#subject: zahi shafiq

[upinsmoke-gossip]

Who do you think had the most or least fun on New Year's?

A little birdy told me that New Year’s day was Xiomara Rojas’ birthday and that she even managed to drag Tristan Rojas out to celebrate, so you’d expect she had plenty of fun. Shame that brother of hers didn’t manage to get laid, maybe he’d be less of a stick in the mud if he got to put his stick in something.

Do you think Bellatrix Lestrange enjoyed herself? After all, her husband wasn’t around to give her a New Year’s kiss, but her husband’s lover, Zahi Shafiq, is out there living his life and so is Nigel Twycross, who helped land the man in prison in the first place. So even if Rodolphus wasn’t in jail, she might have spent the night in a cold and lonely bed anyway.

I can’t tell you why, but I don’t think Sofiya Nott enjoyed herself, either. Maybe I’m catching some of the gift of hers like a cold, but I hear she’s a lightweight who gets dizzy just from a few glasses of bubbly. I bet she enjoyed the night before and regretted living the day after.

@xio-r @trisxrojas @zahishafiq @nigel-twycross @nottsofiya

[smokehqs]

ZAHI SHAFIQ

Occupation: Herbologist at Deathcap and Dogweed Age: 29 Gender: Male Pronouns: He/Him Blood status: Pureblood Allegiance: Death Eater Faceclaim: Jade Hassouné

Foreign then and foreign now; you’ve found it doesn’t make much of a difference. Even on those rare times you go home, you’ve found you don’t quite have the familiarity of a local. You’ve accepted your place as a temporary part of people’s lives, a not-quite-stranger but not-quite-friend. You make no pretense of being here for any reason but the war, but you’re not sure anyone expects anything different of you.

HISTORY:

Zahi was an odd child. He had siblings he could have played with, but Zahi never really liked to spend time with his older brother or his younger sister. It wasn’t that he disliked them; he just didn’t see the point in playing silly games with them when he be off by himself reading a book or watching frogs hop around at the edge of a pond. As he grew older, he realized he’d somehow missed out on a true relationship with either and never understood the close bond that formed between Jinan and Aliya. He loved them both if he thought about it objectively, but he never truly felt the protective impulses they displayed for each other. It was a foreign concept.

In many ways, Zahi was perfectly suited for his father’s transient job requirements. They did not stay anywhere more than a few years before his father was sent as a diplomat somewhere else. His mother, always the dutiful wife, never complained about the moves. Aliya did, but she was the baby. It was her right to say and do things the others didn’t dare. While Jinan would occasionally grumble, Zahi never did. They were always somewhere new just long enough for Zahi to lose interest in the people around them, especially people his own age. He had always gravitated to people older. He didn’t want to share Jinan’s friends, but he would sometimes stay on the periphery around his brother just to have that proximity.

Things changed as Zahi grew older and entered school. He had assumed he might end up at Beauxbatons because of where his family was when he reached school age, but his father wanted him at Koldovstoretz with his brother. Zahi knew better to complain and assumed having Jinan as a connection could prove useful.

Zahi tried to make friends when he got to school, but he did not try very hard to form strong connections. He had some friends in his own year and some in the years above him, but Zahi was unbothered by the fact that he was no one’s first choice. He braced himself for suddenly becoming a big brother at school a few years later, but his parents made the initial decision to homeschool Aliya until she put her foot down. By that point, he had graduated.

Zahi floated around quite a bit both at school and after. The lifestyle he’d grown up in was one he felt content to continue. He did discover a passion for a few subjects, including transfigurations, potions, and herbology. After working a few odd jobs at home—if he could call it that—in Iran, Zahi returned to Russia on the promise of a position at Koldovstoretz as an assistant to his herbology professor. Zahi never led a class, which was probably best considering his self-admitted weakness in communication, but he tended to the greenhouse plants with a diligence some of them hadn’t seen in years.

It was back at Koldovstoretz that Zahi first heard whispers of a Dark Lord rising in Britain. Intrigued by the promise of a cause, he reached out to Jinan and found his brother already accepted in their ranks. It didn’t take much for him to vouch for Zahi, and the wizard quickly joined Jinan in the UK. He found a steady job that let him keep his plants and a future sister-in-law he actually liked.

Things seemed on course for Zahi to finally settle down until suddenly they weren’t. Suddenly Jinan and Azra were dead, and Aliya was there instead. To avoid confronting the reality of the situation, Zahi dove deeper into his work, finding ways to experiment with plants, potions, and spells to create potential weapons for the Dark Lord and his army. It was a way to pass the time as much as anything else. Zahi was doing his duty as a good pureblood son—now the oldest, now with responsibilities he’d never had before. Perhaps he would find a way to reconcile them. Perhaps the instability would not be enough to keep him there.

CONNECTIONS:

Dmitry Nott: Friends from school

Theodora Rowle: Used to date

Blair Wood (Deceased), Valentina Nott: Looks down on

Wesley Price: Becoming friends

Aliya Shafiq: Siblings, complicated relationship

Faiza Shafiq: Sister in law

Xenophilius Lovegood: Distrusted by

Walden MacNair: Old friends

Zhenya Lazarov: Looked up to by

Rodolphus Lestrange: Having an affair with

CLOSED · PENNED BY BETH

[upinsmoke-gossip]

Who has a secret?

who doesn’t have a secret? These days, secrets are how you survive, you need to hope you have enough dirt to keep you safe at night. That said, I bet Nigel Twycross still has a few secrets because there has to be some reason that he’s still alive. You wouldn’t expect a death eater traitor to have a long life expectancy, would you?

And what about Bailey Shaw? The idea of a Sacred 28 family taking a little muggleborn under their wing is a strange one, if you ask me, so maybe it’s actually Zahi Shafiq and Aliya Shafiq with some kind of secret.

I don’t have anything against Americans, but there’s something about Caleb Goldstein that I just don’t trust. Then again, what kind of foreigner would want to move into a warzone if they weren’t going to be involved in it? He keeps his nose too clean for someone that isn’t up to something.

@nigel-twycross @thebaileyshaw @zahishafiq @aliyashafiq @calebgoldstein

[upinsmoke-gossip]

Who do you think is going to take a piece out of Nigel Twycross first?

Do you think the Death Eaters have their own Most Wanted list? With the names of blood traitors and betrayers listed by the acclaim someone will get if they knock them off?

Or maybe they have a… what do you call that thing? A dart board! Maybe they put a picture on one of those and whomever gets a bullseye gets rights to that target.

What I’m trying to say is I can’t answer this because I bet there’s a line of death eaters fighting to get their hands on him. Bellatrix Lestrange and Zahi Shafiq lost a lover, Alecto Carrow’s husband has more evidence stacked against him… I’m sure there have to be more people upset over what Twycross has done.

@zahishafiq @nigel-twycross

[upinsmoke-gossip]

Who's most eager to get out of England? I feel like people either love it or can't wait to escape it these days

Anyone with the last name of Shafiq, as far as I can tell. None of them seem to like the country and I don’t know why any of them are bothering to stay. They’re all imports, they can all be exported, too.

I think I’ve heard Nathan Chastain muttering about going back to France at some point, so it seems odd that he wouldn’t be at the match. Or it would be if not for the fact his brother grounded him. Poor infant.

Honourable mention to Tristan Rojas, who has mentioned several times rather loudly that he wants to go home to Brazil. I don’t know what’s keeping him here, but that seems like a case where something will give eventually.

@faizashafiqs @aliyashafiq @zahishafiq @nathan-chastain @trisxrojas

[upinsmoke-gossip]

Happy birthday, Zahi Shafiq

Today is April 23rd and Zahi is turning 29, but he doesn’t look it. I don’t know what sort of plants he’s growing to stay looking so young, but that man is sitting on a fortune. I doubt he’ll share his secrets, but you should tell him happy birthday anyway.

@zahishafiq

[upinsmoke-gossip]

Who are the cutest platonic pairs?

I think it’s cute to watch Greta Catchlove and Pandora Kane be together, it amplifies the giddiness in a room and they start putting out a carefree air. It’s almost cartoonishly sweet how they seem to want only the best for each other. 

Edgar Bones with Asher Westenberg or Anson Wood, if only for the nicknames. although who knows, maybe Edgar wouldn’t be so close with Asher if he knew how the man felt about a certain dress on a certain sibling.

The anti social, not couple of the year is Zahi Shafiq and Theodora Rowle, who are too anti-social to be part of real couples. Shame it didn’t work out for them, they share the same preference for non-humans.

Girls may not be his thing, but they seem to like Zephyr Bell. His friendships with Daisy Hookum is sweet, but she should watch out - his friendship with Juniper Dunbar may win out as the most entertaining. 

@catchlove-g @pandorakane @edgbns @ashernotashes @ansonwood @zahishafiq @theodora-uis @zephyrbcll @missdaisyhookum @juniperthelionheart

[upinsmoke-gossip]

Who deserves a punch?

Adelaide Boot is asking for one. While some could call her courageous, you don’t do the things she does without inviting trouble and I don’t think she has the smarts to avoid getting hurt. It should be entertaining, at least.

Caradoc Dearborn is another one. I don’t know why, but something about his smug face irritates me. And he’s a healer, isn’t he? Which means he took a vow to do no harm and can’t punch back.

Malcolm Greengrass is so smug and snobby and yes, fine, I’ve been told he has the looks and money to back it up, but it’s that just the kind of person you love to see knocked down a peg? Besides, the vengeance he’s sure to come up with would make it fun to see.

Last up is Zahi Shafiq for no other reason than to see if they guy is made of stone. Surely he has to be capable of reacting to something and a broken nose seems like a good start. Think we could convince Aliya Shafiq to do it, or do they get along?

@adelaideboots @carabcrn @themalcolmgreengrass @zahishafiq @aliyashafiq

[upinsmoke-gossip]

Who's at risk of their secrets being discovered?

Secrets, secrets, secrets. Always with the secrets. If too many of them are discovered, we’re going to run out of juicy scandals and that would be a shame.

If Elena Fedorova has any secrets, I imagine it won’t be long before they come out. She has that wide eyed innocent luck, but she also seems bold and thoughtless.

Zahi Shafiq is the quiet type and sure, some would think this means he doesn’t have anything to say, but I don’t believe that, not with him. If you ask me, he has secrets that he’d rather now share and you know what? I’d say the same think about Theodora Rowle. I wonder if they happen to share any secrets together?

i can’t put my finger on what it is, but I have a hunch about Liliana Zabini. Maybe she’s just too pretty to be innocent, but there’s something about her that makes me think she has a few skeletons in her closet - and who knows, maybe that’s literal.

@elenayf @zahishafiq @theodora-uis @belle-lilianazabini