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!
Quirks and Habits: - After living in Australia for a good twenty years and having his name shortened by literally everyone under the sun, Nikolai now mostly goes by Nik. - When under a lot of pressure, Nik instantly goes to his one remaining vice: smoking. He knows he makes him a hypocrite, given he's a trained healer, but his job is to lecture other people on the cons of smoking and not himself. - Nikolai has a grand total of 30 tattoos and not all of them are good. In fact, a third of them were done when he was under the influence and he was just getting them for the fun of it. - Nik doesn't tend to go out very much and spends literally every moment when he's not working with his sweet little girl... his dog, Daisy.
Likes: his dog Daisy, babies (easier to deal with than adults), successfully healing people
Dislikes: failing, people talking his ear off, flowers
Boggart: Nikolai sees himself sitting at a table, surrounded by empty potion vials
Mirror of Erised: Himself reunited with his family
Patronus: fox
history
1985 - his brother Ivan receives his letter to Koldovstorez and even though fighting breaks out in his family as it’s revealed his mother is a witch, that’s not the part Nikolai focuses on. No, instead it’s that he’s been abandoned, left behind, by his older brother who gets to go to some cool place while he has to go to muggle school and try to make friends with the other children.
1999 - Nikolai is twenty-one years old and three years deep into the stressful healing program at the local wizarding hospital when he meets him. Evgeni, a patient with the most dazzling emerald eyes he’s ever seen and a wicked smile that makes Nikolai want to sin, to do all those things that he’s grown up to know as being wrong. When he invites Nikolai for drinks, he tells himself that the feeling in his stomach is nothing. He’s just excited to be his friend. Sensing the nerves radiating off him and the fact that Nikolai just can’t relax, Evgeni ushers him into the bathroom and palms a vial into his hands with clear instructions: drink this. Nikolai doesn’t want to disappoint and he downs it all in one. He finds out later that it’s felix felicis and little does he know, it will end up being his greatest downfall.
Nikolai gets addicted to the potion, to the rush it gives him, and goes from him drinking it on the weekends with Evgeni to… every day. It makes him feel invincible and under the influence of the potion, he feels like he can’t mess up - he can’t fail any of his patients because the choices he makes? They’re always the right ones. It’s great at the start, but then things start going terribly wrong. He starts losing patient after patient, he ends up short-tempered when he’s not under the influence, and his bank account is drained on account of buying the potion from the ‘black market’ so often for both he and Evgeni. A few months into this little habit of his, Nikolai feels like the side effects of felix felicis have started wearing off too quickly and he takes to downing the vials in the sleep room at work when he’s not rushed off his feet. But then one day, he gets called onto the floor urgently to deal with a patient, his head spinning all the while… and he wakes up in a sterile hospital bed, his worried family surrounding him.
Nikolai doesn’t tell them what happened despite their probing questions, claiming that he has a right to his privacy. He quietly begs one of his coworkers to send a patronus to Evgeni when his family leave, telling them that the man is a close friend and he’d be worried if Nikolai didn’t show up to their dinner tonight. Evgeni never shows up to visit him at the hospital - in fact, he completely disappears from Nikolai’s life - and the whole ordeal is a wake-up call. Nikolai takes a few months off work to recover, seeks out help, and then makes an executive decision that it would be best for everyone if he just… disappeared, ran away from the mess he’d made. He gets a work transfer to a wizarding hospital in Australia to finish up his traineeship.
2019 - It's been twenty years of living in Australia and Nikolai has worked his way up the rungs. He's gained a power position in the hospital as Healer-in-Charge of the Werewolf Bite Ward. It's a stressful job and every now and then, he feels his mind slipping to how easy it would be just to take a potion (not necessarily felix felicis) to make things easier.
One morning when he's drinking his tea, he sees an ad for the Matron of Hogwarts in Britain. It's an easier job - one that would bring a lot less paperwork and long hours. It's tempting, and that's when he makes a split second decision to apply. Low and behold, after an interview via the floo fireplace network, he gets it.
"I should have knocked. Oh my Merlin, I'm so sorry. I didn't see any - well, I mean, I did but nothing... and I'm sure it wasn't anything bad, I just - I don't think we're at that point in our friendship where I can see you - uh, naked." Grace was well-aware that she was babbling badly at this point, all of her insides squirming because she didn't want Rodrik to think she'd walked in on him on purpose or that she completely lacked manners by just... waltzing into the prefects bathroom without a second thought.
A small splash met her ears, signalling that Rodrik was most likely getting out of the water, and then he told her that it was safe to turn around. Painstakingly slow, letting her hands drop from her eyes, Grace nearly choked as she saw that he was still half naked, smooth chest glistening with water. It made sense that his towel was only wrapped around his waist, given he had no reason to cover his chest like she did, but her eyes flicked to his face and stayed glued there nonetheless. She didn't want him to think she was staring and being inappropriate. "I don't - no, you don't have to leave. You were here first."
The reveal that Rodrik had had a bad night was enough to have Grace stepped forward toward him, shaking her head. "You can talk to me, it's not... I'm happy to listen. It's really no bother," she insisted.
Welcome to Sonorus, we hope you enjoy your stay! Your character has been given the position of matron of hogwarts. Feel free to head over to our plotting board or chat with us on our discord server, Don't forget to do your claims and have a good time!