#takeng

LILY EVANS ♦︎ GRYFFINDOR ALUMNA ♦︎ ORDER MEMBER ♦︎ FC: SOPHIE SKELTON ♦︎ TAKEN

B I O G R A P H Y :

(tw: death of a parent)

Lily sometimes wonders, late at night after everyone around her is asleep or during the day when nothing else holds her attention, if the magic made her a rebel or if being a rebel made her magic. Regardless of the reason, it was clear from a very early stage that Lily was not born to follow convention. She would swing too high, stay out too late, and always ignored her mother’s warnings about bringing wild animals into the house. A particular incident, which was mortifying for all involved other than Lily, was the Easter she was six when she stood up on the pew in the middle of the sermon and informed the preacher, in none too quiet a tone, that he’d better stop talking, because his voice was making a baby in the congregation cry. Most of the town laughed at the story, but the preacher was never quite as friendly to the Evans family after that, and they took to sitting in the back, Lily securely seated between Mr. and Mrs. Evans with each holding her hand.

Lily was never the most well behaved child. Her parents generally agreed that she always meant well, but every now and then she went too far, and no amount of talking-tos or punishments could make her regret her actions. This was a lesson her year 1 teacher learned all too well. Lily tried to go through the proper channels, informing first her teacher, then her parents that the boy who sat behind her was teasing her, but when that yielded no results, she decided she would just have to take care of herself. The next time Lily’s hair was pulled she launched herself across the desk and punched him squarely in the face, breaking his nose and her own thumb in the process. At first, Lily was told she wasn’t allowed to play outside during recess until she apologized. When, after a week, none was forthcoming, the teacher upped the ante, giving her lines to write in after school detention. Not even a trip to the principal’s office and the sharp slap of a ruler across her palms would convince her; Lily refused to apologize, because she refused to accept that she was not in the right.

This is not to say that Lily was a troublemaker, though. The town of Cokeworth at large thought that little Lily Evans was a delight. For every time she took things too far, there were half a dozen times she helped her mother with the shopping, or played sweetly on the playground with her sister, or sat quietly in the back of her father’s classroom with a book. She was quick with a please, and a thank you, and a smile that could light up the darkest of days. She was a good student, clever and helpful, and once her teachers learned to take her seriously when she raised an issue she rarely caused trouble in class. At the age of 9 she began to earn pocket money as a “mother’s helper,” entertaining and keeping an eye on young children as their mother cooked dinner, or did chores, or even took a nap in the next room. In later years, she’d turn this foundation into several successful summer jobs as a babysitter and even in one case a nanny.

When her Hogwarts letter arrived on her 11th birthday, Lily was more prepared that most muggleborn children. She knew all about the magical school and what she would learn there from her best friend, Sev. Once the social worker had calmed her parents down, Lily really only had one question, could Petunia come with her? The social worker did his best to explain that, no, as a muggle Petunia could not accompany Lily. For her part, Lily was disappointed by this answer, but it  did little to dampen her enthusiasm. She carried her letter with her everywhere, taking it out to reread when she was alone and sleeping with it under her pillow. She made sure to coordinate her trip to Diagon Alley with Sev’s so he could show her around and they could get their wands together. On the morning of september 1st, platform 9¾ saw a teary goodbye between Lily and her family, but she boarded the train with a smile on her face, excited to discover what Hogwarts had in store for her.

It turned out that what Hogwarts had in store for her was a bit of a mixed bag. She’d naively assumed that she and Sev would be sorted into the same house, not realizing that even at such a young age they were already set on very different paths. Lily didn’t mind being in Gryffindor, in fact she rather liked it. There she found people who were as quick to stand up to bullies as she was, people who could match her, stubbornly held opinion for stubbornly held opinion. In Gryffindor she found people who could be just as self-righteous as she, and were more willing to forgive such moods than those who didn’t understand. But she worried about Sev all alone in Slytherin. It didn’t seem like a terribly warm and friendly house, and from what little Lily knew of Sev’s home life she was sure that’s what he needed. So she did her best to include him in her house. Even though she couldn’t bring him into the Gryffindor common room, she invited him to sit with her new friends in class and study with them in the library, doing her best to wrap Sev in all the love and acceptance he deserved.

It didn’t take long for Lily to realize that not everyone at Hogwarts thought she belonged in the wizarding world. There were sniffs of derision when she didn’t know something that was apparently common knowledge and whispers of, filthy mudblood when she passed in the hall. When she was praised for tying with Sev for the highest score on their very first potions exam, someone commented just loud enough for her to hear that she needed to, learn her place. It was a slap in the face for a little girl who, until this point, had been very nearly universally adored and welcomed. There was a steep learning curve in her first year as she discovered that she couldn’t make everyone she met love her. So she dealt with the bullies the same way she’d dealt with the boy in first year who pulled her braids, and slowly, she built an identity that was based not on how other people treated her, but on how she treated other people.

Of course, Hogwarts was not all bad. In fact, it was mostly good, with the unpleasant bits all but lost amidst days and nights full of wonder, excitement, and novelty. Each new day, each new lesson was an adventure into the unknown, and Lily loved it. As much as she learned, she was always eager for more, staying after class to ask questions of professors, begging stories from classmates who’d grown up with magic, spending time in the library researching subjects that had no bearing on any of her classes, but were still fascinating. Her professors at Hogwarts quickly came to appreciate her inquisitive and helpful spirit just as much as her teachers back in Cokeworth had. Gryffindor house fit Lily like a glove, and she built friendships in other houses, as well. Flying was everything she’d ever dreamed and more, and the only thing that kept her from trying out for the house quidditch team was her abysmal hand eye coordination. By the end of her first year, Lily was set to take the wizarding world by storm, blood prejudice or no.

Lily’s success at Hogwarts was a welcome distraction from what was going on at home. The rift between the Evans sisters, which had first torn when little Lily tried to share her magic with Petunia and Petunia had called her a freak, grew wider with every day that Lily was gone, and every time she mentioned Hogwarts while at home. Before long, Petunia proved herself to be just as sharp-tongued as the worst of the bullies at school, and Lily proved herself more than capable of giving as good as she got. There is, after all, no one for knowing just how to cut you to the core like a sister. Through it all, Lily’s rock was her father. Mr. Evans had a knack for helping Lily see through the red mist of her anger to the error of her ways without making Lily feel as if she were being told off, and he had a talent for making her laugh when she was so hurt she thought, in the overly dramatic way most teenagers have, she would never smile again.

Lily grew slowly, shaped gradually by the events of her life, both magical and muggle, good and bad, into a young woman. The new friendships she’d found at Hogwarts deepened even as those oldest and most precious to her frayed. She watched Severus drift away from her, unwilling to admit it and helpless to stop it, until the bond finally snapped. She’d thought herself immune to the sting of the word, mudblood until she heard it falling from her former best friend’s lips. Pointed bickering with needle sharp words between Lily and Petunia became the new normal of the Evans household until Lily finally snapped. When Petunia tried to pretend to her new boyfriend that she didn’t even have a sister, Lily introduced herself anyway, interrupting their dinner and making sure Petunia enjoyed none of it. Lily told herself Petunia started it, but Lily knew that she had been the one to deal the final blow that severed the sisters’ relationship for good.

In the face of this Lily found comfort in likely and unlikely places. Mr. Evans continued to be her rock, even in the face of a cancer diagnosis that scared Lily to death. Throwing out all of her quills and parchment and replacing it with ballpoint pens and spiral bound notebooks before she returned to Hogwarts for her sixth year made Lily feel better. If you’d asked 13 year old Lily if she’d ever be friends with the marauders she would have laughed in your face, but 16 year old Lily wasn’t so sure. Remus Lupin seemed to understand that friends could do unforgivable things and you would still want to find a way to forgive them, and Sirius Black knew that you could hate the choices your sibling made but still love them with all your heart. So Lily fumbled along, clinging to her optimism and the newfound understanding that sometimes things changed in ways you neither expected nor wanted and you just have to do the best you can.

Lily was already holding her world together with tape and glue when the foundation was washed out from under her. When she finished her last exam of her sixth year, Professor McGonnagal pulled her aside to tell her that her father had passed away. When she arrived home, still shell shocked and not entirely sure how she got there, she learned that he’d been deteriorating since Christmas, but he hadn’t wanted to worry her, so no one had told her. The family she found on her return was not the family she’d left. Her mother was a ghost, not speaking, barely eating, staying in bed except when Petunia ordered her up to wash or change into clean clothes. Her sister had turned into a machine, fueled by grief, bitterness, and rage, Petunia handled everything, their mother, funeral arrangements, well wishers. Lily was left to drift, hollow and moorless. She might not even have made it back to Hogwarts for her seventh year if not for her friends, who’d rallied to take her to Diagon Alley for back to school shopping, make sure her trunk was packed, and ferry her to King’s Cross to catch the train.

Back at Hogwarts, Lily went through the motions. She attended classes, completed homework, performed her new duties as Head Girl, but the spark was gone. Lily had lost her Lily-ness, and she wasn’t sure how to get it back. She didn’t start to come alive again until one late night in October. It was the kind of night when it’s so late that you forget heavy things like your father has died and you no longer care about trivial things like hating someone on principle so when James said something fun Lily laughed out loud. She stopped for a moment as everything came rushing back and she waited to feel the guilt she’d felt over the summer any time she’d forgotten about her father, but it never came. So she threw her head back and laughed, and laughed, until she had a stitch in her side and tears of mirth in her eyes. The night was only the first step down a very long road, but it was a turning point nonetheless. Slowly, she found her Lily-ness, again, and she even found love along the way.

The Lily who graduated from Hogwarts was very different from the Lily who first entered it, but she was also very much the same. Facing seven years of bullying that never really went away had made her stronger, and more confident. Her growing friendship with each of the marauders, and her budding relationship with James, made her less likely to trust a first impression implicitly. The losses she’d faced, both of her father and of Severus and Petunia, had changed her the most, in ways she’s still discovering years later. But she’s still Lily, still whip smart, still convinced she’s always right, still willing to give the shirt off her back to help another person. She’s still in love with James and still looking after Peter. She never would have expected to be engaged and pregnant at only nineteen, but she’s always known she’d marry the love of her life, and she’s always wanted children. And if there’s one thing she’s learned, it’s that you have to take the good things while you have them, because you can never be sure how long they’ll last.

D E T A I L S :

☛ CANON INFORMATION : [ Lily Evans ]

☛ AFFILIATION : Order of the Phoenix

☛ BLOOD STATUS : muggleborn

☛ AGE : 19

☛ FORMER HOUSE : Gryffindor

☛ TRAITS :

         Positives : protective / compassionate / altruistic

         Negatives : stubborn / presumptuous / petty

☛ OCCUPATION : children’s tutor / potioneer’s assistant

C O N N E C T I O N S :

JAMES POTTER : fiancé, makes her laugh

REMUS LUPIN, MARLENE MCKINNON, MARY MACDONALD, PETER PETTIGREW : close friends

SIRIUS BLACK, MARGARET MCKINNON, GIDEON PREWETT : competitive with

BELLATRIX LESTRANGE, JOHN DAWLISH, BARTY CROUCH JR. : distrusts

SEVERUS SNAPE : former best friend, estranged

SIRIUS BLACK ♦︎ GRYFFINDOR ALUMNUS ♦︎ ORDER MEMBER ♦︎ FC: LUKE PASQUALINO ♦︎ TAKEN

B I O G R A P H Y :

The Ancient and Noble House of Black held weeklong celebrations to honor the birth of their first son and heir, Sirius Orion Black. Born on November 3rd, 1959, Orion and Walburga’s first son was meant to continue the firm legacy and tradition the Black family is known for.  The family tree was to be kept pure, free of muggleborns, half-breeds, or halfbloods. Always Pure, a model to be upheld. As a child, Sirius never would have thought of breaking it. A burned out face on a family tree was a threat to be thoroughly feared.

Sirius did not grow up alone. He grew up with a brother: the calm and collected to Sirius’ fiery passion, the steady to Sirius’ rock the boat. No matter what would come of their later years – betrayal on both sides, and a disappearance to boot – Sirius loved Regulus. And when Sirius loves, he does not do it quietly, or simply. He has always loved with all of himself, and nothing less, no matter what he shows the world of his heart.

Sirius grew up learning the same information that would indoctrinate Death Eaters, hateful rhetoric that he would grow to believe until he learned better. At the time, he knew only what his parents had taught him, and he grew up the same as many other children of the Twenty-Eight. Though Sirius grew up fearing his parents, he also grew up loving and respecting them. Their cold shoulders and anger were rarely turned on him before he turned eleven, and when they did, it was always for something he quickly apologized for.

It was not until Hogwarts that Sirius learned differently. The Sorting Hat had a lot to do with it, but not all. It saw something different in Sirius than it saw in the rest of his traditionally Slytherin sorted family. The Hat saw that Sirius would learn far more from Gryffindor than Slytherin, and being a wise hat, that was where he was placed. Of course it was more than that. Deep down, Sirius did not want to be like his mother or father, did not want to be placed in Slytherin, even if this was not something he realized right away.  

In Gryffindor, Sirius would meet and befriend three people who became the most important people in his life: James Potter, Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew. His placement in Gryffindor caused a rift in his home that would quickly fall into disrepair.  They got on like a house on fire – or maybe like Gryffindor house on fire. Mayhem and pranks and laughter filled the halls of Hogwarts for most of their seven years.

Sirius’ friendship with James was steadfast, a type of brotherhood he thought he’d never have after being sorted into Gryffindor. James saw Sirius for Sirius, not for the blood status that some envied and others hated,

During their second year, the three friends discovered the true cause of Remus’ monthly disappearences. Instead of abandoning him, they turned to research and during the next three years, worked tirelessly to become Animagi in order to help their friend. Becoming Animagi, of course, wasn’t the only endeavor the Marauders worked on.

He and James spent much of their time at Hogwarts bullying Snape and his cronies. Hexes flew in both directions whenever either group was around. And it was bullying, even if it did go both ways for Snape. There were others, such as Bertram, that it did not go both ways for. Though he would learn and regret this type of bullying later on, at the time he did not see it as bullying at all – just playful pranks that the other person didn’t like. Sirius thought that the group was unstoppable.

By the time Sirius was in the summer after his fifth year, tensions at home had grown insurmountable. Sirius and his family’s ideologies were wildly different at this point, and the way they treated him had started to reach a breaking point. Already tense due to the previous school year’s events (a prank gone terribly wrong that nearly broke the friendship in half), Sirius snapped. His mother burned him off the family tapestry immediately, casting him out of the family and disowning him permanently. His younger brother Regulus did not follow in his footsteps, despite an earlier plea.

When Sirius ran, he went the only place he could think of going: the Potters. He showed up on his doorstep unannounced, asking to only stay there for a couple of nights, and received a home. Everything he’d learned in his years at Hogwarts taught him that real family were the boys he’d found at school, and that a real family acted like James’ did. He lived with the Potters during breaks until his Uncle Alphard died when he was seventeen. At that time, Sirius bought an apartment and supported himself, though he often went to the Potters during Christmas and New Years. He was happy for the money not because he was no longer poor, but because he no longer had to rely on the Potters. He hated feeling anything close to a burden.

Graduation was not attended by any of the family he was born with other than Andromeda and her husband. Instead, his graduation was celebrated and attended by his found family. Far from the weeklong celebration of his birth, Sirius cherished this one over everything else. An invitation to join the Order of the Phoenix post graduation meant the world to him. An outspoken blood traitor and a skilled fighter, Sirius was a boy willing to dedicate himself to the cause: and he did.

The sudden disappearance of his brother has shaken him to his core. Though he’d suspected for some time that his brother was a Death Eater, this seemed like confirmation. And before he could change anything: he’s gone. Sirius doesn’t want to believe he’s dead, but at his core, he’s not sure what to believe at all.

His worst fear is worse than his brother being dead.

D E T A I L S :

☛ CANON INFORMATION : [ Sirius Black ]

☛ AFFILIATION : Order of the Phoenix

☛ BLOOD STATUS : pureblood

☛ AGE : 19

☛ FORMER HOUSE : Gryffindor

☛ TRAITS :

     Positives : loyal / self-assured / brave

     Negatives : arrogant / quick-tempered / oversensitive

☛ OCCUPATION : Healer-in-training / Three Broomsticks employee

C O N N E C T I O N S :

JAMES POTTER, PETER PETTIGREW, REMUS LUPIN : best friends, would do anything for

EDGAR BONES, TED TONKS, MOLLY WEASLEY, ANDROMEDA TONKS : parent figures, admires

BELLATRIX LESTRANGE, NARCISSA BLACK : cousins, tense

LILY EVANS, MARLENE MCKINNON, TILDEN TOOTS : close friends

ALANA MULCIBER, WALDEN MACNAIR, ANTONIN DOLOHOV : despises, thinks they’re horrible

CASSANDRA BLACK ( nee AVERY ) / GRYFFINDOR ALUMNA / FC: EMERAUDE TOUBIA / TAKEN

AFFILIATION : Death Eater (Dark Mark)

BLOOD STATUS : Pureblood

BIOGRAPHY :

From the moment she was born, Cassandra Avery was raised to be a soldier. The second child and only daughter of Eztebe and Cyrine Avery, she was the very image of her mother with all the spite and cleverness of her father. Cassandra grew up with a steep education, as her mother ensured that she would fulfill all the duties of a respectable member of the Sacred Twenty-Eight, while her father focused on training her, turning his daughter into a disciplined, fierce, and obedient young soldier. Cassandra and her older brother Calisto were both prepared for the same life; their father, having been one of the original members of the Dark Lord's innermost circle, back when the Death Eaters were the Knights of Walpurgis and Lord Voldemort was just Tom Riddle, was determined to make his children carry on that legacy he and his wife had worked hard to put in place. Cassandra and Calisto were trained, pitted against each other for the sake of their education and the continued power and legacy of the Avery family. Cassandra was a quick study, unflinching and eager to learn, and quickly rose to the demanding standards set forth by her family and their legacy. She idolized and emulated her father in every way, and was desperate to prove that his approval and love were not misplaced in her. She was quick to become the favorite, her father's daughter in every way, obedient in ways that her brother would never be, loyal to her family beyond any doubt. Eztebe's standards for his daughter only grew, as did his expectations, and Cassandra rose to each and every challenge with grace and determination. At age eleven, she boarded the Hogwarts Express with Calisto, and waved to her father out of one of the open windows, promising that she would not disappoint him. There was a legacy in her family to uphold; several generations of Slytherins she was destined to follow, and she was certain that her place would be among them. She was one of the first names called at the Sorting Ceremony, and passed by the Slytherin table with an eager grin on her young face. The Sorting Hat was placed on her head, and she was already looking towards the Slytherin table, and the empty seat that Darius Mulciber had saved for her at his side. It was where she belonged, seated at that table, with her friends and with eight generations of Averys that had sat at that table before her.

But everything changed when the Sorting Hat called out "Gryffindor!". Suddenly, everything changed. Cassandra was shocked, and angry; she couldn't tell who was less thrilled by her sorting, her or her new housemates. Cassandra took her place at the Gryffindor table grudgingly, wanting nothing more than to bow her head in shame and hide from every pair of eyes that fixed on her. But she would not cower in front of them, no matter how much she wished to. She received a howler from her father the next morning, which loudly screamed at her that she had been placed in a house with blood traitors and mudbloods, and how could his daughter be a Gryffindor? She was an Avery, and there hadn't been an Avery in Gryffindor house ever. It simply did not happen. The disappointment from her father crushed on young Cassandra, and she let herself for the first time truly feel the shame that had been building in her chest since her sorting. Until Darius Mulciber came over and demanded to know why she was being so miserable. When she explained, he simply shook his head. "You're a lion," he told her. "You're supposed to be proud. So do something about it instead of just sitting here being pathetic because you're not where you want to be." Cassandra knew he was right, and so she took her time to be upset, brushed away her tears, focused her anger, and got to work.

Over the next seven years, Cassandra became a force to be reckoned with at Hogwarts. She spent little time with her housemates, and after the incident with Mary MacDonald, she was not welcome among the crowds of red and gold. She made a name for herself in all the ways she shouldn't; she was a bully, a purist, a little Death Eater long before she graduated from school and took up her place among their ranks. Her family's approval was hard won but eventually gained; her house mattered, but it did not matter as much when they saw the determination and skill with which their daughter worked. Things became easier for Cassandra as well when her younger brother Benito was born; thirteen years her junior and blind at birth, Benito became the focus of much of the family's disappointment, and the two elder Avery siblings were better off with Benito taking the brunt of their parents' disappointment. Cassandra regained her place as her father's favorite when she graduated near the top of her class, and took up her place among the Death Eaters.

Hard work and blood won her her Dark Mark, and by the time she was twenty years old, she had been branded as one of the elite. Her family embraced her ascension with pride, and her house no longer seemed to matter as much to them. Her prestige earned her more freedom than many pureblood children were able to get, and Cassandra embraced the opportunities such space provided her. It quickly became clear that Cassandra would do anything to ensure that she was the favorite child, much to the agitation of her older brother. Cassandra's parents kept suitors at bay for their daughter, unwilling to see her matched off to anyone but the best; nothing was good enough for her, in Eztebe's opinion, and her first engagement to Cornelius Flint was severed due to his family, which Eztebe deemed not appropriate for Cassandra to be part of. Cassandra continued to play the obedient daughter, happy to do so. After all, there were three things that meant the most to Cassandra-- the cause, the approval of her family, and her youngest brother. She would forsake everything else for those three things, do anything for them.

Cassandra got herself a job at Borgin and Burkes, if only to give herself something to do with her spare time, and give her something to do outside of the house besides training. Cassandra worked, and she trained, and she prepared herself. She ran missions with Mulciber and Serefina, her two mentors, she ran missions with her friends; she was the perfect soldier. And one day, she hoped, the perfect heir to her family; though not the born heir, and though she would not carry on her family's name when she married, Cassandra would always carry that pride in her, that true meaning of what it took to make an Avery, that loyalty and dedication and work, skills which she had hoped to pass on to her own children when the time came.

Her marriage to Regulus Black was too brief, though it was one that changed who she was forever. Regulus made her doubt all that she had been raised believing, and she had become a new person with him by her side. Their life was all planned out, their future certain to her, but all it took was one thing, one step he couldn’t undo, to ruin it all. Her and Regulus’ search for the horcrux was one that couldn’t have happened without her, researching and trying to discover what was happening, how to help, but when Regulus went on his own to the cave to retrieve it, their mission ended. It was over. He was dead.

Regulus left her with nothing but his last name, his family’s business, and a life as his widow. It was what she had signed up for when they’d gotten married, a possibility that she knew could happen, a path that her life threatened to take with each passing day. But he wasn’t supposed to die. If anyone, she was the one who deserved to take the fall.

Now, with war raging all around her, her husband gone and her life thrown into chaos, nothing is certain. Nothing except one thing-- she is an Avery, and she does not back down from a fight. No matter what, she'll be ready.

DETAILS :

AGE : 22

TRAITS :

+ : Vivacious, profound, persevering

– : Relentless, self-absorbed, quarrelsome

CANON INFORMATION : [x]

OCCUPATION : assistant at Borgin and Burke’s

SUGGESTED CONNECTIONS :

Severus Snape, Barty Crouch Jr. : best friends

Serefina Burke, Adolphis Yaxley : mentors

Pandora Aldridge, Greta Catchlove, Mary MacDonald : likes to torment

Sturgis Podmore : thinks he’s funny