Full Name: Ariadne Belladonna Somersby
House: Slytherin
Age: 11
Wand: 27.8 cm chestnut wood and dragon heartstring
School Year: First
Patronus: (Not applicable until 6th years)
Species: Human

Appearance and Personality

A girl of eleven years with long dark blonde wavy locks, which she prefers loosely brushed or plaited back when necessary; Her skin is pale and freckled, contrasting with her pretty, dark brown eyes. Quite skinny and currently a little awkward with her body shape being a little too leggy for the moment. She has a soft Irish accent that seems a little sing-songy at times, and when pushed to laugh can sometimes lose herself in a giggling fit.

She is quick to smile but is often quite standoffish with new people until she feels safe to let them in, she doesn’t like to talk much about her family but when she does she pretends that they are still very rich, as her father told her too. On occasions, she can be boastful, and when she is it sometimes moves onto fanciful lies, but she's kind at heart and really just wants to be noticed and appreciated.

She actually hates to be embarrassed, which will likely be a problem to overcome on many occasions in the course of her growing up. Ariadne loves chocolate, but it quickly makes her feel queezy. She's never tried ice cream - but it sounds nice.

History

Pre Hogwarts

Ariadne Belladonna was born to the Somerby family. The third of four children of Dominic and Nerys Somerby. Her early years were spent in relative happiness living in the house of her Grandmother, Euphrates Somerby. Her earliest recollections were warm and comfortable; watching the grand old witch at work brewing potions and cooking stews in her kitchen, listening to stories whilst sat upon her grandfather's lap, whilst the sweetly scented smoke of his pipe filled the study or watching the smiling house-elf capering for the children's amusement.

The beautiful house in the countryside was surrounded by farms on three sides and a stand of old oak trees on the other, and she and her siblings played in the wide garden and even learned to swim in a nearby lake on a particularly warm summer.

Most of her memories of these times were bright and vivid, but there were scares to go with them. At six, she had been wandering the nearby woods with her sisters and had gotten lost for nearly an hour, her time alone was was scary but a little exciting at first, but a bad fall had left her with a cut on her leg, and when Dominic finally found her again she was greatly relieved, vowing never to set foot in the woods again! ( a promise she failed to keep the very next week ).

At seven, she followed her grandmother's cat out onto a window ledge on the upper floor of the old house, wondering just where it went, and making a fine job of following it scrambling up along a sloping thatch roof. As they climbed, a patch of loose thatch started to shift beneath them, the cat scampered to safety but the girl slipped from the roof and started to fall, showered in thatch and shrieking as she went.

As the ground swiftly came up to meet her Ariadne reached out and flailed to catch onto anything, finding no purchase. Her sister later recalled the final moments of the fall, the falling girl, the thatched straw, and then the moment it all seemed to stop suddenly a dozen inches from the ground, hanging there just long enough for the girl to stop screaming in surprise and then gingerly reach out to touch a slowly rotating straw. The moment she did the magic that had arrested the fall collapsed and Ariadne rapidly covered that final foot to the ground to land face first in a rockery, with many a cut and bruise for her troubles and a bloodied nose into the bargain. On hearing the news of his daughters fall and first incidental magic, Dominic was predictably pleased and excited, and Euphrates far more concerned than he ever seemed to be.

By the age of eight the Somerby’s had moved away from the family home to take up residence in a rather less well maintained and smaller property deep in the heart of an overgrown forest, though she is still unsure of the details she remembers the disagreements between her father and grandmother, and a short time later the children had been informed that their grandparents were gone.

Ariadne’s mother was not a particularly attentive parent, and neither she nor her husband had much interest in domestic matters, having relied so heavily on Euphrates diligent home-keeping. Instead, such matters were delegated to a local half-blood witch Olenna, a member of a poor family who was employed to maintain the Somerby home as a cook and cleaner.

Once, the Somerby’s had been considered a proud family, healers and wise counsel but the line of Somerby was subjected to a scandalous affair nearly a century ago when a pair of Somerby twins were revealed to be practising black arts of dark magic and had tried to hide the fact that such practices had been passed down through several generations of the family hidden from the rest of Wizard society.

Dominic Somerby had believed that such power and lore was a right of his family and he had been brought up to believe himself to be due to a degree of respect as a great wizard family. Raised in a home where such ideas were commonplace had meant that the children naturally came to regard such things as true, and though never comfortable with their father's obsession it was never questioned.

Ariadne had watched each of her elder siblings go off to Hogwarts before her, and each parting left her ever more envious and desperate to attend the school herself. The term times were frustrating for Ari. She had come to feel stranded at home with only her little sister as a companion, and since the sudden absence of her Grandparents, she had taken to learning her history and basic magic from her father. Though Dominic was a talented wizard and exceptional potion maker in his own right, his obsession with the families hidden line of dark wizards had tainted his teaching, his focus ever on preparing the children to make the family strong again.

Since they had moved to the isolated house in the uninviting forest Ariadne had found herself without many companions her own age, on occasion, she would meet with the children of her father's friends, who always appeared to be less than pleased with slumming it in the dark old building. Beyond that, her only occasional company was the half-blood daughter of the cook Olenna who her parents seemed ever worried over, convinced the child would see something she was not meant to see.

A precocious and inquisitive child, Ariadne was never totally convinced as to why her parents believed the housekeeper’s daughter to be so undesirable as a friend. She asked her father on several occasions, and then even went so far as to ask Olenna herself. These innocent observations sparked a raucous argument between Olenna and Ariadne’s mother, a disagreement which led to Olenna leaving the Somerby’s employment. Following Olenna’s exit, Ariadne overheard her father proclaiming that “The woman cost too much to keep anyway. What I wouldn’t give for a damned Elf, as is our right! Can’t have spying eyes in this house.” though no house-elf ever arrived.

Once Ariadne had come of age she received her Hogwarts letter, and upon her arrival at Hogwarts was shocked to receive a letter from her Grandmother, who Ariadne had assumed had died.

The letter spoke of warm wishes, great affection and an apology for not being present in her life. It transpired that following an argument founded in her parent’s extreme views on the family’s dark secret Ariadne’s father had chosen to disown his own parents, who themselves had never chosen to dabble in the dark arts. The letter further explained that the old house in the woods - a property long since abandoned by a forgotten branch of the Somerby family - had been warded and jinxed to stop all occupants to even speak of her grandparents and to stop all mail from arriving.

Euphrates had used the opportunity of Ariadne attending Hogwarts to bypass her father’s safeguards, and reconnect with her grandchildren. She sent on her own old cauldron, old books, many of which were no longer used on courses and such other keepsakes as she could.

Some other Things

Despite an easy confidence Ariadne exudes and the tales she tells people Ari really has no idea why anyone likes her, she pretends to be much more mature and worldly than she actually is and tries to play down the fact that her family are not half as rich as they pretend to be. Ariadne is exceptionally insecure on these subjects and sometime someone will call her on it.

The Somerby family have long been known as a talented line of witches and wizards, renowned in potioncraft, (and infamous for poisoncraft) for many generations - it’s also common enough knowledge to anyone with reason to look or know about it that the Somerby’s have been linked with Dark Arts frequently in the families history, and several members of the family have been outed in the past as notorious dark wizards.

Though Ariadne has never shown such talents so far it’s not a stretch to imagine that some rumours or outright lies circulate about her, and suggestions that she herself has learned dark arts. That might attract some people to her or cause others to mistrust her. One thing is certain, Ari has never actually denied such claims.

Historically, the family has had close ties to Hogwarts, in fact, Ariadne's great grandmother (Euphrates mother) once taught potions and in a temporary posting sat as head of house Slytherin at the school for a term.

RPG INDEX

Pre Hogwarts

• One Bird - Solo Thread
• Example - Placeholder

First Year

• Example - Placeholder
• Example - Placeholder

Relationships

Relationship 1 here