LIKES: Sweets and desserts, flying, music, dancing, genuine smiles and despite her objections she does find a guilty pleasure in reading trashy romance novels. DISLIKES: Snakes, fake smiles, too quiet and cold. QUIRKS: Patricia will usually hum or sing when working. It helps her focus and keeps her emotions otherwise occupied. She cannot function properly without coffee and – according to her brother – eats like a male Quidditch player.
APPEARANCE
HAIR: Blonde EYES: Brown HEIGHT: 5'2'' (157 cm) WEIGHT: appx. 100 lbs (45 kg) BUILD: Petite MARKS: The black silhouette of a swallow tattooed on the inside of her right forearm and a heartbeat on the left side of her ribcage. Ears pierced, a cluster of freckles on her left inner thigh.
At first glimpse, Patricia is the epitome of the petite blonde. At 5'2'' and 100 lbs, she is at second glimpse as well, probably at third and fourth too, but underneath that long blonde hair and behind those dark brown eyes, there's a girl that somewhat likes the attention it gives her, yet still demands that people take her seriously. The robes of the employees at the clinic is something she only wears at work. They are a uniform, just like her school robes were. Outside of work, she prefers Muggle clothes, jeans and boots or shoes with a bit of heel in particular, and preferably rather tight fitting. That isn't solely because she likes the way her bum looks in them, but because loose fitting clothes and flat soled shoes makes her appear even smaller than she actually is.
PERSONALITY
Patricia has a love of life that is nearly impossible to quell. Above all, that and the love for her daughter is what motivates her, and what keeps her grounded, so that her striving to be the best that she can be doesn't isolate her from the world around her and the life she has yet to explore fully. She enjoys the good things, and for all that she is she tries to find the good in any situation. Sometimes that is difficult, and like everybody else, even Patricia has bad days. Since she feels deeply, on days like that, she has a hard time finding the upside to anything, at least on her own. More often than not, simply a small nudge from somebody else, can be enough to change her mood back to the positive again.
Being the youngest of three, she is very much the little sister. She's used to be the 'littlest', both age- and height wise, and as such secretly enjoys being protected, despite a fiercely independent streak, which means that if the protection gets too much, she'll back away or object. Loudly... and at great length. As emotional as she can be, when dealing with physiotherapy, she is no-nonsense and would rather risk a hex than be deterred from healing if it is needed. She has a low tolerance for idiocy, and won't hesitate on calling a friend or ally on it.
Although Patricia is capable of thinking practically, she does have a bit of the average Gryffindor's black/white image of the world. There are good people, there are bad people, and she doesn't really know what to do with the people in between. That usually results in those grey-shade people being perceived as good, until they do something bad, at which point it will take a lot of work for them to end up on the good side again.
She has an almost compulsive need to help whomever and wherever she can.
IMPORTANT YEARS
1975. Born. 1986-1993. Hogwarts. 1993-1997. Cardiff University. 1994. Isla born. 1997-1999. Clinic in Cardiff. 1999-present. F&A. 2005. Isla at Hogwarts.
ABOUT
Patricia was born in Cardiff, to Muggle mother Eliza Howell – a private music teacher – and Halfblood wizard father Arkie Alderton – a well-known broomstick designer and the owner of Arkie Alderton's Kwik-Repair Shop. It was an odd pairing, what with Arkie in a profession so deeply rooted in the Wizarding World and Eliza unaware of any witches and wizards, save for those in the fairytales she grew up with, but they made it work. For a while.
A couple of years after Patricia was born, when she was 2 and her brothers 6, Eliza's suspicions about her husband – the vague answers, the receipts from London shops even though he supposedly had spent the day in Cardiff – had reached a point where she was ready to confront him. Fully convinced that he was either having an affair or involved in unsavoury businesses, she believed him to be lying to her when he came clean and told her about his life as a Wizard and blooming broom repair shop and so she packed up his things and sent him on the way with strict instructions – and possibly a couple of threats as well – of never to set foot near her or her children ever again.
Arkie did as he was told and returned to Diagon Alley where he buried himself in work. As it turned out, Eliza did a great job of raising three children on her own. Both Patricia and her brothers went to Muggle schools, had Muggle friends, and did everything regular Muggle children did. Except, there were a couple of incidents that couldn't fully be explained, but since Patricia told them that it was simply their imagination, the children believed her.
That was until late July 1983, roughly 6 months after the twins had turned 11, when first an owl carrying a letter showed up, and a little later: Arkie, himself. After hours of yelling arguing back and forth, it was settled: the twins, and later Patricia, would go to Hogwarts to learn how to handle their magic, while registered as being home schooled and expected to sit their GCSEs and A-levels when the time came. From there, they would be free to choose in which direction they would go.
Three years later, it was Patricia's turn to receive an owl and go to London with her father and brothers, and from there to Hogwarts. Here, she was sorted into Gryffindor.
Seven years later, Patricia left Hogwarts, with enough O.W.L.s and N.E.W.T.s to make her father proud – and her mother, too, though she wasn't certain exactly what it meant – and it was time for her to sit her A-levels, so she could pursue the schooling she had been planning for a while. Almost since her first year, she had been fascinated with the work Madam Pomfrey did in the Hospital wing, even though she had found it to be too… easy. At the time, she couldn't formulate her hesitations about Healing, but she simply couldn't see how the human body wouldn't grow weak if it wasn't allowed to do at least some of the healing on its own. With that in mind, Patricia pursued an education and subsequent career in physiotherapy.
Patricia was in her second year at Cardiff University when she met an adorable archeology student. Unfortunately their chemistry didn't match his adorability and after a couple of dates they agreed that that was all it was going to be. Seven weeks later, Patricia realized that it was going to be a bit more than that, when her doctor informed her of her pregnancy. She couldn't really see herself starting a family with the archeology student, and apparently neither could he. Patricia, however, knew that she couldn't end her pregnancy, and so it became that he wrote off all parental rights to the unborn child, while she signed off any claim on support from his side.
.
Shortly after the end of her second year, in June 1994, Patricia gave birth to a little girl; Isla Patricia Alderton. A year later, Patricia returned to school, completing her 3rd and final year of her undergraduate studies.
In the four years since she had left Hogwarts, Patricia had kept a sporadic contact to the Wizarding World. She used magic at home, because in certain areas it was highly practical. Isla wasn't very old when she began showing signs of magic, and Patricia had considered relocating to give her daughter the most support she could have in learning how to handle the onset of magic as well as give her a chance to know her uncle – Patricia's brother, Matthew – who had stayed after finishing Hogwarts. But there was a war brewing, and as Patricia was ready to make her move, the Ministry fell and she chose to stay hidden in the Muggle world. She found a position as junior therapist at a public health clinic in Cardiff where she specialized in orthopaedics and women's health. In the Wizarding World, the accusation of her brother's alleged theft of magic as well as the refusal to accept him as the son of Arkie Alderson, led to his initial imprisonment and later death in the 'care' of the Dementors in Azkaban, further supporting Patricia's decision to stay where she was.
Two years later her contract was up for renewal, and Patricia had to make a decision: stay at the clinic as a specialist or find employment elsewhere. Around that same time an position at F&A opened up, and Patricia could see how she could make a difference there, as well as allow her daughter to grow up in a place that would make magic much less of a novelty to her as it had been to herself.
In 1999 she applied for and was offered the position as physiotherapist at Fawley & Associates.