InsaneJournal

NAME: Amelia Susan Bones. Call her Amy, Mel, Lia, Bones, she doesn’t care. She likes Lia the most, but isn’t going to hit you with a brick if you use something else. Bigger fish to fry and all that.
AGE/BIRTHDAY: 27; born September 2nd, 1953.
BLOOD STATUS: Pureblood.
FORMER HOUSE: Slytherin 1972.
OCCUPATION: Curse Breaker. Half the reason she did not go straight from Hogwarts to the Ministry was that, a) Curse Breaking seemed so much cooler, and b) her oldest brother was already a Ministry man, and Edgar? Not exactly the epitome of exciting. (Sorry, bro.) She’ll always be a Curse Breaker first and foremost, but all this vigilante/terorrist business is getting old and she’d like to get on with her job, thank you. When the Ministry approached her to see if she wanted to do some of her cursing and breaking and whatever for them instead she accepted, hoping to at least keep the idiots from raiding pyramids (that’s her job) and hanging out in tombs (also her specialty). Amelia knows where you live, people. And she’s not happy.

FAMILY: (Thanks Cindy for doing all the work for me!)
Father: Cecil Eugene Bones, former Mugwump in the International Confederation of Wizards. Big deal in the Ministry. Stern and rather strict, but fair.
Mother: Marion Edith Bones, née Clagg. Involved in a magical version of the Make-a-Wish Foundation. Homebody and do-gooder. Taught the kids about family values, social justice and other fun things.
Younger brother: Nathan Bones, 18 months younger. 26 years old.
Older brother: Edgar Bones, almost 3 years older. 29 years old.
Sister-in-law: Sarah Bones, Edgar’s wife. A Healer employed by the Ministry.
Nephew: Philip Bones, 7 years old. Edgar and Sarah’s oldest.
Nieces: Olivia Bones, 5 years old. Edgar and Sarah’s youngest. Possibly also Susan Bones (Nathan’s daughter), although TBD exactly when/where/how/with whom.

SEXUALITY: More lesbian than not. Sexuality is fluid and all that, but I’d guess she hovers somewhere around 4.5 on the Kinsey scale. Either way she calls herself a lesbian (good luck explaining fluidity to 90% of the population), and isn’t quiet about it. She refuses to be ashamed and is of the opinion that if people spent less time worrying about who knew what and the exact consequences thereof we’d get so much done. Hop to it. We haven’t got all day.

SIGNIFICANT OTHER: Hahahahahaha. Seriously? Life’s too short to stick with one partner.

CHILDREN: Her job. That counts, right?

LOYALTY/ALLIANCE: The Ministry. Her family has always been liberal and her brother is a member of the Order of the Phoenix, but nothing’s more important to Amelia than her job. So yeah. If ‘herself’ isn’t an option it’s definitely the Ministry. If they could just keep the dirty terrorists (and yes, she’s talking about both sides) contained life would be much more calm for all involved. I see her being more and more drawn towards the Ministry as time goes on; according to canon she does go on to be Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement after all.

ROLE IN THE WAR: Amelia never anticipated being a part of the war. She was happy to do her thing and leave the fighting and dueling to people who gave a fuck, but somehow she got dragged into it and while she’s more into doing things for her own self interest than to rid the world of vigilantes, Death Eaters and other nutters, she’s definitely part of it now. Alarmingly she’s finding herself becoming more loyal to the Ministry by the day, which wasn’t in her plans. And her planning notebook is her bible, so WTF?

With that said, she does have a few skills that the Ministry can use, most honed because of her goal of becoming The Best Fucking Curse Breaker Ever. She has a few years until she’ll reach that particular milestone, but she knows a bit of this and a bit of that, most of which should come in handy one time or another.

This is pretty much the extent of it:

• She knows her way around tombs and weird monuments and old rocks and piles of sand and [insert useful location/evil object/whatever here], which is definitely a plus. This also means that she’s not above sleeping on the ground or doing whatever is necessary to survive, something that is often a suprise to people who don’t really know her.

• As the above point hints at, she’s not afraid of getting her hands dirty. No, wait. That’s not right. She likes getting her hands dirty. That’s the best way to get shit done, and she does so happily and with enthusiasm.

• She has travelled quite a bit for work and can make herself at least vaguely understood on a number of continents. She wouldn’t call herself fluent exactly, in that she prefers to hit the ground running rather than pouring over textbooks for weeks on end, but she knows enough. When it comes down to it she’s more interested in learning about the culture of the places she travels than how to correctly pronunce every word. She’s found that people are generally less forgiving about a cultural faux pas than the mangling a verb. Or seven.

• She is good at finding stuff out, at poking things until they either bite back or submit to her curse breaking ways, and she’s quite an accomplished liar. It’s amazing what people will tell you when you can convincingly introduce yourself as anything from an Auror to the foreigner only meaning to find the local tourist traps and ending up terribly out of place. By accident. Oh yes. (And yes, she does frequently stick her nose where it does not belong. An awful trait really. Absolutely horrible. And not at all on purpose.)

• Finally, she can definitely be ruthless. There’s not a friend or family member she wouldn’t kick to the ground and walk all over just to get what she wants. It’s called ambition, people. Look it up.

POLITICAL VIEWS: Amelia is on her own side. She knows what she wants and usually makes it happen. She doesn’t have much time for politics or diplomacy and all that crap, and is happy to leave it to those with a lot of patience and fancy words to throw around. Sure, if she had to pick a side she’d kick Death Eaters in the face and cuddle muggles all day long (except she’s allergic to hugs; don’t touch her!), but most of the time she sticks with the general principles her parents taught her way back when and leave the rest to someone who cares. And anyway, if you want a well formulated response with some actual thought behind it, ask Edgar. He’s good at that stuff.

Basically, as long as you’re not bothering her or standing in the way for what she deems necessary Amelia will leave you to it, no matter if you’re a muggle or a wizard. She’s never had a problem with the former; they just amble around, too dumb to see what’s right in front of them. How’s that even a threat? No. Leave them to it. It’s not like they’re going to start killing what they don’t believe exists. (And don’t start going on about witch trials and bonfires and all that to prove her wrong in this case. It happened three hundred years ago, people! If you want to convince her, drag up something more recent.)

Some would say that these views are the perfect recipe for being a blood traitor, but it’s not like the Boneses were ever all that bothered with blood and the purity thereof to begin with. And by the way? You can’t betray blood. You can betray people. Family. Friends. Yourself. Blood? Don’t be ridiculous.

There’s one thing Amelia really doesn’t care for, and that’s creatures. Sure, werewolves can be perfectly nice nine times out of ten, but she’s met enough beasts, beings and creatures through her job, and she’s unimpressed for the most part. Once you’ve been attacked by vampire halfway through setting up camp in the Himalayas, or kicked in the head by a swarm of veelas while trying to disable an elaborate blood-bound curse in a tomb flooded with smelly water, you don’t have much time for non-humans. Really.

APPEARANCE: Amelia is taller than average, which translates to roughly 5’10 if you want to be specific. She has pale skin and dark hair and eyes, but the first thing you notice about her isn’t likely to be her eyes, her complexion or even her height. Mostly like you’ll notice her eyebrows. They are one of few things she’s seriously vain about, and she spends so much time shaping and maintaining them that they get to second base more often than any person in her life. And she’s not exactly a nun.

She does know how to dress up and play a good game at being posh, but if there’s a choice she’d rather not. This has more to do with some sort of pathological need to horrify family (you never get too old for that) than actually hating shiny dresses, but over all she’s the most comfortable while on the job, dressed in jeans and heavy boots, with her hair tied back and her wand on the ready.

At the same time she’s perfectly aware of the weight of first impressions, and isn’t above using her appearance to twist people’s opinions of her. She’s the girl who can show up in barely presentable jeans-and-trainers one day and greet you wearing a short skirt and three inch heels the next. It all depends on her mood and what exactly she wants out of you, it’s as simple as that.

Some would call this chameleon act calculating. Amelia calls it being practical. Honestly, who’s going to be impressed by her accomplishments at work if she looks like she just fell out of bed? And who’s going to spill a few words too many over half a dozen beer if she sits around looking like a stuck up bitch?

Work it, man. That’s how you get shit done.

WAND: 12 inches, blackthorn with dragonheart string. Bendy.

BOGGART: Failure. It’s not in the shape of somebody telling her she’s useless, because there’s not a person in this world who expects more of her than she does. No, it’s herself, twenty years from now, working as a waitress or at a grocery store, ill-fitting uniform and all. In her opinion it doesn’t get much sadder than that.

PATRONUS: Hedgehog. These animals know how to protect themselves, how to serve up a helping of quills and then wander off once the threat is on the ground, busy trying to dig said quills out of their nose. Like her patronus Amelia usually lands on her feet, she’s cold in situations of danger (what’s colder than rolling yourself into a ball and trust that the attacker won’t be able to hurt you?) and often resorts to the simple but painful solutions.

And if you point out that the symbolism for the hedgehog also includes fertility, well, then you’ll get to see this for yourself.

The thought that helps her conjure this has changed over the years. When she was younger it was the belief she had in herself; the idea that she would accomplish things and become somebody people admired. This isn’t a happy memory per se, but for someone like Amelia it makes perfect sense. These days she thinks about the first time she successfully broke a curse without help. It was in a cave in Vietnam, her first job without supervision by some tosser who thought he knew better than her because she was young, female and pretty.

(Possibly he’s on desk duty these days. There might’ve been a fib or two about sexual harrassment. Judge her if you want, she couldn’t care less. He was incompetent in so many ways. As far as she’s concerned she made Gringotts a service making that happen.)

LIKES: Horrifying her family, one way or another. (Being openly gay, being a bitch rude, being promiscuous, whatever. She’d do it anyway, so why not have some fun while she’s at it?) Competence. Good wine. That moment just before a curse dissolves, when you wait to see if you managed it this time. Strong coffee. Spicy food. Towering over men with a Napoleon complex (they get so cranky, it’s hilarious). A woman with curves. Her work boots. Swearing. Climbing things; trees, rocks, whatever. Dressing down (sitting around in her underwear, eating icecream straight from the tub is a favourite). Beer with friends, an argument with enemies and banter with the rest. And finally, her brothers. She doesn’t always acknowledge it, but they are both really important to her.

DISLIKES: Predictably enough, incompetence. People who can’t walk properly in high heels. People who don’t understand that there is a time and a place for such footwear and pyramids aren’t it. Weak tea, weak people, weak... anything. Really. Lack of ambition. Wide-eyed innocent people that believe anything you tell them. People who has figured out that her book smarts do not measure up with her street smarts and way with a wand. Basically, she dislikes people. There are a few exceptions, most of which she’s related to, but otherwise? No. Don’t bother.

STRENGTHS: Her ambition and drive to get what she wants. Dealing with elaborate curses and the people and/or creatures that are less than impressed with her trying to dismantle them. Her ability to talk her way into almost anything, to change appearances on a whim (not in a metamorphmagus way; clothes, hair and make-up are effective enough), spotting people’s weaknesses and using them when needed, and, of course, making the best fucking coffee in England. She also has a freakishly good memory, she can lie like a pro and is great at planning shit out. Possibly she’s planned her career out for the next ten years. If it doesn’t happen like she’s bullet pointed it she’ll be rather cross.

WEAKNESSES: She’s easily angered and frustrated and becomes rather impatient when people don’t connect the dots as fast as she does. She’s a bit short on empathy and compassion, is definitely lacking in the loyalty department (close friends and immediate family may or may not be excepted) and can come off a bit cold at times. She’ll live off coffee and cigarettes if nobody reminds her to eat, she has to make a conscious effort to remember ask how you’re doing and what’s going on in your life, which is more a side effect of being incredibly goal focused than self centered, although it can definitely come off as the latter. She bulldozes over people from time to time, she can definitely annoy people with her single-mindedness, and no matter how much she tries to dismiss it she has all these icky feelings that gets her hurt at the most inconvenient of times. And yes, she’s much harsher to other people than she expects them to be to her, but is, really, not nearly as unpleasant as I make her out to be. She can be nice. She probably will be. You never know when people might come in handy; being pleasant is always a good idea.

KNOWN INFORMATION: Most people know Amelia Bones as the only daughter of a former Mugwump in the International Confederation of Wizards, and also as the sister of a well-liked diplomat. She’s known to cause a bit of a stir here and there, mostly because of how few fucks she gives [insert gif of your choice here] about what people think about her and the things she does.

I expect that some people have noticed and correctly guessed the reason for her constantly changing her appearance, the way she carries herself and sometimes even the way she speaks (her range of accents is rather impressive; she can go from posh to street and back again without a second’s thought), while others find it curious without thinking more of it. They’d probably also know her as the girl who could’ve gone straight into the Ministry, courtesy of her father and brother’s reputations as all around awesome and dependable people, but who instead chose a dangerous career that took her to the strangest places. Now? Now people are talking about her as the one who did all those things and still ended up at the Ministry in the end.

There are no rumours about Order business or Death Eater shenanigans, mostly because she’s so not interested. In all, the information about her that is common knowledge has little or nothing to do with allegiances, politics and so forth, and she likes it that way.

DETAILED PERSONALITY: Amelia is the second child and only daughter of the Bones family, and grew up the typical middle child,; loud, determined and always demanding attention. Her brothers, obviously aspiring for sainthood, did not only put up with it, they also managed to keep an eye out for her (Edgar) and not kill her in her sleep (Nathan). As far as brothers go this is practically superhero level, and while Amelia might not seem to appreciate it, she does admire her brothers in many ways. They are both so very different from her, which is probably a good thing. More than one person like her in the same household and shit would start exploding.

The defining characteristic when it comes to Amelia is probably ambition. She’s all about her goals, about succeeding and doing what it takes to get there. In part this springs from having such successful parents, brilliant, intelligent brothers and the jealousy that comes with it, but to be perfectly honest it wasn’t as if she was all that laid back to begin with. She has always felt the need to prove herself and to be better than other people. It doesn’t matter if it’s boiling an egg (she’ll make the best fucking egg in the history of cooking, okay?) or being promoted at work, she has to give it all there is, and then some. Failing is not an option, and if she does? She’ll try again. And again. And again. She will conquer the world, damn it! And you best believe it.

Some would say that this is a way to mask her insecurities. They’re probably right. Amelia may play a good game, but even so there are feelings and insecurities and WTF is that all about anyway? She’s not exactly the sad little panda who is convinced she sucks, but she has her bad days. Like everyone else.

From a distance Amelia may seem too cold and goal oriented to be all that much fun, but it’s far from the truth. She may not make friends because she thinks ‘oh these seem like great people, we’ll get along’, and has always been the kind of person who drifts from one group of people to the next, only occasionally sticking around long enough to actually make actual friends, but that doesn’t mean she’s dead inside. Believe it or not, but she actually does have a sense of humour. A scathing sense of humour, but still. With people she actually, genuinely likes she will be softer, less bossy and about 98% less of a calculating bitch than you would expect.

For the majority of people, though, Amelia is probably seen as a bit two-faced. Perfectly pleasant from time to time, and sharp, dismissive and calculating inbetween, all depending on what she wants from you. It’s not so much that she’s being a bitch for the sake of it (honestly, who has the time?) but she can and will be a bit singleminded when it comes down to it. Remembering to eat, sleep and mind her manners just isn’t all that high on her list of priorities. And sure, she could alter this perception of herself as callous and ambitious if she wanted to. It’s not like she’s a complete sociopath. It’s just that nine times out of ten she doesn’t care. Call her a bitch, call her a dyke, call her a sad human being who cares for nobody but herself. Do it. Watch her laugh you in the face.

NO FUCKS GIVEN, Y’ALL.

When it comes down to it her behaviour, it’s always twisted by the person she’s with. Is it a friend? A co-worker? A superior? A random person on the street? Some are more useful to her than others, and her demeanor will change to reflect this. Really, being able to switch from one setting to another is one of her biggest assets. It might not make her all that well liked among the people who have figured out what she’s doing, but it can be useful, and more than anything it has given her a fairly big success rate when it comes to work. She wouldn’t be nearly as good at what she’s doing had she not been able to wheedle details about a treasure or secret temple (or whatever) from the people she meets, and by now it’s a habit that she can’t kick. Not that she’s tried all that hard.

And yes, I’m fully aware of that this personality section consists of 90% career related stuff, but that’s pretty much her life. She works. She works a lot and she works hard, and it’s probably a good thing that not all of it is spent holed up by herself, clocking more hours than what should be humanly possible. Well, she kind of does work that much, but she also considers spending time trying to find shit out and figure out how to use it a very important part of her job. You can’t exactly do that sitting around on your own, so during the investigative part of an assignment she’ll spend a good chunk of her time hanging out at bars, visiting markets or cafés trying to find someone who knows their shit and is gullible enough to let it slip. Now that her job description includes doing things for the Ministry she’s likely to troll people’s journals (Ministry, Order and Death Eaters alike) looking for that small sliver of information that will make or break a case. And even if she doesn’t find what she’s looking for she actually enjoys a good argument and isn’t afraid of pushing people a little more than what’s strictly necessary. It’s the very same philosophy that makes her a good Curse Breaker. If she was afraid to poke things to see what happened was she’d still be sitting behind that desk, watching other people get the interesting assignments and there I go talking about work again.

Sorry.

There is, of course, more to Amelia than what I’ve mentioned so far. Honestly, how boring would it be if her personality read: is a bitch, works a lot, the end? Verrrrrrrry. So, let’s do a quick summary and add some quirks, shall we?

Yeah, she can be unpleasant. She can also be a lot of fun to be around, either because she wants something and is buttering you the hell up, or because she actually -- gasp! -- likes you. There’s a lot of jealousy and insecurities behind her toughness, although she wouldn’t readily admit it. She appreciates a good argument, is quite capable of spending a whole weekend in bed without worrying about work, especially if it involves a beautiful woman, she loves a man who can cook, climbs things (preferably rocks, but a tree will do in a pinch) to de-stress, knows how to start a fire and pitch a tent, both with and without magic, and has been known to prefer this over ‘proper’ accomodations when on excursions.

So yes. There’s more to her than just being the ice queen of I Don’t Give a Fuck-mountain, although people can’t always be bothered to dig deep enough to see it. It seems like once you’ve walked all over someone once or twice they’re rarely all that interested in looking at the big picture. Unfortunately.

CHILDHOOD: Amelia grew up in the countryside, in a family with money and a rather large estate. She never quite appreciated the comfort of always having what she needed and then some, and spent her childhood years outside, digging through dirt, climbing trees and dragging her younger brother, Nathan, into performing plays and songs, in all of which Amelia herself came out as the hero, always saving the day in the end. Obviously. It wasn’t as if he was going to do it.

She was a rather sheltered child, fussed over by her parents and protected (as if she needed it!) by her brothers. This was annoying, but mostly fine. Really. What wasn’t okay was the constant talk about Edgar and how smart he was. It was enough to give anyone a complex. Even as a small child Amelia was always quite aware that she wasn’t nearly as clever as him, and set about proving herself in other ways. She tried things like climbing, running, flying, throwing (gnomes, mostly), jumping, singing, painting and making up stories. She succeeded in some, like running, climbing, and flying, while failing miserably when it came to others (painting, storytelling, singing). It wasn’t so much about doing or even enjoying any of these things, though. It was about being the best at it, and about being at the centre of attention. It was also through this that Amelia learned just how good it felt to be successful and admired.

(A lot of said admiration was by her mum, whose motherly obligations more or less required treating her as the most amazing flyer/runner/climber alive, but you know. Still.)

When she was nine years old Amelia decided that she was ready for Hogwarts. While Edgar waited to begin his second year she started lobbying for early admission herself, because she was more than ready to grow up, and she refused to wait two whole years to do it. And yes, to this day she’s bitter about not being able to convince her parents that going off to Hogwarts two years early was a good idea. Never say that Amelia doesn’t remember a disaster of epic proportions failure to excel.

HOGWARTS: Once Amelia made it to Hogwarts she was neatly and without much hesitation placed in Slytherin. This alarmed her parents a bit, because they’d never been all that when it came to blood purity and were rather worried that she would be swayed by the potentially bad company she might fall in with. They really had no reason to be concerned. Amelia was a Slytherin because of her ambition and willingness to manipulate, scheme and otherwise twist the odds in her favour, nothing else. Sure, she got along fine with her housemates (as long as they weren’t too slow, stupid or kept her from doing her own thing) but in the long run she didn’t understand their obsession with purity and muggle-hate. The only thing that counted was intelligence, drive and ambition. Seriously. Who had the time for prejudice?

It soon became apparent that she wasn’t nearly as book smart as her abnormally clever brother. She wasn’t stupid by any means, but she struggled where it seemed so easy for Edgar, and she rather resented him for it. Which is not to say that she was above asking him for help. In fact, she demanded it. All the way through school he had Amelia duty, and once he’d graduated she roped Nathan into doing it in his place. Together with her excellent memory and ability to bullshit people to the moon and back it was enough for fairly good grades, but never say it was an easy ride. It wasn’t. Far from it.

Amelia was about fourteen the first time she fell in love. The subject was a Gryffindor with a taste for Quidditch, sugar quills and saucy romance novels. The two of them went on a few dates, but both got bored and moved on. There were another girl a while later, and then a third. None of them lasted all that long, but three things were clear to Amelia. First, she was really into Quidditch players. Second, her favourite part of a girl’s body was her hipbones, and third, she was totally a lesbian.

And so she came home for Easter during her fourth year, and dropped the bomb in the middle of Easter dinner. She was rather disappointed when her family took the news well. Sure, they weren’t about to go out wearing MY DAUGHTER IS A LESBIAN T-shirts or anything, but they also didn’t disown her or even told her she couldn’t see her girlfriend anymore. Really, they were fine with her being a lesbian as long as she didn’t shout it from the roof tops.

So naturally that was exactly what she ended up doing. In fact, she was the typical baby dyke during the rest of her time at Hogwarts, which distracted people from noticing how she struggled in class, and that suited her just fine. Not that she wouldn’t have done her best to embarrass her family regardless. Honestly, who can pass that up? It’s still one of her favourite pastimes.

Other things worth mentioning regarding Amelia’s school years:

• She played Seeker for the Slytherin team for a year. She wasn’t too fussed about Quidditch, but loved the flying. This is also why it didn’t last longer.

• She tried to start a Gay People Are Awesome club in her sixth year, but lost interest when it became clear that it would take more work than she’d anticipated to get it up and running. And no, she’s not afraid of a challenge, but she also knows how to choose her battles. If she gets nothing for it, why bother?

• Other clubs she was involved in includes the Charms Club (she was pretty good), the Dueling Club (she was pants at the strategic bit, but good at random, out-of-the-blue dueling) and the Drama Club (does it even exist? If so, she realised that lying and scheming is completely different from acting, and she wasn’t nearly as good at it as she’d thought she was when she was seven with her parents as the only audience).

• She was once caught trying to climb the side of the Gryffindor tower with proper climbing equipment. Exactly where she got it and why (she claims it was a bet; nobody will back her up by assuming the role of the bet taker) is unclear. To this day climbing things is the one thing that keeps her sane in times of madness.

• She made friends easy enough, but drifted from group to group, never quite sticking with one particular set. Generally she stuck with the ones that were either useful, shallow enough not to bother her too much, or just a laugh to be around. As I mentioned above, Amelia’s ambition and drive doesn’t mean that she’s humourless or tedious to be around, and some of her best friends are the ones she picked for their sarcasm and otherwise amusing personalities. She still has no idea how this ‘having actual friends’ bit that happened, but she’s very glad that it did.

• Last but not least she learned a lot about the fine art of manipulation, scheming and making things happen during her school years. A lot of it involved listening by book shelves, making lies into half-truths and half-truths into sincere statements, and/or faking tears. Usually this gained her enough information get her way. These days she tries to keep the crying, threatening and bribing (so unsophisticated) to a minimum, but a a girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do. Etc.

POST-HOGWARTS: Once Amelia was done with school and had managed (thanks Edgar!) a quite decent number of OWLs and NEWTs she sat down and tried to figure out exactly what career that would be the most impressive, interesting and, well, cool. Her parents suggested the Ministry, which had treated her brother so well. Naturally this led to Amelia taking a completely different path. Curse Breaking sounded cool, worried her father, upset her mother and put her skills in Defence Against the Dark Arts to use. It was a done deal.

After a few years of sitting around at a desk doing stuff like research, mapping out locations and keeping track of where in the world her fellow Curse Breakers happened to be, a senior employee fell ill (tragic, really) and Amelia was sent to Iceland in her place. She did a decent enough job once she got there, got a few more opportunities to prove herself, and sent a useless so called superior of hers to the naughty corner for appreciating her arse a little too much. Or so she claimed. With time she got a reputation for knowing what she was doing, and by the time 1980 rolled around she was twenty-seven and had enough of weight to throw around to be approached by the Ministry. They needed another Curse Breaker to call their own, and Amelia, having spent the last year and a bit in Romania, Bulgaria and the northern parts of Scandinavia, was sick of the cold and jumped on the chance of going to Egypt (or Morocco? IDK where they’ll be by the time you read this!). By now she’s been a part of the Ministry for a few months, and aligns herself more with them than she does with any other group. Having spent years chatting to locals and using her skills of deduction, sneakiness and so forth to find where the interesting, most protected shit is hidden, she should be around for more than just disabling curses and braving caves and whatever else is in a Curse Breaker’s job description, and may very well show up just when things turn interesting.

No wait, not ‘may’. She definitely will. You can count on it.

OPPORTUNITIES FOR DEVELOPMENT: I NEED THIS POINT TO MAKE SENSE OF MY GOALS FOR HER OKAY.

Amelia is a driven, resourceful and more than occasionally annoying for this very reason. She knows how to make shit happen, and what to do when it does. I’d love for her to end up in a situation where it’s not so cut and dry, either by (shockingly!) finding that it’s harder to walk all over people when you’re in the same place for more than a month or two, or by realising that some things cannot be controlled. At least not when you throw some Order members or Death Eaters into the mix. It’s relatively easy to aim a hex or curse at a werewolf or giant that’s coming at you, but what happens when you add actual human beings to the mix? Or muggles? Or, God forbid, people you actually like?

I also want to see her find her place in the community that the people hunting these horcruxes has become. Amelia has always been a loner, looking out for her interests and hers only. Being in a foreign country is always a challenge, and you’re more or less automatically drawn to people who are also foreigners, share your language, or something similar. And sure, she’s used to travelling and seeing new places, but I’m curious to see what happens when I throw her into a larger group of people, as opposed to the setting she’s used to.

Finally I’d love to see exactly how she’s pulled into the awesome that is the Ministry. Having passed on a Ministry career for various reasons, most of which are related to the lack of excitement with the job, it would be fun to see her going from the loner Curse Breaker cooperating with the Ministry on a more or less freelance basis, to the woman we see in canon; a big name with rather a lot of power within the Ministry. I don’t expect her to become a Head of any department whatsoever in the near future (canonically speaking she is one in 1994, so there’s a lot of time to play with here), but I’m interested in seeing her loyalties sway towards something other than herself. For a girl who has always had her own self interest at heart it would be a strange turn to take, and one I’d love to see played out in game.

FIVE THINGS:
• One. I like the idea of a Ministry person who isn’t directly involved in law enforcement. There’s a few diplomats, a solicitor and a representative or two, but no Curse Breakers. Also, I've always wanted to play one of those. Stealing treasure by disabling dangerous curses is pretty much as badass as it gets.

• Two. A woman that goes on to head the Department of Magical Law Enforcement has to be seriously ambitious. She needs to be focused, know what she wants and make it happen. I think Amelia as I’ve written her is exactly that, and I look forward to seeing just how she goes about getting where she’s intended. The fact that she doesn’t have a formal education in any kind of law enforcement, diplomacy and so on (yet anyway, I’m assuming she’ll get around to that eventually) makes it even more interesting.

• Three. I want in on the Ministry fun. That’s not a proper reason, is it? Okay, let’s expand it by saying that I’d like to see how she deals with being Ministry, rather than any of the other groups. How does a woman who basically is of the view ‘I don’t care, just shut up and let me break into this underwater temple’ end up siding with the Ministry of all things? When there’s a war going on you have to be seriously dedicated to law and order to not sit back and let the Order try to take down the Death Eaters for you, and Amelia? Not dedicated. To anyone but herself. I’m interested in seeing how she goes from being in love with her own success to actually caring about the work the Ministry is doing at the moment.

• Four. I have never before played a character who is so damn inconsistent. I would love to see how it is to play someone like that. There will obviously have to be a limited range of bitchy vs fun banter vs I’ll-smile-at-you-until-I-get-XYZ for her to make sense at all, and I really look forward to finding that balance. It will be a challenge keep some consistency in the... uh, inconsistency, especially since this sort of character is all new to me. I love new things. They drive me crazy at first, but in the end they make me a better writer and I love that.

• Five. Bitchy. I need some bitchy. Fabian is a lot of fun in his silliness, but I’d like to expand a bit. Get someone who has a sharp tongue and knows what she wants. Who doesn’t drag babies into pyramids and loses her wand randomly. I think the contrast between the two is going to be both fun, interesting and give me, as a writer, something to work with.

JOURNAL ENTRY: NA.

RP SAMPLE: NA.