Disclaimer : I do not own Harry Potter or anything to do with the books. I am only borrowing the characters, places, spells, and some plot devices for my own entertainment purposes. They will be returned, cleaned and polished, to their original owner, JK Rowling, as soon as I am finished with them.

The Brotherhood

A/N - This chapter was last modified on 30 September, 2011.

Chapter Two - Ritual

It was the daily ritual of the two inmates to sit at the edge of their cells, as close as they could come to each other, and to tell the stories of their past. In the two months that had passed, Harry had told Sirius most of his life story, even confiding his deepest secrets that he hadn't even told Hermione and Ron. Sirius, likewise, had told Harry everything he could about his own past, plus many things about James and Lily Potter. He had been shocked, at first, to realise that Harry knew practically nothing about his parents, but he took it all in stride. He had the freedom to paint a picture of Harry's parents however he wanted, without any preconceptions holding Harry's opinions already.

This ritual kept both of them sane; Harry especially, as he didn't have an animagus form to escape to when times got bad. As it was, Sirius used Padfoot less and less as time went by. Before Harry had come, Sirius had been ready to give up and let himself go. With Harry there, he had something to live for.

Today, both men were especially cheerful. The sun was shining through Sirius' window, lighting the area up bright sunlight and casting away the chill of the Dementors.

"Why did you become animagi?" Harry asked.

Sirius looked up. "I haven't told you about Remus yet?"

"You have. He was a werewolf. I know that. But why did you become animagi? What difference would that make to anything?"

Sirius looked pensive. "We were the Marauders. We weren't going to let a little thing as Remus being a werewolf stand in the way of our friendship. We stuck together, no matter what. James, Peter, and I were determined to spend the full moon with Remus. We discovered that animagi aren't affected by werewolf bites and decided to try it. It took us three years,"

Harry sighed. "I had a friendship like that once. I would've done anything for Ron and Hermione,"

Sirius tilted his head, "When we break out of this place, will you seek out Hermione?" he asked.

"Will you seek out Remus?" Harry returned.

Sirius shook his head. "He's too analytical. He wouldn't believe I was innocent, especially with all the evidence against me,"

"Hermione's the same way," Harry said softly.

There was a companionable silence between the pair of them as they both thought about their past friends.

"If there were anyone I would seek out, it would be Ginny Weasley," Harry added pensively.

"Isn't that Ron's sister?"

Harry nodded. "She was there, when he died. She knows it wasn't me that did it. Unfortunately, about the time I was arrested, she was in St. Mungo's, in a coma. They attacked her as well,"

Sirius looked thoughtful at that. "What does the rest of her family think?"

Harry looked pained. "They think I am guilty, same as anyone else,"

Sirius nodded sympathetically, but then he turned mischievous. "This Ginny girl, she has red hair, yes?"

"She's a Weasley, isn't she?" Harry replied, looking over at Sirius.

"What were you doing in Hogsmeade with her?" Sirius asked.

"I was with Hermione and Ron too,"

"But she's your friend's little sister. Typically, you don't spend time with them," Sirius pointed out.

Harry shrugged. "She spent a lot of time with Hermione,"

"Is she pretty?"

"Yes," Harry admitted, "But that doesn't mean anything."

Sirius grinned broadly. "Lily was a red head, as was James' mother, and grandmother. I think this is destined to be,"

Harry rolled his eyes. "Just because they all happen to be red heads doesn't mean anything,"

Sirius looked thoughtful. "You know, I'm pretty sure James told me that there was actually some legend that there was some curse on the Potter men so they always have to marry girls with red hair,"

"Really?" Harry asked dubiously.

Sirius nodded. "I don't remember how it goes though. Pity," he murmured.

"I don't believe a word of it," Harry said, leaning back.

Sirius studied Harry's face. "I do. It would take a curse to make Lily love James after so long. We were all startled when she finally agreed to date him. In fact, James took it as a rejection, until he finally realised what she had actually said. He got detention for making too much noise, after that,"

Harry smiled as Sirius dove into another story, even though it was one that he had heard before.

Padfoot looked up from his place under his bunk as he heard a scream. It wasn't an unusual noise in Azkaban. The prisoners screamed all the time. This time, it was close, and loud enough to startle Padfoot out of his dreams.

In the short time it took him to get to the edge of his cell, he realized that the scream had, in fact, come from Harry. He was writhing on his bunk, crying out as he clutched both hands to his forehead.

Padfoot barked a couple times before transforming back to his human form so he could actually cry out. "Harry!"

Several of the nearby prisoners yelled too, protesting being woken up.

Harry's screams suddenly cut off as he jerked awake and fell off of his bunk, landing hard on the ground. He lay there for a moment, regaining his breath.

"Harry? Are you okay?" Sirius asked, clutching the bars of his cell and staring over at his godson. He couldn't see him well, as the night sky outside provided no light, and the torches were not lit.

Harry looked up and Sirius drew in a sharp breath at the sight of Harry's face. He scar was inflamed and stood out vividly on his pale face. Even in the darkness, Sirius could see it clearly.

"I'm okay," Harry replied, breathless.

Slowly, the protesting shouts from the other prisoners died down.

Sirius took a seat at the edge of his cell. "What was that?" he asked.

Harry crawled over and found a seat as close to Sirius as he could get. He idly rubbed at his scar. "I don't know. It was a dream, I think. Or a vision. It's happened before, once or twice. Dumbledore says that I've got a connection to Voldemort. I've seen into his mind before,"

"You've seen into Voldemort's mind?" Sirius asked, paling.

Harry nodded. "Every time my scar has burned, just like now,"

There was silence between them and Sirius hoped that those prisoners around them weren't listening in too intently. They were almost all followers of Voldemort, after all.

"What did you see?" Sirius whispered.

Harry frowned, looking thoughtful. "Voldemort was torturing one of his followers. A plan that he had set up isn't working. He's angry,"

Sirius watched Harry, eyes wide. "What's the plan?"

Harry shrugged. "No idea,"

Sirius studied Harry's face, which was half hidden in shadow. "It sounded painful,"

Harry shuddered slightly. "It's like I was the one being tortured," he said softly.

Sirius didn't know how to reply to that.

"How come you never mentioned these visions before?" Sirius asked.

"I didn't think they were that important. I thought they had gone away. Evidently not," Harry replied, looking sullen.

Sirius thought about this, then asked, "And can Voldemort get into your head?"

"I don't see why he would need to. He's already got me locked out of the way," Harry said bitterly.

"Not for long," Sirius replied, reminding Harry of their plan they were almost ready to put in to motion to escape from Azkaban.

Harry nodded agreeably, a small smile crossing his face at the thought of escape.

"Hey, Potter!"

Harry glanced up from his conversation with his godfather as the other voice interrupted it.

Sirius looked annoyed.

"Have any visions lately?" one of the other prisoners asked.

"Is our Master coming for us?" asked another.

"Seen someone get tortured?" a third asked excitedly.

Harry rolled his eyes at them and generally ignored it. As was typical, Harry's vision the week before had prompted a lot of taunting from those prisoners around their pair of cells. As they were surrounded by Death Eaters, any news of their Master was good news for them. They had been ecstatic on the day Harry had told Sirius about Voldemort being reborn, though most of them knew it already from their dark marks.

"Just you wait, Harry. Soon we'll be out of here, and they'll still be stuck," Sirius promised, glaring bitterly at his cousin, who was cackling again.

"I know, Sirius. Sometimes, I think you're more uptight about their taunting than I am. Maybe I'm just used to it,"

"Or maybe I'm just a dog in nature and I'm protective of you," Sirius suggested, still glaring at Bellatrix.

"Relax, Sirius. It's not like they can do anything to actually harm us," Harry said, then seeing Sirius' look, revised it, "For now, anyway."

"You're right," Sirius said, sighing. He ran a hand through his tangled hair, but only made it halfway before he gave up so his hand wouldn't get stuck.

Harry leaned back against his bunk and asked, "What do you think Hermione is doing right now?" he asked.

It was a game they played often. Sirius kept track of the time with marks on his cell wall, and they knew approximately what time it was from the amount of daylight coming in through Sirius' window.

"Seeing as it's late June, she's probably with her family for the summer," Sirius replied.

"Probably still going over the end of year exams with her parents,"

"It'd be her OWL year," Sirius reminded.

"Oh, right. She'll be anxiously awaiting those results," Harry murmured, frowning. He wondered now what his OWL results would've been like if he hadn't been arrested.

"I wonder if she'll go back next year," Harry said.

"Why wouldn't she?" Sirius asked.

Harry looked over at Sirius. "She once told me, in third year, that her parents thought the wizarding world was too dangerous and that if Ron and I weren't around, she wouldn't bother continuing to go to Hogwarts. She had no other friends, besides maybe Ginny,"

Sirius sighed, "She would get along well with Remus. Both of them lost all of their friends in one swell swoop,"

Harry nodded slightly. Yes, he was sure Hermione and Remus would get along just fine. It was a pity they probably wouldn't ever meet.

The entire cell block went quiet then, as a Dementor entered the hallway.

Shrinking back in his cell, Harry tensed up. Across from him, Sirius morphed into Padfoot and hid under his bunk again.

Neither could wait until they were able to escape from this prison.

A/N - Catch something wrong with this fanfic, including typos, misspelled words, or a plot line that just doesn't make sense? Let me know, please.

I write fanfictions to better myself in my original story/novel writing. I strive for the best, but I admit to occasionally missing things. If you see anything that needs to be fixed, or you just have any advice or comments, let me know, in a review or PM. Also, I won't respond to every review, though I'll try with PMs. I just don't have the time. However, if you ask a question, I will try to respond with an answer. Thanks.