Days passed before Sirius mentioned anything about the escape. I honestly had thought that he had forgotten the whole thing, or decided that it was actually a terrible idea and had given up on it without letting me know. Apparently, I was wrong. In the middle of the night, I was jolted awake by Sirius violently shaking me. "I've got it!" He whispered loudly, giving me a final shake before jumping off of my bed.

"What?" I was still half asleep, and in no mood to discuss anything that he 'got'.

"Our escape plan! C'mon," he grabbed me by my arm and yanked me off the bed, leading me to the toilet.

I stared down at it with bleary eyes, mind churning slowly. "Sirius, I don't have it-"

"No, the window!"

I looked up, above the grimy old toilet. The rusty iron bars that had once been covering the little window was gone, the night sky clear and unblocked. I was immediately interested. "How did you manage that?"

Sirius shrugged. I looked down, noticing then that his hands were scraped and bloody, and that he had left bloody handprints all over the front of my uniform. "The sea air had rusted them plenty… It didn't take too much to just break them apart."

"So what does that mean, then?" I reached up on my tip-toes, barely able to touch the bottom of the window.

"It means we escape," he replied simply, holding his hands at an awkward angle. A drop of blood splattered to the floor.

My heart started beating quickly, my head getting light. "Yes, but how?" I was rather curious, though very anxious, to hear what his plan was.

"You know that I'm an Animagus?" I nodded, vaguely remembering him mentioning it a long time ago, not long after we met. "Okay, well… I'm going to turn into a dog and run down the corridor- I tried it last night, I'm thin enough to slip through the bars-" I turned around, looking at the thin spaces between the bars at the front of our cell. It was disgusting to think that he was emaciated enough as a dog to make it through them. "-And then I'll distract the guards by transforming into a human. They should flock to me, giving you enough time to jump out of the window and start swimming to shore…" He stood up on the toilet and pointed to something I couldn't see. "I'll meet you there, by that lighthouse." I climbed up next to him and sure enough, there was a pinprick sized glow of a lighthouse shining through the fog and mist.

"Are you sure this will work?" I glanced over at him, worried. This plan sounded shoddy at best.

Sirius frowned. "No, but it's worth it, right?"

Would it really be worth dying? I thought again of the way my life would turn out given the scenarios. "I guess," I finally said, deciding that dying by jumping out of a window and drowning would be a lot better than rotting away while the dementors slowly sucked the life out of me. "But what if we drown? That's a really long way…" I looked over at him, chewing on my bottom lip nervously.

"It'll be okay, Nathascha… We'll leave later today, if you're ready," Sirius' voice was calm and soothing, and made me feel just a little bit more at ease with the idea of potentially dying. "It's a long swim, but I think you're determined enough to make it."

I nodded silently, and went to lie back down and sleep. I tossed and turned that night, too nervous to close my eyes. I hope and prayed to any and every deity that could possibly exist that we would survive and make it.

I eventually managed to pass out, and when I finally woke up, it was the middle of the day. Sirius was doing his daily exercises, my breakfast on a tray at the front of the cell.

"You may want to eat up, you'll need the strength," he gasped out as he did push ups.

I nodded groggily, leaning off the bed to grab my tray of cold eggs and soggy toast. I watched him as I chewed absently. He was just as thin as I was, but the little meat on his bones was pure muscle. The only strong about me was my legs, from hours after hours of pacing daily. Which one of us would swim better? I thought morbidly, setting my tray down and standing up.

Hours passed silently, and I paced nearly the entire time. Sirius paced with me, waiting for the perfect moment to leave. With every minute that passed my heart beat faster and faster until I was sure that it was going to burst. Finally, he nodded to me, his grey eyes wide as he transformed in a large black dog. I gasped; I had never seen him as his Animagus, and watching someone change from a human to a dog was quite jarring. Without a backwards glance, he squeezed his way through the prison bars and ran down the corridor.

I stepped up onto the toilet tank and shakily climbed out onto the window sill. I had to crouch to fit and my toes hung out over the edge. I gripped the sides of the window so hard that my knuckles were white. It was a long drop to the water, probably about two stories down… I would have to launch myself to avoid landing on the rocks, if I was lucky enough to not hit any of the random jagged rock that was sticking out of the water around the island. A wave of doubt passed over me, and I considered climbing back down into the cell and waiting for the Ministry to come and question me. Sirius would think I died during the journey. And, I could always bullshit some story about him wanting to head to America, and maybe they would take some time off of my sentence for being their 'informant'.

As soon as the though passed, the effect of the dementors lessened to an extreme degree. For the first time in two years, I felt hope. I could do this, I thought giddily as I realized that they had just swarmed Sirius. His distraction had worked, and this was my time! The plan was working! I took a deep breath, closed my eyes, and jumped. I flailed my arms wildly, trying not to scream as I hit the water like a dropped stone.

I tumbled around in the salt water, doing everything I could to get to the surface and breathe. I was getting ready to black out, my lungs screaming for air when I thankfully resurfaced, my breaths coming out quick and ragged, appreciating the cold salty air. I doggy paddled slowly, careful not to tire myself out- I had a very long way to go.

I alternated between kicking to propel myself and using my arms while I paced myself. It took what felt like hours, but I finally used every ounce of energy I had. It seemed as though I had gotten no closer to the light house, and I laid back in the water, just floating. If I was going to die, I might as well do it in the most peaceful way possible. I had given up, just allowing the waves to pull me ever so slowly towards the shore, too tired to move a single muscle in my body. I rested until it was just past sunrise, when a massive wave dragged me under and spat me out roughly onto the sand.

I spluttered, coughing up water and standing up unsteadily. I looked around, disoriented in the orange sunlight. The lighthouse! It was only a couple hundred yards away! I ran as quickly as I could, hoping that anyone just arriving on the beach wouldn't notice me, seeing as I had lost almost all my clothes a long time ago.

I dashed under a dock and tripped over a stray dog. I splayed out onto the ground, grimacing. My violent arrival on the beach had left me with several long and bleeding scrapes down the sides and front of my body, and the salt water dripping off me hadn't helped at all. The dog yelped, jumping up. It stared down at me with tired grey eyes, its shaggy black hair matted with sand. Sirius! I smiled weakly at him, pushing myself up. He trotted off, stopping to turn and look at me. Follow me, I could almost hear him say. I followed silently, arms crossed over my nearly bare chest as he led me into a public locker room.

Sirius transformed, looking as ragged as I felt. "I was starting to think you drowned."

"I almost did," I replied softly, my body feeling like lead. I wanted nothing more than to lay down on the cold tile floor and sleep.

"Don't feel too bad, I almost did too," his mouth twitched, trying to smile.

"What now?" I leaned against a sink.

Sirius rubbed the back of his neck, a suddenly uncomfortable expression on his face. "Well…"

My eyes narrowed. "Well, what?"

"I think we need to part ways for a little bit."

"What?!" I had not expect that, a new energy coursing through my worn veins. "I thought we escaped so you could save Harry?"

"Exactly, so I could save Harry, not you… You escaped so you could be free," he frowned, not looking at me.

"You didn't tell me this! What am I supposed to do?" I screamed, bursting into tears. I had depended on Sirius to have a plan for us, and now I was getting ready to be abandoned by him.

Sirius flinched. "It'll be okay. I'll come for you the second that I'm done doing what I need to do. Then we'll be free fugitives together… Okay? Deal?" He was talking in the same low, soothing voice that he had been using on my only yesterday, but this time it wasn't working.

"No, this is bullshit! You didn't tell me this, Sirius! This isn't fair- I escaped from Azkaban so I could stay with you!" I lunged forward, shoving him angrily.

He gritted his teeth. "Look, I can't take you with me to Hogwarts. Where are you going to hide?" He growled. "If you can just hide out in the Muggle world for a little while, we'll be okay. I'll do what I need to do and everything will be okay…" He stared deeply into my eyes, pleading.

I just glared at him. I had stopped crying, and I swallowed spit and snot before replying. "Fine," I said, knowing that nothing I could do or say would change his mind. He made his plan, and apparently my helping him in finding Pettigrew wasn't a part of it. I began to wonder why he had even wanted me to escape with him.

It looked like a weight had been lifted from his shoulders. "If you want to wait a couple minutes, I can try to steal you some clothes and money, or something…"

"Fine," I repeated. He turned into a dog and left me alone in the locker room. I looked around, my eyes settling on a mirror. For the first time in two years, I saw how I looked, and it wasn't pretty. My face was gaunt, my eyes sunken… My hair was a matted mess, and I was so think thin that I could see my ribs. My underwear, still soaking wet, was embarrassingly see through. I looked like Sirius did, really. I tried my best to comb my hair out and washed the sand off of my body in one of the showers.

By the time Sirius returned, I resembled a normal person. A normal person who never slept or ate, but close enough. I pulled on the clothes he had nabbed- a too big t-shirt with a picture of a frog on it and a pair of distressingly short shorts. "Thanks," I muttered, unable to look him in the eyes. He handed me a wallet, and I took it from him silently.

Sirius pulled me into one of the toilet stalls. "A lot more people are starting to arrive, so we should part ways soon."

"Oh." My eyes started to tear up again. I was really, really going to miss him. He had been the only company I had had for two whole years, and it was going to be tough to survive without his presence. I had really grown to depend on him- he had kept me sane.

He pulled me into a tight hug, whispering in my ear quickly. "I'll find you when I'm done. I promise. Okay?" I nodded my head and sniffled. Sirius pulled back from the hug after a second, holding my waist awkwardly. His grey eyes bored into mine as he brought his face slowly closer to mine until our lips touched softly.

I jumped back from him, my eyebrows furrowed. "What was that for?"

Sirius cleared his throat, looking slightly dazed. "Something to remember me by, I guess," he smiled softly. "I'll see you soon, Nathascha…" And with that he was a dog again, trotting out of the door just as a small family strode in.

I waved goodbye, even though he couldn't see me, and took my first steps into the unknown, my mind still on our last strange interaction.