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!
Hands clasped behind her, the redhead wandered down the corridor, her footsteps regular and seeming very loud in the emptiness of the castle at night. Generally, the prefects patrolled in pairs, but her partner for this evening's delightful festivities was laid up in the hospital wing with a crippling migraine, and so here was Skye, all on her own and ranged against all the hypothetical forces of disorder and chaos. It was not as exciting as one might expect. In point of fact, the patrols were just about the worst part of the job, and the only thing that made them bearable was the opportunity for chatting to one's partner, so, as might be imagined, the girl was not in the best of moods tonight. As she walked down darkened corridors, pausing occasionally to glance into darkened rooms or close the odd door, her mind was dwelling chiefly on her bed and the prospect of sleep lying ahead of her. It was certainly a lot more inviting than the current reality. Usually, she hoped for a quiet night, wanting to avoid any kind of unpleasantness, but tonight she was bored enough to be wishing that something would happen. Anything.
Muttering about people hiding clothes if you’re from Ravenclaw and not fitting in a lot being cliché she sighed. Not that the clothing she was missing was a bother at that hour, but that was beside the point. The fact that she was experimenting with magic was probably more the point. Some people said being out after hours was like playing with fire when it came to some professors catching you. The fact that she literally was playing with fire had her chuckle about that particular observation. She knew she had a greater affinity for fire from having set a lot of stuff on fire accidentally. That didn’t mean she wouldn’t try to get somewhere with it.
The basic fire making charm incendio was what she was trying to modify. There were of course bluebell flames which you could scoop up in a jar, or basically just hold as they didn’t give off a lot of heat, but having those in a jar made a nice hand warmer. What she was trying to do was having the flames follow her at a set point away from her body. So not that she only got light like the lumos charm or the floating mage light she had heard of, but rather having a portable light and heat source in one. Of course she could use a warming charm and lumos her way out, but where was the fun in that. No she tried again for her experimental incantation. ’’Incendio mobilis.’’ The flames formed, but instead of moving with her, they moved on her own. Almost hypnotized by their moving she didn’t notice the prefect.
Skye whistled softly to herself under her breath as she turned yet another nondescript corner and walked down yet another nondescript corridor with not a rule breaker in sight. Sometimes she had to wonder what on earth were the reasons for her being here in the first place, but these things were beyond her control and so she supposed that worrying about them was far from being a productive use of her time. Then again, being here at this time of night was unlikely to be a productive use of her time either, so perhaps since she was multitasking it didn't matter so much...
Another corner. Another corridor. These were parts of the castle that she'd hardly even ventured into before she'd started doing this sort of thing, so Skye supposed that at least she'd gained some knowledge from it all.
This one didn't seem to be quite so empty, though, and a slight frown creased the redhead's forehead as she watched the red light glimmering against the stone walls. It was quite a pretty effect, and she was entirely distracted for a moment until it suddenly occurred to her that, as strange as Hogwarts was, this sort of thing didn't tend to happen unassisted, and a moment longer spent in looking more closely through the darkness identified the culprit, though identified was probably the wrong word because Skye didn't think she had any idea who the girl actually was.
"And what're you doing out at this time of night?" she enquired, not loudly but at a volume which ensured that the girl would be able to hear.
Staring into the flames that were still more or less doing their own thing she had started thinking about what she could do with it, or what it could be used for. Not that she had had much luck with that, but that was for another time. Thinking that perhaps she would be able to show them to Scorpius and maybe make a better impression than being found with a bad case of being under cooled and wet from having been in the lake during winter. Even though it had been because of a miscalculation. As she thought of that her musings were interrupted by a prefect coming upon her.
What was she doing out of that time of night, that was clear wasn’t it. Practicing her spellwork, maybe modify it some more. However the lapse in her concentration caused the flames that had been dancing to vanish. ’’Well I might, or might not have been practicing one of my modified spells. One could say I was experimenting and maybe just maybe having been lost in thought looking at the flames….but seeing as you’re one of my house prefects I guess I am in trouble, aren’t I?’’ Squaring her shoulders she would defend her right to experiment to the max. She got in trouble because of it often enough, it was one of the risks experimenting brought. Plenty detentions too…that was a downside.
The redhead sighed heavily. Merlin above. One of the Gryffindor prefects had once told her that she must have it easy, with a House full of bookworms and non of the impetuous hotheads that seemed to make up the majority of the population of the House of the Lions. She must have laughed at him for a good five minutes, because while it was true that generally speaking, Ravenclaws didn't tend to get into quite so many fights or pranking wars (though of course there were always some), it was also true that they had, by their very nature, both a desire to experiment and the tendency to creatively reinterpret the rules to their own advantage, neither of which resulted in a lighter workload for Skye.
"It's Estellise, isn't it?" She made a habit of trying to know the names of all the younger students in her House, not only because as a prefect, she was to some degree responsible for looking after them, but also because it made it so much easier to point the finger when you saw one of them fleeing the scene of the crime. "You could have picked a better time to start playing about with fire, don't you think?" Ugh, and now she was going to have to start mucking about with points and warnings and threats and all sorts, and probably walk the girl back to her dorm as well, when all she'd wanted was a quiet hour or so... Life was hard sometimes.
Rubbing the back of her head she hung her shoulders a bit in shame as she was mentioned by name. Not even by an older prefect, but one of the new ones, which made her question her reputation in Ravenclaw, if even the new ones already knew what her name was. Trying to go for the innocent, but curious look she looked at Skye. ’’I probably could have miss Macleod, but you see fire the best when it’s darker in the hallways. That and this way no one but me could have been hurt if it went wrong…’’ Not that it had gone wrong in any possible way, okay it moved on its own which was unforeseen by Estelle, but that’s why it was experimenting.
She knew darned well that it could have gone wrong spectacularly and therefore burn down the bloody castle, but on the other hand the chances of that happening were slim to none. Because of water spells, flame freezing charms and the general consensus that stone just didn’t exactly serve as fuel for a fire. ’’Haven’t you ever been experimenting when it’s dark in the castle?’’ She did not say what kind of experimenting as she had no idea what Skye would do if she would have been out after hours.
The redhead shook her head firmly. "It's just Skye; not Miss anything." Merlin above, she felt quite ancient enough as it was without people going around talking to her as if she were a teacher or something. "And what I do in the dark is none of your business, but I certainly don't make a habit of being out and about after curfew." Oh... Dear Merlin, had she really just said that out loud? And to a second year, no less. It really was well past time that she got herself to bed and stayed there. "You shouldn't be experimenting with anything that could hurt someone out here, anyway; you're supposed to do that sort of thing with your teachers. So... Do I want to know what the spell was, or is that going to be something that causes me extra work?"
Probably the latter, but she supposed she ought to find out anyway. Everything seemed to cause her extra work these days, and she wasn't at all happy about it.
"I get it, honestly." She was a Ravenclaw too, after all, and the urge to experiment, to play around, to find out something new, to take old spells and push them far beyond what they had ever done before, was almost universal around the common room. "But... rules are rules."
