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!
It was a quiet day in the Ravenclaw common room as David sat in one of the few armchairs, a pile of parchment paper sat in his lap. You’d think this was his novel out in the open where anyone can pick it up and run off with it, but it wasn’t. It was class notes since there’s only a few more months left of the school year, and he was preparing himself for the exams coming up. The male had been going through his years worth of notes, mentally challenging himself. It was the time of the year that David hated with so much passion. Maybe he should have Ollie help him study, prepare him for anything that could be thrown at him. But he didn’t want to leave the tower and his favorite spot on the armchair. He didn’t want to risk losing it to someone else.
David looked up at the sound of footsteps, his eyebrows raising as he eyed the redhead that was his sister. One of his many sisters. ”You look like a woman on a mission.” he said as he turned a parchment over.
It was a relief to find the Ravenclaw common room more or less empty; a bit of peace and quiet was exactly what Skye needed, and she had had a great deal of difficulty in finding it anywhere else around the castle. It had been a long day, coming as part of a long week, and there had been times when she'd felt like collapsing into bed and never emerging again, though she'd refrained chiefly because she was well aware that her roommates would never have been able to leave her to her misery, which was really all that she wanted out of life.
"Did you." Despite being overtly a question, it was not in fact posed as any such thing, chiefly because Sky was not in a mood at present to take a great deal of interest on what anyone thought about anything and certainly not about how she spent her time. "Yes, I'm looking for somewhere to sit and do nothing." The redhead eyed her brother warily as she sank into a chair, wondering whether he was going to make a nuisance of himself if she stayed. Might as well wait and see, she supposed.
”It must be hard being a prefect…” David joked, his eyes not leaving the pile or parchment in his lap. David wasn’t one to piss off a prefect on purpose - he was one to watch and sees what happens if one would cross a prefect who used the power for evil. The boy had seen his share of those badge wearers abuse their power for their own personal gain, and it disgusted him sometimes. At least his sister wasn’t like that, right? He wouldn’t let her live it down if she became a bitch like that Sienna Nero in Gryffindor.
”Are you okay? Or do you need someone to talk too? I can multitask.” he said, his eyes looking at her with a tiny frown on his face. As long as it wasn’t boy trouble, he’d be fine. Last thing he needed was for another sister to fall for someone who isn’t worth falling for.
The redhead nodded solemnly. "Terrible," she agreed, with all sincerity. Of course it was a great privilege, and so on and so forth, though she couldn't help but feel sometimes that it had been given to her out of sympathy since Skye was quite sure that she could think of no one less suited to it. But then when she found herself marching through the corridors long into the night, or else holding back some first year girl's hair while she was violently sick (which she'd been doing just this morning and had not enjoyed in the slightest), she had to admit that perhaps it hadn't been out of sympathy after all. It was plainly a punishment in disguise, though what for, she was at a loss to decide.
"No, I'll be fine," she told him firmly. Talking about things had never been a strength of Skye's; when she had a problem, she far preferred to turn it over in her own head until she arrived at a solution independently.
The sixth year Ravenclaw looked back at his notes as he thought about what exams are going to be first. He wanted to be prepared and not worry about failing. The male never failed anything in his life and he would be angry if he lost all focus because of distractions. David never really saw the point in dating people because that would just mess up his chances of a good future and he didn’t want someone to want his entire attention when he could be doing something better. It was hard to be him sometimes and people would often judge him.
”You sure? How was your prefect duties? Anything interesting going on?” he asked as he looked up from his notes, his hand flipping a page and tilted his head to the side. ”Have you been studying for your OWL’s?”
"Not unless you count vomit and second years with periods," Skye returned with a heavy sigh- apparently, such were the somewhat dubious benefits of being a female prefect. Such fun she was practically crying with laughter. "How about you; writing going well?" The redhead made no claim to literary genius; she could appreciate it in others but considered herself very firmly to lack the necessary divine spark, and so she was disinclined to any kind of attempt in that area. Still, that gave her even more appreciation for those who made the effort, though she didn't think that she could personally ever trade the satisfaction of Arithmancy's neat conclusions and rows of logical steps for what seemed to be the very messy process of creative writing.
Rolling her eyes, she leaned back in her chair. "No, I thought I'd just ignore them until the actual exams come around." Of course she'd been studying; as a matter of fact, Skye was somewhat surprised by how little time she had left for anything else. But having heard the same question several times a day for the last Merlin knew how many months, she was getting more than a little sick of it.
As soon as an answer came out of Skye’s mouth, David started to regret it because he did not need to know such details of the prefect duties. The male did not want to know about girls and their hormonal time of the month. Sure, he should be used to it because he had sisters and sometimes they mention they had their friend. Maybe it was a warning for him not to bother them, but he never got it and would get bitched at for no reason. Maybe he should move out when he’s of age, so the girls wouldn’t share that detail with him. The thought made him shudder.
And it did not amuse him at all. ”Need help with studies? I have a lot of old notes from my fifth year days if you want….” he offered, trying to ignore the fact that she was being a sarcastic little demon.
Skye managed with great difficulty to restrain a sigh. Merlin, why did everyone have to assume that she needed help all the time? She was a perfectly competent witch and she had every intention of passing all her OWLs with flying colours, so that if she needed help with anything, she would ask for it. Was that a totally impossible concept to grasp? The redhead didn't think so, but then perhaps she was functioning on a somehow different level to everyone else. And why was it the case that he thought he could ignore her questions whereas if she were to do the same to him, she'd probably end up having to sit through a lecture for an hour or so?
She was just not impressed at all by anything today. Was it too early to go to bed? Probably, she decided with some regret, and she'd only be woken up by her roommates anyway...
David didn’t see a problem in offering his old notes to one of his sisters, but the offer was left unanswered and it left him rather confused. Perhaps he’d offer the notes to someone else and make them all have a study date or something. ”Or not…” he said, shrugging it off as he flipped through the pages in his lap. He shouldn’t worry, right? If she didn’t want his notes, he wouldn’t feel insulted. All he wanted was to offer some support, to get her to not stress over the exams coming up and he didn’t get an answer.
A sigh left him as he straightened out the mess in his lap and placed it all back in its folder. He’ll do his studying later. "I was trying to be nice."
The redhead sighed. Oh, Merlin above, why did everyone have to be so sensitive all the time? If he didn't think she should turn something down then he could just tell her so; he didn't have to be a martyr over it. Of course she reserved the right to tell him that he was an idiot, but that was another matter and entirely beside the point. "And it's appreciated." She allowed just a little sharpness to creep into her voice. When she needed help, she would ask for it; until then, she expected to be left alone to get on with it, and if people couldn't wrap their heads around what she considered to be a fairly simple concept then they were going to have problems. People had never been Skye's strong suit anyway.
David was slightly confused at to what he could’ve done to piss off the redhead and he was a little bit annoyed by it. It showed in his expression as he put all his paperwork away, no longer in the mood to do his studying thanks to her sour mood turning him into a grump himself. He had no idea what had gotten to her, but he wasn’t going to call her a brat like he would to any of his sisters when they had an attitude. So instead of arguing with her about it all, he took out a book and got more comfortable on the chair he was seated at. Might as well do some reading. Two can play the bitch game, Skye. "Right."
"Right," Skye echoed flatly, settling back into her chair and crossing one leg over the other as she allowed her gaze to drift. She loved the Ravenclaw common room; not quite as silent as the library, but equally not as rowdy as she'd heard that some of the other common rooms could get- well, not most of the time, anyway. It was the perfect ambiance so far as the redhead was concerned, but then a gentle background buzz always had had a soothing effect on her.
Just now, though, the 'soothing' bit didn't seem to be taking place quite as it ought to, and she supposed that she probably ought to apologise for being snappy. The trouble was that she didn't really want to.
David was in no mood to put up with anyone’s bullshit, knowing it was none of his business and his sisters knew damn well if they needed something from him, all they need to do is tell him and he’d do whatever they needed for him to do. Since Skye was new to the family, he knew she didn’t understand how he worked and so he shouldn’t be highly annoyed. But with Skye’s attitude, he was about to snap, but instead, he kept doing what he was doing and trying to ignore the fact that the read head was sitting near him.
”Don’t let me keep you,” he said coldly, not looking up from his book and hummed as he turned the page in his book.
"You're not," Skye returned as sweetly as she could contrive to, flicking her wand and murmuring the incantation to Summon a heavy book from the other side of the room. She resisted the temptation to divert its journey via David's head. It was her common room too, damn him, and she would stay here for as long as she liked, whatever he might have to say about it. Pausing briefly to let her hair down from the tight bun that she usually constrained it in to keep it out of the way, she shook her head, sending red locks cascading down over her shoulders, and then leaned back in the chair, opening the book to the first page and beginning to read.
Was she being immature? Well, probably, but Skye was under more than a little pressure at the moment, and she couldn't stand condescending people.
