Nory Horace (books)

**Elinor Boxwood Horace** (more commonly known as "Nory"), is the main protagonist of the literary Children's fantasy series *Upside-Down Magic,* and is the third and youngest child of Dr. Stone Horace, headmaster of Sage Academy. Sister of Hawthorn and Dalia Horace. She is in the fifth grade at Dunwiddle Magic School, and a member of the Upside-Down Magic class.

## Background

### Pre-series

Nory's mother died when Nory was little, leaving Nory and her siblings, Hawthorn and Dalia, in the care of their father. Dr. Horace tried to raise his children well, but Nory does not think he did the best job. After Nory's magic came in, Nory and her siblings hid Nory's magic from her father.

### *Upside-Down Magic*

Nory is first seen preparing for the Sage Academy Big Test. It doesn't go well, and Nory is turned into a bitten. (half beaver-half kitten) Later, when she attempts the Big Test to enter Sage Academy, Nory went seriously wonky and was denied admission to the private school.

Due to Nory's unusual magic, Dr. Horace decided she would live with her aunt Margo and go to a program for magic like hers. Without telling Nory anything, he had Hawthorn pack Nory a bag and called Aunt Margo to pick her up. Nory was exiled to Aunt Margo's, forced to attend Upside-Down Magic at Dunwiddle Magic School. It did not go as badly as Nory feared.

### *Hide and Seek*

Nory's father wanted her to reapply for Sage Academy. Nory passed it, fluxing into a kitten, a puffer-fish, a puppy, a goat, and a mosquito (although it had a kitten tail), each for five seconds without going wonky. The Sage teachers thought they were very impressed. But Nory declined.

### Appearance

Nory has wild, curly black hair. As her father is African-American, and her mother is white, Nory has dark skin. She is known to wear a purple T-shirt, jeans, and red sneakers. She loves her stripy purple rain boots that her father had gave her (Dalia picked them out) and her purple jeans, which she considers lucky.

### Personality

Nory is a resourceful, brave girl who is fiercely loyal. She is sometimes hurtful to other people, as shown in her apocalyptic treatment of her father's rejection, but she tries to look on the bright side. Nory is an excellent friend, is always up to something, and likes being recognized for who she is. Nory tries desperately over the series to regain her father's approval, but in *Showing Off*and *Dragon Overnight*, Nory starts to see herself, and her father, as who they really are.

Nory is quite intelligent. Sometimes, Nory gets very mean about Willa's magic, despite thinking it is cool the first time she saw it—but this is because Nory accidentally called Willa a crybaby; Willa was too worried to show any project notes to Nory, worrying that Nory would make fun. Nory believed that Willa wasn’t doing anything. However, Nory and Willa have made amends. Nory loves Tigerball and Kittenball. She jumps at any chance to talk about Blurper Dragons after finding an orphaned dragon baby (whelp) at Dragon Haven. Nory names the baby Blurper Roarie, to rhyme with Nory. She does not like it when her friends are secretive. The first book in the UDM series and the third book, Showing Off, imply that Nory may have depression.

## Abilities

* Nory is an upside-down Fluxer. Instead of turning into one animal at a time, she turns into mixed-up animals: a dragon-kitten (a dritten), or a beaver-kitten (a bitten), or a squid-puppy (a squippy). This causes her serious problems and gets her rejected from Sage Academy. Despite this, Nory is an extremely strong Fluxer. She can turn into parts of advanced animals, such as elephant, flamingo, dragon, and her tutoring coach believes she will be able to turn into a tiger by early high school. She has accepted her unusual powers and who she is. Nory is tutored by Coach Vitomin, also her kittenball coach, with her fellow UDM Fluxer, Bax Kapoor.
* In *Hide and Seek,* Nory kept control of her human mind and the different animal parts when fluxing into a kitten, a puffer-fish, a puppy, a goat, and a mosquito (although it had a kitten tail) in her reapplied Big Test to enter Sage Academy.

## Relationships

### Margo

Margo is Nory's aunt on her mother's side. Nory is sent to live with Margo following her failing the Sage Academy entrance exam. Though Nori initially disliked living with her, due to her feeling her father resented her, she has grown quite close to Margo and likes her overall more relaxed attitude compared to her father.

### Elliott Cohen

Elliott is depicted as Nory's best friend.

## Trivia

* Nory is the main focus of the *Upside-Down Magic* series.
* Nory is the only known Fluxer capable of turning into dragons. She turns into a kitten mixed with a Blurper, a type of large dragon she encounters in *Dragon Overnight*, which she has dubbed a "dritten".
* "Elinor" is a variant of "Eleanor", a name given to a few historical European queens.
* Nory's favorite cereal is Fruity Doodles.
* Nory's favorite color is purple.
* She enjoys peanut butter cookies.