


early childhood
1876 - 1887
by the time jessamine was born, she already had six older siblings to compete with for her parent’s limited affections; three of them were old enough to attend hogwarts, three were not, but what they all had in common was the parkinson family name. that always seemed to be important, as far as jessamine knew, growing up, being a member of the parkinson family; it meant she had to be perfect, dignified, graceful, everything that a pureblooded upper class young lady could be, and the same would be expected of her siblings because society was always watching. minnie and her two sisters would attend art lessons, music lessons, learn to press flowers and embroider by hand, they would learn languages with their brothers as well as watch them learn how to walk with confidence and speak on politics as if they had any clue what they were talking about. each child would have the pressure of a thousand suns to practice to be everything they were supposed to be by society’s standards... or else they would all suffer the wrath of their father, mr. elwood parkinson, when he found out.
minnie was always told that society was watching them, always, and so they had to be on their best behavior… but did they? was society really watching them? if so, how come nobody said anything when their father flew into rages and beat on their mother or one of the children if they happened to have a misstep in their lessons? how come her father was able to make their mother cry with his numerous affairs that every child knew about and not a single news article reported it? how come her mother drank so much and spent most of her days laying down and wouldn’t come to play when she asked aside from reading her a few stories? even as young as jessamine was, she could tell when things were wrong and not at all proper. but, her elder siblings would sit her down and explain to her that nice families didn’t talk about these things, especially not to other people, and so she would need to accept that as truth before she got in trouble.
not being able to talk about what was going on in her life made jessamine a bit of a recluse for a time, only really speaking to her siblings, and instead finding herself doing more solitary activities like practicing her piano, pressing flowers, reading every book she could get her hands on, and playing chess against herself. it was around this time in her life she met a half blood, middle class girl who lived nearby in bartonburg named francesca who also was always by herself and the two became fast friends, especially when they realized they would be attending their first year at hogwarts at the same time. it took some time, as there was a lot of guilt to get through since she knew she shouldn’t talk if her elder siblings were telling the truth, but eventually minnie confided in chessie regarding what worried her and she found that her parents weren’t the only ones with problems that they weren’t allowed to talk about and it made her feel less alone.



hogwarts school of witchcraft + wizardry
1887 - present
things started to improve for jessamine when she started at hogwarts, since she was finally away from the toxic environment that was her home and she was able to make more friends, such as meta lestrange, who also knew what it was like to deal with an abusive parent, as well as spend more time with chessie, whom she was still friends with. when it came to clubs, she spent most of her time in transfiguration and wizard’s chess club, because she felt she excelled in both and it made her feel good about herself; she also spent time in leisure sports club, enjoying badminton and croquet the best, since it was a great excuse to spend some time in the sunshine. however, she popped into the book club from time to time, but never felt like an official member because while she enjoyed discussing books with her classmates, she didn’t like that she wasn’t allowed to read whatever she wanted - she had to pick out a book that was appropriate for young ladies and not ones that only the young gentlemen were permitted to read; minnie only remained a member until her fourth year.
when it came time to choose electives, minnie had a difficult time because while some subjects interested her, she was going through a bit of a ‘nothing matters’ phase because she’d watched as her sisters were to be fussed over to be sold off to the highest bidder as wives, rather than be able to pursue their passions. jessamine felt that no matter what she chose, she’d end up in the same place, so she picked two at random - muggle studies and ghoul studies. she enjoyed both well enough, she supposed, and there was something intriguing about worlds that were so different from her own; she often wished she was a bird so she could fly away from everything. it was then she decided she would study hard to become an animagus, hopefully achieving it sometime after her final year of hogwarts - she couldn’t guarantee she’d become a bird once she succeeded in her endeavors, but it was still a fun fantasy to imagine whenever she was bored.
during the summer between her fourth and fifth year, she witnessed her mother attempt to take her own life, something that has haunted her ever since. it turned out she found out she was pregnant yet again and it pushed the already fragile woman over the edge, though, with minnie’s limited healing abilities, she was able to save her in time - though not her baby. it was then her elder brother told her that this wasn’t the first time this had happened; after she miscarried the baby that her bastard half-sister replaced, she attempted something similar, and it was him who had found her that time. once again, it was something they were not allowed to talk about, but being soft as jessamine was, she stayed at her mother’s bedside while she rested until she had to go back to school. perhaps it was this affection for violette that made her give her youngest daughter the heirloom jewelry rather than pass it to either of the other two young ladies, even though it caused quite a fight when they found out, though it seemed to bother minnie’s second sister more than her first.
in the next few years, jessamine would attend a total of five different weddings, one for each of her older siblings, plus an extra for the eldest brother. her eldest brother married a wealthy, pureblooded girl, thank merlin, but she would end up dying as far as everyone was concerned; apparently it was some sort of accident, and he would remarry a different wealthy pureblooded girl. still, there was something about their union that felt off, if only because minnie saw her brother and father acting rather suspicious shortly after the initial accident. then her next brothers each decided to marry ladies that jessamine most certainly did not approve of! a known bastard and a lady that people gossiped about being a halfbreed - minnie wondered if they married them just to piss off their father, because he was not happy about their union either, though it would be too much scandal if either one of them ended up disowned. jessamine’s eldest sister was married to a nice man, she thought, but she wondered if he’d ever find out she was a bastard who wasn’t even actually pureblood, but instead the daughter of a halfblood squib maid. minnie didn’t think she was perfect enough for it, but she thought whomever she married, would be someone that would earn her father’s favor, if only so that minnie could see him proud of her for once.
after her eldest brother married, the parkinson family relocated to their villa in yorkshire, which annoyed minnie a little bit because she wished she was still closer to her friends in hogsmeade, but it turned out to be great spending more time relaxing on the seashore; staring out at the ocean was relaxing and it made jessamine wonder more about what else was out there. by the time her seventh year was approaching, her other two siblings also started doing things that would have made their father furious if he knew about them. her brother bedded anything that breathed, gambling everything that he was handed, and not really thinking about the fact he needed to figure out a career being that he was a fourth son and wouldn’t really inherit much at all. then her sister started acting very unladylike, smoking, going out to places where queer people hung out and even started an affair with one of their maids, which minnie once walked in on once in complete disgust and horror. when the election started, she even began to attend suffragist rallies which often got violent due to men not approving what was being discussed at them and minnie worried she was going to get arrested if she wasn’t careful.
maybe in truth, jessamine was jealous of her siblings for doing whatever they pleased and ignoring all sense of decorum in exchange for even a sliver of freedom, especially after all they had been through growing up because of their awful family. but, there was still a large part of her that was desperate to be perfect and not end up like them; to do her part to be the daughter that her parents wanted and not do things that would make them ashamed of her. she kept her siblings secrets, her parents secrets, and her friend’s secrets, but she didn’t want to have any of her own - perhaps she wouldn’t and would be a perfect debutante, so long as she could make it another year.