#incantareintro

[giideonprewett]

* ╰   benjamin wardsworth  ;  eighteen ;  he/him  —— wow, gideon prewett sure has changed. i guess he  is feeling isolated from the other gryffindor members. guess you can’t really blame them. i still remember them being so allocentric & skilful now they just seem desolate & destructive. guess being a pureblood isn’t helping matters much either. i’m hopeful though. they’ll be just fine.

gideon prewett is used to getting everything he wants. from the moment he slipped out of the womb, he was the golden child. he was calm, collected, and charming on the verge of manipulative — he knew how to get what he wanted, you see, even in a home that had only so much money to give. but he was a good kid. a good friend, a good brother, a good son. he was charming through his kindness, through his three times too big heart which cared for others far before it cared for him.

but gideon’s care for others was far different to that of his twin’s. when fabian was outside, picket signs stabbed into the unruly front lawn, gideon was inside helping his mother prepare for dinner, or helping molly understand the difference between left and right. because you see, for gideon, it was always family first. while fabian concentrated on the greater wellbeing of the outside world, gideon slaved over his family and friends, always making sure they were happy. fabian had the outside world covered, anyway — and he trusted his brother more than anyone else in this world.

starting at hogwarts only solidified gideon’s place as the golden boy. almost immediately he was popular, and beloved by all. he excelled in all his classes, enrolled in as many extracurriculars as possible, tried out for the quidditch team where he earned his spot as keeper in his fifth year and just generally flourished. of course, things were slightly different for fabian, but that never changed their dynamic — no matter how different, fabian and gideon were always going to be best friends.

the war tried to change that, though — it really tried to hurt them. as tensions in the wizarding world started to bubble, fabian started to scream, and gideon wished he would shut his mouth. it’s not that gideon didn’t care about muggleborns and their rights to the magical world he was blessed to live in — it was more the fear of what might happen if they dug their fingers in too deep. he hated what the purists were trying to spread, but it wasn’t the prewett’s fight to have. the prewett’s had long been a pureblood family, and if they spoke too loud, they were bound to put a target on their backs. just as when they were kids, fabian cared about the world but gideon cared about his world. about his family.

they fought for months over who was ‘right’. fabian said gideon was too casual — gideon said fabian was too loud. they didn’t have to get involved, they didn’t they didn’t they didn’t.

and then they were.

gideon doesn’t remember anything before he woke up in a dark and damp room one late august evening. one minute he was saying good night to his brother after a particularly nasty argument — the next he was alone, terrified, a bruise forming above his eye. he thought it was temporary, he’d be home soon, it was a nightmare. but the bruises kept coming, the scars kept forming, and slowly gideon’s mind was turned from a bright and tight space to a dark, empty void. the days were a blur, the faces masked and the voices muffled. he wasn’t tortured for information, he was just tortured. maybe it was payback for fabian’s loud mouth — maybe they didn’t even know who he was. but he was damaged beyond repair in that small little basement.

and then once again, it goes blank. one minute he’s screaming for mercy, the next he’s awoken on his doorstep at home to the sound of his mother screaming. authorities swarm their home, dumbledore sweeps in to whisk him away to hogwarts, his parents follow his every move. it’s all just another blur. they ask what happened, but the truth is he doesn’t know. he thought he was going to die, that is the only truth he knows.

the real truth is this — the death eaters kept him for months in that basement, using physical and psychological torture to tear down the once untouchable boy. they relished in his pain for months before recognising just how much they broke him — and realising that he could act as the perfect example to what could happen to anyone who step out of line, as long as they returned him. but of course, he’d seen a lot — and so they wiped his memory of everything except the trauma, they allowed him to tell the story of the hell he’d endured, but he’d be useless to any investigation they might’ve had. perfect.

they were right, of course. gideon is useless, and he’s broken. he is a hollowed form of the boy that used to be. he is paranoid and filled with rage and unable to talk to anyone without the incredible urge to snap their head off. he craves that empty feeling now — better to be empty than to feel all that has brought him so much pain.

for all the bad change that has occurred now, there is one good that the death eaters had never accounted for — gideon is ready to fight. where once he didn’t care about the war, now he has no choice. he will never let anyone endure what he had to, especially not his family. he’s been broken, but that has somehow only made him stronger — he’s invincible because he doesn’t care anymore if he gets hurt. he’s been hurt. he would rather die fighting than sit back now.

tl;dr gideon was perfect until he wasn’t. he was a golden boy who had everything, and the death eaters tore him down to nothing. he has distanced himself from everyone and everything with the intent to fight for a better world. he is not the same person he was, and don’t expect him to be. war changes you.

[hookuhms]

               * ╰  milena  tscharntke  ;  17  ;  she / her  ——  wow,  daisy  hookum  sure  has  changed.  i  guess  she  is  feeling  isolated  from  the  other  ravenclaw  members.  guess  you  can’t  really  blame  them.  i  still  remember  them  being  so  insightful  &  pragmatic,  now  they  just  seem  acquiescent  &  cynical.  guess  being  a  half-blood  isn’t  helping  matters  much  either.  i’m  hopeful  though.  they’ll  be  just  fine.

𝐛𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐠𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝.

daisy  hookum,  oldest  (  and  only  )  child  of  theodora  and  wendell  hookum.  you  probably  HAVEN’T  heard  of  them,  much  to  her  parents’  chagrin.  daisy,  unfortunately,  HAS  heard  of  them.  not ��that  she  doesn’t  love  her  family  —  she  does  !  it  just  gets  a  bit  tiring  hearing  the  same  thing  over  and  over  again  about  her  ancestors  and  how  noble  they  were  and  their  important  connections  and  how  pure  they  were.

the  punchline  ?  due  to  a  halfblood  marrying  into  the  family  generations  ago,  daisy  is  not  technically  PURE.  something  which  drives  her  parents  mad.  they’re  always  on  the  edge  of  pureblood  society,  no  matter  how  much  they  try  to  elbow  their  way  in.  daisy  grew  up  being  dragged  around  to  different  pureblood  society  events  where  they  didn’t  quite  belong,  standing  uncomfortably  to  the  side  as  her  parents  embarrassed  themselves  trying  to  rub  elbows  with  people  who’d  never  accept  them.

daisy  has  a  much  more  realistic  worldview  than  her  parents,  which  gives  her  the  luxury  of  seeing  so  clearly  what  they  cannot  —  that  they  will  never  be  fancy  enough  or  wealthy  enough  or  pure  enough  to  really  count  for  anything.

DEATH  TW  //  daisy  wasn’t  always  the  oldest  (  and  only  )  child  of  the  hookum  family.  she  had  a  brother,  much  older  than  her,  although  she  never  really  got  to  know  him.  he  died  when  he  was  fifteen  and  daisy  was  three.  it’s  been  seventeen  years,  and  grief  is  not  part  of  daisy’s  life  (  not  that  she  was  grieving  much  in  the  first  place  –  again,  she  was  only  three  )  but  she  still  gets  the  feeling  that  her  parents  sometimes  look  at  her  and  expect  to  see  him.

they  don’t  talk  much  about  him.  they  don’t  talk  much  about  anything  that  upsets  them.  she’s  managed  to  piece  together  that  it  was  because  of  a  muggle.  a  drunk  muggle.  and  a  car.  she  wonders  if  her  parents  would  be  so  obsessed  with  distancing  themselves  from  their  muggle  blood  if  he  were  still  alive.  she  wonders  whether  if  he’d  be  better  at  this  whole  pureblood  thing  than  her.  the  planned  son,  the  golden  boy  who  never  was.  so  even  though  she  knows  her  parents  are  ridiculous,  she  goes  along  with  them.  it’s  her  way  of  apologizing  for  what  she  is  not.

𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲.

daisy  is  very  much  your  typical  Girl  Next  Door.  she's  never  really  the  centre  of  attention,  instead  preferring  to  remain  in  the  shadows,  quiet  and  unassuming.  she’s  definitely  an  introvert  and  values  her  time  alone,  but  she  isn’t  shy,  and  she  has  such  an  immense  tenderness  for  her  friends.  the  sidekick  to  her  friends’  superheroes,  she’s  always  the  one  listening  to  their  wild  stories  and  patiently  taking  care  of  them  when  they’re  drunk.  

her  sense  of  humour  is  hard  to  catch  sometimes  if  you  don’t  know  her  very  well.  it’s  dry,  and  subtly  sarcastic,  and  kind  of  self-deprecating.  after  years  of  watching  her  parents  take  themselves  much  too  seriously,  daisy  knows  how  to  laugh  at  herself.

she  is  realistic.  down  to  earth.  sometimes  bordering  on  the  verge  of  cynicism.  no  —  frequently  bordering  on  the  verge  of  cynicism.  she  prefers  to  keep  expectations  low  rather  than  be  disappointed.

her  greatest  flaw  is  probably  that  she  is  not  the  best  at  confrontation.  she  hates  making  a  fuss  and  inconveniencing  people,  so  when  she’s  upset  or  when  she  disagrees  with  something,  she  just  keeps  it  to  herself  and  deals  with  it  internally.

she’s  also  much  too  self-sacrificing.  she  would  give  up  her  whole  self  for  the  people  she  loves.  it’ll  be  nearly  midnight,  and  she’ll  have  two  tests  tomorrow,  but  if  her  friend  is  feeling  sad  she’ll  drop  everything  and  be  there  for  them.

very  quietly  pensive  and  philosophical.  she  just  thinks  a  lot.  she’s  very  interested  in  ethical  dilemmas,  and  the  purpose  of  life,  and  whether  human  beings  are  inherently  good  or  bad,  etc  etc  etc.

she’s  actually  very  interested  in  muggle  studies,  something  her  parents  don’t  really  approve  of.  but  it’s  an  easy  o,  so  they  let  her  do  it.  she’s  just  fascinated  with  how  other  people  live.  if  hogwarts  offered  a  psychology  class  she  would  be  all  over  that  tbh

a  year  ago,  daisy  fell  in  love.  she  wasn’t  planning  on  it;  she’d  never  been  much  of  a  romantic,  and  she’d  certainly  never  thought  of  him  in  that  way  before  she  agreed  to  a  hogsmeade  date.  but  what  started  as  giving  him  a  chance  with  a  heart  full  of  doubts  turned  into  a  couple  awkward  dates,  turned  into  staying  up  late  laughing  together,  turned  into  a  stomach  full  of  butterflies,  turned  into  genuine  trust  and  admiration,  turned  into  love.

and  then  four  months  ago,  gideon  prewett  disappeared.  and  suddenly  daisy  was  the  girl  with  a  missing  boyfriend.

daisy  is  used  to  having  low  hopes,  but  she’s  never  had  reason  to  hope  as  fiercely  and  desperately  as  now.  it’s  a  new  sensation  for  her,  choosing  to  believe  when  it  would  be  so  easy  to  give  up,  when  the  old  daisy  would  have  given  up.  but  all  she  knows  is  that  he  would  never  have  given  up  on  her.

[hellsurvived]

* ╰   jenny boyd  ;  18 ;  she/her  —— wow, emma vanity sure has changed. i guess she  is feeling isolated from the other  slytherin  members. guess you can’t really blame them. i still remember them being so  astute & loyal  now they just seem  impulsive & stubborn.  guess being a  pureblood  isn’t helping matters much either.  i’m hopeful though. they’ll be just fine. 

hi  guys  i’m  louise  and  this  is  my  fave  ,  emma  vanity  !  

she’s  a  bit  of  a  wild  card  but  truly  lovable.  she  was  raised  in  the  higher  class  vanity  family  that’s  surname  really  hit  the  mark  on  how  they  acted.  everything  had  to  be  perfect  and  nothing  else  would  be  acceptable,  looking  your  best  and  exceptional  etiquette  was  something  that  emma  had  drilled  into  her  as  a  child.  looks  are  everything.

emma  was  mostly  looked  after  by  a  mixture  of  house  elves  and  maids  as  she  grew  up  due  to  her  parents  always  being  away.  she  grew  accustomed  to  spending  time  alone  and  it  gave  her  an  insight  into  things,  such  as  how  the  world  was  from  an  outsider  looking  in.  emma  had  friends,  yes,  but  she  was  always  slightly  distant  as  a  child.

however,  as  she  came  into  her  teenage  years,  things  changed.  hogwarts  was  a  beacon  of  hope,  an  atmosphere  much  less  lonelier  than  her  estate  at  home.  she  learned  how  to  socialize  beyond  polite  small  talk  and  grew  into  her  own  person.  she  took  well  to  quidditch  and  excelled  in  ways  she  wouldn’t  have  expected,  landing  the  position  of  captain  on  the  slytherin  team.

personality  wise,  once  she  cares  for  you,  that’s  it.  however,  abuse  that  trust  and  you’ll  live  to  regret  it  for  a  very  long  time.  emma  is  the  type  of  person  to  act  on  impulse  and  do  things  on  a  whim.  she  is  prone  to  creating  parties  and  attending  them.  she’s  easily  a  hedonist  but  tries  to  not  let  it  dictate  her  image.  she  can  be  a  bad  girl  and  a  good  girl  at  the  same  time.

connection  wise  ?  give  me  everything.  just  brainstorm  with  me  !  i  have  everything  open  for  emma.

[jmespottuh]

❛  if there’s one thing the gods love, it’s tragedy. with wings that burn and boys who fall. ❜

* ╰   brandon arreaga  ;  17 ;  he/him  —— wow, james potter sure has changed. i guess he is feeling isolated from the other gryffindor members. guess you can’t really blame them. i still remember them being so charming & incisive now they just seem dependent & inexorable.  guess being a  pureblood isn’t helping matters much either.  i’m hopeful though. they’ll be just fine.

links: pinterest, stats character parallels: bellamy blake ( the 100 ), shane madej ( buzzfeed unsolved ), jake peralta ( brooklyn nine-nine ), stefan salvatore ( the vampire diaries ), scott mccall ( teen wolf ), steve harrington ( stranger things )

james henry potter ( named for two his two grandfathers, maternal and paternal respectively ) was born on april 4th, 1960 to two of the most loving parents a child could have.

fleamont and euphemia had been trying for a child for years. they’d been together for basically all of time, having been that typical good-looking, well liked couple in hogwarts that everyone always just assumes will get married ( spoiler alert: they did ), however had had to postpone kids due to fleamont’s brief stint as a professional quidditch player for eight years following their graduation. after that, they would try every month for a child, and after many years of disappointment, eventually gave up. it was during this time that fleamont developed the sleekeazy hair potion which only added to their immense wealth. 

finally at age forty-one, they were surprised with the arrival of james. obviously, they saw him as their miracle child, and as such he was pampered and completely spoiled from the moment he was born.

i cannot stress enough how much this spoiled upbringing shaped james into the person he is today. if you’re wondering why he was ever an arrogant prick, it’s because he was always used to getting absolutely everything he ever wanted. he grew up with money, he grew up with fame and with every bit of attention he could garner, and so it was really no wonder he was a bit of an asshole by the time he started at hogwarts.

obviously, james had a pretty cushy childhood, and as such, shit didn’t start getting real until he started at hogwarts. 

it took all of three seconds for the hat to sort him into gryffindor, and i guess you could say he pretty much considered himself to be the gem of the house. he was the absolute epitome of a gryffindor, basically considered him the poster boy and all but expected everyone to love him.

really did not help his ego to know that everyone did.

in typical sterotype-gryffindor fashion, james hated slytherin. he had always been taught growing up that purists were basically the root of all evil, and his father had had no qualms in lumping all these people in with the house of the snakes. james and his friends took a particular disliking to severus snape almost immediately for the poncy way in which he seemed to believe he was superior to all for his intelligence and his house status, and this dislike only grew when lily evans was tossed into the mix, too.

for basically the first four or five years of hogwarts, james really was that stereotypical arrogant asshole that he’s often made out to be. he always got everything he asked for, he was incredibly popular and incredibly intelligent, he had the most amazing friends and his eyes on the most amazing girl. he was set!! shit was good!!

shit was not good, though. definitely was not.

despite having known of remus’ furry little problem since second year, things didn’t really start to settle in james how awful it was until third or fourth year. he hated seeing his friend in pain, he hated that he couldn’t help, and so he rallied the boys to put into action their worst plan yet!!!!

becoming animagi!!!!!!

it took fucking forever, obviously, but by the end of fourth year they did it!! we stan icons

except then in fifth year shit hit the fan again in just, like… so many ways

first, it was the whole severus ‘mudblood’ situation. honestly, james was absolutely furious. he’d always hated snape but this just made everything 1000 times worse. even if it had happened to anyone else, he would have been fuming. but for it to have happened to lily like… yikes. 

this was also a horrible time for james though because lily rejected him for the thousandth time. like, look, what a yikes thing to think when she was just called a mudblood, but frankly he was sick of being rejected and he was sick of being the asshole who kept pressuring her so that was the breaking point — he gave up on her. 

and tbh, he changed a lot from here on out. grew up!! became a better person bc he saw how horrible snap was and decided he was sick of horrible people!! saw, recognised and acknowledged that just bc he was hot and intelligent and rich he wasn’t always going to get everything he wanted ( see: miss evans ) and just generally learned that oh shit the world doesn’t revolve around him!!!

oh and then there was that whole thing with sirius and snape and remus the werewolf and ohhhh boyyyy…. that infuriated him. 

he loves his bros so much and y’all know he would die for them, but to see his friend abuse remus’ pain and suffering for his own gain was heart wrenching. it just pushed him further to pull him in line, to realise that not everything was about games, or petty rivalry, or ‘ getting the girl ’ — life was heartache and mistakes and it was never going to go the way he wanted it to.

now look, this isn’t all to say that james is now a super strict, super intense, brooding weirdo. he’s still a bit of a child, and he’s still a bit of an arrogant prick, but ultimately what wins out is his morals — every time. he wants to lead the world to a better place, without war and without hate, he wants everyone to have the same opportunities he had as a kid and he wants nothing more than for blood purity to be eradicated.

get that shit outta my house!!! gross!!!!!!

now in his final year, james is always flipping between taking his role as head boy deadly serious and turning it into one big game of mischief. he’s still a marauder at heart, after all, and has definitely abused his power sometimes for the benefit of fun and games, but when it comes down to it, he can be very strict and lowkey paternal. the leader really just…. popped right outta him, it came to play and it came hard, and really you’d think he’s minister for magic with how serious he treats it sometimes.

i hate him.

the disappearance of one of his best friends, one peter pettigrew, landed james to flop pretty fucking hard on the side of seriousness. once you spend months without knowing where your best friend is, thinking he’s dead, you’re bound to start to lose a bit of that which once made you smile. it was this piled on top of what james had already been feeling which led the head boy to start finding ways he could join the revolution within the walls of hogwarts --- it’s been bloody hard but james is determined to make a difference, to make sure no one else he loves suffers in a war that they never asked to fight in the first place.

anyway here’s some fun facts that didn’t fit up top

james is a lot less intense with his hatred for slytherin’s. he has come to recognise that not everyone from that lifestyle is going to be the same, not everyone who grew up a certain way or was sorted into a certain house is going to think with a deadly mind, and while he’s still a bit wary, he’s a lot more relaxed about it, especially as head boy ( gotta at least pretend shit’s fair !!! )

he’s very dependent as in like… boi cannot go a week without his friends. he is used to having people to bounce off, that’s always the type of leader he has been, and as much as he would probably be amazing at anything on his own, he’s never really tried. too scared!! i hate him!!!!!

super unforgiving. like, if you have gotten on his bad side…. i’m sorry. it is going to be very difficult to return from there. his moral compass is pretty black and white, you’re either good or your bad, and if you’ve done something he considers bad well sucks to be you, i guess. sorry not sorry.

takes his quidditch very seriously tbh. so many people have told him he needs to be a pro like his dad, but he’s like haha fuck you i know what i wanna do ( hint hint: he wants to rule that goddamn auror office, make that shit far more efficient then he thinks it is now ). but srsly, he’s so intense abt the game and it really like… idk gets him in the zone, keeps him level-headed in amongst all this chaos. 

he’s smart. i guess. straight a’s and shit idk. just very naturally intelligent, finds everything he does easy, like.. really is that asshole who is just good at everything he does.

[arielmuhckay]

i think hell is something you carry around with you. not somewhere you go.

sydney sweeney  ;  18 ; she/her  —— wow, ariel mackay sure has changed. i guess she is feeling isolated from the other slytherin members. guess you can’t really blame them. i still remember them being so dauntless & vehement now they just seem crude & self-destructive.  guess being a muggleborn isn’t helping matters much either. i’m hopeful though. they’ll be just fine.

links: stats, pinterest, tag character inspo: eleanor shellstrop (the good place), effy stonem (skins), rebecca bunch (crazy ex-girlfriend), annie landsberg (maniac), alyssa (the end of the fucking world), rue bennett (euphoria) triggers: depression, substance abuse, parental death, suicide

ariel mackay never knew her father. in fact, her mother ( isabelle mackay ) isn’t even quite sure who the man is. the late fifties proved to be a tough time for poor old isabelle mackay, and it resulted in excessive alcohol consumption, a string of one night stands, and eventually the birth of her one and only daughter, ariel winter mackay, on april 3rd, 1960, when she was only twenty years of age. 

ariel’s childhood was fun, but at the same time kind of rocky. i mean, issy didn’t have any family left, she was a single mum in the early sixties working a part-time secretary job and she had no idea how to raise a child. ari and issy spent a lot of time with issy’s friends, who became like aunts to ariel and allowed her to grow up surrounded by strong, independent women.

but ariel had a bit of a troublesome streak. it seemed as though chaos and destruction followed her everywhere she went, and it caused her to jump from school to school until she’d eventually been expelled from eight primary schools by the age of ten. issy could not understand what was wrong, she couldn’t explain certain things that happened around the little blonde girl because they were seemingly unexplainable, and she was starting to grow seriously worried until a tall woman with a big hat knocked on their door and introduced the mackay family to the world of magic.

ariel was honestly ecstatic to go to hogwarts. she’d always known that she was different to the other kids, that she was special, and this only went on the prove it. and now, surrounded by other kids the same as her, maybe she could finally find a place that she fit in - a place that she could call home.

she was sorted into slytherin after a minute of the hat sitting on her head, and at first she slotted right in with the rest of her housemates. they were all just as fun, ambitious and intelligent as her and she was excited to find a place that she belonged. but slowly she started to notice that still she was being treated differently - there was something about her that had other kids turning their noses and left her unable to befriend many of her housemates for the pure reason that they wouldn’t talk to her. the first time she was called a mudblood, she cried for days - she’d expected hogwarts to be welcoming and instead she was still that weird kid that everyone wanted to avoid.

of course, as she grew up, it became obvious that not everyone hated her. she started to hang out with more of the gryffindors in her year and sought out the people who weren’t disgusted by her ambiguous ( ‘tainted’ ) lineage. moving through her first, her second, her third year, she became quite popular amongst the student body, and her fun-loving, easy-going attitude attracted many boys and girls who wanted to befriend her.

a small hiccup arose in her third year, when a pattern of violent, depressed and manic behaviour began to show in her every day life. at the tender age of fourteen, ariel was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and at age fifteen was prescribed lithium in order to keep it in check. her tendency for manic episodes meant she had to tone down on her usually adventurous nature and had to keep a check on how many people she surrounded herself with - too many and she could be sent over the edge. though she was still widely popular and incredibly fun to be around, she wasn’t known to have many close friends and was sometimes noted to disappear for days without explanation and return as if nothing has happened.

PARENTAL DEATH TW: everything was all pretty smooth sailing for miss mackay until a few months before the end of her sixth year, when she received a letter detailing the horrific death of her mother, isabelle mackay, at the hands of a drunk driver. devastated could hardly begin to describe how ariel felt — it was as if her whole world was crumbling around her. her mother, her one true rock throughout all the pain and misery and heartache of her life was gone and now she had no one.

DEPRESSION/SUICIDE TW: after the death, ariel fell into a deep depression into which no one could pull her out. for a while she relied on substance abuse to even keep her going, but it was never enough. she completely isolated herself from everyone around her and allowed herself to fall deeper and deeper into her own depression. over the winter break of her sixth year, during which she had moved to her mum’s friends place in dublin, ariel finally completely broke and attempted suicide. of course, she was not successful, but after spending months in the hospital after this attempt, she finally spoke to a professional and started on the slow and bumpy road to recovery.

alycia ( her mum’s friend and now ariel’s caregiver ) was reluctant to allow ariel to return to hogwarts after the traumatic few months they had endured, but after much begging on ariel’s part, she finally relented. returning to hogwarts for her final year, it is clear that ariel is all but a different person. once the life of the party, the sassy and adventurous and fun-loving girl of her year, ariel is now much quieter and a lot less adventurous. she is still ever so dependent on alcohol and still talking to a psychologist within hogwarts ( as was requested by alycia ), and though it is clear that ariel mackay is all but a different person, she is trying her very best to once again be happy.

[hoe-cuspocus]

* ╰   —— wow, lily evans sure has changed. i guess she  is feeling isolated from the other  gryffindor members. guess you can’t really blame them. i still remember them being so  altruistic & optimistic,  now they just seem  guarded & explosive.  guess being a  muggleborn  isn’t helping matters much either.  i’m hopeful though. they’ll be just fine.     

CHARACTER PARALLELS: i know there are a lot but the main one is poppy from trolls? ( more specifically when she’s drained of color and lost all hope wow how morbid love this for me. )

exhausted  ‧ scared  ‧ fed up all the time  ‧ on the verge of tears consistently 

ａ ｂｌｕｒｂ ｏｆ ｔｈｏｕｇｈｔｓ

when she was younger, people used to tease her about her temper. well, among the many things they’d tease her about, her temper was the most exploited traits. lily couldn’t help herself, she’d been wired with a bit of a short fuse that was easily tripped by acts of injustice ( or the odd snide comment thrown at her friends ) as life should have it, most of these incidents directly involved and consequently harmed the small girl with sunshine locks. to be fair, she was easy bait, slim pickins, for no other purpose than to hash out issues that in the end had nothing to do with her. that’s  how it goes though, right ? bullies take their insecurities out on the straight shot target, who then spend years fostering their own resentments and feeing their growing self doubt. lily never put two and two together though. never understood that PETUNIA’S disdain over her magical escape only revealed how jealous her eldest sibling was of how special the young witch continually proved to be; the snide comments thrown around the halls about her filthy blood hinted at the fear weak minded wizards harbored when witnessing her excell in her courses. 

there’s a reason why lifeguards insist you shouldn’t fight against a current, especially when you feel it tugging harder by the second. after a while, exhaustion sets in, killing the will to fight until it seems like even survival is a feat too unbearable to manage. that daunting metaphor is the only way to accurately describe what lily evans is currently experiencing. after fighting against the universe for the last 7 years, the fire that once fuelled her vibrant arguments and courageous heart is slowly burning out, fear and impotency trickling into her soul slowly. 

there were four main pilars that contributed to who lily is as a person. her family, her friends, her magic and her art. the first pilar began wavering just days after her eleventh birthday following the arrival of her acceptance letter to hogwarts. PETUNIA EVANS was thrilled at first, what kid wouldn’t be? magic, pixies, unicorns, all confirmed with one letter and THEY were going to witness it all first hand? or.... well, you know how that argument ended. jealousy reared its ugly head, fueled by the young girl’s fear of being left behind and eventually pushing her to spout icy insults crafted delicately to harm lily as efficiently as possible. their relationship only deteriorated from that point onward and with each passing comment about how A P A L L I N G her existence was, a seed of doubt planted itself deep into a forgotten corner of lily’s mind, slowly blooming with the help of her peers and critics until eventually the weeds infested her conciousness. no one could have imagined the irreparable damage petunia’s harsh actions would inflict in the long run but the damning cocktail only revealed itself years later when the second essential pillar crumbled significantly. teenage emotions run high and insults thrown casually can easily end years worth of friendships in just seconds which was ( as we all know ) what ended her ties to SEVERUS SNAPE, the only ray of sunshine left in her personal safehaven. from that incident onward, lily has been struggling to maintain her head high, her selfworth getting called into question left and right. 

BRAVERY is supposed to be the gryffindor trademark. wouldn’t you expect the head girl to embody every aspect of what it meant to be a fearless fierce lioness ? the poor witch doesn’t get where the hell dumbledore got off plucking that pin in her letter, the tiny metal accessory weighing down her robes she’d have to wear when scurrying through the halls. she does not feel brave. SHE’S TERRIFIED. not knowing how many breaths of air she has left before they come for her, for something she can’t even handle. too much of a freak to be a normal kid, too little magic in her blood to be considered a worthy witch. the pressure of the expectations set for her continues knawing at her though she continually struggles to play it off, mastering the talent of slapping on a soft smile and playful eye roll. what if the facade begins to crumble ?

R A G E bubbles under the surface like molten hot lava looking for the less than fortunate moment where it’s ready to burst to the surface, destroying whatever and whoever is within the disaster radius. she’s so close to breaking apart, it’s ridiculous. 

lily isn’t an excellent because she just HAS sheer talent. ( LOL YEA RIGHT SHE’S A VIRGO THAT DOESN’T JUST HAPPEN OKAY ) you will find her in the library religiously practicing and doing assignments. and no, not like hermione, effortlessly ingesting information like it’s water. i’m talking four cups of coffee, a cigarette tucked behind her ear - no it’s not her third in the last hour, who said you could count the discarded filters? - hair wild, her cursing because she can’t fucking understand how a teacup is supposed to be transfigured into a pocketknife. she’s exceptional at charms ( thanks homegirl jk rowling for that tidbit of canon ) but everything else sort of takes her longer to understand. it’s probably the only time you can find her disheveled though because she does strive to look like the picture of perfection at all other times. she’s going crazy, we established this. 

[rabvstan]

* ╰  benjamin  wadsworth  ;  17  ;  he/him  ——  wow,  rabastan  lestrange  sure  has  changed.  i  guess  he  is  feeling  isolated  from  the  other  ravenclaw  members.  guess  you  can’t  really  blame  them.  i  still  remember  them  being  so  analytical  &  independent,  now  they  just  seem  apathetic  &  dishonest.  guess  being  a  pureblood  isn’t  helping  matters  much  either.  i’m  hopeful  though.  they’ll  be  just  fine.

okay  so  rabastan  was  born  the  second  son,  two  months  premature,  scrawny  and  sickly.  he  had  a  whole  host  of  different  illnesses  when  he  was  a  baby  and  was  constantly  ill  all  through  his  childhood

when  he  started  hogwarts,  he  was  considerably  smaller  than  the  other  kids,  and  was  sorted  into  ravenclaw  instead  of  slytherin,  separated  from  his  brother  and  all  his  friends.

i’ll  plot  this  out  once  we  get  a  rodolphus,  but  i’d  like  to  say  that  at  least  when  they  were  little,  the  two  brothers  were  close,  and  rodolphus  was  protective  over  rabastan.  because  rabastan  was  a  runty  lil  quiet  kid  alone  in  a  different  house,  rodolphus  was  worried  he’d  get  picked  on,  and  so  he  took  it  upon  himself  to  protect  his  little  brother.  (  if  this  isn’t  rodolphus,  then  it  would’ve  been  an  older  cousin  or  friend.  )

rodolphus  beat  up  some  muggleborn  first  year,  badly  enough  to  send  him  to  the  hospital  wing  with  a  broken  nose,  and  spread  the  rumour  it  had  been  rabastan.  and  that  was  the  beginning  of  his  reputation.

there  are  a  lot  of  rumours  about  rabastan  and  badass  shit  he  gets  up  to,  and  he  lets  the  rumours  spread.  it  means  people  stay  away  from  him,  just  the  way  he  likes  it.

really,  the  worst  thing  he’s  ever  done  is  skip  classes  to  get  high  behind  the  greenhouse.  but  depending  on  who  you’ve  asked,  he  snuck  into  the  hog’s  head  and  drank  all  their  firewhiskey.  he  fought  a  werewolf  with  his  bare  hands  in  the  forbidden  forest.  he  went  to  muggle  prison  over  the  summer.  he’s  used  the  crucio  curse  before.  he  hooked  up  with  the  astronomy  professor  in  the  shrieking  shack.  

the  rumours  range  from  scandalous  to  ludicrous,  but  rabastan  doesn’t  confirm  or  deny  anything.

he  also  just  kind  of.  constantly  lies.  mostly  just  small  lies  with  no  relevance  at  all,  like  telling  someone  he’s  allergic  to  walnuts  (  he’s  not  )  or  that  his  middle  name  is  josiah  (  it’s  not  ).  it  just  kinda  amuses  him

hates  any  real  responsibility  or  hard  work  and  avoids  it  like  the  plague.  he  enjoys  being  useless,  enjoys  the  low  expectations  people  put  on  him  and  his  reputation  of  being  a  bit  of  a  dirtbag

he’s  actually  rly  fuckin  smart,  and  loves  learning,  but  you’d  never  guess  it  from  his  grades.  he  just  does  not  try  in  class  but  he’s  secretly  a  real  nerd  shhh.  he  knows  multiple  languages  including  mermish

he  especially  enjoys  herbology  (  and  no  not  just  cause  he’s  a  pothead  ).  he  can  easily  walk  through  the  forbidden  forest  and  point  out  the  different  species  of  plants,  although  that’s  not  really  a  talent  he  shows  off.

if  you’re  close  with  him  he’s  an  animated  guy  with  a  quick  wit  and  a  free  spirited  attitude.  but  if  you’re  not,  he’s  taciturn  and  standoffish  –  a  good  way  to  cover  up  awkwardness.  spoiler  alert:  rab  is  really  bad  at  interacting  with  people  he  doesn’t  know  well.  small  talk  is  not  his  forte

life  goals  ?  use  his  family’s  fortune  to  just  fuck  around,  get  high  and  travel  to  places  where  nobody  knows  a  thing  about  him.  he  isn’t  the  ambitious  type

introvert  boi,  needs  his  alone  time

he  doesn’t  really  care  about  the  whole  blood  controversy  but  he  also  steers  clear  of  interacting  with  muggleborns  and  blood  traitors  and  etc.  he  doesn’t  need  that  kinda  drama  in  his  life.  so  most  people  probably  assume  he’s  prejudiced,  which  he  doesn’t  mind  cause  again,  it  means  that  people  leave  him  alone

and  honestly,  that’s  the  most  dangerous  part  of  him  –  his  apathy.  he’s  not  actively  helping  the  death  eaters  at  this  point  but  he’s  also  definitely  not  lifting  a  finger  to  help  the  other  side.  his  concern  about  the  missing  people  extends  to  mildly  morbid  curiosity  as  to  what  happened. 

this  was  ridiculously  rambly  cause  i’m  tired  as  fuck  sry  please  plot  with  me

[skcctskcctmf]

* ╰   gigi hadid  ;  17 ;  she/her  —— wow, rita skeeter sure has changed. i guess she is feeling isolated from the other  slytherin  members. guess you can’t really blame them. i still remember them being so  vivacious & humorous now they just seem  nosy & blithe.  guess being a  halfblood  isn’t helping matters much either.  i’m hopeful though. they’ll be just fine. 

character inspiration:  harley quinn (suicide squad/birds of prey), cordelia chase (btvs),  santana lopez (glee),  regina george (mean girls)

pinterest here

she back!! god this girl is a nightmare but i love her

basically rita is hilarious, selfish, entitled, bubbly, adventurous, and scary levels of confident

rita grew up an only child on  her mother’s family fortune (Elizabeth Skeeter nee Blishen is the heiress to the Blishen Firewhiskey fortune) and her father’s notorious name, Johnathan Skeeter is a famous author in his own right, having written the best selling biography, Newt Scamander: Distinguished or Disgrace? and other multiple exposes with skeptical amounts of bias and fact-checking. elizabeth herself was prone to many a scandal in her younger days which her current husband often covered up for her and her family. the reputation of the skeeters is dubious, and yet have enjoyed all the luxuries of notoriety

her family i imagine is v much the equivalent of “new money” to higher society? it’s possible she knows and is friendly with many pureblood families. her dad works v hard for connections since the more people you know, the more information you have. information is everything to a skeeter and rita is similar to her father in many ways. marrying rich was v much part of his plan as he is a bit of a schemer and manipulative. although he has bent the rules to get where he is, possibly by conspiring with families with pureblood ideals for politcal gains, smear campagins, basically biased news for those he’s friendly with, his methods have helped him rise to fame and notoriety very quickly.

rita admires him for his success and emulates his style where she can.  she’s clawed her way to be editor of the school paper with her skeeter’s opinion column where she frequently pulls apart situations and spins a half truth or two.

since rita is young, she’s not as rotten and opportunistic as she seems. there’s still a bit of naivete to her, and whatever she might say or write she sees as a bit of a joke. she’s just practicing for the ‘big leagues’ while unaware that real life really isn’t as dramatic and interesting in the way the papers play it up to be. besides, in her opinion there’s a bit of glamour to making the front page, it’s an honor to be mentioned. she’s very much of the mind that all press is good press and won’t hold her tongue for the sake of feelings.

rita has been spoiled from the beginning, and can be the worst

but she is also a good time and quite entertaining, even fun when she wants to be

basically she’s an acquired taste

she’s dramatic, maybe a little romantic. life and people are colorful, everything is larger than life. but in ways that are good and mostly terrible. while she can’t quite see things for what they really are, her downfall isn’t that she’s a liar but that she prefers the lie to the real deal

look at her the wrong way, say the wrong thing. maybe she enjoys the hell out of you. it doesn’t matter, because a story is a story and the better the story the more she can spin it to be more ‘interesting’.  its hard to tell with her what her actual opinion is on something. everything she says is for the sake of controversy and really spreading the word.

she has a mean streak and will seek to push a person’s buttons as far as she can. revenge and pettiness are her bread and butter. she’s also a touch competitive, she wants and likes to win.

she is a captivating person, curious, and fluid with flamboyant gestures. she often inserts herself into the lives of people who she is curious about. she likes to KNOW things. everything and anything.

she honestly loves her bad reputation?? and she’s confident and just …. a mess.

rita is numero uno

her habits include: hair flipping, loud laughter, tapping her nails, gossip, crossing her arms, sipping port wine, smoking, a permanent expression of smugness

favorite things include: writing, croissants, espresso, bright colors, bold fonts, scandalous hollywood starlets, and teasing her peers

rita dreams of being a writer, and always has quill and parchment with her. to hone her skills, she has started an gossip column at the school’s paper. she longs to travel to the ‘big city’ where there are more things to see and write about, she has always had that feeling of wanderlust

rita would never admit it, but there is a big part of her that is happy to be amongst her classmates and those she knows again.

rita loves people watching, she’s a borderline stalker. sneaking around and going through people’s things to learn more about them or listening in on conversations that look remotely interesting.  she regularly reads her roommate’s diaries if they’re not careful. she can get in anywhere, always hidden in plain sight.

like. it seems like she talks non-stop so you would think you would see her coming but ??? she can pOP OUT OF SEEMINGLY NOWHERE? ?? v unsettling

ALWAYS GOES WHERE SHE IS LEAST WANTED BYEEEE

she is an animagus and can turn into a beetle. rita taught herself by breaking into the hogwart’s restricted section in her last year. she will often use this to spy on her classmates and even professors for anything newsworthy.

so YES lmk if you would like to plot, she could learn secrets, have rivalries, frenemies, friends, really any sort of relationship really, she’ll def try to know everyone

[elladvras]

* ╰   zendaya  ;  17 ;  she/her  —— wow, elladora zabini sure has changed. i guess she is feeling isolated from the other slytherin members. guess you can’t really blame them. i still remember them being so  vivacious & sensible  now they just seem  deceptive & narcissistic.  guess being a  pureblood  isn’t helping matters much either.  i’m hopeful though. they’ll be just fine.  

ENTER ELLADORA ZABINI ... daughter of Willard & Genevieve Zabini , sole heir to the Zabini fortune . 

𝖙𝖍𝖊 𝖇𝖆𝖘𝖎𝖈𝖘

full name: elladora valentine zabini 

nickname: ella , only . please don’t call her dora 

gender: cisfemale

pronouns: she/her

birthday: may 25, 2002

zodiac: gemini sun , sagittarius moon , pisces rising 

nationality: british

religion: atheist 

sexuality: bisexual

hometown: kensington , london , uk

languages spoken: english, french, conversational italian 

likes: money , rembrandt ( who she whole heartedly believes was a wizard , unbeknownst to all his muggle aficionados ) , silk dresses , highlight on her cheekbones , fishnets , long nails , the color green , gold jewelry , fall / autumn 

dislikes: men ( in general , finds them meek ) , overly pretentious pure bloods who don’t have a reason for being pretentious other than being a pure blood ,  summer , lovey dovey shit , valentine’s day ( despite her middle name ) , 

character parallels: amy elliot dunne ( gone girl ) , madeline mackenzie ( big little lies ) , henry winter ( the secret history ) , miranda priestly ( the devil wears prada ) , amma crellin ( sharp objects ) , selina kyle ( dc comics ) 

pinterest , playlist

𝖈𝖍𝖎𝖑𝖉𝖍𝖔𝖔𝖉

         — elladora was born to two already well known wizards in the wizarding community .      her father , willard zabini , comes from a long line of political wizards & old money . he , too , is a member of the ministry , sort of a right hand man to the minister ( which has gotten elladora a lot of shady looks this term , thanks a lot dad ) . her mother , a good thirteen years younger , is the beautiful and well known wizard model / actress , genevieve zabini .           — though they were practically wizarding royalty , neither willard nor genevieve were necessarily traditionalists . they didn’t really need the validation and comfort of having a son , they were perfect content , despite what some of their friends had to say about it , with their one and only daughter as their heir , so long as she always kept the zabini family name .             — it would be nice to be able to say that elladora hadn’t always been such a cruel , egotistical , insensitive human being , but she really was always that cold . perhaps it was the lack of physical affection she was given as an infant : never breastfed , always self-soothing , her mother had never really been the maternal type & her father was a firm believer in tough love .            — but ella never felt like she had lacked any sort of nurture in her infancy . quite the contrary , even from a young age , ella loved herself , and loved her life . she learned from her mother how powerful it was to be a woman , and how much control you could have in the palm of your hand while letting the men in your life think think they have control .            — her parents are pureblood extremists but certainly not death eaters . they would never taint the family name with ~ murder ~ and blood lust , they’re MUCH too classy for that . plus ugly wrist tattoo ... that’s a pass for genevieve ! so supporters of the movement ? yes . active members ? not so much . 

𝖍𝖔𝖌𝖜𝖆𝖗𝖙𝖘

          — first year , sorting hat ceremony . the hat hovered above her head for all of a millisecond before shouting ‘ SLYTHERIN ! ’ it hadn’t even touched her head yet .            — although she’s a pureblood , and more than likely would end up marrying another rich pureblood , ella doesn’t actually care much for blood purity . in her mind , most people are beneath her , pureblood or not . men , especially . what’s the difference between a muggleborn wizard and a pureblood wizard ? they’re still a boring , pathetic , moronic , man .            — that being said , she does gravitate more toward purebloods , but that’s because it’s just what she knows . she can’t relate to muggleborns because she doesn’t know about most muggle culture , and doesn’t care to learn about it .            — she can be the sweetest honey bee one second and the biggest bitch the next . extremely manipulative and knows it , but a girls gotta get what she wants somehow .            — h u g e  flirt , will flirt with anything that has a pulse , but that’s literally just because she loves attention . love ? what is that .            — very bisexual . she likes men for almost purely physical reasons , and likes women because ... women . she’d marry a girl if she could ( not that she intends on marrying for love anyhow ) , but her parents would break their no murdering rule for that .            — is not a murderer ... yet . yes , eventually she becomes famous for her 7 husbands mysteriously dying but husband number one has yet to come along . that isn’t to say she hasn’t fantasized about it . 

[macdonuhld]

* ╰  kaylee  bryant  ;  17  ;  she / her  ——  wow,  mary  macdonald  sure  has  changed.  i  guess  she  is  feeling  isolated  from  the  other  gryffindor  members.  guess  you  can’t  really  blame  them.  i  still  remember  them  being  so  organized  &  tenderhearted,  now  they  just  seem  frivolous  &  controlling.  guess  being  a  muggleborn  isn’t  helping  matters  much  either.  i’m  hopeful  though.  they’ll  be  just  fine.

CHARACTER  INSPO  INCLUDES:  tahani  al-jamil  (  the  good  place  ),  rachel  green  (  friends  ),  alexis  rose  (  the  two  episodes  i’ve  seen  of  schitt’s  creek  ),  vilde  lien  hellerud  (  skam  ),  elle  woods  (  legally  blonde  )

PINTEREST  !

mary  macdonald  was  brought  up  rich.  rich  in  money,  rich  in  support  and  love.  she  was  the  only  child  of  charles  and  nancy  macdonald,  a  fairly  wealthy  english  couple.  they  weren’t  like,  obscenely  wealthy.  there  were  no  butlers  ironing  the  morning  paper,  or  private  planes.  but  they  were  the  sort  of  wealthy  that  gets  taken  for  granted  –  growing  up,  mary  never  wanted  for  anything.  she’s  used  to  vacationing  somewhere  warm  and  historic  every  summer.  picture  mcmansions,  suburban  pta  meetings,  disney  princess  movies,  dressing  up  nice  for  sundays  at  church.

her  parents  were  very  much  involved  in  her  childhood,  and  always  supported  her  throughout  every  twist  and  turn  in  her  life.  she’s  always  been  very  open  with  her  parents  and  tells  them  everything.  usually.

she  also  did  child  beauty  pageants  when  she  was  little.  adults  adored  her.  the  word  darling  was  frequently  heard  to  describe  mary  macdonald.  it’s  definitely  shaped  who  she  is  as  a  person  –  frequently  competitive,  a  little  desperate  for  validation,  often  too  concerned  about  appearances,  always  knows  how  to  pull  on  a  winning  smile  even  when  you  just  want  to  go  home  and  cry.  #relatable

but  the  love  and  support  in  her  childhood  has  also  shaped  who  she  is.  her  spoiled  upbringing  has  gifted  her  with  an  indefatigable  sense  of  optimism  and  an  inability  to  take  no  for  an  answer.  she  lives  in  a  world  where  everything  can  be  solved  and  everything  has  its  place.  her  parents’  faith  &  religion  has  taught  her  to  believe  in  the  genuine  good  of  humanity,  and  that  if  you  do  good  things,  you  will  be  rewarded.

fast  forward  to  1971,  when  mary  turned  eleven,  and  learned  she  was  a  witch.  her  parents  almost  didn’t  want  to  send  her  to  hogwarts,  but  mary  was  so  excited  by  the  idea  that  they  couldn’t  possibly  say  no  to  their  little  girl.  so  off  she  went,  bundled  up  in  a  burberry  jacket  and  scarf,  armed  with  the  best  supplies  diagon  alley  had  to  offer.  she  was  definitely  that  obnoxious  kid  with  the  gold  scales.  mary’s  parents  didn’t  mean  to  spoil  her  rotten,  they  were  just  sending  their  daughter  to  this  place  they  knew  nothing  about  for  several  months  and  this  was  the  best  way  they  knew  to  protect  her.  they  also  sent  her  daily  letters  and  weekly  care  packages  for  her  entire  first  term  in  first  year.  wow

she  was  sorted  into  gryffindor  upon  arriving  &  immediately  began  to  make  friends,  thanks  to  her  chatty  &  cheery  nature.  and  also  thanks  to  her  need  to  have  everyone  she  meets  like  her.  they  didn’t,  of  course  –  i’d  like  to  say  most  people  did,  at  least  after  the  initial  mary  shock  wore  off,  but  of  course  there  were  those  who  found  her  overpowering  and  abrasive.  and  there  were  those  who  disliked  her  simply  because  of  the  blood  running  through  her  veins.

she  approached  hogwarts  with  determination  &  optimism.  and  maybe  a  little  bit  of  competitiveness.  fun  fact:  the  sorting  hat  seriously  considered  slytherin  for  her  because  of  her  ambition  and  charm.  she  joined  clubs,  she  talked  to  professors  after  class,  she  made  neat,  colour-coordinated  notes.  she  made  her  presence  known  from  day  1  and  took  hogwarts  by  storm.  she  wanted  to  be  popular,  she  wanted  to  be  noticed

and  she  was  –  just  also  by  the  wrong  sort  of  people.  in  her  fifth  year,  she  was  attacked  by  …  someone.  jury  says  it  was  cassius  mulciber,  and  mary’s  mostly  learned  to  go  off  of  that.  because,  you  see,  mary  doesn’t  remember  who  attacked  her.  

all  she  remembers  is  brief  flashes  of  searing  pain  and  noise.  and  then  she  woke  up  in  the  hospital  wing,  bruised  and  broken  and  sore  all  over,  while  madam  pomfrey  stood  in  a  corner  having  a  hushed  yet  intense  conversation  with  professor  mcgonagall  and  professor  dumbledore.  they  said  she’d  been  found  half-conscious  in  the  third  floor  hallway.

and  uh  yeah  this  caused  a  shitload  of  trauma  !   for  one  thing,  she  was  paranoid  as  fuck  for  a  long  while  after  the  attack.  it  was  easy  to  pinpoint  mulciber,  to  unload  the  blame  onto  him.  he  never  said  anything  to  the  contrary,  and  it  was  better  than  the  alternative  –  walking  the  halls  of  hogwarts  each  day  knowing  any  of  the  passing  faces  could  be  her  attacker.

she  was  terrified  of  being  alone,  and  still  is  to  an  extent.  she  was  haunted  by  nightmares  almost  every  night  for  months  after  the  attack.  but  most  of  all  –  the  attack  sparked  an  unidentifiable  doubt  and  sadness  as  she  struggled  to  reconcile  her  optimistic  beliefs  with  the  horrors  she  now  knew  existed  in  the  world.

she  kept  it  all  on  the  down-low,  though,  and  a  lot  of  people  who  were  at  hogwarts  at  the  time  don’t  know  how  bad  the  attack  actually  affected  her.  because  she  just  pulled  on  a  pageant-winning  smile,  and  did  what  she  was  best  at  –  pretending  everything  was  okay.  not  a  great  way  of  coping  with  trauma  !

she  didn’t  even  tell  her  parents.  she  knew  how  worried  they  would  be,  and  she  didn’t  want  them  to  feel  like  they  couldn’t  protect  their  daughter.  they  knew  a  boy  named  mulciber  had  cursed  her,  but  they  thought  it  was  just  an  instance  of  schoolyard  bullying,  and  mary  lied  and  told  them  he  was  expelled  because  of  it.

eventually,  she  started  getting  past  it  –  sometimes  she  still  wakes  up  from  nightmares,  sure,  and  she  still  has  her  bad  days,  but  she’s  surviving  and  growing.  but  now,  in  seventh  year,  more  attacks  and  disappearances  have  started  happening,  and  it’s  all  coming  back.

so  !  what  kind  of  a  person  is  mary  macdonald  ?  controlling.  idealistic.  uncertain.  perfectionistic.  vain.  tender.  materialistic.  stubborn.  ambitious.  charming.  conflicted.  impulsive.  yearning.  loving.

she  likes  everything  planned  to  a  tee,  jotted  down  neatly  in  her  favourite  pink  leather  planner.  she  colour  codes  all  her  notes.  her  room  is  always  neat  and  tidy  and  her  makeup  is  always  impeccable.

if  this  were  a  muggle  high  school  au,  she  would  be  the  head  of  the  prom  planning  committee  and  it  would  have  a  1950s  theme.

she  will  give  you  way  too  many  second  chances  and  it  will  break  her  heart.  she  believes  in  the  good  of  humanity  with  a  stubbornness  that’s  almost  naive.

she  is  way  too  dependent  on  validation,  i’m  gonna  tell  you  right  now.  a  total  attention  seeker,  but  she  manages  to  be  just  charming  enough  that  it  isn’t  annoying.  her  good  looks  don’t  hurt,  either.

she  can  be  petty  !  she  can  definitely  be  so  petty  !  and  way  too  used  to  getting  what  she  wants.  i  hate  her

[prodigxls]

                                            “ i don’t know how to stay tender                                             with this much blood in my mouth. “

* ╰   gavin leatherwood  ;  18 ;  he/his  —— wow,  nathaniel burke  sure has changed. i guess  he  is feeling isolated from the other  slytherin  members. guess you can’t really blame him. i still remember him being so  clever & rakish  now he just seems  hedonistic & resigned  guess being a  pureblood  isn’t helping matters much either.  i’m hopeful though. they’ll be just fine.  (  zoe ; cst ; 21 ; she/her  )  

WARNINGS:  discussions of war, feelings of parental neglect, drugs & alcohol mention   ADDITIONAL MATERIALS:   nate’s stats page, playlist, & pinterest board   ADDITIONAL NOTES:  this is mostly a recycled intro with several, probably clumsy & nonsensical, additions. if anything doesn’t make sense it is On Me. anyway i can’t wait to get to plotting with all of y’all!!!!! 

nathaniel’s life had always been carefully planned. he could trace roots of his future all the way back to before his parents first meeting, see hints of the planning in generations before any of them. that’s the way things worked for him, though, the way they’d always existed in the world he knew. life was an inescapable thing. he was son of their heir to borgin & burkes and the prettiest daughter of an old pureblood line in america’s south. 

he was NATHANIEL ARISTOTLE BEAUVAIS BURKE  ---  his name had always been a mouthful, too much, but the long string of syllables was never negotiable. it meant something.

he needed the two surnames; one to declare him important in his mother’s america, the other to give him credibility in his father’s britain. the first name was his father’s choice, and his middle name his mother’s. he was always meant to be a mix, the PERFECT child, their biggest stroke of luck. no one could say his parents weren’t lucky people, just like no one would ever call nate himself unlucky. 

life worked like that. happy or unhappy or downright miserable, luck was something black and white.

looking at homer burke and ariadne beauvais on paper, it was hard to believe they’d chosen each other in a sweeping romance, not a betrothal turned business transaction. maybe that’s where the luck began: they happened upon each other when they were young and beautiful and both a touch too vicious, and the end result was a son and heir for both dynasties on the very first go. no need for more children; just champagne toasts all around, patting each other on the back in congratulations on how much the world loved them.

nate’s parents were never the parenting type, anyway. had their first child been a girl, they’d have had another, of course. but they were the PERFECT couple, and so they got nathaniel and the rest of their lives to live the way they always had  ---  reckless in the way of the wealthy and beloved, freedom within a thousand confines. 

now, they turned a disapproving eye on nate’s antics, but he knows the hypocrisy exists only because he doesn’t care enough to hide his bad habits like they did.

he sees no use in sweeping the truth under a rug, and when he has a say in the matter, he’d rather be seen honestly.

( which is also a crock of shit  ---  lies slip off his pretty tongue all too easily. a defect of his birth, he’d say: how simple it was is for him to hide the truth. )

nathaniel was always intended to be both a beauvais and a burke. his mother wouldn’t let her family go so easily, and his father adored her enough to allow the influence. she’d charmed his whole family, in fact, despite the technical mar of her blood-status: what money and influence were good enough to fix in america, england was willing to hide. to anyone that mattered, she was a pureblood, muggle mother or not. 

to anyone that cared, nate was too. no one ever looked too closely, anyway, not at the golden heir to a family like his. 

he didn’t care about his half-blood status himself, but no one ever asked. his father’s family only told him to tell no one  …  swore him to secrecy when he was too young for the words to mean anything at all. and he never did. a rowdy childhood and alcohol-hazed adolescence didn’t mean he’d go spilling family secrets right and left, not even when they were his secrets to spill. 

people expected the worst of him. or rather, they expected nothing at all, and so that’s what he gave them.

nathaniel’s mother looked at him and saw so much WASTED potential. nate wondered when he came to realize this  ---  but soon after, he reached an even more important realization: that the when of it didn’t matter. nothing did, really, because her seeing all he could be in the lines of his face didn’t stop his mother from loving him. his mother loving him didn’t stop his father from hating him. his father hating him didn’t stop his grandfather from considering him heir to the shop. oh, there was something so sweet in the nihilism. 

nothing mattered; why hadn’t anyone said something years ago?

( if all the wars his father’s family wrought and bought said anything, it was because they were too stuck in stupid, old ways to know themselves. )

so he had this, his knowledge that nothing he did meant anything to his world, and he had his hatred of the father that hated him. he had the forbidden knowledge of his mother’s tainted blood and the blood-stained lessons her honest father taught him. he had what his granddad had given him, when he was twelve and spending his first summer in america with a wand: a way to be something entirely OTHER than a burke.

the shop and the sanctity of blood made the burkes in the wizarding world nate knew from school and growing up. but he’d spent summers, always, in the louisiana estate his mother grew up in, and that world was built on metal-charming and wandmaking, skills that many family members had an affinity for. nate, he had the heart of a metal-charmer.  it wasn’t a job wixen jumped on, nowadays, given its difficulty and a million peculiarities, the way the work only called to certain hands. 

nate possessed those hands, and a hungry need to do something with them, to be anything other than what his father, and his father’s father, needed of him. 

his granddad, of course, understood: he considered it a universal desire to carve a life out for yourself from the mountain of shoulds you’d been handed.

nate wondered, privately, if his grandad had used that rebellious spirit when he chose his wife  ---  if it hadn’t been love that pushed him towards the pretty muggle from the filthy rich family, but a devil-may-care spirit. 

TRUE LOVE  ( said in all caps, because it mattered )  was something nate had always believed in. because for all the father and son hated each other, homer burke had instilled in nate the fact that love was real, and powerful when it was true. nate’s parents loved each other, for all their bad parenting and wicked ways and million faults. nate knew love worth moving mountains for was possible. 

true love meant something to him; his grandad was only fallible for the fact that it meant nothing to him. 

his mother knew about nate’s metal charming. but it was the one true secret she kept from her husband, who she did genuinely love after all this time. the story was always that homer loved his wife’s family  ( never mind that that was a lie. her mother was a muggle, and he hated her father, could sense, somehow, that he’d been the cause of his son’s corruption. )  but thought america had turned nathaniel too rough. given him the dreams of being a cursebreaker that nate lied about when his father found his books on runes and advanced charms. 

it didn’t matter. let his father hate his aspirations, so long as they’re aspirations assumed and not the ones held close in nate’s heart. let him despise nate so long as he never KNOWS him. 

and who does know him? who can? nate has two talents, the way he sees it; his metal-charming and his intangibility. he’s always been good at being whatever the world asks of him, because it’s easy, this unbecoming. 

sometimes, though, the world wants him to be a viper. and that’s harder, he’ll admit. the cruelties of his father’s society, of his birthright name, they don’t come easy to nate. 

he can’t adopt hypocrisy with ease  ( because it is hypocrisy, to claim he detests muggles when he spends his summers drinking his muggle grandma’s sweet tea and laughing at her raunchy jokes, when she taught him how to shoot a gun and make a strong mixed drink. )  but he could pretend that his youth was the only thing to blame. act as if he’ll take up arms and hatred in due time, once he’s grown up. his granddad drilled the idea of superiority of mind and of skill into his head, so despite not caring about blood supremacy he’s still an arrogant little shit who’s resigned himself to being an asshole, because no one’s ever TOLD him he could be anything else

if asked, nate would admit that he’s always thought his bad habits would make him self destruct, one day. his father has told him a thousand times to stop, already, but could it only be out of worry of the family image? out of worry for the future of the shop? 

the boozing and the partying, the drugs and sex and flying while intoxicated, the sneaking around after hours and climbing over rooftops  ---  it’s fun, but fleeting, and nate knows that. he wishes he could live in the moment but he’s too cerebral. it pisses off his father and sometimes makes him forget who he is, but it’s not enough. 

nathaniel’s a melancholy person, and suspects that nothing’s ever going to be enough for him.

nate cares little for anything, knowing that little cares about him  ---  but his fierce need to be a person separate from being a burke is enough to drive him. he’ll booze and smoke and party, wreck reputations and end up being weekend gossip. that’s NOW. his future may be rooted in the past but nate hopes he’s strong enough to rip it out into new soil. 

[ccvance]

* ╰   sofia carson  ;  17 ;  she/her  —— wow,  emmeline vance  sure has changed    .    i guess she is feeling isolated from the other  gryffindor  members    .    guess you can’t really blame them    .    i still remember them being so  unwavering & self-sufficient  now they just seem  opinionated & abrasive    .    guess being a  half-blood  isn’t helping matters much either    .    i’m hopeful though    .    they’ll be just fine    .

                      hello   ,   i’m danvers and i hail in the  pacific timezone   .    emmeline is a new muse for me    ,    so please be patient    .    i’m still trying to flesh her out    .    but ok    ,    here we go    !

emmeline vance     ,     that girl’s a hurricane    .    making a  mess  in her wake    .    breaking anything and everything    (   on accident of course   !   )    .

she was a handful growing up    .    running wild    .    her fathers forehead sweaty from the times he’d have to give chase    .    a proud grin present on adolescent features     .    she was stubborn even as a child    .    having two older brothers caused emme to grow a thick skin    .    legs pushing forward    ,    hair whipping around with each stride    .    hands confidently planting into dirt soil    .    always  making a point to keep up with  the boys    .

as much as her mother tried    (   and she sure did    )    ,    she could never get little emme to wear the cute   ,   frilly outfits  all the other neighboring kids were wearing    .    short arms would fold over a defiant chest    ,    a single pout was all it took to sway her mum    .    what could she say    ?    she was a  tomboy    .

when her time at hogwarts came around    ,    gryffindor  welcomed her in    .                 the sorting hat had nearly put her in ravenclaw    .    yep    ,    she was three syllables away from wearing blue and bronze    .    it may have been the excessive whispering of   :   gryffindor    ,    please gryffindor    ,    that swung the sorting hat to bellow out the lions crest    .    but who knows    ? 

emme was a clever student    ;    having an uncanny hunger for  knowledge    .    academics came relatively easy to the youngest vance    (   unlike her brothers    )    .    this feat garnered the attention of  slughorn    .    and so she participated in the never ending cycle of silly dinner parties alongside students she often  couldn’t  stand    .                 oh    ,    the joys of being in the  slug club    .  

see    ,    the vance name  wasn’t  one that was revered    .    nah    .    they were treated with disdain among other pureblood elitists who felt they were better    .    often calling her father a   blood traitor   for marrying a muggle    .    emmeline    ,    herself    ,    had never witnessed those words but her brothers had told her enough  stories  to suffice    .

so yes    ,    i imagine there are students who scrunch up  their noses when she walks by    .    maybe talk behind her back like the  cowards   they are    .    especially now    .    i reckon vance is a rather intimidating girl    ?    most take the easy route    (   though  there are a brave few that say it to her face    ,    which makes for an  endless feud    )    .

she carries a secret    .    one that hovers on the tip of her  tongue    ,    but stays pooled in the pit of her stomach    .    afraid someone might  catch on    .    she hopes    ,    no prays    ,    no one catches on    .    how her chocolate hues stare a little too long at feminine hips    .                 or how her daydreams  fail  to consist of boys    ,    but rather girls    ?    she isn’t ready to admit it    ,    but fears someone might admit it  for her    .

personality wise    :    she’s fiercely headstrong    ,    and at times    ,    closed minded    .    think big hermione granger vibes    !    she’s also  blunt  and won’t hesitate to call someone out if they’re being a bigot    .    so yeah    ,    she’s that friend    ;    keep her in  your corner    .    loyalty and trust is everything    ,    but if you  break it  there’s really no going back    .    she can forgive but never really forgets    .    is so clumsy     .    she’s that friend you never let hold valuable things    ,    like ever    .    tries really hard to mask the  fear  of everything going on with a false bravado    .    doing anything not bend to it    ,    but when no one’s looking    ,    she bends    .  

character inspo    :     mary stuart    (  reign  )      ,     hermione granger    (  hp  )     ,     leslie knope    (  parks n rec  )     ,     emily fields    (  pll  )     ,     and sabrina spellman    (  caos  )    .

[furiious]

          “ what separates the wolf from the sheep is not a matter of good or evil.               we all have teeth  —  but only some of us are willing to use them. ”

* ╰ danielle rose russell ; 17 ; she/her —— wow,  alecto carrow  sure has changed. i guess  she  is feeling isolated from the other  ravenclaw  members. guess you can’t really blame her. i still remember her being so  sharp & poised  now she just seems  cautious & proud  guess being a  pureblood  isn’t helping matters much either. i’m hopeful though. they’ll be just fine. ( zoe ; cst ; 21 ; she/her ) 

WARNINGS:  discussions of war, feelings of parental neglect, alcohol mention, weapon mention, manipulation   ADDITIONAL MATERIALS:   alecto’s playlist, stats page, & pinterest board    ADDITIONAL NOTES:  in a shocking move this intro was ALSO frankensteined from a series of old intros, apologies in advance for any nonsense

the carrow family had amycus, so it wasn’t a total let down when alecto ilse carrow was born and was born a girl. but if everyone was being honest, there wasn’t any real thrill there for her either. they loved her in a rote way and cared for her in a rote way and their distance and cool removal from her life spoke more than anything they ever did for her.

they would tell strangers, of course we love our daughter, she’s beautiful, she’s clever, what a gift to the carrow name. but alecto herself couldn’t recall ever hearing them tell her they loved her, not to her face. such was life. 

the carrows, historically, were not the most refined when it came to the most sacred. they were a good and righteous family, sure, sometimes zealots but seldom forgotten. they were still one of the best families. they had wealth and connections enough, bloodlines going as far back as any of the other twenty-eight’s; but they were not half so perfect. 

their history was a colorful one, not polished to a bland and shining silver. 

alecto didn’t like people not expecting greatness from her so she made changing that expectation her mission at, let’s be real, too young an age.

they thought carrows weren’t the ones to beat. fine. wasn’t she one to beat all on her own? wasn’t she enough to change the tides of her family’s reputation?

her parents, they were amused; let her try, for soon she’d realize that she was a girl, and would always, always fall short of expectations. 

she decided this at eight years old; so to start, this mission of hers meant letting her parents make her beautiful, set her hair with sparkling combs and dress her in delicate dresses. she presented a flawless front to anyone looking at her expecting another carrow wildcard. she’d always been very, very smart; she knew what game they were all playing & just how to play it.

( didn’t they all know how easy it was? to become like them? )

around the same time as she came to this decision for the path she’d tackle the rest of her life, her aunt dulcinea died and crushed alecto’s heart. aunt dulcinea & uncle anatole were distant carrow relatives and in alecto’s weaker, punishable, childish moments  —  she’d wished they’d been her parents. she wished it stupidly, in place of wishing for her own parents to love her.

she received dulcinea’s wand (  12 ¼", griffin feather and aspen, quite flexible and carved with a loving hand ) after her death, and though she wasn’t of an age yet to use magic, her uncle practiced dueling with her using sticks found in the gardens on the carrow estate. even before she could legally utter a single spell, alecto was a skilled duelist. she tucked this into her back pocket like a secret; would let out shining peals of false laughter if ever anyone asked about those dueling lessons. her, dueling? no, no, no. she was itty, bitty, and ladylike, faint at the very idea of fighting. her uncle anatole had simply been indulging her silly games of make - believe.

she made friends greedily as a child, ostensibly so she could have those connections, that network, that was so vital in the lives of adults in her society. but she also just fed on human connection. she loathed how much liked people to like her and resented that she needed people at all.

probably tried to imitate that distance her parents had with her with every new friend or acquaintance. she loved talking and hated talking all at once, but she did pride herself on being able to fill hours of conversation with no substance at all.

of course, all the feigned distance in the world couldn’t keep her from finding actual friends, and she would honestly kill for those she cares for.  

generally indiscriminate about the people she did make casual friends or acquaintances of; she let herself think this was because she a.) didn’t actually care about blood status and b.) needed to present neutral anyway, but it was probably because she just liked not being alone.

if she found someone she fit with, it was done. blood status was immaterial to that.

she could be very cruel to those around her  —  not necessarily on purpose, but also not not on purpose. there was a threshold, where acquaintances shifted into someone alecto would trust with her life. at that threshold she tended to turn mean, to turn people away, and it was a horrible habit and one she wouldn’t break.

alecto couldn’t be paid to give two shits about blood status. but just because she can care for or befriend a muggleborn with no internal struggle doesn’t mean she'd ever actively do anything to help them out. she didn’t have much exposure to people of other blood statuses as a child & that’s when she set her heart on winning at life in pureblood circles. 

so while her stomach curls at the lack of intelligence she sees as inherit in blood purist ideologies she doesn’t actually  ...  fight the fact that pureblood circles are run on purist ideologies. plus, for as much as she hates being tied to her parents, she’s loyal to the carrow name. if they’re not jumping ship and joining the equality train, then she won’t either. 

she’d rather break her heart and throw herself into a cause liable to kill her than become her own person separate from the life she’s wasted years building.

( this is what she tells herself. it is a lie, her biggest one: so she needn’t think on all the million escape plans and defections in her head. )

alecto just had to strap her knives and wand to her thigh with pretty little garters, the better to flash the steel beneath silk skirts and lace robes. she learned to enjoy the refined burn of shots worth more galleons than some could ever see. she learned to love glittering adornments, and tossing her hair, and beguiling with a single flash of her pearly-white fangs. she was good. except when she was bad. and loathe though she was to admit it, she could still find enough ancient carrow in her to be very, very bad  ...  when she so chose. 

badness could very easily be written off as youth, except by those who shared alecto’s youth with her. to them, well, it was her destructive tendencies coming out to play. it was her forgetting which line in the sand she was supposed to pretend to care about. it was her growing tired of the never ending act she’d started years and years ago. it was her doing very reckless things, perhaps unknowingly  ---  or perhaps awaiting the mess she’d leave in her wake.

she’d have to fix the mess, of course, and in that fixing would lie the cool reminder that while she looks like any of the rest of them, she will always be a carrow. and carrows are too sharp, too much, and so alecto is, too.

( the secret was she was too much alecto to be anything, really )

she doesn’t even? like pureblood society that much?? she resents the idea that she’ll have to marry some man eventually, who she likely won’t care about and who likely won’t appreciate her for all that she is. but if she wants to be more than a wife or mother she knows she’d have to show her hand  ---  reveal that she has a mind for strategy & knows a thousand wicked things, sign herself away to the war for a side she doesn’t believe in. neither option is a good one.

alecto didn’t want to fight; but she knew if she has to give in, she could get away with bartering her mind to instead concoct a hundred awful plans of attack. she’d never have to lift her own wand  ...  but she’d have to bear the reality of the things done under her advice. that might even be worse than letting herself be an unimportant soldier.

in a perfect world she could lay down in neutral ground and not move a muscle for either side. but what would that make of her family loyalty? the last thing she wants is more disappointment from her parents. more proof that she’s never been what they wanted.

this was, of course, no perfect world. alecto was not the sort of girl who lived in happy endings. so while she didn’t want to join the war, had no desire to loan her mind to the death eaters  ---  she knew she would. she would have to. she was a carrow, and so of course she’d join the fight.

the plain and simple fact of the matter was that there was no possible path for her that didn’t beat her heart into bloody submission. so that life, that planned future, was better than nothing at all. right?

no one needed to know she hated this; softness was worse than wildness, in alecto’s eyes. her wildness couldn’t be helped, but she’d die before anyone saw her weak. let them see a ruthless game-player with a heart carved from crystalline ice. let them see a girl, damnably neutral while she still could be, cards always held close to the chest. 

masks like that were simple. alecto knew masks, could pluck one from her shelves and put it on in her sleep. it was easier, after all, to not think; some part of alecto has always known this, long learned how to turn off her racing thoughts, her conscience, her heart, in order to do what needed to be done. she hates it. but she does it. 

sooner or later alecto will give in  ---  in a way that can never be undone. or, perhaps, she will come to hate feeling her family’s belated pride resting on her head like poisoned laurels. 

she prays for the former and hopes for the latter, with her wicked, traitorous heart.

[hoe-cuspocus]

* ╰    —— wow, odette doge sure has changed. i guess she  is feeling isolated from the other ravenclaw members. guess you can’t really blame them. i still remember them being so charming & tender,  now they just seem isolated & obstinate.  guess being a pure-blood isn’t helping matters much either.  i’m hopeful though. they’ll be just fine. 

okay SO ! odette is kind of a new character i’m flushing out so while her intro won’t be thoroughly detailed, it’s one of those instances where i’m feeling out a character and we’re going to see where it goes from this one base idea i have and hopefully it goes well so enjoy these tiny little bullet points about my damaged little baby !

DOGE, that’ rings a bell doesn’t it? oh yeah it’s because theyre a BIG name in the wizarding world. remember ? close intimate friends of the dumbledore family, been in the ministry’s highest ranks since forever, the whole shebang. they come from old money, a long line of prestige and well, let’s just say if you’re born into the family you’ve got your life set. 

one would expect that since odette was born into this lavish life, she’d be a stupid little stuck up witch growing up but she actually wasn’t. her life was as close to perfect as could be. she had a really amazing older brother that took care of her, parents that were kind and loving but still stern and striving to raise great kids, they were well off but still humble... there was no complaints at all. but life doesn’t stay happy forever and looking back it’s all really a highlight reel. 

the whole blood purity thing was never a topic of conversation in her home? everyone sort of assumed they were on the same page. like human is human, if you have magic, GREAT doesn’t make you more or less of a wizard if you come from a long line of magic blood, it just means you’re magical but like awesome ! they underestimated the weight of this subject and were way WAY too cavalier about the subject, to the point where it got them into trouble. BIG trouble. they became targets early on in the war, their outspoken natures posing a threat to the cause. i mean think about it, an influential family actually normalizing the fraternization between muggles and wizards? APPALLING. could not be tolerated. elphias jr, the heir to the thrown and renowned stubborn jackass, decided to take a stand for those that really didn’t have a fighting chance at the time. he was gunning for the position of minister for magic and decided to bank his campaign on muggle born rights, turning to activism in the late days of his campaigning. his family wasn’t against it, but they were apprehensive. like come on bro, these are dark times dont expose yourself!! but he didn’t listen, didn’t want to. so he led a rally..... and didn’t come back. two, three days came and went, no elphias. odette let it slide, he probably went out to celebrate after the rally... muggle london was always his favorite place to get lost in..... a few too many firewhiskeys takes a while to recover from..... until that HORRID morning came. odette had spent the night at a friends house, sipping on giggle water and dishing about quidditch players and boys at school she fancied, but it was time to head home. as she strolled up the long narrow road leading up to her estate, surely thinking her mother would nag her for being late, she came across the unthinkable. a bloody body, discarded like trash just in front of the doge estate gates, their family crest casting a haunting shadow over the boy. it was daunting but she just knew. from that moment on, it’s all pretty fuzzy. she knows her blood curdling screams were what alerted her parents, suddenly aurors where everywhere. she remembers how cold his skin was, how he didn’t look like elphias but how she just KNEW. she remembers the pain most of all. 

that day shifted everything for her. listen she used to be bubbly, kind, a little prissy just because she was young stupid and well.. she WAS RICH OKAY it sort of came with the territory. she considered herself a little bit like royalty because people just fawned over her when she walked into a room. but after this... she turned cold, skeptic, cynical, confused.... she doesn’t know who to trust. she’s mad.. she’s paranoid and pretty much going insane.

hints of her old self still remain though. she’s still kind like she won’t snap at anyone and she knows her place but there is a crossroad she still has to face: her place in the war and this world. AT THE MOMENT, she resents muggleborns. it was because of THEM that her brother died. he wasn’t the target, they were, so why did he end up how he did? but with that comes the guilt. what would her brother say if he knew what she was thinking? its that turmoil that’s ultimately eating her up inside. 

[jmsptrs]

* ╰   alex fitzalan  ;  18 ;  he/him  —— wow, james potter sure has changed. i guess he is feeling isolated from the other gryffindor members. guess you can’t really blame them. i still remember them being so vibrant & optimistic. now they just seem irresponsible & stubborn. guess being a pure-blood isn’t helping matters much either. i’m hopeful though. they’ll be just fine. 

i am so excited to be here ! i’m s and i sincerely missed playing my bb james. here is a little about my interpretation of him !

he’s not all that tolerable so even though...his heart is (occasionally) in the right place i am definitely acknowledging that he’s a little twerp. also when snape tells harry that james used to STRUT ??? very true. james struts 

james is the only child to a family of wealthy wizards. it was no surprise he was showered with presents and attention his whole life, and in hindsight, there were probably ways for fleamont and euphemia to avoid raising the wizarding world’s biggest brat

and boy was he a brat !! james got what ever he wanted, when ever he wanted

blood purity was never something that came up in the potter house so james never really thought about his blood status ? it wasn’t until he went to hogwarts for the first time at age 11 that he heard the term mudblood for the first time. it was the first thing he asked his parents about when he got home that winter — he didn’t really know what to think was right. his father essentially explained what blood purity was and what they believed, and that he disagreed. he also warned james not to get into any trouble with that, not to go picking fights with every slytherin that disagreed with his beliefs 

of course, james ignored the last part. he was very high and mighty about his beliefs and thinking that he was always in the right and shit

so from year one - five he was definitely a terror to be around unless you were his friend. he wouldn’t consider himself a bully (he was definitely a bully) but just a practical jokester. he was always winding himself up in detention and losing gryffindor house points for being completely insufferable 

year six he sort of started cooling down. sort of. less of the taunting, less of the random hexing in the hallways. he still had a big head, still thought he was the best thing to grace the halls of Hogwarts. Still thought he was the best Quidditch player in the game 

james is brave, it’s one of his most prominent character traits, but he always wants to be the hero. with talk of the death eaters stirring, the dark lord return, james feels like he’s on a battle on his own?? he’s like i have to do this, i have to do that, he trusts very few people to talk to about it other than his closest friends, and they often have to remind him that it’s not his battle to fight. it’s everyone’s

IN HIS LOVE LIFE...james is not experienced at all. let him brag, let him act all haughty, but this kid is full of lies!!! and if you saw him flirt, you’d know he’s not nearly as suave as he says he is. he actually gets really quiet when he thinks someone is cute, his cheeks flush, he gets nervous, he’s all around terrible at talking to people he has a crush on basically. in the same vein, he’s very girl crazy and has a crush on everyone

he’s also in the middle of questioning his sexuality, he knows he is attracted to girls but around some guys he will get the strangest sensation to just ... kiss their face! and he hasn’t really talked to anyone about it so it’s been kind of weighing down on him, and lately especially he’s sort of been taking out the energy on innocent slytherins who happen to walk by at an inconvenient time, calling them names or sneering at them because,..he can!

CHARACTER PARALLELS: Steve Harrington (Stranger Things), Matt Donovan (Vampire Diaries), Ferris Bueller (Ferris Bueller’s Day Off), Finny (A Separate Peace), Jake Peralta (B99)

wanted connections

childhood friends! maybe their parents were friends, they grew up together, excitedly boarded the hogwarts express together. they can still be friends or have grown apart in their time at hogwarts. 

i also have an hc that as a kid, when james would join his father in trips to diagon alley, he made a lot of friends, one of whom his father really disapproved of. i’d love this connection ! perhaps they were the kid of a wizard who didn’t quite get along with fleamont, or a future slytherin who’s family was obsessed with blood purity, but i imagine they were close friends and, as kids, never thought about any of that stuff!! bonus points if you give me the angst of them not being friends anymore due to tensions between houses and what’s going on in general now

bad influence -- this would probably be james is a bad influence on them tbh. someone that james absolutely corrupts and gets to join in on practical jokes that always end up going too far

give me a first kiss !! probably happened in fourth or fifth year, a very awkward and short kiss but a first kiss nonetheless, probably after a dance or something, something they can both look back at and laugh about now

first girlfriend ! could also be the same muse as above but, they probably dated for a short few months in fifth or sixth year, nothing serious to write home to, but just a short period of time filled with study dates, giggling in the hallways, sending notes to one another, etc

give me ENEMIES AND RIVALS ! james has made quite a few of them in his time at hogwarts. does not have to just be slytherins PLEASE give me a gryffindor who can’t stand his arrogance and thinks he belongs in some other house lmao, but give me any and all bad blood plots you know i love em

[hvrtlings]

                               “ no matter how fast light travels, it finds                                    the darkness has always got there first “

* ╰   lorenzo zurzolo ;  18 ;  he/his  —— wow,  lachlan hawthorn  sure has changed. i guess  he  is feeling isolated from the other  gryffindor  members. guess you can’t really blame him. i still remember him being so  curious & adaptable  now he just seems  frustrated & evasive  guess being a  halfblood  isn’t helping matters much either.  i’m hopeful though. they’ll be just fine.  (  zoe ; cst ; 21 ; she/her  )  

WARNINGS:  infidelity, murder, car crashes, mention of war & hospitals & general bigotry    ADDITIONAL MATERIALS:   lachlan’s stats page, playlist, & pinterest board   ADDITIONAL NOTES:  this is fully a few thousand words longer than either nate’s or alecto’s intros and i should edit it down but i also need it to not be in my drafts. really sorry about that. if you want a tldr version please hmu!! or if you just want to plot!!!

when lachlan’s biological parents married, rumors abounded. plenty of couples from their class got married right out of hogwarts   ---   but none of those other couples were such a puzzling case to their peers. no one knew what sweet serena alessandri saw in declan glynne. sometimes, even serena wasn’t quite sure what it was about him; he was a dark beauty, something she could only call him in her head. he was the sort of boy who’d bristle at such a feminine compliment as beautiful; never mind that it was true. but for all his good looks, no other girl had been interested in him. maybe because he wasn’t a sweet guy   ---   just a guy who was sweet to her. 

sweet serena alessandri: deposed princess of a new money pureblood family, she hailed from italy and had lived her whole life in clueless luxury. right up until her new money family found themselves newly penniless, and escaped to england to hide their shame. 

the girls and boys she’d grown up with, gone to school with   ---   they turned on her and her family the moment they lacked the funds to support the frivolous life italian purebloods led. 

oh, but they were mean. they rubbed her family’s new poverty in her face with well calculated cruelty. they were the reasons she vowed to keep her head down when she transferred to hogwarts. she was wary of befriending muggles and muggleborns, but wary of hating them, too. haughtiness got you nothing; she knew this well. 

serena was hurt and young and foolish   ---   not to mention ever fearful of seeming those things. declan never acted like she was; maybe that’s all there was to her love. a sense of safety, if only from ridicule. 

surly declan glynne: why, he hardly warranted a full backstory. he was an angry pureblood boy from a long line of angry pureblood boys who’d never had enough money to back up their feelings of superiority. 

he was almost militant in his hatred of muggleborns and muggles; he hated muggles with a quiet passion, but muggleborns were the real problem. muggleborns infected his everyday life, stole opportunities directly from him. 

hardly a radical feeling, but still   ---   his bigotry and working-class roots didn’t make for a winning combination. swimming in friends and admirers, he was not. 

so the unlikely hogwarts sweethearts settled down months after graduating, and bets were made among their peers on how long they’d actually last. 

everybody who bet that the answer was  ‘ not long ‘  had plenty of evidence to support their stance   ---   namely, that while declan scrounged up a job in the magical maintenance department at the ministry, serena went to muggle university   ( excelled there, in that world of finite answers and figures, like she never could in the magical theory and feeling and pronunciation at hogwarts )   and ended up working at a muggle accounting firm. 

that while serena was making more money than the highest ranking official in declan’s department, declan stewed in his anger. 

his resentment bled into the relationship. they’d never had too much in common; when the sweetness declan used to treat her with left, serena was so confused. but she hated asking questions   ---   fearful as ever of seeming young and hurt and foolish, wary as ever of showing a chink in her armor to people far better equipped for cruelty. just as she learned that the purebloods of her childhood were crueler than her, she knew without needing the lesson that her husband was crueler, too. 

serena’s muggle coworkers and classmates had always liked her. 

she’d always told a version of the truth, to explain why some simple things confused her so much   —   after all, it wasn’t a lie that she was grew up in a rich italian family who lost the fortune when she was in her teens and left her kind of adrift. 

her confusion at taxis and ball point pens could be laughed off as a sign of her former rich-girl ways. 

as could her need to be liked. they all knew she attended a string of elite boarding schools but ended up having to pay her own way through university   ---   knew that she worked hard and wanted people to see that about her. 

so, yes: they’d always liked her. she was kind. 

her coworkers noticed the seemingly sudden shift in her mood, and one brave man she’d worked on a few projects with took that notice a step further   ---    friendly and concerned about her, just as kind as serena had always been to him, andrew reynolds asked her out to lunch one day. and there, he asked why serena was feeling so low.

the sweetness and the kindness from him was enough to open the floodgates. maybe, she could admit, she’d felt a little starved for those two things. declan’s moods had only ever gotten worse. she answered andrew’s questions with all the honesty the ministry allowed. 

she revealed that her husband wasn’t sweet to her anymore, that he was actually kind of cold. she revealed she was hurt and unsure of what she did wrong. andrew paid for her meal and told her that she hadn’t done anything wrong. 

that one lunch, where he said he’d be there for her, devolved into many lunches, and then late-running meetings, and finally time spent out of the office. they fell in love   —   and she became pregnant.

she hid it from declan for a while; they hadn’t been having sex all that frequently, with his sudden ire at her putting a dent in romance. but she hurried to initiate it as often as she felt was  ‘ normal ’  for a happy marriage, after she found out she was pregnant.

she wasn’t happy being married to him, but the idea of separating was alien to her   —   so she needed him to think that the baby was his.

she only got more unhappy with him, when she figured enough time had passed that she could reveal the pregnancy without suspicion. serena wasn’t sure how she’d have felt if declan had been pleased to hear they were having a baby   —   if any excitement or warmth would have won her back to him, if a return of love would’ve erased all her hurt. but the news only seemed to make him more miserable; so serena never had to find out. 

fast forward: lachlan is born, the staff at st. mungo’s hurrying as best they can to get out of a room so tense where it should be joyous. declan named the baby, and serena let him. a pang of something wrong rang through her but she ignored it in favor of plastering on a warm smile.  

then the trio returned home. 

apparently declan   ( who’d never been all that smart, whose suspicions never seemed to touch his wife, for all his anger at her and the world at large )    had wondered at serena’s change in mood before the pregnancy. he hadn’t really noticed she’d started feeling small and hurt and lost at home until she was happy again. and when she was happier, he got suspicious. he followed her physically when he could, spied on her magically when he could, and never got proof of an all-out affair   ---   but declan glynne had been born suspicious. he could wait. 

here’s the thing: all babies kind of look the same. lachlan’s looks weren’t a shocking departure from declan’s and serena’s. andrew reynolds had been white, too, so it wasn’t like baby lachlan’s skin tone was super different. but declan had just made a deal with himself, like   —   serena and I both have light hair; if this baby’s hair isn’t almost transparent, I’ll know. 

baby lachlan was born with a shock of honeyed-brown curls. so that was that. 

declan was, all records would show, an anti-muggle wackjob. and he was beyond furious that serena   ( his wife. he may not have loved her any longer, but she was his )   thought to pass off some  ‘ muggle’s bastard ‘  as his son. 

they lived in a little wizarding neighborhood a small ways away from godric’s hollow; some might say, kindly, it was more quaint than godric’s hollow. others, honestly, might point out it was a way cheaper godric’s hollow. a neighbor saw and understood what the flash of green light in the glynnes’ windows meant, and alerted the aurors. 

baby lachlan was left generally parent-less, as serena was dead and declan ended up in prison. he might have ended up dead himself, had the aurors not arrived on time. godric bless nosy neighbors, and all that. 

declan wasn’t a smart or wealthy enough pureblood guy to get away literally murdering his wife over an affair. 

some people probably sympathized with him   ( serena cheated on him with a muggle. when that saucy story hit the news, that fact was hammered in and plenty of people got where he was coming from )   but it wasn’t enough to keep him out of prison. 

lachlan definitely did have a still living parent who would’ve jumped at the chance to take care of him   —   but the wizarding authorities never even considered andrew reynolds for any real length of time. 

a peek into the auror office’s thought process:  if we give him the baby we have to explain how and why and that serena’s dead. and it’s just easier to not do that.

a peek into the world of wizarding adoptions: even smarmy, blood purist wizarding society is all about preserving magical blood. so magical orphans aren’t long left without homes; magical orphanages aren’t a thing. wizarding families are often huge. so orphaned wizards are shopped around to even distant relatives and then, if that doesn’t work out, given to other families.

scandalous, family-less, little baby lachlan wasn’t long alone.

meet the hawthorn family   ---    edmund hawthorn was born edmund shafiq and was quietly exiled from his sacred twenty-eight family when he came out. which was fine, because his husband travis hawthorn came from a sprawlingly big and welcoming half-blood family and they took edmund in right away. 

edmund still wrote to his parents, and they wrote back; they hadn’t disowned him out of bad blood. he knew his parents still loved him. they just loved the family’s image more, and needed to give him the boot in order to name his brother orlando the heir  ...   since he could give them more heirs. 

travis, conversely, had a lovely relationship with his family. 

both edmund and travis were pretty high ranking ministry workers. edmund worked in the office for the department of magical law enforcement   —   not an auror, but someone who puts together files and goes over paperwork and traces patterns. travis was a liaison minister with the department of international magical cooperation. they’re good guys with good reputations and the ministry was honestly relieved when they offered to adopt lachlan. 

lachlan grew up with two sisters: della, who was five years older, and laurel, who was just ten months older. he loved them with all his heart. 

people tended to think he and laurel were twins, especially growing up   —   the dads cut her hair a little short because she was always getting into a mess, and it was easier to clean mud and neon paint out of shorter curls than long ones   —   but with their matching hair and their alliterative names, their propensity to always cause trouble as a team   ...   they just seemed like twins.

him and laurel seeming like blood related siblings to the outside eye made it easier for the world to forget that the hawthorn’s son was the baby that caused that big scandal.   

edmund and travis never lied to the two of them and said they were blood related twins or siblings, outright. but they did let the world outside their family assume that. they figured life would be easier for lachlan if that was the readily accepted truth.

lachlan wasn’t all that adventurous on his own, but found himself dragged into his sisters’ adventures; he could vouch from experience that mud and neon paint were a pain to wash out as it was, and couldn’t imagine adding more hair into the equation. 

his sisters might’ve been better at getting into messes, but lachlan made up for it by being a mess. he was always having a crisis as a kid   —   his stuffed dinosaurs were just ravaging the block city, dad, but what about the finger puppet people in that apartment building? do they even sell dinosaur insurance?? why didn’t I think of the implications here  ... 

he and laurel played knights a lot, with toy swords and helmets modeled after the suits of armor in hogwarts  ( travis asked edmund if that wasn’t a little much, when they bought them; they were a few years out from school, after all, they didn’t care that the helmets were accurate   —   )   and lachlan always wondered about the ramifications of two knights fighting each other. laurel always took the ensuing soliloquy of hypothetical questions as opportunity to knock him flat backwards.

he was a needy kid   —   he always had questions at his lips, a thousand moral quandaries to discuss. he had an active imagination and a tendency to let situations snowball into situations.

he was often hilarious, and rarely on purpose, and very easy to like. anyone who knew his birth mother would’ve been surprised to see lachlan   —   he truly was nothing like serena. he was bright and sweet and openly curious about everything. he loved storytelling and art and music; a perfect case to show that nurture always won out over nature.

when it was time for him to go to hogwarts, he wasn’t at all sure what house he’d get sorted into   —   it wasn’t the sort of thing he’d ever been hung up on thinking about, for all that he’d wondered about every other part of the hogwarts experience. his dads had both been in different houses, and he had no way of knowing what houses his birth parents belonged to. the sorting hat cried out GRYFFINDOR a scant few moments after touching down on his unruly curls, and lachlan decided that felt right.

he loved hogwarts.  

 lachlan made friends easily and often   —   he’d grown up in the constant companionship of his sisters and knew well how to start conversations and shift them from uncomfortable topics, was skilled at asking questions that made people feel good and liked. 

he was a little overzealous in class, but most of his professors liked him well enough. lachlan was still a curious guy, and seemed to genuinely care about each subject   —   something that went a long way towards endearing him to hogwarts’ staff.

though, some of the staff might’ve been endeared to him even if he wasn’t generally endearing. 

his interesting past wasn’t a secret from most of the professors; travis and edmund had done well enough redirecting people’s memories around their son, but then most people had already forgotten about serena and declan, or else had never really known them in the first place. but many hogwarts professors recalled teaching the couple, recalled the shock their ending gave them, when the news hit.

lachlan’s  ‘ story ‘  wasn’t something his dads had shared with him just yet, so lachlan himself didn’t know. it was a little maddening walking around the castle, when it felt like all the adults looked like they knew something he didn’t. 

dumbledore, being dumbledore, took it upon himself to tell lachlan the whole sordid tale himself, when lachlan was just starting his fourth year. it was a shock   ( it majorly pissed off travis and edmund, who never found out why the old man did such a thing )   but the next time he went home for the holidays his dads sat him down and explained that, no they weren’t hiding it from him and yes, they’d had plans set to tell him when he was seventeen and of age.

wizarding authorities could have hunted down andrew reynolds and told him he had a son, but they didn’t. travis and edmund, however, wanted to find andrew just in case lachlan ever wanted to meet him. so lo and behold   —   once lachlan knew, his dad’s set up a meeting for the four of them in muggle london. it went well; kinda full of shock and crying, even without breaking the  ‘ wizard ’  of it all to andrew, but still well.

lachlan was perfectly happy with his sisters and his dads; for all that he’d always known he was adopted and for all that he’d always been curious as hell, he’d never really pushed his dads about his birth parents. his dads just were his dads. end of story   —   no need for questions. 

which was part of why it was easy for him to go fourteen years before learning about his past. lachlan could not be paid to stop the flow of his curiosity, but there were somethings that seemed so solidly true he never thought to question them.

so while it was kind of cool meeting andrew, it was also kind of weird. knowing about andrew at all was weird   —   because it meant knowing that his mother had died days after giving birth to him, alone and scared and unhappy. and that her husband had been a bigot and a murderer; that declan glynne was still alive in prison somewhere. it was a suckerpunch to the gut knowing that lachlan had come close to being killed himself, if a neighbor hadn’t called the aurors on their house just in time to save the baby he used to be.

listen, he’d never wanted to know where he came from. 

but he knew he’d feel, like, kind of bad if he just never saw andrew again. so with his dads’ permission   ( and encouragement; edmund and travis thought this would be good for lachlan, like getting to know his Muggle Heritage from his Muggle Birth Father )   he hung out with him on occasion, during holidays and school breaks.

even though the professors clearly knew about his past, and his dads did, and his sisters did once he decided he wanted to tell them   ...   lachlan kept it all under wraps around his friends at school. he liked to think he was an open book, before. but learning where he came from made him want to play his cards a little closer to his chest. he couldn’t put his finger on why   —   he knew it worried his dads, he knew it did, and figured he’d get over it in due time, once he settled into the truth.

it just didn’t seem like the truth wanted to settle around him.

declan glynne had family. he was a middle son from a whole gaggle of bigoted, disillusioned glynne brothers. the ministry just never considered them when they were trying to figure out who would take lachlan on. they looked at serena’s family and saw no options, but declan was not lachlan’s father and, like andrew, was never even considered. 

ian glynne had a bone to pick with this   —   had a bone to pick with lachlan’s whole existence, too, had a problem with that almost more than being overlooked. 

( he thought that if serena had just kept her legs shut she’d never have gotten herself pregnant and gotten herself dead and gotten her husband sent to prison. more than that, he thought if she hadn’t gotten the idea of a muggle career into her head and made his brother upset, what with her math and her decent paycheck, she really would’ve staved all this off. but serena was dead   —   so it was easier to blame the baby, who wasn’t. )

he was a fan of simmering in his anger and hatred and kept up with the news about lachlan, at least enough to know who he ended up being adopted by.

and from there he got an idea; the hawthorns were good people   —   a compliment that would’ve come out as a sneer if ian voiced it, the judgement and sarcasm inherent in every syllable. he figured at some point, they’d tell lachlan who his birth parents were, maybe even introduce him to that homewrecking muggle. and if they did, and if ian kept a low profile, kept observing   …   they’d lead ian right to the muggle at the root of his brother’s injustice. 

he wasn’t always watching lachlan, just keeping an eye on him by keeping an eye on his dads. he’d never been all that smart or ambitious   —   the glynnes were a family that thrived in their self-righteousness and self-importance and didn’t feel like they should have to act on those things to get what they deserved.

but his anger, his half baked plot, was enough to spur ian to action for the first time in his life. he rose through the ranks of the ministry through pure determination and will and ended up working in the same office in the department of magical law enforcement as edmund. they almost became friends; not earnestly, not honestly   —   not on ian’s part. but they did. friendly enough for ian to ask after edmund’s kids and get answers, friendly enough to hear about the trip into muggle london to visit someone edmund described as one of the kids’  ‘ distant relatives. ‘

he followed them.

and he didn’t do anything that time lachlan and the muggle were in the same place, but he started to plan.

it would’ve been too hard to keep magical surveillance over lachlan and the hawthorns, so he hadn’t, not ever. just kept an eye on them the old fashioned way, through word of mouth and casual water-cooler conversation. but andrew reynolds had no means of catching ian glynne in the act of spying. so, spy he did.

muggle police would later rule it a tragic car accident   —   shaking their heads at the carnage as they carted lachlan off to the muggle hospital while he clung with bloody hands to consciousness. it took hours for the dads to find him there and by the time his family reached him he decided he wouldn’t tell them any of the truth of what happened; told the official from the auror department once he got relocated to st. mungo’s, but only because he had to. 

he never asked if that official told his dads. none of the hawthorns talked about the situation anymore than they had to, after that.

here was the situation:

ian glynne tailed lachlan and andrew all day   —   a saturday during easter hols during lachlan’s fifth year wherein andrew showed lachlan around muggle london. the pair had lunch together, looked in a few shops, and were set to drive out to andrew’s home outside of the city, where edmund and travis and lachlan’s sisters would meet them later for tea. 

ian glynne got them on a secluded section of road just far enough away from both the city proper and andrew’s home to cause immediate alarm.

he came out in front of the car and andrew made to swerve around the man, but ian cast some defensive spell lachlan had yet to learn at the hood. it exploded   —   felt like they crashed into another vehicle even though they were the only car on the road.

lachlan and andrew both slammed into the windshield, but neither crashed through it. ian came ‘round to andrew’s side of the car and started screaming questions at him about serena and declan; then he shot him with a muggle handgun, something lachlan had surely never laid eyes on before.

andrew did not die from that initial gunshot   —   ian was a terrible shot, and was half out of his mind besides. the bullet just grazed him, and he inelegantly dragged andrew out of the car after. 

lachlan made his way out of the vehicle too, bleeding and hurt, all cut up and bruised from the crash and the glass he had to wade through. he thought, maybe, he was in shock. he was certainly in shock once he finally bambi-legged his way out of the demolished vehicle and saw ian cast a cruciatus on his biological father. 

and, still in shock when he saw ian whammy andrew with a killing curse after that. 

ian did not attempt to turn his wand on lachlan   —   this was the second time in his short life that a glynne brother forgot to kill him once done with a more satisfying target. ian took for the bare april greenery lining the road and lachlan   ( curious, trauamtized dumbass that he was )   ran after him. found a gun pointed at him for a terrifying moment before the muggle police sirens cut the air and sent ian apparating on out of there.

he fought to go back to hogwarts right away; it was only the first saturday of the holiday that all this went down, so lachlan felt, since he spent the whole rest of it in hospitals and bed, surely he was fine. the dads disagreed, and his sisters disagreed, and the auror working on ian’s case disagreed. he’d just become, in a way, an orphan. and it felt like no one around him cared to see him recover in the way he wanted to.

lachlan managed to bargain that he’d get to return to school as soon as ian was sent to join his brother in prison   —   none of the world any wiser that he’d been there when the newest glynne family crime was committed. 

laurel decreed that it’d look less strange if both of them stayed home until then, and that was that. the dads wouldn’t begrudge lachlan the company of his sister, if he couldn’t return to full normalcy just yet.

della was graduated at this point, technically an adult working a fancy job at some boutique robe shop, but she came home every day from work and glued herself to her younger siblings’ sides. lachlan recovered his new, strange orphan-hood with his not-twin and big sister at his side, dads hovering around as much as their jobs allowed.

the hawthorns were tight knit and loosely configured all at once   —   always brimming with love and independence in spades, care expressed tenderly and roughly, like no one was sure how to be earnest. edmund and travis had always expressed affection like that: through arguing and debating and ribbing more than any big displays. 

the kids worked the same way. family dinners used to be more running jokes and teasing than anything, raucous like none of them knew the definition of serious.

the five hawthorns weren’t really sure if that old normal was still achievable; lachlan’s brush with near-death met the daunting news lurking on the edge of their world. the whispers of war.

things became very real for the carefree family   —   the fact of edmund’s disownment, and travis’ famous half-bloodedness.

that all three kids were adopted with far-from-simple origin stories   ( even if lachlan’s was the loudest, neither laurel nor della came from a closet free of skeletons ),   that the dads were gay and the kids were open in their opposition to anti-muggle and anti-muggleborn sentiment

ian glynne might not’ve gone after lachlan for any of that, not really. but the possibility started to hit with dizzying closeness.

two weeks after the holiday officially ended, laurel and lachlan returned to hogwarts. if lachlan had seemed new and different upon receiving the news of his biological parentage, then he seemed really different following his brush with death and new witness to murder. it was the kind of different that was hard to put your finger on. he smoked now, and drank more; he was liable to fall into fits of melancholy. 

cynicism did not come easy to him, but he found that wariness did, that secrecy did. it was shocking.

he finished his fifth year chomping at the bit to do something, anything, about the awful ways in which his world was changing. the next year only held more tragedy   ---   attacks and deaths and disappearances. no one knew what happened to him unless he chose to tell them   ( and in truth, there was almost no one he chose to tell )   but he couldn’t help but feel a kinship with everyone newly hurt by this world. he’d been hurt by it, too, after all. 

there was a small degree of safety offered within hogwarts’ walls, but he couldn’t help but want to be free of them. to be out there, doing something. lachlan would wait for now, ask questions and notice things and store them away the way he always had. but it started to feel like he was just biding his time until he had something to do with every new thing he learned.