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.

"You must be Miss Drew," A man appeared from behind the counter, almost giving Victoria a heart attack. He was only a small man, but he sure knew how to get himself noticed. "I'm Mr Townes, the owner of the store."

"Of course," She smiled nervously, "It's nice to meet you, Mr Townes."

"Marlene said you used to work in the Ministry," He said, gesturing for her to follow him through the store. "I'm sorry to tell you that this job will involve a lot more standing around and doing nothing." She wasn't sure if that were even possible considering what she'd been doing at the Ministry.

"What do you mean?" She asked, eyebrows furrowed.

"Well, when we're not selling books for the school year, I'm afraid we're rather slow here." He sighed. "There's a lot of re-stacking and organising to be done every day—some of the books like to move around. Otherwise, I'd suggest you start looking for a few books you might be interested in reading. Customers always appreciate a good recommendation. Any questions?"

"Where do you want me to start?" She asked with a smile.

He grinned at her. "How about you just have a look around today? Get used to where all the different genres are in the store. If a customer comes in, then come back to the till and I'll show you how it works."

"Thank you, Mr Townes." She said. The shop manager sent her a puzzled look. "This job is really important to me. I promise I'll do my absolute best."

He smiled brightly at her. "A passion for books is the only thing you need to succeed here. I'm sure you'll be fine, Miss Drew."

She smiled at him again. He disappeared back off to whatever he'd been doing before she got in, and she started her way through the sections of the shop. She knew the basic layout of the shop, after all, she bought all of her books for Hogwarts here. Her favourite class had always been Ancient Runes, and so she knew her way around that section the best. It seemed like as good a place as any to start. She already had a few books on her mental to-be-read list that she had just never had the chance, or the money, to pick up. She had to admit, she was maybe just a little too excited to have the chance to read some of these books. It'd give her something to do at least when she wasn't working.

After all, the only other important thing in her life was Regulus. They hadn't exactly discussed how this round of their relationship was going to work. The only thing they'd agreed on was that she wouldn't be attending the Friday night drinks anymore. She was honestly relieved. In fact, she was more than happy to never face Wilkes again, or the other two really. She could spend her Fridays reading now.

An hour later, she was surrounded by a pile of books when the doorbell chimed. She waited while the customer walked around, and sprung to her feet when she heard Townes ringing up the register. He smiled at her when she joined him. She watched his movements carefully as he noted down the books the customer was purchasing, every now and again he paused to make a comment to her or to the elderly man. All in all, the whole thing seemed pretty simple.

For the first time in forever, Victoria was actually feeling good about her life. It turned out to be quite a strange feeling.

She stood there and watched him get ready. It felt strange to not be getting ready herself, after all, it was Friday night. She knew she couldn't risk going out tonight, not with Regulus, and if she wasn't with him then she didn't really want to go anywhere. Even if it hadn't been extremely dangerous, there was no way she could face Wilkes. For all she knew, he could be waiting to tell Regulus everything tonight. The thought terrified her. She wasn't ready to lose him after she'd just gotten him back.

"Maybe I should stay in," Regulus said, breaking her out of her reverie. She furrowed her eyebrows. "It's not going to be any fun without you there anyway. You're the only reason I ever went. I don't even like firewhisky."

Victoria let out a short laugh and wrapped her arms around Regulus. "You know you have to turn up. They'll suspect something if you don't."

"I hate it when you become all responsible on me," He groaned, turning around so he could bury his face in the crook of her neck. He kissed her softly.

"Just go, stay an hour or two and then come home," She replied, grinning as he started to leave a trail of kisses up her neck.

"Am I staying over tonight then?"

She punched him lightly in the arm. "You can't keep me up all night though. I have to be up early in the morning for work."

He drew away from her. "Work, huh? You never mentioned that you found somewhere."

She blushed slightly. "It's just a part-time thing at Flourish and Blotts. There's not a lot of money in it."

"But you get to work all day with books," He finished off her sentence for her. She blushed slightly. Sometimes she forgot how well he knew her. "So, you absolutely love it then?" She nodded. "Soon enough I'm going to be fighting for your time with a bookshop, aren't I?"

"It's a better job than being the secretary to some stuck-up Ministry worker," She answered as calmly as she could.

"I'm proud of you, Vic," He kissed the top of her head, and then sighed. "I wish I could stay in and celebrate with you."

"But you have to go keep the suspicions off you, and me."

He groaned again. "When did our lives get so complicated?"

She couldn't help but laugh again. "You're delusional if you think our lives have been anything but complicated since we met."

"I wish I could argue with you on that," He replied sadly.

"I wish you could too."

Saturday mornings had never been a particular favourite of Victoria's, but she was learning to appreciate them more and more. She couldn't pretend that she didn't love the feeling of waking up next to Regulus, but even going to work turned out to be not that bad. In fact, she kind of loved it.

"You're looking particularly cheerful for this hour of the day."

She almost knocked herself out on a stack of books as she turned around to the voice. "Marlene?"

"The job's alright then?" Marlene asked, flipping some of her blonde hair over her shoulder. She looked so casual, yet glamorous, as she did it that Victoria couldn't help but feel a little jealous. If she tried that all she'd end up with was a mouthful of hair—that's why she usually kept it tied back.

"It's been excellent," She replied. She took a few books off the top of the pile she'd almost bumped into and started to sort them. Mr Townes was convinced that some sort of poltergeist was making Flourish and Blotts his or her home, and was constantly disturbing the books. She didn't have the heart to tell him that it was his muddled brain that was causing the chaos. "Thank you for recommending me for the job."

She beamed. "You're very welcome."

"Was there something you were looking for?" She asked after the two of them had been silent for a moment.

"No, nothing," Marlene shrugged her shoulders. "I just thought I'd come by and see how you were doing." They were silent again. "Actually, Black wanted to come with me but I thought you'd prefer if he didn't."

"Did you use those exact words with him?" Victoria asked, raising one eyebrow.

She smirked. "Of course I did."

"It'll be good for him," She nodded once, making a face at a particularly badly designed book cover.

"From what I hear, you don't exactly hold back with him either." Marlene let out a throaty laugh. "I hope this doesn't mean he's going to fall for me now."

Victoria rolled her eyes. "We're not like that. We're not even friends."

"You don't have to be friends to be like that," Marlene said dryly. She picked a book off the top of one of the piles and turned it over in her hands.

"What makes you think we'd ever be like that?" She asked, scrunching her nose slightly. She could barely stand more than a couple of minutes with Sirius before she wanted to knock herself out, she didn't even want to imagine spending the same amount of time with him as she did with Regulus.

"Because he's Sirius Black," She stated blankly. "He always gets what he wants, and right now—that's you."

"I'd rather facing the killing curse," Victoria replied with a sigh.

Marlene let out another laugh. "I can't wait to tell him that."

"Feel free to jazz it up a little if you think it'll get him to leave me alone." She pulled her wand out and levitated each stack of books to their designated spot one by one.

"You're really not into him," Marlene said in amazement.

Victoria shot her look. "It took you that long to figure that out?"

"You're going to be an interesting addition to our group."

Judging by the almost wicked grin on Marlene's face, Victoria started to worry whether the whole thing was a good idea or not.

Author's Note: Sorry for the little bit of the delay on this chapter. My plan is to usually have these chapters up about 1-2 weeks between one another. I'm near the end of my pre-written chapters so they might be on that 2 weeks side of the spectrum while I write ahead a little more!