CHARACTER INFORMATIONCharacter name: Serena McCormick
Previous and/or Current Character(s) if applicable: Chloe Rose, Corrina Buzolic
Character age: 23
Character education:-Salem Institute – Primary I, II, and III.
-Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Years 4-7, Gryffindor, Class of ’46.
-Gryffindor Prefect, 7th Year
-Beater/Seeker on the Gryffindor Quidditch Team.
Strength and weaknesses (details please):Serena is a big list of strengths and weaknesses tossed together in a mix-matched drawer that sometimes works to her advantage and sometimes works against her entirely.
She is extremely
independent and she doesn’t mind getting the job done on her own. But it also means that she feels she is so self sufficient that she doesn’t need to ask for help, and she can be quite
stubborn about it.
Serena is
bold. She has very little fear of consequences. She dives head first into the fire and can be a
hot-headed when challenged. Her fire can sometimes set the world around her on fire around her.
After losing so many people so young, she has a fear of commitment, which can make her
flighty and unable to form too tight of attachments. However when she figures out what she wants, she latches on tightly.
She is
witty and loves to have fun and challenge people, but at the end of the day she is
compassionate and hates to see people hurting. She will throw down her own happiness and comfort to help others.
Physical description: Serena has a mess of golden blonde waves, usually worn down and loose. Her eyes are a striking blue color that run in the family. She’s always been confident with her appearance and know how to use it to her advantage. She’s on the short side, standing at a whooping 5’2’’, which is her greatest annoyance.
Her stature is small, but she makes up for it with her larger than life personality, which brings us to…
Personality (nice, rude, funny etc. Paragraph please.):Serena has spent her whole life on the go and, as a result, she has very little patience for routine. Planning is not one of her strong suits and spontaneity is how she prefers to do things. You won’t find her making minute by minute plans. She does what she wants, when she wants to, even if it’s at inappropriate times.
She is bold with no fear of speaking her mind. Tying in with her spontaneity, she also rarely thinks before speaking, sometimes getting her into trouble. Serena has no problems openly voicing her opinions, even if it’s an unpopular one.
Although she enjoys the company of others, she is also extremely independent and she hates asking for help, even when she really needs it. She would much rather figure it out for herself.
She values humor and tends to be on the sassy side of things. She likes to playfully pick on people by teasing them or challenging them. But she is also a very compassionate person with a no tolerance policy for mean spirited bullying. She hates to see people hurting and will step up for ‘the little guy’ in an instant.
Brave and hot-headed and stubborn, but beneath it all Serena Rose has a good heart.
Since leaving her post as Potions Professor, Serena has becoming slightly more reclusive, though is slowly regaining some of her old spark.
Hopes and dreams. Why are you teaching at Hogwarts?:Teaching at Hogwarts the first time around was a great learning experience for her. She’d been unsure if she even wanted to teach, but wanted very much to give it a try.
Now that she’s started a family, she knows it will be hard to return to the Castle but also feels that being a professor is making a difference. Something she never would have dreamed of doing but something she feels compelled to pursue.
Biography (500 words minimum. There is never such a thing as too much.): Serena Scarlet Rose was born on August 21st, 1928 at 7:54pm in a busy hospital in New York. She came into the world kicking and screaming and has yet to settle down.
Her father, Alan Rose, was born in London, England to a well off wizarding family. However at the age of 18 he moved to the US to pursue his dream of becoming a journalist, a craft which his family found soft. It was there, in New York City, that he fell in love with an enchanting woman, Julia Eden, a photographer with a passion for song. They married in a quiet ceremony with a few friends. Soon they started a family of their own. Alan Jr. came first and, four years later, Serena. As they grew, they both showed signs of possessing the gift of magic. They were both accepted and attended school at the Salem Institute. Things were going great for the Rose family. They were a lovingly close family, and though they had their troubles, they always pulled back together. Then tragedy struck. Julia Rose disappeared with the Timewarp.
Alan Rose was never quite the same. He became extremely protective of his children. Alan Jr, a bit older, was understanding and complied. But 9 year old Serena pushed against the new binds as she grieved for her mother. She got into the habit of doing whatever she wanted regardless of the consequences. She began to keep secrets like some children collected rocks or stickers. Already she’d begun to build walls around herself. The only one she truly trusted was her brother. With his guidance she stayed on the right track –always pushing her limits but never so far that she lost herself.
There was a few years of peace in the Rose family. But, like all dreams, it eventually came to an end.
In the summer of 1941, Serena, mixed in with the wrong crowd, attended what was supposed to be a peaceful anti-war protest. But tensions ran high and soon the fighting broke out. Her brother, Alan Jr, fresh off of an internship at a local clinic, heard about the riot and, knowing his sister was going to be there, rushed to the scene. The crowd was thick but the unmistakable blonde hair bobbed through the crowd and he pushed his way through the crowd. He called her name over and over but she couldn’t hear him.
“Serena!” He yelled, a little closer now, and she spun around and locked eyes with her brother, relief exchanging between the two siblings for a fraction of a second.
And then the shooting started. Alan Jr. was caught in the crossfire and died on the scene.
Alan and Serena were left with missing pieces in their hearts, once again. Serena held herself responsible for her brother’s death and is something that still haunts her. Alan became extra protective of Serena and Serena pushed back, rebelling against the restraints. For the next year she mixed in with even more dangerous crowds and was very nearly expelled from Salem.
A year passed and Alan decided it was best to get Serena away from New York. So in May 1942, they moved to his hometown, London, where he quickly took a job at the Daily Prophet. Serena was enrolled in a local Academy and ready to start at her new school. One afternoon, sitting outside by the small pond in her backyard, she got a pleasant surprise when a barn owl swooped down and dropped a letter in her lap: A letter of acceptance to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry for the 1942-43 school year. This was truly a great way to begin her new life in this new place.
She began her journey at Hogwarts in September 1942 as a Fourth Year transfer, where she was sorted into the Gryffindor house. The fresh start was just what she needed and she found that she flourished within the castle walls.
Losing so many people at such a young age, Serena found it difficult to let anyone get too close to her. A social person, she had a lot of friends. But many of her friendships were loose because it was hard for Serena to form deep attachments to people, afraid of losing yet another person. But she pressed on. She joined the Quidditch team, playing Beater and Seeker and learned how to work as a team, a skill that Serena definitely needed work on.
In her Fifth Year she joined MOD’s Hogwarts Initiative, HOP. Though she originally joined to drive her father crazy, she found she really enjoyed the training. Her skills improved through the program and it made her stronger, physically and mentally.
In her Sixth Year, she helped form the Bad Girl Brigade, a group of girls who liked to sneak onto rooftops, talk about boys and just stand together in the face of the Brat Boys. It was looking to be the best year ever. And then the Hexenreich invaded the castle and, during her Transfiguration final, she witnessed Emma Birch’s murder. Several others, herself included, were hexed as well. The helplessness of the situation still haunts her.
Reluctantly she returned for her Seventh Year, where she became a Gryffindor Prefect. It was also the year she found out about her father’s secret love affair. Surprise, Serena had a 10 year old sister, Chloe Rose. Disturbed by the news, she pushed her family away and focused on her friends. However, she finished the year strong and was excited to join the adult world where more adventure awaited her.
Her father’s house was becoming increasingly suffocating. He married Chloe’s mother, Wendy Parker, and she brought with her a pack of children. So promptly after graduation Serena found her own flat in London.
In March of 1948, Serena was awoken in the middle of the night by a couple of Aurors who brought news of her father’s death. He was murdered by a Hexenreich member.
Serena was hospitalized at St. Mungo’s for several days because of extreme emotional shock. After her release, with the promise of seeing a psychologist weekly, she returned to her life as if nothing happened. She was in denial and it took her over a month to return from the zombie like state she hid under. When she finally accepted her father’s death she began to heal, slowly but surely.
One of the driving forces in her healing process was found in one of her best friends, Bailey McCormick. He was able to pull her through the darkness. In him she found strength and more than that, a home.
In September 1948 Serena took a teaching position at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry as Potions Professor. She wasn’t sure she’d do well with it or even like it, but she found teaching to be one of her passions.
That summer, in July of 1949, after a few missteps, she married Bailey McCormick. Soon after, on April 7th, 1950, Serena gave birth to her first daughter, Lily Elizabeth. She hadn’t even known she wanted children of her own until she held her baby girl in her arms.
Serena left her teaching position in June of 1951.
Her second daughter, Scarlet Eden, was born on August 10th, 1951.
SAMPLE ROLEPLAY(Please respond to to this in third person past tense. Do not write the other characters' reactions. Only your own.) It was the largest office in Hogwarts and, perhaps to students and newcomers, the most intimidating. The shelves were filled with various odds and ends, with a place of honor for the Sorting Hat, and the walls held all the portraits of past Headmasters and Headmistresses.
In the middle of the room sat a large desk. Everything was in order, for the current occupant had always despised a messy desk. It was the sign of a messy mind, and she had always favored neatness.
A clock sat on the desk, which currently showed the time to be 2:05. The meeting was supposed to begin at 2:00 precisely.
Along with order, Anneka valued punctuality. She was a very busy woman these days. Even during the summer, she had a number of matters to attend to. Interviewing and hiring staff was only of those matters. The newest potential member of her staff wasn't making a good impression.
She paced the room, black heels clicking against the stone floor. When the door finally opened, Anneka turned, her expression reminiscent of a Russian winter. "You are
late."
Explain yourself was what her face said.
Roleplay Response:So much had changed since her first interview with Anneka Ivanova. In the first interview she’s barely been out of school at only 19 years old. At the time she felt like she knew it all. That she’d had her life completely in order. She hadn’t know just how wrong she was. How much more actual growing up she needed to do. How much growing up, years later, she
still needed to do. Even though she was now a wife and a mother, there was still so much she needed to
learn.
When she accepted the position of Potions Professor she thought it would be easy. A total walk in the park on a sunny day. She was
wrong about that, but she’d also stumbled across something unexpected: More than any other job she’d ever held (—and she had her fair share of jobs under her belt—) teaching was her very favorite. It was the most difficult, yes. But also the most rewarding. She knew it would be even more difficult this time around with her growing family. But she was going to give it her best effort.
Walking quickly down the too familiar hallway, her boots clacked against the floor and she held a stuffed folder to her chest. Pausing just outside the door, she smoothed her hair down and noticed a smudge of spit-up on the shoulder of her shirt. “Really, Finn..” she sighed and reached down to retrieve her wand from her boot to cast a silent
scourgify at the mess. At last she pushed into the room.
“You are late.”“Again. I know, I know. Sorry,” she said, breezing to the desk where she set the folder down and flipped it opened, “So I’ve got some lesson plans that
I think are quite good. But I’d really like your opinion on them.”
In addition to posting a completed application in this forum, we also ask that you submit a PM to
Anneka Ivanova with details of your class and with the lesson plans for that class (include at least a minimum of 4 lessons). Also, please be sure to check the Available Positions thread located in this forum to make sure the class you want is available before applying.
