MARCH 15TH, 2021. it’s two days before the planned st patrick’s day parade ( and evening celebrations ), and the spring festival is in full swing. the joint events have been as huge a success as they always have been : local business has boomed, and to those that care, it’s a pity that arcanum wasn’t back up and running in time to cash in like so many other stores had.
the building that had once been both life’s work & ancestral home of the trelawney’s had lay empty for the best part of two decades, and unfortunately, it showed. structurally sound though it was, near everything within required replacing - be it from water damage caused by several large holes found in the roof or destruction that had been caused by the innumerous break-ins over the years. magic could only go so far, especially when one was working alone. since the purchase of the building had gone through the month before, sybill had taken to apparating to london each weekend, working room by room. a vinyl of celestina warbeck’s greatest hits played loudly from a vintage turntable was her only company as she bustled throughout the building, early morning to darkest evening. it was slow going, and the work had grown monotonous, over time - but she had never expected anything else.
the fifth floor - containing two mirrored bedrooms sybill intended to invite cassia & oriana to personalize - was the first finished. she was making her way top to bottom, slowed even more by the onslaught that was memory. this was the birthplace of cassandra trelawney, the originator of their family status. this was where sybill had spent formative years, walking thin corridors, climbing spindly stairs, learning to read tea leaves at a shaky table in a now dusty kitchen, recording her dreams in a leather bound notebook she had kept on bedside cabinet in the room she had now reclaimed. this was home, and she had been gone from it for far too long.
the lower shop level would be the last to be tackled, working as she was, and so, the bell above the main entrance remained broken. this would join the long list of things to be blamed for why sybill did not hear anyone approaching - scrawled somewhere between the loud record that they’ll find scratching at it’s end & the happy crowd beyond grubby windows that did not remain so, for long. the truth is that when the ministry finds sybill, they’ll only be able to make a guess at what truly happened.
they will theorize that it was unlikely she had any forewarning ( a uniquely ironic phrase, given the woman’s status as a debated seer ). she probably knew her attacker, though it’s hard to say - there is no sign of struggle, and the killing curse does not leave a mark. even if she had realized in time to have a defensive instinct, her wand - nine and a half inch hazel, with a unicorn tail hair core - was found on the floor above her, resting on a rickety coffee table and so very far from reach. they will say she died before it happened, and there’s no reason to think that she felt any pain, or that the situations were connected.
the formal report will lodged by overworked aurors some hours later will not have certain details. there is no witness to the woman with wild hair & hooded eyes, nor her two companions, who apparated into the lane behind the building and entered through unlocked door. no one saw her look of fear, when throat cleared behind her & she turned on heel to see them looming in the doorway. there was no need for a silencing charm. sybill, unable to understand the position she was in, never called for help. bellatrix wasn’t there to interrogate her, and thus, didn’t give her much of a chance, anyway. their time together was short & sweet. the green light went unnoticed, and the loose cannon that was a seer with potential to urge foes in right direction against them was taken off of the playing field, with ease. conspiracy theorists in the future, inclined to look that bit deeper, may get a closer approximation of the truth than those aurors ever did.
but then again : it wasn’t their first priority.
it was such a lovely day. the sun, not quite beating down upon the heads of everyone bustling through the alley, still shone with more strength than it had all winter. the lack of brisk breeze made even the long shadows cast by mismatched buildings almost warm. the wwn predicted rain later that evening, and mothers ushering their children along stole glances every now and again towards the sky, waiting to see the telltale sign of dark clouds rolling in.
the first indication that anyone has to something being truly amiss was actually the sharp drop to the temperature, and the rolling fog that fell over them all, thick enough to hide anyone - and anything - more than a few feet away. thick enough to blot out the sun. the shadows grew longer. they stretched outwards. when the first scream pierces the air, only those nearest are able to see what’s causing those notes of fear.
it doesn’t take more than a moment for everyone else to realize. as the alley explodes into pandemonium, the dementors descend onto them all.
ROUNDUP OF INITIAL FATALITIES & INJURIES ( AS OF THIS DROP ):
sybill trelawney is very, very dead. as brutal as this’ll sound - that isn’t very relevant to this plot drop as a whole, so don’t worry about it ! she’s not.
OUT OF CHARACTER:
rather than transition the on dash event threads towards this plot drop, we’re going to do things a little differently with everyone’s current needs in mind. on dash will remain the period of time that is the start of the month through to the 15th ( which will make things a little less intensive as we begin the next part of the ooc noxtms ~ celebrations ~ ). off dash, and on the discord, several channels covering a number of businesses have been established. they each have a character cap of seven to make things less confusing, and can be used for plot drop rping !
as always with a plot drop of this nature, the discord announcement will include the allowance for injurys. there’s a smaller cap on these than usual, since the dementors themselves are sort of .... 0 - 100, and the injuries themselves will have to be discussed as happening in the chaos rather than from the dementors. that is, unless you uhhh ... really want your character to get a little kiss kiss ! that can be arranged !
the galleon system list has also been updated and now includes a reward of 250 galleons ( per character it’s completed for ) for a 250 word minimum drabble / self para, written with the patronus charm & it’s much-needed usage during this plot drop in mind. if this were english class, the prompt would probably be something to the effect of : write a detailed description of your characters happy memory, or what their experience is about to be, conjuring their patronus in this specific situation. you have a LOT of freedom on it, and can write it in any way you see fit. please feel free to use the tag nox.task on any posted to the dash !
there was never any intention of having a st patrick’s parade / party event. sorry for bamboozling you all, but i think it’s safe to say that after this disastrous ides of march, those events will have been cancelled ! once you’ve read this post, please give it a little like !
in the end, the wixen community can count themselves remarkably lucky that there are so many quick thinking individuals among their number. there’s a huge amount of thanks owed to the shopkeepers that opened their doors and ushered festivalgoers through to cover, and even more dues to be given to those who barely hesitated to draw their wands & cast their patronuses all along the alley. a sizable amount of the dementors that descended have already been driven back by the time that the aurors apparate onto the scene - but for many, the wait as they banish the remaining was the longest twenty five minutes and thirty six seconds of their lives.
the dementors are not expected to have returned to the island they were transported to following their removal from azkaban, but the priority is not tracking their current whereabouts in the aftermath. anywhere but right there is good enough, and as the fog begins to clear up slowly but surely, st mungo’s mediwizards begin arriving to offer their medical assistance to the few dozen individuals that sustained injury in the chaos ( and chocolate to the even larger number of shaken wix who really need the pick me up - thank you, sugarplums, for distributing your stock ). aurors take statements & ministry representatives begin to move through diagon alley, taking note of the damage done.
they discover sybill trelawney’s body just after midnight, but with only mild suspicion that the two situations could be connected and no solid evidence pointing to that conclusion, the investigators will explore several avenues that ultimately lead nowhere. the case only delays the arranging of the funeral by a week.
OUT OF CHARACTER :
the spring festival / st patrick’s day event & the diagon alley attack plot drop are now officially ended, and the dash moves on beyond march 15th. no more dash threads should be started that are set during the festival, and the discord channels will continue to exist only through to monday, march 29th. if you’re currently mid writing one of those threads and would like more time to finish it out, please message to request your channel stay open - if i receive no messages, all will be archived at the same time !
patronus drabbles written between now & april 2nd will still earn members 250 galleons per drabble. you can continue posting them well into the future, as they’ve proven to be a great way to gain insight on characters - but any posted after the 2nd will not count towards the galleon system.
our next event will be dropping almost two weeks from now, giving you all - hopefully - enough time to catch a breath before the dash shifts a little, again ! you will not be asked to pause your threads for that event, so feel free to continue on from the festival, return to older replies or start as many new conversations as you please !
if you have any questions or concerns, feel free to shoot ‘em my way ! thank you all for your involvement in part one of the nox one year anniversary celebrations !
