"Great Harry Potter is Second year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Dangerous things going on at Hogwarts. Harry Potter must be kept safe!"
"A Second year?" Sirius muttered. "I've been here that long?"
"Yes, Mr Dogzard, sir," the odd elf answered nodding his head. Floppy ears went everywhere.
"How are you here?" Sirius asked. "Don't the wards prevent family elves from coming here?"
"Wards keep house-elves from serving bad masters sent to Evil Place. Mr Dogzard is not Dobby's master or master's family. Since master not send Dobby wards not stop Dobby."
Sirius was struck by the loop-hole. "And no one knows about this hole?"
The little elf shrugged. "No one ask elves."
Sirius snickered at the answer. The little guy may seem all meek and beaten down, but Sirius recognized the elf had the makings of a Marauder with that answer.
"Can you get me out of here, Dobby?"
The little elf's ears dropped. "Dobby can't do. Wards stop Dobby from taking Mr Dogzard out of Evil Place. Dobby bring Harry Potter sir's Dogzard food and clotheses."
Sirius thought furiously. The thought that Harry needed him cut through the accumulated years of depression and madness caused by the dementors. A mad plan started to form in his head. Of course it was insane- the entire concept of escaping from Azkaban was insane!
"Dobby, can you meet me when I get to shore with warm, dry clothes, food, and a wand?"
Dobby nodded sending his ears thrashing around wildly again. "Dobby do that. Bad Master has many wands. Dobby can bring. Oh! Dobby say bad thing about Master! Dobby must punish Dobby when Dobby get home."
Sirius had seen more than his share of oddly behaved house-elves growing up in the Black family. His mother's elf, Kreacher, was so bloody insanely devoted that he terrorized Sirius as a child simply because his mother didn't approve of her eldest son's attitude, while Regulus appeared to be the perfect Black son so the elf doted on him. However, Sirius had never heard of an elf so willing to go against its bonded family.
"When is the next new moon?"
Dobby peered up at the gaunt wizard. "Five days, Mr Dogzard."
Sirius smiled. "Okay, Dobby. Here's what we're going to do…"
....
21 May 1993
To Sirius's disappointment, and Dobby's increasing panic, Padfoot's escape had to be delayed until May.
The Azkaban's island was about a mile northwest of the Scottish island of Westray. Strong wards kept the island away from Muggle eyes and off their charts. The shipping charts showed a shoal that was a navigation hazard that had been used by the Royal Navy as a gunnery range. As such, both commercial and fishing vessels steered clear of the area. However, its position also left it exposed to the fury of the North Atlantic in winter. While the wards kept the worst of the wind out of the prison, the island itself along with the surrounding sea had no such protection.
Sirius realized he needed three things to successfully escape from the island. First he needed to be able to avoid the dementors once out of his cell. This was solved as Padfoot was virtually invisible to the demon-like creatures. Once outside the prison proper, he needed to avoid detection by the human guards. For that he needed the darkness of the new moon. Finally, he needed the weather to cooperate if he were to have a chance of swimming the mile through the cold water.
Padfoot slipped out of the cell after using a key Dobby had 'borrowed' from a guard. It was late and even the crazies were asleep, whimpering in their dreams. No one noticed the large, albeit emaciated, dog make its way silently through the prison. Prisoners stayed in their cells all day except for once per year when they are taken out for their annual cleaning and health check so Sirius was quickly in unknown territory. Fortunately, Dobby had scouted the safest path to a little used sally port left over from the prison's days as a functional fortress.
It was almost anticlimactic getting to the water's edge. Padfoot encountered no guards, human or dementor, and no alarms were raised. The swim was even worse than he'd expected.
The seas were relatively calm but the cold water was like a thousand needles stabbing him at once through Padfoot's fur. He kept his godson's image in mind and mental repeated, 'He needs me' as he kept paddling.
.....
Join my p@treon and read ahead by more than 60+ chapters.
Link : [email protected]/InfinityWeaver
Free members can read the next two chapters for free on my p@treon