E L S E W H E R E C H I L D
CHARACTER INFORMATIONCharacter Name: Alder Foxglove
Gender: Male
Age: Thirteen
Bloodline:Halfblood
Parents/Guardians (Are they currently played characters?): Aunt Penelope (NPC)
Residence:Hogsmeade now, originally Isle of Man
Do you plan to have a connection to a particular existing place (for example: the daycare)?Alder is a Hogwarts student
Do you wish to be approved as a group with any other characters? If so who and for what IC reason? No thanks
Please list any other characters you already have at the site:Shirley, Robbie and Ophelia
Biography:Hey there.
I’m Alder - the
other Foxglove.
My early story is quite a sad one, though if you’ve met either my brother or my aunt, you’ve probably heard it by now.
My mum died when I was five, my dad a few years later. Willow, our older sister, left us at the Hogsmeade Children’s Home and never came back. Can’t say I blame her though; looking after three young kids doesn’t sound like fun at all.
They were kind at the Children’s Home, mostly. The sheets, walls and blankets were all the same shade of washed-out beige. Also, all of our cots were in one big room. Holly slept with the girls, which was lucky for her because none of them probably snored like the boys did. They were messy too and Robbie was the worst of the whole bloody lot.
Anyway, I don’t remember much about our time there. I was too young. I do remember one of the older girls sometimes bought us ice cream in return for carrying her parcels, but that was about it.
Oh, and there was a sycamore tree right outside our window, with lots of birds that woke us in the morning.
Then Aunt Penelope found us and we left the big tree and the dull sheets behind when we followed her North.
Norway was nicer, if a bit odd. The castle at Gokstad used to groan most of the time, especially in the winter when the wind rattled the ancient walls. It was dark too, so dark that we had to stay indoors all during the winter. I didn’t really mind it; there was a huge library and I’d just started Arithmancy lessons, so that kept me pretty busy. Numbers are the same, regardless of where you go, so I never had to figure out how to do any of the homework in Norwegian.
In the summer, they used to play a lot of Quidditch but because the teams couldn’t really practice during the winter, they were all pretty shit. I never joined a team, but they still let me use the team brooms for flying. That was the part I really liked, so Auntie bought me a broom of my own for my birthday. Of course, after flying on mine a few times, Robbie had to get one of his own as well.
(He got his broom two days after
my twelfth birthday, even though he’d just had his birthday the month before and Christmas was coming up, too.)
At least he’s a bit better at Quidditch now, so it keeps him happy and out of trouble.
After Norway there was Hogsmeade (again). This time, Auntie decided she wanted to write a book about all her adventures. It’s probably not going too well, really, since she now spends most of her days shopping in Hogsmeade. We waited for a few months before we could start at Hogwarts and during that time, I had two tutors - one for Potions (at which I am finally getting better) and another for Divination (at which I am still very
very shit).
Finally, after all of that, I’m at Hogwarts.
Ravenclaw, if that means anything to you. And I must say, it’s not all that bad. The weather is much nicer, and I’m even able to take a Magical Cooking class. Seriously, if you’ve ever tasted Auntie’s cooking, you’d realise why it’s so important to start teaching adult life skills at school.
The only thing I can complain about is the Herbology department. Since it’s so much warmer than at Gokstad, I was expecting a bit more from the Hogwarts syllabus and lessons. The greenhouses could do with a bit more upkeep as well; I’m sure I’ve spotted Doxies in at least one of the storage rooms.
Seriously, it’s a disgrace.
Roleplay Response:This was the last time he attended one of these Hogsmeade weekends.
The last bloody time.
There was no point visiting Hogsmeade when it was the same town where he spent Christmas and Easter holidays. The town didn’t magically morph into something super special during these trips - no, it remained the same sleepy town with the same shops and the same people asking him how his aunt was.
Honestly, he could have had most of the castle to himself this weekend. There would have been no older students, which meant no prefects and that held an allure all of its own. All of the library would have been his, along with all the dessert he could manage and probably the Prefects bathroom too.
(Though he hadn’t managed to sneak into the latter just yet, he was confident he’d manage it sometime soon. He had more than half a brain, after all, and a whole arsenal of untested spells.)
The only thing that Hogsmeade had going for it was its ice cream, and he couldn’t even enjoy that. Instead of diving into three scoops of cinder toffee delight, he was stuck here, on this very bench, waiting for his stupid brother to come and fetch the tube of Blemish Blaster that his aunt had ordered all the way from London.
And why, pray tell, couldn’t Rowan Bloody Foxglove not go and pick up his damn cream himself?
Because he didn’t want Tawnie to see, obviously.And where exactly was his darling brother right now, as Alder was melting on the bench while listening to children squeal and screech?
Probably in a tea shop or something equally stupid, snogging the poor girl's face off.Alder was so wrapped up in his inner monologue that he never saw the young girl shoving the broom into a pile of dirt. The voice that followed the entire spectacle jumped out at him, leaving the boy to bark a reply of his own.
“No, I do
not want to play.”
Getting to his feet, he flung the brown paper bag containing the tiny tube onto the bench before reaching for his wallet.
“But I want to get some ice cream
right now, and you’re having some too.”
He paused, realising that the small girl standing in front of him was a complete stranger.
“I’m Alder,” he said as he pulled out a few sickles. “What’s your name, then?”
OTHERHow did you find us?
Can't remember... 
