From a young age, Vera has amazed and
pleased others with her intelligence and wit. She has a sharp tongue, and after years
of experiencing little to no punishment for
it, she is not afraid to use it. Her opinions are steadfast, and the best way to convince
her of something is with logic. Her high
self-esteem gives her a lot of confidence in
most situations, though many times what
people perceive as confidence is actually just good acting. She is highly motivated, and
when she wants something, you can be sure
she will do everything she can to get it.
N E G A T I V E
Having had a privileged upbringing,
Vera is rather spoiled and expects
most things to be given when asked.
She has a difficult time empathizing
with others and can be selfish without
thinking. Although she has lost friends
in the past for this reason, Vera has yet
to grow a more compassionate side and
instead remains distant from those
around her. Due to her mother, Vera has issues with trust and tends to be pessimistic. She also has a habit of overthinking, as she constantly questions
the motives of those around her.
H I S T O R Y
i.
Reducio
Vera Collins is born on January 10, 2008 in the middle of a snowstorm. In the arms of her mother, Vera has no awareness of what is around her besides the fact that she is safe and warm. All around her are coos and voices of excitement. Hers was an at-home birth, with a midwife and other hired assistants. At this point, she has yet to be named.
"Oh, look, she has the Collins nose!" an aunt cries, and her father smiles and taps it gently. Every person in the room is a Collins except for the woman holding her baby, staring at her in awe. A whole other life that she and her husband created.
"I was thinking Vera, for the name," she says, looking toward her husband, "It's the same as my grandmother's."
At this, her husband goes quiet, for his wife rarely, if ever, speaks of her family. All he knows is that she is estranged from them, and that is all he needs to know to love her. He cannot protest such a name.
"Vera is lovely, darling. Our little Vera."
ii.
Reducio
"Such a sweet girl!"
"You are so lucky to have her."
"She looks darling in that new dress of hers!"
Five-year-old Vera smiles at the praise, spinning around to lift the edges of her dress with a flourish. She is rather cute at this age, the baby fat not having disappeared completely. Her hair is styled in pigtails with golden bows. Absolutely darling, indeed.
After a pointed look from her father, Vera dips into her best curtsy (still slightly clumsy) and says, "Thank you, Mrs. Kingsley." It draws more attention and more coos of appreciation.
While Vera definitely found enjoyment in the many compliments she received, she also tired of being paraded in front of her father's friends for too long. And after 15 minutes, it had definitely been too long. Her foot begins to tap in impatience, and after her father fails to notice that, she resorts to tugging on his pant leg.
"Can I please go?"
"Just a little longer, sweetie. We haven't met everyone yet!"
Vera knew that a little longer was actually quite a lot longer. By "everyone," Vera's father meant everyone in the giant ballroom they were currently in. She had been to these affairs before and suffered through the entire thing. She was not going to make the same mistake again.
Looking around, Vera searched for any glimpse of her mother. There she was, sitting at their table, speaking to no one. She usually did not enjoy these events very much. Vera put on her most pleading face and asked her father if she could go to Mother, and he agreed with the caveat that she would come back soon. Soon was a relative term, anyway.
"I'm bored Mother!" she cries as she approaches her, and Vera's mother smiles in reply.
In a whisper she says, "To be quite honest, I'm bored too. Would you like to go on an adventure with me?"
Vera immediately knows her answer, but has to glance back to her father with the reminder that she promised him she would come back.
To this, all her mother has to say is, "Oh, we'll come back eventually. And he'll forgive us no matter what we do."
And so, the two spend the night exploring the building, sharing each other's company and having much more fun than those in that stuffy ballroom. When they come back, Father is indeed angry, but not for long. He can never be angry with his wife and child for long.
iii.
Reducio
The sky is clear of any clouds, and sunlight streams down upon a gorgeous vista of greenery, hills, and sea. Vera is in one of her favorite places: the family villa, where she spends all of her summers. The house is made up of courtyards, arches, and painted tile everywhere. One of her favorite pastimes is getting lost in the infinite corridors and finding an unexpected balcony looking out to the ocean, or a secret passage down to the beach.
Now that Vera is seven, she is allowed more free time to play and explore without supervision. In the past, Vera's mother would accompany her most of the time, telling her stories of her own adventures here as a young girl. For the villa was not an asset of the Collins family. No, Vera's mother is the owner, and it contains a long history of her mysterious family.
That is another reason this place is one of Vera's favorites. She is constantly questioning her mother's family. Who they were, where they were from, why they seem to have disappeared. Vera is always seeking knowledge at this age, and her mother's family was no exception. When Vera asked too many questions, however, her mother often became angry, yelling at her until she stopped talking to her completely. Hours later, after Vera had already cried all the tears she could, her mother would find her and beg for forgiveness, as if she wouldn't do the exact same thing next time.
The villa provided Vera with an opportunity to find her own answers. There had to be some history left over within its walls.
On this particular day, Vera happens to stumble upon a room with a locked door. She immediately knows that if there is something to hide, she would find it out. So she asks around the housekeepers, the groundskeepers, the every-which-keepers for the keys, and eventually she is given a giant ring with at least 30 keys under the assumption that she is running an errand for her father and couldn't get into much trouble in this place anyway.
She arrives at the door, determined, and tries every single key on the ring. Even the supposed "Master key." None of them work. She is crestfallen, disappointed, wants to throw the keys into the ocean. She bangs on the door, yells in frustration, and finally, picks up the ring of keys to try them all again.
The first key she tries unlocks the door. Logically, this was impossible, as she had tried all of the keys already and none of them worked. Vera, too excited to question it, reasons that she must have missed this particular key and throws the door wide open.
Inside, the room is empty. The only light entering it comes through the doorway that Vera stands in. She walks in, determined to find something, anything, and notices that the back wall is not smooth. There's a giant frame on it, and in the frame lies an illustration of a tree. Upon its boughs lie pictures of people with names underneath. Vera, excited, realizes this is a family tree, and makes the connection that its her mother's family tree. She runs up to the frame scrutinizing it for her mother's image, heart pounding at such a remarkable discovery.
Before she can find it, she hears heavy footsteps approaching the room. Vera dashes out as quickly as she can, only to find her mother, the one and only, marching towards her with such a furious expression that Vera can barely recognize her.
"What were you doing in there?! How did you even get inside?! Vera, you are in so much trouble right now I—" The door to the room slams, and Vera spooks, jumping and staring at it. Who could have closed the door? Is the house haunted? It is angry at Vera for her trespass?
At least it stopped her mother's yelling. Her expression changes, slowly, from consumed with rage to icily calm. Her eyes glint with what looks to Vera like hatred. Her mother hates her now, definitely.
"Vera. Are you listening to me?"
"Yes, Mother." Vera's voice is small, quiet.
"When you find a locked room in this house, it should stay locked."
"Yes, Mother."
"What did you see in there?"
Vera pauses, thinking. Her mother obviously did not wish her to see anything.
"It was too dark to see anything. I had only just opened the door when you came."
Her mother gives her a look, and Vera knows that she knows she's lying.
"Come with me, Vera. You are not allowed to run around the house anymore without supervision."
Crestfallen, Vera follows the tall, striding figure of her mother and wishes she had not betrayed her trust so. Regret knots in her belly, and she allows it to fester.
iv.
Reducio
It's Vera's 11th birthday. It's Vera's 11th birthday, and she is decidedly not excited for what is to come. In a normal life, her former life, she would have been over the moon with excitement, absolutely brimming with it. But not in this life. For in this life, her mother had to leave her.
Rolling over in bed, Vera sighs and looks up at the ceiling, happy that at least her birthday fell on a weekend this year, so she does not have to go to school. Out of the corner of her eye, the door to her room moves, and without permission a sudden fantasy pops into her head, of her mother sneaking into her room and surprising her awake with a birthday kiss. It happened every birthday before this one, but logically Vera knows that it will likely never happen again.
Instead, it's Clementine the cat who strolls in, jumping onto Vera's bed and settling down next to her for some attention. His name makes no sense now that his fur is pitch black, but it used to, back when he was a ginger cat, before Vera released her...magic and changed his color forever. She changed his fur color. With magic. A year has passed after the incident, and it is still hard to believe.
Vera strokes Clementine's fur for a while before her stomach groans in complaint, and she makes herself get out of bed. She can get through this.
Downstairs, she finds her father sitting at the dining table, which is ornately laid out with almost every breakfast food in existence, including jolly boys, eggs, English muffins, fried bread, tomatoes, black pudding, sausages, and so on and so forth. He looks up and smiles at her, standing to give her a kiss on the top of the head.
"Happy birthday, love. I know it isn't the exact same as always, but I still tried my best," he says, before sitting back down and guiding Vera to her seat.
Vera could say nothing, so she sat down and took in the spread as best she could before diving in. Breakfast was her favorite meal, after all. And the maids really outdid themselves this year.
"Oh, I almost forgot. You've got some mail here." Her father hands her an envelope, and she studies it with interest, admiring the ink handwriting of her name and address before turning it over and finding the wax seal. It is of a crest of some kind, with an H in the middle and other details she cannot decipher. Could this be...?
Heartbeat picking up, Vera quickly opens the letter and reads its contents. Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.....We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted.... Vera never believed this day would come. The only thing she knew about Hogwarts was that it was a school her mother attended...of course! And now, Vera could attend too!
No longer would she be ignorant of everything her mother failed to teach her. No longer would she feel lost and scared about her magical abilities and what she would do with them. She was a witch, and she was going to train and learn at a witch's school!
This was actually turning out to be the best birthday ever.
E X T R A S (wip)
Did you know?
Vera is trained in many forms of dance, including ballet, waltz, tap, and modern. She prefers ballet or modern.
Likes:
Chocolate cake
Being right (thus proving others wrong)
The ocean/water
Wand
9.9 inches, aspen wood and snallygaster heartstring core
Dislikes:
Being ignored
Toad in the hole
Places that are too cold
