#Elihu's been reading the morning paper

[roguepen]

More Artbreeder - Part Two

The Graves grandparents, a great aunt, Quincy, Cassandra and Elihu.

Atticus Theodore Graves- Wampus

Tall, handsome and from a well respected family, Atticus was someone who could have been anything he desired, but after getting punched in the face by a freckly Seed girl during his second week at Ilvermorny, he decided what he wanted was to knock this pint-sized egoist down to size. Which led to seven years of one of Ilvermorney’s greatest interstudent conflicts as the pair vied for the top of the class. Atticus to become an Auror like his uncle, and Ophelia to become a Healer for the acclaimed New York Hospital for Magical Maladies. The competition ended in the tie, the pair losing the valedictorian slot they had been fighting over to Armista and having to share salutatorian instead. Atticus went on to serve in active combat in the war against Grindelwald. He proposed to Ophelia after they were both done with their respective apprenticeships and home from the war. He became a dedicated and acclaimed Auror, playing a leading role in reshaping the department to be more educated on diverse magic and encouraging MACUSA to offer accreditation to smaller more traditional cultural schools in Magical America. In retirement, he travels as a lecturer and runs a cold case group with other retired Aurors, law enforcement officials and interested civilians. Over the years the group has been active, they have put 22 old cases to rest.   

Ophelia Anne Turing- Thunderbird

Small in stature but fierce like a Hidebehind, Ophelia grew up as the fourth of seven children (and the only daughter) in an apartment in a rough part of New York. Her father owned the apartment building and operated a small distillery in one of the empty rooms to make ends meet during the Depression. As a Seed, a person with nonmagical parents, Ophelia was taken from her family (who were threatened and magicked into silence by MACUSA officials) to study at Ilvermorny where she would become a top student and academic rival to a young man named Atticus Graves. She served as part of a medical detachment in the war against Grindelwald, soon fully taking charge of the station and wrote the guidebook on essential spells healers needed to know for combat care and fought to ensure that Healers also received basic combat training in defensive spells after she killed an enemy operative who tried to blow up their aid station. Ophelia’s early life created a tough, ambitious and driven woman who had an unshakable fascination with politics that she passed down to her eldest son.

Armista Rosamund Graves - Horned Serpent

Atticus' twin sister and younger by seven minutes, Armista often joked about being both the best looking twin and the one who got all the brains in the family. She joined her brother Atticus in the Auror department, serving in active combat against Grindelwald’s forces before taking over as her unit’s combat medic. After the war Armista made immense contributions to how MACUSA trains their Aurors, specifically in creating a detachment of Aurors and law enforcement who have basic medical training and teaching all Aurors about some of America’s diverse magical practices. This enactment soon playing a major role in how the department is seen today as cohesive, well-trained and incredibly well regarded for their diverse cultural acumen. She never married, but raised her cousin Benedict after his parents passing. Armista ended her career by deciding to travel the world to study magical techniques and cultures from around the world. She writes frequently to Atticus and Benedict and is currently in Nepal while writing her book.

Quintin “Quincy” Laurent Graves - Pukwudgie

Quincy is every bit the ideal Graves son, well, at least after Alex left for Europe, but he was always Atticus’ favorite grandchild. Where his grandfather is grim and serious, Quincy is a buoyant personality who is quick to smile. He has a close-knit family who did not encourage him to follow the family tradition through tales of valor and talk of familial duty, Quincy chose this dangerous profession out of compassion for others and a fascination with his grandfather’s stories of pursuit of dark wizards. He obtained the top score in combat rankings during training, which encouraged Auror Chief Temperance Hanlon to mentor him through his apprenticeship seeing a real talent she wanted to nurture. The kindness in his countenance should not be confused for weakness.

Cassandra Rhys Barebone - Pukwudgie

A quiet, ambitious Seed from a family of Scourers, Cassandra grew up hearing tales of the witchcraft that threatened America and the secret war against such unnatural monsters from her extended family. Well, unfortunately, Cassandra’s mother had a pinch of unnaturalness about her that lit something in Cassandra. Due to her unique family situation, Cassandra was removed from her family to attend school in an unusual act from Ilvermorny and MACUSA. Cassandra soon met Quincy Graves at the Sorting Ceremony and the pair struck up a friendship, soon vowing to become Aurors together a few years later. Cassandra specializes in codes and infiltration under the guidance of her mentor Auror Mankiller, that does not mean she cannot duel as she took third in combat rankings. Where Quincy is lively, Cassandra is stoic and frosty, but they understand each other in a way that cannot be understated. The pair are now engaged.

Elihu Adler Weathers - Thunderbird

A widower with a unique view on life, Elihu Weathers is half convinced his life is a joke concocted by a disturbed, petty deity. Noted for opinions that are described as both honest, intelligent and on occasion, petulant, depending on who one’s speaking with. His early years as a lawyer led him to the MACUSA Senate, a position he relinquished before his first term ended out of grief for his wife’s sudden passing, being offered the position to take charge of MACUSA’s Embassy in London as a diplomat by President Cunningham was both an act to keep him in the political sphere and one of great trust as rumors of internal strife and the potential return of a powerful dark wizard reaches international ears. His only job was to keep the President informed about the Potter situation and this job has gotten incredibly out of hand.   

[arrantsnowdrop]

A Dangerous Game - Chapter 2 (Theseus Scamander x OC series)

Prologue, Chapter 1

Summary: When Victoire McKinnon, one of the wizarding world's most proficient curse-breakers, is asked to assist and protect the Ministry of Magic's Auror Department in their crusade against Grindelwald, she finds herself stuck working with the extremely annoying, exceptionally good looking Theseus Scamander.

Warnings: swearing, mentions of violence, fighting, and blood, 2,213 words

..........

Victoire had been hired by Gringotts to work as a curse breaker immediately after the conclusion of her seventh year at Hogwarts. Her summer had been spent doing introductory work in the crypts and mausoleums in Egypt. It had been hot and physically taxing, but her best friend Anthea Barrows had also been hired, so it had been relatively pleasant.

However, after a few weeks, the goblins overseeing the site were thoroughly impressed by her abilities and leadership, and decided to transfer her to a more advanced mission at the Mahoutokoro School in Japan. Top curse breaker Elihu Castor had been assigned to break into a cursed shrine and retrieve a valuable jade statue - Victoire was more than thrilled to help.

Of course, when it came down to the mission itself, the two of them misread a series of runes and set off a series of deadly curses. Luckily, Victoire’s quick thinking and proficiency in protection charms saved both of their lives and the statue. It only took them two more weeks to locate and retrieve the rest of the set of statues.

News of their success quickly reached the wizarding world, and since then, Victoire was widely regarded as one of the top curse breakers alive (despite her young age). Now, her time was mostly divided between field work in Japan and Uganda, where she taught several courses part-time at the Uagadou School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

In short, very little of Victoire’s time was ever spent in Europe. She did, however, own a very small apartment in London for when she needed to travel home. It consisted of a bedroom, a combined kitchen and eating area, and a bathroom; space (or lack thereof) wasn’t really an issue.

Her apartment was located on the top floor of the building, and there was a large skylight above her bed. The walls were adorned with hanging plants and maps, and the floors were covered in homemade rugs she had received as gifts. The small space was smothered in memories of her travels and achievements, and she adored it.

It was just past seven in the morning. She had been woken up by the infuriating beeping of her alarm clock, and was now trying to work up the motivation to leave the comfy duvet-cocoon she had wrapped around herself.

She finally kicked her legs over the side of the bed, cringing when they made contact with the cold floor. She stood up slowly, stretching her arms over her head and yawning softly.

Victoire trudged into the kitchen, opening the refrigerator and grabbing a container of mealworms and eggs. The eggs went on the countertop next to the stove for breakfast, and the mealworms went in the beak of the hungry owl bouncing around on the island.

“You’re up rather early,” she cooed, opening the container and putting a handful of worms in a small dish. The small tawny owl chirped happily, bouncing over to his breakfast as Victoire set the bowl down.

Short-Snout had been a present from her parents on her eighteenth birthday. The small owl had been affectionately named after her favorite species of dragon, and had accompanied her on all her curse-breaking adventures so far.

She turned to the stove, cracking two eggs into a pan and whisking them around a bit before turning on the front burner and setting the pan down. It only took a few minutes for the eggs to cook through, and she slid them onto a plate before walking back into her bedroom.

She shoved a forkful of eggs into her mouth and set the plate down on the chest at the foot of her bed. She then turned to her closet, throwing on some loose black pants and a grey turtleneck.

Torquil Travers had given her a folder containing information on all of the missing wizards. She flipped the light green folder open and sat down on her bed, reaching for another bite of scrambled eggs. She’d been familiarizing herself with the information since yesterday afternoon, making note of all the possible reasons for their disappearances.

She could not deny the anxiety that was beginning to bubble within her. Of course she was fully capable of doing this job, and doing it well, but it was her partner she was concerned about. While she was fairly confident she could deal with his negative and annoying attitude (she did have two older brothers who acted quite similarly), she didn’t want it to have a negative effect on her performance. She had a pristine reputation in the eyes of both Gringotts and the Ministry of Magic, and she didn’t want Theseus Scamander to ruin that.

~~~~~

It was almost nine o’clock by the time Victoire reached the door of Theseus’s office. It had stopped raining sometime during the night, but London’s skies were still covered in a thick layer of gray clouds. In her opinion, this was perfect walking weather, and she was rather annoyed she would be spending the better part of the day so far underground.

She took a deep breath and knocked on the door, praying Theseus would be more willing to work with her today than he was yesterday.

“Come in.”

She pushed the door open slowly, peering into the rather refined looking room. It was rather intimidating looking, with dark mahogany furniture and bookshelves lining the walls.

“Well don’t just stand there,” Theseus said dryly. She glared at him pointedly, stepping into the office and closing the door behind her.

“Good morning to you, too, Mr. Scamander,” Victoire replied sarcastically, setting her bag down on the ground. She sat down in a rather comfy maroon chair in the corner of the room, putting as much space between her and Theseus as possible in the small space.

An uncomfortable silence fell upon the room, and Victoire squirmed in her seat a little. Theseus was currently preoccupied reading a lengthy looking document, loosely holding a quill in his hand and occasionally scratching  notes onto the parchment. She drummed her fingers on her leg lightly, growing rather impatient.

After what seemed like ages, Theseus straightened out the set of papers and set it off to the side of his desk.

“How are you today, Miss McKinnon?” he asked, finally looking up at Victoire with a cocky grin on his face.

“I’m alright, and you?” she said curtly.

“I’m doing quite well, thank you for asking,” he replied, still grinning.

“I’ve read through the files Travers gave me quite extensively,” she began, reaching to pull her folder out of her bag, “and I think I adequately understand each case. Which one will we be starting with, may I ask?” She opened the folder and looked up at him with an inquisitive expression.

Theseus bit his bottom lip thoughtfully, leaning back in his chair to open a drawer at the bottom of his desk. He pulled out a similar looking green folder and leafed through its contents quickly, pulling out a few sheets of paper and placing them in front of him.

“Travers wants us to sort out the Chester Street case first, since it's the oldest one to date,” he said, closing the drawer and pulling his chair closer to the desk. Victoire nodded, pulling a similar looking sheet out of her own folder.

“I’ve already come up with several possible explanations for this one in particular, but until we can visit the house itself, I won’t be able to know for sure,” she stated.

A few months ago, someone had reported a group of people congregating outside 16 Chester Street, a home that had been abandoned for several decades. Some of the descriptions provided matched those of wanted dark wizards, so Travers had sent three of his top Aurors to arrest the party on a count of trespassing.

Pembroke Mallow, Roger Grouse, and Louis Sullivan had not returned that day, or the next day, or the day after that. Further investigation found no traces of them or their targets in the house, though reportedly it seemed clear some sort of struggle had taken place.

“Travers has already given us permission to conduct investigations independently, so that won’t be a problem,” Theseus replied.

“Great, when can we go, then?” she inquired. Theseus looked at his watch.

“Honestly, I’m not really doing anything else today. We could probably go right now if we wanted,” he said.

“Oh, cool,” Victoire grinned. “Are there any, like, forms we need to fill out? I’m pretty unfamiliar with Ministry protocol for these kinds of things,” she admitted.

“We already have written permission to visit, but if we find anything of importance I can do the paperwork,” he responded.

“Well, thank you,” Victoire replied, smiling genuinely. Theseus nodded and looked back down at the papers on his desk.

“Will you really be able to figure out what happened just by looking at the house?” he asked, somewhat skeptical. Victoire gave him a confused look.

“I mean, probably,” she replied slowly, “that’s literally my whole job.”

“And what is that, exactly?”

“You go somewhere and you figure out what happened, what spells were cast, what enchantments are on the place, and then you undo them if you can,” she said, crossing her arms over her chest defensively. “Is that not what this is?”

“I mean, to an extent, but right now we're talking about saving human lives, not pieces of ancient pottery,” Theseus remarked.

“First of all, the basic procedure is essentially the same. Second, those pieces of ancient pottery offer valuable insight into the lives of past civilizations,” Victoire retorted, growing rather irritated.

“No, they offer funds for whatever organization asked you to find them in the first place,” Theseus said, standing up and grabbing his jacket off the back of his chair.

“That’s not even a valid argument- where are you going?” she asked, her aggravation evident in her voice by this point.

“Chester Street,” he replied simply. “Will you be accompanying me?” 

Victoire grumbled, reaching for her jacket as she stood up to grab his outstretched arm. She was thoroughly regretting her decision to accept this position as Theseus apparated them away.

~~~~~

It was clear the house had been abandoned for quite some time, with pieces of siding falling off and smashed in windows. It was rather austere looking, not too large or too small, and not remotely unique or exciting looking. Still, Victoire was on high alert as Theseus led the way to the front door.

The grass from the lawn had turned into thick weeds and shrubs that had overtaken what used to be the walkway. She easily made her way up the rotting front steps, with most of her professional experience being in structures that were falling apart somehow.

Theseus quickly opened the front door, cringing a little when it creaked loudly.

“The whole house is quite messy, since no one’s lived here for quite some time,” Theseus said as she walked through the doorway, “but the most turned over area is the study to your left.” 

Victoire nodded, still mad and not really wanting to talk to him unless necessary.

“That’s where they think the fighting happened,” Theseus added, closing the door behind them and pulling his wand out of his jacket.

He cast a quick lighting charm as he led them into the study, with her inhaling sharply as she took in the scene before her. 

All the furniture was turned over. Chairs and books and trinkets looked like they had been thrown across the room, and the carpet had somehow been pushed into the corner. The hardwood floor was covered in burn marks and shattered glass.

“There’s blood over here,” Theseus observed, walking over to a flipped over desk and bending over to inspect it more closely.

“It certainly looks like a fight happened,” Victoire said softly, gaze falling on the curtains that looked like they had been ripped off their rod.

She had begun to paint a picture in her head of what the fight might have looked like - someone trying to grab onto the curtains while another person dragged them across the room, someone else tearing books off the shelves and hurling them at an attacker. As she looked around, her eyes were drawn to a light blue vase standing upright on the floor in the middle of the room. Odd, considering the rest of the room looked like the aftermath of a tornado.

It seemed Theseus had also caught sight of the vase.

“How is this standing up?” he asked incredulously, reaching down to pick it up.

“Don't touch it!” she shouted, jabbing her wand in his direction. Theseus flew backwards, back hitting the wall with a loud thud.

“Ouch,” he said, grimacing as he slowly stood back up. He gave her a pointed glare as he rubbed the back of his neck

“Sorry,” she said meekly, “but we really shouldn’t touch anything, considering we don’t know what caused those Aurors to disappear.”

“Good point,” Theseus admitted reluctantly. “I’m sure in your line of work touching things can result in imminent peril.” Victoire nodded, crouching down to inspect the vase more closely.

“Isn’t it weird that in the middle of all this fighting this vase is still standing upright?” she said aloud.

“It definitely wasn’t thrown, it would’ve broken when it hit the floor,” Theseus commented, crouching down next to her.

“It’s like some put it here.” She grabbed a pen from her pocket and reached out to tap the vase lightly.

Both of them gasped as the pen vanished from Victoire’s grip. Theseus looked at the vase, then her, then back at the vase.

“What the fuck was that?” he exclaimed, standing up and backing away from the vase.

“I think it’s a vanishing spell,” Victoire muttered.

“They enchanted the vase with a vanishing spell?” Theseus asked. She nodded.

“But this is very advanced magic, I mean it’s hard enough to vanish a mouse, let alone three people,” Victoire said, flicking her wand over the vase in an intricate pattern. She nudged the vase with the corner of her sleeve and, satisfied with her jacket not disappearing from sight, picked it up.

“Are there any wizards associated with Grindelwald who could perform this level of magic?” she asked, turning around to face Theseus.

“Other than Grindelwald himself, I have no idea,” he said honestly. “Do you think this is what did it?”

“Did what?”

“Made those Aurors disappear,” he clarified, gesturing to the vase in your hands.

“Yea, I think so,” Victoire stated. “I hope I’m wrong.”

“Why?” Theseus asked, brows knitting together in confusion. “You figured it out, you’re not happy about that?”

“Theseus, if I’m right, that means we’re dealing with an extremely dangerous wizard,” Victoire stated dryly. “Furthermore, I have absolutely no clue how to un-vanish those wizards.”

“Well, what happens when you vanish something?” he asked genuinely.

“If I remember my transfiguration professor correctly, vanished objects enter a state of nonbeing,” she replied.

“What does that even mean?” Theseus groaned, rubbing the sides of his temples in frustration and messing up his already messy hair.

“I genuinely have no clue,” she said. “I think the best thing to do would be to bring the vase back to Travers and have someone sweep the area for any more objects with vanishing enchantments.”

“And then what?”

“Perhaps we could start looking at the other cases, and I’ll do some research about vanishing spells in the meantime.”

~~~~~

Victoire was once again sitting in the cushioned maroon armchair in the corner of Theseus’s office. Theseus was sitting at his desk filling out several forms about their discoveries. The vase had been entrusted to Travers.

In her lap was a large reference book of spells. She’d been pouring over it for the last hour or so, jotting down any spells that could possibly reverse the vanishing spell on a human. So far, she’d had relatively little success.

“Have you found anything interesting?” Theseus asked, setting his quill down and flexing his hand.

“The vanishing spell, evanesco, can be used to vanish animate and inanimate objects, gets more difficult to perform as the target gets more complex,” she stated, reading off her notes.

“So it would be incredibly hard to vanish a person?” Theseus asked.

“Yes, I believe so,” she replied.

“Any information on how to undo it yet?”

“Nope.”

“Fantastic,” Theseus replied sarcastically, resting his forehead on the top of his desk.

“Hey, on the bright side, we now have a good idea of what happened to those Aurors,” Victoire offered. Theseus rolled his eyes.

“And now I’m going to have to tell their families that we know what happened to them but we don’t know how to undo it, which is not going to be fun,” he retorted. Victoire frowned.

“At least they’ll have some sort of closure for the time being,” she countered, “which is better than what they’ve had up to now.”

“How do you plan on figuring this out?” Theseus asked, gesturing to your book, his head still planted firmly on his desk.

“I was going to apparate to Uagadou after this, since they have a really large library section about the history and mechanics of spells. I’ll probably be able to find some information there,” she said. “Then I was going to write to some of my colleagues and see if they have any experiences with this kind of thing.”

“I’m sure many Curse-Breakers have un-vanished people,” Theseus said flatly.

“No, but I’m sure someone has retrieved an object with a vanishing spell on it at some point, meaning there has to be a way of retrieving said object from non-being,” she replied.

“So you’re telling me that during your highly acclaimed career, you’ve never encountered a vanishing spell?” Theseus said, sitting up and cracking his neck.

“Mister Scamander, the majority of my job has been centered in Japan, where wizards traditionally hid artifacts of significant value or importance in elaborate webs of magic-based traps and devices,” she said, closing her book rather loudly for emphatic effect.

“So…”

“So no, I have not encountered vanishing spells thus far,” Victoire stated. She glared at Theseus, who was grinning with satisfaction.

“I see I’ve hit a nerve,” he replied cockily.

“Listen, I understand you have little respect for my line of work, but you can’t deny it requires at least some advanced magical ability unless you want to get yourself killed, so if you could quit alluding to the fact that I’m inept somehow I’d greatly appreciate it,” she fumed, sliding the book in her bag and standing up.

“Miss McKinnon-”

“I’ll see you tomorrow,” she interjected coldly, more than happy to slam the door on her way out.

[Tags: @littleyellowladybugg @missjockey101 @hearteyesmotherclucker @mrshazosterfield ]

A/N: Folks, it has taken me a whole heck ton of time to start writing again. I had a lot fo writer's block these past few months (school is overwhelming, lots to do, etc.), BUT currently I am on coronacation and with a little encouragement from @littleyellowladybugg , I have decided to start trying to write again. I currently am writing the next two chapters for this series (which is amazing I'm never on top of anything), and I'm gonna try to post every Thursday - hence, Thursday's will now be "Theseus Thursdays," which I think is pretty darn clever. Anyways, I really hope you like this, like/reblog/comment/follow if you want, message me or somethin’ if ya wanna be tagged, and have a marvelous day :)