Chapter 8
The sea crashed against the rocks of the shore. The wind swept through the open halls of Askaban Tower. The inhabitance of the top three floors shivered. It was always this cold; you’d think they’d have gotten used to this by now. Bellatrix Lestrange and Sirius Black had sat across the hall from one another for as long as they had been there. Sirius was in the street when the Aurors picked him up, carted him to this tiny cell and left him. At first, he had screamed that he was innocent. He had been in shock that night, but he hadn’t killed anyone, and he was not a Death Eater. For two weeks, he had screamed and pleaded. He knew he should have gotten a trial, but he hadn’t. He had just been thrown behind bars, and the key had been tossed. Bellatrix knew she was not a good person. She had years of childhood trauma, mental illness, an abusive husband, and evil growing within her to know that. She had been silent when they took her in. She was asleep, dreaming of her beautiful babies and raising them. To be awoken from that peace just to be thrown in here was not something she was prepared for. She had heard Rabastian and Rodolphus bragging about torching another set of parents. She had listened to the silent pleas to stop like she was there.
Her mind had always been a haven for her. It was volatile when she couldn’t control it, but it also came up with the most vivid places of safety. Overhearing the Lestrange brothers retelling of the gruesome torture the Longbottoms had suffered was enough for her brain to picture it. She remembered Alice and Frank. They were a few years younger than her, but she remembered the mischievous first years. She remembered seeing them fall in love by their third year, even though neither knew it. She wished she could have seen them get married. The Longbottoms were always a source of what could have been for her had she not been born Belatrix Dorea Black. She could have found true love, flourished, and had a beautiful baby that she didn’t have to bury in the roses. She had envied them, the Potters, and even her baby sister. She had especially envied her Elder sister. The perfect Black woman and she had run away and found happiness.
Bella vaguely knew that she had a niece…she had no idea what her name was. She also knew that she had a baby nephew. Draco. For the few times that Bella had seen him, she knew she would always be slightly envious of her sister and always love Draco like her own. James Potter had married some muggle-born, and she thinks she remembers her cousin, Reggie, being a part of their relationship at some point… That could also be her imagination. If her cousin were, though, that would make their child a part of her family. She had no wish to escape the hell hole that was her prison for life, but she did hope that one day she could meet her maybe second cousin.
Sirius stared at the walls of his unjust prison for a long time. He had given up on screaming and settled for the fact that he would never see his godson again. Baby Hadrian was the light of everyone’s lives for a time. His baby brother had married his best friend, and that thought still peeved him a little bit, but they were happy. Then Lily got pregnant. He was always confident that Reggie would end up pregnant at some point, but Lily did instead, and a few hours after his nephew/godson had been born, he was blood-adopted as Reggie’s child. Grandfather Articus was so pleased to have a legitimate heir. He is ancient, and all the family being locked up, left, or dead took a tremendous toll on his health. Sirius hadn’t seen his grandfather for almost a year before James and Lily died. Reggie had disappeared half a year before that. They would never know what happened to their husband, and Siri was sure he’d die in here before ever finding out what had happened to his baby brother.
If you were to ask somebody outside of the prison guard, ‘What is the worst thing about Askaban,’ they’d tell you the dementors. If you were to ask the same question to the prison guard, they’d say the echoing laughter and screams of the inmates. If you were to ask Sirius, he’d tell you it was the disconnection from the world and people. Bella would tell you it’s the bitter cold that seeps so far into your bones that you would die feeling it no matter what. The worst thing about Askaban is that regardless of level or infraction, nobody was to see anyone other than inmates. The prison guard dont go past the gates to level one. The dementors feed off happy thoughts, feelings, and warmth. They leave the depressive, agonizing, cold to their victims. If somebody is sadistic, they take those memories and emotions. They leave you bland, emotionless, and a husk of your former self. Sirius had his time at Hogwarts ripped from his psyche, and he had the feeling of love he got from Remus. He had his brother’s joy and his best friends' happiness on the day of their wedding taken. He was left with every beating, mistake, and grief he had experienced in his 21 years of life up until that moment. Bella had her lovely sisters taken, her love for her babies, and was left with bitter resentment for anyone happy, all the agony she had felt as a child and then a wife, and finally, she had lost her best friend's face. She couldn’t even remember what Severus looked like anymore. The only bit of warmth that she got to keep was knowing that she had taken an infertility potion and would never have to bury or birth another child again. She lost the only purpose in her life, but she also would never have to experience her most immense grief.
Bella had taken to watching Sirius as he transformed from his Grimm to his person, time and time again. She wished she could do that. She wished she could mute all a human's emotions and relish in an animal's more uncomplicated feelings. On such a day, Sirius was in his animagus form when his ears perked up for the first time in ten years.
“Sirius?” gods, was her voice always that grating?
He changed back into his gaunt-looking person and answered her, “ I think…I think my godfather bond just snapped in place. I felt a rush of warmth and love…”
“Lucky you, but you knew you had a godson. Why is it snapping into place now? You should have been able to feel him for the last ten years.” Yes, she was bitter. So what? She had the right to be after ten years in here and 25 years of pure agony beforehand.
“I don’t know why it just snapped in place…but I am getting out of here. I am tired of waiting for Dumbledore to come and rescue me. Moony must feel like I betrayed his pack.”
“Good luck, cousin, I wish you well. Hey, be kind to Sev for me. I miss him; he has had nobody else since Lily died. They were like siblings.”
“Hell no. I am bringing you with me. I know you didn’t torture anybody. I know you, Belly, aren’t like that. You never have been. Bat shit crazy? A hundred and ten percent, however, that’s mainly because of our crazy magic and family trauma, but evil? Never in a million years.”
Bellatrix Dorea Lestrange nee Black had never had many people in her corner. Her older sister left, her baby sister got married and gone, Reggie disappeared, and all she had was Severus, and he was always so busy. Sirius had left home when he was sixteen. She never thought to hear him speak about her character with such conviction. Like he knew her, regardless of what she might think or the public at the moment, he knew he was right and in her corner. She had started crying and didn’t know why. Sure, there had been days when he felt utterly alone and outnumbered. Then again, there had been days when she and Sirius would cackle like madmen about the stupidest shit. She calmed down, looked across the hall into the same grey eyes she sported, and nodded. Just like that, everything would be different. She would leave there, see her best friend again, and maybe adopt a cute baby girl she could love and cherish forever.
Sirius looked at his cousin and saw the pain she was in, the pain they all were in. He also saw her love for all her fallen angels that she didn’t get to hold, and he saw her strength to keep fighting for her happiness. He silently vowed to Lady Magic to help Bella in any way he could until they died because if anyone deserved a family, it was Bellatrix Dorea Black.
The dementors didn’t bother Sirius or Bella after that. They weren’t sure why, but any time they came around, they ignored their cells and went elsewhere. It took them three weeks to devise and finalize a plan of escape. Their wands had been snapped upon entry, but after ten years of inactive use, the combined force of both Black siblings was nothing to scoff at. The hallway was short enough for them to grasp each other’s fingers. Their combined magic and inherent desire to right the wrongs they were subjected to was enough to melt both sets of bars. After the initial burst of magic, they wait with bated breaths for anything to happen. For alarms to go off or for a hoard of dementors to stash them away into another set of cells…but nothing happened. It was eerily quiet, and they moved only after waiting twenty minutes.
Silently, they skirted past the sleeping cell block they had called home for nearly ten years. Then they climbed down a steep set of stairs before they came face to face with a dementor. They froze. The dementor looked at them. Sniffed the air…then nodded for them to pass and walked the other way. Taking this as a sign that the dementors wouldn’t punish them, they ran down more stairs. Stopping only to catch their breaths when they felt faint. Finally, they saw a faint glimmer of light at the bottom of yet another staircase. Slowing down, they walked toward it to hear voices on the other side of a cracked door.
“Yes, the wife is fine. You know how it’s been since You-know-Who was defeated. She had idolized that baby since she heard. A few of her friends are bequeathing things to him. I say it’s ridiculous. He was a baby. How on earth could a baby defeat a dark lord?”
“ I know what you mean, Garret, about how some people believe whatever is put in the Prophet, no offence to your wife. But come on, a baby? Really? I bet Dumbledore was there. He didn’t get there in time to save the poor chap's parents, though.”
Sirius and bells glanced through the door. It was a large open area with what looked like a few desks scattered about. Only two men were in the room, and they mentioned going on lunch break soon. The two cousins waited until they heard the opposite door close shut before entering the chamber. There were two doors. One looked like it was used a lot, presumably the door to the lunch hall, and the other looked just as well worn, but there was no sound behind it. Taking their chances, they opened the quiet door and entered a small hallway. They could hear the ocean. They must be close to the entrance to the building, at the very least. They reached the end of the hall and carefully opened the door. There were six row boats set in a line. They picked the one closest to the water’s edge, and just like that, they left Askaban Island. They took turns rowing and sleeping. They were both pretty sure they were experiencing magical exhaustion, but their adrenaline kept them moving until they reached the shore. The waves were cold and fierce as the wind worked against them. Sirius felt it when they exited the wards, and immediately, the waters calmed significantly. He could see the shore now, although it was still far away. After his arms finally refused to work, he woke up Bella, and they switched places. They could only prey that nobody noticed they were missing or left the wards of the island. Hadrian consumed Sirius’ thoughts and his husband, hoping to the gods that he got to see them again soon.
Bella hit the shore and breathed a sigh of relief. They had made it. They almost didn’t, but they did. It was excruciatingly difficult to row a boat, especially when she was weak from ten years spent in Askaban and the magical exhaustion from melting the bars. She woke Sirius up, and they fell flat on their backs on the warm, soft sand of the English shore. They made it.
“This feels like a dream.”
“I know bells, but it isn’t.” He cried, “We are going to see our loved ones again, and we will see our family again…we just need to go to Château Noir, and then Grandfather can help us.”
“How are we supposed to be getting onto the island? Because I am not rowing this little boat all the way there again.”
“We can apparate into the wards. We are blacks, remember. We need some time to recover enough of our magic, and then we will be safe behind the Black Castle fortress. Grandfather can hopefully help us clear our names, and you can get a divorce!”
It was a good idea, divorce. Not many wixen couples do that because it no longer recognizes the children as legitimate family heirs. Most unhappy couples either off each other or have happy relationships outside their marriages. But who cares? Her babies were never Lestrages, to begin with. They are Blacks through and through.
“Good ideas, cousin; for now, though, we should find somewhere to rest, away from the public eye. We never know when they will catch wind that we have escaped.”