#magicapandora

[missnight0wl]

OMG I TOTALLY SPACED OUT BUT HAPPY LATE BIRTHDAY DUDE 😭💕🎊🎉🎁

Thank you so much, Blake! 💖🤗😄

[nicos-oc-hell]

Who’s Goddamn White Uncle Is That?

Inspired by a conversation @rosachaotic, @magicapandora and I had back when the hphm MC’s dad was revealed and since I already had established dads for my ocs, i made him one of the many uncles that are in an Italian mafia family. This story is an expanded/continuation of what I had originally posted on here.

Summary of the series: In the forest in 6th year when Rakepick ambushes Barnaby, Dimitri, Rowen and Rowan, Rowan takes the spell that was meant for Rowen and falls into a coma. Follow Dimitri as he tries to get his magic back as it was stripped from him when his uncle, Arthur, came and gave Dumbledore permission to put magic dampeners on him. It’s a wild ride, Arthur & Dumbledore are pieces of shit, Dimitri stoops very low to get his magic back and hurts others in the process.

French is in bold italics, Thoughts are in italics

It was like time was moving in slow motion when a green spell shot out towards Rowen Khanna from the tip of Patricia Rakepick’s wand. Without hesitation Rowen’s twin sister, Rowan Khanna, and his best friend, Dimitri Di Angelo, both went separate ways. Dimitri tackled Rakepick to the ground while Rowan managed to tackle her brother to the ground. The two of them were laying on the ground for a few moments before Dimitri picked his head up with a huge grin on his face as he was listening out for Rowen’s heartbeat.

“Thank god, you are ok my friend.” Dimitri’s smooth accent came out with a slight strain as Rakepick was struggling beneath him. He muttered his own spell and Rakepick was suddenly not moving any more. The smile dropped off of his face with a cock of his head as saw that Rowen did not share the same look as him but rather one of sorrow. “Roe? Are you alright?”

Dimitri quickly noticed that two of the five heartbeats in the clearing were steady as if the people weren’t just in a battle. He knew one was Rakepick as he had magically knocked her unconscious but he couldn’t identify who the second one was. Dimitri quickly scrambled to his feet and rushed over to where the twins were still on the ground. He quickly turned Rowan over so she was no longer face down on Rowen and immediately started looking for the source of the glassy look and slow heartbeat.

A lot happened at once, Dimitri and Barnaby were panicking over Rowan not responding to any stimuli while Rowen was trying to slap Rakepick awake. “Wake up! Wake the hell up! Dimitri, cancel the damn spell!” Smoke was starting to rise out of Rakepick’s clothes from where Rowen was gripping her robes. Barnaby ran over to Rowen and yanked him up off of Rakepick while sending sparks up into the air to alert anyone who was near. Rowen immediately starts struggling against Barnaby trying to get back to trying to set Rakepick on fire.

“Calm down, Rowen!” Barnaby shouted while twisting Rowen’s arms behind his back.

“Calm down?! CALM DOWN?! She did something to my sister and she will pay for it!” Rowen started to breathe very heavily with sparks coming out of his hands from his magic starting to get out of control. Suddenly his heartbeat dropped back to its normal pace, his head dropped down and he became dead weight from the quick spell Dimitri threw his way.

Dimitri turned around with Rowan in his arms and casted Leviosa on Rakepick’s body, he motioned for Barnaby to stand up with Rowen then walked away to the path back to Hogwarts.

Dimitri sat next to Rowan passed out while holding her hand in a tight grip pushing as much of his sun flames as he could. He was passed out for about a good hour before Snape had come and dragged him out of the Hospital Wing so that he could go to class. It was futile as Dimitri passed out in the middle of charms class as he had basically drained his magical core in the short two hours, he was with Rowan in the Hospital Wing.

A short while later, Dimitri woke up to low voices talking above him. He slowly opened his eyes and hissed at the bright light that hit his eyes the second he had opened them. He put his forearm over his eyes and noticed the tube in his arm after it had touched his face. “1, why is there a tube in my arm? 2, when did I get here?” Dimitri asked, taking his arm off of his face and sat up while rubbing his eyes.

Snape turned his head towards Dimitri then flicked his eyes up to above Dimitri’s head. “You’ve been here for about two hours. This is why you don’t overexert your magic, Mr. Di Angelo. It is a very dangerous thing especially for two hours straight.” Dimitri glared over at Snape with a quick sarcastic smile, he took the offered glass of water from Dumbledore and sniffed the drink before he took a sip of it. “The tube is to get fluids into your bloodstream as we can’t force anything down your throat.” Dimitri instinctively tilted his head to the side with an amused smile and Snape glared at him as soon as he noticed it.

Dimitri started looking around the room before his eyes landed on an unfamiliar face, “Who in the hell is that?” He asked, nodding his head towards the tall blonde man behind Snape. Dumbledore stepped in front of the blondie and Dimitri immediately rolled his eyes at the fact that Dumbledore was now in his direct line of sight.

“Dimit-”

“Mr. Di Angelo” Dimitri injected before Dumbledore could get the rest of his name out. “If you’re gonna lecture me, I’d rather you not try and sound like my disappointed nonno while you do it.”

He noticed the tick in Dumbledore’s jaw before he spoke again, “Mr. Di Angelo, what you did was not only dangerous but it could have lasting effects on not only your magical core but also your body. You need to realize that your actions have cons-” Dumbledore was cut off again by Dimitri rolling his eyes and moving his hand in a way a child does whenever they are mocking someone behind their back. Dimitri silently yanked the tube out of his arm and slashed his arm in a way where the person it was directed at would be pushed out of the way by a gust of air. That is when he finally noticed the metal cuffs on his wrist with the lack of a chain between them.

Dimitri opened his mouth but no words came out as he tried to put together while he had cuffs on. He let out a little laugh before he turned his attention back to Dumbledore, “Sir with all the disrespect in the world, don’t try to fucking lecture me on the fact that I’m trying to help my friend, whom as you may notice, “ He mumbled something underneath his breath that faintly sounded like probably not you useless sack of shit, “is in a coma. I don’t particularly care about ‘potentially damaging my magical core’ if it means that I can see my friend make it out of her coma.” He pointed at the man who had side stepped Dumbledore and was staring at Dimitri as if he had seen a ghost.

“You have quite the mouth on you young man.”

Dimitri held his hand out and just stared at Snape with his head fully tilted to the side. “Why has nobody answered my question on who the random white man is! He’s looking at me like it’s the first time he’s seen me in decades.” The man had finally stepped forward to introduce himself and held his hand out towards Dimitri, who just stared at the hand until the man retracted.

“My name is Arthur, I’m your uncle and your father has sent me to look after you while you recover as I’m the only one who can use wizard magic.” The man, Arthur, stated with a tight smile as he waited for the explosive reaction he was guaranteed was going to happen from the look on Dimitri’s face. Yet Dimitri just scoffed and rolled his eyes while muttering something underneath his breath. “Per your father’s request, I am to stay here until you are able to be by yourself.”

“You mentioned my father…which one are you referring to when you say that? Giotto or Sora?”

The man hesitated for a second because he wasn’t aware that the boy considered both of the brothers as his father. “Uh Giotto?”

“That man is not my father and you will not refer to him as such. He is a disgrace to the family. Also,” He turned his head back to Snape and Dumbledick who were standing next to each other watching their interaction, “This is a white man. A WHITE man, now while both my father and uncle look white they are in fact asian with a quarter of white in them, this man could not possibly be my uncle. My dad’s side of the family is Asian and Italian, he sounds like a fucking American. I know Hogwarts has some pretty shitty security but honestly you should’ve spotted this shit from a mile away.” Dimitri threw his hands in the air with an exasperated look on his face. He looked back at Arthur in disgust and muttered something underneath his breath that only Snape could hear as he was standing directly above him.

Arthur's jaw was clenched by the time Dimitri had finished his rant about him being a white American. He walked over to Dimitri, leaned down and started to whisper something in French in his ear. “Just because I am an adult, it does not mean I won’t smack the everloving shit out of you and make you have the face only a mother could love. I may be an American, I may be white but you will treat me with the respect that you show the others in the family. You hear me, Boy?” Dimitri just raised an eyebrow before he turned away from the man with a muttered you smell like onions and garlick. “You are a little shit, you know that right. Giotto should have raised you better than this.”

Dimitri pushed himself up off the bed and shoved past Dumbledore who was trying to stop him from leaving. He ignored the shouts from Dumbledore and Snape while walking up the stairs, if it was a cartoon, he would have steam rising out of his ears from how angry he was.

[hphmmatthewluther]

Back By Midnight: Operation BULLSEYE - Part 2/4:

The first chapter can be found here!

Taglist of peeps who might be interested (lemme know if you want to be added or removed!): @akaisenhatake​ @camillejeaneshphm​ @catohphm​ @fangirl-screaming​ @rosachaotic​ @ag907​ @nikyiscreepy​ @oseathepebble​

(contains violence, death, and use of guns)

Also, this story features a brief cameo from a character of @camillejeaneshphm 's, and the name for the WIW in this version of events comes from @magicapandora !

Two hours until midnight. That was the time limit that was bouncing through Matthew’s (now Agent Moon’s) mind as he approached the building. He willed himself not to look at the road as a white minivan drove by, taking a corner further down the road, adjusting the silver bracelet on his right wrist. This was the only thing on him that hadn’t been from Bill. He’d even asked about it, and Matthew explained that it was something he just wore for good luck and protection, not that it ever seemed to work..

“Not bad, New Moon. Most people on their first mission tend to look at the surveillance devices a little too much.” Agent Gaia said over the earpiece, a little muffled by the sound of traffic.

“Focus on the road, Gaia, I’m the one running interference!” Agent Terra exclaimed, Matt expecting to hear frantic keyboard typing, but only getting a few clicks here and there.

“Alright, you’re past the ID machine. Like Gaia said, it’s on the 28th floor, so you’ll need to make your way up unnoticed…which is exactly why you’re going in via the car park.”

Matthew darted around the side of the building, risking a look up at it. It was 30 stories tall, all of which was owned by Reflection International, as evidenced by the giant logo he was standing under.

From his own investigations, while they had never done anything illegal, there is certainly a lot of criticism for their practices, be it extreme markups of life-saving medicines, ruthless buying of patents, as well as lobbying governments. Still, as he approached the entryway of the car park, he found himself wondering just what a company like this could be hiding that required the murder of multiple Intelligence Personnel.

Before he went any further, he heard a door open within the car park. Ducking low, he shuffled forward until he had a good view. Out of the door came two figures: a woman with ginger hair and a suit, and behind her was a man who looked familiar. He was tall, with dark black hair, and was wearing a striking white suit.

“That’s…” Matt said under his breath, “...the guy who Bill talked to today. The executive.”

“Well spotted.” Terra confirmed. “That’s Ryuji Ketseuki, Vice Executive for Reflection International. Rose up through the ranks to become one of the youngest business executives of all time. Apparently they call him the “Wizard in White”. Blech.”

Matthew watched as the woman opened the door of an expensive-looking car and sat in the driver’s seat, Ketseuki getting in the back of the car, the engine soon roaring to life.

“Now’s your chance, Agent Moon. Wait for the right moment…” Terra said, as the car park shutters slowly opened. Ketseuki’s car rolled out and turned towards the main road, as the shutters started to close again. Taking a deep breath, he went for it, scampering a little to get his whole body past the shutters before they…well, shut.

“I’m in.” Matt said, allowing himself to smile.

“So am I.” Terra chuckled, as Matthew heard a few more clicks. “Since your earpiece is now inside the building, there’s way fewer checks on it than a computer outside it. Should help me delete any footage of you snooping around. Alright, get going.”

Taking a moment to breathe, Matthew set off up and out of the car park, towards the fire exit stairs. He’d have to make it across the reception of the building before he could get to the higher floors. Considering he was carrying several tools of espionage as well as a gun, he was slightly afraid of being seen as suspicious. Still, he figured, it was about the same anxiety he had when walking outside normally. He breathed in. He took a first step. He breathed out. A man in a business suit walked across a reception, past another giant Reflection International logo. It was 10:10pm.

“Wow, you’re a natural! You don’t look suspicious at all! No wonder M- er, Bill chose you!”

Finally, Matthew was able to slip past the crowd until he was near the lift and the stairs (he frowned at how the sign called it an elevator)

“Now, there’ll be cameras in the lift, not to mention other people, so your safest bet is probably the stairs, but keep the lifts in mind if you need to get somewhere else fast.” Terra pointed out. “It happens sometimes that the best way to get out of a sticky situation is to just - CAREFUL GAIA WATCH THE ROAD-”

Matthew stifled a laugh as he started to climb up the stairs. Through the windows of the doors, it looked like most people had gone home for the day, with half of the corridors being pitch black. Still, Matthew kept on guard, and it would just be his luck that when he got to the 28th floor he would find that a single light was on.

“Pants.” Matthew said, bluntly.

“I’m checking the cams now, hang tight.” Terra assured him, seemingly recovered from whatever Gaia had been up to. “Man, it’s like they want the data to be deleted easily, this is child’s play…ok! Yeah, looks like someone’s in there with the ID machine, but they aren’t working on it, which is good news.”

“I’m guessing the bad news is I’ll need to go in with him and pray he doesn’t smell a rat.”

“He kind of looks like a rat.” said Gaia, off-handedly, “hold on, Terra, gotta overtake here.”

“Gaia! That’s really rude!...Look, reporting you is probably the last thing this guy wants to do. Just act natural, be nice, and there’s no reason to worry!”

“I suppose…” Matt said to himself, pinching the bridge of his nose. He checked his watch, and found that it was almost 10:30pm. He just hoped he had enough time to get this done. He couldn’t waste any more time. He had do right by Bill. Steeling himself, he opened the door labelled “Floor 28 - Research Division” and walked forward, not flinching when the corridor lights came on.

“Seems like the guy noticed the lights came on.” Terra informed Matt. He showed no reaction and kept walking until he came to the door.

“Should I knock?” he whispered.

“It would be polite.” Terra admitted. Shrugging to find a counter-argument, Matthew knocked thrice.

“C-Come in!” Matthew slowly pushed open the door, and glanced at the other person in the room. He tried to keep his face still. He kind of did look like a rat, just a little. He looked around the same age as Matt was, with short blonde hair and largeish blue eyes. He also, somehow, looked more nervous than Matthew normally did.

“C-Can I help you?” he asked nervously. Matt took a glance at the name on the desk. Ben Copper.

“Oh, no worries.” Matt reassured him, “I’m from the IT team. Mr Ketseuki asked me to do some work on one of the prototypes here.”

Ben’s face looked a little less nervous. “Oh, right, go ahead then, I-I was just burning the midnight oil really, had some work I needed to get done, that kind of thing…”

Matthew nodded and smiled softly, and Ben gave a nervous smile in return. With that, he was free to examine the rest of the room. There were monitors and computers here and there, as well as a few larger devices.

“There! By the window! You can’t see me pointing, but I am!” Terra said suddenly. Matt walked over, leaning over it. It was smaller than Matthew had been expecting, about the size of a home radio, with a circular screen on the left and a variety of buttons to the right.

“Brilliant work, Agent Moon. But we can’t just take it off of the table. There’s likely to be a tracking device in it somewhere that you’ll need to remove first.”

Matt made sure Ben couldn’t see his face before he winced. Of course it couldn’t be that simple. It never was for him, after all. He reached into his jacket’s pocket and took out the Swiss Army Knife. On closer inspection, he saw that it was decorated with a variety of constellations, the one standing out the most being that of Hercules.

“The device should be under the screen.” Terra explained, as more typing was heard, “you should be able to use one of the blades to pry it open.”

Matthew began to flick through the many utilities the knife had before finding one that seemed suitable for pulling up the screen. Slowly, he slid the blade underneath and pushed down. There was a click, and the screen was half-off of the machine, still connected by wires. Now all Matthew had to do was figure out what a tracking device looked like, and pick it out.

“Wait.” Terra said, Matthew picking up on the nerves in his voice. “...Don’t look up. Don’t even try to, just keep your eyes on the machine, and don’t say a word.” Matthew did as he asked, though felt the overwhelming urge to do the exact opposite as curiosity filled him. That curiosity vanished with Terra’s next sentence. “There’s a sniper trained on your chest from the building opposite.”

Matthew felt that fear wash over him. It was the same one he’d felt when the floor had caved in earlier in the day. Alarm bells were ringing in his head as his hands hovered over the machine. It couldn’t get worse than this, right?

Turns out, once more, his luck would once again kick him in the shin. “Hey,” Ben began, “Mr Ketseuki…he’s not upset that work had to be done on the prototype, right? I’d hate to think…” 

As much as Matthew floundered when it came to smalltalk, he somehow found it in himself to respond. “No, no, of course not. One of the others apparently flagged a small issue that needed outside fixing, so…here I am.”

“Right, right…thank goodness, that’d be the last thing I want, especially with a prototype as important as that.” Ben said, sighing in relief.

Matt found himself slightly more at ease, which was odd considering the circumstances. “Important? Is there a time frame on when this has to be ready by?”

“Oh, I’m not too sure. Apparently it’ll help with our global network, making the data a lot easier to find quickly.”

“I see…” Matt nodded, trying not to change his expression. Strangely enough, Matthew didn’t think he was lying, merely misinformed, which put even more questions into his head and almost distracted him from the knowledge that a gun was pointed at him.

“You’ve got to get that device out of the machine, quick.” Terra ordered. “Once you’ve done that, we can be a little more…loud, so to speak.”

Trying not to look conspicuous, Matthew put his finger under the screen to stop it falling back into place. Switching the knife over, he discovered a pair of tweezers within. Reaching in as slowly as possible, he found a small red circle that stuck out like a sore thumb on the green circuitry. Taking a breath, he pried it off of the circuit, seeing that the reverse of it had Reflection’s logo on it: A lone snake wrapped around a staff, with it’s tongue sticking out. Cautiously, he pulled the component out, making sure it remained behind the screen until he was able to drop it on the counter in front of him. Allowing himself to smile, he returned the tweezers to the Swiss Army Knife, returning the screen of the ID machine to its proper place.

“Nice one, but…looking at the corridor cam, you have another problem coming towards you…I guess the sniper tipped him off.” Terra sighed. As if on cue, there was a knock at the door. Ben clutched his chest in shock.

“Who’s in there?!” barked a low, gruff voice, the owner of whom banged on the door again. “Get out here now!”

Ben looked at Matt, confused. Matt merely shrugged, as if he was as confused as Ben was. “W-What’s going on?!” he asked, the fear in his voice palpable.

“Security alert!” he replied, not showing any sympathy. “We know there’s an intruder in there. Out, now!” Ben stammered over his words, confused, and so Matt took over.

“It’s just us two! We haven’t heard anything about a security alert-”

“Shut up! You’re both a threat as far as I’m concerned! Now open the door before I kick it open!”

Matt remained where he was, and motioned the panicking Ben to stay put too. He placed a hand over the ID machine, waiting for a voice in his earpiece. After a few long, long seconds, he heard Gaia.

“Got a plan to get you out of this, but you’ll need to hurry. I’m coming up to the road between you and that sniper. When you hear the signal, drop down and take the machine with you. You’ll know it when you hear it, trust me.” she reassured him.

“I’m trying to get into their radio feed too, should help you get past this guy.” Terra added, as Matthew heard the van screech. “Get ready.”

Ben looked at him again, confused. Matt smiled, his eyes going back to the window. He dared not look at the building opposite, instead at the road. He watched as a white minivan sped up the road, before its horn blared out as loud as possible. Thankfully, Matthew was smart enough to know a signal when he heard one, and pulled the ID machine off the table and ducked to the floor.

Ben yelped as several bangs were heard, many from the door and one from the window. Matthew quickly scanned his environment: A bullet hole now marked the glass, with a few shards having fallen nearby. Ben had crawled under his desk, where he would hopefully be safe, and that guard was still trying to get through the door. What that meant, thankfully, was that he could talk aloud to his fellow agents again. “I’ve got to get past that guard. I can get to the door without being seen by the sniper, but once I do that guard will shoot me point blank.”

Terra cleared his throat, which crackled through the earpiece. “Right, right…sorry, a lot of people were beeping back at us. If you look through your pockets you should find a bunch of cuboid thingies with keyrings. You’ll want the grey and white one.”

Matt did as instructed, holding it in his hand. The word that came to mind as a result of the keyring was grenade, but that would draw far too much attention, which meant…

“This is a flashbang, right?” Matthew asked, as the guard outside resorted to kicking at the door, Ben continuing to whimper from under his desk.

“Well observed. Yeah, you’ll need to pull the keyring and toss it up at him. And make sure to look away. Here, I’ve got through to their radio line, have a listen:” There was some more static, and other voices could be heard. “Don’t worry, they can’t hear us.” Terra reassured him. “It’s a neat little bit of tech we came up with thanks to our tracking of outer-space signals…but I’ll tell you about that later.”

Matt crawled past the glass, keeping low, getting closer to the door as he heard the guard cursing over the radio. As he reached the point where he could throw the flashbang from, he saw Ben’s eyes glaring at him through the table.

“W-What’s…what’s happening…I-I…” he stuttered, his hands clutching at his hair.

“...Hey.” Matt whispered at him. “It’s gonna be okay. Trust me. Just stay put and you’ll be alright.”

Ben didn’t stop shaking, but was no longer on the verge of tears as he pushed himself further under the desk. Over the radio, the guard was still cursing, though he seemed more confident now. “Stupid fool…whoever they are, they will not be standing when I’m through with ‘em…I’ll shoot ‘em both, just to show who’s boss…here we go- AH!”

As the door finally swung open, Matt tossed the cuboid up, covering his eyes with the keyring still in his hand as the guard stumbled back. Matthew charged forward past the rapidly blinking Ben and the dazed guard, as he heard another gunshot fire out at the window, missing him by a fair margin. This time, however, he could hear the sniper’s reaction.

“Shitting Hell!” came a static-y voice. Matthew held the ID machine a little closer to his chest. It was one of the three people who had visited the building after the explosion, the first voice. At the time she had been devoid of emotion, but now she seemed rather irritated by the turn of events. “Get up! Hold him still before he reaches the lift so I can silence this little pest!”

Matt’s smile faded as he heard loud footsteps behind him.He hadn’t got too much of a good look at him, but he was pretty sure that this guy was a lot more muscular than he was. Thankfully, Terra chimed in. “I called the lift for you, but…he’s gonna catch up to you before you get there.”

Matt grimaced as he got closer and closer. He needed another idea that was just about crazy enough to work, and thankfully he got one.. “Can you open the doors now, but stop the lift on the floor below?”

Terra paused for the briefest of moments, but ‘m-hm’-ed in confirmation. “I hope you know what you’re doing, Moon…” he sighed, as the doors opened ahead of Matthew. In the seconds he’d been running, Matthew had made two calculations: that he would have a lot more options available to him on top of the lift as opposed to inside it, and that the surprise of not seeing the elevator would once again provide a sorely needed moment of hesitation. Gritting his teeth, and holding the ID machine close, he sprinted forward onto the lift’s roof, grabbing the cable and spinning to hit the still oncoming guard in the chest, sending him back a little. He had hoped that would be enough to stop him before the doors closed, but his pursuer put his hands on either door and forced them back to the edges, causing them to stutter in and out slightly. They weren’t closing anytime soon. He got a good look at this guard; he had shaved hair as well as a shaved face, and still had that gun in his right hand. But then Matthew heard something that he did not expect.

“My goodness, such a failure you are.” spat the sniper, the guard raising his hand up to his earpiece, the message clearly directed at him. “Can’t even chase a person down a corridor properly.”

The guard suddenly looked nervous, his rage replaced by fear. “High Pr-”

“Enough! You’re in front of our unwanted guest, after all. Listen well. I have my sight trained on the space right outside that lift. I will shoot whoever is thrown out of that lift, understand? A situation like this requires an itchy trigger finger, just as it requires a competent enforcer.”

“...Pants.” Matthew said. “...Y’know, she’s threatened the both of us, so…this is how truces tend to happen.”

“No…this is how promotions happen.” the guard grinned, before aiming the gun at Matthew. Instinctively, he kicked again, landing a hit on the guard’s shin. Taking the initiative, he kept up the offensive, jabbing with his free arm at the hand with the gun in it, letting it clatter to the floor and nudging it off the side of the lift with his foot.

Taking a quick glance at the space outside the lift shaft, the guard pushed forward, gripping Matthew’s arm and pulling, clearly trying to get him outside. Still clutching the ID machine, he willed himself to come to a halt, causing the guard to start stumbling toward him. The lift rocked a little, and the guard snarled, grabbing for the ID machine, but Matt was ready for him, somehow. Pushing up with his legs, he began rapidly kicking at the sides of the guard’s torso, before sticking his legs out and digging into the sides of his stomach. The guard yelped, letting go of Matt’s free arm. Sidestepping, Matt put down the machine. He took his silver bracelet and wrapped it around his knuckles. It was probably never meant to be used this way, but desperate times called for it. And what better protection than a good offence, right? Discarding the argument when he remembered his life was in danger, and that Bill had trusted him, Matt leapt forward, driving his silver-covered fist into the guard’s upper chest. At least, that was where he was aiming. But the guard, seemingly in desperation, had tried to go low, thus leading to Matt striking his head. The guard straightened out, clearly concussed judging by the glazed over eyes. He didn’t seem to have a clue where he was as he staggered backwards out of the lift shaft. Then came the gunshot.

It split through the windowpane and struck him through his chest. The force of the bullet stopped his movement backwards, before he tumbled to the floor almost instantly, now motionless. Matthew felt his mouth go dry as he returned his bracelet to his wrist, picking up the ID machine and cradling it in his arms. He flinched when he heard more voices on the radio.

“Kilo Sierra Delta!” the sniper said, as Matt heard more footsteps.

“I’m coming, I’m coming! Knew I should have stayed late…” Matt came back to reality upon hearing this new voice. It was another of the people in the building. The one he’d seen the most of.

“Terra, can you take the lift down?” Matthew asked, as he noticed something that had fallen out of the guard’s shirt, visible through the bullet hole.

“Oh, thank god, you’re alive. Ok, yeah, give me a second, the other people in the building are all headed up, you’ll have a more or less easy getaway once you get down to the ground floor.” Terra explained. “Crap, they’re coming though!”

Matt gazed down at the still rocking lift. He pushed on the wall so that there was enough room for him to jump down into the metal cube. He shimmied his legs down the gap, then his left arm, dropping the machine on the lift floor. Over the radio, he heard that slightly Scottish accent again. “I’m on the scene! Can see the body, along with…HEY!”

Matt should have ducked down, but instead he grabbed the thing that had fallen from the guard’s pocket before manoeuvring downwards. He heard loud footsteps overhead, but knew that all she would be able to see was his hand. Gripping the thing he’d taken with his thumb, he proceeded to wave two certain fingers at the person before pulling it down and closing the lift doors, his silver bracelet clanging against the metal as he did so. The woman above seemed, to put it lightly, upset at his actions.

“WHO WAS THAT?! I WANT CCTV FOOTAGE! NOBODY GIVES ME THE TWO-FINGERED SALUTE AND LIVES TO TELL THE TALE!”

“Calm yourself,” said the sniper. “The intruder cannot have gone far, nor could he have left the building yet.”

Matt once again sank to the floor as the lift descended through the building, suddenly remembering that he still had that gun on him. He’d never even thought to use it. “...I got the machine…how close are you guys?”

“ETA 3 minutes, Agent Moon.” Gaia said, “providing this arse in the Range Rover stops holding everyone up-”

He listened as Terra took over. “...Was that the first time you saw someone…”

“N-No. There was…another time, but…” Matthew sighed. “That was the first time it was that close to me. That I had…”

“Hey, you did what you had to, and you even tried to get the both of you out alive. One thing’s for sure, that guy certainly seemed to fear that sniper. What did he call her?”

“ “High” something or other.” Matt said, struggling to remember the details; much of it was a blur. “And then after she’d…yknow…she said, what was it, “Kilo Sierra Delta”, which…”

He was going to say he wasn’t sure what it meant, but then he looked at what was in his hand. It was a card, with the Reflection International logo on it, but this time the snake was not sticking its tongue out . This time it had fangs. He turned it around, and instead of a playing card, as he had been expecting, it was a Tarot card. It showed a knight on horseback, riding with a blade held high in the sky. The text below it read: Knight of Swords. “Kilo Sierra, perhaps.” Matt said aloud.

“Pardon?” Terra asked.

“I’ll explain when I see you.” Matt replied, standing up as the lift neared the ground floor. Sure enough, as the door opened, the reception was more or less empty as silent alarms flashed on the walls and ceilings. He looked around, before seeing the minivan through the window. Unable to stop the smile on his face, he ran for it, leaving out the front door once Terra had confirmed the sniper had left the building opposite. He quickly checked his watch. It was ten past eleven. He supposed it was just about his luck that it would end up being this close.

Getting to the minivan, he saw the back door open and clambered inside. Once there, he was greeted by two people who looked about the same age as he was, both South Asian with glasses and black hair, though one had her hair in a ponytail and the other had it cut short.

“Agents Gaia and Terra, I presume.” Matt said, smiling.

“Good to see you, Agent Moon. Sit down and relax, mate. You’ve done something amazing here.”

He gladly did just that, putting the ID machine down next to him as the car sped away. The adrenaline had caused him to more or less ignore any injuries he’d gotten as he went up and then down the skyscraper, but now he was starting to feel the pain in his shoulder, his hands, his legs, as well as general exhaustion.

“How’s he looking?” asked Gaia, still driving.

“Nothing serious, but he’ll need some help at HQ.” Terra reported back. “You’ll be alright, our people are top-notch.” He then found himself smiling. “Sorry, it’s just…Bill was right when he told us about you. You are a wildcard.”

Matt found himself going pink. “I mean…I couldn’t have done any of that without you two helping, so…”

“Doesn’t mean you did any less.” Terra pointed out. “You’ve saved a lot of good people’s lives tonight.” He moved across the minivan and sat down next to Matt, examining the machine. “I’ll get to look at just what makes this thing tick once we’ve reported back at HQ. I imagine it’s chaos over there, what with a transfer of agency and all that.”

“We’ll get to look at it.” Gaia reminded him, sighing. “We’re on track to make it, even with London traffic.”

“Brilliant.” Matt said, finally letting himself relax. “...so what happens now?”

“We’ll head to HQ and report back to the one who gave us this mission, Agent Galileo. She confirms it’s a success, we get a successful mission under our belts…and then I guess we figure out what happens with you.” Matthew suddenly found himself very nervous, something that Terra noticed. “Hey, it’s alright. Bill had to have a lot of trust in you to transfer agency, plus you successfully completed his mission, which all goes in your favour…”

Matthew twirled the card around. “I hope so. I really hope I didn’t cause too much trouble.”

“To be honest it’s been a lot of fun.” Gaia admitted. “It has been quiet for a while now, feels good to have some action this close to home.”

“Exactly!” Terra exclaimed, his eyes focusing towards the card. “Wh-where did you..”

“It…was in the pocket of that guard. I picked it up and when I looked at it, I thought maybe that’s what “Kilo Sierra” was referring to, you know, K.S.”

Terra nodded, raising an eyebrow at the snake image on the back. “And the guard referred to the sniper as “High” something…High Priestess, maybe?”

Gaia rolled her eyes. “Ah, the Tarot cards again. We’ve been hearing about a group using them recently and we have a theory that some sort of gang has been using them as a sort of…well, identifier, funnily enough.”

“We thought it could just be a cartel or something at first, but…killing so many agents, having a Reflection International building as a base of operations…”

There was silence for the rest of the trip, as Gaia concentrated on getting to this HQ place as fast as possible.

When they finally got there, at around 11:45 pm, they scrambled out, remembering to take the ID machine and card. “Quick, quick, we don’t have much time!” Gaia hissed, as the three made their way towards a largeish building. Matt followed the two agents, who seemed similar enough to be twins, as they ran past a sign which read:

THE MIDNIGHT FOUNDATION - Nam astra et quod est infra.

[delighted-mirage]

@magicapandora

valentine's day pendants

by jeweller miya kumo

[marmotish]

D1 for Ismelda or Bea?

you said /or/ i say /and/ 😊

expression meme

[adellovesrowan]

IM SO LATE BUT HAPPY BIRTHDAY ADEL!!! She’s still one of my fav mcs 💕😭✨

AHHH THANK YOU BLAKE 🥺 that means so much to me <333

[struckbyelectriclove]

8, 19, and 29 for Kat! ♪( ´▽｀)

this took so long thnak u for being patient ;0;

8. What does their dream house look like?

oooh tough!! kat really just wants a roof over her head in the end, but she does want something with adequate heating, since she’s pretty sensitive to the cold! i’m thinking maybe a one story house, with a master bedroom and two guest bedrooms (one of the kid she wants) and two bathrooms? a pretty open floor plan, too, so she can see the living/dining room from the kitchen! since it’s post-canon and she has her glasses, i think she’d like the walls to be yellow! and also have a lot of natural light. ideally it would by on a mountainside where she and her spouse and child could explore and have fun in!!

19. What’s their unusual quirk?

oh god kat has a bunch,,, i think the one i’m gonna pick out for today is her lobe for auditory stimulation? idk but. she just really likes to hear her own voice sometimes. she likes the sound of her bare feet padding on the common room carpet, and could pace it for hours.

29. Are they a good cook? If they are, what do they like to make?

kat is a good cook, though she often doesn’t have the energy or patience to start lol. she mostly likes making vegetarian meals, especially those with tomatoes in them. fish is also good, though it tends to be more work. she does get better as it as she gets older, particularly when she’s traveling the world on her own!

[avidrawsthings]

@magicapandora

I SAW UR TAGS TYSM

Rowan, Ben & Reina | Talbott | Ricardo | Barnaby, Ismelda & Chiara

TW: Blood, minor spoilers for Year 6

**For those unaware, the A.R.C. stands for the Anti-R Coven. It's this au's equivalent of the Circle of Khanna.

Got to working on these guys next as they won the poll I made a short time back. Even though it's the first time I've drawn all four of them, I say they turned out pretty great. Tonks has Transmutation Magic, Tulip has Gel Magic, Jae has Shadow Magic and Victor has both Water Magic and Blood Magic.

(Couldn't find specific gifs to provide more visual examples, so I hope the descriptions provided for each one will be enough)

Tonks displaying Transmutation Magic. Think Transfiguration but on steroids. This power allows her to alter the properties of physical and magical objects into whatever form she wants. This includes making stone bouncy and stretchy, turning spells into harmless flowers, turning fire into water, and so on. In time she’s also able to undo nearly all kinds of damage, returning an item back to as good as new. By combining her Magic with Healing Magic through Conversion, she can help reverse more severe injuries as well.

Tonks acquired her Infinitus shortly after the A.R.C. was established, and with some encouragement from Ricardo.

Tulip displaying Gel Magic. It allows her to summon and control colorful gel, letting her shape it into whatever she wants. She can also alter its properties, allowing it to range from permeable to nearly solid. When combined with other Magics through Conversion, the gel will produce different effects, such as combustion, healing, produce electricity, and so forth.

As a Secondary, she would also gain Illusion Magic. She can produce illusions that range from simple ones like extra objects, to more complex ones such as fake hallways and other structures. In time she’s also able to create illusions that mess with all 5 senses to disorient her targets. 

She acquired her Infinitus after the A.R.C. was created in her 6th year.

Jae showing off his Shadow Magic. With this power, Jae can manipulate, travel through and even summon shadows. He can also create shadows that allow him to store whatever he wants. In the event that things get dire, Jae can use his shadows to hide or to trap opponents until he gets to safety. As his Magic advances, he’s able to completely block out most light sources in order to give him a needed advantage.

He would gain Food Magic as his Secondary thanks to his cooking skills. This Magic allows him to store meals ahead of time in special Recipe Glyphs, which allows the desired dish to be summoned at any time. In time, Jae is able to produce food that can heal most injuries, and even boost one’s Magic for a limited time.

He received his Infinitus from Reina as a thank-you gift during their 5th year, and he’s made good use of it since then.

Victor displaying Water Magic and Blood Magic. He can generate and control water and shape it into whatever he wants. His range includes controlling steam as well as ice, and in time, almost anything that has water in it, such as drinks. In time, he’s capable of generating and controlling rain and snow, as well as hail. 

After being turned into a Vampire during their 6th year, he would gain Blood Magic as his Secondary. This allows him to generate and control blood, and congeal it so he can shape it into whatever he wants. As his Magic advances, he can control the blood inside other people if necessary. With Conversion, he can either poison his targets through their blood, or heal his allies.

As they met much earlier on, Victor had been part of the friend group since their 2nd Year. He approached Reina in their 3rd year and asked for an Infinitus of his own, curious about what kind of Magic he’d get.

[wandsandrings]

Rosie in Kace’s notebook for the ask game? If you want to of course!!

[In this page, there is a big drawing of the head of a rose flower, though the lines are kind of shaky, but it’s still easily recognisable. “ROSIE” is written in big letters at the top.]

ROSIE:

They’re a nice person. We haven’t spoken much before, but I know a bit about them. They like fashion and pink, I think. And that ‘vampire’, though I have no idea why, but fine. Everyone says that they are pretty cool. Maybe I should say hello more once in a while.

. . .And do what I always do when I try to make friends— bake them something. Cupcakes! With pink frosting. And maybe some sprinkles if I can find any. Hopefully they like cupcakes (but everyone does, right...?)

[The end of this entry is punctuated by a small doodle of a cupcake.]

[cursebreaker-lilith]

28, 17, and 4 for the friendship asks! ╰(*´︶`*)╯♡

aaaaa thank you sm!!!

28. Which friends always sit with MC on the Hogwarts Express? (4-6 people total) (Besides a bigger booth at the Three Broomsticks, we’re also going to need a bigger train compartment…)

It changes depending on the year. Rowan is always there of course. Ben is there until year 5 and then Lili and Rowan refuse to let him in (because of the red cloak attack thing). Penny is usually there for a while, but she has a lot of friends and sort of hops between compartments. Bill is similar to Penny. Barnaby is there from 4th year on, and Charlie from 5th year on. Liz is probably there too because of her friendship with Barnaby and Charlie even if she isn't great friends with Lili and Rowan.

17. Which friend always goes back to school shopping with MC?

Lili goes on her own ahaha she spends her summers alone because her mum doesn't let her go anywhere

If she did go with anyone, it'd be Rowan though! They go dress shopping together for the Celestial Ball ^^

4. Which friend is in the bed next to MC in the Hospital Wing? And what did they do to get in there?

bsjbs probably Barnaby. Or Rowan. Or any combination of those three lol Three halves of a whole idiot, they are.

But honestly, Lili in general tries to avoid the Hospital Wing so it's more likely she's visiting Rowan and Barnaby after a Quidditch accident. Or something with the Cursed Vaults went wrong and she and whoever shes with are there because of that.

[missnight0wl]

13 for Helena! Specifically what she calls her friends and what her friends/family call her!

Thank you for asking, Blake! 💖

13. Nickname headcanon

For most of the family, Helena is “Ellie”.

When her dad used this nickname for the first time shortly after Helena was born, her mum was sceptical, suggesting that perhaps it’s too similar to their last name, and so they could choose another diminutive form. But Chris replied that it’s perfect because “he’s a big Ellis and she’s a little Ellie”. Jacob, who was six at that time, thought it’s hilarious, and even though Alice didn’t love it at first, the nickname stayed with Helena. And soon, nobody even questioned that anymore.

Sometimes, Jacob calls her “Sunshine” in more affectionate moments. Their parents use it occasionally, too, especially Chris. Their grandparents like to call Helena “Princess”.

For most of her friends, Helena is simply “Helen” – even for Rowan. Charlie starts calling her “Nell” during their fifth year, though. Of course, there’s also Jae who calls her “Biscuit”, but he doesn’t do it that often.

As for Helena calling her friends, she actually uses their first names usually, as simple as that. Ben is occasionally “Benny”, Bill is “William” (especially in his seventh year), and Jae is obviously “Muffin”. From time to time, she calls Charlie “Chuck”, but she does it purely to tease him because she knows he doesn’t like it. He prefers being called “Captain” – even if he won’t admit it – which Helena does use sometimes after he becomes the Captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch Team.

[missnight0wl]

It’s also interesting how this duality can even kind of be seen in Rosie’s future. You obviously have to be very creative to work in the fashion industry, but it’s your ambition that makes you follow your dreams. And the fact that Rosie becomes the CEO and President clearly shows Slytherin leadership skills, too :)

Headcanon for Rosie: even if she wasn’t technically a Hatstall, the Sorting Hat at least considered putting her in Ravenclaw. Ever since I started seeing Rosie among HPHM posts, I always thought she’s a Ravenclaw for some reason, so I was actually a bit surprised to learn she’s a Slytherin. I’m absolutely not saying it’s a bad choice for her, but I still think she’d make a very good Ravenclaw, too, because of her insane creativity.

Oh! I never thought of that! Actually, yeah it would make sense for the Sorting Hat to think of Rosie as a potential Ravenclaw! I wanna say like, 9/10 for accuracy!

Now that I think about it, the Sorting Hat kinda cycled between Ravenclaw and Slytherin for a bit. Like you said, Rosie definitely has a lot of traits from Ravenclaw as you mentioned, especially creativity. But also they’re intelligent and extremely accepting, even with someone like Merula who she considers like, almost an enemy/frenemy of sorts. But ultimately, the Sorting Hat did choose Slytherin, for ‘Your ambition knows no bounds. You’ll do anything to get what you want, isn’t that right? And you won’t stop until the job is done.’

Also funnily enough, almost all of Rosie’s closest friends are Ravenclaws. Andre, Talbott, Tulip, Badeea, and she’s dating Victor. I wouldn’t be surprised if someone confused Rosie for a Ravenclaw haha!

[cursedcrusaders]

@magicapandora I was your secret Santa! I had a fun time drawing Rosie with victor! I hope you like it and I hope you have a happy holiday!

@hphmsecretsanta

[hphmmatthewluther]

The Phantom Woes of Matthew Luther: Part 4

Here we go, it’s time for the grand finale!! ( Part 1/ Part 2/ Part 3 )

Featuring:

Verna Malinda ( @gaygryffindorgal​ ) Camille Jeanes ( @camillejeaneshphm​ ) Rosie Mayfield ( @magicapandora​ )

As well as characters from: @endlessly-cursed​ @catohphm​ @stupendousbookworm​

Chapter 4: In the Flesh

 The next hour or so happened in moments for Verna. A group of students heard the commotion and wondered what was happening. They were jostled back to Ravenclaw Common Room (she didn’t even catch what the answer to the riddle was). Matthew, Merula, and Rosie tried to explain what they had seen, but before long it had devolved into a shouting match; it was argued that whoever had placed the book for Helena to find was most likely a Ravenclaw, seeing as they knew enough about the ghost to put it in the right place. As a result, with tensions high, things had quickly spiralled out of control.

 “What do you mean someone here did it?!” Andre exclaimed indignantly, “When it could be anyone who gets through the door!”

“Oh, come on, it’s fairly obvious.” Tulip insisted. “While other house members can come in, there’s no way they’d do all this to get to Helena!”

“If you ask me,” said Chase, “You, Tulip, are one of the more likely suspects, seeing how much trouble you cause on a regular basis!” “Are you insane?!” yelled Ara Black. “Look, anyone here might have done this-” Cato Reese tried to interject. “That’s just another way of accusing everyone here! Why does it have to be a Ravenclaw?!” fired back Issy Dubois.

 Things were only getting worse from there. Matthew had backed away behind Merula at this point, clearly not enjoying the noise or the atmosphere this argument was creating. Camille, too, was too overwhelmed to do much and looked on the verge of tears, while Rosie was trying to calm people down (it was not working.) Verna, however, looked from one side of the room to the other, at her friends, and her face turned into a scowl that Ismelda would be proud of. She stepped forward, past Rosie and yelled:

“WOULD YOU ALL PLEASE JUST STOP?! AREN’T YOU MEANT TO BE THE SMART HOUSE?!”

 It was as if the air had been sucked out of the room, like some enchantment had been dispelled. The Ravenclaws who had previously been close to decking each other in the face now backed away like a dog caught chewing apart a pillow. Matthew poked his head out from behind Merula. Camille moved her hands away from her ears as the noise quietened. 

Rosie looked at Verna, smiling. “Thank you…that seemed to have worked.”

Verna scanned the room. It seemed that Chase was now nowhere to be seen. “No worries. You guys alright?” she asked, turning to the rest of the group.

 Matthew and Camille both nodded silently. Merula looked between the two of them. “...and I thought the arguments in Slytherin could get nasty.” she muttered, sighing. “Ok…yeah, we’re good.” she said finally, as Matthew stepped out from behind her.

“Um…” he began, looking at the now expectant crowd of Ravenclaws. “I know it seems like someone here did it, but…I don’t think that’s the case at all. The book that Helena picked up, The Ramifications of Reflections…it’s not an easy book to find. The only copy of it in the school is in the restricted section…or at least it was.” He held up the book in his hand. “I looked in the front and it hadn't been checked out; whoever it was stole it from the library. No student would ever do that, especially not a Ravenclaw.”

 That seemed to be a satisfactory explanation for most of the Ravenclaws. As they started to awkwardly shuffle away, Matthew turned back to the others. “Okay…phew…that was…a lot. Still got ringing in my ears, blimey…”

Camille wiped her eyes. “Why did they have to start fighting like that?” she asked, her voice still shaky.

“Because they’re afraid.” Merula said. “People get angry when they get scared. Especially when they don’t know who to blame.”

Rosie raised their eyebrows. “That’s a surprisingly insightful point, Merula.” they said, smiling. “So what’s the plan now?”

Matt held up the book again. “We look through this and try to find something on the magic mirror. Then we try and find it again, and we’ll hopefully be ready to take on whoever’s behind this.”

 ***

“Bingo!” Matt said finally, after a good half an hour or so of flicking through the great tome. At once, the others gathered around him, Merula nudging the other three so that she was right by Matt’s face, leading to Rosie having to stifle a laugh. Once they had all got comfortable, Matt gestured to the page in question. “Here it is…” He pointed at the image on the page; a resplendent mirror with silver and purple decorations around the edge of it.

“That’s the one.” Verna said, looking down at the page, frowning at the image of trapped souls within the mirror.

“The Royal Sovereign Mirror”, Matthew began to read, “Is one of the great treasures of the old Changeling Kingdom. Kept in the Throne Room of the Changeling Royal, the mirror was enchanted to have a separate Reflected Realm in comparison to other mirrors. In short, unlike other mirrors, a person trapped within the Royal Sovereign Mirror is unable to access other reflective surfaces.”

 “This damn book…” Merula said, cursing under her breath. “I thought we were done with it after third-year.”

“Third year?” Camille asked. “Isn’t that when Mathieu got trapped in that mirror?”

When Matthew nodded, Verna chuckled. “Didn’t you two kiss when Matt got his body back?”

Matthew and Merula both suddenly went pink in the face. “N-NO! What?! Where’d you- No!” Merula snapped. “Keep reading, Luther!”

“A-Alright, um, When the Changeling Kingdom collapsed, the mirror was recovered and placed in Hogwarts, where the latent magic within the mirror caused it to warp from place to place, normally stored in the fourth-floor corridor, but- Ah-hah! But the mirror’s location can be tracked by following the magical trace left by it! Brilliant!”

 There was a sigh of relief from all of them. “Thank Merlin, a solution. That book is most definitely a curse and a blessing.”

“You don’t have to tell me twice.” Matthew said, “It seems to exist solely for luring people into mirrors and then getting them out again.”

“Who even wrote it?” Camille asked, trying to lean over to see the author’s name.

Matthew looked at the front cover. “...Someone named Henri Reign.”

“Doesn’t sound much like a wizarding name to me.” Merula said, frowning. “Weird.”

“Well, we can solve that mystery another time.” Rosie suggested. “Let’s solve this one first!”

 “...You’re having an idea, aren’t you Mathieu?” Camille asked as they headed out of Ravenclaw tower and towards the Grand Staircase.

“...Well, I was thinking about what you said about what happened in third year” he replied, pointing at Merula.

“Me? About you getting trapped in a mirror?” Merula had to yell a bit over the sound of the stairs swinging above them.

Verna snorted from behind them, “and then you two accidentally k-” “Yeah, anyway, Luther?!” Merula snapped suddenly.

“Guys, here’s the fourth floor!” Rosie exclaimed, as the group tried to get off the stairs before they swung back round.

“What I’m saying is it might be the same thing. Another-” he was cut off by Verna pushing open the door.

 “Alright Matt, showtime.” she said, gesturing to the wall where the mirror was. Matthew took hold of his wand and pointed it, but hesitated.

“I…sorry, it’s just…the handiwork for the spell…and…i’m usually fidgety as-is but here, when m…when Helena needs me, I-”

“Mathieu.” Camille looked up at him, smiling softly, “take it from me. You can do this. You’ve had it rough these past few days, but you’ve managed to pull yourself out of it in a way the rest of Ravenclaw couldn’t.”

“She’s right, Matty.” Rosie nodded, “You’ve got this. And we’ve got you.”

“And when all this is over we’ll be able to look back on all these ups and downs and laugh.” Verna promised.

 Taking a moment to breathe, Matthew readied his wand once again. He deftly manoeuvred it through the air, until a faint blue light began to appear at the end of it. “Revelio!” he said, and a faint purple thread became visible, stretching from where the mirror was and out through the door behind them.

“Haha, that did it, Matt!” Merula cheered, “Now let’s kick whoever it was that jinxed us in their sneaky little arse!” With that, she was running after the purple thread.

“Merula, wait-” Camille said, heading after her.

“She has such a way with words…” Verna laughed, following behind her.

“You can say that a-” Rosie began, before pausing, “Did…did she just call you Matt?”

“Uh, maybe? Was distracted. Come on, before we lose the others!” he said, failing to hide how pink he had gone.

 ***

 It was almost night now. The candles illuminated the group as they followed the thread upwards. And upwards. And upwards.

“The Astronomy Tower…” Merula complained, “of course it would end up there. Just our bloody luck.”

“On the bright side, it does give us a bit of time to prepare.” Verna pointed out. “Wands at the ready, everyone.”

They all obeyed her, keeping an eye out for any sign of moment. “I really do hate heights sometimes…” Camille was doing her best to keep her eyes on the thread, and not look down the spiral staircase.

“It’s alright, we can handle this.” Rosie said, having swapped her heels for flat shoes just in case they needed to move quickly. At long last, they came to the top floor. They walked past telescopes and other astronomy equipment, before finally seeing it. The Silver Mirror, leaning back against the wall, rattling a little in the wind. And there, in the glass, they could see Helena Ravenclaw…and Chase the reserve chaser.

 “Hang on-” began Merula. “Wasn’t he-” Camille tried to say. “Isn’t that…” Rosie and Matt said at the same time.

“What’s he doing there?” Verna said, shocked. “To be honest with you lot, I thought he was the one behind all of this!”

“Well…yes and no.”

 All five of them turned around, and there, impossibly, was Chase. But something was off. He looked paler than usual, his hair seemed slightly frayed, his quidditch clothes didn’t seem to fit him as well as they did. “Why couldn’t you just have left him in his room?!” he snapped, pointing at Matthew. “He has made your lives far more needlessly tedious!”

“Tedious?!” exclaimed Camille, “Who are you to say that?”

“Yeah, is that the only reason you put Helena in here?” Verna asked, pointing at the mirror, “Who even are you?”

“Uh…” Matthew began, “I think…I was going to say it earlier, but…I’m fairly certain he’s a, um…”

 As Matthew stammered through his words, “Chase” began to change even further. His skin went from pale to a shade of purple, his hair went bright white, when he opened his eyes they were completely blank, and his clothes fell away to reveal an ancient-looking set of armoured robes.

“...he’s a changeling.” Matt said, finally, wincing as he realised how obvious this now was, his face becoming very very still.

The changeling laughed, stretching now they were out of their disguise. “Ugh, you do realise I had to do quidditch practice in order to stay hidden? I had to do those stupid drills and listen to that Orion kid so I could make sure things run smoothly…until they didn’t.”

 Merula clicked her tongue. “So you did all this…why, exactly? I thought there weren’t any changelings kicking around anymore.”

“Really?” Camille asked, briefly shaken out of her fear.

“Yes, it came up in History of Magic.”

Verna snorted. “You can stay awake in History of Magic?”

“If you don’t mind!” snapped the changeling. “I have waited centuries for this and will not be talked over.”

“Of course…” Rosie said, piecing things together. “You must have been the one in the mirror at first.”

“Indeed, put in there by his ancestor at the last stand of our people!” they pointed at Matthew, blank eyes full of anger. “I was one of the Royal Family’s advisors and his adorable little family member got the better of me. A truly mighty sorcerer…unlike you.”

 Matthew’s mouth twitched as the changeling continued. “I mean really, it was all so easy to send you into a mess just by having the Grey Lady gone for a while. I knew getting revenge would be simple, but goodness…what a disappointment.”

“That’s just-” “Oh you cannot-” “Shut up, you-” “Piece of-”

“SILENCE!” the changeling bellowed, as purple waves emanated from his hands, forcing all of them against the railing, their heads pushed back over the edge. All except Matthew, whose bracelet was crackling with blue electricity.

 “Fascinating. So that’s your bracelet that does all of the heavy lifting for you.” they snarled. “Probably looted from us too. What a waste of a wizard. It took four others to get you back on your feet, let alone anything else!”

“M-Mathieu…” Camille whispered, struggling against the magical enchantments, “Don’t listen…”

“You’ve been telling yourself the same thing. They’d be better off solving this without you. You’ve only held them back.”

Matthew’s face grew into more and more of a scowl. The wind howled, and the moon came into view, basking him and the changeling in its blue light.

 “You’re right…” Matt said bitterly, looking back at his friends, at Helena. “I have heard it before…that’s probably why you saying it doesn’t mean much to me.”

The changeling laughed a little. “Doesn’t change the fact that it’s true. And it doesn’t change the fact that your friends will suffer, all because you’re nothing but a worthless, woe-ridden, incapable nothing. Sorry that your friends had to find out the hard w-”

 What happened next the changeling did not expect. Blue swirls began to dance across Matthew’s arms, the wind flapped through his hair which seemed to shiver in shades of cerulean, his eyes began to lose their green, matching the rest of him, and from his forehead a glowing green began to shine. But what was happening on the inside was far more interesting. Matthew had heard all of this before, but hearing it from a centuries-old changeling who’d manipulated his house and stolen the only real mother he’d ever had was one time too many. Simply put, he had had-

“ENOUGH!”

 Several things happened in quick succession. Bright blue lightning shot out of Matthew’s hand; as it flew through the air he heard Merula gasp “Wandless magic!”. The changeling hit the railing, causing the enchantments around the others to shatter. More than that, the image of Helena and the real Chase within the mirror warped and twisted.

“Look!” Rosie exclaimed, “The Mirror! Now might be our chance! Millie, ‘rula! Verna! Help me with this…Merula?”

But the Slytherin’s attention was elsewhere at that moment. Matthew was busy laying electrified blows on the changeling, cracking their armour and sending them into more sections of the railing, lightning crackling off of Matthew’s body.

 “Woah…huh? Oh!” she said finally, racing over to help the others with the mirror. “Matthew! Send him our way!”

 Matthew turned to look at them, basking in the moonlight, before grabbing the changeling by their cuff. “I knew kicking your arse would be simple,” he said, chuckling in a voice that rang back through the centuries, “but goodness…what a disappointment.” And with that, he ran forward, graciously tossing the changeling forward, where Camille, Verna, Rosie and Merula were waiting with the mirror. In went the changeling, and out came Chase the reserve chaser and Helena Ravenclaw.

 “...Matthew?” she said, trying to get her bearings. “There was a mirror…and that awful changeling said he’d do something awful to you…I was so worried…” He looked up at her, sighing in relief, the blue fading away from him as he calmed down.

“Oh, M- uhm, Helena, you’re alright!” he said, grinning up at her, even going to hug her before remembering that was impossible. Meanwhile, Rosie and Camille were helping up Chase. “...should never have trusted that guy in the mirror…” he murmured weakly “...said he’d help me get on the team…”

“Poor guy.” Rosie sighed. “Getting scammed by a changeling must be no fun.”

Camille nodded in agreement, giving Chase a reassuring pat on the shoulder, while Verna was laughing at the changeling in the mirror. “Saw right through you from the start, mate.” she said, smirking.

 When she looked away, she was surprised to see Merula had wrapped Matthew in a hug. “You didn’t tell me you could do….that!!” Merula yelled.

“Ssh, you’ll wake everyone!” Camille hissed.

“Oh, worry not, I shall explain to any teachers that come looking.” Helena reassured her. “Thank you all for helping him. I worry for him, but…he is stronger than he knows.”

“You can say that again…” Rosie said, raising her eyebrow as Matthew tried to explain to Merula that he didn’t know what she meant by “lightning hands”. As they headed down from the Astronomy Tower, nobody bothered pointing out how Merula’s hand had slipped into Matt’s, or that his silver bracelet was still glowing faintly. The four said their goodbyes to Matthew, Helena and Chase at Ravenclaw Tower, keeping an eye out for Filch as they did so.

 “Thank you. Really.” Matthew said, wiping a tear from his eyes. “I, um…I couldn’t have done it without you.”

“Doesn’t mean you weren’t a massive help.” Merula pointed out, smirking. “See you tomorrow, Luther.”

“Actually, it’s past midnight, so you’ll see him today-”

“Oh don’t be so pedantic, Jeanes-”

They laughed until it was time for the Ravenclaws to leave, closing the door behind them, leaving the others to head back to their dormitories.

 “It’s like we learn something new about Mathieu every day.” Camille said, shaking her head. “And once again, he completely misses it.”

“I’ll make sure he knows about this.” Merula promised. “He deserves to know he can shoot lightning from his hands. Anyone would be.”

Rosie chuckled. “Aw, you two…you’re adorable together, you know that?”

“Oh…shush.”

Verna snorted. “Gotcha, ha ha. Don’t worry, we won’t tell a soul.”

“If any of you do, I’m throwing you in that mirror-” she said through gritted teeth.

“Oh don’t, I don’t want to have to deal with that changeling again…” Verna fake-lamented. They bickered and laughed along the corridors, the blue light of the moon shining overhead. 

[themilkshanghai]

Spring Break Challenge 2022

[ April 5th : Breakfast ]

Spring Break 2022 by @kc-and-co

Mcs : Cereza | Rosie | Joslyn | Alvina

( @rosachaotic , @magicapandora , @lisindrw , @oneirataxia-girl )

( Kitchen Room )

" Breakfast is ready~ And I made cupcakes too, Would anyone like some? "

" Looks so appetizing~ "

" Yay! ME ME ME~ "

「 Breakfast makes good mood, fills energy and heals all wounds. These breakfast are scrumptious. Sandwich, fried egg, toasted bread...cupcakes…can’t stop eating!! 」

" It’s full now, thank you for breakfast~ (^_^) "

[catohphm]

It’s about to come onto 2023 where I live so I thought I’d wish you all a great Happy New Year and tag several wonderful people who helped me bear through 2022!

@mjs-oc-corner, @cursebreakerfarrier, @ariparri, @helenadurazzo, @nerdyliv, @immagrosscandy, @dat-silvers-girl, @nelabelievesindragons, @hphm-z, @heleneplays, @endlessly-cursed, @that-scouse-wizard, @danceworshipper, @oneirataxia-girl, @autisticarachnid, @ladyofsappho, @drinkyoursoupbitch, @slytherindisaster, @gcldensnitch, @praetoring, @hphmmatthewluther, @ag907, @magicapandora, @carewyncromwell, @smarti-at-smogwarts, @night-rhea, @weirdcursedvaultkid, @nonie-star, @theguythatdraws, @thatravenpuffwitch, @kc-and-co, @nicos-oc-hell, @camillejeaneshphm, @rosachaotic, @melodymidway

There are more people who I’d like to tag, and even if I didn’t tag you, I still value you just as much. All of you are great human beings in your own ways, and I love you all platonically<3 Let’s hope for more great adventures in 2022!

Once again, happy New Year everyone! 🫂😊🥳🎉