Full Name: Christabel Coleridge Daphnel nee Dempsey
Nickname(s): She thinks her first name is rather a mouthful for casual conversation so intimates may call her Belle, Christa, or even Chris
Birthdate: 21 August 1865
Age: 28
Gender: Female
Occupation: Mystery writer
Blood Status: half
Residence: Hogsmeade, but also at her family home in Galway, but spends a lot of time in London
Hogwarts House: Hufflepuff
Wand: 11" Holly, augury feather, firm
Family: Victor Daphnel | Husband - deceased but a ghost |
Virgil Daphnel | Father in Law |
Kate Daphnel | Mother in Law |
Jasper Daphnel | Brother in Law |
Beatrice Daphnel | Sister in Law |
Oscar Daphnel | Brother in Law |
|
Eamon Dempsey | Father | 1824
Lowri Dempsey nee ? | Mother | 1836
Ozymandias Shelley Dempsey | Brother | 1856
Endymion Keats Dempsey | Brother | 1859
Porphyria Browning Dempsey | Sister | 1862
Don Juan Byron Dempsey | Brother | 1863
Shalott Tennyson Dempsey | Sister | 1867
Lycoris Wordsworth Dempsey | Sister | 1869
Chris has what could be described as 'elfin' in her appearance, she has high fine cheekbones, a narrow pointed chin, wide set and almond eyes as well as the narrow bridge of her nose. This is a trait she shares with her elder sister, and the two bear a strong physical resemblance, save for being a hair shorter. She has a long thick mane of dark hair and strong eyebrows.
She is 5ft 2, and of a slight build with a good womanly shape, accented by strong corseting and stiff boning, she carries herself with an easy grace, and although not stiff she has good posture and deportment. She is right handed.
Her style of dress is perhaps best described as 'conventional' - while not a fashionista by any stretch of the imagination she wears clothing that is considered fashionable and 'of the season', so while one would not expect to see Belle on a 'best dressed' list she also wouldn't appear on a worst dressed list either. Her clothing style and colour preferences would generally be considered flattering and complimentary of her colouring and figure. She would appear as a fashion contrast to her sister, as with a slightly warmer skin tone, she tends towards dresses in warm pastels and warmer shades and soft patterns.
Born in 1865, Belle makes for the 2nd girl and 5th child of the Dempsey's.
She is only 4 when Oz goes off to school and as such is non-plussed. No sooner can she read but that she becomes a voracious reader loving mysteries above all else.
As a usually placid and easy going child she is 7 before she has her first bought of accidental magic, exploding the last strawberry at desert one evening when one of her siblings, teasing her, stole the strawberry from her slice of cake and was about to eat it.
In 1876 Belle went off to Hogwarts. A bright and intelligent child, with an enquiring mind it was rather expected that she might join her sister in Ravenclaw, but she was sorted into Hufflepuff - her other qualities and her desire for closeness of community winning out over her intelligence.
She is made the Hufflepuff prefect in her 5th year, and is given a new owl and a cat as a congratulatory gift - having gone most of her school years without a pet
She completes her OWL's with good results all around, and continues to her NEWTs taking History of Magic, Potions, Herbology, Transfiguration and Arithmancy. At the end of her 7th year she finishes up with good NEWT scores.
She attends the Hogwarts C.O.B but also has a private debut at the Dempsey estate in Ireland.
Ireland shelters Belle from most of the community tragedies – the fire and plague both don’t really affect her. She knows many who were and feels sympathetic, but co-opting their tragedy feels mercenary and the timing and content of Porphyria’s book does not sit right with her.
She does the season and writes, publishing her first book, the year following her graduation from Hogwarts, she had been working on the thing since her 5th year. She writes under the pseudonym Whitlock Evergrimm, lest someone write it off as ‘feminine dribble’ just because she is a girl.
In her first season she engaged in some rather passionate letter writing with a gentleman she though might make a good prospect and Belle considered herself rather head over heels for him and he was sure he would make her an offer, but alas nothing came of it and the letters stopped abruptly. She pined for longer than she perhaps ought to have, sure that he would take up with her again – alas he didn’t.
It is at this time that she began writing her second mystery novel – which rather autobiographically featured a woman searching for her missing lover. Which is published in 1890
Belle has no new prospects in the intervening years and worse yet, Pohryria's lack of desire to be married, seems to haunt her, as people seem to assume she has the same bent toward spinsterhood, which isn't the case, she wants a large and close family, just like her own. However, she is aware that time is also running out -as spinsterhood is very much on her horizon.
Chris, drinks some enchanted tea and is temporarily transformed into Citrine Weasley.
In June 1892 she publishes a new book The Mystery of Erasmus Munch under her pseudonym. She is mostly pleased with the critical response.
She met Victor Daphnel at a party, they were married in September 1892. She knew he didn't love her, but she thought herself in love with him
As far as Christabel is aware, he was killed in a freak accident at the Flint estate on New Years day 1893. He returned as a ghost. Christabel was lost in grief, and lived in the Daphnel estate in full mourning feeling very betrayed by the fact that Victor's life seemed to go on as before.
September 1893 she ran her brothers campaign for minister for magic, which he won.
Bright, Confident, loyal, rather like her namesake - she sees herself as rather an unfinished poem, and still a little unsure of her place in society - like Coleridge she is distracted by the multitude of paths before her. Her sweetness could be taken for weakness when in fact she has the makings of a firebrand - but keeps those views and opinions close to her chest until she knows the person well enough to reveal her truth to them. She is fiercely loyal to her family, once she gives her loyalty to someone she finds it hard to break away, even if that loyalty is misplaced.
she speaks French, German, Latin and Greek, as an upper class Anglo-Irish woman of the late 19th century she has developed an academic interest in Gaelic, which she has begun to learn.
Keenly interested in the celtic revival movement.
She is a member of the muggle organization Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and travels to London's Fleet street regularly, somewhat out of interest, but also to get a laugh out of muggles trying to do magic. She is a 'Practicus'
Loves the unexplained and unsolved
Interested in cryptography and puzzles
She published 3 mystery novels under the name Whitlock Evergrimm
She loves Margaret Cavendish, Mary Shelley, Jules Verne and Wilkie Collins - mystery novels and speculative fiction are her jam!
She has dabbled in poetry but does not have the skill of her parents or her sister and so keeps that to herself.
