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
It was a little too much to ask Daff to chaperon Hanna at an event that she was helping to run. Instead, her older sister was with her. Johanna was delighted by the florals around each of the animals; she had already traveled through the muggle section of the exhibition, and was about to journey into the magical section. She was in a good mood — she had prepared for this. (This was too important for the Potts family for her to be coming if she was feeling Bad.)
She tripped on a cobblestone just before the entrance to the magical section of the zoo, colliding with a tall man.
Months of loneliness had steeled his resolve towards actively seeking out a wife. It had taken Winnie's leaving to realize just how right she was about the state of things, though if asked Dory would have still argued that what they had was enough for him. But, she hadn't been happy for a long time leading up to her leaving and he had been blind to it all.
Which meant finding someone else, a rather daunting prospect now that he could no longer dance as well as he once could. His injury meant finding other avenues that didn't involve a dancefloor, such as the flower show and the walk through the zoo.
He had chatted with a few other debutantes throughout his meandering and was preparing to head towards the ticket booths for a refreshment when he was knocked off balance.
It was a massive stroke of luck that Dory didn't fall. Instead, he landed heavily against one of the shrubs behind him and mouthed a wordless swear at the sudden flash of pain that went through his leg. He didn't even look to see who collided into him, his eyes still squeezed shut as he tried to contain the string of profanities he thought to scream, before asking, "are you alright?"
She wavered on her feet, clumsy, and took several fumbling steps backwards — but did not go down. Finally Hanna shook her head, and took a look at the person she'd crashed into — Mr. Fisk, who walked with a cane. She knew it immediately: she was horrible.
"It's alright," he immediately and instinctively soothed, though still without looking directly at her. The shrub was pointed and jabbing him uncomfortably as he slowly struggled to regain his balance. There was no way he could continue his afternoon here after this, no way he'd be able to push through the pain for hours yet. Still, once righted he managed to look at her and offered a half smile. "The turns here are rather sharp and the shrubbery — he turned to mock-glare at the pointed stabbing thing — don't help much."
Hanna tried a smile, although it was wobbly, and she did not know what good it would do when Mr. Fisk wasn't looking for her. "Still, I'm sorry," she instead. "I shouldn't be so clumsy."
Did he want to lead with his limp? No, not at all. But, as the man in this scenario Dory unfortunately didn't have much of a choice.
He held out his free arm to her and nodded towards the path from which she'd just come. "I believe it's back this way." Then, a second later, he asked, "have you gone through the magical section of the zoo yet? I hear they have a demiguise, I've never seen one in person."
Hanna followed Mr. Fisk, entirely oblivious to his limp in her own nervousness. "I haven't," Hanna answered. She'd been before — but not today. "I'm not sure I remember demiguises, either."
Relieved to be discussing something besides their collision, Dory led the way towards the refreshments tent as he began to explain, "they look similar to chimp I believe and are nearly impossible to catch due to their ability to predict the future." Dory wasn't often fond of animals, especially magical ones, but he found the demiguise fascinating.
"Oh!" Hanna said. She'd seen a chimp in the muggle section of the zoo, so hearing about something that looked like it was definitely intriguing. "Are they nice?" she added, because she was not sure what else one could say about a magical creature.
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