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.
Complete a thread started and set every month for twelve consecutive months. Each thread must have at least ten posts, and at least three must be your own.
Did You Know?
Did you know? Jewelry of jet was the haute jewelry of the Victorian era. — Fallin
Her forray home for the Christmas holidays had lasted rather longer than Idunn had intended; her mentor had gone abroad on family matters, and there had been "no need for her to rush back under such circumstances". Idunn rather thought having spent so much time with her family consituted a great need, but alas, her mother had been present when she had received the missive, leaving the young potioneer within her family clutches through the end of January.
At least she could do this, her membership in the London Potioneers Guild having been kept up even in her absence.
"Your first potion," Idunn informed the competitors, all of which were her senior (save Miss Hunter, with whom she had graduated), "will be a simple doxycide." If they could not do that in exemplary fashion, they had no buisness being here, the witch thought. "Directions and ingredients have, of course, been provided—you may begin!"
Eamon smiled as the young witch gave them their instructions. When they were bid to begin, he got started. First, he prepared the ingredients he would need before putting them in the cauldron as the time for them came. Once he was done, he waited judgement.
Philomen hadn't thought he was getting that old, but the judges certainly seemed to be getting younger for these things, didn't they? Well, never mind. He went about brewing the Doxycide regardless.
“You know, I’ve a doxy specimen from Alaska at home that’s this big, if you can believe it,” Hadrian said, holding his hands apart to illustrate its excitingly unusual size. “I named him Bigfoot.” He had started off speaking conversationally to his neighbours, because he didn’t see why they couldn’t, if they were not conferring – but then again, he had never entered a potion brewing competition before, so he was just assuming.
And he was not very good at doing things quietly, to be honest. And because he thought Zygmunt Budge’s directions a little uninspired and outdated, he chose to add some Bundimun fungus along with the acid, and wasted some time mashing the dragon liver up into a smooth, gloopy substance rather than merely chopped – and did they have any tentacula leaves here to use? And was that time already? Interesting.
Imogene grinned proudly as their judge spoke. It was no surprise to see Miss Fraser here; she'd been judging her peers before she had a title to justify it. Smart girl. Imo tapped her fingers on the table before her, this windup only making her twitchy. Waiting was overrated. Apparently, one of her competitors didn't understand how this worked and all the sudden she was learning about Alaskan doxies. She raised an eyebrow, but couldn't stop a smile. Mr. Nott had always been entertaining, if nothing else.
“Oh, how interesting,” Victoria responded quietly to the gentleman, for a lack of anything else to say before getting to work on preparing the Doxycide. Although fairly confident in her potioneering abilities, her recent foray into potions at a professional level kept her from competing with her more experienced counterparts, and so she’d signed up for the level below. Perhaps one day.
Her potion completed, Tori folded her hands on her work station to await the verdict.
Idunn did not know anyone here—not as potioneers, and that was what counted today. Well, Miss Hunter had been servicable in school, though not quite to the redhead's own standard (in her estimation). From the others, the apprentice had no idea what to expect, and while some admittedly impressed, others—specifically the unduly chatty Mr. Nott—fell well short.
"Mr. Harper, Mr. Huxley, you alone will continue on today," Idunn declared. She vanished the contents of the wizards' cauldrons, but left their less successful comrades to tend to their own messes before departing.
You have 72 hours to post your response.
Please do not assume success—that's what the dice are for ;) First to post will get a small bonus. Eamon HarperPhilomen Huxley
Pleased with his early success--and privately thinking that maybe some of his competitors should focus more on their potions than on their creature collections--Philomen got to work on the next potion.
The men were quick and deft, but it came as no surprise—Idunn would realize later when she actually learned things about the people she was judging—that the healer's potion, in this instance, proved to be vastly superior.
"Mr. Huxley will proceed to the final round of competition," she announced dispassionately.
Philomen Huxley, you will be tagged again when the next round is live!
