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!
It was that time of year again. December, slowly approaching Christmas, and that meant the winter ball had come around once more. It was a tradition at this point, one that had been ongoing for the last fifteen years. It was a way to allow students to let their hair down and relax amid the stressful school year that was crammed full of studying and exams.
For the special occasion, the great hall had been transformed into a winter wonderland. A glance up at the sky showed what looked like snow falling, although it never quite reached the people down below. There were ice sculptures adorning the middle of every table, surrounded by platters of festive food and drinks. The cups for the drinks had a sneaky enchantment on them and if any of the more mischievous students tried to add a splash of their own smuggled in beverages, the cups instantly froze into blocks of solid ice, sticking to the student's hand.
At the front of the room, where the professors usually enjoyed their meals, were the Weird Sisters who had asked Willy Wagtail to play with them in honour of his late father, Myron Wagtail. For students who wanted to dance along, there was a great big clearing in the centre of the room for them to groove to their heart's desire.
Stationed by the drinks table stood Jack who sipped at his travel mug of coffee, eyes lighting up as the clock from the clock tower chimed out, signalling that it had just struck seven o'clock which meant any moment now, students were due to start arriving.
6'0". IRISH. BIG HEART. LOYAL. BRAVE. WORKAHOLIC. BISEXUAL. SINGLE. distinguishing features: a big scar runs across jack's left cheek credit for award goes to ollie! <3
Post by GRACE LONGBOTTOM on Jul 1, 2019 11:58:05 GMT
Walking into the great hall, Grace was nervous. Beyond nervous, in fact, especially as she glanced down at her dress because... oh gosh, was what she wearing too revealing? Was she showing too much of her cleavage? She'd wanted to put a stitch in the dress at the front, but when she'd asked the dressmaker they'd laughed and told her not to be silly, that she was a teenage girl and these were the prime years of her life. She'd left the dressmaker's feeling mildly uncomfortable as a result.
Glancing around the room, Grace tried to see if any of her friends had arrived yet, but to no avail. Goodness, okay. Breathing out shakily, Grace headed straight towards the drink table instead, deciding to pour herself a drink so she at least had something to do with her hands. If they weren't occupied, she'd start curling them inwards without meaning to and probably end up with fingernail marks on her palms as a result. She didn't want to deal with bloody palms tonight, especially not if by some miracle, she was asked her to dance.
Alexander McCarthy was not the most enthusiastic about most parties, but tonight was the Winter Ball. This was the best night, full of fun and laughter and...also a lot of crying while hearts were trod on. It was that time of the year again! Christmas was coming again and it was just too cold to function. He'd planned on attending the event solely as just a prefect and then he'd taken one look at his namesake moping in the common room and had decided to drag him along. He'd had to dig through his clothes but eventually found some Gabriel cast offs that sorta fit Alex. They were a little tight and he definitely hadn't checked the other boy out....definitely not.
In any case, he was ready for the flood of noise and excitement that came with the ball, giving the other Alexander's hand a soft squeeze, turning back to give him a bright smile. "Alright, you've got me and my crew once they rock up. Stick by me and don't get lost!" He told the Ravenclaw, pulling him a little closer. "And don't be afraid to dance with anyone tonight! Whoever strikes your fancy!"
Post by ALEXANDER GREENAWAY on Jul 2, 2019 10:24:42 GMT
If people were to ask Alex if he'd ever gone to a ball before, the answer would be a resounding no because a) he didn't actually like talking to people, b) he couldn't dance for shit, and c) he had zero formal clothes to wear. But there was a first time for everything, right? Alexander (well, the other one) had all but decided to drag him to the dance despite his objections that he didn't have a thing to wear... which had led to Xander dressing him up like a barbie doll in his brother's clothes that were... well, tight. A lot tighter than Alex was used to, given that he generally lived in a bunch of baggy, frayed old hand-me-downs from people much bigger than him. "I feel like I'm dressed up like a superhero, ready to go on a mission," Alex had muttered, trying to tug down at one of the suit sleeves as they'd left the common room. He imagined this was exactly what spandex felt like, though he never intended to confirm this.
Somewhere along the way to the great hall, Xander had grabbed his hand. Totally fine. Not weird at all. Didn't send tingles running up his spine and make his heart beat faster because this was something two, er, bros did, right? Alex's brain was screaming 'no' at him but he ignored it because it was a traitor, just like Grima Wormtongue. "Your... your crew... er, who... is your crew exactly?" Alex asked, trying his very best to muster up a smile back at Alex. Unfortunately, said smile came out looking more like Alex was constipated than anything. Immediately, he dropped it. "Oh, I... dance. Yeah, do you know... what else is fun? Sitting and watching. Eating food. But you can dance, I'll just, uh, stand and watch."
I will tiptoe down that line but I will feel unstable
The christmas ball scared Cassidy enough to go by herself. She didn't ask anyone to be her date and like usual no one asked her to be theirs either. The blonde just let out a small sigh and walked into the great hall wearing a dress she made herself, it was white with long sleeves and a snowflake lace pattern. It wasn't the most fancy but it worked for Cassidy at least. The girl looked around seeing so many people and just scurried towards the table with the drinks.
Cassidy ran a hand through her hair as she stood at the table with the drinks, a drink in her other hand. She sipped from it while watching the band. She heard about the story, so tragic.
Sam had allowed himself a couple of hours to get ready for the ball despite not having a date. His actions had been sluggish of late, he'd stopped reaching out to his friends, withdrawn into himself and had become bitter because of it. He saw the signs... Still, he couldn't just snap out of it. It was most likely because of exams. Stress and exhaustion does a number on someone's mental health. He hated it though. It reminded him of his mother. She was just like this. So, it took Sam a few hours to gather the strength and focus to pull himself up and don his dress robes.
Now that he was walking up the stairs, away from the dungeon, he felt a small sliver of hope hit him. A welcome feeling. He picked up his pace slightly. If anything, he could trick his classmates into thinking he was fun to be around. Then maybe he'd be forced to admit that he wasn't alone in the world. His mind was still racing, but movement helped him keep in time.
As Sam entered the Great Hall, he scanned the room. There were the Alexes... Grace near the refreshments table. Sam ambled over to her, picking up a drink as well, leaning on the table. "Hey Gracie! Sick dress!" He grinned. He was glad that Grace Longbottom was the first friend he saw. Her presence lightened his heart.
School dances were always a favourite time for Zoe except that, as a teacher, she had to be considerate of both her professional standing and how … insecure... teenagers could be. It was not her time in the spotlight, so it was that Zoe dressed in something rather demure. Just a simple, little black dress with cheeky lace cut outs down the side. Her heels were all sparkles and straps and would have gone click-click on the hard stone floors but she was standing dutifully at a table on the other side of the hall to Jack.
Her keen blue eyes scanned the beautiful Great Hall in all its wintery majesty and could hardly wait for the main event; The Weird Sisters. Zoe might be able to convince a dance or two out of her colleagues if she were lucky and things went well. She couldn't help that the music made her bop a little in the spot; she wasn't a robot and music moved her even if she had to keep the dancing rather tame. This was, after all, for the students.
As the students began to enter the hall, she offered them a friendly smile. Any student that appeared to be a little nervous, she gave encouraging thumbs-up and enthusiastic nods to.
As Sally made her way down towards the great hall for her second ever winter dancing (woohoo!), she gave herself some cheeky finger guns when she caught sight of her reflection because man, she looked hella cool. Way better than she would have in some floofy, poofy dress that she wouldn’t be able to dance in without worrying about it falling down or any of that stuff. Instead, in the two piece pantsuit she wore, she had freedom to wiggle like a flobberworm, and bonus points, if she got too hot in the process she could just shrug her blazer off and still rock out in the crop top underneath. It was genius, a win win situation! If she could get house points for being a thinker, Hufflepuff would be cheering her name!
Stepping the hall, Sally’s eyes scoped out the room, trying to see if she could chill with any of the students who had already arrived but nah. The only one she knew was Gracie, and she was talking to some snakey dude. Instead of being a sad sack and dwelling on that though, Sally slid onto the dance floor and let the music rush through her. Her hands raised in the air, twisting above her body that gyrated in beat to the music. Man, the Weird Sisters were going off tonight. Never one to be shy, she hollered at the random person next to her, “This song is KICKASS!”
Post by AIDEN VALENTINO on Jul 2, 2019 16:10:43 GMT
Who even needed a twin sister? Not Aiden. He had prefect duties so he didn't mind one bit that Alana had decided that she would be attending the Winter Ball with her [insert Aiden having serious difficulty getting this next word out even in his mind] girlfriend. No, Aiden allowed Alana to make one final adjustment to his already quite suave all black suit before he left the Ravenclaw Tower for the Great Hall.
"Really? A kerchief?" Aiden groaned as he looked at the white thing Alana had placed in his pocket on his way down. As he stepped into the Great Hall, though, Aiden couldn't quite supress the smile that curled his pink lips towards the enchanted ceiling. It was beautiful, even he could not deny that.
In his expensive Italian dragonhide boots (because even in the wizard society everything properly fashionable came from Italy), Aiden walked through the tables towards the drinks. He looked the two Alexes up and down, clearly put off by the fact that one of them looked like he dressed in the dark... and Greenway looked terrible too. His eyes then fell upon Longbottom and that snake Sam so he decided promptly that just getting a drink would be much less headache-inducing.
"The Great Hall looks fantastic this evening, Professor O'Connor," Aiden said amiably as he poured himself a drink. He noticed another young Claw at the table but … for the life of him, he didn't remember her name. She looked nice though. "I'm excited to see how well William can impersonate his late father."
Dance time! the Hufflepuff boy could literally hardly wait. His siblings all excelled at the whole Quidditch thing but Liam … he had oodles of groove and bundles of friends and the band that old man Prof-O hired was off-the-hook.
Though he was itching to get to the Great Hall so that he could get his dance on, Liam had to quickly stop off to the Slythie dungeons to pick up a certain little snek that he might just be taking as a … a date? this time? Yeah. If his little sister screamed about it in front of the whole school he wouldn't be totes awks about it because yes this was a date with little Elena Benena and if he was lucky he'd get some big ol' smooches tonight too.
Once he had picked up Elena at the Slytherin dorms, Liam was a chatterbox about almost everything on the way to the Great Hall. None of it was important enough to write here, of course, except to say that when he laid eyes on Elena he'd stared a little longer than he probably should have before saying, "benena, you're beautiful," which was … well... true. "A'ight, girl, we gon' dance right now so get ready - I'll show yo some easy ones if ya need."
Post by ELENA COLDWATER on Jul 2, 2019 23:13:42 GMT
Elena hadn't super planned out anything with her outfit. To be fair, she just sent her mom a letter and her father had just taken her mom to pick it out for Elena (all while keeping her mom from buy several dresses for variety). She put on the long powder blue dress and heels... heels. to be fair, she was pretty coordinated and athletic, but these? They took a whole different center of balance that terrified her. She'd been even more worried when she realized that this was, quite honestly, her first real date... And it was with Liam.
And the boy. Could. Dance!
She never danced-danced, so was she going to make a fool of herself? Possibly. She sighed, holding her breath a bit as she met Liam, of course, steadying herself on his arm the whole way they walked and letting him taLk most of the way. She smiled as they arrived. It was adorable the way he carried on. She turned as they made it in, for the first time, catching the boy staring. She chuckled gently, " What is it?" She asked, finding the answer took her focus off the heels. She flushed ferociously, smiling a bits her bashful green eyes darted down a bit as she felt almost embarrassed that he was comlimenting her. "Thanks, Lili. You look handsome. As usual." She smiled, looking back to him as he insisted on them dancing.
"Sounds good to mem just don't let me fall in these bloody death traps. I'm taller and my natural shortness doesn't know how to handle the high altitude, " She joked, giving him a kiss at his cheek as she wondered where her lovely bestie VIOLA ROSALINE was. She was excited to see her beautiful bestie all dolled up.
She was dragged into the great hall against her wishes or she felt like it at least. Nonetheless Lucy had dressed up in something sleek and if she dare say it, sexy. True it was all black or a very dark gray, but it was in its own way very much complimenting her pale skin and red hair. For the occasion she had gone for gold earrings. She knew she liked silver better, but gold just worked with her hair so brilliantly. Finally she was patting herself down and had headed to the great hall, on order of her dorm mates, who were still trying to set her up with someone.
True she had started to notice people more since puberty set in well enough, but she was still rather careful with her thirteen years of age. Of course it was a chance that she might meet the love of her life, or the biggest jerk she’ll ever meet, she didn’t know. What she did know was that she was rocking her sexy ass outfit and her dancing was on point. Finally stopping the dancing to get a drink she headed over to the drinks and started looking over it all, trying to decide. ’’What to pick, what to pick? If only someone could help me with that...’’
Post by ALANA VALENTINO on Jul 3, 2019 5:01:57 GMT
There were far too many choices for Alana hung up on the bed's posts; dresses that showed off her body in various ways in delicious materials that would remind the rest of the school just how much money the Valentino twins had at their disposal. She was careful not to get the dresses out though when her dorm mates were around; the politeness bred into her made her cite that she wanted it to 'be a pleasant surprise' for everyone... but in reality she didn't trust the filthy creature Mavican one ounce. She'd either steal her clothes, or worse still, put her dirty mitts on them and ruin the fabric.
With the final decision being a long taffeta gown that complimented her particular golden locks, Alana finished her minimalistic make up, put the locks in a charming chignon and the final touch was the golden necklace with a diamond worth a Hogwart's teacher's yearly wage balancing gently in that dip between her two collar bones [that Roo doesn't know the correct terminology for]. It sparkled even in the dim lighting of the dorm room like a star at the base of her delicate neck.
After she was finished preparing herself, Alana fussed over Aiden's suit before he left for his duties. "Don't do anything I wouldn't do, gemello mio," Alana sing-songed, before imitating the Dickcissel whistle as he exited. If it weren't for the rings on his fingers, Alana could have missed the flash of rude hand signals he offered on his way out.
Next it was Alana's turn to leave the Ravenclaw Tower to meet Kaylie at the Great Hall - she would have ventured into the snake pit, but her dress had a bit of a train to it that she didn't want ruined with the dampness that held to the cold stones down there. Instead, she walked with poise and purpose to the Great Hall and awaited her girlfriend there.
Post by EVAN OLIVER WOOD on Jul 3, 2019 6:37:09 GMT
The wizard adjust his bowtie in front of the big mirror in the Gryffindor common room. His mother had fussed over getting him the right, well fitting suite although he did feel that she'd gone a little overboard with the black vest but mothers will be mothers.
It's worth noting that beneath said black vest, Evan wore a crisp white button down shirt that showed his slowly growing muscles when he happened to flex. He fiddled with his cufflinks as he waited for his friend, Agnes, to be ready to join him down to the Great Hall. Not as a date date, but as two good friends that enjoyed each other's company and had just as terrible dance moves as each other.
"Aggggggggggy would you hurry up please? The longer I wait for you the more Mr Fluffytail rubs up my legs and soon I'll be attending the Ball looking like a cat myself!" he called through the fifth year girl's dorm.
'Ready to get your groove thang on girl?" Evan called still. He was a terrible dancer and would very probably fall over if he tried anything more than a bop. He blamed the fact that he was growing very tall, very fast but no doubt there were other theories. There always were.
Post by KAYLIE ROUSSEAU on Jul 3, 2019 7:45:59 GMT
And while you are sitting indoors waiting for the storm to pass I will be outside dancing in the rain
❧
A winter dance. Kaylie never liked going to them, not because she didn't dance but because people would dress up so much to look pretty and she didn't feel like that was her. The blonde was going to probably shock the world but Kaylie managed to wiggle her body into a dress. It was still black which made her comfortable but she wasn't comfortable at the same time.
With a sigh she walked into the great hall, her hair was not fancy because she didn't like it to be. She just chewed on her lip and searched for Alana.
School dances were always a favourite time for Zoe except that, as a teacher, she had to be considerate of both her professional standing and how … insecure... teenagers could be. It was not her time in the spotlight, so it was that Zoe dressed in something rather demure. Just a simple, little black dress with cheeky lace cut outs down the side. Her heels were all sparkles and straps and would have gone click-click on the hard stone floors but she was standing dutifully at a table on the other side of the hall to Jack. 
As Sally made her way down towards the great hall for her second ever winter dancing (woohoo!), she gave herself some cheeky finger guns when she caught sight of her reflection because man, she looked hella cool. Way better than she would have in some floofy, poofy dress that she wouldn’t be able to dance in without worrying about it falling down or any of that stuff. Instead, in the two piece pantsuit she wore, she had freedom to wiggle like a flobberworm, and bonus points, if she got too hot in the process she could just shrug her blazer off and still rock out in the crop top underneath. It was genius, a win win situation! If she could get house points for being a thinker, Hufflepuff would be cheering her name!
Who even needed a twin sister? Not Aiden. He had prefect duties so he didn't mind one bit that Alana had decided that she would be attending the Winter Ball with her [insert Aiden having serious difficulty getting this next word out even in his mind] girlfriend. No, Aiden allowed Alana to make one final adjustment to his already quite suave all black suit before he left the Ravenclaw Tower for the Great Hall.
Dance time! the Hufflepuff boy could literally hardly wait. His siblings all excelled at the whole Quidditch thing but Liam … he had oodles of groove and bundles of friends and the band that old man Prof-O hired was off-the-hook.
There were far too many choices for Alana hung up on the bed's posts; dresses that showed off her body in various ways in delicious materials that would remind the rest of the school just how much money the Valentino twins had at their disposal. She was careful not to get the dresses out though when her dorm mates were around; the politeness bred into her made her cite that she wanted it to 'be a pleasant surprise' for everyone... but in reality she didn't trust the filthy creature Mavican one ounce. She'd either steal her clothes, or worse still, put her dirty mitts on them and ruin the fabric.
The wizard adjust his bowtie in front of the big mirror in the Gryffindor common room. His mother had fussed over getting him the right, well fitting suite although he did feel that she'd gone a little overboard with the black vest but mothers will be mothers.
