CHARACTER INFORMATIONCharacter name: Margaret Harkiss
Previous and/or Current Character(s) if applicable: Calvin Sharppe
Character age: 26
Character education: Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardry - Class of 1949
Ravenclaw Prefect 1948-49
Strength and weaknesses (details please):Strengths - Margaret Harkiss was one of the most detail oriented and diligent students growing up. With a good work ethnic from working at a young age on a small family farm and being the oldest of four, Margaret knew how to buckle down and get things done. At school it made her a top student at Transfiguration and in her work with the Ministry of Magic and the Social Reconstruction Committee, she was able to mobilize large and small communities into city wide projects with her organization skills. There is no task which seemed too daunting or large for her. A workaholic to a fault in order to please those who she holds in high esteem, Margaret usually pushes beyond her own limits.
Another one of her strengths is her commitment to youth and children. Being the oldest of four, Margaret is a natural caretaker to her younger siblings and being a community liaison, felt a innate connection to helping the younger children, orphans, and society’s most vulnerable populations. This is all true despite her own lack of inclination towards having children of her own. In the past year, it was her one-on-one tutelage of Lysander Stone which first spurred her to consider teaching as another outlet to help a younger audience.
Weaknesses - Because Margaret is such a committed soul, putting everything in the work she does, there are moments where she can take things personally when in fact, a professional demeanor may be more appropriate. The opinion of others, especially those of whom she respects, can easily dictate whether Maggie will have a good or bad day. Because she is always looking to see what kind of impact her work makes, if people aren’t happy or satisfied, neither is she. Harsh criticisms then, hinders her emotionally when it shouldn’t. She also is not a huge risk taker. It usually is up to the people around her to spur her to deviate from the status quo.
Physical description: Margaret is of average height, 5’6” with a thin build. She does not make huge efforts to exercise but has plenty of experience with long walks from her job knocking on doors for solicitations. This is reflected in her long legs and arms which could be called flabby. Her hair is long, brown, and often curled up in a messy bun or a tight ponytail to not bother her when she’s working. Since being recruited as one of the faces for WandS. she can often now be seen wearing the latest brightly hued lipstick of Irma Wolffe’s makeup line. It is the few pieces of makeup she adorns. The rest of her can be quite plainly described: professional blouses and skirts of modest length with shoes that never go beyond kitten heels. She is quite conservative with her appearance with hints of risk and adventure (i.e. pops of color) when she’s feeling especially brave or confident.
Personality (nice, rude, funny etc. Paragraph please.): Maggie, as her close friends call her, can be described as a very nice girl. Never one to speak unless spoken to or with a specific person, Maggie had been described as a wallflower for much of her life. As she grew her circle of friends, she became more outgoing, and she had gone from being relatively shy to being able to speak up for herself and even addressing large crowds. This has given her the confidence to be able to lead larger groups and even now attempt to teach classrooms full of students. Not everyone however, gets to see this nice side of her. Those who choose to be rude to her or anyone else, and Maggie can hold a grudge. She can be stone cold to those who she does not care for and is not afraid to close herself off.
Hopes and dreams. Why are you teaching at Hogwarts?: Maggie holds the belief that people were put on this earth to play a bigger part than their own small goals and achievements. It was why she had joined the Social Reconstruction Committee: to be a part of a greater organization to better society that was broken after the war. But being a part of the committee for a better part of five years had Margaret jaded on just how much she was able to accomplish. The slog of bureaucracy combined with inept superiors had her questioning her role as a cog in the large clock of society. With the recent discovery that a student she had been helping was actually held back a year, Margaret began wondering if there wasn’t a different path she could take to helping more people and assisting the wizarding world differently. She hopes that becoming a professor for the school she had come from where she had learned her first passions could be a good stepping stone towards figuring out this ever-growing mystery that is her career.
Biography (500 words minimum. There is never such a thing as too much.): Margaret Eleanor Harkiss was born on a cold winter’s day at a small 5-acre farm in rural Oxfordshire. She would ultimately be the oldest of four siblings: Herself, Helena Harkiss, Anduin “Andy” Harkiss, and Elizabeth “Betty” Harkiss. Of the four, Maggie’s head was always the one up in the clouds. While Helena was the more serious sister who was concerned with tending to the survival of their family’s livelihood, Maggie was looking toward the outside wizarding world and wondered whether she would be able to play a meaningful part in it.
At Hogwarts she was a relatively decent student. She completed all her assignments on time and even managed to get Prefect in her final year for the House of Ravenclaw. She fell in love, out of love, and back in love again. When she graduated, she chose to forgo returning to her family on their farm and instead immediately went into the Ministry’s Department of International Magical Cooperation Unit. With her meager earnings and little savings, Maggie managed a flat in Knockturn Alley with Addie Ross. She worked a year under the harrowing supervision of Salazar Ricardus before transferring out when the opportunity presented itself to become the Head Community Liaison for the Social Reconstruction Committee.
Being young and rather inexperienced, it wasn’t long before Maggie realized the job requirements were beyond what her qualifications allowed for. She had been in over her head and was demoted to field work, delegated instead to soliciting rich wizarding families and various businesses and shops to donate to the cause. Interacting with the various families and people from different walks of life opened up her eyes to inequality and the work that had yet to be done. It had led to many late nights at the office, baggy eyes in the mornings, and a whirlwind that lasted over five years. It left little room for her family, even less to her romantic life. But it gave her the ability to speak to strangers, it got her used to repeated closed doors, and the constant practice of failing but picking herself up and starting over again in the face of obstacles.
Sometime between juggling her job at the Ministry of Magic and caring her for many, many house plants in her tiny flat, Margaret also became the model and "lip" of WandS, Irma Wolffe's cosmetic line. It enabled Maggie to be more financially independent, and also was a huge step outside her comfort zone. Coming from a rather conservative and quiet family, the label of "model" was a new one. However, no one aside from her close friends know about this, as her face is relatively masked aside from her lips and she plans to keep it that way, as shining in the spotlight is not in Maggie's interest.
In the fall of 1955 Maggie decided to participate in the Hogwarts Outreach Programme and began to tutor a young Hufflepuff via owl. While it gave Maggie something to look forward to every few weeks, it never felt like she was giving enough of herself to provide substantial help to those who needed it. After garnering some opinions from her friends, Maggie then ultimately decided to take her career in the next step and apply to be a professor at Hogwarts.
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:Margaret Harkiss knew that the meeting was at two o'clock. On. The. Dot. She knew! For nearly a week she had been preparing, prepping, and setting up for this interview. When the moment came, Maggie had a whole thirty minutes of time to get from point A to point B, when she saw that she had run out of Floo Powder.
Floo Powder. It wasn't the type of household item that was often missing from a regular wizarding family- so seldom did the need occur to go out and buy more. But today, of all days, was the day. The pot was empty.
In a fury, Maggie flew out the door (had she been a flyer, perhaps she would have been able to get to the shops faster but her feet had always liked being firmly planted on the ground) and headed for the nearest utility shop. Heads turned as she ransacked through the store, her feet shuffling through the aisles as quick as they would take her, grabbing the largest bag she could find, and throwing down the sickles harder than she intended. With a quick “Sorry! I’m late!” to the cashier, she then ran off with a large lumpy sack of the thing.
“Alright now, slow down now Maggie,” she told herself when she got back home, slowing down her pace and placed a hand against the wall of her small flat. Addie was at work and the midday lull had the streets of Knockturn Alley slow to a standstill. She took the time to grab up the rest of the pages of her lesson plans on the table and with her other hand, she grabbed a hefty fistful of magical transportation dust and transported herself to Hogwarts.
Tenderly, Maggie opened the door to the Headmistress’s office. She was proud to tout the fact that she never had to find herself within these four walls in all seven years of her time at Hogwarts. She hated getting into trouble but judging by the look on Ivanova’s face, she was deep in it now. “I’m so-” she started to say when at the same time the Headmistress began to speak. Her dusty hand shot to her mouth, Maggie coughing slightly at the residual particles accidentally entering her mouth. Great, now her mouth was covered with soot.
"You are late."“I’m so sorry,” she said, starting over and apologizing again. She got out her materials and with her clean hand tried her best to smooth out the edges of her skirt. "I have all my materials prepared and I really do take this opportunity seriously but then-" Maggie took a breath, "-I ran out of Floo Powder." She realized her words were starting to jumble and it was going to turn into a ramble if she didn't stop soon. So she just stuck out her lesson plans and let her work speak for her.
