In-Character
Full Name: Ella Priscilla OakbyNicknames: Elle, Ellie (childhood)
Birthdate: September 19th, 1870
Current Age: Twenty-Three Years
Gender: Female
Occupation: Self-Proclaimed Lepidopterist
Reputation: 8
Residence: Wellingtonshire, Hogsmeade
Hogwarts House: —
Wand: —
Blood Status: Squib
Social Class: Upper Class
Family:
[—] Oakby, Father [1844]Appearance:
[—] Oakby (née —), Mother [18XX]
Idris Oakby [1872]
Tall and blonde and with symmetrical enough features, Ella might be considered prettier if she actually tried. Her style is too frumpy and too drab to be considered fashionable, and she prefers colors that tend to wash her out. She wears magnifying spectacles on the tip of her nose more often than not, not out of necessity but out of a desire to "get a closer look" at whatever she's working on. Her hair is usually the most styled thing about her, but only because her maid is insistent on taking care of it each morning.History:
She can look nice, and usually does whenever forced to attend a ball or party with her sister, but even then she has no idea how to carry herself like a woman of her status. She's always tense or hunched over or tripping over her own two feet, which is never as endearing or cute as novels make it out to be. She's always playing with her fan... or twirling her parasol until she inevitably drops it... or folding her handkerchief into the smallest square she can manage. Papa calls her a busybody—she assumes everyone else thinks her unladylike.
Perfumes give her a headache, but she always smells florally or woodsy or Earthy by virtue of spending so much time outdoors and in the gardens. Unfortunately this means sometimes her skirt hem or sleeves are dirty as well. She is right-handed.
1870 | Ella is born the first child and daughter to her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Oakby. The birth is easy; the months following are not. Ella is cranky and restless and keeps everyone in the house awake, from her parents to the lowest scullery maid. The family relocates from their London towntome to their country estate a mere three months after her birth to give her parents some room to breathe.Personality:
1871 | Mrs. Oakby's postpartum melancholy never truly disappears, and is only made worse when she becomes pregnant again before the end of the year. Ella spends more time with her father than her mother—and that's saying something since Mr. Oakby has little knowledge of what to do with a baby, nor any particular interest in spending his free time with one.
1872 | Idris joins the family. Ella has no memory of her sister's birth, but by all accounts she was pleased to be in the presence of her new little sister from the moment she was introduced to her by the nanny. Mrs. Oakby's melancholic state worsens; she spends more time in her bedroom, preferring to take her meals there instead of joining her husband. Ella does not pay much mind to her—it is their nanny who spends the most time with them, anyways.
1875 | Ella begins her studies under the tutelage of a well-recommended but very strict governess. Old-fashioned Mr. Oakby takes no notices of the bruises on his daughter's knuckles, nor of the way she seems to leave a third of her lessons in tears. She's a good student, though, and thrives in her lessons between her governess' threats of turning her fingers to jelly.
1878 | Idris has her first sign of magic before Ella, which only becomes a cause for concern when the governess makes a deal of it to her parents. She begins to internalize her fear—no magic means no Hogwarts, no wand, no being like her mother and father. Mr. Oakby reassures her that he was a late bloomer too and that it's normal for children who show their first sign of magic later in life to fret over it. Ella has no reason to doubt him, and yet her worries persist.
1880 | Ella remembers the date it happened. One day her mother was sad, and the next she was gallavanting around the house, proclaiming to any person who would listen that she was going to take "her" girls (she'd never said that before) back to London so they can experience the bustle of the summer months with her. She went on and on about the circuses they'd visit, the events they'd attend together, everything. Seeing her mother like this left an uneasy feeling in her stomach. Mama was never happy—not always sad, no, but never so open with her glee. She packed her bags and did everything her mother asked of her, but when the morning came for them to depart, everything... stopped. Slowed down. She remembers Papa yelling at someone, the servants running up the stairs in search of something (Mama?), and then the moment her Mama's lady'd maid emerged from her chambers with a single piece of parchment rolled into a perfect cylinder and tied with a ribbon. Mama had left—and with a woman lover at that. Everything felt off-kilter after that moment, with Idria and Ella being sent to their rooms and only checked on by their Papa for minutes at a time each day for what seemed like weeks. She still wears the little ribbon from the parchment, a piece of it stuffed into the locket she wears around her neck.
1881 | Her eleventh birthday passes without a single sign of magic. Once again it is the governess who brings this to her Papa's attention. Ella is still in denial, assuming it will come in the eleventh hour. She thinks up scenarios day and night: how Papa will take she and Idria into London, how Idris will sprint into the streets and nearly get run over by one of the horses, how Ella will just have to use her magic to get her to safety. She goes through every possibility she could think of and even begins to plan out how to make them happen, but just before Christmas Papa whisks them back to the countryside. Permanently this time.
1882 | The day comes where everyone is forced to face the truth: Ella is a squib. She spends the entire day of September 1st face-down in bed, sobbing into her pillow. There are no wands, no trains, no Hogwarts uniforms or spell books. All of her childhood friends are gone, leaving her alone with Idria. Papa doesn't seem bothered, and Ella can't understand why. Doesn't he understand that this—being a squib—is basically a death sentence? That nobody will want to be her friend? That she won't be able to ever be normal? Even the staff begin to eye her differently, and even one of the more superstitious laundry maids quits, insistent that she won't touch a squib's clothes out of fear of it "catching".
1884 | By the time Idris leaves for Hogwarts, Ella becomes something of a recluse. Left to her own devices apart from her daily lessons with a new, very pro-muggle governess (which somehow does not translate into pro-squib, but her father seems pleased to have done something to help his daughter so she never brings it up), Ella develops an interest in a variety of topics. Watercolors. Knitting. Candle-making. Insect-collecting. She has a particular fondness for butterflies and moths, both that she has no issue killing with her bare hands and adding to her growing collection that she hangs in her bedroom wall behind glass panels.
1886 | Ella is harassed by a group of Hogwarts-aged wizards while shopping with Papa and Idris shortly before Christmas. In the short time they separate to buy presents for each other, the boys corner her outside a bookshop and call her all sorts of names while throwing pebbles at her ankles. Its the first time she remembers being openly targeted for her lack of magic—if only it would be the last.
1889 | Papa insists she debut the summer before her nineteenth birthday. She insists it's a terrible idea, over and over again until he begins pretending that he can't hear her. It's easy enough to conclude that he wants her married and out of the house. Having her out of his care will not only make it easier for Idris when she debuts, but will also make it easier for him to pretend like her squibness hasn't hindered her irreparably. She swears up and down that the season will be a total failure, and she's correct.
1892 | Season after season, year after year, Ella continues to try to appease her father by attending whatever party she manages to snag an invite to. They become less common as the years go on, especially as Ella spends less time focusing on her marriage prospects and more on whatever hobby has caught her interest for the month. She joins Idria at the occasional party when she debuts, but no longer does she daydream of marrying a kind man who loves her in spite of her squibbery. No, her focus is on Idris, who is younger and pretty and full of potential, even if she seems more invested in squib-based activism on her sister's behalf.
1894 | After one particularly heated dinner where her Papa insists that she attend dress fittings for the summer season before all the appointments get booked up, Ella finally puts her foot down and insists she will be a spinster. Even if he refuses to see it, even if the entirety of Britain considers her marriage material (which they have not. Ever.) she will no longer parade herself around like unwanted livestock. She uses her dress money for a new butterfly net and finally convinces Papa to redo the greenhouse so she will have a place to store all of her equipment and tend to the plants she's been hoping to cross-breed. She finally feels like she can breathe. Finally feels free.
Proud. Self-assured, at least on the surface. Very passionate about her own interests; has a much more difficult time expression interest in others'. Intelligent, but not at all practical. Chronic over-thinker. Not great at processing her emotions.Other:
— Does not like to think of Hogwarts much, but once insisted that she would've made a spectacular Ravenclaw.Sample Roleplay Post: —
— Falls somewhere on the asexual spectrum. Capable of romantic love, but has never experienced sexual desire as she understands it.
Out-of-Character
Name: BreeAge: 24
