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 TERESA NOTTINGHAM on Apr 28, 2019 2:52:35 GMT
I
t had been two years and Teresa liked to think that she'd gotten used to this whole life on the streets gig. She had to get used to it, to adapt, there was no other choice except to admit defeat and lay down and die. She wasn't going to give anybody that satisfaction - not her parents, not the Ministry, not Hogwarts.
Sliding off an older woman's lap and telling her that she'd ‘catch her later’ in a sultry whisper into her ear, the minute Teresa was out of sight she rolled her eyes as produced the purse she'd snitched out of the woman's bag. Well, that was easy. Looking into the purse, a smirk graced her lips. Now she could afford a drink or five plus food for the rest of the week. The woman was loaded.
Taking a few galleons out of the purse, Teresa shoved the rest of the purse and it's galleons into the inside pocket of her jacket for safe keeping before sauntering up to the bar. “Tequila, no ice,” she ordered shortly. They weren't about to shortchange her by filling her cup with ice and water. Waiting for her drink, Teresa's eyes skimmed the rest of The Leaky. Perhaps she could convince some poor sod to let her crash at their place tonight, maybe if she batted her eyelashes and flipped her two long braids enough.
Verandi was tired; the good kind of tired that came from a successful day of hunting. The owner of The Leaky Cauldron enjoyed himself freshly caught rabbit; it was often the Friday special when Verandi could provide five or so for the cook. Sometimes, for the richer clientele, there was even partridge pie ... with the meat supplied from the expert huntress. It was the more reputable way that this werewolf made a little bit of cash. This afternoon, the young woman knew that she'd get a decent payout from the three rabbits and two fat partridge cockerels in her charmed bag.
When her dragonhide boots (ahh, relics of a lifetime past) were sufficiently wiped clean at the entrance, Verandi made her way to the bar. The pub was busy and someone rudely knocked into her, "watch it, troll," she snarled and shoved him in the opposite direction. The disgruntled werewolf then put the bag on the table; it was no bigger than a normal shopping bag despite the fact that it held several dead animals due to its magic.
"You there, tell the cook I've a delivery," she barked the order at the bartender just after the girl with the long braids ordered herself a tequila. "That's muggle liquor. The good stuff's fire whiskey," Verandi commented, the tone in her voice made the bartender pick up on the fact that the regular expected said drink to materialise promptly. "Ah. Now this right here... this will warm you from tit to toe," she drank the double shot in one fell swoop and wiped her mouth clear of any residual liquor.
Post by TERESA NOTTINGHAM on May 6, 2019 10:17:41 GMT
T
eresa's nails, that weren't in the best of shape, tapped impatiently against the bar as she waited for them to hurry up and make her damn drink. Were they juicing the whole plant back there? Goddamn.
Luckily however, her attention was soon captured by a new person entering the bar and Teresa's eyes skimmed over the woman, taking in her appearance. Those boots... were expensive, that was for sure, yet she was holding a 'delivery.' Surely she couldn't afford those shoes being a simple delivery person, right? Unless the woman was bringing in drugs. It was possible there was a decent sized shipment in that bag.
Curiously, Teresa eyed the bag until suddenly the woman spoke to her, criticising her choice of liquor. "Just 'cause it's muggle liquor doesn't mean it can't get the job done," Teresa said, shrugging as she received her drink, sipping at it. Then eyes moving to the bag yet again, she certainly wasn't shy as she nodded at it then asked the stranger, "So... what's in there? Large quality of billywig stings, or alihotsy?"
Verandi was not a fan of people eyeing her, or her things, off. Like the wolf that she turned into once a month, Verandi found it to be along the lines of a challenge. So it was that the hairs on the back of her neck stood on end, even as Verandi's attention was on the barkeep that went to deliver her message to the cook. Of course her eyes turned to Teresa eventually as she commented about her poor taste in liquor and she … unfortunately couldn't deny the other woman's logic. "It does the job so well that you sip at it like you're at tea with the Queen," Verandi observed, a raise of her brow and a gentle tap of her empty shot glass on the bar to signal for another. The barkeep was quick to comply.
"Billywig stings? If I had those in my rucksack I wouldn't be slumming it here," Verandi let out a rough bark of laugh. "I am a hunter - though now I believe I'll have to take up hunting on a whole other continent for a better payout," the werewolf was referencing the fact that billywigs were mainly found in Australia but there was no doubt a market for them in the sad, dreary English lives of the wizard-folk on the British Isles. "It's three rabbits and a partridge hen," she finally said as the cook came out from the depths of the pub and wiped their messy hands on an even messier apron.
"... yes, thankfully I cannot afford to eat at your establishment, Cook," Verandi said as a disgusted look pulled her lips back in a sneer. There was a gruff reply that cannot be written on a PG13 site and Verandi rolled her eyes back over to Teresa. "At least you cannot get food poisoning from their firewhiskey, eh?"
Post by TERESA NOTTINGHAM on Jun 4, 2019 13:07:11 GMT
W
hen the other woman commented that she was 'sipping at it,' immediately Teresa was amused and she shrugged. Shrugging was poor manners, if you asked her parents, but they hadn't been around when she was a kid and had dropped Teresa like a bag of dirt when she was kicked out of Hogwarts. She didn't give a damn what they thought, they could shove it up their snooty arses. "I guess when you're broke as hell, you gotta find some way to make shit last," was all she said in reply, watching as the woman tapped her drink on the bar. It was the equivalent to a rich lady tapping their fingers, expecting service now.
"A hunter..." Teresa repeated, her eyes narrowing immediately. Was that this woman's reason for being here? To play big bad auror and take her to Azkaban for some 'crime' she didn't commit? Just because she was a werewolf? Teresa was smart enough not to verbally come to conclusions, however, and decided to casually sus out the situation as said, "You don't look like you work for the ministry." Then the woman was saying something about rabbits and a partridge. "Did you get it from a pear tree?"
The 'cook's' colourful reply made Teresa's brows raise, though not as much as the woman's statement. "Maybe not food poisoning, but wouldn't be surprised if you caught something else in this joint," Teresa replied. Like any variety of diseases, which was possible considering how damn grimy it was in here. "I'm T, by the way."
The young woman's reply about sipping her drink making it last longer was a rather considerate reply. A mature answer that Verandi could appreciate and certainly not one that she had thought of herself. She lived quick, like the rabbits she hunted, and so when the second drink came she tilted her head at her drinking buddy and sipped at the firewhiskey. "Here's to being broke as hell," Verandi said as she felt the slow burn of the alcohol on her throat. It hurt more? How the hell was that possible?
"A hunter, yes, one of the oldest professions - I think it even outdates whoring," Verandi said with a raised brow as she watched how Teresa's expression changed straight away. "Come now, don't insult a girl. I'd never work for those Ministry arseholes." The woman brushed her own long, ginger fringe back out her face when the other asked about a pear tree. "Does this look like it came from some Christmas carol?" she asked as she roughly pulled the freshly killed bird out of the magic bag and pushed it towards Teresa.
The Cook that had come out and sworn worse than a sailor snatched the bird back gruffly and stormed to the kitchens. "Hey T, I'm V," Verandi offered, amused. "So, T-Broke-As-Hell, what's your beef with the Ministry monsters?"
Post by TERESA NOTTINGHAM on Jun 15, 2019 4:34:18 GMT
T
he woman actually heeding Teresa's advice surprised her and quite frankly, she thought she'd have an argument on her hands. But nevertheless, she was satisfied, raising her drink in a toast to 'being broke as hell.' "Here's to not knowing where you'll sleep night after night," she said, words coming out as a joke which was as unfunny as they came. Lifting the glass to her lips, she took yet another small sip. "Does being a hunter not pay well then?"
Whoring. The word settled on Teresa's skin unpleasantly. Way back in school, she had people spit the word 'whore' at her. Same as when she first landed on her arse in the streets and had to do whatever she could to get by... She supposed that even now, some would consider to be a whore, but was she? She didn't demand payment upfront, didn't tell people she'd be taking money in exchange for shagging them. She just... slept with them, then reaped the benefits when they fell asleep afterwards. It was their own fault for being stupid enough to bring a stranger home, and then leave her to her own devices. "Everyone has a different way of hustling," she said lightly. "Whoring's an old profession for a reason. Because it works. Otherwise people wouldn't do it."
"They really are arseholes, aren't they? Stupid soldiers, too. Taking orders from a clueless government, saying 'yes, sir' and 'yes, ma'am' to whatever the Ministry asks of them instead of actually using their brain and thinking for themselves," Teresa said, anger creeping into her voice slowly. Then the woman was shoving a limp, dead bird straight at her and Teresa stared at it for a moment, unblinking before glancing up to level her gaze at the woman, eyes narrowing. "божевільна сука .Is that meant to scare me? I've seen worse shit than a dead bird." Like her school mates being ripped apart and bitten by werewolves, for one. It stayed with you, watching something like that.
The bird was gone a moment later and Teresa took in V's question. flicking her braids over her shoulders. "They're morons, that's my 'beef,'" she told her, shaking her head. "Minister's daughter gets killed in an attack at Hogwarts and suddenly there's a war raged against werewolves? Even though there were students bitten against their will in said attack, and punishing werewolves will punish those students and innocents in the process? What would have happened if the guy's daughter had been bit, huh? Bet he wouldn't be doing this shit."
Verandi's young friend returned the toast with a sad side-effect of being broke as hell; homelessness. The werewolf's eyes scanned over the girl in that moment, as she sipped slowly, trying to discern why on Earth this little creature didn't have a warm, cosy bed to snuggle up in every night. Even being a werewolf and destitute didn't leave Verandi homeless so she should be forgiven for not jumping to the conclusion straight away. "May you find somewhere soft tonight," Verandi said with the smallest twitch of her tiny lips into an almost soft smile. "In a world of convenience stores just around the muggle bend, no, hunting does not pay as well as it would've a century ago."
The mention of whoring had set her already prickly company even more on edge; that Verandi could decipher well enough from the body language. "Aye, I'm not knocking it. A girl's greatest asset is the thing between our legs," she said with a curt nod. The pleasure centre of the body, the gateway to making life and when push-came-to-shove, a way of making a living. Verandi had a lot of respect for it. "Dealing in services that are most definitely recession proof," Verandi said with a hoarse chuckle before the girl began her angry reply regarding working for the Ministry. She enjoyed the hint of anger that came through; it tickled the more animalistic side of Verandi.
"No, it just amuses me to see how much blood or guts I can get on a random stranger," the werewolf replied with a small glint of mischief in her bright eyes. Except that the woman exclaimed something in a very foreign language; Verandi had picked up bits and pieces of the Gaelic tongue in her many years on the Scottish highlands and this... this was something entirely different. Not something easily recognisable by the layman such as one of the Latin based languages... maybe Slavic? Pffft Vernadi had already spent far too much brainpower in this millisecond of contemplation - it was easier to just ask. "What language was that?"
Verandi listened to Teresa's beef with the Ministry with interest. In fact, she put her tight arse down on the bar stool for once and leaned an elbow on the bar itself. "Yeah, the death of the girl was a regrettable accident. Who knew she was so fragile?" Verandi said with a heavy sigh. "The price werewolves paid for it is … well the approach needs to change but half of us are starved crazy and the other half just plain desperate." Verandi wasn't looking forward to the winter because the pickings were already slim and she'd had to cast her net further and further to feed the growing amount of bellies at camp.
Post by TERESA NOTTINGHAM on Jun 23, 2019 10:16:28 GMT
'M
ay you find somewhere soft tonight,' were the unexpected words that fell from V's lips and Teresa's eyes scanned over the other woman, wondering if perhaps that was an offer. Was this woman angling to take her home? Maybe offering to feed her some of the meat she'd hunted and let Teresa warm her bed? "Do you live far from here then?" she asked, a flirty smile sliding onto her lips as she played with the ends of her braid. It was worth a shot, and being rejected didn't hurt Teresa anymore. She'd just move onto the next person and chat them up. No biggie. "I bet your sheets are real soft..."
"It makes some of the most powerful men weak at the knees, some of those powerful women too. It's just one body part, and a lot of people would do anything to enjoy the pleasure of it," Teresa said, pleased that no, V was not about to start abusing the shit out of whores. Good. Otherwise she'd have an argument on her hand, maybe a wand jabbed in the soft skin of her throat. "When you can't find work any other way... then yeah. Definitely a valid way of living."
Teresa wanted to tell V that maybe she should try that on someone who hadn't seen others ripped to literal shreds, but she didn't. Instead, she clicked her tongue, not caught off guard in the slightest as V asked what language she'd just spoken. "Ukrainian. I speak some Russian, too, but Ukrainian's my second language," she said easily. "My nanny - one of them - was from the Ukraine. Taught my brother and I both. Not that being multilingual has done either of us any favours." Didn't do any harm, either, but it was relatively useless. You didn't encounter a whole heap of Ukrainians or Russians in Britain.
"You only hear of the death of that one girl, don't you? You'd think it was just one person. Five people were affected in that attack. Three were killed, two were bitten," Teresa said, anger creeping into her voice once more. It was infuriating. To act like there weren't any other victims of that attack, just golden girl Charlotte Avery. But then V said, 'half of us.' Of us. Not 'them,' and Teresa had always been smart. Her head lifting, she studied V's face for a moment before saying, "Half of us might not even make it through the winter. Half of us didn't even graduate Hogwarts. Half of us are wondering around like lost puppies."
"Well, I don't live within walking distance," Verandi replied easily, loud enough that any inquisitive ears could hear because the wolf wanted it well known that she couldn't be easily found. "Though not so far away that I need a port key, either," she said a little more softly this time, her eyes narrowing in to the way the girl played with her braids. Flirting? Verandi was a very straight forward woman and responded far better to … aggressive handling than the typical play of words and light touching, "I have sheets but their softness is something I believe they once aspired to and never quite reached," Verandi joked. Wait... why... why is Verandi joking? Scrunching her nose a little at herself, Verandi turned back to the bar because this flirting bull shit was … well it was bull shit.
Enjoy the pleasure of it, Verandi gave the girl a sidelong glance because it had been a while since she'd last indulged herself in the pleasure of her own organ, unfortunately. "So, who's the most powerful man or woman you've brought to their knees?" Personally Verandi had plans to bring the Minister of Magic to his knees, or Stuart Craggy even, but more begging for their life than for an orgasm.
"My, my, how the mighty have fallen," the woman said, poking the bear with her usual mocking as Teresa spoke of her many nannies. Verandi had no doubt that her miniscule half siblings had nannies and bed sheets that felt like clouds and food in their bellies that had been specially flown in from a remote island that very day... "Perhaps you could move to Ukraine; maybe they're less biased against parts of the community...?"like wolves she said with a shrug because there wasn't much of the world that wasn't biased against werewolves.
On the discussion of the Hogwarts attack, Verandi nodded slowly. One of the deaths was necessary - that teacher was always earmarked for an early grave no matter what but the students weren't bargained for. Verandi glanced at the barkeep that passed her a small pouch with coins and the wolf deftly counted them, then turned glaring eyes at the person behind the bar who quickly said "minus the drinks" which made Verandi's nostrils flare but her attention turned back to the young woman at the bar who had caught on to her choice of wording.
"If you're tired of walking around like a lost puppy, T, you're welcome to come back to mine... meet other wolves, prepare for this hard winter," Verandi said casually. "And you can decide for yourself just how soft my sheets are."
Post by TERESA NOTTINGHAM on Aug 4, 2019 5:44:09 GMT
'I
never learned how to apparate, so I guess you'll just have to take me along with you," Teresa replied, although it wasn't a question. She imagined with the way this woman spoke, she didn't mind a bit of straight forwardness... especially as Teresa's gentle flirting all but went ignored except for a brief mention of V's sheets. The flirtatious smile that had previously graced Teresa's lips grew more confident within a split second, and she wasn't shy as she boldly said, "As long as you know what to do between the sheets, then maybe the softness doesn't matter too much."
The most powerful man or woman she'd brought to their knees? It took a moment of thought, Teresa's fingers twisting the bottom of her long braids, before her lips twisted in a smirk. "There was an older man from Wizengamot... he wasn't good enough to remember his name, but I could point him out in the paper if I saw him," Teresa said, her mind fondly calling back to the occasion. He'd woken up afterwards, caught her as she was rustling through his drawers, and threatened to call the aurors to his apartment... "He almost called the aurors on me, but when I told him how old I was and asked what the Daily Prophet would think... well. He quickly changed his tune. Gave me a whole silk bag filled to the brim with sickles."
V's next words were mocking and Teresa's eyes immediately narrowed at her. If she was still a school kid, she'd pin her against the wall, jab her throat with her wand. But she was all grown up now, had practically been forced to grow up, and she bit out, "Three years ago, yeah. But I've done a pretty good job at picking myself up for what I am." Did she miss her old life? In some ways. She missed having a bed to go home to, having a galleons stored away in her vault at Gringotts, having her little brother Theo around. But she didn't miss her parents, not one iota. "The Ukraine is filled with witches and wizards that are just as hateful. My life wouldn't be any better living there."
Teresa wasn't dumb. She'd heard all about these packs, especially The Cotswolds. Teddy Lupin had even tried to get her to join them, but she'd refused at the times. She didn't want to be surrounded by the werewolves that had turned her. But ones who hadn't slighted her? Who could help her stay safe, especially as the weather changed and she'd be left shivering on the streets? It didn't sound like the worst thing in the world. "Show me."
