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The Basics:
Full Character Name: Estelle Simone D’Elven
Likes to be called: Estelle. No one has ever thought to give her a nickname.
Birthdate: August 20th, 1782
Age: 11
Residence: Though her mother is from France and her family French, Estelle was born and raised in York. She lives between the Shambles and York Minster, above a cheapish fabric shop belonging to an elderly (muggle) friend of her mother’s.
Blood: mother: Sylvie D'Elven, pureblood. Father: unknown
Social Class/father’s occupation: Her mother works in a fabric shop belonging to an old friend. She works behind the counter, and also takes occasional dress-making requests. She is skilled at her work; she had always loved sewing and has been working in this shop since Estelle was born.
The Personality
Emotional Disposition: Stony-covered watchfulness
Core Value: Determined
Positive Characteristics: Estelle never, ever gives up. Any secrets she learns or is trusted with are kept firmly locked inside. If you could get past the stony covering of her heart you would find her generous and the most loyal of friends. Estelle notices things; her dark eyes are quick, watchful.
Negative Characteristics: Estelle does not forgive, nor does she forget. She covers her fear of people with a stony face and sharp, rude words. Estelle does not accept help easily; she is very proud that way. If she does not like something, she will not work at it.
Conflict and hardship: Estelle has been brought up with the fact that she is the family ‘mistake’. The D’Elvens are a very proud pure-blood family, and Estelle is the illegitimate daughter of an unknown father. No matter how often she tells herself that people have a right to hate her because of what she is, she still struggles to accept it. In her mind, this failing of acceptance makes her weak. On a lower level, Estelle struggles with the fact that her mother is beautiful, while she is most definitely not.
Motivation, Passion and Drive: Estelle’s main motivation is simply to be silent and unseen. If people do not see her, she reasons, they cannot say nor do hurtful things. She also has a great passion for flying. Not Qwidditch; though Estelle has heard of the game she does not relish the idea of playing in a team. She enjoys what she privately calls ‘air-dancing’, although ‘acrobatic flying’ would be a more descriptive name.
Motto or catchphrase: “These are people I know won’t hurt me; I call them corpses.”
Overall personality: On the outside, Estelle is careful to seem stony and unfriendly. If she lets no one into her heart, they can only fire their hatred at her hardened shell. So she does not trust, she does not talk, carefully keeps her thoughts to herself.
But to the few friends she has (an old recorder at York Minster and an urchin boy from the Shambles) Estelle is quite a different person. Her laughter is soft, like the muffled bells that chime before Christmas. She is generous and fiercely, stubbornly loyal. If anyone even thought of hurting one of her friends, it would raise such a while-hot raging temper within her and she would do anything to protect them. And Estelle would never forgive the guilty party, but hate them with all of her childish heart.
Diary Entry: (Note: If Estelle kept a diary, it would be written in French. Here I write in English for the benefit of the reader.)
I saved my bread from supper yesterday. When it is dry it crumbles easier for the pidgins at the Minster. I climbed up so high, and no one saw me. Up there the wind is free, the birds are free. Got my letter from that school. Maybe there I will find out how to turn invisible, and then I can fly my broom off the top of the Minster with the pidgins and the owls. Maman says I may take Flute with me when I go. For that I am glad. I know nothing about this school. She neither. All D’Elvens are taught at Beauxbatons. Except this one.
The Appearance
First Impression: On first impression, Estelle is a ghost-child with great, haunted dark eyes.
On Second thought..: After a second look you would see her lank, shoulder-length hair. It is a colour of no description, somewhere between blonde and grey and mousey-brown. That, combined with her pale skin and fragile, weed-grown-in-the-dark build, you would perhaps think she had just recovered from some illness. But you would be wrong.
Overall Appearance: Even the kindest person could not call Estelle a pretty child. Her nose is like a small potato, her skin ghostly pale and her cheekbones sharp enough to cut cheese. Her eyes are dark, blackish-brown, too large and dominating her face, made to seem even larger by the double-folds around her eyes.
She is too small for her age, skinny, with knobbly elbows and knees. Her clothes (simple and of cheap material, but cleverly made by her mother) do nothing to make her seem prettier. Estelle seems to have a strange talent of keeping mud and dust from her clothes, even through the streets of York and when climbing the Minster. But even this does not help her appearance; it simply makes her seem more unnatural, ghost-like.
Basic Skills:
Can your character:
Read: yes, French as well as English
Write: yes, her hand is neat for eleven but her spelling bad and typically French
Handle Money: yes
The Family History
Parentage: Mother: Sylvie D’Elven. Father: unknown
Siblings: none
Other important figures: Estelle sees her family as a solid D’Elven mass; they are important because whenever they take it into their heads to visit, the adults are always making wondering comments about Estelle’s unknown father, what the chance of him being a muggle is, new ideas to trace him and find out. Her cousins follow the example set to them.
Reputation: For the neighbours (all muggles) Sylvie D’Elven is an excellent seamstress who does not charge the earth, and a widow. They do not know she is scorned from her family; that is wizard business and not meant for their ears.
In the Wizarding world, the D’Elvens are one of the proudest pure-blooded families. Though their heritage is French, the name is not so well-known in England as in France. Muggles are tolerated, so long as they do not try to mess with the bloodlines. Half-blood friends are permitted, though marriage to one is allowed in only very rare occasions. Even then, the couple would be discouraged to have children.
Secrets: Estelle has a great-uncle who eloped with a muggle. She rides bare-back in a circus in Italy, and he works in the same circus as a magician. He is never, ever talked about. Estelle does not know of his existence.
General: none
The Wizard Information:
Wand: hawthorn wood, phoenix feather core
Pet: a snowy owl named Flute. Estelle has had him for two years; she found him abandoned atop York Minster and raised him herself.
Specific Questions for Purebloods:
Are there any magical items in your house, how about a house elf? The only magical items are Sylvie’s wand and broom. This is because, living among muggles, she has to be careful not to even be thought a witch.
How strict were your parents in enforcing no underage magic? Estelle was encouraged to try and do magic, because her family were all so worried she would turn out a squib.
Are there any spells which are used a lot by your parents? Those to do with sewing, and cleaning dishes.
Has you character always known they were magical or did they worry they were a squib? Estelle tried to tell herself she would not care if she were a squib, but it was always a lie. She showed no sign of magic until she was nine, when she was teaching Flute to fly and he was nearly caught by a cat. That cat was drenched with water from nowhere, and Estelle realised she must be a witch after all.
Does your character have any strong feelings (good or bad) about magic or is it just part of their life? Estelle is very relieved that she has magic, but apart from being able to fly a broom, it has no other great meaning to her.
Student Skills:
School Ethic: Estelle was home-taught by her mother, and knows little of what to expect at Hogwarts. She is nervous, because there will be so many people, and worried that they will all know her to be the black sheep of the D’Elven family.
Teacher Relation: Estelle would be as scared of Professors as she is of everyone. More so, because they have such authority over her. They will probably prove to be a problem because Estelle would not be able to hide her fear with her stony face-mask.
Work Ethic and Diligence: Estelle would work very hard for the classes she cares about. For the others, she would do just enough to avoid unessicry notice. Even if she knows and answer, she is unlikely to answer in class because it would mean everyone would look at her.
Subjects: Would like and work for: Transfiguration, Potions, Care of Magical Creatures
Would dislike and not work for: History, Charms, Divination, Herbology
Where don't you want to be: Hufflepuff. And if she were in Slytherin, she would probably have a very hard time...
Edited by Estelle D'Elven, 19 March 2010 - 08:05 PM.
That really made me laugh!!
