Disclaimer: The OC's and parts of the plot are all that belong to me. Everything else belongs to J.K Rowling, I do not claim ownership to it. Thank you for reading.
In typical London style, it was raining that morning as Victoria Drew pulled her apartment door closed behind her and dashed across the street. In typical Victoria Drew style, she was already running late for work.
In all honesty, Victoria couldn't have cared less—her job was pathetic, but she desperately needed the money. Otherwise she'd have to move back in with parents, and she did not want that to happen. She knew she wouldn't be able to bear another year of snide remarks about her unemployment made by her father, and endless cups of tea and circled newspaper ads that her mother would bring up the stairs with a sympathetic look on her face. It was almost worth sitting behind a desk all day, doing nothing, if it meant avoiding that.
She'd been lucky to get the job at the Ministry of Magic at all. At the time she was thoroughly outraged and even a little bit depressed that it was the only job she could get. She was a Hogwarts graduate, an ex-Ravenclaw and her NEWT scores were more than impressive. Yet, there she was—a nineteen year-old stuck in a dead-end job.
Once upon a time, she'd had ambition. In her Hogwarts days, her friends used to joke about her becoming the next Minister of Magic but that had died out soon after graduation. As it turned out, Victoria wasn't even good enough to become the Minister's secretary—the job she'd originally applied for. By now, she realised ambition would get her nowhere, instead it was much easier if she just accepted her position in life.
Her family had never been rich, but they weren't poor either. Sometimes she wondered if it would have been easier if they had been, rather than stuck in this awkward middle class limbo. That awkward limbo seemed to define her entire being. She was halfway between pretty and ugly—though some would argue for one more than other. She was halfway between talented and useless. She was halfway between a witch and a muggle—a half-blood. It'd never bothered her at school, but now it seemed like it was all that mattered.
Sure, she wasn't a muggleborn but nowadays, her muggle father was as damning as ever. In Hogwarts, she'd been one of those silly, one of those naïve people that didn't believe in what was coming. She'd laughed at the idea of a war in the wizarding world, and now she couldn't ignore the feeling that it was right on her doorstop. At any moment she could be taken away like the others. There one moment, gone the next.
She'd already lost friends—Danny Larson, for example. Victoria had met Danny on her very first day at Hogwarts. They were both Ravenclaws and became fast friends. He was a muggleborn, and only two weeks after their graduation—he disappeared. Victoria and her 'friends' had never quite recovered. She'd lived in fear that she'd be taken any moment ever since.
The Ministry job was sort of like a safety blanket. More than that though, it was much needed money. It didn't pay very well, but the small amount she got every week was saved up and stored in the back of her sock drawer—just waiting for the day when she had enough to up and move herself somewhere safer.
It'd been her plan for almost a year now, and she was almost ready to leave.
If Victoria had had any idea what was going to come in the next few months, she would have left then and she would have never looked back. Unfortunately, she was not blessed with the ability to foresee the future. If she'd been able to see into the future, she never would have gone out that night. But she couldn't, and so she did.
It was an unspoken sort of weekly ritual. Every Friday night, Victoria would make her way down Diagon Alley and into a seedy little bar in Knockturn Alley. She would take a seat at the very back and order a firewhiskey from the barman—before that firewhiskey arrived, the boys would.
It was impossible to say how this had all started. In fact, she couldn't remember her reasoning at all but that didn't stop her from turning up every week.
"You're looking well," Evan Rosier said, sliding into the seat beside Victoria. He gestured to the barman to bring him and his friends a round of firewhiskey. "How's the Ministry treating you?" It was a joke with these boys, because they all well and truly knew how Victoria felt about her work.
"When are you finally going to leave?" Wilkes asked, with his trademark smirk.
Victoria brushed both of them off with a wave of her hand, "When are you all finally going to do something with all your free time?"
Avery snorted, "We have plenty to do with our free time. The Dark-" Avery drifted off, no doubt as a result of Evan's sharp glare. They never of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named in front of Victoria, though she knew very well that all four of the boys had taken the mark long ago.
"If we got jobs, then we surely wouldn't be able to spend as much time with you," Regulus Black drawled, wrapping his arm around Victoria's waist.
"You'd miss Reg then, wouldn't you?" Wilkes teased, and Avery chuckled in response. That was another thing they never discussed—whatever went on between Regulus and Victoria. Then again, Wilkes and Avery had always been a few ingredients short of a potion.
"Keep your mouths shut," Evan furiously whispered over the table, "We don't want anyone recognising any of us." He raised his glass to his lips and took a long sip of his drink. By the time he was done, his charming smile was plastered over his lips again as if it had been there the whole time.
Victoria felt a shiver run up her spine—it always terrified her how quickly the boys in front of her could change. That's what they were—boys. They were just barely out of Hogwarts—Avery and Wilkes were older than Victoria (only by a year), but both Regulus and Evan had only graduated that June. She knew what they were, what they must have done but she could see this boyish innocence in all of them in certain lights. In a way, she figured herself to be a little in love with them all—her boys.
"Are you ready to head off?" Regulus whispered in her ear, bringing her back to reality. She nodded weakly, and followed Regulus out of the bar—the boys all nodded in acknowledgment as they headed out.
A part of her knew how unhealthy this all was, but knew she could never stop. She was too far gone to pull herself back now.
Authors Note: I posted this story originally on HPFF, but I decided I'd start posting on here too. I've already got eleven chapters ready to be posted so I'll be updating pretty regularly, at least until I've run out of those. Let me know what you think of this!
