Ruth, Aunty Ruth

• Unlikely MC job for a woman (-1)

• Roger White III [1800-1862] || Father, Shopkeep
  
• Edith White née Johnson [1810-2.22.1844] || Mother, Housewife
  
• Roger White IIII [7.1.1833-7.2.1863] || (Younger) Brother, Soldier
  
• Williams White II [9.23.1835-7.1.1863] || (Younger) Brother, Soldier
  
• Adam White [9.9.1837-9.17.1862] || (Younger) Brother, Soldier
  
• Julius White [1.12.1840-4.6.1862] || (Younger) Brother, Soldier
  
• Theodore White [2.22.1844-3.12.1864] || (Younger) Brother, Fugitive
  
• Virginia White née Smith [2.22.1842-3.12.1861] || Sister-In-Law, Housewife
  
• Joseph Roger White [1860] || Nephew, DMLE Lawyer

General | At 60, Ruth is a very hale woman; her posture is neat, her figure mature but sagging. Her hair is a deep auburn, with a few streaks of silver starting to come in -- despite her stressful past, Ruth has managed to keep her hair from going white with her natural disposition. Her eyes are a shade of green-hazel that fluctuates between blue, grey and a dull green depending on the lighting and her clothes. She stands at 5'7" and is more legs than willowy torso.


Expressions | Ruth's face tells a life of smiles and laughter -- she has gentle laugh lines and soft crowsfeet. She typically has a smile for everyone she meets, sometimes that an wizened Aunty but more often than not full of youth and mischief.


Deportment | She carries herself to grace of someone who knows herself well and is happy with her person; she never fidgets or stutter-steps and has a subtle confidence inborn of self-reliance and inner peace.


Fashion | Ruth strives for both practical and comfortable clothing and isn't always in style with other middle class women; her style is distinctly that of an American Southern Belle, with some Victorian English takes (given the shops she ahs to work with). Being an "old bag" as she jokes, the witch prefers to forgo hats and simply puts her hair into a ponytail when it gets in the way. She prefers darker, warmer colors like browns and occasional golden yellows.


Accessories |A pretty silver hairpin; a family heirloom, given to her as the only daughter


Scent | Salt water and herbs


Distinguishing Characteristics | She has a scar along her left temple. It is faint, only a tad darker than her natural skin tone, more than a casual glance to see, but also long: it starts next to her eyebrow and vanishes into her hairline.


Face Claim | Michelle Fairley

August 31, 1832 || Genevieve Genevieve is the firstborn child of American middle class shop-keep Roger White III and Edith White; it is only half a year after they marry and there is talk in the small Southern town.

August 1, 1833 || Roger White IV is born; Genevieve is ecstatic to have a new playmate.

1834 || Little Genevieve flings a dish across the room and almost hits little Roger during a tantrum, all without touching it; her mother panics and her husband swears the family to secrecy.

Summer 1835 || Genevieve makes friends with a boy visiting from Charleston who is like her – he shows her how to make flower petals dance away without wind and when she tells him her parents can’t do it either, they agree to keep meeting in secret.

Fall 1835 || Williams White II is born; Roger dislikes him fiercely for taking his place as the only son but young Genevieve is hopeful – maybe he’ll be like her?

Summer 1836 || The Charleston boy, Edward, visits again and she meets his parents by accident; for purebloods, they are delighted to find she is a muggleborn witch. In her excitement, she lets her secret friend’s existence slip to little Roger, who immediately runs off to tell their mother. She is forbidden from seeing him again

September 1836 || Edward’s fluent parents pay a visit to Genevieve’s home; they speak with her parents about her gift and the wizarding world – or at least tell them as much as Edith and Roger need to know. Something unspoken passes between the two couples, as her mother allows her to start seeing Edward again: in fact, Edith encourages her daughter to.

1837 || Adams White is born; the family is forced to move after rumors begin circling of their daughter being a witch among the No-Maj. They come to the Charleston area, where they buy a lovely house just outside the city after setting up a successful accounting business.

1838 || Genevieve and Edward began to exchange letters and, whenever he could, he would visit her. She also starts receiving an education from a tutor: Mrs. Lee was a woman from a lesser middle class family, recommended to the Whites by Edward’s parents. Mrs. Lee was young and full of hidden liberal vigor and, behind the closed doors of the parlor room, taught feminist ideology just as much as how to be a proper southern belle.

1840 || Julius White is born; Genevieve starts to struggle between her studying and how her mother wants her increasing help with her brothers. Her parents start talking more frequently about Edward and his family with her. Her and Edward then talk about it and come to the conclusion that the adults are being gross: the two of them are just really good friends – why, she sees him almost as an older brother!

Summer 1841 || Edward comes to visit Genevieve and happily announces his letter has arrived from Ilvermorny; Genevieve is confused and the two spend the afternoon talking about the American School of Wizardry and Witchcraft, sister to Hogwarts. Genevieve’s eyes are wide at his stories – well, stories from his parents' time – of the school and learning magic. Edward promises her she’ll get her letter; She can’t wait to go.

Fall 1841 || Edward goes off to Ilvermorny; due to Rappaport’s Law, he cannot write and Genevieve is stuck once more with her No-Maj family, who don’t like to discuss her abilities.

Spring 1843 || Genevieve’s letter from Ilvermorny arrives and, without promoting, Edward’s family offers to send her and assist with anything she needs; her parents wish their hands of it and his parents’ tell her this is for the best, as the magical community is not supposed to mesh with the No-Maj.

Fall 1843 || Genevieve goes to Ilvermorny – it is a thrilling experience and, though she is met with derision and some hostility for her roots, she doesn’t let that stop her. When she steps onto the Gordian Knot amongst the four house statues, there was the humming glow of the Horned Serpent and the Pukwudgie raised it’s arrows. When prompted, she chose the latter. She was given her wand shortly after and, for once, felt sure of her place in the world.

1844 || The last son, Theodore White, is born; due to complications, Edith passes away the next day. Preeclampsia, she overheard the doctors say- not uncommon for women to pass away from. It is a sad year and her father starts to grow distant with his children; inversely, though, Genevieve finds her brothers becoming closer with each other as well as her, even helping with Theo when they could. Genevieve almost didn’t return to Ilvermony that year but, with the encouragement of Edward and, surprisingly, her father, she did.

1845-1849 || Genevieve continues to attend Ilvermony with the aid of Edward and his family; she shows a natural skill for potions and healing magic and then turns right around to join the dueling club the school offers. She ranks often in the top five students, becoming well-known for her clever use of spells for things outside their purpose. There, she meets a young medicine man, Lúta, from a small local native tribe out west.

1849-1850 || Genevieve and Lúta become fast friends over the course of her last year and then more. In the end, though, it’s not meant to be– her family would never accept it and he needed to return to his people. He teaches her how to become an animagus as a parting gift, and she promises to remember him fondly; in all honesty, this is her first heartbreak, but she keeps it to herself when she returns home.

1851 || Due to Rapapport’s Law, she lives two lives: one amongst other Maj with Edward’s family and one amongst No-Maj with her own family. Edward starts to talk about the unfairness of it, that she must live so, and her father begins to ask her about her plans for marriage.

1852 || Edwards comes calling; she knows, with a sense of dread, what her dear friend is doing.

1852-1856 || They two start formally courting, chaperoned by his mother and aunt; it feels very wrong to Genevieve, to become romantic with a man who is almost like an older brother to her but she holds her tongue. In the end, when he starts speaking of proposals and weddings, it’s her who puts his foot down: she doesn’t want to marry Edward. The pair sit and talk privately, he admits to mainly doing this so she won’t have to live a half-life with her family. When he reluctantly withdraws his courtship, her father’s wrath is terrible- but Williams and Julius stand up for her.

Spring 1861 || Theodore announces his formal courtship to his local sweetheart, Virginia Smith; her father hasn’t and doesn’t speak to her but comments blithely to no one on why only one of his children is working to secure the family lineage.

Fall 1861 || The courtship becomes an engagement and then a marriage quickly when Theo admits to his father that Virginia is with child. Genevieve soothes her littlest brother’s concerns about it all.
Winter 1861 || Genevieve uses her magic to assist in her nephew’s birth; Joseph Roger White is born.

1862 || The Civil War begins; as good sons of the South, all of Genevieve’s brothers enlist.  Shortly after their departure, she finds her father in his bed, having passed in his sleep. Virginia and Theodore fight over his departure and, when he leaves, she becomes despondent. Genevieve is left alone, in their country home with only her young nephew and a heartbroken sister-in-law.

1862-1863 || The war is terrible and Genevieve takes a job to support her remaining family at a hospital on the Maj side of Charleston. The Union Army marches upon Charleston. Her home is briefly occupied by soldiers, but it is short-lived. None of her brothers return home and Virginia, sure of her husband's death, dies of a broken heart within the first year; Genevieve is left to raise Joseph on her own. Edward pushes for her to move into the hidden Maj portion of the southern city, but she refuses.
Spring 1864 || To her utter joy, Joseph shows off his magic by helping her light a candle as she sits down to read him a bedtime story. Her nephew is a wizard too.

Summer 1864 || Letters start arriving: Julius never saw the battlefield; Adams died of infection after the battle of Antietam; and Roger and Williams are counted among the dead from the battle of Gettysburg. It is a shock: her whole family is gone in the span of a year. She waits for word of Theodore, but none comes.

Fall 1864 || She is woken in the middle at night by Joseph, who says his dad is back- he is notably excited. Sure enough, Theodore is bleeding all over the parlor furniture; as she patches him up No-Maj style, he explains he was a wanted fugitive by the Union too, for fleeing west to fight with Confederate patriots out there. He was done, though, and wanted to settle back down at home with her and Joseph. She goes to get her wand, to rid his wound of infection- glass breaks, a gunshot fires and Joseph screams. She comes downstairs and finds herself staring down the barrel of flintlock pistol- and then the intruder, a Union soldier, drops dead; behind him is Edward, wand drawn.

Winter 1864 || Genevieve inherits the entirety of her family’s middle class estate. Theodore is buried in the family plot in the backyard; Edward’s parents send him West for his own safety. He offers to bring her and her nephew with him but Genevieve turns him down.  Instead, she packs up, sells the house and accounting practice before taking Joseph North to Maine; there, she is hired as a local healer at a hospital near Ilvermony.

1872-1879 || Joseph goes to Ilvermony and excels at his understanding of magical law. He graduates with high marks in both O.W.Ls and N.E.W.Ts and gets a job working as a junior lawyer in a MACUSA building.

1881 || Joseph begins courting a local witch and former classmate; Genevieve is delighted and hopeful for that family’s future.

1882-1883 || Joseph’s courtship turns to an engagement but is short-lived; his fiancee falls in love with another man and Joseph breaks off the engagement.

1884 || After a year of moping, Genevieve gathers her inheritance and savings and sends Joseph off to London to start over; she can't stand to see him so downtrodden.

1885-1890 || Genevieve and Joseph exchange letters often, telling one other about events in their day-to-day life and changes in life on either side of the pond. Joseph settles in well with a job as a lawyer for the English Ministry’s Department of Magical Law Enforcement and Genevieve slowly transitions from full time to part time and eventually retires from her work at the hospital.
Spring 1891 || Joseph writes, asking his dear aunt to join him in England; with nothing keeping her there, Genevieve packs up and moves to London.

Summer 1891 || After a few months of living with nephew in his bachelor pad, Genevieve decides she’s had enough and moves to Hogsmeade; she tells Joseph he needs his own space without whatever pressure having his old aunty around would bring as well as start looking for a companion.

Winter 1891 || Being unemployed does not sit well with Genevieve and, on a whimsy, she applies to the opening for a nurse at Hogwarts; to her surprise, she’s hired.

Ambivert – Exceedingly Mischievous – Maternal – Patient – Astute – Reliable – Amiable – Restful

General:

• Boggart: A flintlock pistol, cocked and ready to pull the trigger
  
• Patronus: Cougar
  
• Amortentia: Unknown
  
• Animagi: Registered (MACUSA and Ministry); Chesapeake Bay Retriever - Extra toes on feet, bright blue eyes