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!
Hogwarts was... huge. August, who'd come from a small town, had thought that Durmstrang was large, but Hogwarts...Hogwarts was entirely something else. Towers upon towers, 7 floors, if you don't count the basement and the dungeons, and the moving stairs, and the doors that changed the location of their exit... It all made him a bit uneasy, and even shorter than he already was.
He really wished that newcomers would be outfitted with at least a simple map of the place -- yes, yes, there was the whole We don't want to give away our secrets nonsense, but... Really? Not even a simple schematic with their classrooms and dorms?
A week had passed and there was no word of such a map, so August had done his best to just follow around the other students of his year, almost getting lost once or twice -- the porait of a rather zealous knight had helped him out after a very amusing, yet exhausting conversation that remind the boy of a particular ghost back at Durmstrang. But he couldn't spend weeks upon weeks missing class, could he now?
So, the first Saturday came, and right after breakfast August decided that he'll go explore. His way had lead him to the greenhouses, and he was entering them, wondering, if they grew their own tomatoes, because everyone knows homegrown tomatoesare the best and if these Brits are importing hybrid ones from Spain, he would be very, very disappointed.
But, as he opened the door, he realized that he wasn't the only one in the glass building. He could see a head of blonde hair hiding behind various branches, the person's back turned to him.
"Hello," he greeted the other person, "I hope I'm not interrupting anything?"
Post by VIOLA ROSALINE on Apr 30, 2020 14:22:03 GMT
Vi's very first week back at Hogwarts had been absolutely stupendous if you were to ask her. The halls and classes were filled with plenty of dazzling new faces, ones Vi had admired more than once, and thus her world of snogging opportunities had become that much wider. Unfortunately, she hadn't had the pleasure of engaging in said kissing activities as of yet, but it was all a matter of time. She'd totally get there, she was just biding her time for those who seemed up for the task at hand.
For now though, Vi was focused on a different task as she glanced around the tables full of magical plants in greenhouse #3, taking in the oh-so-gorgeous variations of leaves and thorns and such with her attentive eyes. She wanted to paint some of these later, perhaps she could bring her easel and art supplies down with the permission of the Herbology Professor, but currently she was trying to memorize the divine different shades of green she saw to try. She wanted to find the perfect one to add to her in-progress painting upstairs.
Too involved in what she was doing, Vi didn't hear the door creek open or the gentle treading of footsteps. She didn't even notice another person was there until they spoke and caused her to jump before letting out a surprised laugh, whirling around with her two blonde braids swaying in the process to face them... and Merlin's beard, she liked what she saw.
"Hi! No, come in. Welcome. More the merrier," she chirped, a smile lighting up her face as she ushered him in with an enthusiastic wave of her hand. "You're from Durmstrang, right? But sorted into Ravenclaw? I think I've seen you at the dining table - I'm in there too. My name's Viola, but you can call me Vi."
He was greeted with the sound of merry laughter -- he'd taken her and her blonde braids by surprise. She turned around and, ohoho, wasn't she a sight for sore eyes! Bright blue eyes, a smile so contagious August couldn't hold away and smiled just the same, and light pink lipstick that not only matched his own sweater, but made him think of cotton candy. And he loved cotton candy.
"Yes, yes, Durmstrang, that's me. I'm Augusts, but you can drop the 's' at the end, no need to bother with it." he replied, walking over to stand next to the girl. "Viola... A wonderful name. Back at home, we've got plenty of purple and pink ones springing up in the, uh, spring, in the forests. It's such wonderful sight to see the side of a hill covered in little flowers, with pine trees casting a shadow over them. I miss it." The whole time he looked right into her eyes, as was polite when talking to someone, but his thoughts were back in the home country.
"But I'm rambling, sorry. What were you looking at so intently before I interrupted you?" He asked, looking around at a jungle of green leaves so thick he couldn't tell where one branch ended and another one started. There were no tomatoes in sight. Sigh.
Post by VIOLA ROSALINE on May 1, 2020 13:25:17 GMT
"August. Like the month! Isn't that just fab? I wish I was named after a month," Vi mused out loud, staring up at the boy - August - as he settled in beside her. Merlin left shoe, he was gorgeous and Vi wasn't exactly shy as she gazed up at him. "You know, you have the most splendorous eyes." Was she using that word right? Did it matter? Probs not! "Genuinely. I know people never, like, rave about brown eyes but I think they're just the bees knees, don't you? Plus, they're all nice and shapely, like the cutest little almonds."
As the boy started waxing poetic about his hometown, staring right back into her eyes, Vi was absolutely smitten because a boy wearing the best pink sweater she'd ever seen in her life was talking about flowers in a field. Even if she didn't end up smooching him, she definitely becoming his friend. "They sound absolutely marvelous. No wonder you miss it!" she said, before her eyes lit up. "Oh, you know, we have flowers at Hogwarts too? Right outside of the Hufflepuff common room's windows, there's the most magnificent dandelions. I know it's not quite the same, but it's still pretty neato! Maybe I can take you there if you ever miss home too much?"
Shaking a head at the boy's apology with a quick, "Don't be a silly billy, it's fine. Ramble at me any time," Vi smiled as she gestured towards the abundance of plants in the greenhouses. "I was looking at everything really! I'm painting this lady that melds into a forest - it's abstract - in my dorms and I was looking for the perfect colour. What are you doing here?"
Viola was absolutely brimming with energy, immediately launching into an enthusiastic conversation with the boy. He'd only been here for a week, but it was a bit refreshing to have someone not look at him as if he could grow fangs and horns at any given moment. And this girl went even further, complementing August's eyes -- and making the boy blush just as much as the tomatoes he was in search for.
"Dandelions?" He repeated after her, trying to sort through the languages in his head and figure out which flowers she meant. Were those the ones considered weeds or, or, wait no, the one's we put in wreaths? No wait, those... "Uh, those were the, uh... The yellow ones? That turn into white puffballs, right?" He got words mixed up much more often than he liked to admit, and, as much as he loved flowers, he wasn't a botanic either.
When Viola said that he was welcome to ramble at any time, he gave her a wide smile. He was glad she was in Ravenclaw -- if he ever got terribly bored with Hogwarts, which wasn't very likely, he'd have someone to call upon. A friend in a foreign place was the greatest comfort he could ask for.
"Oooh," he drawled, "that sounds very interesting, though I'll admit, I've never understood abstract art. My visual imagination isn't all that good. I do hope you find the correct tone in this jungle. I was here for a very simple reason -- I'm looking for tomatoes. I love homegrown tomatoes, and I thought, 'Well, you've got greenhouses here, magical ones at that, so there might be some even out of season.' Do you know anything about that, or are greenhouses only for studying purposes?"
"You look so cute when you blush," Viola remarked brightly, absolutely delighted by the spots of colour that rose in Augusts' cheeks. She wondered if perhaps she could make them turn an even more magnificent shade of red by continuing to compliment him, but she decided that she'd give it a tiny break, just because she didn't want him to think she wasn't being genuine with what she said even though everything that left her mouth typically was.
"Mm hmm, dandelions! They're super duper cool. They start off yellow, like you said, and then when they're white puffballs you can pick them and blow them and make a wish," Vi explained, nodding as she spoke. Did they have them in... where this boy was from? Come to think of it, she didn't really know. The best way to find out was to ask, of course. "Durmstrang takes people from all around Europe, don't they? Just like Hogwarts takes people from here, there and everywhere in the UK! Whereabouts from Europe do you usually live?"
"People think that abstract art is just a bunch of very weird stuff and I guess they're right, it is, but I like to think it's a way for me to get whatever I imagine in my head onto a canvas. I can create whatever I like, there's no real limits. Plus, I think it's super exciting to paint something with a new concept, one people haven't really seen before," Vi mused out loud, before her eyes widened in interest as he explained he was looking for tomatoes. It was a bit random, sure, but she could definitely help him with that.
Reaching out, Vi took Augusts hand without even blinking and a chirpy, 'Come with me!' like he had a choice before tugging him outside, around the back of the greenhouses. "So the Herbology professor usually grows a bunch of vegetables for the house elves to use in the kitchen when they're making dinner and stuff - they're so wonderfully clever, house elves... always coming up with delicious things to eat," she said, finally stopping as she reached the vegetable patch, filled with the most beautiful array of colours from magically, oversized homegrown vegetables. "It's pretty cool, but I think the pumpkin patch even cooler when you see it. Do they have a pumpkin patch at Durmstrang?"
His smile only grew when Viola confirmed his first guess about the identity of dandelions, and he even allowed himself to mutter a quiet, yet enthusiastic 'yes!' as she explained.
But then came the somewhat anticipated, yet always a little bit dreaded, question of where are you from?
By his accent people usually timidly guessed German, and yes, he could see the similarities, and there was an explanation, but something told him that this girl wasn't here for a lesson in history. Why did he dread it? Well, because more often than not people either didn't know where it was at all, which was the harmless option. The other one was... He didn't even want to think about it.
"Uh, Latvia. Small country, Northen Europe. I think you'd like the shades of our countryside in the summer."
And then Vi was rambling on about abstract art, and even though August firmly believed that realism -- romanticist realism -- was where it was at, seeing the enthusiasm the girl had for the subject, he decided not to enter into this discussion. After all, he knew nothing about art or its history. He just liked what he saw in all those 19th century paintings back at Durmstrang.
And then her warm hand grabbed his cold palm, dragging the boy along with her through the little jungle, past marvelous flowers and some less marvelous plants which looked like they were ready to eat him without salt, right out the door he came through, around the side of the greenhouse (Don't tomatoes grow indoors only?), to a patch with the biggest vegetables he'd ever seen. And, what do you know, there were tomatoes grown outdoors -- and these were the size of his head.
"Oh, wow," he sighed, letting go of her hand and walking over to one particulary large and red tomato, "These...These are something else. At Durmstrang we have them regular sized, this... Here I was hoping I could steal some, but don't think I could get far with one of these." He walked through the tomato patch, touching the berries (because tomatoes are berries, his grandmother never let him forget that), checking how firm they were.
"Pumpkins? No, we didn't have them, and I'm not a very big fan of them either. These are... I hope these taste nearly as good as impressive they look. Oh! Hey, hey Viola, come over here!" he waved her over with his hand, standing next to plant of light pink tomatoes. "Who wore it better, hmm?"
Post by VIOLA ROSALINE on May 2, 2020 10:10:13 GMT
Latvia. Viola wasn't sure if she'd ever heard of it - it sounded somewhat familiar, but she definitely couldn't pinpoint it on a map if someone asked her too. She didn't say that aloud though, the thought of 'he'll think I'm stupid' ringing through her mind. But because Vi didn't like dwelling on that kind of sad thinking, she quickly stopped it, instead nodding exuberantly, "It sounds pretty with the violas and all! I bet it's lovely! Are there many people from Latvia at Durmstrang?"
The happy little sigh that August released when he saw the vegetable patch and then wandered off to go look at the gardens made happiness swell in Vi's heart because well, it was always great to surprise people with something you thought they'd like, and for the surprise to turn out well. "Yeah, I think that maybe the Herbology prof sprays them with a special potion to help them grow or something," she said before letting out a tinkling laugh. "You were going to steal one? What were you going to do with it... hide it under your shirt or something?" The mental image that danced before Vi only made her giggle a bit more because whilst a little tomato would look like a very tiny baby belly, one of those tomatoes would make him look much more pregnant and would definitely cause passerby's to look at him in alarm.
"Oh, you don't eat the pumpkins. You sit on them. They're like... a very uncomfortable, firm seat for your bottom but it's a nice place to think sometimes," Vi said thoughtfully, before bouncing over as August waved her. Who wore it better? It wasn't a tough question, comparing the tomatoes to his sweater, but she was an excellent actress as she tapped her chin in thought, humming loudly as she pretended to ponder. Of course, the act didn't last long before she was breaking out in an ear-splitting smile. "You, of course. You look absolutely dashing. Now do me - who wore it better, me or the tomato?" Vi tapped her pink-stained lipstick coated mouth so he'd know just what he was meant to be comparing.
"There is a few, yeah," August answered after a moment of pondering, "Some go to Russia, though, and some go to Hogwarts, too. Haven't heard much about anyone going to France, though." He knew of at least of a dozen of other Latvians at Durmstrang, but he wouldn't call himself friends with any of them, despite being from a country that sometimes was a little hellbent on unity.
"No, I was going to eat it on the spot! I didn't expect them to be this large!" he explained, sharing her amusement. "I thought they'd be regular size, you know, like my hand, or even smaller, so that I could just eat them on the spot. But these... You could feed me for an entire day on one alone!" And that was saying a lot, because this boy loves his tomatoes.
Now do me.
If he was completely honest with himself, those words made him want to laugh and make a stupid joke about sex just like every other teenage boy out there would. But he didn't say it out loud, rather just smirking for a brief moment and rubbing the lower part of his face as he pretended to be terribly indecisive about his answer to Viola.
"Well, I am certain that out of us three," with a wide motion of the hand he began to answer, "You wear it the best by far. But then, it makes me wonder, which one of you two tastes better?" He winked and the smirk was right back on his face.
Post by VIOLA ROSALINE on May 2, 2020 15:04:35 GMT
Vi's nodding only continued as August explained how Latvians were typically spread between Russia, Hogwarts and Durmstrang. It was fascinating, really! Most of the people she knew from Britain only went to Hogwarts... but then again, she supposed if they went elsewhere, she wouldn't really know, would she? Because she never would have met them.
"Here I was, thinking you were going to be a little thiefy thief and I'd have to pretend like I never saw you steal a bunch of tomatoes like a criminal," Vi continued, her giggles not subsiding one bit. She could just imagine the headline now if he got found out: Durmstrang Student Caught Pilfering Tomatoes, Given 2 Year Sentence in Azkaban. "Are you one of those people who eat tomatoes like apples? Like, just full on takes a big chomp out of the side? I like them, but I don't think I like them quite that much."
To say that Vi was happy as she heard August's answer was an understatement because she was, in fact, delighted. So much so that her entire being lit up with joy as she stepped towards him, fingers twisting in the fabric of his pink sweater that she adored oh-so-much. But not as much as she was suspected she would adore the feeling of his soft-looking lips against hers. "Let's find out, shall we?" she said playfully, before rocking up onto her tiptoes and brushing her mouth against his in a chaste kiss.
Their laughter filled the air, interrupted only by their chattering, which, in turn made them laugh even more. By the time Vi's fingers had curled around the fabric of his sweater, Augusts' face had gone completely red and his head was ever so slightly dizzy. As her face neared his, he sharply inhaled, trying to make sure he wouldn't yawn mid-kiss...
Her lips brushed against his in a innocent kiss, making his brows raise in surprise -- surely, that wasn't all she was offering? He'd scarcely even gotten a taste! Gently, he placed his cold hands onto Viola's cheeks and deepened the kiss, running the tip of his tongue over her lips--
"Hm," he muttered, "and here I thought you'd taste just as sweet as you looked. Like cotton candy. Oh, well, no flavour suits me just fine." And then he shut up, proceeding to kiss her deeper still, his hands slowly sliding down her sides and settling a little above her hips.
They were gentle kisses, ones a little more suited for a meadow of wildflowers than a dirty vegetable patch, but for two souls as imaginative as these forgetting their surroundings shouldn't pose much of a problem, right?
Post by VIOLA ROSALINE on May 2, 2020 15:49:16 GMT
The sensation of cold, almost icy hands cupping her cheeks made yet another laugh spilled out of Vi's mouth, this time against August's lips, but it quickly receded as he deepened the kiss. It was just... wonderful, and eagerly Vi's lips parted, her hands sliding up from where they were clutched in the soft material of sweater to snake around his broad shoulders.
By the time Vi had definitely gotten her fill worth of kisses from the boy, she was satisfyingly breathless. Dropping back onto her heels, she tapped his nose with the tip of her finger playfully. "Maybe the next time I'll taste like cotton candy," she said, eyes dancing. Would there be a next time? She didn't know, but she sure hoped so because this had been fun.
"It's starting to get dark, we should head back," Vi mused as she glanced up at the sky, clouds slowly starting to fill the airy blue space. But then she was hit with the best. idea. ever. and she turned to him, eyes wide. "August, you should totally give me a piggyback ride back to the castle! How fun would that be? Then maybe tomorrow morning, I can give you one all the way down to breakfast from the tower, yes?"
Vi's very first week back at Hogwarts had been absolutely stupendous if you were to ask her. The halls and classes were filled with plenty of dazzling new faces, ones Vi had admired more than once, and thus her world of snogging opportunities had become that much wider. Unfortunately, she hadn't had the pleasure of engaging in said kissing activities as of yet, but it was all a matter of time. She'd totally get there, she was just biding her time for those who seemed up for the task at hand.
