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!
and i'm calling for my mother/as i pull the pillars down
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Post by NADEZHDA KAREVA on May 15, 2019 5:27:23 GMT
Pushing open the door to the greenhouse, Nadya stepped inside with only the slightest of sounds, keeping her steps light even with the boots she wore to protect her feet from any stray dangerous plant. She knew it was unlikely that there would be anything too spiky, poisonous, or otherwise damaging in the greenhouses they allowed the students in unsupervised, but she also knew that Mother Nature would punish those who did not respect her plants. After all, it was so very easy to mistake Devil's Snare for Flitterbloom, an innocent mistake that could carry terrible consequences. This, however, had never stopped Nadya from her dedication to Herbology, since there were so many good plants as well, and the dangerous ones did have their uses. Stepping carefully through the rows of plants both mundane and magical, she searched for the ones she was currently caring for, the little patch of Dittany that would hopefully be useful for healing purposes when it grew more leaves. She had always wanted to grow it, knowing its incredible magical properties since her first year, and she had been very excited to find it in the greenhouses this year, seeming like it was there just for her.
Taking a ribbon from her pocket, she tied up her blonde hair in a simple ponytail and bent down over the plant, examining it. Pressing a finger into the soil, she could tell immediately that more water was needed before anything else, and she straightened back up, searching for a watering can among the shelves of green plants everywhere. She breathed deeply when walking next to a particularly fragrant flower, a small smile on her face. Life was better among growing things, she felt, something that became even more important to her as the weather started to become colder outside. This year she hoped to spend as much of the winter as possible in the greenhouses.
Nature held such beauty in Flora's young eyes; it had provided her with all sorts of wonder throughout her childhood and now in her secondary education the herbology class was a favourite. Her cousins, as everyone else knew them, were decent potioneers and during the last summer Flora had tended to Pierre's herbarium by diligently harvesting the useful parts of his various plants. She'd enjoyed the process that he took time to show her; the choice cuts, what to look for and avoid, the drying techniques for the leaves and petals. He'd paid particular interest in harvesting his private wolfsbane collection and Flora had decided that was probably for the best, given the current werewolf 'problem'.
In the green houses at Hogwarts, Flora had decided that she'd try and grow her own little wolfsbane collection. But first, she'd have to find some good pots and soil and... "Oh! Hello Nadya," Flora said with a smile as she caught sight of the gorgeous blonde senior Slytherin student. "You're probably the best person to help me, actually, besides the professor of course. I wanted to plant some aconite seeds and was wondering where I might find some spare pots and soil? I know it grows best in the wild but my cousin sent me some seeds of his private collection..." Flora paused then, realising that she had begun talking and obviously must have interrupted Nadya doing something herself.
"Oh sorry... am I interrupting? I can come back another time if you'd prefer."
and i'm calling for my mother/as i pull the pillars down
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Post by NADEZHDA KAREVA on May 23, 2019 0:12:37 GMT
At the sound of another person entering the greenhouse, Nadya's head popped up, blue eyes blinking into the rows of green to look for the other soul. Clearly, someone had gotten the same idea as her to come here today--though, to be fair, Nadya came there most days. She felt as if the plants were the only thing that kept her sane at the school sometimes. To get her away from all the noise and irritation, a place where she could actually be something near cheerful.
She squinted up. One of the younger girls in her house was smiling at her, looking quite hopeful to see her there. Nadya brushed her hands off on her pants, about to give a smile back and lead her to some pots--and then she realized just what little Flora was asking her to help with.
"Aconite?" Nadya questioned, one eyebrow raised. Everyone knew these days just what that was for, and it almost certainly wasn't Wideye Potion, though that should be its only use for someone as young as the girl in front of her. Practically the nectar of the gods to any werewolf, provided they could brew the appropriate potion with it, which wasn't within even the seventh-year's grasp. Yet terribly poisonous in any form other than that potion. Nadya had that memorized well, from when she'd considered growing her own as a source for some werewolves: death within two to six hours, no external signs of anything except asphyxiation. She shuddered a little, then fixed her eyes back on Flora.
"I'll help you," she said slowly, hoping the girl was simply curious about the plant. After all, as she'd mentioned, it was quite difficult to grow outside of the wild. "But you have to promise me that if it grows, you'll only harvest it for someone who knows what they're doing, alright?"
Goodness gracious... how was it possible for someone to be so beautiful whilst covered in dirt? Flora watched the older Slytherin student as she took her time to dust herself off before looking back at Flora. The careful, precise way in which she replied reminded her very much of her older cousin, Vinda. When Nadya did finally respond by parroting her words back, Flora nodded enthusiastically. "Yes - wolfsbane," she began, then bit her lip as she realised too late that Nadya wasn't confused by the name of the plant. Some people were and Flora had just tried to be helpful, though it probably wasn't going to appear that way to a shrewd Slytherin like the staggeringly beautiful woman that stood before her.
"Oh! Thank you, Nadya, you're a life-saver," Flora said with a grin as she took an eager step towards her new friend. "I promise … oh well I had hoped that I might be able to help the poor wolfies like my cousin. If … if you don't think I could brew a good wolfsbane potion maybe Vinda can help me. I know she's really very good at potions," Flora chatted merrily as she fished the little envelope that contained the little seeds from Pierre out of her cloak's pocket. "They're in here - it's safe to take them out and put them in the soil, right? Or do I have to put on my gloves first? Or should we wait until we get the pots ready because I'd hate it if someone just popped in and... I don't know … popped the envelope? That would be weird for them to do, wouldn't it. Don't mind me, I'm just happy to have some good company for a lovely day out in the sun and gardening."
and i'm calling for my mother/as i pull the pillars down
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Post by NADEZHDA KAREVA on Jun 9, 2019 16:37:10 GMT
"Of course, wolfsbane." At least Flora knew the appropriate use of such a thing, though Nadya was doubtful that the girl's sixth-year cousin was any better at brewing the complicated potion than she herself would be. Vinda, the prissy girl in the year below her, did not seem like the type to "help the poor wolfies," as Flora had put it, but there had been things that surprised Nadya more in the world. "I didn't know Vinda wanted to do that," she said quietly, almost to herself.
But that was something they could figure out later. She beckoned Flora over with a small hand wave. "I would wait to think more about the potion until these seeds actually grow, though. It grows much more easily in the wild, so we'll have to try to replicate that here. Come over here, take a look at this soil with me, I think it would be the best for what you need. And no, don't take the seeds out yet, we wouldn't want it to grow among other plants. It can be quite poisonous if it's not processed properly, so if it ends up in something that's meant to be eaten, it would be a disaster." Nadya always felt more confident speaking about plants, her words seeming to flow easily. She crouched down next to a corner of the greenhouse where the Herbology professor kept extra potting soil, pulling out the bag she wanted to show Flora.
"Oh, Vinda is a lot nicer than people give her credit for. Honestly - last Christmas, she actually gave me a hug," Flora said with an amused smirk. The idea of Vinda hugging anyone, even as an iddy-biddy-baby was enough to make most people laugh out loud. "But, honestly, Vinda's passion is in potions. I think she'd brew it, if not altruistically, just to show her amazing talent. Because she is very talented as a potioneer. Almost better than her big brother, Pierre.. and he's... he's a lot bigger," Flora chattered away merrily beside Nadya. She smiled widely as she was beckoned and she tottered closer, nodding eagerly as Nadya explained that she was getting way ahead of herself.
"Oh you're so very right Nadya," Flora chuckled and shook her head. "Look at me talking about hanging the picture before I've even mixed the pigments," Flora related more to art than botany, though she liked both a lot. She followed Nadya over to the soil as if the other girl was a magnet. "Oh yes... this soil feels very wild," Flora said playfully, running some grains through her fingertips as if she were a connoisseur of some kind. "It's better than the soil in the pots over there. I don't know... is it possible that that soil feels like... more used? Or is that just a placebo because I know the Prof's transferred some plants out the other day during class?"
and i'm calling for my mother/as i pull the pillars down
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Post by NADEZHDA KAREVA on Jun 19, 2019 2:17:23 GMT
An image of a very tall, giant Vinda popped into Nadya's head at Flora's words, and she had to resist the urge to snort. Now that would be a creature she'd actually be afraid to run into in the forest. As it was, she was trying to remember if she'd ever met the older brother of the arrogant blonde. No face came to her mind, so she stuck with the giant Vinda image instead. She hoped Flora didn't catch on to her amusement, because she didn't feel like apologizing for her opinion of the girl's cousin.
Blinking at Flora's metaphor--points for creativity, she thought--Nadya pinched a bit of soil between her fingers as well, watching the younger girl play with it. "I suppose it is a bit more used, if you want to put it that way," she said with a touch of amusement, "it has more nutrients in it, it's had the right plants in it before to have that. The type of soil that forests grow from." She stood up again, pointing over at some of the larger pots. "Aconite plants don't like to be replanted, so you'll need to put them in a big pot from the start. If you'll go get one, I can look for a good place to set them." The greenhouse was full of plants, but there had to be somewhere to set the new plants as well.
Helping out with the planting had put her in a more cheerful mood, until she remembered one more thing. "And I think you should be wearing gloves to touch the seeds, just in case. I don't think the seeds will actually cause any problems, but touching the plant can get the poison on your fingers."
Ahhh! If only Flora could read minds - she'd have loved to hear about a scary giant Vinda. Flicking her long hair at her enemies and squashing the unstylish like a game of whack-a-mole. Unfortunately, she didn't even register a flicker of amusement cross the older student's face and so she went on her merry way fingering the earth. As Nadya joined in, Flora focused on mimicking her movements as best she could, nodding knowingly as she listened to the reply. "Oh wow, really? I thought that a plant in the pot would use up all the nutrients? You know, like a baby in the belly takes all the nutrients from it's mum and then it pops out. I thought that was what it was like when you put a plant in a pot … then you take it out of the pot and one of the reasons you had to change the pot was because it had grown too big from absorbing all the nutrients?" Flora was a decent student at herbology but a lot of classes had seemed to be geared towards harvesting and pruning than... this kind of foundational learning. Her dark eyes were widening and she was gesturing the action of taking one plant from a pot and into another for emphasis.
Eagerly doing as she was told, Flora patted her hands together to rub off as much of the dirt as possible before she tip-toed over to the big pots. "Should I get the biggest pot? Hmmm," Flora tried to lift one that she could probably have tucked herself neatly into if she were a contortionist. It was not going to happen. "Oh Merlin, I feel like I should go to the gym or something... but that would take time wouldn't it?" Flora pursed her lips in thought, moving them from side to side like Samantha from Bewitched as she thought. "Oh! I'm a silly-billy, I can just levitate it!" Flora pulled out her wand and focused on the pot whilst performing the charm. It was a lot harder to manage than the feather she had in first year. It took her a good minute or so to get the thing closer to where Nadya was.
"Oh good idea Nadya, honestly I might've been dead ten minutes ago if you weren't here," Flora said rather cheerfully as she placed the pot in the right position. Next she put on her emerald green dragonhide gloves. "You're so very good at all of this. Have you always been good at Herbology? You're graduating at the end of this year, aren't you? Will you have a plant shop do you think when you finish school?" Flora thought that it would be a marvellous idea.
and i'm calling for my mother/as i pull the pillars down
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Post by NADEZHDA KAREVA on Jul 17, 2019 1:54:02 GMT
"Well, that's part of it," Nadya answered, watching Flora walk over to the pots from the corner of her eye. "If you plant the same plant over and over, it'll use up all the nutrients and won't grow well. But every plant also puts nutrients back into the soil. So if you rotate many different kinds of plants, they'll each use what the last one put back." Nature always took care of herself like that, which Nadya always found beautiful. Individual plants in the forest might die, but they all contributed to the whole forest. It was people who thought they could bend Mother Nature to their will, but she was always stronger.
Nadya did not have forever to think, though, as Flora began to levitate one of the larger pots in her direction, and while she wanted to say she trusted the younger girl's abilities, she could see it wobbling slightly in the air as it floated over. And while Nadya was quite tall, she did not necessarily have the strongest arms, and the pot seemed too large for her to catch properly. She settled for placing a hand on it as it arrived in position on the table next to her, steadying the pot before it could fall and break all over her feet in shards of surprisingly heavy ceramic.
"There. We'll need a lot of soil for this pot, but it should work." If Flora wanted to get her hands in plenty of dirt, who was Nadya to stop her? She had done the same enough times. The small girl's dragonhide gloves were in surprisingly good condition, though Nadya remembered that their family was pureblood--probably had enough money to buy new gloves for her every year. She resolved not to make a comment on it, though; this wasn't Vinda, this girl was much sweeter.
"A plant shop would be nice, wouldn't it?" she said. "If my other plans don't work out, maybe that's what I'll do. Have my own greenhouses."
