Wormtail was in hell. Or, at least, he thought he was. He simply could not imagine a place worse than Azkaban prison. He had been in a panic when the Aurors had dragged him into his cell and left him alone in the cold, bare room. For a few brief moments he thought that perhaps it wouldn't be as bad as everyone said it would be, and indeed for those first few minutes he thought he would be able to make it through without any problems at all. But then the Dementors, who had stayed away while the Aurors were present, found his cell and began tormenting their new victim.
Peter had never felt fear or despair as intense as he did that night. It made the fear he felt when groveling at his masters feet seem small and insignificant. All of his worst nightmares felt as if they were coming true all at once and there was absolutely nothing he could do about it. For hours he screamed into the darkness, but no help ever came. No one was there to show him pity or kindness and he soon came to believe that pain was all that existed in his world. In the still sane part of his mind he reasoned that at least there could not be anything worse than that night. But he was wrong. There was always the next night.
As the days passed what weak mental protections his mind had were obliterated as the Dementors continued to feast on his sanity. Soon he could barely tell the difference between day and night or when he was asleep having nightmares or when he was awake facing those same awful visions. His only brief refuge came when the Aurors brought him his food for the day and the Dementors retreated back to wherever it was they came from. These periods lasted for no more than fifteen minutes, but in that time Wormtail thought he would do anything to escape from this hell. Loyalty had never been his strong suit, but he knew he would sell out anyone he had to if there was a chance to leave this vile place. He only hoped for a chance to betray his fellow Death Eaters.
Then, one night, the Dementors left his cell and his sanity slowly returned to him. Though he didn't know it, it was late Friday night and the next day he was scheduled to go before the Wizengamot again. He waited for the guards to come and bring him his food but the minutes passed and no one came. Eventually his fear and depression had retreated far enough for him to wonder what was going on, and that is when he heard the first screams. He tried to decide if they belonged to guards or prisoners but there was no way to tell. Soon the screams were joined by loud thunderous booming sounds that could only be explosions. Not knowing what was going on, Wormtail decided to lay as far back in his cell as he could curled up into a little ball. He pressed his hands hard against his ear and tried his best to block out the sounds of a war going on around him, but it was only partially effective. It was in this pathetic position that he was found a short time later.
"Wormtail. Rise." a calm but threatening voice called to him. Wormtail felt compelled to listen to the voice, but his fear was still too strong and he remained on the floor hoping whoever had come into his cell would go away. "Now, Wormtail!" the voice said, this time much louder. Wormtail could no longer ignore the voice so he looked up and saw the Dark Lord Voldemort standing in his cell. Wormtail briefly thought he would rather have been faced with a Dementor but obediently began to stand up.
"Master…" Wormtail said roughly. He wondered why he had such problems talking, but realized he had done nothing but scream for the past week.
"Come. We are leaving." Voldemort said as he turned and walked out of the cell. Wormtail nodded and followed his master and as he exited his cell saw what had happened in the prison. Dust and debris were everywhere and it appeared as though several of the walls had been knocked down. Dead and dying guards were scattered about the prison and some of the being held captive were pleading to be released. The amount of destruction that he saw on their way out of the prison shocked him and Wormtail wondered how many other survived. But as he neared boats that had been prepared to take them away from the island prison he saw others who, judging from their appearances, could only have been inmates and knew that the Dark Lord had just won his first victory of this new war. His earlier thoughts of betrayal were forgotten as happily realized he was free again.
"Morsmordre!" he heard someone yell. The sky was immediately filled with the bright green light of the Dark Mark, and as Wormtail stared up at it a smile began to form on his face for the first time in days.
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