In-Character
Nicknames: Delly
Birthdate: April 7,1871
Current Age: 22 Years
Gender: Female
Occupation: DoMA&C Employee
During the day she works for the Dministry but she’s started to grow a name for herself outside her official job as someone you can hire for events that require either weather or atmospheric charm work. She is by no means the name but a good alternative if they are booked or you want someone with a cheaper rate.
Reputation: 8
Honestly, when one thinks of the Hunniford name, Delly probably isn't the first one you think of. First you probably either think of her sister (whose engagement fell through a month before the wedding was supposed to occur) or her brother (who died in a tragic horseback riding accident seven years ago). Delphine does work in the Ministry.
Residence: London
Hogwarts House: Gryffindor
Wand: Spruce, 12 3/4", supple, unicorn hair
Blood Status: Pureblood
Social Class: Middle Class
Family:
father: Wilmer Hunniford [b.1838]
mother: Lenore Hunniford nee Clements, [b.1847]
brother: Ambrose Hunniford [1868-1886]
sister: Rosaline Hunniford [b.1869]
mother: Lenore Hunniford nee Clements, [b.1847]
brother: Ambrose Hunniford [1868-1886]
sister: Rosaline Hunniford [b.1869]
Appearance:
face claim: Maya Hawkeethnicity: Caucasian
height: 5' 5"
build: Neither overly large or slim, wispy
eyes: Blue
hair color: Light, mousey brown
hair style: Delphine tends to wear her hair in a variety of styles depending on the occasion. She will wear more tight updos if the situation calls for it but as always preferred low pinned curls and braids.
distinguishing features: She has a curved scar across her left eyebrow (from a kitten scratch) and a slight dimple on the left side,
scent: rain, ink, grass, and slightly of musk
fashion: Delly has always been on to pick the styles of her dress more for practical comfort than style (and has long since wanted a pair of bloomers) but does such favor vibrant colors and patterns.
History:
1871 - 1882
In April of 1871, Delphine (quickly dubbed Delly) was the last of the Hanniford children born. Her childhood is everything she could dream it to be. Her family is happy and whole. There are regular trips to their grandmother's estate. She and her siblings spent much of their free time at home visiting and playing with friends as often as they could want. But it is Grandmother's that quickly becomes her favorite. Grandmother's is where the lovely gardens where she plays hide and seek with Rosie and Ambrose. And Grandmother's is where - when she gets a bit older - the forests where her favorite trail rides are. A little fantasy bubble.
But still, while Delly isn't a temperamental child, she is an emotional one. Once, while visiting Grandmother, she is quite off put when it starts to rain and Papa tells Delly that they won’t be able to go out riding. At the age of seven, she isn’t well versed in emotional management, and it comes out as her first sign of magic - causing a rain shower in the house. And then she argues if she can’t ride because of the rain then they can’t stay in the house because of the rain either. Annoyingly, she doesn’t get to go riding and Papa just summons a ministry worker to dry out the house.
Her little fantasy bubble isn't even popped when, in the beginning half of 1880, the Hunnifords move from - to Hogsmeade when her parents find they miss being closer to their son during his first year of Hogwarts. (Even if she is a bit upset at having to leave her friends.) But that complaint is quickly forgotten as she starts to make more friends in their new town.
1882 - 1889
Delly transitions into Hogwarts after just a year of being the only Hunniford child left at home. The hat barely brushes her head before it sends her off to Gryffindor where she makes fast friends. Sadly, her transition to life at Hogwarts is a bit less smooth than one might hope. She struggles with it quite a bit. Classes are long and she isn’t allowed to talk or move. She isn’t permitted to go on a walk whenever she wants and there are certainly no more trail rides. The whole thing just leaves her restless with too much energy. She eventually finds a channel to that energy in her clubs: charms, leisure sports, and much to her mother’s pleasure - dueling. And then she adds on Earth Magic and Ancient Runes.
The summer after her fourth year is when everything changes on their yearly summer visit to their grandmother’s. She’d looked forward to the visit immensely. And in the beginning, it goes well. But that's when the bubble finally pops. The trio are on their morning ride when Ambrose’s horse spooks at a passing snake. Unable to sit it, her brother falls - landing on an unfortunately placed rock. It takes only seconds of dismounting to see that something is severely wrong. There is so much blood. Within days her dresses are swapped out with blacks and she’s struggling to adjust to that horrific last image of her brother. And honestly, that is what she hates most (after Ambrose death of course). That when she thinks of Ambrose now that is always the first thing she sees. Not her brother laughing or smiling but his broken body on the grass in a pool of blood.
In stark contrast to her sister who is now never to be found at the stables, Delly spends every moment she can that summer in the stables and riding. It's a grasp of that feeling she had just before the accident. When they were whole and she was with her brother. There were three of them as there always should have been.
Her return to Hogwarts in the fall is unsettling. Even though she’d gotten used to the echoey, missing the feeling of the manor house without Ambrose, somehow school felt like ripping the bandage off all over again. That doesn’t even make any sense. Ambrose had graduated that spring. He wouldn’t have been here anyway. So why does not seeing him in the Great Hall hurt so bad? And it certainly doesn’t help that it somehow seems everyone had heard and her black dress wasn’t enough of a deterrent to leave her alone about it. If one more person asked what happened or how she was doing she swore would scream.
But time moves on - even if it had left her brother in the past. Delly manages her final three years one step at a time. And much as she would never admit it - she is grateful when Rosie has graduated, and she spends her last two years alone. Somehow the days are a bit easier without the physical weight of her sister’s grief and guilt. Between the distance from her family and time eventually, it even doesn’t burn as much when she thinks about how the Hunniford’s are a duo instead of a trio now.
1889 - 1891
Delly moves on to the next stage of her life with the typical progression marker - descending the stairs into the Great Hall amongst her classmates in the coming-out ball. And to her utter delight, somehow the focus isn’t on her because Rosie begins courting a Mr. Ezra Applegate. The man is a little odd for Delly’s tastes, but he makes her sister happier than Delly has seen her in years and really that is all that matters. That and Mama is far too busy with wedding planning to force Delly too much effort into her mandated debutante season. But it doesn’t end well because one day Rosie is happily in love and about to married and the next the engagement is cut off, the wedding is canceled, Rosie has moved out to live with their aunt in London, and starts a healing internship and Delly is left reeling (and home alone to deal with the fallout).
The next summer is horrible. Mama goes back on her word that after one season she could find a job and pushes Delly out in full force like having her out could make everyone forget about her sister’s failed engagement. She doesn’t know if it works but she does know she certainly doesn’t end the season any closer to being engaged than she was in May. And she is closer to despising the season than she ever was prior. Really, it wasn't that she hadn't wanted to go to the balls and dance or was opposed to meeting someone to marry (Though admittedly her sister's experience had put her off the idea just a little but she wasn't against it just it wasn't necessarily everything). She'd just wanted to work as well. And it is quite hard to love something you were forced to do.
1891 - current
But finally, at the end of the winter, Delly is allowed to pick up a job. Having always done well with her charms and transfiguration work at school she takes a post in the ministry with the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes. Which means most of her free time is spent cleaning up after children's accidental magic. And as much as she likes it, she finds she enjoys just as much figuring out how something was done as well as how to undo it. This leads to her starting to pick up freelancing work with a couple of family friends working on either permanent weather and atmospheric charms for gardens and other various spaces or temporary ones for events.
The next few years go in by in happy compromise. Delly gets to work and Momma gets a happy debutante participant in the evenings and on her days off. Then with the 1893 holidays over, Delly follows through on what she'd been dreaming of the past few years - and so at the same age as her sister had been but under vastly different circumstances, Delphine moves out. Also, unlike her sister, she doesn't move in with a relative but rather ends up renting a room in an above-shop apartment whose owner (and her new roommate) she'd met through Rosie. It puts her closer to work and gives Delly a thrilling sense of freedom and independence she hadn't realized just how much she'd like. But now she just needs to learn to live with a roommate again.
Personality:
[ impulsive | enthusiastic | loud | adventurous | resentful | messy ]
Other:
| class | owl | newt |
| Astronomy | A | N/A |
| Care of Magical Creatures | E | E |
| Charms | O | O |
| Defense Against the Dark Arts | E | A |
| Earth Magic | E | E |
| Herbology | E | N/A |
| History of Magic | A | N/A |
| Potions | A | N/A |
| Transfiguration | O | E |
Out-of-Character
![[Image: TrSGeWR.jpg]](https://i.imgur.com/TrSGeWR.jpg)