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[Ada Ashenhurst]

The Basics:

Full Character Name: Ada Ashenhurst
Likes to be called: Ada
Birthdate: 16th September, 1782
Age: 11
Residence: Ada lives in a conjoined room from her mother’s hat shop.
Blood: Half-blood
Social Class/father’s occupation: Ada is from a relatively poor family. Her mother, Mary Ashenhurst, is an extremely stern woman who heartlessly exploits Ada’s gentle and soft nature to get things she wants done. She works as a hatter. Ada’s father, Gregory Ashenhurst, is a good for nothing and likes to talk to non-living things in his spare time, saying that “they listen better” than human beings. He has a distinct Scottish accent. That is the only hint of Ada has been given of her roots or where she comes from, as her mother decidedly ignores questions from her, and her father simply says gibberish whenever she poses a question. Ada has a brother, Nicholas Ashenhurst, whom she loves dearly. He is slow and clumsy, and has a habit of messing up in the most crucial times. However, he is extremely gifted in the art of making hats, and wishes to take over the shop when he is old enough. He is 14 years old. Their family has a rather low status in the village and are regarded as weird and eccentric. Their mother, however, is highly respected as a hatter and many rich duchesses come to their hat shop to purchase hats.

The Personality

Emotional Disposition: Ada is mostly level-headed, though not very knowledgable, people acknowledge her for being street-smart and observant. She likes to lie on her bed for hours on end, just thinking about things that have happened, things that might have, things that should not have or things that should have.
Core Value: To explore new things
Positive Characteristics: Ada is a very level-headed person. In times of chaos and confusion, you can trust her to be calm and composed, slowly working out ideas and plans in her mind. She has a strange knack of keeping an idea to herself till the last moment. Her ideas are crazy and not feasible, but they usually work out in the end. Seemingly shy, she is really loud and wild on the inside. When she meets someone new, she likes to keep quiet to inspect the person, watching their movements slowly and carefully, before deciding to be friends or not. People usually see her as cold and unsociable, but her true friends know otherwise. She is not the kind to try to show off her abilities, but satisfies herself by knowing she can, and if anyone calls on her, she will be able to do it too. When she develops a close relationship with someone, she will protect that person with all her heart, even if it means risking her life. Adults usually disapprove with her shockingly reckless behaviour. They are puzzled because she seems so level-headed, but can also be brash at times. Her parents disapprove of most of the things she believes in, such as magic, making her even more determined to learn it and succeed. When someone insults her or her friends, you can always count on her to some up with another one to counter theirs. She has the ability to insult people without them knowing. This can be seen as both positive and negative, as many of Ada’s characterstics prove to be.
Negative Characteristics: Ada, despite having the image of a polite young girl, can be rather rough at times. Adults will look at her despairingly, saying that she’s tomboyish and uncouth. She has a hunger for things that look expensive and shiny. Due to her family’s poverty, she has very little clothes and hardly any toys. She often looks upon the rich families, wishing to be one of them. Ada is polite and respectful in front of her parents and other adults, not including her outbursts and fits she has, once in a while when she really gets frustrated. However, when they turn their backs, she turns into a totally different person and does all things a ‘proper lady should not do’. Her brother is blamed for this, as her mother feels that she ‘goes wild’ because of his influence, which is unlikely, as her brother is timid and rather soft-spoken.

Conflict and hardship: Ada has a hard time accepting her father’s sickness or ‘curse’ as others see it. Once upon a time, Gregory was a normal man, plain maybe, but kind on the inside. He would play with Ada, teach her things, protect her when her mother was hard on her. He would even show her fantastical magic tricks her learnt when he was working as a magician’s apprentice when he was a teenager, which amused her greatly and made her look up to her father. Ada was very proud of having such a capable and loving father.
He was also especially fond of disappearing for long periods without telling anyone where he was going. He would was return, dirty and weary, with a disappointed smile on his face. Ada would pester him to bring her on one of his great adventures, but he always just smiled and said, “Maybe, once you’ve grown up.” Ada idolised her father, and spent many hours imagining her with her father, befriending strange creatures and conquering foreign lands. One day, after one of these journeys, a particularly long one which lasted for 5 months, he returned, with a crazy smile on his face, talking no sense at all. And from then on, he stayed that way, living in his own world. Ada, though she does not show this, is greatly disturbed and grieved. Ada has also noticed her father’s knack of “turning” one thing into another. Ada would very much like to believe it to be one of his magic tricks, but she could not. For example, there would be a rock in his hand, and after a blink of Ada’s eye, it would be a muffin in his hand. Ada found this really weird and decided not to talk about it, fearing it would bring about more town gossip and reaffirm her mother’s suspicions that her father is under a curse.
Ada is repeatedly being offered off as a daughter-in-law by her mother. She believes that Ada is already of age, as she was already promised to her husband at eleven. Ada is very frustrated with the endless line of weird boys offering for her hand, and tries to escape every single meeting. When her mother is not noticing, she will stick her tongue out and act rough and splatter her face with pie, just to make them dislike her and therefore run away.
Ada has also noticed a vast difference in her family after her father’s incident. Her mother, who used to be a loving mother who would make hats, for her and her brother, became cold and hard on her. Her brother, who used to be more outspoken, has since turned timid and afraid of the world outside. Ada is very upset with the state her family is in, and cannot help but blame her father for all this. She is also guilty for feeling this way, but she cannot help herself. She wishes to find the person who made her father like this and avenge him.
Motivation, Passion and Drive: Ada does not know what she wants to do with her life yet. However, she is sure that she does not want to be cooped up in a small village, forever looking at chickens and cows. She wants to explore the world, see new places… Ada is torn between this and staying by her family, who she feels still needs her. She is especially worried about her brother, and feels that she cannot leave him, despite her strong urge to leave, and she cannot bring him with her, as he will not be able to survive in the world outside. Ada is still speculating over this, and decides that she will only decide later on, when she becomes fifteen, the ‘coming-of-age’ of the village.
Motto or catchphrase: Always do the thing that scares you the most.
Overall personality: Ada, when you first meet her, might seem cold, shy or simply rude. But if she takes a liking towards you, she will slowly open up towards you and turn rather loud and talkative. She likes to act knowledgable, even though she hardly knows anything about the world around her. She might be offended when proven wrong, but will quickly get over it. She is keen to learn and loves pondering over ‘why?’ questions.
Ada has a rather interesting perception of life. She finds boys and men rather weird, and prefer not to mix with them. This is not gender-biasedness however, it’s just that she has not found any boys that are nice and kind, except for her father and brother. She thinks that all philosophers are stupid and dumb, because she feels that instead of sitting on a rock thinking about life, they should be going about living their lives. Ada particularly doesn’t like people who do not keep their promises. Ada has been tired of being let down again and again by several people. She swears never to be taken in by others so easily again.
Ada has quite a few funny habits. When she gets bored, she likes sproating things at random, like “I like to doodle poodles!” and “Ever tried to gurgle a hurdle?” This, again, causes many to stare strangely at her, mostly
adults. She also likes to enter a room to speak to someone, before realising that she’s forgotten something, then rush off again. She also like to draw or write on her skirt, making her mother very frustrated with her.
In general, Ada is a person who doesn’t care what others think of her. Many loathe her and many love her. People who don’t know her well enough will think she’s crazy.

Diary Entry: Dear Diary,

Something that shouldn’t have happened, happened today. I was walking out of the house to go get some milk from the market (Mother’s orders), when I came across father!
He hasn’t been home for nearly 3 days. It seemed as if I was the only one worried for him. I asked him where he’d been, and he said something that went like this: A frog is a hog if you hit it with a log. Had he gone hunting for hogs? I asked him what he meant but his eyes went hazy and he went into a trance, chanting ‘frogs hogs logs frogs hogs logs’ softly under his breath. I decided to bring him to the market with me. I gripped on tightly to his arm, afraid that he’d get lost again.
At the market, we met Fatty Matty with his mother, the only family the town considered weirder than us. He grinned at me, his teeth all uneven and yellow. I smiled back awkwardly. His mother embraced me, calling me a ‘sweet dear’ and telling me to come over for pudding later. She had a one-sided conversation with my father, calling Fatty Matty and I a ‘charming couple’ and said that I would be ‘perfect’ for her ‘cute little Matty-kins’. I almost puked.
My father obviously did not respond, but stared at Fatty Matty’s toady mother, chanting rather loudly now, but only the word ‘frog’. I quickly bought the bottle of milk mother wanted, and bid farewell to them, dragging father away.
When I got home, I put father in a corner with the chickens, and told mother of what happened in the market. “It’s a miracle she wants you for a daughter-in-law… you useless, excuse for a daughter! Now go upstairs and help your brother with the hats.” She said.
So I did. Brother was a little more sympathetic of my situation and said that he would never let Fatty Matty marry me in his small, wavering voice. I didn’t quite believe him. I pricked myself on the needle. That was the last straw. I was tired of my life. All the chores, mother and her hats, father and his hogs.
I must be free.
Ada.

The Appearance


First Impression: Your first impression of Ada will be: Neat and plain. But her eyes, which are of an electrifying blue, shock many. She is decent-looking, with a typical look wanted of a lady. She will keep very quiet and polite. People will think of her as a proper lady, hence the great demand for her as a daughter-in-law.

On Second thought..: When you look closer, you will notice the scratches on her hands and legs, and also the dirt in between her finger nails. On second thought, she’s not really that lady-like.

Overall Appearance: Ada is average in all aspects. She is 5’1” and of a healthy weight of 105 pounds. Except for her large eyes, none of her features are very striking.

Basic Skills:

Can your character:
Read: She can read simple passages and find it hard to pronounce difficult words, despite having the gift of the gab. No former lessons in reading. All knowledge acquired by looking at books lying around the house.
Write: Yes, Ada can write quite well despite lacking the ability to read well. She writes in her diary often, and likes coming up with fantasy worlds. She will write about them and show them to her brother, who encourages her.
Handle Money: She can count money, as she often helps at the cashier in her mother’s hat shop. However, she is not so good at saving money as she likes to buy queer and strange objects from the market that she finds interesting.

The Family History

Parentage: Gregory Ashenhurst is Ada’s father, as he is completely mad. Her mother is also mad, as she is angry most of the time. Their parents arranged their marriage even before they were born. Mary claims that she would not have married Gregory if not for that, but she does feel something for him and they were a loving couple before Gregory’s incident.

Siblings:  Ada has only one sibling, her brother, Nicholas Ashenhurst. He is timid and soft-spoken. Ada often says that it would have been better off if he were the girl and she were the boy.

Other important figures: None.
Reputation: Their family is considered weird and the “blacksheep” of the village, as the village sees Gregory as mad, Ada is also in a way “mad”, and Nicholas, a timid boy who hardly speaks. Half of the village doubt that he can even speak at all. However, Mary Ashenhurst is seen as a superb hatter and no one can deny the quality of her good hats.
Secrets: No one knows of the cause of Gregory Ashenhurst’s “curse”. His parentage, however, is known by his wife, who prefers not to disclose it. However, when Ada received the letter informing her of her magical abilities and offering her a place in Hogwarts, she realised that her father is a ‘pureblood’ wizard. Ada’s mother, was forced into saying that it was true that Ada’s father is a wizard. However, Ada knows of nothing else concerning her father’s parentage.


General: There is nothing more to say.
The Wizard Information:


Wand: Crystallised ebony wand. Macassar Ebony wood, 15 ¼ inches, Essense of Unicorn hair.
Pet: None. A hat given to her by her brother that he named Olivia, if that’s counted. But Ada can hardly count the pink, lacy hat as a pet, despite her brother’s best intentions.


Specific Questions for Halfbloods:

Who in your family knows about the magical world?
My father knows. He is a wizard. However he is sick and does not know what is happening around him.

What explanation is given to the muggles in your family about your long absences while you are at Hogwarts?
Everyone in the family knows of me attending lessons at Hogwarts, except my father, who does not know of anything going on around him. The village are led to believe that I am marrying a rich Arabic prince and am going to live with him in his castle.
How does your family combine muggle and magical elements, is your house obviously magical or do you keep stuff hidden?
There are no magical elements, or none that I know of. My father seems to have been cut-off from the wizard world.

Has you character always known they were magical or did they worry they were a squib?
I had no idea I was magical until I got the letter from Hogwarts. However, I had my suspicions that my father was not an ordinary human being.

Does your character have any strong feelings (good or bad) about magic or is it just part of their life?
I feel a bit alarmed, but quite excited at the same time. I wish to learn how to control my magical powers so as to utilize them more effectively.


Student Skills:


School Ethic: Ada is excited. She is keen on making new friends and learning new things. She promises to try to be good and polite during lessons and when conversing with others.
Teacher Relation: Ada does not quite like teachers, however she will try her best to listen to them and learn from them diligently.
Work Ethic and Diligence: Ada is keen to learn the interesting new subjects shown to her. She will try her best in every subject, and believes that as long as she puts her mind to it, she will excel.
Subjects: Ada would like Charms, Astronomy and Defense of the Dark Arts the most as she finds that they give her a magical and prickly feeling. She would love to discover the different charms she can cast on others and also learn about the dark arts, which she finds very intriguing. She would love astronomy as she loves the stars. The stars have a special meaning to her as it reminds her of home, where her loving family is, and of what she has sacrificed to attend Hogwarts, giving her motivation to strive on. She finds great meaning in the stars and wishes to learn more. She does not like Care of Magical Creatures, as she finds large animals intimidating and reptiles too. She used to own a frog, but it died due to lack of care on her part. She is not good with animals and find keeping them a waste of her time. Arithmancy will leave her befuddled as she is not good in logistics. She will mess up potions as she is careless. She will find Ancient Runes horribly boring as she feels that history should be forgotten and everyone should just go on with their lives, thinking ahead. Despite all this, she hopes to be able to excel in all (or most) and learn as much about each subject as possible.

Where don't you want to be: Ada would not want to be in Slytherin, not because she detests the house, but because if she is put in Slytherin, she would think the Sorting Hat out of his mind.

Edited by Ada Ashenhurst, 28 May 2010 - 03:21 AM.
fixed your image, uploaded it to dmrp

[The Sorting Hat]