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.
Aristide had been in a self-imposed kind of seclusion since the moment he had been able to return home from London after the attacks. He was in misery, drinking more than he usually did and erupting in fits of anger. Mostly, he lay in his bed and wished the world around him would just stop turning. He was vaguely aware of Adrienne's occasional presence but even his twin, the moon to his sun, could not rouse him from his deep, dark misery.
The housekeeper he employed set that days Daily Prophet next to the meal his cook had made for him. He had barely been eating, only picking a bit here and there. He opened the newspaper and read over the names of the deaths. Such careful detail given to various people. And then there was his name, a surge of anger filled him.
He had given more detail than this. He had been badgered by a reporter for more information than this. Yet none of it was used. Asa Scabior was reduced to his name, age and city. Nothing more. He had deserved more. He tore the paper to shreds, breathing heavily as anger surged through every part of his system. He never had been a wrathful type, rarely having gotten angry in his nineteen years of life. It felt unfamiliar but at the same time, it was all he had known since the moment the world had seen fit to take Asa from him.
In the days following the dragon attack on London, Adrienne had been relieved to hear that her brother had escaped death. Hearing what had happened and realizing he had been amongst the wreckage had nearly stopped her heart. How could she not have known he was there? They were always together, always attached at the hip, and yet she hadn’t even felt that he was there. She was angry more at herself than anyone else for not realizing it. And then there was the fact that the minute she’d heard it was Asa that had perished, and not her brother…she’d felt relieved.
And immediately ashamed.
Asa was someone her brother loved. He wasn’t someone Adrienne had particularly liked very much, but that didn’t change anything when she saw how it affected Ari. To say her brother had been destroyed was an understatement. She tried to do everything she could, but even their close bond was not enough to pull her twin from the depths of his agony. She still tried. They never bothered to knock when they visited each other, but this time was the only time she hesitated before entering the room.
“Ari?” She ventured softly, opening the door just a crack to peek in. “J’peux entrer?” It wasn’t so much a question to ask permission, and more a means of seeing how responsive her twin was today.
Aristides attention shifted to his bedroom door when he heard a knock on it. He saw his twin peeking through and indicated the shredded pieces of paper at his feet. "They reduced him to nothing but a name, age and city," Aristide fumed. "While most everyone else besides him practically got a whole autobiography."
She had not got on well with Asa, and yet Adrienne still felt her twins’ agony at how unjustly Asa had been treated in the papers. He deserve so much more; and it wasn’t just because Adrienne wanted to make Ari feel better. She pressed her lips together. “I saw,” she said, sidling in the room and staring down at the bits of paper on the ground. “Does…did he have any family alive?” She did not know what could possibly come of the question; only that perhaps someone else was out there who might share in her brother’s misery.
December 17, 2023 – 1:07 AM
Last modified: December 17, 2023 – 1:08 AM by Aristide Selwyn.
Aristide was the most undone he had ever been in his life. Not even Adrienne had ever seen him this low because he had never been this low. His life had been charmed despite the rather uncharming way him and Adrienne had come to be into existence. They had lucked out and enjoyed a life of being loved and being in luxury. Even now, they knew with a certain certainty that their biological father loved them both dearly even if the only relation he could publically claim was that of being their uncle.
He hardly knew how to function with the pure anger that kept surging through him that was only eclipsed by the crushing despair. By the crushing desire to simply no longer exist. He nodded numbly to the question asked. "Parents and a sister that would likely be about to make her debut this year if they were rich like us. I do not know if I could see them without accidentally revealing all."
Because the other tragic sadness was that no one could ever know the depths of what their relationship had been. Society did not even expect friends to go into mourning for friends. Most thought it odd for a person to go into blacks or grays for a friend. So what was he meant to do? Continue hiding away his pain? This was why he hated the world.
As she listened to her brother, Adrienne bent down to pick up the scraps of paper. There may have been situations where she took her time to think over her words carefully before speaking, however it was rare that Adrienne was found at a true loss for words. Asa’s family were not as fortunate as she and Ari had been. She had always made to keep her thorned arguments with Asa away from that particular bit of information.
“I’m sorry.” She whispered finally, tentatively reaching out to place her hand on his shoulder. “I’m so sorry.” She kneeled down next to him. “I know you loved him.”
As Adrienne put her hand on his shoulder, Aristide turned and collapsed into her. At least best as he could with their six inch height difference. He was broken, felt beyond repair but at least he still had her. "I think I shall never love again." Given that he was not even twenty, perhaps this would prove incorrect as his heart healed. For the moment, however, it was the deepest truth that he had ever spoken.
The words uttered by her brother sliced through her like a severing charm. She immediately gathered him into her embrace, her hand coming up to rest soothingly on the back of his head, only thinking to murmur softly to him in French. “Not for a while, I don’t think.” She couldn’t comprehend the pain Ari was in, only that when he hurt, so did she. That there wasn’t much for her to do other than provide the little comfort she could broke her heart. “And that is alright. You must take your time.”
Not for a while. His sisters words implied to him that she felt he might love again one day. For the current moment, Aristide could not see how. Whatever new love he garnered, they would obviously never be Asa. Would anyone else make him wish to turn to ash and lay to rest with them when he lost them? He hoped not as he did not think he could live through this all a second time.
"He was so beautiful, my Asa. No one will ever compare," and he might very well end up hating them for trying.
There was something about the way Aristide’s words struck her that caused something in her chest to constrict and she tightened her grip on him. Though she might hold affection for her husband, the way Aristide described Asa told her that her brother’s feelings had been completely different. Perhaps even unattainable for her. But, she thought with a spike of shame, this wasn’t a time to dwell on her own feelings for Cassius. Instead, she looked at her brother helplessly, her mind whirring as she went through the possibilities of ways to help him. But ultimately, she did not know how to do so, and that upset her greatly. “What can I do?” She allowed her gaze to travel over his person, as if there might be some physical wound she could tend to.
What could she do? Aristide wished there was some answer he could give but none were coming to mind. At least nothing she was capable of. "Just hold me, moon," he finally said.
![[Image: VIzcNLA.png]](https://i.imgur.com/VIzcNLA.png)