Manuela "Manu" Macedo Castelobruxo

Manuela "Manu" Macedo

Do no harm, but take no shit.

School: Castelobruxo (graduate)
Year: Adult I
Job: Brazilian Ministry of Magic Level 2 Employee
Status: Half-blood
Languages & Hex Codes: Portuguese (#147628), English (#7e877d), Spanish (#00d624), Quechua (#5c9900), Classical Ch'olti' (#ffffff)
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Appearance: Manu has dark brown, extremely curly/coily, and wild hair that is so dark at her roots so as to be almost black and gets slightly lighter towards the tips. She has brown skin and a slender figure, and often is perceived to be younger than she actually is due to her thin face, though she’s not as short as she used to be, standing at 5’7” at her graduation. With hazel, somewhat greenish eyes, a wide nose and lips, large ears, and long, thin eyebrows, she is a perfect combination of her parents. When not in her Castelo uniform, she prefers darker clothes of blacks and greys, but can occasionally be convinced into colours if the occasion allows - and though you didn't used to be able to catch her dead in a skirt, she's grown more comfortable with any sort of outfit as of late. Her faceclaim is Marina Nery.
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Personality: Manu Macedo does no harm but takes no shit. (Well, she does no harm unless someone else throws the first punch. Then all bets are off.) Growing up as a half-blood, with a magical mother and a Muggle father, she learned quite quickly that she wouldn't fit in anywhere if she didn't forcefully, and often physically, carve out a place for herself in the world - Muggles couldn't know she was magical, and magical people would look down on her for being half Muggle if she let them. As such, and considering her parents' meeting story and father's career, Manu grew up with a strong sense of justice and righteousness and often considers herself a warrior and protector for the underdog, or sometimes a "bully to bullies". She is blunt, assertive, and refuses to let herself be pushed around, and is sometimes courageous to the point of putting herself in more danger than necessary, often because she opened her big mouth at a time when it would've been better to keep it shut. When she thinks a change needs to be made, she'll fight like hell to see it done, and if she has her way, you're looking at the future president of Brazil.

History

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Mateo Macedo was, for all intents and purposes, a normal Brazilian teenager - a football player, popular with friends and ladies, intelligent in school, etc. That is, until he met Mira Maidana.

Living in Manaus, the capital city of Amazonas in Brazil, Mateo often enjoyed hanging out with friends by the river, watching the ships go by and carrying on heavy political debates. Every year on the first day of September, he would see an increase in teenagers about his age around the docks near his home, and one day while on the way to spend time with his pals, fifteen-year-old Mateo bumped into the most beautiful girl he had ever seen. Flustered, he had barely managed to eke out a few words of apology before the girl smiled, apologized herself, and disappeared once again into the crowd. For years, Mateo would return to the docks on September 1st to watch the crowd of teenagers in hopes of seeing the girl again, maybe asking for her name this time... but he never saw her there again.

Unbeknownst to Mateo, the girl he had bumped into was Argentinian witch Mira Maidana, who traveled to Manaus every year to take the Diver ship to Castelobruxo for her wizarding education. She was a talented, smart girl who excelled in History, Philosophy, Muggle Studies, and Language at school, usually ranked high in her year rankings, and enjoyed playing Quodpot; she had come from a long lineage of Argentinian witches and wizards who attended Castelobruxo and was well-liked among her classmates. Mira, too, always kept an eye out for the handsome Brazilian Muggle she had bumped into at the age of fifteen whenever she visited Manaus - and one time, at seventeen while she was on her way to her last year at Castelobruxo, she did spot him. Sitting off to the side, watching the crowds, though he didn't seem to see her. Mira began to make her way over to say hello and introduce herself, to ask if he remembered her, but her other pureblood friends - who had also all come from long lines of Castelobruxo alumni - dragged her away, reminding her that she couldn't taint her lineage with Muggle blood. And so Mira boarded the Diver ship, thinking she would never see the boy again.

After graduation from Castelobruxo, Mira made the decision to move permanently to Brazil, settling in the city of Rio de Janeiro, where she began working for the Brazilian Ministry of Magic. At the same time, Mateo was also moving to Rio - to pursue a law degree from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, and to participate in a series of protests that were going on there at the time. During Mira's free time, she enjoyed wandering the city and learning more and more about the Muggle culture of Brazil, since Muggle Studies had been one of her favourite courses at Castelobruxo. During one of these wanders, she encountered a political protest outside the Centro Cultural da Justica Eleitoral and, without knowing what the protest was about, decided to join in. Of course, also participating in the protest was Mateo himself, and when the two locked eyes for the first time since they were fifteen, the world stood still for a moment. Mateo dropped the sign he was carrying. Mira broke into a smile. And they were inseparable from that moment on.

Mira didn't tell Mateo she was a witch until they decided to get married, outside the Centro Cultural da Justica Eleitoral on a starry night three years to the day after they had officially met at the protest there. At first, after Mira blurted out that she was a witch instead of saying yes to beginning their noivado, Mateo thought that she was trying to distract him from bringing up the topic of marriage; however, a few quick spells proved him wrong, but Mateo didn't care. So what if his beloved Mira was a bit different from the rest? She was still his Mira, and he was still her Mateo, and he asked her right then and there if she would care to travel the few blocks to the jewelry store he had suggested and pick out their aliancas. Relieved that she hadn't lost the love of her life to her magical secret, Mira agreed, and they were married later that year, settling in Rio.

Their first child, Manuela Maidana Macedo, was born just a few years later, on March 27, 2008. Looking rather like her mother, but with her father's darker complexion and lighter eyes, Manuela became their pride and joy. They stayed in Rio to raise her, as Mira was still working for the Brazilian Ministry of Magic and Mateo had gotten a job as a lawyer in Rio as well. Manuela's first instance of magic came at the young age of four years old, when the child - who was just beginning to learn to read - managed to shift some of her mother's papers off of the too-tall desk and into her chubby toddler hands, only to find that they were all written in a language she couldn't read (Ch’olti’, unbeknownst to Manuela). She ran complaining to her mother that the words were too hard, leaving Mira to wonder how Manuela had gotten the papers in the first place - and she eventually settled on the realisation that her daughter must have used magic, confirmed by a few other small instances over the years.

Shortly after that, Mira realised she was pregnant again, and gave birth to identical twin boys a few months after Manuela's fifth birthday - on July 3, 2013. The thrilled parents named them Macario and Moisés Maidana Macedo, once again following Brazilian tradition of the mother's surname before the father's, even though Macedo would end up being the surname used by all three children. Though Macario was a healthy baby, even big for his young age, Moisés was much smaller and weaker, and it was at first believed that he wouldn't even make it through the night. While Mateo stayed with Mira and Macario in their hospital, the still-young Manuela managed to make her way to the nursery, where she stayed outside all night, watching her sleeping brother being supported and cared for by Muggle nurses and technology until she finally dozed off with her head against the glass of the window. In the morning, Mateo and Mira realised their daughter was gone, prompting a hospital-wide search until a nurse finally noticed Manuela tucked up in the corner of the corridor, asleep outside the room where Moisés had somehow managed to make it through the night. From that moment on, Manuela became Moisés' protector, and though she loved her other brother as well, Moisés would always be her favourite.

Because the children were half Brazilian and half Argentinian, they grew up learning Portuguese from their father and Spanish from their mother (who also taught them a few basic words in Quechua and Ch’olti’, with the assumption that all three would someday attend Castelobruxo). Manuela attended Muggle schooling as a child, but her mother told her legends and tales of Castelobruxo and even allowed her to visit her at work every once and a while so that Manuela would keep in touch with the magical side of her heritage in which she would someday be immersed. The girl, who started going by Manu at the age of eight, truly grew up with a foot in both worlds - playing football with her schoolmates but Quodpot with her mother and brothers, learning Portuguese and English in school but Quechua and Ch’olti’ at home, looking forward to getting her first cell phone but also to getting her first wand. Of course, keeping her magical heritage a secret from her friends at school was always difficult, but she managed to keep her lips zipped until finally, finally, a tropical bird delivered the letter she had been waiting for, and that next September, Manu shipped off to her father's hometown of Manaus with a new uniform, new wand, and new outlook on life.

When she arrived at Castelobruxo, however, she was shocked, taken aback, and overall disappointed by the rampant Mugglephobia that plenty of her classmates seemed to have. As such, Manu dove into her studies and surrounded herself with other half-bloods and Muggle-borns, or people who had grown up in the culture at the very least; she joined the duelling team, where she could get out her aggression in a healthy and school-sanctioned manner, and let her anger fuel her into hard work. If she could rank high, after all, she could prove that her Muggle blood only made her stronger.

People

F A M I L Y

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Mateo Macedo (father)	Mira Maidana (mother)	Macario Macedo (brother)	Moisés Macedo (brother)	María Morales (ancestor)
Age: Birthday: Job: FC: Lázaro Ramos Terms:	Age: Birthday: Job: FC: Lorena Bernal Terms:	Age: Birthday: Job: FC: Jean Paulo Campos Terms:	Age: Birthday: Job: FC: Levi Asaf Terms:	Birthday: Status: deceased

F R I E N D S / E N E M I E S

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fourth year.

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= Abandoned || = In Progress || = Completed

• Long Arguments, Short Stories- June 21st, yelling at Boe Mirales Correa, Raul Mirales Correa, and Monet Navarro-Gallay for bullying first-years
• Leave the Wall Alone- August 14th, meeting Illowy Magnard while being very angry at Boe Mirales Correa
• Truth or Dare - Group Two- August 14th, playing a game of Truth or Dare at summer camp along with Ronnie Andréas
• Twirl the Flagon - Group 3- August 28th, Manu playing a game of Twirl the Flagon with/against Boe Mirales Correa and Raul Mirales Correa, kissing Winnie Harper and Mathias Pride
• Summer Duelling Extravaganza : Group 3- August sometime, Manu duelling on an international team with Elliot Bexley, against Ravenclaw team Dealla Prince & Robert Toukmond and against Gryffindor team Elsa Veronica Bennett & Alec Mason
• An Ocean Away- September 3rd 2022-June 2023, corresponding with & developing a crush on Illowy Magnard throughout the school year

fifth year.

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= Abandoned || = In Progress || = Completed

• The Horse Bird/Bird Horse Club- July 1st, Manu entering her cabin at camp & meeting existing near her cabinmates

sixth year.

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= Abandoned || = In Progress || = Completed

• Winter Summerland- July 15th, Manu entering her cabin at camp & meeting Cyrus Darsel from Ilvermorny
• Downhill Broom Sledding- July 19th, Manu sledding at summer camp
• The Mistletoe Spin Group #9- August 2nd, Manu playing a dance-themed version of Spin the Bottle at camp
• Carnival!- March 3rd, Manu attending a Carnaval celebration at Castelo and hexing Arno Dorian