Written 2005, © Erica 2005

Profile for Witch Hazel

About You

Name/Alias: Erica
Age: 20
Email: [email protected]
Contacts: Y!M: snap_magess

Your Character

Name: Daphne Aideen Merchant
Age: 21 (b-day April 3)
Gender: Female
Blood: Muggle-born

Description: Standing at 5' 8" and weighing roughly 125 lbs, Daph, as her friends call her, is tall and willowy with long arms and legs and large hands. Built slender but on the slightly muscular side, Daph keeps her body toned, for the most part, and has what her friends teasingly call a femm four pack. However, at 21 she almost completely lacks feminine curves, something Daph's still slightly self conscious about. Thank goodness for push-up bras. She really can't do anything for her slender boy-hips though.

Tanned a bit from being outside a lot, Daph's skin is astoundingly clear, a trait she inherited from her mother's family. However, she is quite prone to burning if she's not careful, and will only burn enough to get her tan. After that she slathers on the sun block for all she's worth. While there are other methods for getting the perfect tan, Daph finds the burn-tan method the easiest and cheapest, though it's certainly not the most painless.

Another trait Daph inherited from her mother is her reddish-brown aka auburn hair, which Daph likes to call ember. However, while she loves the color of her hair, she abhors the texture. Daph's hair, like her father's, is as curly as a corkscrew and completely wiry. It used to take her almost an hour to straighten her hair each morning, but she was able to find a straightening charm recently that has made this process much easier and faster. Unstraightened, her hair falls a bit below her shoulders, but straightened it falls almost to her waist. For the most par, Daph will wear her hair in a pony-tail or braid, though she'll occasionally just wear it down.

Unlike her hair, Daph loves everything about her eyes. Golden-brown in hue, Daph's eyes are a little large with long lashes. Maddeningly (for some other girls) shapely eyebrows arch over Daph's eyes, somehow managing to be almost exactly how she'd want them. She only has to clean them up every other week. Daph's eyes are a window to her soul. While she's gotten rather good at controlling and manipulating her voice inflection and body language, her eyes almost always betray how she's really feeling. Her friends quickly learn to recognize the 'mischievous glint.'

Daph tends to dress like the Midwestern farm-girl she is. Almost all of her slacks are jeans, and almost all of her shirts are collared (about a third are some sort of tasteful plaid). Daph only has three pairs of heels, and her other six pairs of shoes are various boots and sneakers. Practically all of her clothing is selected for comfort, durability and simple style. If one could describe Daph's fashion sense, it would be classic, fashions that last a long time. Jewelry-wise, Daph likes to keep things simple, a necklace or a pair of earrings, rarely both. Her hands aren't exactly suited for bracelets, but she always wears her grandmother's engagement ring on the middle finger of her left hand, though mostly for the interesting reaction it sometimes earns her (it's a simply enough ring though, nothing ostentatious, a slender gold band with a small .25K diamond).

Unlike many women her age, Daph wears as little make-up as possible. Her everyday face consists of a little mascara and lip gloss. But when necessary, Daph can rise to the occasion and dress to kill. With her built, high heels go well with her legs and sheath dresses tend to draw eyes. Daph actually usually tries to wear full skirts when she has to be formal, as she hates drawing those eyes. Plus it gives her a wider range of motion, in case she had to kick butt in a gown. Even then, Daph will wear as little make-up as possible, though this time maybe throwing in some rouge and actual lipstick in a semi-neutral tone.

Personality: Spunky, stubborn and independent, Daph has a vibrant spirit. To put it simply, she loves life and can get a little ticked at people that get in her way of enjoying it. Thankfully Daph was raised with some morals, or she might have gone lawless years ago. Sharp with her wit and quick with her tongue, Daph is extremely persuasive. She's a good talker and can generally talk people around to see her view point. Quite intuitive to human nature, Daph knows how to use it to her advantage. Most individuals mistaken Daph for a “people person,” but she likes to think of herself as more a “people expert.”

Outgoing and friendly, Daph adores attention, something her friends find both annoying and endearing. She's simply the sort of person that makes friends easily and quickly. Swift to dole out her trust, Daph is just a swift to snatch it back should the person prove to be untrustworthy. But Daph is also a believer in second chances. And third chances, and fourth chances, and fifth chances... she draws the line at sixth though. Daph knows when enough is enough.

On the other side of the coin, Daph is also a good listener. While her mind can easily wander in day to day things, when it comes to listening to her friends problems, she's all ears and extremely attentive. For the most part she knows the right things to say to comfort her friends, though she also knows when they just want a shoulder to cry on, or someone to say "yeah" "that's right" "uh-huh" while they rant and rave about what injustice has been done.

And Daph also knows when someone just has to lighten and liven up the mood. With her knowledge of people and their reactions, Daph is a wicked prankster. It's not ketchup packets under the toilet seats or foam sprayed under doors. It's pranks that jump out and grab you, but leave you laughing and unhurt. Unless you tick Daph off. Then you could easily be in for a world of hurt.

Easily frustrated and angered, Daph doesn't like it when things don't go her way. But while she's quick to anger, she's also quick to calm down, though one generally has to know the particular tricks to simmer her temper fast (like ice cream and chocolate). Somewhat impatient, waiting is not one of Daph's strong points, and when she thinks she's been waiting too long, Daph tends to take matters into her own hands. She'll often jump into things without looking, usually dragging a few people along with her. Daph doesn't mean to get in trouble, it just happens.

Daph can be a bit bossy at times when it comes to her friends, and that tends to rub some people the wrong way. And though she doesn't exactly mean to be, Daph is a bit possessive when it comes to her friends and family and will lash out at anyone that hurts them, or seems to hurt them. Deep down, Daph fears to be alone and latches onto her friends like a child latches onto a floaty in a pool. Daph is also terrified of tornados and large bodies of water. Both stem from childhood experiences.

People aren't Daph's only hobby though. She's an accomplished horseback rider, having learned to ride a horse soon after learning to walk. If she wanted peace and quiet, she'd often go out riding. But even more than horses, Daph loves flying, and with flying, Quidditch. In the small wizard farming community her family is a part of, Daph is quite well known for her skill as a beater. Self-defense is another of Daph's hobbies, and while she never studied a formal form, her level could be equated to that of a brown belt in karate. Daph doesn't like having other people protecting her and is too independent to be a damsel in distress.

Daph doesn't mind being what most people call "crazy" (though compared to some of the students at Witch Hazel, she's probably one of the sanest ones). After all her favorite saying, told to her by her best friend, is, "Why fit in when you were born to stand out?" And stand out she does, whether through her interesting sense of humor (and the creative pranks that are the result of it), her renown temper, or the various people she befriends. Those that have the patience to put up with Daph, however, find a valuable friend, one that's always there to liven things up but also to be serious when really needed.

House: Dragon Wart
Year: 3rd
Wand Laurel, Dragon heart-string, 13 1/3 inches. Supple and whippy. Excellent for powerful spells.
Familiar: Abyssinian/Kneazle mix that answers to Findabar, or Fin for short

History:
Family: Dustin Elessar Merchant (father); Ariel Kathrine Cooper (mother); Darrick Merchant & Kassidy Logan-Merchant (grandparents on father's side); Donovan Merchant (uncle on father's side); Darelle Merchant-McGinnis (aunt on father's side); Lennon Cooper & Meredith Vaughn-Cooper (grandparents on mother's side); Bryce & Michael Cooper (uncles on mother's side) [yes, they're all alive still]

Dustin was born to Darrick Merchant and Kassidy Logan in the small town of Crystal City, Missouri, just south of St. Louis. Darrick was raised on a farm in the surrounding area and Kassidy's family ran the general story in town. The two had met at high school and had dated a little here and there but had more of a close friend relationship than a romantic one. Darrick and Kassidy didn't really hit it off until Darrick rather gallantly defended Kassidy from some drunk men that were trying to rob her family's store a few years later. The two started going out a little more seriously than before and about two years later got married. They had three children Donovan, Darelle, and Dustin.

As the youngest, Dustin never thought he was anything special until he got an odd letter when he was eleven stating that he was a wizard. He was a muggle-born wizard. Suddenly all of the very strange things that had happened during his childhood made sense. The neighbor's vicious dog turning to stone, the corn popping itself one cool summer day, his jumping up into the loft of the barn when his brothers chased him, among other things. So Dustin went off to wizarding school in Oklahoma. And there he met Ariel.

Ariel was born to Lennon Cooper and Meredith Vaughn in Arlington, Texas just west of Dallas. Lennon was the only son of a cattle rancher and Meredith was the daughter of the owner of a big oil company. The two met when Lennon went to visit his cousin, Christine, in Dallas. Meredith was his cousin's best friend. The two didn't really hit it off, due to their backgrounds (oilers taking up good grazing land, cattlers taking up potential drilling sites, etc) but they managed to work around their differences. But when Lennon went to ask Meredith's father if he could marry her, he hit a rock. Her father said Lennon could marry Lennon if he sold his ranch, since it was sitting on a nice deposit of oil that Meredith's father wanted. Lennon refused, and he and Meredith eloped. Her father didn't speak to her for a few years, but eventually warmed up to his nervy son-in-law. Lennon and Meredith had three children, Bryce, Michael, and Ariel.

Ariel was her father's pride and joy. Lennon adored his only daughter as she adored him, despite the sometimes odd things that would happened around her. Like the cat dancing on its hind legs, her toy dolls walking across the floor, Ariel herself dancing on the top of the stables (that one nearly gave him a heart attack), among other things. But then an explanation came the year she turned eleven; a letter that informed Ariel that she was a witch. She was a muggle-born witch. So Ariel went off to wizarding school in Oklahoma. And there she met Dustin.

Dustin and Ariel were placed in the same house. The house for the outgoing daredevil types (sort of like Gryffindor). They were not in the same year. In fact, Dustin was two years ahead of Ariel. But they forged a friendship that later turned to love. After graduating, Dustin went to work as an herbologist and Ariel went to a hybrid-school (a college that admitted both wizarding and muggle) to become a medi-witch. During that time, Dustin and Ariel started dating, and when Ariel got her certificate as a medi-witch, they got married. The couple bought a small farm in Missouri, just outside of Columbia, and became part of a small wizard farming community there.

However, this marriage wasn't all roses. There was one problem, a medical problem. Shortly after Ariel's first pregnancy, about two years after their marriage and the one Daphne was the product of, the doctors discovered a problem with Ariel's uterus, a problem that even magic couldn't fix, a benign tumor on the upper portion of the uterus. Luckily the tumor hadn't affected the baby, and Daph was fine. But the tumor had the potential to turn malignant and start spreading, so to prevent it from metastasizing to her other organs Ariel had to have a hysterectomy. Ariel couldn't have anymore children.

For a while, Ariel was completely devastated. For several months she simply didn't function except to care for the baby. Dustin finally managed to help Ariel realize that not being able to have children wasn't the end of the world and that he loved her no matter what. So Dustin and Ariel poured all their love into Daphne. But something was a little off with their wonderful little girl. She wasn't showing any signs of magic. None what-so-ever. Absolutely nothing magical happened during Daph's childhood. Dustin and Ariel had no idea what to do to check to really see if she didn't have magic, other than to toss her out the barn loft, and they weren't about to do that. So they waited. And when the year she turned eleven came and went, it was confirmed. Daphne was a Squib.

As Daphne got a little older, she realized that magic wasn't everything, despite what some of her wizarding playmates might say. But she was still constantly teased for being magicless, so Daph started taking self-defense lessons. After beating one of the other kids into a state just below a bloody pulp, they decided that maybe Daph didn't really need magic to hold her own. There was one thing she was able to do without magic though. Fly and play quidditch. And no one could argue that the Squib-girl wasn’t a smashing beater.

A few isolated incidents marred her otherwise happy childhood. Missouri was prone to tornados every once in a while, and when Daph was eight she was almost picked up by one. A tornado ripped through her family's farm that summer and Daph was almost sucked out of the cellar when the door broke loose. Dustin grabbed her before she was sucked out and anchored them both to a metal bracket in the cellar wall. Another was a somewhat repeated incident. As she was rather accident prone as a child, Daph almost drowned in the pond on more than one occasion. She tried to learn how to swim, but it just wasn't her thing.

Daph had close relationships with both her parents, maybe more so with her mother than with her father. But for some reason, she tended to spill her secrets and feelings more to her horse, Athena, than to her parents. Daph was fascinated with horses from an early age, from the moment her father took her riding for the first time. When Daph was eleven, as a gift to help her not get upset over not getting a letter, Dustin gave one of the new foals to Daph to raise and train. This was Athena. Daph would spend endless hour with the young foal, teaching it to trust her, then later teaching Athena dressage moves. Daph and Athena Epona won several local dressage shows and even a few state ones. Daph has helped raise and train several horses after Athena, but Athena Epona has remained her favorite.

By the time she was thirteen, Daph had fully adjusted to the fact that she didn't have magic. She’d been attending nearby muggle schools since she was little, and had friends there as well as among the local wizard children. Though once the wizard children turned eleven, they all went off to school and she only saw them during the summer. She slowly drifted apart from her wizard friends, though they’d still all get together for some quidditch in the summer.

When she was 18, Daph graduated from the nearby muggle high school with honors. She had applied and been accepted to the University of Missouri, the nearby muggle university when something odd happened. It was a few days into August in the early evening, and Daph was still in Columbia after a slight shopping spree to finish purchasing some of the things she’d need for college. She’d just finished loading her things into the back of her pickup when she suddenly realized she wasn’t alone. Daph still doesn’t quite know how they managed to sneak up on her, but she found herself ring about by a half-dozen extremely drunk teen-aged boys. She didn’t know most of them, they didn’t go to her school, but she vaguely recognized one of them as a guy she’d beat at the state dressage competition that year.

Not liking the situation one bit, Daph quickly lashed out, trying to get to the cab door so she could drive away. But six drunks guys are a bit much for a teenage girl to handle. Daph managed to knock two unconscious, but the remaining four restrained her. The dressage-boy, who seemed to be the leader of the gang, wrapped his fingers around her throat and slurred something about not letting a little girl beat him at horses. Her fear and anger mounting Daph fought harder to get away. Then one of the boys cracked her head so head she saw stars, and Daph didn't see what happened next.

Dressage-boy and the two holding her arms suddenly screamed in pain and jumped back from her. Staggering slightly, Daph shook her head to clear her vision and was surprised at what she saw. The three boys were rolling on the group, trying to extinguish the fire that was leaping around their bodies. The other boy was trying to help put out the flames but when he touched the three the fire leapt onto him as well. Shocked and afraid of what she was seeing, Daph jumped into her pickup and ran for home. When she got there, for the first time in her life she ran straight to her mother instead of Athena.

Ariel was horrified at what her daughter told her and wanted to call the police. Then Daph reminded her about the fire. She didn't know how it had started. Not knowing what to do, but knowing Daph had to get away, Ariel wrote to the headmaster of the magic school she and Dustin had attended in her youth. She knew they couldn't send Daph there because she was too old, but this fire starting thing had to magic, and there had to be somewhere to train Daph. The headmaster replied that there was such a school, called Witch Hazel. All of a sudden, instead of finishing her preparation for muggle university, Daph was suddenly preparing to enter a wizarding college. That was over three years ago.

Now a 3rd year and a resident of the Dragon Wart house, Daph is quite content. Care of Magical Creatures, Herbology and Potions quickly became her favorite classes. And there was no stopping her from joining the house quidditch team as a beater. She has a small circle of friends, though it’s somewhat ironic she was placed in Dragon Wart. When she got her wand a few years ago, the core was dragon heartstring. Not to mention her first act of magic was setting a half-dozen drunken teenage boys on fire. And as it turns out, Daph’s found she has a bit of a gift when it comes to fire magic. Her first attempt at [i]Incendio[/i] burnt her desk to a crisp. Her friends are of the opinion she’s simply a repressed pyromaniac, but Daph’s not so sure.