The Marauders: Year Four

Werewolf for Hire

Werewolf for Hire

James and Sirius were gone to Quidditch practice and Peter had fallen asleep working on his Divination homework. Remus laid across his bed on his stomach, a catalog he'd knicked from the Muggle Studies classroom in his fists. Professor Kotes had been telling them about how muggle mail worked, including shop-at-home catalogs and he'd stolen one for the sake of doing some birthday shopping for Sirius.

He flicked through the pages slowly, looking over all the stuff that was in there. He thought maybe Sirius would like a new leather jacket - which was on a page with a bunch of clothes and all, but he hated the idea of Sirius not wearing his current jacket (with the collar popped) and he wrinkled his nose at the other shirts on the page. They were all preppy and clean-cut looking, things that maybe he or Peter or James might've worn, but Sirius Black would never be caught dead in any of that lot. He flipped onward.

Finally, Remus sat forward, excited, putting the catalog down on the bed and staring down at it, having found the page he'd been looking for.

"New! Portable tape player," he read quietly, "Great-looking, great sounding 'mini' component-type 8-track stereo tape player. Plays all pre-recorded 8-track cartridges... Listen to all your favorite music in exciting stereo in the comfort of your living room. Rosewood-finished plastic cabinet makes this unit a great addition to any living room. You get terrific stereo sound from two big 4-inch speakers in separate mahogany plastic closures. Separate volume controls for each speaker and tone control let you select the level of sound you desire. Comes with five tape storage compartment to keep all your cartridges safe when not in play."

Remus bit his lips and ran his fingers down to the bottom of the picture of the very nice looking player. "Sirius is gonna love this, it's perfect!" he mumbled...

Until he got to the price.

"Fifty pounds... Bloody hell! That's nearly..." he did math quickly in his head, "Thirty-three galleons! And that's without buying a single tape!" He stared longingly at the player, though, his brow furrowed. If only he were rich... he sighed and flicked sadly through a list of 8-track taps that were available to purchase to play on the deck. His fingers ran over names and songs that he recognized from all the times Sirius had laid about singing.

The dormitory door banged open and Remus shoved the catalog off the far side of his bed, so that the book fell down between his bed and the wall as Sirius and James came in the room.

"I'm telling you," James said, "He's not seeing --" James stopped as he stepped into the room, "Hey Rey."

Sirius slammed into the back of James, craning his neck about to look into the room. "Hey! You're here!" he practically shouted it and Peter snorted and woke up, muttering something that sounded like strange, strange as he woke up and looked about. "Would've thought you'd have gone off and some somethin' 'round about the castle while we were gone!" he said, coming in the room and ripping off his quidditch pads.

"I told you he'd be up here, you don't listen," James said, rolling his eyes and putting his broom up on his bed and tearing his uniform jersey off over his head.

Remus laughed, "Where would I go?"

"Dunno, loads of places," Sirius said.

"Sorry to disappoint you," Remus said, "My boring arse hasn't peeled off this bed since you left."

Sirius nodded, then turned and started pulling off his jumper and chucked it into his trunk all dirty and sweat-soaked. Remus made a face, in disbelief that Sirius could possibly think that jumper was clean enough to keep with all his other clothes.