Mandy Brocklehurst (_manders) wrote, @ 2010-01-19 12:01:00 |
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Mandy Brocklehurst These four walls could never hold me. |
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Name: Amanda Tamsin Brocklehurst Age: 17 Birthdate: 14 March 1980 House and Years in School: Ravenclaw, 1991-1998 Blood Status: Halfblood Affiliation: Whoever is against He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named PB: Hana Pestle Suggested Journal Name: _manders Appearance: Mandy is of a little above average height, coming in at around 5'6'', and has a somewhat curvier build than her classmates-- this is to say that she has been blessed in the bust and hips area. She's never been upset about this. Not playing any sports, her physique is not particularly athletic, but soft and rounded in what she considers to be the right places. She claims that her height makes her look slimmer than she actually is. Her hair is a very dark brownish red that Mandy hates to call auburn, because it isn't nearly red enough to do so, but it's simply too red to just call plain dark brown. Her favorite feature about herself is her somewhat almond-shaped eyes, which are a pale hazel color. As for style of dress, Mandy tends to go for comfort over the extremely stylish, preferring denims, cute tops and tee-shirts that she can still move in, cardigans and comfortable shoes (usually ballet flats or something similar) when she doesn't have to wear her uniform. She also occasionally has to wear glasses for reading, which she always keeps with her, and they're usually rather fun-looking. Mandy despises boring glasses. |
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History One breath, one step is keeping me here. |
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Amanda Tamsin Brocklehurst was born to Timothy and Jane Brocklehurst (nee Davies) of Accrington, in Lancashire, on 14 March, 1980. Mandy was a quiet baby, not at all like her older brother Robert. Robert was five when Mandy was born, and not at all fond of his pink, squishy little sister, and that didn't change until Mandy was three and nearly fell off the back patio and naturally Robert had to save her, because he was playing Knight In Shining Armor and they didn't just let damsels in distress fall off of patios. From then on she was the devoted squire to his knight, made much more exciting on the occasions when one of them did accidental magic. While Jane Davies had been raised a Pureblood witch, Timothy Brocklehurst had been raised a Muggle. Thankfully Jane's close-knit family was not prejudiced about this, and so there was no family tension, allowing their children the best of both worlds. Mandy grew up with her cousin Roger, who was a year older than she, and both of them spent their time following around Robert, who they both agreed was pretty much the coolest person in the world. Timothy's family, however, was not so understanding. When he tried to tell them that he had married a witch and that he was not, in fact, mental for believing this, his family cut all ties with them-- they had always been a very no-nonsense sort, and this was simply more than they could take. As such, Mandy has never met her paternal grandparents or anyone on that side of her family. She hasn't really felt the loss, though, and neither has Robert-- their parents haven't allowed them to feel as though anything is missing. When she was eleven, starting Hogwarts seemed like the most amazing thing in the world. In reality, she was rather frightened once she got on the train. She had been surrounded by loving family all her life, but here Robert was off with his sixth-year-Hufflepuff friends and Roger was off with his cool second-year-Ravenclaw friends and Mandy had nowhere to go. Thankfully, she found a compartment with a nice smiling blonde girl name Morag, whom she quickly made friends with, and Mandy was thrilled when they were Sorted into the same house. She also made friends with her roommate Sylvie (and later other housemates and classmates-- Mandy is a girl with many friends), although the other girl was already so...developed that Mandy was both intimidated and a little jealous. Not that she was too far behind, she would find out the summer before her second year. The whole Chamber of Secrets ordeal really frightened Mandy, because they didn't really know that Halfbloods weren't in danger, and then the next year it was that whole Sirius Black fiasco, and then Cedric dying (something that really bothered her considering she had developed quite a crush on the older boy the year before)...Mandy has wondered on occasion if the school is cursed. Somewhere in here she managed to pick up extra subjects and keep her grades tops, mostly through hard work. She really enjoys her classes and wants to be the best at everything if only because of how much she loves to learn new things. She doesn't get too competitive about it, though, because she wants everyone else to love to learn as well. She came out of all of these events mostly unscathed, but the next year was a real trial. The arrival of Dolores Umbridge at Hogwarts bothered Mandy immensely. She didn't like the woman from the very beginning, and she really didn't like the fact that she didn't get to actually learn anything in DADA. Mandy was one of the students who believed Harry that Voldemort was back, and so the fact that she wasn't allowed to learn to defend herself struck Mandy as very insensible and potentially quite dangerous. Of course, she spoke out about this and earned herself a couple of detentions (in which she witnessed Umbridge's methods more closely and disapproved of these even more) but this didn't bother her overly much. She still studied and made top marks, and learned practical DADA on her own time with books she asked her mother to send her from home. She was thrilled at the Weasley twins' prank at the end of the year, and even more thrilled to learn that Umbridge would not be returning. Her sixth year felt oddly normal after all of the chaos of the previous years. She had her first official boyfriend (Mandy had gone on dates before, to Hogsmeade and the Yule Ball, and she'd been snogged, thanks, she just hadn't dated someone steadily) and loved her NEWT classes, and then the unthinkable happened. Professor Dumbledore died. Was killed, actually. At school. By Professor Snape, a professor that Mandy had never liked, but had also never thought capable of murder. She was completely floored and went home in tears-- after the funeral, during which she sat with her friends and made Roger sit right behind her. The summer was strange. Timothy didn't want Mandy to return to school, Jane was quite skeptical herself, and Robert (who was no longer living at home, instead living in his own flat in Whimsic Alley and working for the Ministry in a low-level position in the Department of International Magical Cooperation) was just on his sister's side, no matter what it was-- as long as she was safe. Mandy wanted to go back to school and be with her friends, although she was a little afraid when she heard the news that Snape was going to be headmaster. However, she would not allow herself to be cowed-- she was determined to finish her education, and decided that sticking with her friends and her school was the only way to go. She's still feeling a bit trepidatious about this decision but knows it was one that she needed to make. |
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Personality I'm just before the open door, and I'm so much more |
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Mandy is a very pragmatic girl. Possibly, this is why she was Sorted into Ravenclaw (apart, obviously, from her love of learning). Put her in a tense situation or a crisis and she will likely be the most levelheaded person in the room, because her mother taught her that the best way to diffuse a problem or tense situation was to use logic to solve it. It's hard to get her to lose her cool in a crisis situation, because she is instead processing what she needs to do next to fix things. This isn't to say that she never gets flustered-- there are things that get her dander up and make her upset, and Mandy has her fears just like everyone else. She's desperately afraid of being alone, relationship-wise. Her family was and is incredibly supportive, and she doesn't want to give that up when she 'grows up' and moves out of her parents' home. She wants that sort of thing for the rest of her life, in as many aspects of her life as she can. Mandy is a people person and loves surrounding herself with close friends and people who entertain her. She isn't interdependent, per se, and even craves being alone at certain times, but most of the time she's happier when she's around people she cares for. Because of this, she forms strong bonds with the people she is close to and is almost unwaveringly loyal to them. Her ability to work through things logically lends itself well to academics, so Mandy does rather well in school, especially in problem-solving subjects such as Arithmancy or Ancient Runes. More than doing well, though, Mandy enjoys learning. She was born with a thirst for knowledge that she tries to quench by reading everything that she can get her hands on that interests her-- novels, nonfiction books about subjects that she has a passion for. And those subjects are as diverse as they are numerous. She hates injustice in any form, and usually tries to stand up against it, but lately has become a little wary of doing so. So much has changed that she doesn't think her usual talking-back will be accepted when it comes to the problems the wizarding world is facing right now. Still, she has her opinions, and will make them heard to people that she trusts. |
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Etc. than these two hands. |
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What are the character's views on the war? Mandy is not overly fond of the fact that there is a war, and she especially doesn't like the fact that it has the potential to affect her and her friends. She doesn't believe in hierarchies based on blood status and certainly doesn't understand why people would kill over it. Because of this, she's dedicated to doing whatever she can to help the anti-Voldemort movement. She's not really certain how to go about this, but she's determined to figure it out. Obviously, there isn't much she's going to be able to do from school, but she's only got a year left. She can only hope that by then her help won't be needed. If the character is not returning due to the arch, how are they going to be affected by the fact that people are? Something that is really going to affect Mandy is the return of Cedric Diggory. She was one of the many girls in school who crushed on him madly, although that died off (for her, at least) when he began dating her housemate Cho, who she was friends with. There aren't too many others that would be coming back that would affect her directly, though. Still, she's going to be freaked out, because if there was one thing that she was always taught about magic it was that it couldn't bring back the dead. She probably won't believe it when she first begins to hear of it. |
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Credits & Disclaimer |
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Lyrics: Hana Pestle, "These Two Hands" |
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