3 - THE RAY OF HOPE, Submit your stories on the escape plan. Options

[evlpez]

Submit your stories on Fudge's visit, discovering Wormtail in the Daily Prophet and the plan to escape Azkaban here.

[McGonagall's Cat]

Dreams and Hallucinations

The dream was always the same.

He and James would be charging along on their brooms, dashing toward the hoops at the far end of the field. Racing faster than they were officially permitted to, due to the spells they'd each used to supercharge their brooms, they would flash knowing grins at eachother. With his best friend beside him, an adrenalin surge and power pulsing through his entire being, his world made sense again.

As scoring range neared, James would toss him the quaffle. Reeling his arm back to blast the assured shot through the center hoop, out of nowhere the mother of all bludgers would bash him from his broom. It had to be three times the size of a regulation bludger and he was always entirely blind-sided by the blow. In slow motion he would fall, fear building with each meter of the rush downward. Smashing into the ground so hard it knocked every ounce of air from his lungs, he would hear ribs break. Total panic would then flood his very being, paralysing all thought and ability.

He would lay there frozen, unable to function. James would swoop to within arms-length, shouting "Get up! Get Up! The game's not over! Get back on your broom!" But all dream-Sirius could do was gulp for non-existent air and be overwhelmed by pain.

Suddenly James would be right in front of his face, bellering at the top of his lungs. "It's not over yet! Get back in the game!" James' face would go ugly with effort.

If he was lucky Sirius could force himself to awaken at this point. If not, James would change to how he was the last time Sirius had seen him. With half his face burned and a huge hole in his chest, James would continue to scream at him like somebody's life depended upon him getting back into the game.

This never failed to wake him.

Jolted awake, heart hammering in his chest, he sunk his face into his hands.

Across the cell a human-sized version of the Gryffindor lion sat, as though on a throne, though no chair was visible, impatiently tapping its foot. Sirius was used to hallucinations by now. At first he'd thought he was losing his mind. Eventually he realized the hallucinations tended to appear about every six days or so, when the gruel became particularly disgusting. He was sure they were generated by a form of food poisoning.

The lion huffed heavily, "Glad you could take the time for me," it said sarcastically.

Still shaken from the after affects of the dream Sirius merely glared sideways at the big heraldic cat.

"This would be amusing were it not so pathetic." the lion said, snapping it's tail with a perturbed flick. It stared at him, the bored annoyance an overlord bestows on a particularly slow-witted subject exuding from its every pore. Looking pointedly at the dog-eared copy of the Daily Prophet it cleared it's throat, "What are you going to do about it?"

Sirius wiped his hand across his face as if that might clear his troubled thoughts. "What can I do about it?" he quietly mumbled in defeat and resignation.

The lion snorted derisively.

"What?" Sirius muttered.

"You park yourself here, in this self-imposed prison..." it shook its head disgustedly.

"Oh, stuff it! There hasn't been a single person ever escape from this pit," Sirius spit the words out so softly that they were quite possibly not even audible to the lion.

It chuckled. "Then don't break out as a person."

Sirius sat bolt upright.

The red heraldic cat became insubstantial, dissolving into nothingness and dissipating like smoke.

[Merman]

Thank you, Fudge




Sirius lay there on the hard cold stone floor of his cell, his head in his hands, shuddering every time a Dementor passed by the door.

“I know I’m not guilty,” he thought to himself. “It was Peter. I know it, I know it. Peter gave the information to You Know Who. He betrayed Lilly and James! Peter was the one who always needed someone strong to take care of him. It was Peter who had landed me in Askaban. Everything is all Peter's fault! ”

“But who decided to switch? Who decided to make him Secret Keeper? It's your fault,” said a nasty voice inside his head.

“No it wasn’t,” he argued with himself, “I was trying to save their lives. I just wanted them to be safe.”

“But you didn’t save their lives,” said the same nasty voice inside his head. All you did was put them in more danger. YOU killed them by making him their Secret Keeper. YOU FAILED!"

“I did not,” he mumbled rather loudly.


“Was that Sirius Black?” asked a familiar voice from outside. “Let me in, I'll have a look.”

The heavy metal door screeched open and Sirius looked up as Cornelius Fudge walked in. Fudge stopped to glance at Sirius for a moment, as if trying to read his mind, trying to decide if Sirius was going to attack him. Then Fudge waved his hand and the Dementor glided out the door and shut it.

Neither one spoke for a moment.

“Come to set me free have you?” he asked.

Fudge replied humorlessly. “I’m afraid not.”

“Well, what then? I’d think your home would be much nicer than this place,” he said glancing around his cell.

“Oh believe me, I’d much rather be there than here,” said Fudge looking around the small and dirty room, “but I heard you mumbling to yourself, and decided to look in on you.”

“Well that’s awfully nice of you,” Sirius said sarcastically.

“Thank you,” Fudge returned coldly

They glared at each other for a while, nothing could be heard except for the rats scampering around and the cold rattling breaths of the Dementors as they lurked outside the cell door. Fudge seemed to dislike the smell of Azkaban because his nose was wrinkled with disgust. The Minister stood there saying nothing. Sirius waited patiently until Fudge seemed about to leave, then quickly broke the silence.

“So, what’s new in the paper? ” asked Sirius, noticing the Daily Profit hanging out of Fudge's pocket.

“Nothing much,” said Fudge, pulling out the paper. “Arthur Weasley won the Daily Profit Galleon Draw.”

"Really? Who's he?" asked Sirius, trying to talk with Fudge as long as possible. Oh course he knew that Arthur Weasley was his cousin, but Sirius hadn't spoken to another human being in three or four years. In spite of the person being Fudge, he wanted to keep the conversation going as long as he could. It kept his mind off of what he normally thought about, and however limited, it filled a need for contact with a living breathing other person.

“He works in the Muggle Department,” said Fudge, handing over the paper. “Read for yourself. I hope you can still read.”

Sirius took the newspaper and read the article. It had been so long his reading ability was a little off, but he still managed. As he finished his eyes wandered over to the black and white picture of the Weasley family, who waved happily out of the moving picture at him.

“That must be Arthur, boy I haven’t seen him in a long time, he’s changed a lot,” he thought, “And that must be his wife and there are his children.” His eyes wandered over to what looked like the youngest boy. He saw something move on the boy's shoulder and Sirius saw the rat.

“Probably a pet rat. How I hate rats.”

He looked closely at the rat for some time, noticing interesting details. The Rat had a toe missing, the first one on its right front paw.

“Wormtail!” he realized.

“Merlin’s Beard!” exclaimed Fudge suddenly, bringing Sirius back from his thoughts. “It’s getting late, I must go.”
Fudge went to the door and made to leave.

“May I have the crossword,” asked Sirius holding up the Daily Profit.

"Keep it," Fudge hastily said. “I just realized, I'm late for a hearing about an unregistered Animagi. Good-bye.”

Sirius didn’t reply as Fudge disappeared through the door which then screeched shut. He didn’t seem to notice. Sirius was aware of nothing but the rat in the picture and what Fudge had just said: “Unregistered Animagi”

“Of course!” he thought. “While I'm transformed into Padfoot! The Dementors can't see, they only sense emotions and feel their way towards you. It's harder for them to sense animal emotions. They always pause when a rat or a other small animal goes by. They probably get confused."

Sirius began to study the picture obsessively.

“And he’s at Hogwarts,” mumbled Sirius rather loudly without noticing.

“When they open my cell door to bring in my food, I'll transform then slip past. A dog might be able to swim back to the mainland. And if I make it to land, then I will go straight to Hogwarts. Maybe I can track Harry down and get to see him on my way. I'll escape as soon as possible.”

Sirius lay down on the cold hard stone floor again and continued to plan.