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Archived Applications / Ronnie Jay Beckham.
« on: 15/08/2019 at 09:03 »


CHARACTER INFORMATION
Character name: Ronnie Jay Beckham

Previous and/or Current Character(s) if applicable: Charles Neddy Palmer, Ivory Summers, Andromeda Crowley, Pearce Märchen, Bunny Märchen, Évariste Altier.

Character age: 26 ; 11 October, 1930

Education:
Gryffindor Class of ‘49.
Prefect 1947-1948, Head Girl 1948-1949.
Hospital Wing Nurse 1944-1947, Senior Nurse 1947-1949.
Gryffindor Co-Captain 1946-1947, Captain 1947-1949.

Work Experience:
Pediatric Junior Healer 1949-1953
Pediatric Healer 1953-1956
Pediatric Psychologist 1956-present

Strength and weaknesses (details please):

Weaknesses:  For much of her life, Ronnie Jay Beckham could be fairly accurately described as a pushover.  She learned, even preferred, to take the backseat where possible, allowing others to take credit and advantage instead of claiming it for herself.  Though this has mostly worn off since the epiphany of her divorce, she still fears that it’ll resurface sometime while she’s teaching, and she’ll be unable to keep the lesson from dissolving into chaos.  Additionally, she sometimes gets carried away in the defense of those in her charge, and worries it’ll cause strain between her and a few colleagues should they endanger their students during classes.  Fortunately, Ronnie is familiar with a good number of staff members already, so she’s fairly certain it won’t come to that.

Strengths:  Experienced healer specializing in pediatric psychology, Divination, and muggle-method treatment.  Very good with school-aged children, and excels at time management.  Hard worker, very teachable, and a passion for helping people.  Mother of three, which has taught her multitasking, and has solidified her belief that the teaching proper mental health care is just as important as physical health care.  Aside from being well-versed in medical spells (most of which, to her great frustration, are not taught at a student level), Ronnie has worked on cases dealing with child trauma and PTSD, and has diagnosed several magical conditions.

Physical description: 5’1” and thin, but sturdy.  Dark eyes and soft features, and brown hair usually pulled back in a low bun while working.  Strong arms from Quidditch and carrying children.  Hips of a mother, lips of a lover.

Personality (nice, rude, funny etc. Paragraph please.):  Ronnie is what you might call a ‘mom friend’.  She’ll pack your lunch, listen to you ramble about your terrible commute, and patch up your scraped knees.  Though very kind by nature, she has no qualms telling people off if she believes they’ve crossed a line or put someone else in harm’s way.  Though this has backfired on her several times, and she’s mistakenly taken retribution too far, nearly everything is done with good intention, if a bit selfishly.  She pushes through her own trials to use them to help others, taking her own wrongdoings as a template of what not to do.

Occasionally frail (a symptom of her Sight and lingering PTSD), and still shaking off the remnants of a timid exterior shell, Ronnie is finally learning what it means to be worth more than what you can provide.  She’s gotten her hands on a newfound confidence that’s been taunting her, unreachable, since she was sorted into the house of lions (a mistake, a younger Ronnie might insist).  It’s unclear what that might mean for the students of Hogwarts, but evidently, she believes she has something worthwhile to offer, whether that’s a bandaid, a prescription, or just a listening ear.

Hopes and dreams. Why are you teaching at Hogwarts?:  Ronnie has had this goal in mind ever since becoming a Senior Nurse in her 6th year.  Before then, even.  She’s seen Head Nurses come and go, some more equipped for the job than others, but all providing a piece of wisdom that she’d like to incorporate into the Hospital Wing.  Ronnie would like to bring more safety to the castle, and encourage casual healing among students.  She’s honestly appalled at how few medical spells are taught in comparison to spells used for harm or fun, and hopes to inspire students to find creative ways to prevent injury using mundane magic and even muggle precautions.  More than anything, Ronnie wants the students of Hogwarts, who are so often born or bred into tragedy, to know that they aren’t alone.

Biography (500 words minimum. There is never such a thing as too much.):

SCENE 1.  Bibury, Cotswold.  Summer 1939.

Ronnie Jay wiggled in her seat, arm extended and focus split between the bandages on her hand and the individual unwrapping them.  He was a large man, with burly arms and a square jaw, though Ronnie Jay had never found him imposing.  Rather, he was gentle and precise, with a warm smile and a soft, low voice that she’d inherited.  He was her father, after all.

“When treating open wounds, the cut must be kept clean and protected,” the man said, and Ronnie Jay nodded fervently.  She’d been reading the handful of books he kept in the treatment room, but she learned things best when he was explaining them.  “That’s why it’s important to change bandages frequently, even for small injuries.  At least once a day, until the skin scabs.”

“What happens if you don’t?”  Ronnie Jay struggled to keep still, arm finally settling but legs kicking between chair legs to keep up the movement.  She was working on patience, because she wanted to be more like her Dad.  It was a hard thing to learn.

Her father— who was called Ru-pert by adults— removed the last of the bandage and cast it aside.  “If you don’t properly clean and cover your cuts, dirt and all sorts of debris can get trapped under the skin, and when there’s too many germs for your body to handle, it causes an infection.”  He smiled reassuringly and reached for a fresh bandage.  “Luckily, infections are preventable and treatable, but they can be dangerous, so never neglect your bandaging.”

Ronnie Jay nodded thoughtfully, frowning the way she’d seen grown-ups frown when they’d just heard something very important or sad.  The large man chuckled at her expression, finished dressing the gash, and lay his giant hand on her tiny shoulder.  “Now,” he said.  “Are you going to tell me how this happened yet?”

Her mouth scrunched up to one side and she narrowed her eyes at him, considering his trustworthiness.  “It’s a secret,” she finally said.

“I won’t tell your mother.”  Something mischievous flickered in his eyes, and he extended his pinky toward her.  “Pinky promise.”

She considered the offering, and after a moment, accepted.  They shook on it.



SCENE 2.  Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardry.  March 1949.

Ronnie steered him toward the bench with a stern frown and the scrutinizing gaze of a disappointed mother, and despite his grumbling protests, Amerigo had no choice but to follow her direction.  His Quidditch uniform, similar to hers but for the pads on her shoulders, was adjusted to allow her to inspect the injury, and she removed the gauze with careful and steady movements, almost as if she were preparing him for surgery.  Amerigo rolled his eyes at her, but Ronnie paid him no mind, only tsk-tsking in exasperation at the sight of his untreated wound.  The gash, which he’d acquired during a tumble through the stands during the previous week’s practice, was now swollen and dark, streaked red in the surrounding skin, and beginning to take a yellowish tone on the edges of the wound.  It was awful, but Ronnie wasn’t the squeamish sort, so she was hardly blinked an eye.

After she inspected it a bit closer, Amerigo squirming in her steady grip, she sighed.  He’d been in the sport too long to be still neglecting his injuries.  “Did you not clean it and change the bandage like I told you to?”  It was clearly infected, and by the look on Amerigo’s face, he was well aware.

Amerigo grumbled and tried to shift his arm away from her.  She let him, and reached for the medical kit she kept with her during all games and practices.  “Merda, I did a few times,” he insisted, but the dull edge of shame to his typical mumble refuted the claim.  “E allora?”

Ronnie shook her head, disappointment dripping from her shoulders, and fixed him with a look that could make even a snake repent.  He knew better than this.  “If you’re not going to take care of injuries acquired during Quidditch, I don’t see why you should be allowed to play.”  Without further hesitation, she firmly adjusted the sleeve of his uniform and began cleaning and re-wrapping the infection.  “Until this heals properly, you’ll be sitting out of practice.”

“Dai!  You can’t be serious?”

Again, she neglected a response.  He knew exactly how serious she was; Ronnie didn’t fool around with medicine.  “Keeping your arms in good shape is imperative to the welfare of the rest of the players.  I won’t have a dead-limbed Beater threatening the safety of my defenseless Chasers and Seeker.

“Now, you’re going to follow my instructions very carefully if you want your spot back.  The wound needs to be kept clean and dry.  For an infected cut, that means washing it and replacing the bandage every few hours, or anytime the bandage is soaked through.  You’re going to check in with me at the Hospital Wing every other day after dinner, starting tomorrow.”

Amerigo glared stubbornly at his Captain, but he knew when to take her seriously, so he held his arm still and didn’t interrupt.

“If you miss even one check-up, without valid reason,” she continued.  “You’ll be out the next game, no matter the state of your injury.”  Ronnie smiled, and though it was warm like honey and the arms of a mother, there was a sharpness that cut any hope of compromise right from its branch.  She finished wrapping the cut and squeezed his other arm fondly, before standing.

“It’s important, Amerigo, to watch out for yourself before anyone else.”

(Wise words, but Ronnie rarely practiced what she preached.)



SCENE 3.  St. Mungo’s Pediatric Department.  Winter 1954.

The headaches were more consistent now, and she’d self-diagnosed it as the leaping phantom of Mum’s death, because the official title ‘seer’ sounded more like a gift than the reality.  She scoured books and dug herself into pits of research that ended up in dead ends more often than not— there was no cure, aside from tricky and deadly muggle surgeries, and even that wasn’t guaranteed to work.

She kept it a secret, for the most part, mainly for fear that the news would reach Icarus.  Slick knew, of course, and she wished she could say it was the right call.  He was her husband; hardly home and rarely husbandly, but nevertheless the goings-on of her life were his right to know.  (Still, she broke the vow of honesty, and felt no remorse for it; he was still unaware that she’d kept her job at the hospital after he’d demanded she quit.)

It was moments like this, holding the fingers of an eleven year old girl complaining of hot flashes and dreams that came true, that she was both grateful for and cursed her budding ability.  Her experience and research on magical psychological abnormalities gave her the information she needed to tentatively diagnose the patient, but it also reminded her that there was no way out of it.

Like Ronnie, this child was stuck in the future, and only a great miracle could cure her of it.



SCENE 4.  Streets of London; Waldo Angerville’s Apartment.  October 1955.

Tears had never phased her before, and they wouldn't now.  The liquid poured from her eyes in salty streams, chest seizing with hiccups and gasping breaths as she made the trek.  She had only the hour to thank for the lack of stares following her through London streets, and the wand gripped in her hand to thank for their safety.

The children, too young to fully understand the situation, clung to her throughout the journey.  Sam shared a hand with the magical weapon in his mother's possession, silent and balancing fury with satisfaction.  Amity Jean, balanced in Ronnie’s arm and on her hip, mirrored the sobs in confused panic.  And Ephraim, who had taken the event almost as harshly as Ronnie herself, dragged his feet and refused to let go of the skirt of her dress, demanding through tears that they return home.

She dreaded the moment she’d be stable enough to tell him that no, they would never be going back home.  At this moment, she wondered if it had ever been their home at all.

Ronnie's heart broke for her children, but it mostly broke for herself.  She'd always imagined marriage as an end to all sorrow, the answer to insecurity and enemy of loneliness.  She'd pictured cocoa by the fireplace, laughter in the kitchen, and romantic gestures on even the most insignificant of days.  After a few years of none of this, she'd lowered her standard: she expected only acknowledgement, and when she began to receive this only in his frustration at an empty icebox, and the clumsy shattering of dishes on the counter, it became apparent that she would never be home, not with him.

She had to leave.  And finally, that’s what she did.

Knowing it was the right thing to do didn’t stop the pain; if anything, it worsened it, because she knew she could never turn back.  Ephraim would beg, and Amity Jean would cry, and she would be hustled from friend to friend until she could put enough money down for a deposit, but no matter how hard it was, she’d never go back to Slick.  And— here was the kicker— despite it all, she still loved him.  Not the way she’d loved Darius, in waterfall limbs and flower beds and go fish.  Not the way she loved Waldo, in confusion and candy floss and mistaken feelings.  She loved him like only she could: in careful fear and dead devotion, trampled and forgotten and still holding on.

They rounded the corner, and Ronnie realized that Sam— that bitter angel boy she was ever-grateful to have as a son— had begun leading them to their destination, as the tears blurred her vision.  They took the trek up the stairs and to the familiar door.  In the middle of the night, she still knew he’d answer.  (Collectively, they’d been waiting for this.)

She knocked, and when the door eventually opened, she wept anew with hopeless relief.  “Waldo—” she said, and smiled sadly as Sam and Ephraim leapt through the doors as if that was where they were meant to be all along.  “It’s not for long— I just— I didn’t know where else to go.”  AJ reached for the lanky man, chubby fingers making grabbing motions at his hair.  “I left him.”



SCENE 5.  St. Mungo’s Psychology Dept.  Room 407.  January 2nd 1957.

Medicine wasn’t perfect.  The human body was far too complex to find a solution that fit every patient perfectly.  The magical community often got this wrong; they prescribed spells and potions as a be-all end-all answer: a pepper-up for this, a pepper-up for that; Sleeping Draughts as everyday sedatives; Episkey for everything from papercuts to a lacerated chest.  (Both would end in a disaster.)

In psychology, it was even more a mystery.  If the body was complex, the mind was... unimaginably so.  There were so many things that could go wrong, so many ‘gifts’ that could be easily twisted into nightmares.  She knew that firsthand.

"What if I don't like the potions?"

Lysander Stone, who responded to her verdict with what appeared to be dull apprehension, frowned at her, and Ronnie didn’t dare counter it with a grin.  Instead, she willed warmth toward him in a what she hoped was a look of reassurance.  The headache returned to burn in the back of her head, but she disregarded the throbbing fire for something far more important: an Empath almost lost to the casual dismissal of exasperated Healers.

(He, like Icarus and young Will, would feel the dark of everything, and she refused to allow him to plummet into waters like they had.)

“You don’t need to take them all the time.  Dulling all your emotions would only create a different problem.  Just keep one with you when you go to classes or mealtimes or other places with a lot of people around.  If you feel a bad headache coming on, try taking the potion and see if it helps.  I’ll speak to the castle’s Head Nurse to make sure he’s aware of the problem.”

She slid him a paper with written instructions, and a smile like peach cobbler.  “We’ll figure this out.  Promise.”



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:

Finding a babysitter for the day had proved more difficult than she’d expected.  With all her friends at work, and the daycare unexpectedly closed for the day, she’d been suddenly faced with a crisis that had previously only been a second thought.

Most of the young witches and wizards in her area were away, and she didn’t dare hire a muggle for fear of exposing them to accidental magic and, consequently, breaking the Statute of Secrecy.  Finally, she’d resorted to dropping them off at the Lilac Tree, and promised Mavis that she’d find someone to come watch them.  (In the end, she’d hired Sebastian, who was off to work at the Greenhouse anyway; not exactly what she’d promised, but necessary if she was going to make it to her interview on time.)

She been late anyway.

If the Headmistress’ expression was a winter night that sunk below freezing, Ronnie’s was the warm pie and cocoa that warmed the belly of anyone who dared brave the storm.  That lingering fear of being scolded twisted her guts, but she believed she knew the Headmistress’ character well enough to know they both had the same goal.  Ivanova, Ronnie assumed, only wanted what was best for the students and the school— as evidenced by her actions during the Hexenreich invasion— and Ronnie was nearly certain she had what they needed.

She’d learned— slowly, painfully, with many setbacks— that her experience and skill wasn’t something to scoff at, or to be disregarded.  Ronnie was a caretaker before anything else, and to say that she had nothing to offer the student body of Hogwarts would be an ill-informed assumption at best.  Between the werewolf attack, the high percentage of students suffering from mental illness, and the shocking ratio of healing to combat spells, Ronnie was certain her experience in healing magic and pediatric psychology could do a lot of good in the castle.

“So sorry, Headmistress.  I’ll do better.”  She pulled a folder from her bag, opened it to reveal a series of papers organized by unit, lesson, and budget, and pointed an inquisitive look in her potential employer’s direction.  “But if you are able to forgive me, I can tell you exactly why you should hire me despite my shortcomings.”

2


CHARACTER INFORMATION
Character name: Ronnie Jay Beckham

Previous and/or Current Character(s) if applicable: Ronnie Jay Beckham, Ivory Summers, Andromeda Crowley, Évariste Altier, Pearce Märchen, Victoria Lisbeth, etc.  There’s quite a few, I’m sorry.  And more to come.  None have been professors.  Yet.

Character age: ...Nearly 19.  But she’s dedicated to the work(!).

Character education: Home education in medicine, grammars, and arithmetics until age 13.  At this time, her family and village had saved up just enough for her to make the travel from their little farmlands, and to buy the supplies for an education at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.  She attended the school until graduation, during which she was involved in both Quidditch and the Hospital Wing, and earned several leadership positions and awards of recognition.  These include the following: Co-Captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch Team for one term, and Captain for two terms; Senior Nurse for two terms, Prefect for one term, and Head Girl this most recent term.

Strength and weaknesses (details please): Well, in terms of magic, Divination is certainly Ronnie’s strength.  She has a skill level several degrees higher than the average adult, and uses it in her healing endeavors, to better adapt to each patient.  She is also relatively skilled at charms, which she uses largely to treat her patients, and to defend those in need, when muggle methods will not suffice.  Her magical weaknesses include Transfiguration and Conjuring & Summoning, though she aims to improve her skill in these subjects, now that she has mostly moved past the Jasper-Kedding-shaped mental block that kept her from improving.  In general, Ronnie aims to keep most of her studies focused toward healing magic, for though they can be useful, she is disturbed by the overwhelmingly high ratio of hostile curses to medicinal spells.

Besides magic, Ronnie’s strengths and weaknesses are nearly synonymous.  She has a soft spot for underdogs, those who have suffered hatred just as she had, or any otherwise traumatic experience.  The Lost and Lonely are her people— and they are both her strength and weakness.  She has done irrational, even cruel, things for them, and would do them again, should the situation call it.

Physical description: Small— though surprisingly strong, due to Quidditch training.  Ronnie is thin, and stands at approximately 5’1”, with no signs of growing any more.  Despite her small stature, Ronnie carries a certain presence when she is in her element— on the Quidditch Pitch, in the Hospital Wing, or in defense of a hell-beaten victim.  Ronnie was not built for leadership, but it was built for her, and, when thrust into its arms, she took to it like a fledgling to the air— first hesitant and inexperienced, but then suddenly airborne and just right for the job.

Personality (nice, rude, funny etc. Paragraph please.): While at Hogwarts, Ronnie was often considered by her peers to be the ‘mom’ of the castle.  (Bless Icarus for actually calling her such.)  She treated the patients in the Hospital Wing with kindness and patience, pressed Band-Aids to the scratches of the youngest, and words of encouragement to all.  All, that is, but the few who had managed to lose her respect through alleged “mistreatment” of her best friend.  Ronnie is hardworking, and gentle to the point of serene.  Her time spent as a victim to Jasper Kedding carved her into a hollowed out, waterlogged caricature of her old self, but she has recovered to a certain degree.  And it is her greatest hope to aid others in the same way.

Hopes and dreams. Why are you teaching at Hogwarts?: Ronnie’s true dream is to one day specialize working with young children suffering from anxiety and depressive disorders, PTSD, and overcoming traumatic experiences.  She is taking this as an opportunity to gain experience along the way, as well as to keep in touch with those at Hogwarts who she knows or believes need her.  Ronnie has a strong connection to the Castle, as it has been her only home for the past five years— she couldn’t leave it now.

Biography (500 words minimum. There is never such a thing as too much.):

Age 3:
She planted the spade in the dirt, chopping and jabbing like a crazed axeman at a stubborn tree trunk.  Ronnie was crouched over the spot of earth, a dragon poking at its pile of gold, and her tongue stuck out the side of her mouth in her concentration.  The child was determined to help the harvest.

A laugh billowed above her like smoke, and Ronnie looked straight up to stare at her father's mud-and-chestnut eyes.  They sparkled, and Ronnie wasn't sure if she should be ashamed or if she should laugh too.  She stood, offering up the spade in tiny palms.  “Daddy, I helwping,” she smiled, and giggled when the large man picked her up and easily placed her on his shoulders.

“I think you can help better this way.  Can you tell me where your mother is?”

The child gasped, patted down the top of her father’s head, and pointed a little finger across the fields.  “Way way way there.  Over where birdies happy in theiwr wittle houses and the ground smells like laughing.  Mummy there too.”  Another bronze laugh from the man’s throat, and Ronnie rested her little chin on his crown.  They were brown and white and a deep purple that ran like a river through tarnished gold veins.  Secrets and the scarlet poppies that burned almost as brightly as the mirth in Rupert Beckham’s eyes.  Mended fabric and wooden cups for potions; the little shack with a limping ceiling and her tiny palms wrapped around his thick worker’s fingers: father and daughter.

He was her great blessing, and she was his.


Age 4:
It came soft and strong, like everything else about Ronnie.  Magic, its feathery freedom and the way it opened her flesh and soaked her spirit.  Her bones felt grounded and light, but Ronnie knew nothing of its source but that she was bright and dark and the world was all suddenly red.  Not red like the blood of crying men, or the scrapes on the other childrens’ knees.  Not the red of anger that had once pulled Grandpa Davis to his grave, or even the red of August sunsets, crimson webs spun from memory and the briefest of moments.  No, this red was the color of the sun on her lap on a warm summer afternoon, the heavy taste of laughter in her lungs, and the thick touch of mud and water.  It was warm and soft, a texture-less pressure on her limbs; she prayed to Mummy’s Jesus that she would never lose it.

Rupert Beckham had left his daughter swathed in the wispy emerald grasses of the old meadows, while he blessed the cornfields with his enchanted touch.  (Daddy never used real magic on these fields, he had promised Ronnie, but she disagreed.  He was the magic of them, and they always grew bigger and brighter between his thumbs.)  Ronnie blended into the silky and rough lightness of the sky and earth, and     that’s when   the green     the ground    changed.

Magic.

The child giggled, and didn’t dare collect the poppies that suddenly turned up their little faces to hers.  Poppies that... hadn’t been there before.  But they grew under her eyes, in her eyes, between her fragile fingers.  And they smiled, and she did too.

Daddy was shocked when he saw it, on the last pages of the afternoon, and Ronnie felt distant when he placed her— once again— on his broad shoulders, and paraded her about the village.  (What’s the big deal?)  She clung to his hair and chuckled softly into its warm darkness, but her eyes were on the grass on either sides of the road.  They shifted and appeared scarlet— flowers that sprang instantly under her gaze, happiness just out of reach.

And     she didn’t know that day what it was— the violet and vibrant blue that slid through her veins, melted into the red and brown of her fingers— but she knew she wanted more of it.

Magic.


Age 10:
“You don’t want to do that,” Mabel said, arms folded across her chest.  There was that familiar petty sternness in her gaze, and Ronnie knew that word would get to their parents.  More specifically, their mother, because only she couldn’t see through Mabel’s suck-up faces.

“I do,” Ronnie said, voice quiet.  She didn’t look away, because she wasn’t scared.  She was stuck in her feet— in the tingling of her toes, in the rocking of her heels.  There was something comforting in the feel of the wood against her skin, in the anticipation of the splash.  And there was stability in the smoothness of the murky waters below them.

Mabel’s eyes narrowed and she stood up straighter; taller than Ronnie (and in her mind’s eye, taller even than the tree that stood behind them).  They were all small— the Beckham children— sans Mabel.  “I'll tell Dad, and then he won't let you read his healing books tonight.”  Smugness didn't suit Mabel's pretty face, yet she wore it like a pearl necklace, expensive— it had no place in towns like theirs.  Ronnie Jay offered her a raised eyebrow and the beginnings of a smile, because that was the currency of their fields.  But Mabel only huffed, and Ronnie briefly wondered if her sister was meant instead to sleep in the feathered four-posters of governors’ children, and tiptoe through paved streets, soles glued to bronze heels.  Not Ronnie.

She jumped.

Cool autumns clung to her skin, and buried her in the easy freedom.  This was home, and Mabel could only blame herself for rejecting it.  Ronnie would never leave.


Age 13:   
But in the end, that’s exactly what she did.

Ronnie was silent while they bid their farewells, and repeated mantras of her presumed success. She let their smoked tears and bitter smiles soak in her skin like a sliver of shimmery sunlight in January.  Joy pressed her fire-touch to Ronnie’s arm, and for once in her life she witnessed the sun    cry.  But no cobalt tear bled from her eye, though she left behind everything she’d ever known.  She was strong this morning, and they were eased in her wake— after all, how could she allow them to look upon her despair, when they had sacrificed so much more for this moment?  Months and years of scratching the bottoms of barrels, of locking away a few dollars here and there, of selling more crop than they ought to.

And her father was certain that it would all be worth it.  That, somewhere under the skin of Ronnie Jay Beckham, was the ticket to a more secure lifestyle.  And, misplaced and heavy though the trust was, she was determined not to let them down.

The wagon shuddered, and she along with it.  Absent sentences cried from the corners of Dad’s eyes, and his lips pressed together in a straight line.  Ronnie tucked her hair behind her ears, and looked straight ahead too.  To the future she would trace, to the chance she was to offer her family, to the heavy burden of fate—    and away from home.

(Or maybe, it would be home, after all.)


Age 14:
And when the girl— the woman— the Birch Tree— died, so did they all.  She scattered bits of herself across the tile floors of the Great Hall, when they gathered, and rubbed her tears into Ra’asiel’s midnight eyes and pale cheeks.  She was born again in the confusion and pain of her friend’s concussion, and never again stalled when faced with an urgent state such as this.

"Elizabeth!    You need to...you're going to get hurt!"

They were shaken and shivery for months, years afterward, and even in the freshest breath of Ronnie Beckham, Emma Grace Birch stood in her bloodless serenity.  The Gryffindor carried that memory forever, and blessed the wounds of others with the same hands that had clawed for freedom.  The same that had pushed themselves away from Professor Oliveroot’s protection, and latched bitterly onto the arm of the Jagged Man, that smoky June afternoon.  She stepped now with the same foot that had kicked at his shin, and tripped backward when Liz yanked her back.  She spoke with the same voice that had cried and begged and screamed— she was trapped in the past, and had grown from it.

"You can't take her!    You can't hurt her!"

She had been so young then.


Age 15:
The ache that Jasper Kedding stuck to her bloodied soul was wretched and unknown and familiar.  She could feel the heavy glances of once-bright eyes, felt the way a room darkened a shade when she named it hers.  The tired stutter of Casper Baines, thick in her ears and bold in her blood; Ra’asiel’s crisp sadness, like rain tucked under a woolen quilt.  And Caius Thorne, who was just as gray as he was blue, and the blackened look in his eyes on these Mondays when she hardly registered his presence.  Their practices on the Pitch had become dull and hesitant, equal parts weary and furious— clenched fists in soft mittens.

Some days she wished they knew her charcoal misery, but she choked before her lips could move, so she clamped them shut— strangled from the inside.  Only Icarus Argabright carried her burden, and she carried his.  They were the silence of November, and wildflowers pressed between pages.  The therapeutic way she wrapped his injuries and smoothed bruise cream into the spaces under his eyes: kindred spirit and familiar tears.

He was her great blessing, and she was his.

But this page was not for Icarus.  Its sickly rhythm belonged to Jasper, and its fractured texture would be owned by Ra’asiel’s faded steel fingers, and phantom articles.  Her quill bled for invisible eyes alone.

your fingers press bruises into my paper skin—
fold and unfold me ‘til i’m wrinkled and thin
you break my cold bones, and you sew my mouth shut
i cry silent and solemn, but you leave me to rot

i’m hid around corners and under your eyes—
cold and unkind and fixed - dark - on the prize
redemption is sour and sorrow is free
you have whispers and secrets that you take out on me

your words are your weapons, and they tear me apart—
a disease, a shooting, a sharp poisoned dart
i forgot who i was and my courage flew south
and my heart, how it pounds; now i’m drowning in doubt

She felt bitter and raw, drawn and quartered and sunk by the ink that stained the parchment.  There were so many words that split her head and begged to drip from her lips— but they did not escape her, even on this wretched page.  Her pain was a disgrace, and she was ashamed of it, as there were others who paid a toll far worse.                 (And the bruises of Icarus Argabright were    fresh and       real  and  the words that stung her   eyes    were       nothing   compared to them.)         But still she wrote the final letters of her downed spirit, and tore her broken wings from their creaky hinges.  A shame.

and i can’t see.


Age 17:
Darius Palomer’s lips were pine green shadows and moss against hers.  His skin felt slippery and warm, sometimes soft and sometimes rough and other times something completely unknown.  Hands like sandpaper, but smooth against her delicacy.  So long, she’d struggled against the chains of her own heart, and bled through the cracks that the Gods and the Monsters had scratched into it.  So long she had been crushed against the sharp rocks of Love’s island, washed away and torn to pieces— so close and so far from the safety of its shore.

But he was different.

She had found a home in him, and in the lines of the castle walls, and the serene chaos of the darkened forest floor.  This was exactly what she wanted   what she needed     and       yet    she          left    it       to           die.

(She had never been so stupid in all her life.)


Age 18:
Bold, mustard yellow streaks across summer sky, new colors that bled faux light into a dismal breeze and darkened day.  Her limbs felt sore, as if she were ninety years old.  Jonny— her summer companion, in Icarus’ absence; a loyal and combative crup next to the skittish dedication of her Eagle— barked somewhere far away.  She was alone in the shadow of the mountain’s peak, enveloped in the regrets that hung from her teeth.

Icarus was somewhere below— she could feel his grin and energy from even here.  A  curl caught her eye, just as imagined as it was real, and she wished to call out for him, wished to breathe her sorrows onto his shoulder again.  But she could not.  Not now, not this summer.  Not on any day where Ava’s tolerance (love, even?) of him were so bright as the joy that clung to his lips.  (Still, she felt sorrow stain her own, and she wished too for that bliss that he knew.  Alas, she had tossed Darius from her as flippantly as a persistent fly.)

Words   shattered   in her throat, halfway to his, or halfway to His, but caught in the fractured places of her mouth.  (Places that Darius— that He— had tasted; she shivered and blushed furiously at the kiss that she had torn right from her lips.)

"Icarus, he’s gone—   for real.      There’s a girl and — and .   .   and
I am nothing, am I not?     I did this."

She wished to plaster the words to his orange-pink cheeks, his sunset happiness and the joy that melted him from evening until morning.  Mirth in the afternoon, slow in his fingers and quick in his breath; trees and apples and sun on burning back.  (His watery grave was sweeter than any of them could have imagined.)  She wanted to tell him, she wanted to cry.

But she didn’t.  (He was happy, and she was not.)  He needed her strength, for the sake of his tangerine joy, and she needed him, whenever he declared her worthy of his presence.  (Ava was his queen, once and for all, and Icarus had accustomed himself to her throne far too quickly.  He was sick and prideful, despite how she smiled at his sudden weightlessness.)  But whatever moments he allowed her, she would claim eagerly, if only to replace the emptiness that Darius had left— the emptiness that suddenly felt more real.  (She had done this, she had dOnE  ThIS.)  But Icarus could fix it with a brush of his crooked feathers.  They belonged         despite the tarnished gold of Ava Adair       broken or fixed     together.

He, after all, was home too.


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:
The first time that Ronnie had entered this office, it had been for her Sorting.  Gryffindor, the old hat had proclaimed, and for years Ronnie hadn’t believed him.  How could she, who could hardly introduce herself to her dormmates, or defend herself against sneers and threats, be a lion?  And she’d believed her own lies for so many years, tucked in the mindset that a lion must always roar, must always hunt, must always dig its claws into its victims throats— necessary or not.  It had taken until midway through Ronnie’s sixth year (under the gentle prodding of Palomer; oh, how she missed him) for her to believe her own soul.  A lioness was firm and gentle with her cubs, and so Ronnie would be.

“I apologize, Headmistress.  I was simply caught in—”  She smiled; apologetic, but without a trace of genuine regret.  These halls felt just as natural to Ronnie Beckham as she was sure they were to Headmistress Ivanova; surely the woman could understand, or at least, sympathize.  Everyone had a past before a future, and Ronnie knew even Anneka Ivanova had been something before she was Headmistress.  A girl, a woman, a lover, a mother— all things that Ronnie hoped to be, though in different circumstances.  (—At least, she supposed so.  After all, there seemed to be no Mister Ivanova.  She was truly sorry.)  “Reminisce, if you will.”

It was partially true.  Though Ronnie Beckham was different from much of the rest of her crowd— old and new professors, all elder— she, too, had memories to cherish and remember.  The majority of them hadn’t set foot in these halls in many years: nostalgia was to be expected of them.  And if not, a steely fortress that blocked such ‘foolishness’ from tarnishing their work.  But Ronnie was not that way.  She cherished the way her fingers felt against the familiar walls, and remembered how different and the same they had been years ago.  A wide-eyed third year girl, bookish and timid and lamenting her “inaccurate” Sorting.  A terrified fourth year, hiding around corners to avoid the sticky fingers and thorny words of Jasper Kedding.  A resigned and dismal fifth year, who fell from the sky and could not cry, but nourished redemption in the delicate way she patched up Icarus Argabright.

And then, a rosy-cheeked sixth year, who met Darius Palomer in the twisted vines and leaves around her legs.  Who fell in love with curls and a bright ocean, for the first time in so many years, felt Happy.

She had lost it all again, as she always did.  Broke her own heart and scrubbed the floors with its remains.  She had broken him, and this was her escape.  (Because as enchanting as a certain charming Quidditch player had been this August, his touch like February and eyes like April, he was nothing to Darius Palomer’s green soul.)

But she was not here to gawk, nor to allow her eyes to glaze in wonder and iridescent sorrow.  She offered the Headmistress a polite smile, fringed with sadness, but genuine at its core.

“When— may I ask— was the first time you set foot in this room?”  Perhaps it was personal information, and perhaps Anneka would be frustrated with her continued distraction.  But Ronnie was curious, and most people seemed to forget that Anneka Ivanova, too, had a past.  Ronnie would not be so fickle.  Everyone was important.


Lesson Plans will be PM'ed to Anneka Ivanova shortly.

3
Suggestions & Questions / Re: Silent Casting?
« on: 03/02/2016 at 04:58 »
This isn't a stupid question (or is it? let us joIN IN OUR STUPID QUESTIONING *cries pathetically*), because I'm wondering the same.  Like I know there are some rules in duelling (I should look those over :'D), but how exactly does it work outside of that strictly statistical environment?  The idea of silent casting applies heavily to other characters as well, not just mutes, and I realized recently...that my little Ronnie is likely to silent cast if she can, and Baby would use it for pranks cONSTANTLY if she knew how...

And I wondered if there was like a set number of levels that your skill goes down when silent-casting?

I know this is an old question...but...I'm curious too...and I think it'd be a useful thing to know.  Helpmesmartpeople...

don'thateme c:

4
Archived Applications / Ivory "Baby" Summers
« on: 28/08/2015 at 13:04 »

Application for Hogwarts School




→ CHARACTER INFORMATION.
Name: Ivory "Baby" Summers

Birthday: 14th February, 1930

Hometown: London, England

Bloodline:
Muggleborn / Halfblood / Pureblood / Unknown

Magical Strength (pick one):
Divination / Transfiguration / Charms / Conjuring & Summoning

Magical Weakness (pick one):
Divination / Transfiguration / Charms / Conjuring & Summoning

Year (pick two): 5th year!!  But...if that’s not possible, 6th year

Biography:
Ivory was born into a broken home.  She was the unwanted result of a careless drunken night between a disowned muggleborn witch and a rich muggle businessman, and neither of her parents wanted anything to do with her.  Her mother had always been depressed, rejected from her family upon the discovery of her powers, and Ivory, in turn, suffered a similar fate.  Her parents never married - met only once before Ivory, as a tiny, pale-skinned baby, was left at the door to her father’s home beside the dead, split-wristed body of her mother.

Ivory’s father had never been a particularly gentle man - the ambition had washed it right out of him - but the housekeeper had already seen the child, so he couldn’t very well abandon her without ruining his pristine reputation.  So, with some amount of reluctance, he took the babe in, though she was left under the care of the housemaid - Emilia, who named the child Ivory after her pale, delicate skin.

Business was good then, so Ivory’s father didn’t bother to be rid of her.  And she never a nuisance, because from a very young age she knew there would be consequences for getting in her father’s way.

They carried on this way for a few years, and little Ivory matured faster than any of her peers - peers that she never once saw.  Ivory didn’t play with dolls, or run about the house grinning like most children her age.  Ivory learned how to make coffee just right, how to clean the house, how to do laundry.  How to stay clear of her father.

Ivory was five when the business fell, a result of bad budgeting and disregard for the great financial depression that had swept its dark hand over the nations.  That day her father came home an angry man - promptly fired the maid and knocked Ivory against a wall.  He broke into his whiskey stores and never locked them again.

An ambitious, wealthy businessman, who drowned his regrets in a drink from which he would never recover.  And a little girl, whose ivory skin was a canvas for him to paint purple and blue.

That was the same year that Ivory began her muggle schooling.

Ivory carried the bruises like a noose around her neck.  They were hidden under sleeves, pretenses, and a sullen glare.  Her face was impassive to teachers - she never answered questions in school, and anyone that tried to reach her father was received by a falsely polite man who was, to the confusion of Ivory's educators, never available.

Then two months before Ivory turned seven, the Time Warp swallowed up her world.

She awoke that morning to a musty, empty house and a trembling pit in her stomach.  And there she took her chance.  She ran the streets of London like they were her solace, for that was - indeed - what they were.  A freedom from her father, and a choice: to continue on trapped, terrified, and hidden away, or to live a life for the lowly.

And it was the lowly she chose.  For exactly two months and eleven days Ivory was as a rat off the streets.  She took santuary in staying hidden from the other wanderers, found relief in the thrown-out garbage leftovers and the hours spent observing the peculiar and expected behaviors of the passersby.  And it was then, three days before her seventh birthday - as she gazed out from her corner for something to look at - that she was found.

By Emilia, her father's old housemaid.

And with her in her little apartment she lived comfortably frugal until the arrival of that beloved, long-anticipated letter.  The morning was a symphony of wrinkling papers and Emile's shaking hands (for she - the unfortunate soul - was a squib, and had never received such an honor), and Ivory couldn't move, for she knew that once again, she would have to find a new life for herself.



It was on the first day of term - freshly sorted - that Ivory first saw him - Action Grey, sitting there in all confidence and stability.  The leader of a little pack (of wolves, they seemed, for they grinned and batted at each other like reckless little cubs), and Ivory knew in an instant that she needed to be with them.

With him.

And her wish was granted, though even now it is questioned and her validity in the group is a half-hearted joke passed between cigarettes, while Baby (for so they dubbed her) sits upon her beaten-down purple throne.  They'll defend her to the end of the line, but for the life of them they won't make the road easy on her.

And Action the least of all.

Action is the king to Baby’s lionheart.  He is the spiteful dragon holding her captive, and he breathes fire on her - the bellows of her spirit, the flame of her soul, the destroyer of her heart’s will.  As Action lives, Baby will stand by him, ever committing to her downfall by his poisoned mouth.

Her father hurt her with fists.  Action hurts her with words and his persistent nothing.  But forever she will stand by him.


→ ADDITIONAL INFORMATION.
Note: This section is optional, and is up to you to complete.

House Request: Whatever you think works best, but not Gryffindor please, as Ronnie's already a little lion cub <3

Personality: Baby's a tough cookie - strong and unafraid of telling off the boys when they screw up, a perfect little punching bag with a couple hits behind its eyes - but she's also a big softie; a mama bear if ever there was one.

Appearance: Ivory has brown hair and a pretty face.  Had she not been the way she was - had she been more keen on the company of girls than of boys - and had she not become so attached to Action, Ivory might’ve been very well-sought-after.  As it is, she is the object of affection for a few young boys - mostly eager, unassuming lads that look upon the voodoo crew with admiration and envy.

→ SAMPLE ROLEPLAY.
Please reply to one of the Sample Roleplays below.

Option 2 Response:

Ivory was not in a good mood, and it showed on her face.

Stupid Slick and his stupid flirting.  Stupid Cloudy and his stupid immature taunts (none of which, to Ivory's fury, were noticed by the other boys - where they all deaf and brainless?).  Stupid Action and his stupid, stupid messing around with her - did he not have a clue what sort of pain he caused?

But most of all, stupid Ivory for forever giving them another chance.  It was true then - she couldn't stay angry with them for long.  And especially not Action, whose boldness and lean stature sent shivers down her spine, and whose touch (though completely platonic, much to Ivory's chagrin) sent a thrilled whisper of a grin to her lips.  His voice - low and agonizingly haunted - was the bane of her otherwise firm resolve.

When it came to Action, Ivory was completely hopeless.

She'd only been with them for an hour before she had to excuse herself.  The subject of today's discussion was her least favorite - girls.  The boys were particularly awful when flaunting about the topic, and they all saw fit to brag about their exploits - how infatuated that blue-eyed Ravenclaw girl had been when they asked her to walk beside the lake with them, how star-crossed the fiery-haired Gryffindor when they kissed her.  And Ivory most definitely did not want to hear another word about Action's precious little star.

It was obvious that the summer had been kind to the boys - but it had turned its back on Baby; the hot-and-cold weather had found her chilled for a large portion of the holiday, and not even Scamp had visited her in early July when she'd been bedridden with fever for days.

Slick - her strangest annoyance, and the last person she wanted on her back - seemed to be the only one out the group who even saw her for what she was: a woman, and a pretty one at that.

And Cloudy - perhaps worst of all - wouldn't stop shooting her those awful knowing looks.  She was growing quickly tired of his careless quips and smirks in her direction, and the backhanded advice he threw at her - the winks, the smirks, the glances between her and Action, the raised eyebrows.

She had to get away from it all.

Walking through the gardens had meant to be a method to calm her down, but Ivory had never found solace in the flowers.  The petals of a rose fell individually from her fingers - wrinkled and smudged - perhaps as a twisted parody of the age-old tradition.

He loves me, he loves me not.  He loves me, he loves me not.

Ivory hadn't meant to be disturbed, and especially not by a foax-haughty, snot-smearing lad.

"Can I help you with something? It is not polite to stare."

Baby quirked an eyebrow at him.  "Neither is it polite to pretend to be something you're not," she countered.  In other circumstances, she might have been more friendly, but now, she remained red-hot and unforgiving.  "And I suppose you, too, have a reason to hide?"

They all did, didn't they?  And this boy looked especially shifty - he had the same look in his eyes that Cloudy wore when he greeted her; his actions were polite, but the shine in his eyes showed a different emotion.

Well, Ivory was sick of false pretenses.

→ ABOUT YOU.

Please list any characters you have on the site (current and previous): Ronnie Jay Beckham and Victoria Lisbeth <3

How did you find us?:  Goooooogle, I think it was


5
Suggestions & Questions / Gringotts Vault :)
« on: 19/06/2015 at 20:59 »
I will forever have questions, so forgive me <3

I was wondering about my (Ronnie's) Gringotts Account, or the lack thereof.  Is there somewhere specific that I need to go to apply for a Gringotts Account, or does it come with the acceptance of an application?  Or have I, somehow, in my searches, missed the account for Ronnie that already exists?

Basically, how do I get an account for Ronnie?

Love you guys - thanks!! *hugs forever*

6
Suggestions & Questions / Re: Vault?
« on: 19/05/2015 at 01:23 »
Ooh, I can't find mine either - is there somewhere we were supposed to apply to specifically? *ever clueless*

7
Suggestions & Questions / Re: How Many Classes???
« on: 09/05/2015 at 03:44 »
Thank you so much for you response - it was very helpful!

8
Suggestions & Questions / How Many Classes???
« on: 08/05/2015 at 23:20 »
Aaaand I'm back with another question.

I'm wondering how many classes a student can take at Hogwarts.  My character is already signed up for four, but she'd love to add Divination to the list (she's already taking Charms, Herbology, Care of Magical Creatures, and Potions).  Is that allowed, or do I need to get special permission?

Thank you all!

9
Suggestions & Questions / Re: Coding Help/Plot Pages
« on: 03/05/2015 at 08:26 »
Thank you so much - you're the best! :)

10
Suggestions & Questions / Coding Help/Plot Pages
« on: 03/05/2015 at 00:04 »
Hey, so I've just gotten started a bit ago on this wonderful site, and I've got most things figured out (I think - there's so much awesomeness, who knows what I'll run into next...), but I have one problem that I've been struggling over for days.

How on earth do I code a plot page???

I've been wanting to make a plot page since I joined, to get myself involved, but I just cannot figure out how to make it look awesome like everybody else's.  I've been working on "decoding" the code and trying to figure out how it works, but I haven't had much success.  Is there anyone who would be kind enough to tutor me?  I am so lost.

11

Application for Hogwarts School




→ CHARACTER INFORMATION.
Name:
Ronnie Jay Beckham

Birthday:
October 11th, 1931

Hometown:
Bibury, England

Bloodline:
Halfblood (Great-great-grandmother on her mother's side was a muggle)

Magical Strength (pick one):
Charms

Magical Weakness (pick one):
Conjuring & Summoning

Year (pick two):
3rd Year (Alternatively 2nd or 4th)

Biography:
Ronnie grew up in the small, but beautiful, town of Bibury, England.  Born of Rupert Beckham and Imogen (Davis) Beckham, she has four younger siblings - William, Mabel, Joy, and Annabel.  Her family, coming from a very small village, was poor to (at the time) modern standards, though they got along just fine in their village with their garden, chickens, cows, and horses.  However, due to this separation in cultures, Ronnie was taught from an early age the importance of money conservation, as her parents hoped just as much as Ronnie did that she would be given an opportunity for a job in a larger city one day.  Ronnie’s dream is to become a healer after she graduates from school.  She is very excited to take classes at Hogwarts, especially Herbology and the Care of Magical Creatures.  Ronnie is naturally drawn to nature, and so was a major caretaker of the living creatures that her family owned.  She seemed to have a “magic touch” with both the animals and the plants, and always had a knack for the healer’s art.  The stream that ran along the edge of Bibury, England, was a favorite playplace of Ronnie’s as a child, and she spent many hours by the shore, constructing flimsy leaf and twig boats and watching the water.  Partially due to these long hours by the water, Ronnie is the standing champion for stone-skipping in her village.  Ronnie absolutely hates to be scolded, especially when she knows she’s done nothing wrong.  She’s a bit afraid of adults, even though they generally consider her respectable and well-mannered.  Ronnie seems to always follow the rules, though she has her rebellious moments.  Ronnie, though odd and an introvert, has never been persistently bullied, because of her keen ability to ignore taunts and accept herself the way she is.  Her wand is Vine with Unicorn Core, Ten and Three Quarter Inches, Supple, according to the Pottermore test.

→ ADDITIONAL INFORMATION.
Note: This section is optional, and is up to you to complete.

House Request:
Hufflepuff or Ravenclaw

Personality:
Ronnie is reasonably kind and friendly, and tries her best to include everyone.  Though she may not be friends with everyone, she often quietly goes out of her way to make a fellow student feel welcome.  The eldest of five and the main caretaker of her family’s two horses, Ronnie is accustomed to the behaviors of children and animals, and they generally feel safe around her.  Ronnie is practical, and several times she has been described as “earthy”.  Good to have in an emergency, Ronnie is quick to leap into action and find a solution.  Ronnie is dependable and a hard worker.  Though a bit of a homebody at heart, Ronnie will rise to a challenge when the situation calls for it.  Ronnie is afraid that she will die unloved or unloving, and that she will be unable to help when someone special to her is in trouble.  She is an introvert, but not usually shy.  Ronnie is naturally sympathetic, but will not baby anyone who doesn’t deserve it and will not tolerate unnecessary complaining.

Appearance:
Ronnie has straight brown hair that falls just below her shoulders, and hazel eyes that turn brown when angry, sad, or deep in thought.  Ronnie is thin, and her height is (at age 13-14) 5 feet and 2 inches, or about 157 cm.  She has a pleasant face, with a longish oval shape.  She has a few freckles sprinkled across her nose and cheeks.  Ronnie is completely satisfied with her appearance.  She isn’t prideful about her physical strengths, nor is she ashamed of her flaws.  She isn’t vain, and while she takes care to treat her body well, she doesn’t flaunt it or hide it, and understands that all she can be is herself.  Her peers, girls and boys alike (though in different ways), admire her for this silent confidence.

→ SAMPLE ROLEPLAY.
Please reply to one of the Sample Roleplays below.

Blimey, the Great Hall was packed. It seemed like everywhere a guy looked there was some clown waving around a House banner or yelling about the game.

'Can you believe it?' 'No way!' 'This must be the biggest upset in Hogwarts Quidditch history...'

Stupid Quidditch.

James flopped into an empty seat at the end of the table, shoved an empty plate out of the way, and let his head sink onto his crossed arms, squishing his freckled nose down flat against the tabletop. He wasn't sure why he'd even bothered to come here, since he definitely wasn't hungry. He'd probably never eat again, in fact. He didn't deserve to eat. He hadn't stopped in the locker room to change out of his muddy, sweaty uniform after the game either, because he was pretty sure he probably didn't deserve to be clean too; and anyway he couldn't stand to see the looks on his team mates' faces after he blew their chance at winning one of the biggest games they had ever played.

Just one lousy shot. That's all it would have taken. If he could have just got that one stupid foul shot to go through that one stupid hoop, they could have won and he wouldn't have been the biggest blockhead in the entire school.

As if to prove the point, half the people at the next table suddenly broke into a loud victory chant. James pressed his face further into his arms to hide the bright red blotches he could feel creeping up his cheeks. That was it. He was just going to have to run away and move to Nova Scotia. He'd just cost the three-year-in-a-row Champions the Quidditch Cup! How do you ever live that one down for crying out loud? He was only a second year and he was going to spend the rest of his life as 'that dumb cry-baby kid who dropped the Quaffle!'

It felt like every set of eyes in the room was boring into him, and James couldn't stand it anymore. He jerked himself back up from the table and stomped right back out of the Hall the same way he had come in. As he stormed into the quieter hallway outside, he could hear footsteps somewhere behind him. James rounded on the sound and began to shout, his brown eyes shining with tears. "WHAT! Haven't you ever seen a loser before? Why don't you just take a picture!"


Ronnie looked up from her book and tried to be annoyed at the loud victory chants that were interrupting her reading.  They'd won, and it was about time, too.  Most of her fellow house students were becoming sore and weary of being called the wimpiest house in the school, and only because they'd missed the cut for the House Cup five years in a row.  But this time, with the Quidditch Cup well within their reach, victory was becoming more and more likely, and Ronnie couldn't say that she was upset about it.

Of course, she was no fool.  She'd seen the way the Beater Ruben Merrick had been staring at that young Chaser, James, eyes unblinking and lips moving and wand poking out of his sleeve.  She knew he'd jinxed him to drop that ball.  Her eyes narrowed and her nose scrunched up in distaste.  She hated cheaters more than she liked winning, and she knew how hard James had worked in order to live up to his title as Chaser.  After all, he was only a second year, and looked younger.

And there he was, on the next table over, sitting with his head in his hands and tensed up like he was trying to go unnoticed.  So much for that idea.  He stuck out like a sore thumb in his sweaty Quidditch uniform, and every student that walked past him either scowled or smirked in his direction.  It seemed no one else had been watching Ruben Merrick so suspiciously as she had, as she expected it to be.  Who else would pay any mind to a stuck up Beater who had broken poor Leslie Baker's heart than her?

Ronnie stood, worn Herbology book in hand, and half stepping in James' direction, as if staring would somehow make him feel better.  But before she would wind up her courage and go sit by the poor boy, he suddenly jerked out of his seat and stormed off toward the exit, face blotched all red and white, as if he couldn't decide if he were angry or going to be sick.

As anyone whose lifelong dream was to become a doctor would, she ran right after him, certain that he was going to vomit all over himself.

The silence of the halls seemed deafening compared to the noisy celebratory feast, and her feet pattered faster on the stone walls when James rounded a corner and disappeared out of sight.

"WHAT!"

Ronnie startled, hand flying subconsciously to the wand secured in a pocket in her robe upon turning the corner only to be greeted by James' blotchy and tear-streaked face.  He wasn't sick, she realized.  He was merely crying.

"Haven't you ever seen a loser before? Why don't you just take a picture!"

Ronnie cocked her head to the side, lips pursed together at his words.  "I..." she began, then stopped.  What on earth do you say to someone who's upset? When her mind came up blank, she sighed and settled for a hesitant, "Are you alright?"

→ ABOUT YOU.

Please list any characters you have on the site (current and previous):
Ronnie is my only character, though I intend to create a character for Elsewhere sometime soon.

How did you find us?:
Google - I wanted a good RP Hogwarts site, and this was the best one I saw :)


I hope that was better this time  :-\  Let me know if I need to change anything else, and I'll get right on it.

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(Sorry it's a bit long)


CHARACTER

Name:
Ronnie Jay Beckham

Birthday:
11th of October, 1931 (or a different year if needed)

Hometown:
Bibury, England

Bloodline:
Halfblood (Great-great-grandmother was a muggle)

Magical Strength:
Charms

Magical Weakness:
Conjuring & Summoning

Year (pick two):
3rd year (alternatively 2nd or 4th)

Biography:
Ronnie grew up in the small, but beautiful, town of Bibury, England.  Born of Rupert Beckham and Imogen (Davis) Beckham, she has four younger siblings - William, Mabel, Joy, and Annabel.  Her family, coming from a very small village, was poor to (at the time) modern standards, though they got along just fine in their village with their garden, chickens, cows, and horses.  However, due to this separation in cultures, Ronnie was taught from an early age the importance of money conservation, as her parents hoped just as much as Ronnie did that she would be given an opportunity for a job in a larger city one day.  Ronnie’s dream is to become a healer after she graduates from school.  She is very excited to take classes at Hogwarts, especially Herbology and the Care of Magical Creatures.  Ronnie is naturally drawn to nature, and so was a major caretaker of the living creatures that her family owned.  She seemed to have a “magic touch” with both the animals and the plants, and always had a knack for the healer’s art.  The stream that ran along the edge of Bibury, England, was a favorite playplace of Ronnie’s as a child, and she spent many hours by the shore, constructing flimsy leaf and twig boats and watching the water.  Partially due to these long hours by the water, Ronnie is the standing champion for stone-skipping in her village.  Ronnie absolutely hates to be scolded, especially when she knows she’s done nothing wrong.  She’s a bit afraid of adults, even though they generally consider her respectable and well-mannered.  Ronnie seems to always follow the rules, though she has her rebellious moments.  For a few weeks as a child, Ronnie was bullied, though to this day she doesn’t know exactly why, and nor does she care, because they stopped after not too long, realizing that Ronnie wasn’t affected by their taunts.

House Request:
Hufflepuff, though any house except Slytherin would fit her personality pretty well.  She isn’t all that ambitious.

Personality:
Ronnie is kind and friendly, and tries her best to include everyone.  Though she may not be friends with everyone, she often quietly goes out of her way to make a fellow student feel welcome.  The eldest of five and the main caretaker of her family’s two horses, Ronnie is accustomed to the behaviors of children and animals, and they generally feel safe around her.  Ronnie is practical, and several times she has been described as “earthy”.  Good to have in an emergency, Ronnie is quick to leap into action and find a solution.  Ronnie is dependable and a hard worker.  Though a bit of a homebody at heart, Ronnie will rise to a challenge when the situation calls for it.  Ronnie is afraid that she will die unloved or unloving, and that she will be unable to help when someone special to her is in trouble.  She is an introvert, but not usually shy.  Ronnie is naturally sympathetic, but will not baby anyone who doesn’t deserve it and will not tolerate unnecessary complaining.

Appearance:
Ronnie has straight brown hair that falls just below her shoulders, and hazel eyes that turn brown when angry, sad, or deep in thought.  Ronnie is thin, and her height is (at age 13-14) 5 feet and 2 inches, or about 157 cm.  She has a pleasant face, with a longish oval shape.  She has a few freckles sprinkled across her nose and cheeks.  Ronnie is completely satisfied in her appearance.  She isn’t prideful about her physical strengths, nor is she ashamed of her flaws.  She isn’t vain, and while she takes care to treat her body well, she doesn’t flaunt it or hide it, and understands that all she can be is herself.  Her peers, girls and boys alike (though in different ways), admire her for this silent confidence.

SAMPLE ROLEPLAY
Option I:


Blimey, the Great Hall was packed. It seemed like everywhere a guy looked there was some clown waving around a House banner or yelling about the game.

'Can you believe it?' 'No way!' 'This must be the biggest upset in Hogwarts Quidditch history...'

Stupid Quidditch.

James flopped into an empty seat at the end of the table, shoved an empty plate out of the way, and let his head sink onto his crossed arms, squishing his freckled nose down flat against the tabletop. He wasn't sure why he'd even bothered to come here, since he definitely wasn't hungry. He'd probably never eat again, in fact. He didn't deserve to eat. He hadn't stopped in the locker room to change out of his muddy, sweaty uniform after the game either, because he was pretty sure he probably didn't deserve to be clean too; and anyway he couldn't stand to see the looks on his team mates' faces after he blew their chance at winning one of the biggest games they had ever played.

Just one lousy shot. That's all it would have taken. If he could have just got that one stupid foul shot to go through that one stupid hoop, they could have won and he wouldn't have been the biggest blockhead in the entire school.

As if to prove the point, half the people at the next table suddenly broke into a loud victory chant. James pressed his face further into his arms to hide the bright red blotches he could feel creeping up his cheeks. That was it. He was just going to have to run away and move to Nova Scotia. He'd just cost the three-year-in-a-row Champions the Quidditch Cup! How do you ever live that one down for crying out loud? He was only a second year and he was going to spend the rest of his life as 'that dumb cry-baby kid who dropped the Quaffle!'

It felt like every set of eyes in the room was boring into him, and James couldn't stand it anymore. He jerked himself back up from the table and stomped right back out of the Hall the same way he had come in. As he stormed into the quieter hallway outside, he could hear footsteps somewhere behind him. James rounded on the sound and began to shout, his brown eyes shining with tears. "WHAT! Haven't you ever seen a loser before? Why don't you just take a picture!"


Ronnie jumped and turned around in her seat, half-eaten pastry forgotten, as she felt an unexpected breeze brush past her.  She frowned at the dark-haired boy dashing out away from the Great Hall celebration, shook her head, and made to turn back to her food, but just as she was reaching for her treat again, a flash of red flickered in the corner of her eye.  Curious, she glanced backwards again, just in time to see the fleeing boy’s scarf glide to the ground.

Ronnie was suddenly reminded of when she was nine, and she’d accidentally dropped her only scarf in the river nearby her home.  She’d been devastated - and cold.  Just thinking about it made her shiver.  She did like scarves, and she didn’t like being cold.

After one last glance at her lemon tart and silently promising that she’d return for it, Ronnie scooped the scarf off the ground and jogged after the boy.  It was harder than it looked; there were a lot of students moving around, and her target was moving fast.

As Ronnie left the feast and entered the outer hall, she couldn’t help but be a bit disturbed at the stillness.  All she could hear were her footsteps, the dim sounds of the celebration behind her, and...a sort of half-choking sound that she immediately recognized.  The boy was crying.  She ran faster.  He obviously needed more than a scarf; he needed a friend.

He must have heard her coming, because he he whirled around, just as quickly and unexpectedly as when he first whizzed past her chair and shouted, “WHAT!  Haven’t you ever seen a loser before?  Why don’t you just take a picture!”

Ronnie stopped in her tracks, half afraid he’d try to jinx her with that wand she could see poking out of his sleeve, and half afraid he’d start running again - they hadn’t gone that far, but she was already exhausted.  It was all those desserts she’d eaten, she was sure.

For the first time, Ronnie noticed his distinct attire - he was a quidditch player.  He was...wait a minute!  He was that poor boy who’d accidentally dropped the ball!  Ronnie winced as she remembered the loud “boooo” that had come from his own teammates at the mistake and recalled one boy who’d actually thrown his binoculars across the field in the boy’s direction.  Suddenly his crying didn’t seem as unexpected.

“I’m Ronnie,” she said, without thinking about it.  There was no reason for her to introduce herself just to return a scarf, and he certainly hadn’t been yelling just a minute earlier for the sake of learning her name, but it felt right.  She brushed off his scarf and held it out.  “And you forgot your scarf.”


ABOUT YOU

Please list any characters you have  on the site:
Ronnie is my only character, though I intend to create a character for Elsewhere sometime soon.

How did you find us?:
Google - I wanted a good RP Hogwarts site, and this was the best one I saw :)

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