A/N: Wow. Another endeavor in HP fiction. As for "In My Mind", I'm flattered by the take to it and thanks to everyone who reviewed, alerted, favorited, and all that jazz. It was very surprising. But, being that I've taken that off the site, I'm putting up something new. Now, Demonic Duo and I (more like she, really) came up with this idea when we were talking about my other story. We've been brainstorming with each other for a while and I guess it's finally time to post something. So here goes. Thanks to her and the reviewers. But especially her (aren't you just special!).

Warnings: My stories, all of them, are slash. They have angst, drama, and slash. A nice healthy diet of slash. Expect slashy undertones, possible future slash (most likely), angsty slash, and that goodness. I'll let you know if things ever get graphic later on. Don't count on full-blown porn, though. I hate lemons and fluff. Oh, and also, this is a major AU. MAJOR. I mean, characters stay the same...but don't expect magic and phantasmagoric delights. Additionally, I still wish I could format the way I want to on Sorry about the lack of indentations and such. They'd be there if I wasn't stupid.

Chapter One Rating: G. (Or should I say..."K"? -hits over the head-)

Summary: Sirius Black is one of the most prostigious doctors in London. He has a whole lot of things going well for him in his life, aside from the fact that he's bored, hates his monotonous boss and coworkers, has a very limited social life, and has just been assigned to take a youthful French apprentice at work. Suddenly realizing that he's going to be working with someone seven years his junior for a year, Sirius finds himself readjusting his life all because of a nineteen-year-old genius. (and, of course, I'm giving away no more than that!) AU, SBRL.

Reviews: Please do. Reviews are fun to read when you should be writing papers and rehearsing speeches. They encourage me to update really fast. As for flames...just don't. Spend your time better. Respect my escape from papers on AIDS, Rwanda, and UNICEF as I would yours. Or better yet, go to and spend your time doing something good for the community.

Disclaimer: Don't own any of the Harry Potter stuff. Don't really want to, anyway. Also, it wasn't my idea to make Remus French. His name just has a French ring, which is probably where whoever got the idea first found it. It really is interesting, the amount of people on here who make Remus French. I was going to mix it up and make him from Spain or something, but I could already hear the, "BUT HE'S FRENCH!" complaints.

Sorry about the A/N. They'll never be this long in the future.

Laritus House:

. . . Welcome to Laritus. . .

"Give him a walkthrough, would you?"

Sirius Black jerked out of his trance. "Hmm?"

The other man, dressed similarly in white coat and sterile slacks rolled his eyes. This was his friend. Partner. Joe, was it? And he looked annoyed.

"The interns are here today. You know, the ones looking for a job. Yeah. Way to impress." Joe explained.

"Oh." Sirius paused. "So I've been assigned to one?"

The other nodded.

"Bloody hell," he growled. "Did you?"

Joe smiled. "Said I was too busy with the wife and kids."

Damn your wife and kids. "What do I do with him?"

"Just go get him from the meeting when they're done and walk him through the place. He knows what he's doing here already." He paused. "Do me a favor and don't show him that hidden lounge in back."

Sirius sighed. "What hidden lounge? You mean the coffee room? The place that has a table, a fridge, and a laundry machine?"

"It's a hidden lounge."

"Yeah. Okay. Merlin, sometimes I question whether you're a doctor or a patient."

"Real clever, Sirius. Getting brighter by the second."

"Only for you."

Joe checked his watch, glasses falling down his nose. "Ah. Time to visit dear Dorothy in seventy-six. Delightful." Sirius smiled with sympathy. "Later."

Once his partner was completely out of sight down the wide, clean, and white hall, Sirius ran a hand through his long, blue-black hair and started down the way to this intern meeting (which he had, of course, forgotten about until this very untimely instant).

The room, usually used for electrical therapy, was full of a few foreign chaps and a handful of foreign kids looking for a respectable job. They all were white. Way to be a little more racist, boss, Sirius thought with a scowl. "Ah, Dr. Black. Nice to see you here."

"Mr. McKneely." Sirius acknowledged coolly. If only he could be holding an "I Heart My Boss" mug at this instant. If only.

"Let me introduce you to our young graduates," he said. He quickly introduced his favorites, a few American chaps from Princeton, both of whom wore glasses and bore little personality. Then there was a young man from Salamanca, a tired-looking fellow from Anchorage, and a meek French kid who never glanced up from the ever-amazing linoleum floor. "And, as you should know, Sirius, these were the brightest applicants of all the thousands we received over the summer." His boss flashed him another grin, as if to add, "Aren't they amazing!"

"Great. Stupendous." He drawled. "If you would excuse me, sir, I've really a headache and wouldn't mind a bottle of aspirin--

"Oh, now, now, Doctor Black! Running away so quickly! You were selected to do orientation, were you not?"

"Huh?" Sirius grunted, holding his head wearily.

"When we drew names from the hat, Sirius."

"Oh. Right. Guess so."

Dr. McKneely gave a tight-lipped smile. "Alright, then. I will leave you now to your thorough and exciting tour through the terrain in which will be your workplace! Carry on, Sirius. Be good."

"But…my patients, Sir…"

"Taken care of."

Bloody bastard. Leaving me here with mathematical and med school geniuses. God. Can't believe I was one of them once. Was I one of them? Merlin, I hope not. They looked at him expectantly, desire for knowledge clearly shining in their eyes. "Let's go."

Sirius led the pack down the first hall of Laritus House, the home for crazy old-timers and even crazier young people. "This is a hallway. You walk down it to get to the rooms." Sirius deadpanned, grin hidden behind his mass of hair.

He turned the corner and made everybody stop and look in a window. "These are our offices. As in, not yours. Understand that?" He waited. "Good."

"Down this way," he drawled, taking them down another hallway, to many rooms, to the restrooms, to the storage rooms and pharmacies. Thirty minutes passed. He held his temple with his hand. "Any questions so far?"

They just stood there, looking mildly uninterested but feigning determination with a realization of "importance".

Except for that goddamned demented one that kept looking at the floor.

"None?"

One Princeton fellow, a Mr. Young, cleared his throat. "So the rooms on this floor are the only ones we'll be dealing with?"

"Not certainly. That depends upon your progress here, and on your mentors. But generally, yes. The patients down here are much easier to handle and don't do anything too disturbing."

Princeton graduate number two added his two cents: "And who will our mentors be?"

"The doctors," Sirius answered smugly. "Clearly."

Ending conversation, the lecture continued. By the end of the hour, on the third and final floor, Sirius had officially deduced that each and every one of them was a robot in a person-suit. Boring, socially infantile, and, in one case, dreadfully shy and silent, the interns would fit in perfectly with the staff. How…terrible.

He brought them back to his boss and presented them with an overwhelming lack of gusto. "Here." He announced. A silent, awkward moment passed. "I'm getting some Advil," Sirius mumbled. He left the office.

(The Office, ten minutes later)


"Ah. You've decided to return, I see."

Sirius smiled. "It was a tiring debate, but yes."

The boss sighed. "I had the computer do a random generation of pairings for mentorship while you were gone. Fortunately, somebody got you!"

Merlin no.

"Now, Remus, you'll find that Dr. Black has plenty of good reason for being our head man here. I'm sure that you'll acknowledge how lucky you are soon enough."

Sirius' gray eyes widened in horror. He got the mousey French one. The linoleum-lover. The one who probably had a pocket protector close at hand. "Bloody hell," he muttered accidentally.

"Excuse me, Sirius?" Dr. McKneely's eye popped out at him with accusation and scolding.

"Sorry, Sir."

His boss stepped aside, revealing the slightly shorter, messy brown-haired man. "I'll leave you two to get acquainted, then!"

With that, he was gone.

And Sirius was alone with…him.

Better to just get on with it. He reached out his hand with a sigh. "I'm Dr. Sirius Black."

The other tentatively shook his hand. His fingers were cold and thin. "My name is Remus Lupin. It is nice to meet you. Sir." His English was broken and cautious, either because of a lack of speaking skill of the foreign language, or because of his extreme nervousness.

He just had to ask. "Do you speak English?"

"I do. Sir." His French accent was heavy. "Not that badly, at least." His stare gradually was removed from the ground.

His eyes were amber.

"How old are you?" Sirius asked, taken aback by the youthfulness of his face.

Remus blushed, something of a smile practically coming to his lips. "Everybody's been asking me that today." He found homage for the floor again. "I'm nineteen."

Sirius' mind went blank. "But…you're…"

"A graduate student. Yeah."

His hand went to his black hair again, flustered. "So wait. How does this work?"

"I skipped grammar school when I was little," Remus responded shyly.

Bloody hell. Leave it to me to get stuck with the gifted one.

"Wow. That's…impressive." Sirius sputtered. He worked the math out in his head. If his intern was only nineteen…that meant that he was…

Nearly seven years younger than himself. And he, the great Sirius Black, was supposed to be the genius of this establishment, having gotten a head position right out of grad school! Guess not anymore.

Sirius felt the aching come back in his brain. "Come on, then. It's time for your first lesson."

He blindly found his way to the coffee room in back, simply assuming that Remus would follow him. "This is the secret lounge."

Sirius swallowed down two more aspirin and sat down in one of the plastic chairs.

"Make of it what you will."

Remus stood in the middle of the small room, appearing lost and bewildered. "A lounge?"

"Yeah. That's what I said."

Another minute passed before Sirius realized that his apprentice was looking around the lackluster room as if he'd just walked into Oz.

Dear god.

This was going to be interesting.

TBC...

Review, please!