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!
Colwynn was tired. Everything had been a nightmare ever since her history of magic class.The last thing she wanted was to be in class, but it was the last lesson of the day. She never really minded class, but she'd been trying to help her dad write some lyrics to a musical he'd intended to write. Writing songs was a hell of a lot more fun than school was. She was only partially paying attention when the class ended, scribbling notes and trying to come up up with a rhyme for the word 'fine'.
Her dad had made the excellent decision to entrust her with writing the lyrics for a song about a pregnancy scare. Her dad had been intending to write the song from a male's point of view before Colwynn had ripped into him and told him that a pregnancy scare for a boy was nothing compared to a pregnancy scare for a girl. Colwynn had several pregnancy scares, which was comical, as she'd never done anything that would ever result in a pregnancy. She was no stranger to locking lips with lads and lasses, but that was as far as that went. Despite this, she found herself constantly paranoid that she was pregnant. It probably had something to do with all the myths about virgin births, from Horus to Krishna to Dionysus to Jesus. And to think, people thought religion gave people peace of mind instead of anxiety.
Colwynn was only vaguely aware of the end of the class when the professor bid her farewell. She asked if she could stay in the classroom to finish what she was working on, as it was the last class. There were no words of protest so Colwynn assumed it was alright. She thought that she was alone, at least until she heard something. Perhaps movement, or a footstep. She wasn't sure. Still, she turned, eyes narrowed at whoever else was in there with her.
When she saw Joshua her faced darkened into a scowl. She'd forgotten he was in this class. He was a bit OCD about being the last person to leave. She hadn't expected he'd still be there. It was amusing, in many ways, but not today. She was in a really bad mood, and he was partially to blame. Part of her appreciated that he was willing to jump to her defense, but she would have liked to have been consulted. She didn't need him to come to her defense. He might have thought he was being chivalrous, but instead he'd humiliated her. If he wasn't her friend she would have punched him right in the face, but she didn't really want to punch him. That didn't mean she wasn't any less furious with him. "You can go," she snapped at him before turning back to her scribbles. She didn't expect him to go...but she wasn't going either.
Class was a blessing for Josh at the moment - it was a chance for him to zone out of the drama of teenage life and focus on learning rather than who's saying what about whom. Normally the Hufflepuff boy took very little notice of the stories except that right now his sister was the hot topic. His sister whom, in his opinion, had done nothing wrong unlike Thomas Wood. But was he subjected to the same ridicule? No. The triplets, in Josh's humble belief, were lucky that they didn't have to share class with the boy either. No, thankfully class provided a reprieve from this and the focus was on repelling darker magical creatures than Thomas Wood.
Clicking the pen to retract the ball point, Joshua calmly waited for the class room to empty as he slowly put his various studying material back into his satchel. For the most part, most students ran out of the classroom like their desks were boggarts but there were always stragglers. Josh usually finished with the last of his pieces just as the final student left but ... there was still a girl sitting in the room not even attempting to make a move to leave. Josh blinked a couple of times, trying very hard not to look in the girl's direction. Why hasn't she left yet? Josh couldn't put standing up off any longer otherwise he'd just look... super creepy.
As he shoved the seat backwards it scraped horribly along the stone flooring and sent chills up his spine, his face showing the horror of the whole screeching chair incident as the corners of his mouth pulled down into his jawline. Eeeeek, Joshua was pretty certain that the sound was echoing for Merlin's sake. He carefully lifted the chair to push it under the desk and then began the usual task of pushing the others all in perfectly. Perhaps by the time he got to Colwynn's she might just... leave?
"Um... um, did you know that class has finished?" he replied as Colwynn casually dismissed him. Maybe she liked to sleep in class and had lost track of the time? "I mean... I know you're a Claw but you don't have to get onto O'Connor's homework like... straight away. That's a bit Ravenerd of you," he smiled sweetly, showing he wasn't being a meanie. Just speaking the truth.
Colwynn had to fight the urge to roll her eyes at Josh as he started his bizarre ritual of pushing in all the chairs. She didn't know why he did it. It was...nice of him, she supposed? She didn't know anyone else who cared about making sure all the other seats were pushed into the desks. It wasn't like it mattered. They were just going to get all messed up again anyway.She knew she was only being so cynical because
"I know that class is over, Joshua." she told him curtly as she scribbled down a line and then scratched it out, taking some of her aggression out on her paper. before thinking of something that would sound better. Her tone was slightly condescending, but that was intentional. She was about to give up and come back to try the line again later, but now that Josh was pressuring her to go she suddenly felt more obligated more stay. It was like a Mexican standoff, only less racist. There was a small little thrill that came over her from getting under his skin. She wasn't sure why. "Aww, you think I'm doing homework. That's so...misguided of you. Maybe you should ask people things. You know, like 'hey, are you doing homework?', 'hey, do you need my help?' or even 'hey! did I maybe overstep a boundary that I'm too fucking stupid to realize?' No, of course not," she snapped. at him.
Knowing that there was no hope for her to get anymore writing done, she threw her things into her bag and stood up. As she did, she unintentionally knocked over her chair over. She glanced down at the chair for a few seconds before she walked away from it. She sat down on Josh's desk and, in her weird way of adding insult to injury, she kicked over his own chair. "Oops," was all she said as she reached into her bag and took out a tube of liquid lipstick and an compact mirror before touching up her lipstick, which was blood red. It seemed appropriate, considering what had happened that day.
Unsure if he should be relieved or irritated that Colwynn knew class was over. Did she really have to reply in the manner she had? Josh's thin lips pulled into a smile regardless of her behaviour because Joshua had always found that smiling at his sisters when they were in a crabby mood either made them happier or peeved them off even more. "Oh that's good to know, I thought you were somewhere off with the fairies," Josh replied cheerfully as he continued with his task of straightening the chairs under desks and occasionally a desk itself.
The cheerfullness didn't last long, as Josh' after-class habit was interupted by Colwynn only moments later. His long fingers grasped at the chair he held above the ground as a barage of questions that he should have asked came sliding out of her pretty little face. Josh put the chair down gently and his long fingers danced on the wood as if he were playing an invisible piano. "Hey are you - " he began, but paused when she got up out of her chair and let it fall to the ground. "- are you going to pick that up?" he changed the direction his question was going, his deep brown eyes gesturing to the fallen chair to no avail - instead, the young 'lady' moved to sit her buttocks on his desk.
Josh let off a deep sigh and corrected the chair himself, finishing just in time to see her deliberately kick down his own chair. "Alright Colwynn, what imaginary line have I crossed and upset your delicate sensibilities? " he asked, folding his arms across his chest after running his hand through his mousey brown hair. "Or are you just mad because you're finding a question in the homework difficult to answer so it's easier to knock chairs about rather than ask for help?"
"Off...with the fairies," Colwynn said slowly. "Well compared to the shit show today has been going off with the fae sounds preferable, to be honest. I mean, sure I might lose half my life, but I could also fall off my broom and break my neck tomorrow so cest la vie." Despite her best efforts, she couldn't keep the bite out of her voice. She hated being mad at Josh, but she couldn't help how she felt. She was sure that, eventually, when she cooled down, she would regret being so cross with him, but she hadn't had time to simmer down yet.
Colwynn didn't answer his question as to if she was going to pick up the chair or not. Her silence on the matter seemed to be enough of an answer before she assaulted the other chair. She knew it was petty. She knew that she wouldn't have put up with this kind of shit if the shoe was on the other foot, but Colwynn was a bit like a cat. She'd let you know something was wrong, but not until after she was satisfied that the other party knew just how pissed off she was. Honestly, it was something she needed to work on, something she knew she needed to work on, but self-improvement wasn't on her mind at the moment.
Then he answered the question and opened the flood gates. "Delicate?" she repeated. "Yeah, I'm sure that's what everyone thinks of me now." She got off the desk and, for good measure, pushed down another chair. If she'd had the chance to talk to him after the shit show that had been their history class she might have been less erratic, but she'd been seething for some time now. Gabriel Avery was on her shit list too after that class, but...Avery was always on her shit list so that was less pressing. Plus she'd actually gotten to tell him off, at least before someone had made everyone half deaf and pissed the teach off to hell and back. Josh hadn't been so lucky. "You crossed a line in history," she snapped, just in case he was dense enough that he didn't know what she was talking about. "I'm sure you were trying to be chivalrous or whatever the hell, but you weren't."
She took a few steps towards him and knocked over another chair in her path. "There is a reason people don't fuck with me, and now that's likely to change because you just had to try and rescue me from something I didn't need or want, saving from. You embarrassed me." Another chair went down as she reached him and, in the same motion, she grabbed his tie and used it to pull his face down close to hers, glaring up at him. "Don't. Fucking. Do that. Again." she told him, her words slow and deliberate. "If we were like, dating or something then whatever, but we're not. I'm pretty sure you don't even like me that much because I'm a ragged bitch so just...don't do that again." She looked down at the last four words, not wanting him to see just how embarrassed and vulnerable she really felt. Being vulnerable scared her. She let go of his tie and glared at the ground to avoid his gaze. "I'm sorry. I kind of lost my shit." And with that, she bent down to pick up and push in the chair she'd toppled over before heaving a sigh and going to pick up more of the chairs she'd knocked over.
Class was a blessing for Josh at the moment - it was a chance for him to zone out of the drama of teenage life and focus on learning rather than who's saying what about whom. Normally the Hufflepuff boy took very little notice of the stories except that right now his sister was the hot topic. His sister whom, in his opinion, had done nothing wrong unlike Thomas Wood. But was he subjected to the same ridicule? No. The triplets, in Josh's humble belief, were lucky that they didn't have to share class with the boy either. No, thankfully class provided a reprieve from this and the focus was on repelling darker magical creatures than Thomas Wood.