#HPHM Quidditch

[moonwater-hphm]

Well I finally finished my Orion x Murphy art that I started like 3 weeks ago, I procrastinated on making it a little, cause I was scared it won’t turn out good, but I think it actually looks nice at the end ^^ I had this idea that Orion took Murphy for his first flight, idk if that would actually work but the idea was cute :} I dedicate this piece to all the Orion x Murphy shippers (which is me and 3 other people in this fandom) and to my lovely friend @deafeningwizardsquare <333

#hphm #hogwarts mystery #hphm fanart #hphm quidditch #orion amari #hphm orion #murphy mcnully #orion x murphy #murphy x orion

[ramblings-of-a-mad-cat]

Quidditch Culture: An honest look at The Wizarding Sport

Listen, I love Quidditch.

You love Quidditch.

We all love Quidditch.

If nothing else, it’s a funny word. But the Harry Potter books gave us a fully realized sport with rules that were easy enough to understand without being too simplistic. It was relatable to real sports, but with a bit of fantasy thrown in to make it feel other-worldly. Expanded content, like the book Quidditch Through The Ages, only fleshed the game out even further. (I’ll be referencing that book and bringing up details revealed within it, just as a forewarning.) Sure, Quidditch has been mocked over the years because of the unbalanced role the Seeker has over the other players, but they did manage to offer a counter argument in the form of the World Cup match in GOF (I’ll be talking about that too) and really, the isolation and heightened role for the seeker was basically just symbolism for Harry’s role in the wizarding community. The game is fun, plain and simple. It’s exciting. 

But it is also shockingly violent, frighteningly competitive, and practically all-consuming. 

There is no avoiding the fact that Quidditch is a dangerous sport. You play the game on broomsticks, flying a hundred feet in the air, give or take. To call that a health hazard is putting it lightly. Anyone can fall off their broomsticks at any time. It’s not just a hypothetical, either. There are numerous instances of this happening in-universe. Players fall, crash, or get deliberately knocked off their brooms. In every single game, they risk death. They risk severe, potentially lifelong injuries. While it is possible that there is some kind of cushioning charm on the field below, we don't ever get confirmation of that, even in Quidditch Through The Ages. That's literally just a head-canon. The Wizarding World itself is inherently dangerous, and that gets into a different (and much bigger) conversation. Flying isn’t exactly safe, but it at least has a purpose, that being transportation. Quidditch is a form of recreation. It’s not a necessity, despite what certain characters would have you believe, and I will get to that. 

To be fair, the existence of magic renders many of the dangers of this world considerably safer, or at least less fatal. But that’s part of the problem. An ability to magically heal wounds has resulted in this society overall taking injury less seriously. It has led to a shared sense of overconfidence. Particularly since they have no concept of mental health. Like I said, this is a bigger discussion for another day, but I’d just like to draw the conclusion that witches and wizards don’t understand trauma, and how it can affect people. If you fall fifty feet and your arm snaps in half, that’s going to be excruciatingly painful and frightening. A Healer might be able to wave a wand and heal your physical injuries, but the trauma of such a shocking, painful experience won’t simply disappear. Mental health matters. 

But if you thought that was the end of it, my friend, then I’m afraid you have forgotten about The Bludgers. Because if you take a step back to think about it, the existence of the bludgers is insane. Gigantic iron bullets that rocket around the field with the sole purpose of attempting to knock players off their broomsticks. One of the balls in this sports game will actively try to kill you. If nothing else, it’s exceedingly unlikely that you’ll go an entire Quidditch career without getting severely injured by one of them. Couple that with the anxiety, because I don’t know about you, but if I played Quidditch? I would be constantly paranoid about the bludgers. True, there are players on standby who exist to protect you from them…but that’s really not enough, especially since there are also players on standby who exist to use them against you. The two primary jobs of the Beater are to protect their team from Bludgers and hit them at the opposing team. That's not even acknowledging the risk that they might hit people in the stands. Again, we don't ever see this happen, so one can assume there are spells to prevent it...but that's still just a theory.

Quidditch is more violent than the likes of boxing, and there is little doubt that it can cause lasting damage to players just as easily. It could probably do so a lot faster. How any of them still have teeth, how most of them don’t have brain damage, is absolutely beyond me. Beaters literally exist to attack opposing players. In particular, the Seeker, because of their crucial role. What’s more, the Seeker has no counterpart like the Beaters and Chasers. They’re completely on their own, and frequently a target. Nowhere is this better demonstrated than in the World Cup game. Apart from establishing that The Seeker isn’t actually that overpowered if you have Chasers who are skilled enough, this match gave us an insight into just how ruthlessly violent professional Quidditch can be. 

I say this unironically - Aidan Lynch sustained serious brain damage after that game. There is no way that he did not. He crashed into the ground at least twice. At least one of these crashes was deliberate on the part of Krum. I cannot stress this enough - there is an entire maneuver, a famous Seeker move, designed around tricking the opposing Seeker into crashing. This is something that the characters don’t see as a problem, either, beyond lamenting that it was done to the team they were supporting. Arthur condemns Lynch, the victim, for falling into the trap. Charlie writes it off by saying “He only got ploughed!” The characters, even the adults, are completely oblivious to the real problem here, and the lack of self-awareness is truly disturbing. Even Harry is susceptible to this. Muggle-borns (and those raised by muggles) are not immune to Quidditch Culture. To Harry, like everyone else, the Wronskei Feint isn’t horrific, it’s cool. The mark of an exceptional Seeker. The only bad thing about it was that Krum put himself in danger, apparently.

The utterly cavalier attitude that fans have toward the violence is not an isolated incident, either. It is the norm. It’s not only socially acceptable for Quidditch players and their fans to be bloodthirsty, in some cases it is even expected, and brings out viciousness among even the most level-headed people. Did you know this game has seven hundred fouls? At one point Slytherin gets in trouble for attacking Oliver Wood, but only because, and I quote, "You do not attack the Keeper unless the Quaffle is within scoring area." Apparently it's just fine to do so otherwise. There is a team in the British/Irish league known as the Falmouth Falcons, who are infamous for their violent playstyle. To the point where their motto is, I kid you not, “Let us win, but if we cannot win, let us break a few heads.” How in god’s name does a professional sports team get away with something like that? I’ll tell you how. Because Quidditch fans are nuts. Because Quidditch fans are no less desensitized to the dangers of this game than the players are. 

This can be observed in virtually every character we see who becomes invested in the game. Oliver Wood is one of the finest examples, as is Skye Parkin from HPHM. While it's usually played for laughs, these tendencies are unhealthy and disturbing if you look at them realistically. Both of these characters take the game of Quidditch, specifically their goal of victory, way too far. To the point where they seem to value a match victory over things like the well-being of their team. There’s nothing wrong with a bit of healthy enthusiasm for team sports, nothing wrong with being passionate for a game that you love. But when Oliver tells Harry to “get the snitch or die trying” and it’s not entirely clear if he’s joking…then he’s putting the game itself over his team. Which, as the literal team captain, is simply not acceptable. Then Harry himself falls into this tendency. Even though a bludger is actively trying to kill him, Harry prioritizes defeating Slytherin over his own safety. Harry’s not even the competitive type, not usually. But he's never been one to take his own life that seriously this game brings out that side of people, and does so to dangerous levels. 

Almost everyone who ever touches this game comes off worse for it. (The only exception I can think of being Ginny Weasley.) Ron playing Quidditch caused his inferiority complex to act up and gave him a healthy dose of stage fright. The HPHM Quidditch storyline sees multiple characters suffering for the sake of Quidditch, from Skye Parkin being pressured to live up to her family’s legacy, to Erika Rath being subjected to bullying and pressure from all sides, thanks to her own talents. Gwenog Jones, as we learn in HPHM, was a short-sighted cheat who never took responsibility for her actions. Ludo Bagman is no different. He’s a gambling addict who winds up stealing the life savings of two teenagers to cover his debt. The only character to ever criticize the negativity that Quidditch creates is Hermione, and like most of the time, she’s absolutely right. But the conversation never goes anywhere because she is always shut down, swiftly and without mercy. The other characters in the room act as though she’s blasphemed. All because she doesn’t like a sport. 

This is what I mean. Quidditch is not simply a game to these people. To the witches and wizards who are into it, Quidditch is worshipped. It’s a lifestyle, a philosophy, that is shared across this society. There are no “casual” fans. People who follow this sport become invested, to an unhealthy level. To the point of rioting if it's taken away, to the point where Lee Jordan and Murphy McNully can't even pretend to be impartial, and this is treated as basically normal. When I use the phrase “Quidditch Culture” I’m not simply being pretentious. There really does seem to be shared understanding between the fans, and all of them take the game that seriously. I think the greatest example of this can be found in the Daily Prophet. When “stooging” was banned, people were outraged. Including one boy who claimed that he and his dad “liked watching them Keepers get flattened.” He tearfully claims that he doesn’t want to go see Quidditch games anymore. Kid was six years old, by the way. 

I really feel like the culture speaks for itself at this point.

#Quidditch #Quidditch Culture #Harry Potter #Oliver Wood #Harry James Potter #Ron Weasley #Hermione Granger #Harry Potter Analysis #HPHM Quidditch #Fandom Analysis #Ludo Bagman #Skye Parkin #Erika Rath #Gwenog Jones #Aidan Lynch #Victor Krum #The Wronskei Feint #Falmouth Falcons

[nioumin-draw]

Teresa Grim successfully become a member of the quidditch team as chaser . Professor Snape…He is so proud of us ….😭🥺!!

#hphm #hphm quidditch #severus snape #snape #oc #hogwartmystery #hogwartmysteryoc #hogwartmysterymc #Teresa grim #Teresagrim

[slipshod-sawyer]

i want to hug this boy and never let go

#Murphy McNully #hphm #hphm quidditch #hphm jacobs sibling #hphm mc #harry potter hogwarts mystery #harry potter #hogwarts mystery

[agatha-in-hogwarts]

capt.

#quidditch captain gear #hogwarts mystery #hogwarts #hphm characters #hphm mc #hphm #ravenclaw #hphm quidditch #ravenclaw quidditch #hogwarts mystery mc

[marmotish]

November 1988

When Andre got made Quidditch captain, one of the things he wanted to do was re-design his team’s uniform. Tulip, despite not being on the team, enthusiastically put forward her suggestion for short shorts with Macbeth quotes written on the back. Andre straight up told her that his team wouldn’t be caught dead in something as tacky as that.

So of course, the night before Andre’s debut match as Ravenclaw Quidditch captain, Tulip sneaks into the team’s change rooms and swaps out their standard trousers for the short shorts of her own design. Just for fun.

Day of the match arrives, and Andre is literally fuming over Tulip’s little joke. The rest of the team seem largely unbothered by the shorts, aside from some particularly aggressive wedgie-picking on Skye’s part.

(Individual quotes as below)

Something wicked this way comes (Andre)

What, you egg? (Skye)

There is nothing serious in mortality (Freyja)

Let light not see my black and deep desires (unnamed 3rd Chaser)

Fair is foul (unnamed Beater 1)

Foul is fair (unnamed Beater 2)

Look like the innocent flower (unnamed Seeker)

#hogwarts mystery #andre egwu #skye parkin #hphm mc #freyja young #maybe some of the other teammates have names but i haven’t played past season 2 in the quidditch storyline so #i wouldn’t know if they’re named or not #unless they were mentioned and i just don’t remember which is entirely possible 😅

[piyangg]

I don't know anything about the quidditch quests but I see people shipping these two

#hphm meme #hphm #hogwarts mystery #hphm characters #hogwarts #harry potter #hphm fanart #slytherin #quidditch #orion amari #murphy mcnully #orion x murphy #Yang’s Art

[lifeofkaze]

A Search for Balance

CHAPTER 44: FIRE IN THE SKY

Find the masterlist with all chapters of this story here, the previous chapter here, and the next one here.

A/N: Katriona Cassiopeia still belongs to @kc-and-co Warning: canon-compliant mentions of violence against minors

The victory party was in full swing, but Orion didn’t feel like celebrating. The high of the match had faded, leaving him feeling strung up and drained from a night of little sleep. 

Ever since Murphy and Katriona had invited him to the World Cup, he had been looking forward to it, yet none of it had turned out like he had expected. In his eagerness to fill the emptiness inside him, he hadn’t questioned what had looked to be an act of generosity, and now he was back where he had begun, his heart filled with a longing for Lizzie that he didn’t know how to deal with. 

Not sharing the high spirits around him, Orion kept to the side of the party. He busied himself watching the fireworks flashing across the sky, nodding at familiar faces as they passed him. Luckily, most of them were too ecstatic to bother him in his gloom; it had been a while since he had seen any of his friends, too, but it was just as well - the party was noisy enough without any of them bothering him on top. 

More out of habit than anything, he scanned the crowd for Lizzie. He found her standing close to the World Cup trophy, talking to a witch covered head to toe in Irish colours. Lizzie seemed to know her because she put a hand on the woman’s arm before suddenly turning to walk away. When she paused abruptly, the Irish witch whispered into her ear before yelling something Orion didn’t understand. Then, she raised her shirt up to her shoulders, flashing the hollering bystanders and vanished into the crowd. 

Shaking his head in astonishment, Orion looked back to where Lizzie had been but found that she had disappeared. When he spotted her again, she was headed for the exit, Skye’s unmistakable blue head right behind her. Then, the two of them were gone. 

Without thinking, Orion made to follow them, but he didn’t make it very far. Katriona materialised by his side, her brows drawn together in an angry frown. 

“What is going on? Why is Lizzie leaving?” She narrowed her eyes at him. “What did you do?”

Orion sighed wearily. “I did nothing, my sweet but quick to judge sister-in-the-stars.”

At that, Katriona blinked. “You didn’t? Why?”

Hadn’t he been so tired and frustrated, Orion would have laughed at the absurdity of her question.

“How can I cause disturbance in waters that I do not go near? I’ve kept my distance from Lizzie since you so kindly abandoned us at the fire yesterday.” 

Katriona tilted her head. “I repeat my question - why?” 

“Because there is no use. Every word we share is another twist of the knife in both our hearts. When Lizzie and I parted, we did so hoping to heal, not cut ourselves even deeper.” 

Katriona snorted. “All I hear is yada yada yada. I thought we were over this - if you want something, you’ll need to go and get it. You want her. She wants you. Wherever is your bloody problem?”

“The problem,” Orion said, irritation rising in his chest,” is that she has left. Lizzie chose to go and stretch her wings, and as much as it pains me that she has flown beyond my reach, I know she deserves it. She earned it. I will not be who keeps her from her destiny.”

“Not that again.”

“Yes, that again. We played with fire, knowing what happens when you hold your hands into a flame. Who are we to complain now that it burns? We were never meant to be. It was a lie we told ourselves because we didn’t want to listen. We should never have put our careers on the line for this fever dream. What have we to show for breaking every single rule I can think of? Nothing. Absolutely nothing.” 

“The rules, the rules, all I hear is the rules,” Katriona answered hotly. “Sod the rules, I say! If they don’t suit you, bend them. You always did. Where’s your creativity gone?” She grabbed Orion by the arm and pulled him toward the exit. “Come on, Lizzie’s hasn’t gone for long. You can still catch her if you hurry.”

Orion spun away from her, his anger at her, which had been simmering beneath the surface since he had seen Lizzie and Skye at their camp, finally spilling over.

“I don’t want to catch her! Don’t you get it? I want to forget her, and you should support me rather than make everything worse. She and I aren’t meant to be - never were and never will be. The sooner you, and I, and everybody else, accept it, the easier it will be to finally move on. Maybe - just maybe - Lizzie and I can both actually be happy for once.” 

Katriona blinked at his sudden outburst, her face illuminated by the green and gold explosives in the sky, but Orion wasn’t done. It was like a dam had broken inside him, all of his frustration spilling from him in a rush of words.

“Every time Lizzie and I try to be together, we part hurting. Every time we try to love each other, we break each other’s hearts. We made our choices - both of us - and all they ever do is lead us away from each other, every single bloody time.”

He took a deep breath, dipping his head back into his neck. His eyes searched the sky, but the stars were eclipsed by the fireworks rising from the tents beyond the party area. When Orion spoke next, he felt light and heavy at the same time.

“It’s time to let her go,” he said, more to himself than to Katriona. “Let her go and be free. Both of us.” 

Katriona’s face was a play of light and shadow as the fireworks flared again, but Orion could see the spark of sympathy in her eyes. She placed her hand on his arm again, lightly this time, but Orion shook her off. He wanted to tell her to, please, leave the matter alone but paused.

All of a sudden, the light seemed to have changed. The sky was still glowing in the distance, but it wasn’t fireworks anymore that were lighting the darkness. It was a flickering orange sheen, which was growing brighter by the minute. Orion thought he could hear the faint noise of thundering, but it didn’t sound like fireworks being set off. 

Slowly, the music began to die as more and more people noticed the change in the air. A murmur rose among the crowd. Suddenly, Murphy was there, reaching for Katriona’s hand with an alarmed look on his painted face. 

“Do you know what’s going on?” he asked, his voice strangely loud in the strained silence. 

Katriona opened her mouth to reply when a new sound cut through the atmosphere that made Orion’s blood run cold.

Screams. 

Sharing a look, the three of them followed the throng of people into the open, where they would be able to see better. They were met with sounds of confusion and panic as witches and wizards darted to and fro, some headed for the woods in the distance, some straight for the cause of the commotion. 

Now that they were outside, Orion could discern a row of cloaked and hooded people in the distance. They were marching in succession, setting tents on fire as they went. They kept their wands raised in front of their faces, hidden by what looked to be silvery masks and joined by a constant stream of equally dressed people coming in from both sides. 

Above them, four shapes were floating through the air. They were weirdly contorted, limbs twitching, and movements too unnatural to appear human. When Katriona realised how small two of the hovering shapes were, she drew a sharp breath. 

“Come on,” she said with a pressed voice. “We need to see if we can help.”

They fought their way through the people running in the opposite direction from them - away from the hooded group of wizards - but soon had to give in to the fact that Murphy had no space to manoeuvre his wheelchair. 

The dark figures had turned from them and were walking in a different direction, but the general commotion seemed to have spread beyond their wake. Emotions both good and bad had been running high over the last couple of hours, and now all of it was breaking ground. Fires were blooming everywhere, the air thick and biting with their smoke, and the sounds of screams and hollering were storming in on Orion from all sides. 

“Let’s go and find a meeting point,” Murphy suggested. He had to shout to be heard above the racket. “Maybe someone will be able to tell us what’s going on.”

Orion was about to agree when the atmosphere abruptly changed. Where everything had been black shadows and flickering flames before, the campsite was suddenly cast into a pale green light. An eerie silence settled over the burning field as hundreds of faces turned skywards. Moments after, screams erupted all around them, followed by the cracks of several people Disapparating in panic. 

Slowly, Orion raised his eyes to the sky. 

“Oh my God,” Katriona whispered next to him. Her voice was hoarse. “It can’t be…” 

She reached for Murphy’s hand, who watched the image of the skull with a snake winding from its gaping mouth with his lips tightly pressed together. He nodded. 

“The Dark Mark.”

Orion was still watching the sign of He Who Must Not Be Named - the symbol the whole wizarding world had hoped to never see again - when a sudden explosion in the distance made them jump. As if the sound had kicked time into motion again, people began to run, away from the fires, the explosions, and the skull in the sky, without looking left or right. Standing completely still amid the people fleeing around them, Katriona turned to Orion. Her face was ghastly pale.

“The explosion,” she said, her blue eyes wide with fear. “That was by our camp, wasn’t it?”

She clapped a hand in front of her mouth.

“That’s where Skye and Lizzie are.”

#hphm #hogwarts mystery #harry potter hogwarts mystery #quidditch #orion amari #orion amari x mc #lizzie jameson #murphy mcnully #balance series #search for balance #sfb

[lyss-fletcher]

Lyss delaying practice for the third time this week because they’re too distracted flirting with Murphy lol I used a game screenshot to place the background and also Murphy lol

#hphm #hphm fanart #hogwarts mystery #hogwarts mystery fanart #murphy mcnully #murphy mcnully fanart #quidditch #lyss is very lean for a beater lol #i was so set for the longest time on having lyss date talbott #but lately i've been like #'maybe they should be with murphy instead' #dangit jc why can't we date him #lyss fletcher #fanart #i need to get myself an art tag lol #my tags are a mess

[yarmoon]

✨ Quidditch ✨

#those in the bg are supposed to be ben charlie and penny but meh #this was supposed to be only a sketch but things escalated rip #hphm characters #hphm #yael corvus #hogwarts mystery #quidditch #hphm mc #jacobs sibling #hp

[jesspersephone]

It’s been a minute since I’ve posted, but here’s some cute & wholesome ❤️Charlie/Jess💙 sweetness.

It’s 🦁Gryffindor vs Ravenclaw🦅 today and ❤️Charlie thought he’d sneak into Ravenclaw’s tent to give Jess💙 some love before they face off 😊 for the final time at Hogwarts

This piece was done by the lovely @tamdrry on Instagram and I can’t recommend Tam’s work enough!

#harry potter #hogwarts #hogwarts mystery #hphm #jess persephone #original character #ravenclaw #trans #charlie weasley #Weasley #quidditch #hogwarts legacy #gryffindor #gryffinclaw #gay art #gay couple

[moonwater-hphm]

Guess who’s back, back again

Well, i finally found a modded version of HPHM and I had to start over, but it didn’t take too long to catch up, so hello again!

#hphm #hogwarts mystery #hphm fanart #hphm oc #hphm mc #hphm quidditch #nath moonwater

[ramblings-of-a-mad-cat]

Okay not to trash talk Orion or anything but honestly I doubt he would’ve done anything about Skye being a prat again even if he hadn’t stepped down. I mean he didn’t really do anything about her behaviour in s1 so I don’t have much reason to believe that he’d done anything about it this time.

I...I wish I could counterargue this, anon. I so wish that I could. But it's honestly spot-on that Orion wouldn't have really done much about it. Because I consider him to be a brilliant leader - I do, and I stand by that - but he's not flawless, he's not infallible. To a degree, this was highlighted in Season 3 when he had his breakdown, but it's true all-throughout. Like...again, he's one of my favorites, but he really drops the quaffle when it comes to Skye's behavior...and I kind of think that I know why.

Orion is devoted to his team, because they're his family. That makes him more loyal to them than most Captains would be. (Compare him to Oliver Wood. As much as we love him, he clearly cared more about victory than any one of his teammates.) But the problem with that is where it comes from. Orion's team are a substitute for a family in his heart, and he is clearly grateful to have them. So it gives him a blind spot. He's never going to discipline them or show any tough love, even though that's exactly what Skye might have needed for a wakeup call. Honestly, if I was Orion...well, I was going to say that after Season 2, I'd seriously reconsider letting Skye back on the team, but she *seemed* to have learned her lesson after Season 2.

#Orion Amari #HPHM Quidditch #Skye Parkin #HPHM Datamines

[the-al-chemist]

Artemis Hexley: The Wilderness Years

Chapter 6: Masks

A/N: Artemis and co end up at the centre of a shocking turn of events at the World Cup. Warnings: violence, threat, acts of terrorism and hate crime.

Once the match ended, the campsite turned into a wild and raucous party, bursting with music, dancing, and revelry. Nowhere was that more the case than in the Irish supporters’ section of the campsite, where several overlapping fiddle tunes could be heard in the air, and almost every single witch, wizard, and leprechaun was on their feet dancing along underneath the green and gold flags that waved victoriously over the tents. 

Artemis and her friends had been quick to join the celebrations, and had stayed out drinking and mingling and enjoying the festivities until Artemis’ voice was nearly gone and her feet were aching from all the dances Chiara had tried to teach her.

By the time she and Chiara returned to their tent, midnight had come and gone, and the party was only just showing signs of winding down. They were the first back to the tent; Penny, Tonks, and Andre were apparently determined to stay out until sunrise.

“I’m surprised you didn’t want to stay out longer,” said Artemis, pulling a jumper over the top of her pyjamas and climbing into her sleeping bag. “You’ve got more reason to celebrate than the rest of us.”

“It’s been a long day,” Chiara replied. There was a note to her voice that made Artemis look at her sceptically. “I’m just tired, that’s all.”

“So, you wanting to leave had nothing to do with Jae dancing with those Veela just now?”

Chiara gave Artemis a weary look, and Artemis raised her eyebrows. Chiara sighed.

“He can dance with whoever he likes,” she said, lying back onto her pillow so that her white-blonde hair fanned around her head. “I have no right to be bothered by it.”

“But you are.”

“Yes.”

Artemis nodded. She lay down too, and shuffled onto her side so that she was facing Chiara. 

“Chiara, what happened between you two? I mean, you obviously miss him, so why-”

“It was a trust thing.”

“Yeah, you said that before, but that’s not an actual explanation,” said Artemis. “You know, if you’re still this upset, you should probably talk about it with us. We’re your best friends, that’s what we’re here for.” Chiara said nothing, but her face softened. “Was it all the dodgy stuff he sells, or did he do something bad?”

“No.” Chiara shook her head. “No, he didn’t. He would never.” She looked at Artemis from the corner of her eye. “Jae’s a very good person, he’s just better at pretending not to be sometimes.”

“So why couldn’t you trust him anymore?”

“It wasn’t Jae that couldn’t be trusted. It was me.”

“Wait, what?” Artemis’ nose wrinkled. “What do you mean, you couldn’t be trusted?”

“I never told him about me. That I’m a” - even though the tent was empty aside from the two of them, Chiara still paused and lowered her voice before saying the word - “werewolf.”

“But you were together for… what? Two years? More?”

“Two and half, by the end.”

“How did you manage to keep it a secret from him for so long?”

“It actually wasn’t that difficult,” Chiara said, with a sharp little laugh. “I’m used to keeping it a secret, after all. It’s not like we were living together, and I already couldn’t see him some nights because of my shifts at St Mungos. We did night shifts from the start of our training, so I just… made up some more. He never noticed that they always coincided with the full moon. I thought I was being quite clever at the time, but looking back, it was really stupid. He was bound to find me out eventually.”

“I guess,” Artemis frowned. “So does he know now? That’s not why-”

“No. Thank Merlin, no.”

“Then what happened?”

“He got injured one evening and decided to go into my work and get me to check him over on his way home. Obviously, I wasn’t there when I told him I would be, and he assumed the obvious, that there was someone else.”

“Why would that be the obvious thing to assume?” asked Artemis. She would never have assumed anything like that of Chiara.

“Well, he was hardly going to guess the real reason, was he now? And it wasn’t like I could tell him the truth either, so… I let him assume that. And that’s why it ended.”

“I don’t understand,” Artemis said. “I get you not telling him at first, but when he’d already half-figured it out, surely you could’ve just told him the truth.”

“I didn’t feel like I could,” Chiara sighed. “It was like I’d been wearing this mask for so long, and I was just so scared to take it off by that point. I was scared to let him in, even when I knew that if I didn’t, then… And I realised at that point that if I was that scared to tell him, it was because I didn’t trust him, and obviously at that point he didn’t trust me either, and… Well, what’s the point of loving someone if you don’t trust them?”

“I was told that love doesn’t ever have a point, it just is.”

“I suppose you’re right, so you are. It’s not like any of this stopped me from loving him. I don’t think it stopped him from loving me either, as much as you can love somebody without really knowing them, anyway.”

“You know, you could still-”

“No, I can’t,” Chiara said firmly. She sighed and blinked twice, her eyes fixed on the canvas ceiling of the tent. “It’s too late now. And as Godric-awful as it is that it didn’t work out because I never truly let him in, it would hurt even more if it had been because he saw me for what - for who - I really am. I know it sounds ridiculous, but at least this way it’s the mask that’s the problem, and not the real me who’s underneath it.”

“That doesn’t sound ridiculous at all,” said Artemis. She removed her hand from out of the sleeping bag and gently squeezed Chiara’s arm. Chiara wiped her eyes and shook her head.

“What about you, anyway?” she said, her voice forcibly breezy as she turned onto her side to face Artemis.

“What about me?”

“How are things with you and Chester?”

“Fine.”

“Really?”

Artemis’ eyebrows furrowed at the sceptical expression in Chiara’s eyes. “What do you mean, really?”

“Well, he’s not here…”

“I only had four tickets.”

“Which you gave to us and not him.”

“You were here first.”

“Ah,” Chiara’s lips twitched. “Good to know that the English still prioritise queuing over romance.” Artemis laughed, but Chiara’s chuckle was brief. “Have you told him yet? About the Vaults, and Rowan, and your family?”

Artemis shook her head. “I mean, he knows that the Vaults were a thing, and he knows that Rowan… He knows I don’t speak to Mum or Jacob anymore.”

“But does he know why? Have you told him exactly what-”

“No. I don’t need to.”

“Maybe you should,” said Chiara. “Trust me, you don’t want to end up-”

“It’s not the same as it was for you and Jae, though,” Artemis explained. Chiara looked doubtful. “It’s not! You didn’t tell Jae about something that was still going on at the time. If I was still dealing with the Vaults and things, then it would be the same, but it’s not, because all of that’s in the past now. It doesn’t affect me anymore.”

Chiara smiled, but the look in her eyes remained solemn. The tent was quiet, until Tonks stumbled in, tripped over Andre’s suitcase, and landed on top of them on the ground, laughing as they made noises of complaint.

“You’re fine. Don’t be such drama queens,” she told them. “What are you talking about?”

“Nothing,” Artemis said quickly. “Where are Penny and Andre?”

“Chatting up Quidditch players. Andre’s got his eye on the new reserve Keeper for Puddlemere United and Penny’s currently surrounded by half the Wigtown Wanderers. Lewis Parkin was getting her a drink when I left.”

“How come you left?”

“The Muggle bloke that owns the field came and told people to keep it down.”

“And you listened?”

“I kind of had to, I’m an Auror now. Most people didn’t, though.”

She gestured at the canvas panels of the tent, through which shouting and music could still be heard, followed by a series of loud bangs that sounded like fireworks.

“Wow,” said Chiara, her eyebrows raised. “They really didn’t listen.”

“Let’s go back out,” said Artemis, standing up and shaking off her sleeping bag. “We can’t miss the fireworks!”

Chiara and Tonks exchanged wearied glances, but they also started to get back up. As they did, yet another bang - even louder than the ones before - sounded outside. And then, someone screamed.

The three girls froze, and the blood seemed to drain slightly from both Tonks and Chiara’s faces. There was another scream. And another.

“Artemis, I don’t think those are fireworks.”

Outside the tent, it was chaos. Gone was the merriment; the music had been replaced with screams and desperate cries, the beats of the drums with the thundering footsteps of the confused and terrified-looking people who ran between the tents, some towards the woods, some deeper into the campsite. In the stampede, most of the lamps had been knocked over, and so the night was darker than before, the only lights coming from a few fires that had broken out in the near distance, and the occasional flash of a spell being cast. 

“Penny’s out there,” Chiara said, her voice a hoarse whisper as her wide eyes scanned the scene in front of them. “Andre, too.”

“We have to find them. Come on!”

Tonks led the way back to the place where she last saw Penny, the three of them jostling their way through the still rushing crowds as fast as they could without losing one another in the mass of panicked people. Eventually, Artemis saw a glimpse of long blonde hair illuminated by the light of a nearby tent that had burst into flame.

“She’s over there!” she shouted to the others, and sprinted towards her. “Penny! Pen!”

She hollered Penny’s name at the top of the voice as she ran, and as she drew close, Penny looked up at her. She was standing with an athletic looking wizard with brown hair, who had one of muscled arms wrapped around her and the other raised with his wand in a defensive position. Penny’s face was pale, her eyes full of tears, and as soon as Artemis reached her, she threw her arms around her and began to sob onto her shoulder. Artemis patted her gently and looked suspiciously at the wizard behind her, who lowered his wand a little.

“What happened, Pen?” she asked once Penny had stopped crying enough to talk. “What’s going on?”

“The Muggles,” Penny said, with a sniff and a shudder that shook her whole body. “The man who owns the field, he was over there, going back to his house and… These wizards attacked him.”

“What? What wizards?”

“I don’t know, they were all wearing masks.”

“Masks?”

“Oh, aye. If I didn’t ken better,” muttered the wizard with the wand, “I’d say they were Death Eater masks.”

Artemis’ eyes widened at the mention of the Death Eaters, and Penny’s lip trembled before she continued to explain:

“They were casting spells on the Muggle man, and then a couple of people tried to stop them and they cast curses at them, too. They set some of the tents on fire, and then…”

“They marched away,” Penny’s new friend finished her sentence for her. “That direction. Cannae be sure, but it looked like they were heading for the cottage.”

“There were children in the cottage, I saw them earlier. What if they hurt them?”

“Someone will stop them before they get that far,” Artemis told Penny reassuringly, but Penny was not to be consoled.

“People tried, but they kept cursing anyone who got in their way,” she said. Her eyes filled with tears again, and she looked helplessly in the direction of the Muggles’ cottage. “All he did was ask people to be quiet!”

A tear rolled down Penny’s cheek. The wizard looking after her moved his hand as if he was going to try and wipe it away for her, but he glanced at Artemis and instead used it to rub the back of his own neck. Artemis took a deep breath before placing her hands on Penny’s shoulders.

“Okay, this is what we’re going to do,” she said, trying her hardest to sound like she knew what she was doing. “Andre’s got to be around here somewhere. We’ll find him, and then we’ll go and find the Aurors. Tonks is bound to know where…”

Her voice tailed off as she glanced over her shoulder and realised that Tonks and Chiara were no longer behind her. She turned to look at the crowd, but there was no sign of either of them anywhere.

“Where are the others?” 

“They were here a minute ago. They can’t have gotten far, we’ll find them in no time.”

“Will you be okay by yourselves?” the wizard asked the two of them, though his eyes were still on Penny. “I can come with-”

“We’ll be fine,” said Artemis. “Thanks, though.”

 She took Penny by the hand and pulled her back into the crowd, wondering which direction Tonks and Chiara were more likely to have gone in. She tried to get a look at each of the faces that rushed past her, in case it was one of theirs or Andre’s but there were too many people and they were all moving too fast for her to pick out all of their features, especially in the dim light and with the smoke that had settled in the night air. When she finally caught sight of a face she recognised, it was that of Jae Kim.

“Are you lot okay?” he asked them. He looked around them as if expecting to see someone else behind them, but there was no one there. His eyebrows furrowed and his jaw tensed. “Where’s Chiara?”

“We don’t know, we’re looking for her.”

“What do you mean, you don’t know?”

“She was with us, and then we looked back and she was gone.”

“Well, where did she go?”

“We don’t know,” Artemis repeated herself, rapidly losing her patience. “That’s why we’re looking for her. Tonks, too. Do you want to help us or are you just going to stand there asking stupid questions, or what?”

Jae screwed up his face, clearly both frustrated and frightened, but he nodded his head. “Yeah. Sorry. I’ll help.”

“They’ll probably have gone to where Andre was earlier,” said Penny. “That way.”

They set off once more through the crowd, which was growing more panicked by the minute. A fresh wave of people were running in the opposite direction to the one they were going in, many of them clutching crying children, and Penny’s grip tightened on Artemis’ forearm. 

“What are they all running from?” Jae asked, his question barely audible over the drunken shouts and screams and the loud bangs that had started going off again.

Neither Penny nor Artemis answered him, because seconds later, the cause of the stampede became clear.

A mass of wizards and witches in black hooded cloaks and masks were marching through the field. Several of them were using their wands to illuminate the night air around them in an eery green glow; others were clearing tents out of their path, either by sending them flying off, or blowing them up; and more were firing curses at the wizards and witches who were attempting to stop them. In the centre of the throng, a group of the masked wizards had their wands pointing straight up into the air, where four people could be seen floating and spinning over fifty feet above the crowd. All the masked wizards were jeering loudly at their victims.

“Is that…?

“That’s them. The Death Eaters. They’ve got the whole family,” said Penny, gnawing at her lip. “The children, too. Oh, this is horrible. Why isn’t anyone doing anything?”

“They are, look!” Artemis pointed at another group of wizards and witches charging at the Death Eaters and surrounding them. Many of them were wearing Auror or Mediwizard robes, but most were dressed as they were - either in their pyjamas or the clothes they had been wearing for the match and the parties afterwards. Artemis could just about make out the red-haired heads of Bill and Charlie Weasley in their midst, with what looked like Percy and Arthur following after them. “We should help them.”

“What about the others?”

“If they didn’t come this way, they’ll be fine. If they did, then you can bet that they’re already over there trying to help, too,” Artemis reasoned, and Jae took off without a word, running at the Death Eaters with his wand raised and already firing spells. “Come on, Penny!”

Penny nodded, and the two of them joined the fight, keeping half an eye out for Tonks and Chiara as they cast curses at the Death Eaters.

“Careful!” one of the Mediwizards was shouting. “Don’t let the Muggles fall!”

It was too late, as a series of spells hit the Death Eaters levitating the Muggles, their limp bodies began to plummet from the air. The Mediwizard immediately pointed his wand at one of the children, and so did Artemis.

“Wingardium leviosa!” she shouted. 

She wasn’t the only one to call out the spell; nearby, a tent levitated into the air, its canvas stretching out at the corners to form a sort of net. Elsewhere, different spells were being used to rescue the Muggles, with someone conjuring a large ribbon that wrapped itself around a Muggle and slowly rolled them down to the ground, and another clearly having transfigured an area of the grass into a trampoline, for when the other child fell, he bounced back up into the air again before coming to a complete stop. 

The Mediwizards and several other civilians - Artemis was sure she saw Chiara among them - rushed to the Muggles and began to check them over, while the rest of the crowd resumed their fight with the Death Eaters, casting their spells with wild abandon now that they no longer had to worry about indirectly harming the Muggles. The Death Eaters fought back with even more disregard for the amount of harm they might cause, until suddenly, they stopped in their tracks as if frozen, staring at the horizon. Then, one by one, they Apparated away, all of them disappearing into the night in quick succession.

“Oh, bravo!” Artemis heard a familiar voice call out, and she turned to see Ludo Bagman clapping his hands together, his mouth curving into a relieved smile. “Jolly good work, everyone!”

But not everyone seemed pleased. Many of the rest of the crowd still seemed restless and scared - even more so than they had previously. Several of them had, like the Death Eaters, frozen to the spot, their eyes fixed on the distant skyline. Someone let out a strangled cry in the dark, and a second later, the smile slipped and colour drained from Ludo Bagman’s face. Artemis felt Penny’s hand tighten on her arm once more.

“What is it, Penny? What’s…”

Artemis’ words died in her mouth as she followed Penny’s gaze to the woods at the top of the hill and saw what was floating in the night sky above them: an enormous green skull had risen from the trees, a serpent protruding from its mouth. The skull glittered in the darkness, sparkling like a nebulus of fireflies. Artemis’ eyes widened and her mouth went dry. She had seen that skull before, but not in many years, and only ever in pictures, either in Defence Against the Dark Arts textbooks, or on the pages of newspapers in her early childhood, when the Wizarding World had been at war, a war against Death Eaters, and the one the Death Eaters followed. Voldemort. This skull was his sign, the mark he left behind. 

The Dark Mark.

#artemis hexley #chiara lobosca #penny haywood #nymphadora tonks #jae kim #death eaters #goblet of fire #quidditch world cup #harry potter fanfiction #hphm fic

[slipshod-sawyer]

it’s literally so easy to just imagine that he’s flirting with me right here 😭🥰

#murphy mcnully #as usual I would die for him with no hesitation #He’s literally perfect #Hphm #hphm jacobs sibling #hphm quidditch #hphm mc #harry potter #hogwarts mystery #harry potter hogwarts mystery

[agatha-in-hogwarts]

#quidditch tournament #hphm quidditch #ravenclaw quidditch #hphm ravenclaw #orion amari #skye parkin #hogwarts mystery #hphm characters