Siobhan Tickes

**Siobhan Tickes**, née McArran, is a non-canonical historical Irish muggle-born witch and auror mentioned in *The Family Clock*; she was the first wife of James Tickes X and mother of Ian and Jessie Tickes, but was killed by death eaters in 1979.

## Physical description

Siobhan was a so-called "black Irish", with very dark hair and pale skin. She broke her nose playing Quidditch, taking a bludger from straight ahead, and never had it fixed. She was the same height as Jessie (5'6"), and her friend Sarah Tickes notes that she was "just a hair on the side of barrel-chested".

## Biography

Siobhan was born in Ireland, probably in October 1944, to muggle parents, a jeweler and a pastry chef. She, however, was a witch and went to Hogwarts, where she was sorted into Gryffindor; in her fifth year she became a prefect. She turned out to have a talent for Quidditch, especially as a seeker, to the extent that when her parents divorced and she got into a tight spot financially, she managed to pick up a Quidditch scholarship; presumably, she was also playing on the House team. She also found work at Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour during her summer holidays; there she met James Tickes X while he was holding a public debate with Gertie Macnair. Siobhan broke in and punctured both their arguments, making them look quite foolish, but he ended up asking her out and she accepted. This likely happened in the summer of 1961, since they were already a couple when he finished a portrait of Rowena Ravenclaw with her as the model, and she was seventeen at that time. In any case, she had already met his grandmother Jetty Tickes, who trained her in dueling and likely other skills needed to become an auror. (When James says she passed the Chronologie Mechanique novice test "years before" he met her, this must presumably be due to her association with Jetty.)

In 1963 she graduated from Hogwarts, after getting engaged to James, and entered auror training to eventually become, in the words of Florean Fortescue, one of "the greatest female Aurors in the history of Great Britain". If this was comparable to the current curriculum, she would have finished in 1966, which happens to be about the same time she and James entered the traditional Irish year-and-a-day trial marriage before they finally "tied the knot" a week after her twenty-third birthday. They had planned to hold the ceremony in the Hogwarts gardens, but due to a last-minute quarantine that wasn't possible; when Siobhan showed up in Quidditch gloves James suggested they move it to the pitch instead, and so they did – they were married right under the south-left goalpost. Siobhan's family were not present, and her maid-of-honor was Rolanda Hooch. Three years later on the day their son Ian was born, but it took almost seven years more before Jessie followed. (Alastor Moody mentions the effect of curses, and especially the Cruciatus, on the female reproductive organs and considers it a minor miracle she had any children at all.)

Both Siobhan and Jetty died in an attack by death eaters; this is a recurring theme, but there are several contradicting statements about the *time* of her death. Florean Fortescue implies that it was in 1978, when he and Abigail Flourish had to give up their plan to make her Chair of the Diagon Alley Chamber of Commerce. However, he also says that Jessie was about two at the time, which would rather make it 1979, and that fits with a later mention of Siobhan being not quite 35. Chapter 31 says it was in 1980, but it also says she was born about 1955, that Jessie was born in 1976 rather than 1977 and that Ian Tickes III died in 1946 rather than 1944, so it seems to be a less than trustworthy secondary source. At the time of the attack she was pregnant again, and according to Jessie's musings – but whether this is correct is an open question, seeing as she would have been too young to remember it, and it would hardly have been a common topic of discussion in her family – she took a curse to the head when ducking to avoid being hit in the midsection. Jessie also seems to imply that the attack happened at the Diagon Alley shop, and that it suffered explosions and a major fire, but that doesn't fit very well with the previously established secret compartments installed during the French revolution.

## Relationships

Samuel McArran: She cut all ties with her muggle father (and seemingly her mother as well) when she turned seventeen, likely due to her parents' rather nasty divorce (the suggestion that she may have wanted to protect them from death eater activity seems anachronistic for 1961, unless it is meant in a wide sense, including other but similar groups). She did contact him again in 1979, shortly before she was killed, at which time she told him she was pregnant (but forgot to mention the two children she already had); it may be that she would have mended the rift if she had lived longer.

## Pronunciation

Siobhan's name is pronounced 'SHAW-van mac-AIR-an'.

## Trivia

* While working at the Parlour, she developed the apple-pie ice cream cake.
* Siobhan considered becoming a Qudditch referee if she couldn't get into auror training.
* She kept a journal in the form of a comic strip, *The Fox Banchomarba and her Tanaiste*, and she sometimes read it to Ian. He still keeps the fifteen leather notebooks, but can't read it himself since it is written in Irish.

## References

1. ↑ *The Family Clock*, Chapter 10
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 *The Family Clock*, Chapter 25
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 *The Family Clock*, Chapter 26
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 4.7 *The Family Clock*, Chapter 24
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 *The Family Clock*, Chapter 35
6. ↑ *The Family Clock*, Chapter 28
7. ↑ *The Family Clock*, Chapter 31
8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 *The Family Clock*, Chapter 30
9. ↑ *The Family Clock*, Chapter 3