Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. I write for entertainment purposes only.

Author's Note: At last! We've hit the beginning of the second act, and I'm so excited. Please hang out with me as we follow our unlikely trio on their journey!

LocationNote:There's little information about where Azkaban is located aside from a notation that it's off the North Sea. As our trio travels, I'm going to notate their locations in case anyone is curious about where they are. For this chapter, we're assuming Azkaban is on an island whose closest cities are Sunderland and Newcastle upon Tyne in England. Our escaped convicts are headed to a smaller town called Whitburn.

Prisoner 79934: Ginevra Weasley

By: Rae

-A "Harry Potter" Fic-

Ginny threw up again, unable to stop herself, but her stomach was so empty now she was simply dry-heaving. She vaguely heard the commotion as the Muggle came down the stairs to confront them, but she felt too ill to try and help out. Besides, she didn't have a wand or any way to defend herself.

"Come 'ere, little Gryffindor," Bellatrix crooned sweetly, and she felt the other woman's nails press into her skin as she wrapped an arm around her. "You need some fresh air." She guided Ginny back up the stairs and onto the deck of the small boat.

Once there, Ginny breathed in a deep, salty breath of air and surprisingly felt the knots in her stomach start to unclench. Though, on second thought, that might have been because there was nothing left inside her to throw up. Her stomach still felt slightly queasy, but she quickly realized the salty air smelled amazing after the still air in Azkaban.

At that thought, she lifted her head to survey her surroundings. She gasped as she looked at the sea around them and then behind them the looming and very dangerous architecture of Azkaban on its rocky island. A Dementor floated round the outside of the prison far overhead, and she shuddered, turning back to the boat.

That was when she noticed Sirius and the Muggle. The Muggle stood next to what looked like a round wheel at the back of the boat with Sirius nearby, pointing his wand at the man. Sirius's forehead shone with a sheen of sweat, and she wasn't sure what had happened or why the man wasn't shouting for help from the still-too-close prison.

She wrinkled her forehead in confusion as Bellatrix moved over to stand before the round wheel, looking critically at the Muggle.

"You're going to lose him," she drawled in a sing-song voice that was almost cheerful.

"Shut up," Sirius growled angrily at her.

"Didn't your dear mother teach you how to do it?" She asked, her voice silky smooth. "You have to mean it."

Sirius glared and kept his mouth shut, but just then the Muggle shook his head dazedly, his eyes focusing on Bellatrix and then Ginny. He opened his mouth with a cry that abruptly stopped.

"Imperio!" Sirius ground out viciously, aiming his wand at the man.

Ginny gasped. She remembered her father coming home ranting and raving about something Lucius Malfoy had done in the Ministry and going on about how he was so pretentious claiming to be Imperio'd by You-Know-Who. It was the only Unforgivable curse she knew, but she was aware of what it was supposed to do.

The man's eyes unfocused, and his hands went slack where they'd tightened on the wheel of the boat.

"You need to have him start the engine and get us out of here," Bellatrix hissed in a low voice. "The guards will notice if the boat just sits out here for too long or the Dementors will."

Sirius shuddered at that, but he gave one short nod of acknowledgement.

"Where are you heading?" He asked the man, wand still pointed at him.

"Back home, to the Salty Dog Bar," the man replied in a listless tone.

"Where is that located?" He asked, raking his other hand through his bedraggled hair.

"Whitburn," the Muggle replied docilely.

"What cities are close by?" Sirius asked him carefully.

"Sunderland and Newcastle upon Tyne," he said.

"Turn on the engine and take us back to where you dock your boat," Sirius commanded.

The man said nothing but turned to the back of the boat and grasped a small string with some larger black piece at the end of it. He yanked on it once, twice, a third time, and Ginny jolted when the engine erupted in a roar. Turning back to the front of the boat, he placed one hand on the wheel and the other on a strange stick-like object. He pressed the stick-like object forward, and the boat jolted into motion.

Ginny fell forward and caught herself on a seat cushion. She only realized that's what it was when Bellatrix pressed her down onto the cushion. She twisted around to sit, facing forward, and leaned back against the back of the seat, watching in fascination as the boat parted the waters before them. The front of the boat lifted up some, and it made her nervous. She clenched her hands into fists in her lap as her stomach clenched again.

The trip to the dock took a long time. It felt like forever, and Ginny turned back occasionally to watch as Azkaban receded behind them. She couldn't allow herself to relax, however, as they were still in danger with the Muggle there beside them under the Unforgivable. Sirius and Bellatrix remained quiet on the trip there, which also made her anxious. Neither prisoner seemed the type to simply go quietly anywhere, and their animosity and clear previous knowledge of the other said something was very wrong between them.

Ginny turned that thought over in her mind. Bellatrix had called Sirius her cousin, but both of them seemed disgusted at the idea of being related. Sirius had very nearly dragged her out without Bellatrix, she knew, and the other witch would have had no issue bringing down the entire guard of Azkaban on them if they'd left her there.

She glanced down at her hands and noticed the tendrils of white along her right arm from the Unbreakable Vow. Ginny remembered her father screaming at her brothers once when she was very young. It took a few years before the retelling of the story of Ron almost swearing an Unbreakable Vow became more comedy than cautionary tale, but she knew it had been the only time she'd ever heard her father nearly come unglued. Now here she was as the one who had made a vow with another witch, and with a witch who she barely knew and certainly couldn't really trust.

She eyed Bellatrix. Ginny wasn't sure what she'd expected of the other woman, but she knew that after seeing her in person, she somewhat understood the deranged and unhinged shrieks and screams she'd heard after Dementor visits now. The woman's appearance certainly matched what Ginny knew of her.

A light was growing in front of them in the dusky light of evening, and she realized they were approaching a Muggle village. The man deftly navigated the boat to the docks, passing several other boats till he found an empty spot and slowed the boat down before cutting the engine completely. She watched as he went to the front and grabbed a length of rope and tossed it onto a pole. She was impressed at his aim. It looped easily over the pole, and he hauled them closer to the wooden dock.

Bellatrix climbed lightly out of the boat and onto the dock. Ginny followed her as the man went to the back of the boat and grabbed another rope, climbing off the boat this time to loop the rope onto a second pole. Once he was done, he stood still, his hands dropping to hang limply at his sides. Sirius climbed out of the boat last, and they all stopped to look around.

No one was at the docks, but they could see that this wasn't just a small Muggle village. It was certainly larger than Hogsmeade, and Ginny had no idea where exactly they were.

"How close is your home to here? Is anyone else in your home right now?" Sirius asked the man, still holding his wand up. His arm had to be getting tired, Ginny thought.

"Jus' a ten minute walk away," the man replied. "No one's home. The missus is runnin' the bar while I'm at the strange island fer a delivery. She won' be back till late. I need to get there to help 'er close up shop."

"Take us to your house," Sirius commanded, the sheen of sweat visible in the strange electric lights arrayed along the dock.

The man started off immediately, walking toward the end of the dock where a small office stood.

"What are you doing?" Ginny asked him. "We can't go to his house!"

"We can't stay in prison clothes," Sirius said curtly. "We'll wash up a little and take some of their clothes and send him on his way. Then we can figure out what to do after that."

"Get some Muggle money, too," Bellatrix said swiftly, her eyes keen.

"We can't steal from him!" Ginny said aghast.

"We can if we want to stay safe," Bellatrix hissed. "You can't just waltz back home to Mummy and Daddy and ask them to let you stay in your room, little girl. You're going on the run, and we'll need all the help we can get."

Ginny realized she was right but decided she didn't have to like it. She followed silently as the Muggle led the way to his home, which was a short walk from the dock after all. They arrived in a small neighborhood where most of the homes seemed to be brightly painted, and there were few cars or people about. He led them to a salmon pink house with blue shingles. It was a small house compared to many of the others, but he walked straight through the picket fence and unlocked the door, leading them inside.

"Go upstairs and see if you can find some clothes that fit," Sirius told Ginny and Bellatrix. "I'll keep him occupied down here for now. You can wash up a little in his bathroom, maybe. I don't know how much time we have before his wife comes looking for him."

Bellatrix walked up the stairs, and Ginny followed. There were two bedrooms. One was clearly used by the couple and had a bed, two dressers, a closet, and bathroom attached. The other was more of a storage space, she realized as she glanced in. There was a smaller bed piled up with different things cluttering the space. There were lamps sitting on the floor and a number of books littered around the room. She walked into the main bedroom instead and found Bellatrix busily opening drawers in the dressers.

The other woman pulled out a few items and tossed them on the bed, and then she quickly drew the prison shirt over the head, leaving her exposed to Ginny, who gasped.

"Don't be too shy, little Gryffindor," Bellatrix said with a scoff. "Find an outfit and get changed so we can get out of here."

She pulled a shirt over her head, and then she shucked off the pants. Ginny turned away at that. The prisoners had no undergarments with their uniforms, and she had no desire to see Bellatrix fully. Instead, she busied herself looking through the drawers. She pulled out a few things but realized quickly that this was the wardrobe of an adult woman and would be somewhat too big for her, especially with her weight loss from prison meals.

Ginny found a pair of pants that had a drawstring. They felt soft in her hands, almost buttery soft, and she pulled them out before looking at the drawer Bellatrix had found with undergarments. As expected when she pulled a pair of underwear out and held it up, it was too large for her. She sighed and decided not to even look back at the other witch, who was prowling around the room, as she quickly stripped off the prison pants and switched on the drawstring pair. They were dark gray and altogether too long with cuffed bottoms, so she rolled them up until they no longer covered her feet. She found a t-shirt in a similar gray color and swiftly pulled it on before picking up her discarded prison garb.

Turning around, she noticed Bellatrix had put on a pair of socks and shoes the other woman had. Bellatrix wore a deep red shirt that was low-cut and had billowing bell sleeves over a pair of Muggle jeans that flared out at the bottom. She had on black boots. The witch surveyed Ginny critically and then turned and left the room.

Ginny saw the pile of Bellatrix's discarded clothes and grabbed those as well. She followed the other woman back down the stairs and saw Sirius waiting in the sitting room. The Muggle was seated on a settee and Sirius was on the couch. He jumped up as she approached and ordered the man to follow him as he raced upstairs.

In only a few minutes, he was back down with the man in tow. He had on a pair of jeans that were slightly too short for him. He'd managed to close them, but he had to put on a belt to secure them around his too-small waist. He had a black button down shirt on with the sleeves rolled slightly up, and he'd taken a pair of the man's trainers and was wearing them with black socks. He had his own bundle of prison clothes in hand as he came downstairs.

Bellatrix wandered in from the kitchen, eating an apple. "Hungry?" She asked nonchalantly. She held another apple out and tossed it at Ginny, who barely caught it.

Ginny stared at it for a moment in wonder and then sank her teeth into it. It tasted glorious. The sweet flesh of the apple coaxed a moan of appreciation. She noticed Sirius walk into the kitchen and return with another apple and a sack a few minutes later, the Muggle walking docilely behind him.

"Now what?" Ginny asked when they'd all stood round for a few moments looking about the house.

"I'll have to send him back to his wife, I guess," Sirius said. "And we'll need to get out of here before the Dementors come looking for us. Question is, where should we go?"

"Have him give you his money," Bellatrix said imperiously. "We need to be able to travel the Muggle way." She sneered, her eyes vicious.

"I never would have thought to hear that from you," Sirius commented sarcastically. He turned to the Muggle and with a bit of command in his voice said, "Give me your money."

The man reached into his pocket and extracted a wallet. He pulled several bills Ginny didn't recognize from it and handed them to Sirius.

"The girl needs shoes," Bellatrix said abruptly.

Sirius turned and looked at Ginny's bare feet. She blushed. He frowned and his forehead wrinkled in thought before he turned again to the Muggle.

"Are there any girls in this neighborhood that look her size?" He asked him.

For just a brief moment, the man's eyes focused as he looked intently at Ginny. She stood still, resisting the urge to fidget at his scrutiny. He nodded and said tonelessly, "Twins in the house two doors down with the blue shutters and white door. And another one in the house three doors down and across. Green shingles and a yellow door."

Sirius nodded at him and then gestured to the women. "Come on, then," he said, and they walked out the door. He had the Muggle man lock his door again and then commanded, "Go to your bar, report to your wife that your delivery at the strange island was normal." He paused and added, "Tell her when you got back, someone robbed you on the docks. Forget everything else that happened on the boat and in your house and forget you saw any of us. Stay at the bar the rest of the night and don't go back to your boat till the next time you need to use it."

The man nodded again and turned to walk away, Sirius holding his wand aimed at the man's back as he went. He never turned back, though, and once he was out of sight, Sirius dropped his arm and sighed a deep breath, swiping a hand over his sweaty forehead.

Ginny watched him, wondering what would happen next as they stood in the dark Muggle street.