CoraSpia wrote:Meretica wrote:Character Type (Student/Staff): Staff
Name of Character: Sinestra Hopkins-Jones
Sex: Female
Physical Appearance: Sinestra is a tall, thin woman with sea gray eyes and long dark gray hair that’s usually wrapped into a tight bun. She has a few wrinkles and she seems both ancient and ageless. Her face looks like this. She always has a cane at her side due to a limp that she has had since before her school days.
Place of Birth: Charleston, South Carolina.
Date of Birth: December 31, 1965
Age (RP starts on 24 April 2039): 74
Hogwarts House (if Staff, specify alumnus House): Librarian from Ravenclaw
Blood Status (Muggle-born/Half-Blood/Pure-Blood): Uncertain (See Biography)
Loyalty/Allegiance (The Alliance/The Order): Sinestra is a strong supporter of the Alliance, but she does not actively express her views. Those unfamiliar with her history assume that she is either an Alliance supporter or neutral.
Leadership Roles: Head of House Ravenclaw (if acceptable given the uncertainty of the role)
Character Biography (do make this detailed, certainly at least 5 lines, because it will also serve as a substitute for an RP sample, go into your character's motivation, ideology, background, personality, most importantly their thoughts on this wizarding world and the brewing conflict therein):
Sinestra Hopkins-Jones (henceforth Sinestra or SHJ) is a witch currently serving as the Librarian at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. She is an introverted, intuitive woman with strong stances on morality, ethics, and politics that is known for her good judgment and somewhat sarcastic nature. Generally speaking, Sinestra “knows everything,” being the living embodiment of a stereotypical Ravenclaw. She has a knack for sarcastic comments and is seen as a witty, intelligent woman. She is viewed as a cynic by many, but Sinestra is actually a very kind, generous person that wants what is best for everyone, regardless of her personal feelings for them. Sinestra is an extreme introvert, often only speaking when someone has peeved her or she is in “dire need of” additional funding for the library. However, Sinestra privately has lofty goals and ambitions, and she would happily share them with someone she believed she could trust. She struggles with people despite her academic success and is really an altruistic, insightful, principled individual.
Sinestra was born and abandoned on December 31, 1965, in Charleston, South Carolina, USA; she had nothing with her beyond a blanket that held her date of birth and name inscribed on a piece of cloth. She was raised until the age of 10 by No-Majs when she accidentally set their farm on fire and killed them both. She fled the state and was found by a pureblood British warlock named Apollo Cartington. Cartington adopted Sinestra and took her back to his home in England, explaining to her what had happened and why. Sinestra came to accept what she did. Apollo attempted to ascertain her blood heritage but to no avail.
Sinestra spent a year with Cartington until she went to Hogwarts. Her Southern accent somewhat faded, but it would come out whenever she became excessively annoyed with ongoing events. She was sorted into Ravenclaw following a thirty-minute stall by the Sorting Hat as it became bamboozled by her mind, unsure of which thoughts to follow due to the very nature of her complex way of thinking. The Sorting Hat ultimately asked which Houses she preferred, and she replied with Ravenclaw (which the Hat found more fitting) and Slytherin (which the Hat determined was part of her wanting to follow Cartington’s steps in educational matters).
Sinestra’s school years were normal– for her. She had always excelled in classes (particularly history), and it proved no different at Hogwarts. She proved to have a deep understanding of Wizarding history, she was a “collected student” of Professor Horace Slughorn, and she once earned over 400 points in a single term for Ravenclaw House. She graduated in 1984, with many expecting her to find success due to her high OWL and NEWT scores. However, Sinestra opted to work as an assistant at the Daily Prophet’s archives for several years, eventually rising to the rank of Chief Archivist in 1993. She continued to work at the Prophet until the rise of Lord Voldemort, being fired after screaming (and nearly caning) Rita Skeeter and several others, all of whom she accused of yellow journalism and falsification. Sinestra was approached by Remus Lupin and recruited into the Order of the Phoenix to keep various records intact. She was present at the Battle of the Department of Mysteries and the Battle of Hogwarts.
Sinestra became an assistant Librarian following the Battle of Hogwarts due to Madam Pince’s advancing age. Pince endorsed Sinestra, and Professor McGonagall had been fond of Sinestra in school, resulting in her easily taking the position in 2001. Pince fully retired in 2005, with Sinestra then taking on the role of Hogwarts’s Chief Librarian. Since then, she has expanded the size of the library several times, adding scores upon scores of books to the shelves yearly. Twice, she has requested increased funding for the library, citing the “vast expanse of knowledge being lost to the book burners of the world, whether they be Muggles or Wizards.” She purposefully kept banned books at the front of the library, proudly on display, whether they were written by Wizards or not.
With Cartington’s death in 2009, Sinestra has no known family. She had several romantic flings throughout her life (including one with Dionysus Fleming, a retired Auror that serves on the Wizengamot). Sinestra has instead adopted the school as her family, though most do not always acknowledge (or are aware of) this view due to her extreme introversion. Were someone to break through this barrier, they would see the real Sinestra that is buried beneath the surface.
Sinestra voted in favor of Hermione Granger and viewed Aubrey Douglas as Granger’s natural successor. Sinestra does not discuss her political views despite having very, very strong beliefs that she would defend with her wand if questioned. In fact, she does– on her weekends off, she goes to an underground dueling club as she has for years to keep up with her wandwork. While technically illegal, she sees it as a necessary evil lest she becomes slow in her old age. Speaking of her age, she does not consider herself old– not yet. She has not been bested in a duel since her days as an archivist for the Prophet, and she has no intention of being best in the next few decades. She will cling to her books (and her wand) for as long as she can.
Sinestra’s ideology is complicated to explain; generally speaking, she is an ideological maverick that typically prefers progressive policies in education, welfare, and civil rights. However, she is also a strong supporter of small businesses, limited government in personal affairs, and respecting certain aspects of Wizarding culture. Despite her overall support of the Alliance, Sinestra also supports pragmatism over forced progressivism, knowing from history– and personal experience– what pushing too hard can do.
Notes: The mentioned Auror retiree, Dionysus, may become a character later on.
Very interesting app. She's accepted.
Excellent, thanks for replying the app Coraspia, and I'll add Sinestra to the Dramatis Personnae now.
To clarify, she is also accepted as Head of Ravenclaw. This seems like a gray area/lacuna since nothing in the HP canon explicitly says there's a rule that the Head of House has to be a professor or academic staff, on the other hand all of the Heads of Houses we know were professors, so honestly you can kind of interpret that either way, but I think Coraspia and I are more inclined to lean on the side of allowing rather than disallowing this sort of thing, since worse comes to worse the in-universe explanation can simply be that the current Hogwarts Headmistress is willing to allow it irrespective of the past practice.
