52 The Last Blacks! Part-1

{Azkaban, North Sea}

{3rd Sep 1991} 

{3rd Person POV}

...

'''Rigel Black: The Next Dark Lord?'''

Padfoot's beady eyes blinked as his mind slowly woke up from the loop of disparaging dreams he had gotten used to. He stared at his own face pasted on the front page of the newspaper. He was screaming, his hands grabbing onto the bars of his cell. His face fully described the insanity of his emotions as he was screaming while laughing.

The absurdity of why his face was on the cover of the newspaper made his eyes check out the date. 

'16 years... it's been 16 years.' Padfoot thought. Whatever strength he got once again left his body as he looked at himself in the eyes once again, the photo had been taken during his brief stay in the Ministry cells. The Blacks were famous for their illness, the Black insanity as someone would call it. It is a state of intense emotions that sometimes breaks their psyche or common sense for a while.

This was how he ended up in this place, the desire for revenge. The grief over the fate of the Potters. The betrayal of a friend had caused him to go insane in those brief moments, with Harry safe with Hagrid and Dumbledore, he had rushed to Pettigrew who somehow framed him for the murders of muggles and the death of James and Lily.

As his thoughts once again began receding into the void, the flickering picture of himself screaming drew his eye once again, he looked past his face and read the heading. The name didn't ring any bells but he still tried to remember, that if another Dark Lord was rising then his first target would be Harry.

'Harry... yeah, Harry is safe with Dumbledore, but why hasn't the old man taken care of this new Dark Lord...' The questions kept piling up and Padfoot gathered his concentration one more time as he read through the article. The article delved into the fact that the new Dark Lord was a Parselmouth and for a moment Padfoot growled. 

Dark memories of fighting Voldemort as he hissed and animated debris of the battle itself into large snakes came back to haunt him as he could feel an intense chill surround him. His thoughts about Harry and the outside world had called back the dementors and for the next several moments Padfoot curled his head into his legs.

...

An hour later when the Dementors retreated after getting another snack, Padfoot lifted his head. His beady eyes were half-lidded as he looked at the last line of the article.

...

''' To read more about The Mystery of Rigel Black's Parentage and his mysterious link to He Who Must Not Be Named, turn to page 3...'''

...

'Who is he, I can't remember someone that had talent related to Parselmouth in our family...' Padfoot thought as he struggled to turn the page over. With his tired paws, it took him more than a few tries to turn the page. 

...

'''The Mystery of Rigel Black's Parentage!'''

'''If you have already read all the other articles you would begin to wonder where did he even come from. Well, according to sources Rigel Black's name first surfaced when his Hogwarts letter emerged from the Hogwarts Registry. Before it, the Wizarding world had no idea that Rigel even existed.'''

''' According to his age, there is only one suitable candidate. Sirius Black, who is a notorious Death Eater who was acting as a spy against Albus Dumbledore's efforts to stop Voldemort...'''

...

Padfoot blinked, the tiredness vanishing from his eyes as he looked at his own name. The reason his photo was used in the front pages now made sense but he stood up on all fours, bent his neck, and looked closer. The words were clear and he was not hallucinating, a sudden sense of clarity hit him as repressed emotions that had been whittled down after years of Dementor exposition sprung up.

'My son... My son?' Padfoot thought flabbergasted, he was confused, about everything that was written might be possible eluded him, but still, the happiness that sprung forth surprised him... and the Dementors that guarded his cell. This time there were more, a lot more and the feeding process lasted longer. Hours later they left, leaving behind Padfoot in worse shape than he had ever before except for the starting days.

His beady eyes blinked as he stopped thinking about how he felt, it was another skill that he had developed, keeping his years of pranking memories at bay was hard as he was a treasure trove of happiness for the Dementors. He kept his mind blank as he looked down at the article.

Whatever the truth was he didn't know, but if his son was out there then he couldn't let him be alone. With unsteady steps, he stood and walked over to the bars, his shrunken form easily passed through the bars as he walked out of his cell. Surprise colored his eyes for a brief moment but he didn't stay frozen for too long.

Padfoot wasn't fast, not after years of muscle degradation but he still was pretty quick as within a few minutes he was able to navigate to a hole in the castle walls. The Azkaban prison had many such openings but no one was ever able to navigate through and escape from them because of the Dementors.

But in his small body and along with his calm mind suppressing his emotions, he was able to avoid detection from the Dementors. His eyes looked down as the waves crashed against the castle walls. There was water for as long as his eyes could see and without a wand, he couldn't apparate. As his only option was to swim, he jumped from the hole. 

Another advantage of having a small form was the fact that his body didn't have to endure the amount of impact his real body would have had too. Plus with four legs, swimming was a lot faster. As Padfoot continued to... paddle away in the general direction of the setting sun, clarity slowly returned to his eyes. With no more Dementors to worry about and the aura of depression lifted, he could now think about his son and maybe even check in on Harry. 

But first, he needed to find land. His eyes looked up as his head bobbed on the sea, the irony of the situation hit him as he looked at the stars, even after all these years, the formal education about his family's past that he had received before going to Hogwarts shined as his eyes locked onto his namesake in the sky.

The brightest star in the night sky guided him as he slowly swam, an alarm ripped through Azkaban as the news of the escape of Sirius Black ripped through the Wizarding World. 

On another corner of the world, Rigel closed his eyes as he enjoyed Evelyn's soft lips wrapped around his shaft, entirely unaware of the changing tides.

...

----------------------------------

AN - So what do you guys think?

P.S.- 34+ Extra Chapters on P.atreon!