Characters not mine.

(Originally written for a free-for-all challenge on comment_fic.)

Hanging out in any part of London with Sirius had always been a calculated risk. It was Sirius's hometown, and he wasn't merely familiar with the winding turns of Diagon and Knockturn Allies. Sirius had been sneaking around London since he was a rebellious eight year old, so there were certain areas of Muggle London where he was relatively well known by the owners of coffeehouses and junk shops and the mechanics that he talked motorbikes with. Places where, Padfoot being personable, the girl behind the counter knew his name and the man under the hood asked if he was getting along with his mum any better.

And, apparently, there were a few more where he was best known by the bobbies.

Remus was not amused.

"Sirius, your conversation with the poor constable suggests that you were aware that there was such a thing as disturbing the peace."

Sirius lounged against the wall and brushed his hair out of his eyes. It wasn't James's carefully mess, of course; Remus had never quite understood the appeal of that, but it was just long enough to make mothers either want to trim it or convince him to sniff around somebody else's kid. Between that, the leather jacket, and the motorbike, Remus was pretty certain that the constable would have been keeping a second eye on him even if he hadn't recognized "that Black kid."

Admittedly, Remus was in a ratty t-shirt and jeans that he'd managed to tear in the woods around his own home. Perhaps he didn't look quite as out of place at Sirius's side as he wished he did in such situations. "So," he said, "how did you meet this one?"

"Officer Jennings?" Sirius glanced up at the ceiling and waved a hand vaguely because he didn't have his wand to fiddle with. "Oh, it was a couple years ago."

"What were you doing?"

"I'm thinking, Moony."

That gave Remus a full half-second's pause. "How many bobbies do you know, Sirius?"

"Only a few. But I seem to run into them every couple of months." Sirius shrugged. "Trying to scale a building, I think. I was twelve."

"Ah. Why?"

"Because I wasn't coming back home without Regulus's cat, that's why," Sirius answered, shaking his head. "I think the cat decided it had had enough of Muggles and went home, though. She beat me by about five hours because I was dealing with the red tape."

Remus raised an eyebrow. "From a kid trying to scale a building after a cat?"

"Not for how I met him." Sirius sighed. "Actually, I almost spent the night in foster care. Aurors would have a hard enough time finding Mum to tell her they had me, let alone the Muggle police."

"Oh." Remus wasn't entirely certain how he was supposed to respond to that. Sirius did not respond well to frustration, and even worse to not being believed. But he could just imagine Sirius's explanation about his old-fashioned parents and the cat and his brother slowly falling to pieces because the Muggles couldn't even knock on his front door and their attempts to figure out just who this kid was. "How'd that work out?"

Sirius shrugged. "Got a Great Uncle Marius. He's a squib, lives in Deptford. Never met him before, but I've got enough of the family looks that he pretended long enough to get me home. Mum was furious. I wasn't supposed to know he existed."

Remus reached out and touched Sirius's arm. "I'm sorry," he said softly.

He wasn't entirely certain what he was apologizing for, but Sirius just gave him a much softer smile than his usual rakish grin. "'S'all right."

Remus squeezed his arm a little and let go. "All right. So how do we get out of here this time."

"We're going to get fined," Sirius answered. "And it'd be helpful if we used a phone call. You know, so they call tell your parents where we are, at least. Who do we know with a phone?"

"I don't know anyone in London."

"All we need is someone who can floo over to the Leaky Cauldron. I'm sure there's a Muggleborn you've got the telephone number of."

Light dawned, and suddenly Remus could feel the beginning of a headache pounding gently at his temples. "You want me to ask Lily Evans to bail us out of jail?"

Sirius shot his boyfriend a grin that would rival both the devil and the sun. "You think she'll do it?"

Remus just groaned and reached up to rub his temples, knowing he was going to have to try.