Home is my castle
'Bartimeus Crouch Senior and Junior Found Kissed,' the editorial article of the Daily Prophet read the other day. Sirius put it down on the cell floor with a mixture of laughter and nostalgia. He recalled how often they would return to Hogwarts after they had accompanied Moony for yet another adventurous full-moon night. Though they had (thank God!) never made it to the Prophet's front page then.
Dementors gathered around him, not to steal his joy, but to share it. He had to read it aloud once again.
According to the article, there was no witness apart from the Crouch family's house-elf. The Ministry was going to start an investigation of how the two Kisses could happen.
This was bad news. If there was an investigation among the Ministry's plans, however, then it would certainly include a visit to Azkaban. Skipps, who had performed the Kiss on Crouch Senior, not without reason but completely without authorization, would be in great trouble if the Ministry people found out the truth. Padfoot rested his head on an exceptionally crooky hand, and got an ear-rub in return. They were in this together.
An hour later Vaqqu entered the cell with ink and parchment. Sirius accepted them with a heavy sigh. If he had managed to befriend dementors, then maybe this long overdue letter would also not be as impossible to write, either. Still, it took him half a day to finish. Apologies are, apparently, truly the hardest incantations of all. Hardest, but powerful. The owl left a few minutes before noon. And, to his surprise, returned before dinner, with a hastily written reply between his talons.
Moony wrote that he was doing 'relatively fine'. He accepted the apology with a dry remark that being accused of treason by his best friends was not even the worst that had happened to him on that horrible week.
But, as he pointed out, time went on, and James and Lily's son was going to start his third year at Hogwarts. Moony would be teaching him this year. He promised to write again.
Sirius stared at the dementor in front of his cell. He couldn't see from this angle, but it had to be Daire. Tactful, amazing Daire, who must have volunteered to be his guard this afternoon, so that he could read the letter with undisturbed emotions. He tried not to think about this creature digesting Crouch Junior's soul just a foot from his door. He also tried to ignore that Daire had attacked the deatheater in his defense...
The next issue of the Daily Prophet also had the Crouch story on the front page. 'Former Head of Law Enforcement Used Imperius On Own Son.' Sirius didn't have time to read on because the investigation crew arrived. He hid the paper under his blankets and looked around. Every other inmate in Azkaban was just sitting and muttering to themselves, not reading the Prophet. Maybe he should be doing the same, just once, to avoid any suspicion.