Hogwarts School: A Harry Potter RPG

CHARACTER INFORMATION
Character Name: Persephone Lyra Grimsbane
Gender: Female
Age: 20 (December 31, 1951)
Blood Status: Muggleborn

Education:
Hogwarts - Hufflepuff

Residence:
London

Occupation
Unemployed

Do you plan to have a connection to a particular existing place (for example: the Ministry, Shrieking Shack) or to take over an existing shop in need of new management?
The Ministry of Magic or St. Mungo's (still deciding).

Requested Magic Levels:

• Charms: 11
• Divination: 5
• Transfiguration: 9
• Summoning: 7

Do you wish to be approved as a group with any other characters? If so who and for what IC reason?
N/A

Please list any other characters you already have at the site:
Ruth Elliot.

Biography: (300 words minimum.)
Poppy was born to a pair of muggle farmers out in the British countryside. She was the fifth of seven children born to the couple and it became evident early on that she was not like the others. Strange things happened to the crops whenever she was around and the animals sometimes took on colours more in line with the little girl's fancies. Her parents had worked fiercely to make her suppress her magic, trying everything from praise and rewards to punishments that would make even the most stubborn of children yield. When her Hogwarts letter came, her mother wept bitterly for days, realising they had lost the fight and their daughter. It was around this time that the dynamic between her and her siblings began to shift. They grew fearful or jealous--sometimes both--and began excluding her around the farmhouse.

At Hogwarts, she was recognised for her spirit of loyalty and hard work when the hat sorted her into Hufflepuff. While everything was new to her, Poppy put her head down and did what she knew she had to. Soon she found she liked the work and the distraction it offered. Most of it didn't come easy in the first few years and the deafening silence from her home only worsened her intermittent feelings of isolation. She didn't always feel she belonged among the magical given her rudimentary (at best) understanding of their world but she no longer fit in back home. By her fourth year, she was no longer invited home for Christmas breaks and was encouraged to go to Camp Loki in the summers. When her older siblings moved off the farm, they left no means for her to contact them.

After graduating, her parents grudgingly took her back in but the wall that existed between them had become difficult to ignore. There was an uneasy peace in the home, one that was fragile at best and set to crumble at the slightest provocation. Her parents, knowing nothing of her education, feared her magic was as chaotic as they remembered and worried for their two youngest children still at home. Like she'd done back at Hogwarts, Poppy sucked in her trepidations and put herself to work. She smiled through the pain of their disparaging comments, and readily volunteered for the things they could no longer do as easily due to their old age. In her free time, she sent out applications for other work but without the necessary muggle qualifications, she was turned down at every juncture.

Finally having had enough, Poppy packed the little she owned and some of the money from her parents' saving jar in the kitchen. She hitched rides all the way to London with the hope of a new future sparkling in her eyes. Poppy remembered her friends talking about the ministry and remembered the loose plans she'd harboured herself of one day working there. The young woman found the cheapest flat she could--nothing glamourous but it would do--and threw her application into the ring, knowing it was her only hope if she didn't want to have to return to Grimsbane Farm.

Roleplay: 
You come across one of these posts on the site. Please select one & reply as your character:

Option Two -
The snow had been falling steadily all morning and it didn't look like it was going to stop any time soon. Joshua Campbell scrunched his face up in a frown as he lifted his gaze to look to the sky. Snow. It really was quite a bother.

And it certainly didn't make it better that Diagon Alley seemed to be getting more and more crowded. Joshua sighed and pointed his wand at the large box that was currently placed on the doorstep of his shop. He had to get going. He had an order to deliver.

"Wingardium Leviosa!" The elderly man muttered and watched the box hover in the air for a moment. Honestly, did St. Mungo's really need that much tinsel? And with glitter of all things? He sighed again. If it hadn't been for the rather convincing stamp on the order, he would have been likely to believe it had been a prank by one of those orphaned rascals living up there.

Oh well, there was no point in waiting. Joshua deftly stirred the box down the doorstep and out onto the street, carefully levitating it above the heads of the crowd.

"Coming through! Coming through!" His voice sounded over the chatter of the crowd. "Keep out! Move ahead! Go on!" This was going way too slow. People were in the way and walking like they had all day! He huffed. Luckily the road was down hill.

"Coming through! Coming th--- arrrgh!" Joshua let out a loud shout as his feet suddenly slipped in the snow and sent him, the box, and several long strands of tinsel tumbling into the person who had been walking in front of him.

"For Merlin's sake!" Joshua muttered angrily as he hurried to his feet again, red and gold tinsel now decorating his black coat. "I am so sorry! This blasted snow!" He looked apologetic at the person he had crashed into.

Roleplay Response:
Diagon Alley had always been a magical place. While it hadn't been a particularly charming outing at the time, Poppy now looked back at her first trip to the shopping district with a warm and whimsical stirring in the pit of her stomach. The sheet of snow blanketing the ground elicited a hidden sense of romanticism within her, transporting her to another time and place where bills weren't piling up and she wasn't looking eviction in the face.

As she meandered down the street, Poppy lost herself in the familiar hum of people walking by, engrossed in their own business for the day. Despite the beauty to be found at every corner, winter had always been the hardest time for her. It was cold and most people were busy with their families.

Poppy clutched the letter in her hand tightly to her chest, her heart thumping maddeningly with each step that took her to the owl post. It had taken months for her to crop up the courage to write it but with each step she took, the young woman became less certain she should have it sent off. Would her parents accept the words written on the parchment? Would it change anything? Almost certainly, it would not.

Coming through! Coming th--- arrrgh!

She had no time to react. A box, some tinsel and a man all came crashing down on her. The quick cast of protego was the only thing that prevented her from being crushed to nothing. Eyes wide, Poppy fumbled her way to her feet, already vomiting out every apology she could conjure while she tried to right herself and clear her mind. It never occurred to her she wasn't at fault; by now, saying sorry was an automatic reaction.

"Are you alright?" she asked, casting a featherlight charm on the box before lifting it to hand it back. "You're not hurt are you? D-Do you need some help?" She bit her lower lip as she took in the old man, hesitant with her next words. "If something's broken...I could probably try to fix it. But you...might not want me to."

The letter would have to wait.