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!
This year was full of surprises. New friends, new enemies, an arranged marriage made on rather flimsy terms, a prefect badge... A prefect badge. When he received his letter last summer, he spent quite a few days trying to figure out why he'd been picked for 6th year prefect. He wasn't the best at academia, nor had he been the most responsible student around, nor was he very active in any kind of extra-curricular activities. No, he preferred to lay on the common room couch and eat snacks straight from the bag.
What he did have was his character. Rodrik considered himself to be quite an approachable guy, and he was always happy to help someone out. But for that he didn't need a prefect badge. This power he'd been granted -- he didn't want it. It came with a the heavy luggage of responsibility that he hadn't asked for.
But in return he had access to the best bathroom in all of Hogwarts. Considering that he had to share the common room bathroom with about a hundred other students, it was an acceptable trade. In the common room he couldn't spend three hours soaking in a full pool of foam, could he?
That evening he went to the bathroom after the evening curfew patrols. He'd had to escort a few sleepy first year Ravenclaws back to the tower -- the kids had taken their homework so seriously they dozed off right on top of their Astronomy charts.
His red bathrobe was hanging on the other side of the room, next to the haphazard pile of his clothing. The pool was filled to the brim with hot water and a good layer of foam, with iridescent soap bubbles floating in mid air. And it all smelled faintly like coconut.
Just like Lyuba's hair.
The boy checked the water temperature with his toes. Warm enough. With a flick of his wand he cleared a space in the midst of the foam, put his wand on top of his clothes and dived into the pool-sized bath. As soon as he submerged, the foam covered the empty space, swallowing him up whole. A few seconds passed and he emerged on the other side, huffing and puffing to get foam off his face.
"Well, that wasn't the brightest idea I've ever had." he said out loud, wiping his face. He swam over to the side, finding the underwater ledge. Then he sat there, breathing in the tropical scent and daydreaming about the girl with the white hair. Daydreaming about love.
lived like you told me how, look at me now/the whole world's bringing me down
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Post by EMIL ZALEWSKI on Sept 21, 2019 19:37:59 GMT
Before Emil had become a prefect, he was rarely out after curfew--the only exceptions usually being if he lost track of time in the kitchens. This was, he reflected, probably the reason why he was made a prefect in the first place. But once he got the right to patrol the halls instead, he quickly learned how good a warm bath in the prefect bathroom felt late at night after a long day. Quidditch practice in the winter always made him want a bath in particular, especially if he hadn't felt like showering back at the locker rooms. But since they had a chance at the Cup this year, Emil didn't dream of skipping practice.
He wouldn't be alone in the bath, he noted as he walked through the door to hear splashing noises, but thank God this time it appeared to be only Rodrik, an actual Gryffindor prefect, and not some kid sneaking in again. That meant he could actually relax. He set out one of the fluffy towels for himself next to the tub, his folded pile of pajamas next to it, and started undressing. When he'd first arrived at Hogwarts, it had taken a while for him to get used to having to undress in shared dormitories and bathrooms. As an only child, he wasn't used to having other people around him like that. It had actually been getting on the Quidditch team that had forced him to ignore his insecurities about it.
"Did you have patrol for curfew tonight?" he asked Rodrik as he slipped into the water. Coconut wasn't exactly the scent of bubbles Emil would've picked, but he didn't mind it. "I do tomorrow again, but that probably isn't surprising." Finding one of the ledges to sit on, he closed his eyes, letting the hot water warm his tired muscles.
Rodrik wasn't destined to enjoy his coconut-tinged tropical daydreams alone. Only a few minutes after he'd gotten settled, the Prefect bathroom door opened. He knew it was a silly thought, but for a split second he forgot how to breathe, hoping that maybe it was Lyubov sneaking in here. Alas, it was just Emil - a 7th year Ravenclaw.
Rodrik waved to him, foam dripping down his arm before turning away and attaching his gaze to the stained glass window on the other side of the room, letting the other boy undress in peace. He only turned back when he heard the noise of water splashing against the sides of the pool and the countless quiet crakles that foam bubbles made as they ceased to exist.
"Mhm," he hummed in agreement, "A few of your little housemates were asleep at the library, sleeping on top of their Astronomy homework." So little, yet so overworked... The reality of Hogwarts. "Got them to their dorm. I won't be surprised that you'll have to wake me up one day just like that, too."
"Just last week I fell asleep in the common room while trying to do Ancient Runes," he said, closing his eyes and recalling that sleepy evening. Lyubov had been there, and, even though he'd woken up alone in the morning, he'd been tucked in, and his gut feeling told him that it hadn't been the elves. He didn't even notice how a wide smile appeared on his face.
lived like you told me how, look at me now/the whole world's bringing me down
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Post by EMIL ZALEWSKI on Sept 23, 2019 16:29:02 GMT
"Sleeping in the library? Could've been me a few years ago," Emil said, amused. "Now I'm more likely to just fall asleep in here instead." He felt like that wouldn't be too difficult. The bath was the perfect temperature, hot enough to relax but not so hot as to burn. Magical heating was truly a miracle. If he had some way to lay down in the pool, he probably would have been happy to sleep there. "Glad you took them back. Don't let them become us someday," he added, laughing quietly. Emil would never have dreamed of taking fewer classes or doing fewer activities or giving up his Head Boy badge, but he knew that sometimes he wore himself out. The younger students should at least wait until they were in N.E.W.T.s to start falling asleep, he thought.
But that was probably why this bathroom existed. Bringing his hands up to the surface of the water, he idly crunched some bubbles between his fingers. No matter how old he got, bubble baths were still fun. "I'm sure I've fallen asleep in my common room before, but I always seem to wake up and want my bed instead. Did you at least get back to your dorm?"
Looking up at Rodrik's face--it's alright, Emil, there's bubbles in the way of you both being naked--his eyebrows furrowed. "What are you smiling at?" For a second, he wondered if he'd done something really funny, but he couldn't think of anything. He'd just been sitting in the bath.
The Gryffindor wasn't paying much attention to what the other boy was saying. He didn't have time to ponder over academics when he had Lyubov on his mind. Her hair, her bathrobe... He could feel flashes of hot and cold running over him as he considered the finer details of her face. Okay, Rodrik, admit to yourself, you want to kiss her.
Only when Emil pointed out that he'd been grinning like an idiot did Rodrik snap back to reality. "Huh?" he grunted, blinking rapidly, his mouth agape. "Oh, nothing too important. You asked about the dorms, right? The short answer would be no. I slept on the couch." A blush crept up to his cheeks and he submerged himself for a few seconds to clear his mind.
Coming back up, he shook his head like a dog after being out in the rain, wiping the foam off of his face. He got most of it, except for a few spots on his forehead and one on his nose.
"The long answer would be that I," he pouted, blowing air upwards, causing foam bubbles fly off of his nose, " was tucked in by someone. Do you know Lyubov Kareva? Fifth year, my house? Tall, blonde and very energetic," his eyes lit up as he described her, "and very cute. We're friends, but, if what my stomach is telling me right now is true, we might be more than that!"
The thought of it thrilled Rodrik. He hadn't kissed anyone in his life, and this was his first proper crush, but all the tales about brave knights and their damsels always ended in with a happily ever after, so who says he wouldn't have the same?
lived like you told me how, look at me now/the whole world's bringing me down
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Post by EMIL ZALEWSKI on Sept 26, 2019 4:08:51 GMT
Emil smiled at the bubbles Rodrik puffed into the air, but knitted his brows together when he mentioned a girl. "I don't think I know her, no, but is Nadezhda her sister? Same last name," he said. "She's in my year. Very pretty, but a little intimidating. I'm sure I've seen Lyubov before, but haven't been introduced. Hard to miss someone tall and blonde like that." Emil did think the girl in his year was beautiful, and had certainly spent time looking at her before, but she wasn't someone he usually needed to speak to. If he was going to date someone, he wanted it to be based on more than just looks, even if it was hard to ignore pretty girls. (Or Wolfgang Kallenbach, but he didn't want to think about those dreams.)
He didn't know much about flirting, not having dated anyone before, but it sounded to him like Lyubov was being nice to Rodrik. Nobody had ever tucked him in before--save his parents when he was small--so that definitely seemed like affection. "Maybe you should ask her on a proper date?" he suggested. "I know there's no more Madam Puddifoot's for now, but maybe the Room of Requirement can make a place for you?" Sinking down in the water, he sighed a bit. "I don't know if you should be taking advice from me, though. I've never been on a date. I'd like to, but--it's never happened."
Rodrik nodded repeatedly as Emil described Lyuba's older sister, a 7th year Slytherin. Indeed, both of the sisters were beautiful in their own ways, but there was a kind of softness to Lyubov that pulled the boy in. Those eyes, that jawline, framed by her short hair, it all took his breath away. Nadezhda seemed much more fierce and, if he was completely honest with himself, Rodrik really didn't want to get on her bad side. Not that he had any intentions to hurt Lyubov, not at all.
He hummed a cheerful tune under his nose as Emil continued to speak. He wanted to ask the girl out, of course! But just asking... It wouldn't feel right.
"I guess the Room of Requirement would work, but that also feels kind of lazy, you know?" he said, scooping up a handful of foam, "It's like I don't put any effort into it. It's all done by magic. That just...Doesn't feel right to me."
He offered a sympathetic smile to the Ravenclaw boy when he sounded a bit bashful about not having any experience. Neither did Rodrik, so Emil had nothing to feel ashamed about!
"Hey, I have no idea how it all goes either! We're not even legal adults yet, nobody expects us to know anything about how these things are done." he sunk deeper, leaving only his head out of the hot water.
The water was relaxing and Rodrik felt like he could just fall asleep right then and there -- though he suspected he'd turn into a prune if he stayed there so long -- and the coconut scent was making him a little light-headed. He floated through his rose tinted thoughts, a smile on his face.
"Oh, it is lovely to be in love," he sighed. Perhaps it was too soon to talk about love, and perhaps it was just infatuation, but whatever it was, it made him feel alive.
lived like you told me how, look at me now/the whole world's bringing me down
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Post by EMIL ZALEWSKI on Sept 29, 2019 2:25:23 GMT
Emil reached an arm out of the water, scratching his head self-consciously, leaving bubbles in the brown curls. Rodrik seemed happy and--as bubbly as the bath itself, even, but Emil couldn't share the excitement quite as much. It sounded lovely to be in love, if Rodrik's happy sigh was enough to go by, but the fact that he was eighteen and still as single as ever was bothering him. It shouldn't bother him, he knew; there were plenty of other things going for him. He had to focus on N.E.W.T.s and Quidditch and applying for jobs and making sure to fulfill his Head Boy duties, and yet...
He knew that half of it was his parents' opinion on that. Even though he only ever attended Mass at Christmas nowadays, since he was at school most of the year, he'd still grown up Catholic, told that he should be thinking about his future marriage. But to himself, he felt far too young for that, but still wanting someone else. Someone close, who could balance him out, be a partner for him.
And then the other half of it was the Quidditch field. Alright, it was two people on the Quidditch field, one of them who happened to be in the Quidditch locker room as well, and it made him lay awake at night wondering. He liked girls, if the way he felt with some of his schoolmates around was any indication. He'd once been into a girl in the year above him, Persephone, who'd been both pretty and had an intriguing name. But did that mean anything if the sight of Wolfgang could send him running out of the locker room without a shower just to get away from the thoughts that gave him?
Emil didn't know.
"I bet it is lovely," he said, and then leaned his head back far enough to smack against one of the faucets. Wincing, he rubbed his head, hoping Rodrik hadn't noticed that. "I have a question for you, maybe--what does it feel like to be in love?"
Rodrik was torn out of his rose-tinted thoughts by the sound of Emil's head hitting against the faucets. It looked painful, and Rodrik twisted his own face in a pained expression.
"You alright?" he asked, moving closer to the Ravenclaw. Even tiny bumps like this could cause stars to whirl in front of one's eyes -- or maybe Rodrik's head was especially sensitive?
But Emil seemed to be fine, as he continued with a question. The floodgates of his mind were wide open, heat washing over him as he closed his eyes and smiled once more.
"Ah, love, a fickle beast," his words were accompanied by expressive hand movements that often send foam and water droplets flying to the sides. "I can only speak for myself. When I see her, I feel like I've just drank an entire bowl of the tastiest soup, when she speaks -- it's like the gentle tones of a harp!"
He hummed a jolly tune under his nose for a few seconds. "When she's close to me, I can feel the heat coming from her body and it warms me even if I was freezing just moments before... And the smell of her hair, these coconuts, it makes me elated, and I could just spend all day watching her do the most mundane things and I wouldn't get bored even for a second, and--"
A long sigh escaped his lips as he leaned against the side of the pool. "Words can't express the feeling of love."
lived like you told me how, look at me now/the whole world's bringing me down
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Post by EMIL ZALEWSKI on Oct 2, 2019 2:37:07 GMT
A stray bit of foam from Rodrik's splashing hit Emil right in the nose, making him smile even as his head throbbed. At some point, the other boy had moved closer, and while it made Emil a touch nervous for some reason, the flying bubbles were funny enough to let him relax a little. Rodrik was clearly so passionate--Emil wasn't sure any person's voice had ever sounded like a musical instrument to him. The metaphor seemed a little extreme, but Rodrik looked happy about it.
What he could relate to was that feeling of warmth Rodrik was describing, something deeply familiar even if the only person who hugged him regularly was Ollie Jones, who hugged everyone. It was the same thing he had felt when Persephone had taken him out alone together on the boat, but had that really been being in love? Emil thought he was over that now that the older girl had graduated and sort of fallen off the radar. And besides, that same sort of thing happened with other people too. Emil wasn't in love with anyone. Even if he wished he was, he wasn't.
Like any good Ravenclaw, he started to approach the question scientifically. "Isn't everyone warm when you get close to them? I don't mean to say you're not in love, I believe you, but--it sort of happens to me all the time, and I've never been in love, not really."
"No, no! It's a different kind of warm!" he interjected, hands flying out of the water once more. "It's not just about physical warmth, it's... How to describe it...Hmmm..." he began stroking his chin, pondering on his choice of words. Suddenly every romance book he'd read, every poem he'd recited, they all seemed dull and inappropriate.
"It's like...Imagine it's the middle of a frigid winter, and you're walking through a forest with no end in sight," he rambled, looking out in the distance and setting himself in the scene, "And then, somewhere between the trees you see a glimmer of light! And you feel a wave of relief washing over you, and you have the strength to keep on going, you... Hope! You feel hope!"
"It's a feeling, Emil! You can hug someone and still feel cold, but when you're in love, the other person doesn't even have to be touching you -- it's enough for them to be in the same room with you. You know what I mean?" Rodrik asked, looking at the other prefect.
lived like you told me how, look at me now/the whole world's bringing me down
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Post by EMIL ZALEWSKI on Oct 4, 2019 18:37:22 GMT
Yeah, Emil knew what it was like to feel warm just from being in the same room as someone, but he wasn't sure that when he felt it, it was love. More like feeling uncomfortably hot in the locker room showers in a way that made him want to hide in his bed forever. He wished he could be as happy about it as Rodrik seemed to be--but Rodrik was crushing on someone who was perfectly acceptable. Someone who could actually make him feel hopeful. Emil had never felt so confident about a single person, too caught up in his own concerns to ever ask out Persie or anyone.
And besides, Emil didn't ever speak to Wolfgang outside of Quidditch things, which made it somehow worse, because he knew the only thing making him feel like that was how his teammate looked. He could've chalked it up to friendship if they'd been close, but no, it was his body betraying what the logical side of his mind wanted. The logical side that said that whoever he dated would have to come home to his parents someday, so he could never do that, not with him or with any boy.
"What do you do if you feel that, but it doesn't feel nice?" Emil asked softly, staring at the bubbles under his chin. "If you feel things when--when someone's around, but you don't want to? How did you get to fall in love with someone you actually wanted to fall in love with?"
Emil just wasn't getting it. Rodrik sighed, pouring a few handfuls of hot water over his head, considering the situation.
Some part of him pitied Emil. Rodrik didn't know much about the Ravenclaw Head Boy, but it was apparent that he was quite busy with his worldly duties -- he had top grades, played on the Quidditch team, most likely was in a club or two and was the damn Head Boy. Rodrik thought that people like Emil were out of tune with their feelings, and it seemed that the tired boy sitting near him was no exception.
He frowned softly when Emil asked him about love feeling wrong. If it felt wrong, then it wasn't love. Surely, it wasn't.
"Well," he drawled, "If it feels wrong, then I don't think it's love. There are many feelings like it, but that doesn't sound like love. I mean, I'm just 16 but I'd like to think I know what I'm talking about."
"Why wouldn't you want to feel them? Besides the fact that they don't feel nice?" There was a story behind that, and Rodrik didn't have anywhere to rush, so he was willing to help Emil sort out through it.
He furrowed his brows as he answered to the Ravenclaw's third question. "You don't pick who you fall in love with, it just... Kind of happens."
lived like you told me how, look at me now/the whole world's bringing me down
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Post by EMIL ZALEWSKI on Oct 7, 2019 2:32:38 GMT
"It doesn't feel nice because--" Emil sighed for what felt like the millionth time, feeling both very tired and very embarrassed. Why was he thinking about Wolfgang when he was in a bath with another boy? It was because he'd had Quidditch practice earlier, he knew, and that meant watching Wolfgang very closely and changing clothes with him, and yet that was over, had been over for a while. But still something about Rodrik was making him think about it. Probably just because he was talking about crushes and love and everything, but still...
"--because I don't want to like him. It wouldn't be good for a lot of reasons," he finished miserably. It was the first time he'd admitted out loud that he might have a thing for a boy. Not a crush, he wouldn't let it turn into that, just--a reaction he didn't ask for but got anyway. "I'm not in love. Not like you. I hope it all works out, between you and her." Even as he turned the conversation toward himself, he was still the Emil who wanted to make sure everyone else was alright. "It's just that what you're describing, feeling all warm, and knowing what someone smells like, and stuff like that--I feel it for someone, and I wish I didn't."
