Valeria Chovnik

### Pets

Belozmiy, an adult Ukrainian Ironbelly dragon. He is 60 feet long tip to tail, silver body, red eyes.
Chernozmiy, an adult Hungarian Horntail dragon. She is 50 feet long tip to tail, black body, yellow-green eyes.

Valeria Chovnik is a current graduate of the Hogwarts Class of 2025, and is best known for her role as the resident *dragon girl.* Acquiring her first dragon egg at the age of 14, Valeria raised her Ukrainian Ironbelly in the Forbidden Forest up until an untimely accident, which put her into a coma for several months and caused the vast majority of people to assume that she was dead. After this incident, she reconciled the danger of what she was doing with her dysfunctional familial relationships. The Chovnik clan then took on partial responsibility for her large and dangerous pet, and from then on dragonology was a family business. It was at this point she officially returned from the dead, acquired a second dragon egg, (a Hungarian Horntail,) and brought both of them to Hogwarts while she finished her schooling (without incident). Once she graduated, she flew the dragons home to Ukraine and they have made it their since-permanent residence. Aside from a term or two stint as Flight Professor, she has not returned to Hogwarts.

She has since officially designated a large plot around her historic family home as a dragon reserve, and works towards the care and wellbeing of dragons for a career. Because of this designation, there is a relatively constant movement of dragons in and out of her reserve, save for the two permanent residents she raised herself, Belozmiy and Chernozmiy. She has also assisted Isaac E. Hiltshire with the raising of his own dragon, Arcandelion.

## Appearance & Personality

##### *Appearance Through the Years*

**First Year:** Valeria Chovnik as a Gryffindor first year, was pretty obviously on the short side for her age— or in general, considering her classmates tower above her as she clocks in at hardly over four feet tall then and a strong 5'2 now. Val was unbothered by this, though she finds that her robes have a rather unfortunate habit of being chronically oversized, meaning they’ll constantly ball up around her heels. Height aside, if one were to describe her firstie self in a single word it would be *cute,* with large, blue-gray doe eyes and shoulder-length dark, almost ruddy black hair, almost creamy skin and delicate features, but if said individual is unfortunate enough to catch her in the Great Hall, be warned, as her face and robes are almost certainly marred with crumbs. It’s not something to be bothered by though, as undoubtedly she’s rocking the look. With a Veela mother, Val can make most anything look decent, questionable eating habits aside. Over the course of her first year, little change was made to her appearance. Not until she managed to slip past Professor Star's enchanted barbed wire fence did any significant change occur in the form of baldness, but that was short-lived and she, alongside the attendees of the unfortunate forest adventure, managed to scrounge up some hair-growth potion which both prevented House Point loss and any long-lived change. Mentally, she has more than a little unconscious resolve to let her formally shoulder-length hair grow out a little, as a gesture of appreciation for its existence.

**Second Year:** Currently, she's still horrendously short, having gained a meager two inches over the course of the previous school year. Her hair is a little longer, but that probably comes from the fact that over the course of summer no one could hold her still long enough to cut it.

**Third & Fourth Year:** Valeria continues to gain a steady two inches a year and finds her hair getting a little bit more raggedy. Nothing much changes appearance-wise here, either. Near the middle of her fourth year is when she gets her first dragon egg, and sometimes errant burns appear on her hands as she handles the piping hot shell.

**Fifth Year:** Dragon Girl is born. Valeria discovers many things here and her appearance changes as such. Long hair catches fire when a baby dragon sneezes, so off it is chopped! Hogwarts robes aren't fireproof, don't fit well, and aren't particularly fashionable. Her solution? Enchant an old aviator's trenchcoat with Calor Vade, and... never take it off. Her coat has long been a staple of her wardrobe since. It is also here where she ditched her Hogwarts garb, save for a Gryffindor scarf. She's still got house pride, and needs to show it, *duh.* A pair of flight goggles are around her neck constantly now, and she's adopted long aviator boots and up-to-knee leather guards, because she's got to complete the *look.*

**Sixth & Seventh Year, and Beyond:** Not much has changed beyond the arrival and gain of new scars.

Gallery of Younger Images of Valeria:Valeria in her first year.Year 1 Valeria by Athalia Derwent.Valeria in her second year.Valeria in her fourth year with baby Belozmiy.Valeria and Belozmiy drawn by Elodie Moreau.Valeria drawn by Bryony Lovell.Valeria with buns drawn by Sunny Nocturne.Valeria drawn by Savannah Rey.Valeria in traditional Ukrainian costume, by Orum.Valeria drawn by Cecilia Evans.
##### *Current Looks*

Currently Valeria is an adult woman, with shoulder length choppy hair, formerly almost red and blackish and now currently sun-bleached a ruddy bronzy color. It gives off the appearance she took a sword and chopped it off herself. She still has the same stormy grey eyes which give the distinct impression she finds something incredibly funny that you don't fully understand, and her skin is now slightly tanner in her worldly travels. She's not particularly tall at 5'2.

Overall, however, she's gained an incredible array of scars all across her body. The pale dots on her chin are the product of Valeria's (lost) battle with a cursed door, and she has an array of scratches, bites and burns from raising her two dragons over the years. Notably, she has five mottled punctures on her left arm, from her grievous injury in the infamous dragon adventure responsible for her "death", and in terms of visibility, she's got twin slashes on her jawline and up by her hairline. She's managed to miss her beautiful Veela face with most injuries.

Valeria wears an old WWI aviator coat, which is enchanted to protect her from dragon fire. She has her Gryffindor scarf either wrapped around her waist or neck, and wears a pear of patched jeans and leather boots. She tends to wear loose, airy shirts. The other notable feature is a leather cord she wears, with different sizes of dragon teeth ranging to three inch fangs and a bottle of pink corked potion at the end, also for dragons. She tends to have a pair of aviator goggles with amber lenses hanging around her neck, and sometimes wears fingerless gloves.

##### *Personality Through the Years*

**Early Years of School:** Val is cheery, cheeky, and more than slightly willing to flipendo someone, though that’s undoubtedly because she somehow finds it amusing, not because there’s legitimate ill intent behind it. A strong believer in Gryffindor spirit, she likes trying new things (so long as they aren’t green and reminiscent of vegetables, that is) and surprisingly, there’s an academic streak about her, though it’s ill-focused at best. She’ll read about what she’s inclined to, assignments almost always are the last of her priorities, and her paying attention in class is a gamble. Her poor academic performance isn’t lost upon her, but seeing as she overcame spellcasting anxiety in the first half of her first school year she’s not going to push herself too hard on the wizarding front. When it comes to her friends, Val is loyal and fiercely protective, especially when it comes to the ones she thinks are vulnerable, (namely one Juno Yoshinaga-Bloodstone) though she’d undoubtedly follow the rest through whatever plans they concoct, even if she thinks it’s a deathly stupid idea.

Another perhaps unfortunate facet of her personality is her being reserved, though that’s more or less a nice way of saying she has a habit of lying. Val doesn’t much appreciate prying into her personal life, and will get very, very vague if one asks beyond even the most cursory of questions, and then will begin to skirt the truth if she sees it prudent. This applies to most things she’s uncomfortable with speaking about, and seeing as she’s been virtually trained by her interactions with her cousins to be a trickster, conniver, and thief, it’ll be a hard habit to break. Her being a half-breed is a touchy topic as well, as her mother has instructed her to not go around spouting that information readily, lest blood-purists catch wind of it— considering she’s met a few, it’s going to take a miracle to convince her it’s a mildly irrational fear.

**First Year:** Over the course of her first year she fell victim to a particularly nasty curse, having been trying to investigate the object and why someone targeted Juno. For awhile she was embittered, angry, and wishing for nothing more than to get her hands on the Hufflepuff-yellow purse, ultimately causing her no small turmoil with her friends’ worry and her own slipping strength of mental fortitude. In addition to that, she additionally was a victim of the shadow monster attacks, and fended off a few mental and physical assaults from the beast, contributing additionally towards her current state. Thus, she’s developed a shorter fuse (problematic when paired with her violent streak) and a maternal instinct to protect the incoming class. She has a mistrust of Hogwarts authoritative figures (especially the nurses manning the infirmary) and generally believes that relying on upperclassmen and one another is much more preferable than the alternative of relying on faculty.

As it stands, she has additionally been lectured rather harshly by her mother by not owling over the course of the school year. Val, wishing for nothing more than to drop half-breed stigma, only contacted her family *twice,* asking for costumes to the Halloween Ball— she thus received no small scolding. At the end of her summer, she's acutely aware of her non-human half.

**Fourth, Fifth & Sixth Year:** Valeria's closest friends Kairav Deane-Ward and Cora Ray have mostly left the school at this point, so she begins to rely on the companionship of younger students like Oswald Arkwright, Kat Lynx, and others. As she's raising Belozmiy in the Forbidden Forest, Valeria becomes a little more secretive and a lot more busy, with a flippant attitude towards classes and a dogged interest in dragonology, neglecting her studies to raise her beasties. It is at this point she becomes friendlier towards her family and a little more candid to her closest friends, especially after her near-death episode, but she is shifting her priorities away from childish endeavors and focusing her efforts almost exclusively towards all things dragon.

##### *Current Personality*

As an adult, Valeria is unfortunately generally isolated from her peers. Everyone *knows* Valeria, and she is still generally unendingly friendly, but there are very few who *know* Valeria. The best friends she made in school disappeared many years ago, and now the only two people she would generally consider herself close with are Cecilia Evans and Edward Sark. She still enjoys some good-natured fun every once in awhile, but generally will remain pretty serious around the reserve despite her lighthearted manner. Valeria has taken to burying herself in her work, and over the years has come to accept that interpersonal relationships are sacrificed with such a dangerous occupation. It isn't that Valeria isn't friendly, it's more of a matter of finding it difficult to make new friends her own age. That being said, she has a horde of people who would consider her a mentor figure, the latest of which seems to be Auresse Killinger, but have historically included the likes of Kat Lynx, Kylie Whitehorn, Cleo Casseo, and Isaac Hiltshire.

## History & Story

##### *The Dragons*

*“You have a **dragon,”** she replied with a combination of disbelief and awe painting her tone.* -Cora Ray

*"Dragons are your thing yo? That's awesome! I've 'ad a bit of personal experience with dragons m'self, but not nearly as much as you it sounds like!" Laken scratched his head in thought. "So you're like... Dragon Hood. Stealing the dragons from the rich 'n, well... Keepin' them? Dragon Hood. Mother of Dragons... Draconian Dragon Deliverer..."* -Laken Valentine

Over winter break of her fourth year, after a spat with her Veela mother, Valeria stormed off into the Carpathian wilderness to try and clear her head, having made a habit of staying in a hunting cabin nearby when she was feeling upset. After hearing an uproar outside, she heard the activity of what she assumed to be dragon egg dealers coming from up the slope of the mountain she was stationed under, chasing off what Valeria presumed to be a mother dragon. While she knew she certainly was no match for a group of adult wizards, she grew up in Ukraine respecting the beasts around her and had a care for the creatures native to her homeland, including Ironbellies. Unsure of what happened as a result of simply hearing some sort of clash, she felt driven to do something about the situation and ended up stumbling on Belozmiy's egg, having rolled from the nest.

From then on, Valeria secretly began to incubate the dragon egg, voraciously reading any materials she could about taking care of dragons. Upon returning to Hogwarts, she kept the egg in a self-heating cauldron under her bed where she would carefully monitor for the heat required to sustain a growing baby dragon. She told very few people about the egg before it hatched, limited almost exclusively to Cora Ray and Kairav Deane-Ward, her closest friends at the time. Upon realizing it would need a safe place to hatch, she left school temporarily for Ukraine and came back to find that her friends had left the school. Belozmiy, at this point free from his egg, was living in the Forbidden Forest.

At this point in time, around Valeria's fifth year at the school, rumors of a dragon in the Forbidden Forest began to float around. Valeria tried her best to keep Belozmiy's presence at the school under wraps, but as he grew to be larger and larger, the likes of Oswald Arkwright, Kat Lynx, and Cecilia Evans ended up stumbling on her secret. These rumors ended up reaching the ears of the (at the time) current class of first and second years, including Ricky Brown, Adalia Audrey, and a slew of others. Excited by the prospect of an adventure, the group of approximately ten or so students entered the Forbidden Forest looking for dragons and surprise, surprise, ended up finding one.

*"Whatever they had anticipated, he definitely looked bigger in person, muscled haunches bunched under a barrel chest, ribs poking from under leathery gray skin. Great sails of wings splayed out in delicate folds as he slept, papyrus lined with peering blue veins. His great wedge-shaped head sometimes swung as he snarled in his sleep, sweeping dirt in snow-angel paths. The back of his skull was studded with a symmetrical array of horns, just as his mandible was peppered with distinctly needle-sharp pinky-yellow fangs. A long tail wound in great coils around his body, and he sometimes twitched, very much alive. He was lithe, muscled, well-proportioned. **Big.** Around thirty feet long, tip to tail."* -Description of Belozmiy at the time of the adventure.

The group of students ended up provoking the sleeping Belozmiy, and when he awoke from his nap he was very displeased at having been bothered. He attacked the first and second years, injuring (though not terribly) many in the group. It wasn't too long after this began that Valeria swooped in for the rescue, taking a grievous bite from Belozmiy in order to distract the beast from the children nearby. After pulling the students to safety and threatening them for revealing the truth of her beastie, she and Belozmiy flew deeper into the Forest to escape the professors headed towards them. After rescuing the young students, the faculty of the school put up an Age Line, and Valeria, too young to cross, was trapped inside the Forbidden Forest with her pet dragon, seriously hurt.

Ultimately passing out due to blood loss and dehydration, Belozmiy flew the semi-conscious Valeria back to her family home in Ukraine, where she spent several months unconscious and receiving care while her family worked out how to re-present Valeria to the public. She ended up being declared dead during this time, an event that affected many at the school.

*"Searching for linens to wrap around her forearm was fruitless, and her fingers sagged idly on her wand. Valeria could scream and scream nonsense until her body rolled up her eyes as one would a newspaper and whipped the tension from behind her knees; but magic was tantamounted to murmurings of little meaning until energy was put into it. Hers had expended in the frantic peeling of tree bark to gnash her teeth on and choke back agony as her nerves crept tall with progressively marching numbness."* -The Long Time Ago, Valeria's 'death' monologue.

    Finally in a state to hold her own, the Chovnik clan at this time took on responsibility of caring for her dragon. Enthusiastic about dragonology and relieved that Valeria was alive, her group of cousins, aunts, uncles and her parents became partial guardians of Belozmiy. It was at this time that it was clarified to the public that Valeria was not dead, that she had been injured by a 'Blast-Ended Skrewt' and flew home herself, and that dragons had never been in the Forbidden Forest at Hogwarts. Around this time Valeria ended up stumbling on a second dragon egg while investigating a dealer in Chernihiv, the black city of Ukraine, and found her second dragon egg. Eventually from it Chernozmiy would hatch, a female Hungarian Horntail raised alongside Belozmiy. Despite their presence at the school, the rest of Valeria's education was without incident from her dragons and once she graduated, she flew them home to Ukraine where they would be staying permanently. Before she left, she gave Isaac Hiltshire a riddle about the identity of her dragons, having been endeared by his spirited attitude. Ultimately Isaac ended up with his own dragon, a Peruvian Vipertooth named Arcandelion, who Valeria helps raise and care for.

*"...The rattle of wind as she met between the sprawled wingtips of aloft dragons. The victory and fear and awe as Belozmiy reared and roared, establishing the sky as his. Chernozmiy dropping the gawky flittered awkwardness of juvenile flight. Keeping abreast with dragons. This was living! This was being filled with energy and vigor and power, this is what it meant for blood to rush through one’s veins and for air to ring like bells every time she took a breath.*

*The silhouette of an imposing fortress was framed in a pastel sky. Hogwarts loomed, inhaled shakily in the morning, and said goodbye to its Dragon Girl.*

***Good morning,** thought Valeria.*

***Goodbye,** said the castle." -*Valeria leaving Hogwarts.

As an adult, Valeria continued her vigilante career for several years, shuttling dragon eggs from dealers and illicit sources to the reserves that they belonged. Eventually disillusioned with the supposed success of her work and seeking to create an asylum for her own dragons and Arcandelion, Valeria finally formed the Chovnik Dragon Reserve, serving as Chief Dragonologist. Now she is in charge of the care of any dragon that enters her facility, with a focused on sick, injured dragons with no places elsewhere and babies rescued from black market dealings.

###### Descriptions of Belozmiy and Chernozmiy

**Belozmiy:**

*"Scarlet hellfire eyes sit between scaled brows, elegant contours following down a sloping snout to a mandible studded with fangs, some yellowed and others hanging with filament strands of ligament and fat. His jaws part, and a fat forked tongue slips out, the whole of his body some sort of loping, tapering greater design. His head came to an elegant bouquet of ivory horns, wyvern's wings dipping into onyx dual digits that grasp the ground. Thick, velociraptor back claws score the peaty forest soil." -*From Cecilia meeting Belozmiy for the first time.

*"There were moments where time was as viscous as molasses and seemingly nothing awaited the duo. As the ground below faintly whispered in the hollow silence, a white sail sliced through the cloudcover to the left of Valeria and Isaac. It could initially have been mistaken for an illusion, perhaps a trick of the light. Soon, however, a long, scaled body followed suit, lithe and streamlined, massive and incredibly articulate in its silver construction. Nests of spines and horns studded the dragon's spine in intervals, and as it slowed to fly next to the pair, a large red eye regarded Isaac. Cast against the pale caricature of a wedge-shaped head and draconic maw, the faceted ruby twinkled with intelligence and the promise of old power inconceivably animal in nature and alien in manifest. The beast made not a sound as it dwarfed the duo, fifty feet long tip-to-tail."* -From Isaac meeting Belozmiy and Chernozmiy for the first time.

*"In this clearing was a huge silver body. The adult Ukrainian Ironbelly, Belozmiy, was massive. Easily sixty feet long tip to tail, maybe more, each deep breath he took rattled the plain around him. His barrel chest rose slowly as he dozed below, claws the size of scythes digging yard-deep tracks through the rocky soil. A blood red eye slid open as broomsticks moved above him, ruby facets coldly analyzing the collective. Belozmiy growled, the sound so loud and low it vibrated in the sternum of every human present. The wyvern raised his huge head, enameled with a nest of long horns easily two or three feet long each, lumbered to his feet, and stretched the length of his wings. They were so big they could blot the sun, huge white sails flapping once, twice, before his forelimbs slammed back into the ground and he shook his head. The long coil of his tail stretched thirty feet behind him, twitching like a cat."* -The most up-to-date description of Belozmiy, from the winter break dragonology workshop.

**Chernozmiy:**

*"It was such deathly silence that caused the presence of the second almost to manifest instead of such a long, drawn-out inhale, wherein the smaller form of venom and spines and violence epitomized and compressed into regality flew. Chernozmiy was smaller, a black void against a dull gray sky, yellow eyes swirling with haughty regard. She too flew in silence, wings twitching every so often as she glided across the chunky cotton-ball clouds. Her razor claws and barbed-wire tail trailed behind her." -*From Isaac meeting Belozmiy and Chernozmiy for the first time.

*"An onyx black mass rose beside him, Valeria’s Hungarian Horntail, Chernozmiy. The figure of her body was more sharp, less rounded, with cattywampus spirals of spikes and horns thrust from the lithe figure of her body down her tail, up her spine, coiling around a pair of venom-green eyes which glittered with an alien malice. Belozmiy felt indifferent, some part of Chernozmiy felt **bloodthirsty.** She too was massive, each step she took rattling the ground below, her fifty foot length dwarfing the mess of downed trees and underbrush as she and Belozmiy began pacing in circles. She chittered as she walked, which would have been cute were it not in the deepest reaches of a bass octave and seemed to vibrate the foliage around her. Her massive jaws parted, and a fat pink tongue snaked out with a cacophonous hiss to clean her yellowed fangs of gristle. She crooned, muscles along her back twitching as her dark wings stretched."* -The most up-to-date description of Chernozmiy, from the winter break dragonology workshop.

##### *Plots*

**Shadows Plot:**

*"...Valeria's powerful Lumos, the creature was pinned back against the wall with another howl. The shadows betrayed how it thrashed in the face of the light, many limbs reaching to claw at the many **faces** that dotted it's girth. The wails echoing for a moment before it surged forward, grabbing onto Valeria. It did not attack, but **loomed** over her."*

On an otherwise perfectly innocuous day Valeria's first year, a shadow monster terrorized the school. It swept through the hallways unaffected by multiple forms of magic, attacking students psychologically. The beast was an amalgam of shadows, composed of many faces and hands that shifted as the creature moved. It would scream, laugh, and emit sounds, like multiple different people were talking within the creature. Eventually dissipated when Alex Lyons was able to open the doors of the Entrance Hall, letting in enough light to kill the creature, Valeria was stuck with a presence in her mind as a result of being attacked. The creature grabbed Valeria using many shadowy hands and limbs, and while she was mostly able to resist it's attempts to invade her mind at first, it eventually swept through her, weakening Valeria's spellcasting for a not-insignificant amount of time.

Voices would invade her mind, just like other victims of the shadow monster, and clued Valeria in somewhat to the nature of the beast. She suspected that it was somehow composed of multiple Hogwarts students, due to the nature of the telepathic messages she was receiving. Valeria also got a black stone mysteriously placed into her pocket, as did the other victims of the attack.

*"It's a Hogwarts student," she said quietly, "at least I think. There's so many of them, and they all need... they need a body. We have to go, we just have to," she begged, growing louder, watching as it trailed off into the halls. "It pushed, it writhed... it needs a body, it needs to find it's mum, please," she was still quivering.*

After the initial attack, Valeria felt weakened for a period of time and still heard mysterious whispers for days after the event took place. At one point, she ended up having a telepathic conversation with the remnants of the shadow creature still stuck in her mind, where one leftover former Hogwarts student described the experience of being "lost in the others." In this same conversation she asked about when the creature was a student of the school, and it revealed that it was simply "long ago." It indicated that at one point it was "asleep in my bed... before I woke up in that room..." with others its age, somewhere "dark... deep beneath the castle...". Ultimately she ended up unable to properly converse with the creature as a result of simultaneously having put a coin in Juno Yoshinaga-Bloodstone's cursed purse, but the conversation gave her insight into the nature of the creature.

**Purse Plot:**

## Relationships

##### *Closest Friends*

**Kairav Deane-Ward:** He bares no blood relation to her. He was raised in a matter totally unlike Valeria's. In fact, everything about Kairav screams opposites, at least when it comes to his relationship with Valeria Chovnik. The actuality of this is that the reflect each other incredibly well, and he was her closest friend. Even after moving to France to attend Beauxbatons after family contention, Valeria holds him in incredibly high regard and values her relationship with Kai immensely. Currently away and having been unable to see or find him for some time now, she misses him immensely. Despite having not personally spoken for many, many years now, he still holds the title of best friend in Valeria's mind.

Very, very little could get between her and Kairav. He was there for her when she was cursed, he was there for her when she was attacked by shadows, he was a rapport guardian and protector and the closest, best friend she could ever ask for. Of all of her friends, he was the first to know she was a half-breed, the first to visit her home, and the first to become an honorary Chovnik. Valeria has no biological siblings, but Kairav was and forever will be the closest thing she's ever had to a brother.

**Cora Ray:** *"Look at that crazy bald girl."*

Cora Ray, first year mess extraordinaire. Between poisoning muffins, starting fights, and killing small mammals, her reputation was well-established by the time Valeria Chovnik took a chance, drew from a hat, and had the name 'Cora Ray' as her secret Santa. Having known that she accidentally killed her pet ball python Luther in a pumpkin patch fire accident involving the Glamis prior, Valeria was well aware of what she was walking into giving her a new toad... and fireworks. From there, a truce melted into friendship melted into *best* friendship as Valeria steered Cora from sadism into the harmless and ridiculous.

The two together terrorized their third and fourth years as master of pranks and all manner of monstrous nonsense. Together, they were an unstoppable magic bad bitch duo, and with Cora's appetite for mischief, she and Val achieved something of a together record for most amount of detention they've seen someone ever serve: together, the two of them were assigned a whole semester's detention on the first day of school. This, of course, was assigned after a month-long plan to prank the opening feast by using charmed stinky planes, powdered paint, and lots and lots of poorly utilized time.

The last Valeria saw of Cora was when she left in the latter half of her fourth year to raise the nearly-hatched Belozmiy. She told Cora about the egg and the danger she expected to face, and when she came back to Hogwarts an approximate year later, Cora was gone. She misses her terribly and values her relationship with the girl very deeply.

**Cecilia Evans:** Cecilia and Valeria have something of a strange relationship, but at a bare minimum it is friendship. The girls have been prank buddies as Snack Girl and Rainbow Brigade, dynamic duo who have stolen a bell and then used it in turn for the honorable deed of vandalism. Never much beyond a goofy, typical friendship, the pair were certainly friends as the minor things built up.

They did, however, become closer after Valeria's sojourn to raise Belozmiy and subsequent return during fifth year. She took Cecilia into the forest to see Belozmiy, and when his claws turned to Cecilia, Valeria in turn very quickly carted her out. She was among the few to receive a post-mortem letter from the girl explaining the circumstances of her seeming disappearance and the likelihood she'd since passed away, which were then dismissed as Cecilia was the first to discover her triumphant return to life... as she unceremoniously raided the Halloween Ball.

There's been some awkward, uncertain romance since and during this affair. Valeria and Cecilia have at a minimum a mutual physical attraction, but it's only very certain she's willing to exploit these feelings games to win petty Midnight Quidditch matches.

**Edward Sark:** You'd think that after beating the hell out of Eddie Sark in a duel not once, twice, nor thrice, but *six* times would teach him a lesson that Fury of the Small wasn't just reserved for D&D, but you'd be wrong. Eddie was a Gryffindor compatriot a bit in his own world during school, and they had a friendly rivalry which was short-lived, since it's hard to not make friends with a Gryff buddy. (This rivalry consisted of one incident where paint was flipendo'd at Juno's request.)

However, while they drifted apart for their middle years, they've reconnected as seventh years and adults. Eddie, having met her dragons, thinks she's seriously insane. Valeria, being on the wrong side of the law as a vigilante, thinks that Eddie is a bit of a goody two shoes as an adult. Their playful rivalry has continued since his promise to be a friend on the auror side of things if her adventures happen to go awry.

**Laken Valentine:** During her first year, Valeria found herself in a cursed purse incident which was a crazy, unfortunate spectacle wherein the bespectacled detective offered solace and invitation to the waiting wings of the Expeditionary Society. Later, it was a 'he versus me' rivalry as she took on an antagonistic role— as *The Candburglar, stealer of sweets!* Laken, as a bastion of justice, refused to let her walk away unscathed. A few skirmishes ensued as he followed the trail of Val, the notorious candy thief.

In her graduate career, the two have reunited as penpals! Laken and Val sent letters back and forth for awhile before meeting on an important investigation into a cult, the Sons of Ekrizdis. Thereafter, Laken agreed to use his role as Healer to sneak Valeria into the school as to make sure she was in-person able to tell Oswald Arkwright that she hadn't, in fact, died.

Additionally, the two had a conversation about Isaac Hiltshire, October Quarscophus, and the future of MAGES, the (at the time) latest attempt to revive the long-dead Expeditionary Society. After Val gave him her old badge, he talked to her about it and the two agreed to offer the burgeoning society a degree of adult protection and guidance. This was during Val's short-lived career as Flight Professor for Hogwarts.

**Isaac Hiltshire:** *"Even though we haven't talked a lot, I'm gonna miss you, and I feel bad for never really figuring out what happened with you in the forest - it must've been scary, but you were brave - and I wish I could've learned more from you instead of just on the last night of school, and who knows if I'll ever run into you again! This situation is like, always in Muggle movies and they're really emotional and it's always the last time someone sees someone else."* - Isaac Hiltshire, on Valeria's last evening of school.

Isaac Hiltshire is Valeria's newest edition to her repertoire of stray mentees, and Isaac is perhaps currently the most exciting. He explained that he was seeking to form MAGES, a new society to replace Valeria's valued Expeditionary Society, and the encounter went on to form something of a pet project of supervision for herself and Laken Valentine. Additionally, she gave him the task of figuring out what the names of her dragons— Belozmiy and Chernozmiy— meant. Having finally done that, he was whisked away over winter break on an adventure to her house in the Carpathians to meet the duo of beasts.

Later, Isaac came to Valeria asking for help with raising Arcandelion, his own dragon. Isaac has a permanent place to stay with the Chovniks, is always welcome, and is considered a member of the family by some. Valeria is very proud of how he's grown.

##### *Mentees*

**Kat Lynx:** Kat was among a new generation of 'little guys—' acquaintances and friends which were much younger than Valeria herself, and the two seemingly hit it off very quickly after talk of pranks escalated into a very real thievery and prank. Kat from then on was a tiny, pink-haired protege, right up until Valeria disappeared for awhile. When she came back, Valeria unknowingly was the victim of the girl's blooming natural legilimency wherein she found out about her dragon egg.

After her return from the sojourn to raise Belozmiy, she and Kat became much closer, especially after an incident in the forest where Kat and Val did a little swap of secrets. The girl revealed her part-fairy pact, and Valeria revealed on purpose or otherwise that her Ukrainian Ironbelly was a resident of the Forbidden Forest. This was only *after* Valeria jumped into a portal in the fairy realm to rescue Kat from whatever was happening, regardless of if she needed it or not.

Currently, the two are a bit distanced. Valeria sent a letter explaining her death and worrisome disappearance, an effective letter confirming her state as deceased... except she wasn't. They've not talked or reconnected since her victorious return to life.

**Kylie Whitehorn:** Another 'little guy' friend. Valeria served as more of a mentor with their strong differences in age, but she definitely sees her as another Juno, whether she sees it consciously or otherwise. Kylie turned from a bit of a puppy who was a little unsure and preferred to follow people around to confident, strong, and sunny, which is a transformation she didn't attribute to herself but certainly was pleased to watch. Kylie even turned into a bit of a prankster, a hallmark Valeria does take a bit of selfish pride in.

Kylie was one of her first unofficial and official mentees to really connect, and she wanted very much to protect the younger girl. This was tragically cut short at the event of her supposed death, wherein she was sent one of her few post-mortem letters to confirm her seeming passing. After this was dismissed in her return, the two talked briefly but seemed to have gained a little bit of distance.

She has never met Belozmiy and doesn't know of Chernozmiy, even after the incident.

**Oswald Arkwright:** As a fellow Gryffindor, Valeria and Oswald found great agreeability in their mutual penchant for mischief. As time went on, Oswald became an ardent defender of Valeria's illegal dragon-raising operation, despite having a business-end encounter with Belozmiy himself within the Forbidden Forest. Even if he was scared and surprised by his presence, Oswald wanted to protect Valeria's dragon. Additionally, they share a general disregard for the necessity of things like "the law" and "rules" and of the individuals Valeria took on as a mentee, is almost certainly the one she considers closest to a friend and peer. Despite this, the two haven't really reconnected in adulthood, and Valeria is partially certain that the action of traumatizing him with her not-death is partially responsible. Considering Oswald served as Kat Lynx's primary source of comfort during this episode, this isn't particularly surprising.

**Savannah Rey:** Valeria and Savannah share a mutual love of mischief and pranks. Bonding over a mutual love of petty theft, Valeria encouraged the worst possible behavior in her Slytherin compatriot. While in school together, they participated in a couple of heists and general terrorism of the Hogwarts populace. Unfortunately, they never really connected once Valeria left school.

**Auresse Killinger:** The latest of Valeria's mentees, Valeria thinks that Auresse's enthusiasm is possibly her greatest strength and is supremely interested in seeing what Auresse will do with her future. Her knick knacks and dragon-themed memorabilia remind Valeria of her younger self, and after touring the Chovnik Dragon Reserve over winter break, Valeria wonders if she'll become her next protege in dragonology.

##### *Old Friends and Acquaintances*

**Niles Cooper:** To Val, it's more than a little tragic that she and Niles have fallen apart and Niles off the face of the map. Their shenanigans first year with Kairav Deane-Ward together made them a powerful (perhaps Golden?) trio, though she hasn't spoken to Niles outside of second or third year and comments in passing since. She remembers their relationship as children fondly and hopes to reconnect, since they were quite the band of adventurers before time moved them apart.

**Juno Yoshinaga-Bloodstone:** Valeria Chovnik and Juno had a special tradition as first and second year girls: Divination tea-readings. After a chance pairing for a pet project, the two became very close friends and was among the coalition of Sunny Nocturne's closer friend circle, outside of Evan Godfrey. Said circle consisted of herself, Kairav, Niles, Eddie, and Juno, and the group was filled with awkward romantic chemistry all assisting in Juno's slow breaking out of her shell. While Valeria hasn't seen Juno in a very long time, she warmly remembers the incredibly shy girl.

*Even* if she was the one who roped her into the cursed purse nonsense.

**Sunny Nocturne:** Queen Bees and Wannabes was real when Sunny Nocturne was in the room, but the Snake Queen decided she liked Val, they got along, and they braided hair and did girly things until Valeria ended up cursed, unapproachable, and irritable. Their friendship was slightly awkward thereafter, though it was reconciled at the big event of that year, Ms. Nocturne's out of this world birthday. Truth or Dare was very much dominated by the *Flip Queen—* Sunny's nickname for Val.

**Medraut Prince:** *Gesture tracked by tilted head, followed by disavowal of adventure's call. Older, now.*

While her encounters with Medraut Prince have been generally sparse, they've certainly been engaging and mysterious. Their first encounter amounted to little beyond recognizing Veela heritage in one another, and their subsequent encounters have unearthed little beyond tidbits of one another and one quest to make some sort of Faustian bargain with Peeves to stop being obnoxious long enough for clock repair. He's a cool Professor, and considering her total aversion to authority, that's a high order compliment.

**Valeran Levi:** Outside of Kairav Deane-Ward, Valeran Levi is probably the most level-headed Gryffindor she's ever met... for better or worse. Valeran is many things she isn't: sensible, level-headed, and academically gifted. Though they've known each other for a very long time, there haven't been a great many notable skirmishes they've directly faced together until the latest adventure with the Sons of Ekrizdis and their house of horrors, wherein his tendency to turn into a bear notably caused the floor to collapse unceremoniously beneath the lot of them but Valeria's awesome Protego Nobilis ended up saving the lot of characters which had been defeated (even if she was on 4HP as a result of... being transfigured into and out of animals.)

Valeran generally disapproves of her dragon antics and penchant for the dangerous and illegal, wherein lies their most obvious rift of personalities, even the two are close friends and value the company of one another. After her death and return, he gave her a big bear hug regardless.

**Desmond Gray:** Her distant cousin and sort of friend. They knew each other vaguely in youth, but became closer when he stayed at the Chovnik home over the summer and regularly attends her family parties. Desmond knows of her dragons only through visions, as he saw Belozmiy charring her thigh before the actual event came to pass. They bond over their mutual adoration of sweets and Valeria's ability to hook Desmond up with one of her umpteen hyper-attractive first cousins.

##### *Anyone Else, Friendly or Otherwise*

**Calypso Casseo:** Valeria is thoroughly convinced that to some degree, the Casseo girl is unpredictable at best. Her abrupt mood changes have made the girl sometimes very disagreeable and sometimes not, and even if Valeria is a seemingly master improviser, no amount of charm can assist in her endeavor to please the fundamentally displeased, as Ms. Casseo is. In addition to being her already cantankerous self, the knack of Calypso to go 'tough love' on her Quidditch team made her more complex to a poor, confused Valeria. She regards the girl with caution after she incited recklessly the rage of her *former boyfriend* (Merlin *forbid)* Balthazar Maxim, resulting in Valeria's assault... in the middle of Diagon Alley.

**Balthazar Maxim:** Valeria thinks Balthazar is many things (a lot of them very difficult to say in polite conversation) but most of them are summed up in: dangerous, ornery, and unpredictable. Her goal was to purposefully play stupid long enough to totally slip under his radar, efforts entirely undermined by Calypso Casseo's temper. She ended up blown up and cut open in the middle of Diagon Alley and fears him totally since the encounter, even if he's dropped off the face of the map *and* even if she'd almost landed a hit.

**Ivy Su:** Trying to make friends with Ivy is unadvisable to many people, but especially to stalwart Gryffindors who tend to favor the ill-advised and incredibly stupid. Ivy is distant, cold, but really talented. Valeria respects her, but understands that friendship is impossible and probably ill-advised, since she apparently is willing to turn people into marbles and torture them should the situation call for it.

Which is *totally* different from forcing a guy with his hands glued to a wall to get an inkpot mustache and dance endlessly.

**Orwell Galilei:** Whatever respect Orwell holds for her isn't entirely equally reciprocated. He's kind of uptight, a bit overly chivalrous, and likes to jump in front of other people's metaphorical swords. While kind of a cool dude, she's reckless and capable enough to do things on her own, and Orwell's sensibilities aren't always the most agreeable considering she's the same girl who illegally raises dragons for a day job and hobby... since the tender age of fourteen.

**Christine Marilyn:** While Valeria doesn't know much of or about Christine, as a fellow former CoMC T.A., she can't be all that bad! What Valeria doesn't know is that she unwittingly gave Christine as *Clarissa* some polyjuice potion she'd been brewing on the side. Christine, being a metamorphmagus, disguised herself and retrieved it with the intent of giving it to her current girlfriend, Pamela Refesber, and Valeria gifted it to her under the condition she did something exciting with it, and not as she perceived it, "boring."