Part I: You

Name: Jessica

Email address: clytem at gmail.com

IM: AIM: Showy Verbiage

Part II: Character Information

Character Name: Edith, meaning “Happy”, Hippolyte, from the Amazon queen and the revolutionary photographer, and Baileywick meaning “A person's specific area of knowledge, authority, interest, skill, or work.”

Job: Student, fifth year, Hufflepuff.

Age/Birthday: 15, her birthday is June 24

Likes:

Beginnings- Edith loves to watch things start anew, although she quickly can grow bored of something. As a result, she tends to just linger on beginnings, instead of ends.

Languages- In particular, Old English and other root languages. Just like her love of beginnings, she also loves to see how things originate.

Psychology- Although she isn’t particularly cruel, Edith has been known to use her knowledge of psychology to make people squirm. She loves to unravel the mysteries of the human psyche and understand what shaped a person to become who they are.

Dislikes:

Lack of Coordination- As a Hufflepuff, she is very used to her housemates working together to achieve common goals. Whenever she’s taken out of that safe environment, it irks her when people start to do their own thing, and ignore the fact that they could easily achieve better results together.

Antisocial People- Edith has trouble dealing with them, although she does like to pick apart their mind and emotional state.

Waiting- Edith is an impatient girl, and she gets particularly upset if she has to wait for other people. If people don’t have the decency to do what they say, then she doesn’t want to bother with them.

Hobbies:

Photography- Edith likes to capture moments, and the Wizarding innovation of the moving photograph has allowed her to do precisely that. One of her greater passions, she’s rarely seen without her large, clunky, black camera.

Talking/Gossiping- Although it may seem to be a very basic hobby, Edith is particularly chatty. Since it is how she gets most of her gossip and knowledge, Edith spends the majority of her time chatting people up.

Appearance: Edith is a rather tall girl, at 5’9”, but even though she is larger than many of the other students, her light manner makes her appear much smaller. Her build is somewhat heavy, plump, but not obese. Instead, it just adds to her bubbly image. Despite her zaftig figure, she isn’t overly curvy or voluptuous. Most of her weight is around her hip area, although she does have a slightly narrowed waist.

Her hair is kept short and tidy, and is a deep auburn, contrasting greatly against her pale skin. There’s a small scattering of freckles across her face and body, but they mostly blend in. Also, she has dark brown eyes that are usually light with laughter.

Generally, she sticks to the school uniform. Even when on break, she wears plenty of yellow to show her house pride. Most of her garments are loose fitting, to allow for freedom of movement in her photography, but somewhat trendy. Because of her Muggle heritage, she makes sure to keep up with those fashions with pride. Many of her dresses are fashionably cut at the calf, as well as having double layered skirts.

Personality: Edith is the type of girl who you can’t help smile when you see. With her easygoing manner and simplistic charm, people often find themselves opening up to her. Unlike many people who seem cheerful but are really dark beneath the surface, Edith is always open about her emotions, and doesn’t try to mask them. At times, her emotional outbursts can be a bit overwhelming, but to those familiar to her, they’re just a normal occurrence. Even when she’s feeling sad, she is extremely optimistic, and always looks at every situation as an opportunity. Unfortunately, her blatant optimism can sometimes cause her problems, as she may misjudge other people and situations.

Edith is most at home in a social situation. If she’s alone for an extended period of time, she is likely to be overcome with anxiety. Because of her friendly nature, and urge to seek out others, she is rarely alone. As well, she believes that everyone is more productive if they cooperate in order to complete tasks.

Unfortunately, her optimism and love of people in general can be a weakness. She has a habit of blindly following orders, as well as adjusting to a group mentality too easily. She is likely to get swept into fads and scams. Even when she is taken advantage of, she still feels sympathetic towards whoever is harming her. Despite these problems, she refuses to accept them, even though she reads about them in her psychology textbooks often. Also, she can become very jealous whenever her friends drift towards others, and over protective. Edith has trouble accepting her own faults, and tries to ignore them whenever mentioned. This doesn’t, however, cause her to have an ego problem, or to exaggerate her strengths.

History: Although she has a Muggle mother, Edith’s life has been in the magical community. Ever since she was a child, she has been surrounded by magic. Much of her childhood has, however, also been involved in Muggle communities. She attended primary school at her Muggle mother’s insistence. Much of her time at school was uncomfortable, as she knew better than to talk about her life in a magical home. As a result, she was always very social and talkative whenever around magical people.

At the age of seven, she received her first camera and has been an avid photographer ever since. Edith documented much of her childhood after that on film. Between her bubbly personality and passionate hobby, she had a very content and happy upbringing. As a result, she had trouble understanding those who were less fortunate. Eager to comprehend others and their natures, she took up studying psychology and became quite adept at it. Although she still can’t always emotionally understand the antisocial and depressed, she learned to accept them on an intellectual level.

As her father was from a mostly magical background, nobody was very surprised when Edith received her letter for school. Even at a young age, she had shown magical capacity, being able to properly brew simple potions required for magic photographs. As such, she was overjoyed at the prospect of learning more. Her life in Hogwarts has been liberating for her, as she felt this was the first time she could really open up. Because of this, she’s become even more social and cheerful in her teenage years.

NPCs:

Cygnus and Dora Baileywick- Edith’s parents, both of whom helped provide Edith with a normal and healthy childhood. Cygnus is a Ministry worker, working in Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes, as a part of the Invisibility Task Force. Dora works as a seamstress, but spends more of her time taking care of her children.

Part III: Writing Sample

1) If you are a student, write out your Sorting. What sort of thoughts and anxieties did your character have?

Now was one of those times when it was terrible to be first. With the last name “Baileywick,” Edith ended up having to be the first sorted. Nervously, she shuffled her feet as she made her way towards the elderly wizard holding up the even older hat. She looked at the ancient Sorting Hat, hesitant to sit down on the wooden stool.

Edith was used to following, not leading, and she was overly worried as she clumsily got onto the stool. It was awkwardly low, not having been designed with a tall girl such as herself in mind. She felt ridiculous with her knees up, almost pulled up against her chest.

Suddenly, she heard a peculiar voice. I see you spend much of your time studying others. It said. She nodded, then, realized that the voice was entirely in her mind. “I guess,” she thought back. “Please hurry, this is awfully uncomfortably.” The voice seemed to laugh at this.

You care a lot about others. I sense great loyalty in you. She couldn’t help but smile at the positive picture that the Hat seemed to make of her. But you are also studious. Still, it’s obvious where you belong.

Edith almost fainted when suddenly the Hat yelled, “HUFFLEPUFF!”