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.
With the same account, complete eight different threads where your character interacts with eight different usergroups. At least one must be a non-human, and one a student.
Did You Know?
Braces, or suspenders, were almost universally worn due to the high cut of men's trousers. Belts did not become common until the 1920s. — MJ
Kieran had been at the debate, reporting — and quietly supporting Jude. (If Pengloss found out how biased he was, he was fucked.) And then the chaos had started. Kieran was convinced that he could get home on foot, rather than by floo — (he also... did not actually have a fireplace) — and he was hoping that if he left on foot he could find any friends who hadn't attended the debate and warn them.
But he was disoriented by smoke, and somehow Kieran ended up turned around on streets he'd known since he was a child. He had his wand in hand. He ought to just get back to the library, but the smoke was thick on this street — he'd tugged up his jacket to breathe through the fabric — and it was hard to tell where he should go.
Finally he stumbled out of the smoke and into — an alley. Relatively unharmed except for the smoke, Kieran let his jacket drop and twisted his wand in his hand as he tried to decide what to do — and then he saw his sister. "Fallon!"
The mountain of paperwork had threatened to collapse upon Fallon when chaos descended. She'd been (mostly) glued to her desk in the weeks since Malou's kidnapping, her sleeplessness rendering her almost useless in the field. It was only Prewett's bias towards her that kept her from facing probation, as no other auror in his position would have tolerated her unwillingness to accept new cases. She just needed a few more weeks to right her head again. She just needed to stop dreaming of blood and she'd be alright once more.
But, she could hardly remain tethered to her desk with dragons descending upon London.
Fallon would have remained on the boundary line maintaining the intricate spell work keeping the dragons from wrecking havoc further upon the city were it not for Prewett's explicit orders otherwise. There were civilians trapped on the streets and under rubble and burned to a crisp. They couldn't afford for anyone capable to be doing anything as mundane as shield work in these circumstances. Fallon had nodded her understanding and forced her terror down as much as she was able before heading into the streets that had once been her home.
She was on her third round of searching for survivors when she saw Kieran arriving through the cloud of smoke. "Key!" She shouted, bounding towards him instantly. "They set the library up as a headquarters, what are you doing out here?"
It was Fallon, yes, but she was — here and unharmed. Kieran coughed into his elbow before he could manage to answer her. "Thought walking home would be faster," he said. His tenement was in Whitechapel - it was a long walk from the library, but he really hadn't wanted to wait for the floo.
It seemed like it had been a stupid, stubborn idea now, with his eyes watering and his throat scratching up, and he wasn't even sure how far he'd made it. And Merlin, what if the dragons had gotten all the way over there?
Walking home in this?! Fallon knew her brother was a stubborn idiot at times, but never to this degree. Never to the extent of putting his life on the line. "Are you bloody insane?!" Fallon snapped, her hands coiling into fists at her side. They were nowhere near White Chapel! Why hadn't he just stayed at the library where he'd be safe?
They were far from any edges of the boundary, and further still from the library (or bloody fucking White Chapel!). "You should've waited for the flo-"
The street outside the alley was suddenly met with a furious shriek and a heavy blaze of fire. Without further argument or explanation, Fallon gripped his wrist tightly and began running towards the opposite side of the alley.
Maybe Kieran would have taken the floo, if he'd known that not taking the floo would ensure that his younger sister would end up yelling at him. He was gearing up for a good retort when something inhuman screamed at them and Fallon wrenched him across the alley.
"Ow," he said, scrambling after her. The edge of the alley had them underneath and overhang, and Kieran coughed furiously into his free elbow, the new blast of fire causing his already-irritated lungs to rebel again.
"We should hide," Kieran hissed as they skittered into the alley-wall.
Hide. Hide?! Fallon nearly punched him for the suggestion. Remaining still would only see them buried under rebel or dying of smoke inhalation - which it appeared Kieran was already nearly done in by. They had to escape - run, flee, find some other way out that didn't see them dying in an alley way before she'd even gotten the chance to tell Jesse -
"Where do you suggest we go?!" She demanded as she yanked him further towards the other end of the alley. "They're destroying everything, Key - everything. Do you think you're safer under a rock or out of the bloody boundary? No. We need to keep moving, I need to get you out so I can go back and get everyone else out."
Kieran rolled his eyes at his sister — if he was going to die, it made sense that it would be like this: while they were bickering. Still, he let himself be dragged, scrabbling along after her until they finally slipped out of the alley and to the right.
"Just point me back towards the library," he whispered. (Could dragons hear? Kieran thought they could, back from Care of Magical Creatures — and if they could pick up on whispers, he had to hope that he and Fallon were not an appealing snack.) "I can take care of myself."
"The library is halfway across the bloody city," Fallon muttered harshly as she cautiously scoped out the street outside the alley. Rubble was everywhere, the very air tasted like ash and soot. Fuck, how were they going to get back to the library unscathed?
She frowned. Kieran would never make it back to the library himself - it was a miracle he survived this long without being eaten or worse. And she refused to allow anything to interfere with Jude's chance of winning the election. It'd been a long time since Fallon had last made a meeting for the Rev's, but she definitely remembered how close they all were. No, she had to get Key to safety herself.
"We need to get to the river. We get there and I can get us to the library...it should be two or three blocks to the East of here, I think."
Fallon was being dramatic, refusing to let him take off. Kieran stopped himself from rolling his eyes at her. "A few blocks east," he said, "Got it." He looked over his shoulder where the dragon had been; there was a dark shadow on one of the nearby buildings. Kieran sighed.
"Nothing to do but start heading there, right?" he said, and started slinking out of the alley, shoulder pressed against the wall as he walked as quickly and quietly as possible towards the end of the alley.
Fallon groaned inwardly as he began to head out of the alley before her. Leave it to Kieran to act as though this was simply just another day. Acting quickly, Fallon cast a disillusionment charm on them both so that they'd appear (mostly) invisible. It wouldn't hold up if they ran into anyone up close or if the dragons were truly looking for them, but it gave them a slight layer of protection.
"You haven't seen Jesse out here at all, have you?" Fallon whispered. She knew her husband would've been summoned too, but she hadn't seen him in all the chaos.
Kieran shook his head. "No," he whispered. "Have you seen Jude?"
He should have stayed at the library, where he could try to keep track of Jude — it would be just like Jude to wander into danger to protect people today.
Jude was by the library when Fallon arrived, but whether he remained there was questionable. The candidates were all supposedly called into action, each given their own task by Minister Ross. Fallon wouldn't have had the slightest clue of where to find Jude now.
"No." She answered in a continued whisper. "He wouldn't be on the streets." She hoped she sounded reassuring, but Fallon knew she likely didn't.
Down the street, another dragon appeared and she reached out to grip Kieran's jacket on instinct.
She hadn't seen Jude. But maybe that meant Jude was safe? He may have been smart enough to stay at the library — even though Kieran knew Jude's bravery had always outweighed his self-preservation.
Kieran had to spend some time thinking of his own self-preservation. He stilled, eyeing the dragon, and drew his wand. Kieran turned to Fallon and mouthed — I don't think it knows we're here.
(Although given that he was mouthing it — he wasn't sure how much of that she would understand.)
Fallon's eyes remained glued on the dragon, her back plastered itself against the solid brick wall behind her. The dragon didn't know of their presence yet, and she was determined to keep it that way. Keeping her hand on his jacket, Fallon edged further along the wall — closer to the dragon but also closer to the river.
The disillusionment she put over them wasn't foolproof, anything within a few feet would be able to sense the odd glimmer where she and Kieran stood. The dragon, it seemed, was capable of sensing this too. It roared it's head back, it's mouth opening to presumably burn or bite them. Fallon didn't think, didn't allow herself a chance to second guess her actions, before gripping where she knew Kieran stood and jumping from the ledge down onto the docks.
They landed heavily as the street above them was set ablaze.
![[Image: 3dn7vak.png]](https://i.imgur.com/3dn7vak.png)
