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voices-softasthunder · 6 years

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for the 30 days of character development challenge: 3, 6, 8, 10, 13, 17, 27!

so katie you sent me this ask literally MONTHS ago but bc you’re so amazing and sent me a bunch of asks i didn’t get around to answering all of them!! so here you go, questions you probably forgot you asked about my ocs (and made me decide which ones to answer for, rip im so indecisive!)

3.) Name one scar your character has, and tell us where it came from. If they don’t have any, is there a reason?

So one of the first I think of is Vivienne Beauregarde. She’s a Gryffindor who was in 6th year during the Battle of Hogwarts, but already of age so she was allowed to stay behind to fight (though obviously plenty who weren’t allowed did stay too!) Viv is…. ferocious. She throws herself full force into things, which included the fight. Her twin sibling Mallory, who she loves with all of her heart, was fighting too and happened to be one of the more skilled-at-Healing members of Dumbledore’s Army, so Mal was one of the three designated field medics in the battle. Viv devoted herself to protecting Mal in the fight - both because strategically, they needed as many Healers as possible, and because she absolutely loves her twin. This meant Viv did so much to protect Mal, at the cost of her own safety. When Mal was hit with a Disarming Spell, Viv just handed them her wand without a second thought. She then broke off a leg of an Acromantula she’d killed to use it as a weapon now that she didn’t have her wand (the leg has barbs an inch or so long so it’s a pretty damn useful weapon for fighting up close!) and uses that. It’s honestly a miracle she dodged the Killing Curses, but she was hit with a lot of spells that did damage but still couldn’t bring her down. Acromantula bites, cursed wounds, all sorts of injuries and she stayed on her feet for hours. The only reason she didn’t die is when she finally collapsed, Mal was right there to stabilize her and so she made it until the Battle was won and she got full medical care at St. Mungo’s. Now, with all that backstory, she obviously has a lot of scars. One of her big ones is a huge Acromantula bite on her arm (since she tackled a lot of those up close). She also was hit with a Reducto full in the abdomen, but Mal was able to keep that from killing her, so she just has the scorch marks and shiny regrown skin to show where it almost blew her apart. Interestingly though, for where she *doesn’t* have scars is on her face and neck. That’s because when she was being healed at St. Mungo’s, they healed a lot of the damage there while she was unconscious (one spell that had hit her in the face was possibly messing up her breathing, so understandable to repair that damage, and then they just went on to clear more of it). However, once she woke up Viv was angry they healed a lot of the superficial damage on her face. They’re her battle wounds, her marks of valor - proof of what she went through for her twin. She insisted that they be left behind. Lucky for her, the Healers hadn’t gotten around to doing the cosmetic work on scars below her neck, so she still has a huge array of scars to show there.

That turned out really long but honestly I have so many other possible scars to talk about for people rip! I’ll also talk about Lavender (who isn’t an OC but is an important character in all of this). She survives the Battle with deep scars from Greyback, mostly at her neck and upper torso. Since they’re cursed, she doesn’t have a choice of whether to heal them or not, and they are always really vivid. As soon as she’s released from the hospital, she joins the fledgling group of Aurors who are being recruited to have a defense against future dark wizards (as does Viv, since who could keep her away!? Her recuperation is way longer though so she doesn’t join until a few months after the battle, whereas Lavender and others start training within the first week). Lavender gets new scars in the future of course, but one of her werewolf-caused scars is visible on the underside of her jaw and she has them all over her neck, so they’re by far her most visible. This absolutely produces a challenge in Auror training when she and others have to pass the concealment tests that Tonks mentioned in OotP!

6.) Describe your character’s happiest memory.

Ooh this is hard to pin down just one thing! Even my OCs with the toughest lives have multiple good spots to choose from.

For Sue, her happiest memories involve her beloved partner Beck, her family, or both. Beck’s family was… not the most involved ever, and when nobody comes to pick them up after their first summer when Hogwarts ends, Sue’s mother decides that Beck is coming home with them until their mother or stepfather get their shit together and get Beck, because no twelve-year-old is going to be waiting alone at the train station obviously! That’s the first of many times Beck goes to the Li household (their flat is right in London so it’s very easy to go there from Kings Cross), and sometimes it’s hours, sometimes it’s weeks. While that’s obviously shitty, that’s the background to a lot of Sue’s happy memories where her partner (who for the first few years they know each other, they say best friend! Then girlfriend comes later) is so unequivocally welcome in her family. So many good holiday moments there, and there was one Chinese New Year celebration that fell during the Hogwarts winter holidays that Beck was able to attend, which made Sue so happy that the most festive holiday for her family was now something Beck could take part in! That’s definitely up there for happiest memory, but maybe one concrete one is right after her little brother Todd comes out to their family as trans (he’d learned it was a possibility and it was okay through Beck, who by the time they’re 16 is out to everyone including all of the Li family). Because Richard and Catherine Li are probably the best parents EVER, they accept and affirm Todd 100%, as does the oldest Li sibling, Ava. What they don’t understand yet, they ask and want to know (and Sue and Beck have done a lot of reading when Beck was trying to figure out their identity, so they have the information!) The specific memory that’s one of Sue’s favorites is when Todd gets his wish to have his hair “cut short just like Sue’s!” and she helps him buzz his hair. Their parents and older sister are there and supportive, and so is Beck, chatting with Todd in the British Sign Language that they had worked so hard to communicate well with Sue’s mother and siblings. It’s really representative of so much good in her life that she loves about her family.

Another character who does have a few happiest memories I can pin down is probably Anthony! A lot of his happiest memories were also during summer vacations, specifically with his best friends Kevin and Phoebe. There’s one specific summer day they’re all at Kevin’s house, goofing off in the kitchen (maybe helping with dinner? maybe causing more distraction than actual help?) and singing and dancing. Anthony has loved theater and plays all his life, and while he can’t sing on key at all, Kevin has sung all his life and Phoebe is pretty talented as well. He had taught them some of his favorite musicals, and Phoebe and Kevin dancing around and singing along. There definitely would have been some Into The Woods, A Chorus Line, and Anthony’s (at the time) favorite, Pirates of Penzance. One of Kevin’s dads took a break from cooking to get out the camera and snap some pictures to immortalize their fun, which were very cherished mementos later, if so incongruous to remember when they were that young and carefree… Anthony did have very happy memories even in later years in the war though, especially with Blaise when they officially started dating in the beginning of 1998. They had a ton of happy moments, like the first time they told each other “I love you”, or almost all of their spring vacation where they were free from Hogwarts and spent nearly all of their time together. Anthony really cherishes a memory from a little after Valentine’s Day when they were in the Prefects’ bathroom together (a place with decent privacy to protect their secret relationship!) and just fell asleep in each other’s arms.

8.) Day of Favorites! What’s your character’s favorite ice cream flavor? Color? Song? Flower?

Hannah’s favorite ice cream is strawberry cheesecake. Her favorite color is light green, her favorite song is Celestina Warbeck’s Could Any Seer Have Foretold This, and her favorite flower is probably a bulbous buttercup or trumpeting lily.

Phoebe’s favorite ice cream is probably chocolate but in milkshake form, and her favorite color is purple (either violet or lavender, either is beautiful). She has a lot of favorite songs, but pretty much all are from musicals - Without You from Rent always makes her cry and she loves almost every song in that show; Dust and Ashes from Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812 is one of the most recent additions to her favorites list. However her all time favorite might be Les Miserables’ Bring Him Home (her mother is French so she fell in love with the original Les Mis book, and knows both the French and English songs to all of Les Mis!)

10.) Can you define a turning point in your character’s life? Multiples are acceptable.

Two turning points in Padma’s life! The sad one is the Battle of Hogwarts where she lost her sister and many other people important to her. She had never imagined the war would end so soon, thinking it could stretch years into adulthood and of course it seemed inevitable that some loved ones would die, but the reality of it and the war so abruptly being over took a lot of grappling to understand. Rebuilding the wizarding world was a huge part of her life that began after that turning point of course. She also had a few lasting injuries from the Battle - she’d fought on the roof of the Astronomy Tower, which was an amazing vantage point for firing down at the Death Eaters below. However, they realized this before long and began amassing forces against it and the other towers they had strategically placed fighters. None of Voldemort’s forces were able to take the towers to then use for their own snipers, Padma and her comrades fighting them off. They tried their best though and one Death Eater who flew up on broomstick fired a Dark curse at her that cut deeply into her face, and if she hadn’t partially dodged probably would have beheaded her instead of just leaving a huge scar (I considered talking about her in the scar portion but it was already really long!) It was never fully healed because of the Dark magic, and it left her with limited mobility on the right side of her face because of the damage. Once the Death Eaters realized they wouldn’t gain control of any of the towers, they decided to just destroy them. A few of the smaller ones like the West Tower had the stone roof turned into molten lava by a powerful curse, so the fighters on that one needed to be quickly evacuated and it became useless. The Astronomy Tower lasted the longest, but its damage was most severe. While the other towers mostly just had the roof and battlements destroyed so nobody could stay to fight there, the combination of giants attacking the base and Death Eaters flying around it led to the whole thing crumbling. Padma was one of the few to survive of all of those who were on the towers, because she was already halfway down the tower from it crumbling apart, clinging to the outside for dear life, when it was all brought to rubble and so she didn’t fall to her death. She did a ton of damage to her right foot when she eventually hit the ground, though luckily for her it was a short enough drop to be survivable.

That’s long and pretty depressing but the more fun turning point in her life was the gay awakening! She was in her 20s and had spent all of her life until then thinking she was straight because she had been in relationships with guys and it was very hard to identify the lack of attraction there by its absence. She just thought other straight women had the same indifference to dating she had. It was one day when she was entranced by her fellow Auror Susan Bones working out, doing press ups and biceps showcased. That was when Padma was hit with holy fuck this is what they’re talking about when people say they’re actually attracted to someone. After that, things made so much more sense in her life.

13.) What does your character’s bed look like when he/she wakes up? Are the covers off on one side of the bed, are they all curled around a pillow, sprawled everywhere? In what position might they sleep?

Ginny steals all of the covers every time, so they’re bunched around her. Harry (or one of her other partners, since they’re both polyamorous and date other people) often has a little corner pulled back but it’s very imbalanced! She sleeps on her side and legs curled up underneath her, often turned away from her partner so that she can be the little spoon. When she sleeps alone, the sheets often get tangled because she still pulls them in her sleep! Once the kids are born, if they need to be in her bed after a nightmare or something, she’ll hold them close in front of her (which helps comfort them and keep them covered instead of having the sheets accidentally pulled off of them by Ginny!)

Priscilla Wagner sleeps on her side too, but ramrod straight. Her one hand is always under her pillow, holding her wand so she’ll be ready at a moment’s notice. Her covers are tucked in very loosely so she can kick them off easily and instantaneously, and jump out of bed unhindered by anything. She doesn’t sleep too well.

17.) What’s your character’s desk/workspace look like? Are they neat or messy?

Ava Proudfoot becomes Head Auror by default after the war, since she and Kingsley are the only fully trained Aurors who are still alive and didn’t fight with the Death Eaters when it served their best interests. Kingsley obviously becomes busy running the whole government as Minister, so training the few remaining trainees who also were on the right side of the war and all of the new recruits is a very busy job. She manages to keep her office absolutely pristine though. None of them know how she does it. Ron and Dean dare each other to make messes there; dumping untidy sheafs of paperwork or leaving crumbs from a pastry they happened to be eating while meeting with her. They keep trying to figure out how she gets everything so clean so well; it doesn’t even seem like she reaches for her wand to cast the cleaning charms. She just has everything in order and however she does it, it impresses the hell out of everyone.

Ginny has different workplaces through the years - immediately after the war ends, she works in a task force to round up remaining Death Eaters, Dementors, etc after the war (they serve basically as a short-term interim Auror squad - the new Auror trainees are being worked round the clock to get as fully qualified as quickly as they can, so there’s not much time for them to do the necessary immediate work! There were many people like Ginny who weren’t interested in joining the Aurors because that would be a career commitment of years, but she and Luna and many others work for the months that they need immediate help.) Then she’s free to go do other things, which is in her case becoming a chaser on the Holyhead Harpies. She doesn’t have concrete workspaces for either of these jobs - for the work she does to rebuild after the war, she’s basically based out of home and then meets the others on their missions. As a Quidditch player, it’s mostly just her locker where she stores all of her equipment, and then the whole sky around their pitch is her workspace! Her locker is a goddamn mess though - Harry helps remind her to bring back the dirty laundry and they figure out some good charms to clean out the pervasive odor of sweat in there. Still, her Quidditch uniform and gear is always strewn about and very disorganized. The only pristine thing is her broom, a beautiful Nimbus 2004 that she gets issued by the team and is pretty much the nicest thing she’s ever been able to call hers in her life. She polishes it every day and stores it inside her locker in a fabric case that keeps all of the dirt away from it - and is magically reinforced so if/when she throws her boots or helmet carelessly into the locker, the case will protect the broom. Later in her life, after Ginny retires from professional Quidditch, she works as a sports reporter and primarily writes from home (to nobody’s surprise, her desk there is a mess!) She has a cubicle at The Daily Prophet offices in London, but rarely works there even when all of the kids are at school and she doesn’t need to work from home. She doesn’t like it very much, not just because of how pathetic the Prophet was during the war, but also because she’s alienated a lot of her colleagues in interviews she’s given since the war! Ginny Weasley-Potter does not hold back her opinions.

27.) Pick two songs that describe your character at two different points of their life, and explain why you chose them.

Definitely Phoebe is the best person here! I’m going to cheat and go with a few songs to describe one of the points though. Empty Chairs at Empty Tables from Les Mis is the first to describe her immediate-post war life. She loses her entire family in the war, as well as other loved ones. Dust and Ashes, which I mentioned earlier as one of her favorite songs, really reflects how she struggles in the immediate aftermath to find any purpose in living and going on (SO much survivor’s guilt…)

Later in her life, I’m trying to pick a specific point to describe… Either Another Day from Rent, or more accurately the part of the Finale B where it’s lyrics from Without You and Another Day blended together beautifully. It resonates with her a lot, when she’s finally happy with her life again and making the most of it while she can. “There’s only now/There’s only here/Give in to love/Or live in fear” describes a lot of different feelings she has, and since all of these are from musicals and she became a huge musical buff (no small thanks to Anthony for introducing her to them!) so a lot of these feelings and similarities are ones she feels in-story. There are definitely a lot of happy songs to think about for her later life when she’s living her truth, has a great support network, and lots of love, but that’s the main one I’m thinking for right now!

This got really long (no wonder it took me forever to do it!) but I hope you enjoy reading as much as I did writing, Katie!

#dianameras #Vivienne Beauregard #Mallory Beauregard #Lavender Brown #Sue Li #Beck Turpin #Todd Li #Anthony Goldstein #Blaise Zabini #Kevin Entwhistle #Hannah Abbott #Phoebe Corner #Padma Patil #Ginny Weasley #Priscilla Wagner #Ava Proudfoot #thanks again katie! <3 #ask meme

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