Scotland, 1986

( I kept running for a soft place to fall / I can’t take it anymore )

    possibilities.

&. you’re only coming back for her: you heard your sister was in trouble and you dropped everything. you have hated, this whole time, that Dumbledore used her too but at least, you thought, she was safe pushing papers and keeping under the radar. but she has Riddle’s attention, now, and he thinks he has her loyalty, and you know what is expected of people loyal to Riddle. you cannot let Amelia go down the path you did, cannot and will not. even if it means crossing back into the country you swore you’d never enter again, you will get her back, and safe, before anything worse happens.

&. Cedric has grown up for eight years in a home without magic, a world without magic. you and Amos had planned to keep it that way, even if he was going to start showing signs of magic soon; you were going to cross that bridge when you came it it. but you’ve got to cross it now. once upon a time, when your son was small, you promised you’d never lie to him. and now you’re terrified of what it will mean for him to finally know that you have been lying about something so big and world-shattering all along.

&. you always thought of Dumbledore as something unkillable, thought the old man would be around forever, thought any chance you had to return would be ruined by his disappointment that you’d run away in the first place, and so the fact that he was dead at all shook you to your core. but something has shaken you worse, now… Dorcas Meadowes suspects that he didn’t die of natural causes at all, and you have to admit, you agree with them. you’ve always stood firmly on one side of death, the person behind the wand, and you swore never to come that close to it again. but now you find yourself wanting to reacquaint yourself with it, from another angle if it means solving the mystery hiding there

( the ache inside the hate / I found I way to sit and wait and now I can’t )

    possibilities.

&. you had little desire to come back into the world of magic, a world apparently even more fractured and torn than when you had left it. you would’ve been more than content to live out the rest of your life quietly, without contact with the world, your little family something verging on perfect, or as close to it as you deserve after everything. but the danger is too close, and you’d follow them anywhere––you followed them away from the world, after all––even if it means facing the worst parts of yourself again. the problem is that you’re fairly certain when confronted with war and violence and hatred again, it wouldn’t take all that much to make the difficult choices again if it meant keeping your family alive.

&. trust is difficult now, and you haven’t figured out yet how to articulate why that’s the case, when you were never quite as touched by the war as the others, as Edgar, or your wife. it has more to do with knowing what it did to those you care about, and what it caused you to do to try to save her after Dumbledore led her like a lamb to the slaughter. because you’re certain you’re not the only one, you can’t be. old friends look like strangers now, hiding unspeakable, selfish secrets behind heavy eyes that won’t meet yours. maybe that’s your purpose being back here, to sniff out the liars like yourself, and make certain they can’t do anything to hurt anyone but themselves.

&. there’s not much choice but to get involved in some way once you’re back in the world again. why else would you have left that private paradise, after all, than to try to offer something to help? you have very little desire to touch magic again, but luckily your expertise doesn’t require it to be helpful. you saw first hand what became of your department once Riddle had all of the power in his hands, and you know someone else on this side of the border has, too. you’re not naive enough to think you can come back and do nothing, but it feels a lot like offering aid means choosing a side in a split you weren’t even aware of before now.

@ministermarvolo

@amcsdiggcry

@theseoldbcnes

Congratulations, Roman! You have been accepted as Amos Diggory (FC: Jake Gyllenhaal)

Congratulations, Christine! You have been accepted as Edgar Bones (FC: Bill Hader)

As the shortest day of the year approaches, sunset moves closer and closer to midday, leaving Scotland dark and bitter cold. It is hard to summon any kind of Christmastime cheer, especially given everything that has happened—the news of Sirius Black’s capture, the continued petrifications within the halls of Hogwarts. The wind has turned freezing and harsh, the ground frozen over. White, clouded skies bring with them the promise of snow. 

Kingsley Shacklebolt and Gideon Prewett arrange the annual Ministry-sponsored candlelight vigil in remembrance of all those lost to the war. In the outdoor square above the makeshift-Ministry’s atrium, they hand out thin enchanted candles designed to last where they are placed well through Christmas, flames burning red and gold, one per soul, with every wix in Scotland invited to place one in memory of anyone they have lost. The vigil is scheduled from sunset until midnight, but just before midnight, as Kinglsey steps up to the podium to give a speech of gratitude to all those who came—something terrible happens.

It starts with a loud noise and then a scream in the crowd: six shadowed, hooded figures apparate into the midst of the crowd and begin to attack, slinging curses at anyone within reach. Death Eaters, cloaked and masked, the green flash of their wands lighting up against the red glow of the candles. Hardly a moment later, they have disappeared, but seven people—five wix from the vigil, one muggle passerby, and the Minister for Magic himself, Kingsley Shacklebolt—are found dead when the chaos calms, and a dozen more are seriously injured. 

Scotland attempts to move on, to keep calm and keep hope in these dark times: Rosmerta provides a warm place to go for all on Christmas eve, handing out mulled wine and mince pies gratis to everyone who crosses the threshold of the Three Broomsticks, just hoping to build a sense of community while everyone around her is in mourning. Andromeda Tonks, desperate for a distraction, opens her home on New Years Eve to all with nowhere else to go. And Remus Lupin gathers his Insurgency to meet, again: they have waited too long biding their time, and it is time to begin to plan in earnest.

notable events.

(5 December, news of Sirius Black’s capture reaches Scotland)

(10 December, Hagrid returns from the Hebrides)

16 December, full moon

20 December, candlelight vigil outside the Scottish Ministry

23:49 Death Eater Attack

24 December, Christmas Eve celebration at the Three Broomsticks

25 December, Christmas

28 December, Insurgency meeting

31 December, New Years Party, Tonks Household

         Late Autumn was slow, and silent. 

After the Death Eater sightings on the Scottish side of the border, Order patrols picked up no other signs of their activity, nothing suspicious except for a tightening of security on the English side. Halloween passed in a solemn quiet, tense and dark as the days grew shorter. November came and went, with no news from either side. People worked, projects underway, but it was slow, and hard, and somber work.

Ted, Molly, and Minerva started to work on rebuilding the wards at Hogwarts, along with anyone who would help them: the more wix working together to strengthen and repair them, the longer they’d last, the stronger they’d be. In the solitude of Hogwarts’ few still-protected halls and rooms, Mary MacDonald and Peter Pettigrew worked together in an attempt to find a way to remove the Dark Mark from his arm, to sever the connection between him and Riddle before the only wards that could protect him finally gave out. But in those same halls, fear and terror were abound: more blood-stained messages on the walls, three more muggle-born students petrified, the hospital wing beginning to run out of beds for those with minor scrapes and everyday bruises. 

The McKinnon home kept its doors open to any refugees in need of a safe place to stay. Lily took over as active head of the Order, to much support, organizing their dwindling forces as best she could, even if her long hours split between that and the Ministry meant she rarely spent any time with her family. And in the Evans-Potter home, absent of its matriarch, James and Caradoc began the grueling work of examining the ring that Caradoc had brought, and the cryptic note that came alongside it. The owls had stopped, James left with a litany of the same message again and again now echoing in his head: seven black birds... Xeno Lovegood stayed close, waiting for news of what secrets the ring held, and thinking all the time that if they could only locate that mysterious diadem, they might have something to add, too.

Narcissa and Fletcher began to sort through the young thief’s stash of cursed objects, identifying them one by one, and in the process of her research the runaway Black sister stumbled across a job in a small bookshop, where she began saving up money to spend on a safe new home for her and her restless son. Word spread, by word of mouth, that her cousin, Lord Sirius Black, was now engaged to be married to one Amelia Bones, part scandal, part elaborate distraction from his rapidly waning status with the Dark Lord with his brother and cousin still missing and disgracing the family name. 

And in the basement of the Hog’s Head, Remus Lupin’s Insurgency grew, restless and impatient with the silence from the other side. Talk of organizing the werewolves continued, but no consensus was found. Talk of further evacuation missions into England were planned but none executed with the raised security on the English side still unmapped. Millicent Bagnold kept her cover secure in the English Ministry, leaking what information she could, prying when eyes weren’t looking her way, but with her cursed leg getting worse and security getting tighter, there wasn’t as much to provide as she would have liked. 

           December began, cold and dreary. Snow began to fall upon Scotland, and bad news, too. Mundungus Fletcher brought a paper back from a run to the other side: LORD BLACK FOUND TRAITOR, AWAITING DEATH SENTENCE. Word spread quickly among those in Scotland who knew where Sirius’ loyalties had always lie, worry catching between them. James tried to contact him by mirror, Remus by patronus, but no one had any news of where he’d been taken or what had happened to him, of whether or not he was still alive. The disgraced lord’s new fiancée, the papers said, had turned him in, as soon as she discovered evidence that he’d been hiding communications with the other side. Her reward for her loyalties? She got to keep his wand, as a trophy, and if the rumors were to be believed, his seat on the Council of Pureblood Lords and Ladies might eventually be hers, as well. 

Meanwhile, Hagrid returned to Hogwarts, from a meeting with the giants in the Hebrides that had kept him away since late September. With news of the bloody messages on the walls, the petrified students in their beds, he pulled Andromeda aside the next day to let her know that this wasn’t the first time this had happened before: it had happened while he was at Hogwarts, too—and he’d been the one to take the fall for it, though he hadn’t been involved at all. 

@gidecnprewetts​

Congratulations, Chayya! You have been accepted as Fabian Prewett (FC: Lee Pace)

Congratulations, Christine! You have been accepted as Gideon Prewett (FC: Jamie Clayton)

Overhead, the skies have turned cloudy, more days than not. As October moves swiftly towards its close and oppressive November draws near, Scotland is unseasonably cold, as if the long winter is reaching out its chill touch to overtake the autumn. Days are windy, dead leaves swirling through the air, and an ever-present storm seems to lurk on the horizon, keeping Hogwarts students tucked up safely indoors. 

Lily Evans-Potter begins contacting the remaining members of the Order, those who have not left in favor of Remus Lupin’s Insurgency; she hopes to suss out where loyalties lie, who would support her if she moved to take over leadership of the now-leaderless group. In the Hogwarts hospital wing, Caradoc once more dons the coat the mysterious house elf gave her and finds, in it, the package again, and the note wrapped around it: give this to James Potter. Freed, finally, from under Madame Pomfrey’s watchful eye, she sets out from Hogwarts to do exactly that. 

Just days later, Mundungus Fletcher and Marlene McKinnon, on a routine sweep of the border to check the Order’s safehouses for supplies and refugees, see something harrowing -- two masked Death Eaters, wands drawn, appear out of thin air and cross through the shimmering border from Scotland back to England. Unable to safely pursue the Death Eaters, they report back to the Order, who begin to put together a small, discreet search party to uncover what they can.

In England, Lucius Malfoy -- firmly avoiding any conversation about his missing wife and son -- throws his attention fully into planning the annual Riddle Ball, a yearly celebration of Minister Riddle’s ascent to power. The Ball is hosted each year by a different member of the Council of Pureblood Lords and Ladies, and attendance is mandatory for all Purebloods within the Ministry itself. Malfoy Manor is decorated in the black and green and silver of Riddle’s regime, the sprawling gardens artificially warmed to a pleasant late-summer temperature to accommodate the crowds. 

But there is one notable absence from the ball: Regulus Black, who -- as of now -- hasn’t been seen in a little over two weeks. A few days is one thing, but to miss the most well-attended Pureblood party in all of Britain after a period of being missing is more suspicious. Particularly with his cousin Narcissa Malfoy and her son Draco missing, allegedly run away to France, rumors are starting to circulate that perhaps Regulus’ allegiances haven’t been entirely honest-- which has, in turn, cast suspicion on Sirius Black, as well. 

As the month comes to a close, something shocking shakes Hogwarts: a third year Ravenclaw student, Portia Hawthorn, doesn’t come back to Ravenclaw tower one night. Her best friend, Olive Jones, finds professor Vector in the morning, and as the two go looking for her, they find something strange... on the second floor, they find her, petrified, completely still and unable to move. Portia is taken to the hospital wing; Olive Jones is inconsolable; rumors begin to circulate around the school... what happened? Who did this? Does it have anything to do with the wards failing? 

Two days later, three first year students arrive, late and trembling, to Remus Lupin’s wandless magic class, with reports of words painted in what looks like blood on the wall just down the hallway: ENEMIES OF THE HEIR, BEWARE. No one is sure what it means, or who left it there, but the attack on children and the sudden appearance of threatening messages in the less-safe-than-ever halls of Hogwarts has some people wondering if one of the new arrivals to Scotland could be responsible. 

There is, however, one light on the horizon: beginning at sunset on the 31st, “friends of the cause” have been invited to Xeno Lovegood’s annual Samhain celebration, meant to last through the night. The party will involve bonfires, food, and autumnal activities such as pumpkin carving and apple bobbing, as well as traditional rituals honoring the dead and various kinds of divination. Those attending are encouraged to come in traditional costumes, including horns, fur, animal bones, sticks, and leaves. 

notable events.

17 October, full moon

20 October, Death Eater sightings, just north of the Scotland/England border

24 October, 10th Annual Riddle Ball, Malfoy Manor

28 October, Portia Hawthorn is found petrified, Hogwarts

31 October, Xenophilius Lovegood’s Samhain celebration, Galloway Forest