In-Character
Full Name: Clara Harmony WakefieldNicknames: Aunt/Auntie Clara
Birthdate: 18 February 1830
Current Age: 62 Years
Gender: Female, perceived female
Occupation: Spinster, Caretaker, Grifter
Reputation: 7? She has done nothing iffy but also has raised entirely too many children for an unmarried woman. And her naming tastes are... unconventional.
Residence: Bartonburg South.
Hogwarts House: Gryffindor
Wand: Acacia and occamy scale, twelve inches, whippy.
Blood Status: Halfblood
Social Class: Middle Class
Family:
| Natal | Lillian Wakefield, Mother. Charles Wakefield, Father. Daniel Wakefield, Brother - & family. Helen - nee Wakefield, Sister - & family Alice - nee Wakefield, Sister - & family. Edward Wakefield, Brother. |
| Foundlings | Perfidy Wakefield Enmity Wakefield Insolence Wakefield Lunacy Wakefield Malice Wakefield Wrath Wakefield Vanity Wakefield Avarice Wakefield Envy Wakefield |
Expressions | Clara seldom smiles, and when she does it's small and quick, but if one watches her eyes she often looks amused. She has six or seven unique expressions that all translate to disappointed, with varying degrees of melodrama layered on top. Her eyes are often too-wide and she has a tendency to make people uncomfortable if she looks at them too long.
Fashion | Clara dresses modestly and seldom in color, preferring whites and shades of grey that are more easily laundered. She has so few pieces of jewelry that everyone she knows has likely already seen everything she wears. The same is true of her other accessories, including an umbrella that she transfigures into a parasol rather than actually owning a separate piece.
Scent | Unscented soap and black tea.
Face Claim | Allison Janney
History:
| 1830 — 1841 Childhood | Clara's childhood years are not unhappy ones, though she often finds herself at odds with her older siblings (who are too bossy) or her younger siblings (who never seem to find themselves on her parents' bad sides, as Clara often does). The relationship that is most fraught is that of Clara and her mother, who seem fundamentally unable to understand each other — perhaps in part for lack of trying on both sides. |
| 1841 — 1848 Hogwarts | Hogwarts provides Clara with a wider selection of targets upon whom to inflict her obstinacy, which progressively becomes the dominant trait of her childhood. Her house placement in Gryffindor and the praise of bravery and valor likely exacerbated the issue. While she does have a fast friend group, she also quarrels with other students, prefects, and professors alike and hates being dismissed by anyone. Puberty hits her poorly and some of her less charitable classmates tease her for her looks, her voice, and her clumsiness (her limbs seeming to perpetually be slightly the wrong size). Rather than curtailing her fervor to put herself in the middle of every argument, this only increases the tendency. It's a wonder she made it through all seven years — had her parents been slightly wealthier at the time, it's very likely her mother would have felt it more valuable to enroll her in a finishing school than allowing her to study. |
| 1848 — 1858 Debutante | Although Clara does eventually grow out of the pimples, beady eyes (thanks to acquiring reading glasses and learning to relax her constant squint), and ever-present clumsiness, by the time she can be considered even tolerably pretty she has already acquired a reputation for being a difficult woman. Her debutante years are not considered a success. When her younger sister becomes engaged before her, Clara's mother attempts to push her in the direction of likely gentlemen a little more forcefully. Clara is not cooperative and the gentlemen are not impressed. The years press on. |
| 1858 — 1864 Spinster | At last, they've all given up on her. Clara continues living with her parents for a while, but when they begin dropping hints that she might feel more fulfilled were she to move in with her oldest brother, Daniel, and help with his children, she begins looking for an escape route. She takes a position as a companion to an old, wealthy widow, which gives her considerably more freedom than she was allowed under her parents' rule. When the old woman eventually dies and leaves her with a slight allowance in her will, it also enables Clara to strike out on her own. |
| 1864 — 1867 Perfidy | In 1863 Daniel gets himself into trouble, and by the following year it is apparent that the family with have to deal with the consequences of that trouble in the form of his mistress' bastard daughter. Daniel, with a pristine career and an on-paper-perfect-marriage, turns to his parents for help, who then look to Clara for a solution. They appeal to her sense of familial duty, of decency, of honor, none of which produces the desired impact. Her mother implies her life will be empty and meaningless without a child, so really taking in Daniel's bastard is the least that she could do — which is also less than convincing. It is only when her parents (perhaps in conjunction with her sister-in-law) resort to bribing her that Clara agrees to raise the girl. She names her Perfidy — a tongue-in-cheek allusion to how Clara will lie about her origins for her entire life — and plays dumb when anyone comments on the unusual name. Her family is livid, but unable to do much after the paperwork has already been signed. Clara, disappointingly, does eventually become attached to the baby. She had hoped to be bitterly resentful for the next seventeen years. |
| 1867 — 1869 Enmity | Clara has never bothered trying to explain what happened next to anyone, though many have pressed for details: she decided to get another. Of course, one can't exactly just go about advertising oneself as a safe home for wayward orphans, so her methods were more subtle: taking up some charity work that saw her in the slums, promenading around town with her toddling ward, and generally creating the impression that she was a stable, god-fearing woman who had generously opened her home to a child in need. There are no shortage of children in need, and it was only a few months before one found its way to her doorstep. Clara took the necessary steps of reporting the child legally, waited to see if she would be claimed (of course she was not), and then informally adopted her when the parents could not be located. She named the child Enmity — not out of any genuine resentment this time around, but because she recognized Perfidy would eventually feel put out if she grew up with a sister named Jane or something of the sort. That, and she likes that it takes most people months before they realize she said Enmity and not Amity, especially at church. |
| 1869 — 1871 Insolence | While her parents have not ceased berating her for the arrival of Enmity (privately; publicly they extol her charitable heart), they hardly seem hesitant to call on her once again when another bastard appears in the extended family. While they say the baby is not another of Daniel's by-blows, Clara has her suspicions. Publicly, she gives the baby the same back story as Perfidy. Literally the same, down to every detail except the names of her supposed parents. The baby is called Insolence (so named due to her family's insolence or her own?) |
| 1871 — 1874 Wrath | Clara is aware that these years mark the closing of an era, as she prepares Perfidy for Hogwarts. Lessons in reading, arithmetic, and manners are a shift from bottles and diapers, certainly. Of course she has help (she could hardly do all of this without help) but it's still a mental adjustment. During these years [I think?] Clara takes in another toddler. Wrath, already a less-than-inspired name choice in Clara's opinion (they can't all be winners, can they?) is corrupted to Wrathina by some of the older girls, due to the lack of feminine nicknames stemming from the word Wrath. So that's — fine, Clara guesses. |
| 1875 — 1878 Avarice & Malice | One of Clara's least favorite of all her parent's close friends attempts to foist off their (illegitimate) granddaughter onto her in 1875. Their rationale is insulting (would you even notice one more?) and reminiscent of her parent's arguments while pressuring her to take in Perfidy (it wouldn't make so much of a difference for someone like you as it would for our family...) but she finds herself begrudgingly agreeing all the same, because it's hardly as though she could do any worse than those sorts of people. Unfortunately she's already used Insolence as a name so instead elects to christen the child after what she deems the natal family's second-worst sin: Avarice. The very next year brings a new addition to the home; although older than the children Clara has taken in to date, Clara is confident the Wakefield home is the best place for her, for a number of reasons — not least of which being she is a Muggleborn child with an apparently faulty memory. Since she's already lost much of her past, Clara imagines she won't mind losing that ridiculous given name her good-for-nothing mother bestowed on her and instead takes to calling her Malice. |
| 1878 — 1879 Lunacy | A neighborhood child is left friendless after her twin throws herself off a balcony and gives her guardian a heart attack. By this point, there's really no question of what's going to become of the child, even if at nine she's quite a bit older than the typical foundling. Clara does enjoy that her backstory is tragic enough to spur some of the members of the local church to pitch in with some charity, which Clara continues to draw from with well-timed sob stories about the girls for years to come. She hasn't baked her own Christmas dinner since. |
| 1879 — 1880 Vanity | Now that Clara has established she'll take in older foundlings in a pinch, the next is not long in arriving. Miss Pulcherie Fanshawe, aged six, joins the family after her father's untimely demise. Changing her name to Vanity is rather tongue-in-cheek for Clara, who at this point has invested too much into her name scheme to raise a child named Pulcherie, but recognizes this as her own personal vanity; she may be starting to enjoy the reputation she and her girls are acquiring. |
| 1880 — 1885 Envy | As girls begin to finish their Hogwarts studies Clara reaches another stage of raising children: having to deal with them as adults (sort of). She discourages the girls from staying all seven years in Hogwarts unless they need the education (as orphans, she hardly expects any of them to become the next Minister of Magic), and discourages them even more heavily from anything involving society or marriage — but ultimately it is each girl's decision. During this time period she also takes in her last foundling, a toddler rechristened Envy. |
| 1885 — 1892 Matron | Girls grow, attend Hogwarts, and leave Hogwarts in their time. Clara keeps a hard demeanor with them, believing that a stern hand will best prepare them to make their own way in the world, which of course all of them will have to do. She hides some of her softer tendencies behind the excuse of age; she never asks any of the girls to move out, but often pretends she's forgotten who still lives at home; she makes any girl interested in NEWT education take out a "loan" from her which she never remembers to collect; and similar affairs. Of course, she's still as sharp as ever - and still actively grifting money from her parents (despite not having the tolerance to get through a conversation with them most days), the church, and anywhere else she feels she can. She's clearly doing more good with the money than anyone else would, anyway. |
DRY | STERN | DIRECT | RESOURCEFUL | MANIPULATIVE
Clara has her own set of morals and world views, which she keeps to herself, thank you very much. Because she has not bothered to explain her life philosophy to anyone, others often view her actions as confusing or contradictory, but she's quite internally consistent.
She will lie brazenly to your face and then wait for you to challenge her. Even when challenged she won't back down; she'll just keep saying progressively more ridiculous, obviously untrue things until you give up.
Out-of-Character
Name: Lynn