March 1999
"Are you sure this isn't silly? It feels like my first day of school." Eloise asked as she straightened the silver Ministry pin on the lapel of her blazer.
"You know your parents will want this picture, now smile." Fleur ordered, holding the camera in her hands.
Eloise knew better than to argue with her very pregnant best friend these days, so she let out a sigh and gave a bright smile to Fleur as she snapped the photo.
"I think I blinked!"
"Elle, it's a moving picture, it doesn't matter if you blinked." Fleur laughed as she waited for the polaroid to dispense from the camera, "Look how nice you look!"
Fleur held out the photo towards Eloise who watched herself smile in front of Shell Cottage. Her blonde curls were blowing slightly in the ocean breeze and she looked both excited and nervous at the same time. Also she did in fact blink, but Fleur was right that it didn't really matter.
"I look like a kid."
"You've always had a baby face."
Eloise furrowed her brows slightly at her friend, but she couldn't think of a good argument because she knew Fleur was right.
"What time is it?" Eloise asked.
"It was about half past seven when we came out, so it's probably nearly time for you to go."
The two witches headed back inside as Eloise ran her fingers through her hair, trying to remove the tangles the wind had caused.
"Do you think I should put my hair up?"
Fleur laughed softly, "I think you should stop worrying... but yes, it does look a mess."
Eloise rolled her eyes at her comment. Although sometimes Fleur could be a bit blunt for some people's taste, ultimately her honesty was much appreciated as it saved Eloise from a lot of embarrassing moments throughout her life.
She pulled a hair tie from her wrist as she walked to the mirror right next to the front door, she brushed her frizzy hair back into a tight bun at the nape of her neck. A few flyaways still escaped around her face, but there wasn't much that could be done about that.
"Alright, I think I'm ready." Eloise said, nodding to her reflection as if she were trying to convince herself that she truly was prepared for her first day.
Fleur was already standing near the fireplace holding the container of Floo Powder. They had connected the fireplace to the Ministry last week, it was the last step in truly making her job feel real.
Eloise was the type of person who would convince herself that any good news wasn't actually real until it was truly happening before her eyes. She said it was to spare herself from any disappointment but Fleur told her she was a pessimist, which may have had some truth to it. An 'optimistic pessimist' would have been the most accurate description though, always hoping for the best and preparing for the worst.
Reaching into the container, Eloise grabbed a handful of Floo Powder before setting foot inside the fireplace. She hesitated for a moment and looked to Fleur once more for reassurance.
"You'll be great. I'll see you this evening." Fleur said with a smile.
Eloise let out one last sigh before saying "Ministry of Magic" and throwing down the powder, quickly being consumed by the bright green flames.
Though it was far from her first time taking the Floo Network, she still stumbled out of the fireplace in the large lobby of the Ministry. Thankfully no one around her seemed to notice as they were all too busy making their way to meetings and appointments.
She flattened out her brown pencil skirt with her hands and straightened her Ministry pin once more before heading to her department. Getting through security went without incident and she was pleased to see a familiar face as she stepped onto the elevator.
"Eloise! How lovely to see you, it's your first day, yes?" Arthur asked as he folded that morning's edition of The Daily Prophet under his arm.
"Yes sir." She replied as she ducked, dodging the bright purple paper airplanes that zoomed into the elevator as the doors closed.
"Interdepartmental memos, you'll get used to them." Arthur chuckled.
The elevator jolted slightly as they descended further beneath London.
"Level 2, Department of Magical Law Enforcement."
"Well, that's me. Have a good day, Eloise, though I'm sure we'll hear about it from Percy." Arthur turned to her with a kind smile before exiting the elevator.
It was three more levels before they finally reached her floor.
"Level 5, Department of International Magical Cooperation."
Eloise squeezed passed about a dozen witches and wizards on the elevator with several 'excuse me's and 'sorry's before setting foot into the corridor.
She remembered from her orientation that the office was the third door on the left, so she made her way down the hall trying her best to shake off the nerves growing inside her body.
The door to the office was already open, and when she stepped inside she was greeted by the sight of Percy, who was leaning over someone's desk discussing some sort of report with them.
He brought his eyes up to Eloise as she entered and gave her a polite smile, "Right on time, follow me to your desk. I'll let Audrey know you're here."
She followed Percy who weaved through rows of desks until coming upon hers, which she was glad was near a window. Although all the windows in the office were merely charmed to appear as if they were looking over London, it was nice to feel as if they weren't actually hundreds of feet below ground.
"Here we are, you can get yourself situated and I'll be back in a few minutes with Audrey."
Eloise dropped her purse on the desk and dug inside it to find the two photo frames she brought to make her desk feel more homey.
The first photo was of her and her dad when she was little. They were posed in front of the fountain in the lobby of the Ministry. She was standing on the ledge of the fountain and her dad had his arm wrapped around her middle so she wouldn't fall in the water. At one point her father leaned in with a bright smile and pointed to the camera so Eloise would look at her mother who was taking the photo of them.
The other was of her and her grandmother on Eloise's fourteenth birthday. It was the last birthday her grandmother was alive to celebrate, but in the photo they were both laughing with one another. She couldn't even remember what they were talking about that made them laugh so hard, but it was by far her favorite picture of them despite the memory being bittersweet.
The sound of clicking heels brought Eloise's attention to Audrey who was approaching with Percy. Eloise quickly stood up and offered an enthusiastic smile to her new boss who did not return the favor.
"Sit down." Audrey said sternly and Eloise obeyed without hesitation as her expression fell, "Thank you Percy, I'll check in with you shortly." she continued as she looked over at Percy who gave her a short nod in return.
Once Audrey's back was to him, he quickly gave Eloise a sympathetic smile and a small thumbs up before heading back to his own desk. Eloise was so caught up in how uneasy she felt that she nearly didn't notice the tall stack of papers in Audrey's arms. The documents fell on her desk with a loud thud causing Eloise to jump slightly in response.
Audrey glanced at her and raised her eyebrow for a moment before she began separating them out into slightly smaller stacks, though they still looked quite daunting regardless.
Once Audrey was finished organizing she pointed to the first stack of papers. Eloise immediately noticed that Audrey's nails were perfectly manicured and painted in a beautiful emerald green color. It was such a small detail, but it only served to remind Eloise that her own chipped nail polish made her feel quite inadequate in comparison.
"So this stack here," Audrey started, "I need you to go through and cross reference these case files with the equivalent laws in the United States as well as France and Spain."
"Okay." Eloise nodded, thinking that was perfectly doable.
Audrey then pointed to the other shorter stack of parchment on the mahogany desk in front of the blonde.
"This document here is a newly proposed law, I need you to go through and make sure it doesn't conflict with any laws internationally."
"I can do that." Eloise replied, though she wasn't fully convinced that she could handle all the work, she certainly wasn't going to admit it.
"Great, because once all that is finished I have a short report for you to go over that someone else has done. We just need another set of eyes to make sure there aren't any mistakes." Audrey ordered, clearly ignoring how overwhelmed the blonde witch already was.
Eloise eyes were darting over all of the documents on her desk, wondering if there was a charm that could extend the hours of the day.
"Any questions?" Audrey asked flatly.
Eloise had a million questions swimming around her head, but the loudest one was 'What in Merlin's name have I gotten into?'
Clearly an impatient woman, Audrey didn't appreciate Eloise's hesitation, "I'm taking your silence to mean that you don't have any questions. I expect this to be accomplished by the end of the day today."
The brunette witch abruptly turned on her heel to retreat into her office, leaving Eloise feeling quite bewildered.
For the entire morning Eloise was hunched over her desk, frantically flipping through pages and dipping her quill into the ink beside her to make corrections. She had been working so hard that she didn't even realize she had worked right through lunch until she saw a shadow cast over the document she was reading. When she looked up she was greeted by Percy standing beside her desk.
"Hungry?" he asked casually.
"I've got too much work to do, Percy." Eloise replied as she shook her head, gesturing to the messy pile of papers in front of her.
"She's just testing you to see how much you can get done and how obedient you are, don't worry too much. No one usually gets this amount of work on a daily basis." Percy reassured her.
He placed a sandwich wrapped in brown paper down on her desk and pulled up an extra chair to sit across from her. Their eyes met for a moment and Eloise suddenly felt like she might cry. She had been so stressed out the entire day that Percy's small gesture of bringing her lunch was almost enough for her to lose it.
"Why don't you take a break? I promise Audrey will be satisfied with what you got done today. Besides, you're my subordinate, so it really falls down on me if you're lazy." he said with a smile, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose with his knuckle.
"Thank you, Percy."
Eloise pushed the papers aside and unwrapped the sandwich, taking a grateful bite before Percy decided to continue the conversation.
"Are you going to be at Ron's birthday dinner on Saturday? His birthday's actually today but everyone's too busy to get together tonight."
She quickly brought her hand up to her mouth and shook her head as she finished chewing, "No, I don't think so."
"I'm sure no one would mind if you were there. You've pretty much been to what... 70% of our family dinners now?"
"Bill and Fleur invite me to those dinners, I don't talk to Ron much and it's his day. I don't want to intrude. " she replied with a shrug.
"It's never intruding at the Burrow." Percy said with a laugh.
Audrey poked her head out of her office at that exact second, almost as if Percy's laughter was an emergency alarm. She looked between him and Eloise for a moment before narrowing her eyes slightly, "My office, Weasley."
"Duty calls." he whispered to Eloise as he raised his eyebrows.
Eloise took the hint that Audrey didn't appreciate much socializing during office hours and quickly finished up her sandwich and got right back to work.
By the end of the days her hand was cramping from all the writing and her eyes were starting to go blurry. If she had to read the phrase 'in regards to recent events' any more she'd lose her mind. She knew that rebuilding the Ministry after the war was a daunting task but it had been nearly a year and so many new laws were still being introduced as a result.
Before she knew it, it was already past five and she was one of the only people left in the office. She felt a little disappointed that she didn't really get to interact with anyone other than Audrey and Percy all day, but she was proud of herself for completing everything she was asked to do, even if it resulted in a pounding headache.
She quickly gathered up all of the papers from her desk and made her way to Audrey's office. Knocking on the open door, Eloise was met with her bosses stern brown eyes and she immediately wondered if she'd ever feel less intimidated by the woman.
"I have these finished and ready for you, Miss Everman." she said in a small voice.
For a moment, Eloise could have sworn she saw the corner of Audrey's lips quirk up a little, "Set them there." she instructed, pointing the end of her quill to the corner of her desk.
Eloise stepped forward and placed the papers in neat stacks on the desk before backing away quickly.
"You can go." Audrey said flatly, bringing her attention back to what she had been working on.
With a quick nod, Eloise made haste to leave the office before she was stopped in her tracks.
"Oh, Eloise." Audrey called to her.
She spun around slowly, dreading the chance that she could be tasked with something else at the last minute.
"Yes?"
"Good work today." Audrey complimented casually, not breaking her eyes away from the report in front of her.
Eloise let out the breath she hadn't realized she was holding, "Thank you, Miss Everman."
-
By some stroke of luck, George had been able to convince Charlie that they didn't need to be thirty minutes early for every family dinner, even if it was for Ron's birthday. So the boys went by George's schedule that evening, causing them to arrive fashionably late.
As they walked in the front door, before either of them could even think of giving Ron any birthday wishes, Fleur was already on George's case.
"Have you picked up Eloise's horrible time management skills?" she asked George before he could even get his jacket off.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"You two have been spending more time together, I just assumed she was starting to...rub off on you?" she said with a smirk.
George parted his lips slightly, preparing to give Fleur a clever comeback when Ron stepped into the lounge.
"Oh good, you're here. I need to have a word with you both."
George and Charlie exchanged a brief inquisitive look with one another before glancing down to Fleur who merely shrugged at them.
"He pulled Bill away the moment we arrived as well, so don't ask me."
The boys decided to follow their brother up the stairs and into his old bedroom where Harry, Bill, and Percy were already waiting.
"This isn't an intervention is it?" George asked, half joking.
"No, not this time." Ron said, a little too seriously for George's liking.
The small room felt quite cramped with six grown men inside it, and with all the Weasley men being quite tall it didn't make the situation any better. Percy, Harry, and Bill were already sitting at the edge of Ron's bed, so George leaned against the dresser with his arms crossed as Charlie sat at Ron's desk.
"So, what's the deal?" George started.
Ron was wringing his hands together nervously as he looked around at his brothers.
"I originally just wanted to talk to Bill about this, but I figured it would be better to have all of you be involved since you're all my brothers." he started, running a hand through his hair as he let out a nervous chuckle.
All of them looked at him expectantly with a mixture of confusion and anticipation on their faces.
"Well, out with it then." Harry urged him.
"I think I'm going to propose to Hermione at the end of June when she's done with school." he blurted out rather quickly, it was almost difficult to catch every word.
But George heard all of it, and he wasn't pleased.
"Oh, Merlin." George muttered under his breath, rolling his eyes.
Only Charlie heard him, and he deliberately chose to ignore it to avoid causing a scene or any embarrassment for his youngest brother who was just looking for support from them.
"That's great, mate!" Harry said as he stood up and gave Ron a hearty pat on the back.
George couldn't prevent his face from falling into a bitter scowl. How in the world could any of them even consider having a wedding when Fred wouldn't be there to experience it?
Most of his brothers hadn't noticed him brooding in the corner of the room, but Charlie kept shooting nervous glances at him as if he expected the situation to explode. Honestly, no one could blame Charlie for feeling concerned after the blow up he witnessed between George and Verity in November.
It really seemed like George had been doing better recently, but there was bound to be something that made him snap. He desperately wished Eloise was there to pull him out of this situation like she had when Bill and Fleur announced the pregnancy, or he most likely would have ruined that moment too. But she wasn't here to stop him this time, and he certainly didn't have the willpower to stop himself from being bitter.
"I think it's wonderful as well, I'm excited for you two." Bill added in after a moment.
George let out a scoff that finally grabbed the attention of the other men in the room. They all looked at him with furrowed brows, waiting for him to say something. But he just stood there frowning.
"What's wrong?" Ron asked.
"Fred's dead and you want to have a bloody wedding. That's what's wrong, Ron. You and Hermione have only been together for what? A year, if that? And she's been at Hogwarts for most of it. It's ridiculous."
Charlie stood up from the desk immediately to stand between the two of them. He didn't know what would happen, but he certainly wasn't going to let it escalate to anything physical if he could prevent it.
"Life has to go on without him. You're being rather selfish, George." Percy said from the other side of the room.
Charlie put his hand against George's chest as he saw his body flinch, as if he wanted to lunge across the room at Percy.
"You don't get a say in this, you prick. You were gone for years, you're lucky we even let you back into this family." George spat, pointing an angry finger right at Percy as Charlie continued to hold him back.
"So nobody is allowed to be happy ever again, is that it?" Ron interjected.
"Alright! That's enough!" Charlie interrupted before the situation could escalate any further.
The tension in the room was thick and everyone was on edge with all eyes on George. Charlie tried to grasp George's arm to direct him out of the room but he pulled away angrily.
"Don't touch me. I'm leaving. Happy fucking birthday, Ron."
Glancing around the room he saw a mixture of anger, pity, and annoyance on everyone's faces, but he was too livid to care what any of them thought of him. He rushed out of the room, deliberately bumping against Ron's shoulder on the way out.
Molly heard George's loud footsteps coming from the staircase and stepped out into the hall to see him with an expression of anger she had never seen on her son's face before.
Before she could even hope to stop him to ask what was wrong, he had already rushed by her and was pulling his jacket from the coat rack next to the front door.
"What are you doing?" Molly asked loudly from the other end of the hall.
"Leaving." he said without hesitation.
Fleur, who must have decided to help Molly with dinner when all the boys went upstairs, was now standing in the kitchen doorway holding her baby bump and watching in shock as George angrily put on his jacket.
"What happened?" Molly asked, her voice now much less stern.
"Fred died." he shouted as his eyes shot daggers straight at his mother who hadn't even been aware of the situation upstairs.
Fleur flinched and clasped her hand over her mouth at how angry he was, she had never seen George this way before. No one had.
"I- what?" his mother asked in bewilderment, not knowing what possibly could have triggered such a reaction. She couldn't even scold him for being so disrespectful, she was completely taken aback by his behavior.
"Fred died, and no one gives a shit." George clarified as he pulled the front door open and slammed it shut behind him.
Molly didn't even have the chance to run after him before he pulled his wand out and disapparated.
As soon as he landed inside the flat he screamed out in anger and threw his wand at the closed door of Fred's old bedroom. He fell back against the wall and collapsed to the ground, burying his head in his hands as he sobbed.
Everything he had been bottling in for months let loose. Every ounce of frustration, anger, and pain was overflowing. The walls around him didn't just crack, they caved in around him, burying him in his sorrow.
Though Ron hadn't intended it to turn out this way, and there was certainly no way of knowing at the time, his revelation to his brothers that he wanted to marry Hermione was just the beginning of a series of events that would lead to George's downward spiral.
Recently George thought he had been making progress, he truly felt like he was getting better. He had actually started being more helpful at the shop, he hadn't had a panic attack in a month, and he hadn't had the desire to drink at all since the New Year. That made his current situation all the more frustrating for him as he felt like he was losing control of his life again.
But grief and mourning are not linear, George just didn't realize that the small pebble that he was tripping on today would lead to a tumble down an abyss that he was incapable of preventing.
-
A/N: Why do I love to write angst when it hurts me so much??? 😭