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 1894. It’s time to join us and immerse yourself in scandal and drama interlaced with magic both light and dark.
Show a pattern of selfish behaviour with your character. You should have at least three threads (ten posts, three+ yours) of your character doing cruel things. Character accounts cannot be combined.
Did You Know?
Queen Victoria was known for putting jackets and dresses on her pups, causing clothing for dogs to become so popular that fashion houses for just dog clothes started popping up all over Paris. — Fox
It would be easy to assume that Evangeline came to the Lady Morgana only to pick fights. That wasn't true at all. They also had very good biscuits. — Evangeline RowleinCheck Your Privilege
december 20th, 1893 — a secluded part of padmore park during the winter festival
Sitting under a tree in an out of the way part of the park, Elijah idly twirled a Jasmine flower between his fingertips. Her letter said she wanted to meet today and his stomach was doing somersaults in anticipation of seeing his girlfriend for the first time since August - he wondered if she missed him as much as he missed her and if she thought of him often. He thought of Jessamine all the time, as any teenager who thought he was in love, and he felt bad that because of his injury in the dragon attacks, he was mostly healing and couldn’t spend many Hogsmeade trips visiting with her as he would’ve liked, but she seemed understanding when he told her in his letters. Minnie even sent books to keep him entertained, which he cherished.
As soon as he saw her approaching the tree he stood up and smiled, about to offer her the flower - he didn’t know what it meant in floriography if he was honest, but he knew they were her favorite - when he saw that she wasn’t alone. “Miss Garlick,” he nodded politely to Francesca as well as smiling and greeting his girlfriend just as formally - it felt weird, but he knew that it was expected by Jessamine if they weren’t alone. That was when Francesca replied with, “Good day, Mr. Hanrahan. You may speak freely… I know.” Both he and the redhead looked at Jessamine and Elijah, awkwardly clearing his throat, offered her the flower that he had been twirling, “Er, this is for you, then. I-I didn’t know we were telling people.”
After arriving back at Parkinson Villa where they could feel more comfortable talking about such things, Jessamine had discussed the topic of Elijah at length with Chessie. It became clear that while she didn’t care for the young man any less and she was going to be devastated to break up with him so early into their relationship, she knew it was wrong to have started it in the first place and ending it before she did something worse was the only way to protect herself. Perhaps it was a little selfish, but Minnie would not become the next school laughingstock because she slipped up because she was in too deep and everyone found out. At least she knew she had Francesca at her side now and that would make it easier. Linking arms with her best friend, Jessamine lightly walked through the snow with ease, thanks to the anti-snow charms on her new winter boots.
Once they had reached the tree where Elijah had promised to meet her, Jessamine’s cheeks went rosy and a lump formed in her throat. How could she possibly break his heart? It didn’t even hit her until now just how badly she missed him; was he healed now? She couldn’t see any scarring but he was bundled up pretty tight due to the glaring sun and the snow. Barely catching the tail end of his exchange with Chessie, she hesitantly took the flower he offered and forced herself to say, “Thank you.” She glanced at Chessie, then looked back at Elijah, “We’re not telling people. Chessie doesn’t count.” It made sense to her, at least, after all, she needed a chaperone. “There’s something important I have to tell you,” Minnie wasn’t even looking at him anymore; she was looking at the trees, snow, the flower that he’d given her moments ago, anything but him.
Elijah had pictured this moment a thousand times - Jessamine coming home for the holidays and the two of them reuniting. He was going to take her for tea somewhere on the muggle side of London where nobody knew who they were, the two of them might share a kiss underneath some mistletoe, and he was going to finally ask her to consider him as a potential suitor for once she debuted that Spring. But given the fact she was short with him and accompanied by her friend, he had a great sinking feeling that none of that was going to happen. He didn’t know what he did wrong, but this situation didn’t feel right.
“Oh. Well, I think you should’ve asked. I mean, you were the one who said we couldn’t tell anyone,” he ran a hand through his hair, knowing deep down getting defensive wasn’t going to help him but he felt like he was in a two against one fight and was being backed into a corner. He kept glancing between the two girls and while Minnie was avoiding eye contact with him and telling him haunting things like needing to tell him something, Francesca just kept looking at him as if she knew what was coming - she nudged lightly Minnie and before she could continue, Elijah blurted out, “Could we talk about whatever it is you want to talk about privately? No offense of course, Miss Garlick, I just don’t think you being here is really necessary.”
Jessamine didn’t really want to do this anymore than Elijah wanted to sit and listen to it, but she kept reminding herself over and over what she and Chessie talked about; they had no future together, her reputation was at stake, and doing this sooner rather than later would make dealing with the whole thing much easier. Still, she barely could get out her words, until Elijah chastised her for telling Chessie in the first place. She pulled her arm out of the intertwined way it was with Chessie and folded her arms in a defensive stance, huffing slightly, “What does it matter if I tell someone. Nobody is going to get mad at you for it.” He was a male, if anything everyone would be patting him on the back for landing a girl like her; he wasn’t the one with a delicate reputation that could shatter at the slightest blow, in fact she was sure his reputation would only improve!
Despite her sass, it still took Chessie nudging her to get her to continue what she wanted to say, though it was interrupted by Elijah wanting to speak privately about this. “No, she has to stay. We can’t be alone together, you know that,” Jessamine insisted; even if she wasn’t worried about being caught alone with a boy, which she was, (she had tried her luck with that too many times already that summer), she needed her best friend’s support to get through this without backing out. “El, please. I’m really trying to be nice about this,” Minnie huffed at him again, glancing at Chessie as she still avoided looking directly at Elijah, though at least she tried to look in his general direction this time, “But we can’t… we can’t be doing this anymore.”
He always admired Jessamine’s quick wit, sharp tongue, and the way she was unafraid to speak her mind, but Elijah had not been on the receiving side of her ire in quite a long time and it was difficult to get used to. Where was all this even coming from, anyway? She was the one who asked him to write to her, she was the one who came to the shop by herself without a chaperone, she was the one who kissed him for the first time before he even had time to think. But suddenly he was the one getting told off like he made her break some rules? “Fine, whatever, do what you want. You always do,” he shot back - it was weak, he knew, and not really an argument so much as him just giving in to her argument with nothing but a cheap shot. Elijah never had his father’s rough edges and biting commentary - he was far more naturally soft and sweet like his mother.
Once again, he was being yelled at for doing something he never really did in the first place - fine, yes, he did ask just now if Francesca could leave, but she was the one who made herself comfortable in his presence unchaperoned in the first place. If they weren’t outside right now, he may have called her out for them being alone together never stopping her before but he was really trying his best not to be ungentlemanly about it, even if she was the one starting things. His stomach dropped when she came out and said it - she was breaking up with him. Perhaps he should’ve seen that coming - he had never been good enough for her and he knew that. But it still hurt to hear and on top of everything else, “Are you ashamed of me, Minnie?”
Maybe it was easier to go through with this if they were fighting over stupid things like who said what, but Minnie couldn’t help but roll her eyes when Elijah put the blame on her for saying they couldn’t tell anyone; he should be grateful that she even agreed to be with him in the first place. And now he was being petty, calling her out for always doing whatever she wanted and maybe he wasn’t wrong, but she thought it was rather pathetic that he was clearly only saying it because he was upset with her. Maybe just like her, it was easier for him to get dumped if he could end it with a few choice words back to her. “Don’t be such a child,” Minnie hissed back at him, putting her nose in the air; if he wanted to be petty, she’d be petty back.
Jessamine might have grabbed Chessie’s arm and pulled her off back toward the festival so they could just get somewhere where Minnie felt safe enough to angrily rant about the whole confrontation, or cry over losing her first love, whichever came first, but that’s when Elijah hit her with the hard question; she couldn’t help but sigh, as she really had no interest in getting into all of this right now even if he wasn’t wrong to ask her that question, because it wasn’t actually a complete no, even as awful as she felt about it. “Elijah, I’m not going to stand here and sing you praises so you can stop pitying yourself, nor am I going to stand here and tell you all the reasons why this was never going to work because it would be redundant,” her folded arms slouched, and Minnie looked more arrogant and bored with the conversation than nervous and tense like before.
Once again, there were a million things that Elijah could have said that would have been more appropriate to an argument with his girlfriend, ex-girlfriend?’s holier than thou attitude. He could have reminded her that she was the one who made all the first moves or that Jessamine wasn’t calling him a child when she was writing him love letters back, or even do the worst thing he could possibly do and threaten to tell people about their relationship in the first place, but that wasn’t the kind of person he was, no matter how upset he was, no matter how much he knew if the shoe was on the other foot, Minnie would have turned on him in a heartbeat because perhaps that’s just the kind of girl she was. All he had left now was just to ask was one question - if he could just get Minnie’s answer then, maybe he could just accept the fact it was always too good to be true.
His cheeks flushed when she called him out for pitying himself - it’s not like she didn’t know about his inferiority complex, but somehow hearing her say it like that made it sound like she’d only discovered it and was holding it against him. “That’s not what I asked,” he knew all the reasons why it wouldn’t work - as much as he didn’t understand, he wasn’t stupid. He knew that in theory she was too good for him, that she hadn't even debuted yet, she was older than him, that he was too poor for her, but that’s not what he wanted to know; he didn’t care what other people thought because he already knew what they would say if they knew. Elijah wanted to know what Minnie thought about him, “I asked if you were ashamed of me. It’s a yes or no question.” Chessie tugged on Jessamine’s arm, then whispered to her that they ought to be getting back to the festival.
More than anything, Jessamine just wanted to walk away the way her best friend was indicating they should do; she had a feeling she just didn’t want to be here anymore because it was turning into a pointless fight where neither one of them were going to walk away happy about what transpired; he wanted her to admit that either he was right about her superiority in the first place or that she wanted to stay together and was just being difficult, and she just wanted to get this over with before she did something gross like crying in front of him. Both were incredibly stubborn so this was going to be stuck at a stalemate until something dramatic happened to get the other to fold. She sighed, glancing at Chessie, holding a hand up as to indicate that she would leave with her soon, but she just needed to finish this up. “No. I’m not, and I can’t believe you’d ask me that,” she answered, pinching her lips slightly in frustration, perhaps that was her giving in this time, but it still felt pointless to answer, “What does it matter, though? It’s not going to change anything.” Minnie really didn’t expect this to be so hard.
Elijah didn’t know whether or not he believed her when she said no, that she wasn’t ashamed of him, even though she did seem offended that he would question her in the first place, but he supposed he would have no choice but to accept her word for it because it’s not like he could prove her wrong and obviously he didn’t really want that to be that to be the case anyway. “Maybe not,” he answered, running a hand through his hair, she was right, it changed nothing, she still wanted nothing to do with him anymore and it’s not like he could force her to be with him if she didn’t want to be, “But it means something to me to know that you’re not ashamed of me. Even if it doesn’t change anything.” It probably wouldn’t make him feel better, and he’d still always feel inferior and sorry for himself, but it could be worse. “I’ll see you around then, Miss Parkinson?” he tried to smile, but couldn’t, but that was to be expected, then he glanced to her friend and nodded a farewell to her as well.
Oh, they had to leave right now, otherwise Minnie was going to actually start sobbing and it was going to get messy and embarrassing and the look she gave her best friend indicated this fact pretty quickly; she felt awful for everything she said, for everything she did, and she wished that she never had done any of this in the first place. Elijah was a good guy, he didn’t deserve to have his heart broken like this, and it made her heart hurt to think that he still needed her verbal validation that she wasn’t ashamed of him, even after she had made it clear that despite her upbringing and maybe her still weird prejudices that cropped up from to time, he was special to her. Still, she couldn’t get herself to apologize through the lump in her throat and so she just sort of pinched her lips and nodded when he seemed to believe her. “Right, well, goodbye for now, Mr. Hanrahan,” hearing him speak to her so formally felt like a stab wound, and replying back like they were strangers had her now death gripping Chessie’s arm in a silent beg to pull her away. And like that, it was completely over, and the two girls headed back toward the main area of the park to find the others; Minnie made it about ten steps before she burst into tears.
![[Image: elijah-signature.png]](https://i.postimg.cc/5yQK1Kd8/elijah-signature.png)
![[Image: jessamine-signature.png]](https://i.postimg.cc/kX0svbgT/jessamine-signature.png)