In-Character
Full Name: Theodosia Temperance TwycrossNicknames: Thea (for a select few)
Birthdate: 29 December 1837
Current Age: 54 years
Gender: Female
Occupation: Professor for Ancient Studies at Hogwarts, Head of Ravenclaw House
Reputation: 8 (It would be a full 10, but the particulars of her birth remains a bit murky. Plus, there must be something odd about a female professor, no matter how respectable on the surface.)
Residence: Hogwarts
Hogwarts House: Ravenclaw
Wand: Black walnut, 10.5’’, slightly yielding, unicorn hair
Blood Status: Pure
Social Class: Middle
Family:
- Professor Arthur Skanderberg (father)
- Leona Skanderberg (sister)
- Mr. Twycross (husband)
- Dorothea Twycross (daughter)
+ other children
Appearance:
Thea’s most defining characteristic is her natural charisma - she’s elegant, well-poised, and exudes confidence in a way that makes people mistake her for a taller woman than she truly is. Her spine is always straight, her head held high, and she carries herself with unapologetic regality. However, the expression in her brown eyes is usually warm, and she’s quick to offer a soft smile when interacting with others. These details work to mellow her overall air from intimidating to friendly and approachable.
In clothing Thea favours simplicity, comfort, timelessness and high quality above excessive ornaments and flashiness. Jewellery is her one great weakness - she owns a limited but carefully curated selection of diamonds and other (expensive) precious stone pieces that she likes to utilise as often as she can get away with it. Truth to be told she might have a mild streak of vanity, but it’s the one aspect of her character she will never admit to herself.
History:
1840 | Professor Skanderberg, a well-respected academic of ancient studies, returns to England after years of field studies across South East Asia. To the surprise of all, he has two toddlers in tow - young girls he claims as his own. For a while there are conflicting stories in circulation concerning the children’s true identities, but Professor Skanderberg remains unflappable and eventually, as rumours are wont to do, these die down. In the beginning the girls only speak in an exotic-sounding secret language no-one else can understand, but over time they learn to answer to the names Theodosia and Leona. As their childhood words are forgotten, so fade almost all their memories of the life before England.
1849 | Thea and Leona start Hogwarts, and are sorted into Ravenclaw. They embody their house traits in very different ways:. Thea’s curiosity is needle-sharp and focused, while Leona is more openly inquisitive and passionate about the possibilities of magic.
1851 | By her third year, Thea has blossomed into an overachiever of the most annoying type. She’s a vocal member of the History club, plays chess and the cello, makes the quidditch team (as a chaser, of course), all the while excelling in most of her classes. Worst of all she’s actually nice - outgoing, friendly with nearly everyone, and always willing to lend a helping hand to a classmate in need.
1853 | Thea becomes a prefect, and manages this responsibility with grace uncommon for someone of her age. Generally, she prefers verbal warnings and heartfelt discussions of right and wrong in the context of school rules over point deductions. (The one exception to this rule being Leona - with her sister, Thea is unyielding. It becomes a problem, and eventually their Head of House is forced to intervene, to de-escalate things and preserve any possibility of Ravenclaw bringing home the house cup that year. Spoiler: they don’t.)
1854 | Thea’s NEWT subjects include History of Magic, Ancient Runes and Ancient Studies. It's obvious to all that she has already decided to follow in the footsteps of her (academically) well-known father.
1855 | Thea is made Head Girl. This comes as a surprise to absolutely no-one - in fact, the whole things has seemed like an inevitability since at least her 3rd year. Leona just rolls her eyes, bemused, and goes on with her life.
1856 | Thea graduates with a straight row of O’s, with the single exception of E in charms that haunts her nightmares to this day. (The letter she writes to the examiner who called her wandwork ‘needlessly forceful’ does little good.) After graduation, Professor Skanderberg takes his two daughters to a tour of the Levant, because why should the young men be the only ones allowed to see the world?
1856-1862 | Professor Skanderberg and her daughters visit historic sites relating to his research, and spend plenty of time pouring over ancient text in dusty libraries. Though Thea has supported their father in his research already for some years, she now finally becomes his full-fledged co-author. The two of them prepare and publish new papers on his findings and theories, while Leona is less interested in the matters of the ancient.
1863 | Thea informs their father that she will have to return to London for the season, for real this time. Since most things in the family eventually go as she says in any case, he acquiesces without much protest. Once back in London, Thea promptly finds herself a husband.
1863-1870 | Now that she’s Mrs. Twycross, Thea’s days of expeditions are behind her. She has no intentions of abandoning her research, however. With the co-authoring credits from her father’s papers as her key, she forces herself into the academic circles. In the meanwhile the Twycrosses start adding children to their family. Thea is a good mother, if at times demanding, and makes sure to offer her offspring all the tools and support they need. She keeps a mental resume, filling it with her children's birth dates and the publishing dates of her academic papers.
1871 | The position of the professor for Ancient Studies at Hogwarts opens up, and the opportunity is just too good to pass. If Mr. Twycross protests no-one ever hears of it, and the appointment gives Thea the final boost needed for full academic legitimacy. As her father passes away soon after, she continues their research alone.
1881 | Thea laments to her friends of the difficulty of trying to be both a parent and a teacher to her children. No-one is surprised, then, when the Twycrosses opt for sending their youngest daughter Dorothy aboard for schooling. Leona, who has spent the intervening years travelling, is glad for the opportunity to get better acquainted with at least one of her nieces.
1883 | Thea is appointed Ravenclaw’s Head of House. She excels in the role and is well-liked among her wards, just as she was with her classmates when she was herself in school. If it annoys her that Hogwarts is headed by Mr. Black, a decade her junior, while she herself is given the position of a Head of House only after an intense, hours-long deliberation by the School Board behind closed doors, she never brings it up. She wouldn’t have gotten to this point in her career if she didn’t know how to pick her battles wisely.
1887 | After years of carrying out her research mostly from behind her desk, Thea resigns to carry out some field work once more. The fact that her resignation takes place immediately after the publication of Hogwarts’ half-breed ban is absolutely coincidental. Whoever says otherwise is simply spreading mean-spirited rumours of one of the school’s most prominent female professors.
1890 | Learning that the position of Ravenclaw’s Head of House is once again vacated, Thea decides to re-apply for the job she so loves. Though some individuals in the Board no doubt have their misgivings, her prestigious career speaks for itself and she’s allowed to return.
Personality:
RESOURCEFUL (MANIPULATIVE) - IDEALISTIC (PERFECTIONIST) - CURIOUS (NOSY) - DRIVEN (STUBBORN) - CHARISMATIC (OVERBEARING)
Other:
- Speaks Italian, Latin and Ancient Greek more or less fluently, gets by with French, German, and modern Greek, knows how to order food and haggle in Arabic, reads Old English
- Passable occlumens, rudimentary legilimens
- Owns a cat named Athene, gifted to her by Leona
- Plays the cello
- Witch Weekly is her guilty pleasure
- Ravenclaw didn’t win even one House Cup or Quidditch Cup during her student years, and it still eats her to this day.
- Rarely reads her father's early work, concerning East Asian civilizations
Sample Roleplay Post: -
Out-of-Character
Name: ElviAge: 30+
Contact: PM / Discord
Other Characters: Gwynedd Oakby
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