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bri-cheeses · 9 months

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Christmas Post!!

Okay so I just had this idea so sorry if it’s a little sloppy, but anyways here we go.

The Hufflepuff six and seventh years organize a huge Christmas party the night before everyone goes home. They leave the fifth years out of it because they’re way too stressed about school and homework and O.W.L.s, but the rest of the “upperclassmen” want to party. So they get to work inviting six and seventh years from all of the other houses, which is easy because they’re Hufflepuffs who have countless friends that they can invite.

But anyways, this is the Marauders’ seventh year and the Skittles’ sixth year, so both groups are invited. The day before they have to leave for Christmas break, almost every six and seventh year in the castle heads to the seventh floor, to this one very specific hallway where there’s a tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy and a couple of pacing Hufflepuffs directing people to a door that is, quite simply, just suddenly there. (James and Sirius recommended it to the Hufflepuffs when they were looking for a place to host the party, but they conveniently forgot to correct the Hufflepuffs when they assumed that it was a very specific and odd room that only appeared the day before Christmas break).

When the students walk in, they realize that they were right to dress up in fancy outfits like the invitation card said, because it is decked out in there. Where exactly “there” is, no one is quite sure, but it seems to be a giant ballroom that no one knew about until today. There’s a large section a floor that’s been left open for dancing, and one side of it is ringed with a wide range of different styles of tables and chairs. There are low, rectangle tables that sit twenty or so, along with high, round tables that sit only two or three. The overall effect should be chaotic, but somehow the tables are arranged in a way that makes it look purposeful and aesthetic. There are also centerpieces at each table, poinsettias and candy cane towers and miniature figurines of reindeer and Santa’s sleigh, and it makes the whole place feel extremely festive.

In addition to this, there’s a long table that’s near the other tables (for convenience) that holds heaps of food. Since the Hufflepuff common room is so close to the kitchens, they’re quite good friends with the house elves and convinced them to cook a feast for tonight. Some of the Hufflepuffs even helped the house elves to make the food, and they had a blast hanging out and cooking with the elves.

Hung from the ceiling are garlands and strands of pearls, and mistletoe that grows in random places. There are also little fairies hovering up there, and it makes for quite a beautiful overhead scene. And, opposite of the side of the room with the tables, one wall is made completely of glass. It looks out over the dark lake, which adds to the beauty of the room because of the light of hundreds of stars in the night sky reflecting off of the black water.

It’s so beautiful that the Slytherin Skittles almost forget to breathe when they walk in, wearing their finest because Evan, their resident fashion expert, insisted on following the directions on the card they were given. They all look absolutely stunning, and certain Gryffindors ( *ahem* James *ahem* Marlene) are certainly not staring as they make their entrance. (For reference, the outfits I’m imaging the Skittles in are based on this post by @melemart ).

Pandora drags Evan off to go find Xenophilius, and Barty follows them because he’s a weak man who follows Evan everywhere like a lost puppy. Especially when Evan is looking like that.

This leaves Regulus and Dorcas with the task of finding a table for them, but since Evan insisted on arriving at a “fashionably late” time, most of the tables are already full. The only table with enough room for the six of them (5 Skittles, 1 Xenophilius), is one of the low tables that seats a ridiculous amount. And there’s already plates there, but they’ve been temporarily abandoned. Besides, the plates are all on one toward one end of the table, and there’s plenty of room for the Skittles to sit.

So they do, waiting for Pandora, Evan, and Barty to return with Xeno. When they do, they get up to go to the table with all the food, picking up delicate china plates that have swirling, moving paintings of winter scenes on them. They load up with all the food they can muster, and Barty gets particularly excited when he sees that they have arancini that look (somewhat surprisingly, he mutters) like they’re traditionally supposed to.

After the Skittles have filled up their plates with soups and salad and stir fry and pizza and steak and chicken and tacos and pasta and dumplings and everything else you can imagine, they return to their table. However, they return to find it filled with the owners of the plates of food—the so called “Marauders” and their friends.

Dorcas ends up next to Marlene, across from Regulus, who shoots them a worried glance. It’s no secret that Dorcas and Marlene are bitter rivals on the Quidditch pitch, and he, along with everyone else, is worried that they’re going to get into some sort of fight. It is a secret, however, that Marlene and Dorcas have been meeting up for the past month or so, and are no longer rivals—if they ever really were. In fact, Dorcas has been planning for a while now to ask Marlene to be her girlfriend once they get back from Christmas break. It’s hard keeping something as wonderful as her growing relationship with Marlene a secret from anyone—especially her closest friends. She’s not sure that she’s done the best job at hiding it, either, typically leaving whatever room she’s in when she realizes that Marlene has a free period, poorly made excuses flying out her mouth as she leaves in a hurry.

But Dorcas gets lucky tonight, because if she tenses up from sitting next to Marlene, her friends simply chalk it up to that old Quidditch rivalry.

Marlene smirks when she notices how rigid Dorcas has gone beside her. Then she simply starts digging in to her food, that infuriating smirk still on her face, and Dorcas wants to kill her. Not really though. But almost.

Across from them, Regulus has long since stopped eyeing them with a worried look. He has taken to staring intently down the table at a diagonal angle. For all their obliviousness when it comes to Dorcas, however, the rest of the Skittles know exactly who Regulus is staring at, and why. Barty huffs a laugh when he sees what Regulus is doing, and shakes his head. Regulus shoots him a glare before going back to what he was doing, this time managing to be slightly more discreet as he eats.

Barty and Evan sit next to each other, Barty gesturing animatedly about something while Evan watches with an amused expression. Barty is sitting next to Dorcas, and Evan is at the end of the table, which suits him just fine. It means that he can keep his full attention on Barty without feeling like he’s ignoring the person next to him.

He wonders distantly about what’s in the eggnog that Barty swiped a few glasses of as Barty’s gestures get bigger and bigger, and his words starts to get tinged with a hint of a Sicilian accent. It’s cute, and Evan sits there with an absentminded smile on his face as he nods along to Barty’s rant about he and his grandma make the perfect arancini.

Across from them, next to Regulus, is Pandora and Xeno. They’re currently in a debate about which would be more interesting to see—an octopus made up of jello, or a caterpillar made of a cheese puff. Pandora argues for the octopus, because one, jello is her favorite food (and let’s be honest, who doesn’t like jello?) and two, octopi are fascinating creatures. (“Seriously, Xeno, just imagine what it would be like to see a jello octopus juggling eight different things at the same time!”) But Xeno argues for the caterpillar, because what would it be like when it changed into a butterfly? Would it have a chrysalis that’s made of cheese? Or would it be made of puff? Or would it be made out of Cheez-It Puffs? And would the butterfly be a cheese puff too, or would it just be orange? Eventually Dorcas and Marlene get pulled into their conversation, despite being several seats down, and Marlene argues vehemently for the octopus while Dorcas sides with Xeno, because really, what would its chrysalis be made out of?

And Evan and Barty get up to go get more eggnog and to see what the new, sudden fuss about the food table is, and they see that it’s turned into a dessert table now. And Barty once again gets extremely excited because look, Evan, they have gelato! And so while Barty piles up on that, Evan grabs some cheesecake and a brownie.

They return to their table bringing the good news, and it causes a small stampede as those who are finished with their meals get up to go get dessert. Barty and Evan enlist Regulus to help them bring back eggnog, and they come back with a tray of glasses that they set in the middle of the table.

And eventually everyone returns, and most people snag a glass, and there is definitely something in that eggnog, Evan decides, because the conversation starts flowing so easily between both sides of the table that it starts to feel like they’ve all been good friends for a long while.

And then there’s mistletoe growing over Marlene and Dorcas’ heads and they don’t notice until it’s almost in their faces, and suddenly Regulus is laughing his head off because their faces are so red. He just doesn’t understand what the real reason why they’re blushing so hard is until Marlene says “Fuck it” and leans in to kiss Dorcas on the mouth. And then everyone is hooping and hollering and it’s chaos, but it dies down after a while.

And so Barty and Evan sneak off to go to the dance floor, and Pandora and Xeno leave to go find some of Xeno’s friends, and Sirius drags Remus off to go show him some of the constellations that you can see out the window.

And it’s a good thing that Sirius leaves, because maybe Regulus has finally had enough of waiting, or maybe there truly is something in that eggnog, because suddenly Regulus stands up abruptly, scraping his chair on the floor, and goes around to the other side of the table. No one knows what he’s doing until he grabs James’s face in his hands and kisses him hard, and then James is reaching up to grab Regulus’s face too and they’re practically making out in front of everyone.

And when Barty and Evan hear about it, they’re furious. Because what do you mean Regulus finally made a move, and they weren’t there to see it? After putting up with his whining and pining for years, they don’t even get to see the fruits of their labor?

And so Evan has to go running off in search of some more gelato for his boyfriend in an attempt to cool him down, and then they go over to the window to where there are some high tables that sit two, and they have a good time sharing gelato and looking out at the castle grounds.

Further down from them, Sirius is still pointing out constellations, oblivious to the uproar that just happened at their table, while Remus watches him with a fond look in his eyes.

Marlene and Dorcas take to the dance floor, and Dorcas has just worked up the courage to ask when Marlene blurts out “Do-you-wanna-go-on-a-date—I-mean-like-a-real-date—it’s-okay-if-you-don’t-but-I-just-thought-that-I’d-ask-please-say-yes.” And Dorcas stands shocked for minute, trying to process what Marlene just said. Marlene has just started to get truly worried when Dorcas smiles and leans in to kiss her for a good long minute, before she pulls back and grins and says “I would love that.”

And Pandora and Xeno have also started to dance, but they aren’t dancing in the typical sense of the word. They’re twirling around with their arms up, laughing and having a great time confusing everyone with what they’re doing.

James and Regulus are still at the table, talking to each other, and Regulus actually looks really, really happy for once.

Lily and Mary are standing by the desert table, having what looks like a very deep conversation, and Marlene and Dorcas start to bet on when they’ll get together. Marlene has fifty bucks on January, but Dorcas doesn’t think that it will be until at least Valentine’s Day.

Peter and his date, Benjy Fenwick, have struck up a conversation with some Hufflepuffs, who just brought out a game of Apples to Apples, and they couldn’t be having a better time.

When they all leave several hours later, they all agree that it’s the best Christmas party they’ve ever been to, and the Hufflepuffs start talking about making it a yearly tradition.

Leaving Hogwarts the next day is harder than it’s ever been, but spending Christmas with their families is a nice trade off. Barty gets to spend his Christmas with his grandma this year, since his father is away on a business trip, and he couldn’t be happier about it. Evan and Pandora spend their break in Switzerland, on their yearly skiing trip, and Regulus finally accepts the Potter’s invitation to spend Christmas with them. Dorcas and Marlene promise to send owls to each other, and the constant rapping of owls at their windows never fails to bring a smile to their faces.

All in all, it’s the best Christmas any of them have ever had, and they couldn’t be happier.

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crimsonrevolt · 6 years

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Congratulations Leah you’ve been accepted to Crimson Revolt as Xenophilius Lovegood!

↳ please refer to our character checklist

To get a Pandora and a Xeno all in one day...! I don’t think my heart can take it. Xeno is always a beloved character and you’ve written him so well in your application that we just cannot wait to see what you do with him. Also thank you Taylor for dragging her here! *your faceclaim change to Austin Butler has been accepted

application beneath the cut

OUT OF CHARACTER

INTRODUCTION

I’m Leah, 25, and I use female pronouns and live in EST

ACTIVITY

I’d say about a 7. I do have a full-time job, but I’m usually able to be around some evenings and weekends

HOW DID YOU FIND US?

Welllll…I happen to know Taylor and she may or may not have drug me here

WHAT HARRY POTTER CHARACTER DO YOU IDENTIFY WITH MOST?

Look, I know this is going to sound like a line given who I’m applying for, but honestly, it’s always been Luna. I’ve always been a Ravenclaw and always known that and was always really disappointed that really in the books (at the beginning) the only character we had was Cho. But then Luna was introduced and I was just so happy. She’s my little Ravenclaw baby and she’s so weird and bizarre and just owns that that’s who she is. The year she was introduced in the books, I made my parents buy me a Harry Potter robe, printed out a Ravenclaw emblem, hot glued it over he Gryffindor emblem, and dawned earrings of a crab grabbing onto a foot and went as Luna for Halloween. I just love how intelligent and eccentric, but also how good and loyal she is. It’s always been her above anyone else that I relate to.

ANYTHING ELSE?

Nothing I can think of :)

IN CHARACTER

DESIRED CHARACTER

Xenophilius Hezekiah Lovegood

Xenophilius knows their name is obnoxiously long. Nicknames are going to happen, it’s only natural with a name like Xenophilius, really. They don’t mind and they don’t really mind why you call them—Xeno, Xen, Philly, even Lovey if you wan to take something from their last name. But DO NOT, under any circumstances, ever call him Phil. Just. Don’t. Do it.

Additionally, being demi-male (see more later), he tends to use Xeno more when feeling masculine and Xen when feeling agendered.

FACE CLAIM

I’d really, really love Austin Butler (first choice) or Toby Regbo for Xen. I’m not against Jamie, but his tendency to play villains/assholes makes it a little harder for me to see him as Xeno

REASON FOR CHOSEN CHARACTER

As stated above, I really, really love Luna which makes Xen an obvious choice. I’m also a Ravenclaw, so I feel like I have that tie to him. I started looking through the characters and there were probably a half a dozen I started looking at, but Xen just started talking to me before I even read all the way through their bio. I love that he’s kind of wild and crazy and just free. They believe fully in being whoever you are and not letting anyone stop you, unless of course you’re hurting someone else. They’re incredibly intelligent and driven to always know more and investigate more. I also see him as horribly loyal. Few people take the time to get to know Xen or become friends with them. But those that do gain a fierce friend.

I think an important thing to know about the Xen we’ll see in game play is that they’re not the same Xeno we see in the books. In the books, he’s a lot more unhinged (for lack of a more fitting word), a lot more willing to throw anyone under the bus for the sake of his daughter. But I think a lot of that comes from losing Pandora. He’s been in the midst of a war for the better part of 20 years, his wife died at her own hands (even if by accident) and there was nothing he could do to stop it, the wizarding community as a whole believes him entirely delusional, really the only thing he has is his daughter who’s taken by death eaters. A lot of what is seen in the books comes from all that trauma. He’s eccentric in the current timeline becomes craziness. His protectiveness of his friends becomes a willingness to go against even is own principles to save his daughter. His laid back, open-minded demeanor has morphed into something that’s jarring to most people. At their roots, the personality of current Xen is still very much the same as Xeno in the books, but the way it manifests itself is much more dialed back. Xen is a little more in line with their daughter now, rather than the more extreme manifestation they become in their older years.

PREFERRED SHIPS // CHARACTER SEXUALITY // GENDER & PRONOUNS

End-game for Xen is definitely Pandora. With how much we see that they love her in the books, I can’t imagine it any other way. That being said, I’m more than open to exploring other relationships with other characters. Xen is also definitely pansexual. They’re a person who loves love and acceptance and openness and not closing yourself off to anything for any reason so I can’t imagine them being anything other than pan.

When it comes to romance and sex, well Xeno actually has far more experience in the latter. He’s had his fair share hook ups—with parties of both genders and have they explored outside human/wizard species…well maybe. But romance? Honestly, Xen considers themselves lucky to have friends. They aren’t going to push anything more. They rather like the idea of falling in love, having some little house somewhere surrounded by plants. But love and romance at this point are more ideas to Xen than they are reality. If it happens, it does, and he’ll be more than happy with it. If it doesn’t..then they’ll just adopt a house-full of creatures and live happily ever after with them.

Xen identifies as demi-male with a bit of genderfluidity behind it, using both male and agendered pronouns. Gender is just another construct and they suppose they align more with male than female if they have to choose. That being said, the never-ending comments about being feminine for their long hair and tendency to wear far too many accessories never bothered him either. Use what pronouns you will with them, none of them really matter. Xen has far more important things to worry themselves with.

CREATE ONE (OR MORE!) OF THE FOLLOWING FOR YOUR CHARACTER:

-AN AESTHETIC

Pinterest for Xeno can be found here

-A PLAYLIST

Playlist for Xeno can be found here

-A FEW HEADCANONS

Xen’s crowning achievement of their Hogwarts years is sabotaging the Slytherin Quidditch team. It wasn’t about winning a game or the house points—Xen couldn’t care less about Quidditch really and the house tournament always seemed rather trivial to them. No, the Slytherin team was being rather awful to a group of first year Hufflepuff girls and someone had to put an end to it. So right before the Slytherin/Gryffindor game, Xeno may have enchanted all their brooms to give them all a horrible case of jock itch.

When Xeno wasn’t trying to sneak into the Restricted Section of the Hogwarts Library or wondering off into the Forbidden Forest, you could usually find them at the lake. It was a nice relaxing place and a good place to get high without the professors catching you. There was, of course, also the giant squid. Xen named him Sqedward and tried desperately to train him. Much to Xen’s dismay, the squid never did listen, no matter what they tried, and their dreams of riding the great beast as Muggles do dolphins at Sea World were thwarted.

Xeno isn’t sure how to feel about all the violence Aversio has been using lately. They’re not much prone to violence themselves and tend to take less traditional approaches when push comes to shove (see above). They don’t necessarily support just how violent the group is being, but they know something needs to be done given the state of the wizarding world and their Muggle relations. Sure, it’s nice the Order exists, but just talking about making change isn’t enough. You have to do something for anything to happen. Maybe Aversio’s path isn’t the right one, but it’s the best path available at the current time, so he’s going to take it.

Xeno has an extremely deep love of New Scamander. They think he’s absolutely brilliant. Living a life searching out and findings and treating and fighting for and writing about magical creatures, it just sounds like an absolute dream. Xen’s copy of Fantastic Beasts long ago had to be enchanted so the pages wouldn’t fall apart from wear and there’s paragraphs of notes scribbled into the margins. If they cared less about trying to make a difference for humans, they would almost certainly become a magizoologist, but there’s far too much work to be done getting humans to care about each other before trying to get them to care for creatures. Not that that puts any damper on Xen’s love of all things animal, vegetable, and mineral and his extraordinary adoration of his hero. The day Luna brought home a Scamader was damn near the proudest day of his whole life.

(Note: I saw you guys have a profession list and picked on that feels the most fitting for a young Xeno. I’m more than open to adjusting to fit your views/group needs for job positions.) Xeno currently works at the Daily Prophet. Sure, it’s corrupt and what they’re printing is hardly the truth, but Xen is convinced they’ll be able to change it from the inside out if only they try hard enough. They thought if they joined the Prophet they’d be able to print articles to change minds and change the ideals of the paper’s staff. So far it doesn’t seem to be going anywhere though. Most of his articles wind up getting cut out of the paper and the editor is scolding him more than publishing him. It’s starting to get frustrating, but they’re still holding out hope to make a difference. (The Quibbler will still be founded at a later date when Xen can no longer deny that they aren’t making any impact at the Prophet. Or possibly the Quibbler is founded as an Aversio propaganda paper that either uses Xen’s eccentric interests as a way to send veiled/coded messages to members or it just simply morphs into something entirely different as the war winds down and after Pandora’s death becoming the zany brain child seen in the books.)

Xenophilius sends Howlers quite frequently to anyone in the select group they consider friends. They’re not angry, no, of course not, that’s just now who he is. But there’s just something about a talking/screaming message that simply conveys things written letters can’t. Hand written messages just aren’t…dramatic emphatic enough.

More often than not, when writing Xen tends to dictate out loud to an enchanted quill while pacing around the room and keeping their hands busy.

Xen is a lover of accessories and is rarely without at least half a dozen rings between their two hands.

Xeno is a babbler. Bring up any topic he’s half interested in with anyone willing to even half pretend to be half listening and he’ll babble on endlessly about most anything. Their speech patters tend to involve long drawn out sentences that can be a bit hard to follow.

A few quick facts about their family: Their dad is a wizard while their mum is a muggle. Their father isn’t entirely supportive of their (for the time) progressive gender and sexual identities—the older Lovegood doesn’t necessarily scorn it or treat their child poorly, but he just doesn’t get it. Xen is an only child.

He brought a toad with him for his years at Hogwarts named Wartly. He talks to him a lot and even created a miniature, functional piano for the little guy to enjoy, fully infuriating most all of the Ravenclaw house as the toad would “play” at all hours of the night and Xen did absolutely nothing to “restrict the creature’s right to freedom of expression.”

Two brief headcanons about Xen as an adult that likely won’t have an impact on game play but I can’t shake:

Xen often calls his wife Panda Bear and his daughter his Little Moon

Xen’s knowns about the Deathly Hallows for quite some time, but the reason he carries so much information about them in Harry’s time is because of Pandora. After her death, Xenophilus poured himself into a way to bring back the love of his life. He’s still certain the only thing that could bring her back. He never managed it and maybe that’s for the best, but his knowledge of the Hallows comes down to his longing to bring back Panda.

Connections: (These are a few ideas for connections, all pending approval of the characters’ respective players and naturally his connections aren’t limited to these, but it’s a jumping off point and a look into how he relates to others)

Marlene—Marlene and Xen easily go back to their early Hogwarts days. She’s one of his best friends and one of few that can fully stomach everything that is the complexity of Xenophilius Lovegood. She’s a pub buddy and his go to for someone to smoke with. No one makes them smile and laugh quite the way Marlene can—even if they both spend just as much time rolling their eyes at one another.

The Black Family—The Black Family as a whole is just…distasteful to Xeno. They’re the perfect portrait of everything wrong in the wizarding community. They can’t stand them. Even Sirius, who’s long been a member of the Order and Aversio, Xen can’t quite bring themselves to fully trust—can someone truly disconnect so completely from a family so deeply tainted? The Blacks are violent and bigoted power hungry. Despite his typically warm personality, he’s often notably cold to the Black family and their backwards ways.

Rita—A fellow wizarding journalist, Xen and Rita have always been in the same circles. It doesn’t make them friends though. They have very different world views. She’s the kind who is actually published by the Prophet—though really he can’t see why as so many of her article are full of half-truths and exaggerations. Xeno is always trying to get her to write something good. Something worth her time. Something valuable and positive. It hasn’t worked thus far, so for the time being they’re really just rivals at best.

Arthur—Arthur Weasley is something of a treasure to Xen. They both have immense loves for things that no one else can quite fully appreciate. And sure, they don’t always have interest in the same sorts of things, but there is something nice about finding someone how loves loving things the way you do. The two can sit and babble on for hours, neither really saying anything relating to what the other’s just said and neither really minding because at least someone is finally listening to them.

Sybill—Sybill is so free and strange, just like himself and honestly, Xeno loves it. They always feel free to be unabashedly weird with her and it’s rather freeing. They’ve tried time and time again to get her to teach him divination. And she’s tried, she really has, but every time he fails to see anything of the future, he just tells her he’s failed to teach him properly rather than accept the fact that he’ll never have the affinity she does.

Lucius—Few people really truly get under Xenophilius’s skin quite the way Lucius does. He’s just so smug and so self-important and so sure he’s better than absolutely everyone when the reality is, he’s not. ‘Men’ who act like they are men, like they are more than what they are, when really, push comes to shove, they are nothing, are an utter frustration to Xeno. They’re very, very tempted to put him in his place and at some point, they just may. Someone needs to.

IN CHARACTER QUESTIONNAIRE

♔ If you were able to invent one spell, potion, or charm, what would it do, what would you use it for or how would you use it? Feel free to name it:

“One? Only one? Boiling down the entire universe worth of possibility into only one options?” Xen’s cheeks puff up as he lets out an exasperated and dramatic sigh. “Merlin’s beard, that’s a big question. Oi I suppose…something that would cause some kind of instant karmic retribution. Or perhaps a potion that allows you to know everything—absolutely everything, even if only for a while. Or what about the ability to see all creatures, even the invisible one or the ones that run away really fast. Or maybe-” They stop, suddenly realizing themselves and let out a small chuckle. “Well I suppose that’s more than one it’s it. It’s far too complex a question. You can’t honestly expect anyone to be able to give only one answer, it’s entirely unfair.”

♔ You have to venture deep into the Forbidden Forest one night. Pick one other character and one object (muggle or magical), besides your wand, that you’d want with you:

“Well it would certainly have to be Marlene to bring along with me, it’d be rather grate fun. We’d find some good trouble to get into. I mean not that we haven’t already found good trouble in the Forest. You know everyone is so against the centaurs and, no, they’re not the friendlies group, but they’re not all bad. Now what would I bring with me?” They pause for a moment contemplating. There were plenty of good things to bring, plenty of things they had dug up spending far too much time in parts of the library and personal tomes that they should have never laid their hands on. The Philosopher’s Stone came to mind. Or maybe the Hallows. But that wasn’t exactly information they thought best to share with anyone. “Hmm…perhaps a griffin. Or a phoenix. Maybe a Thestral—they just have bad reps you know. Oooo, or perhaps a Graphhorn. Sure they’re rather hard to find, but you didn’t specify the likelihood of being able to obtain said object before entering the forest with it.”

♔ What kinds of decisions are the most difficult for you to make?

“Decisions in general are rather difficult I find. Even the most mundane ones. The world, by design, is full of choices and you’ll never be able to choose all of them—never. Isn’t that a thought?” As their words die off, their face gets an uncharacteristically morose look to it. “Those with gray morality, I suppose. Where right and wrong blend together and white and black are not so clear. When you know more needs to be done, but you aren’t sure the best path forward. The choices where there is no right and no wrong and yet someone could wind up hurt regardless. Those are the hardest.”

♔ What is one thing you would never want said about you?

“Most anything that could be said about me has already been said. And frankly, I don’t much care about any of it. I suppose he one thing I’d never want said about is that I’m unkind or uncaring. There’s a great many things that can be said about a person, but I think that, by far is worst. That and unimaginative. Both terrible, terrible things.”

REACTION TO LAST EVENT DROP

Reading through the plot drop, there were two different places I really saw some place that Xeno would fit in. In the first portion of the plot drop where Aversio and the Order are working together, it mentions that some, including Sirius are frustrated with how long it’s taking. I think Xen would fall into that camp. To them it’s just obvious that something needs done and everyone should be willing to take action. Sure, it’d be nice if it were a little more peaceful than what Aversio is doing now, but it certainly needs to be more than what the Order has been doing. They just can’t quite understand why things aren’t moving more quickly and why the two factions of the same side can’t seem to get along and find a solution. They’re trying to get everyone to work together and find a better middle ground, but it can at times wear at him and become rather frustrating.

The second part is that he would most certainly help Hestia and Edgar making the posters. Xen, being Xen, making a paper as bright and vivid as we all know the Quibbler is, I can absolutely see him helping to write and format propaganda (for lack of a better word) for Aversio trying to recruit or spread their message. It’s something he would definitely have a heavy hand in given half the chance. It’s something that would let his imaginative and creative ways be put to work. There’s also a fair possibility that if given a chance, he would have help with creating the potions to help Aversio/Order members go undercover to the Death Eater events as well.

WRITING SAMPLE

“Lovegood! My office now!”

Xeno was more than familiar with that tone. It was more or less the only one they ever got from the editor of The Daily Prophet. Sure, it had been a bit disheartening at first—Xen was used to their fair amount of trouble, but being a disappointment, a let down…well not so much. They had gotten used to it now. Which was probably why they were more often tasked with the mundane articles—new students arriving at Hogwarts, the menu changes at the Leaky Caldron, a nasty flea outbreak at Eeylops. Not that that stopped Xen from writing the articles they really wanted to write. The ones that really mattered. They waived their hand at the enchanted pen scribbling away mid-air and it clattered down onto his desk with a rather defeated clunk as he made it way into the editor’s office.

“What in the bloody hell is this?” the editor asked, slamming down his most recent article. The big, bold headline of Death Eater Takes Minister Title and the sub-caption of Rodolphus Lestrange, a member of the terror organization known as the Death Eaters usurped power unjustly from former Minister Millicent Bagnold. Sure, it wasn’t big flashy words, and Xen has spent ages trying to come up with something better, but he figured cutting it straight to the chase might be best given the circumstances.

“Well it’s the truth.”

“The truth? The truth? We can’t go making claims like that about the LestrangesXenophilius.”

“They’re not claims, they’re the truth.”

“You’ve nothing to support that argument.”

“I have everything to support that argument,” they countered. They could feel their typically laxed personality starting to pull back as they got more and more frustrated. How on earth was he supposed to do anything, change anything when every decent article he wrote led to this kind of conversation? There was good to be done here, change to be made, but once again, they were just the crazy little wizard with an imagination too bright to understand the reality of the world. What no one ever seemed to notice was that it was that exact imagination that made them see things perhaps a bit too clearly.

“We won’t be publishing this sort of nonsense here.”

“It’s not nonsense! Sir, surely you have to know! You have to know the kind of things that man is wrapped up in. Him and the Black family, all of the Death Eaters, this never ending parade of hate that’s only leading to genocide. The wizarding community needs to know what’s happening! They have to be enlightened.”

“Don’t be ridiculous.”

“We’re the leading paper in the English wizarding community. If we’re not going to talk about it, then who will? We have a duty as members of the press to publish the truth, regardless of backlash, to make readers informed and keep them up to date on the reality of the world around them, even when it’s a reality that is hard to stomach.”

“Enough.” With that one barked word, Xen knew. They knew that surely, same as Rita, the editor knew. He knew about all of this and was just going on complicity. Maybe he was even one of them. “I was warned when I hired you. That this kind of drivel is what I’d get from you, but some of your professors seemed to have good words to say about you. Last time I listen to them.”

Xeno’s face fell. His writing wasn’t drivel. It was good. It was the only good he had to offer the world right now. But it wasn’t enough. It wasn’t doing anything if no one ever read it. Their mind flashed back to all of Aversio’s talks of future plans. All the wrathful ideas they had that churned Xen’s stomach. But sitting here and being peaceful wasn’t working.

People would hear Xenophilius Lovegood’s messages one way or another. Maybe they’d have a turn of staff soon, an editor who would listen, who would be interested in the truth. Maybe Rita would quit and free up page space that could go to articles that really mattered. Maybe the world would finally just start seeing things as they were and cry for the truth themselves.

“Get out of here. Go write me something I can actually publish Lovegood. We won’t be having this conversation again.”

Xen turned to the door, shaking their head as their fingers played with the rings that adorned each one, already plotting out their next articles—both the ones they would turn in and the ones they would find other ways to distribute to those who would listen. They were just to the doorway when the editor spoke again.

“And nothing about Nargles this time Lovegood.”

#Accepted App #HP RP #skeleton rp #lsrpg #xenophilius lovegood

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