GRACE, evelyn marie

name: evelyn marie grace
age/year: sixteen / sixth
date of birth: january first
house/occupation: hufflepuff
bloodstatus: muggleborn
wands: cherrywood, 11 inches, merfolk hair
broom: nimbus 2001

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height: 5'7"
weight: 124
general description:  Evelyn generally wears her hair in a side braid or bun letting her hair fall freely. Other wise, she wears her hair down unstraightened. Her hair is fro the most part straight but has a few waves throughout it. Evelyn wears very little makeup, not seeing a real need for it. Her style is heavily based upon her desire to be comfortable. Therefore, she wears slouchy sweaters, skinny jeans, ruffled flannels, band t-shirts, and normally a worn down pair of moccasins or flats. She often refers to what she wears as being 'hobo chic'. 
face claim: brit marling

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likes: the smell of black coffee, rain drops on roses, whiskers on kittens, muggle comedy, thumbing through dragonology theory textbooks, exploring ruins, writing papers about what she loves, riding her bike places, flying, studying ancient history, listening to peter and the wolf, quidditch, animals
dislikes: dysfunction, failing to pass classes, cream and sugar in cold coffee, people who lack logic, people unable to argue a point cleanly, meat and potato type meals, awkward social situations, lack of common curiosity, people who disrespect due to house, fear
strengths: her connection to animals, her sympathy towards peoples' issues, determination, creativity
weaknesses: depression, distrust of people, bad study habits, her past, social anxiety
dementor: the car crash she had experienced as a child
boggart: losing her grandmother
mirror of erised: maintaing her grades, incorporating her loves into a career after Hogwarts, being accepted by other people
amortentia: petrichor, book binding, rosemary, fresh ground coffee
veritaserum her depression, the nature of her childhood, her insecurities, 

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mother: susan marie greystone - muggle
father: geoffrey james grace - muggle - deceased
siblings: none
pets: a turkish van cat named simon
history: Geoffrey Grace grew up living in a small apartment New York with his parents. His family wasn't particularly well off with both of his parents being teachers at a local high school. During his childhood he didn't have access to things other children seemed to. Geoffrey never received the latest and greatest toys for Christmas. Instead, he loved to read. His father was an English teacher while his mother was a European history teacher. This meant that the Grace family's attic was filled with all sorts of books. He gained a great knowledge about things and fell in love as easily with history as he did with fantasy. There was always a thought floating around Geoffrey's mind as a child that magic existed. Being a muggle, he never was exposed to the world his daughter would soon be. Geoffrey also gained a love of investigation and writing. Before he went to college, Geoffrey and his parents moved London. The family felt as though they were in a rut but they were fairly adventurous people loving the unknown. This move meant that Geoffrey went to college in England where he majored in journalism with a minor in history. While there, Geoffrey met Susan Greystone.

Susan was a fine arts major with an emphasis on painting. Her parents were an accountant and a violist who stood behind her desire to paint. Her childhood was filled with her imagination and the worlds she could create with a brush. The Greystone family, like the Graces, had a comfortable living. During Christmas, Susan never really asked for toys. She preferred books and sketchpad. They didn't limit the imagination. Besides her love of literature and painting, she had a connection to animals. She would talk to animals that were here her house and at her school. This made her seem like an outsider to her classmates but nothing made her happier. When Susan went to college, she had a hard time deciding whether to major in biology or painting. She figured that by majoring in art she still could have a connection to animals by painting them and drawing them into her own world. When she met Geoffrey she couldn't have been happier. The two were both in love with reading and the power of imagination. These two mutual interests lead them marriage after they graduated from university. Once married, Geoffrey and Susan moved to a flat in the center of London to be apart of the cities culture as well as having better job opportunities.

Susan became pregnant three years into their marriage. They had waited for Geoffrey's job to stabilize when he became an editor for a magazine in London. Although they had always wanted children from the beginning of their marriage, the two knew that they couldn't solely live from the revenue generated by Susan's paintings. She would paint not only as a hobby but was often commissioned to do work for companies. When Susan got these opportunities, the couple would see a boom of income. Susan sold her paintings in galleries as well as to street venders. With the exis money that they had gotten from Geoffrey's new salary, Susan and Geoffrey moved to a suburb outside of London. The two still continued their previous employment but both understood the change in committing. They decided to purchase a large brick house in the country wanting their child to have the childhood they didn't. Geoffrey and Susan wanted their daughter to always be apart of nature and not to be limited by city life. The house that they bought was surrounded by forest. Evelyn's birth fulfilled all that Geoffrey and Susan tried to achieve.

Life seemed to be perfect as Evelyn grew up. After the first three years of her life, her parents decided to have another child. Complications in Susan's pregnancy began to arise. This problem became a miscarriage that eventually changed Susan's outlook on life. She began to drink which was later diagnosed as depression based. When she had been in this state, she stopped painting all together. Although the family didn't gain lots of money from her business, this changed their dynamic. Susan began to drift farther away from Evelyn and Geoffrey staying locked in their home's attic. Helena, Susan's mother, moved into the house to help support the family through this hard time. The warmth that Helena brought the family, she became a second mother to Evelyn. Helena's role in the Grace family finally helped Susan cope with her condition.

Evelyn was enrolled in muggle school until the age of eleven. She never quite understood school's importance and why she needed to understand fractions and sentence structure but still reluctantly stayed enrolled. Evelyn's quiet nature was not helpful in making friends. But in addition to this, the children in her school noticed oddities about her. Her distrust of people stemming from the dysfunction of her relationship with her mother was perfectly evident, but in addition to this she had a strange way about animals. During recess she would talk to the squirrels and the birds. The elementary school that Evelyn went to had a play area that opened to a forest. She would get lost looking up into the trees and playing with the woodland creatures. Evelyn began to keep a diary of when she went into this forest. She journaled about what she saw there and what she encountered. Many of her journals had pictures of the animals she met along the way. The animals that Evelyn was particularly fond of were lizards. She loved letting them climb up and down her arms with their scaly feet. Animals seemed to have an unjudging, unhateful air about them. They were different then humans. They seemed to understand her. The cruelty conveyed by her classmates pushed her human relations farther away. She was bullied as a child. The love of animals that Evelyn felt was noticed by the other children of her school. They would make fun of her and call her names.

She also developed a love of history when the Grace family went away on holiday. Evelyn's favorite place that they had visited was when they went to Rome. Even as a small child, she was perfectly content skipping around ancient ruins and learning about their history. One of the things that Evelyn found most enjoyable about exploring ruins was seeing how they had almost become apart of nature themselves. The undergrowth of the area they were wrapped around the buildings and cobblestones. It delighted Evelyn that the native animals almost seemed like they were residents of the forgotten land. 

Just as Susan began to recover, Evelyn and her father were in a car accident when she was seven. On a drive back from London, a car ignored a stop sign and collided with their car. This accident left Geoffrey in a bad condition, hospitalizing him for a month before his death. Evelyn was lucky however. The passenger door her father's car cut into her side. Unlike her father, Evelyn's injuries were healed leaving a long, jagged scar on her right side extending from just above her hip to her under her arm pit. Geoffrey had been pierced by the broken glass from the shattered windshield. The air bag on his side had failed to work, therefore the damage that he had received outweighed what Evelyn endured.

Devastated by the crash, Susan slipped back into her old habits. She drank more and more as her depression worsened. She considered suicide until Helena enrolled her in rehab. Susan was diagnosed with alcoholism one year after Geoffrey's death. All this did was further extend Evelyn's issues with people. Evelyn was later diagnosed with depression like her mother. Susan's condition, how she was treated at school, as well as the death of her father all lead to this. In order to cope, Evelyn escaped into the forest for several hours at a time, staring into the canopy of trees above her listening to the chirp of animals and the rustling of leaves. Many nights Evelyn would sleep in the forest. Her trust for the area as well as her accident lead her not to fear death. She believed in the good of animals and the comfort they could provide. Helena understood this part of her. However, not wanting to lose another family member, Helena would often try to go to the forest with her. Evelyn first resisted to the idea but then believed that having another person to confide with would be helpful. They would walk through the forest together and talk. Helena always told her "this too shall pass". This quote helped Evelyn through the tough times she experienced as a child. Evelyn began to trust people little by little. Her grandmother had showed her that positive things can come out relationships.

Helena showed Evelyn how to paint. She believed that like her mother, Evelyn would find joy and comfort in creating her own world through painting. This became apart of her loves. Evelyn began to paint in the forest. She loved to create paintings of what she saw there; the trees, plants, animals, and the sun breaking from the trees. What painting also gave Evelyn was a connection to her mother. Helena didn't want Evelyn to see her mother until she was better, instead she just assured Evelyn that the situation was alright. Painting gave Evelyn further proof that everything was going to be fine. It helped her cope with her own depression and gave her hope for the future. It gave her hope about the situation and her mother because Helena told Evelyn that her mother had started to paint again. Painting seemed like a way to recovery to Evelyn, a sense of security.

When Evelyn turned eleven, she received her Hogwarts letter. It was hard for Helena and her to take this in. It seemed odd that a little girl born to two muggles would really have magic coursing through her veins. When she went to Hogwarts, she finally felt accepted by others. She was delighted that there was a whole class about magical animals that allowed her to enter the Forbidden Forest as well as a class about ancient ruins. Evelyn was sorted into Hufflepuff. She was brave however her distrust of people had lead her to be sorted into another house. The Sorting Hat also noticed that although Evelyn was intelligent, she didn't have the great work ethic that most Ravenclaw students had. Her love of animals and hope for better futures lead her to be sorted into Hufflepuff. She felt at home with these people. They often weren't the most popular in the school but they all had so many different quirks and opinions from each other. To Evelyn, the other houses seemed to be filled with like minded people however Hufflepuff seemed free. You could be who you wanted to be without being discouraged.

On holiday, Evelyn would leave Hogwarts to visit her grandmother in the outskirts of London. She would paint pictures of the forest while there for hours on end. Evelyn found that when she went to school, she didn't have the time to paint like she used to. However, Hogwarts had given her a place to learn more about mythical creatures and history. Theses interests were greater developed at school so painting became more of a hobby to her. In addition to this, Evelyn gained a passion particularly of dragons over other animals. Evelyn's time at Hogwarts was also filled with not only school work but quidditch. She was a chaser on the Hufflepuff team and road a Nimbus 2001. She found that this broom stick was the perfect one for her needs. Although it's handling was not as good as other broomsticks, it was still one of the fastest. Money also became an issue when buying her broomstick. Because she was muggleborn, her family didn't have money waiting for when she went to Hogwarts. Her grandmother gave her money to convert but it wasn't a lot. Evelyn got a job at Tomes and Scrolls in Hogsmeade to cover her expenses. Despite her balance of school work, her job, and quidditch, her grades did not suffer. 

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alias: emma
age: eighteen
experience: nine
sample: Madilee walked down the sidewalk. She reached a hand down into the pocket of her shorts pulling a scratched iPod from it. She stuffed the ears plugs into her head. She really had no idea what she was listening to, it was just another thing that she had downloaded off her brother's account, not bothering to pay the 99 cents. She had that sort of habit. Her lack of care about what she was listening to stemmed from her general personality. I guess that is why she first came to Hawaii. The statement "hang loose" had almost became a sort of mantra for her that had trickled down through all aspects of her life. The sweater that hung off one shoulder covering her bikini hadn't been washed for weeks now. But it wasn't like people would notice let alone care. Madilee hadn't properly fixed her hair for several days now, letting it hang loose at her shoulders. The lack of care she had given it meant that she had a sort of beach wave cascading through her blonding hair. It had been dyed brown at one point but her roots had been growing out, letting her true color show. But she lived by a beach now, who really cared. Blond was the color of hair you were supposed to have anyway, right? Madilee's pace had changed also after the move. Her walk had become neither fast or slow, just an in between pace. Before, Madilee had walked quickly, as to not be late for appointments. Now she thought that no one would want to walk that slow, it would take to long. But not to fast or you would be there immediately. It was just that sort of day to just walk like that. As if it mattered. She was going to the beach after all.

Madilee had a yellow bikini on, like just about every time she went to the beach. One strap was visible and not being covered by her loose grey sweater. Her bikini bottoms showed through the bottom of her top. She could never remember when she got it but knew that it was sometime at a sale at one of the department stores. But this was true with the majority of her wardrobe anyway. What Madilee wore now ranged from between high school to college. Once she graduated from university, she fully realized the cost of money. Who really had the cash for new clothes anyway. But looking around at the people who were on the street she remembered that everyone had money but her. She was a fresh graduate with a journalism degree and a heaping debt hanging over everything she thought about. The only reason that Madilee was living in a place like this was it was the best paying job she could get. She knew that the only reason this magazine payed more was because of location but who cared. She got a beach as well as a job to pay the bills. When she did need to buy things, Madilee always trued to find sales because it was way cheaper. Sure some of it was more or less ugly, but for the most part she was able to keep an illusion that she had some degree of style. Madilee firmly believed: why pay more for something? Course there were always some people who really cared that they had designer clothes on even for lawn work.

Finally, Madilee could see the white sand and ocean peaking through two buildings. Walking through the alley, between the two brick buildings, Madilee walked onto a beach. The sand felt warm between her toes. The sand radiated a comforting heat. Coming here was like therapy for her. She could remember back when she lived in Washington. There was nothing like this there. Just a few sea birds and cold fishing water. Here the water was always warm, and the sand dry. The whole experience of the beach was the one thing that anyone could say that Madilee truly "cared" about. The beach held a special magic and added balance to her life. She was literally working at her job to be able come here. Madilee almost felt jealous of the wives of rich men. These women were able to buy what they wanted and go where they pleased. Madilee bought almost nothing and only came to the beach because it was free. However, these free trips had become something of a treat to her. She could lay in the sun to get a free tan and get a massage from the warm sand. Unfortunately though, Madilee had only been living in the area for a short while meaning that she still hadn't become friends with anyone at this point. Well, when she said that she really meant that she wasn't friends with people enough to hang out with them. Madilee wasn't really into clubbing or bars so the only people that she met were through work.

Walking over to the edge of the sand, Mally stuck her toes in the water, then putting on a pair of white rimed sunglasses. It sort of bumbed her that Abby, or someone else, couldn't come with her to day. But it was just great to get away, even if it was for a few moments.