Vivian Araya

Personal Information

### Abilities:

Being able to instantly tell whether a woman is fat or pregnant, with 60% accuracy.

### Amortentia:

Wood smoke, coffee, and the extremely faint scent of cigarettes.

*"You weren't raised in this world, Connie. My last name has a meaning, unlike yours."*
-Juliet Twist

## Appearance

Connie has always been observed as a lanky, yet scrawny girl. Standing at 5'2 and weighing a measly 97 pounds, she often gives off the impression that she is fragile. This could not be further from the truth, as many have seen first-hand that she can handle herself in a fight with ease. With a mess of curly brunette hair and sharp gray-blue eyes, her appearance often unnerves people, especially when it's paired with her signature oversized black hoodie, giving her a dark and brooding vibe. Due to her reckless and impulsive ways, Connie can often be seen with bandages along her face or arms, as well as various bruises, cuts, scrapes, and even the occasional broken bone. At one point, she was reasonably tan, but has steadily paled over the years leading up to her time at hogwarts. The smattering of freckles along her cheeks and arms still remain from her days of sunlit escapades, though.

## Personality

Connie is... Well... She's an odd one. She's not the kind of girl you could just sum up in one sentence. Simply put, no one really knows *what*she is. An extremely guarded girl, she doesn't show her true colors to even the closest of friends, constantly keeping her walls up, and ready to abandon someone at a moment's notice. She's violent and often paranoid, at times being convinced that people are talking about her or staring at her when they aren't. Beneath this cold exterior though is a quite different person. Extremely skittish and afraid of physical contact, Connie has quite a lot of underlying fear due to years of mental and physical abuse from different foster homes. After being thrust from her cozy life with her parents, she quickly learned that she had to protect herself to have a chance at surviving. This revelation led to the person she is today.

## Background

**Early Life**

 Connie has not always been Connie. At least, not in a literal sense. Mentally, though? She had always known who she was, and she was deadset on proving it.
Born as Varian Connor Araya, Connor was raised on a farm located in Boulder, Texas, with his parents, a witch named Belladonna and a muggle named Ethan. He led a relatively easy childhood, having a good relationship with both of his parents, learning about farming and hunting from his father, and magic and Spanish from his mother. On October 7th, Connor's mother walked out on the family, but not before casting the Obliviate spell on Connor and giving him her hoodie; the first thing she had ever bought in the Muggle world. However, Belladonna was not skilled with the spell, and as a result Connor has scattered memories of things he had learned from his mom, and his absense of knowledge about her gives him a constant sense of deja vu. Heartbroken, Ethan took to drinking, slowly withdrawing from his child and opting to lie on the couch 24/7 and drink away his pain. Connor did what he could to take care of the house, doing chores and making his father supper. You see, he believed that he was the cause of his father's suffering, due to him often taking out his pain on him in the form of insults and slurs. So, Connor did what he could to be a good child. Cooked, cleaned, anything to make him happy. He would often ramble to him about how his mother was magic and he would be magic too, and Connor, figuring his father was drunkenly spouting nonsense again, just smiled and nodded along painfully.

**Christmas Eve**

 Nearly three months after Belladonna's absense, Ethan finally snapped. On Christmas Eve, Ethan quietly tucked Connor in on the couch to watch some Christmas movies, handing him his favorite stuffed animal, Muneñca, before retreating to his room and calling the police. A few minutes later, a gunshot was heard coming from Ethan's bedroom.
Authorities quickly arrived after that, promptly scooping up a terrified and screaming Connor and bringing him to the police station, where he was taken care of until they could find a suitable home for him. Due to him not having any known relatives apart from his parents, he was placed into foster care.

**The Cody Family**

Connor was eventually placed in the care of Jackson and Eve Cody, a couple who was more interested in coddling their other children and using their government-provided money to spoil them, rather than caring for Connor and looking out for his needs. Neglected and traumatized, Connor became extremely withdrawn, and the result was him being bullied at school, despite him being an extremely gifted student on the honor roll. During this time, he had slowly begun to grow his hair out, feeling a bit more confident in himself when he did so. This resulted in him being called a girl at school often, though he never really minded. What he did mind, however, was the constant physical violence he would receive from his peers. He had never been one to fight back, but as time went on, his empathy thinned. Eventually, one day, he snapped, grabbing one of his bullies and promptly slamming them repeatedly into a locker. Teachers intervened to force them apart, and Connor was expelled for his outburst. He was then removed from the Cody family and placed back into the system, but not before learning that he could only keep himself from getting hurt if he fought back.

**The Volk Family**

Bronwen and Amelia Volk were a couple settled down happily in a little cul de sac, and after some discussion with the two by Connor's social worker, Connor was placed into their care. These two women were the first foster parents that had ever treated Connor kindly, and it left him wary and slightly confused. The two were nothing but nice, however, and often gave him attention and guidance when he needed. After a little while of living with them, Connor came to the conclusion that he didn't feel right as a boy. When he came out as transgender to Amelia and Bronwen, they supported him whole-heartedly, and from that day on, she went by Connie.

Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end. Naturally, Texas isn't the most accepting state ever, so the news of a lesbian couple wanting to adopt a child sparked an outrage in the cul de sac. The result was protests on their front lawn, and fearing for Connie's safety, Amelia and Bronwen were forced to give her back to the system, wishing her the best of luck for the future.

**Misc Foster Homes**

After being seperated from the Volks, Connie became more withdrawn than ever. She was constantly moved from household to household, due to complaints from her guardians about her being too distant or hostile, which were met with biting remarks and lashing out on her part. She had fully embraced her violent nature, preferring to have people be afraid of her rather than hurt and belittle her. This continued for a little while, up until a few months before her eleventh birthday, where she was eventually placed into the care of the Merritts.

**The Merritt Family**

Connie had figured that the Merritt family would be the same old same old. She had been wrong, however, when she experienced first-hand the hidden violence of her foster father behind closed doors. Franklin Merritt, her guardian, had a history of abuse not known to his social workers, or the law for the matter. Out of sight of everyone else, however, he was verbally and physically abusive, often injuring both his wife and Connie. Connie was willing to go through the pain and accept it, but then she met Ben Green.

Connie was busy eating at a restaurant downtown after she had been chased out of the house. Having no money, she was planning to bolt as soon as she finished eating, but Ben noticed her and paid for her meal. After having a conversation with him, Connie slowly opened up to the older boy, revealing a little bit about her home life. The two parted ways, and didn't meet again until after Connie got her Hogwarts letter, to which Ben showed her around Diagon Alley.

Shortly afterwards, an incident occured where Connie became fed up with Franklin's abusive nature. She angrily tried to run out of the house, but was stopped and promptly shoved down the stairs by the angered man. She woke up in the hospital with several injuries, including a broken arm, one which she had yet to recover from by the time she was due to go to the Hogwarts Summer camp.

**Summer Camp**

Upon her arrival to Summer Camp, Connie was not in good shape. Still shaken up by her hospital incident, she was more tense and hostile than she usually was, both in physical and emotional pain. Within a week of being at the camp, she had gotten into two fist fights, one with Juliet Twist, and the other with Kat Lynx. She maintained her hatred for Juliet. Kat on the other hand ended up befriending her, and Connie cautiously accepted her kindness, though she was of course still wary. After a little bit, she joined Kat and Phoebe Von Dalebor's friend group, along with befriending Devin Fawley, who she insisted stand up to his parents and fend for himself. During this time, Ben had bought her a therapy dog for her mental issues caused by her home life; A Saint Bernard named Sumo, after a dog from a game that she used to play. Shortly after, she discovered that Ben would in fact be her mentor, and whether she wanted to admit it or not, she had grown attached to the Ravenclaw.

**First Year**

Connie's first year is currently going... Well, about as well as you would expect. She hasn't gotten into any fights yet, but it's only a matter of time before it does. When she's not curled up in her bed or challenging Kat to some sort of competition, she's in the duelling room, training her magic tirelessly, almost obsessed with becoming stronger. It's getting to take a toll on her physical and mental health.

While eating breakfast one morning, Connie received a letter that notified her that Franklin had been arrested for aggravated assault. While this meant that she no longer had to live with them, it also brought up the concern that she now had to find a new foster home all over again. She's shoved that worry to the back of her mind though, saving it for the end of the year to figure something out.