Muggle Bookstores

"I'm not sure you understand what kind of daunting task you're aiming to undertake," Remus told Sirius when he approached him, asking about Muggle bookshops and libraries.

"How hard can this really be?" Sirius asked, having turned to his half-blood friend, thinking he might be more knowledgeable regarding the subject. Nor did Remus ask questions regarding why Sirius suddenly wanted to visit every single bookstore and library beyond giving him a look that said he knew books were really not Sirius' thing.

Remus came with him, hands jammed into his pockets, overseeing Sirius to make sure his friend didn't make any misstep with the Muggles that would require a deft explanation from someone who grew up with Muggle relatives, so he was there when Sirius pulled out the photo Orion managed to secure as he approached the bookstore owner, grinning and putting on his usual charm.

"Hi," he said to the man.

The man looked up, giving him a rather grumpy look before saying, "Can I help you?"

Sirius' eyes blinked, somewhat taken aback by the exchange, noting the way the man looked at him as if he were out of place in such a place that, at first glance, Sirius' knew his younger brother would feel far more at home browsing the myriad of bookshelves for unique finds offered by the establishment.

"Well," the man asked, remaining grumpy."

"I'm actually," Sirius said, then pulled out the photo. "I know the photo is old, but have you seen him?"

He held out the photo, hoping, already in a good mood he had started with, to see a response from the very first person, even asking a question, wondering why he seemed to instantly not want to help him. The man took the photo and looked up. "What exactly..."

"He's my younger brother," Sirius said. "And as I said, I know the photo is old. He'd be, what..." Sirius frowned. "I'm thirty-three now, so he'd be in his thirties as well."

He watched the bookstore owner's facial features melt, then, without hesitation, took the photo. "How old is he in this?"

"Seventeen. At the oldest," Sirius said. "He was seventeen when he disappeared."

"Fifteen or so years is a long time to wait in looking for someone," the man said, handing the picture back. "Memories fade, and people age. It's so much easier to start when the person first disappears, though even then..."

"So, no?" Sirius asked.

"Sorry," the man said. "This isn't to say he wasn't here at one point; if he was, I'm guessing he was a bookworm. But at the end of the day, I think he would have blended in with every other patron of my shop over the years." But good luck, young man. I hope you find him and reconcile."

"Recon..." Sirius started saying, looking down at the picture.

"That child isn't smiling," the man said. "He can't have had a good childhood, I guess."

"We didn't," Sirius said, still looking at the picture. "I was too busy worrying about myself to have even noticed. But thanks. Thanks for trying."

He stepped out of the shop, looking at the picture, Remus following him. "This is about Regulus?"

Sirius closed his eyes. "I'm not giving up."

"May I see the picture," Remus said.

Sirius reluctantly handed it over. "Be careful. It was difficult for Orion to find a picture of himself, and then we had to ensure it wasn't moving in front of Muggles.

"But it's not the original," Remus said. "And you can make a new one that isn't moving, right?"

"Well, yes," Sirius said.

Remus handed back the photo, looking rather dour. "So, I didn't ask why you wanted to visit every single shop and every single library in the country, Sirius."

"What? Would you have stopped me?" Sirius asked, letting out a laugh.

"No, but I would have been even more brutally honest at how daunting of a task this is," Remus said. "Practically every single village has a bookstore or library, or even both." And then, "This doesn't even factor in the fact large cities like London have an amount that baffles the mind."

"Reading is that important to Muggles?" Sirius asked, eyes growing wide.

"More like, I suppose, it's a credit to how large the Muggle population is," Remus said, then tilted his head as if he were thinking.

"What is it?"

"Well, if he is alive, it would have been quite smart," Remus said.

"What do you mean?" Sirius said.

"Nobody is going to go looking for a wizard or witch who defected from the Death Eaters and is living in some small Muggle village, minding their own business, and most Death Eaters wouldn't have thought that far ahead."

"So, we should focus on the bookstores and libraries in the small villages first?" Sirius asked. "Because that's where he's more likely to be."

Remus frowned, holding his chin, then, "Actually, there may be a way to cut down, at least initially. Because if what I suspect is right..."

"Remus?" Sirius asked. "What are you thinking?"

"I think maybe we should start with the stories that supply the smaller bookstores in the village and show them the picture rather than focusing at first on the smaller bookstores."

"Why?"

"Because he'd need a job, and thus, I think a job at one of the small bookstores would be ideal for someone lacking the appropriate skills for other jobs, right?"

"Him having a job?" Sirius found himself baffled at the idea.

"He'd need money to survive, right?"

"Well, yeah," Sirius said, looking down at his picture. "This might work."

And yet, it didn't feel at first like Remus' plan worked, and Sirius found himself thinking they should have just gone bookstore by bookstore rather than going all over London, but then—

"Hold on a second," an older woman with half-moon glasses said. "He'd be how old now?"

"In his early thirties, like me," Sirius said.

"And would this charm you exclude be perhaps a family trait?"

Sirius bulked, disliking anyone bringing up his relation with the Black family, and yet, "Yes." He stared at her. "Can't deny it if it helps find him."

"Hold on a second, as I already said," the old woman said, standing up from her stool and pulling out a rather large book. Her finger turned the pages, and every few pages, she'd lick her finger and continue. Then, "Here."

"What?" Sirius asked.

The woman didn't answer; instead, she went and fetched a piece of paper, toddled over, and pulled herself up onto the stool in front of the enormous book, scribbling something down. Then, she shoved the paper at him. "Can you read my handwriting, sonny?"

Sirius looked at the paper, eyes blinking, then held it out to Remus."

Remus started, then nodded. "We can read that."

"Go there to that address. Hopefully, you can find what you're looking for.

"I see," Sirius said. "I hope so."

Remus, who had been looking increasingly tired as Sirius dragged him around, looked rejuvenated, yet Sirius felt rejuvenated himself.

"Do you think," Sirius said.

"That maybe he is working at a bookstore somewhere? Like this one?" Remus asked, looking at the bookstore in question. "I hope so. But Sirius?"

"Yes?"

"You won't know until you go into ask them, right?"

"Yeah," Sirius said. "But I don't want to hear no again because it will start all over again, and there are so many shops and libraries."

He took a deep breath and stepped in, the bell chinging as he stepped in. A man with brown hair looked up, his face as grumpy as the first, but unlike the first and the others who were grumpy at seeing someone who obviously didn't look like he belonged in a bookstore and looked, as Remus explained, like a salesman trying to buy up the small shop to be something else.

He stepped over, clearing his throat.

The man looked up, giving him a rather dirty look. "What?"

"I was hoping you could help me?"

"What genre are you looking for," the man said.

Sirius frowned. "Is he purposefully trying not to be helpful?" He pulled out the photo and held it out. "I'm looking for my younger brother."

He felt the photo snatched away, the man giving no care as he yanked it out of Sirius' fingers, then looked down. He barely looked at the photo before tossing it back at him. "Haven't seen him."

"You barely," Sirius hissed. "Looked at the photo."

"Sirius," Remus said, stepping forward.

"You..." Sirius continued. "He was. He was intentionally trying to be unhelpful from the moment I arrived.

"Sorry, but I've not seen..."

"Hey?" someone called out, prompting Sirius and Remus to turn their heads in their direction. "We've quite a few repeats from that estate we brought in," the person said, not looking up from the books they carried with their right arm, the left hanging from their side.

But Sirius saw it. He saw the familiar black locks of hair and the gray eyes, and he saw, with the white sleeves pulled up, the faint mark on the young man's forearm, even though there appeared to be scars running across the faded tattoo all over his arm. "Regulus?"

Regulus, or the one he thought was his younger brother, stiffened, not looking up, and brought his stack of books to the front table, but did not put them down. "What do you want me to do with them?"

"Regulus," Sirius said, irritated that Regulus was ignoring him while Remus grabbed his arm as if to prevent him from losing his temper. Yet it wasn't just anger he felt, but something else.

He started reaching out to get Regulus' attention, knowing how easily Regulus could be distracted when books were involved, only for the man behind the counter to reach out and grab his arm. "Hey?"

Sirius glared at him, only to find the man glaring back angrily. "What?"

Regulus finally looked up, his fingers tracing the books as he gazed at Sirius, the glasses sliding down, a detail Sirius didn't recall, as the man squeezed his arm tightly. "Leave my little brother alone, bastard. He's not who you think."

And then it struck Sirius as he looked at the man. "That's why. He realized the moment I came in that..."

"If you're not here to buy a book," Regulus said. "You should leave."

"Sirius," Remus grabbed the back of Sirius' leather jacket, shaking his head as Regulus started attempting to maneuver the stack of books onto the table with only one arm.

Sirius took a deep breath, then said, "Horcrux, Regulus."

The books Regulus attempted to move to the front table clattered over the floor as he looked at Sirius in horror, his mouth open, while the other young man let out a curse and dove to pick up the books on the floor. "What? What did you just say?"