.

Chapter 1

Make it Work Somehow

"Erm, but Mr. Hopper, I'll need my severance—"

"Get out of here, before I've called the authorities!" the round, balding man growled, throwing the young woman's coat in the dirt. "You werewolf-lovin' slag," he muttered under his breath and slammed the door of his bookstore shut.

Lisa sighed and bent down to pick up her coat, careful not to drop the small cardboard box in her hands, which was full of belongings she used to keep on her desk. This was the third job she'd lost this month. Sooner or later, someone who knew she was living with Remus always came in and complained to her boss. Not all of them were complete tossers about it, but there was the occasional prick. Sighing deeply again, she made her way down the cobbled street of Diagon Alley, thinking things could not get any worse. She was wrong.

"Well, well, if it isn't Lisa Fawley," a deep voice drawled from her right, and Lisa's heart sank as she laid eyes on Evan Rosier and Dorcas Meadowes, coming out of Gringotts Bank arm in arm.

"Hello, Evan. Dorcas." Lisa inclined her head politely at the couple, trying to reign in her temper.

"It seems life hasn't been treating you well," Rosier continued, his eyes sliding down her dusty coat and worn-out shoes. "I see your seven N.E.W.T.s didn't do much for your career prospects..." He lingered on the personal effects in her box.

"I'm doing quite fine, thank you," Lisa interrupted him sharply.

"Those clothes would beg to differ," Dorcas sneered. "They would look horrible even if they weren't practically rags. You always did have an abysmal fashion sense."

"I'd rather have no fashion sense than no dignity!" Lisa snapped.

"We have very different ideas of dignity." Dorcas glared at her coldly. "I would sooner be caught in your dirty ensemble than rolling around in the sheets with a werewolf!"

Lisa's blood instantly boiled, and had she not been on a highly crowded street, holding her few possessions in a box, she would have pulled out her wand. "At least I don't spend my free time killing muggles!"

Dorcas and Rosier regarded her with completely unimpressed, icy stares.

"We can play the morality game all day, but some of us have jobs to get back to," Dorcas said. "The Minister was very pleased with my new propositions on the Animagus Registry; I'm actually expecting a promotion soon. Well, best not make your beast wait. I'm sure he'll be thrilled to learn you'll have to eat from the rubbish bins again this month."

And with that, the couple gracefully walked down the street, leaving Lisa to stare after them, boiling on the inside like an erupting volcano.

oOo

Lisa opened the door to her flat carefully, checking to see if Remus was home. He wasn't. She gave out a sigh of relief, threw her coat over the back of one of the battered wooden chairs and quickly took her things out of the cardboard box. Sighing heavily for the fortieth time today, she burned it to leave no evidence of her sacking and walked into the bedroom, retrieving an old green notebook from the fake bottom of her traveling trunk. It still stood half-empty in the corner, because she hadn't completely unpacked it since their last move. Lisa retreated into the bathroom, taking her Self-Inking Quill with her and locking the door with Colloportus. She leaned against it and sank to the floor, opening the cover. As she expected, a message was waiting for her on the first blank page:

You looked pretty down today. Are you alright?

Lisa took the quill into her hand and scribbled below,

I got fired again. I really liked that job too; it was good to work in a bookstore. I just don't get how people keep finding out so fast.

Within a minute or two, words began to form under her own.

Maybe you should start using a fake name.

You'd think if anything, my name would be of help! I come from a long line of purebloods; my family is part of the Sacred Twenty-Eight, for Merlin's sake!

Your parents might not have disowned you, but the pureblood circles sure have. You should hear how they talk about you; I think you might be more infamous than Black!

I'm glad my misery amuses you.

You're welcome to be amused by my misery, if it'll make you feel any better.

What misery? I thought you said you were expecting a promotion. If things keep going the way they are, I really might resort to digging through the rubbish for food.

First of all, I'd take eating from the trash any day, as long as I don't have to listen to those bigots talk about 'dirty blood' or how 'wizards should rule muggles'. Second of all, I said the thing about the promotion to spite you. Sorry about that, by the way. Connor McKinnon actually kind of hates me, so the chances of me climbing the Ministry ladder while he's still head of the Department are pretty much non-existent. And lastly, what happened to the money in your fund, the one your dad opened for you when you turned seventeen? Don't tell me you've wasted it all already?

It's still there. I only dip in it when we really can't make ends meet, usually to pay the rent and some such. Neither of us can hold down a steady job for long so this gold keeps us afloat, but it has to last us a long time. We can't afford to spend it.

If you're having trouble with money, let me send you some. I can't stand to look at you in that state, I wasn't kidding when I said your clothes look like rags. I'll find some way to do it discretely.

I don't think that's such a bright idea. You'll only end up blowing your cover.

Then take it from someone else. Potter inherited the entire fortune of his House after his parents died this summer, and your own family is swimming in gold.

We don't need charity.

No, what you need is a good slap to the face! Your parents are loaded, ask them for help.

They need that money as much as we do. They're both still hunted by the Death Eaters so they're staying low and have an uncertain income themselves, not to mention my grandfather cut my access to the family vault after that whole 'engagement' fiasco. And James has to support both himself and Lily, while being a full-time Order member. We can't impose on him like that.

Fine, then! I told you, I have plenty of gold; just let me give you some.

No, Cass, it's too dangerous!

I can't keep watching you live like this. Let me help you. Please.

At that moment, Lisa heard the front door open with a creak.

Remus is home. I have to go.

She hastily closed the notebook and shrunk it and the quill down to size, shoving them in her jeans pocket.

"Hey," Lisa greeted gently, closing the bathroom door behind her. "How was the job hunting?"

Remus hung up his suit jacket on the hanger and sighed deeply, running a hand through his hair. He was tired and gaunt and, combined with the shirt and tie he was wearing, he looked way too old for his eighteen years.

"Nothing yet," he said, looking down at his feet and trying to hide the frustration in his voice. "I'll try again tomorrow."

This wasn't anything new. Both of them unemployed, barely making the rent of the run-down one-bedroom flat; the third one since the beginning of summer. Things were not at all as happy as Lisa had pictured it in her head when eight months ago, while they were still in school, Remus had joined her on the railing of the Tower Bridge and asked her to move in with him. Finding work was the biggest issue, as most well-paid positions they qualified for ran extensive background checks and always turned them down, so his lycanthropy essentially kept both of them perpetually poor. They did work for the Order and got to see their friends regularly, though.

Lisa just couldn't think of finances while Sirius was telling them bachelor stories or when Lily quipped sarcastically at everything that came out of James' mouth, or when she was watching Frank's spot-on impersonations of old Mad-Eye and hearing from Benjy all about the new episode of his favorite muggle show, Doctor Who, which flimsily disguised wizards as aliens. Gideon also constantly showered them with 'Gideon's greatest Hits', a title everyone gave to his ravings about the baddies he caught as a Hit Wizard, while his brother, Fabian, kept them up to date with foreign affairs, having just landed an internship in the International Magical Cooperation Department at the Ministry. Emma Vance was Lisa's source of information about the goings on in Hogwarts, and she and Benjy kept up the Defenders, a group of students fighting the muggle-born abuse in the castle. Though to be honest, everyone could do with a little less celebrity gossip, which Marlene would just refuse to stop spewing.

Back at Lisa and Remus' flat though, things weren't so peachy. It wasn't that they fought a lot, that was actually quite rare. He would get on her nerves occasionally with his nagging for her to clean after herself (as she had grown up pampered and taken care of by house elves all her life, Lisa was still struggling with the novelty of doing her own laundry); while she would cause him headaches with her loud way of talking or her general slob tendencies, but on the whole, they managed to get along fine. The serious problems really did stem from the money. He felt guilty that his condition was holding her back, convinced she could do quite a lot better for herself were she not attached to him. She on the other hand, could not deny this even a little bit, as whether her potential employer told her that or not, it was the sole reason her applications were turned down most of the time. He felt bad she had to live in these conditions because of him, live in poverty and in want of many things, but in truth, Lisa found there really wasn't that much missing from her life, other than the food and clothing situation. If there was one thing she regretted being too poor for, it was the yearly subscription to the London Library of Magic, which was at a low rate of 12 galleons. But right now she and Remus could last 2 months with 12 galleons. Or at least, had to.

Lisa found that the key to keeping things from falling apart (namely, keeping Remus from being too depressed), often laid with a joke.

"You know, you could always become a musician," she said with a smile, casually waving her wand to the gramophone in the corner. One of Remus' favorite jazz records turned under the needle. "You'd be raking the gold in like autumn leaves; you know how girls are with half-human performers."

"I don't think I'm handsome enough to be a 'teen idol'," he said tiredly, but the corners of his mouth twitched upwards.

"I don't know what you're talking about, Mr. Lupin," Lisa said, wrapping her arms around his neck. "I find you leagues more handsome than that vampire, Lorcan d'Eath. Or, if you don't want the attention and paparazzi-infested life, you could form a band with the Marauders. You already have a name and everything!"

Remus laughed lightly at that prospect, picturing himself and his friends on stage – Sirius in all probability shirtless, and James with a necktie around his head, like he did sometimes in Hogwarts when he had too much Firewhisky. The weight in his chest lightened significantly, and his arms coiled around his girlfriend's waist.

"I've always pictured you playing the bass," Lisa added, twisting a bit of his hair around her finger. "And James would be vocals, Sirius on lead guitar and Peter on the drums! You will be a bigger success than the Hobgoblins."

"Too bad none of us know how to play."

"That's not a necessity nowadays." Lisa smirked. "You just have to learn to lip-sync. Can't be that hard—"

Their banter was interrupted by faint tapping on glass. The couple turned their heads in the direction of the sound and saw Gwen, Lisa's tawny owl, knocking on the window.

"Must be from Lily, I wrote her two days ago," Lisa said, reluctantly letting go of Remus and going over to let the bird in. As soon as she unfurled the piece of parchment attached to its leg, however, Lisa immediately recognized the messy handwriting of James Potter.

Next Saturday, The Hopping Pot, NO excuses!

"A pub, huh?" Lisa said, trying desperately to hide the disdain in her voice.

The last thing they could afford to waste money on in their current situation were drinks. Yet, as Lisa looked over to Remus and saw his whole face brightened up by the prospect of seeing his friends, she couldn't help but smile back. They'd make it work somehow.

A\N: This is the third installment of the Lisa Fawley stories, which I have listed on my profile in chronological order. I will try to make it so reading the previous parts is not necessary, but sometimes I just can't help it, so if something confused you, you can always ask me about it, I'll get back to you as soon as I can :) For returning readers, thank you so much, your support means the world to me! I'll try to make this entertaining and give you something good to come back to every week. I plan for this to span the three years of the First Wizarding War, so get your tissues ready. Things are about to get serious.