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.
Sloane had been lain to rest yesterday. Well, there had been a funeral. Because how could one lay someone to rest without a body? Wally had muddled through the funeral somehow but it ate at him. So he had slipped out of his house and had looked along the shoreline. They had searched there and found nothing, they had said.
His baby sister was not supposed to be dead. They were supposed to be ganging up on Harry for his tendency to be overprotective. They were supposed to be swapping out Alvins inkwell with disappearing ink. They were supposed to be fighting over the last plump dinner roll at dinner. Not laying her to her eternal rest.
What if the storm had actually swept her out of the lake the witnesses said she had fallen into? The storm and capsizing boats would have made it hard for them to see properly. So, she had to be out there somewhere. What if she was alive but hurt? Unable to even cry out for help? With those thoughts in mind, he headed towards the Forbidden Forest.
wally has extensive burn scars on the right side of his upper body (including his face and over his right eye) and the lower part of his left leg is missing.
Alice stole away from the sleepover as soon as dawn broke. Despite having slept alongside her friends for the majority of five years, she hadn't been able to shut her eyes for even two minutes. Her thoughts were racing with the insanity of it all, of the headstone with no grave. How could they declare her dead when they hadn't recovered a body? Had anyone even witnessed her hit the water?
She kept her cloak wrapped around herself as she crept closer to the forest. The heat was already overbearing but the weight of the cloak was her only source of comfort now. Edison hadn't agreed with her when she argued that Sloane wasn't dead until a body was found. He sided with the ministry's assessment, if the boats were capsizing then her body was likely trapped under debris. Alice could barely see through the rage his statements caused her. The ministry knew nothing, less than nothing. Sloane was a girl. A foolish teenaged girl. Why would the ministry spend more than twenty minutes searching for her? She wasn't from a notable or affulent family. She wasn't beloved by society.
Sloane was a nobody. The ministry could care less about her.
It was up to Alice and whomever else dissented with their assessment to find Sloane.
She had just entered the forest when she noticed another person only a little ways ahead of her. They looked short from this distance and Alice couldn't stop the grief stricken shout coming from her throat, "Sloane?!?"
Wally pulled at leaves, shrubbery and other forest debris as he moved through the forest, using his wand to cut a better path through. It was a dense, thick place but that didn't matter right now. Sloane might be somewhere within its depths. He would find her. His head whipped around at the shout and it took him a moment to focus in that it was one of Sloane's friends.
Wally wasn't even sure what the time was and the denseness of the forest made it hard to tell by way of the sun. Even so, he moved towards her. "Did you come to help find her? They aren't helping anymore," Wally said, his voice hollow and broken. "She'll be cold if she didn't manage to dry off. The forest sometimes doesn't get the suns heat. And so hungry." He was kind of talking more to himself than Alice.
wally has extensive burn scars on the right side of his upper body (including his face and over his right eye) and the lower part of his left leg is missing.
"I did." She told Wallace, her look of determination faltering as he carried on about how cold and hungry Sloane would be. It was a relief to know she wasn't alone in her belief that Sloane hadn't vanished beneath the Black Lake, but at the same time the look of his grief was so alarming that Alice wasn't sure he should be the one searching.
"I brought my cloak and there's food packed in my bag for if — when we find her."
"Smart as always, Miss Alice," Wallace couldn't help but say teasingly, a glimmer of his usual humour showing beneath the grief. He looked back towards the dense shrubbery of the Forest. "It's good we ran into one another. The Forbidden Forest isn't the safest place to be even if it is daytime." Which was another reason he hoped they would find his sister soon. Taking out his wand once more, he cut a wider path now that he had a young woman with him. He knew Alice was likely able to hold her own - she was a Mediwitch and presumably sometimes saw tetchy situations - but that didn't mean he couldn't make things a little easier for them both. "Let's check this way, it's the most adjacent to the lake."
wally has extensive burn scars on the right side of his upper body (including his face and over his right eye) and the lower part of his left leg is missing.
The compliment would've made her smile were she not so consumed with rage and grief. Yes, she was prepared, but this wasn't a situation she had ever wanted to be prepared for. "Thank you, Mr. Bixby." Alice murmured, her attention already drifting from him to the path in front of them.
She aided as much as she could to clear the path for them. Despite the sun's early morning rays, the forest was still as dark as if it were midnight. "Okay, maybe we'll find a trace of her. I can't imagine she would've gone deeper into the forest if she washed up on the shore." Alice commented, walking close behind him as to not get separated.
"I agree," he said. "We should check along the shoreline for traces of her." Her footsteps would lead them to her, if she had ended up on the shore. It was a little trickier on this part of the lake shore so he kept half an eye on Alice just in case she ended up slipping.
wally has extensive burn scars on the right side of his upper body (including his face and over his right eye) and the lower part of his left leg is missing.
They walked along the shore in the relative quiet, speaking only when necessary about the various potential hazards. Alice was too wrapped up both her determination and fury to carry a conversation with Sloane's brother. Anything she might say to him would set a fire between them, accusations about his older brother and the ministry and anyone else with any involvement in her disappearance. No, the silence was better.
Alice would've kept walking in the silence in peace were it not for the familiar backend of a broom caught in the waves breaking. "Is - is that - " A broom. Alice had hoped for a sign, but this wasn't it. This wasn't footsteps or some other verifiable proof that Sloane was alive. She walked into the water without thinking of her dress or cloak, both items weighing her down instantly. Oh Merlin. Had Sloane struggled to stay afloat under the weight of her dress?! "That isn't hers, right?!" Alice demanded as she pressed on to try and retrieve it.
Wally followed after Alice, his voice stolen by a feeling deeper than anything he had ever felt in his life. There were no footsteps, no sign of someone having staggered onto shore. He scarcely heard the young woman speaking as he gathered other broken pieces of broom from the water. There was a broken sort of sound that came from him before he went silent once more.
Maybe it wasn't hers. Other people flew around Hogsmeade and got into mishaps.
But no, he recognized the notches in parts of the handle, knew his brothers handiwork and most damning of all, the seal emblazoned on a part of what used to be a broom handle marked it as having been made by Alvins hands before the horrible incident that had befallen his brother. And it wasn't like there were many that had a broom that had been made by Alvin and if anyone had lost theirs, the family would have known. "It's hers."
wally has extensive burn scars on the right side of his upper body (including his face and over his right eye) and the lower part of his left leg is missing.
No. No, this wasn't how today was meant to go. They were going to find some sort of trace of her, footsteps, clothing, anything that would've have alerted them to where she went. Not this. Not the broken broom with its twigs half snapped and top part of the shaft missing. No. This wasn't right.
A broken sob escaped her as she collapsed where she stood, the water now drenching her skirts completely. She couldn't think, couldn't breathe without wanting to scream. "It can't be hers, please." This was wrong.
Wallace couldn't describe the feeling he was experiencing if he tried. This was the deepest emotion that he had ever felt in his life. Only Alice's voice broke through his thoughts and he turned to her.
She was collapsed, with water drenching her skirts. He went over to her and wrapped his arms around her, not caring that he had to kneel in the water and get soaked himself to do so. For the moment, he felt united with her in their grief.
wally has extensive burn scars on the right side of his upper body (including his face and over his right eye) and the lower part of his left leg is missing.
She didn't know how long they remained knelt in the water. She didn't feel the frigid cold of the water or how heavy her dress and cloak now were. Alice couldn't think beyond the scrap of wood held tight in Wallace's hand - the only tangible evidence they had thus far of what had happened to Sloane.
Sloane couldn't have survived her broom shattering like that.
Sloane couldn't have survived the fall into the lake.
Sloane couldn't have survived.
Alice's cheeks were tear stained and her body was trembling from the cold when they finally parted. "I'm so sorry, Wallace. I'm sorry." This was his sister and he was comforting her. She stood on shaking legs, her dress weighing her down with every motion. "I didn't - I never - I'm so sorry."
Alice was trembling but then again, so was he. Though he didn't even know how much of that was due to the cold. Still, he tried to rub her arms to provide some warmth. His motions were mostly automatic and he wasn't really thinking his actions through.
"You have nothing to be sorry for," Wally assured, his voice broken. He felt the need to cling to somebody, anybody.
wally has extensive burn scars on the right side of his upper body (including his face and over his right eye) and the lower part of his left leg is missing.
Merlin. He was comforting her when it was his sister that had come into an accident. What was she doing? This was so hideously unfair to him, if anything Alice was meant to be the one doing the reassuring.
She pulled away from his embrace, her body still trembling and her cheeks splotchy and tearstained. "We should - we should get out of the water. I can dry us both. And we should go tell someone we found her broom. They'll resume the search with us then, right? Now that we have proof of where she might be?" Alice was rambling as she tried to lift her water sodden skirts high enough to make it back to the sand.
Wally nodded in mute agreement at what she was saying. He moved to help escort her back to the shore. He didn't know what he was meant to do now so he simply followed Miss Dawsons lead. "Let's get ourselves back somewhere warm," he said, defaulting to worrying over her.
Alice Dawson ooc: I think we can tie this one up here?
wally has extensive burn scars on the right side of his upper body (including his face and over his right eye) and the lower part of his left leg is missing.
![[Image: V14YYm.png]](https://b.l3n.co/i/V14YYm.png)