Work Text:
The cramped closet sized space of Katie Bell's office deterred anyone from visiting her, which was how she preferred it. Since her brief ambush and Imperius her seventh year, knowing exactly what was in all corners of the room made her feel immeasurably safer than a large office with too many nooks and crannies.
She worked to make the space feel safe, and cozy. Large charts of graphs and maps showing transportation trends of muggles and wizards alike lined her walls to cover the smooth concrete of the rebuilt wing of the Ministry, and the porthole window as wide as two fists let in enough magically falsified light to satisfy her taste.
Magical Transportation wasn't where she wanted to start her career, but she'd been too unstable for Magical Games and Sports, and the Wizengamot was up to its ears with interns vying to work for the judges and clerks working to reverse the damage during the last two wizarding wars. She needed an actual paying job, unlike what some of the "war heroes" and rich, pardoned purebloods took; one that would satisfy her third of the flat payment with Angelina and Cho. And, the way things were going between those two, she'd started saving up to get a flat of her own to leave the two to their apparently inevitable romantic conclusion.
Going from department to department, she couldn't stop a bitter resignation from building in her chest against the privileged few she saw walking through, without a stack of medical papers under their arm to explain away their lingering symptoms from a cursed necklace and Imperius sickness, and wished they'd left something after the war for everyone, not just the heroes.
Katie found herself tripping into the office of Percy Weasley after seeking job opportunities at three other departments, besides. His office was large, but open and neat to the extreme.
"Blasted decorations," Percy said.
He stood to help her up off the floor, the comically large pumpkin outside of his office testament to the seasonal cheer infiltrating his office. She'd been so stressed over getting turned down at every turn, she'd laughed as Percy pulled her up, as he went back to the floor to pick up her things for her.
"Not in the holiday spirit, Weasley?" she teased, falling into a familiar routine so natural it felt like she was pulling on her favorite sweater.
"This is not the way to celebrate Samhain," he said with good-natured bite.
She bit her lip to keep from laughing at the way he glared at the bright orange and green streamers lazily floating overhead. "Just a bit of levity."
Percy waved his hand to welcome her inside his office, holding the door open for her. "You're a few minutes early for our appointment but this works out perfectly. George mentioned you were seeking employment?"
"Honest, paying employment," Katie swiftly specified, once the door clicked shut behind her. "Which has been difficult to acquire, really."
The spectacles perched at the end of Percy's nose reflected the light from above, sending little sparks along the wall, and she waited for the panicked breathing to start taking over...but it didn't. Large walls, empty of everything but tightly packed files behind him, cut a striking backdrop for a wizard whose robes looked straight off the cover of a fashion magazine. Pressed, not a single pill of fabric to be found, or a stain anywhere. His appearance was a bit intimidating, but he'd been the same at school, and she felt her breathing relax even more. Everything had its place. It made her wish she fit in here, too.
They discussed her skills and limitations, and what the job would require of her. In exactly thirty-two minutes, accounting for the bit of extra time she'd garnered by arriving early, Katie shook Percy's smooth hand with her own calloused one, and was lead to the smallest of offices in the entire department. She could hear the apology on his lips before he's spoken another five words.
"No, this is perfect," she said, already imagining the way she would be able to fill this space with her thoughts, leaving no room for panic attacks.
Percy's warm hand rested on her shoulder, and he smiled at her with a softness she remembered from years before, when he'd lead several study groups in the library that she'd joined out of necessity, more than desire. It allowed her to believe that maybe she had found a place to fit in, after all.