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Galleons at the Leaky Cauldron


Remus sat on the sidewalk outside of a muggle thriftshop, his arms folded over his knees, his head leaned down. He had a migraine from all of the yelling and crying he’d done. They’d taken the Knight Bus in to London, using some of the coins Remus had intended to use to buy the penknife. It wasn’t near enough for a room at the Leaky Cauldron, though, so Sirius had told Rey to wait there on the walk while he went in and sold all he had of worth to a muggle - his record player. Remus stared at his trainers through the gap in his shins, feeling sadder than he’d ever felt in all of his life, the weight of the entire world resting on his narrow shoulders.

Sirius came out of the thrift shop, clutching several multicolored bills and an assortment of coins. He wasn’t sure how much pounds were worth in galleons, but it sounded as though he may have gotten a fair amount as far as he could tell, so he’d taken the offer from the shop keeper and parted with all of the records he owned. He’d watched them slide from his fingers and into the shop keeper’s hands with a pain in his chest, like he was letting go of dear friends… Goodbye Mr. Lennon, Mr. McCartney. Goodbye, Mr. Dylan, Mr. Croche… Goodbye Deep Purple and Creedence… Mr. Jagger… Goodbye Ms. Mitchell, Ms. Joplin…

But Remus was a much dearer friend.

They walked back to the Leaky Cauldron and got a room, though the money would only pay for two nights’ stay. They went up to the sparsely furnished room and found there was only one small bed and a little couch by the fireplace. Sirius put his bag down on the couch, letting Remus take the bed. Exhausted, Remus fell onto the mattress, face-down on the pillow and cried himself to sleep. Sirius politely stayed by the fireplace, pretending as though he couldn’t hear the that Remus was crying because he got the feeling that he wanted to be left alone, even from Sirius.

So, hard as it was to do it, Sirius fought the instinct to go and comfort him by busying himself with emptying out his bag and sorting through his things, trying to find stuff that the shops in Diagon Alley might be interested in buying from him...

When he had a good pile of things, he scrawled a note to Remus, who was fast asleep by now, and put it on the nightstand. Remus’s face was so much more peaceful now, though still redder than his complexion usually was. His long lashes fluttered with dreams. Sirius hoped they were good ones - Remus deserved good dreams. He sighed and carefully put a blanket over him before sneaking out of the room and through the passage to Diagon Alley.

The first thing he sold was his broomstick. It was nearly as hard as letting go of the records, but he got a lot more for that than he had for the records, and he tucked the heavy wizard coins into his pocket. Most of that money would go toward purchasing Remus a new wand, which was one of the most important things he needed to do. It was his fault that his old one had been broken, after all… When Remus woke up later on, he’d bring him to Mr. Ollivander’s and get him a brand new one.

Next, he sold his cauldron - he could use the school issued ones, as crummy as they were, it wasn’t as though potions was his strongest class anyways. He sold his gold scales under the same premise. At worst, he was sure James would share his. He was standing at a cart near the mouth of Knockturn Alley, about to sell the penknife when he heard his name called.

“Sirius Black!”

He turned around and there was Lily Evans. He withdrew the penknife, “I’ll be right back,” he promised the salesman he’d been talking to, and he walked over to Lily, who was running over to him. “Hey there, Evans,” he said.

Lily smiled, “So I see Potter’s rescue mission went well, then.”

Sirius looked surprised, “How’d you hear --”

“I ran into him on the Knight Bus a couple days ago,” Lily replied. “He didn’t give me details, but he mentioned he and Rey were on their way to a rescue mission for you.” Lily raised eyebrows, “Buried under too many adoring ladies to handle it? Needed to call in the Marauders to back you up?” she smirked.

“Something like that,” Sirius answered, though his usual swagger wasn’t laced through the words.

Lily looked over her shoulder, “Well, in the interest of full disclosure, I’m here with Marlene McKinnon. She’s in Eeylops getting an owl for her birthday present. Why haven’t you been writing her? She said she’s written you loads of times. You may want to have a good excuse ready for her when she sees you.”

“She wrote me four times, yeah,” Sirius said guiltily.

“Well why didn’t you write back? She really misses you,” Lily said.

Sirius said, “Well it’s just that --”

“SIRIUS!”

It was Marlene herself, coming out of Eeylops with a cage carrying a snow-white owl with bright green eyes. She hurried over, and stood on her tippy-toes to kiss his chin. He smiled awkwardly but instead of hissing her back he waved to the cage, “That’s a nice owl you’ve got there. What’s it’s name?”

Marlene grinned, “Jakob. He’s my birthday present.”

“He’s very nice,” Sirius answered, nodding. “Happy Birthday, by the way. When was it?”

Marlene stared up at him. “You didn’t read my last letter.”

“I’m sorry, I’ve only just come from… from Costa Rica.”

“Costa Rica!” Marlene looked surprised, “What were you doing there?”

Lily’s eyebrows went up nearly to her hairline in perplexity. She stared at him skeptically.

“Yeah,” Sirius said, and, falling back on the excuse he’d started writing her, he said, “I was there backpacking with my cousin, Andromeda. We stayed in orange groves and ate them right off the trees every morning. The owls take a considerable time to come in from Costa Rica; you didn’t get my letter yet, I take it?”

“No, I haven’t,” Marlene said, incredulous. “Why were you and Andromeda staying in orange groves?”

Sirius shrugged, “For the bliss of it.”

Marlene said, “That’s an awfully big adventure! Leave it to Sirius Black to do something as exotic as all that over summer holiday!”

“Oh I go on adventures all the time,” Sirius said, “Loads of adventures… me and Potter,” he added, looking at Lily.

“Right.” Lily nodded.

Knowing he needed to get out of this before he talked himself into a web of lies, he decided the best way was to get out of there. “Listen, as I said, I’ve just come back. I need to go and get some rest. But I promise I’ll tell you all about it next time I see you. And keep an eye out for the owl… hopefully nothing happened on his way back. It is a long way to fly for an owl, I reckon…” Sirius said, backing away from the girls.

Marlene smiled, “I can’t wait to hear all about Costa Rica.”

“Yeah, neither can I,” Lily said, one eyebrow cocked and a challenging smirk on her face.

“Oh it’s a fantastic story,” Sirius said, “Really. You won’t believe it.”

Lily laughed.

Sirius waved, “See you.” Quickly, he hurried back through the streets to the Leaky Cauldron, making a mental note to invest some time before September 1 inventing a memorable version of events for his supposed trip to Costa Rica. He wasn’t even sure why he’d told the lie, but it seemed much preferable to telling her the real reason he hadn’t written - that there was nothing to tell her about except how much his family despised him that they’d rather lock him up in a bedroom than look at him, or try to avada kedavra his best friends, or use the cruciatus curse on him until it left blisters on his skin and he felt as though he were going insane. Those weren’t things that girlfriends want to hear about from their boyfriends in their letters during summer break. But that was the life that Sirius Black led. And so until he had something better to say that was real, he’d just fabricate something better.




Remus slept through the night without waking. Sirius slep on the little couch by the fireplace, too fall to really fit on the seat so that his legs hung over the end and his head was bent in a funny position. He woke up during the night from The Dream. He laid there in the dark, staring at the smoldering cinders in the floo, his insides churning and his throat dry, suddenly very, very aware of Remus Lupin’s presence in the room, just a few feet away. He licked his lips and closed his eyes and tried desperately to go back to sleep, but there was nothing doing. He sat up and looked over at Remus’s form in the bed, his chin resting on the back of the couch, watching Remus’s chest rise and fall as he breathed.

It was comforting watching him breathe, knowing he was alive and well and just a few feet away.

That was how Remus found him next morning when he woke up. There was a bit of drool coming off his chin and Remus smirked and pulled a handkerchief out of his pocket and left it on the back of the couch for Sirius, then stuck his head out into the hall to see if he could figure out where the toilets were. By the time he got back a few minutes later, Sirius had woken up and wiped the drool off his face and was sitting on the floor, counting the money he’d collected the day before.

“Blimey, you got a lot,” Remus said, sitting down. It was probably more money than he’d seen at one time in his entire life.

“It’s alright,” Sirius said. He was frowning at the money. “It’s not near enough to stay here, but the full moon’s coming up anyway… and, well, I’ve been thinking, and… I think I have a plan.”

“Yeah?” Remus asked.

Sirius nodded. “Yeah. C’mon. We’re going to go get you a new wand first of all, and I’ll tell you all about it on the way.”

Remus looked thankful. “We’re going to get me a wand?”

“Yeah,” Sirius said, “You can’t be going without a wand! Are you a nutter? Of course.”

“I do feel rather useless without one,” Remus admitted. “I dunno how the muggles deal.”

Sirius laughed and scooped the money up, shoving it into the leather pouch the penknife had come in. They got up and headed out the door into the hallway, locking the room up behind them. Sirius slung his arm ‘round Remus shoulders, “So this store you got the penknife at… you said they have tents, yeah?” His eyes sparkled.