I looked out the window of the Hogwarts Express at the growing shape of Hogwarts. I still wondered what had happened that morning, that blank space in time in the morning, and where the thin cut on my arm had come from. What was Draco not telling me, and why, why, was Bellatrix Lestrange at the Malfoys'? She was in Azkaban. Right? I couldn't answer any of those questions, I realized as I walked into Hogwarts. It felt like half of me was waiting at the Malfoys' still, waiting for me to come and pick her up. But this half of me was ignorant and just... not quite me, not really. But I could sense it there. That is, until Tonks stepped in front of me and shook my shoulders hard.
"What?" I asked defensively, rubbing my shoulders and noticing a bit of­­ I licked my finger­­ mince pie sitting there.
"We just called your name three times, asked if you would mind having pie dumped on your head, then dumped mince pie on you, but you didn't notice and continued walking to the Head Table," Alice said. That explained the pie.
I walked back to the Common Room from dinner, noting the nagging in the back of my head that told me I needed to do something, but I didn't know what.
A few hours later, I realized what I wanted to do. I needed to visit Sirius Black in Azkaban.
I sat by the fire until everyone had left the common room, which, might I add, was very late at night. Then I transformed into a phoenix and Apparated into Azkaban. I didn't really know which cell Sirius was in, so I flew along the cells of sleeping people. For some reason the Dementors weren't really bothering me too much, so I had free range. I flew past "Bellatrix Lestrange" and Bartemius Crouch, Jr., and many other prisoners. Finally, I got to a cell occupiedby a bedraggled man. He had black, elbow length hair and sunken eyes, but I could still see the man from my photo album somewhere in there, maybe in the way his mouth slightly curled up in a smile at the edges, possibly from a dream, or the way he still wore his shirt, just a tad too messy, as if he didn't have a care in the world. I pictured his dingy cell in my mind and Apparated yet again, and I transformed back into a human. Suddenly the reality of it struck me: the harsh living conditions, the Dementors. I felt the happiness being sucked away from me and I almost forgot my purpose there, in that horrible place.
Then I whipped out my wand.
"E​XPECTO PATRONUM!"​I yelled, waking many of the prisoners. My phoenix soared
through the air, driving the Dementors into a dark corner of the prison. It stayed there, guarding them. I looked over at Sirius, but he was still sleeping, a new grin on his gaunt face. I almost couldn't bear to wake him from his now happy dreams, but I did. I grabbed him by the shoulders and shook. Hard.
"Huh? Oh. What? Who are you?" Sirius asked. I tried to ignore the sinking feeling in my stomach and looked away.
"You don't remember me?" In truth, I couldn't really remember him much, either, but at least I could.
"No... wait, Lily?" He rubbed his eyes. "But you look so young." I groaned in frustration.
"Mum's dead. I'm Scarlet. But why does e​veryone think that?" Sirius squinted, then his face brightened.
"Scarlet?" I nodded. He smiled.
"Why are you here?" he asked.
"I'll tell you once you tell me one thing: was it Wormie?"
"Wormie? Oh, Peter? Yes." His face hardened. "The traitor. The r​at.​I should have
known. A RAT!" Sirius buried his face in his hands. "And now they're gone! Lily, James! It's all my fault!"
"It's okay. I'm gonna get you out of here." "That's impossible."
"Nuh­uh."
"Uh huh."
"Nuh­uh."
"Uh huh."
"Nuh­uh."
"Fine." He finally agreed, but after that, we plotted long into the night about h​ow to get
out. We just didn't agree on when. Sirius thought we should leave now and get out of this horrible place. I said that was bogus, we'd get caught. Finally, very early in the morning, I left to get some sleep.Three hours later, I stumbled upon the problem named classes. I was too tired to go get breakfast, so I just lay in bed until 10:00, the start of classes.
At ten, I jumped up. I was late! I hadn't eaten breakfast, I hadn't gotten my books, I hadn't even gotten changed, and the worst part was that today was Monday: just after classes began, the staircases changed. I wouldn't be able to get to class.
Once I had sprint­changed, I ran outside and up the steps. I had one minute left. At the sound of footsteps, I turned behind me. There, panting and sweating, was Marie. I shook off my surprise and kept running. But I was so distracted that I forgot about the trick step. I stumbled and fell, unable to get out. Marie stopped and looked at me sitting in the middle of the stairs and smirked. We heard a grinding, and suddenly we were trapped with no way out.
"Get me out."
"No."
"Why?"
"'Cause I don't like you." "Why not?"
"'Cause."
"Pleeeeease?" I begged.
"Fine." Marie hoisted me up by the armpits and shoved me backwards.
"Hope you're happy."
"Oh I am, trust me," I said, still trying to regain my balance from that last, hard, shove. "Can't get your balance?" she taunted, referring to my pinwheeling arms.
"Could you HELP? I'm about to fall over the edge here."
"Good." I was suddenly falling, over the edge of the stairs. I saw my life flash before my
eyes in the decades­long period of time that I fell. For some reason, I only counted twenty seconds before the last few when I hit the ground.
I heard a loud c​rack and blinked, trying to destroy the black spots clouding my vision. But I was tired, so tired, so I succumbed to the black.