autumn, 1971
chipping away from the inside
Memos flew past her head, one actually grazed her skin, leaving the thinnest of papercuts. She winced before she could help herself and her eyes closed quickly to avoid being blinded on the first week of work. Her hands tightened into fists. Get a grip Black. A fierce whisper to herself, under her breath. She needed this job. This was her way out. This was her crack of light in a tunnel she had thought had caved in. Somehow, she had found a weakness and she just needed to slowly chip away to make her escape. This was the first step towards freedom and she was not going to mess it up. She strode with purpose, giving the papercut on her cheek a quick wipe with her finger.
Throwing herself into the uncomfortable wooden chair in the poky corner of the bustling office, Andromeda started reviewing the precarious tower of papers there. Her dark brown eyes quickly scanned a roughly torn bit of yellow parchment that sat on top of the pile, the writing was as insistent as the words: "immediate review – no slacking!" Huffing at the demand but grateful for the push it gave her, she started at the top of her review stack and started reading. The articles were mostly on comforting, domestic topics ('10 Spells for that sparkling clean finish' or 'Charming knits: a self-warming scarf!'). Her lips quirked upwards, thinking of her own mother. She doubted Druella had ever read anything of this sort, although her exacting standards demanded all these things.
She grabbed her wand and murmured slowly as she read the neatly typed lines. Checking each word, each comma and then stepping back to assess it as a whole article. Words and punctuation marks changing smoothly as her wand waved at the errors. Andromeda was finding it strangely interesting, a soft exclamation often escaping her lips at the handy hints. The work absorbed her and the din of the office faded to a pleasant background hum. She wasn't sure how much time had passed when she was interrupted from her reverie.
"That interesting, huh?" Andromeda glanced up at the soft voice which had punctuated her working meditation and found the mischievous green eyes of Marlene McKinnon.
Marlene was casually learning against her desk and perusing the next article on her review pile, "Ooh 'Demystifying the magic of French cuisine'… sounds fascinating!"
"Actually, yes, it is. You won't believe what they do to the snails in one of the recipes…its gruesome but worth it." Andromeda replied dryly, with an affected shudder. Marlene snorted loudly and threw the article back on the pile, making it sway dangerously. Andromeda's eyes widened in panic and she waved her wand quickly to stabilize her precarious tower of work.
"Sorry!" Marlene exclaimed, "Anyway, I didn't come here to talk to you about snail sacrifices. Its almost 7 and its only your first week here. Are you done yet?"
In answer to her question, Andromeda flashed the yellow parchment with the demand for no slacking in front of Marlene's face. Her friend rolled her eyes and scoffed, "That Skeeter woman has some nerve. This is like 3 weeks' worth of stuff she's given you!"
"I know," Andromeda murmured quietly, her eyes narrowing at the door where Rita Skeeter's name was glittering maliciously at her, in all its embossed curly gold glory. She gave her friend an apologetic look, "Sorry, Marl..I'm at her mercy with this job. She is almost as bad as being at home."
"The operative word being the almost there, which is why you can't give her a chance to pull you up on something and send you back home," Marlene replied, her expression gentle, "I understand."
Andromeda nodded and smiled at her friend, grateful for her quick grasp of the situation. She couldn't quite remember when she and Marlene became friends, but it must have been in her third or fourth year at Hogwarts, when they started sharing an increasing number of classes. They were initially paired up by various professors and eventually started paring themselves together. There was a shared dry wit, an inexplicable ease in each other's company and for Andromeda, Marlene was a breath of fresh air compared to her classmates from Slytherin. Plus, no-one minded too much as Marlene was from a 'respectable' enough family and in Ravenclaw.
She felt a rush of affection for her friend and then guilt as she glanced around at the nearly empty office and out of the window, where the soft glowing lamplight lit up the brisk autumn evening.
"Marl, I hope you didn't stay late for me?" Andromeda asked, her brows furrowed
"No, no. Jones has me working on this damn quidditch stats article for tomorrow. I've only just finished the draft and was leaving. Just wondered if you cared to join?" Marlene asked, and then with a smile added, "What's the point of freedom if you don't get to use it. Drinks at the Leaky Cauldron? Working girls and all?"
Andromeda laughed and glanced at the pile at her desk. Rapid calculations firing off in her head. If she left the Leaky Cauldron by eleven and came into work for six sharp tomorrow morning, she was sure she could get through this pile before her 2 o'clock meeting with Skeeter. Marlene was right. What was freedom for, if not to be used and she wanted to grasp it kicking and screaming, especially considering the last year she had had at home.
"Fuck it.." she said, a grin lighting up her face, "Working girls and drinks at Leaky. I'm in."
Marlene let out a little whoop of joy in response.
"Just give me a moment to tidy all of this up and then we can go," Andromeda said, a warmth spreading through her at the thought that the evening was hers, she had made the choice to stop work and grab drinks. An imagined conversation ran through her head, her voice breezy and confident. Who me? What did I do yesterday evening? Oh, just grabbed drinks after work with my friend! A joyous smile spread across her face as she organised the work for future Andromeda to deal with it.