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
January 5th, 1890 — Headquarters of the London Society for the Practice of Combative Magic
What were the odds! His first adult duel was between Miss Lestrange whose recent acquaintance had not been forgotten and another female who looked somewhat familiar. Was that zoo girl? For once he was vaguely interested in a duel between ladies. Charles went over the rules quickly before getting them started.
"Miss Lestrange, when you're ready."
@"Tatiana Lestrange" Amelia Evans You have 72 hours to post!
Dueling tournaments allowed an opportunity for Tatiana's mask of vapid femininity to slip somewhat, but as she stood opposite her opponent, she still felt a sense of longing, for this was not true combat but further playacting. Oh well—at least it was playacting with a competitive edge.
The witch cast Mr. Macmillan a familiar smile and all but ignored the woman against who she was dueling.
"Slugulus Eructo!" Tatiana murmured quietly, the slug-vomiting charm erupting from her wand.
Her return to dueling had seen her thoughts drift back to times with a one Barnabas Skeeter - so hell bent on forbidding women to duel, even decoratively - it was hard to not search for his face in the crowd. It might have been useless though - she doubted he would want to witness such an abhorration on society's gentle cloth.
With the rules having been read, Amelia prepared herself, turning her attention to the woman in front of her and pointed her wand not at her opponent but at the floor in front of her. If all went according to plan, a pillar made of the same material as the floor would erect in front of Miss Lestrange thus encasing her wand arm and forcing it upwards towards the ceiling as opposed to at Amelia.
The brief smile from Miss Lestrange was not lost on Charles.
Back to the matter at hand, it was hardly the most ladylike of spells that could have come from Miss Lestrange which took him aback a little but he supposed now that women were allowed to duel like men it was attack or be attacked. How sad. A rather short, phallic looking protrusion emerged from the floor but it failed to grow tall enough to deflect the curse. Consequently, Charles was now grimacing as Miss Evans released a disturbing number of slugs from her mouth onto the floor. With a swift wave of his wand he countered the curse and added slugs to the list of things he didn't appreciate coming out of a woman's mouth.
"The first point goes to Miss Lestrange. Miss Evans, you will start the next round."
[Scores: Tatiana 9, Amelia 5]
@"Tatiana Lestrange" Amelia Evans You have 72 hours to post!
Dear Merlin, that tasted awful. Though perhaps not the worst thing she knew she’d encountered in her line of work, it was horribly unappetizing.
In fact, Amelia found herself rather surprised that a curse like the one she’d just experienced was uttered by a woman as prim looking as the one in front of her.
When bade to begin the next round, she opted for a bat bogey hex.
To his great dismay, Miss Lestrange was unable to disarm Zoo Girl in time and he had to witness yet more woman on woman atrocity. A little prematurely perhaps - although he thought it was plenty apparent that the spell was going to succeed and Charles absolutely refused to watch Miss Lestrange's nostril deposits fly forth - he cast the counter curse. This was why women shouldn't duel. This was intolerable. "The round goes to Miss Evans. Miss Lestrange, please begin the deciding round when you are ready." He couldn't quite look her in the eye when he said this.
[Scores: Tatiana 4, Amelia 7]
@"Tatiana Lestrange" Amelia Evans You have 72 hours to post!
Well, there was no doubt in her mind that that was pleasing to watch. Regardless of what happened next, Amelia had to admit - seeing those fly out of the prissy debutante's nose was pretty worth the money she'd shelled out to enter.
Her next spell intended to deflect the other witch's spell back onto herself.
To Charles' relief he didn't have to witness any further grotesqueness from the ladies. Craziness on the other hand... He stared intrigued as Miss Evans failed to deflect her opponent's spell, the consequence being that she had suddenly reacting wildly to apparently nothing. In her flailing she must have caught the hem of her skirt under her heel for she had suddenly upended herself. There was a cringe-worthy 'thwack' as her head connected with the floor. If there wasn't blood he'd be surprised.
"Finite incantatem!" Hopefully that would put an end to to her madness at least. Her skull was another issue. "Congratulations, Miss Lestrange, the duel is yours."
![[Image: gvM7opq.png]](https://i.imgur.com/gvM7opq.png)