#Louisa Montbane

[broomsticksandliquorice]

[death-by-perfection]

[apotiontostopemotion]

A progression of age. A cloud at the center of the earth. A view of the world unlike anyone else. A goal that matters as much as the people in her life. A dream of a child fulfilled as an adult. A family larger than her heart. A love that is her whole life. A free soul who free runs. A passion for magic that defies logic. A happiness shared by everyone she loves. A progression of Louisa Montbane.

[broomsticksandliquorice]

Artistry at its Admiration

Louisa was a surprisingly good artist considering the hell she put her hands through in duelling and Quidditch on a daily basis. Her muse however was often lacking, leading only to frustration at not being able to draw what her mind had carefully constructed.

It was the equivalent of drawing a stick figure in place of a Van Gogh and saying, look, I made a masterpiece. You’d get a slap across the back of the head for that, and that’s how she felt.  You see, she always had a trouble in the translation. Even as an amateur hobbyist, Louisa needed motivation to churn out pieces, and solid motivation that wasn't readily available to her at Hogwarts. This together made it a rather more challenging task to draw regularly; or at least that used to be case.

Five weeks before summer vacation -during the last term of upper first year- Louisa somehow found herself a new muse in the form of the incredibly gorgeous Rolanda 'Quidditch God' Hooch. And how it wasn't a thing before was laughable. The reason why being her blatant feelings for the professor since fifth year. A mix of her ungodly crush on the woman, a best friend who was, jokingly, adamant they would be married by graduation and a whole lot of spare time to think about things. God, she really was beautiful though, even after being tossed around on a broom... Quidditch God was a fitting title.

That name was Louisa's mischief doing, the student reflected smugly as she tucked a stick of graphite behind her ear. A very catchy one at that. She made the joke only once in a snarky comeback to some badly judged side-lining call in third year and it took like wildfire. All players from the Slytherin team had adopted the nickname by the end of the month.  Not one of Louisa’s best moments she might admit, but she was angry and pissed. After all, the Gryffindor beater was the one who had committed the foul against her, not vice versa, Hooch just hadn't seen it properly...

But back to the matter at hand.

Louisa’s tongue peaked out her mouth as she concentrated on smudging some of the charcoal lines into shading, inking in some areas and leaving others clear. Quidditch practise was over for the day, so it was, as usual, just her sitting by the field entrance waiting for their coach to collect the rouge balls so they could lock up the field. The rest of the team had escaped this chore favourably for early pickings over that night’s steak dinner in the Great Hall, but it wasn’t as if the beater minded.

Montbane looked up from her book to observe the professor in awe, zipping around on her broomstick like the two were a single entity, so controlled and effortlessly. Concentration softened on her face to admiration at how, she noticed, even working, the woman looked stunning. Rolanda's auburn hair danced in the gusts of wind from high above the spectator stands, flashing brightly when warm beams of sunlight caught copper ribbons. She snatched the remaining irate bludger with ease and wrestled it to the ground. Rolanda had a way with those things that was unlike Louisa had ever seen in any other player, even in the leagues.

The makeshift charcoal drawing implement was plucked free from her now ashen ear as she returned to complete the final flourishes on the piece. Satisfied, the student tucked the utensil into her pocket with the others and inspected her work.

The illustrated Hooch sat in her church-esque thrown in the flanks of the head table within the Great Hall. She was laughing in the depiction, an exceptional likeness of the woman complete with a tankard of pumpkin juice and a cringing Professor Fontayne where he always sat by her side. Louisa loved their friendship. The picture was one of her better creations in fact. Louisa hummed proudly to herself. "... And Ari said I was an amateur..." Ariadne was a joint art and transfiguration major. She did have a point, considering she obviously had a keen eye for detail. The student spent one last moment looking at the sketch before turning the protective layer on top of the easily smudged medium.

"What're you up to Montbane?" The sudden appearance of Professor Hooch startled Louisa making her blush furiously and scramble to force the sketchbook into her kit bag. The woman was the picture of curiosity, intrigued by the young witch’s little leather bound book. "Uhh, um- nothing Professor." Louisa lied through her teeth, just homework. The black behind her ear spoke for itself.

Rolanda smirked, she wouldn't admit it, but she was fond of the way the young witch always called her that, despite every chance at deformalizing the title. "Mhmm, I don’t know if I believe you."

Louisa laughed nervously, "Seriously QG, it's nothing, it's just stupid doodles and stuff for art... I'm really not that good anyway." Hooch raised an eyebrow as if to question her but Lou had already rose from her perch on the grass ledge and all but sprinted and retrieved the gate keys from where they hung by the gate during practise. "Ready?" She asked, voice an octave more stressed. The professor heaved up the storage trunk from the ground and passed one side to Louisa to lend a hand with.

"Ready." Rolanda laughed

With a nod and a puff of air compensating for the unexpected weight of the Quidditch set, Louisa shuffled through into the pathway which lead to the castle. It wasn’t the worst thin to carry, especially after years of experience with it, but god that walk back was insufferably long. The girl propped the trunk up on one raised knee as she awkwardly jammed the in to the wrought iron gate in order to lock up. After a moment of trial and error over balancing the chest, Louisa’s concentration face was back with vengeance. To this, Rolanda laughed endearingly, she happily assisted the girl by taking on the greater strain of the case.

A back aching ten minutes later, finally at the main entrance where the pair usually went their separate ways, Hooch took on the full trunk and thanked the young witch for her service. Louisa grinned and told her that it was really nothing (as she always did) before making a move to join her friends for dinner. This time, however, she was stopped dead in her tracks when she felt the Quidditch trunk bump softly into her back. Expecting the professor to be struggling, Lou turned immediately and caught the edge of the storage, only to see Rolanda Hooch completely fine, expectant and smiling. "Can I help you with anything else QG?" The student enquired, perplexed but more so cheery to be spending more time with the woman.

"You're a good artist Lou, don't kid yourself." Rolanda tipped her head to the girl's kit bag. "I'd really like to see in that someday."

Louisa ears near about glowed red with embarrassment, "Ummmm- Yeah.” She agreed in a stammer. “Someday, Quidditch God... See you in the hall."

"Wouldn't miss it."

[broomsticksandliquorice]

Magical Pest Patrol

This was, in retrospect, probably the most idiotic moment the two girls had shared in their ten years of having known each other. A solution yes, but a good one?

 "Hold on! That doesn't fit there!" Astrid punctuated in a panicked state. Her voice would have been almost entirely rivalled by the sound of several thousand angry doxies swarming around the two twenty-somethings if it weren’t for its high frequency and pitch matching their tiny wings. Stressed and wound-up tight. Emotions were high between the pair, and were tempting a freak out at any second if at least one could not solve the problem at hand. To put it briefly, some poor unwitting tourist or native, rediscovering London, had disturbed a considerably large nest of grudge holding violent pixies, in attempt to take out money from an ATM. It had angered the doxies, who had until that point, rather enjoyed their new residence, and had unleashed their fiery rage upon him and the entire street. Now the man lay with a layer of hives and sting welts over the majority of his body, being subsequently hoisted off by a large ministry worker to have his memory wiped and his body healed. Louisa shivered at the thought, but maintained her belief that the fairly sized vile of potion from Potions Master Mills could realistically fit into the envelope dispenser of the cash-point. It could work, right? Of course it could.

 Astrid swatted her hands out of the way where they had been incessantly jabbing at the tiny buttons to open an ATM port, alarming the auror’s dog companion who began to loudly bark and no doubt attain attention from streets away. No she didn’t want to file a cheque, she wanted to file the damn potion. Louisa reflexively growled but stomped away from the fowl contraption. Instead, she commanded the wolf-hound away and relinquished to fending off the swarming creatures with every legal offensive curse she knew. "What do you mean, it doesn't fit there? That's the only place it can fit!" Lou cawed over her shoulder, distracted just enough to be the victim of a razor sharp claw, tearing the delicate flesh of her face like a paper cut on steroids. The redhead was beyond unamused, and now- well, she was being subjected to increasing levels of pain as each strike befell her and not the protected blonde. She took in a strong, deep breath, causing her nostrils to flare out through the shear frustration. "What else are we gonna do?! Ask it nicely to, please, eat this fucking bottle. Az, it's a Neanderthal muggle toy. The most it can do is- OW!-“ another malicious attack. “-give me worthless money!"

 "Don't you think I already know that!?" Astrid confronted the auror with a look of urgent exasperation, she waved around the potion bottle in her hand, frothing it. They were truly at a loss for what to exactly do with it now, ‘Plan A through D’ were completely useless. If Astrid wasn’t so peripherally aware of her surroundings, the only remaining solution to their problem would have cleverly flew away with the hive-mind of the biting pixies as one attempted to snap it away from the blonde. Louisa, unbelieving, pointed to her hand and then fought the urge to snatch it away before, now dumfounded, she watched her friend physically punch the pixie from the air and back a fair few metres with her unoccupied hand. Damn, Lou gawked. The thought that Maescia was going to kill Astrid, was clearly deep set in the potion apprentice’s mind, and an army of evil bloody fairies in muggle territory, was also painfully and obviously a good enough reason for bringing violence to her surface. Astrid cringed, rubbing her knuckles but regardless, went back to her quickened attempts at prying open the machine.

 In the flurry of adrenaline, the blonde had completely missed Louisa, regaining her notion of purpose and shifting effortlessly into her animagus form; as Az liked to call it, a big, grey, hella’ angry wolf. And now it had a temper so great it was near terrifying if you didn’t know it was the lovable goofball underneath. With the looming fate of demotion in her department, it was apparent this too, for Louisa, was a good enough cause for any nosy muggle to witness her transformation abilities. The witch’s companion, Totem, a similarly coloured canine, followed his owner in aggressively plucking mouthfuls of creatures from the swarm and viciously ripping them from side to side.

 "Uh- good job... Dog?" Astrid grimaced. “But I um- it wouldn’t...” The pair bared their teeth in thanks, a gruesome sight considering the emerald blood. Wolf Lou, further acknowledged the potions apprentice with a puff of breath before she continued on her bloody trail to thin the numbers attacking them. “... I can’t find a way to-... You know what... Fuck it!” Astrid took from their continued violence that she was alone in figuring out the rest of the puzzle, which wasn't exactly the best news of the day considering they were on a time constraint, or the actual case. No, you know what, she acknowledged, they had used up that time constraint, and were now royally boned as screams broke out around the pair in reaction to both the swarm and the two grizzly wolves that were hunting the aforementioned swarm on the streets of London.

 Astrid frantically prodded the little red, yellow and green buttons as if it were a ciphered code, by this point trying absolutely anything; then, when that didn’t work, she 'attempted' a charm on the machine’s locking system which resulted in a fast stream of cash firing out the ATM’s little slot like water from an Aguamenti Spell.

 "Great! Regina is going to kill me!” The girl exclaimed. “It's my third week on the job, you know Louisa. I was supposed to just be delivering this to the ministry, but no, it would be fun you said, come on an adventure with me, you said. God! I'm going to be fed to the bores. And Mother's probably going to kill me too and I don't even want to think about-" The wolf howled, the noise akin to human laughter. Maescia was really going to be on the war path considering she was the ministry head of experimental magic... And they were failing at it miserably. "I'm glad you find it so funny!"

 Astrid shielded her face from the little green bills and pushed on, trying to convince herself that they were in no way inhibited by this little development. After all, it was her self-appropriated mission to press every button combination available, because they had not taught her about this blasted device in muggle studies, god damnit!  "What do I do? Just throw it at it?" The blonde was testing this theory out when a hand, marred with an incomprehensible amount of tiny cuts, joined her and wrapped around her own, smashing their closed fists through the machine's lowest port, thanks to the help of a little magic. Remarkably, the metal gave way with no resistance, like a piercing hot poker into plastic.

It was no news to Astrid that Louisa had returned to being human, and without really having to look back, she felt that the auror was now practically blanketed around her herself as they attempted what Lou coined to be reckless incarnate. And it worked... Basically. "Worth a try!" The redhead gritted. The potion vile shattered upon contact and rapidly seeped, almost sentient into the machinery and subsequently over the hive of doxy that had formed within. It was a repellent of sorts.

 The ATM emitted a high pitch alarm, signalling its destruction and a blasted a heavy plume of thick, deep red smoke from its ‘mouth’. The muggle invention, was clever and apparently now consuming both the now useless hunk of metal self and the witches who were still elbow deep inside its inner workings. Nightingale and Montbane burst back in disgust, gagging and spluttering from the sour taste and odour the muggle technology vengefully thanked them with. They withdrew their hands from the new fist-shaped hole like it was a fire and fell back together in shock, intertwined and tumbling back and over the low pavement boundary. Muggles nil, magic one!

Astrid was first to look away and to her friend, who was busied with calling for her missing companion, disappeared after the initial alarm. Louisa was now stained from head to toe by a rusty red smear of ash, or was it stained? She really hoped it wasn’t permanent. "Was that a force charm you just used?" Astrid pondered. “Like, from ‘Merlin’s writings’ force charm?”

 Lou grinned, although still somewhat preoccupied. "In the flesh~ the big bad boss just taught me it the other day."

 Threat corrected, Nightingale, in a similarly red predicament to the auror, became more casual in her approach to her childhood friend. "Nice. Very effective." She coughed and dust cascaded down her shoulders with the abrupt movement. A no-nonsense 'Mhm' was all the thanks Astrid received for this compliment however. By the time the situation had been successfully corrected and the hive had evacuated from the ATM, countless brave muggles had gathered to ogle the strange looking girls and were in the revelling in snapping photographs of the scene with their silly little mobile call devices.

"So are you going to obliviate them or am I?" The potions apprentice quipped in a low whisper. Her voice loud enough only for the ministry employee to hear. "Because I might explode their heads considering my ‘talent’ with charms... And to be honest, I don't know what else I can realistically convince them this was, except a freak beehive incident... in a currency dispenser..."

 They were pest controllers seemingly in this scenario.

 Upon this revelation, a rumbling bark signalled the return of Totem to Louisa’s delight. He had apparently gone chasing the creatures away from public sight in attempt to please his owner. With this excellent news under her belt, an exceptionally more settled Louisa retrieved her wand and slowly, as to not distress any of the muggles more than necessary, even more carefully enchanted their memories with Astrid’s little white lie. She had to except that a bad lie was better than none after all.

 So there they sat, after the almighty worst day so far in their respective careers, but maybe the most entertaining, waiting for the A-OK from Louisa’s boss and the mythical goddess Regina Mills. The impromptu meeting called soon after the events regarded their unorthodox approach to clearing up that day’s fiasco, leaving the two young women to stew, looking more like soon to be sentenced criminals than the saviours they were. Astrid was adamant she shouldn’t have been caught up in it and Louisa was mildly offended that Tricia hadn’t stopped her from suggesting it in the first place.

 She was the first to laugh however. “Guess you could say we bumbled through that one,” The auror poorly joked. She didn’t even attempt to address her friend head on as the potioneer drummed her fingers out exasperatedly on the metal grating of their bench. Astrid’s reaction was undoubtedly the same it always was each and every attempt Louisa made at trying to be funny.

 "Don't try to be cool." The blonde snapped, but she did however smile, thanking her comic relief.

 "Oi, Can’t give a girl points for trying. They do have our backs in there, I promise. And I mean, bee positive, at least we’re still al-hive." Louisa was sharply struck on the shoulder for that one, a precise motion and something which just screamed Maescia. “Hey! Hey~ Quit it... Buzz kill, you’re not your mother.” The auror heard her friend audibly groan and grinned proudly. “I can’t beelieve-“

 “For the love of god, please stop!”

[broomsticksandliquorice]

//Winter Affection// - @broomsticksandliquorice

[broomsticksandliquorice]

//A Progression of Age//

A cloud at the center of the earth. A view of the world unlike anyone else. A goal that matters as much as the people in her life. A dream of a child fulfilled as an adult. A family larger than her heart. A love that is her whole life. A free soul who free runs. A passion for magic that defies logic. A happiness shared by everyone she loves. A progression of Louisa Montbane.

-written and created by @apotiontostopemotion

[broomsticksandliquorice]

If You Weren’t so Hard to Love

"Well if you just followed my play in the first place like I asked you to- instead of going off on a free for all, you wouldn't have been hit in the first place!" Roland chased Louisa down the courtyard passageway furiously.

 She was hell bent on whisking her away to a more private location in the castle to have this serious talk about rebellious behaviour, but it was like trying to communicate with a brick wall... A muggle one. The professor's hands waved wildly around in emphasis as she reprimanded the pissed off beater. "Get back here right now, kid!" It was like each word carried the bite of a basilisk, even with the residual worry still making her heart course with adrenaline. Hooch was more livid than she had ever been with Louisa in her seven years teaching.

 Three feet away and constantly out of reach, Lou was nearly exploding with frustration herself. However, unlike her superior, she was near white with dread concerning her words and was suffering from an ungodly cramping in her chest and stomach. She'd had quite enough of people overlooking the attempts at help she had been making, none the less successful attempts.

 "Oh, well-!" She guffawed, "I'm so sorry I got hurt on your watch, it's not like I didn't actually save Shawna to catch the snitch or anything! You know what? I probably stopped her from getting bleedin' head trauma the way that thing had been directed at her!!" The Slytherin turned sharply on heel to point accusingly at the Quidditch Professor. The impact of her words were weakened somewhat as her turn revealed that her eyes were watering with pained tears but they were harsh and unapologetic regardless. "I did it for the game. I might have broke something. So. What? I'm alive..." Of course Louisa knew she had done wrong, she was physically shaking as she shouted back each chance she got, but she knew. That did not mean she wouldn't go down without a fight. "Throw me in detention, go ahead, take points away for my house after an absolute landslide win."

 Rolanda was in disbelief. The witch rooted her hands to her hips and her voice raised. "Don't you dare take it that way! I'm not the bad guy here!"

 Louisa squawked indignantly. "Well neither am I!"

 A group of first years passed them in a scurry as the fight escalated; they looked petrified of the quarrelling student and teacher and one even dropped their books and had to dive down to scramble them up as he tried to stealthily get by. Professor Hooch puffed out her cheeks and lowered her voice to a warning hush given this reaction, she stepped closer to the redhead and placed a hand firmly on her small bicep, attempting both to calm Louisa but also to prevent her timely escape. The Slytherin jerked abruptly at this contact but remained a sturdy presence with her jaw clenched. A few tears had already spilled down her cheeks which made the whole situation that more painful, not to mention she was vibrating with an untapped agony. Ashamed, Lou had been determined not to cry. She turned her head from Hooch and glared at a sun withered bench.

 "Louisa, you could have been hurt badly..."

 The student knew this very well, in fact in putting herself in between the bludger and Slytherin's adored seeker, she had actively accepted the possibility of a short trip to Madame Pomfrey's, even a long one. The ideal of keeping her team in the competition for the season cup and more so protecting her friend, was at least to her, a good enough reason as any for such knee jerk impulsivity. "Oh? So no Niffler this time? Jesus!" Louisa defended. "- Must have killed someone." She made a bid to storm away but was snared by Rolanda's hand enclosing around the arm.

 "Louisa!" Rolanda exclaimed. She looked around upon hearing a timid scream to see an alarmed first year pupil exiting a nearby classroom. A little cloaked Slytherin with messy black hair and a tiny little kitten. She eyed him with a glare by mistake and cringed when he took off down the corridor with a high-pitched 'Sorry!'.

 "... man, that was Lightwood." The younger of the pair sighed, rubbing a hand on her neck. "He's only just build up enough confidence to talk to people."

 "Don't bring the boy into this, Montbane."

 "Rolanda, it was just a bludger not a bomb!" She pulled up her quidditch sweater to show a yellowing bruise smack bang in the middle of her torso as if it were nothing. The quidditch professor's eyes widened in horror, she was quick to try and tend to the girl but retracted her fingers when the shear stupidity of Montbane's actions overcame her. The woman tugged down her top to cover her modesty, eyes wide. "I'm a bit bruised up, that's all, don't overreact."

 "I'm your professor and your-! -- It's my job to worry, Merlin's beard! If you weren't so stubborn! You make it so hard to love you."

 The pair were struck down with a deathly silence, the elephant in the room finally plowing into them like a ten tonne steam train. Louisa was lost for words, rather unbelieving of the whole thing really, because Quidditch God had definitely not just said she loved her. She hadn't, had she? By the look of fear in the latter's face, it was very clear that this actually was the case.

 .... "You love me?"...

 Roland squeezed her eyes shut and rubbed both her temples with a spread hand. The last few minutes replayed over and over in her mind. "...Yeah, I did." She said almost disbelievingly.

 "Wow." Lou took a moment to answer. "So... you love me?"

 "I know. I mean- it's the craziest thing ever... I could get fired or-"

 A grin softened Lou's angry features. "I love you too."

 The tiniest smile Rolanda had ever made crept onto her fretting lips. Her head then tilted heavenward and when she came back a grin had replaced it. "...Niff..."

 "Zip it... I'm still angry with you." Louisa laughed.

 "Shut it, loser."