Nicknames: Effie
Birthdate: 1st January, 1869
Current Age: 25 years (for a few more days)
Gender: Female
Occupation: Floo Network Authority Employee
Reputation: 9
After little luck on the social season, Effie reluctantly took a Ministry job to support herself.Residence: A respectable boarding house in Bartonburg.
Hogwarts House: Slytherin
Wand: Cedar, 12 1/4”, unicorn hair, swishy.
Blood Status: Muggleborn
Social Class: Middle
Family:
Duncan Clarke | Father | Muggle
Bridget Clarke | Mother | Muggle
Catriona, Isabel, Penelope | Sisters | Muggle
Appearance:
At 5’4”, Effie has a figure that tends towards sturdy, with wide hips and shoulders – next to daintier girls, she is sure she looks inelegant. She holds herself well, but feels that no money nor love in the world will make her anything better than plain. Her skin, a light brown, is branded all over with freckles. Her eyes are large and dark brown, and her hair – well, her hair is a beast. Ginger in hue, riotously curly in texture: the best Effie can do with it is keep it neatly back. She used to like bright colours when she was a debutante, and could afford to – she enjoyed reds and pinks and oranges – but never had much fashion sense. Nowadays, as a working woman, she prefers the plain and practical, browns and greys and blues, and to save money mends all her own clothes. Teasing in her youth taught her it is better to blend in, anyway. She is right-handed, and wears spectacles to read. Her expressions are guarded, usually, and hard to read – whether fond or frustrated, she restrains herself where she can, and looks like an entirely different person when she smiles. Her ordinary smell is of a lemon soap, but for special occasions she may use a rose oil scent.History:
1869 | Euphemia is born on New Year’s Day to Duncan and Bridget Clarke, the second of four sisters. They are an ordinary middle class family in Edinburgh, Scotland. Duncan is a medical doctor, with an interest in anatomy and in having affairs. Bridget is a housewife and mother, and lives for her drink as well as her daughters. They quarrel often, though little changes. Entirely ordinary.
1874 | Effie joins her elder sister, Catriona, at a primary school for girls. She is quick to learn to read, neat at writing, good at sums. School is her favourite part of her days.
1878 | There is an incident at school – Effie doesn’t quite understand what happened, but she gets in trouble with the teacher for something she can’t explain. Chalk on the blackboard, drawing by itself, as if by...
1880 | Magic. There were a few more incidents in those couple of years; her schoolmates and even her sisters had begun to side-eye her. Her parents take it well, by and large, when a wizard comes from Hogwarts school to tell them Euphemia is a witch, even if Duncan has always put his stock in good hard science. They seem delighted for her, actually. Effie goes off to Hogwarts, where she is sorted into Slytherin, and discovers she’s a muggleborn. Oh no – this makes her weird to some people again. Effie had been hoping to fit in here. Fortunately, she finds some friends, including Annora McKelvey, who becomes as good as a sister to her.
1881 | Going home after her first year of school is strange. Things seem the same at home, but she feels different. Every summer after that, she stays at home for less and less time, finding friends to stay with in the magical world instead. She feels a little guilty for abandoning them, but magic or not, she can’t fix all her family’s problems for them.
1882 | In third year, she adds Ancient Studies, Divination, and Earth Magic to her classes, as well as Art and Music.
1884 | She loses out on Prefect to Miss Cosgrove, which depresses her slightly – but being a muggleborn in Slytherin is probably a mark against her. And maybe not standing out is best – for it is this year that she makes a foolish mistake, and kisses a girl she has been partnered on a project with, and possibly been pining over. Obviously it’s a mistake, and Effie waits on tenterhooks for days, weeks, months, in fear that the other girl will tell somebody about it. No one finds out her secret. But the girl doesn’t speak to her any more. And the fear doesn’t go away.
1887 | In May, Effie graduates. With good NEWTs, and a few good friends, and some hope for her future. She needs to stay in the magical world, although her family’s finances at home aren’t doing well and she is probably selfish by staying. Marriage would help – she has enough money in her Gringotts vault to see her through a couple of seasons as a debutante. She’ll be sensible about it, and take any offer she gets.
1889 | Only she doesn’t get any offers of courtship, and no wonder, because she doesn’t have the family name to sell her, nor looks or charm, even though she tries. She might be more diligent than Annie (better at talking, at least, and at reading people) but she certainly gets asked to dance less, and is more guarded and restrained. So she has always planned to turn to work, to necessarily support herself if she has to – but if Annie is also giving up on the Season, Effie’s time has certainly come. She curses herself for not having the right NEWT subjects or the disposition for healing, but she needs something that’ll pay for her boarding house and food and clothes and to set herself up for a life of spinsterhood, so it must be something with longevity. She takes up a Ministry internship, and finds herself a job in the department of Magical Transportation, as part of the Floo Network Authority.
1893 | Since then, she spends most of her days remotely fixing Floo connections for people (usually by turning them off and on again) and her nights hoping for some miraculous escape from What Her Life Has Become.
1894 | She supposed marriage unlikely, by now, but – then she meets Mr. Watson, who is more than she has hoped for. So maybe she has a chance of that escape, after all?
Personality: Pragmatic at all costs. A rule-follower. Effie is driven and serious and down-to-earth, and sometimes awkward and plainly-spoken, particularly when aggrieved. Respect and trust are important to her. When she opens up or to those she knows well, she can soften, can be loyal and affectionate, sarcastic and occasionally silly. She would kill for her friends, and would rather die than return, a failure, to the muggle world. She is reluctantly independent, thoroughly sensible, and tries to weigh up decisions logically before taking them. She doesn’t naturally trust other people or her own emotions, and so guards her heart as best she can. Practicality makes her materialistic, and protectiveness can make her seem severe. But if she ever lets her emotions in control, it’s a disaster – she trips over them and her tongue, embarrasses herself. So she tries to be careful, and not make waves – and she wishes she did not always have to look after herself, but that’s the way it is.
Other: —
Sample Roleplay Post:
Age: 29
![[Image: TrSGeWR.jpg]](https://i.imgur.com/TrSGeWR.jpg)