Welcome to Charming, where swirling petticoats, the language of flowers, and old-fashioned duels are only the beginning of what is lying underneath…
After a magical attempt on her life in 1877, Queen Victoria launched a crusade against magic that, while tidied up by the Ministry of Magic, saw the Wizarding community exiled to Hogsmeade, previously little more than a crossroad near the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. In the years that have passed since, Hogsmeade has suffered plagues, fires, and Victorian hypocrisy but is still standing firm.
Thethe year is now 1895. It’s time to join us and immerse yourself in scandal and drama interlaced with magic both light and dark.
Complete a thread started and set every month for twelve consecutive months. Each thread must have at least ten posts, and at least three must be your own.
Did You Know?
Did you know? Jewelry of jet was the haute jewelry of the Victorian era. — Fallin
October 3rd, 1888 — Hogwarts library
October Writing Challenge
Studying was definitely not one of Royal's favorite ways to spend his time but alas, it was sometimes a necessity. He had done his best to keep his eyes on his textbooks, honest he did but soon he was bored out of his mind. Boredom and Royal didn't go very well together so it wasn't long until he was making a subtle nuisance of himself by snapping elastic bands at the person sitting across from him.
The girl tried ignoring him at first since it wasn't like he was actually hitting her. He just kept making sure the elastics went whizzing by her ears. But then his next one landed in her hair and she got up in a huffee and dragged a prefect over to where they had been sitting him.
"Are you crazy? Of course I didn't!" He protested in response to the accusations, having vanished the elastics by now to get rid of the evidence. He gave his yearmate his most winning smile that he was well aware that Bones could see right through by this point in their lives.
His prefect badge was a badge of pride, but there were times (most notably when he was engrossed in a book) that he mentally cursed at his responsibility. Approached by the flustered, red-faced girl, there was little else Eldin could do except set his book down and follow her to the so-called "culprit". He would have assumed that she was paranoid—(what kid, he thought, would come to the library to be a nuisance?)—but that was only until a finger was pointed in the direction of Royal Pyrites. Arms crossed over his chest, he stepped towards the Gryffindor.
"Really, Pyrites?" he asked with a annoyed sigh. "Of everything you could be doing on a Wednesday afternoon, you've chosen to annoy students. In the library." Eldin wasn't an authoritarian prefect like some of them; he didn't like taking points. That didn't change that he would, if necessary.
There were probably a lot of better ways to counter the words of Eldin Bones. Less incriminating ones, at the very least. But that was not Royals way. "Where would you prefer that I annoy them?" He spread his hands to indicate the books in front of him. "You know. if it was me. But I'm just here. Studying." He gave Bones his best angelic expression which was... more devilish than any sort of angelic.
With a roll of his eyes, he turned his attention from Pyrites back to the accuser—who, apparently, was unwilling to spend a long enough time away from her books to see the situation resolved. Eldin personally had no negative opinion of Gryffindor as a whole (considering that a number of his relatives also found their home there), but he knew he'd get more than a few sympathetic glances when relaying the story later to his house-mates.
His jaw tightend in annoyance at Pyrites non-answers. "I would be pleased if you'd mind yourself for at least a day," he responded sourly. Pyrites didn't study, and Eldin didn't have to be his close friend to know that; when dealing with troublemakers, reputation was often enough to give Eldin an idea of what he was dealing with. His eyes glancing down to the book in the other boy's nhand, an idea popped up into his head. His demeanor immediately shifted: his shoulder relaxed, and his tense features relaxed into a pleasant smile.
"But no mind to any of that," he said, pulling out the nearest chair and taking a seat. "Divination," he added with a nod to the book that seemed to serve as a shield between prefect and the accused. "That was some assignment Professor Carmichael gave, wasn't it? Obviously it was," he said, almost as if he was talking to himself, "... seeing that it's convinced even you to study."
Royal was getting a kick out of the annoyed look on the prefects voice. A day? He didn't really think that he could do that. He always had to be doing.. something. He didn't like being idle and he didn't overly enjoy doing any productive sort of work. Which meant that he was often getting mischief. It was just the way of things, really. "I'll do that on your birthday," he quipped all the same. "My gift to you." He was so generous, really.
He eyed the prefect suspiciously at the shift in demeanor. He then had to scoff at the idea of Divinition being any sort of difficult. "Gotta make sure you read tea, smoke and dirt correctly, after all. Makes the difference between your death or you sneezing." What was the prefect playing at, though? He was a little paranoid now, though. He had spent half of the previous class flirting with one of the girls in his class. Had he missed an assignment?
His birthday, hmm? "Good, only another eleven days for my twenty-four hours of peace, then," he remarked, his brows arching up as if to say he doubted every word that left the Gryffindor's mouth. More exciting than that was it was his seventeenth birthday, which came with more freedom than even his prefect badge offered—but he was getting sidetracked. He subconsciously mirrored Pyrites' body language, settling back in his chair.
"Surely you know this assignment's more than that," he chuckled. "All of those prophecies came true, so it's not as if a bit of guesswork will give you the right answers. I don't know what he was thinking, reading them aloud without any page numbers to reference. I had to go all the way back to my notes from fourth year to find one of the answers." This was all bullshit, of course, but from his personal experience, having details withheld during an explanation—along with the expectation that he understood the context—was a recipe for panic. A broad smile on his face, Eldin gave a carefree smile that mirrored the one Pyrties had given him moments earlier. "But I am glad we finally got a fact-based assignment for once!"
Royal actually laughed at that. There were other prefects that he enjoyed badgering, after all. Miss Lestrange was a fun one to fluster. Pretty, demure and all that jazz. He watched as Bones relaxed even more. He had no clue what assignment Bones was on about and he thought it was probably a little cute how he thought Royal would care beyond the initial bit of panic that he had already gotten over in the span of about one minute.
"I'm sure you are, nerd," Royal said jovially, glad that Bones seemed to have moved away from the original issue that had brought forth this conversation in the first place.
Pyrites didn't seem to care, but Eldin was determined to make him care.
"... and to think, it will be forty-five percent of our overall grade! I knew continuing into NEWT-level Divination would pay off—no more of that silly guesswork," he continued, diverting his eyes from the Gryffindor to make it seem that he was so very into the made-up assignment he was going on about. "I also heard from Miss Browne that anyone who fails will get an automatic 'T' on examinations."
Bones was such a nerd. Royal started leaning back in his seat slightly as Bones began going on about their work. He was caught by surprise by the mention of Miss Browne. "She only really cares about Quidditch, my good man, " Royal said with a laugh. She had about said as much during tryouts. "If you care so much you could do my work for me."
Eldin almost—almost—let out an annoyed huffed, but caught himself and continued his relaxed attitude. "Miss Browne also knows that her quidditch captaincy can be revoked if she suffers academically," he responded with a half-hearted shurg. He personally wasn't sure (nor did he particularly care) what the Gryffindor captain thought, but a woman so intent on making it into professional quidditch would surely take every step to ensure her chances weren't jeopardized... right? "And I'm sure she'd hate to hear you bad-mouthing her to a classmate." He purposefully ignored the comments on cheating; Pyrites knew he wouldn't.
"I'm not, though. She has priorities and I am perfectly in line with them," Royal said cheekily. "Nice to know you care so much about the rest of us mere mortals, though. A Quality Head Boy material." He dramatically clutched his heart, as if so taken by awe by the Slytherin. He would have continued on if one of his friends didn't poke their head into the library and signal him over. "I do so enjoy our little get togethers but I gotta go do something that isn't... here."Royal took his sweet time packing up, wondering if Bones would wander off now.
Lips pursued, Eldin pondered on his mistakes with this whole... situation. He'd forgotten that there were, in fact, students at Hogwarts with priorities so out of order that he could barely comprehend them. Students who didn't care about their classes, and even actively avoided them if they could craft a believable excuse! Merlin, it wasn't even that he liked school, but even as an heir he understood it's important. Men—no, boys—like Pyrites would one day feel the sting of reality once their apathy caused their parents to cut them off one and for all, but for now... well, Eldin would give him a break.
"You win today, Pyrites," he surrendered, tone calm as stood up from his seated position. "Just—don't get into any trouble, or I will take points." He would've today, but he knew punishments only worked if the troublemaker cared (and though he might enjoy taking a few points from Gryffindor, he pitied any house that had to be study with a student this careless).
"Off with you now. Don't come into the library unless you actually plan to study."
