I Wish I Had a River I Could Skate Away On (OPEN)

[parvati patil macmillan]

December 24, 2025

Every year at the holidays for the past few years, it seemed that there was always something going wrong. Whether it was her affair with Marcus Flint and then the man’s death shortly thereafter in 2023 or ending up in St. Mungo’s with injuries from the dragons that had descended upon Hogsmeade just the year before, Parvati Macmillan was taking few chances. Of course she still was going to go to the Windsors’ ball; they were good kids, and she felt terrible about Edmund’s death, but she didn’t think that she would be able to bear staying at the palace for very long. Edmund Windsor hadn’t been the only one who had died that day, and Parvati was still trying to wrap her own head around so many losses at once. While ordinarily she would have relished the occasion to get dressed up and socialize, there was only so much of it that she thought she could take. Besides, there was enough going on in her personal life that had her more distracted at the moment, and she wouldn’t have minded a chance to enjoy a quiet Christmas.

Still, she had shown up for the sake of being present at the ball. Even if she would be going just to say hello to a few people before taking her leave, Parvati had gone to the trouble of looking nice, wearing a shimmery grey off-the-shoulder ball gown with her hair worn sleek and straight down her back. She carried a small purse in which she kept her wand, having nowhere else reasonable to put it on her person. If she needed it, Merlin forbid, she didn’t want to have to fumble with the fabric of her dress to pull it out from beneath her skirt. She was immediately grateful for having made the effort on her appearance, in any case. There were so many people there, including some attendees who almost certainly had to have been from the Muggle world because she had never once seen them in her life.

OOC: OPEN!

[dahlia jade leloup]

parvati patil macmillan

A ball put on by the magical side of the royal family. And she was invited. It seemed absurd at first, and Dahlia had been a bit lost before being told that a majority of the Ministry, as well as the Curse Breakers, had also been invited to this thing. She had zero connections to these people, and yet she was still invited. Big, extravagant balls weren’t really her thing in the slightest either, but rumor had it that they always had some of the best food and drink available. And she was certainly a glutton when she wanted to be. That and she had catching up to do with her coworkers. Being stuck outside the country for almost half the year had made more than a few of them forget that she existed, or that her name was Darla or something equally awful, like Denise. A little reminder that she bowed to the moon and Rhys was her older brother, and that changed everyone’s tunes. Just because she was a trainee didn’t meant she was useless. She had just finished guarding a sizeable load of treasure for the goblins for five months after all.

The only problem? She had missed the details on where the other Curse Breakers were meeting up, and when. Dahlia arrived well into the swing of things and quickly realized that the amount of people here was way more than she expected there to be. Locating her coworkers would be almost impossible without some sort of assistance. Before deciding to ask for help though, she wandered over to the refreshments area and snagged herself the tallest glass of champagne she could find, downed it, and then took another – much to the butler who was managing the table’s surprise. Content that her night was finally starting, she continued on her wander of the floor, but still failed to find anyone she knew.

Not exactly paying attention to where she was going, she ran right into the back of a woman, managing to spill half of her glass of champagne down her arm. Thankfully away from either of their dresses. That would have been the most cliché screw up ever to happen, especially at a fancy thing like this. “Merlin, I’m sorry,” Dahlia immediately put on her most apologetic voice, while secretly wondering why the damn lady was standing in the middle of the room. Or rather, in her way. “I didn’t spill any on you, did I?”

[parvati patil macmillan]

December 24, 2025

Parvati had finished conversing with someone and was on her way to speak with someone else when she felt someone or something run into her from behind. She wasn't sure what had happened at first, but it wasn't painful—only startling to her—and she quickly realized that it was a young woman, though she was immediately apologetic. "Merlin, I’m sorry," she told her, which clued Parvati in that she was a witch and not a Muggle, but she wasn't anyone whom she recognized when she turned around to look at her. She couldn't have been much older than her own children, but there she was with what—from its glass—must have been Champagne all down her arm. “I didn’t spill any on you, did I?"

"No, no," Parvati reassured her. She'd been spared, though the poor girl's arm was drenched. She was lucky that the Champagne flute hadn't broken. "You haven't spilled any on me. Are you alright?" The young woman didn't look hurt, and it looked as though the Champagne had also missed her dress. If there weren't Muggles around, Parvati would have gone ahead and gotten out her wand from her purse and dealt with the wine for her, but she didn't want to risk doing that out in the open. Still, she offered as much, her voice slightly lower. "Shall I get some napkins? Or my wand is in my clutch, if you'd rather step out for a moment?"

dahlia jade leloup

[dahlia jade leloup]

▲

Despite her lack of human interaction over the last few months, relegating it only to non-magique and goblins (and her work owl, who was quite the depressing conversationalist), apparently she wasn’t out of tune with her acting in the slightest. Dahlia had to blame it on the television that her mother made her watch growing up, always trying to pretend that she was going to be a normal child. As if. But the girl had certainly taken to specific types of characters, and she absolutely loved the fakeness that some put on in movies. It let her do what she wanted, whenever she wanted, without much consequence. In terms of her little snafu with the drink and the woman she had ran into, it seemed like she was barely rusty. A tune-up here or there and she’d be back in working order. In her defense, it was hard to switch from dealing with nasty little goblins to normal human beings. They operated at different levels of narcissism and vitriol.

The good news was that she hadn’t actually spilled any of her champagne on the woman, so that probably made her ‘apology’ that much more convincing. What Dahlia hadn’t expected was the hushed tone of the woman’s voice when talking about her wand. Were there non-magique here as well? She hadn’t been told by anyone that this was anything other magical folks. A glance around the ballroom sort of made her realize that she was probably wrong though. It was a good thing she hadn’t walked up to any old stranger and asked them where the Curse Breakers were all at. They probably wouldn’t have had a clue, and then she would have been hounded by the Ministry for breaking the Statute of Secrecy. Perfect way to be shipped off to whatever replacement prison they had for Azkaban these days.

“Napkins might be best,” she said back quietly. Her own wand was strapped to her upper thigh, again going back to all the movies she grew up watching and seeing the leading ladies in spy movies attaching their pistols there. She thought it looked cool, but maybe that was the wrong place to have it if not everyone around was magical. “I thought everyone here was like us,” she admitted, dropping her act for a second to be serious. “My invite through work wasn’t exactly specific…”

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MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

[parvati patil macmillan]

December 24, 2025

"Napkins might be best," the young woman agreed, matching Parvati's hushed tone. "I thought everyone here was like us," she added to her. "My invite through work wasn’t exactly specific…"

Parvati doubted that the Windsors would have wanted to advertise the mixing of the two worlds any more than was really necessary. There were enough wizards—and Muggles, probably—who would have taken that opportunity and run with it for their own purposes. "There are some Muggles around," Parvati explained. She wasn't sure if she could point out all of them but through the process of elimination, but it wasn't a solely magical gathering. "Mostly their politicians, I think. Ones who already know." It would have been a massive breach of wizarding secrecy otherwise.

The most important thing was to find the poor young woman some napkins with which to clean herself off. Parvati looked around and frowned, not seeing any immediately. She nodded to a passing waiter, though, and checked if they could get some napkins, which they were happy to do.

"Sorry about that," Parvati apologized with a small smile as the waiter left to go get the napkins. She knew that it must have been absolutely mortifying for the young woman to be standing there like that. "Your dress looks very nice, by the way."

dahlia jade leloup

[dahlia jade leloup]

▲

Muggles. Even though she had heard the word used thousands of times since her arrival in London, it still didn’t make much sense to her. They were non-magical, non-magique in her native tongue, and she still couldn’t understand where the term Muggle came out of that. Her closest guess was that they were people that struggled making magic of their own, so they were magic struggled: muggle. Maybe that was it, but no one had really given her a clear answer on what the roots of it were. She knew three languages fluently and now a handful of dead ones too, and still couldn’t put two and two together with it.

But according to the woman, there were muggles around at this party, and while they were apparently politicians that knew of magic’s existence, they still needed to be careful. Still, she would have enjoyed a warning before going around and running her mouth off like a blathering idiot. She dealt with enough of them during her normal work that it was usually easy to tell the difference between magical folk and non-magical, but at a ball like this everyone was seemingly dressed in the same fashion. Except for the weird guy that looked like a candy cane with a top hat on. He was definitely a wizard. Sometimes it was hard to shake that habit – she understood that.

The woman was able to ask for some napkins from a passing waiter, and Dahlia gave the man a small smile as he turned to retrieve them. She really should have just found the washroom and cleaned herself up there, but since the lady and the waiter were doing that for her, all she could do was wait now. “It was my fault to begin with,” she tried to wave off the woman’s apology. She didn’t really understand what that was for, because waiting for a guy to get napkins wasn’t something to be sorry about. As for her dress, “Oh, thank you. I don’t get to wear them often with work, so that was how I rationalized coming here,” she lied. She actually hated the dress because it cost a fortune and she was still on suspension by the bank. One more week and she would be back out there legally training again. And then only a few more months until her two years of training would officially be done.

“What do you do for work?” Dahlia decided to ask. It was the best way to kill time until the waiter returned, and that way she wouldn’t have to talk too much. The woman probably worked for the Ministry or something, like most people seemed to do. Somehow, that seemed like a boring way to spend life.

parvati patil macmillan ● 457 ● Journey by brillion & TyLuv

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

[parvati patil macmillan]

December 24, 2025

The young woman told her that it had been her fault to begin with and thanked her for the compliment on her dress. She didn't get to wear them often for her work, she said, so that was how she had rationalized attending. Parvati didn't doubt that she would have done the same thing at her age, though working for Witch Weekly had had its perks, including that dressing more fashionably hadn't ever been out of the question.

Speaking of work, the young woman asked her what she did, and Parvati smiled. "I'm the school counselor and Head of Gryffindor House at Hogwarts, actually," she answered her. "And you?" She didn't recognize her as a former Hogwarts student since she had started working there, but it was entirely possible that the young woman was slightly older than she'd thought her to be.

dahlia jade leloup

[dahlia jade leloup]

▲

A Hogwarts employee! So this lady probably knew a couple of the Curse Breakers that had retired and become professors there after the fact. Dahlia couldn’t really blame Renfri for doing so, her injuries being substantial enough that she really shouldn’t have been working in the field any more. She had sort of hoped that Renfri would have stayed on to work with the trainees, at least until Dahlia finished up, because she had a world of experience. That probably wasn’t going to happen anymore, unless she decided to do something during the next school break.

If the news cycle was anything to say about Hogwarts, it made sense that the students needed a counselor. She had heard the stories from her siblings about the things that had gone on over the last few years, none of which were pretty. As for the school, she still hadn’t made it there yet. She had seen it from a distance at Hogsmeade, and that was about it. Had her plans gone the way they were supposed to a year ago, she would have made it in time for the Triwizard Tournament. But that fell apart almost immediately once she realized how much it cost to move.

“Curse Breaker,” Dahlia said proudly. “In training still, but almost done.” Outside of her coworkers and random people at the bar, she never really had a chance to discuss her career. It was so close to officially starting too, no thanks to the lockdown, and she could practically feel it calling her now. “I’ve always wanted to visit Hogwarts. I have family members that go there,” she explained. She couldn’t remember what houses that everyone had been in though, the names always eluding her. But Max was the last one left there as far as she was aware.

parvati patil macmillan ● 302 ● Greatness or Death by Beartooth

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

[parvati patil macmillan]

December 24, 2025

She was a Curse-Breaker, the young woman answered her. ("In training still," she noted, "but almost done.") Parvati had certainly become more familiar with Curse-Breakers since September, considering how many former Curse-Breakers had made their way to Hogwarts. And it was about Hogwarts, in fact, that the young woman next spoke. "I’ve always wanted to visit Hogwarts. I have family members that go there," she shared.

That wasn't unexpected; there were plenty of students at Hogwarts—especially with the addition of the students who had come from Ilvermorny—and obviously they had relatives from all over the world. It was sort of interesting, though, to hear someone speak of Hogwarts with so much excitement. Parvati had never really viewed the school as a novelty beyond the start of her first year there, perhaps.

"Oh, really? Who?" Parvati asked her, not sure if she could place the young woman's relations without getting an answer from her.

dahlia jade leloup

[dahlia jade leloup]

▲

There wasn’t much of a reaction to her declaration about being a Curse Breaker. That sort of made sense, because she had seen a few awkward glances whenever bringing it up before. Apparently it was strange here to like going into dangerous tombs to hunt down lost artifacts and gold? Dahlia hadn’t exactly gotten a proper answer on that though, as most of her time was spent outside of London. And when it wasn’t, she was either hanging around others in her field or the goblins at the bank. Finding time to really go out was almost impossible when her training literally shipped her off all over the world. As for whether or not Curse Breakers were insane…she was pretty sure most of the ones still in it were. She definitely was, having plenty of near misses in her first year on the job. But that made being able to go out like this and act like everything was normal all the more worth it.

As for her sibling at Hogwarts, Dahlia hesitated. This lady did say she was a counselor, so she probably wasn’t one of the ones that had a thing against the Greyback name. But at the same time, Dahlia wasn’t sure if it was right of her to publically gossip about the name. No one had ever really told her what to do in situations like this before. Her best shot was to lie, though she didn’t know any last names of students at Hogwarts. She was starting to realize this was going to be hard accomplish unless she completely brushed her comment off. “Oh you wouldn’t know them,” Dahlia waved her hand out in front of her, acting as if this was not a big deal at all. It was too bad she had been speaking English the whole time, otherwise she could have used her age old tactic of pretending she had no idea what the woman was saying. “They weren’t in your house at all.” Though now that she had time to reflect on it, Adrian may have been in that Gryff-whatever. Regardless, she was going to try and get out of the conversation.

“I don’t think the waiter is going to come back any time soon,” she pointed out. Even though there were dozens of others wandering around, her arm was starting to become sticky from the spilled champagne. Using magic now seemed like a better plan. “Do you mind watching my back over there, so I can clean it up?” Dahlia asked the woman as she pointed to an empty table in the corner. All she had to do was sit down on the other side and zap away the liquid when no one was looking.

parvati patil macmillan ● 455 ● Unheard by Beneath the Massacre

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

[parvati patil macmillan]

December 24, 2025

Parvati didn't react with as much interest to the young woman's being a Curse-Breaker as she might have had she not made the acquaintance of no shortage of them, especially since Jasper and Renfri had started working at Hogwarts. She didn't quite understand the allure of the job, though she guessed that it might have been different had she not experienced everything that she had prior to leaving school. There was travel involved, so Parvati imagined that that was enough to draw some people in. The downside, of course, was that it wasn't much of a lasting career; the risk of serious injury or death was not insignificant. Bringing up that side of the job with a stranger, though, wasn't particularly appropriate.

The young woman dismissed who her family members were almost as soon as she had brought them up. Parvati found that to be the stranger part, but maybe she didn't realize how small Hogwarts really was. Even if they weren't in Gryffindor, it was likely that she at least knew of them. It wasn't worth prying into, though, if she didn't want to volunteer that information for whatever reason.

"I don't think the waiter is going to come back any time soon," the young woman remarked. Parvati didn't doubt that she was probably eager not to have wine all over her arm. "Do you mind watching my back over there," she asked her, "so I can clean it up?" She pointed to an empty table that was situated in the corner of the room, far enough away from the Muggles that it wouldn't attract their attention.

Parvati nodded. "That's probably not a terrible idea," she agreed. Napkins alone likely wouldn't do much, either, at that point. The longer she had to wait, the less effective they'd be. She motioned her head in the direction of the table that the young woman had pointed out to her already and was poised to follow her over there.

dahlia jade leloup

[dahlia jade leloup]

▲

It seemed like she had escaped answering the great Greyback question for now, though that was always something that could pop up again later. She had found that every time she blabbed the name out loud here, people either froze up and gave her a look, or immediately stopped talking to her and walked away. In their defense, it was hard to blame them for doing that. She completely understood where most people were coming from. Why interact with someone that had that sort of baggage? Usually it got worse the second they found out she was a werewolf as well, though that sort of stigma wasn’t nearly as bad here as it had been in France. Long gone were her tortuous final years at Beauxbatons, but she still stiffened up and got nervous whenever she heard a French witch or wizard talking in Diagon Alley. There was no way for them to really know who or what she was, and yet the damage had already been done by her classmates. Since this lady was a counselor at Hogwarts, she was probably a safe person to talk to about it. Dahlia just didn’t feel like willingly giving up the information without some sort of probing though.

Heading towards the table that she had pointed out, she took a seat and made sure that no one was directly looking at her. Her wand slipped into her hand and she quickly cast a cleaning spell, removing the spill in mere seconds. She quickly put the wand back and turned around the face the woman again. “All done! I forget how easy these ones are to cast all the time.” The majority of her spell repertoire being anti-hex and counter curses, among some more destructive ones that could get her out of most situations unscathed. The dustier she was coming out of a tomb, the better she felt. Because that meant it actually posed a challenge. Nothing was more defeating than walking in and out of a crypt without having to deal with a trap or cursed object.

“So, are guests are allowed to visit the school if they have family? To see everything?” she asked the woman, though kept it cryptic as a waiter walked by with a cart of hors d'oeuvres behind her. Even though Max was the last sibling there, Dahlia figured it would fun to stop by and visit at least once before she graduated. Nobody had ever done that for her after all.

parvati patil macmillan ● 415 ● lovesick by potsu

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

[parvati patil macmillan]

December 24, 2025

Really, Parvati had no problem with standing guard and making sure that none of the Muggles got too curious about what the young woman was doing, though she imagined that the Windsors had been careful enough to invite only those Muggles who were already aware that a good number of the attendees at the ball were from the magical world. Besides, cleaning off oneself was hardly the worst offense a magical person could commit with Muggles in the vicinity, and it would only take a second at the most.

She went with the young woman to the table off in the corner and remained standing as she seated herself. As the young woman dealt with the stain, Parvati kept her focus on the crowd. Luckily not having attracted anyone's attention where they were, it took but a moment for the young woman to announce that she had finished cleaning her dress and that she had forgotten how easy it was to cast such spells most of the time.

They really weren't too much of a bother unless something was badly soiled, but Parvati understood that it was occasionally annoying to take the time to cast cleaning spells. And it was certainly harder in the middle of a party. Parvati nodded in acknowledgment of what she had said, though it wasn't long before the young woman had a question for her.

"So," she began, "are guests are allowed to visit the school if they have family? To see everything?"

There wasn't explicitly any rule against it, but it wasn't particularly common, either. If family members came to visit, it was typically under exceptional circumstances. They didn't really just show up to the castle unannounced, and security at Hogwarts was tight because of the numerous issues that had cropped up. For that reason, Parvati paused before providing her with an answer, and she was hesitant to say anything definitive. "It's not something that happens often…" she began, though it wasn't as though they hadn't opened up the castle for Halloween over a year before.

dahlia jade leloup

[dahlia jade leloup]

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Not being able to visit Hogwarts sort of made sense. The students where there to study, not to be bothered. Dahlia knew that there were certain weekends where the students were allowed to travel to Hogsmeade, though she had never taken advantage of that. To add, there was only Max left at school, and it would definitely seem a little weird to just show up out of the blue and expect her to want to hang out. That’s what the holidays and summer months were for, after all. And would Max even want her to visit? Really it was more that she wanted to see what the castle was actually like. Everyone was always talking about it and how great it was, and she needed to see it to compare it against Beauxbatons. Her school was beyond regal, almost to a level of gaudiness that she had never been able to enjoy in life. Hogwarts seemed so much more rough and tumble, and she liked that. Probably exactly why she fit in with all the curse breakers and not with the pretentious ilk of Beauxbatons.

“That’s too bad,” she sighed dramatically. “I’ve always wanted to see what it was like inside. Are there tours during the summer?” Dahlia asked, though knew that would more than likely be impossible due to her own work schedule. Eventually the bank was going to upgrade her to a full curse breaker, it was only a matter of time. Then she would be beyond busy taking all the shit jobs that her seniors didn’t want. Some had difficulty hiding their excitement about being able to move up higher-profile dig sites and tombs now that she was around to comb through the ones filled with sand or overgrown by jungles.

parvati patil macmillan ● 294 ● Infinitely Ordinary by The Wrecks

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[parvati patil macmillan]

December 24, 2025

"That’s too bad," the young woman told her, giving a sigh that Parvati suspected might have been exaggerated a little more than was really necessary. "I've always wanted to see what it was like inside," she added. "Are there tours during the summer?"

Parvati was bemused by the question. Did she think that Hogwarts was some sort of museum? "No, not really…" she answered, not sure whether to laugh at the question. The castle was relatively empty during the summer; that was true, but there were substantial security risks with running tours. Was the castle really that fascinating to her? "I'm… not sure that the Board of Governors would like that very much," she then mentioned. At least, she didn't think that they would be too receptive of that idea. Besides, it absolved her of any responsibility in relation to trying to convince this young woman that running tours really wasn't something that Hogwarts did or could do. (Who would run the tours, after all? The house-elves?) The Board of Governors had the final say there, anyway, and that kept her from looking like the villain.

dahlia jade leloup