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!
That day Vaughn had woken up with a strange feeling of dread in the depths of his stomach. Sure, he'd had nightmares the night before, and the last full moon had taken a bigger toll on him than usual -- there was a new wound on his forehead that he didn't recall getting, but the morning after he woke up with his face covered in blood and a gash across the upper part of his face. But neither of those things quite explained the feeling.
This feeling only got worse when, during breakfast, as he was trying to chow down on a rather dry slice of deer meat, Teresa lead him aside and told him he'd have a visitor. Damian.
She sent him off to a forest clearing a good mile away from the camp, next to a large oak -- this had been their camp about a year ago. Damian would be there at 10, and at that moment Vaughn was glad his mechanical wristwatch was still working -- waiting without any idea of the time would be absolutely agonizing.
we got no money, but we got heart/we're gonna rattle this ghost town
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Post by DAMIAN BELANGER on Feb 16, 2020 4:33:35 GMT
It had been maybe a month since Damian had not only run into Teresa Nottingham again, but learned from her that his older brother, his successful, ambitious older brother, was living with her--with a werewolf pack. He still wasn't entirely sure that he believed it, not even when Teresa had promised to set him up a meeting with Vaughn sometime. It could be a trap--even if he wasn't sure what kind of trap that was supposed to be, in broad daylight. But that hadn't stopped him from looking nervously at the full moon out his bedroom window that one night in May, an uneasy feeling keeping him from sleeping.
The ride on the family broom all the way to the national park where his brother supposedly lived was uneasy too, Damian having had to make excuses to his parents about why he needed it for so long and so early in the morning on a weekend. It wasn't his usual behavior, a routine being something he'd unfortunately settled into with the strict schedule of his job. And it took longer than he'd wanted, too, having to dodge any areas where Muggles might be observing the skies.
So it was a few minutes after ten that he finally landed in the forest, almost getting his leg tangled in a tree flying too close to its limbs, but managing to get himself down to the ground without any injuries. There was an oak tree, just like he'd been told about.
"Vaughn?" he called out into the woods.
@vaughnbelanger
kasia's indiana jones // 5'11" // dating emil zalewski // born in scotland // lives in rural scotland
He'd arrived in the clearing about 5 minutes before the allotted time, after a lengthy trek through the forest while wearing his old suit -- the same one he'd worn during the mission at St.Mungos. He needed to make Damian think that he was fairing well -- well enough that he walked around the forest thicket like he'd be having a business meeting any moment now. Maybe it was a bit desperate, but he couldn't have Damian worrying, he couldn't have his family worrying, and Vaughn was ready to do anything, to tell them anything that would ease their minds.
There was also a part of him that wanted to bolt into the woods, with his tail between his legs. Maybe it would hurt less if Damian would think he'd just been fooled, if they never met, maybe that would be easier? And yet, he missed his little brother, the little shit who always had tried to one-up him at everything, and failed most of the time, unless Vaughn let him win.
But... He couldn't have anyone think he was a coward, either. Especially not Damian. No, Vaughn would show him that he doesn't lose face even when things are terrible.
And there he was, fumbling his landing on the old family broom, kicking up dust as his feet hit the ground. His voice... It was deeper than Vaughn remembered, and there was a lot more hair on his brother's face, too. For a moment he wondered what his other siblings looked like -- he hadn't seen any of them for 2 years, they must have grown...
"Damian!" he called out, stepping out of the thicket he'd been hiding in, putting a steady smile on his face and trying to look content and rested, even as the gash on his forehead and the bags under his eyes betrayed his true state.
we got no money, but we got heart/we're gonna rattle this ghost town
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Post by DAMIAN BELANGER on Feb 16, 2020 15:35:04 GMT
Damian knew that Vaughn wasn't going to look exactly like he'd been the last time he'd seen him in person. He knew he himself looked far different three years ago than he did now--at fifteen he'd still looked like a little kid. But Damian had been expecting his brother to look more like he had in the pictures he'd sent, not--with a barely healing cut all across his forehead, wearing a suit that looked bizarrely out of place in their surroundings.
Still, that was Vaughn. Unmistakably. Even if he looked like he'd aged ten years instead of three. "It is you," he said, no other words coming to his mind right away.
No, that was a lie--there were questions upon questions in his mind, just none that seemed appropriate to ask right away. How had he been bitten? Why did he leave France for the country with such legal problems for werewolves? Why had he been lying all this time, when the truth had to come out eventually?
It should've been easy to talk to Vaughn, just like old times, but Damian was well aware that his usual spouts of questions wouldn't be well received. Small talk first it was. "How have you been? I've missed you. I wish I'd been able to see you earlier."
@vaughnbelanger
kasia's indiana jones // 5'11" // dating emil zalewski // born in scotland // lives in rural scotland
The two brothers stood in the clearing underneath the oak tree, some twenty feet apart, both staring at each other, trying to wrap their minds around the situation they were in. Hearing the tinge of disbelief in Damian's voice almost made Vaughn lose his calm composure. Almost. He wanted to close the gap between them, to embrace his brother and to ruffle his hair as they'd done when they were younger, he wanted to meet this new, adult Damian, to congratulate him on becoming a man, to tease him about the thick beard being an overcompensation for something, but there was something about Damian's words that put Vaughn on edge.
You see, Damian had always been talkative, never hesitating to ask a thousand questions, so when he started with small talk, Vaughn tensed up. For the last 3 years Vaughn had been living with a target painted on his back, never knowing who he could trust, and even though he'd never thought of himself as paranoid, a voice in his head was yelling that This is a trap! Damian wouldn't ever be this reserved, grown up or not! He's here to have you captured! He's betrayed your trust! accompanied with the only scenario he could come up with - money. Was he here because someone in the Ministry had promised him a bounty for a werewolf? And now that he knew that Vaughn was a Trossach, capturing his own brother would be like arranging Christmas in June for the Aurors.
Casually, he slipped his hand into the right pocket of his suit pants, his fingers curling around the handle of his wand, ready to react in an instant, if his fears would become true.
"I've missed you too, brother. As you can see, I'm still alive and well," he gestured at himself with his other hand, giving Damian a smile that didn't quite meet his eyes, "You didn't have to go all the way out here to meet me. It isn't nearly as bad as people make it out to be."
we got no money, but we got heart/we're gonna rattle this ghost town
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Post by DAMIAN BELANGER on Feb 23, 2020 5:53:29 GMT
"Alive and well," Damian repeated. He'd never doubted it, that was, not until Teresa had looked at the picture and told him that all was not well with his brother, and yet, somehow, it seemed impossible for there to be a world where Vaughn was not at least pretending to be well. Even as he could see the unease in Vaughn's face--that meant he was still Vaughn. That whatever the wolf had done to him, it hadn't changed his brother's personality.
"You would wear a suit in a forest, wouldn't you?" Damian said, cracking a smile. His own flannel shirt and jeans were far more his style than what he wore to work every day--those sort of clothes were always more Vaughn's thing. "I hope you're not hiking around here in those shoes all the time. I think you'd break your feet somehow. I wear dress shoes to work every day and it's awful. They say that if you get good ones, they won't give you blisters, but, well..." Vaughn could certainly fill in the end of that sentence, knowing full well that Damian's budget for shoes was not exactly the largest.
Damian ran a hand through his hair, pushing the bangs out of his eyes as he reached the end of his sentences. It seemed like maybe things hadn't changed so much that he would stay quiet the whole time, he realized, as he had to take a breath before continuing. "Rodrik's found out too, you know. Through Rowan Howard, he said." Damian hadn't understood the entire chain of events that had led to Rodrik's panicked letters, but he had gotten that much out of it. As if finding out their brother was a werewolf wasn't already a shock, now there were apparently cousins they'd never known about before.
@vaughnbelanger
kasia's indiana jones // 5'11" // dating emil zalewski // born in scotland // lives in rural scotland
Damian repeated his words -- was he considering them? Was he considering a course of action? Would that course of action involve several other wizards springing out of the woods, aiming to seize Vaughn? Or, maybe, just maybe, his time amongst the Trossachs had given Vaughn paranoia and he was a fool for overthinking? Because there Damian was, almost talking his older brother's ear off as if nothing had ever happened, as if Vaughn wasn't a werewolf, as if--
Damian grinned at him, commenting on Vaughn's choice of outfit. It was silly to wear a suit in a forest, wasn't it? In an attempt to look well-off, he'd overdone it. "No, mostly hike in boots. Or barefoot. Depends on the day." His answers were short and to the point as his fingers cramped around the wand in his pocket.
He couldn't just stand there, letting his mind swing from his doubts to the longing to just hug his brother like the hand of a metronome. But he didn't want to ask out loud, he didn't want to accuse...
Vaughn pulled out his wand, not letting his eyes off of his brother, and let it hang by his leg, as if he'd just casually decided to get it out of his pocket. A whisper followed. "Homenum Revelio!"
No reaction.
Thank god.
"Ah, Rodrik, too?" he continued as if nothing, his voice cracking ever so slightly. Knowing that brother... There was no convincing him to not despair, so trying to do damage control by reassuring Damian was pretty much useless. "Hm. Indeed, Rue Howard is here, and, indeed, she's our cousin."
