Every local liked to ask outsiders one question: "Do you like our city?"
Naturally, outsiders would say, "Yes, it's the best city I've ever visited." If they said otherwise, they would not only make themselves unwelcome—they might even get beaten up.
Oxford was a famously livable city. This university town was known for its historical sites scattered everywhere, yet the commercial businesses spread throughout the city had made it far too commercialized.
North Oxford was not bad, but modern buildings filled the rest of the city. Merton College's warden's residence looked like a toaster with windows, while the administrative building in Wellington Square resembled a concrete monster. Perhaps this view came from her personal lack of interest in cold modernism. Others found it acceptable enough, but in her opinion, Oxford and Padua, both university towns, were worlds apart.
After her bath, the Head of Slytherin cast an Extension Charm on the rough leather travel bag he had bought that day, while she sorted through the miscellaneous things in her pockets to see what should go into that space.
Not every vampire enjoyed designing buildings like Giovanni. Some, like Camilla Sanquina, bathed in the blood of young girls.
Water mixed with wine looked like a bathtub full of blood, and soaking in it gave one a sense of depravity.
Wine accelerated blood circulation. Once the blood started rushing faster, it heated the whole body and raised its temperature.
Like adolescents going through puberty, doing nothing but reckless, foolish things.
"I heard from the locals that not all the 'patients' sent to the asylum on Poveglia Island were truly insane. They might have attended a gathering that went against mainstream thinking at the time, or gotten into a fight, and they would be sent to the madhouse. Even if they weren't mad