Colleen, Jacki and Zarya stepped out of Heathrow Airport and into a waiting taxicab. The driver, a slim brunette, turned around and grinned at the Angels.
"Hi, I'm Trixie. Charlie said to fill you in."
"So, fill us in," Jacki prompted.
"Okay. Well, Zarya and Colleen, here's a list of nightclubs that you might want to check out. And Jacki, here's your new identity." She handed over a manila envelope and a piece of paper.
"I'm letting you off in Diagon Alley, Jacki. Zarya and Colleen, I'll drop you off at your hotel in Muggle London."
"Great," Colleen replied.
"You know, we have a lot of time until the clubs open," Zarya mused. "Maybe we should..."
"Check out the shops?" Colleen supplied.
"My thoughts exactly," Zarya said with a sly grin.
***
"What about this one?" Zarya said, holding up a sparkly red scrap of a dress. She and Colleen had been ransacking upscale boutiques for several hours now, with little success.
"Would you like some dress with that skin?" Colleen countered. "Hey, look at this one," she continued, displaying a pair of black leather pants, a white halter top, and a red vinyl jacket.
"Well, at least it's not... *that*," Zarya snorted, pointing at the purple-and-orange disaster draped across the arm of a curly-haired brunette standing near the changing stalls.
"I wouldn't be caught *dead* in that piece of--" she broke off and turned back to stare at the woman. "Wait. Isn't that--"
"Penelope Clearwater," Zarya finished.
***
The Odyssey was the trendiest club in SoHo, and the line stretched twice around the block. Luckily, Zarya and Colleen had been provided with VIP passes – and, decked out in the products of the day's shopping spree, they headed straight for the front of the line.
The bouncer, a large coloured man who introduced himself as Dean, barely glanced at their passes, too focused on their apparel – or, rather, lack thereof. Zarya winked cheekily at him, and the pair made their way into the centre of the dance floor.
The two danced unenthusiastically at first, moving in time to the hypnotic beat of the music. As the fourth song ended, Zarya gestured to the bar, indicating that she was going to get a drink. Colleen nodded noncomittally as a new song began to play. She continued to dance half-heartedly until she felt a pair of strong arms encircle her from behind.
She turned, startled, and found herself gazing into a pair of lucid brown eyes.
"I'm Remus," he said by way of introduction. Colleen began to turn away, but he pulled her back with pleading in his eyes. "Please? They're playing my song." She listened more closely to the music, vaguely recognizing it as "Hungry Like The Wolf", and nodded slowly, bringing her arms up to Remus' shoulders and swaying her hips in time with the rhythm.
She was just beginning to enjoy herself when Zarya came back from the bar, grinning and holding two glasses of a clear, amber liquid.
"So guess who I just ran into?"
"Who?" Colleen inquired, forgetting to introduce Remus – who was watching the exchange with interest.
"Trixie. Apparently being a cabbie is... well, just her day job. She tends bar here four nights a week."
Colleen paused, and then began to laugh. "You don't say."
Zarya started to laugh as well, handing Colleen one of the glasses. "Who's your new friend?" she asked, taking a sidelong look at Remus.
"Oh, I'm sorry. This is Remus," Colleen said, taking a long sip of her drink. Zarya seemed to have forgotten about hers, though; she was gazing at Remus with a very different look in her eyes, and Colleen paused.
"What?"
Zarya ignored her, addressing the brown-haired man instead. "Remus... Lupin?"
He nodded slowly. "Guilty as charged."
She cocked her head to one side, looking as though she were about to say something more, when Colleen dropped her glass in shock.
"Look," she whispered urgently. "We certainly are meeting a lot of old friends tonight, aren't we?"
Zarya followed Colleen's gaze across the floor, landing on a slinky brunette and her tall partner. As they turned, she caught a glimpse of the woman's face – there was no doubt about it. It was Penelope Clearwater.
"This can't just be a coincidence," Zarya agreed. "And who's that she's with?"
"Oh god," she and Colleen said in unison as the man came into view. "Not him."