Elena had slept fitfully, but a massive crash woke her up as the Dementors swept around delivering food. Swearing under her breath, she held her middle finger to the window, and could hear Sirius laughing as he put down his waste bucket from where he'd hurled it at the wall.
"You ready, dwarf?"
"As ready as I'll ever be, mutt."
Elena's door opened just a crack as a tiny morsel of bread and a cup of scummy water were pushed through, and then was slammed shut again. She forced down the wooden bread, downed the bitty water and kicked the remains away as Sirius in dog form crouched outside her door.

She approached the bars and turned sideways, curving in on herself to try and fit through the bars, and although it hurt and squeezed her painfully, with Sirius' jaws clamped around the hem of her dress and tugging on it with all his might, she finally squirmed her way through and out onto the miniscule ledge outside, where the wind buffeted her and nearly made her lose her balance.

Ever since her youth Elena Munroe had had a rather rational fear of heights, since she had fallen off a cliff in Dover at the age of ten. Her own wandless magic had saved her, but the steep drop that fell straight to the sea less than a metre to her left was frightening reminiscent of that terrifying afternoon and froze her in her tracks.
Sirius barked, which Elena roughly translated to meaning "Get it together, dwarf."
"Okay, okay, hang on…"
Screwing up her eyes, Elena pictured herself as the kitten in her mind, and pushed. There was a second, and then the wind was beautiful against her whiskers, and she could taste everything, from the dog beside her to the sweat of the prisoner in the cell on the other side of her. Her eyesight was wonderful and sharp and she felt perfectly balanced, tail jauntily high and still.
The best thing was that Dementors couldn't affect her like this, and all she felt was sweet relief and the hope that this plan could actually work.
Elena followed Sirius down the rocky cliff, both of them jumping down onto impossibly small ledges and notches in the stone, and they came to a stop above the waves, which ravaged the base of the drop like monsters trying to claw their way up to consume them. Elena hesitated, but Sirius took one step forward, gave one victorious bark and jumped into the water.
There was minute of heart-wrenching still in the sea below, and then the dog surfaced, climbing back up onto the rocks and shaking, and Sirius transformed, calling quietly up to her.
"Come on, then!"
Cats can't exactly panic, but if they could, Elena would be. This journey was bringing to light her two biggest fears, both onset by the accident in Dover years ago: heights, and deep water.
"Munroe? Come on!"
He frowned at her, looking impatient, and Elena mentally shook herself, then jumped off the ledge and plummeted into the depths of the water.
The cold of the water shook her to the bone, and in her shock and fear she transformed, hair flying up and covering her eyes, just adding to the darkness under the racing water. It was almost peaceful, under the water, with the screams and yowls from the animals in the cells muted by the pressure on her ears. Then the current caught her: she wasn't fast enough to stand up and so it swept her towards the shore.
Elena couldn't even scream, although the wind did, as she was rushed up and hit the rocks. Pain shot through her spine as it slammed into the rocks, and Elena felt it rip through her skin, her own warm blood mingling with the freezing sea.

Strong hands wrenched her upwards, up onto the ledge, and shoved her onto it, which hurt, but not as much as his probing hands as they tore the top of her dress and swore at the gash there.
"It looks alright. Can you swim?"
"S-Swim?" Elena's teeth were chattering, and she clenched them so that they were still, ignoring the ache deep in her jaw.
"Yeah, can you swim?"
"Umm…sort of…"
"I'll take that as a no." He sighed, frustrated, and Elena shivered in the rain, sopping wet, hair dripping.
"You should go."
"What?"
"Go, now. They'll raise an alarm soon enough, and I'll distract them. You have to go save your godson. I don't have anyone to go to. You should go, Sirius."
He looked torn as he stared down at her. He almost looked angry.
"We're in Azkaban. There's no time to be fricking noble. Just transform and get on my back Munroe. Come on."
"Look-"
Sirius transformed and barked at her, so she transformed too, reluctantly, and jumped up onto his massive hairy back, trying her best not to scratch him as she dug her paws into his fur. Thankfully the months in Azkaban had stripped all of the meat from her and left her skin and bone, painfully skinny, skeletal, so she was barely a burden as Sirius plunged into the icy waters and started a slow but steady dog crawl off towards the horizon.

It was impossible to count the length of time they were at sea for, only that the storms began to lessen as they got further away and Sirius started to sink under, clawing at the water like it was pulling them under. When the shore came into sight Elena forgot that she couldn't swim and slipped off Sirius' back because Merlin we're going to be free.
The usual panic set in but it was easier to swim as a cat; she was lighter and more buoyant, cradled by the salt in the water, hissing at the temperature and paddling along besides Sirius.
They both collapsed on the shore, but Sirius bounded up and ran up and down the beach, barking victoriously, splashing about in the waves. Elena transformed and lay back on the wet sand, laughing a little hysterically.
"We did it!"
Sirius flopped back on the grey sand next to her, grinning, but they were both hard-core shivering, teeth chattering. Elena knew they were in danger of hypothermia if they didn't dry off and get somewhere warmer quickly.
"We need to find out where we are, see if we can find the nearest town and steal some essentials."
Sirius' face hardened. "We need to get to London."
"Yes, I know, but we'll die of hypothermia in a week if we don't get some dry clothes, shelter and some form of warmth pretty soon."
"Fine then." He stood up, and so did she, pulling her dripping hair back off of her face. "Let's go."
They staggered off, away from the water's edge, and their grey silhouettes made them look like ghosts in the fading light.

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