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 JACK O'CONNOR on Apr 14, 2019 11:06:38 GMT
I
t was Jack's fifteenth year teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts at Hogwarts and by now, he was used to this gig. The first day back in classes meant introductions, laying down the law and informing the students of his expectations. He would be pushing them as hard as he could to make them achieve the best results they could get. It was his job, and he took it very seriously after all.
As the students started piling into the classroom, Jack leaned back against his desk. It took a good five minutes but then finally, they were all there sitting in front of him. Pushing off from his desk, Jack levitated a piece of chalk towards the board and wrote his name. "As many of you would know, my name is Professor O'Connor and I teach Defense Against the Dark Arts here at Hogwarts. Unless you are a transfer this year, I have taught every single one of you in first and second year. As a result, I expect you to know and follow my rules. But still... I will give you a refresher in case some have forgotten."
"In this class, we raise our hands when we want to speak. That means, if you have something to say then you will wait for me to call on you. If your peer is talking, you will wait for them to finish what they are saying. Is that understood?" Pausing, Jack moved onto his next rule. "Whilst 'healthy arguing' is allowed, there are to be no raised voices when talking to each other and your wands must strictly stay on your desk unless you are performing a spell."
With Jack's rules laid out, he moved onto laying out his expectations. "Now, I know this is a mandatory class but still, I expect everyone to do the best they can. All assignments must be turned in on time and your work must be up to written to the best of your ability. If you are a fifth year and aiming to take my class next year for your NEWTs, you should know that I only take those with Es and over, no exceptions. Understood?"
With that, Jack's stern expression softened and he sent his class a small smile. For now, the serious stuff was over and the mood in the room could become a little bit lighter. "Now I know you all probably know each other, but we're still going to go around and do introductions. I'd like you to tell everyone your name, your house and year, and what you hope to learn in Defense Against the Dark this year."
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
Walking into the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom, Aggy rubbed the back of her hand over her tired eyes, yawning so wide that her jaw cracked. She hadn't slept very well last night... or the night before, thanks to him. It had been two years and she still woke up screaming several times of the week, bathed in sweat and panting so hard it was like she'd just ran a 10km marathon. Merlin, she hated him, loathed him with every fibre of her being.
Falling into a seat next to Alexander, a Ravenclaw boy in her year, she nodded in lieu of greeting before her attention was drawn to her Head of House at the front. Just as he had the past four years of this class, he gave them all the run down on the rules and expectations before asking them to introduce herself.
Standing up, the Scottish girl surveyed her peers carefully before her arms crossed over her chest. Two years ago, she would have been to shy to introduce herself to the class. But now? She didn't care what they thought of her. It was just... whatever. "I'm Aggy - and yes, I am Irish, however did you guess?" she said, sarcasm already dripping from her lips. The amount of time people got Scottish and Irish accents mixed up was ridiculous. "I'm here because obviously fifth years don't have the capability of choosing their own classes and the school decides for them instead."
Dragging her fingers through her hair, Aggy gave the sarcasm a rest for a moment and gave Professor O'Connor a straight answer. "I would like to learn the Patronus charm, first and foremost, and how to protect ourselves against the Unforgivables." Sitting back down, Aggy waited for the next person to introduce themselves.
Alexander rushed past a few dawdling sixth years, mouthing an apology at them as he continued forward. He'd wasn't late, for once in his life it seemed, but he would be if he didn't hurry along to class. He'd had to run up to get his books for DADA at lunch, but had almost forgotten about while catching up with friends. Professor O'Connor wasn't known for being the most forgiving teacher, so there was no way that he'd want to be late for his class. The Ravenclaw was just glad that he'd been reminded to go grab his textbook before the bell had rung. The Ravenclaw Tower to the First Floor could take a while to get to if the stairs didn't behave, but today they had been perfectly lovely to him.
He arrived at the classroom shortly after the bell, a smile stretching across his face upon realising that he was almost on time! He slipped into the classroom, deciding that a seat to the back would be preferable. Defence wasn't a speciality of Alexander's, but he was pretty good at it. He'd leave the front seats to the younger years. Alexander gave his teacher a polite smile and then averted his eyes to his satchel. It wasn't long until the rest of the class drifted in, including a Gryffindor in his year who sat next to him. Before he could greet her, his attention was taken by the professor who gave a rundown on his typical protocols.
It was a little awkward to have to introduce himself in front of all the students, but he was already running through what he was going to say. It took him by surprise that Aggy had decided to speak first. The red-head gave a scathing introduction, which Alex smirked at. Aggy wasn't everyone's cup of tea, but Alexander thought she was pretty cool. He didn't know if that was a good thing, being a new prefect since he was almost certain the Gryffindor broke every rule under the sun. He startled as he realised that she'd already sat down. He stood up quickly, narrowly missing hitting his knee on the desk. "Uh, hi. I'm Alexander, a fifth year Ravenclaw." Alex glanced down and realised that he'd forgotten to wear his prefect badge and decided against mentioning against the fact that he'd been given the position. "
"I think I have to agree with Aggy about wanting to learn about how to protect ourselves against the Unforgivables. Counterjinxes sound pretty useful too." He gave the person sitting in front of him an encouraging smile and sat down.
And while you are sitting indoors waiting for the storm to pass I will be outside dancing in the rain
❧
Defense against the dark arts was one of Ollie's favorite classes. She had been looking forward to it because aside from it being very informative, it was also fun. Ollie looked around for her friends before taking a seat beside Agnes. She adored her friends and watched the professor explain what they had to do.
Once Agnes got up and introduced herself, she could hear her talk and it sounded mean for a second but then she remembered Agnes's first language was sarcasm and it made Ollie bite her lip a bit trying not to chuckle at her words. She then eyed Alexander who spoke up and it made her smile.
"I don't think he'll quickly forget you.." She whispered to Agnes before getting up herself.
"Hi, I'm Olivia but just call me Ollie really, I am a fifth year Hufflepuff and I would like to learn some spells that can help me help others." she said and smiled a bit.
"Also I'd like to learn how to defend myself.. just a little bit." she then quickly sat down before blushing.
And while you are sitting indoors waiting for the storm to pass I will be outside dancing in the rain
❧
Introductions. God could this class become even more useless than it was before? How were they supposed to handle magic used against them when they can't even survive a day of let's play introduction. People introduced themselves back and forth from a sarcastic redhead to a shy little kid who shouldn't even be here.
It was then that Felix got up and adjusted his uniform. "Felix Bianchi, yes from the large Italian family of succesful aurors and businessmen but how that happened here is a mystery to me." he said with a frown.
"Anyway, I'd like to learn something actually useful and not play introduction and teambuilding exercises." he then sat down and leaned back as he rolled his eyes.
And while you are sitting indoors waiting for the storm to pass I will be outside dancing in the rain
❧
Cassidy was nervous, she didn't like being the center of attention and introductions always causes people to look at her. She fiddled with the necklace of her father and bit her lip when people had finished their part and some were even mean when doing so.
"I ehm... I'm Cassidy Mason and I'd like to learn how to.. avoid dangerous spells and protect my family." she then looked at her notebook. She didn't want to look at people and she certainly didn't want anyone to look at her.
Since Dio had promised his 'uncle’ to 'behave’ this year, the Slytherin decided to attend more classes. He didn't want to disappoint the wandmaker any further. Last year he'd come close to getting expelled. Getting in detention wouldn't be bad but he'd like to prevent letters being sent to home. While his mother would say 'they're just scared because they cannot control you’ his uncle claimed he needed his education.
As soon as he arrived, he knew why he skipped classes often. The Slytherin groaned, no way he was going to introduce himself. They weren't bloody first years. He was later than the others so he might have interrupted some introductions. Whoops. He passed some seats and settled next to his friend Alex. Before glancing towards a hot redhead that went by Aggy. She was seated beside the little claw. The Ravenclaw and Slytherin had a very unlikely friendship. Dio never knew how it started but it was just there and he was totally cool with it.
“I wish we got Dark Arts like Durmstrang gets,” he pouted as he stuck a piece of strawberry gum in his mouth.
With a certain amount of swagger, Liam made his way into the classroom and gave Professor Jack a big old pearly white smile. He was feeling rather suave; over the school holidays he'd let his facial hair grow in and his dad had taught him how to keep it nicely stylized. Being one of the only fifth years with such a sexy, grown up feature he really did feel like a sexy grown up. " 'owz'it 'angin' Prof?" he said as he briefly held his fist up for the professor to fist bump.
Then the Puff went to find himself a seat at a spare table and made himself comfortable by leaning back, providing each of his fellow students with more toothy grins. When Aggy told them that she was Irish, Liam let out a hearty laugh. He was about to rebut her statement about not choosing your classes, but he bit his juicy big lip just in time. When Dio spoke of how he wished to learn the dark arts, Liam's bushy brows raised in surprised worry and his fist hit the desk a little harder than he'd anticipated as he tried to keep his mouth shut and wait his turn again.
Literally jumping out of his chair when it finally got to his turn, with a big flourish of his arms and a grin that could be seen from space, Liam began. "Ey, so I'm Liam Jordan 'n' I'm definitely not Irish but I do like my diddli-dee-pertatoos," he said with a playful finger gun to Aggy, " 'n' I just wanna say that we're not completely powerless - I mean we get three choice subjects 'til next year, yeah?"
Then he turned his finger guns to point over at Dio and made a bit of a face towards the Prof, " 'n' I know I'm not the only one that's glad he ain't learning no dark arts 'ere!" he gave Dio a big pat on the back just to make sure there were no bad feelings. "So like y'know patronuses are awesome 'n' stuff but like 'ow 'bout like... Merlin! 'ey Proff reckon y'can teach us 'ow to block people from our minds 'n' stuff? Wazzit called 'gain? Legilimens? nah that don't sound right... ogglemens?" he took a breath then and looked at Jack with the biggest, soft brown puppy eyes there ever were. "That'd be like super cool."
efense Against the Dark Arts with a Professor who was a total blowhard... what an exciting way to spend his morning. With that thought in mind, Greyson made a point of not going to class for as long as he could until a Professor caught him 'lingering' in the halls and told him to go to class or face detention. Greyson had actually ended up with detention anyway for daring to give the Professor a piece of his goddamn mind and mockingly telling them, 'those who can't do... teach. right?'
But still, here he was. Staggering into the classroom very late, a scowl on his face as he dropped into some chair next to Liam Jordan, his arms crossed against his chest. It seemed whatever the other students had been doing was just getting wrapped up because O'Connor pushed himself off where he'd been leaning against his desk, then launched into some boring, droning speech about what they'd be doing this lesson. Greyson couldn't wait... not.
Post by JACK O'CONNOR on Apr 21, 2019 10:18:53 GMT
A
s the students began filing in, Jack took note of each and every one of them. Some of them were late, and those people didn't come as a surprise unfortunately. "Mr Greyback, Mr Avery... you'd do well to arrive to my class at time, or else you can spend your time out of class in detention with me," he told both of the boys sternly. "Just a reminder to the rest of the students. If you are late, you will get house points docked. If being late becomes a regular occurrence, you will find yourself in detention over and over again."
Jack listened to the introductions intently, leaning against his desk as he took each student's short introduction in. There were a few negative students, but that didn't come as a surprise. It was nothing new. But still, he made a point of saying, "For those who are finding introductions unimportant, may I remind you that like we have always done in this class, we will be working as teams in quite a few lessons. It's important to know your opponents for that reason, and taking five minutes out of an hour long lesson won't do anybody any harm."
"With that said, those who did not feel like introducing themselves or missed the introduction portion of this lesson can write a three hundred word assignment describing their name, year, house, background and what they wish to learn in this class. I expect it on my desk by the end of the day," Jack said, levelling his steady gaze onto Dio Greyback and Greyson Avery once more.
Next, Jack addressed Liam Jordan who brought up the subject of legilimency and occlumency. "Unfortunately Mr. Jordan, those are two things we do not teach here at Hogwarts. It's restricted by the Ministry of Magic as it invades people's privacy. If you are still interested in the future, however, it is worth asking the Ministry of Magic about it if you have a valid reason for learning both."
Pushing off the desk, Jack waved his wand towards the chalkboard at the back of the classroom. Boggarts. "This is what we will be learning about today. Now, for those who are not aware. Boggarts take the form of what you fear the most. I know this may be confronting for some of the students, but it is of the utmost important to learn and cast the spell to repel Boggarts. When your Boggart appears, you need to concentrate and visualise a way to make it funny instead of frightening. When you cast 'riddikulus,' it will transform into what you're visualising. Once you laugh, the Boggart will disappear. I will demonstrate, then you can all take turns. Understand?"
With that, Jack flicked his wand and the rattling, shaking wardrobe he'd moved into the room earlier came sliding forward until it was at the front of the class. Opening the wardrobe, out came a growling werewolf, a snarl on his face and blood dripping from his jaws. It was the one who had attacked his sister and Jack squared himself, looking the Boggart in the eye as he envisioned the werewolf digging into a great big dish of chocolate cake instead, covering himself with it. With a flick of his wand and a loud proclamation of 'riddikulus,' Jack laughed and the Boggart disappeared. "Okay. Who's next?"
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
And while you are sitting indoors waiting for the storm to pass I will be outside dancing in the rain
❧
Gemini was late and she surely didn't mean to be. Before class she felt a bit ill and went to the hospital wing but it meant she missed the start of her class. The girl ran as fast as she could, bumped in people on her way there and ran into the classroom just in time for the teacher to explain their class.
"Sir sorry I'm late. I got a note!" she held it out, slightly out of breath and her cheeks were flushed red. She handed the professor the note and quickly moved to stand near Greyson.
Note: As he was only created a last night I'm just going to assume that he was on time and will do his introduction as such <3
"I'm Gabriel Avery, son of Professor Graham Avery, brother of Greyson and Gemini. I'm fifth year Hufflepuff and I enjoy the Defense Against the Dark Arts classes; they're absolutely imperative and it's unfortunate to hear that some of my fellow classmates don't feel the same. Clearly they've all lead rather.. sheltered lives," he said with a clear disdain in his voice. Still, he was partially glad when his brother came in late to the party - he didn't need the glares for calling his uncle his father. When he had sat back down and Jack put Liam in his place regarding legillimens and occlumens the blonde boy smirked. Would there even be anything in his dorm mate's mind?
Gabriel found it difficult to hide his alarm when the wardrobe moved to the forefront of the classroom. Boggarts! Gabriel's hands clenched to make fists and he furtively glanced towards his twin brother across the classroom. He didn't want anyone to see his family's worst fears and he grew more and more antsy in his chair. He tried very hard to make himself laugh along with the rest of the class when Professor Jack demonstrated with his own boggart but when he asked 'who next?' Gabriel would have been whiter than a ghost from fear except that he was also furious that the teacher would humiliate students this way.
There was absolutely no way in hell that he was going to offer himself up for the experience. In fact, if he kept his head down and silent he very well might get called on last... and the hour would hopefully run out before then.
And while you are sitting indoors waiting for the storm to pass I will be outside dancing in the rain
❧
Ollie didn't know really what to expect when the professor explained their lesson. Still she walked up first and felt as she was pulled towards the scary being that soon made a little area turn dark, two giant headlights coming her way so fast Ollie only barely could hold up her wand.
"Riddikulus.." she said as the headlights turned into giant balloons popping and making confetti come out. Ollie stumbled backwards, almost into a boy and felt tears in her eyes.
"E-Excuse me." she said softly and curled up in her seat far away from people.
And while you are sitting indoors waiting for the storm to pass I will be outside dancing in the rain
❧
Felix watched a hufflepuff go first, his eyes on the creature that turned into two bloody lights. What was so scary about lights? Was it a car? He then watched her get upset and just got up to volunteer next. And there it appeared, Felix was standing there like an older version of himself. There was a woman with no face, and flash a child, crying and weeping for mercy. Then another flash and it was an older Felix again.
As older Felix rose a hand as if he were to silence him, Felix himself rose his wand and cast the spell to stop it all, they all turned into bounce head puppets, bouncing back and forth like they belonged on a dashboard. He laughed a bit and then walked off.
Post by ROSALIA CAPONE on Apr 22, 2019 6:38:19 GMT
Rosa sat calmly, her arms crossed over as she watched the class I dulge in the professor's need to build them up as a team... It was... Pointless, in her opinion as she agreed silently with Bianchi over the ridiculousness of it all. Ridiculousness seemed though, to be the literal theme of the class for that day. She watched as one student went ahead, as a pair of headlights appeared to be too much.
She furrowed her brows, rolling her shoulders. Yes, they needed to learn about protecting themselves, but a bunch of teenagers knowing one another's deepest fears? Yeah. That would obviously fucking end well. She pursed her lips as Felix stood, taking his turn...
The small girl caught her attention before she disappeared into a ridiculous display. She immediately stood, brushing her hand at his arm with a smile before moving up.
She waited on the creature as it warped into... Her fucking mom. Great. She didn't bother to wait, raising her wand at the creature. A hex would've certainly been therapeutic, but hey... One could only dream... "Riddikulus, " She remarked, putting her in a sow costume...
Seemed fitting. She smirked as she turned to go back to sit.
