Meadowes (![[info]](https://www.insanejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} dorcas_) wrote,@ 2008-05-28 18:37:00 |
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FULL NAME Dorcas Olivia Meadowes NICKNAMES Often goes by her last name. Will not acknowledge any variations, abbreviations, or or-so-clever puns on her first name. AGE 26 BIRTHDAY 20 January 1953 ZODIAC SIGN Aquarius BLOODLINE Muggle father, Halfblood witch mother HEIGHT 5'10" WEIGHT She doesn't know, but "too low" works. GENERAL APPEARANCE Dark-haired and dark-eyed with lovely features, Dorcas is the sort of girl about whom older relatives cluck, "She could be so pretty, if she only tried." If she only brushed her hair, plucked her eyebrows, stood up straight, wore a skirt once in a while, put on a bit of makeup, smiled more... fill in the blank, she’s heard it all, and she makes it a point to do none of the above. She stands an imposing 5'10" (when not slouching) and is thin and lanky, with a small chest and narrow hips. She doesn't make much of an effort to de-emphasize her boyish figure, sticking almost exclusively to roomy trousers and either ratty tanks or oversized cardigans. This is a girl who prefers a utility belt to a purse. HEALTH Mostly fine. Underweight, vitamin-deficient, frequently hungover, and often sleep-deprived, but she's young and she gets by. She often looks rather peaked, with dark circles under her eyes. HOUSE Hufflepuff YEAR 1971. BEST SUBJECTS Charms, Transfiguration, Arithmancy WORST SUBJECTS Herbology, History ACADEMICS Dorcas's marks were hit-or-miss throughout most of Hogwarts, but when she decided she wanted to qualify for Unspeakable training, she suddenly started doing much better in all her classes. She'd always done best in classes that required hands-on magic, and especially those that had to do with magical theory or had room for experimentation. Her marks were abysmal in History, probably due to the fact that she skived off class almost as often as she went. She was a quick learner and usually kept quiet in classes, drawing in the margins of her notes or reading a comic slipped into the pages of a textbook if the lecture was particularly boring. EXTRACURRICULARS Dorcas isn't a joiner. FRIENDS few and far between. Among the privileged few: Caradoc Dearborn. ACQUAINTANCES Former classmates and housemates, former coworkers from her variety of odd jobs, Prophet employees ENEMIES To be determined. SEXUALITY Straight. SIGNIFICANT OTHER Never. PAST RELATIONSHIPS Dorcas doesn't really do relationships. BELIEFS ON PURITY It's bunk. WAND 11.5”, willow, inflexible, with a phoenix feather core PET A cat called Dusty, who came with the flat PATRONUS A raven BOGGART to be determined LIKES her darkroom, her paycheck, coffee ice cream, being her own boss, sarcasm, the demon liquor, Caradoc DISLIKES most people TALENTS Photography WEAKNESSES GOALS Not starving, not dying violently, not going out of business. Other than that, Dorcas doesn't think too far ahead. PERSONALITY Key words for Dorcas are: sarcastic, independent, defensive, and bright. She often seems to have her guard up against the world; it's important to her that people see her as strong, even when she's not-- but she usually is. Even when angered she tends toward composed and sarcastic rather than Gryffindorian fury-- she burns cold, not hot. She is too independent for her own good, but she is usually eager to help out others (those she likes, at least), partly because she loves any project or challenge. She's an odd mix of responsible and irresponsible, mature and childish, thanks to her abbreviated childhood. She's terrible at taking care of herself, but likes to take care of others, in her own prickly way. She's a bit self-destructive when it comes to her vices (drinking, smoking, sleeping around) but is usually pretty responsible when it comes to the important things, like her work, her friends, and in the future, the Order. Dorcas is innovative, hard-working (when she wants to be), and usually even-tempered. It takes a lot to get a real rise out of her, but she'll be quietly scorning you behind her sarcastic aloofness. She is very opinionated, and a bit odd, and isn't looking to make friends, so if she rubs you the wrong way, so be it. She is often more interested in objects than people, and can be very closed-off with people she doesn’t know. She'll talk to them, sure-- for the most part, she's over her youthful shyness-- but keeps them at arm's length with humour, indifference, sarcasm, or outright bitchiness. With her very close (very few) friends, however, she is extremely affectionate and loyal and feels that she can truly be herself. Her sense of humour is very subtle and sarcastic, and she gets a real thrill when people get their just deserts. MOTHER The late Leonore Meadowes, of wizarding blood but not a pureblood. Art teacher and stay-at-home mother. FATHER Gerald Meadowes, Muggle. Assistant manager of a small hardware store and would-be inventor. SIBLINGS Harrison, 21, and Deacon, 19. HOME Small and dingy flat over her studio in the shabby end of Diagon Alley. HISTORY Dorcas was the first child born to Gerald and Leonore Meadowes, a Muggle and a witch from an undistinguished bloodline. They lived a mostly Muggle lifestyle, Gerald working as a would-be inventor who divided his time between experimenting in the basement and working at a hardware store to help pay the bills, and Leonore tutoring the children at home and teaching art lessons to Muggle and Wizarding children alike. Money was a bit tight with three children-- Dorcas was eventually followed by Harrison, when she was 4, and Deacon, two years later-- but the Meadowes were a happy family who didn't need much to get by. Dorcas adored both her parents, and was equally happy taking apart gadgets in her father's workshop or fingerpainting on her mother's... couch. She was a rather intense child, with an unnerving knack for honesty and a total disinterest in anything cute or girly, and she didn't make friends easily. When Dorcas was nine, her parents were in a car crash. Her father, who had been driving, would be fine except for the slight limp and feeling of guilt he would have the rest of his life, but her mother was killed instantly. Her father didn't cope well, and even at her young age, Dorcas found herself shouldering a lot more responsibility around the house, especially when it came to her younger brothers. Dorcas spent two miserable years as an outcast in the Muggle schools before receiving her Hogwarts letter and setting off with very mixed feelings. She was ambivalent about leaving her responsibilities at home, very keen to finally learn some real magic, and more anxious than she'd ever admit about making friends. Her anxiety made her shy and defensive, and she barely spoke a word for her first two weeks at Hogwarts, and none of them particularly kind. But although she might have been a good fit in Ravenclaw, the Sorting Hat seemed to be looking out for her, placing her with the tolerant and welcoming Hufflepuffs. She certainly had a reputation for being a bit strange--exploring Hogwarts for hours at a time (chatting more with the portraits than with her fellow students) or preferring to take apart some greasy gadget silently by herself while her dormmates painted their nails and talking about boys-- but those who took the trouble (or dared) to get to know her better often found it worth the effort. At least, if they had a high sarcasm tolerance. Her work at Hogwarts was uneven but overall fine; she was mediocre in classes she considered boring, like History of Magic or Care of Magical Creatures, but anything that involved manipulation of actual magic or experimentation she excelled at. Though certainly not a model student, she cleaned up her act significantly in fifth year, realising she needed good OWLs to qualify for the NEWT-level classes she would need to qualify for her dream job-- being an Unspeakable at the Ministry of Magic. She qualified for the Unspeakable training program straight out of Hogwarts, but soon discovered she was ill-suited for the job. Or any job, really, requiring buttoned-down robes and reporting at 8 AM. After having grown up so fast, she needed to go through rebellious youth she never really had, so after one of those "You can't fire me, because I quit!" sort of exchanges with her boss, she found herself unemployed. She kicked around some odd jobs for a few years, both magical and Muggle, before turning her photography hobby into a career. Maybe not the most profitable one, but something less soul-sucking than working for the Ministry. Although she does the bulk of her work for the Prophet and could easily be a staff photographer, she prefers to work freelance, being hired on a per-assignment basis or selling shots she takes independently. She also shoots weddings and other events, and has recently saved up enough to open a tiny, rather shabby studio in Diagon Alley, but she much prefers to chase a hot lead for the Prophet than try to prod a toddler into smiling for a portrait. She refuses to call herself an artist, but the truth is she's good at what she does, and does bring an artist's sensibility even to her "hack" work. Dorcas first learned of the Order of the Phoenix when her friend Caradoc Dearborn confessed his involvement. Her first reaction was just to worry more about him, but over the next two months she started to realize that she could no longer in good conscience keep her head down while friends and neighbors died just for having blood fractionally muddier than her own. If the organization had been lead by anyone but Dumbledore, she probably never would have come around, but in the end her nagging conscience and her faith in Dumbledore overcame her reluctance to be a member of anything. The character of Dorcas Meadowes does not belong to me; she belong to JK Rowling, but I don't think she minds if I borrow her a while. Layout made by premade_ljs, user icons credited to creator. Actress Nora Tschirner is property of herself (so far as I know). |