Alexandra Quick

Alexandra "Alex" Octavia Quick (b. 22 March 1996) is an American witch. She is the daughter of Abraham Thorn and Hecate Grimm, thus the granddaughter of Esther Grimm. Her great-grandmother is the Seer Granny Grimm. She was raised by her sister Claudia Quick and lived in Larkin Mills. Her favorite color is yellow."Writers who write too much about characters who talk too much", Inverarity's LiveJournal
==Biography==
===Early life===
Alex was born in Chicago, Illinois on 22 March 1996, and moved with her mother and Green to 207 Sweetmaple Avenue in Larkin Mills from in 2001, at which point she met Brian Seabury, and his younger sister Bonnie, and began attending Larkin Mills Elementary School. In 2003, she jumped from the roof of her house on a dare, landing lightly without injury; when she attempted the same feat again with Brian, they both wound up in the hospital, she with a sprained ankle and he with a broken elbow and concussion. Her first fight with Billy Boggleston occurred when "he tried to cut in line for the swings".
During the summer of 2004, Alex became "obsessed with going to the moon," and attempted to build a rocket in her backyard with Brian's help. By the summer of 2005, her interest in space travel had waned, and "she wanted to be a neurosurgeon instead." By the end of 2005, she could magically unlock doors, and had discovered that she could perform magic more consistently by using short rhyming couplets. At some point between October 2005 and June 2007, "she read Twilight, and she thought that Edward Cullen was creepy, and she wished the bad-guy vampires would just eat Bella".
=== Sixth grade ===
==== The Naiad ====
During the summer of 2007, she became convinced that a naiad lived in Old Larkin Pond, and attempted to spot one along with Brian and Bonnie. After the Seaburys left her at the Pond alone, Alex was attacked by redcaps, fending them off with a tree branch that she inadvertently used as a wand and dropping a gold bracelet that she had taken from her mother's closet before rushing home.
She was grounded for coming home after dark, and discovered a locket in her mother's closet with a moving photograph of a man she believed to be her father. On the second day of her grounding, she snuck out and visited Brian, recruiting the Seaburys to return to Old Larkin Pond and help her search for the bracelet. Waiting for Brian and Bonnie at a nearby park, she was confronted by Billy Boggleston and his friends, one of whom demanded that Alex hand over her cookies to him. She did, but when the boy put the cookie in his mouth, it turned into a pile of worms; when the boy tried to accost Alex, she kicked him in both knees, and threatened the boys off.
After meeting the Seabury's, the three headed back to Old Larkin Pond, where Bonnie spotted the bracelet at the edge of the Pond before a kappa tried to pull her into the water. Alex and Brian incapacitated the kappa, pulled Bonnie to safety, and retrieved Alex's bracelet, but the Seaburys furiously returned home without speaking to Alex. When Alex reached her own home, she spotted a silver car with a license plate reading LILITH in her driveway.
==== Scholarship ====
Alex was visited by Lilith Grimm who offered Alex a full scholarship to Charmbridge Academy. After her mother and stepfather agreed, having been confounded, and Grimm took Alex on a day-trip to the Goblin Market in Chicago, where she met seventh-grader Angus MacAvoy, to explain a bit about the Academy and the laws of the Wizarding World. The next day, Alex promptly broke the rule against underage magic outside of school when she used an Unlocking Charm to open her mother's locket again; she received a letter of warning from Alcina Kennedy of the Central Territory Tracing Office, and a Howler from Grimm.
She then proceeded to violate her grounding as well by going outside to confront Brian and explain her magical nature, but he was unreceptive and denied the existence of magic despite his own experiences with Alex.
==== The Goblin Market ====
Two days later, Alex was picked up by Tabitha Speaks in the Charmbridge Academy Bus and taken back to the Goblin Market to shop for school supplies. She was introduced to her fellow sixth-graders Angelique Devereaux, Darla Dearborn, Anna Chu, Constance and Forbearance Pritchard, and David Washington by twelfth-grade chaperone Gwendolyn Adams. Once at the Goblin Market, the group stopped at Hoargrim's Wands and Alchemical Supplies, where Alex was outfitted with a hickory/chimaera hair wand by Mr. Finsterholz.
They next visited Boxley's Books to purchase textbooks, after which they went to Grundy's for classroom robes, hats, school clothes, gloves, boots, and goggles. While browsing the Wizard Appliances and Clockworks section of the department store, Alex saw a Tockmagi Household Clockwork Golem, which she thought looked like a robot. In the cafeteria of Grundy's, Alex and David got into a fight with Benjamin and Mordecai Rash, a pair of Ozarkers, when the boys demanded that Constance and Forbearance should sit with "their own kind" instead of "mudbloods." Alex, David and the Rashes were Barred from Grundy's, and the sixth-graders were taken to The Familiar Corner to chose companions. Alex chose a large black raven, naming it Charlie, then boarded the Charmbridge Bus and returned to Old Larkin.
====Invisible Bridge Incident====
Four days later, Alex was picked up by the Charmbridge Bus and taken to the Charmbridge Academy campus. To access the grounds of the school, the students had to cross the Invisible Bridge, which allowed every to pass except for Alex and Washington. When the pair of sixth-graders attempted to cross, the Bridge disappeared; Alex and Washington plummeted into the valley below, but were saved by Charlie after Alex engorged the bird to an enormous size. Most of their school supplies fell into the valley half-a-mile below.
At Charmbridge, she roomed with Chu, while Dearborn and Devereaux roomed in the dorm that shared their bathroom. Over dinner, she, Chu and Washington discussed joining a school chapter of ASPEW. The next day, she attended an assembly concerning school policy before she, Washington and four other students sat for the written portion of their placement S.P.A.W.N. tests. That afternoon, she completed the practical portion of the placement test with Professor Grue, Professor Hobbes, Professor Newton, and Professor Shirtliffe, and Professor Newton admonished her use of "doggerel verse" rather than incantations.
After finishing her practical exams, Alex visited the library before meeting up with her classmates at Delta Delta Kappa Tau Hall and heading to dinner. After dinner, she received her S.P.A.W.N. results – "Muggle" in Wizard History, Arithmomancy and Geomancy, and Alchemy and Herbology; "Hocus Pocus" in Magical Theory; "Underperformer" in practical Transfiguration and Charms; "Hocus Pocus" in practical Alchemy; "Average" in Basic Magical Defense – and schedule – Practical Magical Exercise, Remedial Basic Charms, Remedial Basic Transfiguration, Remedial Basic Alchemy, Remedial Principles of Magic, and Remedial Wizarding World History. The next day, she was called to Dean Grimm's office along with Washington, Chu, and the Pritchard sisters concerning the fight at Grundy's. Chu and the Pritchards were dismissed, while Quick and Washington were assigned to serve two weeks of detention, write letters of apology to Grundy's, and compose essays on the subject of how their behavior reflects on Charmbridge.
After being dismissed, they collected the supplies they had lost on the Invisible Bridge from the Lost and Found closet. In Basic Charms with Newton, she learned the Six Basic Wand Movements and Seven Basic Wand Positions. In Basic Transfigurations, she worked on changing matches into needles and rocks into candy, as well as reviewing Militades's Elementary Transformations. In Remedial Alchemy, she was singled out by Professor Grue before the class began studying Beginning Potions. After lunch, she attended Basic Principles of Magic with , in which the class read passages from their textbook aloud.
In Wizarding World History, Professor Grinder spent most of the class bemoaning the sexism of the wizarding world as exemplified in their textbook, Wizards and Warlocks in the Ancient World. In Practical Magical Exercise with Professor Bludgeleg and Miss Gambola, she played plunkball with Washington and the Pritchard sisters, before having another confrontation with Albo when he mocked her for placing in five Remedial classes. During dinner, the Pritchard sisters recited an Ozarker rhyme about a folklorish girl named Troublesome, and the nickname stuck with Alex.
==== Troublesome ====
She and Washington, along with Albo and the Rash brothers, served her detentions with Ben Journey, supervising his Clockworks while they performed custodial and groundskeeping duties. After her first week, the taunts of Albo and the Rash brothers inspired her to approach Dean Grimm about moving out of her Remedial classes. During a Magical Exercise class, Professor Shirtliffe visited and challenged the class to move an enormous bronze statue; while the rest of the students met with only the barest of successes, Alex used a doggerel verse to shrink the statue to knee-height and carry it. Shirtliffe commended Quick's ingenuity, but chided her use of doggerel verse, threatening her with another essay.
After class, Alex made an appointment to see Dean Price concerning her classes, then headed to detention. On Monday, she met with Price, who refused to allow her to retake her S.P.A.W.N. tests, and later learned how to fly on a broom in Magical Exercise. On the final day of her detention, she enchanted Albo and the Rash brothers' Clockworks to attack them with mops and sponges, which led Larry, Benjamin and Mordecai to fly recklessly near her in Magical Exercise. Alex retaliated by hurling a at them, inciting Albo to chase her until she outran him in a game of chicken.
Alex and Albo were assigned three additional months of detention, as were Washington and the Rash brothers, and had transfiguration jinxes placed on them that would turn them both into rats if they got closer than ten feet from each other. Both were banned from sports and flying for the remainder of the semester. Alex served her detentions while reading up on Clockworks and continuing to study for the S.P.A.W.N. tests that she would take again the next semester. As word of Grimm's transfiguration jinx spread, students pranked the two by forcing them into proximity, but Dearborn, Chu, Devereaux and the Pritchards helped to keep Alex away from Albo.
In October, Alex and Albo were forced into proximity by Torvald Krogstad and Stuart Cortlandt, and again transformed into rats. They were later assigned to clean out the Academy's attic in preparation for an anti-fumigation; Alex got lost in the labyrinth of rooms, closets, stairways and corridors, and chanced upon Albo, turning them both into rats. Soon after Galen, found them and toyed with them, and they were rescued by Charlie before Journey located them and reversed the jinx. After returning to her dorm, Alex confined in Chu that she believed Grimm was trying to kill her.
In November, Alex first learned about the Dark Convention and the Governor-General, and lent her support to the A.S.P.E.W. Journey assigned her and Albo to supervise their Clockworks as they raked leaves from the grounds, and oversee the burning of the leaves in a large bonfire pit. Two weeks into the month, Alex was attacked in the firepit by her Clockworks, who picked her up and prepared to throw her into the fire before Albo arrived and deliberately approached Alex to turn them both into rats. Journey assured her he'd talk to Grimm concerning the Clockworks, and when Alex told Chu about the incident, Chu agreed that someone was trying to kill Alex.
The next morning, Alex was called to the Dean's Office, where Grimm reassigned Albo to kitchen-duty and Quick to library-duty while the Clockworks were inspected. On detention, Mrs. Minder taught Alex the tergeo and scourgify charms in order to clean desks. The following night, Alex met the elves Bran and Poe, and learned about the nature of elf-service; the next morning, she explained what the elves had told her to the A.S.P.E.W. students. Over the next week, Alex persuaded Bran and Poe to help her find books on the Dark Convention, including American Warlock Lore: Tales of the Dark and An Inquiry Into Death Eater Activity in America.
==== The Thorn Circle ====
Her interest in Dark Magic became a school rumor; she was taunted by the Rash brothers over it, and later confided in Chu that she thought perhaps her father had been a Warlock. Alex learned from Ms. Grinder that the Dark Convention conspiracy in the mid-1990's went by the name of The Thorn Circle, and Alex shared with Chu her theory that Dean Grimm might have been a Death Eater. That night, she searched the library, finding three books that mentioned the Thorn Circle, all of which were currently on-loan, and had Bran and Poe send out book-owls to request the books from other libraries.
Her increasing preoccupation with the Dark Convention led to her being targeted with hexes and jinxes by older students. During her last Alchemy test before Thanksgiving, Alex misbrewed a batch of Blister Tincture which exploded, sending her to the infirmary. She was treated by Mrs. Murphy and visited by Chu, as well as Bran and Poe who informed her that her books had arrived, and was released the next morning. During a Charms quiz, Alex was summoned to the Dean's Office where she explained the Tincture mishap to Grimm, including her casting of an Undoing Charm.
Grimm informed Alex that any further recklessness or inappropriate behavior would result in severe punishments for Chu, Washington, Devereaux, Dearborn, and the Pritchard sisters, but no consequences for Alex herself. She obeyed Grimm's edict, and made a concerted effort to stay out of trouble. Alex attended the Thanksgiving Feast with Chu, Washington, Devereaux and the Pritchard sisters; that night, Chu privately admitted that Alex was her best friend. The next morning, she was again summoned to the Dean's Office where Grimm lifted the transfiguration jinx from her and Albo.
That evening, Alex visited Bran and Poe in the library concerning the books they had ordered, but when she saw them punishing themselves for planning to break library policy, she instructed them to return the books; instead, they offered to let her read them in the library, which was not a violation of the rules. Alex spent the next two days reading Dark or Demented? The Case Against Abraham Thorn, The Thorn Circle: Warlocks in Hiding, and The Darkness That Threatens Us All!, and discovered that the photograph in her mother's locket was that of Abraham Everard Thorn. After telling Anna about Thorn, Alex determined that her name may have appeared under her father's surname on the Registrar's Scroll.
==== Christmas Eve Blizzard ====
In December, Alex sat for her midterms and scored well before heading home on the Charmbridge Bus for the Christmas break. Back in Larkin Mills, Alex met Billy and Brian again; Billy mocked her for attending a "special" school, and Billy calls her a "freak." After the confrontation, Alex fled home and inadvertently conjured a "ball of energy" that "crackled with malice and spite." She diffused the curse with an explico charm, but the released energy caused the Christmas Eve Blizzard of 2007, which dropped more than six feet of snow over the Midwestern United States.
During the blizzard, a burglar broke into the Green House and ransacked Alex's room, immediately after which a fire started that quickly consumed the house. Alex and her mother escaped through an upstairs window, and Alex was drawn away from the house into the storm by a "bobbing green and yellow glow." She was found by Archie nearly a mile from the house, and spent the rest of her vacation shuffling between the houses of her parents' friends.
In January, Alex returned to Charmbridge and told her friends about the house-fire. At the start-of-term assembly, the students were introduced to Allan Thiel, and informed that Governor-General Hucksteen would be presiding over commencement in June. Alex was then called to the Dean's Office to recount the events that led to the house-fire, and in turn asked Grimm if Thorn was her father and if Grimm was trying to kill her. Grimm showed Alex the Registrar's Scroll, which listed her as "Alexandra Octavia Quick" and not "Thorn," and explained how each of Alex's brushes with death were unfortunate, but unintended, accidents.
The next day, Alex and Washington sat for their second round of S.P.A.W.N., and Alex scored Average in all subjects but Basic Magical Defense, in which she scored Excellent. Alex transferred out of remedial classes, joining Basic Charms and Basic Transfigurations, as well as Professor Middle's Wizard Social Studies class and Professor Shirtliffe's Magical Theory class. Through January, February and March, Alex studied diligently and avoided trouble, until she and her friends were confronted by Albo, Ethan Robinson, Wade White, and the Rash brothers. Albo dared Alex into spending a night in the forest surrounding the Academy, where he claimed a hodag resided, and the two swore an oath on the wager.
Alex later found Journey and Thiel clearing a freezing charm out of the 11th-grade hallway. Alex and Chu attempted to fulfill Alex's end of the dare, but were ambushed by Albo, Robinson and White, who petrified Chu before a creature attacked the group and the five fled. They were caught by Journey returning to the dorms, but he let them go without reporting them; Alex and Chu headed to the infirmary where Mrs. Murphy tended to Chu's cold.
In the third week of April, Alex attended a sixth-grade field trip to Chicago as part of Muggle Awareness Month. The class visited the Territorial Headquarters Building, where Alex snuck away from her class and searched the records in the Territorial Census Office. She was nearly attacked by the vampire Thomas Bagby, but managed to find a file on her mother that included photos of Alex and Claudia, with Alex's father blotted out, and Diana Grimm listed as the interviewing officer. The class later attended a Cubs game at Wrigley Field.
After returning to Charmbridge, Alex confronted Grimm about her mother's file and learned that Claudia had been interviewed because it believed that Alex's father was a member of the Thorn Circle. When Grimm denied knowing who Alex's father was, Alex called her a liar, and received a vicious magical whipping across the back of her hands. She was further assigned to write a letter of apology to Bagby, an essay, and to serve a week of detention degnoming the campus with Thiel. While writing her apology letter, Alex learned the Editing Ink Charm from Anna, and realized that the Registrar's Scroll may have been altered. She also learned from Journey that the Registrar's Office needed to be cleaned for Hucksteen's visit, but was instructed by Thiel to stay away from the Office. She resolved to break into the office and see the Scroll, and Chu agreed to help.
Through May, Alex and Chu planned the break-in; Alex learned from Bran and Poe that the Charmbridge elves lived in the basement, where she headed and met Em. The elf refused to reveal the location of the Registrar's Office and trapped Alex with a sticking charm before leaving to retrieve Journey, and Alex was magically strangled into unconscious while alone in the corridor. When Em, Journey, Thiel and Chu found her, Alex explained her plan to break into the Registrar's Office as another dare from Albo. Alex and Chu were released by Journey without punishment.
==== The Secret Thorn ====
The following weekend, Alex woke up at three o'clock in the morning to sneak past Miss Marmsley's portrait while the secretary slept, finding the Registrar's Office on the second floor of the administrative wing. She was discovered by Galen before she could attempt an unlocking charm, and returned to the sixth-grade dorms. She was confronted the next day by Washington and the Pritchard sisters, who warned Alex not to get Chu into trouble. Alex spent the next week meticulously planning the break-in before learning that Hucksteen's security detail would be visiting the Academy the upcoming weekend.
That night, Alex and Chu used whisperphones to keep in contact while Chu stood guard and Alex broke into the Registrar's Office using an alohomora charm. She found the Registrar's Scroll and cast an editing ink reversal charm to discover that her name had, in fact, been changed from "Alexandra Octavia Thorn." She was magically strangled into unconsciousness again, but was rescued by Chu, who used a Bubble-head Charm to avoid the Garroting Gas that had nearly suffocated Alex and Galen. The girls were confronted by Thiel, who Alex disarmed and Chu petrified, before they were caught by Journey, who stupefied Chu before Grimm appeared and struck him with a Revulsio spell.
Grimm and Journey fought until Journey took Chu hostage, despite claiming that he was after Alex, and escaped on a flying carpet. Following the fight, Alex was escorted back to her dorm by Thiel, who she learned was an undercover agent of the Wizard Justice Department, and received a note via crow from Journey instructing her to meet him in the forest surrounding the campus. Alex escaped Thiel's surveillance by jumping from her second-story dorm window, breaking her ankle on impact. At the edge of the forest, she found a carpet, and rode it to a location deeper in the forest where Journey had Chu tied to a tree.
Alex agreed to accompany Journey in exchange for Chu's freedom and he bound her, but as they took off on the carpet, Grimm arrived by broom to pursue them. Journey escaped by commanding the murder of crows in the forest to attack Grimm, then explained to Alex that she was the Secret-Keeper for the Thorn Circle, and that her father had placed a powerful Circle of Protection around her in the form of the gold bracelet that Alex had found in her mother's closet. Journey showed Alex the broken bracelet, which he'd stolen on the night of the fire, and prepared to kill her before Grimm arrived. Journey shot Grimm off her broom with a revolver, then turned the gun on Alex and pulled the trigger.
==== Journey's death ====
The Circle of Protection continued to shield her, however, causing Journey to suffer the effect of the gunshot, which killed him while merely knocking Alex to the ground. Grimm sheltered Alex while they awaited rescue, and both were treated by Mrs. Murphy back at Charmbridge, and Grimm explained that the Circle of Protection was not Alex's bracelet, but the members of the Thorn Circle itself, to which Journey had belonged. By betraying Alex, Journey's actions had both led to his own death, and simultaneously broken the circle that had protected Alex from his attempt on her life. Alex was released on crutches after three days in the infirmary, by which point most of the school was aware of her paternity.
That Friday, she sat for her end-of-year S.P.A.W.N. tests – she earned Averages on written Magical Theory, written Alchemy and Herbology, written Arithmomancy and Geomancy, and practical Alchemy; Underperformer on written Wizard History; Excellent on practical Transfigurations and practical Charms; and Superior on practical Basic Magical Defense. She also received an invitation to the Mors Mortis Society's year-end party, which Krogstad and Cortlandt seemed to think was an honor for a sixth-grader. She later attended senior commencement, after which she was interviewed by Governor-General Hucksteen regarding her knowledge of her father. Alex reassured Hucksteen that her father had never contacted her, neglecting to tell him about the locket, and was given a magical business card through which to contact Hucksteen if her father should communicate with her.
She burned the card before returning home to Larkin Mills, where she received a raven with a letter from her father. After reading the letter, she ripped the parchment into tiny shreds, which she then threw in the trash.
=== Seventh Grade ===
==== Summer of 2008 ====
Alexandra returned to the town of Larkin Mills for the summer of 2018. Since her childhood home had been burned down during the events of the previous winter, Claudia Quick and Archie Green had moved into an apartment in downtown Larkin Mills while waiting for an insurance investigation to finish on their previous home and shopping for a new house.
On the first night after her return home, Alexandra received a letter from her Father delivered by his raven, Hagar. In the letter, Thorn introduced himself to his daughter, asked her forgiveness for the lack of contact until that point, and praised her 'courage, wit and skill' in surviving the trials of her first year at Charmbridge. Alexandra's only response to the raven was "You can tell my father that he obviously knows where to find me." She then ripped the letter to pieces. It was later implied that the WJD had retrieved this letter and reconstructed it using the Recolligo spell. This was the first time that Alexandra communicated with Abraham Thorn.
Due to her parents' work schedules, Alex was enrolled in Vacation Bible School at Larkin Mills Baptist Church, where she paid little attention and took no part in the school's religious rituals. Alex managed to behave herself until the final week, when the topic of witchcraft came up; Amy Gavello inquired after the Bible's take on witches, and one of her teachers cited Exodus 22:18, claiming that "thou shalt not suffer a witch to live." When Davan MacLeod bragged during lunch about shooting stray cats and crows with his air gun, Alex turned everyone's food rancid before leaving and walking home. Alex was grounded for the incident, and spent the time in her room with Charlie until her stepfather allowed her to go to the Larkin Mills Mall while her mother was at work.
At the Mall, Alex bought underwear and socks from a store where she then found Bonnie Seabury shoplifting. Alex stopped Bonnie, who replaced the items, before Brian Seabury approached the two along with Billy Boggleston and Tom. Billy mocked Alex, and Tom snatched away her bag, which contained her wand; before Tom could feel with the bag, though, a mannequin grabbed him by the arm, and he dropped the bag. Billy and Tom left the store, and Brian pulled Bonnie away from Alex, who was then approached by Diana Grimm, who had transfigured the mannequin. Grimm took Alex to lunch, inquiring after her father, and giving her another business card to replace Hucksteen's.
Alex later took the Charmbridge Academy Bus to the Goblin Market to purchase school supplies, and met up with her classmates Anna Chu, David Washington, Angelique Devereaux, Constance and Forbearance Pritchard, and Darla Dearborn. In the cafeteria at Grundy's, she first saw the exchange students from Blacksburg Magery Institute, including Martin Nguyen, who publicly insulted Darla after they had met on an Aurora Borealis cruise over the summer.
==== Junior Regimental Officers Corps ====
Upon returning to Charmbridge, Alex saw Anna's first run-in with Tomo Matsuzaka, and later learned that the BMI students would be spending the year at the Academy as part of an exchange program. Alex eventually chose Magical Ecology as her seventh-grade elective, but was disappointed to find that she would not be learning about dragons, basilisks, minotaurs, sea serpents, or giant spiders. She later learned about the cultural conflict between Anna and Tomo when she found Anna recovering from a Nail-Pulling Jinx, and later disarmed both girls when they came to blows in the hallway. During the ensuing fight, Alex was restrained by Maximilian King, while Beatrice Hawthorne restrained Tomo and Professor Shirtliffe restrained Anna.
Dean Grimm placed Chu, Matsuzaka and Alex on probation for the semester, while Alex and Chu were also assigned to join the Junior Regimental Officer Corps. Alex also earned an additional week of detention for insolence, and served under the new groundskeeper, Libby Gale. Upon enrolling in the JROC, Alex and Chu's seventh-grade electives were changed to Practical Magical Exercise, and they reported for training. They were given JROC uniforms and a rigorous training/drilling schedule that quickly began to take a toll on Anna, while Alex resolved to endure her JROC training without complaint. Halfway through September, Charlie returned to Alex and Anna's room with what appeared to be a coin bearing a crow, stamped "MMS," and printed along its edge with a warning: "if this coin be stolen, a Thief's Curse be upon you!"
==== Mors Mortis Society ====
Alex theorized that the coin was related to the Mors Mortis Society, and her friends advised her to discard ir or turn it over to the faculty; Alex did neither, and two weeks later, the coin emitted an electrical jolt, at which point Alex discovered that that images on its front and back had changed. When she resolved to ask Dearborn and Devereaux about the meaning of the new symbols that had appeared, she discovered that both of her suitemates had similar coins, which gave directions to future meetings of the Mors Mortis Society. The following Sunday, Alex wandered the Academy until nearly midnight, at which point the coin directed her into the Charmbridge basements where she encountered Torvald Krogstad and Stuart Cortlandt, also on their way to the meeting; the three found the location, signing a secrecy contract with a Blood Quill before entering, and found Dearborn, Devereaux, Matsuzaka and King in attendance.
During the meeting, Quick witnessed an elder student summon a spirit from the Lands Beyond through a portal. After the meeting, she was emphatically instructed by King to stay away from the Society. King proceeded to become even harder on Quick and Anna both during JROC drills and exercises, singling them out for critique. Not long after, Alex's coin changed again, indicating that the next Society meeting would be held on "Venus Rising". King later assigned Quick and Chu to another Saturday inspection during which Anna and Alex were instructed on complex wand and broom drills. Alex wound up racing King through the forest surrounding the Academy, and crashed into a tree as a result, breaking his wrist, collarbone, and arm in two places, as well as suffering a concussion. She was delivered to the infirmary where Mrs. Murphy administered a dose of Skele-Gro, and Professor Shirtliffe later questioned Alex about the incident.
That night after dinner, Alex was visited by Bran and Poe, and requested that they bring her books on astronomy to pass the time. She then discovered that Venus would be a "rising sign" at midnight on the following Tuesday. Anna, David, and the Pritchards visited her in the infirmary, and Alex learned that King had been demoted for being party to her injuries. Alex was released from the infirmary later that day with her arm in a sling; that next Tuesday, she followed the directions on her coin into the labyrinthine attics of the Academy, where she ran across Matsuzaka. Alex warned the sixth-grader that if Tomo hexed Anna again, Alex would "turn [her] inside out," and the two proceeded to the meeting location.
== Appearance ==
Alexandra is Caucasian with fair skin, straight black hair that she generally wears short and loose, and green eyes. She is skinny and physically fit, especially after joining JROC at age 12, and is described as being tall for her age at age 13. By age 16, Alex is somewhere in the range of average to tall height, probably between 5'5" and 5'8".
Alexandra's appearance is implied to closely resemble that of her aunts, Lilith and Diana Grimm. The only clear resemblance she has to her father, Abraham Thorn, is in her straight black hair (which she also shares with her mother).
Alexandra has several notable scars. She has scars on her lower abdomen, wrist, and neck inflicted by the Nemesis Spirit she fought in Dinetah in 2011. She is also missing a cuspid tooth that was knocked out by John Manuelito later the same year. However she was able to heal this injury in August of 2011 and now has all of her teeth again.
== Powers and Abilities ==
In her time at Larkin Mills and over the course of her years at Charmbridge, Alexandra gained and learned to use many varieties of magic both conventional and otherwise.
=== Innate Magic ===
Alexandra's innate magic is far more powerful than normal for an untrained witch.
In her first encounter with Redcaps in Larkin Mills, Alexandra was able to conjure fireballs from a non-magical stick without using any spell or doggerel verse.
Alexandra has transformed food into worms several times without using any formal spell or Doggerel verse. At some point prior to 2007 she transformed Billy Boggleston's food into worms and in 2007 prior to going to Charmbridge she repeated the trick against Billy's friend Tom Gavin. In the Summer of 2008 she unintentionally transformed all the food at the Larkin Mills Vacation Bible School cafeteria into worms as well. In her first Magical Defense SPAWN she attempted to conjure worms in Mary Shirtliffe's mouth non-verbally with the aid of a wand although Shirtliffe was able to deflect it.
Alexandra has several time demonstrated the ability to generate intense heat when she is under threat, repelling those who try to lay hands on her. In a meeting of the Mors Mortis Society, John Manuelito was forced to withdraw after grabbing Alexandra's throat, acting as though his hand had been burned. In the summer of 2010 Alexandra got in a fight with Billy Boggleston, and after she was pinned to the ground the grass in the area around her withered as if it had been burned. Later in the same year when Alexandra was attacked by Martha the hag, Alexandra burned the Hag's face by striking it with her palm.
=== Doggerel Verse ===
Alexandra is unusually skilled at improvising spells through Doggerel verse and has been doing so since before she went to Charmbridge. Although she has been able to accomplish powerful effects this way the spells she creates do not work reliably.
=== Lock-picking ===
Alexandra was able to reliably open locked doors with doggerel verse prior to going to Charmbridge. Over the course of her first year she learned the Unlocking Charm and practiced with it to the point that she believed herself the best magical lockpick in her grade. She was able to break the lock on the registrar's office at the end of first year with an unlocking charm.
In the Summer of 2012 after her original wand was destroyed, Alexandra learned to cast unlocking charms wandlessly without resorting to Doggerel verse, although this was still much more time-consuming than using a wand.
=== Clockworks ===
During her first year at Charmbridge, Alexandra spent time studying Clockworks. Although she wasn't nearly skilled enough to create one herself, she learned enough about their basic enchantments to be able to repurpose them for a prank against Larry Albo, Benjamin Rash, and Mordecai Rash.
=== Dark Magic ===
During her time in the Mors Mortis Society Alexandra learned several dark or illegal spells. These included the Freeze-Frame Spell, the Wound Relocating Charm and the Snapping Hex.
Alexandra is also able to cast the Cruciatus Curse. She seems to have picked this up from observation of others casting it as she has never been formally taught how to cast the spell.
=== Dueling ===
During her second year, Alexandra started to learn Wizard Dueling from her brother Maximilian. The following year she began attending the Charmbridge Dueling Club and learned more dueling magic.
Prior to training with Maximilian the spells Alexandra knew included the Stunning Spell and the Disarming Charm.
Spells that Alexandra is known to have learned from Maximilian include the Deadweight Spell, the levitating jinx, Barak and the Porcupine Curse.
Spells that Alexandra learned at the dueling club include Caedarus.
=== Deadweight Spell ===
Maximilian King taught Alexandra the Deadweight Spell and its counter-charm in her second year at Charmbridge, after John Manuelito had used it to trap her.
=== Banishment ===
Alexandra learned the Banishing Spell from Ms. Shirtliffe as part of her JROC training during her third year. She has been shown to use the spell against Ghosts and Chindi.
== Possessions ==
=== Non-magical Possessions ===
Alexandra owns a smartphone, which was purchased for her by David Washington for Christmas of 2008.
Alexandra received two muggle non-fiction books from David Washington for Christmas in 2007. One of these was about football and the other on the Civil Rights movement.
=== Clothing and Jewelry ===
In 2007 Alexandra wore a gold bracelet which she 'found' in her mother's closet. The bracelet originally belonged to her father, though it is unclear whether it actually had any mystical properties. She lost this bracelet in the Summer of 2007 while fleeing from Redcaps at Old Larkin Pond though she was able to recover it the next day. The bracelet was stolen by Benedict Journey during the fire at Alexandra's House in Winter of 2007, and Journey later destroyed it.
Alexandra also found a locket containing a moving cameo image of Abraham Thorn in her mother's closet. The locket required an unlocking charm to open and the image inside did not respond to Alexandra's questions, except by facial expressions until Alexandra asked it the question 'Abraham Everard Thorn, are you my father?' at which point the image of Thorn walked out of the cameo and did not return. This locket was also lost in the fire at Alexandra's home in Winter 2007.
Alexandra wears a golden charm bracelet given to her by Anna Chu for Christmas in 2007. The bracelet contains charms bearing the Chinese characters for 'Raven' and 'Snake' (the Raven Charm was given with the original bracelet, the Snake charm was given for Christmas in 2008).
Alexandra received a knitted hand muffler enchanted with a Warming Charm from Constance and Forbearance Pritchard for Christmas in 2007. This was destroyed when Alexandra's house burned down that winter.
Alexandra owns a pair of Lucky Socks knitted for her by Constance and Forbearance Pritchard as a gift for Christmas of 2008. The socks were knitted from the hair of a White Hound and are stated to be 'specially lucky against dark forces'. What, if any, special properties these socks actually possess has not been demonstrated.
Alexandra owned a uniform dress cape hand-made for her by Constance and Forbearance Pritchard for her birthday in 2009. It is unlikely that she still wears this by 2011.
Alexandra owns a pair of Seven-League Boots which she extorted from Martha the hag in Winter of 2010.
=== Wands ===
Alexandra's original wand was 10.5 inches long, made from Hickory (Carya illinoiensis) with a Chimaera hair core. She purchased the wand from Hoargrim's Wands and Alchemical Supplies in the Chicago Goblin Market in Summer of 2007. This wand was destroyed by John Manuelito during his attack on Charmbridge in the spring of 2011.
Despite attempts to prevent Alexandra from acquiring a new wand, Alexandra would eventually gain three new wands:
* A yew wand, given to her by Medea. Later revealed to be the former wand of her mother, Hecate Grimm. 
* A Grundy's wand, made from basswood with a goat feather's core. A gift from Livia. This wand was broken by Richard Raspire during the Junior Wizarding Decathlon.
* A black hickory wand, made by Granny Pritchard with the core being the whiskers of an underwater panther killed by Alexandra during her Quest.
=== Brooms ===
Alexandra owned a 2009 Valkyrie broomstick given to her by Maximilian King for her birthday in 2009. This broom was destroyed by Diana Grimm in the Summer of 2009.
Alexandra was given another broom in Christmas of 2009 by Thalia and Julia King. This broom was a Twister. Alexandra currently still owns this broom.
=== Spellbooks and Lore ===
Alexandra purchased an unnamed book on Magical Beasts and another on Hexes and Jinxes at the Goblin Market in the Summer of 2008.
Alexandra was given a book entitled 'Beginning Chinese Charms for Foreign Devils' by Anna Chu for her birthday in 2009.
Alexandra was given several 'Great Works' of magical lore by her father for her birthday in 2011. These included 'Banishments' by Levy and Dee, 'Bestiary Diabolic' by Giles Harrow, and a refactoring of Ptolemaic astrology as arithmantic equations by Fausta Sterntochter.
=== Miscellaneous Magic Items ===
Alexandra has a Skyhook and Lost Traveler's Compass compass from the backpack that she and Maximilian carried to the Lands Below in Spring of 2009. She also has the same backpack, which is enchanted with a Wizard's space to carry much greater mass and volume than the pack could normally contain.
Alexandra's Skyhook was lost during her Quest in the Ozarks in August 2011. She also briefly lost the Lost Traveler's compass but was able to retrieve it.
Alexandra possessed a Bone flute that was gifted to Maximilian in the Lands Below. This was lost when Darla Dearborn carried it with her to the Lands Beyond in spring of 2010.
Alexandra owns a Wizard's Wireless set purchased for her by David Washington for her birthday in 2009.
== Allusions ==
*Quick's given name, which she shares with a mythological Greek prophetess, is the feminine version of a Macedonian king; she shares her middle name with the wife of Mark Antony.
*Alexandra Octavia Quick's first and middle name may also be a reference to the historical figures Alexander the Great of Macedon (Alexandra is the feminine form of Alexander) and Gaius Octavius (better known by his regnal name, Caesar Augustus, Octavia is the feminine form of Octavius). What these two figures have in common is that both were the designated heirs of great leaders who were assassinated when Alexander and Octavius were themselves in their teens (Alexander's father Phillip II of Macedon was murdered when Alexander was 16, Octavius's great uncle Gaius Julius Caesar was murdered when Octavius was 19 and named Octavius as his heir in his will) and that shortly after the demise of their predecessor each man used the power he inherited to embark on a rise to power that would lead to each of them conquering the majority of what was then the known world. Given Alexandra's relation within the story to Abraham Thorn this may be foreshadowing for events later in the story.
*Quick was at one time nearly named Lila Zill.
== Trivia ==
* Though not directly stated, it is implied that after her actions in New Amsterdam and raiding Storm King Mountain, she, like her father, was declared an Enemy of the Confederation, as evidenced by Henry Tsotsie's remark that all aurors were ordered to arrest Alexandra on sight. 
== Appearances ==
* "Don' Like Peas!"
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Category:Females
Category:Larkin Mills residents
Category:Mors Mortis Society members
Category:Junior Regimental Officers
Category:Thorn Family
Category:Dueling Club members
Category:Broom flyers
Category:Grimm Family
Category:Alexandra Committee
Category:Pure-bloods