The Marauders: Year Four

Galleons at the Leaky Cauldron

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 --"