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!
The only time anyone cared about sitting at their house table during mealtimes were the big feasts. On a regular day, just like this one, students sat with their friends, mixing all the house colors into one -- unless you were a loser loner. Even though Lars was the prickly sort and swore to his life that he absolutely despised every day he was forced to spend at Hogwarts, even he had managed to make friends over the last three years.
Mia-Rose, with whom he usually sat together, had finished her meal and hurried off to the library, leaving Lars nibbling on a piece of toast. As he sat there, he pondered over the events of the last few days. To be more precise -- the weird "kiss" he and Mia-Rose had shared after their successful invasion of the Restricted Section. It was a strange, impulsive decision -- it was the kind of thing people did in movies after pulling off a stunt like that. Everyone else their age seemed to be ecstatic about kissing and touching and whatnot, but Lars and Mia-Rose? They didn't get it. And they still don't.
Lars wondered if it was because neither of them had done it before, because they didn't know how, and what was good and what wasn't. Perhaps he needed to kiss someone who knew what they were doing? But who?
The answer bounced into the Great Hall, enthusiastically greeting all her friends. Viola.
"Hej, Viola!" Lars called her over, waving his hand, "Come sit with me!" When the girl had settled down, he got right down to business.
"I heard you had some kind of 'Kiss list', or something of the sort. Am I right?"
Post by VIOLA ROSALINE on Dec 30, 2019 9:42:05 GMT
Vi had definitely had an eventful day so far. She'd woken up to the absolutely dazzling beams of sunlight streaming through the dorm windows, and decided it was the perfect time to paint. She'd been so in the zone that she'd missed breakfast, and now as she flounced into the Great Hall with her denim overalls on, she was starving. As her belly let out a ravenous growl, Vi was truly worried that it would somehow manage to eat itself.
Cerulean blue eyes skimming the hall, Vi wondered who on earth she should sit with today (so many options!) when a familiar voice called her name. Glancing around for the person it belonged to, Vi lit up when she saw it was Lars. Her favouritest of all the male fifth year Gryffindor transfers. "Lars, whenever I hear you calling my name in that soothing dulcet tone of yours, my heart skips a beat!" she sung out dramatically, heading over and moving into the seat beside him.
"Here I was, thinking my 'kiss list' was super duper top secret business," Vi said jokingly, before letting out a laugh. It wasn't secret at all - in fact, she was quite certain most of the year knew about it at this point. "Why, are you interested in becoming apart of it?" Her eyes shone as she gazed up at Lars, resting an elbow on the table and cupping her head in her palm. "I'd be honoured to bestow a smoochie woochie on your lovely little lips."
As always, Viola was like a bouncy rubber ball in human form - a skip and a step and she was already sitting right next to Lars, a wide smile beaming right at the Norwegian. Her happiness was terribly infectious, and the boy found himself grinning just as wide. It was weird.
Her eyes shone like two blue lanterns, curious and excited. Somehow the rumors that she's smooched absolutely everyone in her year didn't seem so unlikely anymore. And if not yet, Lars was sure she eventually would. When she inquired about his intentions, Lars laughed for a brief moment, but soon his face and the tone of his voice became very serious and business-like.
"Maybe," he nodded, "but only if you can explain to me why is kissing such a big deal? Like, I had a kiss with M- my friend," a tinge of redness appeared on his cheeks as he cut himself off. He and Mia-Rose had promised to each other that they wouldn't speak a word of it to a living soul. "I just don't get what the big deal is. And then I thought of you, because if you have an entire kiss list, then you must enjoy it!"
Post by VIOLA ROSALINE on Jan 1, 2020 11:09:57 GMT
"Has anyone ever told you that you look absolutely princely when you smile? Like, my mam? She'd totally say you look like one of those muggle men from one of those novels she likes to read," Vi said with a very sure nod of her head. She could picture it now - Lars sitting at her dinner table after being invited for a good meal, her mam going into one of her vivid descriptions of some male character from one of the classic novels that sat on their bookshelf, and her mum telling her to 'stop embarrassing the poor boy, Cordelia.' The image of it happening was enough to make her giggle.
All of a sudden, in the blink of an eye, Lars' entire demeanour changed from smiley to completely serious. Like, not even in a joking way like she sometimes pretended to do. "Hmmm, kissing is just nice. It makes me feel all tingly and butterfly~y and like someone actually thinks I'm cute enough to kiss back," she said, hands excitedly moving all about as she tried to explain just why she liked it so much. "Also, everyone kisses differently, and that's fun too... unless, like, you get a super slobbery kiss and then that's not so fun but you have the opportunity to teach them how to kiss properly."
"No, don't believe anyone has ever told me anything like that. It's more often something along the lines 'Stop sneering Sundby' or that my teeth look like fangs," he answered, half-jokingly. Indeed, some of his front teeth were a bit more triangular than you'd expect, and sometimes that made Lars feel a little bit cool. In truth, his teeth were just crooked, but, just as he refused to wear his reading glasses, he refused to have his teeth straightened out. Then he'd just be another kid with a neat row of teeth, and that wasn't very original, was it?
He watched her hands move about as she spoke about kissing. She made it sound worth Lars' while, but there were still some questions that didn't leave him alone. Biting into the piece of toast he'd been pecking at before Viola's arrival, he asked, "But how do you know how to kiss? Like, how do you figure it out? How does anyone figure it out? Did some cave people one day just start smooshing their faces together until something felt good, and then they started to teach each other? Or, are people born good or bad kissers?" All very important questions, in his opinion.
It was surprising to hear that someone would say such dastardly things about Lars, and Vi's eyebrows knitted together for a second before she announced, "I think they must not know the difference between a sneer and a smoulder, those silly billies, and there's benefits to be had with fang-like teeth. I mean, hello, biting is totally a thing some people like." Was it something she liked? She didn't know, she wasn't intending to find out for a wee while, but she heard things. "Well, I think they're adorable."
"Hmm, I guess you kind of just go with the flow, you know?" She grinned upon the realisation she had just unintentionally rhymed because being a wordsmith was totally in her future. She was half-way there already, given all the songs she had scribbled down in notepads all over the Ravenclaw girls dorm. "I don't know the history of kissing, I just know I like it. I mean, I can show you if you really want? I'm not going to judge if it's a little slobbery to start with," she said, quite sincerely at that as she reached down to give his knee a comforting pat. He had all these questions, but Vi had never been great at the theory side of things - no, the practical side was her strength.
"You must really like my sneer then," he said, giving her a toothy grin and a very obvious wink, "If you defend it so much. I'll sleep better now, knowing that there is at least one more person in the world who has good taste," his tone was playfully arrogant. Lars had never really cared if other's found him good looking or not -- if he would be insecure about that, it would give bullies even more ways to make him feel like crap, and he'd had enough of that back at Durmstrang.
"Go with the flow?" his eyebrows quirked up. How can you possibly go with the flow when you have next to no idea what the flow even is, or what it's supposed to be. And when Viola offered to show him, his eyebrows went up even higher, as if that was possible, and he sat there, teeth sunken into the piece of toast for a few seconds. "You don't," he glanced over to the professor's table, "You don't mean right now and here, right? I don't think... I don't think people would look upon that too kindly." Kissing was supposed to be a private thing, was it not?
"I do. It's the light of my life, warms to the very core. I think about it at every moment, especially right before I go to bed at night so I have the most pleasant of dreams!" Vi announced, her voice loud and bright before she collapsed into giggles. One of housemates shot her a look that read 'Viola, you're being weird' but she ignored it. She was used to it after four years because... she didn't exactly fit in. She was an oddball in her house, and she stuck out like a sore thumb. It... it was something she tried to not focus on too often, actually, because it made her feel a bit lost and she didn't like that. She didn't like emotions of any negative kind, and she just... pushed past them normally. "I definitely have good taste. It's tip top, no doubt about it!"
"Mm hmm, yep! Go with the flow. Like a motion in the ocean - wait, is that how they say that phrase, or am I getting it horribly wrong?" If she was, it didn't seem to phase her too much and she just shrugged loosely. It didn't escape Vi's notice that Lars hadn't rebuffed the offer to kiss, and a slow smile spread across her lips. "I mean, we can always find a broom closet of some sorts if you're not feeling super duper adventurous, but I'm sure worse things have happened in the great hall." Like, she was pretty gosh darn certain the other day she sawan all out fight break out, so kissing wasn't that scandalous and they wouldn't get in that much trouble from one little innocent smooch.
The thought of Viola thinking of him before bed was enough to make Lars lose his composure and break out into side splitting laughter. Then again, most things Viola did were able to amuse him greatly, but... For a split second he considered her words. Crushing on people was stupid and a waste of time -- why would you stay up all night thinking about someone else, when you could be sleeping or at least studying? Lars hoped he'd never get crush on anyone. Especially not on his friends -- if Viola really would think about him before sleep, it would be...Weird. No, thank you.
"I...I wouldn't know," he said, "I'm not English. But I get what you mean, I think." He shoved the last bits of the toast into his mouth and, while still chewing, continued to speak. "Mm, I fink--, " he raised his finger to indicate a pause and swallowed the chunk of bread, "I think I'd prefer a broom closet. I'm not good at kissing by any means, so I don't want to embarrass either of us in front of everyone. Should we go now, then? Or...You haven't had breakfast yet, have you?"
Post by VIOLA ROSALINE on Jan 8, 2020 11:12:27 GMT
Oh, thank goodness Lars totally picked up what she was putting down. It was a relief, seeing as she was, like, almost positive she was saying the phrase wrong. "I guess it's just kinda one of those... live in the moments thing, you feel?" Vi said, before resting her hand on her chin once more, elbow balancing on the table as she listened attentively to what he wanted. "A broom closet, let's do it! ... I am hungry, actually. Hang on, I'll take some toast to go."
With that thought in mind, Vi swiped a piece of buttered toast and shoved it between her teeth then turned to him with a cheeky wiggle of her brows. Then, after extending her hand to help him out of his seat, she practically dragged him out of the hall into a broom closet nearby. By the time Vi made sure the coast was crystal clear and she'd opened the door to the mostly dark room, only just light enough to see the outlines of one another, she'd finished her toast.
Standing in the cramped broom closet, Vi jumped straight to business. "So, how d'you wanna do this? Just, like... here. Look. I'll stand here, you start it, and will go from there. I won't give you tongue unless I think you're, like, super duper ready for the 'big leagues.'" Then closing her eyes, Vi tilted her head up in his direction with her soft lips slightly puckered, waiting for him to kick things off.
Lars didn't consider himself someone who 'lived in the moment', but by the looks of it, today he had to, because Viola wasn't going to wait. Before he knew it, the girl had shoved a piece of toast in her mouth and was dragging him out of the Great Hall, firmly heading towards the closest broom closet. Lars felt a lot more confused than excited, and he hoped that upon opening they wouldn't stumble into another pair of people trying to figure out kissing, or worse -- the Caretaker, who'd probably hit them with a broom for loitering.
Needless to say, Lars was absolutely lost. There they were, standing in almost complete darkness, with barely any space to move around in. Why did everyone like broom closets so much? It seemed like a place where the devil could sprain its ankle, rather than somewhere fun. But Viola was ready to go, telling him to start and something about using her tongue--
"Wait, what? Tongue? People...Lick each other when they kiss? Wha-," he sputtered. That sounded downright nasty. "I don't, I don't think I want any of that, not, not in the foreseeable future." After a few moments of uneasy shifting from one foot to the other, Lars took a deep breath and pursed his lips, pressing them against Viola's in the darkness. And then he just. Stood there.
"Uh, so what are you supposed to do?" he muttered against her lips after a few seconds, as he felt his hands get clammy.
Post by VIOLA ROSALINE on Jan 8, 2020 13:38:40 GMT
Had Lars never seen a muggle movie where, like, the two people got totally into kissing and you could see their tongues on the screen? Vi considered him for a moment, head tilted to the side before she let out a joyful laugh. "Yeah, sometimes. Like, not their whole tongue because that's probably super slimey, but just a little bit," she told him brightly, shrugging. She'd only done it once or twice with tongue, but it was okie dokes in her book.
Vi heard the inhale of Lars breathing like he was nervous, and then the sound of him stepping into her space. A second later, dry... somewhat crumb-y lips were pressed up against hers and... that was all. They didn't move, they were just there. Slowly, Vi blinked open one eye, just as he asked her question. "Right, okay, it's more like..." Vi's hands moved up, cradling either side of his face as her lips started to move gently against his, slowly introducing him to the 'art' of kissing as she liked to call it.
Slimy tongues? The thought alone made Lars shudder. Nope, nope, I'm having none of that, please and thank you, shot through his brain as he made a disgusted noise. If that was what kissing was about, then he could understand why Mia-Rose didn't show any interest in it. He wouldn't either, he thought.
Standing there, closed lips pressed against Viola's, with sweaty hands and a racing heart was awkward. He stammered out his question and held his breath, but, thankfully, Viola didn't leave him hanging, or worse, ridicule him. He felt her soft hands on his cheeks, and before he could even squeak in confusion, her lips were moving against his, pulling his lower lip in between her's. For a few more seconds Lars stood there, frozen, until something clicked in his brain and he started to notice a pattern in Viola's movements. So if I... And then...And what if... Lars was trying to replicate whatever Viola was doing, though his movements were stiff as he tried to follow along and analyse what ever the hell was even going on. He didn't know how much time had passed, but he broke off the kiss, taking a deep and a little shuddering breath.
"That was...Something. I think I'm starting to see the appeal of it, theoretically, though...I think I need to, uh, think on this. Thanks for the lesson, I guess?" he said, pushing open the door and squinting at the sudden influx of light. "I'll be seeing you!"
Vi had definitely had an eventful day so far. She'd woken up to the absolutely dazzling beams of sunlight streaming through the dorm windows, and decided it was the perfect time to paint. She'd been so in the zone that she'd missed breakfast, and now as she flounced into the Great Hall with her denim overalls on, she was starving. As her belly let out a ravenous growl, Vi was truly worried that it would somehow manage to eat itself.
