I was almost running down Diagon Alley, the newspaper clipping clutched tightly in my fist. The store would close for lunch in a few minutes, and I had to get there before they went out for lunch. ‘Had to’ as in I needed rent.
Ninety-two, ninety-four… there it was! Of course, I really didn’t need the sign, or the street number, considering the truly magnificent sign advertising “U-No-Poo”. I stood there a moment, staring at it. I couldn’t believe the nerve of them. It had only been a week since Voldemort’s return became the official policy of the Ministry, since the death of (the apparently innocent) Sirius Black, and the well-deserved vindication of Dumbledore and Harry Potter. I hadn’t had doubts about Voldemort’s return “ anyone who had seen the terror in Harry Potter’s eyes couldn’t doubt it for more than a moment. And Black… despite the night the school spent in the Great Hall during my sixth year, I trusted Dumbledore about him. Already, the Weasleys had signs up mocking the whole business. Well, maybe not the whole business. There was a picture of Black in the bottom corner of the window, framed in black crepe.
I tore my eyes away from the window and stood still a moment, mustering my courage. Then I strode up to the storefront, opened the door, and walked through.
I stopped in my tracks once more. The inside of the shop was a treasure trove of small explosions, mobile displays, and slowly revolving shelves. It looked as though a rainbow had vomited all over the interior; there was no-where for the eye to rest. The products packed into every square inch of shelf space made a plethora of noises, whirring, chiming, and even barking like small dogs. I grinned. This place was incedible.
“Come back here, you!” a man shouted, and I saw a small orange ball of fluff rolling through the shelves. A young redheaded man, who cursed as he ran headlong into a display of Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder, pursued it hotly. I knelt, holding my hands out, and the orange puff rolled into my hand. A small cloud of complete blackness had radiated from the Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder. The man stumbled out of it, coughing. “Nasty stuff, that,” he muttered. Then he saw me. His face split into a wide grin, and he said loudly, “Welcome to Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes, the only shop in Diagon Alley to offer a full range of prankster’s goods and practical jokes! You’ll find everything here you need to prank you friends, torment your enemies, and avoid those bothersome classes. Now, how may I help you?”
“Hello,” I replied. “I’m here about your advertisement “ the one you took out in the Prophet?”
He looked me up and down. His eyes lingered on my chest, just like all men’s do. I resisted the urge to cross my arms. “Oh “ yes, of course,” he said. He stepped forward and offered his hand. “I’m Fred Weasley.”
“Verity Maddox,” I answered, shaking his hand.
“Verity Maddox?” he asked, slightly incredulous. “You went to Hogwarts, didn’t you?”
“Yeah,” I replied, smiling at him. “I left a year before you.”
“Right,” he said. He hadn’t let go of my hand. “I remember you at the Yule Ball. You looked amazing.”
“Thank you,” I said. I tugged on my hand. He got the message and hurriedly released me, glancing down at our hands and then back up at my eyes.
“Here’s your… um… puffball,” I said, holding the orange ball of fluff out to him.
He laughed, taking the puffball from my hand. “Thanks,” he said. “We spent months developing these, I wouldn’t want to lose one.”
“Fred, are you about ready?” another man yelled. “I’m starving!” He came around the shelving and stopped short when he saw me. It was George, the other Weasley twin. “Who’s this, then?” he asked.
“I’m Verity Maddox,” I said, glad that Fred had released my hand.
“George Weasley,” George replied, shaking my hand.
“I’m here about the advertisement you placed in the Prophet,” I said.
“Oh, of course,” George said. “We were just about to leave for lunch, though, so if you could come back this afternoon…”
“She could just get an application now,” Fred said.
George looked at his twin, puzzled. “Fine,” he said. He walked back to the checkout counter and pulled out a tight roll of parchment. He handed it to me. “Come back here at two, with this.”
“And we’ll have an interview with you,” Fred finished.
“Thank you,” I said, smiling widely at them both. “I’ll see you later.”
“See you,” Fred and George replied in unison.
I sat at one f the outside tables at Florean Fortescue’s Ice Cream Parlour while I filled out the application for Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes. I hoped Florean wouldn’t mind.
Some of the questions puzzled me “ “On a scale of one to ten, how would you describe your pranking threshold?” “ but I managed to fill the application out without too much incident. At one-thirty I had answered all but two of the questions. I scribbled out answers to those two and walked down the street to number 93. I wanted to be there waiting for the twins when they got back.
I reached the storefront at a quarter to two and sat on the windowsill, waiting. I ignored the hunger pangs that rose now that I wasn’t preoccupied. I didn’t have money for food. That was why I needed this job so badly “ I was almost a month behind on rent, and I hadn’t eaten more than a cheese sandwich for almost a week.
“Verity!” called a man’s voice. I turned, my stomach filling with dread.
“What is it, Larry?” I asked resignedly.
Larry stumbled over. He hadn’t shaved. His hair was blond, though at the moment you couldn’t tell. He reeked of Firewhiskey and cheap perfume. “Why aren’t you at the Kneazle Paw anymore?”
“Because sick perverts like yourself kept trying to stick their hands up my shirt. Go away, I’m busy,” I said, hoping the crabby tone would be enough to get him to leave.
“Surely you’re not too busy to talk to your old friend Larry?” Larry grinned, showing a mouthful of yellowed and rotting teeth.
“I’m always too busy to talk to you, Larry.” I craned my neck, looking up the street for the twins. Maybe coming back early hadn’t been a good idea after all.
“Oh, come off it,” Larry laughed. “What are you doing here, anyway?” He looked up at the Weasleys’ shop. “You going to work for a couple of blood traitors?” Larry asked, laughing harder.
“They aren’t blood traitors,” I said, now honestly angry. “Get out of here, Larry, or I swear I’ll ““
“You’ll do what?” Larry leered. “You ain’t going to do nothing.”
“Larry “”
“Come with me,” Larry said in a voice that was clearly supposed to be enticing. “I know a sweet spot up the way a bit, where you can get away from the blood traitors….”
“Larry, I’m not going with you. Leave me alone!” I snapped.
Larry grabbed my upper arm, pulling me harshly off the windowsill. “You’re coming, you little bint, and if you say one more thing I’ll “”
“What are you doing?” Fred Weasley said furiously, seizing Larry by the shoulder.
George yanked Larry’s hand off my arm and pulled me toward the shop. “Are you okay?” he asked.
I took a couple of breaths before answering. “Yeah, I’m fine.”
When he saw I was safe, Fred shoved Larry further into the street. As the neighbors stared, George unlocked the shop door and walked inside. Fred placed a hand on my back and guided me in ahead of him. As he walked in behind me, I glanced over my shoulder. Larry was sprawled in the middle of the street, a couple of shop owners watching him from their windows in distaste.
“What was that all about?” George demanded.
“He’s just an idiot,” I said, not wanting to get into that whole fiasco.
“He seemed to know you pretty well,” Fred said, his voice tight with anger.
I sighed. I really didn’t want to talk about it. “My last job was at this really dodgy pub in Knockturn Alley. He was a regular there, and he and his mates used to try and get me to do them favours. I stopped working there two months back.”
“Oh.” Clearly this hadn’t been what either Fred or George was expecting. They looked at each other, and then George asked, “Did you ever do them favours?”
“No, of course not,” I said. I didn’t pretend horror that they would suspect I had.
“We’ll hire you,” Fred said suddenly. “Are you a hard worker?”
“I was in Hufflepuff,” I said, as if that was all the answer he needed.
“Fred, don’t you think we should at least look at her application first?” George said.
“Here it is,” I told him, pulling the scroll out of my pocket. He took it, unrolled it, and looked it over. He raised his eyebrows at something, finished reading, and then handed it over to Fred.
Fred read the parchment. He looked at me. “Why haven’t you listed a reference for your last job?” he asked.
I shrugged. “Like I said, it was really dodgy. I didn’t want you to get the wrong idea about me because of where I worked before.”
George nodded. “If that’s the kind of client you typically served, I can understand that.” He studied me. “If you’re working here, will that git you were talking to come in and bother customers?”
I shook my head. “He shouldn’t. I think he just bothered me today because I was out in the open.“
“Your application is quite impressive,” Fred said, holding it up. “George?” he asked, looking at his twin.
“I don’t like this. But I can’t think of a good reason why not,” George said after a moment of eye contact with Fred. He turned his eyes to me. “We’ll give you a try. Two weeks.”
“Then we’ll evaluate and decide if we’d like to keep you on. Okay?” inquired Fred.
I nodded, feeling a grin spreading across my face. “Sounds great.”
“Be here at eight o’clock tomorrow,” Fred ordered. “We open the doors at nine. Our uniform is black robes.”
I nodded. “Okay. I’ll be here.”
I’d be there by a quarter to eight.
* * *
I left the front entrance of the Leaky Cauldron and walked north along the street in Muggle London. I’d begun renting a Muggle flat about a month before beginning my job at the Paw. The rent was cheaper, in general, in the Muggle parts of town than in Diagon Alley. My robes were in the bag slung across my chest. I had taken advantage of the loos in the Leaky Cauldron to change out of my skirt and into a more conventional combination of jeans and t-shirt.
I turned right, left, went straight a few blocks, and then turned right again. My building was the third along the street. I climbed the stairs to almost the top floor, stuck my key in the lock, and went inside.
The room was tiny. My bed took up one corner, my dresser another. A mirror hung on the wall, next to a plain door that led to my bathroom, which barely fit a toilet, sink, and shower. My kitchen was small. It had a fridge empty but for a liter of milk and a block of cheese, a sink, and a stove.
I sat on the bed and took off my shoes. I couldn’t believe I had needed Fred and George to pull Larry off of me. Weren’t witches supposed to be empowered by magic? Not even pulling my wand out was a stupid mistake, even by my standards. I was painfully aware of the fact that I’d only earned four O.W.L.s, only one of them an Exceeds Expectations. I was terrified when the twins found out, they would sack me. But this train of thought wasn’t going to get me anywhere.
I picked my book up off the floor, lay back, and began to read. It was a Muggle book by a lady called Jane Austen, who had lived in the eighteenth century. I’d found it in a bin on my nightly walk from the Leaky Caudron to my flat. I was just to the part where Elizabeth, the protagonist, overhears Mr. Darcy, the rather annoying hero, discussing her with his friend. I read for about an hour, listening to the cars go past outside, before my stomach gurgled loudly.
I checked my watch. It was four-thirty. I could eat dinner now.
I got up, went into the kitchen, and pulled the bread out of a cupboard. I sliced off a piece of cheese and folded a piece of bread onto it. I sat on the counter and ate my sandwich. I was still hungry afterwards. I hesitated, and then made myself another. I eyed the milk in the fridge. It was on its way to spoiling, and I was starting a new job tomorrow. What the hell.
When I was finished with the milk, I decided to get ready for the morning. Fred had said to wear black robes as part of the uniform. I pulled open the top drawer of my dresser, digging around. It was as I had suspected. The only black robes I owned were my Hogwarts robes, complete with embroidered badge. I slipped into them, fastening the front and then looking at myself in the mirror. The robes fit a good bit more loosely than they had when I wore them last. I would manage. I looked again at the Hogwarts insignia on the front. I could get that off, if I was careful. I sat down on my bed with the robes and a pair of scissors, clipping individual threads until I could pull the badge away, and then cutting the remaining threads holding it to the robes. I was pleased that I didn’t leave a hole.
At nine o’clock I cleaned my teeth, put on my pyjamas, set my alarm, and went to bed. I had a big day tomorrow, and there was no way I was going to screw this up.
The Shopgirl by Apollonious
Story Notes:
This is based off a plot bunny put up for adoption in the Adoption Center by Pinkcess of the Abyss.
Character death is only mentioned.
Chapter Notes: Thank you so much to Laura (sorrow_of_severus) and Elene (CoolCatElly) for beta-ing this.
Chapter Endnotes: Hope you liked it. Please review!