Long time, no chapters, I know and I'm sorry:( Alright, no excuses, we're just gonna jump right in. There are a few things that need to be explained:
One, while getting the bag ready so she could run away with Sirius, Belle and Roman put things in there that magic could probably take care of. They included those things anyway because they're both of at least one Muggle parent, and it was a lot of pressure anyway.
Two, when Sirius asks about the bag Roman says she has her "good looks". She wasn't originally planning on using that to their aid, it was something I just thought about adding. Whenever my sister or I want to buy something and we don't have the money for it, my mother sayd, "Well, what do you want me to buy it with? My good looks?" And that's what that is.
Buckbeak was tethered underneath a clump of very tall trees, laying with his head under his wing as the rain beat down on the trees above him and the small formation of rocks that created the cave Roman and Sirius were hiding in. Sirius and Roman were huddled together, Sirius attacking the box of crackers Roman had given him. When he'd figured out that they had food, he landed immediately and they found a dry place.
Roman made a small circle far from the entrance of the cave and had started a fire there. Sirius moved over to it. The light cast shadows in the hollows of his eyes and threw wild shapes against the wall.
The place they were hiding could hardly be called a cave; there was barely enough room for them to sit up and have enough personal space without pitching headfirst into the fire. Roman pressed herself against the far wall while Sirius sat across from her, one hand in the box and another out to warm the fire.
Roman didn't know what to say. Lupin and everyone else, even Harry, seemed pretty sure that he was innocent, but what if he wasn't? There was the proof, Pettigrew was there, but how long would they have to hide before Pettigrew was caught again? To distract herself, Roman looked back down into the bag and saw that they were already dangerously low on food. There was a box of chocolate that Jason had given her- she hadn't eaten it for fear he would have laced them with a strong love potion, as he was rather good in Potions- and five Sugar Quills. She picked up a pair of black socks and held them tentatively out to Sirius.
"Dry socks?" she offered. He looked up, almost seeming to have forgotten she was there. He nodded once and took them from her, then put them on the ground next to him. "Thank you," he said in a hoarse voice, and coughed a few times before returning to the cracker box. Roman went in the bag and said over his loud coughing, "Here."
It was a bottle of pink cough syrup; Madam Pomfrey had just given her a whole bottle to keep when the entire girls' dorm had gotten sick. Sirius's eyes widened. "Did you bring everything?" he asked with half a smile. Roman shrugged. "I'm prepared." She shook the bag around and a few things rattled in there.
"Bandages, thread and a needle, scissors... My good looks." She looked outside. It seemed that they were on a mountain of some sort, and and way far out in a valley surrounded by trees, there were very dim lights starting to come on. The sun was rising directly across from the mouth of the cave, and everything around them took on a bluish hue. Roman crawled forward out of the cave and Sirius croaked behind her, "What're you doing? You can't go down there!"
Roman stood up, stretching her sore muscles. "I told you I had my good looks." Her voice had a desperate tone to it, and Sirius's eyes widened as he emerged from the rock pocket. "What?" he asked, and Roman, voice grim, said, "We can get food and money with that."
Sirius's mind only buzzed for a second- he was still high off being temporarily free- but then he realized what she was saying and grabbed her arm as she had started to move forward. "You- you're going to-? What? Be a prostitue?"
Roman stood there, staring up at him, and then shrugged once. "I'm an actress. Are you hungry or not?" She pulled her arm away and walked down the slippery, rocky slope, hoping she would be able to get to the little village before it got too late in the day. "Roman!" Sirius said, and she turned around once more. "Get back here!" he said, pointing at the ground. Roman wiggled her leg, felt her wand tucked in her sock, and laughed. "What?" she asked, and jumped down a few more feet. "Are you gonna come down here?" she taunted, and Sirius narrowed his eyes.
"I won't take all my clothes off," Roman said over her shoulder, "just enough to get some food- Aah!"
Something bit Roman hard in the back of her shirt and jerked backward. She stumbled a bit then turned around to see an enormous shaggy black dog, and then she remembered; Sirius was an Animagus. She sighed and let her head fall back as the dog rumbled at her. "Sirius, get back in the cave. Good boy, go!" she pointed and said, but Sirius only continued to growl in his chest.
"If you go into town like that, people will think you're a bear and you'll get shot. Do you want to get shot?" she asked, hands on her hips, and turned back around. Don't turn around, she thought.
Roman had almost gotten off the small mountain and to the edge of the village when she heard panting behind her. "Sirius!" she shouted, and spun around. "Go back up there!" she shouted, but he only glared at her- as much as a dog could really glare. "I'm Muggle-born, okay? I can do fine in a village. I'll be back before nightfall!"
And with that, Roman turned and ran the rest of the way, Sirius trotting behind her, trying to make himself look as much like a domestic dog as possible.
Roman, in all her days as an amateur actress, had never yet played a prostitute. It just wasn't classy- but that didn't mean it wasn't necessary. Regardless of Sirius walking behind her, she pulled her skirt up higher so that the top went under her shirt, folded the waist down, and undid a few of the buttons on her shirt near the top. Sirius growled, but she continued doing things like this. Roman pulled the tie out of her hair and it fell messily around her shoulders, and she fluffed it out so that her long bangs fell backward and stayed out of her face. That would have to do for now, and she could only hope that sweat wouldn't take the price down.
"Where to wait, where to wait," she said as she walked past a sign that created the town limit. However, the trees were so overgrown here that the name of the town was unreadable. Just as well.
There seemed to be only a single paved road going right through the middle of the small town, and a bunch of dirt roads branching off that and leading to small, run-down houses. For the small amount of houses, there were a lot of people in the town. They kept their faces straight forward as they bustled under the tattered awnings over shop display windows, that is, until they saw Roman with her dog. Sirius walked close to her side now, and growled at any man who passed by, looking at Roman with interest. Roman glared down at him.
Roman stopped for a moment, trying to get herself into an acting frame of mind, and thought about how a prostitue would act. First off, they wouldn't ask for food. They would ask for money. Roman could see a small general store a few shops down on the opposite side of the chipped street, and decided to ask for money. Secondly, they wouldn't be extremely concspicuous, would they? Being a prostitute could get you arrested. Not that it was a problem, a quick 'alohomora' would have her free, but still. So Roman walked over to the wall of a brick building with glowing lights in the window, pressed her back to it, and slid down, watching people walk by. Sirius stood guard beside her, so that no men got within twenty feet of her.
"This is ridiculous!" Roman shouted at Sirius, who was growling at a particularly interested-looking man who passed by. "Why do you care if I do it?" Sirius whipped around and laid his head in her lap. She could still feel him growling in his throat.
"Get off," she mumbled, pushing at his huge head, but he didn't budge. Roman leaned her head against the wall and crossed her legs. Her stomach rumbled right in Sirius's ear, and she said angrily, "You see? I'm hungry!" He looked up at her with big brown eyes, but she crossed her arms. He continued to look up at her, and just then a man in his his thirties approached her.
"Hey, lady," he said, and Sirius turned his gaze on the man. He took a step back.
"What can I do for you?" Roman asked in a high, girlish voice. He smiled as she stood up and left the dog standing behind her, and then moved a bit closer. Sirius barked.
"What's your name?" he asked Roman, and she said without thinking, "Joy." The man took one step closer and said with a smile, "Nice to meet you, Joy. So, uh," he looked around, hands in the pockets of his brown coat, "are you open for business, then, Joy?"
Roman nodded and took another step forward, so that they were about two feet apart on the sidewalk. "Surely am," she said, and Sirius bounded forward and grabbed the back of her skirt. She gave him an annoyed look that lasted for about a second and then smiled over at the man, who was eyeing Sirius apprehensively.
The man walked away and Roman shouted, "Come on! He was gonna give us money!" Sirius barked in her face again and then nudged her side with his head. Sirius barked and moved in a quick circle, almost knocking over a small child walking with her mother. "What?" Roman asked, and he looked straight at a shop across the street, but Roman didn't catch on. "What?" he asked, exasperated, "Did Timmy fall down a well? What?!"
Sirius barked again and grabbed her skirt, which was becoming increasingly drool-covered, and pulled her across a faded crosswalk. People stared as she was led across, and then Sirius stopped in front of a door with a sign that said ANIMALS with a red circle around it and a line through it. Then Roman looked at the window next to it, and a sign with bright green, blinking letters glowed there.
A pawn shop.
Sirius barked again and sat down under the window, apparently willing to be good if Roman went in there. "I haven't got anything to pawn," she said, moving the hand with her mother's ring behind her back. There were a lot of things she was willing to do, but sell her mother's wedding ring wasn't one of them.
Sirius snorted and wiggled his ears, and Roman shouted, ignoring the stares of the passing people, "Now is not the time to be cute, dog!" He barked again and heaved himself up on his back legs, then rested his paws on her shoulders, looking her in the eyes. As gently as he could, Sirius tapped her ear and she moved her hand up to block it, then felt the posts of the three earrings in her left ear poke into her neck. Her eyes widened and Sirius got down, sitting against the wall once more. Roman pushed the door of the shop open, and walked directly to the counter. A few people meandered around, looking at guns and radios.
A man with his hair slicked back in a black leather coat smiled at her, and she walked over to him. "How can I help you?" he said, and Roman spotted a thick rope of heavy gold chains hanging around his neck. Roman reached up to her ears and took out the pair of earrings in the top of her three holes. "I want to sell these," she said, putting them down on the counter. That pair in particular had been gifted to her by her favorite aunt. She had no children and therefore spent all her money on Roman and Natalie, so these studs were pure one carat diamonds in 14 carat gold.
The man picked up one earring while Roman very inconspicuously tugged on the hem of her shirt, so that the top came down lower. She pulled her hair over one shoulder and leaned forward on the counter; the man was rather short.
He examined the earring with a small magnifying glass on a chain around his neck and asked, one eye closed, "And did you want to buy or sell?" he asked, and Roman said, "Sell." He observed the earrings for a long time after that, turning them this way and that so that the bright light overhead caused it to throw sparkles, and he finally said, "I can probably get you about 250 pounds for this pair right here."
In her mind, Roman exploded. 250 pounds was a lot of money. But she wasn't done acting yet. She let her face fall, and she said, "Oh... Can't you go any higher?" she asked, sticking her bottom lip out. The man sighed and held his hand out for the earrings, which she reluctantly put in his hand. After another long look he leaned forward and said in a low voice, "If we polish this up, I could probably do 300 pounds, but I can't go any higher." Roman put a hand on the back of his and simpered, "Oh, thank you so much. I really appreciate it." He nodded and walked away from the counter.
"Go over in that line and you can get your money," he said, and Roman nodded once more. She walked over, stood in the back of the line, and waited for her turn to come up. The woman behind the counter, a black woman with very curly hair in a black shirt with the store logo on it said, "Okay, you sold a pair of earrings, right? 300 pounds?"
Roman nodded, and she pushed an envelope at her. When Roman picked it up, she could feel it was heavy with money. She didn't have to sign her name? No information? Great!
"Thank you," Roman told the woman, and she smiled at her. Roman, as quickly as she could, left the shop and looked to the left to find Sirius. He was sitting against the wall where she had left him, but a small girl in a pink dress, one hand clasped tightly in her mother's, was there, too. Sirius was cringing away, but the girl didn't seem to notice. She held out one hand and patted Sirius on his enormous snout, and Roman laughed. She walked over, slipping the envelope in her bra, and and said, "Hi, what's your name?"
The girl didn't answer, but instead asked in a painfully high-pitched squeak, "Is she yours?"
Roman called on her inner actress again and squatted down, looking in Sirius's face. "Yes, she is mine," Roman said with a sweet smile for the girl, and Sirius growled. "What's her name?" the girl asked, patting his ears now, and Sirius glared at her. Roman thought for a moment, then said with a straight face, "Sparkles."
The girl squealed and the mother, a woman with short red hair, asked, "Is Sparkles a rescue?" Roman sat down on the pavement next to Sparkles, aka Sirius, who was glaring daggers at her, and she nodded. "Oh, yes," Roman said, putting an arm around Sparkles, "I saved her from an abusive home." Roman leaned forward and whispered to the raptly-watching mother, "She still doesn't like umbrellas..." The mother nodded and Roman got an idea. The woman had a good sized purse on her shoulder.
Roman looked over at Sirius, who looked more angry at being called Sparkles rather than grateful that he had been rescued, and poked at his fur, which was rather matted and dirty. "I was going to go to the store and get something to bathe her with. I went in the pawn shop," Roman continued in a dejected voice, "but they said my earrings were fake, so I didn't get any money." She sighed. "Just have to wait for the next rain, Sparkles," she said to Sirius, who seemed to be playing along, and he slumped forward.
"Oh, no," the mother cooed, snapping open her red purse, "I just can't have that, here, you get this dog a bath and some food. She really is beautiful, imagine what she'll look like with a nice, shiny coat!" The woman shoved twenty pounds in Roman's hand. She widened her eyes for a moment, not wanting to seem too eager, and then said, "No, no, I couldn't, really-"
"I insist," the mother said, and the little girl gave Sirius one last pat before the mother scratched Sparkles' ears and then continued their walk down the street. "Good luck!" the woman called back, and the girl said, "Bye, Sparkles!"
Roman smiled down at Sirius, who only stared back, very stiff, as if daring her to say something. Finally Roman stood up and started walking toward the general store. When a huge, scary man passed their spot, Roman said, "Come on, Sparkles!"
I know they could use magic to solve so many of the issues they're going to have, but then this wouldn't be any fun! Also I'm not sure how accurate my translation of currency was, it's an app I have on my iPod. Lol. Bare with me, I'm just American. Review, you beautiful people!
~Paige