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
August 17th, 1883 — Sleptov Residence, Wellingtonshire
“This,” he offered hesitantly in his native Russian, “is your stepmother, Ustinya Volyainichna Sleptova.”
Nikolai Sleptov was not certain how he managed to hold his breath while speaking, but the wizard was keenly aware of the fact that he was waiting for the other shoe to drop. Ustinya’s introduction to Eva had gone…poorly, to say the least, and it was only her visiting a friend that had allowed Petra’s to be made separately. Though the Ravenclaw was the milder of his two daughters, Nik was still not convinced it would go over as well as he might appreciate.
Petra had looked confused at the woman’s presence on her arrival; he hoped to see that expression shift to one of welcome, or at least acceptance, rather than anger.
He smiled warmly, encouragingly, from one witch to the other.
Her first step-daughter’s reaction had not been what one could call encouraging and, despite Nikolai’s reassurance, she was even more tentative about meeting this one. The journey to Scotland had been without incident but Ustinya had still spent every moment – well, every moment in which she was not distracted by her new husband – dwelling on the awful thought that the girls Nikolai spoke so highly of would hate her.
So far, her concern was proving entirely valid.
“Hello,” she said mildly, smiling timidly at the girl, stomach in utter knots at the reaction she was about to receive. She turned her head between father and daughter. “She’s just as beautiful as you said she was.”
Ustinya doesn't speak much English so unless otherwise stated she converses in Russian.
Pet's head was set spinning as soon as the meaning of her father's words sank in. Stepmother. How could she have a stepmother? What warning had preceded this? When was the engagement, the courtship, any sign that her father was preparing to remarry? It was only made worse by the interloper's uttering compliments about her to her father as though she wasn't even there.
Upon seeing the woman Pet had assumed she was some woman her father had decided to court at most, not some woman who had already taken his name!
Hurt eyes sought out her father's face and it was then that Pet realized that she was on the verge of tears. How could he do this? How could he do it without telling her, why would he surprise it on her like this? Most importantly, why was it even necessary? It was a betrayal to her mother's memory and she simply couldn't reconcile her father's character as she knew it with the revelation she was now faced with.
Maybe, just maybe, she'd forgotten the Russian word for 'stepmother' and mixed it up a similar word, but no that wouldn't explain Sleptova. "Stepmother?" She repeated slowly in Russian, hoping against all odds that there was an explanation for it that involved this woman not being married to her father.
Well, she hadn’t lashed out in a fit of rage yet. That was already an improvement, though Nikolai knew his daughter well enough—in spite of his weeks away—to tell that she was not rejoicing at this particular news.
“Ustinya and I were married before journeying back to Britain,” Nik explained slowly. “We became acquainted almost as soon as I arrived in Russia.” Even at that, it was sudden, he knew—but love was love.
Never having met the girl before and having been far too distracted by her new husband to pay that much attention when Nikolai had spoken of his daughters on the journey Ustinya wasn’t sure whether the girl’s quiet reaction was a good sign. Perhaps she was naturally a little bit slow on the uptake?
“Sometimes love strikes you like lightening,” she added with a smile entirely for her new husband. She’d had misgivings about the daughters, but nothing could have ever deterred her from marrying this man – for his sake she would try. “I’ve been so looking forward to meeting you Petra, I just know we shall be friends.”
There was no mistake and yet Pet found herself pinching her arm as though it might wake her suddenly from the nightmare she found herself in. Obviously it was to no avail. She started silently shaking her head as her face contorted into an expression that forewarned of tears. This wasn't happening, she wasn't going to be "friends" with this women- this girl! This wasn't right; her father wouldn't do something like this, he would never betray her mother in this way and he certainly wouldn't do it without any sort of warning. Would he?
Pet's abnormally shimmery eyes sought out her father's, her lip quivering ominously. "No, Papa." Her voice cracked a little as she held back the tears a little longer. In a pitiful sort of near-whine, she continued, "My Papa wouldn't- He wouldn't betray Mama, he wouldn't do this to us..." She took in a sudden shuddering breath as the tears began. Bursting into tears wasn't something she did with great frequency anymore but she couldn't help herself in this instance. Her ideal of her father was now severely compromised by this unwelcome revelation which was at odds with her affection and loyalty towards him which endured all the same.
Her eyes darted back to the woman being presented to her as step-mother. This woman didn't look like a mother at all, she looked like she'd been clutching at her own mother's skirts but a week ago. "She's nothing like my Mama." While her reaction wasn't exactly great she at least wasn't shouting or wailing, in fact she was almost subdued in her distress.
Somehow, this was worse than Eva's reaction in anger. Anger, Nikolai could understand, could handle, but sorrow? He had scarcely known how to console his daughters when thier mother had died, and that was an experience he had shared. But this? Of all the reactions that the wizard might have expected, this had not even made the list.
The look that Nik shot his new wife was one of sheer panic as he moved to place a hand gently upon each of Petra's shoulders.
"Ah, Petra Nikolaevna," he murmured soothingly, "please do not cry."
What else was there for him to say? The questions that sprung immediately to mind—Did you expect me to remain alone forever? Do you think there is another woman out there who is like your mother? Did none of your friends' fathers remarry?—all seemed callous, even cruel, given Petra's distress. What else could be done?
The crying took her aback. Eva had certainly not cried when she had been told – although her reaction had not exactly been desirable – but this was much trickier to navigate. Nikolai could do nothing but reach for his child when she was in such a state of misery and, were the girl the same age as her sister, she might have through Petra was deliberately manipulating her father. She had certainly cried to get her papa’s attention before…
“I don’t want to replace your mother,” she muttered quietly, her soft tone taking away the sting of her true meaning. She didn’t want to be this girl’s mother – or the other ones for that matter – but they came with Nikolai and he was worth the effort to get along with his daughters until she could be a mother to their child. She reached out gently, placing a hand in-between Petra’s shoulders, making sure Nik saw her efforts. “It’s not so bad is it?” She asked, with the same small, decorative smile that usually led to her getting her way.
Ustinya doesn't speak much English so unless otherwise stated she converses in Russian.
She flinched slightly as he placed his hands on her shoulders. She wanted more than anything to wrap her arms around him and hug him until that woman was gone and he was explaining to her that it had all been a misunderstanding and he wouldn't dream of remarrying so abruptly and to someone she'd never met before. Pet knew better though, no embrace could undo this. No embrace could change the fact that her father was not the man she had thought he was.
It wasn't until the daintier hand of her new stepmother joined her father's that she recoiled sharply, wriggling free of both of them and taking a couple steps backwards. "No!" The perceived betrayal by her father was too much without the addition of that woman simpering and gloating at his side, she thought then of Eva, only to remember that she wasn't home. Suddenly it seemed strange that Eva should be gone at this precise moment, especially when Eva would surely be outraged, she had always been the more tempestuous of the two of them... "Where is Eva?" Surely this woman hadn't made her father send her away somewhere, surely he hadn't stooped that low? And yet he had already destroyed her expectations of him today, who was to say she knew her father at all? Her voice was starting to take on a hysterical quality. "Does she know? What have you done with her? Where have you sent her?"
Thank you Bee for my stunning Secret Swap gift <3
November 3, 2018 – 2:34 PM
Last modified: November 3, 2018 – 2:34 PM by Nikolai Sleptov.
"Eva has gone to visit Miss Flaherty for the afternoon," Nikolai answered softly in English. To soothe his daughter in a tongue that was not their own did not come naturally, but he hoped that, in spite of her distress, she would appreciate the gesture: he was consoling her in a way made more intimate by the fact that Ustinya could not understand it.
He hoped that neither woman could hear his heart breaking at Petra's distress.
"She also...had some difficulty adjusting to the news, and thought it best to leave, to clear her head."
'Had all but stormed out' would have been decidedly more accurate, but decidedly less comforting.
The words that came from Nikolai’s lips, so unlike any she had heard from him before, put her immediately on edge. Sensibly she knew that it was probably English, the cadence of the few syllables that sounded familiar clueing her into the fact even if the words were utterly mysterious. She assumed them were soothing though, and she felt for this crying girl a deal more than she had the other one.
Hesitantly she came up behind Petra, reaching out to stroke her hair as Nikolai had.
Ustinya doesn't speak much English so unless otherwise stated she converses in Russian.
How could this man look and sound like her father, even behave like her father and yet do something so uncharacteristic as brashly wed a complete stranger? Despite the best efforts of both, the most comforting thing so far was hearing that Eva had behaved in a predictably Eva way, Pet didn't need the full details to know what sort of ill humor preceded her departure. Pet only wished she'd taken her with her.
The sudden sensation of a hand on her hair saw her recoil violently once again. "No!" She raised her voice a little more out of surprise than any determination to be hostile. There were things she wanted to say, unkind things, but she didn't quite have her sister's daring or impulsivity and held it in. Despite feeling wounded and betrayed by her father, she didn't want to say anything that might turn him to anger or disappointment in her. Her only option seemed to be to flee to the safety of her room.
Had he known what she was about to do, Nikolai would have hastened to tell Ustinya that physical contact was ill-advised, but it was too late: the startled fawn he had worked so diligently to soothe was set off again, prompting the wizard to grit his teeth in frustration as Petra fled.
This had not gone well, unless one was incredibly generous with that metric and pointed out that no one had died. The Russian let out a long sigh, rubbing his face as if to scrape the past quarter-hour from living memory.
Quite what she had done wrong Ustinya wasn't entirely certain. Clearly she was not destined to become bosom friends with either of Nikolai's daughters but she had not expected both of them to be quite so dramatic? Was there a chance of her winning them over?
The slammed door told her the possibility was unlikely.
"I’m sorry Nikolai,” she said quietly, keeping her gaze away from his as the fear gripped her that maybe he would blame her for his daughters rejection…
