It had been several long hours since Sirius had finished his dinner. The food in Azkaban was actually horrible; it was a lump of grey stuff with bits in and had an odd smell. Sirius personally thought it was probably the dementor's waste product. But although the food had been completely disgusting, Sirius had learned to accept it because it was the only thing here given to him and he much rather ate the mush rather than dying of starvation. And it also gave him enough strength to survive. The food didn't contain much energy – Sirius had realised this when he had used up all his energy on his first day trying to punch a dementor to prove his innocence. This obviously hadn't worked and it had unfortunately drained Sirius of nearly every ounce of energy he had.
Sirius was flicking through the news paper article again, staring at the words and pictures as if trying to decipher anything out of the unusual. Of course, Sirius knew that it would be pointless – it wasn't Fudge's style to leave riddles or clues for a pointless mad goose chase. But still, there had to be something. Harry Potter hadn't been mentioned once throughout the whole article. Knowing that the boy was the son of James Potter, Sirius wasn't too sure if this was a good thing or a bad thing.
Sirius was just about to scan the next page again, but something caught his eye. A large picture which had taken up over a quarter of a page had stood out among the rest of the newspaper. There was something wrong with the image, Sirius was sure of it. It had made the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end.
Sirius had recognised Molly Prewett and Arthur Weasley almost immediately. Their happy faces smiled at him and they waved furiously alongside seven other people, all male apart from the youngest, but it was evident that they were all related. Sirius then remembered that the Weasley family had produced countless children and Molly had been two months pregnant when Sirius had seen her last. Molly had said that the doctors thought it was a girl. The same girl in the photograph. Bill Weasley/William (Sirius had always called him Bill-Will) looked quite pale, almost sick with a familiar scar down the left side of his face. Sirius realised that the scar had been from a werewolf and that Bill had probably been bitten at some point. Remus had multiple scars which looked identical to the one on Bill's face. Sirius moved his gaze towards the second oldest brother; Charlie also had a mad smile and looked overly joyful. Sirius briefly wondered what he was doing now, since had had left Hogwarts quite some time ago. His gaze then fell upon two identical twins grinning mischievously at the camera as if they were planning something. Sirius knew that they had always been inseparable when they were younger and caused havoc wherever they went. It seemed as though they had kept this trait throughout the years. The boy next to them looked smarter, his smile not as wide as the others. He looked more formal and posh and out of place next to the twins. Sirius distinctly registered a "head boy" badge before snorting and turning to look at Arthur Weasley. He had indeed aged since the last time they had met. His lines were more pronounced but he still wore a friendly smile and his eyes sparkled happily. Next to him stood his wife, Molly. She too had aged but her face hadn't changed one bit – it was exactly how Sirius had remembered. Her arm was wrapped around a younger girls shoulders, presumably the daughter that molly had been pregnant with. Sirius studied her face carefully – the girl (Sirius didn't know her name) was still quite young but had her father's eyes and body structure. Even through the black and white print, Sirius guessed that she too had flaming red hair. He then looked at the last boy in the photo. It was Ron Weasley. The boy had changed the most. He had only been a couple of months old when Sirius had seen him and the boy hadn't seemed to like him that much. Sirius vividly remembered when he had asked to hold the boy and he had vomited all over his coat. Sirius wrinkled his nose at the memory.
But then, he found it. Sirius found the mistake he had seen in the corner of his eye. On the boys shoulder was a rat. Sirius stared dumbfounded at the animal, his attention focussed upon the front paw which had a toe missing. Peter had cut off his finger before he had blown apart half the street. The number of times Sirius had seen Peter transform was ridiculous and he would recognise that rat anywhere. It was definitely him. The caption then informed him that Arthur's children (including Ron) would be returning to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry at the start of September. Fear coursed through him. Harry was no longer safe. If that rat were attend school with Ron, and then Pettigrew would be stationed right next to Harry and would be able to deliver him to Voldemort if any information of his return reached his ears.
It was like a puzzle waiting for all the pieces to fall into place. As soon as the first piece fell, it would work like clockwork in chronological order.
And then a thought suddenly struck Sirius – Ron was in the same year as Harry and the chances that they were in the same house were pretty high. This meant that they probably even shared a dorm. It was completely irrelevant whether the boys were friends or not because either way, there was a Death-Eater held within the walls of the castle ready to act.
Harry had to get out of there. How much did he know about his parents? Did he know that his father along with two others became illegal animagi when they discovered that their best friend was a werewolf? Dumbledore hadn't known about any of this so he couldn't have told. Sirius knew that Harry had gone to live with Lily's sister and her husband. They were both muggles and hated magic so they probably hadn't told him much either. If you put two and two together then you would realise that Harry didn't know much about his parents or Peter which left him in more danger than he could possibly understand.
Sirius's lack of knowledge about life outside the cells was driving him mad. Pettigrew's existence outside of the cells was making his madness an obsession. One repetitive thought coursed through him as if his life depended upon it. A thought that that could endanger innocent lives. A thought that that was being hammered through his head with every beat of his heart.
He's at Hogwarts.
