toujours l'amour

NATALIA DELACOUR-BARDON: Who is the one person you’d follow to the ends of the Earth, no matter what?

“My father. He hasn’t led me astray so far, no matter whether or not I agree with his decisions and views, and he’s the most powerful person I know. I know he doesn’t feel the same way about me, but that’s normal, isn’t it? It’s typical for children to admire their parents, and for their parents to expect a lot out of them. I just… I wish I could make him proud, you know? And if, to make him proud, I had to follow him to the ends of the Earth, then I would.”

WREN VOLANT: What’s your favourite luxury? 

“High-end clothing, I’d say. Or maybe perfume… Either way, something that has to do with the way I present myself, not only to others, but also to myself. Like, for perfume: sure, I want other people to appreciate it, but really, I’m putting it on so I’ll like the way I smell. I’m the one who has to spend all time with me, aren’t I? I have to make sure I’m fun to be with, and fun to look at. But it’s not only that with clothing, really… I just really love the way quality materials feel against my skin. I adore the way the colours look against my body, and the way it falls off my shoulders or my waist. It’s just so beautiful, and feels so pleasing to the eye. Not necessarily others’, but my own, mainly.”

LEANDER FINNIGAN-THOMAS: Who’s the best person (aka best at being a good person) you know or know of?

“I don’t know her all that well, but… Victoire. Victoire Weasley, I mean. Not that there are that many Victoires around, but… I used to really admire her back when we both attended Hogwarts. She was a year older than me, if I remember correctly, and we never really talked, but I always looked up to her. Not only because she was everything I wanted to be and wanted altogether, but also because everything she did just seemed so… Right. And I’ve seen her around with that kid of hers, and she seems like she’s got it all together, and… She’s amazing. I don’t know, maybe she’s hiding some dark secret, but I don’t care. She seems so wholesome, and I truly do admire her.” @itmeansvictory

“mm,” paris smiles, “can’t say i’ve ever been a jumpy sort of person. my grandfather, from what i’ve heard, probably turns in his grave at that suggestion.”

paris takes a sip of her own coffee, and pulls one leg up to cross over the other. she looks almost lazy, how comfortable she is in her own skin. how arrogantly she drapes into a seat, as though she’s constantly in control. “i wish i could say i expected better of the ministry than to have elevators that break down, but unfortunately… it’s the bureaucracy of it all.” she shrugs. “it’s about balance, you know. the world needs it. we, as humans, need it. i’d rather have tasks, have something to get through, than to be content all the time. i don’t know what that would even feel like.”

“Lucky,” Piper replied simply, but honestly. She wished she wasn’t so easy to surprise. Especially considering everything currently going on. It had always embarrassed her family, and by default, herself, which she hated.

piper umbridge + name & personality

psyche did not think the feeling running through her could exist, it was too powerful, too profound and pierced her soul in a way that was a beautiful agony.

WHAT IS YOUR CHARACTER’S ZODIAC?

“I think that she’s someone that many could admire. She believes in certain things, and doesn’t stray away from those things. She’s extremely consistent, and goes after what she wants. And though I don’t agree with her, I can’t take that away from her. Dolores scares me, to be honest. She says she cares about family, about blood, but I know that she’d sacrifice me, or even my father or brother, if it was necessary for her to do so. And she wouldn’t blink doing it. I think being scared of her is what makes most sense, really. If you’re not scared of her, then you’re not paying attention. She may not be violent, not directly anyway, but she’s definitely one of the most dangerous people I’ve ever met. Be careful if you ever have to deal with her; she won’t hesitate to do what’s ‘needed’, according to her own values and principles. She knows what she wants, and you can’t take that away from her.”

               ❝  - huh ? oh – let me look …   ❞   antigone had been on a much needed break /      the volunteer nurse resting their feet for only a moment before they had to go back as soon as their little magical version of a pager  rung.         amber eyes scanned piper’s face,   quickly painted lips turned to a soft smile.            ❝  no, you’re completely fine. more than fine even –    ❞ a glance to the guy in question,            ❝  he’s probably just checking you out,   if he’s bothering you i can go ask him to y’know …  stop.    ❞  

“Thank you so much,” Piper responded with a smile at the brunette before shaking her head at Antigone’s question. “I appreciate it, I do, but... Please don’t. I don’t want to cause any trouble, and if he wasn’t checking me out, then I’ll just feel embarrassed.”

Thing was, even if he had been checking her out, Piper didn’t want him to know for sure that she wasn’t interested. She really wasn’t, but she was scared of how he’d react if he knew that. Would he get mad, or would he get sad? Either option was one that the brunette would rather not have to deal with, especially not in front of so many people. The poor man; he’d end up looking like a fool, and the youngest Umbridge didn’t want to be responsible for that.

“I honestly don’t know. It’s not like I’m a big believer in our cause, but… It feels like the right thing to do. It’s the only thing I’ve ever done that has made my father proud of me, and I’m terrified of what my brother would do to me if I ever started working for the other side. I’ve seen his cruelty in play in the past, and I wouldn’t want to be on the other side of it. Plus, I doubt the other side would ever want me. Even here, I’m barely any help, but I know I could never fight my family. Some Death Eaters I don’t know all that well, maybe, if it’s asked of me, but my family? … I don’t know if I could do that. I think I’d let them kill me before I hurt them.”

piper umbridge + wardrobe (01/??)

Piper furrowed her brow as she tilted her head to the side and looked at the painting in front of her. It was moving, yes, but... Not in the way she was used to paintings moving. It was like the painting was completely unaware that it was hung up in a gallery full of people, and Piper couldn’t help but wonder if, perhaps, its occupants were merely pretending not to notice the swarm of socialites and art enthusiasts who passed by it with various glasses filled with different kinds of alcohol. All had been offered to Piper when she entered the gallery, but she had settled on white wine. It was made my house elves, she was pretty sure, but Piper had never really thought about what that meant for the elves, and tonight wasn’t the night she would start doing so. Maybe the next day. Maybe...

Turning around to ask a waiter a question, she noticed that he was gone and that Maria was now standing where he had been. Smiling, she tilted her head to the side again — a bad habit, really — and wondered what the other woman was doing in the gallery. She was almost 100% certain that the brunette was a Hogwarts teacher, and she was quite confused before she remembered that, of course, teachers weren’t students; they were allowed to leave. Just because she had never been able to attend art exhibitions as a Hogwarts student didn’t mean that it was the same thing for teachers. Therefore, her surprise quickly evaporated away. Smiling, she let out a small laugh.

“Think they’re pretending not to see us? Or that they’re that absorbed in their own little painting lives?”

“Is there something on my face,” Piper asked suddenly to the person sitting beside her in one of St. Mungo’s waiting rooms. Lowering her voice, she added: “That man over there won’t staring at me and looking completely horrified, and it’s starting to terrify me in return.”

“sorry to er,” paris drops off, looking for the right word. it’s not scare, it’s not frighten, not even surprise. then it comes to her with a smirk, “startle you. much as i do like to keep people on their toes, i hardly want to seem like a dick.” the blonde smiles as the other woman accepts her drink - what was her name again? pepper? no, not quite. she’s an umbridge, paris knows that much at least. powerful family. then it hits her. “you’re more than welcome, piper. i’m glad we’re here under better circumstances than missing a trillion and one meetings because of some ruddy maintenance error.”

she shrugs. “i don’t know - there’d be no enjoyment of the summer if we didn’t have to endure a bit of rain, sleet and snow. besides - it makes me feel a little less bad about missing out on being outside so much. i kinda miss those hogwarts summers, where there was nothing left to worry about in the world.” she smiles. “but you’re right - on days like this, i am sorely missing the tiny bit of sun we’re like to get.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Piper smiled. “I get startled way too easily. It’s a bit ridiculous, actually.” 

“Why, yes. These are much better circumstances than being stuck in a lift,” she chuckled, and took a sip of her drink before slightly tilting her head to the side. “I guess it is harder to realize just how happy you are until you’re not that happy anymore. Kind of sad, though, isn’t it? It’s like we can’t truly appreciate anything until we’ve experienced worse. Makes sense, though, I guess. There has to be at least one downside to always being content.”

Piper had always prided herself on her skill at associating faces with their names, no matter how little she might know the other person. She had always been that way, and always felt satisfied when someone seemed agreeably surprised when she remembered them or even just knew of them. Therefore, when she saw Cecily, she was a bit disappointed that her name didn’t come to the forefront of her mind at first sight. It came a couple of seconds later, sure, but Piper liked being on top of those things. Still, it was true that she had been quite pre-occupied lately, what with everything that was going on in the Ministry of Magic and with her fellow Death Eaters, and so she couldn’t be too harsh on herself — not that that had ever stopped her before.

Thanking the bartender as he handed her her butterbeer, Piper looked around for a place to sit before furrowing her eyebrows as she realized that all the tables were spoken for. Everyone seemed quite at ease, already involved in conversations, and the ones who weren’t? Well, Piper didn’t recognize them. That is, except for Cecily. Racking her brain to remember how she knew of the other woman, she walked over to her table. Standing awkwardly in front of the blonde’s table for a few moments before she was noticed, Piper smiled somewhat hesitantly and gestured to the empty chair facing the other woman.

“Hi, Cecily. Mind if I sit down? It’s pouring rain outside and the inn’s too crowded to get a table with bothering anyone. Not that I think it’s okay to bother you, of course. I just... I swear I’m a good table companion?”

Lightly running her fingers over the fabric of the clothes, Piper couldn’t help but smile. Textures had always been something that made her happy. She remembered when she was very little, three or four years old, and her mother would bring her food shopping with her. In one of the shops they always visited, there was a rack with little bags filled with spices, and Piper had always loved playing with them and feeling the different textures underneath her fingers, with only a small bag separating the spices from her. At her age now, it didn’t seem as appropriate to play with spices, but clothes were a pretty decent replacement in Piper’s opinion. 

Finally, she stopped at a robe covered in crushed velvet. It was a beautiful deep red, and Piper sighed as she took it out of the rack to look at it more closely. Oh, wow, she thought, realizing that that robe was screaming her name. There was black embroidery of flowers arranged in a subtle but beautiful way all over the edges of the robe that all snaked together in a complex but minimalistic pattern. 

Problem was, it was red. And whilst she could get away with wearing regular clothes in that colour, she very much doubted that a robe for special occasions would pass if she were to wear it at a Death Eater function. Then again, blood was red, and her colleagues did enjoy bloody things, didn’t they? 

Still, Piper didn’t want to take a chance. She was already getting some looks from certain people due to the fact that she had yet to go on what would be considered a big mission, and she thought it better not to try her luck. If word were to go back to her family that she was a disappointment... Well, she would rather not think about that.

Walking over to the first person she saw in the store, she gently tapped on their shoulder, and smiled as they turned around to look at her. 

“I’m awfully sorry to bother you, but have you by any chance seen an employee around? Or know where they’re hiding? The service in this place is meant to be impeccable, and it usually is, but today, it seems like they’re all hiding from me,” she laughed lightly, transferring all the weight of the robe to her left arm as she used her right hand to tuck a strand of her hair behind her ear as it was getting in her eyes. 

where:  hogsmeade when:  4 march, 2024, midday who: open to anyone @ hogsmeade

most of the time, paris makes a point of being a fly on the wall - well, not exactly a fly on the wall. a physical presence in every room: a palpable watcher. some information is useful when others don’t know you’ve got it. but more useful is the ability to influence others. to be known. to be visible. besides - she has always enjoyed watching people react to her. so being public has never been an issue for her - she imagines, if she’d been a muggle, she’d have dreamed of being an actress. a performer. so she has no problem with the way she struts down the street, throws money carelessly towards a cashier, and orders a pair of coffees: then struts back over the street, into someone’s personal space, into an empty seat at a table. she smirks at the occupant, and holds one out. “you look awful broody today. caffeine for your thoughts?”

It’s tough sometimes, having so little to do outside of work, but it’s the way Piper prefers it. Whilst she loves being at work, her free time often means being pressured to go on missions with her fellow Death Eaters, and every free moment spent not doing that is a good moment according to Piper. It’s not that she dislikes being a Death Eater, per se. It’s just that, well, she doesn’t exactly like it. Thinking about that, Piper can’t help but frown slightly. Not liking something means disliking it, doesn’t it? That makes everything a little more complicated than she’d care to admit, and so she’s in the middle of sighing when she gasps as someone suddenly enters her little bubble of solitude. “Oh, thank you,” she smiles after her initial shock, taking the coffee offered by Paris. Should Piper be more careful with what she accepts? Probably. But Paris and her did get along that one time they were stuck in an elevator together, didn’t they? And who would want to hurt someone they once got along with?

piper umbridge + template ( 01/?? )

❝ Do you think it’s possible that some people are born to give more love than they will ever get back in return? ❞ LILY COLLINS ? No, that’s actually PIPER UMBRIDGE. Only TWENTY-SIX years old, this RAVENCLAW alumni works as an EMPLOYEE AT THE DEPARTMENT OF MAGICAL LAW ENFORCEMENT AT THE BRITISH MINISTRY OF MAGIC and is sided with THE DEATH EATERS. SHE/HER identifies as a CISWOMAN and is a PUREBLOOD who is known to be FEARFUL, RESENTFUL, and WEAK-WILLED but also LOYAL, ROMANTIC, and PROTECTIVE. { SAM, 24, EST, THEY/THEM }