Nearly a year passed since my escape, and I had integrated into the Muggle world quite well. It had taken a while to get used to a life without magic, but it got easier over time as I learned how the Muggles did things. I was still learning every day though. I started renting a room in the apartment Melanie, Lilliana, and the quiet girl (who I later found out was named Sylver) shared. Melanie and Lilliana were almost always out partying, and Sylver spent most of her time at her mother's, which meant I had a lot of time to myself.

I tagged along with Melanie and Lilliana to the first party they went to after I moved in with them, and I quickly discovered that drinking in groups was not my thing. I panicked the first time that a man came up to me, and I ended up walking home that night. I cursed Marcus every time they went out without me. I got used to it eventually, and took up drinking alone again. I loved Muggle alcohol; it came in an infinite number of variations and flavors. Their wine was as well made as ours, but they had flavored vodkas, so I couldn't complain.

I had asked the girls to help me, claiming that I had been kicked out of my parents' house and was now homeless, and they had been extremely helpful. They allowed me to stay with them rent free at first, and Melanie even helped me get a job at the same place she worked. I was a cashier in a clothing shop, which meant that I took people's money and cleaned up after them when they threw clothes all over the place. I despised it, seeing as I had once been promised a life of luxury and riches with a handsome Pureblood husband, but it paid my share of the bills so I never complained or quit. The manager had also been very understanding when I first started, helping me figure out the cash register when I had no idea that computers even existed. "Amish?" She said with a sympathetic smile on my first day of work, when she saw my look of confusion at the cash register.

I stared at her blankly until she answered her own question. "Fascinating," she mumbled to herself before jumping into showing me the basics.

All in all, I really enjoyed my life as a Muggle. They were a simple people, and they were also insanely oblivious. There were wanted posters and news stories everywhere about Sirius and me, but so long as I kept my hair short and dyed they didn't even take notice. Occasionally people would remark that I looked 'just like that fugitive on the TV', and I would just fake a laugh and tell them I heard that all the time.

And speaking of Sirius, I thought of him nearly every day. Every time I was watching the news and his picture would pop up, my heart would skip a beat. He hadn't to my knowledge, died or been caught, so I kept up my hopes that he would find me eventually. Maybe we could stay here as Muggles together… When we were first separated, I was almost having withdrawals from him, from his presence, but I got over it faster than I thought I could when Lilliana brought me to the liquor aisle of a grocery store for the first time.

After a particularly crazy day at work, I was relaxing in the bathtub with a large bottle of Jack Daniel's when I heard someone tapping on the front door. It was past eight at night and I wasn't expecting anyone, so I ignored it. I heard Sylver open the door, close it a couple seconds later, and then start running towards the bathroom. "Tori?" She called softly, knocking on the door.

"Come in," I shut the shower curtain so she couldn't see me.

The door opened and I saw Sylver's silhouette in the doorway. "Craziest thing ever! I heard something at the door but when I went to open it, the only thing there was an owl! Just hanging out on the porch!"

"That's cool," I replied, taking a sip of my whiskey.

"Oh, and there was a letter on the porch. It doesn't have a name on the front, but-"

I jumped out of the water fast than you could imagine and wrapped myself in a towel. "Did you just say that there was an owl on the porch with a letter?" I asked, yanking the curtain open and stumbling out of the tub.

Sylver furrowed her brows. "What? No, there was a letter on porch, and there was also an owl on the porch." She held out a ragged, dirty envelope with rather fancy handwriting on it. "Though wouldn't it be cool if owls could-"

I snatched the letter out of her hands. "Thanks, Sylver." I ran out of the bathroom without so much as draining the tub or grabbing my whiskey. I tore envelope into pieces opening it. It smelled horrible, like wet dog. I took a deep breath and unfolded with letting with shaking hands.

Nathascha-

I'm safe, and hope you are as well. Pettigrew escaped, but Harry is safe and that's all that matters. I almost got caught, but Harry and his friend helped me escape again. I miss you. Reply to me with where you are or where I can meet you and I'll be there in a heartbeat to get you. I await your response.

Sincerely- Sirius

I stood in the hall, mouth open as I read the letter. I thought of him every single day, and he had finally written to me! I felt a little peeved that it had taken nearly a year, but I knew that trying to contact each other would have been stupid and dangerous. But who cared- I was finally going to have him back in my life! I jumped up and down with joy, and ran to grab a pen to scrawl out a response on the back of an old bill.I wrote the name of a park I sometimes visited to enjoy the fresh air, and added I would wait there every night until I saw him. I rushed out the front door, where the owl was still sitting. He had a haughty, impatient look on his feather face. "I'm sorry," I whispered to him as I tied my note to him with a broken hair tie. He soared off into the dusky sky without a second glance.

I stood there for a couple minutes, watching the owl fly away until I could no longer see him. Sylver stepped outside, looking nervous. "So, who was that letter for?"

"Oh, it was for me. It was from… my ex-boyfriend," I lied, rubbing my eyes. I needed a drink.

"I didn't know you have a boyfriend," she said, looking surprised. "The owl's gone. That sucks."

"I scared it off," I ignored the first sentence, unsure of how to respond to that.

"Oh." Sylver stood next to me for a little while, staring at the night sky with me. "Want to watch a horror movie with me? Kevin said I see it, but I don't want to watch it alone."

"Sure," I said, wandering back inside, getting dressed into my pajamas before I settled on the couch with Sylver and my bottle. She spent a majority of the night texting her crush, some asshole named Kevin, and I watched the gruesome horror movie silently. I would miss her most of all- she was a quiet, pleasant companion. She reminded me a lot of Alice, really. If I ever got pardoned, I should try contacting her. She had been a good friend.

Finally, she headed off to bed, leaving me alone in the dark living room deep in thought. Sirius was coming to get me. Sirius was coming to get me! My heart fluttered. Sometimes part of me had felt like my life before the Muggles had been a dream, and Sirius had just been a particularly vivid part of it. I knew it was a lie though, when I had terrifying nightmares of Azkaban, of the dementors sucking the soul out of me until I was nothing more than a shell of myself. I would always look over, wanting him to comfort me, and find only a blank wall across from me. I took a large swig of whiskey and thought back to our last moments together- our kiss. My lips tingled when I recalled it. I had been so hurt and angry at him, and he had kissed me. I still couldn't figure out why. We had always been close, though platonic. Romance wasn't something you thought about when you felt like you were going mad in a prison cell.

I drank until I passed out on the couch, and woke up just in time to take an Aspirin and rush out the door to work extremely hungover. I floated through the day, doing the bare minimum and avoiding customers at all costs. I had much more important things to worry about than if that shirt came in their size.

I drove Lilliana's battered, spray painted purple car home. I had never got around to buying my own, but luckily Melanie and Lilliana went almost everywhere together anyway and were cool with me borrowing their cars. Sylver had been the one to teach me to drive, spending many patient weekends with me as I jolted us along back roads. I filled the tank up; with luck, I was leaving tonight and I didn't know if I would have a use for Muggle money. Maybe we'd go on the run, travel to another country to start a new life. He was, after all, wanted as a terrorist and mass murderer; he would get caught too easily. I, however, was wanted for 'aiding in his escape', and therefore not as looked for. I wasn't on the news nearly as often as he was. My parents had most likely negotiated that charge, wanting to keep their name as clean as possible. I wondered how many people even knew what I had gone to Azkaban for- or if they knew that I had gone to prison at all.

I hid from my roommates the rest of the day, and the second the streetlamps came on I rushed out the door. I left a check on the counter to Sylver for the money that remained in my bank account along with a note explaining that I had eloped with my ex-boyfriend and was safe. She worked night shifts at a diner, so I knew if Sirius wasn't there I could easily rush home and grab it before she saw it. Melanie and Lilliana wouldn't even notice it until it was too late.

I sat on a bench in the park, staring blankly at the bushes as they moved softly in the breeze. My ass grew numb and I shivered. It was a cold night for July. I should have packed… Sirius would have to do that before we leave. I had withdrawn most of my money earlier that day, and the stacks of twenty dollar bills were shoved in the tiny purse that my mother had given me a year ago.

He didn't show up that night, or the two nights after that. I started sleeping in the park. I called in sick to work, I didn't shower. I just hung out at the park, waiting. A police office had told me to go home the second night, so I crawled beneath a bush and waited until he left. I was starting to wonder if he was even going to show up. What if he got caught? I hadn't had the chance to read a newspaper or watch television the last couple days.

On the fourth night, he finally showed up. I was sitting on a swing set, staring up at the moon and absently listening to the creaking of the swing as I moved back and forth. A massive black dog walked up to me, staring at me with dark grey eyes. "Sirius?" I whispered to it, standing up and taking a cautious step towards it.

The dog nodded as best as a dog can, and turned to begin trotting away. I had done this before, I thought as I followed behind him closely, as though he was going to take off running and never turn back.

He took me into the woods surrounding the park, and just inside the tree line he transformed silently back into his human form. He looked like shit. He was positively filthy, covered in various bruises and cuts, and he was somehow skinnier than he was in Azkaban. We just stared at each other for a long time.

"Hey," I finally whispered. I was afraid if I spoke too loud I would wake up from a dream, still sleeping under a park bench waiting for him.

"Hey," he croaked, voice raspy. His face broke out into a small smile and I ran into him, hugging him tightly. My eyes watered from the horrid way he smelled, but it was well worth it. I had missed him so much that it hurt, and just being near him made me feel as though I was complete again. "You look well," Sirius whispered into my ear, holding me just as tightly as I was him.

I pulled out of his arms and laughed, happy tears in my eyes. "Yeah, I've been getting my three square meals…"

"Ready to go?"

I nodded. He pulled me into another long hug, his chin resting on the top of my head, before he led me on a long walk through the woods. "Where are we going?"

"Somewhere nice," was all he said.

"Okay… How will we be getting there?" I asked, unsure.

"Ever rode a hippogriff?" He was being annoyingly mysterious, though I was too relieved to have him back to care.

"What? No." I had to wrack my brain for what a hippogriff even was. It had been way too long since I had been a part of the magical world.

We entered a small clearing and Sirius stopped, looking around for a second. I stood nervously behind him. Hippogriffs… They had something to do with birds. Sirius whistled, loud and shrill in the silent woods.

There was a great rustling in the woods and I gripped Sirius' shoulder. The great best stepped out of the clearing; half horse, half eagle. "Bow to him. His name is Buckbeak- he's a fugitive like us."

I nodded and obeyed him, bowing to the creature, my eyes trained on the ground. A minute later he copied my motion, bending his long legs and extending his massive feather wings. "Hi," I whispered reverently to it, straightening up and reaching out my hand to pet him. I remembered when I was around five or six my father took me to a farm where they raised them. They had quickly become my favorite animals for a while after that. I touched his beak softly; it was sad that such an amazing memory had become lost in the slew of horror I had lived the last few years.

"We're going to ride him," Sirius said, patting Buckbeak on the neck.

I clenched my teeth. I had never been fond of flying. Almost all kinds of travel, other than Floo, had made me ill. "And how far will we be travelling?" I asked warily.

"He can make it," Sirius said as though that answered my question.

"I forgot to pack clothes…" I shook my head, chewing my dirty fingernails nervously.

Sirius looked me up and down. "What you're wearing should be more than enough." I looked down at my dirty hooded sweatshirt and jeans. Sirius was still wearing his prison uniform, and it was more ragged and filthy than before. He had been through hell and back the last year.

"Okay…"

He jerked his head towards Buckbeak. "C'mere, I'll help you up." I went over to him and he picked me up effortlessly and helped me get a good seat on the hippogriff's back. I had forgotten how strong Sirius was.

He climbed up and got situated onto Buckbeak in front of me. "Hold onto me tightly," he ordered. I wrapped my arms around his stomach, probably squeezing the breath out of him. He dug his feet into Buckbeak's side, and we rocketed into the air. I screamed, grasping him tighter, and Sirius just laughed. I had never heard him truly laugh before. It sounded so happy and genuine, even through the roar of the wind.

I rested my head against his back and smiled. I didn't know where we were going, but I knew that we were finally home.