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.
March 1st, 1890 — Slytherin Table, Great Hall
@'Adrienne Selwyn'
One of the things that Aristide always conveniently ignored was the fact that he and his sister were technically supposed to be eating their breakfast at different tables. Sometimes he did sit at Ravenclaw table but just as regularly, he invaded the Slytherin one. If people took issue, they knew by now to just let it go. For no matter what they said, Aristide would be unlikely to budge if he happened to take notice of them at all.
"Did anything strange happen to you yesterday?" Aristide asked curiously, barely even having to check to make sure that he was plopping down next to the correct head of sandy auburn hair. He would have known it was her beside him even if he were to be suddenly blinded. "From the time effects that rippled from America, I mean." He had only heard about that after the strange incident with his arrow and the fox.
italics means Aristide is speaking French set by MJ!
As she walked into the Great Hall, the smell of food invaded her senses and she realized just how hungry she was. Adrienne frowned down at her parchment. A. It wasn't a bad mark, but it wasn't a good mark either. She resisted crumpling up the paper in her hand and instead forced herself to look at the comments the professor had made in the margins. She may be fluent in English but she apparently still somehow messed up certain sayings. Well what did they expect with such a complicated language?!
Adrienne sighed, settled into the bench. Scanning the rest of the paper, she spooned some porridge into two bowls, one for her and one for Aristide. Right on schedule, she felt her twin slide into the seat next to her just as the whoosh overhead told them the morning mail had arrived. She glanced up in time to see the Daily Prophet dropping inches from her head. Plucking it out of the air, she snapped it open. "I practiced archery late in the evening before curfew and my arrows kept freezing in mid-air," she commented, not bothering to look over at her brother as she scanned the front page. "Juice?" She was already pouring it into both their glasses.
Grabbing his bowl of porridge just as Adrienne finished pouring it, he grabbed his own mail, unsurprised that it had been delivered to the Slytherin table instead of his own. A letter from a friend back in France was all that had come to him today. He read it and listened to his sister speak at the same time.
"The same kept happening to me," he said, reaching for his glass before she had even said the word. "Only I was practicing in the afternoon. There was a fox playing nearby and he kept going in a rather slow motion as well. Like it had been jinxed." Buttering toast, he handed one to Adrienne before thoughtfully biting into his toast. "It was pretty interesting."
italics means Aristide is speaking French set by MJ!
Adrienne took the toast without hesitation and sighed as she listened to her brother's story. "So it affected the animals too." she commented, "Not just us." It wasn't a surprise to her that Aristide had been partaking in the exact same activitiy she had but at separate times of the day.
She bit into the toast, scanning the Daily Prophet. Time Marches On the headline read. "It certainly does..." she murmured, snapping the page flat so she could show Aristide. "Did it just start with your practice yetserday or did it start earlier on in the day?" To her recollection, breakfast seemed rather normal aside from the fact that she ate at the Ravenclaw table.
"It appears so," Aristide said as Adrienne commented on the fact that the time thing had affected the animals too. He nibbled on his toast and watched as she scanned the Daily Prophet.
Taking the paper from her, Aristide thought for a moment before shrugging his shoulders. "If it had started earlier, I didn't notice it at all. I probably just happened to luck out and not fall into any of these 'pockets' they mention before I did my practice."
italics means Aristide is speaking French set by MJ!
Adrienne reached over to sprinkle a spoonful of brown sugar into her porridge and took a sip from her goblet. "Pockets..." she repeated again, furrowing her brow and reflection on the previous day as Aristide took the paper from her.
"Artemis was acting odd yesterday, now that I think about it." she said, stirring her porridge, and glancing over at him. "She kept meowing and leading me onto the strangest paths around the castle. I thought she was playing a game." Adrienne thought of how the cat had wound this way and that throughout the halls, avoiding certain areas that didn't have anything in them.
Aristide glanced at his twin as she spoke about Artemis. "She must have sensed the changes. Cats are canny like that," he said as he sweetened his own porridge and began eating. "The fox seemed to be having fun with it so maybe it's animals in general, even."
italics means Aristide is speaking French set by MJ!
"They certainly are," She agreed, peering around the table and nudging her bowl to the side to make room for a piece of her unfinished homework.
"What did you get for that last question on Professor O'Connell's assignment?" she asked, taking out a quill to jot down a few corrections, momentarily forgetting if her twin was in the CoMC class or not.
Aristide smiled in amusement as Adrienne asked what he had gotten on the COMC Professors assignment. "I could not begin to tell you since I do not take that class. What's the question?" He didn't take the class but thanks to his twin being in it, he might as well have.
italics means Aristide is speaking French set by MJ!
Adrienne frowned at his response, her brows knitting together in temporary confusion as she scribbled something out with her quill. "Oh, right..." she muttered, sighing. "Well, it's a bit complicated, it's in regards to the origins of some new species we were working on yesterday, so if you weren't in the class you might not know it." She smiled back at him in thanks, despite his lack of knowing.
"Oh? Tell me about it - is it as interesting as thestrals?" Aristide had never witnessed a death before his own eyes so he couldn't see one. But they held a certain sort of fascinating for him. Sometimes he regretted not having chosen Care of Magical Creatures as one of his electives.
italics means Aristide is speaking French set by MJ!
"Nothing's as interesting as thestrals!" She laughed, despite the mildly morbid topic of Thestrals. There were times she wished she could see them, but only because she was curious about seeing one in person.
"Chimaeras!" She said. "They're classified as bloodthirsty, extremely dangerous and illegal with the head of a lion, body of a goat and tail of a dragon. Our question was to state why we think these three animals and their body parts exist in the beast." She took another swig of her pumpkin juice before tapping her quill on the table. "I'm stumped."
"Very true," he said in agreement when Adrienne said that there was nothing as interesting as thestrals. But Chimaeras also sounded pretty interesting though he would be more than happy to observe them from afar from the sounds of them.
"Breeding somehow?" He wondered aloud curiously. "Something to do with the eggs?" Were they born from eggs? He wasn't in the class so didn't quite know.
italics means Aristide is speaking French set by MJ!
Perhaps it'd be the breeding or eggs if the appearance of the animal changed, but it was unlikely. Adrienne was tempted to just make up an answer, but she needed to get into O'Connell's class for NEWTs, and guesses were usually frowned upon.
She heaved a sigh. "I'll think of something, I'm sure," She said, noticing that people were slowly getting up to leave. "It might be time to go. What class do you have next?"
Aristide nodded in agreement as he noticed people starting to shuffle off to class. "I think I have Ancient Studies," he said, naming one of the classes that they didn't have together. "So I will see you after class." Gathering up his things, he gave his twin a quick hug before hurrying off towards his class.
italics means Aristide is speaking French set by MJ!
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