Moaning Myrtle
Birth Date: 1930s
Description: Squat, lank hair, pimples. Wears glasses and frequently cries.
Biography: A Muggle-born girl sorted into Ravenclaw in the forties. Myrtle was continually teased by other students, including Olive Hornby. In 1943 Myrtle was killed by the basilisk in the second floor girl's toilet. After death, Myrtle remained to haunt Olive until the Ministry forced her back to the toilet.
Myrtle aided Harry and even offered to share her toilet with him if he died. She helped him figure out the egg clue and even served as a sort of confidant to Draco Malfoy in his sixth year.
Meaning of Name: Myrtle (English) - An evergreen shrub. In ancient Greece the myrtle was sacred to Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty.
Padma Patil
Birth Date: 1980
Description: Long dark hair, dark eyes.
Biography: Padma is the twin sister of Parvati Patil. While Parvati was made a Gryffindor, Padma was sorted to Ravenclaw. Aside from the brief reference to the Patil twins in the sorting scene, Padma does not surface until Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire when Parvati suggests her sister as a date for Ron Weasley. Padma was not known to either Harry or Ron, a fact which can be deduced from Harry's hope that Padma's nose was not off center. Padma was not impressed with her date and appeared sulky at the ball, though this might have been because her date was paying more attention to Hermione than to her, leaving her on the sidelines while other couples were dancing. When Ron told her he would not dance with her at all, she went to join her sister and the Beauxbatons boys. Padma appeared to warm to Ron after the second task and made a point of talking to him in the hall. The inference in the book is that her interest grew as his popularity grew, but remember Ron had made a very bad first impression. It is possible she saw more in him than the boy who jealously watched one his best female best friends dancing with another boy. The second task also occurred two months after the ball, allowing her irritation to cool.
In her fifth year at Hogwarts, Padma was made a prefect along with Anthony Goldstein. She was also a part of Dumbledore's Army.
During her sixth year, Padma and Parvati's parents wished to remove them from Hogwarts but the twins convinced them to allow them to stay in school. The morning after Dumbledore's death, however, the twins went home.
Meaning of Name: Padma: (Hindu) Lotus. Padma is also a name of Lakshmi, a Hindu goddess who rises from the primordial ocean to become the wife of Visnu. She was an inspiration for Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love and beauty. Padma was also a patroness of learning.
Patil: (Indian) Chief, a surname originally from the north of India.
Orla Quirke
Birth Date: 1983
Description: Unknown
Biography: A witch sorted into Ravenclaw.
Meaning of Name: Orla (Irish) - Golden woman. An anglicized form of Orfhlaith, the name of a sister of the Irish High King Brian Boru (c. 940-1015).
Quirke: (unknown) - A quirk is a peculiarity or idiosyncrasy.
Helena Ravenclaw, The Grey Lady
Birth Date: Circa 1000s
Description: A tall witch.
Biography: The House Ghost of Ravenclaw. Helena was the daughter of Rowena Ravenclaw. She stole her mother's diadem in an attempt to exceed her mother, but ended up fleeing to Albania and leaving the diadem in a tree. Centuries later Tom Riddle charmed the secret out of her ghost.
Meaning of Name: There are numerous female ghosts called the Grey Lady scattered throughout the British Isles. At Scotland's Glamis Castle is one of the more famous, said to be the ghost of Lady Janet Glamis. While her son was forced to watch, Janet was burned at the stake as a witch on Castle Hill, Edinburgh in 1537, on charges of plotting to poison King James V. The motive for her execution was more political than magical; Janet had the misfortune to have been born a Douglas, a relative of the King's hated stepfather. The Grey lady appears in the chapel and above the Clock Tower at Glamis Castle, where Janet lived with her husband.
Rowena Ravenclaw
Birth Date: c. 900s
Description: Unknown
Biography: One of the greatest witches of her day, Rowena Ravenclaw joined with Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, and Salazar Slytherin to found Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The exact date of her birth and the founding of Hogwarts are in contention, but it is known that Hogwarts was founded around a thousand years ago, in an age when Muggles greatly feared magic. Ravenclaw was from the glen, described as fair, and prized cleverness in her hand picked students. It is thought that she may have suggested the continually changing floor plan of the school. Rowena was great friends with Helga Hufflepuff, however frictions arose between the four founders and they began to fight amongst themselves and their friendships eroded. When Slytherin finally left over his desire to restrict magical education to only those students from magical families, Ravenclaw, Gryffindor and Hufflepuff were left to run the school without him.
The circumstances and date of her death, nor the location of her grave are not known at this time.
Meaning of Name: Rowena (English) - Fame and joy. Possibly an anglicized version of Ronwen (Welsh) - bright spear, or Ronixen (mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle). According to Geoffrey of Monmouth's 12th century Historia Regum Britannia, Rowena was the name of the beautiful daughter of the Saxon chief Hengist who became the second wife of Vortigern.
Lisa Turpin
Birth Date: 1980
Description: Unknown
Biography: Lisa Turpin was among those sorted into Ravenclaw House in 1991.
Meaning of Name: Lisa (Hebrew) - consecrated to God.
Turpin (Zoology) - A land tortoise. Also the surname of Dick Turpin (1706-39) a famous highwayman.
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