He stared disconsolately into the water as the boat moved steadily toward its destination, the grey waves lapping against the side of the boat. He shivered and looked up only to look away quickly and resume his watch on the water. It had all happened too fast, it seemed that his mind was still processing the amount of information it had received in the last few days. He sighed heavily and braved another look ahead. The fortress stood cold and dark up on the rocky cliffs, and it seemed that a great mass of dark clouds had set up residence above it, but that could just be a result of his mood.
"Almost there," said one of the the men smugly. Sirius' jaw clenched, but he didn't say a word, in fact he exerted much energy to keep from looking at the man, instead he glanced away again, focusing on his hands, tightly clasped in his lap, trying to drown out the image of the fortress ahead. He thought about Harry and wondered if he was safe with his family by now, but this thought only lead to the one that he tried to avoid the most. He bit his lip and dug his fingernails into his hand to try and distract himself, before glancing out across the ocean. There was no land, he shifted his gaze to look behind him, to his other side, there was no land there either. He knew that, of course he knew that, but somehow, he had hoped, "Remus," he whispered chokingly.
"Eh?" the man said, but Sirius ignored him.
"Hoppin' mad..." the man continued, this time directing his attention to his friend. The other man however was keeping too close a watch on Sirius to say anything other than a brief grunt. Sirius thoughts drifted again, back to Remus. He had hoped to see Remus, when they brought him in, expecting him any minute to come raging through the door demanding to know how he could have betrayed them. He would have set it straight, and he would be out there right now, finding the real culprit. But there had been no Remus and no trial.
Sirius was brought back to the present by a jarring halt as the boat stopped against the rocky cliff of Azkaban. For the first time an emotion other than utter sadness enveloped him since Halloween night. He was gripped with fear, but he swallowed it, determined to keep as much dignity as possible. Instead he stood up and calmly stepped out of the boat and onto the dock, were he was then grabbed on either side by the two men and lead towards the entrance. "Take a deep breath, this is the last fresh air you will ever breathe." "I didn't do it," he said as they neared the doors. "What? Speak up!" the man on his left said sharply. Panic was growing inside him as the doors to the prison opened and he was lead inside, the doors closed with an eerie silence. He could feel them, everywhere, and the ghost like images of memories from his past kept dancing in his mind.
"I didn't do it!" he found himself shouting, "I'm innocent! It's Peter, he's a..." but he stopped, he didn't care about dignity anymore, there was only this driving need to get away, to escape. He struggled and stopped walking beside his escorts like an obedient animal. Finally he managing to pull himself out of their grasp before loosing his balance and stumbling backwards into a wall, where he shrunk to the ground his hands moving to clutch his face, trying to stop the image that was threatening to appear. "James!!" he cried silently.
"Come on, up you..." the men lifted him to his feet, and from there Sirius went quietly, there was no use fighting it, all he felt was an unbelievable sense of sadness and helplessness. Before he knew it he was pushed forward into a cold cell of dark moist stone, and the door closed behind him with a heaving clunk, he heard the magic words seal him in and then men turn to leave. "He's high security, on the orders of Crouch," one of the men said rather shakily and walked off hurriedly.
Sirius turned and went to the bars, he looked out into the dark hall beyond, and then they came. Four stood outside his cell within the blink of an eye. He gasped stumbling backwards and finally falling against the back wall. He bent over, touching his head to the cold damp floor, digging his fingers into the hard stone, trying to block the images and the pain. But there was no blocking this, every feeling he felt was being taken, only to be replaced by misery', and the image that had been threatening him all morning finally came full force into his mind's eye. And he screamed, he screamed for the anger, the betrayal and the pain. James peaceful face danced before his eyes, lying still on the floor of his house in Godric's Hollow, Lily dead upstairs, Harry crying on the floor, Hagrid coming to take him away, his last link to his best friend, but the images always came back to James. Eventually he stopped screaming, tears streaming down his face and lay down in a ball on the hard floor, where he stayed unmoved for what seemed like days, and may have been for all he knew.