Antimony Galanis | First Year | Slytherin - Encyclopedias

21 Jul 2018, 01:08

[font=Monotype Corsiva]Antimony Cipriana Galanis
(Of the Noble House of Galanis)[/font]

House: Slytherin

Age: 11

Wand: 30,0 cm dogwood wood and dragon heartstring, inflexible (Enjoys novelty and inventiveness, it will choose a curious, independent-minded witch or wizard.)

School Year: First Year

Patronus: N/A

Species: Human

Sexuality: She is eleven so she's not going to be looking for any kind of romance at the moment... but she is bisexual.

Appearance: Antimony is a rather small girl for her age, looking to be eight or nine instead of her eleven years. She has a slight, wispy figure, even for her age. She has her mother's hair, thick and honey blonde. She has a sensitive scalp so she hates the feeling of it braided or in a pony, and often leaves it down. The rest of her face, except for the color of her eyes, mirrors her father. Her features are delicate, with a thin mouth, doe eyes, and a flat, grecian nose. Antimony's eyes are a brown so close to black, one only really knows they're brown when looking at her in perfect lighting. It's a little strange, considering her mother has hazel eyes and her father has green eyes, but wizards usually know little about phenotypes, so no one asks quite the right questions.

Bio/Personality: The Galanis family (Once called the Mardyakhor family, before they moved from Greece two centuries ago. Despite the name change, their sigil still is a manticore underneath an olive tree.) is an ancient family, almost as pureblooded as the Blacks and Malfoys. They would be considered of equal standing to the highest pureblood families, if the marriage of Lady Creola Galanis nee Burke to Amadeus Galanis hadn't besmirched the family name.

While the Burke family is part of the Sacred Twenty Eight, Creola (a distant cousin to the true heir of the Burke family) was cursed with sterility. This was a well known fact, and yet Amadeus had married her anyway. Old fashioned (and some say, outdated) Purebloods like the Galanis, who believe in blood purity, are devoted to the continuation of their bloodlines, so the marriage was not only unwise, it was practically blasphemous. Amadeus was threatened to be struck from the family line if he did not produce an heir in the three years after their marriage, and yet, he did not find a new wife to fulfill this duty. Distant heirs to the Galanis fortune waited greedily on the sidelines, anticipating for the deadline of the ultimatum.

Almost exactly three years later, Creola gave birth to a healthy baby girl, Antimony. By then, however, it was too late. The Galanis family reputation was ruined. The timing for Antimony's birth was suspicious, as was Creola's disappearance in the last few months of her pregnancy. Rumors spread that Creola's curse had never been broken at all, that Amadeus had lain with another woman and Antimony had been produced out of wedlock. Antimony did not really look like Creola, save for the color of her hair-- she had her father's face, through and through. The other rumors were worse, and even more outlandish: from the rumor that Antimony was actually a muggleborn child smuggled away from her biological parents, to the absurd speculations that Amadeus had used some dark ritual to create Antimony entirely out of magic, to the extremely popular rumor (so popular it was offensive) that Antimony was really part Banshee, or Veela.

None of this would have had any serious, lasting bearing on the family if Amadeus had not been kicked out of the family estate after Antimony's birth. To many, this action proved that all of the rumors were true. Despite the speculations, however, the reason Amadeus had left the estate was because he had not had an heir that could easily carry on the Galanis name. Traditionally, witches change their last names when they marry, and the Galanis family believed that one must always give the inheritance to a male heir. (Amadeus even had two older sisters who were passed over in favor of him for the inheritance.) Fortunately, the family did not strike Amadeus from the family, because now they knew he would not have trouble producing an heir, but they were wary to let him stay at the estate when he had not yet fulfilled his obligation. Amadeus is currently being challenged by a distant cousin for the rights to the estate and family name, but he will only be denied his inheritance if he and Creole do not produce a male heir within ten years. Unfortunately, purebloods are notoriously infertile, and rarely have more than one child. The pressure is on. (Some people say the Galanis family want to disown Amadeus anyway, and that the time limit is merely a farce. He has created more trouble than gain for the family--not just by marrying Creola, but also because he is rumored to have murdered his squib half-brother, and he made a lot of enemies when he briefly worked as a liaison between aurors and illegal magical artifact dealers.)

Regardless of the family drama, Antimony's life has been fairly stable. She grew up in a small wizarding community hidden in an alley of Muggle London, and was surrounded by mostly half bloods and muggle born witches and wizards, as Amadeus and Creola did not want Antimony to have to deal with the nasty rumors about her family, and purebloods would certainly bring it up. Despite this, Antimony rarely ever interacted with the half blood children. Creola and Amadeus did not appreciate Antimony socializing with her "lessers," so the girl grew up mostly isolated, with no lasting friends and few people she could talk to besides her parents and private tutors. Because of this, she is desperately lonely. Antimony rarely left Espech Alley, only ever going to other wizarding hubs (Diagon Alley, the Ministry of Magic while her father worked there, and Hogsmeade, once) or to the Galanis estate to see her grandparents and cousins during family reunions or parties. (Since Antimony had to interact with pureblood children then, she is at least partially aware of the rumors about her father.)

Antimony has always been a precocious child, and more likely to boldly ask "why" than accept authority. Creola always taught her to be discerning of others, but trusting of her parents. Because of this, Antimony is fairly racist. She doesn't hate muggles, muggleborns, and half bloods, but she does think herself better than them simply because that's "just the way things are." She swallowed the pureblood ideology like any impressionable child would, and will spout it off whenever she can simply because she likes to show how knowledgeable she thinks she is.

Antimony is a serious child, and much more comfortable talking with adults than other children. In fact, she thinks of herself as a tiny adult herself, and entirely capable. She likely will not bow to any authority that is not her parents. Despite Creola and Amadeus being Slytherins themselves when they were in Hogwarts, Antimony has very little cunning herself, though she would say she is ambitious. It is less ambition, however, than idle dreaming. Antimony, like most eleven year olds, has big dreams a bit too large for reality. She wants to be an Unspeakable and be an Auror and be Minister of Magic and a scholar and researcher. If anyone tells her she can't, her response will undoubtedly be, "And why can't I?"

Despite her abrasive attitude, Antimony is desperate for friends, and thus, is motivated to people please. This is not something her parents encourage or value, but since they have not seen her around other children, they merely interpret her more servile behavior as her simply being obedient to her parents. Amadeus especially tried to encourage Antimony toward leadership and more Slytherin attributes, by encouraging her to ask questions without fear and question everything, praising her authoritative and bossy behavior toward the house elves and half blood children in Espech Alley, and indulging in her childish dreams while Creola reprimanded her to be more realistic. Antimony is just not inclined that way, however. She is so desperate for companionship that while she might take charge to try to impress her peers, she's just as likely to fall prey to bullies and become a follower. She may lean either way as she gets older, depending on what she experiences through school.

Misc Bio Deets:

Antimony discovered her magic surprisingly young (which is fortunate, considering her family's low tolerance of squibs). The house elves found her gleefully ripping pages out of books. The extraordinary thing about it was that she was doing it with the book across the room, and she staring through the bars of her crib.
Creola has miscarried three times since Antimony's birth.
Antimony has a special fondness for vinegary foods, and would rather eat a jar of pickles than candy.
Antimony is fascinated with magical creatures-- especially dragons! She will talk about them for quite a while. She is rather ashamed about the stuffed dragon she likes to sleep with though, (it's simply not very grown up) and left it at home. Insomnia awaits.
Her parents are often very cold to her for no apparent reason. She deems that is normal behavior and that all people will do this.
One of Antimony's favorite things to do is make up spells that don't exist, and then research the family library to see if they do exist.
Her mother works as a private tutor for other pureblood children, primarily in mathematics, etiquette, and literature. Her father has had several jobs over the past eleven years. He has worked as a liaison for aurors and illegal magical item connessieurs, he has dealt in illegal magical items, and he enchants household items. Primarily, however, Amadeus Galanis invests. (No one knows this except Creola at the moment, but he is running a "business" where he sells minor magical items to muggles and then uses the muggle money to buy land and sell it to witches and wizards. He acts through several agents, so even his clients don't know his name.)
The Galanis family motto is "Aièn aristeúein," or "Ever to excel."