ECHOES OF THE PAST
CHAPTER TWO.
"Tori! Hello Tori!... The office is burning down."
"Huh?"
"Where on earth are you? You have been sitting there in a dream since you got in this morning and Sid is giving you the evil eye."
Tori shook herself out of her reverie. "Sorry Ali, I have got something on my mind I just can't shake."
"You don't say! Oh gawd look out!"
Sidney Cole came out of his office, "Victoria, can I have a word please?"
Tori followed him into his office. "I'm sorry Mr Cole, I am not having the best of days but I will make up the time later."
"Always excuses Victoria, frankly I am getting sick of it." He sidled up to her and brushed her arm. " If you can't be a little more co-operative your future in my employ is at risk."
Fury boiled in the pit of Tori's stomach but she smiled sweetly. "I'm sorry Mr Cole, I promise I will try harder."
"Good girl." He said caressing her bottom. "We will talk more later but I am expecting Mr Malfoy to call soon so off you go and make me some coffee."
Lucius Malfoy was coming to the office again, a ripple of anticipation started in Tori's stomach. "No problem Mr Cole." She said leaving his office and heading for the kitchen.
She was leaning against the sink waiting for the kettle to boil when Lucius made his usual regal entrance, he made immediate eye contact with her through the small kitchen window and she felt her face flush, he saw and smiled slightly at her discomfort, she made the coffee and put an extra cup on the tray, this time she laid the tray down on Ali's desk and straightened her hair slide before she knocked at Cole's office door. "Come in!" Cole shouted. Ali shook her head and smiled as Tori picked up the tray and stuck her tongue out at her. Tori smiled nervously at the two men as she entered the office and laid the coffee on the desk without incident.
Tori sat down at her desk and logged onto her computer, her nimble fingers soon caught her up as far as the filing was concerned and she only looked up half an hour later as Lucius was preparing to depart. He shook Cole's hand with his leather gloved hand. "As it is your personal assistants day off perhaps your charming secretary might show me out?" Cole scowled "Victoria! Why don't you show Mr Malfoy to the door"
Tori had the distinct impression that they had been discussing her and she felt more then a little uncomfortable as she stood up to show Lucius out.
Lucius followed her downstairs fighting the urge to pull the silver ornament from her glossy black hair and pull her close, she smelt faintly of strawberries and fine red wine, it was intoxicating and his manhood stirred in his pants, she turned around and smiled at him as they reached the door.
"Goodbye Mr Malfoy, we shall no doubt see you soon."
" Very Soon." He replied "If you will do me the honour of having dinner with me this evening to talk over a business proposition I have for you."
"Me?" Tori responded in surprise.
" Please dear lady, just say yes and I can assure you you will not regret it."
Tori thought about the microwave meal and the night in front of the TV she had been planning and smiled at Lucius. "I would love to, thank you Mr Malfoy."
" Please do call me Lucius." He said removing his right glove to take her hand and kiss it lightly.
Tori gave him her address and said goodbye, she loved older men they were just so charming, she seemed to float upstairs and sat back down at her desk with a dreamy look on her face.
"Tell me he just didn't ask you out and you said yes." Said Ali. "He's married you know, the wife might be a serial killer or a bunny boiler."
" It's just dinner Ali, he's charming and handsome and I am sick of my four tiny walls and never doing anything."
" Good luck then babe, just don't do anything I wouldn't do."
"That leaves the spectrum wide open then doesn't it." She said ducking as Ali threw a pen at her.
The bed was piled high with assorted clothing as Tori desperately searched for something suitable to wear, she didn't want to look like a slut nor did she want to look like some down trodden old spinster, in the end she settled for an figure skimming black shift dress, then she could not decide if she should wear her hair up or down, in the end she settled on up and used the best part of a pack of grips to pile it on top of her head. Too severe she thought studying her reflection, and pulled some strands free to frame her face, she had just put on her favourite pair of black heels when the doorbell rang, her stomach turned a somersault and she went to let Lucius in.
" Oh my! How pretty you look." Lucius was dressed in a very sharp black suit, Armani Tori guessed,
"You look very suave yourself Lucius, please do come in."
Tori noticed he still had the silver topped cane he seemed to take everywhere with him, he stepped through her front door and scrutinised her tiny living room. "Sorry" She said. "It's not much but it's home. Kala!"
Tori rushed to scoop Kala up, she was laying almost flat to the ground with her ears and tail down, hissing and spitting at Lucius. "I'm sorry Lucius, I don't know what on earth is wrong with her, she is usually so friendly."
"Perhaps it's me, I'm afraid I am more of a dog man,"
Tori put Kala in the kitchen and closed the door, back in her sitting room Lucius was studying a large painting of a Gothic building on her wall with a quizzical expression on his face, Tori smiled. "Do you like it?" She asked.
"A little abstract for my taste but it is strangely familiar."
"My mother painted it."
"Do you know where this is." He asked.
"I think it came from my mothers vivid imagination."
Lucius couldn't be sure but to him it looked suspiciously like Hogwarts. "So your mother is an artist?"
Tori nodded. " Mainly scenery from her home in Italy, she sells it to tourists but I don't think that one is Italy, just between you and me I stole this one from her attic while she was on holiday, it's part of a collection she hides away, she calls it her practising period, she never looks at them so she won't miss it."
"Shall we go?" Lucius asked.
Tori picked up her black wrap and evening bag and took his arm.
She wasn't surprised to find that they were eating in the private dining room of one of the most exclusive restaurants in London, one of those with no prices displayed, because if you had to ask you couldn't afford it.
"I hope you don't mind?" Lucius asked. "I cant bear eating with M..." He almost said Muggles but pulled himself back just in time. "Members of the general public."
Tori smiled as the waiter seated them, she shook her head. "No this is lovely."
They made general chit chat during the starter course and during the main course Lucius dismissed the waiter and made sure they were alone.
"So Lucius you haven't told me exactly what it is you do."
"I don't really do much of anything, I suppose I am what people call independently wealthy, I invest my money wisely and I have...shall we say, political ambitions." He waited until she had taken a mouthful of the pasta dish she had ordered before he added "And I am a Wizard"
Tori as he predicted chocked on the pasta and he poured her a glass of water, she drank some looked at him wide eyed. "Like in Vegas you mean?"
"No like this I mean." Tori jumped as he withdrew his wand from it's home in the cane and was about to run out the door. "Wait!" He commanded and she watched in incredulous disbelief as her wrap floated around her back and draped over her shoulders. "Please don't be afraid, come and sit back down, we have much to discuss."
"There are no such things as Wizards." Said Tori. "It's only in story books and movies"
"You don't believe there is fact in all fiction?" Lucius took a sip of wine.
Tori shook her head.
"You yourself are a witch." He said calmly
"Right! That's it, I am going home, that is the last time I go to dinner with anyone who associates with Sid the slime."
Lucius smiled at the implied insult. "Come! You know, the other day in the office when you lost your temper and Mr Cole ended up with the contents of the coffee pot in his lap, it can't be the only time something like that has ever happened to you."
Tori turned back from the door and sat warily back down in her chair with her mouth agape. She remembered Jack her sleaze of an ex boyfriend who dumped her by email, she had bumped into him a couple of months later and wasn't really shocked that he had gained 50lbs and the worst case of acne she had ever seen, she wasn't really surprised because things that she wished for generally happened, but that wasn't magic it was just fate, wasn't it? Lucy Bates at school who found herself locked in the girls toilet for the weekend when she had stolen her date for the school prom, Mr Callas her form teacher who's hair turned bright green when he told her to remove her make-up because she looked like a tramp, he had to shave it all off and it came in turquoise, the thought made her smile and Lucius said "It can be fun, can't it." Tori wondered if he could read her mind and picked up her wine glass and took a very long gulp. She picked up his wand which he had laid on the table. "Be careful." He warned. Tori could feel the heat in her hands, like she had picked up a living thing, it pulsated as if it had a heartbeat, she waved it like an amateur magician and Lucius ducked as a large ceramic plate flew off the wall and almost hit him on the head, Tori caught it deftly and laid the wand down carefully and placed the plate back on the wall.
"Would you like to return to your apartment and we can discuss this in private.?"
Tori nodded hesitantly, she was both intrigued and terrified at the same time. Lucius picked up her wrap which had fallen off her shoulders and stood very close to her as he draped it over her shoulders again, he sheathed his wand and picked up Tori's bag and handed it to her, he paid the bill and they left the restaurant.
Tori went to hail a cab but Lucius caught hold of her arm and pulled her into the shadows of a narrow alley. "Hold me tight." He said. "What?" "Put your arms around me and hold on tight." Tori did as he asked and suddenly she got the impression that she was spinning around, there seemed to be no air and she hid her face in Lucius's neck. When she opened her eyes she was standing in her living room.
"It's quite safe to let go now." Said Lucius depositing her lightly on the sofa.
"I need a drink." Tori went to the kitchen to fetch a bottle of wine and was nearly bowled over by Kala who ran spitting and hissing towards Lucius he put up his hand and Kala backed off, slinking behind the sofa.
"What did you do to her." Tori asked returning with a bottle of red wine and two glasses.
"Just a simple charm to tame the savage beast." Lucius smiled. Tori handed him a glass of the wine she had poured.
"Probably not up to your usual standard but it won't poison you."
"Are you sure?" Lucius joked taking a sip.
"So, about this witch thing, you really think I am."
Lucius but down his glass. "Come here." He said.
Tori approached him warily, he stood up and put his hand on her right shoulder and manoeuvred her in front of him, he pulled out his wand and Tori jumped involuntarily he placed her right hand over his right wand hand and pulled her close to him around her waist with his left arm. "Now concentrate." He whispered in her ear, pointing his wand at the planter in the corner of the room and they both jumped as it not only shattered but disintegrated into a cloud of dust. Lucius could feel the power pulsating through him and it took his breath away, he felt if The Dark Lord were in the room now he could challenge even him.
"I want you to come and work for me." Said Lucius sitting down in the armchair and pulling it over to face her closely.
"Thank you Lucius but I have a job."
"And you do love it so." Lucius mocked.
"Work for you doing what?" Tori asked taking a sip of her wine.
"Various tasks but more then this Victoria I can teach you so much about yourself, you can be so much more then this lowly secretary working for a man with the intelligence of a Mountain Troll."
"A what!"
"Just one of the many things I could teach you, I want you to come and live in my home, I have a vast collection of everything you need to learn to be a most powerful witch, come and discover my world Victoria, you will soon realise it is where you belong, I promise you will not regret it."
The phone rang suddenly and made Tori jump again, she picked it up, it was her mother.
"Have you been out darling."
"Yes mum, I went to dinner."
"Ooh! Is he nice?"
"He's not a boyfriend Mum." She said smiling up at Lucius. "He is one of Mr Cole's clients who wants to steal me away."
"You should accept." Lucinda told her. "Couldn't be any worse then working for that man you loathe"
"You know mum, you are so right." She looked at Lucius. "I think I will accept."
