Ophelia Brown

## Ophelia Margaret Brown

**Ophelia Margaret Brown** (born 14 March, 1981) was an English pure-blood witch who began attending Hogwarts School of Witchcraft in 1992. She was a member of Gryffindor House and had an older sister, Lavender Brown. The daughter of Nigel Brown and Dorothea Brown (née O'Flaherty), she was born in London and was a member of the Brown family.

She was sorted into Gryffindor House on 1 September, 1992. While at school, she met three great friends at Hogwarts: Aquila Black, Maisie Cattermole, and Ginny Weasley. She also met Peter Goyle, a Slytherin student with whom she and her friends became bitter rivals.

Ophelia, along with her friends, became important members of Dumbledore's Army, an organisation taught and led by Harry Potter, in their fourth year of school. Ophelia, Ginny, Maisie, and Aquila would later fight in the Battle of the Astronomy Tower (1997), and the Battle of Hogwarts (1998) together. Ophelia survived both battles.

## Biography

### Early life (1981-1992)

Ophelia Margaret Brown was born on 14 March, 1981, to Dorothea Brown (née O'Flaherty) and her husband, Nigel, in central London. She had an older sister, Lavender, and the sisters were about a year apart. Her father was Nigel Brown, an employee of the Ministry of Magic's Department of Magical Transportation and English pure-blood wizard. Her mother was Dorothea Brown (née O'Flaherty), an Irish witch.

Her paternal grandparents were Octavius Brown and Fiona Brown (née Whitlock), for who she was named for. Fiona Whitlock was the daughter of Malcolm Whitlock Sr., a muggle-born Scottish wizard, and  Magdalene Whitlock (née Marchbanks), of the notable Marchbanks family. Through Magdalene, Lavender and her sister are descendants of the House of Gamp, an extinct wizarding family (in the male line, at least) famous for producing many notable descendants.

Her father had a little brother, Arthur, who was killed at the age of eighteen in the First Wizarding War. As a result, her father was very overprotective of Ophelia and her sister, and rarely allowed them to go out alone, even in muggle London. Ophelia was never told how he died, just that he had died young, and only would discover Arthur's bravery and sacrifice when she was looking into a possible career as an Auror, which her father disliked for her given how dangerous the profession could be.

Ophelia and her sister, Lavender, were great nieces of Augusta Longbottom (née Brown). She sent them presents as children. That being said, she did not know her second cousin, Neville Longbottom, very well. On her mother's side, she had three first cousins, Nora, Kevin, and Maxine O'Flaherty, all of who lived in Ireland.

Despite her father's job at the Ministry, Ophelia's family was wealthy, and her father supposedly had an unconfirmed trust fund. Her family lived in a fairly-sized half of a terraced-house in the middle of London. She once spoke of "yearly" family holidays to places such as Australia, Brazil, Panama, and Peru, because her father was an adventurous man. She, unlike her sister and mother, did not loathe being dragged on Safaris. The Browns also had a house "somewhere in the country" about an hour outside of London, where they went in the summers.

Ophelia and her sister Lavender were relatively spoiled as children: lively, they had grown up in the centre of their parent's attention. They had frequent spats but had a good relationship growing up.

### Hogwarts years (1992-1999)

Ophelia Brown received her acceptance letter from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry at age eleven in the summer of 1992, one year after her older sister, Lavender. She purchased her equipment from Diagon Alley before the start of her first year, including her wand, which was made out of chestnut and unicorn hair, from Ollivander's.

#### First year (1992-1993)

Ophelia boarded the Hogwarts Express for her first year of school on 1 September, 1992, at King's Cross Station, London, and that night, she was one of the first students to be sorted into Gryffindor, behind Aquila Black. She shared a dormitory at the top of Gryffindor Tower, with five other girls: they were Matilda Corner, Molly Roper, Ginny Weasley, Maisie Cattermole, and of course, Aquila Black, the latter three of which she would soon find herself sticking by, although not at once. She did not get on well with Molly, as she did the other four: Molly Roper, a muggle-born, was believed by most to be a loner and made friends with boys rather than girls. There were also personality clashes between Molly Roper and the other Gryffindor girls; Molly, being rather studious, may have been better suited with Ravenclaw girls.

Ophelia, along with her friends, Maisie Cattermole, Aquila Black, and Ginny Weasley, all joined a Duelling Club in October of 1992: but to their dismay it was run by Professor Snape and Professor Lockhart, some of the school's worst teachers. The event was scheduled to take place in the Great Hall. During the club's first meeting Lockhart demonstrated his ineptitude. He was successfully disarmed by Snape and floundered throughout the entire practice duel.

There were several incidents which occurred over the course of Ophelia's first year that she was left out of entirely. During her first year, she was incredibly lonely, though she followed Aquila and Maisie around when she could. Their other friend, Ginny, it turned out, had been writing in an enchanted diary which possessed her to open up the Chamber of Secrets, and the mystery surrounding that was taking up the entire school's time- Tom Riddle, a sentient being inside the diary, forced Ginny to write messages on the walls claiming to be the "Heir of Slytherin" who was to purge the school of all those of lesser blood.

He also forced Ginny to attack and petrify Muggle-borns: aiming to kill, he used Slytherin's Monster, a Basilisk, which slept in the Chamber of Secrets, to do his bidding. Many muggle-borns were attacked and sent to the hospital wing, their brain functions frozen, the only cure was a potion made from a Mandrake, which took several months to curate and brew successfully. As the attacks mounted, Ophelia found herself frightened every time someone new was announced to have been petrified: one time, the victim was Colin Creevey, a classmate of hers, which caused "all of [the Gryffindor first-years] to act somewhat subdued".

Though she was pure-blood herself, Ophelia feared for her own safety, and nervously told Aquila Black (when she complained) that she *liked* the teachers escorting them from class to class, as it made her feel safer.

One night in late May, however, the Heir of Slytherin left another message on the wall- "*Her skeleton will lie in the Chamber forever."* Ophelia's friend Ginny, who almost everyone liked, had been taken into the Chamber of Secrets, and was presumed dead. Ophelia began "hysterically crying" and had to be comforted by her sister, Lavender, who showed "remarkable sympathy" for someone usually so silly.

The evening got worse when Ophelia realised that her friend, Aquila, had not returned from Transfiguration- and in addition, her friend Maisie was also "missing". She was immediately convinced that all of her friends had been killed by Slytherin's Monster, which might have been somewhat of an overreaction because Professor McGonagall told her that Maisie Cattermole was entirely fine and in the hospital wing because she had a bad case of the flu. Ophelia stubbornly insisted for McGonagall to search for Aquila, however, who actually turned out to be missing- along with two second year students, Harry Potter and Ron Weasley.

Everything was resolved when Aquila, Potter, and Weasley emerged with Ginny at the end of the night, shaken but alive, from the Chamber of Secrets, the entrance of which was supposedly on the third floor. However, Ophelia had likely feared for Aquila and Ginny's lives and begged McGonagall to do something, when she couldn't find Aquila in the first place, displaying great loyalty, as well as bravery, at a relatively young age.

#### Second year (1993-1994)

Over the summer, Ophelia's sister reportedly asked their mother for a pet. Dorothea Brown bought her daughters a pair of baby male rabbits; one was named Binky, by Lavender, and Ophelia named hers Barney. They left the bunnies at home when they left for their next year of school, however.

On 1 September, 1993, Ophelia boarded the Hogwarts Express at King's Cross in anticipation of the start of her second year at school. She reportedly had not done well in her first year exams, as she moaned about how her mother thought that she "knew less about Transfiguration" than she did to start with at the beginning of her *first* year.

She sat with her friends, Aquila, Maisie, and Ginny, on the train to school, until the train stopped because of the Dementors, and Ginny left to go see what was going on. Ginny ended up finding her brother, Ron, in another compartment, with Harry Potter and Hermione Granger, when the Dementors entered the Hogwarts Express. They were searching for Sirius Black, a high-security prisoner who had recently broken out of Azkaban. Black was the estranged older brother of Ophelia's friend Aquila, and Ophelia learned about this for the first time when Aquila told everyone only a few hours before.

When the Dementors entered their compartment, Aquila fainted, and Ophelia began crying. However, a large light, in the shape of a large animal, drove the Dementor away. After the end of the ordeal, Maisie Cattermole attempted to revive Aquila, but Ophelia was shaking and crying. A Hufflepuff Prefect, who had been in the compartment beside them, kindly brought her to the dining compartment, which was the largest, in order to look for her sister, Lavender Brown. With the help of Lavender, Ophelia found Ginny, who had reacted strongly to the effects of the Dementors as well. When Ophelia told Ginny that Aquila had collapsed, Ginny was already sobbing. Ginny was apparently only comforted when Maisie and Aquila found them in Harry, Ron, and Hermione's compartment, Aquila having woken up from her episode.

Later in the year, after her friend Aquila had to be carried down from the stands after she and their classmate Evander Bourdillon landed their broomsticks there during a Gryffindor-Hufflepuff Quidditch match (in which more Dementors showed up) Ophelia was seen to be slightly unnerved by the incident, after Oliver Wood and Cedric Diggory arrived on the pitch with Aquila and Evan. She showed herself to be a incredibly resilient fan of the sport and friend of Aquila, however- as she had stood in the pouring rain to watch her play.

Ophelia's sister's pet rabbit, named Binky, was mauled to death by a fox on the nineteenth of October. Barney apparently survived.

Like the previous year, Ophelia's two friends, Ginny and Aquila, had gotten into some misadventures by the end of the year, which she felt left out of. Ginny and Aquila happened to be on the grounds of the school, and right in front of the Minister for Magic, Cornelius Fudge, and two Aurors captured Sirius Black, and a man that Ginny insisted had once been Ron's rat, Scabbers, but had transformed into a man, Peter Pettigrew. At the end of the year Ophelia bemoaned the fact that Aquila and Ginny "got to do everything exciting," which wasn't really the truth, as both girls were still getting over both their ordeal in the Chamber of Secrets as well other things (which they did not tell her about).

At the end of their second year, Ophelia, who was the only one of their group who hadn't figured out that Maisie was a werewolf yet, had to be told, after Maisie woke up. Ophelia was frightened, at first, responding with a whispered "*What?"* but afterwards she was accepting, and brazenly told Maisie that she'd met a werewolf before, in the Amazon Rainforest, and he was a tour guide who took them on a boat cruise, which was "relatively safe." Ophelia had only *thought* that he might have been a werewolf, however, which ruined the moment slightly. She was also put out by the fact that Aquila had known since their first year.

Ophelia did better on her exams for her second year, apparently.

## Personality and Traits

In her first year of school, Ophelia was uncontested as perhaps one of the "stupidest girls in Gryffindor tower." From the start, she also had a whining problem, and this was especially evident when something inconvenienced her: such as getting a detention from Professor McGonagall, even if she actually deserved it along with everybody else. She could also be prone to jealousy, but the real truth was, that while her friends (Aquila, Ginny, and Maisie) begrudgingly included her in their group from the very beginning- in the early years, she was often ignored when they didn’t need her for a particular joke, and many times she was used as their lookout. Inevitably, much like her sister, Ophelia's heart was always in the right place, but she had a tendency to offend or annoy other people, if not always deliberately.

However, Ophelia soon proved herself as both a formidable witch and a clever young woman- it took her considerably longer than her fellow yearmates, but in the end, she ended up passing her O.W.L.s with "very high marks" and her mother bought her the Weird Sisters concert tickets that she had been wanting because of it. She also learned how to be an Animagus by the age of fifteen, which only a few witches and wizards in Northern Europe have achieved before (at least, those of who were registered). She took the form of a panther, while her friend, Ginny, learned how to transform into a grey mare. Their friend Aquila took the form of a black dog. Ophelia only learned how to do this, however, after three years of incredibly hard work, which her friends didn't have to go through as much as her, which was something she was quite bitter about. In the end, though, it was all to support their friend Maisie, who was a werewolf.

Ophelia was a girl that was quite concerned with material wealth and objects that some would call frivolous. This lessened as she grew older, once the Second Wizarding War was in full swing, but she would often act bashful and pretended that none of it was a big deal, even though she almost secretly wanted her friends to be jealous. She once tried to one-up Aquila after Aquila said that she had been to Brazil, but only once- Aquila hadn't really minded at the time, but she wished that Ophelia would stop trying to compete with everybody else and be her own person.

Ophelia also liked to copy aspects of other people's personalities that she found appealing: to Aquila, it was like "living with a different person every Tuesday," and she also, allegedly, was an accent chameleon. She would take on the regional sound and voice of anybody that she was speaking to, which Aquila found a bit interesting. Ophelia was a good impressionist and could also imitate the voices of celebrities. This was a talent that she shared with her father.

## Magical Abilities and Skills

Having trained with Dumbledore's Army during her fourth year of school, Ophelia's magical abilities increased dramatically in the subject with the presence of the right teacher, Harry. Similarly, she was able to complete her animagus transformation at the age of fifteen, with relied-on help from her two friends, Aquila and Ginny. She also proved herself to be a formidable witch on her own, too.

* **Charms:** Ophelia was always rather good with charm-work, as she was capable of successfully casting the Fire-Making Spell, along with the Knockback Jinx, from an early age, showing she was skilled with the casting of such spells. She was also capable of making a corporal patronus, under the tutelage of Harry Potter during Dumbledore's Army meetings.
* **Animagus**: With all the help she could get from her friends, Ophelia was able to become an Animagus at the early age of fifteen, assuming the shape of a black panther. Her form, while having somewhat of an oddly exotic flair, is relatively uncommon, and may have resonated with her in her early childhood and on holidays to South America, where the jaguar is found. The jaguar is a compact and well-muscled animal. It is the largest cat native to the Americas and the third largest in the world, exceeded in size by the tiger and the lion. Ophelia is most likely the most adept at stealth-tracking out of all of her friends. The jaguar also possesses a short and stocky limb structure which makes it adept at climbing, crawling, and swimming.
* **Care of Magical Creatures:** A trait which she shared with her father, Nigel Brown, Ophelia enjoyed viewing and discussing many magical creatures, and probably saw many of them on Safaris which she has taken across Africa, South America, and across Europe. In Care of Magical Creatures class, which she began taking in her third year, Ophelia won the trust and loyalty of magical creatures- such as the Unicorns, easily, demonstrating that she has a high affinity for such animals.
* **Duelling:** Ophelia learned how to duel at the Duelling Club in her first year. She was also taught various offensive and defensive spells while attending the meetings of Dumbledore's Army, under Harry Potter's masterful instruction. Ophelia, along with many other Hogwarts students fought bravely in the Battle of Hogwarts against Voldemort's army and survived, showing her to be a very skilled duellist indeed with considerable and impressive skills in martial magic.

## Etymology

The name Ophelia is derived from Greek οφελος (*ophelos*) meaning "help, advantage". This name was probably created by the 15th-century poet Jacopo Sannazaro for a character in his poem Arcadia, which is about a man living the big city by retreating to a utopia. It was borrowed by Shakespeare for his play Hamlet (1600), in which it belongs to Hamlet's lover who eventually goes insane and drowns herself.

Her surname, Brown, is a colour and a surname derived from a nickname for people with brown hair or a brownish complexion, from Middle English *broun*, from Old English/Old French *brun.*