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Welcome to Charming, the year is now 1895. It’s time to join us and immerse yourself in scandal and drama interlaced with magic both light and dark.

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What she got was the opposite of what she wanted, also known as the subtitle to her marriage.
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Devil's Snare is in the Details
#1
Sat, September the 14th, 1894 — Ravenclaw Common Room
Herbology 5th Year Project
She didn't usually talk to him, not really. Usually, Millie just watched him from afar, finding the seat furthest from him in the common room and diving into her novels while his nose was deep in their schoolbooks. It never seemed like she made much story progress when he was there, being the better student while she was relaxing. Always the good student, never struggling, never wasting time, always showing off about it. The young witch shouldn't have been as bothered as she was, if only he didn't make her feel so guilty, or so captivated.

Today there was only the seat near his open, and Millie had no choice but to sit there or accept a self-imposed exile from her favorite room in their house. The lighting was just right, not too bright as to cast long shadows on her book corners, and not too dark yet to make her squint in the absence of lit lamps. Only such a perfect day could have been spoiled by Cadogan's fastidious schoolwork, and soon enough the novel was resting in her lap. She didn't remember how the conversation started, only that when she returned to her dorm it was only to put away her novel and quickly gather her trove of herbology books to bring up to the common room.

No one could say that Millie Potts couldn't live up to her family name now.

"I do have Goshawk's, of course, and I brought a copy of our first year book as well. That has most of what we learned in class on the Devil's Snare and Spiky Bush," she set down the stack of books, hardly able to hold onto them anymore. Their old textbook spilled into his lap, and Millie had to hold herself back from reaching to snatch it up before it hit the floor, lest all the rest of them follow. "And then there's...this."

Millie had never imagined she would ever use it, even the title seemed too gorey. She had tucked it at the back of her bookshelf, safely turned around and hidden behind the glistening spines of other, more pleasantly boring titles. Now the young witch raised the book for Mr. Glynn to see, and it was almost too embarrassing. A witch of her reputation shouldn't be owning a book like this, but it was, at last, prurient to their topic of discussion. "I hope we don't actually need Flesh-Eating Trees of the World, though if you're hoping to pick vampiric vegetation then this is the only good source."

She had her own thoughts already for what plant to select for her project, but the young witch was curious now about which one Cadogan would pick. At least it would be easier to choose here than in the closed-in library, or the stifling hot greenhouses.





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#2
Now that he was finally in his fifth year, Cad knew that he had to take his grades very seriously if he wanted to come back to Hogwarts for his NEWTs. Being reliant on a scholarship was never any fun, although being a prefect sure did help ease some of the anxiety of how much the next couple of years might cost, and how much money he needed to be provided to pay for it all. It didn’t stop him from sitting in the common room to study whenever he had a moment, finding that it was a lot less distracting than the library could be. Divination was kicking his butt this year, but he was determined to carry on with it until he graduated.

They had a test coming up so it was time to start cramming for it, but the words all started to blur together and Cad found himself realizing that he was reading the same sentence continuously without actually understanding what he was reading. It was frustrating, and just as he was deciding to take a small break, the heel of his hand rubbing against his eye, Millie Potts had sat down next to him, her nose buried in a book. It might be nice to not have to study and have all the time in the world to read things for pleasure, because it seemed like she was always doing just that. But then again Millie wasn’t worried about money, so it wasn’t like she had much to stress over.

The conversation had started with Cadogan asking if she’d picked a plant for herbology to study. (It was nice to talk about this with someone other than Jimmy Fletcher, who still hadn’t given him a firm date of when they wanted to meet to start on this project together.) She had disappeared for a moment before returning with a book that instantly found its way onto his lap. He blinked at it like he could fathom how it had gotten there before he blinked up at her, although it didn’t seem like she’d done it on purpose.

“Careful,” he said quietly, picking up the book and setting it onto the table; it wasn’t like Cad was worried a book might hurt him but rather she might hurt the book itself, and he really didn’t want to deal with a girl when she was upset. It was only then that he noticed the Flesh-Eating Trees of the World in her hands. Cad arched an eyebrow, more curious than surprised that Millie Potts had a book like this in her possession, although given than her entire family were named after plants or worked with them in some kind of capacity, he shouldn’t actually be shocked she had this kind of literature in her dorm.

“I’ve never encountered a flesh eating tree.” Cad said matter-of-factly. “And I was thinking something a little less… blood thirsty. I was considering chomping cabbage or fanged geranium.” Fletcher wanted to do devil’s snare, which wasn’t entirely shocking. Cad wanted to do something that not a lot of people were going to do, if only to impress Professor Skeeter that he wasn’t going to take the easy way out.

He hesitated, his fingers lightly tracing the edge of his notebook. “What were you thinking? Or is this just...a way to show off your library?” Cad was surprised that their professor hadn’t given Millie Potts a pass on this project, or maybe he’d given her a harder plant than the rest of them; surely she knew everything and anything about herbology already.



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#3
The book pressed itself up against her chest, forming a shield against the kind of detached indifference that hovered around Mr. Glynn. He seemed to only light up when it came to something for class, she'd taken notice of when the boy didn't seem to take notice of much else. This seemed like an opportunity to do both, something the young witch was already starting to regret. "Oh, well I only thought that..."

Millie might have suddenly realized what she was holding again, the title and its repulsiveness to her, when he repeated the name back to her. The book came away from her body, just a little, as if that was enough to keep the ideas from being infectious. She had only cracked it open once, and only for the sake of academics. It wasn't idle curiosity or some kind of sordid fascination, not that Mr. Glynn asked that of her regardless. That much was something of a relief, at least. "No, I wouldn't think of choosing anything so blood-thirsty myself."

She thought that would reassure him of her intentions enough to have a conversation about it. When more words spilled out, Millie bristled at the implication, narrowing eyes at him and the state of her collection on the side table. It wasn't just a way for her to show off, but when was something like that so wrong? There was only so much focused attention that Millie could devote to her studies, head-down and quiet, alone in the populated room. Sometimes Ravenclaws could drive her straight to madness, present company included.

"I was thinking," she began, courteous enough not to challenge the insult directly. The young witch didn't know if he deserved such respect, offering it prudently for the sake of her fellow students in the common room. Let them see that she was being the decent one by sharing her resources, not turning up her nose at them as if their ownership gave offense. "of the Snapdragons. Or asking Professor Skeeter if I could perhaps try for multiple Screechsnaps, as I'd fancy trying to make a choir out of them."

It was a remark she knew would have made Anne or Greta round on her instantly. One with some sensibility and the other with a cutting remark, and learning who would choose which side was always part of the adventure. Millie studied Cadogan for a brief moment before averting her gaze, wondering which he might choose for himself.



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#4
Almost instantly Cad winced, his eyes widening before he quickly glanced down at the table. He hadn’t meant to imply anything bad, just that he knew how much the other Ravenclaw enjoyed books; even he was well aware that she was the president of the book club, so why wouldn’t she want to show off her collection? Before he could open his mouth to apologize though, Millie was already talking about the project and how she too, didn’t want anything blood thirsty, but rather something more mundane.

Cad shifted in his seat to look at her. “Snapdragons?” He echoed, face softening as he hoped they were going to ignore his earlier misstep. “That’s an interesting choice.” Kind of mundane, but it wasn’t like either of his top choices were thrilling. “Screechsnaps seem interesting to me, although I hope you don’t plan on keeping them in the common room.” He winced, because once more it sounded like he was judging her. “Unless they sing well? I don’t know too much about them, outside of the fact that they make noise. Would you teach them a melody?” He could only imagine the kind of racket they might cause here, plus someone was bound to ruin them if they were a nuisance.

“Maybe I’ll do the umbrella flower, and see how large I can grow one over the course of the year.” He shrugged, but then he let out a soft sigh, pausing to try to meet her gaze. “Although I’m not sure Professor Skeeter would let me keep it in the greenhouse, because it might block out other people’s projects. Maybe in an empty classroom? Your screechsnaps could be there, too.”



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