In-Character
Full Name: Mercy Adelaide McKinnonNicknames: Merry
Birthdate: March 27, 1862 [4:12am, which is very important]
Current Age: Thirty-One Years
Gender: Female
Occupation: Divination Professor
Reputation: 8. If making divination her career is not strange enough, her disinterest in marriage is enough to turn a few heads.
Residence: Edinburgh, Scotland [while not at Hogwarts]
Hogwarts House: Ravenclaw Alumna ('80)
Wand: Willow, 9 inches, Unicorn hair, Supple
Blood Status: Halfblood
Social Class: Middle Class
Family:
Thomas McKinnon, Father [1824]Appearance:
Ada McKinnon (née —), Mother [1830-1872]
Finlay McKinnon, Brother [1854] and family
Thomas McKinnon II, Brother [1856-1858]
Brodie McKinnon, Brother [1858]
Eugenie McKinnon, Sister [1858-1858]
Isla — (née McKinnon), Sister [1860]
Gregory McKinnon, Brother [1865]
Annie McKinnon, Sister [1872]
Strawberry blonde hair and an eye for eclectic fashion, Mercy has always stood out in a crowd. She stands at an average five feet, two inches tall an has a thin build. Her fashions are always two seasons or more out of style, and some of her accessories have never been in fashion. Surprisingly practical, she has countless pockets sewn into her skirts to carry all of her belongings (a pocket journal, self-inking quills, her coin purse, at least three sweet treats always) without looking like the hoarder she is.History:
Like all self-respecting ladies, her hair is always worn up, but the style is unfashionably simple but always includes some conversation-worthy clip or pin. Her eyes are blue and her pale skin is unfreckled. She wields her wand with her left hand.
The McKinnon Family | From the outside, they like the typical large middle class family. Their two-story house, not too large and not too small, sits in the middle of a muggle neighborhood in Edinburgh, the white picket fence that lines the property enchanted to to make anything magical within its bounds look mundane. Thomas McKinnon, a magical naturalist, frequently travels the globe to explore the effects of natural phenomenon and landscapes (the aurora borealis, monsoons, underground caverns) on the effectiveness of magic. His wife, a talented experimental potioneer, settled into a more domestic life when married, although she still sells contraceptive and pregnancy-terminating potions to the well-off ladies who know where to find her.Personality:
1862 | Mercy is born the sixth (fourth surviving) child to Thomas and Ada McKinnon. She's a happy baby and hits her developmental milestones rather quickly, walking by ten months and speaking fluent baby babble by a year.
1864 | Her first sign of magic appears while painting with her older sister. Her hands get coated with red paint, and after a brief meltdown over being unable to clean themselves, manages to make all the paint disappear completely.
1865 | Gregory is born, making Mercy an official middle child.
1867 | The family goes on a trip to India, and Mercy loves it. She's a curious child and loves learning about the things that Indian people do that are different from British people. She even makes a few friends and is sad to leave them behind when they return home.
1868 | Mercy begins her studies under the tutelage of the family governess. She proves to be an intelligent child and picks up on most subjects quickly.
1872 | Tragedy strikes the McKinnon family when Mercy's mama dies while giving birth to twins. Only the baby boy, named Brodie, survives, while the baby girl, posthumously named Eugenie, passes shortly after birth. Mercy is devastated by the loss of her mother and becomes more withdrawn, preferring the made-up stories in her mind to the real world around her.
1873 | Mercy goes off to Hogwarts and is sorted into Ravenclaw.
1875 | Third year comes, and Mercy makes the decision to add only one single elective to her schedule: Divination. She's immediately enchanted to the subject but is distraught to find that she doesn't possess the Sight. Still, it becomes her favorite class and she spends time outside of class practicing with her tarot cards and tea leaves. She takes a particular interest in astrology and has every one of her dorm-mates birth charts memorized by the year's end.
1876 | By her fourth year Mercy has managed to assemble a group of girls who are equally interested in Divination as her. They spend time after class assisting their professor in exchange for extra study materials.
1878 | Mercy takes her OWLs and goes into her sixth year with four classes: Astronomy, Charms, Divination, and History of Magic.
1880 | Mercy graduates from Hogwarts and is immediately ushered into society by her overly-involved aunt. Despite Papa's insistence that his children can choose whatever future they desire for themselves, Aunt Beatrice insists that Mercy is too independent and too eccentric, and that a husband would help tamper down her "less appealing" qualities before she makes a pariah out of herself. Papa thinks she's exaggerating, but relents and begs Mercy to at least try, if only so they don't have to hear Aunt Beatrice go on and on about it. Mercy finds no joy in it, but she debuts in society. She hates the small talk, the peacocking, the pretending to be someone she isn't. It's no surprise that she ends the season unmarried.
1881 | After one year of hunting for a husband on the marriage mart, Mercy decides to abandon the season altogether. She trades her elaborate white debutante gowns for her plain walking dresses and begins sending out resumes. Auntie wishes she would try for a husband longer, but Papa encourages her independence, saying she is intelligent enough to be deserving of whatever job she desires but sensible enough to continue seeking a husband if a career path doesn't pan out. Mercy uses this as her motivation until she realizes the trick to starting her own career in academic might have been under her nose the whole time. She asks Papa to work as his assistant. She is told no—nepotism isn't a good look—but he has a female colleague who had been considering putting up an ad and recommends her for the position. Mercy gets the job.
1882 | Mercy is called on to leave the UK when her father announces that he and a few other magical naturalists—her boss included—will be venturing around the globe for over a year on yet another expedition. Despite her travels outside the UK as a child, Mercy is still unnerved by the prospect of leaving her life in Edinburgh behind. She eventually puts on a brave face, packs her belongings, and leaves for their first destination: Mexico.
Summer, 1883 | Six months have passed since leaving the UK and Mercy is a completely different person than she was before. No longer does she fear change, and in fact uses it to her advantage. Her boss allows her to conduct her own studies in addition to doing her job, so while her boss and father and the rest of their team are busy analyzing the data they collect, Mercy continues her study of divination. She knows her experience with the beyond is bound to be different from the proclaimed seers of their time—she does not possess the Sight, and thus she sees through the lens of the average man and woman who like to tinker with the divine. She thinks it's an advantage, as she can fill the gaps that true seers see unnecessary of filling, and can answer questions and challenge the discipline with logic rather than writing off skeptics as "unwilling to truly see".
Winter, 1883 | Mercy arrives in Alexandria, Egypt to the famed Magical Observatory of Alexandria. While her boss and father are off trying to study to effects of the moon and asteroid placements on the effectiveness of weather charms, Mercy meets the man she comes to think could be the love of her life. His name is Cleander Huxley, and he is the most beautiful and smartest man she's ever met. He's a little older than her, but not too much, and he takes her seriously... mostly. He teases her about divination, which annoys her to no end, but she can't help but find him charming. It soon becomes impossible to keep their affections to themselves, and he begins formally courting her.
Spring, 1884 | It doesn't take long before Mercy fancies herself in love with Huxley. He's sweet and interested in her, and he doesn't balk when she asks if he can ask his mother for his time of birth so she can draft her birth chart. It's all so intense, and, despite the few Hogwarts crushes she's had here and there, can't remember ever feeling so desperate to be in another person's company as much as she does his. It's why, when she pieces together his chart, everything starts to fall apart. The chart show her exactly everything she fears—that he might care for her now, but that he'll eventually grow tired of her and stop showing her the same attention he is now. It's just an easy excuse to pull away, because even with that blemish on their synastry there's plenty to suggests they could succeed. It's not the stars that make her break off their courtships in the end, but the fear that they won't actually succeed and that she'll end up miserable with a man who stopped loving her. She doesn't tell him that, though, and pretends as though an unfavorable mercury-moon pairing is a dealbreaker. He's heartbroken, she's heartbroken, before she has time to work through her feelings it's time for her to return home to Scotland.
1885 | After settling back into the mundanity of live in Edinburgh, Mercy quits her job. She loves traveling the world, but assisting a magical naturalist from home doesn't feel the same. She submits an article in a local magazine aimed at young woman who want to understand themselves better through the lens of astrology. She openly rejects the idea that sun signs are the clearest indicator of a person's personality and goes deeper into depth about the other planetary placements. Encouraged by the feedback she receives, she continues to write, eventually fleshing it out into a full book.
1886 | After attending an event hosted by her elder sister, Mercy meets a gentleman. He's around a decade her senior and very sensible, kind man, and so Mercy does the same thing she did with Huxley: she requests his date an time of birth so she can draw up a synastry chart. Unlike Huxley, though, his chart shows that they would make a near-perfect match, and she doesn't have nearly enough feelings towards the gentleman to feel overwhelmed an scary by the prospect of spending her life with him. It's only after they spend months getting to know each other that Mercy's forced to face the truth: she doesn't love the man, and she really can't stand him most times, either. She breaks off the courtship and swears off romance entirely.
1887 | After a few years of sitting on it, Mercy gets around to publishing her book, Simplifying The Stars. It gets great reviews from the divination community, touted as a great beginner's guide.
1888 | Mercy begins writing astrology columns for a magazine under the pen name "Stella Mars". She enjoys the extra pocket change while she begins working on her next book. All the while her aunt is still convinced she needs to marry, but Mercy brushes her off with confusing astrology jargon about her how Venus is in the wrong rotation—utter nonsense, but it keeps her aunt from arguing.
1890 | Her second book, Divinity For Beginners is published in the spring, and by the summer is announced as one of the titles being used in OWL-level divination. It's the moment Mercy begins viewing herself as a true academic instead of an imposter.
1891 | Her father agrees to accompany her on another trip around the globe to study global divinity. He had his own motivations for coming, but they're able to conduct their separate studies alongside each other. Their travels bring them across Asia, into North Africa, and even to small fishing villages in the northernmost tips of Europe. They return home just before Christmas, and Mercy has all the information she needs to write her book.
1893 | Just before publishing her third book in the summer, Mercy receives an offer to join the Hogwarts staff as a professor. At first she’s not convinced that being an expert in her field will mean that she’ll be a good teacher, but her father encourages her to accept. She is 31, and she needs something stable and respectable so she doesn’t become a burden to her father. Except, when she gets to Hogwarts in September, he’s there. Cleaner Huxley—Professor Cleander Huxley.
Unapologetically herself. Introverted. Prone to gossip, not out of malicious intent but the fear of not being aware of what's going on around her. Appreciates the little things. Detail-oriented. Has a very strong bullshit detector. Fond of children, but not overly eager to have her own. Good-humored. Strong middle child syndrome, even as an adult. Not certain of her place in the world. Makes snap judgments (and frequently regrets them). Sensitive to criticism.Other:
— SKILLS —
- Skilled with magic, but doesn't use her wand except when necessary.
- In addition to English, speaks fluent French, Arabic, and Spanish. Knows some Italian, Mandarin, and Hindi.
— TRIVIA —
- Her amortentia is tea leaves, sage, and an old but familiar cologne.
- She never learned to cast a patronus.
- Although she prefers astology, she's skilled with most types of popular divination with the exception of fortune-telling, which she thinks is silly to practice without the Sight.
Out-of-Character
Name: BreeAge: 24
