In-Character
Full Name: Alexandra Radlett.
Nicknames: Known to one and all as Xandra [pronounced Zan-drah].
Birthdate: 6th July, 1859.
Current Age: 31.
Occupation: Potion and Plant Poisoning Healer at St. Mungos.
Reputation: Eight. No scandal but technically a confirmed spinster and works for a living.
Residence: Bartonburg.
Hogwarts House: Hufflepuff.
Wand: Ash. 12 inches. Unicorn hair core. Bendy.
Blood Status: Halfblood.
Social Class: Middle.
Appearance: An inauspicious 5'5. Red hair that has thankfully veered more towards the darker end of the spectrum. Brown eyes. Prone to sunburn. Wields her wand with her right hand. Dresses as befit her station in generally muted colours, though she occasionally dabbles in greens and purples for special occasion.
History:
The Family
To begin with the Radletts were very, very wealthy.
The family had once been counted amongst the muggle peerage and though no record of this fact exists outside of family lore it was, for many generations, an accepted fact. Just as much as the magic that ran in their veins. Their insistence on connecting themselves to the muggle peerage, however, meant that the purest blood did not, in fact, run through their veins as magical society found them rather less than ideal and thus the Radletts were obliged to intermarry with muggles – which was no trouble for them as the injection of new wealth and different ideas was always welcome.
Thus through the centuries the Radletts became a hodgepodge sort of clan – the lesser sons of greater fathers, as they liked to say – and the wealth, which had once been extravagant, instead became simply comfortable through dwindling and a familial love for excessive parties.
Aloysius Radlett, an art and antiques dealer with little expectation in life, found himself the inheritor of all this history when at the age of twenty-seven an outbreak of illness left him the inheritor of the three things most important to the Radlett family: the family bible containing the complicated, interconnecting relations (most of whom were long dead and very few of whom were notable); the House (capitalised by all members of the family in writing and speech, if the House ever had a proper name then no one recalls it); and the expectation that he would continue the bloodline.
This he promptly did, marrying Ottaline Ridgeley (a fellow halfblood from good stock), settling into genteel family life at the House and quickly producing two sons in quick succession.
In was several years later that things began to go very, very wrong.
Xandra
By the time Xandra arrived in the world, a late and unexpected baby born in the hot summer of 1859, the boys had already graduated from Hogwarts and were beginning to make their way in the world. Subsequently Xandra has a mostly lonely childhood but she fills it with imaginary friends and adventures by herself in the garden - by the time she performs magic for the first time she has already discovered that nature has it's own magic and she can make things grow in the greenhouse. There she begins a lifelong fascination with plants and their properties.
Xandra is sent off to Hogwarts in the autumn of 1870 and promptly sorted into Hufflepuff. Starved of real social interaction with other children Xandra immediately takes a liking to Roslyn Fisk and the two become fast friends; sharing, amongst other things, a quiet nature and a love for being in the greenhouse. Ros' siblings being so close in age - and so abundant - is quite a difference though and Xandra becomes quickly fond of the extended Fisk family.
Growing Up
The years at Hogwarts tick by happily. Xandra is an unobtrusive presence at school and spends many of her summers with the Fisks - really, who was ever going to notice that there was another child in the house? - and though she excels in herbology and potions she struggles with less practical, more mentally exhausting subjects like Arithmancy, which she takes up and regrets for the rest of her life. She and Ros remain close throughout and Xandra's family encourage her in her desire for an occupation and her own secure income.
After she graduates she realises that while her desire to work was born of wanting to be useful her parents' is due to her brothers' less than ideal behaviour.
Adulting
Roslyn gets married more or less straight out of school, much to Xandra's shock, but seeing her friend is happy she accepts Justin Ross as a new presence in her life, though she resents having to embark on a career on her own. She opts for hospital work and begins her working life as an intern, rising through the ranks until she is a fully fledged healer at St. Mungo's. It is, she jokes, probably the only institution in Britain that doesn't employ a Fisk so she's there as an honourary member.
Years pass and, startlingly, Justin becomes the Minister of Magic and Roslyn is obliged to become much more social. Xandra feels her pain, sympathises and never turns down an invitation on the grounds of moral support and free champagne. She remains unmarried, despite a few interested eyes looking her way, and had just about resigned herself to genteel spinsterhood when disaster strikes.
Her parents are both killed in the 1887 disaster at the World Market by tigers and her eldest brother inherits the House. Unbeknownst to Xandra he begins to systematically sell any item of value in the House to fuel his long term addiction to gambling.
By 1891, when he is killed in the sinking of the Santa Antonia and the House passes to her remaining brother, he and Xandra realise that there is essentially no money left in the family coffers and their only hope for keeping the family home is to marry well.
Unfortunately he already has a wife which leaves Xandra in an impossible situation - trying to find a rich man at her age? She'll definitely need Ros' help.
Personality: Sociable when in familiar company. Stubborn. Charming. Secretive.
Other:
Out-of-Character
Name: Lauren.Age: 31.
![[Image: qOWLUJ.png]](https://*****.host/qOWLUJ.png)
fabulously swoon-worthy set by Lady <3
