In-Character
Full Name: Diana Cecily Selwyn (will be divorced, previously Mrs. Maxime)Nicknames: Di, or Duchess the cat
Birthdate: April 16 1850
Current Age: 42
Gender: Female
Occupation: Socialite & not a cat
Reputation: 6!
Well, everyone thought she was dead or absconded to France with her children and her husband has since remarried. It turns out that was all a big misunderstanding, but once human again, her strange tale of what happened and resulting eccentricity gives room for pause.Residence: London
Hogwarts House: former Hufflepuff
Wand: Beech wood, 8 2/3", fairly bendy, dragon heartstring
Blood Status: Pureblood
Social Class: Upper class
Family:
Georges Maxime | Ex-husband, father to her children (b. 1843)
- - - “Toulouse” Maxime | Eldest son (b. 1868, presumed dead or now aged 24)
- - - Geneviève Marie Maxime | Daughter (b. 1869, presumed dead or now aged 23)
- - - “Berlioz” Maxime | Youngest son (b. 1870, presumed dead or aged 22)
- - - @“Basil Foxwood” | Current owner
Husband’s Family:
Maurice and Delphie Maxime | Ex-Brother- & sister-in laws (b. 1822, 1837)
- - - @“Timoleon Maxime” | Ex-Nephew (b. 1860)
Extended Family:
Katherina Selwyn Nee Lestrange | Mother
Edric Selwyn | Father
@“Nephele Lestrange Nee Selwyn” | Sister
- - - @“Priam Lestrange” | Brother-in-law, Nephele’s husband
- - - @“Lucius Lestrange” | Uncle-in-law and Uncle
- - - Agape Lestrange | Niece, born 1881
- - - Euphrosyne Lestrange | Niece, born 1889
- - - Parthena Lestrange
- - - Frida Lestrange
- - - Gretchen Lestrange
- - - Meta Lestrange
Lucille Gallaghan | Sister, Deceased
“Kimon” Selwyn | Brother
Noelle Selwyn | Sister, Deceased
Cat Family
“Thomas O'Malley” | Her ginger cat boyfriend and stand-in cat father figure
“The Alley Cats” | Her cat friends who are probably actual cats, but they helped her survive harsh London streets nonetheless
Appearance:
Diana is a divine-looking woman, once a true beauty as a debutante who has matured gracefully into her years. Long, golden hair creates a luxurious wavey frame for catlike blue eyes. She has pronounced cheekbones and a small beauty mark over the top-left of her lip. Slender in frame, she stands at about 5’3” with a well-proportioned figure that she displays to her advantage. She wears the latest fashions she can find from France, and often in rich jewel tones of reds and purples, or quite a bit of pink and bright blue. She despises wearing furs. More often than not, she compliments her look with a golden choker necklace.History:
Diana conducts herself with all the grace and dignity of any high-class socialite who was properly finished, though her gait has become decidedly more furtive and catlike since her transformation. Di can silently leap up to stand on top of a table without much thought or warning, for example. She wields magic with her right hand when she had opposable thumbs, though years of piano-playing and living on four legs has renders her somewhat ambidextrous with her left hand and feet.
In her cat form, Diana is a luxurious Turkish white angora. Her fur is soft and medium length, her whiskers full, and cheeks fluffled to perfect proportion. She’s always had her blue eyes, though they are notably larger and saucer-shaped, and lined with a heavier black than the makeup she typically wears as a human. She always wore this same golden choker she’d possessed for years, a gift from the Duke for his wife’s cat named Duchess.
Face Claim | Gillian Anderson
Early Years 1850 Diana is born as a bit of a disappointment because she turned out a girl. She is raised primarily by her governess and nanny, and joined by many siblings. 1854 Di shows her first sign of magic at age 4, when she charms her armchair to spin in circles and dance her across the room. 1861 She goes to Hogwarts, and gets sorted into Hufflepuff. She prioritizes her friends and electives in Music and Art, but did well enough in her studies to receive an O in Charms, and E’s on Potions and Herbology. She drops out after her 5th year to live with an aunt in France, where she attends finishing school. Debutante to Socialite 1868 Diana meets a dashing Frenchman at her debut ball. Both families are favorable to the match, and the two are married within three months (justtt on the cusp of suspicious haste). Her darling eldest son was born in France by the end of the year. 1869 Diana is delighted to welcome her daughter, again in France. She declares her a “miniature me” and plans to give her every opportunity she herself missed. 1870 Diana welcomes her delightful youngest son, the only of her children born in London (this was by accident, he arrived a bit early). She feels quite thoroughly done with being pregnant. 1871 To give herself respite from babbling babies, Diana volunteers at charitable events and throws several popular parties every summer. Her musical skill is a hit, and she’s quite the gushy jokester and happy dancer once imbibed. Several times people overhear her drunken arguments with her husband over the cost of the peonies, but because it’s in French, many think it’s romantic. Of course, not all was well in paradise. 1873 Diana meets her husband’s mistress, and slaps her in the face. The poor girl is fired from her job at the tea shop, and the poor spurned wife is barred from the teashop for a period of one year. Di pauses hosting parties that year. Despite crude commentary from the ton, she would never give people a reason to indulge in nasty rumors about her family. For all intents and purposes, she was a happy wife, with a happy life. 1873 - 1878 Over the years, Diana’s refuge came in the form of parties or time with her children. Everyone could see she was a doting and involved mother. It was a foil to her own distant upbringing, and a marriage that felt like a failure. Focused relentlessly on her children’s development, she made it a point for all three to learn at least one instrument and be literate in both French and English by age six. She read to them daily, and took them on frequent trips between London and Paris. She really should have stayed with them in Paris. 1879 Diana arrived from Paris to London late one afternoon with her three children in tow. Her butler Edgar reported that before heading back home, the kids insisted on a visit to the zoo before it closed for the evening. Four witnesses went on record, saying they saw the group walk into the zoo late that afternoon, hand-in-hand. The kids aged 11 to 9 looked chipper in matching sailor outfits. The mother’s wand was later discovered abandoned on the parkway, near her daughter’s little blue hair ribbon.
Incidentally, one of the zoo groundskeepers disappeared that same day (this was only reported because a junior groundskeep was disgruntled he’d been left to feed the animals and close up the zoo by himself). An investigation yielded no material evidence that these incidents were related, however suspicious.Socialte to Cat 1879 In a bitter twist of irony, Diana found herself transformed into a cat, where both modesty and proper decorum are completely out the window. Her actual butt was out for the entire world to see, for one. And though she was quite pretty still, one could hardly sing properly when confined to meows and yeols. Indeed, for the better part of a year she didn’t even know where she was in Britain, much less had enough fingers to access the full range of chords on the piano forte. She practically had to relearn the instrument, and teach her children again to boot. But what mattered most, ultimately, is that Diana was still with her children. It was a small comfort that they could all communicate with each other in their own way, the same as always.
As an added bonus, the entire family had been sold to an elderly muggle Duke and Duchess, who treated them like no less than a human family. Diana was especially close with the Duchess. They had tea times together, they watched plays and operas together, they lapped warm milk and nibbled fish filets at the far end of the dining table along with the esteemed older couple with no apparent children of their own. The Duchess’s equally elderly Duke gifted his darling wife and the mother cat matching golden chokers before his death. This necklace is one that Diana continues to wear to this day.
1880 - 1891 Over the years, Diana transformed herself, both mentally and emotionally, to conform with her new physical state. More importantly, Diana learned what life was really meant to be about. She doted on her children, giving them baths herself most nights. She roamed the nearby country roads and befriended horses and geese. She even mingled with smelly and scrappy looking street cats, and danced with a familiar tomcat named “Thomas O’Malley”. He came around to visit Di and the children more often over time, as they could speak to each other the same way she could speak with her children. Toulouse appreciated having a father figure in his life again, and Genevieve encouraged her to find happiness with O’Malley. Over time, Diana knew that Thomas felt what she felt... They might be trapped in this twisted fate, but as their tails curled together on the rooftop to watch the moonrise, even the biggest furballstribulations were tolerable as long as they had each another.April 1891 The real Duchess dies. Diana always expected that the day would come, they were bound to outlive the barmy old muggle. But it came to no less of a shock to discover her dearest human companion, body now cold and unresponsive in bed. She’d only barely recovered from grief when none other than Edgar, her butler of years back, strode through the front door to reap his precious pets (and his next pretty penny, though there was less of a market for old cats like Di). By the time she saw him, he’d already sneakily fed the kittens warm milk to drug them asleep, much in the same way he drugged them all before. She managed to spring up on his face and get a vicious claw at his eye, but he quickly flung her out an open third story window.
Blessedly in cat form when it happened, she managed to land on her feet. But Edgar made quick work of tucking the three sleeping babes into a basket and bringing them aboard his carriage. Diana charged after them, O’Malley and his gang of streetcats soon joining her on the streets as their feral cat senses told them something was amiss. In a final, great leap, O’Malley latched onto the edge of the carriage to climb aboard.
’I’ll watch over your children, I will keep them safe! We will find you, Diana!’ he cried, the sight of his little ginger head slipping further and further away with every passing second no matter how hard her little white paws pounded the dirt after them.June 1892 For nearly a year, Diana roamed the streets of London living no better than a mangy alley cat who survived from bread scraps and unguarded workmens’ lunches. Over time, she was able to sneak into the magical parts of London, and later into Hogsmeade. Childless, loveless, and now homeless, Di grew skinny and despondent, her plush white coat losing all its luster. She needed real food.
One day feeling particularly delirious from heat and hunger, Diana walked right out of the bushes to a young man ambling down the road with his face buried in a book. She rubbed herself adorably all around his legs. Perhaps if he tripped and fell, he might die, and she could get in a few good nibbles of his nose and ears or the scone he was eating at least. Him not falling and dying turned out to be the best thing that could happen to her, however.
The two soon grew a close bond, and he quickly adopted her. Something about him reminded her of Berlioz, or at least how she thought he’d be, once he got older. She still wore her golden collar, and her newfound companion read the inscription inside, which still said For Duchess, and Duchess. So Diana’s name Duchess stuck.
She learned the young man that took her in was named Basil, and Diana roamed around behind Basil like a white cloud shadow. He fed her plenty of biscuits, and she kept his lap warm while he wrote. He wrote a lot.July 1892 Grief over her loss of family and literally being a cat for over a decade made Diana more subdued than she’d been in the past. At least the extended Foxwood clan offered plenty of lavish praise for their docile and clever cat, which grew some of her affection for them. Even if they could never understand the layers of destructive depression with which she rage-clawed through the hideous yellow print Mrs. Foxwood used to reupholster the chaise. Basil got busier and busier with society parties, and she overheard him talking about his return to school (at his age?!), which gave Diana an anxious sense that her time left with the Foxwoods would soon reach its end. Afterall, there were only so many times she could ambush Merlin the owl before she assumed Basil’s older brother Atticus would make do on his threats to skin her into mittens. Back on Two Legs?? Present Day The mystery of who Edgar the Butler is, who she is to the Foxwoods, what her husband’s done, and where her children are…. Will all soon be revealed.
Personality:
Diana did everything properly and by the book. Finished to perfect polish, clever and talkative both in English and French, but not overly-so (both clever or French, that is). She drew crowds at any soiree with her voice and musical skill of a baby angel. Back in her day, Diana was touted as the diamond of her season. Once properly married, she took on the role of a new, young socialite with relish. She loved to entertain, and threw many delightful parties. On occasion, she was known to indulge a bit heavily in the sherry - but even then, it was to the benefit of all as she strummed the harp or roused song at the piano. So said her eulogy, anyhow.
In a painful twist of irony, Diana was transformed to a cat where both modesty and proper social decorum went completely out the window. Her actual butt was out for the entire world to see, and though quite pretty still, one could hardly sing properly when confined to meows and yeols. The lady had to transform herself, both mentally and emotionally, to conform with her new physical state. Once she did, she learned… what life was really meant to be about. Her children. The friends one makes, from all walks (and species) of life. A brave and kind tomcat. Amor.
She wants to be a human again. Diana is not particularly bothered by losing a fair share of her youthful beauty, though if she does ever turn back to human, she plans to do everything to make up for lost time. And to find her children, her poor, sweet children, who she knows are alive out there somewhere.
“Hufflepuff Ariens may be more ambitious and socially aggressive than average, making them clear leaders in their House. Their emotional warmth, open hearts, madcap sense of humour, and quirky independence will endear them to many people, but their naivete makes for easy exploitation by more ruthless sorts of people.”
Other:
Star Sign | Aries “Hufflepuff Ariens have an extreme abundance of energy;the usual Hufflepuff tendency to work hard out of duty is modified by the Aries tendency to value play over work. Therefore, expect long periods of playfulness and seeming indolence punctuated by brief, manic bursts of industry.”
Magical Ability | Diana was quite the accomplished witch in her day, demonstrating a knack for Charms and fairly strong with her Potions. However, she has since fallen out of practice, and will need to reacquaint herself with her wand.
Patronus | A white Turkish angora cat
Boggart | Butlers, and snakes. Butlers covered in snakes?!
Coming and Going | Floo network or magical carriage; her mother joined many in her generation who believed it to be inappropriate for a young lady to learn how to apparate should it embolden risky behavior
Amortentia |Spring magnolia blossoms, just after rain, cigarettes after tea, the inside of a wooden box
Opinions on blood purity | Somewhat a blood purist; she was influenced more so by those around her when she was young, but after living comfortably with a muggle Duke and Duchess for some time, she’s grown to appreciate other beings as needy of the wizarding world’s support.
Opinions on women's rights | A recent divorceé with little input on the matter, Di has grown much more vocal about women’s rights
Out-of-CharacterName: Nolie
Age: Ugh don’t remind me
Contact: PM Ida Chang or Discord
Other Characters: Ida Chang, Thomas Harvey, @"Sophia Voss", Cassian Valenduris
How did you hear about us?: this wonderful muse courtesy Fox and heavily enabled by Gin, Stef, and Dante xD <333
beautiful set by gin <3
![[Image: Va4dDsY.png]](https://i.imgur.com/Va4dDsY.png)
