTIMS!"

"Er, victims, Black?"

"YES, VICTIMS! HALF THE PEOPLE IN THIS PRISON – THIS WING AT LEAST – AREN'T GUILTY! THEY WERE CONVICTED JUST BECAUSE ALL THE EVIDENCE POINTED TOWARDS THEM, NOT BECAUSE THEY REALLY WERE GUILTY AND FOUND GUILTY IN A TRIAL!"

"Calm down, Black. I can assure you, all of the people in this prison – in this wing especially – are guilty. You, as well," said the auror icily.

"I can't believe I ever wanted to work with you!" said Sirius, in a slightly quieter tone. "You all betrayed me! Sent me here to die! I can't believe any of you can show your faces here anymore! Half of these people had called you their friends and depended on you to help uncover the truth! But all you did was lock us up forever and just sit back on your chair eating your TV dinners, later that night! You don't care do you? You honestly don't care that people who used to be your friends are now rotting away in cells no bigger than your closet!"

"QUIET, BLACK!" roared the auror.

"No! I will not be quiet! You killed us! You basically killed every single person that you stuffed in this hell hole! How does that feel?"

"YOU WANTED TO DO THIS SAME JOB!"

"YEAH, BUT I WOULD HAVE GIVEN THE PRISONERS FAIR TRIALS AND MADE SURE EVERY SINGLE PERSON I PUT IN HERE WAS GUILTY!"

"I DID DO THAT! IT'S YOUR FAULT YOU LOST THIS JOB AND GOT STUFFED IN HERE YOURSELF WHEN YOU SLIPPED UP AND SOLD THE POTTERS TO THE DARK LORD!"

I was vaguely aware of Lily grabbing me to keep me from running back there. Sirius completely lost it as well. We heard a choking sound and couldn't stop ourselves. We ran over to see what was going on. Sirius had his arm through the bars and his hand closed around the auror's neck.

"Black! Let him down!" shouted another auror as he flew over, wand at the ready.

Sirius didn't listen. The auror swished his wand.

"Stupefy!" he shouted. Sirius fell to the ground, unconscious. The auror he had been holding fell also, rubbing his neck.

"Thanks," he choked out. "I don't know what he does in here – he's got iron hard muscles."

"Come on," Lily muttered to me. I wouldn't move. I wanted to wait until all of the aurors were gone and save Sirius.

"I can't," I whispered.

"James, we have to go. Do you want to end up in Azkaban?"

"No," I mumbled.

"Then let's go."

"We'll find a way to help Sirius. I know we will," I said as we crept out.

Lily remained quiet.

"I need to talk to you about that," she said finally. "But let's get out of here first."

I didn't question her, but I had a bad feeling about this. I hoped she didn't still think Sirius was guilty, after all he'd told us.

We cast a spell that made us blend into our surroundings so people could only see us if they knew where to look and concentrated hard enough.

We made our way outside easily enough. The only problem then, it seemed, was getting off the island. That was solved, however, when we saw the abandoned boats of the aurors. They had sent almost everyone inside – only two people were guarding outside.

We stunned them from behind and got into the boats. As soon as we were a safe distance from the shore, I turned to Lily.

"What did you need to talk about?" I asked.

"James, I'm not sure if we want to help Sirius out."

"WHAT?"

"Well, I mean, he seemed a little – please don't get mad when I say this but, - crazy."

I stared at her.

"Crazy. You mean like mentally insane as a condition, not like his usual self?"

"Yes."

"But the story! It all made sense!"

"I know, I believe the story. But when he burst out at that auror…."

"Lily! He's been in Azkaban for six years! Of course he'd have a lot of pent up anger at the people who put him in there!"

"Well, I don't know, I-"

"Lily, I can't believe you!"

"James, as you pointed out, he has been in Azkaban for six years! No one lasts a week in there in a cell, especially maximum security, without going insane!"

"Well, Sirius has!"

"Yeah, because he's just so smart and talented!" said Lily sarcastically.

"Lily, there's a first for everything!"

"I don't think Sirius would be the first to stay sane in Azkaban!"

"What's that supposed to mean?" I shouted.

"You know what it means!"

"How dare you? How dare you insult my best friend like this?"

"I just don't think it's such a great idea, meeting him in a deserted area," said Lily quietly.

"Well I do! Besides where else would we meet him?"

"Hopefully nowhere," she mumbled.

"You know what? That's enough! I'm going to meet him! You don't have to, I don't care! Once we reach shore, we can go our separate ways and you'll just try and sort out your life by yourself."

"Fine!"

"Fine!"

We continued rowing in silence. I was fuming. How dare she insult Sirius like this? How could we not save him?

We soon reached shore. I leapt out of the boat, not bothering to help Lily. She got out on her own, not waiting for me to bother.

As I turned to leave I felt a hand on my shoulder.

"James, wait," said Lily. I looked at her.

"What?"

"I'm sorry. I was wrong, you were right. We should save Sirius, or at least meet him at the cottage. We need to stay together right now. Can you forgive me?"

I pretended to think about it. Of course I would forgive her. She was – is – the love of my life.

"Nice apology," I said, smirking. She knew I'd forgiven her and smiled.

"I don't like admitting I'm wrong," she said sheepishly.

"That's ok," I said and pulled her close to me. We shared a couple of kisses before remembering our situation.

"We have to go," we said at the same time. I smiled and took her hand.

"Come on," I said and we disappeared.

The next day, we found a newspaper flying around in the breeze. We got a shock when we looked at the front page.

SIRIUS BLACK HAS ESCAPED FROM AZKABAN!

That's what the headlines said. The articles went on to explain that no one knew how he did it, but not to worry, they'd find him. It was only a matter of time.

According to the newspaper, Sirius had been the most guarded prisoner there.

Black was arrested six years ago, for killing thirteen people – twelve Muggles and a wizard – with one curse.

"Peter must have been pretty pleased with himself," I said bitterly.

"Why?"

"He killed twelve people with a single curse. Something they don't teach you at Hogwarts."

"Oh."

The article went on to write more things about Sirius' case. It ended with:

Black is extremely dangerous. If you see him on the streets, lock all doors and windows and contact the Ministry immediately.

"That's rich," I laughed half-heartedly.

"We should start off to Hogsmeade since we can't Apparate."

"Yeah. They're always monitoring who Apparates at places like Hogsmeade – especially the abandoned parts. Whoever goes there is up to no good. Wanna ride?" I asked.

"No, we can walk. I don't want to tire you out too much," said Lily.

"We'd cover more ground if I was a stag," I said.

"Yeah, but you'd get tired. Besides, we have a week."

"Yeah I guess. Hey…you know what we should do?"

"What?" asked Lily.

"Make you an Animagus!"

"Um, James?"

"Yeah?"

"We're ON THE RUN."

"Well, all we have to do is go to our old house…and sneak into the basement. I had a secret room there with all the stuff."

"Which you never told me about because…"

I shrugged.

"I forgot."

Lily rolled her eyes.

"So do you want to try?" I asked hopefully.

"Fine. But you're in charge of getting us there."

"Great!" I said and grabbed her hand.

"Maybe I shouldn't have said that…" muttered Lily behind me.

I grinned.

Hours later, we were at our old house. My eyes grew moist as I remembered the last time we were there.

"James," Lily whispered.

"What?" I asked gently. "What's the matter?"

"I'm scared. I don't want to go."

"I know, but we have to, Lily. We have to be strong."

Lily nodded.

"I'll try. But there must be people living there."

"We'll make it. I'm a Marauder!"

She smiled.

"Ok. Let's do this."

We crept up to the house. I tried the door knob. It was open.

"Crap," I said.

"What?"

"It means they're home. But we can still do this," I said.

We made our way through the house, marveling at how it had changed. I could barely remember anything.

I pushed open a white door. Lily followed me inside and gasped. I bit my lip. We were in the kitchen.

Lily's POV

The kitchen. This was where I had last seen James before – before I died. But it was strange – there was nothing there. Suddenly I realized. This was one of the rooms that looked like our old house. The rest of the house had been renovated…but I guess the kitchen and another room survived the attack.

"Come on," whispered James.

We walked through the house until we found the basement door. We opened it and walked inside.

The basement was warm and inviting. There was a green carpet. There were lots of things there too. There was a pool table, a foosball table, a ping pong table, and a huge TV. Not to mention the exercise machines. On one of which was a lady.

As soon as she saw us she screamed.

"Who are you?" she shouted, getting off the treadmill. James and I didn't answer; we got out of there as fast as we could. We ran up the stairs and then up the ones on the main floor as well.

Now we were on the second floor. We could hear the woman on the first floor, talking on the phone.

I picked up the phone that was on the wall next to me.

"Police! There's someone in my house! Two people, a woman and a man," said the woman.

"We'll be there as fast as we can. Try and stay away from them," said a man at the police station and hung up. The woman put down the phone. We heard her open and close a door. She was outside now.

"Let's go to the basement. Before the police come," said James.

"Wait," I said looking at a door. I was drawn to it. There was something in there and I could tell this was the second room.

"What are you doing?" hissed James.

I ignored him and opened the door. There was nothing there. At all. The room was completely empty. Just like the kitchen. There was a layer of dust over everything too. I walked over to a closet on the other side of the room and opened it. Inside there was a crib. It was charred and dusty, but still a crib. And it seemed familiar.

"Lily! We have to go!" shouted James.

"Ok!" I said. I shrank the crib and stuffed it into my pocket.

We ran down to the basement, just as the sirens started wailing. James felt along the wall.

"Aha!" he said as he felt a certain spot. He began tearing off the wall paper. In a matter of seconds, it was all off, revealing a metal door.

"Wow," I gasped. James waved his wand and the door opened.

I walked inside. There were potion bottles and cauldrons all along the sides of the room.

"Let's check the basement!" shouted someone upstairs.

James hurriedly started closing the door. He muttered a spell and the door glowed for a moment before returning to normal.

"They won't be able to hear anything in here now, but we'll still be able to hear what's going on out there," he said. "And you can only open it with magic."

I nodded and we listened.

"There's no one here. But they tore down the wall paper in this area and there's a door," said a policeman, apparently showing the woman.

"Have you opened it?" she asked.

"No, we haven't tried yet. Do we have your permission to do anything to open it?"

"No, don't break anything like the walls. They wouldn't be in there. How could two people open it if a whole police team can't?"

"All right."

We heard sounds that suggested they were trying to open the door but failing miserably.

"I'm sorry, it's welded shut."

"Well, I highly doubt they would have had time to wield it shut, so they can't be in there," said the woman.

"The only other rooms there was any disturbance are the fourth room to the right on the top floor and the room right next to the stairs," said the policeman. "There were footprints in the dust and the doors were open, even though you told us those doors are always shut and no one ever goes in there. Is there anything you think they might have wanted in there?"

"No! There's nothing in either of those room. Nothing at all."

"Why not?" asked the policeman. James and I leaned closer. We wanted to know as well.

"Well, none of my family has ever gone in there, but when we moved in the rooms got cleared out."

"Why?"

"None of us want to go in there so we asked the builders to clear the rooms out and build a new kitchen."

"Why?" said the policeman, sounding irritated.

"One person was killed in the kitchen. And two people were killed in that other room. It was a nursery," said the woman quietly.

"Is – is this the Potter house?" said the policeman suddenly.

"Yes."

"Wow," breathed the policeman.

"Wait, you would know all about it right?" said the woman, sounding excited.

"Yeah," said the policeman. "That's my job."

"Could you tell me about it? All I heard was that there were three mysterious deaths."

"Four."

"What?"

"There were four deaths."

"What do you mean? I heard there were only three bodies in the house."

"There was also a baby. He was never found."

I'm so so so so so so so sorry for how long it's taken me to update! At first I was too lazy to update and wanted to update a lot at the same time (for a lot of different stories) and was planning to start but then my computer got completely swarmed with viruses! My dad's finally fixed it but still I've been totally swamped with tests in school and projects and homework and sports and everything. But just so everyone knows, I haven't abandoned any of my stories! I promise! Now that school's started, it's just going to take me longer to update. Although, if I had someone to change The Marauders and Lily read Harry Potter book 3 into story format for me, it would go quicker…if you're interested, let me know.

phoenixtear19: Harry's seven in this story