Tih-loo-ah Ahk-she



T’ilua is a Black girl with medium length, black 4A-4B/coily hair. Her skin is the colour of russet brown, with warm undertones and some lighter pigmentation on her cheekbones nose and forehead. Her eyes appear so dark they’re almost black, but really she just has dark brown eyes, that look like melted honey in the light. As she has always wanted to have fun coloured hair she may try dying it a desaturated dark blue with magic when she feels confident enough to do so.

She has had her ear lobes pierced since she was a baby and in school she wears simple gold hoop earrings to stop the piercing holes from closing up. She is of average height for her age (1st Year - 4’8”)

T’ilua has very small keloid scars on her cheek from when she had been pushed onto the pavement when she was younger.

In terms of appearance, T’ilua is quite versatile. She likes wearing clothes that make her look a bit more butch in appearance. Varsity jackets with denim jeans and a simple shirt underneath, is one example. But she does enjoy the occasional long skirt and cardigan too. Her mother dressed her for the most part growing up so as she gets older and she experiments more she will realise actually she doesn’t feel quite as ‘girly’ as others do.


T’ilua is a rather nervous little girl. She comes across as shy, but it is also anxiety that she feels when meeting people or speaking. She has a habit of talking quietly if she doesn’t know someone and she isn’t very forthcoming.

When she is comfortable with people she seems like a different person, instead talking animatedly, laughing loudly, excitedly talking about things she likes. When she trusts someone it is unwavering. Though it’s hard to get to that point with her it is worth the trouble as she is a very loyal friend.

She likes to stare up at the night sky back home, and count how many stars she can see. At Hogwarts she is always surprised by how many more stars are visible at the secluded castle. She doesn’t know that its the lack of light pollution so for a few years she just thinks Hogwarts is extra magical for this reason.

She also loves animals, including bugs too. She finds other forms of life fascinating and constantly wonders what other creatures must be thinking. At home her family never owned pets so animals are even more of a wonder to her. She always wants to ask people if she can pet their dogs when she’s on the street. Usually it’s one of her parents who will ask strangers for her.


T’ilua’s parents, Shabi and Tyrão both love their baby immensely. While they both have their own passions and hobbies one of their biggest life goals was to raise a wonderful child. Before having her though, they lived in another country. In Angola, located in Southern Africa. When her parents were in their 20s they moved to England and had T’ilua in Horsham Hospital.

Due to T’ilua’s shyness and her parent’s over protectiveness, T’ilua didn’t have many friends. For the most part she stayed indoors reading about fun magical adventures, and about brave girls and sticky situations. Jaqueline Wilson was one of her favourite authors, and her stories made T’ilua feel braver with each read.

Despite her homebody nature she did have two friends. Maya and Quillam, who she had known since she was in nursery. Her parents have met theirs and they all trust each other to look after each other’s kids.

Maya is possibly the more boisterous of the three, always daring to do things that might get them in trouble (but somehow never do…) and being a bit of a thrill seeker. Maya, for this reason loves video games and is constantly trying to get T’ilua and Quillam into playing smash brother with her, because her older brother let her keep his Wii safe so she had his entire library of wii games at her disposal.

Quillam is possibly one of the sweetest most relaxed boys you’ll ever meet. There is not a piece of homework, no teasing that could break this boy’s relaxed nature. Which is just as well because he is incredibly capable of offsetting poor T’ilua’s anxiety when she starts stressing about something. Of the three of them Quillam is possibly the most traditional gamer minded. He introduced the other two to Magic the Gathering!


Shabi had had always hoped that there was more to her life than the mundane. There had always been rumours floating about in Luanda, rumours about people who are capable of true witchcraft. But she had never had the privilege to see it herself. As Shabi got older she couldn’t bare the thought of magic being real. Because if it were real then why wasn’t she blessed with it?

She struggled with feeling unimportant and boring for much of her adolescence. So she leaned into being someone who could work hard. Her own parents, stricter than she’d be when she eventually became one were hard on her, only wanting the best for her. But they were too hard and Shabi struggled to find joy in much of anything once she started getting older.

Till she met Tyrão. Tyrão knew how to have fun. Youngest of five, he was always the jokester in his family. He got up to all sorts of mischief, got in trouble for said mischief and promptly stayed being the silly fool that he was up to and including into adulthood. Being the youngest meant he got away with a lot more than his other siblings, his parents were amenable to minor amounts of mischief by the time he was born.

It wasn’t always about causing trouble for fun. He liked how it felt when his older siblings laughed when one of their neighbours chased him out the garden for picking too many mangos. Or when he let the dogs indoors and they raided one of their food cupboards; they laughed at his expense when he got reprimanded for that one…

It was in secondary school when Ty and Shab met. Tyrão saw Shabi sitting by herself in the lunch room. She just happened to not have had her friends there that day because there was a bug going around and a lot of kids were sick. Tyrão didn’t like that she was all on her own and decided to leave his friends to go and hang out with her.

She had none of it. As far as she was concerned, he was over there to make fun of her for being alone or to test her patience. He tried every starting line in the book and nothing worked. All that did was entice him to try again another time. This time he came over to her when her friends were with her. All he did was ask her what they were all up to. Unfortunately, her friends did not try to push the boy away. Instead they encouraged his behaviour much to Shabi’s discontent.

This story isn’t about them but this is how their friendship began, with a girl who thought she had to be serious to survive and a boy who saw the merit in joy and pleasure.


When T’ilua was 6 it happened. She and her mother were coming home from school when they were bombarded by a gaggle of unmonitored children.

T’ilua often felt like an outcast in class, on account of being the only Black girl, one of four that she once had counted in the whole school. While some students had been well meaning with their questions some were a bit mean, as some children can be.

Today she had been fatigued by questions and felt more uncomfortable than usual. So when the children swarmed her and her mother she hit her limit. Without meaning to she shouted “stop!” and a gust of wind, centered on T’ilua blew everyone away. Unfortunately this included her mother who was thrown off her feet.

It took her a moment to realise what had happened, but when she did she rushed to her feet and grabbed her child and ran. When they got home a member of the ministry of magic awaited them.

After an explanation it turns out that they had to do some damage control and remove the memories from the children discreetly. But after having done so informed T’ilua’s parents who were told that evening about trying to avoid allowing T’ilua from conjuring magic.