Every Beast Has Their Beauty

Disclaimer: I am not J.K. Rowling. I do not own any of her work.

Chapter 1: The Curse of James Potter

Thursday, August 9

A tall, muscular man with thick, messy dark hair pulled his pants up over his boxers, zipping and buttoning them. It was 11:17 in the morning which meant he was very late for work, not that it mattered. He was the boss and what he said went. He was only 24 years old and had already billions of dollars in his name due to his parents' work as well as an unfortunate incident. He was the CEO of a successful technological enterprise that had global connections. He looked to the figure on his bed and shook his head. Laying in his bed was his current, and now former, personal assistant. Her dark hair lay across the bed and a peaceful look was plastered on her face as the blanket covered her small frame.

He sat on the edge of the bed and started to put his socks and dress shoes on. He heard his phone ringing, found it on his nightstand, and answered.

"Hey," he muttered, sleep still evident in his voice. "I'm on my way, now…yeah, can you have Remus put an ad for a new personal assistant?...nope, not the one…I'm beginning to think I won't find-…it's been five years, Sirius…Yeah, well, I'm running out of time…see you in 30 minutes, Sirius," he muttered onto the phone, hanging it up. He saw the woman on the bed stirring and then sitting up in bed, holding the comforter tightly around her nearly naked body.

She grinned when he looked at her. "Hello there, handsome," she stated and then crawled over behind him, rubbing his chest from behind. She leaned over to whisper in his ear, seductively. He just shook his head in response.

"Sorry, Elaina. I have to get going to work."

"I'll meet you there?" she asked, hopefully, but with disappointment in her voice. He shook his head again as he walked over to his closet to grab a white undershirt.

"You know the deal. I had you sign it before you started working with me. I need someone who will do their work without letting personal lives getting affected."

She pouted, angrily. "Hey, I didn't hear you rejecting my advances last night."

He shrugged. "You're a beautiful woman. Who am I to turn down a beautiful woman? It's not going to work out."

"C'mon, you know you liked it up until you fell asleep. We didn't get to finish…just wait, hunny. I can help you de-stress every night, if you'd like. You won't regret it," she grinned, standing from the bed and letting the comforter drop, exposing her nearly nude body.

The man, James Potter, glanced up briefly but reached back into his closet to pick out a dress shirt and jacket to wear. He had pretended to fall asleep last night, not wanting to go farther with a woman who wasn't his true love. His parents had brought him up as a gentleman and no curse was going to change that part of his life.

"Sorry, Elaina. Your clothes are on the floor; get changed so we can leave," he stated, void of emotion.

She made out a noise in disgust and grabbed her clothes off the ground angrily, throwing them on quickly.

"I'll walk myself out, selfish prick," she stated, voice shaking in anger. She grabbed her dress shoes and left his loft in a rush.

"Women," James grunted, walking to the bathroom to put on deodorant and brush his teeth. When he finished, he buttoned his dress shirt, threw on a tie, and put on his jacket. He picked up his phone from the nightstand again and grabbed his briefcase that was resting by the door. He left his loft that he shared with his two best friends as their house elf, Lucy, appeared in the building. She bid farewell to Mr. Potter as he left in a rush. He didn't acknowledge her, but instead pulled out his phone to respond to missed calls.

Within fifteen minutes from leaving his loft, he was entering his large, emasculate building that was built of a beautiful grey stone mixed with glass. The floors on the inside were a white marble.

"Good morning, Mr. Potter," the security man at the front desk stated, nodding to James.

"Joe, good to see you," James responded to his father's long-time best friend and previous security guard, Joe Ellison. James walked to the elevators and flashed his badge to open his personal elevator. Upon entrance, he looked into an eye identifier that would only accept his eye to move the elevator to the floor he wanted. The elevator moved speedily up to the 21st floor and opened. He saw the empty front desk that Elaina would have normally occupied. To the right side was a waiting area with about 15 seats available and coffee, water, and snacks available to anyone who was waiting. Along the whole side of one of the walls was a fish tank that housed a few dozen different types of fish. He watched the fish as he walked past the wall and to a double door area that was to open to his office.

Seeing that it was unlocked, he entered and saw his two best friends sitting at the table to the side, answering e-mails on their laptops. They had their own offices on the other side of the personal assistant's desk, but they preferred to work in here.

"James, the job listing is up. We will schedule people to come in tomorrow as we cleared your schedule. The meeting with John has been moved until Thursday at 2 and your meeting with Andrea and Benson has been moved until Friday at 10, so don't be late to work. As for today, you have a meeting with the board of directors at 3 and a phone conference with Luminous Enterprises at 5. Your lunch date with Addison and Lucas has been postponed until Wednesday at 12:15," a man with a clean shaven face and a neat blond hair cut stated, not looking at James. His name was Remus Lupin.

"Thanks," James stated, joining them at the long table. Across from him was his other best friend, Sirius Black, who was just as tall as James with a scruffy face and shaggy black hair. He grinned at James when James finally met his eyes.

"Maybe we're going the wrong route, mate," Sirius suggested. "Clearly you picking personal assistants isn't working. They clearly only fall for your looks and wealth. Let Remus and I pick you a personal assistant and we're going to have you go on blind dates or something. As you stated, you are running out of time."

"I don't have time for dates-" James started.

"You're going to make time for dates, James. You've just turned 24 yesterday…we only have until you're 25, remember?" Remus pitched in. "You know what'll happen if you don't find the one. You will never be magical again and you will lose all ties to magic, including us. You're not the only one who is suffering from this."

"You try to find someone to love you when they immediately see your looks and money," James snapped at his friend. Rubbing a hand through his thick hair, he continued, "I'm sorry, Remus. I didn't mean that. It's just…magic was my life, you know? And now it's gone and I feel completely useless. There has to be another way around this curse."

Remus shook his head sympathetically. "You know we're here for you no matter what happens, James. And we searched…this is the only way, I'm afraid."

"It's not that bad, Prongs. We'll figure this out," Sirius added sincerely, patting James on the back. "We still have whole other year left."

James snorted. "And the first five were what, trials? Let's face it. A year is not enough time anymore. You guys should go back to being only aurors. I don't want you to give up your old lives for me."

"Oh stop being dramatic, James. We're not leaving and you know that. We are the marauders after all…and marauders stick together. The muggle world isn't that bad and besides, the only people we care about are with us anyhow," Remus stated.

"And how is that helping you guys? You're magical and I'm…not, anymore. I'm just plain old boring muggle James," James responded.

"Correction. You're ridiculously wealthy, ridiculously good-looking, plain old boring muggle James," Sirius grinned, earning a glare from James. "Besides, my sister and Ray are still looking for a cure besides this whole 'love-thing'. She thinks they're close to finding one. They're still working with Dumbledore. They haven't given up on you and neither should you."

"Whatever. Let's get back to work."

James shrugged in approval as the group continued on their individual tasks, leaving when they had to go to their meetings. They returned to the office at the end of the work day to discuss the upcoming interviews.

"Alright, we have twelve women coming in tomorrow, starting at 7 A.M. and lasting until 8 P.M. Ally will be coming in to help with the secretary duties and such to watch the women out there while we sit in here interviewing. And no, Sirius, you cannot sit out there with Ally," Remus stated as Sirius went to interrupt but then stopped, pouting. "We have to pick someone or Ally will murder you, James. She hates being your personal assistant, says you're ridiculous to work with."

James grinned. "How is my favorite sister doing?" he asked, laughing. Ally was Remus' twin sister. She directed the Personal Relations Department of the company, Potter's and Sons Enterprise, creating advanced technological development for the future of the world. James saw her as his own sister, one of the few females he had an actual relationship with. The boys and Ally met when they went to school together at 11. The school was called Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and it was where young witches and wizards went to learn magic. An unfortunate incident occurred, leaving James magic-less in the muggle community. His faithful friends came to work at his muggle company to be with James until they could find a cure for him. Being one of the most intelligent wizards and learning muggle technology quickly, Remus had become the company's personal hacker in order to ensure they had the best security measures in place. He was then promoted to the Senior Director of Computer and Internet Security at James' company. Sirius was James' right hand man and has started and remained in his position of Director of Security, with his main position being the bodyguard of James. Although Sirius was fairly intelligent, he hated sitting behind a desk.

It had been five years ago; four years, 10 months, and 17 days, to be precise. One day, James Potter was one of the best good wizards to exist and then the next, he was merely a muggle. When James was only 18, he had managed to murder the most malicious of evil wizards named Voldemort. This, however, caused Voldemort's seer to curse James to the muggle world without his magic. He lost all magical ability and was stuck in a world he didn't know much about. The only way to get his magical ability back was if someone were to fall in love with him and give him true love's kiss. James, ever the player in school, quickly found that this task wasn't as easy as it sounded. When individuals saw him, they saw dollar signs and a handsome bachelor. He was desperate to find a woman who liked him beyond his wealth, fame, and appearances, but to no avail. This in turn caused James to become very bitter, selfish, and angry towards anything and everything, losing the thing that mattered to him more than anything in the world. Being a wizard was who he was and living like a muggle was torture for him.

However, James' good friends made the switch with him. They still used their magic and still were connected with the magical community, but they opted to stay with James while they waited for his true love to come around. They vowed to stay with James even if they couldn't find a cure. Sirius, Remus, Ally, and Ally's roommate, Sahara, all stayed with James, working for his company while Sirius' sister, Lizzie, and her boyfriend, Ray, stayed primarily in the magical community to search for an alternative means in case he couldn't find true love. They had been working on the cure since James was cured but were finding it very difficult to cure it without the original caster, the seer. Unfortunately for them, the seer killed herself after cursing James.

"She'd be doing better if she didn't have to keep filling in for…what was her exact wording? Oh right…'mindless slutty gold-diggers who can't keep their legs closed'," Remus grinned, responding to James' earlier question. James shrugged guiltily and Sirius laughed.

"Alright, alright. I get it. Let's get back to the loft to catch some shut eye since the fool over here started the interviews at 7!" James exclaimed, indicating it was alright for them to call it a night.

The three friends grinned, leaving their office the muggle way to their shared loft in the city of London.