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
Sera was — a little bored, by this ball. She felt as if she would be a bad person if she admitted this, as the tickets' proceeds were donated to charity, but once she was inside — it was just a ball. Her husband had not deigned to accompany her, and Seraphina had been excited for the lack of supervision — but other than the champagne in her hand, and the sound of a string quartet, there wasn't anything particularly fancy. No gimmicks, no theme of decor, no cocktails. Disappointing.
Sera was on her second flute of champagne and seeking diverting conversation. She had no other events on the docket for the evening, so she needed something to keep her out of her home for a few extra hours. (Maybe she ought to become involved in the chamber of commerce, so that she could help them with future events? Hm.)
She was a bold person, but since she had become Awake again, there was always a flutter of excitement when she was being bold. Sera felt that familiar flutter when she turned to the nearby man. "I feel that it would have been kind of the event planners to allow the 'inconvenient children' to attend this evening," she said by way of introduction, a little flippant.
With Emerson off to school now Jack had little to do with his evenings. It was... surreal to say the least. It also gave his housekeeper an unequivocal reason to shove him out the door to any event she caught wind of that she thought he should attend. Tonight's fundraiser was for the orphanage and it was a worthy cause, but was still so out of his depth at these things that he would have just preferred to donate directly to the cause than suffer through the awkward stilted conversations he wasn't used to having.
He was nursing a drink near the refreshments table, knowing it was approaching a reasonable amount of time for him to leave, but he still had a few minutes to go yet. The flippant comment caught him off guard, so much so that he actually started. The woman attached to it was not what he was expecting, and he found himself smiling at her slowly, if uncertainly. "Would liven things up a bit," he agreed, nodding. It probably would have been a nice treat for them as well.
Sera was immediately pleased with herself; she'd gotten him to smile at her, even if he did not look confident about it. She smirked back at him. "People want to donate to them but they don't want to look at them," Sera said, still in that flippant tone. "And isn't that what their parents did in the first place?"
Parents, or other relatives — the children in the home were tragic and abandoned, and Seraphina thought it was a shame that they did not even get to have fun at a mild ball.
She took a sip of her drink, as if to punctuate the sentence.
The sentiment struck Jack harder than he was sure the woman intended it to. He had to remind himself Emerson had somewhere to go if something were to happen to him. He swallowed hard and took a sip of his own drink to give himself pause. "I'm sure that is not always the case." That parents would be so cruel as to abandon their children was not something Jack wanted to think much about. The reality of it was most likely that there was no other option for the child, it was unfortunate, but as a parent he had to hope that others would do anything before that.
"Do you have children?" Jack found himself asking, wondering if he could pick apart her thoughts a little bit more before passing judgement. He had noticed a wedding ring, so assumed it was likely. He'd stopped wearing his a while back, at his sister's insistence, even though he hadn't any intentions at the time to start seeking someone new Jack still wasn't sure that he was ready, but it had started to cross his mind more and more these days, with Emerson off at Hogwarts.
It looked as if her comment had affected him; Sera watched him carefully, and felt a smidge guilty for her flippancy. She took a sip of her champagne before she spoke again, to moderate herself. "Three," Sera answered. "And yourself?"
She glanced at his hand. The man did not have a wedding ring on, Sera noted.
"One, a son. He just started Hogwarts this year." Jack still wasn't used to the house being so quiet, but he knew it was good for Emerson to get out and be around children his age and experience everything Hogwarts had to offer. It was lonely though. "It's just the two of us," Jack ran his thumb over the spot where his wedding band used to sit. It was still strange not to wear it, but he knew he should start looking a little more earnestly, instead of hiding behind his work and parenting.
Regardless of those thoughts, he was still unsure of what to say next; clearly he was out of practice. "I couldn't imagine having to do that as a parent," there were things set in place for Emerson if anything were to ever happen to him at the very least. "At least this will raised some funds to help out." He added, unable to dwell on those thoughts for too long, it seemed far too morose for the occasion.
His son shared an age with Algernon, then — Sera wondered if the two knew each other. She did nod at the man's statement. "I don't like the name of the home," she admitted, "Inconvenient Children. That can't be helpful for the children's self-esteem." Some of them would be there because they were orphaned, sure — but some had likely been abandoned by parents who did not want or could not afford them. If the kids were ever going to make something of themselves, they could not feel like they were inconvenient children.
She glanced at his hand; no wedding ring. "My eldest son may know yours," she offered, "He started this year, too."
Jack nodded along in agreement; it was a terrible name for an establishment meant to help children. Children were not an inconvenience, not at all. It was not as if they asked to be brought into the world, and they should never be treated as such. This whole thing had Jack reconsidering the amount he'd planned to donate, perhaps it should be larger.
He was pleased to turn to more pleasant conversation of their own children. "Highly likely, Emerson writes home often." Mostly because Jack pestered him with letters requesting the details of his adventures at Hogwarts. "It's been just the two of us for quite a while, I'm afraid I'm a bit of a pest." Perhaps he would ease back, now that it was second term and obviously Emerson was fine.
Sera smiled as the man took her conversational turn towards their children and went with it. "I'm afraid that may last," she said, "My daughter started a few years ago and I still write her often." She'd never written when she was Under, at least not that she remembered — but Sera now took her correspondence with her children extremely seriously.
"It must be hard, though, to be an only parent," she added, with a sympathetic tone.
It was nice to know that he wasn't alone in this. Perhaps he wasn't as obnoxious as he thought, especially considering it has been just the two of them for nearly a decade.
"It's not easy, thank goodness for good help." Jack wouldn't have made it for a month without a good nanny and housekeeper. "It's been a long time, we got used to it." He shrugged. Emerson had only been barely 3 when they'd lost his mother and the baby she'd been carrying. He didn't even really remember her. Even Jack thought her memory was fading too much these days.
Sera nodded empathetically at his words; she could not understand it, but her parents had always been distant, so maybe Emerson was lucky just to have one parent who clearly cared a great deal about him.
"I'm sorry for your loss even if it was a long time ago," she said; the words felt awkward in her mouth, but Sera still felt that she had to say it. She took a sip of her champagne. "Seraphina Bythesea," she offered, neatly.
Jack nodded his appreciate of her condolences. It felt strange, even now, years later, to think of Lena being gone, but after she'd faded from his everyday, it was equally hard to remember what it was like to have her around. "Thank you," he swallowed hard, trying not to think about it too closely.
"Jack Collins, pleasure to meet you Mrs. Bythesea." Jack found his social skills a little rusty these days, but so far he hadn't managed to stick his foot into his mouth. That didn't mean he was any good at conversations that didn't revolve around work or Emerson. He looked around the room briefly for inspiration, but found himself stuck. Their conversation thus far hadn't been too tricky, but he wasn't quite sure where to go from here. "I'll have to remember to make sure the next hospital event is a little more lively." He managed. Though he wasn't strictly involved in the planning, as the head of a department and one without a wife to handle these things, Jack liked to make sure he stayed involved.
Jack Collins. Sera didn't remember the name from Hogwarts. If she had run into him in the years that she was Under, she didn't remember it — and while she didn't have the best memory of the intervening years, she also could not imagine any circumstances that would have had her conversing with a middle class man.
He was involved in the hospital, too — not a member of pureblood upper class society. Ever since escaping the curse, Sera had been particularly interested in people who were not part of her usual crowd. And Mr. Collins had been kind so far, and Sera thought healers were interesting, so she straightened and smiled at him.
Fortunately for Jack, the hospital was a safe course of conversation, like a safety net in this circus of socializing. "I'm the healer-in-charge of Creature-Induced Injuries, here in Hogsmeade." It wasn't as patient-facing as he would have liked and sometimes he missed the simplicity of just being on the floor, but Jack had settled into the administrative role rather easily. He was generally good with people (at work) and therefore strived to be approachable and understanding with his staff.
"Worked my way up, after a a year or so of international travel studying creatures." He still wasn't much of a desk job sort of guy, but this was a good balance of more regular hours when Emerson was younger, and keeping him on the floor and working. He jumped in where necessary and consulted on tough cases, even taking on the emergency department in a pinch. The travel had been something he'd wanted to continue, but hadn't quite figured out how. Now he couldn't imagine life any other way.
Creature-Induced Injuries. Sera remembered, in a flash, taking Care of Magical Creatures during her N.E.W.T. years. Sera felt a mix of bitterness and nostalgia about her N.E.W.T. courses; she'd put so much work into them, all in the hopes that she would keep some sort of intellectual hobbies once she was married. Her father had stolen that from her.
Her expression dropped for a second; she refocused on Mr. Collins and smiled. "That must be interesting work," she said, "Did you have a favorite place you traveled?"
Jack nodded along, seeing her expression change every so briefly before she recovered. He wondered what he'd said to cause it, but decided it was better not to comment. "Hard to say. I thoroughly enjoyed the creatures in the Orient." The jungles of the far east were quite the adventure, dense and dark with a lot going on that the muggles of the region only theorized and whispered about. "I also enjoyed my trip to South America." Perhaps the jungle was what appealed to him, as it had been similar, just a wildly different set of creatures.
"It's been so long. I hope to take my son when he gets a little older." Pending what it was that Emerson got into, but especially if it was just the two of them still.
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