Azkaban Tango

"Nose..."

"Twins..."

"Bones..."

"Wormtail..."

"Longbottom...."

"Lupin...."

Nose

You know how there are faces you'll never forget? That you'll see in your nightmares and your dreams until the end of your days? I have one of those.

He hunted me down; I led him on a merry chase. Through London, through the countryside, and over the borders into Scotland. Through heather and sharp cutting grass in a frantic flight for freedom. I led him that way because I knew the Dark Lord would be in Wales, and although he wasn't the one with the power to bring our Lord down, I wasn't taking chances.

He hit me with curses. Stupid, silly curses that I underestimated. I laughed at him because he refused to use Crucio, refused to use Ava Kevadra. It would have been so easy to catch me with them, and he knew I would use them on him if I had the chance. Stupid Auror. Idealists never win.

He cornered me at last when I least expected it, catching me off guard with a jelly legs curse. Such a simple, childish thing! And yet, it was enough for him to bear down on me.

I saw his scarred, determined face and I knew I was caught. There was nothing I could do. The picture of my wife and our son passed through my mind, and I knew he would take that from me when he closed me up in Azkaban. And so I fired, right in his face. He roared and put a full body bind on me; once again I underestimated him. I had no idea he could take so much pain.

Alastor Moody might have taken me to Azkaban, but at least I took a piece out of him.

iTwins

Double vision. Two redheads. Two threats. Twins.

Twins are deadly. Twins can be everywhere at once, and you don't know which power you're facing because they look alike.

Twins can do more damage than a single wizard alone. Twins can do more damage than two wizards together. Twins multiply each other's power.

They can communicate, you know. Without words, without gestures. They read each others' minds. They're a single being, split down the middle, even if they resent the fact some days.

Twins have powers no one can even contemplate. Not even the Dark Lord, who never had to face the twins because he sent his lackeys to do it.

But I got them. I destroyed them, and I would do it again. And again. And again.

They never knew what hit them. They turned and they killed her and then I cursed them and they went flying and I saw the surprise in their eyes. They never expected it from someone like me. They should have. They should have bloody well known.

That's what they get for killing my sister. And of all people, they should have known better.

Twins are dangerous. Believe me, I know.

And now, so do they.

Bones

How the others escaped, I don't know. I'll never know, and I'll hate them forever. Especially Snape.

I taught him everything he knows. Everything. And yet he betrayed me, I'm sure of it. No one will speak of it, they say it was Peter, but that's a lie. Peter Pettigrew never would have had the guts to betray us. It had to have been Severus.

Only Severus knew the secrets of the Dark Lord's immortality. Only Severus knew.

Well, Severus and me.

Snape must die for this. This I know.

But I am his teacher, and I won't be the one to bring him down.

There is a God, because I am in Azkaban, and I will die before our Lord asks me to do what I must. I know this. I am nothing but bones and sinew now. I have lost the will to eat. I have lost the will to live.

I am a teacher of potions, not a warrior. Not a soldier, willing to die in battle. Just a teacher.

They've slipped food through my gate now. I can see it; moldy bread and some sort of protein that's more bone and gristle than meat.

Like me.

I will never escape here. I never want to. Outside waits the Dark Lord- I know he's not gone forever. And when he rises again, he will expect me to want vengeance. He will expect me to kill. He will expect...

He will expect....

It does not matter. I will die here, a pile of old bones. And I will never be a killer, only a teacher. Which is all I ever wanted to be.

Wormtail

Howls and screams echo around me, and yet my cell is silent. It will stay that way for today, because today I can focus. Today I have my mind. Today I remember I am innocent.

I am not pure. I am not good. I have betrayed, and I know it. And yet I know it was reasonable.

Remus was a spy. I was right about that. I was just wrong about the side. And I will dwell on him no more, because today I am innocent.

I did not sell Lily and James to Voldemort. I did not murder Peter. I did not kill a dozen Muggles with explosion and slink away never to look back. I did not do any of it.

I am innocent.

I know it looked bad. People were supposed to think that I was the Potter's Secret Keeper. That was the point behind the bluff. And I'm good. When I want people to believe something, they will. And people believed.

I should have found Remus to go after Peter. I should have told the Aurors. I should have told Dumbledore. But I will not dwell on that, because today I am innocent.

It looked bad there, too. He shouted out his crimes in my name and disappeared, tossing a Cheering Charm at me so I could do nothing but laugh, and changing into the rat he is. He hadn't needed the charm; I would have laughed anyway. Laughed with relief that Remus is innocent, incredulity that Peter could come up with such a plan, and the stupidity of it all. And as my laughter floated away down the alley, so did my freedom.

The world thinks I'm a mass murderer, and maybe I made it possible. But did I do it?

No. Not guilty.

Longbottom

The Dark Lord knows power. Power that you fools shall never have. The Dark Lord rewards those that are faithful. Even those of you who rot in this prison with us shall never know what it means to be faithful. I hear you at night, crying out to be free.

I will stay here, because life in Azkaban is preferable to life without the Dark Lord. I will stay here until there is a way to break free and to release him, to restore him to power.

There is, you know. I didn't know how to do it, but I knew it can be done. And I knew someone else who knows it too.

Frank Longbottom and his wife know it. I knew Frank at school. I know his fascination with the Dark Arts, and I know that despite the fact he turned away from them, he was exceedingly skilled. A wizard like no other.

That child of his as well... that child could well be the one the Prophecy refers to. The Lord thinks it's Potter, and thinks he has marked him. But can't the absence of a mark be deemed an identifier as well?

We found the Longbottoms and we made them tell us. They think that locking us up in Azkaban will make us think about what we've done like bad little children, and we'll learn to see the error of our ways and regret what we've done. The only error I've made is not evading the Aurors that brought us in, and not getting enough information out of Longbottom. He'd just begun to tell us when his mind cracked.

Damn him and his weakness. Damn his wife, who told us even less. Damn their child, who may one day be the ruin of us all.

My wife would never break. Not like them. And neither will I.

Lupin

At night I hear his screaming, and I laugh.

I laugh because I finally found out there are ways to torture a werewolf, and they aren't so hard after all.

Silver doesn't work. That's a pretty Muggle myth. Neither do any of the other weird herbs or whatnot. Werewolves aren't bound for life and they aren't super strong and they are nothing, absolutely nothing, that humans aren't except for one night a month. I know this now.

We stormed the house. He was supposed to die, but Pettigrew, that weakling, refused. He claimed he needed Lupin, to frame him as a spy. It worked, so I should give him credit. And I admit, it was better this way.

If you ever want to torture a man, make him watch you murder his mother.

We did it long and slow, like sex. She screamed and begged us for mercy, like rape. He did too, and that was where I found my pleasure. It was good. It was wonderful. And I'd do it all again in a second, just to see that look on his face again.

I escaped then. I escaped when the Dark Lord fell. And when I met him in the alley, a year later, he didn't know me thanks to the mask and the hood I wore that night. I seduced him, and right before he came I told him. I didn't escape this time, but it was worth it. It was worth every second.

Causing pain is my specialty. And when Azkaban is broken open, it will be again.

"I took a piece out of him..."

"Should have known better..."

"Only a teacher..."

"Because today I am innocent..."

"Not like them..."

"It will be again...."