Out of the shadows and on to the bandwagon...
Stolen from absolutely everyone, it's the Ten Things JKR Never Wrote Meme. In my case, with very few exceptions it's also the Ten Things Dolabella Never Wrote, since I wander round happily adding bits and pieces to my world but so rarely get things down on paper/screen. There's no pub but a couple of clubs, and of course a Compulsory Wilkes Fact :-)
1) Nicolai Poliakoff (the hapless Durmstrang student castigated by Karkaroff for spilling food) now works for his father, a Latvian wine merchant who has extensive dealings with Georgia, and gets to drink all the ‘vine’ he wants. He still corresponds regularly with Vincent Crabbe. Through Nicolai’s guidance, Vincent has acquired a far superior cellar to that of Draco Malfoy (the liquid stocks of the Manor having largely disappeared under Lucius due to Ministry bribes/Ministry raids/ Death Eater entertainment). But of course this fact is never acknowledged. (Much owed to dolorous_ett and her post-war owl-loving Crabbe, of course!)
2) One of Evan Rosier’s passions was traditional wizarding music. He devoted much time to proving that Muggle ‘folk songs’ were perversions of wizarding originals, that a) demonstrated how dangerous Muggle misunderstandings of magic were and b) showed that Muggles were culturally bankrupt. Tales such as Thomas the Rhymer, for instance, wilfully misread as threat the immense generosity shown when those from a non-magic background are welcomed into the wizarding world. (I think this must have developed from a_t_rain’s great Celestina-Warbeck-as-DE-owing-her-big-break-to-the-Rosiers idea. And speaking of a_t_rain...)
3) Simon (thanks!!!) Wilkes was a poker ace. His mother, a professional invalid, spent her afternoons hosting bridge-and-gossip sessions for her female friends and relations, which Simon, when young, was expected to sit in on being unobtrusively charming. After a few hands of bridge and Pedro el Magos sherry, sidelong looks would go around the table, the poker chips would come out, and the gloves would come off. This skill came in very useful when Evan Rosier, having got into the Slytherin Quidditch team in the second year, foolishly thought he’d be able to hold his own in the gambling session after the first practice - and promptly lost a term’s allowance and his grandfather’s astrolabe to Lucius Malfoy, Rodolphus Lestrange and Brasidas Yaxley.
4) Benedict Nott (Theodore’s father) was the first person to whom Voldemort entrusted the diary. Benedict was a contemporary of Tom Riddle, though some years older, and his family library contained many volumes on subjects not even the Restricted Section at Hogwarts would touch. At the beginning of his journey towards immortality, Voldemort viewed the diary not as a weapon but as vital insurance protecting at least one part of his soul, and knew he could trust Nott to keep it safe. When Nott was imprisoned for a while under suspicion of Death Eater activity (in circumstances which the Dark Lord would have viewed as totally avoidable,) Voldemort was forced to retrieve the diary under the Ministry’s nose from the Nott house, and only then gave it to Lucius Malfoy.
5) There are wizarding clubs, just as there were (and are) in Muggle London, offering comfortable facilities and congenial society to their members. Unsurprisingly, purebloods are very keen on them. The ones I know most about are Aspley's (very conservative, never without a good contigent of centenarians dozing/talking over the good old days, excellent food) and the Manticores (younger, considered rather ‘fast’, known for drinking and gaming).
6) Dawlish the Auror is Muggleborn (his first name is John) He was in Hufflepuff at Hogwarts. His grey hair is misleading, as he is still relatively young, having only just qualified the year before Voldemort’s fall. His immediate superior was Alastor Moody, and the first time he witnessed the death of a colleague was during the attempt to take Rosier & Wilkes alive. Not long afterwards, he was involved in a horrendous ambush in which he witnessed two more colleagues being turned into Inferii, and he himself only narrowly escaped. The next morning he woke to find his hair had gone grey. Thanks in no small part to the machinations of Rufus Scrimgeour, then angling for promotion under Crouch Sr, he found himself blaming Moody, whom he had once hero-worshipped, and, concluding that this was no time for mavericks, dedicated himself to the cause of order and strong government, the Ministry’s man through and through.
7) Until MWPP’s fifth year, there was a secret passageway leading from the Slytherins’ dungeons to Hogsmeade. It passed under the lake, was alarmingly damp, and the Slytherins who used it learned to be dab hands at the Impervius charm remarkably quickly. The passageway enabled generations of students to meet up with their fellows who had already left school (with Dumbledore as Headmaster, in far less secrecy than they’d thought, since they chose to meet in the Hogs Head, but you can’t have everything) until MWPP discovered it and decided that Slytherin sneakings should be curtailed. Bringing the roof down was thought dangerous (though Sirius declared himself quite happy to drown a dungeon full of snakes - Regulus was in the hospital wing with spattergroit at the time…) so they smuggled a sprig of Devil's Snare down there, applied a Growth Speeding charm (standing well back) Petrified the dense mass, and added some powerful Disorientation spells for good measure - now anyone entering that corner of the dungeons finds themselves suddenly unsure of where they’re going and what they were meant to be doing.
8) Luna Lovegood’s mother was an Avery - Avery women tend to be rather original and strong-minded, and leave little of these qualities for the men in the family…
9) Almost last and certainly least… Gervaise Paganel, one of the Slytherins in Rosier & Wilkes’ year, went on to play professional Quidditch for the Falmouth Falcons, captained at the time by Rolanda Hooch, and England. I don’t have any real story for him, but the name’s that of one of the first Norman lords of the castle of my home town and I couldn’t resist finding it a place in my HP world as I think it’s a great one :-)
10) And last but not at all least, Theodore Nott’s mother was Evan Rosier’s sister. Hugely canon-squishable, and I’ll be so sorry if I ever have to let go of it... Oh well, it survived HBP, which I wasn’t expecting, so I should be grateful!
1) Nicolai Poliakoff (the hapless Durmstrang student castigated by Karkaroff for spilling food) now works for his father, a Latvian wine merchant who has extensive dealings with Georgia, and gets to drink all the ‘vine’ he wants. He still corresponds regularly with Vincent Crabbe. Through Nicolai’s guidance, Vincent has acquired a far superior cellar to that of Draco Malfoy (the liquid stocks of the Manor having largely disappeared under Lucius due to Ministry bribes/Ministry raids/ Death Eater entertainment). But of course this fact is never acknowledged. (Much owed to dolorous_ett and her post-war owl-loving Crabbe, of course!)
2) One of Evan Rosier’s passions was traditional wizarding music. He devoted much time to proving that Muggle ‘folk songs’ were perversions of wizarding originals, that a) demonstrated how dangerous Muggle misunderstandings of magic were and b) showed that Muggles were culturally bankrupt. Tales such as Thomas the Rhymer, for instance, wilfully misread as threat the immense generosity shown when those from a non-magic background are welcomed into the wizarding world. (I think this must have developed from a_t_rain’s great Celestina-Warbeck-as-DE-owing-her-big-break-to-the-Rosiers idea. And speaking of a_t_rain...)
3) Simon (thanks!!!) Wilkes was a poker ace. His mother, a professional invalid, spent her afternoons hosting bridge-and-gossip sessions for her female friends and relations, which Simon, when young, was expected to sit in on being unobtrusively charming. After a few hands of bridge and Pedro el Magos sherry, sidelong looks would go around the table, the poker chips would come out, and the gloves would come off. This skill came in very useful when Evan Rosier, having got into the Slytherin Quidditch team in the second year, foolishly thought he’d be able to hold his own in the gambling session after the first practice - and promptly lost a term’s allowance and his grandfather’s astrolabe to Lucius Malfoy, Rodolphus Lestrange and Brasidas Yaxley.
4) Benedict Nott (Theodore’s father) was the first person to whom Voldemort entrusted the diary. Benedict was a contemporary of Tom Riddle, though some years older, and his family library contained many volumes on subjects not even the Restricted Section at Hogwarts would touch. At the beginning of his journey towards immortality, Voldemort viewed the diary not as a weapon but as vital insurance protecting at least one part of his soul, and knew he could trust Nott to keep it safe. When Nott was imprisoned for a while under suspicion of Death Eater activity (in circumstances which the Dark Lord would have viewed as totally avoidable,) Voldemort was forced to retrieve the diary under the Ministry’s nose from the Nott house, and only then gave it to Lucius Malfoy.
5) There are wizarding clubs, just as there were (and are) in Muggle London, offering comfortable facilities and congenial society to their members. Unsurprisingly, purebloods are very keen on them. The ones I know most about are Aspley's (very conservative, never without a good contigent of centenarians dozing/talking over the good old days, excellent food) and the Manticores (younger, considered rather ‘fast’, known for drinking and gaming).
6) Dawlish the Auror is Muggleborn (his first name is John) He was in Hufflepuff at Hogwarts. His grey hair is misleading, as he is still relatively young, having only just qualified the year before Voldemort’s fall. His immediate superior was Alastor Moody, and the first time he witnessed the death of a colleague was during the attempt to take Rosier & Wilkes alive. Not long afterwards, he was involved in a horrendous ambush in which he witnessed two more colleagues being turned into Inferii, and he himself only narrowly escaped. The next morning he woke to find his hair had gone grey. Thanks in no small part to the machinations of Rufus Scrimgeour, then angling for promotion under Crouch Sr, he found himself blaming Moody, whom he had once hero-worshipped, and, concluding that this was no time for mavericks, dedicated himself to the cause of order and strong government, the Ministry’s man through and through.
7) Until MWPP’s fifth year, there was a secret passageway leading from the Slytherins’ dungeons to Hogsmeade. It passed under the lake, was alarmingly damp, and the Slytherins who used it learned to be dab hands at the Impervius charm remarkably quickly. The passageway enabled generations of students to meet up with their fellows who had already left school (with Dumbledore as Headmaster, in far less secrecy than they’d thought, since they chose to meet in the Hogs Head, but you can’t have everything) until MWPP discovered it and decided that Slytherin sneakings should be curtailed. Bringing the roof down was thought dangerous (though Sirius declared himself quite happy to drown a dungeon full of snakes - Regulus was in the hospital wing with spattergroit at the time…) so they smuggled a sprig of Devil's Snare down there, applied a Growth Speeding charm (standing well back) Petrified the dense mass, and added some powerful Disorientation spells for good measure - now anyone entering that corner of the dungeons finds themselves suddenly unsure of where they’re going and what they were meant to be doing.
8) Luna Lovegood’s mother was an Avery - Avery women tend to be rather original and strong-minded, and leave little of these qualities for the men in the family…
9) Almost last and certainly least… Gervaise Paganel, one of the Slytherins in Rosier & Wilkes’ year, went on to play professional Quidditch for the Falmouth Falcons, captained at the time by Rolanda Hooch, and England. I don’t have any real story for him, but the name’s that of one of the first Norman lords of the castle of my home town and I couldn’t resist finding it a place in my HP world as I think it’s a great one :-)
10) And last but not at all least, Theodore Nott’s mother was Evan Rosier’s sister. Hugely canon-squishable, and I’ll be so sorry if I ever have to let go of it... Oh well, it survived HBP, which I wasn’t expecting, so I should be grateful!