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.
Zelda turned twenty-six today. She'd expected an afternoon where she got to be lazy other than an outing on the Voyager, to be followed by a dinner with Alfred at the Sanditon resort and perhaps some activities at home afterwards. (Her children were with Katia in Irvingly — Zelda wanted to take advantage of the extra space and time.) But Alfred never returned from Hogsmeade, and word traveled fast at the Sanditon — by one o'clock, Zelda was standing at the edge of the sinkhole with a knapsack of supplies on her back and her hands on her hips.
She didn't fancy heading down into the pit on her own. But she didn't fancy waiting for Alfred to clamber out, either. She wished she was wearing a bloomer suit, and while her dress was light she was not sure how well climbing would go. She hummed, thoughtful, and paced back and forth at the pit's edge.
The red-haired man looked excited; too excited to be at the edge of a pit. He also looked at least somewhat competent. Zelda waved to him with one hand. "You're heading in?" she called.
Gus hadn’t had a good adventure that involved exploring places he didn’t know like the back of his hand in a long time, and hearing about a sinkhole magically appearing in Hogsmeade had piqued his curiosity. He wasn’t daft enough to just jump in, at least not until he knew how far down it went, and whether or not he might break his legs once he hit the ground. Magic didn’t work, which made exploring the depths all that more exciting.
He was grinning ear to ear at the mere thought (summer had been rather mundane for Gus despite getting married), adventure itching underneath his skin. Moved closer to peer down, and he decided that jumping was in fact a terrible idea. Instead he stepped back and squatted down to dig out a rope from a bag, filled with items from his curse breaking days. They were going to come in handy. Just as he was deciding what to do with it with the rope, a woman caught his attention.
Gus waved back like they were old friends and trotted over to her. “Thinking about it.” He laughed as he rubbed the back of his head. “Just trying to determine where to tie the rope and how to get down. Thinking that climbing might be the best bet…” He trailed off as he glanced down at the rope in his hands. “You planning on coming down too?” Not that everyone was as stupid as him, jumping into dangerous places for the hell of it.
Zelda was pleased that the man was friendly; it was a relief to have an ally in her efforts in going to the pit. She thumbed the strap of her knapsack. "That was my plan, too," she said. "I used to be Magical Accidents & Catastrophes."
Sometimes — in a catastrophe — she missed it. But catastrophes also made her incredibly nervous now, in a way that they had not when she did not have small children she was responsible to. Muggle artifacts could be exciting, and itched the part of her brain that loved to work with complicated spells, even if there was still something she missed. And artifacts did not make her nervous.
"It may be better," she said, "If we — help each other climb down."
Gus nodded, because this was the kind of person he needed in his life during a time like that. “I am… erm, was a curse breaker.” Was, but maybe that would change soon? Gus missed it a lot, the challenges and the adventure. Hogwarts was exciting in its own way, but didn’t quite scratch that itch in the way he found himself craving more often than not.
“Well, I know ladies first is polite, but well…” He really didn’t want her to fall and him not be able to do anything. But at the same time Gus didn’t want her to think he was going first so he could do any funny business. It was a double edged sword. “I’d feel better if I went first, just in case.” He ran a hand through his hair, laughing nervously. “Do you have a rope? Harness?” He might just hang tight to a rope. It didn’t like that deep.
He bent down, reaching for a sturdy-looking rope coil he had pulled out of his bag earlier, before he quickly tied it off to something solid looking (the entire reason he picked this side of the pit), giving it a solid tug to test its strength. Satisfied with it, Gus peered down into the pit below. It was uneven but at least there were plenty of places to grab a hold of.
A curse breaker! That was a relief; Zelda had long considered curse breakers to be the allies of Magical Accidents & Catastrophes, and she had enough attachment to her previous department to stand by the assessment. She grinned at him. "I have a rope," she said. She'd grabbed one of the solid ropes off of the Wanderer before heading over here.
"And you're welcome to go first. Let's secure ourselves with both ropes — harder to fall, that way," Zelda said. She brought her rope out of the bag and tied it off to another secure spot, glad for her experience in sailing, before offering the end to the red-haired man.
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