The villagers of Little Devinton found Remus Lupin a very mysterious man indeed. They didn't know very much about him; he had moved to the small town when he was eighteen, which caused a lot of attention in itself. It was quite unusual for a young man to move there without family, and no acquaintances who lived there, for it was a rather dull town.

His first arrival caused something of a stir among the young women who lived there. Not because he was a dashing fellow, but because he was new, someone who hadn't lived in the small village since birth, as most of the town had. As dull as it was, no one ever seemed to move away from it. However, much to the girls' dismay, he seemed to have no interest in any of them. They convinced the town's greatest beauty, a nineteen-year-old by the name of Justine to try to ask him out, just to see what he'd say. To their great surprise, he turned the lovely Miss Justine down as well, even though Justine said she had worn her lowest cut shirt, winked at him, and asked him what his plans were for the evening. He simply said that he had "things to do," though Justine said he was very polite about it.

They then thought perhaps he wasn't interested in any girls. When the town's greatest heartthrob, a troublemaker by the name of Johnny, was asked by the girls to try and seduce him, Johnny obliged, thinking it a laugh. It was indeed a laugh, seeing how red Remus's face turned and how quickly he walked into the back room of the shop. Nonetheless, it seemed to the inquisitive girls as though Remus wasn't interested in anybody.

The reason the curious town even noticed Remus was that they heard a newcomer had gotten fired from four different shops within six months! They thought he was a mischief-maker, and acted as though they were worried how he would affect the town's image (Though secretly they were stirring to see if the town might have someone exciting yet). They asked the shopkeepers why the dismissal of this boy as an employee. Rather un-excitedly, it seemed as though the managers simply could not work with his schedule, and that he always seemed tired when he was working. Not quite as wayward as the villagers were hoping.

Then came word that he had been hired by the local bookshop - the young owner apparently took pity on him. Book sales shot up for the first time in years, however the townspeople were disappointed to find him nothing other than a polite, rather understated, young man. When asked, the shop owner said that he was a "very nice boy," whose only request was that he had a couple days off every full moon, as his "poor mother is passing, and when he was a child they would watch every full moon together, and he'd like to do the same until she passes on." How could one deny this request? This only increased the townspeople’s intrigue in Remus.

Remus Lupin was only seen outside of work on his walk to, and from the bookshop. He did not appear to own a car, and did not venture the town much. People wondered if he went to visit family or friends, but how could he with no vehicle, and his house was much too small to accompany anyone other than himself. Sometimes, on days that he wasn't working, neighbors found excuses to knock on his door. Another interesting aspect of this mysterious boy was that almost every single knock went unanswered. Sure, every once in a while he would come to the door, happy to oblige with an extra egg, or cup of sugar which was their claim for knocking. But every other time . . . Was he rude enough to not answer? Or was he just not there? But that again raised the riddle of no vehicle, and no way out of town. Where was Remus Lupin?

He didn't make many friends in Devinton. Or rather, he didn't make any friends in Devinton. He was courteous and respectful to nearly everyone, yet he never seemed to desire their company. It was one of the town's greatest thrills to see Remus Lupin in the company of another person outside of work. Some of the more gossip-prone villagers liked to keep count of how many times they had seen it happen. The first time it had happened, the whole town seemed to be out, and some of them could not keep themselves from gawping as they saw him walking with not one, but three other boys his own age, all talking and laughing together. This happened sporadically. They were rather strange company, sometimes they could be seen chasing a large, black dog back to Remus's house. But this seemed to stop once Remus reached his twenties. Though even at twenty-one, he was occasionally seen with one of the boys, either the short, rather chubby one, or more often, the one whom the young women of the village found especially interesting, the one with the leather jacket and the loud laugh like a bark. The villagers never saw the bespectacled boy anymore, though once in a while, Remus could even be seen with the dog. Most intriguingly of all, so interesting that some count it as myth, yet the people who saw it swear up and down that it's true: Remus Lupin was seen looping around town on the back of a motorbike, the boy up front carrying a rat on his shoulder, and laughing that loud, gleeful bark.

One day, Remus Lupin didn't appear for work. Miss Graves, who owned the shop, said he had called in. Sounding thoroughly despondent he had said he was sorry. He told her he couldn't make it in today, but promised to be there tomorrow. True to his word, the next day he arrived, right on time. The people who saw him were shocked, and Miss Graves immediately sent him home, telling him to take as much time as he needed, for Remus Lupin, looked so thoroughly depressed, so dejected, so heart-breakingly hopeless. With the look of him, it was a wonder he even made it out of bed and all the way to work. Whispers flit about the town, rumours about maybe his mother had passed, he had said she was passing. . . but whatever the case was, Remus Lupin was not seen for weeks. When he was finally seen, dredging himself to work, it was heard that he told Miss Graves that he could continue taking rare occasional shifts there, but he could no longer work there as he had previously. It was nothing against her or the shop, he had said, seeming desperate to make her understand this. She told him that he could feel free to discontinue working there, and if he'd like to just stop by when he could, (as they could always use an extra hand) that would be just fine.

Remus was seen sporadically throughout the next twelve years. He appeared time to time in the bookshop, each time looking more and more ragged and worn out. The impression was as though he only worked there when his financial situation was most desperate. He looked miserable every time, his hair more grey, more lines etched in his face, his frown a little deeper, and his eyes thick with dread.

During the last summer of those melancholy twelve years, the town was told to be on the lookout for a mass murderer, as was the entire country. Yet, unlike the rest of the country, the mass murderer looked suspiciously familiar to the people of Devinton Village. Only a few completely recognised him as the old friend of Remus Lupin's, who had actually been looking quite scared the few times they had seen him. The murderer's hair, his face, his entire demeanour, was so altered from the laughing young man they had seen so long ago. The few who recognised the man plucked up the courage to ask Remus about it. It was their duty, they felt, as townspeople and as citizens. What if the so-called murderer returned? What if Remus was conspiring with him? In actuality, it was simply a reason to talk to the elusive Remus Lupin. The funny thing is that after they asked him, no one could remember quite what Remus had said to them. They remembered at first Remus refusing that this man was his friend. Oddly enough, everyone who talked to him walked away feeling completely reassured that the murderer by the name of Sirius Black had never been to the village, and had never been Remus's friend.

At the end of that summer, Remus informed Miss Graves, looking a tad more cheerful than usual, that he would have to discontinue even his infrequent times there, as he had managed to get a teaching position. He said it was in a foreign school, when she inquired where. Remus Lupin was gone for a year.

Yet he returned, much to the town’s pleasure. Even at his infrequent intervals of being there, he still provided a mystery and a fresh source of gossip to the trifling village. The teaching position had apparently only been temporary, and he was back on at full work at the bookshop. He appeared happier, if not just less depressed, than he had in thirteen years. As the year went on, his face grew more and more anxious. His lines deepened, his brows seemed permanently furrowed, his eyes always seemed to be searching, as though something wonderful had been given to him and snatched away at the last second, leaving him with a sense that he needed to get it back. That's what the wise bar owner Madame Luxus had said anyway, and she was known as the town's wisest inhibitor. But nevertheless, Remus Lupin seemed as though he had lost something.

He was more inclined to make conversation than before. Though halfway through, despite the fact that he maintained a pleasant rapport, his eyes would drift off, and one would get the inkling that he was thinking, worrying about something else. He continued to work, still holding to his bizarre schedule of not working the days surrounding the full moon. The villagers figured his mother must be deceased by now, but perhaps he just liked doing it now for the memory of her. The more romantically inclined of them preferred to think this.

It was very late in June, and on a day that seemed remarkably ordinary that Remus was walking home from work. If anything was different, perhaps he looked a bit more anxious than normal. He was dragging his feet as he walked along, and seeming to spot something in the distance, stopped walking. He stood there, his hands at his sides, his eyes squinting. A slow smile spread on his face, and he began to chuckle. The chuckle turned into a full blown shout of laughter as a large black dog ran at him, jumping onto his chest and knocking him over. The villagers that had been outside at the time started forward, but Remus continued laughing as the dog eagerly licked his face. They wrestled in the grass, even the dog looking as if it was smiling. Remus was giggling like a school boy as the dog happily chased its tail, running around in circles.

"Is that his old dog?" people hissed from across the street that had been there. "That one he'd walk around with, the one he'd race with those boys. . . Has it been missing for this long? It's still alive after this long?"

Meanwhile, Remus was lying down in the grass besides the sidewalk. The dog went and lay down next to him, putting his head on Remus's chest as Remus absentmindedly stroked its fur, and Remus was heard to whisper, "I'm glad you're back, Padfoot."

Remus was seen intermittently walking around with the dog, who had a habit of waiting outside the bookshop until Remus's shift ended, and Remus could be seen scolding the dog for doing so on the walk home. A month or two later, Remus phoned Miss Graves one last time, to inform her he wasn't going to be around, and wanted to thank her so hiring him and putting up with him for all of these years. She of course informed him that it was no problem as he was such a sweet boy (even though Remus was now in his thirties). Remus was not seen until over a year later.

"Ooh, Remus, is that where you ate lunch?"

"What? No, what would I do? Go out and eat lunch by myself?"

"You're such a hermit, I go out to eat with myself all the time. Oh, is that the bookshop?"

"Yeah, that's it. Really the only place besides the house where I spent any time in this town. . ."

The young women with bright pink hair that clashed with her red cap grabbed his hand, "Not a very interesting place, yeah?" and laughed as he shook his head smiling. "Then how about we go back to the flat, I feel like repainting our living room."

Remus kissed the women on the nose. "You change the colours of our home as often as you change the colours of your hair."

She kissed him back on the lips. "Pink is still my favourite though."

They walked together behind a building. Justine and Johnny, who had been previously snogging on a bench before being aware that Remus Lupin was there, looked at each other excitedly, and rushed to follow them. Yet as they peered around the edge of the building, Remus and the women were nowhere to be seen.

That was the last the town ever saw of Remus Lupin. Remus might not have found the town of Little Devinton very interesting, however the villagers of Little Devinton found Remus Lupin a very interesting man indeed.