Disclaimer: Jo Rowling is queen and if I were her I would rejoice, but alas, I'm simply attempting my own spin on her original works of art.

"Another one?"

James sighed and slid his hands into the pockets of his cloak as he watched his father lower himself into a crouch by the body on the ground, tanned skin pale and brown eyes staring unseeingly up into the dark night. "That's the fourth one so far."

Charlus paid no mind to his son, his attention given solely to the man laid out before him. He extracted his wand from the pocket of his robes and passed it over the corpse, lightly touching the tip first to the man's mess of dark hair then his strong nose, calloused hands, and small feet. "Hm," he murmured thoughtfully, eyes narrowed behind his rectangular spectacles as he studied the softly glowing tip of his wand.

"Dad," James pressed, frowning down at his father. This type of behavior was anything but unexpected from the Auror. As a dark wizard catcher, Charlus was understandably engrossed in his work most of the time, and with the sudden string of murders plaguing London over the summer, it was no surprise he was getting more and more attached to the work that was constantly piling up on his desk.

"It's the same as the others," Charlus finally admitted, his usually gruff voice quiet with resignation. He sighed and raised a hand to run through his mop of salt-and-pepper hair as he rose to his feet and turned to face his son, usually sparkling deep blue eyes dulled to the colour of the ocean at night. "No trace of the cause of death. Whoever's behind this is good; they know how to cover their tracks." He glanced over James' shoulder and gestured for a pair of women a few years older than his son waiting on standby to get to work analyzing the crime scene.

James pressed his lips into a thin, grave line as he watched the girls work for a moment, then sighed and slid his hands into his pockets as he surveyed the small number of his coworkers working like a well-oiled machine to both cover the murder from prying muggle eyes and to discover any clues from the thus undisturbed crime scene. His eyes ticked back to his father after a moment as the older man prepared to Disapparate. "What does this mean?" he asked quietly, gravelly, as he strode forward to clasp Charlus' forearm right before the older man spun on his heel and disappeared into the crushing darkness that came along with Apparition. It was a sensation that James was all too familiar with, and while it usually led newcomers to toss their lunch, he hardly felt any discomfort anymore, himself.

The pair touched down in Charlus' office at the Ministry a moment later. As head of the Auror Department, Charlus Potter carried considerable weight at the Ministry of Magic, and as such, he had long since managed to nab one of the biggest offices in the building. A circular room with one-way glass that enabled him to look out over his charges without them spying on him, one section of wall was comprised of a floor to ceiling bookshelf broken only by a large fireplace, and the side opposite was full of clippings from The Daily Prophet regaling the cases with more glamorous endings than others he had worked on. Complete with a small sitting area in front of the fireplace and a large, dark oak desk directly across from the door, it was easily one of James' favourite rooms in the entire Ministry.

The two men moved apart once they were on solid ground once more, Charlus moving to sit behind his desk and James before it. Silence fell between them as the former immediately dug into his desk and extracted a number of folders bursting with parchment all pertaining to different murder cases, the latter watching him with sharp eyes behind his wire-rimmed rectangular spectacles.

"They're all the same," Charlus muttered to himself, spreading the sheets out over the dark wood of the desk, brow lowered in concentration.

"They've all been killed by the same person, yeah?" James pressed, hazel eyes raptly following his father's movements, shifting so that he was perched on the very edge of his seat, coiled with excitement at the prospect of getting to the bottom of the case that had been plaguing both he and his father for months on end, since he first graduated from Hogwarts and started working under Charlus in the department.

"Yes," Charlus agreed, sitting back as he considered the spread of parchment laid out before him. "The question now is who, exactly, has been doing the killing?"

James' hand jumped to run through his jet black hair, an absentminded habit he had long since picked up from his father, as he reached out with his free hand to take a sheet of parchment and began to read through it despite the fact that he could probably recite it with his eyes closed, the number of times he had read over the cases. The question of who was one that had been knocking around in his mind since he first began working on the case, when he was fresh out of Hogwarts school not three months earlier.

Almost an hour later, as both father and son were silently going through the cases for what quite possibly may have been the hundredth time, the tense silence that had filled the room was broken by a muffled pop and the opening of the heavy wooden office door. Remus Lupin, one of James' best friends from his Hogwarts years and now currently a fellow Auror in training, stepped into the office, his usually calm face twisted into a look of apprehension.

"Sir," he said haltingly, taking a small step forward, his thin hands tightly clutching a small paper bag to his chest, seafoam green eyes filled with anxiety. "We found something at the crime scene."

Charlus' head immediately snapped up and he rose to his feet, his formerly tired expression snapping into sharp focus. "Bring it here, Lupin," he ordered, voice sharp and commanding.

Remus hesitated for only a moment longer before he gave a small sigh and nodded, striding forward and placing the bag down on the desk. He extracted his wand from his pocket and gestured to the bag, levitating out of it a thin strip of blue fabric which he let hover between the three men. "It was found snagged beneath the victim's boot," he said quietly, eyes fixed on the fabric. "I ran a few tests and—and found that it's come from the Beauxbatons school uniform."

James gave Remus a sharp look. "You're certain?" he pressed, brow creased uncertainly.

Remus nodded reluctantly. "We also found the victim's identity," he said quietly. "He's Francis Dulac. He—he works as a caretaker at Beauxbatons."

James' eyebrows jumped into his hairline, this new bit of information completely taking him aback. "Dad?" he asked uncertainly after a moment, glancing over at the older man, who was studying the strip of fabric with careful eyes.

"Who else knows about this?" he asked quietly after a moment of silence, eyes never leaving the fabric.

"Only the three of us at the moment, sir," he said evenly. "Everyone else was too busy trying to determine the cause of death to bother with assisting me."

Charlus nodded slowly, remaining quiet for a moment longer before he straightened and sat back in his seat. "We should keep it that way," he said quietly, calmly raising his eyes to level with the two young men standing before him. "The Minister would have my head if I started an investigation into a school for murders without any substantial evidence, and even then he might hesitate. Parents would go mad if they caught wind that there might be a murderer in the same building as their child. No, we should definitely keep this quiet."

"So we're just going to do nothing?" James exclaimed, taken aback by the suggestion.

"Of course not," his father said with a roll of his eyes. "'Keep things quiet' is not synonymous with 'do nothing.' You two boys are going to help me look into this. The two of you and Black and Pettigrew."

James and Remus shared an incredulous look at the suggestion, particularly at the involving of their two best friends. "How the hell are we going to help you solve a murder?" the former asked skeptically. "We've hardly been out of school for three months."

"Which makes you the perfect age to work on a case involving school," he said simply.

James cocked an eyebrow. "Four blokes can't exactly go waltzing into Beauxbatons, an all-girls school, unnoticed," he said dryly. "And the birds there don't get out enough for us to chat them up to get information. I wouldn't say we're perfect for this, dad."

Charlus considered his son silently for a long, heavy moment, then carefully rose to his feet, lacing his hands behind his back as he crossed the room to thoughtfully survey his charges through the one-way window, the room descending into a lengthy, thoughtful silence. "The Ministry is corrupt, boys," he finally said softly, his tone so low that those listening had to strain to hear. "It has been for a while now, as I'm sure you two have realized. I've no idea how deep it goes, nor who to trust. With a mission as sensitive as this one, I know the only people I can trust for certain are my own flesh and blood and those who, at this point, are like sons to me." He spun back around to face James and Remus, expression as serious as ever as his striking deep blue eyes ticked to study each of their faces. "Despite one obvious setback, you boys are the perfect candidates," he said sharply. "You're young, intelligent, handy with a wand—everything you need to be for this mission. Which is why you will be taking it on, no matter how mental it may seem."

"It seems pretty mental," James agreed, frowning deeply as he regarded his father with confusion. "How the bloody hell are we going to do this when we won't be able to get within ten feet of the school without raising alarms?"

"As we are wizards, James, I do believe we have access to means that would aid the cause." Charlus crossed over to an armoire situated beneath the case files on the wall, opening the top drawer and rummaging for a brief moment before extracting a small brown flask. "I believe you boys studied Polyjuice Potion in training?" he murmured as he spun on his heel to face the two Aurors-in-training, eyebrow cocked expectantly.

James and Remus shared a skeptical look, clearly not grasping the insinuation the older man was making. "Of course we did, sir," Remus said carefully after a moment. "It's a basic part of training. Brewed correctly, Polyjuice can turn the drinker into the physical form of another, so long as DNA from the individual is obtained and added to the potion before consumption."

Charlus pointed at Remus and nodded. "Very good, Mr. Lupin," he said approvingly. "So who can turn into whom? Is it gender-specific? Can a man only turn into another man, and the same for women?"

"No," Remus said with a shake of his head. "Anyone can turn into any gen—" His eyes suddenly widened and his mouth fell open, quite comically gaping at Auror Potter as understanding finally dawned on him. "You can't be serious," he croaked after a moment.

"What is it?" James asked immediately, glancing between his friend and father with a burning curiosity in his eyes.

"I am quite serious, Mr. Lupin," Charlus replied calmly despite his sharp eyes as he regarded Remus.

"You can't possibly—you must have thought this through—"

"The reason I'm proposing this idea is because I have thought it through," Charlus pressed. "I believe that this is the most ideal method to achieve our goal here. I don't see any other options without raising alarm and bringing much unwanted attention to the case when we hardly have enough hard evidence to warrant a full-scale Ministry investigation."

"Can someone tell me what the bloody hell you two are talking about?" James exploded, glancing between his father and best friend irritably, clearly annoyed at being kept out of the loop.

Remus was silent for a long time as he stared at his superior, searching him intently before he slowly turned his gaze on James, abject horror glimmering in his eyes.

"Your father… he wants to use Polyjuice to disguise us as women so we can go undercover at Beauxbatons."

A/N: Hi! Alright so first chapter of my first story! First, thanks for getting this far at all. Seriously. You deserve a cookie. Second of all, I know Beauxbatons is a co-ed school, but for this story's purpose, I thought it would be better for it to be strictly all-girls. And I know that James' father's name is really Fleamont, but I like Charlus a hell of a lot more. I mean, Fleamont? Really?

Review please! Feedback of any kind is 100% appreciated.