Reggo My Eggo (Sequel)

Chapter 14

Christmas eve came quickly. They hadn't bothered to close the blinds the night before so they awoke to the sun shining in.

The teens didn't have a change of clothes, or even their toiletries so they skipped that step in their morning routines and instead, signed out of the inn, having only paid for the room for the night and stood in the downstairs bar, unsure of what to do.

They didn't have their jackets, Regulus and Remus were wearing sweaters but the two others were just wearing long sleeves. It was far too cold to step outside like that, they could easily step into the nearest store so that they weren't standing in a mostly empty bar, but they didn't have money anyway, they spent it all on the room so they'd have to make a trip to Gringotts first and Remus would be the only one who could take money from his vault, but he wasn't from a wealthy family, he couldn't take out thirteen thousand galleons like Regulus to pay for a worthless piano.

In the bar, even at such an early hour, there sat several people scattered throughout the room, one of which was their defence against the dark arts teacher, professor Howel.

"How's he already drinking, it's seven in the morning on Christmas eve?" James questioned in amazement.

"I wish I could be drinking at seven in the morning, on any morning," Sirius groaned because maybe just a few drinks could help him forget of this nightmare.

Regulus rolled his eyes, "Maybe instead of staring at our teacher slowly getting drunk, we could do literally anything else."

"We need money," Sirius pointed out.

"We need a lot of things," James added,

"I have access to my vault, I'm sure I could take out a couple of galleons," Remus offered.

They began a discussion, trying to calculate how much money they'd need. If they wanted to stay another night at the leaky cauldron, they'd need at least 20 galleons, unless they wanted to stay the night somewhere else, then they'd probably be able to find somewhere cheaper.

The leaky cauldron, although popular, tended to rip people off, whether down in the bar or with the prices per single room, it didn't help that it was the holidays either, many people were staying in any inn they could find, with people visiting friends and family from all across the world.

They ended up heading to Gringotts, stepping out into the cold, winter weather. Remus took out 25 galleons in hopes that it would go a long way before they went and sat inside the 'Coffee Joint' for warmth, they also ended up grabbing some black coffees -as it was the cheapest- to warm up.

"What the hell are we supposed to do now?" Asked Regulus.

"We should probably owl Hogwarts, we should probably stay there for the rest of our holiday," Remus replied.

"And then explain why we no longer have any of our belongings," James stated blankly.

"We don't even have our school supplies because someone made us bring them to study," Sirius added.

Regulus groaned at the remark because he too, brought his textbooks with him to study, which he didn't really plan on doing, but it made him feel as if he were somewhat productive.

"Well, we also don't have an owl with us and would have to pay to borrow an owl from the post office, which is very pricey over the holidays and any air mail will be backed up for days," You could sense the annoyance in Remus' tone. Nothing was going their way this holiday.

"We could probably ride the night bus all across London for the whole night, it would probably be cheaper than staying the night at some overpriced inn," James suggested.

"And get thrown across the bus at every turn?" Regulus gave James a look of disgust. He refused to step foot on that thing.

"Unfortunately, James is right, we could take the bus to Hogsmead," Remus pondered.

"Somehow, I'm actually on my brother's side of this, I'm not taking public transport or sleeping in the bus beds, that's how you catch a disease or fungus," Sirius grimaced.

Remus wanted to scream. He was frustrated with his friends -and boyfriend- not being able to agree on something, he just wanted this to end, he wanted them to be safe and not standing on the side of the street getting frostbite on Christmas eve, he wanted to have a regular Christmas with his friends.

"Can't we just have a proper breakfast and then figure the rest out from there? He asked, then others agreed.

They had just about finished their coffees when they went back up to the front counter to order breakfast, not focusing on the price, they deserved to treat themselves and worry about the consequences later.

Morning rush soon began and the teens were glad that they had already claimed a table, but it did mean that they'd probably be kicked out once they finished their meal to make room for more people, which would send them back out to the cold.

To make matters worse, even if they found a cheap place that sold jackets or winter robes, most places were either not open because it was Christmas eve, or closing early, most places would be shut by noon and they'd have lost their chance.

They were so lost about what to do that they considered walking out into the muggle world to find either a muggle thrift store -much to Regulus' dismay- or maybe a muggle inn to stay at because they couldn't afford the ones in the wizarding world, but of course, they'd have to return to Gringotts to exchange their currency from Wizarding to muggle money.

They decided to leave that until later. They'd find a way to get back to Hogwarts first. The Night bus - or day bus- wouldn't be running this close to the holidays, they hadn't even stopped to think about that, they probably wouldn't be able to make it anywhere until well after the holiday rush, and by then, they'd have to be back at school.

After they had finished breakfast, they were soon asked to leave unless they would like to order something else and so they left, freeing up the table, but not before making a quick stop to use the cafe's washroom.