Nicknames: N/A
Birthdate: 25 May 1873
Current Age: 18 Years
Occupation: Pariah
Reputation: 4 — a known werewolf, but one with exemplary behavior who reports to the Ministry diligently each month to be locked up during the full moons.
Residence: Swallowbury, Irvingly
Hogwarts House: Ravenclaw
Wand: 10" beech and unicorn hair, solid
Blood Status: Halfblood
Social Class: Middle
Family:
Mary Urquart née Adams, Mother [1853]
Delight Urquart, Sister [1871]
Sebastian Urquart, Brother [1875]
Gaylord Urquart, Grandfather [1802-1879], estranged
Iphigenia Urquart nee Goyle, Grandmother [1821], estranged
Melchior Urquart, Uncle [1840-1884], estranged
— Jacqueline Urquart nee Wilde, Aunt [1852-1884], estranged
— Elijah Urquart, Cousin [1874], estranged
— Gabriel Urquart, Cousin [1880], estranged
Caspar Urquart, Uncle [1843], formerly estranged and now super awkward
— Olivia Urquart nee Burke, Aunt [1855-1873], estranged
Evelyn McGonagall, Aunt [1854]
— Matthew McGonagall, Uncle [1844]
— Demelza McGonagall, Cousin [1873]
— Timothy McGonagall, Cousin [1873]
— Ethan McGonagall, Cousin [1875]
— Edward McGonagall, Cousin [1880]
Appearance:
Expressions | Topaz has the sort of eyes that are always inquisitive and watching. Her expressions are slight but easy to read, with slight pouts and small frowns being her most frequent expression (what does she have to smile about, anyway?) When she laughs she does so briefly and with her mouth closed.
Deportment | When alone in her room Topaz can sometimes bounce on her feet with the excitement of a new idea, but this energy never carries to a public setting. When she leaves the house she tries not to be recognized, and accordingly she tends to look as though she's hiding in her cloak in most cases.
Fashion | What fashion? She hardly leaves the house, so mostly she wears what is comfortable (which means she is practically a stranger to proper corsets). When she does go out she dresses in muted neutral colors, and — this is very important — in dresses and cloaks that always cover her arms.
Distinguishing Characteristics | So it's time to talk about the scars, is it? The deepest one is on her left shoulder: that's where the teeth went in. It looks like a moon, but the wrong sort of moon. One angry red crescent on the front of her collarbone, one on her back just at the top of her shoulder blade. Then her left arm: scratches, from the claws, like a bundle of sticks someone shook out on the ground. Those are white, now; they've faded and the skin has knit itself back together but they will never heal. Then there are the smaller signs: scrapes, bruises, cuts. They're always there in the week after a full moon, though they're always changing, unlike the ones from the first night. The ones from the other wolf. Those ones just stay.
Scent | tbd.
Face Claim |Jaz Sinclair
History:
1873 - 1875 | The twins arrive in the world to their recently married parents (though Topaz is never made aware of this). From the earliest days her twin is her best friend and only real confidante, even though she sometimes feels overshadowed by Ruby. For once instance, her twin displays a sign of magic almost as soon as she’s able to walk--though they’re both too young to properly remember this, and in later years Topaz would wonder whether perhaps it wasn’t just a silly story. Couldn’t Ruby have just found a tiny ruby and picked it up because it sparkled? It’s not like she’s some sort of prodigy.
Ruby and Topaz are often found playing with their twin cousins, Timothy and Demelza, and (when she’s not busy being too grown up), their older sister Delight, and so Topaz doesn’t even really notice the addition of two babies in 1875--one, Sebastian, her brother, and one, Ethan, her cousin. Babies can’t play, anyway, so there’s no use having an opinion on them.
1876 - 1879 | As the two boys grow old enough to join the play group, Topaz’ role as something of a spectator becomes cemented. She is usually seen following her twin around rather than leading and is rather quiet--though she does tend to give her sister a lot of advice when she feels she needs it. Topaz is very intelligent and a good problem-solver, and she feels sheepish about bothering the adults, so she tries to keep Ruby from bothering them, too, with somewhat mixed success.
When Delight shows her first sign of magic in 1878, Topaz begins to suspect that perhaps Ruby’s wasn’t legitimate--she couldn’t have gone before Delight, after all, because Delight is older! She had feeling a little anxious about not having shown signs herself, but is somewhat soothed--that is, until Delight starts taking every opportunity to show off, which just makes Topaz ten times as self conscious.
1880 - 1883 | The family moves from London to Hogsmeade. Ruby seems enthusiastic about all the new friends they will meet, but Topaz is less sure; she liked their old home. She doesn’t voice her concerns, and gradually acclimates to their new town. In 1882, Delight goes to Hogwarts, and Ruby throws a tantrum--which really isn’t very mature, in Topaz’ opinion. She can’t bother herself with Ruby, though, because she suddenly has problems of her own: Bash has started teasing her about not showing magic, and says that he’s already done loads. Topaz doubts this very much since she’s never seen any evidence of it, but keeps her doubts and fears to herself. Life passes quietly (too quietly--still no sign of magic!) for the next year.
1884 | Topaz has been dreading, rather than looking forward to, the year in which she will turn eleven. No one seems to notice her melancholy, however, mistaking it for her usual quietness. She gets people to take her to the library whenever possible, so that she can trying to figure out what to do about the lack of magic--but it’s hard to manage, because everyone is always too busy to take her anywhere, and when she does go to the library it’s difficult to sneak away from her guardian long enough to do any real research--and of course she can’t check the books out. Topaz would rather die than admit to her parents how worried she is about this!
Even if she had wanted to talk about it, there is soon no time to do so; after the death of the Minister of Magic (which Topaz isn’t told much about), her father starts a campaign and this takes up all of his time, and most of her mother’s.
Topaz has vague memories of Delight getting her Hogwarts letter on her eleventh birthday--while this may not be exactly true, Delight has a summer birthday so it isn’t really that off. In any case, Topaz assumes that if the 25th of May passes uneventfully it will mean she is going to be left behind. She spends most of her and Ruby’s shared birthday party wistfully looking out the window until she spots an owl. Knowing that it must be for her, Topaz squeals in rather uncharacteristic delight--and accidentally throws open every cabinet and drawer in the room. Although the owl merely passes by the window on its way to someone else’s house, Topaz has successfully displayed her magical potential--finally!--and she has a large grin on her face the rest of the day. While everyone is happy for her, she feels that everyone moves on rather quickly, considering she’d worried about this for years. But her father has a campaign to run.
The summer is split between campaigning and preparing for Hogwarts, which is more activity than Topaz has been a part of for, probably, her entire life. In June her father is elected, but this, apparently, does not mean that he has more free time--he actually seems to be out of the house even more, leaving her mother to prepare her and Ruby for their first year.
1884 - 1885 | Having spent far more time dreading being left behind than dreaming about Hogwarts, Topaz has no idea what to expect, and finds her arrival at school rather overwhelming. She falls into her old childhood habit of following Ruby like a shadow, at least until the sorting hat separates them! While she would much rather share a house with her sister, Topaz can’t argue with the Hat’s decision; she feels right at home in Ravenclaw, and settles into the school year well. From the start she is very devoted to her classes, though she is very nervous about having to perform magic in front of others--for this reason she tends to do poorly on any in-class assignments, but comes up with nearly perfect homework in every case.
After Christmas vacation, someone tells Topaz that her father is dead! It turns out not to be true, but Topaz isn’t keen on the idea of learning about this sort of thing second-hand, so she decides to start reading the paper every day, even if she doesn’t understand most of it.
1885 - 1886 | Only a month into her second year, Topaz receives news--not through the paper, but via a professor--that her mother has died from a snake bite. Not even a magical snake, either, just the normal sort! It’s incomprehensible to Topaz, but at least they get to go to the funeral. Topaz starts to think that perhaps she might like to become a healer--though her sudden reluctance regarding Herbology (because there might be snakes in the plants) will doubtless be a rather large hurdle. She has always been a somewhat pensive child, but becomes even quieter following her mother’s death. She primarily talks to Ruby and her Ravenclaw roommates, and her professors notice that she even stops raising her hand in classes, though her homework assignments are still some of the best in her year.
1886 - 1887 | For Topaz’s third year, she adds Arithmancy, Ancient Studies, and Ghoul Studies. She knows Care of Magical Creatures would be a better choice for a future career as a healer, but she can’t bear to think about having to handle snakes (or other serpentine creatures)--she’s barely managing to avoid nervous breakdowns when she has to reach into the roots of plants in Herbology, and she’s never even seen a snake in the greenhouse. This is also Bash’s first year in school, though he’s sorted into Slytherin, so Topaz doesn’t see him much.
By the end of the school year, things have started to take a turn for the worst. First, her father starts courting some blond woman everyone universally hates - mostly, in Topaz's case, because they found out about the arrangement from Witch Weekly instead of from their father. Never particularly secure in her self-esteem, Topaz thinks that their father is clearly trying to replace them and grows increasingly distant from both him and her siblings with the exception of Ruby. Papa proposes to her, but the marriage is not to be - Miss Lovegood leaves him at the alter!
The sheer embarrassment she felt for Papa was enough to get her quite solidly in her father's camp again, which led to increased tensions with her twin who was less easy to win over. Feeling increasingly alienated, Topaz decided to go home from a slumber party at her cousin's early, walking the very short distance between the two houses after dark. On any other night this might have been ill-advised but harmless, but the night she made the trek was a full moon, and fate had other plans for her.
Her father managed to find her in time to save her life and scare the beast who had attacked her away, but Topaz had been bitten by the werewolf and was doomed to share his curse. To make matters infinitely worse, this somehow became public knowledge when the paper reported it less than a week later. In the storm of debate following the announcement her father was more or less forced to resign his position as Minister of Magic.
1888 - 1891 | Her siblings all returned to Hogwarts, but Topaz was left behind to forge something of a new life. Always one to keep up with current affairs, she took an interest in politics during the ensuing election - and was filled with a sort of righteous fury by several candidates' refusal to actually address the issues that are important to her. She also started studying books she received from Mrs. Riley at the Irvingly Infirmary. She continued this for over a year, her interest in healing having been undiminished by the fact that a career as a healer was now out of reach for her. In 1889 she was able to obtain a sort of an internship with the Infirmary (likely due to Mrs. Riley's sympathy), but the way patients stared at her drove her back home again in a matter of weeks. Topaz recognized that, knowing what they knew about her, a patient would never be comfortable entrusting their care to her, even if she was entirely harmless outside of the full moons. This knowledge grated and she eventually gave up on healing magic, turning her interests instead towards other things.
By the time her seventeenth birthday arrived in spring of 1890, Topaz had a whole litany of spellwork she wanted to try immediately, most of it experimental. She took an interest in Latin and magical theory, and started creating her own spells, most of which she never showed to anyone. Most days are spent studying in her room left largely to her own devices, particularly after her father went back to work — and since that is probably going to be what her life is for the next twenty years or so, until eventually her body gives out under the stress of lycanthropy, she might as well make the most of it. She has plenty of time to study and no shortage of interests to explore.
Other:RESERVED | INTELLIGENT | OBSERVANT | CARING | STEADY
- Fluent in English, French, and German; can read Latin
- Reads voraciously
- Has a pet cat
- Constructs her own spells
- Starting to learn wandless magic
- Good at basic healing magic and brews her own bruise balms for full moons
- Afraid of snakes
- Secretly dreams of founding a school for halfbreeds and other magical children who are unable to safely attend Hogwarts, but has never spoken of this to anyone.
Magnolia
