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
I do not know what precisely you are looking for in a woman with some spice... but I am sure I do try to be kind, and if nothing else, I can assure you I have a sweet tooth! It is actually quite a problem: I ought to eat fewer candies. And cakes. Unless you do not think there is any limit to the amount of candies one can eat, in which case I am doing just fine.
I am probably not nearly charming enough for your tastes, but I do seek the same happiness you do, I think – a satisfyingly sweet life, settled and happy and with a family. Hopefully a little less sticky than a treacle tart, but I suppose I shouldn’t be picky. What sort of experiments are you working on now? I hope they work out well for you!
Witch Weekly is pleased to inform you that your recent submission to our Lonely Hearts article has generated a response. Witch Weekly is devoted to providing help to all of our readers, no matter what their social disadvantages, and we are delighted to provide this service to the lovelorn in our magical community. We hope that you will be able to create a happy ending with our help, instead of being doomed to a tragically lonely life.
Please see the enclosed letter and advise us whether you will need your advertisement repeated in further issues of our magazine.
Your letter came as a second yesterday, which has caught me off guard. I am starting to gather what happened however and I am afraid I may be of some disappointment to you; I did not submit myself for any Witch Weekly columns. You sound like a lovely lady, spiciness included, and I do regret having to let you know like this. I have included some sweets from the shop in hopes to ease any unrest I may have caused, however unintentional.
She had been on edge all yesterday, since sending off her letter – had he read it yet? she had wondered at odd intervals, all day long – and she had said a little prayer to herself in the privacy of night and under the canopy of her bedcovers, that this Lonely Heart might be the solution to making her heart less lonely. She had maybe gone a little overboard with the confectionary theme, but...
An owl at the window; the reply was here. And it came with a small parcel of something! That must be a sign of something good! Jemima flung herself onto her bed to read it, unfolding the parchment with shaky fingers.
Oh.
Oh.
Oh no.
Her hopes were dashed – dashed against the wall until they were beaten and bloody, for that matter. She ought to have guessed it might be Mr. Honeyduke: he was one of Hogsmeade’s most well-known bachelors; apparently he had no interest in finding a wife, or at least not through Witch Weekly, or at least not her.
At least she hadn’t signed her name or given any indication of who she actually was, Jemima considered, once she was finished groaning into her pillow. Still, she wasn’t sure she would ever be able to face going into Honeyduke’s again, knowing what she had done. She would just have to never eat anything sweet again to spare herself such suffering, Jemima resolved – she unwrapped the consolation packet of sweets and crammed hem all into her mouth at once, if only to be rid of the evidence. So much for that route; how was she ever going to find a man to fall in love with her?
It had taken until the next morning to stop cringing long enough to pen a response.
17th February, 1892
Dear Mr. Honeyduke,
Thank you for the sweets – and I apologise for the horrible shock you must have faced, but I beg your forgiveness and will thank you to (if you have not already) promptly throw my letter in the fire where it belongs – please do not look at it again! – so you nor I nor anyone else can relive such mortifying words. I don’t know what I was thinking. It was a ridiculous notion, to send a reply in the first place.
Please do not be too embarrassed. The letters were quite flattering, and endearing. Now as I have found out, my niece made me seem like quite the catch, I must digress, her heart was in the right place and she exaggerated quite a bit on my behalf.
I do wish you the best of luck in your romantic endeavors, I'm sure you will find whomever it is you are looking for all in good time.
![[Image: Quin-Sig-New.png]](https://i.ibb.co/Jy66Y91/Quin-Sig-New.png)