Eleanor Thackeray

As one of the Care of Magical Creatures professors, Eleanor Thackeray is committed to bringing joy to all students through the careful application of dangerous creatures.

## Appearance

Eleanor is a striking biracial woman of average height and the softness that a few years of quiet living can give. Bright hazel eyes framed with deep crows-feet pop against her smooth bronze skin, and the faintest of freckles reveal both her mixed heritage and her penchant for the outdoors. Her hair is a mass of shining black curls that flop into her face constantly -- or did, until she gave up on it and chopped the whole lot into a short curly pixie. Her hands are deeply calloused, lightly scarred, and almost constantly filthy.

In terms of fashion, Ellie favors comfort above all. Her usual uniform is a pair of leggings, a soft top, and at least one sweater, usually nibbled on or covered in some kind of creature hair or feathers. She’s excessively fond of her oversized witch hat, which grows more disreputable every year. She requires glasses for reading, and usually has somewhere between three and five pairs on her person or nearby, as they have a nasty habit of disappearing when she needs them most. She rarely wears shoes indoors (byproduct of an ongoing dispute with the house elves), and sports a most impressive collection of colorful knit socks. Her arms and shoulders are covered in gently-moving tattoos of moths, butterflies, and flowers.

## Personality

“Gregarious” might be the word that describes her best. Eleanor is always ready for a chat, and is pretty strongly opposed to formality of most kinds (it’s quite a miracle she survived even three years at Beauxbatons). Most people she knows (the adults, at least) she refers to by first name; those she doesn’t know usually receive nicknames. She has a magical ability to make herself at home wherever she is, usually with no regard for the sidelong stares she gets. After the things she’s done, it will take more than a haughty sniff to get her to feel self-conscious.

While her informal manner may irritate her peers, the one thing she can’t be faulted on is her dedication to her field of study. Years of experience have made her practically immune to any fear or distaste of creatures or creature-related tasks, although she holds the appropriate amount of respect for those which can remove limbs or otherwise injure students. She wants nothing more than for everyone she knows to feel the same wonder she does at the amazing creatures that inhabit her world.

## Background

Born to the jet-setting Frenchwoman Nicolette Baudet and her husband Alif Thackeray, young Eleanor spent most of her childhood traveling around most of Europe. Until the age of nine, when her magic began to develop, she had very little in the way of structured education. Her father, a naturalist, imbued her with his love of all creatures, and her mother tutored her on the more practical subjects she might need. Her parents agreed, however, that a young witch would benefit most from a more formal magical education, at which point the family relocated back to Nicolette’s country of origin and enrolled the girl at Beauxbatons. Unfortunately for all involved, Eleanor did not take well to the structure and routine of Beauxbatons. Those subjects that didn’t hold her interest were simply ignored, and her quick tongue and predisposition towards hijinks earned her more than one disappointed talking-to. They never did discover just how she was managing to sneak into the winged horse stables though. Luckily her mother’s wanderlust struck up again, and after transferring to Ilvermorny while her parents toured New England, Eleanor managed to complete her education.

For several years post-graduation, Eleanor participated in Ministry-sponsored expeditions to various forests and tundras around the world, making observations and collecting numbers about certain endangered magical creatures. She still regards those as some of the best days of her life, and her mother’s townhouse walls sport a patchwork of moving postcards from dozens of exotic locales. Eventually, however, she tired of the bureaucracy involved, and left public service to seek out a new career.
Well-set with funds (hazard pay had been very good for her in the field), she invested some amount into founding a creature rescue society in Scotland. With the help of a small team of volunteers, she worked on the rehabilitation of those creatures that came too close to Muggles and Wizards and suffered for it. Injured augereys, jarveys caught in football nets, and illegally-acquired exotic “pets” seized by the Ministry all found their way through her doors and into habitats where they could be safe while recovering. On the side, she also used its resources as a Home for Elderly Owls, where the birds past their prime could have a happy and comfortable home until the end of their days. When approached by Hogwarts about a position (the letter said Care of Magical Creatures, and she would only later realize it was more like Care of Magical Children), she gathered up those animals she was still personally attending to, handed the reins of the shelter over to her very-capable second-in-command, and grabbed her big ugly hat.