Athalia Derwent

Prepare prudently! Proper potions procedure prevents protracted pyrotechnics.

## Athalia Mia Dilys Derwent

### Title(s):

That One Purist Gryffindor, She Who Hath Claimed the Ugly Plaid Armchair on the Uncomfortably Hot Side of the Gryffindor Fireplace

## Relationships

### Family Members:

Enid Derwent (mother), Gunther Derwent (father; deceased) Reuben Derwent (brother)

## Magical

### Abilities:

Dutch braiding, French braiding, crown braiding; basically, if you put three strands of practically anything into her hands, she will automatically start to braid it

## Appearance

Athalia is a homely, fair-skinned girl with unkempt dirty blonde hair and a rather prominent nose. Watery blue eyes squint often and a thin,
curved mouth makes her appear a bit like she's sucking on a lemon when she's not making the effort to smile.

She has the unfortunate habit of cutting her fringe far too short, leaving it a sparse thing that barely covers her forehead. This started in third year when an errant lock of hair got in her sight in the midst of her brewing a particularly volatile potion. Needless to say . . .

She isn't particularly vain about her appearance. When not in a respectable secondhand uniform, she wears washed-out billowing pastel robes with slightly frayed hems and comfortable, worn boots. As the castle is often drafty and the weather unfortunately cold, she has an array of neutral-toned cloaks that are as threadbare as a witch's attire *can* be. If she has any muggle attire, it has yet to make an appearance.

## General Overview

Athalia has plenty of words, some of them *good* words and *strong* words and *true* words, but they don't usually emerge as such when she speaks them.

She comes across as vitriolic and shifty with her too-keen eyes and curled upper lip and constantly fidgeting hands, but one able to parse what she says from her oftentimes misleading body language might find that she's also terribly earnest and, above all, *observant.*

She's overzealous and restrained in equal measure, finding solace in *order* and *tradition* despite her chaotic mien. She has her routine and she likes to stick to it. She works hard to make up for the fact that she's not innately intelligent, and she resents those who slide by with only a modicum of effort.

## Background

She was born to Enid and Gunther Derwent in the outer alleys of wizarding London, her childhood measured by the blur of countless faces observed in bustling Diagon, the length of shadows cast in dim Knockturn, and all the knuts and sickles strewn on the ground in between. Her mother's close sheltering did little to bind her free spirit from constantly wandering, exploring, *finding*.

It was not all innocent, either, this *finding.* She is a perceptive scrap of a girl who has always lived by her own warped sense of code, and when she found something - or someone - that went against it... well, hell hath no fury like a girl who still has half her baby teeth, forcibly trimmed fingernails, and a *mean* kick. Violence spoke louder than words, so she didn't very much find it necessary to practice the latter very much. (This would come back to bite her later.)

It wasn't exactly *curiosity* that drove Athalia to learn and discover and reach high, but necessity. She's the daughter and sister of two men who have been in and out of Azkaban since she was old enough to say the word; such family ties have a way of making a girl puzzle out the way the world works before her time. It doesn't help that most of the charges laid upon her family were ones of muggle-baiting and assault, either. She's economical in bearing and stringent in action and *utterly oxymoronic* in that everything she does appears chaotic and imprecise.

She means well, mostly.

## Schooling

### First Year

When Athalia started at Hogwarts, she had on her mind a *mission*. This mission would go against everything she's tried before. Targeting *muggles* obviously wasn't helping, *kicking* wasn't helping, so why not instead target *muggleborns*? With *words*? And instead of hurting them, why not *teach* them? First year Athalia wanted to make a difference and have there be ~~fewer dissenters~~ less ignorance in the world. Then, she met Balthazar Maxim. Then, she met his snake Asmaan. Friendship persisted, somehow.

Athalia wasn't at school for even a term before she was withdrawn due to the untimely death of her muggle-baiting father. She will probably never tell anyone the cause of this death. It's really embarrassing, though, or at least vaguely traumatic judging by the forcibly blank look she dons when someone asks about him or her family.

### Second Year

Ah, home. Her mother was a lot more effective at keeping Athalia reigned in during this year, dangling her precious Ravenclaw nuggets of knowledge about like bribes because owl correspondence is complete trash and definitely not enough on its own to stay on par with the Hogwarts curriculum. Athalia still had that mission from first-year in mind, renewed again now that she wasn't being drawn into any pseudo-Dark societies and going by the name Morthena ("but it's a mix of Mordred and Athena, mum, it's *profound* and *enriching"*).

As her mother is most proficient in potions-making and experimentation, that's where Athalia's focus laid for the bulk of her twelfth year. She also learned how to read more quickly - her slow reading speed has always been an issue, and to this day she's still a hairsbreadth short of average on that count, but it's certainly a work in progress! Unfortunately, all that potions work left her spellcasting subpar, barring a shield spell honed for potential potions mishaps, so...

### Third Year

Things went well this year, for the most part. She still boasted very few friends and she was still abrasive as sandpaper, but did her best. Writing is easier for her than speaking, so at least *one* of her friendships, a penpal situation with former Ravenclaw Medraut Prince, stayed afloat through the tumult of Quizzing revision and knockback practice. She cultivated a bemused sort of acquaintance with Kairav Deane-Ward whilst simultaneously scorning any hint of camaraderie with Ivy Su due to an incident in charms where a failed spell caused her knees to meet the floor rather painfully. This incident was mostly the Glamis' fault, but Athalia is an unreliable narrator and doesn't really realize that.

In addition, Athalia received a Nimbus 2000 broom in mint condition in an unsigned parcel; rather than turn it in or question the giver, she took it for granted that someone might want to curry favor with her and went out to take it for a ride with Estelle Martin to accompany only to *drill into the manicured lawns of Hogwarts' grounds*. She found herself in a cave that *begged*to be explored, and so they did. The two Gryffindors found the rooms of what would later come to light as belonging to Natalie Caline, an upright Gryffindor mother of a resident Slytherin, her gifts a double-edged sort and her story, perhaps, the same...

She bested Ivy in Quizzing. She came on top in knockback jinx shooting too, but she didn't care about that as much. Also, *she loves runes.*

## Gallery

A disgruntled Athalia (Amir)An unamused Athalia (Pam)An unsettled Athalia (Meryl)A caustic Athalia (Valeria)Estelle and Athalia sitting in loud silence (Estelle)Athalia writing a firmly-worded letter to Medraut PrinceAn irked Athalia (Sunny)Athalia in first yearAthalia learning new things (Medraut)Athalia silencing the dissenters (Medraut)"Ree," Athalia says.Athalia getting ready to brew some dank potions!Older Athalia dressed to impress (Layla)Athalia bundled up all nice and warmThe High Priestess (Layla)Okay.