"Never was there a story of more woe..."

Romeo & Juliet

Star Crossed

Scene 1

The Ministry of Magic
December 1992
(During C.O.S.)

Nervously fingering the last knut in his pocket, he tried to keep his chin up and his gaze aloof as he entered the Ministry's Department of Work and Pensions. Of all the things that he hated about being a werewolf, applying for welfare rated number two, only outranked by a full moon.

Poverty was one of many side effects of lycanthropy not mentioned in any mediwizard's textbook. As he was often in and out of work, Lupin had learned a thing a or two about London's underprivileged class. He had grown accustomed to second hand books, shared rooms, frayed shirt cuffs and patched robes. However, these marks of poverty were nothing compared to having to admit aloud a leery-eyed government official that he couldn't find a job he could keep longer than six months.

He had only had to come to this office two other times in his life and here he was again. His last teaching post in Reykjavik lost when his co-workers discovered a 'wolf' in their midst. Penniless and destitute, he returned to his native London filled with despair. His last three job inquires were failures. It was either accept the dole while he looked around Europe for another position, or eat his meals from dumpsters. He'd done the latter during a dark period in his life and he swore, even if it meant leaning on the government temporarily, he would every meal from a plate like a civilized man.

With a hungry stomach and a nervous hesitation, he stepped up to the clerk desk.

His voice raspy as he steadied himself. "I'm here for-"

"Work, welfare o' pension?" A pimply, thin young man asked in an irritated voice as he hurriedly scratching away at another document with a greasy quill.

Remus nervously pulled at his collar. This is usually where everything went wrong. "I'd like work, sir."

The man shoved another document his way. "This is the Ministry's work provisions list." He stopped and looked up, his eyes curious as he surmised the lanky, neatly dressed Lupin.

Something wasn't adding up for the clerk. His eyes shifted, "You have a skill or trade?"

Lupin cast his eyes down at the paperwork. "I'm a teacher. I have have my certification from the Schola Hecateius in Rome."

The man thoughtless picked a thick red scab on his lower jaw. "You a teacher and can't find no job?"

Remus remained silent.

"Ahh...You're a D.C.U.W. then?" The man asked as his fingers left his quill and slowly curled around a wand at the far end of his workspace.

Dark Creature Unfit for Work.

Lupin cast his eyes back down at his feet, as he answered softly. "Yes, sir. I am."

His hand now firmly around his wand.

"Well, I don't work with none of yours here. You'll have to see Tonks." The pimply ministry clerk's dark eyes shifted between Lupin and a door to the back of the office.

"Second door to the left and remember," then man raised his wand, like a chiding school master, "no funny business, you. You're dealing with the Ministry now. Always watching you, we are."

Remus wanted to cringe in humiliation, but instead he forced his eyes to look at the smaller man fully. Gray steel stared into beady black; this time he wouldn't genuflect to a pimply ministry toe-rag.

"Thank you, sir. I'll make an effort to remember that." He replied with a refined dignity.

Then turning on his heel, he walked to the office that read, Ted Tonks, and softly knocked on the opened door.

"Come in," replied a fair- haired man with a large-ish belly.

Remus nodded as he assessed that this man looked more jovial than the last, perhaps this would be less embarrassing.

"The clerk sent me here. I'm applying for..." he paused before sighing, "welfare, sir."

"Alright, alright." Said then man, moving papers around a cluttered desk, then suddenly looking up, "Well, don't just stand there. Sit, down." He gestured with a free hand.

Lupin sat and relaxed a bit at the man's casual demure.

"So, you a dark creature, mister?" Tonks asked, as he clipped a few parchments to a board.

"Remus John Lupin. I suppose I am under ministry standards, sir." They liked hearing 'sir' at the welfare office; they liked knowing that dark creatures understood their rank.

Tonks looked up from his paper work and gave Lupin a half smile. "How long since you got the bite?"

Remus shifted just an inch as he wondered if his facade was that transparent.

"I was just a boy."

The man raised a quizzical brow, "Well, you're holding together well Mr. Lupin. Perhaps a man acclimates better to it if he receives the bite as child. Most of your kind are..." He bit his lip, and looked back to his files, "Well, it's a shame really how society marks a man."

Lupin didn't have a reply. Tonks' pity was nearly as humiliating as the clerk's abhorrence.

"Here's your file... I see this is only your third time for welfare pension." His sky blue eyes smiled, "Excellent reports, Mr. Lupin. Says you found work again only after a matter of months." Looking down again, "And you're a scholar?"

"Yes, a teacher, really."

"What's your subject then?" Tonks asked absently as he began the paperwork for the younger man's application.

"History and Philosophy."

"The Classics of Magic?" Ted paused, looking upon Remus with compassion. "Must be twice as hard on you then, a man of your learning."

Remus tried to smile at the back-handed compliment. "I don't know if it's easier or harder. I can only imagine what I might have done if I had not had the bite... Sometimes, I think it was lycanthropy that encouraged me to turn away from more worldly pursuits and seek academia. The world is so much simpler when it's bound between two leather covers."

Lupin wasn't sure what made him confess his inner thoughts to a man he didn't know and for minute, the two men sat in silence. Remus was holding his breath, hoping he hadn't said too much. He'd been on his own too long this time, it was making him vulnerable to kindness.

Finally, Tonks broke his trance. "No use in thinking on what might have been. You've your future to have on your mind now." Then pushing forward a large parchment. "Just list your current owling address and sign your name at the bottom there."

Tonks handed him a quill, and as Lupin put his mark to the forms, Ted added, "You've got a good head on you Lupin. Things will look up for you soon, I'm sure."

Lupin smiled slightly, but he wasn't so sure.