The Marauders - Order of the Phoenix Part Three

Spiller's in Cardiff

"Remus, I have died and this is Heaven."

Remus walked behind Sirius slowly, rubbing his nose, the dusty scent of vinyl records that had barely been moved filling his nose. They were in stacks and bins and on shelves and in racks that lined the walls and formed aisles in the tiny, cramped space. Sirius moved between them, fingers twitching and dancing over the plastic sleeve-encased records with a glee that only true aficionados could appreciate. He was practically glowing, his eyes wide with excitement that was so palpable that Remus's keen nose could actually smell the blood in Sirius's veins, could sense it moving faster through his body in a weird way that usually was reserved only for -- well, a different sort of excitement.

"You're literally getting turned on by records," whispered Remus, stepping closer to Sirius. "Ought I to be jealous?"

"You knew when you married me that music was my mistress, Moony," Sirius breathed back.

"A mistress and a harem. What was I thinking?"

"Don't worry, Moony, you're still my number one-oohhh oh oh!" Sirius scrambled 'round Remus, pressing into one of the bins and sliding up to a turnstile. He plucked a record from the spinner and turned around, holding it up for Remus to look at. "Remus. Remus. Remus look."

"Queen Live Killers," Remus read the front of it.

Siris had it turned over, reading the back, and he let out a high pitched noise something like a squeal and a shriek. "Oh. My. Fuck. Moony. Do you know what this is?"

"A Queen record."

Sirius looked up. "It's not just a Queen record. It's a record of our concert. Of my concert. Of the night Freddy Mercury and I -- " he gasped, "Breathed the same air. So help me Merlin, Remus. I have to have this." He clutched the record in his hands, shaking.

"Blimey, how much is it?" Remus asked, already digging for the coin purse he had muggle quid in. He flicked through the coins, then looked at the sticker as Sirius hugged the record. £2.90 He had two quid. "Shit," Remus muttered.

"What?"

"I'm shy."

"Don't be shy, Moony, you have every reason to have full and utter confidence."

"I mean on quid, I'm short on quid. We're ninety pence under."

Sirius hugged the record as though his entire life depended on it belonging to him. He grabbed Remus's coin purse. "Well I'm sure a fuck not shy." He marched to the counter. 

Remus bit his lips, then charged after Sirius, "I'm guessing that a muggle shop like this doesn't work on the bartering system, Sirius, that's why they've put price tags on everything, they expect to be paid properly! Ninety-quid is nearly a third of the asking price and we can come back later and --"

But there wasn't any stopping the determined Sirius, who marched right up to the counter, put the record down, laid out his British pounds and said, "Would you consider accepting my two quid for this record?" Sirius asked boldly.

The guy at the counter had a cigarette hanging from his mouth and he was flicking through a magazine, feet up on the counter, wearing a leather vest over a tank-top, and dark eyeliner that was twice as thick as Sirius's. He had a nose piercing and a mohawk. He stared at Sirius. "Bugger off, man, I can't accept that. We ain't hagglers 'round here."

Sirius cleared his throat, "No but see, this is all I've got and I simply have to have this record."

The guy stared at Sirius for a long moment benignly. "Well, see, I have to have two pound ninety. Come back when you got the quid for it." As if to emphasize his point, he slid the two coins back across the counter at Sirius.