dear prudence, won't you come out to play? dear prudence, greet the brand new day. the sun is up, the sky is blue, it's beautiful, and so are you. dear prudence, won’t you come out to play? dear prudence, open up your eyes. dear prudence, see the sunny skies. the wind is low, the birds will sing that you are part of everything. dear prudence, won't you open up your eyes? look around, round. look around, round round. look around.
CECILY SKEETER-ATLAS: What’s the most scandalous thing you’ve ever done?
“I honestly don’t think I’ve ever done something that is remarkably scandalous. I did punch that Montague guy in the face for making a joke about my father, but… I feel like that just pleased people, rather than scandalize them… I don’t know. I try not to do anything that wouldn’t make my parents- my mom proud, so I’ve avoided doing anything truly scandalous so far. Plus, I just don’t know how I’d deal with a scandal. I think I’m pretty comfortable the way things are, in my personal life, ignoring all the bullshit going on right now, and I don’t know how I’d react to rumours flying around about me… Yes, I think I’ll stay away for scandals. At least for now. I’ve got enough things to make people talk about me already; I don’t need any more.”
CLEO TRELAWNEY: Did your skills/gifts/talents come naturally to you, or did you have to work hard to acquire or control them?
“Not really, no. Although I do think I was quite lucky when it comes to intelligence and skills and what not, I’ve always had to work hard to maintain them. It’d be an outrageous lie to say otherwise, seeing how different I am after summer break than I am before it. If I don’t need to know something, then I don’t really bother. Especially lately; like, what’s the point of bothering to learn ‘Spongify’? What good is it going to be when I need to save a friend from their death? I’m just… We’re taught so many useless things. Our brains are saturated with that stuff, and then we forget the truly important stuff; the stuff that’ll save our lives. And I wish, oh how I fucking wish, that I was able to be good at everything, but I’m not. I have to focus on specific things, and so, yeah. I do have to work hard to maintain and control them.”
MANDOLYN ‘MANON’ MIDGEN: What’s the one thing you wish to change most about yourself?
“This is going to sound ridiculous, especially considering everything that’s going on, but I wish I had less principles. Sure, I do fight Death Eaters, and I’m not afraid of them, but I always hold back, don’t I? I’m always scared to cause permanent damage, because what if. What if they don’t truly believe in what they’re doing? What if they’re forced to do it, or will regret it some day? Who am I to decide that it’s my right to hurt them, right here and now. Yet, I fight them. But fuck, do I always hold back. I can’t find it in myself to permanently hurt someone, even not after what happened to my dad. And how fucking weak does that make me? I just… I wish I were stronger. Braver. More… In the present, and less afraid of the future.”
WHERE: Some girls’ bathroom in Hogwarts.
WHEN: November 6th, 2023 @ 19:46.
WHO: Mailan Pham. ( @swtfcde )
This wasn’t right.
This.
Wasn’t.
Fucking.
Right.
Her father couldn’t be dead. It had been a week, but she still couldn’t wrap her head around it. Her mother had begged her to come back home, but Prue couldn’t bring herself to do it. She couldn’t just run away. Couldn’t just run to the muggle world and hide there. Prue couldn’t just give up. She had to fight, she had to get revenge.
The thing was, she wasn’t the only one hurting. What about Lily, and Albus, and James?! They had lost their father too, and she hadn’t seen them breaking down like she was right now. Maybe they had, maybe they hadn’t, but fact was: they had never gotten caught. Or at least, not by anyone who’d have shared the facts. And there Prue was, breaking down in a random girls’ bathroom where she wasn’t even sure she belonged. Sometimes she did feel like a girl, but sometimes she didn’t, and right at that moment, she just wasn’t sure.
Still, nothing could change the fact that Prue was breaking down right in front of the mirrors, hands gripping the sink so hard that her knuckles had paled. She wasn’t sure if she was just having issues breathing or just crying, or both, but fact was that she wasn’t in the right state to interact with anyone.
Therefore, to say that they panicked when they heard someone come into the bathroom would be an understatement. Trying to stop crying, they just trembled more intensely as she looked down at the sink and tried to ignore whoever it was that had just entered, hoping it wouldn’t be someone who was glad for her father’s death. Though, in that case, they’d have an excuse to actually do something...
WHERE: The courtyard at Hogwarts.
WHEN: March 2nd, 2024, after classes end.
WHO: Manon Midgen. ( @manonmidgen )
Walking along the courtyard, hand in hand with Manon, Prue felt quite good. She loved her girlfriend, she truly did. But they used to hold hands just as friends, too, and the genderfluid teen wondered if it felt all that different to do it now than it did back then. It wasn’t fair for Manon, really. Fact was, Prue loved Manon, and she was pretty sure Manon loved her too, but the brunette just wasn’t sure what kind of love the two felt for each other, exactly.
Still, it felt right to hold the girl’s hand, and so Prue smiled as they kept on walking in comfortable silence. Finally, they spotted a bench that wasn’t filled with people, and nodded towards each other before sitting down.
The day was surprisingly warm, for the time of year, that was, but Prue was still wrapped in a huge coat, a scarf, a hat and gloves. She had always ran a little cold, and therefore always made sure she was well protected against it, even when other people could wear half the stuff she was wearing and still feel comfortable.
Fishing into her bag, Prue took out a little notebook and opened it to the last page they had written on. “Can you read this,” she asked as she scrunched up her nose in confusion, and tilted the notebook so that Manon could look at it properly. “I know it’s my own writing, but I can’t figure out what the hell it’s supposed to be saying.”
WHERE: The Great Hall, Hogwarts.
WHEN: March 3rd, 2024, in the morning.
WHO: Open to all students and Hogwarts staff.
Prue was mad. And sad. And upset. And just, generally pissed off. She still couldn’t wrap her mind around what had happened to Lily and Viv. They may just be a year younger than her, but Prue felt like it wasn’t fair that they had been the ones to get hurt when they were so young. She didn’t know Viv all that well, but had met Lily quite a few times through their fathers, and understood what the other girl was going through. And for her to go missing on top of what had happened to Harry... It just wasn’t fair. Still, she couldn’t exactly go around, hexing people until they gave her the information she needed, as that would just put her in danger and maybe risk the others even more. Therefore, she turned to one of the only comforts she had with her: muggle candy.
The sourness of it, followed by its sweetness, had always immensely pleased Prue’s tastebuds, and though cereal was her favourite comfort food, sweet and sour muggle candy was her favourite to eat when she was upset and stressed out. Still, she thought it wouldn’t do to eat them alone in her bed, and so she had come to the Great Hall as soon as she had woken up and gotten ready. Problem was, she was alone in the Hall, and therefore, that didn’t change much. Finally, though, someone walked in, and Prue extended her arm holding the bag of candy towards them before checking who they were.
“Want some?” she asked, raising an eyebrow before popping another piece of candy into her mouth.
❝ i was born just a girl ; not a warrior. i was not meant for bloodstained hands. ❞ ALISHA BOE? No, that’s actually PRUDENCE “PRUE” SHACKLEBOLT. A SEVENTH YEAR student, this RAVENCLAW student is sided with MCGONAGALL’S ARMY. SHE/THEY identifies as GENDERFLUID and is a HALF-BLOOD who is known to be ARGUMENTATIVE, IMPRACTICAL, and FORGETFUL but also PERSPICACIOUS, KIND, and GENUINE. { SAM, 24, EST, THEY/THEM }
You can find Prue’s stats page right here, her pinterest board can be found right here, and her connections’ page is here.
TWs: Parental death, death, food & medication.
Prue’s mother is a muggle, and though she knows about the wixen world, she has never gotten all that involved, liking how she and her husband had different universes and yet loved each other and their child more than anything else in the world. However, that has changed ever since Kingsley’s death. Now, she’s not comfortable letting her only child go into that world, and literally begged Prue not to go back to Hogwarts. Not after she had lost the love of her life to that world. Problem was, Prue wanted to avenge her father, and she couldn’t do that by hiding in the muggle world. Now, her mother lives with Prue’s godmother, and their old townhouse close to the Ministry lays abandoned, with all its memories stripped away and put in boxes that follow Prue’s mother wherever she goes.
Prue’s always been a child that her parents could brag about to other adults, something that both Kingsley and her mother, Elizabeth, did quite often. She was intelligent, she never lied to them, and she always knew how to act in social situations without causing a scene or seeming boring. Sure, she was argumentative and always forgot her homework when she went to class, and she did have a lot of ideas that never panned out, but still. They were her parents and only saw the good sides of her. They were strict, yes, but Prue was never a child they had to discipline much after she started attending Hogwarts. In fact, they quite enjoyed her flaws. Kingsley loved how argumentative she got when it came to politics, as he loved discussing those things with his daughter, and Elizabeth liked Prue’s wild plans for everything, even if they never came to fruition.
Prue was close to both her parents, and loved them equally, but she had always admired her father for everything he was and everything he did. Therefore, his death hit her hard. She knew that the reason why he had been targeted was the reason why she had always admired him so much, and it made her angrier than she had ever been. Having never been one to fight outside of verbal arguments in the past, Prue became somewhat ruthless. She no longer backed out of a physical fight or a wizarding duel, and wasn’t even hesitant to begin them when it came to her father or things they had both believed in, like the little idea that everyone deserved equal rights. It scared her mother, really, but Prue was mad at her mother too. Of course, she wasn’t violent towards her and still loved her and felt bad for her, but she resented her mother for being so afraid. For retreating in the muggle world and wanting her daughter to do the same. Prue wanted to fight. She wanted to do something that counted, something that her dad would be proud of. And so, she fought. In all the ways she could possibly fight.
She never even tried to become a leader for the M.A. because she wanted a bit more freedom when it came to what she could do to fight the Death Eaters, and she felt like, as a leader, she’d have to lead by example, which she wasn’t sure she could actually do. She wouldn’t want other students throwing themselves into the fray like she was doing, as she still remained quite thoughtful of others. She didn’t want other students to start neglecting their classes like she did, just because she was too angry to focus on what ingredients you needed to mix together to make someone sleepy. The only classes she found useful anymore were Defence Against the Dark Arts and Transfiguration, and therefore, they were the only two she put a real effort in.
Prue had always dreamed of becoming an auror, of following in her father’s footsteps, but she wasn’t sure that was what she should do anymore. Sure, he had accomplished a lot, but he was also gone. He was gone, and he wasn’t coming back, and he’d never get to be proud of Prue again. Never again would he brag about her accomplishments to his colleagues, or argue with her about the differences between muggle and wixen politics in Britain, and how they intertwined together.
I guess I should talk a bit more about the way Prue was before this all happened, though, so here we go. Prue was always a friendly person. She had a really bad “resting bitch face”, which she had been told intimidated other people, but she was really kind and open-minded, and people ended up getting used to the fact that, if she wasn’t talking to anyone, she often looked like she didn’t want to talk, which often wasn’t the case.
She was also very good at understanding how things and people worked. She noticed the little details of things, and put them all together to figure out just how someone thought and how it affected the way they acted, as well as the way objects and spells worked. She loved taking muggle objects and taking them down to figure out just exactly how they worked, and she was fascinated by the way muggle technology and magic interacted, and if there were ways to mix the two together in a useful way, somewhat. She was especially curious as to how to maybe replace internet or electricity with ambient magic, and it was her life goal to figure out how to connect the two worlds through technology. It was a grand plan, maybe not a realistic one, but Prue had never exactly been known for being practical.
She was also a very honest and genuine person, though since she was well aware of how people worked, she had a good understanding of when it was time to be honest, and when it was time to be quiet. Thing was, she rarely ever lied, but she also didn’t tell the truth when it wasn’t needed, which was why her kindness and honesty mixed so well together.
She used to argue so much, like… She’d find the littlest reason to start an argument. To her, they were fun. To others, not always. It was one of the few times where her perspicacious side didn’t necessarily come in quickly enough, and sometimes it took her a bit too long to understand that she should have backed out, which she then always regretted. Still, she had very fixed ideas and values, and she felt like it was crucial to defend them, especially in turbulent times.
FOOD TW. Her favourite food is cereal. Specifically, Rice Krispies. Just, Rice Krispies with milk. That’s her food heaven. No added sugar, no fruits, no anything. Which might sound quite boring to most people, but it’s what she used to eat when she was feeling down as a kid, and it stuck with her. Apart from that, there’s nothing that she really dislikes. She loves some things more than others, but overall, there’s nothing that she won’t eat. She tries to eat less meat, though, because her mom once sent her an article about how muggle meat production is harming the environment, and so she tries to be careful with that, even though she loves it. Really, she’ll try anything at least once, no matter how gross others might think it is, which she has come to regret a few times, but mostly left her feeling satisfied and proud of herself for at least trying.
MEDICATION TW. Has ADHD! Her mother got her diagnosed at a muggle doctor two years ago, and since then, she’s been taking medication for it, which doesn’t react badly against magic, and which helps her concentrate and remember.
I think that, really, Mina and Prue are very different from each other, no matter how similar the things they both went through were. Whereas Mina reacted to her sister’s death by ignoring it, by throwing herself into pleasure and fighting and instincts rather than thoughts and feelings, Prue reacted to her father’s death by acting upon it, throwing herself into what needed to be done to get vengeance. Instead of fighting to forget, she’s fighting to remember. She wants to avenge her dad, to make him proud, wherever he is, and to do that, she has to to strong and consistent. She hurts just as much as Mina does, but she handles it in a very different way. Which I felt the need to specify because I realized that they might seem really similar, but to me, they’re very, very different from each other.
