Amelia Symons

**Amelia Symons** (born 14 September, 1965) was a pure-blood witch who attended Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry from 1 September, 1977 to June 1984. She was a member of the Symons family who lived in Knottingley, Wakefield, West Yorkshire. She had an older brother called Ogden and two sisters, Bridget and Annie.

She played on the Hufflepuff Quidditch Team as a Chaser from the autumn of 1980 to June 1984, when she left the school. She later worked as a columnist for Witch Weekly, a gossip magazine.

## Biography

### Early life

Amelia Symons was born on 14 September, 1965, in Knottingley, Wakefield, West Yorkshire, England. She was born into the Symons family, a family of modest means. She had an older brother called Ogden, an older sister called Bridget, and when Amelia was two years old they gained another sister, Annie. Knottingley is a town within the metropolitan borough of the City of Wakefield in West Yorkshire, England on the River Aire.

Her family did not have much money growing up and they lived in a small house in the middle of town, amongst muggles, but it had previously belonged to Amelia's grandfather. Her grandmother, a widow, lived in the country and they saw her often growing up.

#### Hogwarts years

Amelia received her Hogwarts letter in the summer of 1977, during a time when tensions in the Wizarding World were high. She was given her older brother Ogden's old wand while he got to have a new one. The wand had previously belonged to their grandfather, Mr. Symons.

She was sorted into Hufflepuff House on 1 September, 1977. While at school, she was constantly gossiping and not much focused on her schoolwork, which made her a poor student. However, she soon redeemed herself by passing her first-year exams.

Amelia tried out for the Hufflepuff Quidditch Team in her fourth year of school because she found the captain attractive. To no one's surprise, she made Chaser, because the team was suffering a losing streak, and had a lack of skilled players. She did manage to keep her position until she graduated. That same year, she was present in Hogsmeade on Valentine's Day, 1981, when Death Eaters attacked students and villagers. The Order of the Phoenix quickly arrived, and thanks to their promptness, only one student died, a Ravenclaw prefect by the name of Nancy Whitlock.

### Later life

Amelia passed her O.W.L.s and N.E.W.T.s and earned an internship for Witch Weekly at age seventeen, wanting to write about celebrities. She eventually gained a permanent position and occasionally followed the likes of Celestina Warbeck and Blodwyn Bludd.

Her brother, Ogden, had married a witch called Lucinda in 1980 and they had one daughter together, Nellie, and continued to live in Wakefield. Amelia, however, moved to London to support her journalist career.

## Etymology

Amelia is an English-language variant of Amalia, derived from the Germanic word *amal,* meaning 'work', and connotes industriousness and fertility.

The surname Symons is a typically East Anglican surname, derived from the Hebrew personal name "Shim' on", which is probably connected with the verb "sham'a" "to hearken". Coming from this the personal name Simon is found in the New Testament and was to give rise to numerous variants in all the countries of Europe.