Fic Update: A Place Called Azkaban
A Place Called Azkaban
Chapter 9: On AO3 & FFNet
Holy Stromboli, it's done. Well, minus the Epilogue but really - the story I wanted to tell of Sirius's time in Azkaban, which took almost as long as his prison sentence itself to get through, is actually concluded.
I could stop there, but I've had bits and pieces of the Epilogue written for years, and it would be a shame not to connect them and set them free. I also have more character development to lay out.
Because of that, I'm not going to say here what I plan on saying there and/or in the notes for that chapter. I have a lot of thoughts on how Sirius's time in Azkaban is going to have changed him in my universe (the ECVerse, and wow do I now wish I'd put some more thought into that title and things, because I was trying to do that esoteric thing people do when their title is basically unconnected to the story itself or whatever). But I think I can pretty easily get those thoughts and impressions across in the Epilogue while keeping everyone's attention.
Instead, I'm going to write here about the bits and pieces that kind of hint how I see Azkaban and how I think Sirius escaped. Let's just flat out admit it; I stopped reading HP after Order of the Phoenix. I have a younger brother and there is only just so much "teenage angst caps lock rage" I can take at any one time. OOTP put me off the series entirely. I didn't watch any of the further movies (GOF's movie with the long hair and whatever uncut unkempt mess fad it was starting or following irritated me too, actually), didn't read any of the books. So I'm vaguely aware there's a portrayal of Azkaban not unlike a modern prison somewhere in the canon - low, boxy building structure.
I found the picture of the tower, which is apparently Ye Olden Timez POA Cover Art, and fell in love. Because they're wizards, this is England, their school is a castle, so obviously the prison is a tower. (By this logic the Ministry should be an underground palace. Still holding out hope on that one.) So once upon a time when I had photoshop software, I made cover art. Which I still like, yay me.
Anywho, while still avoiding discussion of Sirius's character development, which I hope to get into in the Epilogue, I did do a lot of things here on purpose. One may notice that the chapter headers, which indicate the date of the events in the chapter, start off very specific and then get fuzzy. This is not laziness. This is to reflect the fact that Sirius is losing time in Azkaban, as a result of being drained into unconsciousness and trapped in memories on a fairly regular basis. He doesn't have more than a vague guess as to the date at any given time, and it gets worse as time goes on from the last confirmation he has of the actual date. Obviously that changes when he gets the Prophet in the last chapter, which has an actual date on it, and now he has a clue.
Also, the strucutre of Azkaban. I actually kind of think of Dementors like ysalamari, which is a reference that doesn't make sense to anyone without EU SW knowledge. In the Star Wars Expanded Universe (i.e., books published before Phantom Menace came out and ruined... everything), ysalamari are introduced as creatures who sort of form an invisible bubble around themselves which pushes the Force away. (We'll discuss how that works with the Force "binding and penetrating" living things.... once I figure it out.) Back to my original point; Dementors. I see them as sucking away happiness and generating despair, as they've been described. It only makes sense that this effect would be spherical, radiating outward from their bodies in all directions to the limit of each Dementor's personal influence. Which is why I put maximum security on the ground floor rather than further away from the ground where one would think escape would be easier.
It might be, if there was any point to actually getting out of your cell in Azkaban. I mean, once you do, you're free - among hundreds of Dementors. Yay?
Yeah, not so much. The cells really are actually protective, what with the whole cold iron aspect of the bars, which is why I kept up with that descriptor. Dementors aren't affected by much, and I don't imagine they notice much in the physical world. There's obviously some element of intangibility to them and invisibility as they affect Muggles, but it's not like we've got that many serious research projects into Dementors themselves. Their medical effects? Sure, I'm certain there's a good few Healers running around with various theories on those. But I see cold iron, which traditionally is effective against the fey, as being something a Dementor would register - it wouldn't necessarily stop them but it would indicate to them when they should stop.
I don't actually have a reason right now for them to care to obey wizarding or mortal rules, but I figured cold iron would be at least a semi-effective barrier.
But if they tend to stay toward the ground (I also was germinating this without really thinking of their constantly-floating thing per POA? I don't know it's been a long time since I saw that movie) then their effect would be concentrated on the lower levels of the prison. And that's usually what you want for the worst prisoners, right - the most control and the greatest effect to subdue them.
So, maximum security is on the bottom two floors of the tower, mostly. The further away you are from a Dementor, the less it effects you. So on a small island with limited horizontal space, you do what they did in Manhattan - and start going vertical.
The other thing in here are the throwawy references to The Dark Is Rising (via The Grey King). This was one of those writing things that snuck up on me and just fit, so the next thing I know there you go it's in there. Also, I think Sirius has very pale grey eyes, almost silver. Therefore, so does Padfoot. And that, per Grey King canon, makes him a dog with silver eyes - and such dogs can see the wind. Years later, do I know where these references are intended to go? No, actually; it's not a matter of having forgotten but not having figured it out. But I do have some other ideas of background world-building that this meshes with so I'm going to carry it through and see where it takes us. No more tidbits at this time.
And I guess the last thing here is that the pieces of how Sirius escaped are all hiding in these chapters. No, the Epilogue is not going to be the escape. But basically, the entire Island is a massive crag jutting out of the sea. The cliffsides that make up its "coasts" have been polished by years of pounding water, so they are sheer and slippery. Then the island itself is eight nautical miles out from the mainland. So for Sirius to escape, he has to get out of the cell, out of the prison, and off the island.
Let's take it in pieces. He says in POA that he could turn into a dog and slip through the bars. Well, we'll let JKR have her artistic license on that. I have an Alaskan Malamute; 90 lbs, but not as big as a male Newfoundland. No Newfoundland, as Padfoot is described, is narrow enough in the skull, shoulders, ribcage or hips to slip through any prison bars unless they're wide enough for an emaciated human to wedge through sideways; that's just a matter of bone structure, not weight. But we'll go with it because canon, whatever.
Assuming that that's feasible, well, Azkaban has to have some sort of drainage/sewage system because - well, minimal sanitation, so because. That's the easiest way for him to get out unseen and unimpeded. In Chapter 8, Fudge stumbles on a large grate in the middle of the floor on ground level. This is the sewer access.
And, Snow White and the Huntsman style, this thing basically spews out into the ocean. It's petty to claim the idea first but I did actually plan out the chapters for this years and years ago so I knew essentially when I wanted to check in on Sirius and what I wanted to be happening, and how he was going to escape. (And that movie makes me roll my eyes. Because we all have perfect makeup and the ability to tweeze our eyebrows in a stinking filthy prison with no bathing facilities where your bathroom is a pot/hole in the ground. Wouldn't those tweezers be put to better use picking the lock?)
Then it's just a matter of swimming to the raft as a dog, taking a rest, and then making it the rest of the way. Becuase Sirius is not exactly a trained athelete swimming the English Channel, here. It's colder being in the North Sea for one; and his physical condition is abysmal. Somehow - pure stubborn cussedness IMHO - he made it and then didn't collapse into hypothermia once he got to land.
I do see him meeting a series of humans along the journey from the Azkaban coast to Hogwarts though - people who want to give him some food and warmth and care. And some who don't. But I think Padfoot probably encounters some unknowing helping hands along his way - maybe even one or two people who would keep such a dog, though he can't stay.
I really like this fic. I really always have; it's definitely one of the things I've written that I enjoy re-reading. James doesn't really appear elsewhere in this series, and the only other place he might is as a kid and teen in Horseshoes and Hand Grenades. But I have such little inspiration for that. The inspiration that struck me for this was mostly the picture of the prison, the song "Kiss from a Rose" by Seal, and the need to explain how I took a Sirius Black who in canon was a reckless jerk with a somewhat tragic past, and turned him into what I think is a mature adult - though, yes, therapy - while also circumventing what I saw as a complete massacre of his character's potential in OOTP.
(I mean, there is a point where the young adult audience grows up a bit and the lack of competent adult involvement in these stories where kids go off on adventures just irritates. And I would say it's a "getting older" thing but the lack of reliable adult figures had actually started to piss me off when I was in high school/college. Let's not talk about how popular culture may or may not contribute to concepts kids have in youth and teenagerhood that they're alone and have to push through problems by themselves because grown-ups won't help.)
But now that I've wandered totally from the point and probably into some Muggle-Repelling charms, I'm going to say I hope anyone who sees this enjoyed the last chapter and will hang in there for the Epilogue. And a sincere thank you to everyone who's stuck through this story over the last seven and a half years.