Stumble - A Fred Weasley Fanfiction

Chapter 1: 365 Days Before

There were 182 scratch marks etched into the bottom drawer of Addison Taylor's desk. One mark for each day of her job as secretary for the Department of Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. 182 scratch marks for 182 days of her miserable existence. Each scratch represented one day she had been under the Imperius Curse. 

Addison had applied for the job as secretary on a whim, never expecting anything to come of it. She was only 20 years old and her experience was extremely limited. For a Ministry job, this made her seriously unqualified. It seemed impossible to her that anything would ever come of it. But only a week later she had received a letter requesting an interview, and she had been ecstatic. 

If only she had known. 

Her interviewer, a gruff, rather rude man by the name of Avery, had asked minimal questions before claiming she was exactly what they needed and offering her the job. She had gratefully accepted. As she turned around to leave, she had heard the dreaded words that took away her life as she knew it: 

"Imperio." 

The last six months had been a blur. Six months at her desk. Six months of reporting to Avery everyday at 5 o'clock after her shift. Of being asked again and again about who came in and who left, who she talked to and what about, and whether she had seen or heard anything suspicious. She would give the same answers, reporting that nothing out of the ordinary had happened, before going home, making supper, and going to bed as she had been instructed to do. The next morning she would wake up and do the same thing over again. 

She was lucid enough to leave the tick marks in her desk. 182 of them. It was her way of holding on to herself, of keeping a small grasp on what little control she had left. 

On May 2nd, 1997, Addison Taylor arrived at the Ministry of Magic and sat at her desk like she had been doing for the past 182 days. Fellow employees passed her by with nothing more than a polite nod as they headed to their offices. An hour later all was quiet in the front room where her desk sat. Addison reached down and opened the bottom drawer of her desk as if to grab a file, and scratched her 183 mark into the wooden bottom of the drawer with a pen. 

Six months and one day. 

Her day continued in the exact same way it had for the past six months. She typed out some pointless files, directed a few owls. She sent visitors to the right offices and managed to calm a frightened Niffler that had been brought into her office and immediately tried to burrow its way through the carpet. A typical day. As the clock on the wall struck 5 o'clock, Addie gathered her things and stood. With a flick of her wand she apparated to the Leaky Cauldron. 

The dingy bar was the same as it always was at this time - empty. Tom the bartender washed glasses behind the long counter, barely glancing up at Addison's sudden appearance. The only two others in the bar sat at a table in a secluded alcove, talking quietly between themselves. Addison clearly wasn't meant to hear what they were saying. 

"She's useless," said a man in a black cloak, his hood drawn up to conceal his face. "Nothing to report in six months when I know for a fact that Amos Diggory has had contact with the Order. She might as well be dead for all the good she does us." 

"I agree," said the cold, all too familiar voice of Avery. "I say we dispose of her, replace her with one of ur own. The sooner I can get rid of that stupid wench, the better." 

Addison froze mid-step, the horror at her impending death giving her mind the clarity that had been absent the past six months. She felt control return to her limbs, although her mind still urged her forward. She didn't waste any time in hesitation, fearing that her control would be lost. Addison turned around and ran for her life.