Invisible String - Sebastian Sallow

Chapter Forty-Eight: In the Shadow of Azkaban

I heard them enough in my dreams. They didn't need to join my hours awake.

Rough winds rocked the carriage I was bound in, and the Auror who was escorting me to Azkaban simply stared at me, his green eyes unforgiving. Not an ounce of sympathy or understanding under them.

"You deserve much worse than Azkaban, Sallow."

"I didn't do anything!" I shouted again. The restraints burnt against my arms, making me cry out involuntarily.

"I wouldn't lie. It'll just hurt worse if you do."

"I-" I gasped for breath at the pain, but forced myself to continue through it, and believe my words. It wasn't so hard, but whatever enchantment was on these chains seemed to detect the slightest bit of dishonesty. "I didn't do anything wrong."

The Auror sighed, shaking his head slightly as he leaned forward. His dark hair was a mess, his glasses fogged up slightly from the weather outside of the carriage. Rougher winds, heavier rain, increasing coldness. I knew we were getting close to the prison, but the fear I held was still for Abbi alone.

What would she do in her desperation? I knew her well enough to know she'd run to the Repository, but we still didn't know enough about Slytherin's spell book to know the dangers she'd face if she went alone. I'd never thought I'd be ripped from her before we had a chance to really begin.

The image of her trying to get to Azkaban sent a different chill down my spine.

I'd never taught her how to cast a Patronus Charm. Never told her about Dementors, or the affects they had on people. If she came here, if she tried, she'd be lost in a more permanent way that I could not accept.

I had to trust that Ominis could keep her from acting too rashly, too quickly, and for once, that he would find out exactly what Abbi and I had been keeping from him. It might just be her only chance.

Thestrals cried from the front of the carriage, and an unnatural chill settled in over the interior, at the same time as a strong surge of Abbi's magic twisted and clenched inside of me, making me gasp painfully.

"Welcome to your new home, kid."

~

I had never expected that I would actually find myself in the cold, wet cells of Azkaban prison. Every inch of the room I was in was covered in sea water, the waves constantly battering the fortress and flooding the cell floor. The window did not have any barrier, it was too small to actually stick more than a hand out of regardless, rendering it useless. The bars of my cell were thick with rust and dried blood, the signs of a man who'd gone insane littering the walls in his carved out tally marks.

The first night was when most went mad, I knew this. I had thought about this place many times since that fateful day in the catacomb, thought about how any of them could hand me over at any moment.

I shuddered as I curled further into myself, attempting to keep warm in any sense of the word.

Every inch of my body was cold, numb from the rain, from the salt water spraying me every few minutes, but more than that, it was the Dementors.

Greater in any number than I could have even thought possible, I couldn't feel any warmth from any inch of the air since entering their perimeter. The Auror, a man I had learned was named Irving Longbottom, had hauled me in, still keeping me restrained with the enchanted chains of the carriage and had taken with him my wand.

He'd twirled it between his fingers and smiled at me as he cast a second Patronus for himself before exiting my cell.

The warmth the spector had provided had been blissful, if only for a minute. I needed to keep my sanity. If I could keep my sanity for just tonight, I could think to the next day, and the day after that. I needed to get out, I needed to see her again, and I needed to keep sane to do those things.