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!
Post by ALEXANDER GREENAWAY on Dec 3, 2019 2:49:20 GMT
Another day, another paired assignment for Defense Against the Dark Arts and Alex was dreading it. Mostly because the last time he'd worked on a paired assignment for DADA, he'd wound up spontaneously kissing a crying Hufflepuff and running off with his tail tucked between his legs because... he was trying to convince himself at the time that he wasn't gay. Now, things were... different. Kind of. He had come out to a very small group of people, the ones that mattered to him the most and they'd accepted him. They'd all but said they'd have his back if anything were to happen.
He was pretty sure his risk of kissing this girl... uh... Dennington... something... Kat? Maybe? Merlin, he was awful at names... was slim to none, but the fact that he still had to talk to her and do an assignment about ghouls of all things wasn't something he was looking forward to. He always managed to stuff up conversation no matter who it was with, and most of the time without thinking, he tended to weave in references about movies or comics or what have you that the other person generally didn't understand because they hadn't lived in the muggle world. They didn't know how awesome Star Wars or Superman was, and so he looked crazy trying to explain.
Setting up the table in front of him with an array of reference books he'd pulled off the shelves earlier, Alex resolved that he just needed to try his best to be normal. Just make normal chatter... and maybe try and figure out Dennington's first name too. That would probably be a good start.
Post by CATHERINE 'KITTY' DENNISON on Dec 3, 2019 17:23:32 GMT
Kitty never felt entirely at ease in the school library. There was no doubt that it was an amazing place; she'd never before seen so many books in one place, or at all, for that matter. But the air of hush, of intense study and incredible concentration, which tended to prevail save for when a particularly rowdy group of students had managed to sneak in under the librarian's nose was just too much for her. By nature, the blonde was talkative; some might say chatty; and to find herself restricted in that sense and to be subject to disapproving stares and heavy sighs every time that she so much as opened her mouth was so much anathema to her sensitive soul.
Nevertheless, her partner had decided that this was where he wanted to meet, and since it was after all a project of work, she could scarcely argue. To be honest, she would have been disinclined to do so in any case; Kitty never had been very good with confrontation of even the most minor kind, and she was tractable to most suggestions when it came to it. Accordingly, she found herself walking through the doors of the high-ceilinged room, and was conscious even as she did so of the rather odd sensation which always came upon her at this moment, of a kind of heavy grey blanket of oppressive silence settling across her shoulders. It was for this reason that she typically took a deep breath before she ventured inside.
Walking slowly between the tables, the blonde glanced from one side to another, offering the occasional smile to someone that she recognised, until she finally encountered her partner, who seemed to have made an early start on gather relevant material. As she seated herself opposite him, she murmured softly, "I'm so sorry I'm late."
Post by ALEXANDER GREENAWAY on Dec 7, 2019 4:04:22 GMT
When Alex glanced up next, he caught sight of a peppy blonde walking towards him, smiling at seemingly random intervals to other people - did she know them, or was she just that friendly? Alex didn't really know Dennison too well, and so he couldn't say. But he couldn't relate to her upbeat attitude - he rarely smiled at passerby's, even if he did know them. He didn't want to take it the wrong way, somehow use it as an invitation to come over and... make awkward conversation where Alex wanted to squirm out of his skin the entire time. Maybe it was anti-social of him, but he preferred to avoid those type of conversations altogether. It was for the sake of everyone involved, it really was.
As Dennington finally drew to a close at the desk he'd chosen, then took a seat, Alex tried to at least look somewhat happy at her arrival. "Uh, hey. No, it's all good, K..." Shit, he didn't want to say the wrong name - what if it wasn't actually Kat? - and so his sentence trailed off. "You're not late. I'm just early." Silence fell between them once more and Alex glanced down at the desk, trying to rack his mind for something else to say. "So O'Connor said we had to pick a dark creature to write about, and come up with an essay together. Uh, what creature did you want to do?"
Post by CATHERINE 'KITTY' DENNISON on Dec 7, 2019 13:16:03 GMT
"It's good to be early!" Kitty remarked brightly, taking a seat and settling herself briskly before reaching down to the bag that she'd dropped on the floor and beginning to rummage through it in search of some parchment and a quill. Certainly, it was better than to be late, a state in which she seemed to find herself more often than not. It was hardly her fault, though! She just got so carried away and involved in whatever she happened to be doing that the thought of whatever she ought to be doing next didn't occur to her until it was too late for her to be anything close to punctual. Still, it didn't hurt, really; she never fell too far behind, and she generally had some friend or other who made sure that she got to her classes on time. It was just other things which tended to go by the wayside because she'd got distracted talking to someone...
She rested her hands on the table in front of her, tilting her head to one side as she considered. "Do you know, I'm really not sure. There are so many, aren't there? And all so interesting!" There were very few subjects in which Kitty could not find something to occupy her attention, and Defence Against the Dark Arts certainly didn't number amongst them. "What do you think, Alex? Do you have a favourite?"
Post by ALEXANDER GREENAWAY on Dec 15, 2019 10:24:46 GMT
It was becoming increasingly more obvious with each sentence that came spouting from this girl's mouth that she was one of those eternal optimists... A.K.A. the complete opposite of Alex who spent most of his waking hours thinking on how things could go wrong. "Uh... yeah, I guess," he wound up saying in response to her enthusiasm on how it was good to be early. Realising that he should maybe say something else than just 'I guess,' Alex forced himself to rack his brain before saying, "It's... it's meant to be fashionable to be late though, right?" Shit, and apparently that's what his brain came up with when forced to think on the spot.
Apparently this girl didn't know what creature she wanted them to write the assignment about and clearing his throat, Alex gestured to the textbook albeit awkwardly, before flipping the pages. "There's, uh... I..." Alex glanced up at her next words, blinking. "I don't have a favourite, no, but there's some... cool ones in here if you... think that the pain and misery they cause is cool." That was way too dark, and Alex cringed hard. "Sorry, that's - god, I sound like The Joker or something, saying that. I just meant - I mean, it's not cool but... I guess I don't have a favourite or anything. They're all kind of messed up and I wouldn't want to meet any of them in the dark, I don't think."
Post by CATHERINE 'KITTY' DENNISON on Dec 15, 2019 21:10:19 GMT
"Only if you're famous, I think," Kitty commented with a grin; she certainly didn't think that that would fly as an excuse with any of her professors, and though some of them were apparently going for World's Strictest Teacher awards- though of course she was sure that they had good reason for it and were very nice people really underneath it all-, there were a fair few of them who seemed to be reasonable people not only on the inner level in the existence of which the blonde maintained a firm belief despite all adversity but also in the eye of the student body, and even they would never have accepted it. Well. Probably not. Maybe.
A slight frown crept onto the blonde's face as she watched the Ravenclaw ramble his way through a series of apparently unconnected thoughts, though no doubt there was a link which was visible only to him. She did have to smile at the Batman reference, because honestly it wasn't often that she got to hear one of those at Hogwarts which, for all its wonder and brilliance, seemed to be singularly lacking in pop culture, but all the same, something was very definitely bothering her. "You don't have to be so nervous," she pointed out bluntly, crossing her legs. "I promise I don't bite!" She grinned- very few people were afraid of Kitty, it had to be said, though there were one or two who walked the other way when they saw her coming...
Post by ALEXANDER GREENAWAY on Dec 21, 2019 4:43:22 GMT
"I'll never be able to get away with being fashionably late then," Alex said with a wry smile. Wait, was that a joke leaving his lips, or at least an attempt at one? That was... well, rare coming from him. But in all honesty... he had absolutely no desire to ever become famous. He didn't even like having the spotlight on his during class - in fact, he always attempted to make himself as small as possible - and the idea of having the entire wizarding world paying attention to him was enough to make him shudder in horror.
You don't have to be so nervous. Alex literally cringed at the words, along with the frown that crossed... Dennison's face, and he paused for a long second before mumbling, "I suck at talking to people. I'm not nervous - I just... feel really awkward. I mean, I don't even know your name." Shit, did he say that aloud? Tugging at the sleeves of his jumper, Alex slumped down in his seat as he waited for the onslaught of yelling or lecturing to begin. No doubt, she'd be questioning how he'd shared classes with her for four years, and so how didn't he know her name?
Post by CATHERINE 'KITTY' DENNISON on Dec 21, 2019 20:45:38 GMT
The blonde giggled and then immediately felt guilty about it- by laughing, she was kind of agreeing with him, and she shouldn't be, because he was so totally wrong! "Never say never!" she told him insistently, brushing her hands together before diving back into her bag in search of some notes that she thought might be useful. Her voice continued to emanate from the murky depths of the leather satchel she'd been carrying around since first year, somewhat muffled by detritus.
"You never know; you could be a really famous wizard and invent some really cool spell, or be an actor and travel the world, or..." Kitty paused, partly because she'd finally found what she'd been looking for and partly because even she had to admit that the shy and withdrawn boy sitting opposite her was entirely unlikely ever to be an actor. Emerging at last, she gave him a somewhat flustered smile. "It's fine, really! I'm sure you have much more exciting things to remember than my name. It's Kitty. Well, Catherine technically, but everyone calls me Kitty." Where it had originated, even she couldn't quite remember, but it had reached the point by now that such details no longer really mattered. Giving the boy her brightest smile, she ventured out on a limb with, "It's really great to be working with you!"
Post by ALEXANDER GREENAWAY on Dec 28, 2019 7:23:32 GMT
"I... no, I... honestly have no... I really don't ever want to be famous. I couldn't think of anything worse being in the spotlight all the time and have cameras pointed in your face," Alex insisted, shaking his head. God, the thought of him talking to the public, as in a huge big crowd, was enough to make him want to cry. He barely ever spoke up in a class of less than fifty students because they were intimidating enough.
"Inventing a spell seems... kinda cool, I guess. Kind of... Iron-Man-esque, though I doubt most of them look like Robert Downey Jr." Somebody that Alex lowkey definitely thought was attractive. "Nobody would really care for your face if you invented a spell, they'd just want to know about it and I suppose if you published the spell, you wouldn't have to reveal your real name. You could use a pseudonym like Alice B. Sheldon did." Of course, back then the reason that she had used one was because female authors, even ones as brilliant as her, were viewed as lesser and were not nearly as respected, something that unsettled Alex to even think about. "Do you want to be famous one day?"
Alex didn't believe he'd ever met somebody named Kitty before, but he'd certainly read about one. "There's... there's this X-Men character named Kitty, in these comics - er, that's a muggle thing - I read. She's really cool, she kind of reminds me of you," Alex told Kitty quietly because in the few minutes he'd gotten to know her, she didn't come off as a purist or git or anything. She seemed pretty friendly and non-threatening, something he definitely liked in a person. "It's nice to be working with you too. So... you wanna do hags or something?"
Post by CATHERINE 'KITTY' DENNISON on Dec 29, 2019 12:11:52 GMT
Kitty considered for a moment and then shrugged. Personally, she had no objection to the spotlight, since she seemed to end up in it often enough, though through no fault of her own. The blonde genuinely didn't seek it out, but her personality, being so bright and vivacious, seemed to bring her there more by chance than conscious design, and she didn't really mind it one way or the other. Being famous could be fun, but then judging by what she saw in Witch Weekly, what mostly happened to you if you were famous was that people pried into you and found out all your secrets. And though the blonde didn't have any guilty secrets, there were nevertheless some thing which she would far rather that no one ever found out about. "It could be fun," she commented, though with slightly less than her former enthusiasm.
Still, she quickly perked up again. "Oh, I know about comics! Kind of like picture books, right? I'm Muggleborn; you don't have to explain. But I've never read any, really; are they good?" Being cool was something which the blonde had never really considered; she'd always had the vague idea that it involved wearing sunglasses indoors and saying 'yo' a lot, neither of which were concepts that she found either sensible or appealing. Still, each to their own, and she certainly wasn't one to judge; she'd been on the other end too often for that.
"Hags sound good!" the Gryffindor agreed readily; she knew next to nothing about them, but that was fine! It just meant that she would learn lots while she was doing the project, and that was the whole point of school, wasn't it?
Post by ALEXANDER GREENAWAY on Jan 3, 2020 3:45:14 GMT
Fun was definitely not the word Alex would choose to describe fame, but he simply nodded in reply to Kitty because... she sounded a less upbeat than a second ago and he'd already made one person cry in the library this school year. He didn't really want to make a second person cry... well, ever. Not just in the library or in his fourth year, but in his life.
When Kitty shared with Alex that she was a muggleborn too, it was like a flip was switched and Alex straightened up from his usual slouch, enthusiasm in his eyes. "Yeah, like picture books - but they have words, too. Like dialogue and actions and - so if there's a picture of a superhero fighting another one, they might go 'BAM!'" Realising just how loud he'd become, Alex paused for a minute and took in Kitty's question. "I... I like them, but I guess most people think they're kinda lame. Like... for kids and stuff, but... there's heaps of adults who collect them too, I think. Usually I just borrow them from the library back home." Growing up in a group home... he couldn't scrape enough money to buy comics of his own, and the library was free so he took advantage of it. Usually he had to hide the comics he borrowed though in case one of the other kids found them... but now he was living with Zoe - it dawned on him right then and there that he'd never have to hide a borrowed book ever again. He could have it sitting on his bedside table with no fear of it being torn or ripped apart for fun by another person.
"Do... so do you know much about them? There's some stuff in our textbook, but we're in a library so there's probably heaps of other books that mention them," Alex suggested, glancing around at the shelves that surrounded them.
Post by CATHERINE 'KITTY' DENNISON on Jan 4, 2020 11:44:20 GMT
At last, she'd found something that seemed to bring the boy alive, and the blonde couldn't help but to giggle at his enthusiasm. It was sort of sweet, though, and if he behaved more like that through the rest of their work together then she herself would be much happier about it. Kitty took no issue with people being reserved; she understood, even if she didn't always remember, that she herself was exuberant by nature and that she could not expect the same of everyone else, but when people seemed to be walking on eggshells around her, she began to get tense herself, and when the blonde got tense, all kinds of things could happen. Not all of them were bad, it had to be said, but she still didn't like it much. When everyone else was happy, she was happy too, and it seemed as if she'd just taken a step towards that with Alex, which she definitely wasn't about to complain over.
"Practically nothing," she admitted happily, flicking her hair back out of her face and thinking for the hundredth time that she really should get around to tying it up if she was going to work. "Still, I'm sure we can find out plenty..." Glancing around behind her, she stretched out an arm and selected a book at random which looked mildly promising. "Uh, Famous Hags in History. Sounds interesting." Probably not exactly what they were looking for, but then maybe she should come back and have a look at it again some other time. If she remembered, which she wouldn't. Kitty's reading suffered through the same problems as much of what she did; she was very enthusiastic about so many things that she found it incredibly difficult to stick with any one of them for long enough to bring it to a successful conclusion.
Post by ALEXANDER GREENAWAY on Jan 7, 2020 3:44:20 GMT
Practically nothing. Alex wondered if that meant he'd get stuck doing the bulk of something, but then Kitty was looking around and grabbing a book on hags so... maybe not. That was a good sign, and Alex was inwardly relieved. Maybe this assignment would wind up being a joint one after all. "We can always end up using one of the hags as an example," he offered up, giving her a small shrug. "Did you wanna look... look through and maybe find one of the hags we could talk about?" There were a few names swirling about in Alex's head - Babayaga was one of them, though he didn't know much more about them beside their name.
"Did... did you know that apparently you can see hags in Diagon Alley and stuff sometimes?" he asked, grimacing at the thought. He didn't go to Diagon Alley very often - in fact, he'd only been there less than a handful of times since finding out he was a wizard.. so the chances of encountering them were slim but he'd heard tales about running into them, and he didn't think a run-in with a hag was something to wish for.
Post by CATHERINE 'KITTY' DENNISON on Jan 11, 2020 11:35:16 GMT
Nodding rapidly, the blonde lifted the front cover and ran her finger down the contents page. "Someone from ages ago, or something more recent?" So far as she could see, it was the ancient form of history with which the Hogwarts library was chiefly concerned, but she was entirely confident that given long enough and with enough patience, she would be able to unearth something more modern, especially with Alex to help- something told her that he was the kind of person who was really good at research, which could only be a good thing. It was not uncommon for Kitty to struggle with patience, but maybe they could take it in shifts!
"I didn't know, no!" Looking up from the book, Kitty met her partner's gaze with wide-eyed shock. "I only really go once a year... But isn't that so weird?! Just wandering down the street and meeting a hag. Like..." She shuddered, but immediately felt guilty about it. For all she knew, there were loads of really nice hags, and they just didn't get talked about much. It was hardly fair to judge.
Post by ALEXANDER GREENAWAY on Jan 12, 2020 6:07:35 GMT
"I guess someone from... someone who's just interesting, maybe? Doesn't really have to matter who it is," Alex suggested with a small shrug. As long as they were an alive hag that they could offend - although, how a hag would possibly know what they wrote in their DADA assignments was beyond him - then it didn't particularly matter. "So if you pull them up, then maybe you could write a little summary on the hags and we could weave it into the assignment itself?"
Judging by the shocked expression that crossed Kitty's face, he'd caught her off guard by that and he said, "I suppose you could run into worse people like... like, uh... the Joker or something. I wouldn't want to meet him in a dark alley." Of course, he was a fictional character so the chances of that happening were a lot less likely than running into a hag. "I don't know if we're old enough to not be eaten by hags now. It says in the books they like to eat children, but we're teenagers so I guess... maybe we're too old for her to eat us now." That was something he never thought he'd say, and Alex cleared his throat loudly. "Er, anyway... back to the assignment?"