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!
Post by ALEXANDER GREENAWAY on May 19, 2019 8:47:52 GMT
Rubbing his eyes with the back of his hand and yawning widely, so widely it physically made his jaw crack, Alexander made his way down towards the kitchen. It was late, almost curfew time, but he'd spent the whole afternoon sleeping away his sadness and as a result, he'd missed dinner. It was, unfortunately, not a rare thing for him to do and as a result, the house elves usually were kind enough to let him make himself a sandwich if he asked.
As Alex made his way towards the painting with the bowl of fruit, his shoulders were slouched over and his body was drawn tight, as though he was trying to make himself as small as possible... and he was. He always was, because he didn't want any attention drawn to himself. Unfortunately, that meant he usually didn't see anyone until it was too late... which was exactly what happened a moment later as he collided into someone and let out an 'oof.'
Richard had been reading his care of magical creatures book a bit too thoroughly, or so his housemates had told him. Could he help it he wanted to know the most magical parts about the creatures so that when he realized his dream he would be able to make wands with every core, to an more or less even strength and not just the three most common wand cores as used by Ollivander’s. No at that moment he was trying to sneak out of the common room to get a late night snack at the kitchen, mostly because it was a hop skip and jump away from the Hufflepuff common room.
His violin in hand he was going that way when someone turned him into a road bump. His own knee jerk reaction was to apologise and hope that it wasn’t the wrong person who’d take offense or a prefect who would be likely to dock points from Hufflepuff, because that would be bad. ’’I’m sorry, I wasn’t paying attention, I was just heading to the kitchen for a late night snack, please don’t get me in trouble? Waaait Alex? What are you doing here at this time of the day?’’
Post by ALEXANDER GREENAWAY on May 28, 2019 0:50:52 GMT
As soon as the other person started speaking, Alex glanced up at them blearily until he caught sight of the guy's face. He wasn't great with names, but... er... this guy's name was Something Frost? He couldn't quite remember his first name, something that was a bad side effect of Alex trying to distance himself from all of his classmates during the last four years of school.
"It's... I can't get you in trouble, I'm not a Professor," Alex muttered, hands immediately going deep into his pockets. "I wouldn't anyway." That would require talking to an authority figure, after all, and he tried to avoid that as much as possible. When Frost greeted him by name, Alex tried his best not to cringe because shit, that was embarrassing. That he couldn't remember the Hufflepuff's name for the life of him, yet he obviously knew Alex's. "Er, yeah. I... ended up sleeping after class." A habit, at this point, even though he slept when he could in classes as well with some of the more lenient Professors. "I missed dinner too... so, uh. I'm gonna ask the elves for some food. What are you doing here?"
Heaving a mental sigh that Alex wouldn’t rat him out to a professor Richard took a deep breath and smiled at the other young man. ’’Well that’s one worry less.’’ When it was mentioned that Alex had fallen asleep after class he couldn’t help but smile. It happened in his dorm to some others as well, but then again those guys usually had other night time activities, of which visiting broom closets appeared to be one of them. Not that Richard would be the one to do so mostly because of a few things, one his social ineptness, two him being rather shy, three his mom and the thought of his stepfathers and finally he didn’t think he was ready at all.
Apparently Alex had missed dinner as well and was therefore getting food from the kitchens. Richard’s reaction was to try and keep a normal face about it. Missing dinner would usually send weird signals in Hufflepuff, but he guessed it was different elsewhere. ’’Well Alex I might have been reading a bit too much about magical creatures and the possible magical substances we could use from them to make wand cores…or so my housemates say. Basically this is me trying to get a late night to midnight snack from the kitchens and relax with violin play somewhere.’’
With that Richard moved into the kitchens properly by tickling the pear and holding the door open for Alex to join him, after all food was often better when eaten with others. Not even words needed to be said or so the Hufflepuff thought, he would be content with company. He just hoped Alex was the same as the look about him was that he could use someone to vent at.
Post by ALEXANDER GREENAWAY on Jun 19, 2019 5:21:12 GMT
"Er... well, that's good, right?" Alex said in response to Richard's remark that he had one less worry. It sounded like it should have been a good thing but all it did was make Alex wonder what other worries the guy carried on his shoulders. Were they worse than the prospect of Alex getting him trouble?
The boy said his name again and shit, that made Alex feel guiltier and guiltier really because he really should have known this bloke's name, right? If he knew Alex's so well. "So you got caught up?" he asked, before a blank look crossed his face. "A violin? What - where?"
It was almost gentlemanly, the way Richard held the door open for Alex, and the Ravenclaw boy could only give him a slightly confused look as he stood rooted in place, hands shoved deep into his pockets. "You don't... do you want me to go, so you can... eat in peace? I can just... wander the halls 'til you're done, or something..."
Richard smiled somewhat innocently when he was asked if he got caught up in his book and rubbed the back of his head with one hand. ’’Well I kinda carry it around on my person, my mom placed an undetectable extension charm on a few things of mine, one of them being my backpack.’’ Still waiting for Alexander to step into the kitchen with him Richard tilted his head sideways. Silently wondering what was going through the other boy’s head he waited until finally words came from Alex’s lips that made Richard’s jaw loosen. The brown haired boy thanked himself for not letting his jaw fully drop and met Alex’s eyes with his own.
’’No I don’t want you to go and wander the halls so I can as you put it so....awkwardly ‘’eat in peace’’. I enjoy company when eating, even if they don’t feel like talking. To me it always seems to give just a little nudge into better thoughts and moods sharing food with someone. So if you don’t mind I’d prefer it if you were with me Alexander?’’ Not a word was lied or exaggerated. Richard liked having company for food, whether it was a quick snack or a normal meal .
The Hufflepuff guessed it came from the times when he and his mom sat down for lunch or dinner after a muggle school day, talk the day over. Perhaps it were the times when he had had dinner when he was with friends and they just sat and listened to each other instead of just bickering, or whatever was the mood for that day.
Post by ALEXANDER GREENAWAY on Jul 8, 2019 9:44:30 GMT
"An... right. An extension charm. My, uh... my mum was a muggle, so... it's... good that your mum can do that for you," Alex stammered out, the tail-end of his sentence turning into a mumble. Merlin, what a shit topic to bring up. His mum - hell, his parents. Nobody wanted to talk about that. It always ended up making them look at him with sympathy... or worse, pity. Trying to change the subject, Alex asked, "What do you... er... what else do you keep in your bag?"
Something Frost didn't want him to take a walk so he could eat by his lonesome? That was... odd. His hands still in his pockets, Alex's left one started rolling a ball of lint so it hand something to do. "That's... that's good. Uh, I don't - I'm not really good at talking. Kinda like Peter Parker." Alex didn't know if the other boy was muggleborn or half-blood or pureblood but Merlin, he kind of hoped for the latter because that meant that Frost wouldn't realise how nerdy that comparison was.
With that, Alex moved passed the Hufflepuff and into the kitchen, standing there and waiting for Frost to start grabbing food first. He really did wonder what his first name was but wasn't that an awkward question to ask? Perhaps one of the house elves knew and would greet him by name.
Richard shrugged when he mentioned that his mum was a muggle, his own dad had been a muggle. ’’What else I keep in my bag, well my violin as you heard, some herbology tools, books, water, more books, toiletries as I promised mum I’d always have them on me just in case and swear to not laugh, a change of clothes as I’m rather prone to stains and the likes.’’ Seeing the other kid keeping his hands in his pockets, and therefore not really open, or closed to conversation he tried to keep it going. Hearing the Spiderman reference he couldn’t help but smile. Being a halfblood himself and his mum having dated multiple people he had gotten one amongst the others completely obsessed with marvel.
Following the Ravenclaw the brunette shrugged and turned to one of the elves that he had more contact with. ’’Teeny could I get some food please, you know the usual?’’ The elf called Richard by his first name, of course adding master in front of it. Even after asking repeatedly not to do so as Teeny was a school elf. ’’I have to say you do have a bit of a Peter Parker vibe every now and again, not so much the sometimes overconfident Spiderman vibe. Personally I find myself relating a bit to Bruce Banner, but without the hulking mass of muscle that are his anger management issues.’’
Richard was rather curious to see how long Alex would take to figure out that he meant the feeling of needing to stay out of everyone’s way, because of the fear of ruining it by being who he was. He was friendly and liked the company, which kept him normal most of the time, but he did have his very reclusive moments, or more hulk like moments when it came to his mother’s dates.