Community Profile

Bellereve House, one of the four Houses of L'Université des Arts Magiques, is a creation of Phoenix Rising. The community is open to attendees of Phoenix Rising and members of Bellereve House.

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History

No one is quite certain when the Bellereve House officially formed. L'Université des Arts Magiques has included writers of all genres and styles dating back to its days as Éxchange Magique, of course, but the writing program at that point consisted entirely of Headmaster Laurent's reciting dreadful free verse poetry while tossing water moccasins back into the bayou waters. The history of the Bellereve House is made more confusing by the number of name changes it has suffered over the years, from The House of Moste Lovelye Poetry and Storyes to the more succinct Writing Department. As the other students of the time would tell you, though, the poetry certainly wasn't lovely.

In fact, the members of the Writing House, for at least a century, seemed to have had a marked penchant for writing overwrought poetry, overblown fairy tales and — as the school finally admitted just last year — penny dreadfuls. Over the decades, the faculty managed to instill a strong foundation in all types of fiction and non-fiction writing, but the students have tenaciously held on to their love of adventure, romance and epic fantasy. Despite the faculty's best efforts — and to their never-ending embarrassment — even the best student works are sometimes turned in written on the back of parchment containing obvious authorial self-inserts.

The House continued in this manner for quite some time — having no name that stayed more than a decade or so, and no mascot — turning out some rather wonderful works of fiction written opposite a rather appalling variety of romance, mysteries and serials. Of course, during this time, Priscilla Peartree did invent the Amazing Book CustomizerTM. The ABC, as it was dubbed by teenaged girls, will customize any romance book for the reader based on his or her preferences, whether they are for swarthy pirates or rich rakes. Due to the amazing success of the ABC, Ms. Peartree left school, but her estate still ships each student in the Writing House an ABC at the start of the school year. (These are always in demand not just for their romantic use, but for the hilarious effects produced when an ABC is used in conjunction with student textbooks.)

The House finally adopted the Red Cap as its mascot after a particularly arduous poetry assignment. After Professor Inke insisted on a trope more mournful than an unfashionable ball gown in the Regency era, many of the students found themselves on the great battlefield that saw Captain Farrugut's great loss, grasping desperately for inspiration (not to mention a quill). The Red Caps were so prevalent, and the number of irritated students they had attempted to bludgeon so great, that the House immediately adopted the dwarf-like creature as its mascot. It was at this point in its history, though, that the Writing House finally came into its own. The school lured a string of brilliant Muggles, giants in their field, to teach writing, and the great names of Faulkner, Whitman, Percy, Chopin, Hellman, Williams and Toole wrung text after brilliant text out of the students. The school even forgave Enrique Delgado the ever-changing greeting card (Perfect for Any Wizarding OccasionTM!) when it considered the fact that its writing department had quickly and unarguably become the training ground for the best and brightest of the wizarding world.

The name of the House today is, of course, the Bellereve House, named in honor of the great Tennessee Williams' greatest work, and after much snippy arguing about whether the House color should be "the red of a broken heart" or "the purple of prose", the school stepped in and declared it purple — and also declared that there would be no more revision of the House name, color, or mascot. The students still write pulp fiction, of course, but they intersperse it with works of profound virtuosity — and no one ever mentions how frequently the Pontalbòn students' names show up as villains in wizarding fiction of all kinds.

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