Professor Odette Hawkwaithe

## Academic and Personal Career

Odette’s life started with extreme difficulty. As a little girl she contracted an unknown sickness which gradually weakened her. Even the best and brightest healers at the time were unable to help. Her death became imminent, before her life really even began.

Her brother, desperate to save his sister’s life decided to do the unthinkable- use a horcrux. A true horcrux ritual requires the individual to wound their soul with murder, something neither Odette nor her brother would ever do. But since his intention was only to heal he thought a variation of the ritual would suffice. He was wrong.

Although the ritual cured his sister physically, her soul was tied to her wand. If Odette spent any time away from it she would begin feeling the effects of her childhood illness and start to die. Because of his ‘experimental treatment’ her brother was sentenced to Azkaban and Odette lived a life filled with social stigma and askew glances, fighting an uphill battle against those who saw her as a monster.

Yet Odette prevailed, and had a productive if not outstanding career practicing law for the ministry. She specialized in domination magic, sometimes called neuromancy- magic which effects the memory and control centers of the brain. She naturally kept her wand close by, telling very few people about its importance to her.

Due to the seemingly endless dangers faced by Hogwarts, the ministry assigned her to teach a mandatory class on magic safety and act as a ministry operative on the inside. Upon her arrival she was horrified at the unsafe conditions and immediately set about rectifying the situation making quite a few enemies of the professors along the way. Although her motives were truly for the student’s safety, her personality grated others dreadfully, openly questioning their actions and motives.

Unbeknownst to her or any of the Hogwarts Professors, a great evil was lurking in the Astal plane, waiting to return- a creature calling itself Wylena, the Nightmare. Wylena saw in Odette an opportunity: a professor who excelled in the Imperius Curse and whose soul was damaged because of her wand. Then an opening came, Professor Incubus, the former Keeper of Nightmares, was arrested and sent to Azkaban. His mere presence at Hogwarts had been disrupting Wylena’s influence, but with his removal, her power grew substantially.

From the astral plane, Wylena started producing far more terrifying nightmares, feeding off the chaotic energy they caused. She also sent ideas through those dreams, one of which was the idea for a student to steal Professor Odette Hawkwaithe’s wand, intending that act to weaken Odette and prepare her for possession. But something occurred Wylena did not intend. The student who took the wand was killed by an ancient vampire known as Malekif, and the wand was truly lost. Odette, without her wand, immediately began deteriorating physically, and started frantically searching for it, even confiding in a few professors for help. But their efforts were in vain.

As Odette’s physical condition grew worse the calamities at Hogwarts intensified, with disaster followed by disaster. Despite her ailment, Odette borrowed a wand and played a crucial role in the evacuation of students to the forgotten camp. However, she was grievously injured and taken by friends to St. Mungos. Once conscious, she refused further aid, knowing others would benefit far more from the attention. Without her wand, there was nothing anyone could do.

Her condition now being desperate, the suffering at Hogwarts intensified, and Odette greatly wanted to stop the misery she saw all around her, but felt powerless to do anything except grieve for the fallen. All the while, a voice whispered to her, telling her of the power that could be hers, the power to stop all the pain, if only she would give in. Long she resisted, trying to stave off both her physical and mental weakness, but eventually her vulnerability became too great, and the threats to her friends too overwhelming. She acquiesced to the voice, allowing it to consume her, and so the Nightmare entered the living world once more.

Wylena, having utterly destroyed Odette, posed as her for a while, consolidating her power and ‘gaining’ followers by using the forbidden Imperius curse. Knowing the soul contained in Odette’s wand could be used against her, Wylena had her minions search for the wand. The professors who opposed her, known as the Sleepless, frantically searched for it as well. Both sides quickly discovered that the student prankster had died, meaning the wand would have to be found by more unorthodox means.

Fortunately, the race to the wand was won by the Sleepless, who then barricaded themselves in the library to learn how to use their advantage. Wylena, no longer concerned  with secrecy, openly assaulted the library with the help of her followers, but the Sleepless, using the wand, returned Odette to her body, expelling Wylena.

Now being free from the Nightmare, Odette was taken to the infirmary to recover as the rest of the Sleepless fought and defeated Wylena, who had fled Odette only to enter another professor, Paul Wickham. Once recovered, Odette left Hogwarts, but not before thanking the Sleepless for their aid.

## Personal Life

Odette was born in America but was raised in England

She is a Type A personality

## Hawkwaithe Questions Everything

* Questions reckless behavior of students and staff suggesting wand restriction for students

* Questions Professor Sloth’s revelation of her race

* Questions Professor Watson’s battle magic class

* Questions Professor Petalthorn’s mental fitness

* Questions Auror Dodson’s leadership

* Questions Professor Raine’s focus on dueling

* Questions Professor Wickham’s condition