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 LYDIA LLEWELLYN on Dec 14, 2019 6:55:16 GMT
Occasionally, Lydia got hit with bouts of stupidity - something that was very evident through her actions lately. First, she'd slept with someone else's boyfriend. Then she'd called out Gabriel Avery in class - something she normally wouldn't even dare to do - and now? Now, she was acting like a tremendous dick as she headed towards the Gryffindor tower to... to try and see him. She wanted to know what was going on, whether he regretted it or not, and why she was the one who was copping all the flack from the student body when it hadn't been just her in the library.
Chewing on her fingernail, Lydia took another step forward towards the Gryffindor common room before she heard two very familiar voices echo in the hallway, no doubt about to round the corner. Oh shitballs. Panicking, Lydia's eyes darted for some place to hide and quickly before they caught on the statue of Wilfred the Wistful. Instantly, she leaped forward and crouched down beside Wilfred so Thomas and Lexie, who were looking all lovey dovey with their hands intertwined as they rounded the corner, didn't see her. It was only when they passed that Lydia breathed again, a pang of sadness hitting her chest. "What the fuck is my life?" she murmured, before looking up at the golden statue which seemed ten foot tall from where she was still crouching on the ground. "This is a serious case of irony, isn't it? Standing next to Wilfred the Wistful of all people. Merlin, I'm such a tit."
"Look, I knew I was short, but you didn't have to crouch down that much to talk to me." Zoë crossed her arms, looking down at the girl next to the statue. First she'd almost run into this one couple trying to climb into the common room while keeping their hands still attached. She had no idea what her roommate saw in someone who shared the same name as Lord Voldemort, but hey, maybe she wasn't meant to know. Now some Hufflepuff was trying to... sneak in? Spy? Or just have a conversation with this statue, as seemed to be happening? Zoë didn't know, but whatever it was, it was weird. That was why she'd stopped in her tracks, an amused smile on her face even as she was a little bit worried at the miserable expression on the Puff's face.
"Stand up. Otherwise someone'll think you're a house-elf and try to get you to take their laundry." Zoë offered a hand down to help the girl up. "You don't want that. You want to look less like you've just had a ghost walk right through you." That had happened to her a few times, and she'd felt cold for like a week afterward. Fine, maybe that was a little bit of an exaggeration, but still, the Hufflepuff's downcast face called for something to cheer it up.
Post by LYDIA LLEWELLYN on Dec 16, 2019 8:27:10 GMT
A voice spoke suddenly and after jumping nearly a foot in the bloody air, Lydia stared. How long had she been standing there? Had she heard her speaking to the statue like some sort of nutter? Lydia didn't know, and she gave the girl a... sort of grimace. "Right, next time I speak to you I'll drop into a squat, not a crouch - noted. Also noted that I don't actually know how to squat," Lydia said with a scrunch of her nose. Exercise? It definitely wasn't her friend. The only form of exercise she'd done lately was shoveling cow dung, and that was when she'd gone home over Christmas break like... four months ago, and it probably didn't count. She much preferred being curled up, reading a book in an plushy armchair, than running herself ragged around some field or doing push-ups.
"Do you really think I look house elf-esque? I mean, I didn't think my ears were that big," Lydia said, lips twitching as she took the small hand offered to her, pulling herself up. The mention that she looked like a ghost had gone through her had Lydia full-on grimacing this time and she looked up at the statue once more, groaning. "Scratch that, Wilfred. I'm not wistful, I'm ruddy pathetic." Dropping her gaze from the statue in favour of the girl that stood in front of her, Lydia blinked down at their joined hands before realising that maybe it was time to let go, and she did just that. Whoops. "Maybe I should get your name now that our hands are besties."
As the Hufflepuff girl took her hand, standing up, it was immediately obvious that she was taller than Zoë. Well, it shouldn't have been surprising, but as usual, it gave the Gryffindor girl the unpleasant feeling of having to look up at everyone around her. "No, your ears are normal, you were just the size of one." Was that why she liked house-elves so much, or was it just that the one at home was much more of a friend to her than her mother was? Or maybe it was just the fact that they served food. Eh, that wasn't what she wanted to think about at the moment.
"I'm Zoë. And I can't say for sure, but I think I would remember if there was a student named Pathetic over the years, so you'll have to tell me your real name." A name like that would certainly have made her ears perk up at the Sorting Ceremony. The girl's words focused her attention on where their hands were joined, making Zoë actually notice the loss of warmth when she let go. "Were you trying to get into the tower? 'Cause I know I've gotten detention for lots of things, but I really don't think I'm supposed to let you in there."
Post by LYDIA LLEWELLYN on Dec 24, 2019 11:16:24 GMT
"What a relief. Here I thought I was destined to look like a house elf the rest of my life. I much rather be a Tolkien elf, if I got to choose," Lydia said with a small shrug. She may have been a half-blood, but that didn't mean she wasn't exposed to the muggle world. In fact, most of the books she read were of the muggle persuasion, and her fellow triplets had certain interests that laid in that world too - for Dani, it was music and ballet; then for Josh, it was muggle aeroplanes and all things that flew.
"I don't know, there's some interesting names out there... mine just so happens to be Lydia Llewellyn. I think my parents were trying to break a record, put as many 'l's' possible into one name," Lydia mused. She may have been joking about it now, but there were days she rued her parents for naming her that when she was growing up. Particularly when she'd received the oh so gracious nickname of Lydia Llewellyn the Loser, courtesy of Greyson Avery.
"Uh," was Lydia's answer at the first to Zoë's question of whether she was trying to sneak in or not. "No, I was just... waiting for someone. Well, trying to wait for - but they've just gone past with their..." Fuck. Lydia's hands ran over her face, then back into her hair as she swallowed the Jupiter-sized lump in her throat. "I was just trying to make my life implode even more because I have no self-preservation skills." Trying to push past the sadness that curled around her heart, Lydia decided to focus on other things. "I think we shared classes together, last year? You're a sixth year, right?"
"Eh, could be worse. As long as the professors can pronounce it, you're good. My name's got only--" Zoë paused, spelling it out in her mind-- "one L, but my middle name is about as pretentious as you can get, so I guess we all have our struggles." Septima, because they were totally ancient Romans and not just some slightly batty family of British wizards, right? Maybe she'd never met most of her relatives, because they were, well, dead, but she'd been forced to overhear the stories. Ugh. She shoved her hands into the pockets of her jacket.
"Whoever you were looking for, you got me instead. I'm, like, what happens when you get your whole summoning circle thing wrong." She considered her last words, looking at the way Lydia seemed about to burst into tears. Seemed like it was time for self-help Zoë again. "Or--maybe it's when you get it right. Come on, walk down to the kitchens with me? I'll get the real house-elves to get you something tasty." Sugar was always a good solution to any problem, or at least a good distraction. And Zoë had spent enough time in the kitchens over the years to know exactly what kinds of treats she could extract. "I am a sixth year. You're observant. Which makes you fifth, right?"
Post by LYDIA LLEWELLYN on Jan 5, 2020 0:42:22 GMT
"They can pronounce my name alright, but when people find out what town I'm from - well, it's always fun to see them try to read it out loud," Lydia said, the corners of her mouth upturning just a little bit. It was pretty much a certainty that anyone who wasn't Welsh themselves couldn't pronounce it, and the shock on their face when they read the word always gave her a good laugh. "What's your middle name? Is it... Beatrice, or Eugenia? Something wild?"
"Maybe in my subconscious I actually wanted to someone a girl named Zoë instead to find me lurking like a creeper behind a statue. Maybe I thought yeah, that'd be lush. Or maybe it's divine intervention trying to make sure I don't hit over the head with a broomstick and end up six feet under," Lydia said flatly, trying her damnedest to push past the thickness that was threatening to overtake her voice again. Walking towards the kitchens alongside Zoë, Lydia nodded at her question. "Yeah, I am. Doing my OWLs this year and all. I kind of feel like with the way the Professors are talking, we're like sheep being led to the slaughter and we're all going to fail miserably." Of course, that probably had something to do with the fact that every lesson disintegrated into chaos lately, leaving Lydia quietly annoyed because she wanted to learn.
"Really? They can't say it at all? I bet they're just not trying. I'll do it." Zoë had never been to Wales and knew for a fact she didn't know how to pronounce anything Welsh, but she wasn't one to back down from a challenge. She took long strides as she walked alongside Lydia, boots squeaking slightly. Saying her middle name was something she didn't particularly like, since it made her sound a million times more pretentious than she actually was, but--fine, she'd led herself into it. "Oh, it's Septima," she said, wrinkling her nose. "Stupid name. I just pretend I don't have it most of the time." She shook her head, dismissing the subject.
"Your subconscious must be pretty brilliant, then, to think me up right when you need me." Zoë's grin returned with a determination to erase the heaviness in the other girl's voice. "I can't believe I'm actually an angel. Or just a friendly demon. I always thought demons must be way cooler, but I've never met one, so I wouldn't know." She wasn't entirely sure that they existed, but then again, if ghosts and vampires existed and were immortal, who's to say there couldn't be others? Or did that not count, since they were kind of already dead already? "Hey, do you think ghosts count as immortal, or not, since they're already dead?" It might sound a little bit out of the blue, but Zoë's mind had followed what she felt was a completely logical path to the question.
"And don't worry about O.W.L.s. I bet they say that to every year, they said it to ours too. Look, I completely bullshitted my Divination one and I still passed. I even got into Transfiguration and they say that one's hard."
Post by LYDIA LLEWELLYN on Jan 11, 2020 11:39:04 GMT
A smirk of sorts slid onto Lydia's lips as Zoë all but presented herself as up for the challenge of pronouncing Lydia's hometown. "I'll do it in a weather presenter's voice from the radio that my mam listens to," she said, before adopting a deep, serious voice. "Then out here, in arse end of the country, we have... Llanfairpwllgwyngyll!" Lydia gestured for Zoë to repeat the word after her. It would be an impressive feat if the girl could pronounce it with accuracy, not just saying random bits and pieces, but she wasn't about to hold her breath. A surprised look took over Lydia's face as Zoë shared her middle name. "Septima isn't so bad. It's not great - not, like... but it's better than having Jane as a middle name. My saggy knickers, do you know how many people I know with the middle name 'Jane'?"
"My subconscious takes that as a compliment," Lydia murmured, before her lips were twitching in amusement as Zoë launched into a debate about whether she was an angel, or a demon, then started asking about ghosts. Lydia had never considered whether ghosts counted as immortal or not but now she was lost in quiet thought over the question. It was one to store away for later in class. "Hmm, well, they're not really immortal beings since they're dead and all, but maybe... kind of because their souls are never going to cease existing and will carry on forever? I don't know... I'd have to look it up. I'm sure somebody has answered the question, once upon a time. When in doubt, refer to other people's hard work."
Don't worry about OWLs. It was really bloody hard not to when almost everything in class circled around them. "I don't take Divination. I take Care of Magical Creatures - I'm not too worried about that once - and Ancient Runes," she said. There was no room to hide in the particular exam. Absentmindedly scratching at the remaining nail polish on her fingers, Lydia was quiet for a while before saying, "Sometimes when things like exams get too much, I end up... sort of... hibernating in bed for a while, and I kind of want to do that now."
"Yeah, I've got it! Kanva--wait, what is it again?" Zoë spluttered, already having forgotten the rest of the long word. She was used to English place names, which always seemed to sound shorter than they were spelled. Not Welsh ones. Still, she felt she'd made a valiant effort. "I'll get it sometime. It just takes practice. Everything does." Like how many years she'd been practicing Quidditch, but Lydia barely knew her; she didn't need to know about those failures. "Is Jane your middle name? I guess it would be better, but it's like, an old people name." Zoë had the distinct feeling that her own first name had just been a favorite of her mother, no matter how many times she'd been told she was named after a Greek empress.
"And I mean, those two classes can't be that different. I don't know shit about runes, but Care of Magical Creatures, I bet you've just got to feed some animals. And then write on the exam 'don't fuck with dragons' or something. Oh, and centaurs, too, they're dangerous, right?" They were two classes that Zoë didn't take, but that didn't temper her enthusiasm for giving advice, or at least something cheering. "Well, I'm taking you to the kitchens, and I know your common room is nearby, so you can hide when I'm done getting you a cinnamon bun, or whatever they're baking today."
Post by LYDIA LLEWELLYN on Jan 24, 2020 3:39:33 GMT
Lydia didn't even bother biting down on the grin that spread across her lips at the sheer amusement of Zoë's attempt to pronounce her hometown. "Two wrong syllables in and you're giving up. Not brave enough to attempt the rest?" she teased, before nodding. "I couldn't say it properly until I was like... five, and that was because I wanted to say it before Josh and Dani." She'd driven her taid* mad by making him repeat it over and over again too, demanding he pronounce every syllable individually until she got the hang of it. "Nah, not Jane. Eira... I guess that's still an old person name, but... Lydia's kinda an old person name too, so it fits."
"I'll pass with flying colours if I write 'don't fuck with dragons.' We all know the Ministry loves a good rebel, right?" she said laconically before grimacing. Maybe it made her an idiot, thinking that such a big governing body was wrong, but Lydia didn't agree with the way the Ministry was currently treating werewolves. It was messed up. It didn't mean she'd want to encounter one on a transformation night - no, she wasn't too keen on that idea at all, she rather valued her face - but it was one night. "I don't think I've ever heard anyone compare Ancient Runes and Care of Magical Creatures before. I mean, sure, some Runes have some whopping good animal imagery on them, but I think most would say they're opposite ends of the spectrum."
"Are you going to hide with me?" the words left Lydia's mouth before she could think them through, and then she let out an awkward, short-lived peel of laughter because, well, shit. That kinda sounded like a proposal and a half for Zoë to come and hibernate in bed with her.
"I am brave!" Zoë was indignant even as she smiled. "I can't believe you. Accusing me of not being brave. Me, Zoë Valeria! What do I look like to you, a snake?" Zoë had very little love for about ninety-five percent of the Slytherins, which sounded like a very accurate mathematical number to her. Kaylie was the exception, but then again, Kaylie wasn't exactly like a lot of the Slytherins either. "I just, uh, need more practice. With my tongue." Her eyebrows raised as she smirked.
Lydia kept talking about exams, though, and Zoë needed to justify her ideas. "Sure they're the same. An exam is an exam. You go in and you write some stuff and hope it's right. And then maybe you feed some animals." None of her classes involved that last part, but she thought that maybe she should bring up the suggestion to Professor Savage to make some sort of lesson on Muggle pets. That would be fun. "The Ministry knows it's true. That's why dragons are like six X's or something. You've got to write it now."
She'd almost forgotten her previous innuendo when Lydia said something that made her smirk once more. "Hide in your bed? Sounds like an invitation to me." She hadn't meant to hit on the girl when she'd invited her down to the kitchens, but hey, a suggestion was a suggestion.
Post by LYDIA LLEWELLYN on Feb 8, 2020 3:06:17 GMT
"World's biggest tosspot, right here," Lydia joked self-deprecatingly before shaking her head. Surprisingly, the students she generally had the least amount of trouble with came from Slytherin. No, instead, that title was owned by Greyson Avery, shortly followed by Gabriel Avery - who would have thought? Two houses renowned for being the 'good ones', and they both held the biggest dickbags in the entire school. "More practice... with your tongue?" Lydia's eyebrows raised in amusement before she coughed out a laugh, a cheeky grin sliding onto her lips. "I dunno, if I take what I hear from people as gospel... you already have plenty of practice."
Lydia disagreed that exams were that straightforward, but instead of presenting her point straight back to the Gryffindor girl, she just shrugged. She wasn't exactly conceding, but there was no point in arguing until she was blue in the face and it was clear they'd never reach an agreement on the matter. "Yeah, I'll be sure to take the Ministry and their opinions on things 100% seriously," she said.
"Shame you can't take me up on it," Lydia said offhandedly, though there was no real meaning to the words. Not because Zoë was some hideous beast or anything, but more because she couldn't actually sneak into the Hufflepuff dorms. "I think my roommates would have a fit if I managed to sneak a Gryffindor girl into our room - they'd think you'd read their diary or something." She was joking, but... she could also somewhat see it happening.
Occasionally, Lydia got hit with bouts of stupidity - something that was very evident through her actions lately. First, she'd slept with someone else's boyfriend. Then she'd called out Gabriel Avery in class - something she normally wouldn't even dare to do - and now? Now, she was acting like a tremendous dick as she headed towards the Gryffindor tower to... to try and see him. She wanted to know what was going on, whether he regretted it or not, and why she was the one who was copping all the flack from the student body when it hadn't been just her in the library. 
