IN THE WIZARDING WORLD, everybody knew what Azkaban was. The dark prison that sat on a mountain of jagged rocks, the walls high and steep with not a window in sight. Treacherous waves that crashed upon it.

But that wasn't even the worst part.

The worst part would forever be what it held inside. The psychopaths. The murderers. The dementors. The prison had no need for walls when the dementors trapped everybody in their own minds, re-living their worst memories while the creatures fed on them.

Well, everybody except two.

It was forever a mystery to the prisoners inside why a child had been locked up. They didn't understand why they didn't just send her away to some orphanage. What could they possibly gain from keeping her inside?

All Sirius Black knew was that her mother had been brought in, heavily pregnant, before dying in birth.

And that Azkaban refused to let the child go.

He leaned against the bars, nothing in those cells held any warmth or softness, so it didn't really matter what he did. He grimaced slightly as he leaned against his Azkaban tattoo 3060, any touch at all gave prisoners a sharp sensation of pain.

He looked across the way at cell 3045, it's owner just eleven years old. She had wiry brown hair that hung everywhere, and hazel eye's that forever seemed to change colour. She was drawing with her finger in the dirt, eye's squinted in concentration.

"What are you writing?" He asked, forcing a smile onto his face.

Nikita looked up, hair in her face as she stared at him. Understandably her eye sight wasn't very good. The sun was something she hardly saw and it wasn't like the guards gave a rats arse about her condition.

"Uhm... you know, let me get back to you on that." She whispered. Nikita couldn't read nor write, all she knew was what Sirius had taught her. Which, apart from a cocky attitude and stubbornness, wasn't much.

He hummed, resting on his bed.

She looked up again, allowing her eye's to adjust. "Siri?" She whispered, wondering if he'd fallen into his mind like the rest of the inmates.

"I'm fine, Little Moony."

She nodded, returning to her drawing. It looked like an R... or at least, what she imagined an R to look like. It had a circle, half a circle, and a line. That's what an R was, right? She added another circle, just to be sure. A small crack on light flitted over her drawing, and she squinted through one eye at the crack in her wall.

A small wedge of paper was stuck there, rolled up as tight as possible. Nikita quickly stood up and pulled the paper all the way through with some difficulty. She glanced over at Sirius before looking at the thing in her hands. "Siri? Siri!"

"'Said I'm fine, Nik." He grumbled.

"I got something!" She whispered, clearly excited.

He looked at her dubiously, before seeing the letter in her hands. He shot up, walking towards the bars once more, "Where'd you get that, Little Moony?"

"Through the hole! It's a letter, isn't it?"

"It is. But it's so much more then just that. It's your ticket out of here." A genuine smile spread over his face. "It's your Hogwarts letter."

She froze, eye's wide. She knew what Hogwarts was. Of course she did. Sirius told her everything one could possibly know about Hogwarts. She looked from him to the letter. "I-It is?"

Sirius nodded. "It is. You're gonna be free, Moony!"

Nik shook her head, dropping the letter onto the hard floor. She stuck her chin out, "I don't wanna go."

Sirius straightend up, "What? Of course you wanna go, it's Hogwarts, Moony, Hogwarts! You'll get to go and- and make friends, and learn magic! Why wouldn't you wanna go?"

Nikita's eye's began to well up. "But I don't wanna leave you."

He sighed, crouching down so he was eye level with her. "Little Moony. Remember why I call you that?" She bowed her head. "Because you're named after a goddess, and not just after any goddess, the-"

"-The goddess of the moon, Nokomis." She finished for him.

"That's right. So, by all rights, you're a goddess, and all goddesses need to do things they're afraid of. And... sometimes, they need to say goodbye to people they don't wanna, so they can live a better life."

"But I don't wanna!" She replied petulantly.

He gave a meaningful look, "Sometime's we don't have a choice. Chin up, Moony. You'll get to learn magic!" No matter what he said, Nikita didn't look any more willing. She sat down on the floor, picking up the letter and staring at the words blankly.

"What- what if they ask about my family?" She asked suddenly.

"Tell them to shove it." Sirius said simply, chuckling. "I'm just joking, Moony. Tell 'em you're an orphan. Tell 'em the truth. Not about Azkaban though, don't tell them about this place."

"Why not?"

"Because some people might judge ya for it. And that's not right. I won't be there to look after you anymore, so you're gonna have to look after yourself."

Nik looked back down at the letter. The very thought of leaving Azkaban- the only place she had ever known- left her with a quickening pace. It wasn't out of excitement, but fear. What if they did find out? What if they called her a freak because of it? What if they judged her, like Sirius said?

"I'm scared." She whispered out loud.

"Good. Being scared is good. So long as you do it anyway. Do you wanna know what that's called?"

"What?"

"Bravery."

"But what if I'm not brave?"

"Don't be silly," Sirius looked her in the eye. "You're the bravest person I've ever met. The bravest, the kindest, the strongest. Because you're you, and don't let anyone ever tell you otherwise, understood?"

She nodded. "I understand, Siri."

"Good, now get some sleep. I'll wake you up when they come to get you, alright?"

She nodded silently, biting down on her lip to stop the tears from falling. "Goodnight, Siri."

Nikita curled up into a little ball, clutching the letter in her small hands as she attempted to fall asleep.

Sirius smiled, though it was strained. It was the smile of a man who knew he was about to lose the very reason he smiled.

"Goodnight, Little Moony."

***

A/N

*awkwardly slides into view*

So this time I'm not editing, I'm re-writing. Yeah yeah I know, "I preferred the old version." "What's wrong with the old one?"

I didn't like them, so hush.

I'm giving this whole book a makeover. And yes, I know, I haven't even completed it yet. But y'all can't stop me. The old version was cringey, cramned with mistakes, had zero plot, and yet still had a hundred plot holes.

Q: Re-reader or first time?