History;
Alina May Michaels was born not in May but on a gray, cloudy mid-March evening in the small village of Whitchurch, Buckinghamshire in England. Although her parents and grandparents were all magical, she did not stay long in the magical world. When Alina was only three years old her mother, Hope, vanished in a magical incident. (‘An accident,’ the Ministry had called it.) Grief-stricken over this traumatic loss, her father, Tobias, moved the two of them north, to the town of West Bromwich, stepping away for a time from both the magical world and the unwelcome memories it held.

There Alina grew up in the Muggle world, aware of the magical world but not part of it—not to the same extent as typical wizard-raised children were. While her father took her to Quidditch games when he could, magic was an otherwise distant figure in Alina’s day-to-day, and life at home was almost—but not quite entirely—Muggle. She attended Muggle primary school, had Muggle neighbors, watched Muggle films and cartoons, played Muggle games, and visited Muggle places. She even grew up amongst Muggle family members—her aunt Leila having married into a Muggle family who accepted Alina and her father as their own.

But, here and there, magic found its way into her life. In addition to an interest in Quidditch—borne from the local games her father brought her along to observe, as well as her first attendance at the Quidditch World Cup in 2014—Alina’s unique upbringing involved whispers of the magical world, here and there, even when she did not realize it. Her bedtime stories, for example, were a grab-bag of Muggle and wizarding tales; Sleeping Beauty and Peter Pan, Babbitty Rabbitty and The Princess and the Frog, The Wizard of Oz and The Tale of Three Brothers... Her midnight snacks included things like ginger biscuits and pumpkin pasties. Her favorite blanket was always warm, no matter how long it had been left sitting unattended. Small things, subtle things, as precious as they were special. While Alina grew up primarily in the non-magical world, magic still managed to remain a fixed background element in her life.

Still, Alina never witnessed much magic at home, for her father generally did things the Muggle way—where she could see him, at least. They did not use broomsticks, or Floo Powder, or other methods of magical transport save for officially-sanctioned Portkeys when necessitated by Quidditch games. Even the chess set they used to play together in the evenings was utterly mundane.

Outside of the home, things were much the same. While her father did not speak of it much, Alina knew vaguely of Hogwarts from the old trunk he kept upstairs, she knew of Ravenclaw from the patch on his old school robes, and she knew from his confirmation that one day she, too, might be going there as well. But, aside from Quidditch games, it was not until Alina’s Hogwarts letter arrived that she fully stepped foot into magical spaces once again; the first time since her mother’s disappearance eight years ago. Alina had never even visited Diagon Alley, though this made her first trip there all the more special—all the more magical.

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Magic;
Alina first displayed signs of magic as a toddler, playing with ornamental, frosted glass bells in her maternal grandparents’ home. Hanging from a silver hook inside, near the back door, the delicate trio of glass bells were strung from a silvery ribbon and would ring and tinkle like fairy music—and although they were entirely mundane, they were Alina’s favorite toy. The adults would take turns holding her up to the bells (for Alina’s enjoyment far outlasted the strength of their arms) as she carefully and gently, ever so gently, touched them with her tiny fingers, fascinated with the sounds they made and the light as is played across them.

She loved the bells so much that, one night, the adults (investigating the previously-fussing child’s concerning silence) found her fast asleep in her crib with those little glass bells clutched in her hand; the bells having magically found their way into her grasp without the assistance of any other person in that house, much to their collective perplexion—and then their delight, when they realized.

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Personality;
Quiet and a bit shy, Alina has a soft-spoken and sweet, yet genuine, demeanor. She is an easy person to be around, and might be described as the type of person who is ‘friendly to all yet friend to none’. She has a natural aptitude for most areas, and a likeness for them all the same—however, this is offset by the fact that she doesn’t have a particular passion for anything. Her easy-going nature in all respects is a double-edged blade, because her lack of interest, passion, or obsession leaves her adrift. She does her best in each task and adapts to the ebb, flow, and storms of life, but without any direction or destination. As a result, she is the type who feels as if she almost doesn’t even truly know herself, because she has never really defined herself with specific interests, hobbies, major goals, or other identifying factors. This can make it difficult for others to become close to Alina, to bond deeply with her, for while she has a grounded personality there is still an ephemeral transience about her.

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Appearance;
Alina’s dark hair hangs long and loose past her waist, the locks gathering and falling together like soft, inky rivulets. Her hazel-green eyes are deep but soft, piercing yet unintimidating—the color shared with her maternal uncle and grandfather, the gaze unique to herself. She is of average height but on the smaller side, with an unobtrusive presence that seems to take up less space than she physically occupies.