It all started on a day in late June of 1995. Audrey Yaxley was coming to visit her parents for Sunday lunch, having received a floo call from her mother two days prior saying that she and her father wanted the whole family round that Sunday. This had immediately struck Audrey as suspicious as the Yaxleys weren't in the habit of getting together other than on special occasions, what with her parents being far too interested in their adult children 'going out and doing the family name proud' (in reality bearing heirs and getting in to high society) to bother to see much of them. Her elder brothers Titus and Benjamin had brought their girlfriends, both of whom their parents approved of for being 'the right sort', Audrey thought with an inside sneer. Who even decided who the right sort was? People like their parents who thought their ancestors' wealth and paltry positions within 'high society' made them so special? Her best friend from school, Martha Crew, was a half-blood and yet Martha had been one of the most talented in their class, and was excelling in the ministry's experimental charms office.
They were served a three course meal as usual: a starter of steak tartar, a main of roast chicken with Yorkshire pudding, roast potatoes and vegetables and gravy and a desert of deconstructed banoffee pie. Her father, Corban Yaxley, a man in his late fifties, seemed more serious and 'dignified' than she'd ever before seen him, leaving Audrey more sure than ever that something big had happened. Meanwhile, her mother, Melissa, fawned over Titus' and Benjamin's girlfriends, Alana Patterson and Julia Bradhill respectively. Both of them were granddaughters of Wizengamot members with similar worldviews to her parents, and Alana's father was an old 'friend' of her father's, so of course they would suck up to them to make sure they married in to the family. Melissa Yaxley shot her daughter reproachful glances, for she had long resented how Audrey had not found a man for her, but Audrey had long been incessant that she would climb the career ladder before settling down, which had really been an excuse to avoid dating one of those inbred cretins at school, like Victor Turpin or Roger Urquhart.
"I have an important announcement to make," Corban announced with an air of supreme smugness after every plate of desert had been cleaned, clearly wanting everyone's full and undivided attention, "the Dark Lord has returned." Audrey gasped, and Benjamin and Julia looked similarly shocked, though not Melissa, Titus or Alana, confirming better than ever how her father's and Alana's father's 'friendship had come about. "I'm sure you, Alana have already heard this from your father, and the rest of you might have heard rumours of the Dark Lord's involvement with the Triwizard Tournament, and how this led to the death of one of the champions and how Harry Potter escaped the Dark Lord's clutches once again. Let me assure you it is all true, no matter what the ministry says." "So how are we meant to support him, father?" Titus asked excitedly, "and yeah, Alana's father told us about this yesterday." Out of all three Yaxley siblings, Titus, the eldest, 4 years older than Audrey, had always bought into their parents' views the most. Corban looked at his eldest son appraisingly, "for now I am the head of this family, so I shall directly serve the Dark Lord, and it is the duty of all three of you to do the Yaxley name proud, and you will one day inherit my position." In other words, he wants them to have heirs and me to marry into some pure-blood family just to breed, Audrey thought, barely concealing her anger. She was grateful she'd taken a voluntary occlumency course in her final year of Hogwarts with Snape. The conversation seemed to go on for hours, Corban going on about how he would be using his position within the Department of Magical Transport at the ministry to 'advance the cause' and all that rubbish, with him suggesting that his two sons use their jobs in public positions (a bookstore assistant in Titus' case and a journalist in Benjamin's) to gather information. He did tell Julia and Alana that he hoped their grandfathers would prove just as willing to aid the cause as they had been during the Dark Lord's first rise, and that he would be speaking to Alana's uncle, a co-worker of his, to see if he would be interested in supporting the cause. At some point Audrey's father suggested to her that she use her desk job at Gringotts to try to see whether the goblins believed the news of the Dark Lord's return and whether any of them seemed interested in him. Audrey hadn't been a Slytherin for nothing, and she had enough sense to make some half-hearted promises.
As Audrey Yaxley lay in bed that night, she felt more determined than ever to finally act on her views on this blood purity shit, to do the right thing. Somehow, she knew, her chance would come. Maybe a good place to start would be to meet with Martha and explain the situation to her. Martha's family might already be on her parents' and their associates' radar for being a muggle and blood traitor, so if Audrey could keep her best friend's family safe, that would certainly be a start. Sleep overtook the young woman shortly after though.