who were they? (part 1)
potterwatch listed a number of missing witches and wizards in mid-1997. here's my attempt to give them some character.
note: some of these characters do appear in my fic, valkyrie. there will be no spoilers for that plotline.
the farleys: madge, bella, jake, and charlie
margaret "madge" blishwick was in 1945 to a pureblood family, and sorted into ravenclaw
the middle daughter of three: elizabeth (1942) and katherine (1947)
married lindon farley in 1966 and had three children: jacob (1968), isabella (1970), and charles (1974)
during the first wizarding war, the blickwick's insisted on staying out of it, though they did have a slant towards the blood purists. madge was fairly privileged in her bubble and paid very little attention to the events around her, even with the death of her muggleborn friend at hogwarts, victoria smith, in a targeted attack
madge worked in hogsmeade, running her own apothecary, while lindon worked for the ministry in the floo network regulation department
lindon ran off from their marriage in 1986, leaving her on her own to raise three kids and run her own business, which she managed to do successfully (she later discovered lindon had begun a new family in ireland, but she never wanted him back)
all three children were sorted into ravenclaw
by 1997, jake was working on his first novel (about the role of dragons in eastern european wizarding societies), bella had joined madge at the apothecary, and charlie was planning on proposing to his girlfriend, bronwyn trigg
the four, along with bronwyn and her father, were declared missing following an attack at the farley home in the hogsmeade valley
bella was the only survivor, being discovered a month later in an empty field and suffering from malnutrition and a concussion. she was treated at st. mungo's but suffered lasting consequences, including epileptic seizures.
bella wrote a book about her experience, published in 2009, describing the cruel conditions which she was subjected to. through this account, the public learned that jake and bronwyn were killed in the initial attack, while the other four were taken captive and held at a death eater base. madge attempted to fight back and was killed, while harry trigg succumbed to his injuries. ultimately, charlie distracted the death eaters so bella could get away
bella retained hope until the day she died in 2021 that charlie had also survived and would surface soon. no sign of him has yet been reported.
two of the death eaters were caught and charged with the attack in 2001, once the ministry and justice system was back up and running, with two others suspected but never arrested. both of those men are serving life in azkaban
the triggs: harry and bronwyn
harold trigg was born in 1934 to a muggleborn mother and muggle father, and was sorted into gryffindor
was the second born of five: mark (1931), tina (1936), olivia (1938), and darlene (1941), all of whom were magic and attended hogwarts
harry was a poor student, preferring to bunk off lessons to take naps in different parts of the castle. he was also known to be a flirt, with many short-lived flings left devastated in his wake
he was friendly with nathaniel pettigrew (peter pettigrew's father), who was his dormmate
harry was briefly married to isla hughes, a welsh muggleborn, from 1971 to 1975, during which time they had a daughter, bronwyn, born in late 1974
the pair eventually split over a conflict about their futures, and harry returned to his native scotland to raise bronwyn with the help of his sisters tina and olivia
bronwyn was described by all as a gentle, easygoing girl, though she was deeply insecure about her limb difference (her hand did not form properly in the womb, and thus she had only two small fingers on that side)
bronwyn was sorted into gryffindor, and though she and her future boyfriend charlie farley were in the same year, they did not connect until 1994, after their graduation
she was a favourite of mcgonagall's due to her skill and love for transfiguration. mcgonagall had been encouraging her to become a teacher, though bronwyn was hesitant
bronwyn dated oliver wood briefly in her fifth year and his fourth, mostly so he could win a bet with his friend, percy weasley
in 1997, harry was working at a muggle insurance company and caring for his elderly mother, janet, who had developed dementia.
bronwyn had recently been fired from her post as a low level assistant at the ministry due to her muggleborn heritage and had been harassed by a number of her former coworkers
the duo were visiting the farley home on the night of the attack to celebrate bronwyn's 23rd birthday, where charlie was planning to propose after receiving harry's blessing a week before
bronwyn was killed in the initial attack, while harry survived twenty-two days in captivity before dying from sustained internal bleeding
the attack occured before charlie could propose to bronwyn; the ring was never found and it is assumed it was kept or sold by the death eaters afterward
bronwyn's remains were found, though harry's never were. the two have headstones on the trigg family plot in scotland, cared for to this day by tina trigg and her eldest daughter, liesel
eleanor sarah gibbs
eleanor sarah gibbs was born in 1962 to muggle parents
the sixth of eight children: spencer (1951), caroline (1953), rupert (1954), clementine (1956), louisa (1959), henry (1964), and maxwell (1967)
her father was a pastor, while her mother was a stay-at-home mom who homeschooled the kids
eleanor is the only witch in her family, which created a rift between herself and her siblings. she also struggled with her faith, eventually abandoning christianity when she was fifteen
upon arriving at hogwarts in 1973, where she was sorted into hufflepuff, eleanor sought to reinvent herself away from her parents' watchful eye, instead going by ella and educating herself on magical history as to not stand out as a muggleborn. she desperately wanted to fit in
ella played as a keeper on the quidditch team from 1976-1980, becoming very close with her teammates, particularly diana boot, her dormmate and best friend (and situationship). she also had a deep admiration for amos diggory, captain of the team
she really thrived at hogwarts, finding a group of good friends (diana, indira choudry, blossom degrasse, and phoenix sterling) and showing an interest in the intersection between herbology and potions, which was fostered by horace slughorn (who invited her to join his slug club in her fifth year, erroneously believing her to be a member of the gibbon pureblood family rather than a muggleborn)
ella was openly bisexual, and was engaged in an on-and-off relationship with ludo bagman, a teammate in her year, from fourth year until they were nineteen, as well as... well, whatever the hell was going on between her and diana at hogwarts and later in life
after hogwarts, ella continued to study herbology, travelling around south america for much of her twenties to identify and harvest indigenous magical plants in the hopes of creating an effective and universal cure for dragon pox at the later stages, which no one in britain had managed at the time (known cures were only for the early stages). this obsession began in her third year, while reading history books and realizing she wanted to make a name for herself in this exact space
by 1997, ella was living in nottingham with her dog, clover, where she spent nights as a bartender at the local pub and days conducting experiments. she had remained in contact with diana, who had just recently ended her run as a seeker for the caerphilly catapults and wished to catch up with her oldest friend. the pair agreed to meet for drinks at the pub ella worked at one july evening, however ella never showed up
it was diana who reported ella as missing and reached out to potterwatch particularly because of ella's blood status, concerned about a potential hate crime
eleanor gibbs was never found, and was declared dead in 2003 due to no leads ever surfacing. diana, who had moved into ella's home to care for her dog and hoping that ella would simply show up one day, eventually sold the house and gave the research to a team at st. mungo's researching dragon pox
diana became a reporter for the daily prophet after the war, and dedicated a column to ella each year on ella's birthday, a tradition which she continues to this day
in 2023, the all-encompassing cure for dragon pox of all stages was tested and announced to the public by st. mungo's, with it's name of "the gibbs cure" in honour of the woman who had found the key to developing it so many years earlier
this is just a little thing i'd like to post from time to time as i flesh out characters and the world for valkyrie and in between chapters! some of these characters and events will pop up in the main fic, but this is an extra tidbit. i hope you find this even a tiny bit interesting! and please stay tuned for the next chapter of valkyrie, which i am working on slowly but surely as the school year begins lol. you'll hear from me soon!
