Bottledown
The wizarding village of Bottledown in Ireland is secluded even by wizard standards. Hidden in a small vale well off the beaten path, most traffic to and from the village occurs by Floo, and even that is rare. Keeping largely to themselves, most of the wizards there are schooled at home. While the residents of Bottledown may not always follow the dictates of the Ministry, their violations are largely ignored so long as they are minor, and things are kept confined to the village.
The only major incident to occur there involved a Dark wizard that attempted to take refuge in Bottledown, thinking its seclusion would protect him. But he underestimated the suspicion the Bottledons (as they call themselves) put on strangers. So when the Aurors caught up with the criminal, they discovered him already trussed up, dangling by his feet from a tree just outside of town, the pieces of his broken wand protruding from his nose. After that, the Ministry had few concerns about Bottledown.
Toby, in the one photograph Audrey has of himA Squib Is Born
"Nobody famous ever came from Bottledown," goes the saying there, and Bottledons say it with pride. They prefer to be unknown and unnoticed, and they don't like it when the unexpected happens. So when Squibs are born, they tend to be viewed with suspicion, as if they are a punishment upon the family that birthed them.
Aiobheann Tooley was one such Squib. At first, she was raised like any other Bottledon child, even praised for her lovely singing voice. But as the years passed, and no evidence of magical ability surfaced, the rumors began, and more than a few narrowed eyes were pointed her way. Her father, a surly man with a heavy drinking habit, would berate her, demanding she perform some sort of magic. She tried, of course. She tried with every ounce of will to make something move, or disappear, or change color…anything. But as her frustration grew, so did her father's, tenfold. Her punishments for her failure to do magic ranged from simple beatings with a switch to paralyzation spells lasting hours.
Aiobheann's only respite (aside from song) was Toby Whelan, a young wizard who was just a few years older than her. They had been friends since before they could walk, and he alone treated her the same while the rest of the village turned against her. Some days when she would be locked in her room by her father, Toby would sit outside her window (which was sealed with an impassibility charm) and talk to her. She would tell him of her dreams of getting away from Bottledown, and experiencing the Muggle world. They would often converse for hours until she fell asleep. Unsurprisingly, Aiobheann was quite in love with Toby.
Get out of Here
It wouldn't be until the age of fifteen that things would start to get really bad for Aiobheann. Though non-magical, she had charms of her own, and they were beginning to show. Even those that condemned her for being a Squib began to frequently qualify it with, "But she's a real beauty."
Unfortunately, her father didn't take kindly to the new attention she was receiving. When drunk (which was frequent), he would blame her for it, accusing her of dressing like a tramp and acting like a harlot. One night, after a particularly nasty fight that ended with Aiobheann in her room, bleeding from her mouth and nursing a swollen black eye, Toby came to her and was horrified at what her father had done. He'd had enough, and was determined to get her away from her family, whatever the cost. Early in the morning, he returned to her and slipped a potion vial to her, instructing her to put it in her father's whiskey jug.
The plan worked. The sleeping draught had her father snoring like a baby before the sun went down that day. Toby came to her as night was falling, and each of them carrying a knapsack full of supplies, they fled from Bottledown on foot.
Getting out of Bottledown was easy. Getting out of Ireland proved much more difficult, as tensions between Ireland and England were heating up. Aiobheann, who had begun to call herself "Audrey," talked their way into lodging for a few nights at a Muggle tavern, so long as she helped clean up the place. Meanwhile, Toby was out looking for passage to England.
Young Audrey, shortly after coming to EnglandIt happened the night that Toby came back to their room with news that he'd found a ship that would take them. The door blew inward, blasted to splinters. Standing in the shattered doorway was her father, wand in hand and a drunken, maddened snarl on his face. Toby knew he couldn't stand directly against Mr. Tooley, but he could stall him long enough for Audrey to get away. But Audrey would not leave him behind, and managed to smash a chair over her father's back to stun him, but not before another of the older man's spells had exploded a bedpost, showering Toby with sharp wooden shards.
The moment was all they needed to flee out the window. By then, the Muggles had noticed something was amiss, and the two managed to blend into the gathering crowd outside and avoid notice to escape to the ship. Toby was bleeding badly, but he reassured Audrey that he'd be alright…that they just had to make it to the ship and everything would be alright.
Toby never made it to England. When the ship arrived, wizards from the Ministry of Magic were waiting for her. They collected Toby's body, and their obliviators got to work erasing the memory of their presence on the ship from the sailors' minds. Audrey was informed that her father had been arrested, and would soon be on his way to Azkaban. Audrey herself was placed into a Ministry social program, and eventually in the care of a wizarding family in London.
As early as she could, she purged herself of her Irish accent, and dropped the Tooley name in favor of Taylor, trying to erase all elements of where she came from. It was also a matter of practicality, with the tensions in the Muggle world.
The starlet embraces her destinyGet Me Some Money Too
The Ministry worker that handled Audrey's case, helping acclimate her to life outside of Bottledown, found her several jobs. The first few didn't work out, but she was intrigued when the opportunity to work as a hostess for a small London theatre came up, where she would greet guests and help to manage the ushers.
It didn't take long before she realized the adulation received by the performers, and none more so than the beautiful leading lady, for whom roses were flung onto the stage in appreciation for sharing her talents. Audrey knew immediately that she wanted that. She craved the acceptance and longed to be wanted. So she auditioned for the next play the theatre company put on, and won a significant role. Since then, her passion for the craft has only grown. She learned everything she could from her fellow performers: acting, dancing, singing…anything they would teach her. She was in the spotlight now, and there was no place she'd rather be.
In the years since that first role, Audrey has acted in many plays, danced with a local ballet company, modeled for catalogs and department stores, taken a job as a Muggle magician's assistant, and performed as a lounge singer in London clubs. She has even made a name for herself in wizarding establishments, and slips easily from one world to the other, soaking up all the attention she can get.
Audrey was booked for the opening night of the Natrix Dance Hall, and was a smashing success. That evening, she caught the attention of both the Natrix's owner, Wolfgang Montague, and a less assuming witch named Ranjali Wintherthorne. Each was drawn to her, and eventually, she to them. Though she and Wolfgang had a passionate affair, it was with Ranjali that Audrey found herself craving something more lasting and exclusive. She had never before been attracted to a woman, but Ranjali was something special to Audrey.
In 1938, Audrey caught the attention of a Hollywood film studio, and was soon whisked away to the United States to appear in Muggle moving pictures. The glamorous life of Los Angeles suited her well, but she missed her beloved Ranjali and her friends in London. But her relationship came crashing down around her when photographs of her being overly flirtatious with a male actor fell into Ranjali's hands. She was innocent of any actual infidelity, but even Audrey knew she had gone too far. Ranjali was crushed, and it spelled the end for the two women.
Audrey stayed away for nearly a year, continuing her film career with moderate success. But when war was declared in 1939, she chose to return to England to support her countrymen.
