Chapter 1
November 1st, 1982 – Raven's Nest Maximum Security Prison, Yorkshire, England
James and Lily were dead. Peter was dead. Sirius was a traitor. Harry was missing. Remus was going for a job interview.
One of those things didn't belong with the others. Would you like to guess which one?
Remus John Lupin smoothed his suit as best he could and pushed the buzzer at the front gate of the prison. An intercom crackled to life.
"Please state your name and business," a man said. Remus cleared his throat before he replied.
"My name is Remus Lupin. I have an interview scheduled with Warden Styles at three o'clock."
There was silence for a moment, then the man said, "I am sending Charles Turpin out to meet you. He will take you to see the warden."
"Thank you sir."
"No problem. Good luck."
The intercom turned off. Remus looked around and rubbed his wand arm as he waited. That arm had recently been broken and, though it was healed, he still worried about his ability to fend off an attack.
Not that he was expecting to be attacked, but werewolves tend to automatically practice Alastor Moody's CONSTANT VIDGALANCE. So do Veelas, goblins, and muggle martial artists, all of whom you never want to have to fight against. Trust me.
Remus didn't have to wait for very long before Charles Turpin arrived. He was a heavyset man who looked a little bit like a blond Hagrid. The sleeves of his shirt were ripped off the make room for his muscular arms and the rest of his uniform was straining against his great girth.
I'm pretty sure that he's 100% human, but sometimes it's debatable.
Turpin opened the triple-locked staff door that was set in the wall beside the gate and gestured for Remus to come inside. He did and found himself in the muddy moat area between the two walls that surrounded the prison. Turpin asked him to hold his arms out. He complied and Turpin completed a quick pat-down. When he found Remus' wand in its holster on his arm, he frowned.
"What is this?" he asked.
Remus forced himself to laugh.
"Oh, that? That's just a magic wand. My sister gave it to me as a present one Christmas when we were kids and I don't think I've taken it off since."
"Oh. Well, you'll still have to go through security, but I think you'll be fine."
Going through security was tedious. Well, it was a maximum security prison. Remus was glad that Warden Styles had told him to come two hours early; it took most of that time for him to get through security and into the actual prison.
Turpin led Remus through the twisting hallways until they reached a door with a nameplate reading 'Warden James Styles'. Turpin waved to the camera that was mounted above the door and Remus heard a buzzing noise as the door was unlocked.
"Good luck," Turpin said as he opened the door. "Just be honest and you'll do fine."
That would be a bit difficult to do, but Remus nodded to him all the same.
"Thank you."
Turpin clapped Remus on the back as he entered Warden Styles' office, causing Styles' first impression of Remus to be based on his ungainly stumble into his office. His expression didn't show any surprise.
"Good afternoon," Warden Styles said after Remus had regained his composure. "Please, have a seat."
"Thank you, warden."
Remus shook the warden's hand before gratefully sitting down. He had been on his feet all day, visiting as many of the Potters' friends as he could to try to get any news of Harry, going to Hogwarts to see if Dumbledore had come up with anything new, trying to track down Lilly's family to see if they knew anything, it was nice to have a bit of a rest.
He knew that after a year of searching the chances of finding Harry were slim, but for his best friend's son he couldn't bear to stop looking. He wouldn't even be at this interview if it weren't for Andromeda Tonks, who insisted that he try to get a job so that he wouldn't drive himself crazy.
Warden Styles leaned back in his seat and laced his fingers together. "So Mr. Lupin, have you worked at a prison before?" he asked.
Remembering Turpin's advice, Remus replied, "No sir, I haven't."
"Hmm…" Styles stroked his beard. In that moment he reminded Remus quite a lot of Dumbledore, only Styles was about sixty years younger, had one-eighth as much beard, and wasn't wearing glasses. "Do you have any experience in law enforcement?"
"Two of—" Remus cut himself off. "My friend worked as a police officer. He died last year." Both James and…Sirius had worked as Aurors (though James hadn't really needed to work at all), so he wasn't technically lying.
"My condolences. How good are you at self-defence?"
"I'm qualified to teach defence, sir."
Styles looked slightly surprised, but he nodded in acknowledgment. "Wonderful. Now, if there was a fight between two prisoners, what would you do?"
Remus thought for a moment. "That depends on how heated the fight is, sir. If they came to blows then I would do my best to break them apart. If it was just insults then I'd keep an eye on both of them, tell them to stop, but not physically interfere."
Styles nodded, but Remus couldn't tell if he was pleased with the answer or not.
"Well, Mr. Lupin, what about if…"
Styles continued asking questions and Remus continued to answer as honestly as he could. When asked what other jobs he'd held, Remus admitted that he'd never had any job before. No one in the wizarding world would hire a werewolf, and his time had been taken up with fighting in the war. Styles didn't seem disappointed, he just nodded, wrote something in the little notebook he'd taken out, and went to the next question.
"Well, Mr. Lupin," Styles said after a good hour of interviewing. "I believe you would be a good addition to our team. You're certainly more qualified than the other, pardon me, idiots who have applied."
Remus nodded in acknowledgment. "Thank you , warden."
"Just one last question."
Remus waited with anticipation.
"Do you like children?"
For the first time since he had met James, Peter and Sirius, Remus Lupin was completely and utterly confused.
The girl looked up as they entered her room. Calling it a room was generous as it was really just an old storage closet that hadn't been used for years, but it had been made into a room that any little girl would be proud of.
The bed was prison issue but the covers had been dyed an interesting reddish-purple that had probably come from beet juice. A pretty grey teddy bear held pride of place on top of the pillow. The walls were cleanly whitewashed and the floor was carpeted pale pink but neither held any stain. A bookshelf reached a good meter and a half up the wall to the left of the bed. Its lower shelves were crowded with picture books, books of poetry, and colouring books that seemed to greatly feature unicorns and fairies. A gilded carriage clock sat on top of the wooden dresser.
"Hello Mr. Turpin," the girl chimed, scrambling up from where she was lying on the floor, colouring. "How are you today?"
Turpin smiled. "I'm well, thank you Patricia." He pushed Remus forwards. As he was expecting it this time, Remus managed not to fall. "This is Remus Lupin. He's just got a job here."
Patricia looked up at Remus with big brown doe eyes. Curly red hair tumbled over her shoulders, reminding Remus painfully of Lily.
"Hello, Mr. Lupin," she said. "I'm Patricia Stimpson."
Stimpson. That was a name that Remus hadn't heard for almost two years. It immediately brought back the memory of a conversation he had had with Fabian Prewett back in the days of the Order of the Phoenix.
"Fabian! There's been another attack! The Stimpson place, Dumbledore wants us looking for survivors."
"Pythia and Stanislav's house? I don't want to be the one to tell Gideon, he's in love with that daughter of theirs. Adorable baby girl."
"I know. Hurry up!"
Pythia Stimpson née Floros was a Seer from a Greek wizarding family. Stansilav was a Runes Master. Both of them had dealt blows against You-Know-Who, so the attack against them hadn't come as a huge surprise.
When they had reached the house they had found it almost completely untouched, except for the dark mark floating ominously above it. Protective runes surrounding the property had burnt themselves out and a strong anti-Disapparition jinx was still in place. After removing the jinx, Remus, Fabian and Sirius had entered the house and immediately found Stanislav and Pythia dead on the floor of their sitting room. The house had been ransacked and there was absolutely no sign of their daughter.
Remus looked at the girl in front of him. He hadn't known Stanislav and Pythia very well, Stanislav had gone to Durmstrang and Pythia was a Slytherin two years above the Marauders, but he could see how Patricia was related to them. She had the same prominent Greek nose and red hair as her mum had and brown eyes like her father.
She was also wearing a Gringotts vault key with the Stimpson snake and adder stone crest emblazoned on it on a chain around her neck. I think that would be a pretty good clue as to her identity.
Remus swallowed as he realized that he was taking too long to answer. "Patricia, it's wonderful to meet you. You wouldn't happen to be related to Stanislav and Pythia Stimpson, would you?"
Patricia frowned. "I don't know."
"She was found outside the gate three years ago and she's been here ever since," Turpin explained.
"Ah. Was there a letter by any chance?"
Patricia nodded. "Do you want to see it?"
"That would be lovely Patricia."
The girl nodded and rushed to the dresser. She began riffling through the top drawer.
"Where are you going with this, Lupin?" Turpin asked quietly while Patricia was occupied with finding the letter.
"I believe I may have known her parents," Remus replied.
"Really? Are they still alive?"
"They died three years ago."
"Oh." Turpin's eyes widened as he realized what the implications of that was. "Do you think one of them left her here?"
"It's definitely possible. They may have known that they were going to die."
Patricia took an envelope out of the drawer and carefully pulled a piece of paper out of it. "It doesn't say much," she apologized as she showed it to Remus.
The first thing that Remus noticed about the letter was the line of runes at the very bottom of it. He had taken Runes in school, and was pretty good at it if he did say so himself, but he could barely translate the lines that were most certainly Stanislav Stimpson's work. Protect,raise and child were all he could understand. He then saw how little the letter actually held. "Patricia Stimpson, born September 9th, 1978." was written in a ladylike script that wobbled across the page, like the hand of the person writing it had been shaking horribly. For some reason, he felt that there should be a lot more on the page. He held out his hand.
"Patricia, may I examine it more closely please?"
Patricia hesitated for a moment, but she handed him the letter. As soon as he touched the page the letters swirled and rearranged themselves into a much longer missive.
"Dear Remus Lupin," it began.
"If you are reading this, then you have our congratulations on getting the job. We are writing to ask you a very great favor. As you are no doubt aware, our daughter Patricia resides at your workplace. We would like for you to take her under your wing and make sure that she does not grow up ignorant of our world. We know that all the staff have been taking care of her, but she needs someone to teach her about the wizarding world and her heritage (you will find books in our vault that will be helpful for the second part). She is slated to go to Hogwarts, and we hope that by that time both of you will be able to walk in the wizarding world with confidence.
Of course you do not have to do this, and you may not want to because of your 'furry little problem', but the future that Pythia sees for Patricia with you in it is far better for both of you than one without. We encourage you to choose this path, and are forever in your debt if you do.
Thank you and farewell,
Stanislav and Pythia Stimpson"
Reeling, Remus gave the letter back to Patricia. It immediately circled back into the two-line message.
Turpin raised an eyebrow. "Well?" he asked.
Remus crouched down so that he was at Patricia's eye level.
"Patricia, would you like me to tell you about your parents?"
A/N: An adder stone, for anyone who's wondering, is any stone with a natural hole through it.
Please point out any mistakes if you see them! I haven't read the Harry Potter books in a long time, and I may have messed up something really obvious.
Happy Canada Day!
-Cynder2013