Hogwarts School: A Harry Potter RPG

CHARACTER INFORMATION
Character Name: Mildred Grace Swancott
Gender: Female
Age: 47 (born 1902)
Blood Status: Pureblood

Education:  Hogwarts Class of 1920 (1958) - Gryffindor

Residence: Culpeper County, Virginia, America/Westmorland, England

Occupation: Horse Breeder/Racer

Do you plan to have a connection to a particular existing place (for example: the Ministry, Shrieking Shack) or to take over an existing shop in need of new management?
Only to the people within a few of those locations.

Requested Magic Levels:

• Charms: 9
• Divination: 6
• Transfiguration: 6
• Summoning: 11

Do you wish to be approved as a group with any other characters? If so who and for what IC reason?
Nope, I’m good.

Please list any other characters you already have at the site:
Tempest Northcutt, Bridgit Wilkinson


Biography:

Mildred was the classic middle child - different, forgotten, never living up to expectations. Eleanor and Walter Senior were respectable socialites with a high standing in their community. He played golf (wizarding version??) and made business deals while she held teas and raised the children. Expectations were simple: Live the life you were born into. Mildred’s older sister Gertrude was Slytherin, prefect, Head Girl, and later married to a wealthy Russian businessman. Her baby brother Walter was also: Slytherin. Prefect. Head Boy. He married a Battersea and produced a slew of delightful grandchildren. It was obvious to see why being a Gryffindor made Mildred the odd lion out in the family before adding any other considerations.

Her childhood was generally happy on an idyllic estate in Westmorland in Northwest England. Walter and Mildred were fast friends who stood together against Gertrude’s tyranny. The house elves made a delicious breakfast, the nanny spelled the crumbs from their clothes, and they had had the freedom of acres to run about in. At the age of three, Mildred made a startling and life-altering discovery.

She met her first horse.

Eleanor, Mildred, and Walter had taken a walk at the club. Mildred, as usual, had gone ahead. Walter wasn't as steady a walker as she was at that age. Mildred aimed for the large spot of grass she'd seen on previous trips. The fence around it only made it more tempting. She ran right up to it, coming even with the lowest rung, only to see that there were other things already there. They were pretty, almost red when the sun hit them, with wings folded against their sides. One ran across the field, four legs stretching and going faster until Mildred was sure it was going to lift right off the ground. And it did. As a very little girl, her blue eyes went wide to see the horse lift a few inches off the ground before landing again.

"Accio," she'd whispered. It had been her first word and was still her favorite though it sounded more akin to a sneeze in her toddler lisp. "Accio," because it's what mum and dad said when they wanted things to come to them. The horse shook its head and actually trotted over. Mildred reached through the fence as the horse came near. The horse leaned down and nudged the tiny hand with its nose. Mildred giggled. That's when Eleanor and Walter managed to catch up and Mildred proudly announced, "This is Accio. Mummy, isn't she pretty?"

Mildred had visited the pasture and the stables every trip to the club afterwards until her parents finally gave in and bought the young horse for her. It began as just another activity of the idly wealthy and it spiralled far beyond her parents’ control. Mildred wanted nothing to do with side saddles, dressage, or pretty riding habits. She wanted to be fast and free - soaring through the air in partnership with a live creature and not a dead piece of wood.

At Hogwarts she rebelled. She dated a muggleborn purely to spite her family. Later, she dated a Slytherin simply to spite her brother and cousin (as they didn’t precisely think her at all suited for Brayden Emerson). She proved them all wrong (or right) as the two broke their hearts against each other. In the span of their relationship though, Mildred changed. She grew up from being mulishly obstinate and settled into her own person. She stopped fighting things just because she could and began to fight for the things she actually wanted.

It was a struggle for her family to see her point of view. Eleanor didn’t see strength of character, she saw failure to grow up. When Mildred refused to find a husband, refused to get a Ministry job, and continued spending time in the stables, Eleanor grasped for a final option. Mildred was sent to live with her married sister in Russia. It was a terrible idea. A series of events led to a very inebriated Mildred photographed with her brother-in-law’s quidditch team. Gertrude demanded the girl be sent home and Mildred’s brief stay in the wintery country was over.

But she chose not to return permanently to England. Instead she packed what she could and hied off to America where there was no family and no watchful eyes. Mildred wore her brother’s cast off clothes to begin with and paired it with a glamour to pass herself off as a teenage boy. She took work at a horse farm under the name Michael Worthing. Her first boyfriend’s name. Her mother’s maiden name. And her mother’s worst nightmare. Mildred worked her hands raw before developing calluses. She blushed every time the other stable hands spoke too raunchy until she hesitantly offered her own remarks. Slowly but surely she worked herself into a stable hand that could be trusted.

The only problem was that her family had no idea where she was. Mildred maintained minimal contact, writing postcards with no return address and sending them to Walter. He was perhaps the only human member of her family that she actively missed.

She worked her way up to jockeying and began to win races for her adopted home. This was how Mildred met Colton Durham - wizard, cheat, damn good snogger. When he got over the fact that Mildred was a girl and a witch, Colton pestered her into joining his team. After a good punch, a drunken run-in at a bar, and a lot of yelling, Mildred agreed. The switch led Mildred back into the wizarding world where the duo took the race tracks by storm and they ran just as hot off the track as well. By now she was far enough down the rabbit hole that she went by Grace Worthing and wasn’t even sure how to reconnect with her family.

That’s why Walter and his fiancee Evelyn came to find her and incidentally blow her cover as well. In the end, Mildred was back in contact with her family (mostly good, though she did receive a few rather put out letters from her mother) but the damage in America was done. Her partnership with Colton Durham fizzled. Her rising stardom as a jockey stalled. Her parents called for her to come back and Walter plied his younger sibling ways for the same goal. But Mildred dug in her heels and stayed put. Slowly she was able to rebuild - convincing people that the name was nothing but an ornament.

Her relationship with Colton was never the same, though. They were off and on for the rest of their twenties - full speed ahead when on and doused in angst, jealousy, and regret when off. Eventually Mildred came to terms with the fact she had no desire for a lasting relationship and she took the frenemy status with Colton at face value. If they were both single, it was fair game. And it never got in the way of business.

Mildred’s third decade saw the transition from jockey to business owner. She began to own horses and built a stable in Virginia. Her reputation for breeding quality horses and grooming champions rose to unparalleled heights for a Brit and a woman on the American scene. This also allowed her to spoil her nieces and nephews (mostly Walter’s lot) absolutely rotten. She gave every single one of them a pony on their 5th birthdays which cemented her status as favorite aunt despite all the distance. Now nearing 50, Mildred found herself travelling between the States and England more as her parents grew older and she realized that perhaps she should have made more time for her family in the past. Though Eleanor was still besides herself that Mildred had never married.


Roleplay Response:

It seemed that age had crept up on them all. Mildred had been insulated from it at her horse farm in the States, but slowly the visits home showed her something important: Her parents were getting old. The revelation had increased her travels back to England to the point where she was nearly comfortable in the streets of London again.

There was something different about the way the British moved through the streets. Or perhaps that was just the difference of an urban environment to her rural community. It could even be the difference between a normal day and the craze of upcoming holidays. At the moment she was out to finish present shopping for the herd of nieces and nephews who considered her the best aunt ever - it was a steep reputation to live up to and made harder by the fact that they were all grown up and could no longer be bribed with candy and toys. She was just leaving Crimbleton and pushing back into the crowd when one voice rang above the others.

"Coming through! Coming through! Keep out! Move ahead! Go on! Coming through!” It was hard to miss a call so insistent and Mildred attempted to step out of the way but had been suked too far into the crowd. But the box was above them so everything was going to be fi- ”Coming th--- arrrgh!" -ne.

Nevermind.

Mildred sure wasn’t certain if she should be offended most by the box that thumped her shoulder, the body that pushed into her back, or the festive tinsel that was now aggressively decorating her hair. In the end she chose to find humor in the situation and laughed while reaching out to steady Joshua’s ascent.

"For Merlin's sake! I am so sorry! This blasted snow!"

“At least you have good taste in colors,” she offered as the red and gold harkened back to Mildred’s glory days in Gryffindor. It was still a far better combination than that awful Slytherin silver and green. She plucked a few strands off and examined the amount of glitter - hmm. Perhaps some decorations for her parent’s home? Her mother would consider the excessive sparkle particularly gauche so Mildred of course thought it wonderful.

“Tell you what, I promise not to be mad if I can keep my new hairpiece. Deal?” and she extended her hand right away to shake on it. She was nothing if not a businesswoman these days.

OTHER
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