Josephine Byrne | First Year | Slytherin

Name: Josephine Elise Byrne
Date of Birth: February 17th, 2015
Hometown: Kenmare, Ireland
House: Slytherin

Father's Name: Jonathan Byrne
Father's House: Ravenclaw
Father's Blood Status: Half-Blood
Father's Occupation: Magical Security Consultant

Mother's Name: Caroline Byrne (née Cavendish)
Mother's House: Slytherin
Father's Blood Status: Pureblood(ish)
Mother's Occupation: Magical Security Consultant

Jo's slightly tall for her age, skinny and long-limbed. She has shoulder-length hair, auburn, wavy and often messy, and bright blue eyes.

Jo's a curious child (some might call her nosy), with a blunt manner and a fiercely independent streak. She doesn't often care to be told that she shouldn't do something, and believes everyone's business is hers. She often has lofty ideals of what's right or wrong, but when it comes to mundane matters, her morality's remarkably flexible. She can't resist a puzzle, and loves reading fiction and imagining she's on some grand adventure.

Jo was born on a chilly winter morning, the only child of wizarding parents Jonathan and Caroline Byrne.

Despite significant overlap in their time at Hogwarts, being a couple of years apart and in different houses (Ravenclaw and Slytherin, respectively) meant Jonathan and Caroline never had much reason to speak to each other. That is, until they both took up positions on Gringotts' curse-breaking team, whereupon they discovered that they rather enjoyed each other's work. They eventually left Gringotts to form their own business in the lucrative sector of magical security consulting. Soon, they'd amassed a significant clientele of wealthy and paranoid wizards who were willing to pay them quite a lot of money to keep their property well-protected, or even secreted away. (Whether the property in question was strictly legal was never really any of their concern.) Working closely led to falling in love and marriage, and they put some of their wealth towards a large property a few hours from Kenmare, where Jonathan had been born and where his parents still lived at the time.

While their job is more than enough to keep the family in comfort, it demands long hours, often at strange times. This means that, growing up, Jo has often spent most of her time in the care of her grandfather Leo--Caroline's father--an eccentric man who'd once worked for the ministry as an unspeakable, now retired, and who moved in to help when she was born, and who handled her early education.

Though she often sees her cousins on her father's side and is forced to spend time with the children of her parents' business associates, Jo doesn't have a lot of friends her age; and with no siblings, she has become quite adept at entertaining herself. She's become an avid reader of fiction and loves dreaming up grand adventures as she explores the woody area surrounding their house, many of them inspired by the long stories of the first and second wizarding war that her granda often regales her with, as well as what information she can glean from her parents' jobs.

Lately, as the date she expects to receive her Hogwarts letter draws ever closer, her daydreams have become more concerned with what Hogwarts will be like and what she will do once she's graduated. Her paternal grandfather passed away from a stroke when she was eight and her dad inherited, among other odds and ends, the man's collection of muggle spy novels, which Jo has become a bit obsessed with. She's convinced she can eventually become a magical spy and is literally counting down the days 'til she can test her magical mettle and her ability to find out things she shouldn't in a more exciting setting.

The very first time she exhibited any magical ability happened when she was seven years old. Her father had floo'd into the house looking rather harried, with an angry-looking man in tow. He immediately bid her not to disturb them, as he led the man to his private office. Jo lost no time in posting herself at the closed door, pressing her ear against it, trying her best to make out what they were saying. She must've made some noise, because her dad immediately came to check the door, but she was so intent on making out every syllable, that she failed to notice his footsteps, drawing near. When the door opened, she froze, expecting to get shouted at, but her dad acted as if she wasn't there. He even called out her name, like she couldn't see her at all. It took her a few seconds to realise what had happened, but well, when she did, she had to excitedly announce that she'd performed magic, of course, which immediately shattered the illusion. She was grounded for months.