A/N: I give in! Here's my Harry Potter fic. Bleh. If a certain someone reads this, (and I am confident that you know who you are) don't you dare say a word about me writing a little HP ditty...... Unless it's a very pleasantly surprised word. Moving on. I hope you all enjoy this. It was born from a character that I've known for a very long time. And finally, she wanted her story written. This will also reveal the origin of my pen name, which I was very reluctant to do. Again, however, this character was ardent about what she wanted to be written. [sigh]. But I do thank her for graciously allowing me to write under her lovely name.

Disclaimer: CAUTION: flammable. Keep away from flame or high heat. (taken from a Bath and Body coconut lime body splash bottle.)

Chapter One: 'Gallons, you say?'

"One pint of Dragon's Breath? Right. That'll be up shortly." Tom turned away from the weathered old man at the bar counter and began mixing drink ingredients. He'd only just finished stirring it with a thin spoon when the bell above the door gave an airy tingle. "Be right with you," Tom said absently as he handed over the mug of piping hot Dragon's Breath. He turned to the door and smiled at the young woman entering.

She pulled back the hood of a navy traveling cloak that was speckled in melting snowflakes. "The weather's absolutely ghastly out there," she said with a laugh. Her demeanor was quite friendly but Tom was sure he'd never seen her in the Leaky Cauldron before.

He nodded politely. "What can I get for you this evening?"

She hopped onto one of the bar stools and began studying the drink menu. "Quite an, ah, interesting selection you have."

Tom beamed. He'd invented a good number of the drinks listed on the menu. No one else in the world could supply a rather tangy yet soothing selection such as the Electric Bubble, Tom's personal favorite among his own concoctions. But, Tom noted as he looked the girl over, she was undoubtedly too young for an alcoholic beverage.

"Ah," she finally said, "how about a mug of hot tea?" Tom smiled at this very age appropriate order and turned away to fix it.

At last, the young lady took a moment to relax. She surveyed the near empty pub with a great deal of interest. It was different from anywhere she'd ever stopped at before in a way that she couldn't quite put her finger on. Perhaps it had something to do with the toothless bar tender and his obscure, homemade drinks. Or maybe it was the other customers in the place. Though there were only three occupants besides her, they were as intriguing as a cram packed pub.

The man nearest her had a black hood that pulled all the way over his forehead. A few stray and frizzled gray hairs found their way out of his hood and created an ominous curtain that shielded his face from view. The only part of his skin that showed was his hands, bent and wrinkled though they were, grasping a silver mug. The man himself was not the captivating part of this picture. It was his drink that had snagged the girl's eye. Blue flames licked gaily at the rim of his mug and, every now and again, the old man would take a sip of the flames. But no, no one could drink real flame. It had to be some optical illusion. Yes, that would be it. People today can make anything seem like something it's clearly not. So he really wasn't actually very interesting after all. The girl resolutely turned her back to the old man, determined to study the other customers. Behind her, the flame drinker gave a soft belch. To the girl, it sounded like a completely normal bodily function. Fortunately, she had not seen the puff of smoke that emerged with it.

The girl now found herself facing a graying woman poring over a rather ancient looking book by the dim light of a candle. She was definitely alone, but she was muttering furiously under her breath, repeating the same few words over and over. Meanwhile, she curiously waved her right arm systematically with an occasional flick of her wrist at various moments. The young lady at the bar couldn't help but feel sorry for this woman. She obviously has some sort of.....problem. But the mumbling woman seemed happy enough. The young lady smiled and swiveled on her barstool to look at the third customer.

He was in the farthest corner of the dimly lit pub, staring determinedly at a goblet sitting on the table in front of him. He looked fairly young. In fact, he was probably only a little older than the girl looking at him. But at the same time, he appeared old from the dark bags under his eyes and very untidy hair that obviously had stressed fingers anxiously comb through it multiple times. He heaved and enormous breath, which could be seen all the way across the bar, and snatched the goblet from his table.

In a matter of seconds, he drank whatever was in it and slammed the goblet back down on the table. He clenched his eyes shut, looking like he was going to be sick for a moment. But the moment passed and he rose from his seat, cup in hand, and walked toward the counter with a relieved smile.

The girl on the stool nearly choked as the man she'd been observing came straight at her. She hurriedly spun back to face the counter and noticed her tea steaming in front of her. She could have kicked herself. She'd been so engrossed in spying on other people that she hadn't even heard ton bring her tea. The girl craned her neck to look around the room. Now Tom seemed to have disappeared. Pity. She'd wanted to ask him what the price of a room was. The young woman took a sip of her tea with closed eyes. Her body was instantly warmed. This was the best cup of tea she'd ever tasted!

At that instant, the young man with the goblet sat down on the bar stool next to her. He twirled the empty goblet in his hands until he eventually resolved to set it down. Then, he turned to the girl. "Evening," He said. "Getting ready to go back to school at Hogwarts?"

The girl fought away a scowl. She didn't know where this 'Hogwarts' school was but she was absolutely positive of one thing. "No. Definitely no. I've been out of school for a while."

"Oh. Sorry," The man said. And he really did look sorry. "It's just that you look so-"

"Young." She sighed. "Yes, I get that a lot. I know I'll be wishing I got it more in 20 years."

"How old are you? If you don't mind me asking....."

"19."

"Well, if it's any consolation," the young man said, "I get so worn out sometimes that I've been offered a senior citizens discount before."

The girl highly doubted that, but she could understand where someone could get off thinking this man was a number of years beyond his true age. Today must have been one of those tired days he spoke of. "How old are you?" The girl's curiosity had been peaked.

"23," She wouldn't have guessed much older. Maybe 26 or 27, but not a senior by any means. "My name's Remus Lupin." He said suddenly, extending his hand.

"Serena Wronski." She shook the outstretched hand with a smile.

Remus raised his eyebrows in thought. "That name is so familiar, but I'm sure we've never met before....." He fell silent after that, mentally contemplating with himself on whether or not he should perhaps ask Serena for lunch tomorrow in Diagon Alley. Remus just knew she would love the little hole-in-the-wall restaurant that he went to on a regular basis. From what he'd learned of her in the past minutes, he would teasingly offer her a selection off the children's menu. Then she might point out the senior's special of the day for Remus and..... Was he mad? What was Remus doing, thinking all this out. 'Just ask!' he silently shouted at himself. "Er, Serena, tomorrow, around noon- that is if you aren't busy, ah, I was thinking that you might like to-"

"Anything else I can get you? Remus? Ma'am?" said Tom, who had unexpectedly appeared in front of them.

Remus sighed. He'd have to work up to courage to ask later. "No thanks, Tom," he said, sliding the empty goblet into Tom's hand.

"How was your potion?" asked Tom. He began wiping out the goblet with a rag as he spoke.

A very pleasant smile flashed across Remus' face. "Absolutely disgusting, as usual."

Serena wondered if Remus was joking, but from the look on his face after he drank that potion, she supposed not. She looked to Tom, expecting him to be insulted, but he wasn't. Quite the contrary, Tom acted very pleased with himself and turned to Serena expectantly. "The tea was wonderful," she said, "but I was just curious how much a room for the night would cost."

"5 Galleons and 4 sickles for a one bed room," said Tom automatically as if he'd repeated the phrase on every standard day.

Serena sighed. "I'll have to go to the bank in the morning. Everyone is using a different currency these days and I only have pounds. Now, what did you call that money? Gallons, was it?"

Absently, Tom nodded as he shared a shocked look with Remus. If this girl didn't know what a Galleon was then she obviously wasn't a witch. But how had she seen the bewitched little sign at the Leaky Cauldron's entrance? Only witches and wizards could see that. "Er, well, I need to go Flo- I mean- phone my, uh, my someone." He shifted awkwardly and turned to exit to a back room.

Remus stole a glance at Serena to see if she'd noticed the abrupt change in Tom's behavior. She'd produced a bank booklet from her pocket and had busied herself flipping through it. "I don't think my bank transfers to those Gallon things."

"I wouldn't worry about it," Remus said sympathetically. There would be no use in trying to explain things or even asking Serena out at this point. She wouldn't remember any of it by morning. No doubt Tom was contacting the ministry by floo. They'd be here any minute to perform memory charms on Serena and escort her to a muggle hotel. She wouldn't even remember meeting Remus when they were through with her.

Remus was right. In less than a minute's time, 2 men dressed in muggle attire emerged from the back room with Tom. He pointed the men in Serena's direction and stepped back.

"Miss," the taller of the two addressed her, "My name is Norman Hyde. This is my partner John Roberts." The man called Roberts nodded curtly. He came across as very well to do and proper like, with his black blazer and solid colored tie. Roberts did not speak, but pulled a quill and parchment from his blazer pocket and stared at his colleague.

"We need to ask you a few questions," Mr. Norman Hyde continued. "What is your name?"

"Serena Wronski. W-R-O-N-S-K-I." She looked at Remus, bewildered. He avoided her eyes.

"How did you know about The Leaky Cauldron? Did a friend tell you where it was? A relative, perhaps?"

"No," she replied, "I arrived in London today and needed an affordable place to stay to wait out this storm. I just happened to see The Leaky Cauldron as I was leaving the bookshop just next door." Mr. Hyde looked at Mr. Roberts with an undeterminable expression. They both nodded. "Have I don something wrong?" Serena asked as Mr. Hyde turned back to face her.

"No," he said. "Mystery as it is, Tom, this muggle somehow wandered in here by pure mistake. You said she had no idea what Galleons were?"

Tom shook his head.

Hyde was staring directly at Serena but talking as if she weren't even in the same room. "John, go ahead and perform the memory modification."

Roberts silently tucked away his writing materials and pulled out a thin, cylinder shaped piece of wood. Would he hit her with that until she couldn't remember anything at all? Serena didn't know what this memory modification was, but it didn't sound good. "No!" she snapped, meriting the attention of the other customers.

Roberts ignored her and started to murmur something as he twirled the cylinder stick. "Memora-"

"NO!" Serena bellowed, with much more force, as her hand instinctively rose to protect her face.

To her great surprise, Roberts did stop, but not because of Serena's command. The wooden stick that was between Roberts' fingers had slipped away and was pulled by something like a strong magnetic force into Serena's raised hand. Roberts stared at his own empty fingers in open-mouthed shock. He must have slipped up and said the presentation incantation. It was easy to get the two mixed up.....although he'd never done that before. But it had been a long day. And that had to be it. He'd simply fetch his wand and then he could do the correct spell. Roberts thought The girl would forget that anything had happened at all.....

How very wrong he was.

[bum bum BUM]

A/N: I have more of this but I want to know if people are interested or not. Let me know. Review please! It makes my whole life worthwhile. 'Sad life,' you say. Well, yes. That's why you should review and make my sad life a little less sad.