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 ALEXANDER GREENAWAY on Oct 9, 2019 10:56:47 GMT
"I like your wood too - er, wand wood," Alex said, wincing a little internally at his own words (yes, yes dirty thoughts) because... did bros say that to one another? Probably not. It sounded weird. "Uh... it's... I have a unicorn hair." Admitting that out loud to Mark, for some reason, had Alex feeling a bit sheepish. It wasn't exactly a cool core, was it? Not like dragon heartstring."I've read that dragon heartstring cores are the most powerful and stuff, most likely to turn to the Dark Arts too." But that wasn't Mark. Sure, the other boy was a bit morbid at time, but he'd never intentionally hurt someone. He wasn't Dio Greyback.
"That was the first book that I read when I got to Hogwarts. Bit twisted for a kid's book, but... I think my favourite was the one about the hairy heart," Alex said. Maybe because of the tragic ending of the story, the moral being that a path towards the Dark Arts was not a wise one to take, or else you'll die a gruesome death. "Oh... that's... which part of the stories do you like the best? In a lot of the comics I read, there's fighting amongst superheroes. Forbidden love, too. Blood baths sometimes. I guess some of the stories are horrible... and dark, but not biographical. At least, I don't think so... who knows really." As a young child, Alex hadn't thought that witches and wizards and the whole world of magic had existed... and yet, here he was. Who was to say superheroes and worlds like Gotham didn't exist?
"What's Torquay? Is it some... rich place?" Alex envisioned somewhere like 'The Hamptons' that the Americans often referenced in their writing. But then Mark was going on about how his cousin just wanted to try kissing someone and should have kissed a boar instead and Alex wondered out loud, "Er... have you ever kissed anyone? For... for real?"
”Dude…” Mark was not completely oblivious to the “wood” comment, and he chuckled – once again Alex managed to say something hilarious. “Your wood is very long and pretty!” He said dramatically and winked – hoping that his friend would catch the hint of how that phrase could be misunderstood.
Hearing Alex mention what he has heard about dragon heartstring, chills went down Mark’s spine and his dark eyes sparkled slightly as if there was a change of light in the room. He looked down at his wand as if the object itself would suddenly hiss back at him that it wanted to practice dark arts. He had a weird intimate moment with wand (yes, Bree…) where if it had eyes, they would have stared intensely at each other in silence.
“That is a weird rumour. I mean, the wand does not decide what magic to make, the wielder does.” He looked back up at Alex. “I really like unicorn hair. It is a core that makes a wand very faithful to its owner, and it should be an extremely good core to learn magic. I have heard that phoenix feathers can act on their own… A bit like the core can have a free will…” Mark smiled.
When Alex asked what Mark liked to most in a book, the boy had to think for a moment. He was not sure he could pick just one thing, because what made the book so great was when all of those genres played together like an orchestra. What gave him the most satisfaction from reading was the part with blood baths and betrayal. But what made the story interesting were the plot twists, forbidden love affairs and mysteries.
“I like it all. So, if a book has it all, I would most likely like it too.” He shrugged.
Then Alex asked what Torquay was, and Mark replied quickly with a shrug and without judgement.
“A town in southern England. Close to Plymouth. I don’t know if it is rich or not, but it is warm… It has palm trees.” He explained and then widened his eyes at the next question – a far more interesting one. “Yeah… I have kissed… Once… Just recently.”
That was honest, direct and raw. Mark did not hide it behind any smart sarcastic anecdotes about lovers and fangirls like he had done with Viola. Alex was after all his friend. Yet, with that reply came also Mark’s question.
Post by ALEXANDER GREENAWAY on Oct 11, 2019 12:28:14 GMT
Mark all of a sudden burst out with your wood is very long and pretty and Alex nearly choked on his own saliva right on the spot because did he... okay, surely, Mark had to be joking, right? He was winking and all. "Uh... uh... thank you," he ended up saying, eyes widening as soon as the words left his mouth because thank you? Mark hadn't offered him a cup of tea or anything that deserved to be thanked, but... those were the words that he'd landed on apparently. "Anyway, er..."
All of a sudden, Mark was staring down at his wand as though it had done something, like... ask him to dance or... or something weird. For a minute, Alex wondered if he should excuse himself so Mark could be alone with his wand (yes, Erik) but then finally, Mark was speaking once more. "Er... yeah, I suppose... but I guess, uh... if that's the rumour then there's gotta be some truth in it, right? I mean, but... then again, apparently Headmistress McGonagall has a dragon heartstring wrong and I don't think she's practicing dark arts in her spare time. She's not gonna be the next Dark Wizard or... or anything," Alex said, before nodding at Mark's description of the other wand cores. "I've heard that too about phoenix feather wands."
"Palm trees?" Alex repeated, sounding bewildered because palm trees. In England? He'd certainly not had them where he'd grown up, but then again... he didn't really spend that much time outside either.
"Oh." As it turned out, Mark had kissed someone. "Uh... was... was it someone at school or...?" The question that Alex had asked was turned back onto him within seconds and inwardly, he swore. It... with Skylar, it had been an accident. The meeting of lips had only last two seconds at best before he'd run away because he hadn't meant to do it, their lips had just, uh... bumped... saying he hadn't, it wasn't really a lie, was it? It hadn't counted. "No, it... no. Never. Sometimes I think that it'd be cool though. Kissing.... er... girls."
Mark almost snorted at the comment about McGonagall practicing Dark Magic in her spare time, and that she was the next dark wizard. He could not imagine their headmistress harm anyone with a spell… Yet, it was not hard to imagine her smacking a student on top of the head with a book. She was a very strict woman, and Mark had the feeling that her hairdo had a big part of the blame. If his hair was pulled up so tightly, then he would also get a squeaky voice and always look like someone who constantly smells onions. Mark was fortunate to have never spent time with their headmistress, because he was a very well-behaved boy and therefore never got in so much trouble that he was sent to her office.
“Yeah, Torquay has palm trees… You did not know?” Mark would have explained why, if he only knew that it was because the Gulf Stream passing by through the canal, moderating the climate of Southern England, so that it never experiences heavy snowfall and hard freezes below zero. “You should really come and have a look sometime. My parents love to go there for the summer!”
When Alex asked who he had kissed, Mark might as well tell him even though it felt weird. As if he had done something bad. As if he had betrayed Alex’s trust for some reason. Maybe it was because he has never liked Viola that much, so the idea of the two of them kissing each other – two people who were complete opposites – was completely absurd.
“I kissed Viola Rosaline not too long ago.” He quickly replied. “It just happened.” He almost emphasized that it was nothing special and tried to look as cool as possible.
Mark, however, arched an elegant dark eyebrow when Alex mentioned that he would like to kiss… girls. The boy did not know why it was so important for him to tell that it should be girls in particular. The Slytherin could not care less. As long as Alex did not walk around kissing magical beasts (this not including veelas of course), then he was happy.
“I am sure that there will be plenty of options, since those spin the bottle parties are being held regularly.” Mark smiled. “And what about kissing boys?” He asked. “Would you dare kissing a boy if the bottle lands on him?”
Post by ALEXANDER GREENAWAY on Oct 13, 2019 11:52:05 GMT
If it had been anybody else he was talking to, Alex would have fibbed and said that he was only joking, of course he knew but Mark was different. He could be honest with Mark... well, to an extent. "We, um... we don't really get out much in... out of the group home, and I don't think Liverpool really has palm trees as it is," Alex admitted, looking sheepish before he blanched entirely. "I don't... I don't think they'd let me and... and I don't really like, uh... the sun very much." That made him sound like Count Dracula, holy crap. "I mean, just... being outside makes me sneeze."
Alex shouldn't have been shocked that Viola Rosaline had been Mark's first kiss because the girl got around, that was for sure. She was always sitting on other's peoples laps, playing with their hair. But he was taken aback that Mark had actually kissed her. He didn't think he'd ever seen the two together. "Oh, yeah?" he said, trying to sound casual as he ran his fingers through his dark hair. "Did, uh... did you like it? Would you do it again?" Was that a weird thing to ask?
And what about kissing boys? Alex's breath caught in his chest, racketing inside it because... did... did Mark think... but he couldn't have thought that... because Alex always made sure that he didn't look the wrong way at other boys. In the group home once or twice, there had been boys who thought his eyes had lingered on them and Alex had been spat out, copped a black eye or two, been shoved against a wall, called a queer and... and worse. "Uh, no. I don't - I don't think so. I mean, if I had to in a game or... but I wouldn't like it," he said insistently, avoiding the Slytherin boys eyes entirely. 'Liar,' his brain shouted at him.