#csilberwitch

     ⌂ Melanie “Mella” Koenig ⌂ 16 ⌂ Year 1 ⌂ Haus Silber ⌂

⌂ Story

Mella was born to Abraham and Bianka Koenig on May 11, 1836, in Hamburg.  Two years later, Bianka died a month after giving birth to Mella’s younger twin siblings, Benedickt and Lisbeth. Motherless, Mella looked to her father for anything and everything in life. He loved her dearly, and always tried his hardest to nurture his children as Bianka would have. Abraham was an academic, only affiliated with his Jewish roots in the loosest terms. His agenda for his family in this modern age was assimilation into German society, though he could not bring himself to convert to Christianity, as so many of his peers had. Mella followed suit in all of this – she was a precocious and careful child, and grew into an intellectual and pragmatic young lady. She knew very little of her ancestry, besides the fact that her father’s father had been highly regarded in his village, known as a holy man who could perform small miracles.

She was very similar to her young siblings in these regards, but Mella’s childhood was also marked by small outbursts of the inexplicable. These outbursts isolated Mella from her siblings, and from her father’s peers’ children, who would have been her friends. Abraham seemed unphased by the outbursts and promised Mella two things: there was nothing wrong with her outbursts, and that he would explain everything when Mella was old enough. Schluchtenburg beat him to this latter promise. Durmstrang offered admission to Mella as well, but Abraham and Mella agreed that Schluchtenburg – the German option – was far preferable. Now, at Schluchtenburg, Mella hopes to make friends for the first time in her life. Of course, she also wants to learn all she can about her new world, but friends are something of a priority. A best friend, a rival, a beau … Mella feels that she has missed out on absolutely everything, and wants to right that wrong as soon as possible. Abraham always assured her that she was very charming. Now, it is time to put that charm to the test.

⌂ Personality

 [+] intellectual, hardworking, kind  [-] quiet, judgemental, too eager to please

⌂ Relationships and details

               ⌂ Helga Bergher ⌂ 20 ⌂ Year 2 ⌂ Haus Silber ⌂

⌂ Story

The right to be a comforter, when all other comfort fails; The right to cheer the drooping heart, when troubles most assail. The right to solace the distressed, to wipe the children’s tear; The right to shelter the oppressed, and gently chide each fear. The right to be a bright sunbeam, in high or lowly home; The right to smile with loving gleam, and make your husband want to come. The right to fan the fevered brow, to ease the troubled mind, and gently tell in accents low, 'All those who seek shall find’. Such are the noblest woman's rights, the rights which our lives were given, the right to comfort man on earth, and smooth his path to heaven. A poem which hung above Helga’s bed ever since she could remember, so that each night as she went to sleep, she’d be reminded of her existence’s reason. To remind her that since her fifth birthday she was engaged to a man of wealth and honour, who was already a grown man then. The infant was not asked to choose, she was not asked to accept, she was merely asked to behave and not refuse. To remind her that her path was not written in the stars, but carved into firm, cold, final stone, and soon her signature would conclude the contract.

Arriving at Schluchtenburg it was the first time that she’d been allowed to be a human above all. Not a woman, not a daughter, not a future bride, not neatly groomed, not perfectly dressed, not quietly positioned to be part of the furniture. A real human, who laughs and jokes and cries and fights and punches guys in the guts when they deserve it. Now her hair is tousled, her sleeves short and her legs stuffed in trousers. She has never felt better, and although she is inexperienced and clumsy, she wants to join the Gymnastics team and show them just how tough she is, that she’s capable to do anything a man is capable of too, and that the only reason why her simple-minded cousin and all her even more simple-minded brothers have a chance to inherit their grandfather’s treasure is because they were born male. They are not any better than her, not stronger or more intelligent, they are guys, that is all, and to her none of this seems fair. She wants to be worthy of this treasure, too, and so she makes the best of her time at Schluchtenburg, showing the others just how wild and brave and bright she is. That even while being a woman, she is worth to be the heir to her grandfather’s treasure. That none of her girl friends should need a boyfriend to be a whole, that every woman is her own whole, her own person. And that perhaps, though this is a secret, she will do well enough in class to be her own woman too one day, run her own business, so that perhaps she won’t ever need a husband at all. 

⌂ Personality

 [+] free-minded, open-hearted, spontaneous  [-] clumsy, forgetful, easily enraged

⌂ Relationships and details

Cousin: Fynn Bergher Likes: Falka Weber, Kaethe Schmidt Respects: Merle Gaunt, Maya Rosalind

              ⌂ Merle Gaunt ⌂ 24 ⌂ Year 3 ⌂ Haus Silber ⌂

⌂ Story

It is within silence that the greatest thoughts arise. When your heartbeat becomes the drums which fire you on, which make you march down your life path with your head held high, when your breathing echoes like the crashing of waves upon the shores, and when even the rushing of the blood through your veins is louder than the Rhine during a storm, then you know that you have found your peace. Then you know that your mind will rise to its full potential and give you all the inspiration you need. Voices, music, noises, the clink-clanking of silver against glass during fancy dinner parties, all of this ebbs away and leaves nothing behind but your thoughts, your happiness of being your own person, pondering about life and death and everything in between, it is only then that the ink that runs from your quill to the parchment becomes the tool of the devil, so sharp and so precise that no one would ever except someone as shy as you are to be the writer of such dangerous words.

After Merle came to Germany with her family, her tongue was unable to speak her bright and busy mind, nor to help her mingle with her fellow students. Not even seven years of Hogwarts had prepared her for the hard times that were soon to follow. She started spending most of her time alone, something she had never done before, and learned how to find pleasure within the pages of poetry books. Writing became her outlet, and as her German improved bit by bit and people still carelessly discussed secrets around her, she decided to create and write Schluchtenburg’s first school news paper. Anonymously. Even after four years in Germany, she has troubles to adjust to her new life, but her pleasant and well-mannered attitude makes it easy for other people to trust and connect to her. To trust her with their secrets. Sometimes she feels bad about writing about her friends’ deepest desires and dirtiest memories, but then, every now and then, someone comes along and pronounces her last name the wrong way, and suddenly all her worries are forgotten. Seriously. Do they not know who she is?  Do they not realise that there is a reason why roosters fear her and snakes adore her?

⌂ Personality

 [+] reserved, sweet, trustable  [-] cruel, variable, selfish

⌂ Relationships and details

Dislikes: Maximilian Grossherz, Engel Traut Good friend: Onna Fuchs Intrigued by: Irmin von Sachs, Brunno Sitz