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!
To put it plain and simply, this year was... crap. Lydia was not having a very good time, mostly due to her own stupid making, but she liked to think that Merlin (who was fed up with her cursing him to hell and back) had somewhat of a vendetta against her too - or maybe that was the school system for making her share classes with both of the bloody Wood brothers and Thomas' girlfriend, Lexie. Lexie, who hated her so much, that Lydia was beginning to suspect a public lynching was in order any day for her now.
Despite the unfortunate sharing of classes, Lydia had to say that she was doing a great job so far of avoiding all three of them where she could so far, especially Evan who - shit, was walking down the corridor and due to notice her at any given moment now. Frantically, Lydia searched for a place to hide just in case he decided to strike up a conversation about why she'd shoved her tongue down his throat at the end of last year.
Fingers wrapping around the handle of a door, Lydia shoved it open before catapulting herself inside and shutting it as quickly and as gently as she could, crouching down onto the floor. "Damn it all to buggery, shit," she groaned, burying her face in her hands before finally taking it her surroundings which appeared to be a tiny bloody broom close. "Oh my Merlin, this is how I die - " Lydia cut herself off with an abrupt shriek as a jostling beside her brought the fact that she was not alone to her attention.
Never in a million years would Kalevi have stepped into Pani Dąbrowska's class again, not even if Durmstrang had decided suddenly to embrace him with open arms and reverse their decision on his expulsion. Not only was it her who sat with that group of professors who handed down the verdict, but it was her class that encouraged people like Felix. Why they hadn't decided to stop it after Karkaroff--hell, after Grindelwald--Kalevi didn't know, but what he did know was that he hoped she never saw his face again.
That was why he'd ducked into a closet off the side of the corridor the very moment he'd seen her figure walking down the hall. He kept a hand on his wand as he shut the door, leaning against the wall, keeping his ear tuned for the sound of any footsteps coming far too close.
The next thing happened before he could even think. Footsteps faster than the Dark Arts professor would ever dare to run, but heading straight for the closet door with increasing speed, and Kalevi raised his wand, pointing it out in front of him warily. His back hit the wall as the door slammed open, a bucket clattering to the floor as his arm hit a shelf, and Kalevi ran through a list of every defensive spell he knew, trying to force his eyes to identify the intruder in the dim light.
"Who are you?" he hissed, pushing himself back up on his feet properly. And then "Lumos," a little too late, illuminating the face of one of the Hogwarts girls. He tried to force his panicked breathing to slow, even as he held the bright wand close to her chin.
kasia's not-so-angelic blond // 5'8" // single (future: augusts straume) // born in finland // lives in lintusaari (a magical village in eastern finland)
There was a wand shoved in her face, one that illuminated her surroundings in the process and confirmed that she was actually in a broom closet, something that made her all jittery inside. She already didn't like confined spaces, but she especially didn't like them when sharing it with some blonde-haired boy who was hissing demands at her.
"I - Lydia. Who are you?" Glancing at the boy, it didn't escape her attention that he was breathing not-so-normally and he kind of resembled a spooked moon calf. Merlin, she hoped he didn't pass out on her. That would only add to the trauma of being in a small broom closet. "I'm not going to do anything. I'm... there's just - there's someone out there who probably wants to shout all sorts of expletives in my face and I'm not really in the mood for it."
Frowning briefly, Lydia tried to bat the wand away from her face because honestly, it was kind of blinding her. "I don't know what you've heard, but I usually like to have a conversation with a guy before letting them stick their wand in my face," she joked dryly before blanching because okay, Lyds, not a great... second impression to make on a stranger. "Not that I usually - I'm not - I mean, I don't usually just let anyone -" Oh Merlin's left ball, she was making this worse. This was why people didn't like her.
Amber eyes studied the girl's face, assessing the threat--there didn't seem to be much of one--before Kalevi lowered his wand, though still holding it between them, lighting up the small space, illuminating shadows of mop handles against the wall, their silhouettes against the stone looking more ominous than cleaning supplies had any right to be.
"Kalevi," he said simply, giving her a slight nod. They were far too close to each other for comfort--the closet was tiny, seemingly not important enough to be one of those magical compartments that was so much larger on the inside. He sighed, closing his eyes for a moment. "I'm just glad you weren't the person I didn't want to see me." He didn't know who Lydia was hiding from, but he shared the sentiment. "You didn't see Dąbrowska out there when you were running, did you?" If she was gone, maybe there would be a chance to get back to Ravenclaw Tower without running into her again.
Shuffling around again--there really wasn't enough space, and Kalevi wasn't nearly drunk enough to start really wanting to get into other people's personal bubbles--Kalevi leaned back against the wall, shoving his loose hand into his pocket. "Not saying I'd be against that, but I just learned your name. First I'll ask who's got you running into closets." Like me, he thought bitterly, me who can't face one useless professor.
kasia's not-so-angelic blond // 5'8" // single (future: augusts straume) // born in finland // lives in lintusaari (a magical village in eastern finland)
A small breath escaped Lydia as the boy's wand dropped and she took in his name. She would have assumed he was a Durmstrang boy based off it alone, yet... he was wearing a Ravenclaw uniform. Glancing around the closet, Lydia's teeth sunk into her bottom lip briefly as she observed, "It's... it's really small in here, isn't it? Like - if we got trapped in here for the... the day, I think we'd run out of oxygen." Or maybe she was being dramatic, given the fact that there was still very much a small gap between the door and floor. At his question, Lydia's brow furrowed because, "Dą... I... no? I don't think so. That's one of the new professors, right? Is that why you're hiding here?"
Not saying I'd be against that, had Lydia's cheeks flushing within an instant and she let out a nervous chuckle. "You say that, but maybe I'd do something really stupid like bi - I'm not going to finish that sentence, lest I wind up giving you nightmares," she said, trailing into an awkward silence.
His question about why she was hiding had her grimacing for a moment and briefly, she considered going against the Hufflepuff moral code of 'honesty' by making up some elaborate lie. But... what did she have to gain from that? Why protect her 'reputation' and bother with fibbing when she could tell the truth? It took less effort. Besides, if he didn't know her as the 'Harlot of Hufflepuff' yet, he'd be told eventually either by a classmate or that stupid blasted rumour owl.
"It's... a long story, one that'll probably make you want to silencio me half-way through so you don't have to have second hand embarrassment at my lack of judgment but..." Lydia paused, before just deciding to go for it. "Uh, last year, I... there was this boy, Thomas Wood. He has a girlfriend, but one thing led to another and we... well, you know, in the library - which, really, was a shit place to do it because I ended up with bruises all over my back." Something Kalevi probably didn't need to know. "His girlfriend found out and then the whole school soon knew. I became even more of a social leper... and because I have a long history of being a dick who makes bad choices, at the end of last year, I... accidentally put my tongue down his brother Evan's throat at a party when I was drunk because I thought that... I thought it was Thomas... and now I'm trying to... avoid... well, Evan, who's in the hall, and probably wanting to shout expletives at me."
"Surprised that you're not hiding from her, too," Kalevi said, the slightest touch of dark amusement in his voice. Of course the Hogwarts students didn't know yet what kind of things went on at Durmstrang, but sooner or later, they would. Just because they put up a front that they had changed since Karkaroff didn't mean anything, in Kalevi's experience. It was only a matter of who would get to tell his story first: himself, or the crowd of purebloods.
But no, instead of hiding from Durmstrang's morally questionable professors, Lydia launched into a story of her own problems. Kalevi could only half follow the whole narrative as it spilled from her mouth, full of names he didn't yet recognize, but from what he could figure out, she'd had some sort of romantic issues in the last year that she would prefer to hide from.
"People love to create social lepers, don't they?" Kalevi's voice grew darker. His hands itched for something to occupy themselves with, a smoke or a drink, to slow the frustration that rose every time he thought about the subject. "Think it makes them feel better about themselves. As if they couldn't be next." His eyes traced shadows on the wall, considering whether to tell the near-stranger why he'd been locked up in the hiding spot. Reliving it was like a nightmare every time, and he had enough of those while asleep that he didn't need to think of them in waking hours.
At the same time, he wanted nothing more than for people to know the truth. He wanted to tell it before someone else could get to her first, to make her hate him more than this Evan must hate her.
"I mean, half of Durmstrang thinks I'm a murderer. Maybe more than half, I wouldn't know, I don't like to ask." Kalevi had been so certain that he'd never see them again, a hope crushed so quickly. "I didn't, before you ask. No, I got to watch someone I thought was my best friend do it and blame me for it." He sighed, rubbing his eyes under his glasses with his free hand. "That's how I ended up here, while Felix is out doing whatever shit you do when you actually get to graduate." He would always be grateful for the second chance Hogwarts had given him, but he knew that the whole time, he would still remember that he shouldn't be here after all.
kasia's not-so-angelic blond // 5'8" // single (future: augusts straume) // born in finland // lives in lintusaari (a magical village in eastern finland)
"I've... been a social leper since first year. Being a Welsh farm girl who shovels mooncalf dung kinda makes that a given," Lydia said with a small one-shouldered shrug. But... things had significantly gotten worse since the whole Wood scandal. She wasn't just known as being weird, she'd become known as being that girl, the one who sleeps with other girl's boyfriends. It wasn't a great title to have - the other girls didn't want to be her friend just in case that happened, and the boys... there was a fair lot of them who thought she'd just... give it up. "I... like, I never set out to do anything like that. When it happened, I was caught up in the moment, and then afterwards I just - maybe it was stupid, but I... I thought there was a chance maybe... he'd... he'd want to be with me. I love... loved him. Stupid, right?"
It appeared that she wasn't the only social leper in this room, as Kalevi delved into the details of his own reputation. It was worse than hers - she was just known as a homewrecker, not a murderer, and it had her quiet for quite some time. Maybe she was an idiot to believe him, but she did and she suspected that the reason he was telling her himself was because he wanted to beat the rumour mill before some mangled, twisted version met her ears.
"You officially beat me at the 'my life sucks' game," she said quietly, before her lips drew into a frown. "People are weird - and they always think they know everything even though they don't have the full story. Then instead of asking... they just... they make stuff up, to support what they want to have happened." She knew that all too well. "With the whole Thomas thing... I'd only ever kissed someone once beforehand, but... that doesn't really fit the narrative of the heartless other woman, does it? People don't want to see me as someone who made a mistake. They want to crucify me for doing something shitty, and so... instead of the truth, people think I've shagged more boys than I can count on all my fingers and toes."
Lintusaari wasn't a farm, but Kalevi had heard enough about his backwater village in his time to understand the sentiment. He still remembered the way people laughed at him when he'd first gone to school, for the manners he didn't have, for the way he'd been unashamed of his body--all from people who didn't understand his culture, the lake and the saunas and the trees.
"There are worse things than a rural life," he mused. He hadn't expected himself to find someone who understood the feeling, but then again, every place had its problems, didn't it? In the past months, he'd been able to build up Hogwarts in his mind, as the school that was going to fix everything, but the moment he'd arrived, he knew it was just another school. Even if it was one far friendlier to him than Durmstrang--there was the rumor mill, always. Lydia was proof of it. And people had even been brought in to fuel it...
"That's why you can't trust people," Kalevi added. "They'll tell you to your face that they're your best friend, or that they love you--" with that he gestured at Lydia-- "and then they'll stab you in the back." Felix had been his friend for years, had been one of the few people in his class that actually liked him, had even been his first kiss--and yet Kalevi could make a good guess that if he'd been standing in a different place that night, it would be him in a grave and Sebastian in his own position.
"And even if you had shagged a bunch of guys, what difference would that make?" He remembered the fact that Felix had pointed out his partying habits, as if it was some proof of him being unstable, as if they hadn't both been doing the same for years. "All that matters is whether people believe the truth. And most of the time, they don't." He stared back at Lydia, the flood of words more than he'd talked to most any of the Hogwarts students yet. "I believe you, though. As long as you believe me."
kasia's not-so-angelic blond // 5'8" // single (future: augusts straume) // born in finland // lives in lintusaari (a magical village in eastern finland)
"There's a lot worse things... but people reckon it's weird, I think, because my uncle was this world famous Quidditch player, they expect my mam to be some Quidditch legend too, not a farmer," Lydia said with a shrug. Her mam had tried to get scouted for the Harpies, but it hadn't worked out. But in a way, Lydia was kind of glad. She quite liked living on a farm, raising mooncalves and playing with animals. A small smile slide across her lips as she joked, "At least I'm handy with a shovel. If I ever need to knock someone out the muggle way... well, watch out. One whack and you're out."
Thomas had never told Lydia he'd loved her. Hell... he hadn't even told her that he fancied her. Occasionally though, he'd talked about how smart she was or how cute she could be when they'd hung out. But he'd kissed her and more in the library - and she'd just... assumed that he'd dump Lexie, or that at the very least, she trusted that he wouldn't tell her... not right away, what they had done. It had felt like a stab in the back when Lexie had confronted her in the Great Hall the morning after because she thought he'd at least give her a heads up. "Maybe we've just had shit runs of luck and there's people out there worth trusting. I mean, I trust my brother and sister with my life," Lydia told him, her brow furrowing. "It could be that both of our reads on trustworthy people just really, really suck."
"I dunno, but people apparently equate shagging more than one other person with being a shitty human being," she said bluntly. Personally, she couldn't give a rat's behind about how many people her friends or enemies alike slept with. Their number of bed partners didn't determine whether they were a good person or not. Lydia returned Kalevi's stare with one of her own and when he announced he believed her, she nodded confidently. "I believe you as well. I mean, maybe it's a bit... hasty of me, since I don't really know you and all, but I reckon we're kinda in the same boat. We're both obviously not well-liked - uh, no offense if you are though - and we've both had shit spread about us and... yeah..."
Lydia faded into silence, sending a worried glance at the door. If she was certain the coast was clear, she would have left the closet by now, but she didn't want to risk it - even though it kinda felt... really stuffy in here. "So, now we've shared our deepest, darkest secrets with another, do you want to talk about something a bit nicer?" she said, lips twitching as she sent him a sideways glance. It would be a good distraction. "I mean, unless you have something better to do than hide in a closet with a girl you still barely know - I can't imagine what that would be though." A playful lilt had entered her voice towards the end because okay, there were a lot of better things to do out there. She was self-aware enough to know that.
"I'd hope there are." Kalevi wasn't entirely sure that he believed Lydia when she said there were people out there worth trusting. Nothing in his life had showed him that so far. It wasn't just the way Felix had destroyed his life, but everything that had led him to that moment--the fractured relationships of his family, the cruel taunts of the older boys at school. Felix had only showed him not to hope anymore, to keep anything that could be used against him close to his heart. "But I don't know. I haven't met any. Not the way I used to trust them." Would Sebastian have been trustworthy, if he had been alive? Was it even worth it to wonder?
Lydia had mentioned her siblings, and Kalevi cast his eyes at the ground, his shoulders slumping slightly. His own younger brother was so much younger than him--twelve years--and Kalevi knew already that the kid wouldn't face the same struggles in life. Pureblood, pure human--they were half-brothers, but they wouldn't be alike at all.
"It's nice that you have them, at least," he murmured, unwilling to share that particular insecurity with the girl just yet. Maybe someday--if she proved to be trustworthy. "Better someone than no one." It would probably have been nice to have siblings closer to his age, he thought, but there was no use in wishing for something that would never happen.
Carefully, he shifted around, trying to get properly to his feet and illuminate the door. "For the record," he added, "I think that the more people you shag, the more it proves that people like you." He, for one, could not look down on anyone for that. After all, it would mean he'd have to look down on his own desires.
Shifting to press his ear against the door, he could hear footsteps still in the hall, and there was no way to tell from inside whose they were, not without revealing their presence in the closet. They would have to leave sooner or later--but why risk it?
"Oh, but there's lots of things that can be done in a closet," Kalevi said, the hint of a playful smile beginning to appear on his face.
kasia's not-so-angelic blond // 5'8" // single (future: augusts straume) // born in finland // lives in lintusaari (a magical village in eastern finland)
Lydia was in half a mind to offer herself up to be a trustworthy person in Kalevi's life but it felt a bit... intimate, and a bit too soon, like diving into the Black Lake head-first instead of testing the waters with the tips of her toes. "Maybe we both need to do those trust exercises with one another. Apparently they're meant to be good - I mean, unless you drop the other person, they whack their head, and bleed out over the floor... then I guess they're not so good," Lydia concluded, nose scrunching up at the thought.
"Yeah, it's good. I mean, I don't know life without them but I'd take a stab in the dark and say things would be a lot more lonely without Dani and Josh in the world." They really were her best friends, as depressing as they may have sounded to others. But they were her two constants, the two people she could always rely on to have her back. They wouldn't abandon her no matter how bad things got. "Maybe I'm a bit too hopeful but maybe after this whole... uh, closet shenanigan... stuff, you could have me? Unless somehow in the next however-many-minutes I manage to hideously repulse you which to be honest, is always a possibility."
I think that the more people you shag, the more it proves that people like you. The words had Lydia's mouth twitching in amusement before she said, "Well, a grand total of one person likes... liked me in this world. Good to know." Based on their conversation, Lydia was fairly certain that Kalevi was not a one-hit wonder when it came to sex like herself. He was good-looking, which probably helped, and he seemed fairly self-confident - all of which were attractive qualities. Curiously, she couldn't help but wonder, "Have you been with many people?"
The next words to leave Kalevi's lips, suggesting that there was a ton of things to do in the closet, had colour creeping into Lydia's cheeks because okay, she hadn't meant it like that. Although if he was suggesting to use it like that... she wasn't really opposed. "Closets are quite multi-functional. Good for... storing brooms and stuff, aren't they?" But given the sheer awkwardness of her words, he might have been opposed.
Kalevi was not in the habit of reflecting on his choices too often. That only led to dark paths, to wondering what he had done to deserve the situations he found himself in--and to wondering why it was that sleeping with as many people as he could convince helped him feel better. It was better to shrug at Lydia's words, the corner of his mouth lifting slightly. "Shag more people, then. Make the guy see who he missed out on." It was logical enough. "That's what I would do, in your situation. It can't be that only one person likes you. I'm sure you could convince me." Being only eighteen, he couldn't say that his number was especially high, but it had increased by a couple already even in the short weeks he'd been at Hogwarts. It turned out that having a rather free dark-haired boy in the bed right next to him was a good benefit of his new dormitory. "I've been with a few." More words didn't seem necessary at the moment--Lydia wasn't the type of person he needed to prove something to.
And even though the closet was cramped, and some broom handle would probably leave a bruise on his back before long, Kalevi found himself enjoying Lydia's company. She was blushing, but she didn't seem uncomfortable. "Very multi-functional, yes." For hiding, of course, but one could hide for more than one reason. "Do you need to be on your way, or should we stay in hiding?"
kasia's not-so-angelic blond // 5'8" // single (future: augusts straume) // born in finland // lives in lintusaari (a magical village in eastern finland)
