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!
Ollie didn't really dislike winter, she wasn't a big fan of it but the cold allowed her to ice skate on the lake and she did like that. The girl had put on some warm clothes and walked with her skates to the lake. She was going to have the best time and no one could take it from her. With a hop in her step and a smile on her face little Ollie finally reached the lake from the castle. She was going to enjoy skating and maybe some friends would join her with it!
The girl sat down on the cold grass and quickly put her skates on before slowly heading over to the ice, poking it with the tip of her skate. The girl grinned and slowly stepped onto the ice, one foot before the other letting the feeling get to her first. Ollie stayed close to the edge and whined a bit.
Maybe she shouldn't have gone alone, this was scary.
Oscar cursed the drafty corridors all the way through the entrance hall and out the castle doors. It was making him depressed how cold it was in the castle. Meanwhile it was completely different outside. Outside it was meant to be cold in winter. But not inside a building. It made him angry. And that didn't help anyone, because it seemed like he was always angry lately. Ever since the fiasco with Parker, everything seemed to be going wrong in his life. It was as if she had cursed him. And maybe she had, the old hag. Grumbling even more about his miserable life, he stomped towards the lake, just to give his legs something to do, the frozen grass crunching under his angry feet. It took him a while to notice as he was looking mostly at the ground while walking, that someone, some mad person no doubt, was trying to ice skate on the thin ice of the lake. He was about to shake his head at the person and continue on his way when he saw that it was Ollie was was standing on the ice. "What're you doing there, Ollie!" he shouted over. "Get off the ice before you break your neck or drown!"
Ollie was very much focussed on the skating she had no idea someone was approaching the lake and with that herself. The blonde girl just wanted to skate! The ice didn't look that bad, well at least not to her! Ollie felt a bit shaky as she tried to ice skate, her legs wobbling slightly like she suddenly lost feeling in them. She then heard shouting which totally threw her off guard, with a yelp the girl fell on her butt.
"Owie!" she whined a bit. The pain was not fun and the girl now had a hard time getting back up but first just looked at who shouted at her in the first place! "Oscar? what are you doing here?" definitely not coming to skate with her! He would've been better off wearing something to protect his buttocks!
"Ow my butt." she said and tried to get up using her hands and knees.
Oscar quickly hurried the remaining distance towards the lake when Ollie fell, just like he had expected her to. He dearly hoped that the ice wasn't beginning to crack already as he didn't fancy having to figure out how to get her back to the shore. Quickly he reached the lake and standing on the edge, he reached out his hand to the girl. "Come on, I'll help you," he offered, hoping she wouldn't make it too difficult. He was in a foul enough mood already to have to deal with any further drama. "What were you thinking, anyway?" he asked, ignoring the question why he was outside in the first place. It hardly mattered anyway and he didn't want to talk about it.
Ollie struggled to get on her feet and looked at Oscar who tried to white knight save her from whatever was supposed to happen to her. The lake squid was probably sleeping, they wouldn't hurt her would they? The girl managed to get on her feet and skated slowly towards Oscar. Her bright blue eyes looking at her friend. She could see he was upset, she saw that easily in people and she loved them all dearly.
Her friends suffered so much and she just wanted him to be happy.
"I got you." she said and took his hand and smiled a bit before taking a seat in the cold grass. It didn't matter much, she didn't mind the cold.
"I wanted to skate! It's the perfect weather for it." she said and shrugged a bit before turning to him. "You look upset? Did i upset you?"
Oscar was satisfied when Ollie took his hand and got off the ice. Well, that could've gone much worse. At least there was someone here with some common sense looking out for her. But he shook his head when she sat down on the frozen ground and continued with the nonsense.
"Do you have a death wish, Ollie?" he accused her, his brow furrowed, instead of answering her if she upset him. Well yes, it upset him if the people close to him did dangerous things. He offered her his hand yet again. "Come on, the ground is freezing. You'll catch a cold. And yes, I don't want to think about what might've happened if I hadn't come outside. You could've broken through the ice! And then what." Oscar could only hope that Ollie would understand and not do something like that again. He couldn't always be there and be her voice of reason.
"If you come inside with me, I can get you some hot chocolate," he promised, to try and stop the girl from getting any more stupid ideas.
The cold didn't bother Ollie much but it sure seemed to bother Oscar. She wondered if something more was going on than that he was letting on because he never acted like this before unless he was mad for some reason. The girl just slowly put on her shoes because she didn't want to damage her skates and walk on them before taking his hand and getting up.
"I-I'm sorry.." she said and looked down for a moment, trying not to cry. She didn't like it when people were upset with her. She just wanted to go out, skate and have fun without worrying people. She didn't think that it was that big of a deal to do so but apparently to Oscar it was a big deal.
'Just don't be mad at me.." she said and slowly headed for the castle. She did feel like hot chocolate. Ollie just looked down at her feet and held onto her skates.
Oscar watched Ollie put on her shoes, glad that she was listening, even though he hadn't expected anything else. Ollie was easy to influence. But also easy to upset, so he gave her a small smile when she apologized. "It's fine. I'm just looking out for you. You don't exactly make it easy though," he added to hopefully dissuade any other stupid plans she might have to get herself in danger.
"I'm not mad," he assured her, "but I'm pretty sure Parker would even more want to kill me if you died, so..." he tried to joke, but just saying the name of his ex girlfriend pained him. Leading Ollie inside, he walked towards the Hufflepuff common room, intending on making a stop in the kitchens to get some hot chocolate. It hadn't been just an empty promise. And maybe it would help him relax a bit too.
Ollie never meant to upset Oscar, all she wanted to do was skate and enjoy herself. Oscar shouldn't have been so mad about it but she figured he was worried, her brain was trying to give a positive spin to this. The girl frowned when Oscar said he wasn't mad but it took a bit before she could manage a smile of her own. "Really?" she didn't like making people upset for no good reason.. there was too much bad things out there to be mad at something so small.
"I'm sorry.. I just wanted to skate." she said softly. She remembered the winters when she was smaller, she could skate back then whenever she wanted but the winters weren't as cold as they used to be. The winters were kinder now, warmer and she knew the summers would be hotter and less kind.
"She wouldn't hurt you! She adores you as much as you think otherwise. I love her to bits but she wouldn't kill for me I am sure that's not in her. She is way too sweet to hurt anyone!" she said and bit her lip. "You really thought i'd die?"
"Really," Oscar assured the girl, hoping to keep the bitterness he felt out of his voice, and managed a small smile. It did annoy him when people were careless, but he didn't want to scare Ollie. She was easily scared.
Survival seemed not to be an instinct Ollie posessed, so Oscar took it upon himself to provide that for her. If he didn't then who would? "How about you do that again once the ice is thick enough," he suggested kindly. Sometimes it felt as if he was talking to a small child.
Oscar had to pray for patience to Merlin, Slytherin himself and all that was holy at the reply he received for his joke. Why did she have to take it so literally? Apparently the humour had been a bit too morbid for her to understand. "I... I was kidding, Ollie, don't worry. I know she wouldn't..." but she'd definitely hex my buttocks into the next century, he added in his mind, but didn't see the necessity to say out loud. "And I didn't think you'd die, but you might've gotten hurt and I can't have that, now can we?"
Approaching the kitchens, he tickled the pear in the painting and entered, getting swarmed by house elves immediately. "Just some hot chocolate," he told the elves.
Some people probably thought Ollie was too naive for her own good and they weren't wrong. She was pretty oblivious to many things and other people often had to explain what they meant but that didn't mean she didn't understand anything that was being said. Ollie wasn't stupid, she knew the differences between many things but often didn't understand the reasons of people's words or actions. Some people just didn't make sense to her in those ways.
"Alright.." she said softly though she thought the ice was perfect the way it is she didn't see a point to arguing. Ollie just felt a bit sad as she walked to the castle. Would she tell Parker that Oscar upset her? No she didn't want Parker to kill him either. Parker deserved happiness with a boyfriend that wasn't dead. The girl looked at Oscar who took her to the kitchens.
"Oh right.. uh.. yeah." she said and rubbed the back of her neck. "I knew that.." she said with a slight blush. "I suppose not. I didn't think of that honestly." she said and just felt stupid now. The girl watched Oscar tickle the pear and then crawled into the kitchen as well. She gave the elves a smile and took the cup of hot chocolate with extra marshmallows, just the way she liked it.
"Thank you. For the chocolate." she said and gave Oscar a small smile. "What were you doing outside? You don't seem to enjoy the cold Oscar." she said and took a seat while sipping from her hot chocolate.
Oscar sighed deeply, but tried to disguise it as blowing on his hot chocolate, when Ollie asked him why he had been outside. No, he didn't enjoy the cold. That was also why he was now warming his hands on his mug. "Just... had to get away from... things... for a bit," he explained vaguely. Honestly, he didn't know what he was doing. If only his life could stop being so horrible, pretty please? It would save him, for a start, from unneccessary walks in the cold. But at least with this walk he had prevented Ollie from hurting herself, so that had to count for something, right?
"Will you promise me not to go skating anymore until the ice is thick enough?" he asked finally, to distract from himself.
