In-Character
Full Name: Catalina Inés Flores DelgadoNicknames: Kitty among friends and Lina among family.
Birthdate: August 31st, 1867
Current Age: 26
Gender: Female
Occupation: Botanist & Herbologist
Reputation: 7 or 8
Residence: Her sister’s family in the country, when not abroad (Elsewhere)
Hogwarts House: Ravenclaw Alumna
Wand: Laurel, 12¼ inches, with a phoenix tail feather. Stiff.
Blood Status: Halfblood
Social Class: Middle Class
Family:
Juan Antonio Flores Salazar, Father [1835]Appearance:
Dolores Delgado Ortiz, Mother [1842 -1884]
Penélope Podmore nee Flores Delgado, Sister [1865]
— Clinton Podmore, Brother-in-Law [1856]
— Maria Podmore, Niece [1888]
— Francesca Podmore, Niece [1891]
Julián Flores Delgado, Brother [1869]
Álvaro Flores Delgado, Brother [1872]
Teodora Flores Delgado, Sister [1875]
Esmeralda Flores Delgado, Sister [1880]
History:Catalina is every bit her mother’s image except in one way: her height. Where her mother had not even reached five feet, Lina has always been tall like her father, halting her upwards growth at five feet, six inches flat. Her dark hair is often kept shorter than is the fashion for the sake of practicality, and would be often tied back even were it not a requirement for her sex. She inherited her mother’s deep brown eyes, and is in possession of full lips and brows.
Where attire is concerned, she dresses simply; her clothes are well-made and well-kept but don’t boast an overabundance of adornment. When dressing for events, her dresses typically have small botanical details, but flashy has never been her cup of tea.
Her PB is Melissa Barrera.
Personality:He met her on the day after her ninth birthday, when her family cast her out for being touched by the devil. Juan Antonio’s father worked in the Spanish Ministry of Magic, had taken a handful of muggleborn children into his halfblooded household over the years, and Dolores Delgado Ortiz would be the most recent—and indeed, the last. It would be years before either Juan Antonio or Dolores would have any romantic designs upon one another: he would first grow confident and learn more patience; she would become a great beauty who clung to her faith even in the wake of her parents’ cruel abandonment. They married shortly before her twenty-first birthday.Spain
Their first four children—Penélope, Catalina, Julián, and Álvaro—would be born in Spain, where they lived close to Juan Antonio’s family. The time came, however, when a business opportunity that Juan Antoniocouldwould not refuse arose, plucking a young Catalina from the only life she had ever known.
The family, featuring a yet unborn Teodora, arrives in London in the summer of 1875. Catalina hates the city, its stones and its grime, and yearns for the Spanish countryside left behind. Her only real solace is in a planter box she is allowed to keep just outside the window of the room she shares with Penélope, which she is able to keep in extraordinary health regardless of what nature—or her brothers—throw at it.London
Soon after their arrival, an English governess is hired to school the Flores children in the language of their new home. Catalina takes to it more quickly than either Penélope or Julián but Álvaro, at three and a half, quickly begins running linguistic circles around his elder siblings, which irritates Catalina immensely.
Indeed, much of what her brothers do irritates Catalina immensely: creatures of chaos (and frequent outbursts of ‘accidental’ magic), they are constantly at odds with her desire for order and routine. She has an ally, though, in Penélope, her first and closest friend as well as sister.
Their mother struggles during this early time in England, her faith not embraced as it had been in Spain. The family gravitates to the Church of Magical Jesus; though Dolores never gives up her Catholicism altogether, she keeps it to the house for the ease of integration.
In 1878, Catalina is at last able to join her sister at Hogwarts, a school that rewards order and lawfulness but seems to breed mischief and confusion. There, she is sorted into Ravenclaw, the Sorting Hat detecting almost instantly her curious mind. She brings no pets with her but does bring her flower box, which continues to thrive even in the dormitory under her ministrations. It is only in the winter of her first year when she realizes that her first act of magic had not been absent, just missed, for it was in how the plants she tended flourished. It is also early on in her time at Hogwarts that her interest in plants finally has ‘a use’, as her father later puts it: ‘Kitty’, as her small group of friends takes to calling her, excels in her Herbology lessons.The Hogwarts Years
When the girls return ‘home’ for the summer, it is not back to London but for the now-growing Hogsmeade. Though still more contained than Catalina would like, the nearness of the park to their Bartonburg home, not to mention the myriad open land around the village, is a breath of fresh air compared to life in the city.
The next few years at Hogwarts pass much as the first, though over time, with the addition of her brothers. In her third year, Catalina elects Earth Magic as her sole elective—indeed, if she could have chosen none, she would have. In her sixth year, however, she falls in love.
In September of 1883, [Peter] is her assigned partner in Herbology. Over the years, Catalina had kept mostly to her own—girls, almost exclusively outside of classes, largely in Ravenclaw. [Peter] met neither of these criteria, and so had been largely ignored until fate (in the form of the professor) forced them together. Indeed, they chose to work together as much as possible for the duration of term and a close friendship forms—one that culminates in a mistletoe kiss, and to this day, Lina is not certain which one of them initiated it.
The second half of the year continues much like the first, with one notable addition: chaste, stolen kisses here or there, notes of affection exchanged in her native Spanish, which she has begun teaching him. Promises of a future.
The following school year, with the advent of the school’s chastity cuffs. Catalina had been largely unaware of how tawdry some of her peers were, but this serves as an impediment to her continued closeness with [Peter]. They will be friends, they decide, until they graduate, but in most ways, their relationship does not change—after all, Lina is a good, rule-abiding girl; she never needed to be forced to be chaste.
The day after her debut, [Peter] asked her father for her hand in marriage.You said you were gonna grow up…
The day after her debut, her father refused.
He wanted, Juan Antonio insisted, more for his children—like Penélope, who was courting and soon expecting a proposal from a wealthy man who could set her, and her children, up for generations to come. A middle class boy with no present professional aspirations, and not even a firstborn son? He was scarcely out of leading strings! It was a no, and would remain a no.
And so [Peter] left. He would go, he would make something of himself—if Catalina were willing to wait. Her heart said yes. She said yes. And then he was gone.
They exchanged letters at first, continued connection that made it easy for Catalina to remain resolute in her dismissal of other suitors. By the time she was twenty-two, her father had grown more and more frustrated, a quarrel that culminated in an ultimatum: she would marry a man of his choosing, or she would find herself without a roof above her head. Catalina left of her own accord, to live with her sister’s family in the countryside.
For the first time in her life, though, she felt truly restless. She had, in the time since her debut, assisted a local botanist in her research, who put Catalina in touch with a herbologist in Japan. And just like that, she too left, would, over the years, study botany and herbology across three continents, each time returning to her newfound home with her sister’s family, where she was able to keep a conservatory for the live specimens retrieved on her journeys. Correspondence with [Peter] dwindled to but three or four letters a year, but she didn’t mind. She had faith in the promise they made to one another.
On her most recent return to Britain in 1894, her sister asks that she remain a little longer than usual, for Penélope is pregnant again. After a trying previous pregnancy, she wishes for her sister’s company until the baby is born.
Other:METHODICAL — CURIOUS — HONEST — LOYAL — RESERVED
Catalina Flores has always appreciated calm—smaller crowds, quieter sounds, a slower pace of doing things. She can be easily overwhelmed and is easily described as more introverted than extroverted. She is more at home with plants than with people, which have been her greatest interest since she was young. That doesn’t mean she can’t socialize; she took etiquette lessons at Hogwarts, had a governess in her youth, has friends—she just requires time to herself to recharge, and does not take pleasure from it in the way some of her siblings do.
Lina is a woman of her word and does not make a promise she does not intend to keep. Her loyalty is absolute unless someone does something truly egregious.
Some might mistake her reserved nature for indifference. Indeed, she cares deeply about those that matter to her (people, animals, interests), but tends to only open up if she believes it will be well-received.
Lina is a creature of habit. While in Britain, she keeps to largely the same schedule as much as possible, and is reluctant to try alternative methods of doing things. When abroad, this shifts out of necessity, making her all the more attached to her routine when home.
SKILLS:
- Languages: Catalina has always been good at languages, and has developed many in her travels. Fluent in English and Spanish. Conversational French, Italian, Portuguese. Solid foundations in Latin, specifically around roots and affixes associated with plants, and the prayers taught to her by her mother. Rudimentary Japanese and Mermish.
- Artistic in skill, if not in mind.
- Would have made a good bookkeeper, in another life.
- Possesses an apparition license.
- Adequate at the harp—all the Flores sisters were required to learn an instrument in their youth.
- Has a lovely singing voice.
TRIVIA:
- Boggart: TBD
- Amortentia: Lavender, moss, and cherry blossoms.
- Though her mother never quite abandoned Catholicism, the Flores children and their father all lean more towards Church of Magical Jesus. Lina is religious about attending services when in Britain, though frequently engages in services of other faiths while traveling.
Carries her late mother’s rosary, using it as a fidget of sorts when stressed or upset.
ACADEMIC RECORD
Class Name OWLs NEWTs Astronomy E O Charms O A Defence Against the Dark Arts A — Earth Magic A — Herbology O O History of Magic A — Potions E E; Transfiguration A —
Out-of-Character
Name: KayteAge: Over 30
Contact: PM Aldous Crouch
