amour d'un soir [OPEN]

[Deleted]

▲

Maddie technically wasn’t invited to the party that she was currently standing in the middle of, but that had never stopped a Chevalier before, broke or not. She had heard of it through a friend of a friend of a friend, in which none were actual friends and she more sussed it out based on social media posts of people that she followed. Thank god for the old bats in the magical governments for finally figuring out that technology and magic could coexist, because it was absolutely horrible having to rely solely on muggle apps.

So there she was, utilizing her annoying habit of being a pest, at the Weekly family penthouse. It was a quaint establishment, somewhat close in size to her old bedroom at the winter home. Just the thought of the winter home being gone brought a tremor to her heartstrings and almost a tear to her eye – but what was gone was gone, and there was no getting the winter home back right now. She could shove the bitterness aside for a few hours so that she could go back to her normal, rich self. Nobody knew yet, about her family’s financial ruin, as far as she could tell. That hadn’t hit the papers or gossip magazines yet. Maddie knew all those tabloids would eat the story up and then try to double the profit by throwing her brother’s face all over it too. Waging war on the very publications she used to anxiously wait for was going to be a pain but definitely worth the effort to protect her image.

This party was the first preemptive strike in her mission. Win back a few supporters that she could fake being friends with and gain sympathy from when the inevitable news broke. She could win pity with her sob story of her injuries she received over the holidays. It was the perfect way to cover her ass.

Cup full of some sort of drink in her hand, Maddie idly walked around the gathering, trying to find a perfect target to initiate her pity party on. Except that she didn’t recognize a single face yet. Half a year at Hogwarts clearly hadn’t helped as much as she thought, and she was certainly a forgettable face due to that same amount of time. Frowning, she copped a seat on one of the large sofas and decided to wait for her prey to come to her.

OPEN ● 407 ● de honte et de pardon by Coeur de Pirate

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

[penelope raisa bainbridge]

TW/CW: Alcohol consumption

June 27, 2025

Penelope had decided to go to the Weeklys’ party, even if she wasn’t really the type of person to go to parties with alcohol and… hard partying. Now that she was seventeen, it felt much less forbidden to her than it had before. There would be ramifications if she did anything truly bad, but she could go and enjoy herself, couldn’t she? She didn’t want to look back on her years at school and realize that she had never done anything the slightest bit rebellious… Anything that she did would have been nothing compared to what she knew her older siblings had done, anyway.

It took her some time to let her guard down, and the music pulsated through her as much as it reverberated through her peers’ London penthouse. Upon someone’s insistence, she wound up with a drink in hand—some combination of firewhisky and cola, from what she could tell—and sipped at it. It didn’t taste great, but it wasn’t strong enough to make her spit it out in an instant. Penelope knew that she was supposed to feel something from it, the way everyone else seemed to be so relaxed and… happy.

She wanted to feel that way, too, if she was honest. It would have been nice to let her cares just… drift away for a night. That was how it was supposed to be, wasn’t it? She had a few conversations with other people, but they didn’t really go anywhere. Instead, she continued walking around the penthouse until the amount that she had drunk from her cup made her feel a little bit dizzy. Maybe it would be better if she sat down, Penelope considered, and it took her a moment to realize that she had seated herself beside a familiar face.

“Hi,” she smiled awkwardly, moving her cup between her hands. It was the first time that she had seen Madeleine Chevalier in months, though the girl had been in her same House and year for the first half of the previous school year. So much had happened in the months between—not the least of which was Kinsey’s near-death experience at the hands of Priscilla Rosier—that she certainly hadn’t had time to think about what had happened to the other girl since she’d left Hogwarts. “I… er… I don’t mean to sound rude, but I… thought you’d gone back to Beauxbatons?”

@madeleine

[Deleted]

▲

It didn’t take long. A few fake smiles and waves here and there to nameless faces that she didn’t care to learn and there was suddenly a person sitting next to her. Maddie had to hide her surprise when she realized it was one of those broke ass Bainbridge triplets that she had roomed with the previous year. At least they had easy to remember last names, because there was literally three of them. First names though? Maddie hadn’t bothered with that at all. This one, whatever her name was, was questioning why she was here, having supposedly gone back to Beauxbatons. That was funny. Maddie let out what she thought was a convincing enough fake laugh to match the hilarity of the question.

“I had to take medical leave,” she said as she leaned in closer so the unnamed Bainbridge girl could hear her better over the music. “Never knew that burns from dragons would take that long to heal.” Her honesty about the whole situation was scary, and she immediately told herself that the injuries she had sustained over holiday break would be the only truth she would let slip the whole night. That was her bait after all, and if she remembered correctly, one of the Bainbridge triplets was the sensitive type. Caring, or whatever. They wouldn’t be roommates anymore starting the fall term, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t use that to her advantage.

To sell her truth, Maddie let out a dramatic sigh and stared into the depths of her solo cup. What an awful container these things were. The Weekly family literally had no class when it came to parties – this was just a bunch of children letting loose in the middle of a national crisis. And yet here she was too. “So did I miss anything interesting? They don’t really tell you much when you’re in the hospital…”

penelope raisa bainbridge ● 315 ● Abigail by Motionless in White

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

[penelope raisa bainbridge]

TW/CW: Alcohol consumption

June 27, 2025

"I had to take medical leave," Madeleine explained, which Penelope hadn't expected as a response to her question in the slightest. Her question as to what the medical leave had been for was answered soon after, however: The dragons that had descended upon Hogsmeade. "Never knew that burns from dragons would take that long to heal."

"Oh. I hadn't realized—" Penelope's face fell in dismay as Madeleine sighed. That was awful, and she felt worse for not having realized that that was what had happened to the girl who previously had been her roommate. She didn't know what to say to comfort her and—even though they had spent half of the previous year in each other's presence—it still felt awkward. They hadn't been "friends" with one another, really, but Penelope could think of worse people, and it sounded as though Madeleine could have used a friend or two.

"So did I miss anything interesting? They don’t really tell you much when you’re in the hospital…"

Taking a sip of her drink, Penelope paused. All of the drama of the half of the year that Madeleine hadn't been at Hogwarts had involved her or her family, it felt like. "Oh, er… Yeah," she started, glad that she hadn't choked on the alcohol. It wasn't the good sort of interesting, Penelope supposed, but it had made the Daily Prophet. It was, unfortunately, noteworthy—or obviously newsworthy—and also pretty terrible. "My older sister, erm… She was attacked and left for dead by Priscilla Rosier…" Again, it was hardly fun—but there hadn't been anything fun about being attacked by dragons, either, Penelope guessed. She glossed over the part where she had been the one to find out what had happened, though; that had been bad enough. "And she was expelled—er, Priscilla, not Kinsey… It was all over the Prophet, and the Ministry are supposed to hold a… hearing or trial or something soon…" That also… wouldn't be fun.

In the interest of ending her side of things on a slightly happier note, Penelope forced a smile. "But the rest of the year was alright?" Aside from Hag's Fever and the fact that she had gone to see a psychiatric Healer to figure out what the problem was with her brain and the weird sensation that she got around some other people for seemingly no reason, things weren't so bad. "Are you coming back to Hogwarts in September, then?"

@madeleine

[Deleted]

▲

The look of on the Bainbridge girl’s face was perfect. Maddie had never anticipated that her own personal stories of pain and suffering would top her previous one of Émile’s death. That had worked for a little bit during the fall term last year, but nobody seemed to care all too much because he wasn’t the only one to die. She hid her smile at this revelation with her cup, sipping gently on the alcohol. This was definitely something she could keep juicing for months. No sane person would refute her trials and tribulations if she played it right. All she had to do was make sure she didn’t oversell it.

Suddenly giddy with excitement that her predicament would garner sympathy, she almost didn’t want to continue the conversation with Bainbridge. But she had already asked her follow up question and felt obligated to listen in. At the very least, this would give her some idea of what social environment she would be walking back into at Hogwarts.

She didn’t expect the big story to be about that dirty blooded Rosier though. Maddie had absolutely despised the girl upon their initial meeting, and to hear all of this about her didn’t surprise her in the slightest. Entitlement was a hell of a high, and she knew that just as well as anyone else in a similar position. It sounded like Rosier took it a step too far though, which made sense for a watered down bloodline like hers. Despite being the biggest hypocrite when it came to blood these days, Maddie still knew how to call what was and wasn’t clean. She was the perfect example of it now. “That’s horrible!” her shock as equally fake as everything else that was coming out of her. “Never liked Priscilla. She and I didn’t agree on a lot of fundamental levels. It doesn’t surprise me that she snapped like that.” Maddie took another sip of her drink, this time enough to actually taste its horrid burn in her mouth. At the same time, Bainbridge was asking her if she was going to be returning to Hogwarts. “Repeating sixth year again. Couldn’t really do school work to stay caught up while laying on my stomach for weeks straight.”

penelope raisa bainbridge ● 375 ● Victory Lap: Danger Zone by Post Animal

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[penelope raisa bainbridge]

TW/CW: Alcohol consumption

June 27, 2025

"That’s horrible!" Madeleine exclaimed upon hearing about what had happened with Kinsey and Priscilla. Penelope wasn't sure if her fellow (former?) Hufflepuff had known Priscilla, but it became apparent that she had, at the very least, met her. She guessed that that made sense; weren't the Rosiers originally French or something? "Never liked Priscilla," Madeleine stated, which made two of them. "She and I didn’t agree on a lot of fundamental levels. It doesn’t surprise me that she snapped like that."

"I didn't really, er… interact with her," Penelope noted. "Not until September." It was really only because of the animosity between Priscilla and Kinsey that she cared who Priscilla Rosier was. The girl had been in the year below her and in Ravenclaw; she hadn't had any reason to interact with her before the start of the previous school year. In hindsight, she almost wished that she had had more of a reason to deal with Priscilla; maybe it would have kept the younger girl away from Kinsey.

In reply to her question about if she would be returning to Hogwarts for the upcoming school year, Madeleine's response was affirmative, albeit with one little hiccup. "Repeating sixth year again," she answered. "Couldn’t really do school work to stay caught up while laying on my stomach for weeks straight."

That was understandable, though Penelope thought that it must have been disappointing for Madeleine that she wouldn't be back in the "right" year. At least she hadn't had to stress out over completing assignments while she had been recovering? "I'm happy to help you if you need anything," Penelope offered brightly, after taking a hesitant sip of her drink. "And I'm sure Peyton and Persephone would be, too." The Bainbridge triplets came as a package—most of the time.

There was also another bright side to repeating sixth year, Penelope considered. "You'll have loads of time to revise for your NEWTs," she added, not that Madeleine wouldn't have been capable of taking them on time. The examinations were actually called "Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Tests" for a reason: They were notoriously difficult, and a person's scores could make or break their career options. Penelope, for what it was worth, hadn't thought too much about hers, except she knew more about what she didn't want to do with her life than what she did want to do with it.

@madeleine

[Deleted]

▲

The fact that the only interaction between a Bainbridge and Rosier ended up with an attempted murder really didn’t surprise Maddie in the slightest. That whole mix was definitely oil and water, and while Priscilla definitely took it too far, the Bainbridge girl’s sister probably pushed her into it. Despite all of the negatives Priscilla Rosier had stacked on her, she still had a name to uphold. Tarnishing that by getting expelled from school seemed ridiculously stupid and not well thought out. Especially if she couldn’t even finish the job. But none of that was going to be Maddie’s problem anymore. Priscilla Rosier being gone from school was one less pompous rich kid to stand in her way and reveal the fall of the Chevalier family. Having her out of the picture was like a dream come true.

When it came to school though, Maddie wasn’t all that worried. “Fall term shouldn’t be too difficult. It’s not like I forgot everything I learned.” Which meant she was probably going to be expected to score high marks on every exam and perfect spells faster than her new classmates. Bainbridge was right about that though – she would have plenty of time to go over things again. Getting ahead in the game wouldn’t hurt either, and there tons of ways she could use that to her advantage. On top of her new, pitiable self. “The only problem I have with all of this is that I know no one going into sixth year. I didn’t exactly have the time to familiarize myself with anyone last year.” She faked reaching around to her back, as if she was suddenly self-conscious of the scars there. They were definitely bad, but losing the family fortune was infinitely worse than being bedridden for months.

penelope raisa bainbridge ● 297 ● Song by Artist

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

[penelope raisa bainbridge]

TW/CW: Alcohol consumption

June 27, 2025

“Fall term shouldn’t be too difficult. It’s not like I forgot everything I learned,” Madeleine acknowledged, to which Penelope nodded as the other girl spoke. It would probably feel more like a review of the information; since she had learned it before, she could learn it again, and she would have some additional time to master any concepts that might have been more difficult for her the previous year. Penelope almost wished that she could have that benefit with Potions class, though she knew that it wasn’t really a perk to be burnt so severely by a dragon. She had Peyton to quiz her on Potions material, though, so that was beyond helpful. Penelope knew her sister’s mind was like a steel trap.

“The only problem I have with all of this is that I know no one going into sixth year,” Madeleine explained, which was probably true. She had been new to Hogwarts and only there for a few months before she was injured. “I didn’t exactly have the time to familiarize myself with anyone last year,” she said, and Penelope noticed as she reached to touch where her scars must have been.

Penelope bit her lip a little; the scars must have hurt still, or at least they were a bother. She knew some of the sixth-years, though she was more familiar with the students who had been in the years ahead of her because of her older siblings. While she didn’t think that it would be hard for Madeleine to meet new people even if she waited until September to do so, there was some time to mingle with a few of the sixth-years, if Madeleine wanted. “Most of the Weeklys are in sixth year,” Penelope told her. There were… four in sixth year, assuming that she had counted correctly. “Two of them are in Hufflepuff, I think?” It was their party, so they must have been around somewhere.

@madeleine

[Deleted]

▲

Right. The Weeklys. The hosts of the party. She knew of their existence, it was hard not to, despite her short stint during the previous fall term. To say she knew who any of them were though? Not a clue. Rumor had it that you could yell out any day of the week and have one of them running to you like an obedient dog. Maddie had half the mind to try it out later in the evening. It would certainly scratch her itch to be a brat to at least one wealthy person throughout the night. Being dead broke now meant that she had nothing left to lose. Her importance had disappeared somewhere between her brother dying and Christmas break. She’d figure out a way to get it back though. Hogwarts was full of weak willed kids. Beauxbatons had been unbelievably cut throat. Which was also why she couldn’t go back there.

“I know this is their party but...god this is embarrassing. I don’t actually know who any of them are.” Hufflepuff or not, names (or days of the week?) didn’t bring any faces to mind, and she was pretty sure she hadn’t interacted with any of the ones that had been in her classes last year either. In her defense, she was busy trying to make a name for herself. There were a lot of students to get in good graces with, between Hogwarts and Ilvermorny, and she stuck out like a sore thumb as one of the only current students that had been to Beauxbatons. Sure, some of them knew the seventh years that were at the school for the tournament, but they were all dead now. There really wasn’t much point to talking about them over and over again. It was morbid, she knew that better than anyone else, but there was no reason to get hung up on it. “You wouldn’t happen to be able to point the Hufflepuff ones out, would you?”

penelope raisa bainbridge ● 328 ● Les joailliers by Ingrid St-Pierre

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

[penelope raisa bainbridge]

TW/CW: Alcohol consumption

June 27, 2025

As embarrassing as she acknowledged that it was not to know the hosts at their own party, Madeleine admitted that she didn't actually know who any of the Weekly siblings were. It must have been difficult for someone who wasn't familiar with them; because they were almost all adopted, it wasn't as though they really looked similar enough to one another to use that as a way of figuring out who was a Weekly and who wasn't.

"You wouldn’t happen to be able to point the Hufflepuff ones out, would you?"

That was no problem for Penelope, who nodded. "Yeah, of course," she agreed happily. "Let's see." That also meant figuring out where all of them had gone in a house party full of people, which would be the bigger challenge. Penelope looked around the room but didn't see either of the Weeklys whom she knew to be in Hufflepuff in their immediate vicinity and frowned as she took another sip of her drink. "I don't see either of them right now, though, but there's Charlie, who's a girl, and Saturday, who's a boy."

@madeleine

[Deleted]

▲

Somehow the Bainbridge girl was a lot more useful for things than Maddie had remembered her being. Or maybe she was getting her confused with one of the other triplets. It was honestly difficult trying to remember who each one was when they all looked and sounded the same. She found it easier just to refer to all of them by their last name unless corrected not to. Plus, putting on a pitiable face and acting like she really cared who any of the Weekly family members were certainly advanced the conversation past her injuries. The last thing she was going to be doing tonight was showing off a back full of dragon burn scars to drunk classmates. While it sounded like a good way to get into the in crowd, she wasn’t ready for that yet. That was still fresh and raw.

With the Bainbridge girl looking around to try and locate a Weekly, Maddie quickly downed the remainder of the liquid in her cup and almost gagged. Whatever was mixed in it didn’t work well at all. She wasn’t going back to whoever had poured it for second that was for sure. In the meantime, Bainbridge apparently couldn’t find one of the hosts in the crowd, and said as much. “Charlie?” she laughed. Weren’t they all supposed to be named after days of the week? “What on earth is that short for? How do you get that out of a day of the week?” That had to be a nickname right? That or the family wasn’t nearly as committed to their naming sequence as she had been led to believe. She couldn’t really understand why the parents would only go halfway with it though, and from what she remembered people telling her the previous fall, all the kids were named after the days of the week. It would be so stupid if one was named Charlie. Hell, she called her dog Charlie when he did stupid things. And Charles the Great Dane rarely did that.

penelope raisa bainbridge ● 337 ● Tu oublieras mon nom by Coeur de Pirate

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

[penelope raisa bainbridge]

TW/CW: Alcohol consumption

June 27, 2025

"Charlie?" Madeleine laughed in surprised. "What on earth is that short for?" she questioned. "How do you get that out of a day of the week?"

"I, erm, actually don't know what it's short for," Penelope admitted with a little shrug of her shoulders. It might have been short for something, but she didn't know what. "I've only heard her called 'Charlie'…" She didn't think that it was a day of the week, though. It was odd that it didn't fit with the rest of the siblings' names, since the Weeklys' parents seemed to have been very committed to theming their names. There were seven days a week and eight children. Penelope was almost certain that Charlie wasn't the youngest, which meant that they hadn't run out of day names before they'd reached her. It was unusual, but Penelope knew that she also wasn't a celebrity.

"Maybe she was, er… named after a relative?" she wondered. That was possible, wasn't it? "An aunt or a grandmother or someone? It might be Charlotte?" It made sense, anyway. "Charlene?"

@madeleine

[Deleted]

▲

So Bainbridge Number Two didn’t actually know either. That figured. With the way people named their kids in England and the United States, it was like they were all setting their children up for disaster. They were honestly lucky every other person currently attending Hogwarts had a weird name, because they would have been ripped to shreds at Beauxbatons or a muggle school. She would have personally made sure of it too. Maddie had been told by her parents that she and Émile were given normal names so that the other Beauxbatons students wouldn’t question the fact that they were only half-French. It seemed stupid at the time, but she understood it now completely. One of these days there was going to be someone named after a food or drink. What would they think of next?

Bainbridge posed a few potential names that Charlie could have been shortened from, and while the attempts were solid, Maddie physically reacted at the second one. “Eww. Charlene? What is this, the 40s? God, if I was named that, I’d go by Charlie too. Poor girl…” But the real problem was that it still didn’t explain why she wasn’t named after one of the days of the week. Maddie desperately wanted to know the reasoning behind it, because it was going to eat away at her all summer if she didn’t figure it out now. Waiting until they were both together in the dorm on September first wasn’t going to work for her. “Will you help me find her? Since we’ll end up being roommates, I think it’s only appropriate that I introduce myself sooner rather than later. Lay some groundwork, you know?” Maddie stood up at that point, hoping that Whatever Bainbridge would help her in the search. She had no idea what a Charlie looked like, and even the sort of familiar faces at the party meant nothing after almost six months away from them.

penelope raisa bainbridge ● 323 ● Let's Go To The Hospital by Joe Hisaishi

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

[penelope raisa bainbridge]

TW/CW: Alcohol consumption

June 27, 2025

"Eww. Charlene? What is this, the 40s?" Madeleine questioned disgustedly. Penelope didn't know of anyone around their age whose name was Charlene, either, though that very well might have been why Charlie was "Charlie", she thought. Madeleine seemed to think similarly. "God, if I was named that, I’d go by Charlie too," she said. "Poor girl…" Aside from what she had already mentioned, how many other names were there that could be shortened to "Charlie" that were still relatively feminine? Penelope didn't know of many.

They could have played that guessing game all night, though Madeleine asked if she could help her find Charlie. "Since we’ll end up being roommates," she explained, "I think it’s only appropriate that I introduce myself sooner rather than later. Lay some groundwork, you know?"

Penelope nodded. It made sense to her. "Sure, yeah," she agreed, standing up after Madeleine had already done so, her drink still in hand as she looked around the room for Charlie again. "Oh!" she exclaimed, catching sight of someone. "I think that's her over there!"

@madeleine
OOC: Do you want to bring in Charlie for a cameo, and then we can maybe do one post each with Penelope and Maddie again to finish this one up?

[Deleted]

▲

The good thing about the Bainbridges (at least from Maddie’s point of view) was that they were easily malleable when it came to using them for however she wanted. They were an agreeable sort of family, and they always seemed to know what was going on around them. It was too bad that she wasn’t going to be rooming with them again for the upcoming school year. She could have gotten used to having them running around doing whatever she asked. If she could get this one to be her eyes, surely the other two would follow soon enough. Especially if she utilized her injury. During her brief stint at Hogwarts, they looked to get along well with each other, as well as with other students. Unfortunately being in different years now would only limit that to public conversations, and sometimes she had things she wanted to say in private. But still…

While she was dreaming up plans for schemes, Bainbridge made a noise that sounded like she had spotted the Charlie girl. Maddie followed her gaze towards a blonde girl standing in the kitchen near the island that had become the staging area for all the food. “Perfect,” she answered as she stepped around the other girl and headed towards the kitchen, making a beeline right for the Weekly girl. It looked like she was picking through some of the food gingerly, maybe trying to pull something out of it. In her own experience, picky eaters could still be intelligent creatures. From a distance, it was easy to tell that she knew something about fashion, which Maddie could appreciate. Rather, she would normally be able to appreciate if she had anything left in her possession. The family financial situation had a different opinion on that.

“Bonsoir,” she greeted the girl in her native French, trying to put on airs form the get go. There was no reason not to, since literally everyone she knew at Hogwarts already expected that sort of thing from her. It would be better to get a head start on her territory with the new sixth years. “Madeleine Chevalier.” She stuck her hand out, sort of intrusively towards the girl. “My friend over there-” she pointed back at the Bainbridge girl, “-says you’ll be a sixth year in Hufflepuff this year. I wanted to introduce myself. Unfortunately I have to repeat the year because of health issues, but I’m positive we’ll all get along well and it’ll be an excellent school year.” Maddie wasn’t sure if she could say it any more facetiously without making it obvious, but she had to put the face on now. The new sixth years probably didn’t even know who she was, and she could easily use that to her advantage. “Hope you enjoy your night,” she smiled at the girl before turning and heading back to the Bainbridge girl.

“She seems lovely,” Maddie stated as she sat herself back down on the couch again. She already sort of hated Charlie Weekly, only because the girl’s family had money. And a lot of it.

charlie marie weekly & penelope raisa bainbridge ● 514 ● Lullaby Love by Roo Panes

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