Chapter 6 – Escaping

I stare at the picture for what must be the thousandth time...how can this be?! ... I see him and lose my calm, the controlled facade I have to maintain to survive. I crumple the paper and throw it in a corner, somewhere out of sight. I stare at its shadow... I hate it... I hate all this.

This is no time to be standing around in prison, doing practically nothing but climbing the walls in despair while my godson is in such peril. I must get to Harry... must protect him...

I get up from the stone near the window where I spend my days contemplating my lost freedom and start pacing around the tiny cell, trying to figure out what I must do.

My thoughts have become an obsession. I think, I dream, I plan... to get my revenge. I know nobody ever broke out of here and that nobody probably ever will, but it's a chance I've got to take. They think me nothing more than a traitor, a danger to everybody... well, it's about time they're taught to discern right from wrong. The real traitor sits beside Harry every day. He won't fool me this time.

I've managed to get some rest by transforming into Padfoot. The Dementors don't seem to care too much about the differences they sense in my mind... they probably think that I'm going insane like all the others. I've thus managed to devise a plan, an idea that's glued to my mind to the point where I dream of being free again. If I'm careful enough, I might be able to fool them by transforming, then pass through the bars of my cell and get out of the prison when they come to bring in the food or to check on the cells. But if I get caught... it might very well be the last thing that I do. But I must try... whatever it takes, I must get out. And the sooner, the better... I must do everything in my power to protect Harry from that rat, I must find him.

It's been months since Fudge was here, months since I first laid my eyes on that picture... and it's been haunting me ever since...

I glance at the spot where the crumpled piece of paper lies and frames from my life find their way into my mind again... the Marauders -the best friends Hogwarts has ever seen- studying to become Animagi... Peter's first complete transformation, hah, how proud we were of him... running on the Hogwarts grounds with Moony knowing that I can trust my friends to always be there... My heart aches as I remember and I can feel the Dementors outside my cell sensing my emotions and drawing closer to the bars to feast upon them. Soon other images invade my mind under their control... Voldemort and his Death Eaters... Peter... Lily and James laying dead in their home... Pain tears through my insides and I know my eyes would fill with tears, had I not shed all of them so long ago.

This is it, I'm not going to spend another minute in this wretched place. I approach the bars and look around... it's night time now, most of the others are sleeping. The Dementors are attending to their guarding duties as usual... two in front of my cell, two next to Bella's cell and one next to each of the other cells on this floor of the prison.

As I move I notice that the guards outside my door stir feeling me closer and I stop for a bit until they shrug it off and resume their haunting positions. I look back into my own cell and notice the paper again. I know I'll need it someday, maybe if I'll have to convince Harry of my innocence, so I go towards it, give it one last look and place it in a pocket...

This is the moment I've been waiting for. I feel my blood rushing towards my head, making my ears hiss under the sudden change in pressure. I might be weak from all I've been through, but if there ever was a time to give it my all... this is it.

With a feeling of anxiousness deeply embedded in my thoughts, I close my eyes and transform into the dog that helped me get out of trouble so many times before. Through the eyes of the dog I can see better in the darkness and with his 4 legs I can run faster, even though my paws hurt and my head's spinning from the lack of food.

I head for the barred door and slip through it easily, using my under-fed body to pass between two bars. I run towards the door, feeling the Dementors stir behind me. They seem not to comprehend what happened, but they still know something's wrong. They start checking the cells one after the other... shrieking and freezing everything around them as they go.

I reach the closed door and decide to hide in the shadows until the guards outside open them to see what's wrong. I've hardly settled in my hiding place before two guards come, leaving the door ajar behind them. I sneak past them and go through the door, feeling freedom all around me as I'm met by a warm summer rain.

I cross the muddy road leading to the prison entrance and head for the sea shore... my only true way out.

Soon I reach a familiar place... the same frame I've been admiring through my window for 12 years now... the place where all that stands between me and my life is a landscape of unmarked graves of people the world has long forgotten. I stop to catch my breath and look over to the mounds of dirt as they bathe in the silvery moonlight. I take one last glance at the rotten place I had to call home for the last 12 years and proceed toward the water, preparing to swim to the shore.