Disclaimer- I do not own Harry Potter. Oh Merlin don't I know it!
CHAPTER 1: LUPIN PI
It has been a long time since I cared about anything.
From a fairly young age, my life had been nothing but disppointment and rejection.
That was until I had met James, Sirius and Peter... things were good for awhile.
But now they were all gone and I had to ask myself the time honoured question, Is it really better to have loved and lost than to have never have loved at all?
I'd say no. The pain was not worth it.
And I certainly wouldn't look for it ever again.
Hogsmeade Village was my home.
I lived in the basement apartment of a building owned by the same shady Wizard who owned 'The Hog's Head', a pub of ill repute.
I didn't suppose it bothered Abe what I was. His crowd weren't exactly known for being normal. He let us keep to ourselves and that suited me just fine.
I ran most of my business out of his pub anyway, it had just the right amount of grime on the windows for it to be perfect for meeting my clients. People didn't want to be seen hiring a Werewolf PI. As for me, well I liked the ambience.
I usually did small cases. Finding things, people, that kind of thing. I had a good nose on me, no point in wasting it. Occassionally I had to follow people and let my clients know what I saw. I didn't concern myself with the details. The less you knew, the better. My heart had been umoved for a long time now, so I had a good reputation for getting the job done.
Speaking of which, business was booming and I was presently waiting for my next client at The Hog. I was hoping it would be a simple case because the full moon was occuring in a couple of weeks...
Of course I had forgotten that the universe liked to conspire against me.
"Hi there! You must be Mr Lupin, I'm Tonks, we corresponded through owls. Mine was the one that bites."
Oh boy. This must be my new client. Here I had been hoping that the young lady had been lost. Women always seemed to complicate things and my hopes of an easy case withered away to nothing.
"Pleasure." Her hand shake was firmer and more business like than I would've thought for someone as...well young as she seemed to be. Young was a good word.
The girl called Tonks, had pink hair which was cropped just above her shoulders and all but matched her shirt in colour. The sides of which were barely held together by an array of safety pins which was particulary alarming to think about. Her faded denim jeans looked as if a wild animal had clawed across her thighs and knees, just hard enough to show some lines of flesh. I was sure there would have been more damage below the knees but her combat boots laced all the way up her legs.
In short, she looked like the poster child for teenage angst.
Good grief.
"Well Miss Tonks, you mentioned in your letter, that you needed me to find something for you?" I hid behind professionalism like it was my only defence against young people. And it was.
"It's just Tonks. And yes I did. You came highly recommended and we need this found sooner rather than later."
I was of course curious as to who recommended her, but I knew better than to ask. It could have been one of my previous clients and I wouldn't be able to talk about them anyway. People paid me top dollar for discretion and results. Which I sincerley hoped she couldn't pay me.
"Of course... Well you seem like a nice kid, but my rates are pretty high."
"I'm no kid and I have gold, don't you worry," at this she tossed me over a small coin purse. Right into my lap. Ugh! "Uh.. sorry about that. Half now, half later as agreed on."
Hope dashed. The weight of the purse was satisfactory and despite my misgivings, I couldn't see anything to object to. Maybe this would be an easy case after all.
Heh and maybe I wouldn't turn furry once a month.
"Alright then, I'll meet you here at 8 am tomorrow."
We shook hands again and it was done.
May Merlin have mercy on us all.
I've secured his help for the first item.
Don't worry, I haven't told him any particulars.
We are setting off tomorrow.
I will keep you updated.
Send my love to H.
T.