With the capture of Verandi Farley and several high-ranking Trossach members, the British wizarding world has finally caught a break. The rate of rogue werewolf attacks have started dropping at a steady rate and, hopefully, things will stay that way. The Ministry is starting to loosen some restrictions, like not arresting werewolves standing on the street for loitering, however there’s still an obvious power imbalance between wizardfolk and werewolves.
The Cotswolds pack are continuing to advocate for the rights of werewolves and petitioning to change the legislation that has been set in motion by the current Minister for Magic, whilst the remaining Trossachs members are trying to stay out of the spotlight and keep a low profile… for now.
Whilst the British wizarding world seems to have calmed down, the same cannot be said for over in Northern Europe where a rebellion of magical creatures has risen. The state of things has gotten so bad that the European Ministry has enacted protocols to protect those under eighteen whilst their adult witches and wizards fight to keep control of their countries.
Students from Durmstrang have been sent to Hogwarts to keep them safe and those not old enough to attend school have been sent to live with relatives or designated British Ministry officials outside of Europe for the time being.
Will the low rates of werewolf attacks in Britain continue? How long will Durmstrang students stay at Hogwarts? Will the creatures usurp the wizardfolk in Northern Europe? Only time will tell.
SEPTEMBER 2019 It's been a very long, eventful summer in the wizarding world. A baby was stolen, several high ranking Trossach members were imprisoned, and werewolf attacks have drastically dropped as a result. What will happen now school has returned?
MAY 2019 An attempt to capture the beta of the Trossachs has been launched. Were the Aurors successful in their mission? Go read more here!
and i'm calling for my mother/as i pull the pillars down
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Post by NADEZHDA KAREVA on Sept 20, 2019 18:16:20 GMT
Nadya was running, her boots pounding across the forest floor, her eyes barely looking for anything she might trip on beneath her. Where she was going, she didn't know, only in the general direction of Hogsmeade. What she was doing out here in the post-dinner twilight, though, that she knew in her bones.
Not that she thought she could put her anger into words at the moment. How dare they? was the only thought on her mind. To read mail, to listen to conversations, everything she'd been told not to fear, they would never target you, and here she knew she would be one of the number one targets. She would, and Scarlett, who needed nothing like that, who needed calm and strength and not fear. And almost certainly Ryker too, and what would happen to Lyuba? Lyuba who never thought before she spoke, Lyuba whose temper flashed far brighter than Nadya's ever did, Lyuba who could get in trouble so easily with someone like that.
She was going to scream.
Thump, thump, thump. The moss carpeting the ground dulled her footsteps as she went further away from any sort of path. She wanted to leave. To be gone from this place forever. If she had a broomstick... then she could have easily been miles away by now. Slowing, panting, she leaned against an oak tree, grabbing onto its trunk as if she needed it to live. The very wood of her own wand, strong and steady like Mother Nature, and she squeezed her eyes shut as she tried to catch her breath. Under her coat the skin of her shoulders felt different than normal, and she reached a hand back to touch her neck, feeling scales under her fingertips, and then feathers a bit lower, on her shoulders. Anger. Her hands curled into fists as she rested her forehead against the tree's bark.
Post by ASTRID SØRENSEN on Sept 30, 2019 12:05:58 GMT
It was a late, a few hours after dinner in fact, but Astrid enjoyed the peace and quiet that came with strolling in the forest especially after spending all day in the a castle full of a hustle and bustle where students and professors alike were always on the go. It was a direct contrast to Astrid and the way she typically liked to live her life which was to go with the flow, let things happen organically... rushing didn't typically help anything, and neither did stressing. She preferred harnessing her energy into more important things.
Rounding around a tree, the sound of footsteps came crashing across the forest floor. Was it a creature? No, surely not. After a moment of calmly listening, Astrid placed them as human, and then they suddenly stopped. Following the sound she'd heard previously, guided by the dim light of the stars, Astrid walked until she saw her. A blonde student, one who was likely nearing the end of her schooling, hugging a tree for dear life.
Padding over, the crunching of leaves would have alerted the girl of her presence. "Hey. You don't take divination, at least I don't think so, so we haven't officially met. I'm Astrid," she started, her voice calm. "Can I help you somehow? Give you some bad Professor advice?"
and i'm calling for my mother/as i pull the pillars down
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Post by NADEZHDA KAREVA on Oct 4, 2019 0:38:25 GMT
Caught up in her own emotions as she was, Nadya didn't register footsteps coming toward her until they were crunching the leaves right up next to her, and she spun around wildly, her back against the tree as her face contorted into a deep scowl. Slowly, as the woman spoke calmly, it smoothed out a little, to eyes simply narrowed suspiciously at the professor. "Astrid," she repeated, and then, "I don't take Divination, no," she said carefully, her eyes scanning over the woman's face and body. A threat? Didn't seem so, but who could tell with professors? Over this school year, she'd become more and more wary of them, the list of those she trusted narrowing to perhaps two or three.
"Why are you here?" she asked, her voice still coming out like an accusation. The only professor she'd ever seen go into the Forbidden Forest with her own eyes was Almir--but, then again, knowing this school, probably all of them did, simply telling the students not to. And for what? Why? To control them, to be on a power trip? Nadya had been here countless times and she wasn't dead. "I'm Nadezhda, if it matters," she muttered, turning her eyes back down to the ground. Even in the dim light that barely filtered from the moon and stars down to the forest floor, she could tell how intensely green it was, how very alive.
She wanted to feel like that. Not like whatever anger was boiling in her like a fire.
"I doubt you could help," she said, a note of misery creeping into her voice. "Not like anyone wants to, anyway."
Post by ASTRID SØRENSEN on Oct 5, 2019 12:38:33 GMT
The way the girl's eyes narrowed, her gaze scanning over Astrid's face, spoke volumes. She didn't trust her and why should she? Hogwarts had been invaded by a Ministry liaison currently helping to effectively squash the rights of werewolves and the students in the process. They no longer had the right to privacy because the Ministry didn't trust them not to correspond with werewolves without being manipulated in some manner. Teenagers did dumb things, but most of them weren't as stupid as people thought they were. "A skeptic then? Not taking Divination?" she asked, although her words weren't critical. People could choose whatever subject they wished, no skin off her nose. Divination was one of the less popular ones.
"I like walking in the night air. It clears my mind, and being in nature always puts me at peace. Plus... you never know what you'll find out here, and I like discovering creatures I've never come across in the forest before. Keeps life exciting," Astrid said, wholly ignoring the accusatory tone the girl was trying to pin her with. She was happy to answer the questions the girl - Nadezhda - had if it helped her feel safer around her. "Nadezhda... Slavic, yeah? I met a few people with that name in Russia and the Ukraine when I traveled over there. I didn't stay for long since it wasn't my vibe, but those pastilas? Delicious."
"I can't try to help you if I don't know what's wrong, Nadezhda," Astrid replied easily. Perhaps if she knew, she could... not fix it, she wasn't going to make empty promises, but she could try to do something to help the situation.
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Post by NADEZHDA KAREVA on Oct 8, 2019 1:45:27 GMT
"Yes, Russian," Nadya answered simply. Still Russian, even if she'd been only four years old when she'd left, even if the faint traces of accent in her voice were only noticeable to someone listening for it. Like being a veela, it was in her blood, it was something she would never allow herself to forget. It was why she always spoke Russian to her family, always taught her friends about the deep culture.
Ordinarily when she introduced herself she would ask them to call her simply Nadya, both more familiar and easier to pronounce for those Brits whose idea of a Russian name was simply Ivan pronounced wrong, but she was not in the mood to offer it. Nadezhda. Say it. Call me Hope. That's what I am. The professor was being kind enough, the rare kind of professor that saw the beauty in the forest instead of the danger. In many circumstances, Nadya could have even liked her. But her blood was still running hot with anger at the whole institution of Hogwarts.
"Like I said, I doubt you could help. It's the Ministry's fault," she said. "I can't live with their spy freak around. Not when I know they want to hurt the people I care about. I wanted to run away, but then you got in the way." She sighed deeply, her shoulders slumping back against the tree.
Post by ASTRID SØRENSEN on Oct 8, 2019 9:01:32 GMT
Running away... it was something that Astrid knew a lot about. After she'd spent months locked up in St. Mungos, involuntarily committed, it had been the first thing she'd done. She'd left Britain behind in favour of exploring the world, as though it would solve all of her problems, like running would erase what had happened to Hogwarts at the time, the event she'd predicted but couldn't stop from happening... but it hadn't. Distracting herself with the beautiful sights of other countries was never going to change the past and coming to terms with that had been difficult.
"Where would you have gone, if you ran away? There's ministry officials every where," she told Nadezhda. Even if the girl ran to some remote part of the country or tried to seclude herself in the forest from the rest of the world, it wouldn't stop the Ministry. "They'd still be doing what they're doing too, you just wouldn't know about it. Is ignorance to their actions better than trying to think of ways to stop them?"
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Post by NADEZHDA KAREVA on Oct 20, 2019 3:15:46 GMT
Where would Nadya go? Weren't there forests all over this country, where she could slip away between the trees away from even the eyes of Aurors? The plan--as far as there had been any sort of plan--had been to get to Hogsmeade, where she could Apparate away, to wherever the first place she thought of was. Getting all the way to her room back in London would be difficult, as being at Hogwarts meant she hadn't had too much practice with it since she got her license, but as it was a place she knew well--so maybe it would be possible. And if the door was closed, which it likely was, then not even Papa's Ministry eyes could see her, and she could slip out when she got the chance...
"They're not covering every square inch of the country, are they? I'm seventeen. I can Apparate, they can't stop me from doing that, at least anywhere except Hogwarts." And the Ministry itself, but Nadya was loath to enter there ever again. "And then what would they do if they caught me? Send me to get stern looks from Papa?" If she had to think about it, that seemed like one of the worse punishments they could give her, upsetting Papa--but it wasn't illegal to drop out of school. If they could kick people out, she could drop out.
But then, would it do anything? Would people outside of her family care that she was gone, would they know why she couldn't take it anymore? "I don't know," she admitted to the professor. "I want to stand up against them, but sometimes I think it's better just to leave. Nobody wants to listen to me, so why should I keep hearing about everything bad if I can't do anything about it? It hurts just to hear it." She frowned, staring at the ground.
Post by ASTRID SØRENSEN on Nov 1, 2019 8:36:30 GMT
"No, but there's Aurors covering every square inch of Hogsmeade. You'd find it tough getting there, or anywhere off the grounds so you could apparate," Astrid told her with a shrug. Was it impossible to find a place completely devoid of Ministry presence? No, it wasn't. But... it would be relatively difficult to find an area of land that the Ministry didn't survey, considering how relentless they were being about their search for 'troublesome' werewolves.' Call her paranoid, but Astrid was certain that the Ministry kept an eye on all werewolves until they made one bad move that gave them the right to sweep them off the ground and straight into Azkaban for law breaking. "I mean, you can run if you want but... you're under Hogwarts supervision. If you disappeared one night, that would make things even worse for your classmates. It would make things worse for werewolves too because they seem to get the blame for everything, man. They'd probably be a story about you being brainwashed by werewolves on the front cover of the Daily Prophet the very next day."
Astrid got what Nadezhda was saying. Why continue to fight when it seemed hopeless? There was a moment of silence between them before Astrid gave her answer, "It seems hopeless now. I get it. But... if you just give up, turn a blind eye to everything that's happening... wouldn't you regret that more? Things won't be solved it a day - you know it, I know it - but just... keep doing what you're doing now. Keep speaking up because the more you keep at it, the more you'll be listened to. Especially by the younger members of Hogwarts, the ones who haven't necessarily formed strong opinions yet. They're the future, man, and if you can influence them to see the world as how it is - make them realise that werewolves aren't the root of all evil - they'll listen to your voice of reason and hopefully when they're old enough, they'll vote in favour of pro-werewolf stuff."
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Post by NADEZHDA KAREVA on Nov 8, 2019 2:28:29 GMT
Under Hogwarts supervision. The professor's words sent bitter prickles up Nadya's spine, threatening to turn more of her skin into thick scales. Never had more than patches of her skin transformed before, but with more and more events seeming to make her angrier every day, she wondered if perhaps that would finally make it happen. There was so much she didn't know about her own blood--which bits of magic she'd inherited and which she didn't.
She had always felt like the forest should give her those answers, should tell her where to go and what to do to be free, free like any other forest creature, with the centaurs and the giants and yes, the werewolves. Yet all it was giving her was a professor talking her down with calm words.
Nadya's breath puffed out of her nose loudly as she forced her shoulders to relax a little. "I wish I could do that," she said, staring off to the side, into the dark depths of the trees. "But it feels like--if we wait for all the younger kids to grow up, what's going to become of the werewolves who need help now? And--" her blue eyes flicked back to the professor, her gaze strong, "--what if they don't learn? What if they're the same as every bloody generation that came before them? Progress doesn't march forward just because." In this very country there'd been a war over pureblood supremacy so short a time ago that, if Nadya's own father had been here then, he would have been of an age to fight in. And now those in her own generation had to fight for rights, too. "I have people out there that matter to me--I need to help them, not bury my nose in a book."
Post by ASTRID SØRENSEN on Nov 17, 2019 7:17:14 GMT
"I'm not just saying you should try and influence the mind's of the future. It's important that you keep speaking up for the rights of werewolves now... rallying support. I mean, without that... there's really no hope in overthrowing the ministry, is there?" Astrid said thoughtfully. She wish she had the answer on how to help without having enough numbers to overrule those who were anti-werewolf, especially those who were in positions of power, but... she didn't. She was probably less than 10 years older than this girl, and she'd never faced a situation as dire as the one they currently lived in. She was only young when the Second Wizarding War was being played out, after all.
"Maybe they won't learn, but if you don't speak up and make your voice heard... then they have no real chance, do they? They can't learn from silence," Astrid said, meeting Nadezhda's gaze with one of her own, albeit with slightly softer eyes to try and... just get her to understand what she was trying to say. "Those people you're talking about... they probably want you to finish your education before dedicating your life to helping them, wouldn't they?"
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Post by NADEZHDA KAREVA on Nov 21, 2019 19:13:24 GMT
Finishing education, like everyone always said. The thing was, Nadya hadn't had any career ambitions until she had thought about the prospect of being a healer--and she had never had perfect grades, so even that seemed like a reach. She had wanted to try, she really did, but if it meant being treated even more like a prisoner for six more months? Was that worth it?
So, essentially, as Nadya had suspected, the professor only wanted her back at the castle. She didn't want to be overly suspicious--she was just one student, seventeen already anyway, who spent a lot of time outdoors, so who was going to come after her? But with the Ministry officer here, maybe they'd find out every time she came here now... "They didn't send you for a walk just to look for me, did they?" She took a glance at the direction she had been running in, and then back at Astrid, wondering if she could outrun her, if she needed to. Nadya was tall and had long legs--she was sure she could.
But Astrid had at least given her a real conversation, which was more than she could say for any other professor. Perhaps she should've taken Divination--even if she had been convinced, when it came time to pick classes, that only a centaur would be truly qualified to teach it, so she'd struck it off her list.
"If I do come back to the castle with you," she began slowly, "if I pretend this never happened--if all I do is keep speaking to people here and write letters to my Papa. Then would you stand with me? Or are you just saying all these things about overthrowing the Ministry to pacify me?"
Post by ASTRID SØRENSEN on Nov 24, 2019 8:09:14 GMT
Nadezhda was paranoid and with everything going on, on top of being a suspicious teenager, Astrid didn't blame her. "No, like I said - I like spending time breathing in the night air. Helps keep me zen. Besides... I don't think anyone knew you were out here, did they? They haven't started rounds yet, far as I know," Astrid said with a simple shrug, casting a look back at the castle. "I don't really like being on top of students like that, you know? It'd be stifling, being so... aware of what they were doing all the time. I think you guys need a breather from that kinda stuff sometimes."
"I don't say stuff I don't believe in. I'd stick by you, even if it was just quietly so for now," Astrid told Nadezhda with a small nod, before tilting her head to the castle. "I'm pro-werewolf, I'm just not... pro-not-finishing-education. It's an important thing to have, and it'd be a bummer to make it so far to give it all up. Just keep talking to people and spreading the good word, and if you need a place to talk privately... then my office is all yours. Just don't do anything illegal, I don't need that stuff on my record." A small smile tweaked at her lips, as if to tell Nadezhda that she was only half-joking.
Stuffing her hands back into the deep pockets of her earth-toned, patterned jacket, Astrid said to Nadezhda, "I'm heading back now. You wanna walk with me? Maybe we could talk about other things, like... family and stuff. You probably share a class or two with one of my brothers or sisters."
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Post by NADEZHDA KAREVA on Nov 25, 2019 5:22:40 GMT
"I don't think they've started patrols, no. I haven't really been keeping track of the time." Nadya had been far more focused on getting out than any of the details of her attempted escape. It was the middle of winter, so it always seemed to be dark anyway. She couldn't wait for spring to come, for the world to become green again. For that little bit of light that would feel a lot like hope.
Slowly, she stepped away from the tree, rolling her shoulders back in yet another attempt to force them to relax. "I don't say things I don't believe in, either," she muttered as she walked over to stand next to the professor. "I'm not going to be quiet about it--no matter who wants me to be." She was never the most outgoing of people, never the most friendly, even a little bit standoffish, but she wasn't going to be detached from fighting for the rights of werewolves--of everyone. "And if things get worse instead of better--I might not stay after all. But I'll walk with you now." She crossed her arms, but she began stepping back in the direction she had come from.
"You've got siblings? They're not in seventh year, are they? Or I'd know them. I have two sisters." The forest made her think of them, too, Vera who was bright and ambitious, Lyuba who was sweet and playful. They, too, were magical creatures like her, who needed her just as much.
Post by ASTRID SØRENSEN on Nov 26, 2019 4:03:49 GMT
"I'd never expect you to be quiet about it. I think people should stand up in what they believe in no matter what," Astrid said quietly, taking in the girl's words as she proclaimed that she was going to perhaps leave if things got worse. It wouldn't surprise Astrid if they did - they were certainly heading in that way, after all, but... she'd said her reasons of why Nadezhda should stay. If the girl was truly determined to leave, then she wouldn't stop her - who was she to stand in the way of somebody taking what they thought was the right path in their life? Maybe it was the correct choice for them.
"No, no seventh years. Perseus is the eldest, he's nineteen and a healer. He gives of similar vibes to you - he's headstrong, and... he has no intention of really backing down when he believes he's right," Astrid shared with a fond smile, before continuing, "then there's Ophelia, she's a sixth year. A bit wild, but she has a good spirit about her. Callisto is next in line, a fifth year. She's very, very ambitious... I don't think she'd stop charging ahead, even if there's somebody in her way. Then the baby of the family is Apollo - resilient as hell, that boy, especially for somebody who's only fourteen. He's been knocked down so many times, and yet... he keeps getting up. I think that's something I admire most about him..."
Walking at a relaxed pace towards the castle, using the light that shone through the windows, Astrid's voice was calm and collected as she continued to make conversation with Nadezhda.
