+- Knockturn Bound (https://staging.knockturnbound.net)
+-- Forum: Portkeys (https://staging.knockturnbound.net/forumdisplay.php?fid=14)
+--- Forum: The Wizarding World (https://staging.knockturnbound.net/forumdisplay.php?fid=71)
+---- Forum: Districts (https://staging.knockturnbound.net/forumdisplay.php?fid=78)
+----- Forum: Residential Wizarding World (https://staging.knockturnbound.net/forumdisplay.php?fid=198)
+------ Forum: Country Homes (https://staging.knockturnbound.net/forumdisplay.php?fid=220)
+------ Thread: 4 Hawthorn Hollow - The Curse of Curiosity || Barlowe Parents (/showthread.php?tid=1210)
4 Hawthorn Hollow - The Curse of Curiosity || Barlowe Parents - Kathryn Barlowe - 08-23-2026
Sunday, August 19, 1923
~ 2:40 PM
shffft
The sound was the loudest thing in the room.
Kathryn sat in well-earned silence. Her back never sank into the too-soft cushions of the couch, choosing to remain perfectly erect with her leg crossed over the other. The girl herself was as immaculate as ever. Stark white stockings on shoeless feet – never mind the warmth of the summer – and a lilac dress with white polka dots and a sailor's collar. The dress draped across her elevated knee, the fabric resting on her upper shin due to the position in which she sat. It wasn't quite her Sunday best – Merlin knew the little girl owned fancier things – but it was adequate for the sort of afternoon she intended to have before taking her shower promptly at 4. Her gloves were as white as her stockings, satin with small, embroidered roses where the buttons should be.
She'd only had them for a week or so, but they were quickly becoming her favourites. For a girl who despised change so thoroughly, she could admit solemnly that her mother had had the right of it.
Hogwarts had been brutal on the few treasured pairs she'd taken with her. Despite removing them before doing anything strenuous, there were still wholly too many situations ...and people who had made it difficult for them to remain in tact and presentable. Kathryn liked to believe that things would improve when she was inevitably forced back in September, but she considered herself far too intelligent to harbour such degrees of delusions.
Laura wouldn't stop. She would only become more discreet.
It was the logical response to someone as abrasive as Ruth confronting her so openly. Had Kathryn harboured such intentions within herself, it would have been the natural escalation.
Rather than worry herself over things for which she had no control, she sat herself down with what she deemed to be an...interesting book and allowed herself the bliss that came with both babies being asleep. No screaming Evander, no squealing Jude, no Benny to insist they go out into the infernal sun, and no Morgan to hover without speaking. For the time being, Kathryn could pretend that she was the only little girl in the world, and the thought rather suited her. Kathryn relished the idea that she was beyond interruption, pleased to let her eyes flit across the page at their leisure while the outside world remained just that – outside.
She turned the page again, greeted on this new page by a small, crudely drawn diagram in the page's margin.
Drawing in a book.
Her lips dipped into a deep scowl at the barbarity that would've led anyone to see a perfectly good book and decide that it needed to have pictures. God forbid they might have to settle for words from cover to cover. It wasn't the first either. Several of the prior pages had received the unsolicited aid of presumably Hogwarts students past and present. The ink spread differently per drawing. The art styles differed, too, leading her to believe that many of her peers had fancied themselves collaborators in this book she'd found lying around the Ravenclaw common room.
It was only with the greatest annoyance that she could admit that some of them were...useful. There were times when Stropes' clinical or moralistic definitions had no practical place to go in her mind.
The drawings, while unlikely to make it into a display case of the National Gallery, were enough to jump-start an otherwise unimaginative mind. This one, she didn't know how useful it would be, but she supposed that by the time she got to the end of the page, it might all make more sense.
That had certainly been the case with the others – to some extent.
RE: 4 Hawthorn Hollow - The Curse of Curiosity || Barlowe Parents - Maddox Barlowe - 08-23-2026
Sweet, merciful baby Circe, the boys were asleep.
For the first time all morning, Maddox could hear himself think. The man could hear the summer breeze that floated by his house. He could hear the low hum of the electric refrigeration unit that sat atop the icebox. While he stopped to pick up the scattered socks by the top of the staircase, he could hear the sound of his own breathing and the relief that came with it. With Jude a lot sturdier and mobile, he'd joined his delighted brother in ensuring that the house knew no peace. Evander, toddler that he still was, enjoyed dragging his still wobbly brother from place to place.
Now, there were two of them that could get into things. Two of them that he had to hide things from. Two reasons to worry when things got too quiet.
Not now. Oh, no. Maddox had watched their eyes close for himself. He'd handed Jude his blanket, tucking the corners beneath him while the boy's breathing evened out and he'd been the one to place Evander in his own little bed. They were sleeping. His silence was well earned. He would relish every moment of it while he helped his wife track down any loose pieces of laundry. That was yet another 'joy' of the baby no longer being so... baby-like. Jude hadn't elected to own his own brain cell and had instead chosen to do exactly what Evander did. That meant one mess was now always, inevitably, two. When Evander played with the laundry, they both did.
Maddox descended the stairs, the laundry hamper tucked beneath his arm. Tired as he was, there was a lightness in his body. It came with knowing the day's 'break' had finally come.
"Kathryn, your mother needs your hamper outside your door," he said, getting to the bottom of the stairs to find the little girl sat and lost in whatever literature managed to catch her attention this time. Her mother indulged her, and it led to their daughter gathering a...questionable stock for reading.
The man continued on his way, past the couch, but stopped when he realised she hadn't moved.
The problem with that particular child – because they were all a bit concerning – was that it was sometimes hard to tell whether she'd heard but chosen to ignore or was genuinely lost in whatever pursuit held her.
Deciding it was better not to assume – he'd only just rescued his peace from the grasps of a pair of little whirlwinds and didn't fancy launching himself into a battle of wills with a girl who'd dragged her trunk to his office twice – Maddox instead moved backward until he was standing by the side of the couch.
"Did you hear me? You're mother—"
“The Intimate Union”
Come again?
Maddox adjusted the hamper beneath his arm, leaning in to have a better look at what had managed to captivate the little girl so thoroughly. Before he could read beyond the eye-catching heading, the crude drawing in the margins tugged at his attention. And just like that, he had another headache. He froze for a moment, finally allowing blue irises to scan the page.
And then....
"Julia!" he called, his sudden yell startling the girl out of her concentration. Someone had some explaining to do, and he wasn't sure how invested he was in being the one to pry those answers free. If this was his reward for getting the boys down, he suggested the universe reconsider.
Was it too early to clock out of fatherhood for the afternoon?
RE: 4 Hawthorn Hollow - The Curse of Curiosity || Barlowe Parents - Julia Barlowe - 08-23-2026
Summer was nearly over, and for Julia it had come far too quickly. With Jude's first birthday heralding in the season, and plenty of outings and adventures they'd taken the kids on, the whole season had felt like a blur, and all too quickly they were rushing towards the start of a new school year.
As much as she loved her job and helping to mold the minds of young wizards, the woman cherished the time at home to just be a mum and wife and care for her family. The school year left much to be desired, with the boys shuffled back and forth between her and Maddox, all the while never being able to spend a full night with her husband in the same bed. She knew eventually, things would slow down and she and Maddox would eventually resign from their positions to focus on their own lives, but there was no telling when that day would come or how far off it was.
Another school term loomed, and with it plenty of changes on the horizon.
First was sorting out all the laundry and getting trunks packed ahead of time. Somehow, Maddox had managed to get both boys down at the same time, and splendid, cherished quiet had fallen over the house. It gave her an opening to get the tasks done quickly, and thank Merlin for magic. The sorting sorted itself, and took itself right into the new washing tub with its electric agitator. In some ways, muggles certainly did come up with useful inventions, but the jury was still out, as far as Julia was concerned, if the contraption was easier than simply charming a wash basin to scrub the clothes.
Of course, moving in with Maddox had seen Julia taking on tasks she'd never had to worry about before - elves and servants handling the day to day housework, but he was a simple man and saw no need for such things - or paying for them - when they could do them themselves.
Julia had half a mind to ask his pride to take a backseat in exchange for Fidele stopping by once or twice a week, but men would be men.
"Julia!"
Her husband's sudden shout broke the silence causing the woman to jump, dropping the box of detergent and spilling it all over the floor. What was his problem?! Why was he yelling when the boys had just gone down? "Bloody hell, Maddox," she muttered, exhaling heavily as her startled pulse fought to slow to a normal pace. A quick wave of her wand and the mess cleaned itself as she left the laundry momentarily.
"Are you trying to wake the dead? Why in the world are you shouting?" She crossed her arms in front of herself as she stopped in front of them, her daughter sitting on the couch with a book in hand. He knew good and well that Jude wasn't a deep sleeper, though they were working on it, and she'd never get anything done if that little boy began squealing and woke up his older brother.
She followed Maddox's eyes as they quickly indicated toward the book. She couldn't imagine what the big deal was. Their daughter read all sorts of taboo books, always with Julia's knowledge and -
"Kathryn!" Julia's voice cried out, just as loud as Maddox's had been when she her eyes fell upon the vulgar drawing and the title at the top. She snatched the book quickly, slamming it shut, her eyes boring into her daughter's with questions she wasn't quite sure she wanted to ask. "What in the world do you think you're reading?"
Their daughter turned twelve - tomorrow. She wasn't nearly old enough to be reading up on things like...this. "Is this yours?" Julia asked pointedly, holding the book up to her husband. It certainly wasn't hers. Julia needed no direction on how to perform, thank you.
RE: 4 Hawthorn Hollow - The Curse of Curiosity || Barlowe Parents - Kathryn Barlowe - 08-25-2026
"Kathryn, your mother needs your hamper outside your door."
Blue eyes continued their languid stroll across the page. She had heard him, her eyes having no effect on her hearing. In a minute, she would get up to do just that. Annoyed as the little girl was by the intrusion, she'd already been made to understand that some activities and routines could and would be interrupted by the whims of those set in charge of her. She'd equally learned that ignoring – while sometimes effective with Mr Maddox – held very little sway with her mother. As much as Kathryn would've liked to continue her reading until 3:00, it might invite her mother to take matters into her own hands.
In the end, the result would be the same: she wouldn't be able to continue reading until she did as she was told. The world wouldn't sit and wait until she was ready to comply. For the sake of her own peace, it was better to simply do as she was told.
In a minute.
"Did you hear me? You're mother—"
She did.
"Julia!"
Sigh.
Kathryn inhaled a subtle breath, her shoulders barely rising with the action. She supposed that she should've known it was too good to be true. A quiet Sunday afternoon was a disaster in the making. There was always someone making noise. Most often it was Evander, followed at a close second by Jude. But she should've known that having both boys asleep didn't guarantee her the hour of quiet it so falsely advertised. It was impossible when there were still so many other people in the house. Morgan was sometimes loud. Benji was often loud. Her mother, while not inherently loud, could sometimes participate in loud activities. Even Mr Maddox – who was no fan of noise at all – had his moments where he chose the same auditory violence.
Kathryn kept her eyes trained on the page, determined to at least finish it before rising to get her laundry. Her mother, evidently, had other plans.
"Kathryn!"
Were she another child, Kathryn may have let out a long-suffering sigh. Instead, her eyes continued to travel across the page right up until the moment that the book was finally snatched.
"What in the world do you think you're reading?"
A book. A book that now resided in the wrong hands. Her gaze rose to meet her mother's, her eyebrows coming together in confusion at the question. The title was engraved on the cover, and her mother was a proficient reader. The question seemed exceedingly simple, forcing her to consider that it must not have been the question at all. Having nothing else to offer, Kathryn reached a gloved hand up, extending her index finger to point her mother in the direction of the title.
"Is this yours?"
It most certainly was not, and she wouldn't allow Mr. Maddox to lay claim before she was done reading. He could wait his turn like everyone else within the Ravenclaw common room had done. While she wasn't a supporter of bent rules, she supposed being at home with her, he could cut the line so long as he managed to return it before they were back in the castle. It was the only concession she was willing to make.
The notebook that lay beside her lifted, its covers spreading themselves open while the quill rose to meet it.
Ravenclaw's.
If her mother really wanted to exert her authority as head of the house, she could cut ahead of Mr. Maddox to have the next read. They could sort that out amongst themselves.
RE: 4 Hawthorn Hollow - The Curse of Curiosity || Barlowe Parents - Maddox Barlowe - 08-25-2026
Was he surprised by her lack of response? Not hardly.
In the years since Julia had taken her in, Maddox had grown accustomed to many of Kathryn's mannerisms. It was true that in the beginning, he treated her like a delicate little flower prone to breaking and had attributed much of her unresponsiveness to certain sensitivities or even an inability to provide the expected response. While some of that was undoubtedly true, the man had learned something much simpler. Kathryn curated her world, filtering out the things she didn't believe belonged there. This time, it was the request to get her laundry while she was already steeped in another activity.
The man may have let her be. The morning had been another chaotic one, and, in-between self-designated activities, he'd caught the poor girl sitting rather stiffly as if she didn't know what to do with herself within the confusion. It was harder for her to stick to routines with babies that invited spontaneity. This was the first moment of peace, and he, with his own sensory complications, could sympathise...
Right up until he saw the book.
That...that would be a problem.
"Are you trying to wake the dead? Why in the world are you shouting?"
"The dead might be more agreeable," he drawled, nodding his wife in the direction of the book that Kathryn held. It only took a second for Julia to catch on to the afternoon's emergency, this one ironically coming from their least problematic child. And yet...it was fitting.
Maddox didn't expect to find either Morgan or Benji reading, regardless of the content. Evander and Jude only knew how to take books apart. In the end, it really could only have been her, couldn't it? In the same breath, they were due some trouble. The girl was turning 12 in less than a day and had thus far been unremarkable in her rearing – if the stubborness could be excused, and it often could. Her problems were often the sort that could be ignored. Wanting to walk at only a certain time. Only eating foods in a particular order. Not wanting her things touched. Refusing certain activities. They were easy workarounds for the silent child.
This...where did they even begin?
"Is this yours?"
Maddox scoffed. "You of all people should know what little help that book could be for me." He didn't have the time for unnecessary reads. Perhaps Kathryn should've adopted the same policy. There was nothing necessary about this read for her either.
The words appeared briefly in her notebook. Ravenclaw.
"Why am I not surprised?" he asked, sinking onto the arm of the chair. "Seems you've got a revolution brewing inside your common room, Professor Barlowe." Couldn't be Gryffindors. The man was still on the fence about whether half of them could read.
He looked back at the book now in his wife's hand.
"Looks like she's already read most of it."
RE: 4 Hawthorn Hollow - The Curse of Curiosity || Barlowe Parents - Julia Barlowe - 08-26-2026
"The dead might be more agreeable."
Fuck's sake. Julia never cursed, unless it was absolutely necessary, and in this instance it seemed to be, even if it was silently. The last thing she needed was Kathryn following in her older brother's footsteps and growing up far too fast in the matters of carnal knowledge. Benji had been a struggle to try and handle, and by the time Julia had stepped into the role of his mother, prevention was far too late. It had been a constant battle in ensuring her son didn't get himself into more trouble than he could handle.
Rosalie had been a nightmare of her own. Julia didn't fancy a repeat of things with her daughter.
"You of all people should know what little help that book could be for me."
She swatted him with the book, pursing her lips at him. "Be serious," she snapped, but there was a twinkle of amusement in her eye for him nonetheless. He could be so smug sometimes, especially when it was unwarranted. If it wasn't her book, and it wasn't his...
Ravenclaw.
"Seems you've got a revolution brewing inside your common room, Professor Barlowe."
He really was no help, was he? For all the merits touted about marriage and partnership, Julia was finding that husbands were less-than-stellar when it came to matters such as these, often happy to find the humor in it all before it became uncomfortably serious. "They're too curious for their own good," she muttered, though Hufflepuffs weren't much better. Everyone always thought the badgers and ravens were a bunch of soft goody-two-shoes, not realizing that the most cerebral and gentle were often the most romantic and hormone-driven crowd.
She sighed, sitting down on the opposite side of Kathryn, keeping the book on her lap. "Kathyrn, you know I never have a problem with the books you want to read as long as I know about them beforehand. But this book," she held it up for a moment, before dropping it back into her lap, "Is far beyond what it appropriate for your age."
She glanced back at Maddox, already feeling the beginnings of discomfort worming their way in. She'd thought they were still some years off from this chat - if they ever needed to have it at all. Their daughter wasn't one for physicality, nor did she seem at all interested in boys in a romantic sense yet.
"Why are you reading this? Do you have questions about something? Because these crudely drawn...images...aren't exactly accurate."
"Looks like she's already read most of it."
The most helpful. She tilted her head at her husband before casting her eyes back to Kathryn. "How much did you read?" Perhaps they should start there.
RE: 4 Hawthorn Hollow - The Curse of Curiosity || Barlowe Parents - Kathryn Barlowe - 08-31-2026
It wasn't her mother's book.
It wasn't Mr. Maddox's book.
The fuss around the piece of literature, rather than resolving itself with established ownership—or a lack thereof—only seemed to compound. While the pair of adults spoke, one thing became glaringly obvious to Kathryn long before either could deliver a verdict.
She wouldn't be able to finish reading in peace.
The little girl stared between the pair, waiting with an appropriate amount of patience for them to be through discussing the implications of the book having been found in Ravenclaw. She found herself disliking the way Mr. Maddox made it all sound so dreadfully scandalous. A revolution? It was a bit much for a house that only wanted to read books and occasionally forget etiquette enough to go scribbling in their margins. Everyone fancied themselves an artist these days, and everyone a scholar who believed they had the right to leave annotations for others to follow.
"They're too curious for their own good."
There was no such thing. Kathryn found it more than a little odd that the woman who took her into the forbidden forest at night and let her draw blood in the name of seeing what might happen was now making such a ludicrous statement. What was Ravenclaw without curiosity? Why have an entire mini library to themselves in their common room if the very act of being curious could be condemned?
Her mother sank into the seat next to her, but Kathryn's posture remained upright and expectant. Briefly, icy blue irises sank to the book in her mother's lap. For a split second, she could feel her patience slip, but she quickly folded it back into her composure.
They both acted like the boys would be asleep forever. Couldn't they have reserved this for a moment when she wasn't trying to hear her own thoughts and get lost in a good book? It all seemed a little inconsiderate to her, especially given how close she'd already gotten to the end. At this point, she would suffer more for not learning the conclusion than she would for having finished it—regardless of what her mother tried to insist.
And insist she continued to do.
"Kathyrn, you know I never have a problem with the books you want to read as long as I know about them beforehand. But this book. Is far beyond what is appropriate for your age."
Why? the quill formed in its contained cursive. What made the book any different from raising the dead?
"Why are you reading this? Do you have questions about something? Because these crudely drawn...images...aren't exactly accurate."
Because it was on the shelf. Did there need to be another reason? Kathryn had already gone through her other books. As it hadn't yet been her birthday, she saw no need to ask for more. There was no need for concern when her common room housed its own collection that no one seemed to mind you borrowing, no matter what lay inside. She'd gone through maybe three books before stumbling onto that one. It was her latest read, and the further she got, the more curious she found herself becoming.
In some ways, it created more questions than it answered, but like with all other books, Kathryn assumed it would resolve by the end.
The end it didn't seem like she would be able to read. It was the latter part of her mother's words that tugged at her attention. She cocked her head to the side as the quill began its careful work.
What makes them inaccurate?
"Looks like she's already read most of it."
She had and would like to continue.
"How much did you read?"
Rather than have the quill articulate an estimate, Kathryn reached for the book. Prying it open, she revealed the page she'd nearly been done reading, allowing her mother to see for herself that she was maybe 10 pages from the end and really should've been left alone. Whatever harm they worried about was already done, and she had a shower to take at 4PM. It was a senseless waste of time while she sat there, book now back in her possession, waiting for them to decide they were done making a big deal of things.
RE: 4 Hawthorn Hollow - The Curse of Curiosity || Barlowe Parents - Maddox Barlowe - 08-31-2026
"Be serious."
"When am I never?" he drawled, amused by the edge in his wife's voice. Maddox could appreciate the seriousness of the situation. There was no argument to be made for the appropriateness of that particular book for their 11-year-old, and there was no pretending that it was just another Sunday afternoon. Would it require a talk? Without a doubt. Kathryn, as her brother liked to point out, was an odd duckling. It would've been one thing if she were simply socially awkward but sincere. If she liked her strange little fascinations but was otherwise on level with her peers, the man could map his way through.
Kathryn was.............weird.
The problem with being outright strange was that you became an outlier. You became unpredictable. There was no tell and no way of knowing how the little girl might treat a topic like this. Was she repulsed? Was she intrigued? Was she plotting her own experiment that might force him to ground her until she was forty? It was a threat he'd made many times, but never to her, never to the little girl who sat and stared and occasionally breathed loudly enough to convince those around her that she wasn't as dead as the corpses she liked to collect.
Maddox was well aware that curiosity, within a mind like hers, could quickly fly south.
He could also appreciate Julia's distress. A man as complex as him could harbour multiple thoughts.
"Is far beyond what it appropriate for your age."
"Your mother's right, with the caveat that this will never be appropriate for you. There's no magical age where we hand that back," he said, nodding toward the book. "You don't need it anyway. You've already got so much on your plate and should be dedicating your time to spellcasting." Merlin's beard, she was about to be a second year, and, as her Charms professor, he'd never seen her cast. Not once. But she had the time to read annotated books on pleasure and human anatomy as if she didn't recoil at the thought of removing her gloves.
What exactly was the plan here?
Why?
....Why?
"Because, Kathryn, dear, it's all rather disgusting and you're the sort that might both hate sweat and want to find out for yourself." Wasn't that reason enough? Maddox hadn't read the book for himself but the little he'd glimpsed seemed ...practical. Too practical for his liking.
"Because these crudely drawn...images...aren't exactly accurate."
He...wouldn't have advised that statement.
What makes them inaccurate?
That was why.
Maddox's head lolled to the side, his gaze cast once more toward his wife. "That one's all yours."