Chapter One: The Muggle Woman of Hopkins Lane, London.
Sometime in August 1994.
The rain had soaked through Remus Lupin's umbrella long before it was knocked out of his hand by a passing muggle. Turning the collar of his coat up and lowering his hat he decided to let the extremely waterproof knock-off be swept away: the bright colours of the union jack design running onto the pavement.
As the rain picked up he ducked into a side street and stood on the steps of a towering office building, hoping the building's bulky security guard wouldn't ask him to move. After five minutes the rain retreated to a light drizzle and Remus decided to move along the street before the security guard threw him onto it. This would have been typical of his luck. Not for the first time had Remus turned to the muggle world for employment, so far the weather had been awful.
Of course he hadn't expected to be searching for employment again so soon after being hired by Professor Dumbledore, it still seemed bizarre to call him Albus, for the position of Professor of Defence Against the Dark Arts. He hadn't thought that it would still be such a struggle for him to find work after holding that title.
Despite noting that not one of his predecessors had lasted past a year at Hogwarts Remus had hoped that perhaps he would be the exception.
Once the news had been leaked that he was a werewolf however he had known that it wasn't in anyone's' best interests for him to stay. The letters he had received even after leaving had left him in no doubt as to what might have happened had he not resigned.
To his credit Dumbledore had tried to use his position on the Wizengamot to help him find employment within the Ministry, but they had welcomed the idea of hiring a werewolf perhaps even less than they had seventeen years before, when he had first left Hogwarts.
"Let go of me! I do not need escorting from the premises thank you. I do know my way out. I have been working here for seven years after all! Seven years Robert, or do you not remember that?"
The sound of a woman shouting drew Remus's attention from his brooding and back to the steps he had been standing on. The security guard who had kept such an intimidating eye on him was now holding up his hands in defence against a petit angry blonde woman who was wielding a cardboard box and trying not to fall out of heels which seemed too high for her to balance on. "I'm sorry Jen but it's not my fault. There's no need to take it out on me."
If it were amusing to see such an imposing figure cowering from someone that was half his size and bodyweight all thoughts of laughter went out of Remus's mind when Jen turned her piercing gaze toward him and began to charge down the steps. She was small but threatening in her anger as she thrust the box into Remus's hands rather aggressively and turned back towards the building. "Here hold this a second," were the words she uttered so quickly that he barely had the time to register them. What happened next happened so quickly that he hardly noticed the box he was now carrying.
Crazed with anger and resentment she spun on her heel and shouted up at the largest and highest window of the building: "MR PECKHAM - I KNOW YOU'RE WATCHING ME - AND I HOPE SHE'S WORTH IT! THAT DIRTY ROTTEN HUSSY WON'T BE ABLE TO HACK MY JOB! YES I KNOW IT WAS YOU SUZIE REYNOLDS. GO TO HELL!" She shrieked and then with a flourish held one perfectly manicured finger high up at the building.
Remus did not know where to look. For a moment he considered dropping the box onto the floor and running as far away from the woman as possible but any plan that formulated in his mind by that point had by then come too late, as she had taken her shoes off, dropped them into a massive black handbag, stormed back down the steps, and turned to him to huff: "come on, let's leave."
"I'm sorry but do I know you?" He wasn't sorry so much as deeply concerned for the wellbeing of her sanity. She had piercing blue eyes and a smile that showed far too much of her un-naturally whitened teeth.
Her voice went almost sickeningly sweet as she turned on the charm, "I'm Jennifer. Friends and you may call me Jen. I'm sorry that you had to see all that but could you please be a dear and help me carry my things over to my flat? I live just around the corner."
Remus held the box and stared at her.
She stared back in expectation for a moment before rummaging around in her handbag to get to her purse. "Here, I can pay you for your trouble and you might be able to buy a sandwich or something, or," she paused and seemed to take in his attire, "perhaps some new shoes."
Remus looked to his shoes and then back at the woman. "You believe I'm homeless?"
"I believe that you look poor, and hungry," Jen started and then cut herself off - this man didn't seem to be very impressed by her and she needed to try a new tactic if she wanted his assistance, "please, I could really use the help getting home. I live just around the corner and the box is really heavy and I've had a rubbish day, and I think we've gotten off on the wrong foot. I'm sorry if I've offended you but I'm really not at my best, as I'm sure you can clearly see," she made a gesture towards the building and then at herself, aware of the state she had gotten herself into whilst throwing a tantrum in the office of her former employer.
Whenever she screamed as she had at Mr Peckham today, tears of anger and beads of sweat would cause her makeup to run, creating the misleading impression that she might have been crying, though, a little pity could go a long way, as she knew only too well.
She smiled less forcefully at Remus and when he still looked doubtful, allowed herself to be caught off balance by the sudden, purposeful, action of her overloaded handbag - of course crammed full of office supplies - rolling off of her shoulder and knocking her into the box he was holding for her.
"I'm sorry," she feigned embarrassment and appearing to collect her composure took the box off of him. "Really, thank you for your time". A blush rose in her cheeks and she began to totter off barefoot down the street. At sight of this Remus felt pity and for reasons that he would never fully be able to explain he agreed to walk her home - as Jen had already anticipated he would.
By the end of the hour and a half long commute back to Jen's apartment - she had of course lied about the distance - Remus felt that he knew everything that there could be to know about the former model turned advice columnist for teen magazine "It Girl": including the conspiracy set against her by the "young upstart" Suzie Reynolds; who had reportedly gotten off with Jen's former fiancee Gareth and then wormed her way into the lap of the magazine's director, semi-retired Rupert Peckham.
"The joke is really on her though, at sixty seven he's lost the Peck to his ham," Jen had declared this on the tube so exuberantly that Remus suspected that she might be intoxicated: her breath smelt faintly of spirits.
When they reached her apartment she began to talk about her flatmate, who was now also abandoning her to go and live with her "whelp of a fiance", while Remus looked for somewhere to put the box that he had carried for her.
"Over there," Jen said depressively, interrupting herself mid wallow to point vaguely in the direction of a corner cabinet on which sat a black and reflective block (a television). He set the box on top of it and while stretching out the muscles in his aching back took a moment to admire the room.
The walls were white; there were large windows set to his right side and he stood facing an exposed red brick wall, against which sat a large corner sofa. The sofa cut across the centre of the room to face the windows, the other half of which held a black and white marbled kitchen made complete with a breakfast counter; a set of barstools, and a large mirrored fridge. The room was carpeted in red – save for the black and white tiles of the kitchen - and a door to the left of the entrance possibly led away to private rooms and the bathroom.
It was a spacious flat and would have suited him better than his current living arrangements - had he not been bitten by Greyback... Remus let the thought pass, knowing it didn't do to dwell and that the house he currently occupied was the best for what he could hope.
It had four walls, a reasonably functioning kitchen, an occasionally functional bathroom, and had at one point belonged to his grandmother. It also offered him a certain level of privacy - a personal need which had felt sorely neglected as he had been travelling with Jen.
At this point he acknowledged that she had left the room and it occurred to him that now might be the best time to leave. All of his best manners aside it was never his intention to stay around longer than was necessary, and he was in the midst of writing her a polite note on addressed parchment he always had to hand when she walked back into the room.
He stuffed the note into his trouser pocket.
She had changed from the neat office appropriate dress she had been wearing into a low cut strap top and tight fitting grey trousers. The effect was such that very little was now being left to his imagination. He tried to look past her shoulder at the door stating awkwardly, "It was nice to meet you. I think I ought to be going."
Jen's smile showed her teeth. "Please. Let me get you a drink first. I need to thank you" She moved toward the kitchen without waiting for an answer. As she departed he kept his eyes trained on the back of her head and perched himself on the very edge of the sofa: ready and willing to make his escape.
"What would you like?" Jen called across the room - with only a breakfast bar to separate the kitchen it dawned on him that he couldn't leave without her noticing.
He asked for a cup of tea in defeat and she brought it to him along with an opened bottle of red wine and a half empty glass. She poured herself more wine and sat down next to him, her body leaning into his as she pulled her feet beside her on the sofa. Remus's grip on the mug tightened at her familiarity.
Jen offered the wine bottle, her head was almost leaning on his shoulder, "sorry did you want any?"
He shook his head. "Just tea. Thank you.".
She put the bottle down and stayed so that she was leaning on him. "Thank you so much for walking me home today. I know that you didn't have to come all that way but it felt…" Jen paused in speech he turned, with difficulty, to see what was wrong.
Starting to flap her hands in front of her eyes manically the woman let out a strange whimpering noise.
Remus stared in shock and hoped she wasn't having a seizure, he didn't know anything about muggle medicine.
"Sorry," Jen gasped, "Sorry..." She breathed in and out dramatically, her chest heaving as she hyperventilated. "It's just that… I can't… believe… I've lost… my job!"
Remus nodded and tried not to look at her chest as she broke down in tears. Spilling wine over his trousers she buried her head against his shoulder, her tears soaked through his already damp coat. He tried to console her by patting her back but this gave her the hiccups and resulted in further spillages. Unsure what to do other than submit to being used as a cushion he took the glass away from her and lay uneasily back against the sofa with Jen sobbing wholeheartedly into his chest.
It took an hour for her to fall asleep and another ten minutes for Remus to remove her delicately from his lap and back down to rest with a cushion propped underneath her head in place of his legs.
He had finished washing up her glass and his mug and was about to leave when the door of the flat opened and a woman of about the same age as Jen walked in. At first she seemed only to see her friend and walking across the length of the flat she took off her coat and wrapped it cosily across her shoulders.
"Lay off the booze Podge," she chuckled and then turned to face Remus who was fetching his coat from where he'd taken it off to wash up. "And who are you?"
Remus stared back at her. For a moment he was too shocked to say anything until a snore from Jen prompted him.
"I'm a friend, of Jennifer's. I helped her to remove some things from her office today." He stated carefully, already aware that she hadn't recognised him.
"Are you a friend?" She smiled wickedly, "or an unsuspecting victim?" She laughed and her expression changed into something softer. Remus continued to look at her. "Your face!" She pulled her dark curls back into a loose bun and then walked over to the kitchen to join him. "And bless you, you even washed up."
This statement did nothing to change his look of surprise.
Effie decided to explain, "it's just… Jen! She does this to men like you all the time."
"Men like me?" Trying not to feel too offended Remus took off the marigold gloves he had borrowed to do the washing up with and hung them back over the tap.
"There is a type of-" she cut off talking when she saw the change in his expression.
"Never mind. What happened today anyway? You said that you helped her to remove some things from her office?"
"Jennifer was fired today. It seems that her bosses no longer think that she is of the appropriate age range for the job of teenage advice columnist.." Remus spoke curtly, unsure what to say under such circumstances.
The woman who stood in front of him now had been missing and feared dead for almost fifteen years. He had known her since her first year of Hogwarts and although he had known her brother better it now seemed as though she didn't recognise him.
Effie made a face and looked in the direction of the snores coming from underneath her coat, "that must have hit her hard." She placed a newspaper from her bag onto the breakfast bar and moved over to the fridge to help herself to orange juice. "Well thank you for your time Mr… sorry what was your name again?"
"Lupin," Remus replied and leaned over the bar to frown at the front page of the muggle newspaper.
Sirius Black still at large: read the headline.
"Is everything alright?" Effie looked at him strangely, the majority of her friend's conquests seemed only too eager to leave the flat when she entered: this one was hovering.
Remus held up the paper, "do you know this man?"
She looked briefly at the headline and then over the picture, drawing in the profile of a gaunt man with dark wiry hair. An escaped prisoner. A madman. Her mouth parted and she frowned as she read the headline.
Remus searched for some sign of recognition, thinking he saw something reveal itself in her expression. It turned out to be sympathy. "He's got sad eyes," she commented before shrugging Remus off, "but I took it for the crosswords, here take the copy if you like I can get another."
"I think I might," Remus took the paper and continued to stare at her.
The stranger in her kitchen had turned very grave all of a sudden and it was making her feel uncomfortable. There was something about the way he stood staring at her, holding onto the paper that was giving her a headache and she was starting to feel ill.
An all too familiar dizziness started to overcome her. For a moment, when she blinked and looked at him, she thought she could see two people. She took a breath and dug her nails into her palms to check herself. Her life now was settled. The return of this feeling was mad. It was just all madness really.
She ran a hand through her hair and fiddled with the bun for a moment while she tried to think of something to say. Thinking of anything proved difficult. Her head was thrumming. Eventually she asked, "is there anything else that I can help you with?" and hoped that he would take the hint.
"No."
Her relief was palpable.
Remus looked down at the paper and tapped it in her direction as a gesture of farewell, "thank you for your time."
"And you for yours," Effie said unwittingly. She watched him take one last lingering look around the flat and then back towards her. He nodded his head in parting and then closed the door as softly as if he were leaving a crime scene.
She dismissed that thought. It was the beige trench coat that made him look like a detective. He was more than likely some half drunk, miserably married, prematurely aging and ailing, down on his luck solicitor: those were all Jen's sort.
Still, there had been something about him that felt familiar and for a reason unknown that made her feel uncomfortable. Even a little guilty.
Though she should have been glad of the connection, she hoped that would be the last they were to hear from him.
Her friend snored. Effie looked at her painfully, "you sure do know how to pick 'em Podge."
Jennifer rolled over in her sleep and grunted.