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
The panting and red faced Nanny had arrived back at the house in a state of near hysteria, she was so lost in her mania that she had scrambled up the front steps of the house and slammed straight into Priam coming out of his study. Agape was gone! Something had happened to her! Someone had taken her! something had happened! The lack of answers was driving her insane. Priam had dragged the Nanny into his study by her elbow to question her himself.
Nephele was near hysteria when she ran into the main drawing room and activated the flu to the fireplace of her uncles home, praying he was in. Her hair was in disarray and her eyes were red rimmed from crying. 'Uncle Lucius! Someone has taken Agape!' she gasped.
It was not Lucius that her panicked words alerted but one of the house elves, who swiftly came to find his master, to relay the news.
Taken. It was not often someone dared snatch a member of the broader Lestrange family, and a cool resolve filled him. He was not some woman prone to hysteria but a stalwart bastion for the family. He would not form a response until he had all of the necessary information, but he would waste no time in retrieving it.
Apparition in and out of Lestrange House, where he spent the bulk of his time, and the Rookery in Oxfordshire simply did not work, by design, but apparition within the property was alive and well. Thus, he found himself in the entry hall with a pop!, face to face with his panicked niece in the green flames of the fireplace.
"Come through, Nephele," he directed calmly, though far more the calm before a storm than it was soothing. "Tell me what happened."
Knowing better than to dawdle, and disinclined to waste a second of her uncles patience or attention. Nel stepped through the fireplace into her Uncles home, taking only a second to run a hand over her hair and skirts - a habit from a lifetime of feeling like the little girl being led into the drawing room when in his presence. Her mother would be her second notification, but for the moment she needed Uncle Lucius, his cooler head and pragmatic leadership, not to mention his connections would make whatever course of action they settled upon all the more effective.
'The Nanny,' she spat out, 'They were in the park and the nanny says she just turned around and Agape was gone!' Nel's voice quavered with the threat of tears that she managed to reign back, a mixture of anger and adrenaline supporting her for the moment. 'Priam is questioning her in his study,', she had never seen him so angry, her normally rather mild mannered, academic, husband was all fury and flashing eyes. She did not want to think her husband capable of the killing curse - but if harm came to her daughter she might be inclined to the spell herself!
She took a deep breath, that helped to steady her and helped her feet feel a little more rooted to the ground. 'The woman is near insensible! I believe her incompetent but she is not the culprit.' incompetence may not be enough to protect her from Nel's wrath when this was all done.
Lucius gave a quiet nod—he would check in with Priam later, but had little doubt that his nephew was capable of handling the matter appropriately.
"You were right to come to me," the wizard said, leading Nephele to a simple chair usually used by staff waiting on the door; she was holding herself together admirably, under the circumstances—more than he would have anticipated—but sitting was, undoubtedly, essential lest her feminine response get the better of her and prompt her to faint. "We cannot rule out that she simply wandered off—" in a show of spectacularly little sense that his own children would not even dream of replicating "—but we also cannot rule out ransom. I have an investigator on retainer and shall send for him at once, but I will need more information to pass along if we are to use time to our advantage. Which park? Which area of the park? And how long ago did this transpire?"
Indeed, he had multiple investigators on retainer—the usual sort, of course, but also one of the Ministry's own paid to pass information his way before it made it up the ladder to his superiors. Informants, too, though those dealt more directly with his valet. Optics, and all that.
She allowed herself to be led to a chair, unsure as to how long the adrenaline would keep the strength in her legs, and the hand that was squeezing her heart loosened its grip as her uncle confirmed that she had done the correct thing in coming to him before the aurors or the constables. Experiencing the approval of Lucius Lestrange, even under the current circumstances had a peculiar effect on those related to him but blood.
She ran her hand over her hair once more, hoping that looking like herself would make her feel like herself once more, but it didn't feel like that right now. She wasn't sure she would ever feel the same again. 'Padmore park, she usually likes to be down near the duck pond and it was not more than 20 minutes - the nanny looked for only a few minutes before running to the house' she forced her voice to remain even. It would not help to become hysterical now. That would be later - when either her daughter was home and she could cry into the girls hair, making her complain about her mothers neediness or at least when someone was out there looking. 'I don't think she would wander off, not Agape.' If they had been discussing Meta, Nel would have put money on finding her living feral in the bushes having decided, after reading a copy of Gullivers travels that Swiftts Yahoos had it right.
'If they hurt her' she said, more to herself than to the Lestrange Patriarch, the threat went unexpressed, and she didn't even know who the 'they' was, but the normally placide Lestrange could imagine murder if her daughter... Her pale hands clutching into fists 'By Merlin if they hurt her'
If the nebulous "they" hurt Agape, their death would be slower than it was to be otherwise. This, Lucius knew, however, would provide little comfort to the child's mother, for it would not advantage the child in any way, only the spirit of vengeance.
"You may bring the other children to the nursery here," he offered; they would be altogether out of a nanny by day's end. No woman who could not keep track of a well-behaved child deserved to have any sort of employment. Besides, Lestrange House was all but a fortress in its enchanted corner of Mayfair—safety was key. "At least, until this matter is resolved. Cicero will welcome the company."
Possibly, at least.
"We will resolve this matter swiftly," Lucius assured his niece.
The strength with which he gave the command comforted her. She was an adult, a mother, a lady of society in good standing and of good reputation, but she had never felt more like a little girl than she did in this moment - and knowing that her uncle intended to handle the matter, in that way in which he gave every command made the world feel a little right again. She wanted to hug him, to express physically the sense of relief and gratitude she was currently feeling.
'Thank you Uncle' Nel breathed, somehow bringing the remains of her family to the Fort felt like the safest option, an almost literal circling of the wagons. 'Priam will stay at the house - just in case she should return' she added quickly, in case his staying away be taken for anything other than pragmatism and a desire to be in two places at once.
'Thank you Uncle' she repeated again softly. A house elf appeared from a side room and with a demure nod indicated that tea had been laid out and something like convalescence was ready in the sitting room. Nel heard the fireplace woosh as another elf disappeared through the fireplace, presumably to her home to retrieve Euphrosyne and Parthena. Frida could be fetched from wherever she was later - no need to sound alarm bells for all of wizarding society by calling her home early.
She took his final statements as the dismissal that he meant them to be and allowed herself to guided into the sitting room as the Lestrange Patriarch went to pull those strings and unwind those machinations that only men like Lucius Lestrange could manage deftly.
Agape would be alright, she assured herself. Yes, someone would be dispatched, Priam would uncover something, Lucius would move some chess piece and her daughter would be returned to her. Yes....yes that was what would happen. That is what had to happen
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