Life in Prison

When the world finally stopped spinning, I hesitantly cracked my eyes wide enough to see that the dark room was empty except for me and the mass murderer. I stretched my arms above my head and yawned, looking very much like a cat awakening from a midday nap. Abruptly, I realized that I was no longer bound to the chair. Curious. I had always assumed kidnapping meant bound hands and a gagged mouth for the duration of the stay. Evidently not. I rose from the chair and walked toward the door of the cell and pulled. Locked. I hadn't really expected it to be open. I walked to the barred window and peaked out trying to familiarize myself with my surroundings.

Through the opening in the wall, I was able to see a sandy beach with crashing white waves about a kilometer ahead. Directly under the window and three stories down was an orchard of some kind. And on the horizon, I could see the hulking shape of a boat heading north. I sighed before turning back to the darkened room. Sirius Black was still sleeping silently on his chair while his eyes moved relentlessly behind his sunken eyelids. Relief trembled through my body. I still had some time to think of a way out of this mess before he woke. If I was lucky, I wouldn't be around for him to kill me.

I cast a look around the room trying to find something that would prove useful in my escape. In the corner of the room was a pile of clothes covered in dust and mites. I crossed the room to collect them. As I picked up the scarf on the floor, I noticed a weight tangled in the fabric. I carried it to the window to see clearly. The light reflected softly off a grinning skull. I let out a short scream. Horrified, I dropped the offending item and furiously rubbed my hands on my pants, breathing hard, my heart racing. My head snapped up in alert when I heard the scraping of a chair. I watched as the only other occupant in the room shrugged his shoulders and rolled his neck.

My eyes widened as he trudged slowly towards me with a curious look on his face. He bent down and picked up the skull, looking at it in confusion. I shrugged. He tossed it into a corner before glancing out the window. "It's a long way down." I supplied. "Too far to climb."

He nodded his head and turned his back to me. I couldn't see his face, but his shoulders stiffened as he walked quickly to the door and yanked on the handle. I started hesitantly, "I already tried that. It won't budge." He yanked harder one last time before giving up and slumping against the door defeated. He slid to the floor and sat quietly for several minutes before turning to me.

"Any idea on how we're going to get out of this?"

I answered him with a blank stare. It couldn't possibly be a coincidence that they accidentally captured the Sirius Black. His warrant had been around town for years. Nobody could miss him with his long black hair and dead eyes. His question must have been rhetorical because he didn't look at me to answer so I shrugged. We sat in silence for the next few hours. What was there to say? Locked in a cell with Voldemort's right hand man put a slight damper on most topics. And I don't think he had any indication of speaking to me for the duration of our time together. Which was fine with me. The less he said and the less attention I called to myself the better. The minutes and hours ticked by in agony. Tense and anxious, always waiting for something to happen (at this point good or bad, anything would have been a relief), I sat fidgeting with the sleeve of my long-sleeved shirt.

Our silence was broken when the most extraordinary thing happened. A transparent figure walked, or rather, floated through the door, straight through Sirius before coming to a stop in the middle of the room. Sirius shuddered. A young girl, probably no older than seven or eight, with a long dress falling past her dangling feet, hovered in midair. Her face was devoid of any features, almost as if someone had taken an eraser to her eyes, lips, and nose. She stood silently for several minutes before turning her head to me. "You are to follow me. The master of the house awaits your arrival in the parlor. Come." I stared at her, wondering where her voice was coming from.

She floated once again through Sirius, then through the door, disappearing completely from view. I followed quickly before realizing that I could not float through the door myself. I stood above Sirius contemplating my next move. She must have noticed the lack of my presence because the door clicked noisily before Sirius was shoved away from the door. It creaked open. Looking over my shoulder at my cellmate, I felt a tiny flicker of fear at leaving the only familiar companion I had. The door swung shut and locked behind me as I followed the ghost silently down the long hall adorned with moving portraits and wall tapestries. I felt like I was walking to my death, and in all likelihood, I probably was.