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Is this a Primary or Secondary Character?: Primary
Full Character Name: Anne “Annie” Prewett Enright
Character Birthday & Age: August 4th, 1993 – 16 years old
City & Country of Birth: Hippogriff's Crossing, Maine (USA)
Pureblood, Halfblood or Muggleborn: Pureblood
House & Year: Junior at Salem, Merlin Hall
Wand: 10 3/4 inches, willow, with a Unicorn Tail hair core
Physical Description: Annie Enright may not be your conventional beauty queen, but she tries to keep herself somewhat put together. It's just that it's impossible to get past the nose. It's not the worst nose in the world. Compared to all of the hook-noses and beak-noses and wart covered noses out there, it isn't the most terrible snout imaginable. It's just sort of big for her face, and a little bit crooked, with a great bulbous tip like a rancid cherry on top of the vanilla sundae that is the rest of her face. In reality, she has just been indoctrinated into believing that there has been and never will be a more hideous excuse for a nose in the history of the world. The poor girl has had to hear about her own imperfect schnoz for most of her young life, beginning with the earliest assurances that she'd 'grow into it' and, most recently, the maternal comforts of 'we'll fix it when you're older.' She can't help but feel self conscious, as though her whole head is one giant nose and it's all anyone will ever see. She's a teenager and not completely immune to breakouts – but when she ends up with a bright red whopper of a zit on her nose it's hard for her to convince herself to get out of bed in the morning and go on with her life. She's fairly certain that badly placed acne is a karmic punishment for wretched deeds done in a past life, because she can't imagine she's ever done anything to deserve such a fate. It's all such a shame, because her eyes are quite pretty for regular old brown eyes, as big and delicately lidded as they are, and her nice plump pink lips are hardly an eyesore. Her whole heart-shaped face is very nearly a harmonious image of young loveliness – but the nose throws it all off, removing all traces of symmetry and forcing her to entertain a whole lot of angst. One day she will come to understand that it adds character, but at the moment she is thoroughly resentful of it.
The rest of her is pretty average, as far as sixteen year old girls go. She stands at about 5'3, with a slight build and a modest bust. Nothing about her is especially athletic looking, and she walks with a very reserved gate, like there may or may not be something jammed up her posterior orifice at all times. Her hair is straight and brown, falling to her shoulders when not tied back. She's fond of stubby little braids for their practicality, and is one of the gifted few who can effectively french braid her own hair. She owns some makeup, but isn't particularly good at actually remembering to put it on, so it mostly just comes out when she has something to cover up. She has her favorite jewelery, and although she is in possession of some lovely, heirloom pieces, she prefers junky rings and bangles and all sorts of cheap nonsense that her mother calls tacky. Then again, her mother thinks everything but diamonds are tacky, so that isn't saying much.
Coming from her very traditional, conservative pureblooded family, Annie's wardrobe consists of an absurd amount of tailored robe ensembles, all purchased by her mother. Although she grew up dressing like what her parents would call a “proper witch,” she has come to resent the formality as strongly as she resents her bulbous nose. When she was younger she only ever got to 'dress down' when she was riding. It wasn't until she arrived at Salem for sixth grade that she realized that, apart from the teachers, she was the only one kicking back in robes during her downtime. It wasn't long before she began to realize that there was more than one way to dress like a “proper witch” after all. All of her comfortable muggle clothing is secret, kept in a hidden compartment of her closet where her mother can't find it and use it to accuse her of being an ungrateful heathen... again. Annie has a pretty decent eye for clothing, given her artistic sensibilities, and now that she's been at Salem for a few years she can pair a hoodie with a pair of jeans like she has been doing it for her entire life. She absolutely cannot believe there was ever a time before her beloved pair of green converse low-tops, and hiding them for the summer always feels like a betrayal.
Personality Description: Thanks to her mother's unique parenting style, Annie Enright is one of the most jittery, neurotic creatures the world has ever come by. It's unfair to blame her mother entirely, since temperament may have a thing or two to do with it, but living in the home of a fairly critical woman who is incapable of muzzling her maw seems to have put Annie in a position to question everything she does. She is a chronic worrier, and it is a common sight to find her bouncing slightly and muttering to herself, a drawn and desperate look on her face. She is well known amongst her classmates for being the girl who psyched herself out so badly before her first quiz as a sixth grader that she spent the entire class puking her guts out in the bathroom and had to take it over lunch. She is one big ball of nerves, so terrified by the prospect of failure that she often cannot turn her brain off and relax, but she's also the first person to admit failure if things don't go the way she'd planned. She is incapable of forgetting to hand in assignments because she stays up half the night agonizing over them, and has displayed some borderline obsessive tendencies when it comes to memorizing incantations for class.
She does not have any sort of photographic memory, and her mind is no steel trap – she works her butt off, and she gets a lot of slack for it. She spends a lot of her downtime re-writing notes, memorizing flash cards, pacing while she recites, and sobbing over open books the night before a test. She is never content that she actually knows something inside and out. She is pretty decent at information retrieval and retention at this point, and performs well as a result. Because she doubts how much she really knows she rarely raises her hand or volunteers information, but when called on she almost always sheepishly admits that she knows the answer anyway. She is the first to cover up her score when getting an assignment back, and it's like pulling teeth to get her admit that the grade she seemed so unhappy with was a 95%.
None of this is a secret, because Annie Enright is not exactly discrete with her emotions. Everything she feels manifests itself in some physical way. If tears were an energy source the girl could single handedly power the whole country. Although her negative emotions are more noticeable (it's hard to ignore a look on her face like she's just been pantsed in front of the whole school), she's just as forthcoming with excitement, happiness, and other positive emotions. Her face is an open book. When she has overcome an obstacle the relief one can see in her face is palpable, and when she is tickled to the core she cannot keep herself from skipping and giggling like a loon. Whether happy or sad she tends to chatter quite a bit, and her mouth is frequently running, airing out her worries or concerns, but occasionally gushing about something most reverently. She can be nauseatingly giddy when a topic excites her. Most of the time, however, she is panicking. There is always something to panic about. It gets exhausting.
Annie's attention to detail contributes to this in a major way. She tends to be meticulous, which is a good thing in some situations and a bad thing in others. Her class notes are fantastic, and if you can get her to lend them to you, you're golden. Sometimes she even illustrates them. It helps that she's a fairly accomplished artist. The attention to detail she has displayed since her earliest years gave her the confidence to pursue art as a hobby, and now it's a major point of pride for her. Paint stresses her out for reasons she's unable to articulate without making a bunch of nonspecific noises of disgust, but she enjoys drawing and dry media, and working with watercolors and gouache is a recent obsession. She can draw horses without a visual reference, since she has looked at so many horses in her life and is familiar enough with their anatomy to make realistic choices. Her whole life has been spent surrounded by lovely winged horses, having grown up in the Northeast's Hippogriff's Crossing, where she has been taking lessons and cavorting with her father's stable hands and farriers since she was three. For much of her life she has felt inclined to go into veterinary healing and work with equines and/or large livestock, but her brother has been filling her head with the suggestion that she might want to attend a muggle art school instead. At the moment she's undecided. To attend a muggle school would be to directly oppose her mother, and that's not something she feels she could do on a large scale without some considerable gut-clenching guilt.
Most of her overachieving is a never ending attempt to get her parents to notice her. Her mother, as mentioned, is unintentionally overcritical of her only daughter, filling her head with doubts upon doubts about how she looks, behaves, and lives her life. She is constantly hinting, in a way she thinks comes off as good natured at best and blasé at worst, that her daughter is lacking in some way. On the other hand, her father can't even be bothered to make a negative comment most of the time, like her very existence puzzles him. When her parents do notice something she does, however, she's filled with an indescribable feeling of accomplishment. Annie is like a junkie, constantly working in pursuit of a positive reaction from her parents. She just wants to be worth their attention, even if she drives herself mad in the process. There aren't enough extra credit assignments in the world to satisfy her. It's easy to understand why entering an international competition in pursuit of eternal glory might appeal to a girl like her.
With that said, she comes with a few distinct weaknesses. Her need to be perfect and go above and beyond all of the time can come off as utterly annoying, and no matter what there will always be at least one classmate who is furious at her for taking her assignments to the next level when they planned to scrape by doing the minimum. Frankly, when it comes to how well Annie does, she doesn't think about others much. She certainly doesn't intentionally try to make people look bad. That doesn't mean she isn't on the receiving end of her classmates' jabs, however. There's plenty there for them to choose from, whether they want to mock her worried rambling, her childlike enthusiasm for certain things, her posture, her appearance, her naivete – she's like an all you can eat buffet of mockability. She's well aware of it, but can't seem to change herself in such a way that would make her peers back off. She's about as earnest about her choices as you can get, however, so there's usually someone willing to come to the emotional girls' defense when things get bad.
Annie can ride a horse with finesse on the ground or in the air, is accomplished at dressage, jumping, and aerial events, and she's alright on a broomstick... but do not introduce a ball into the equation. As soon as a ball is involved she's essentially useless. Annie Enright has the hand-eye coordination of a legally blind toddler wearing mittens. She won't even humiliate herself by playing quodpot anymore because if she can even catch the quod (which is rare in itself – normally she misses it completely or gets beamed in the face), it always, always, always ends up exploding on her – which is actually a blessing in disguise, because the sooner she can get off the field, the better. She has her strengths and team sports just aren't any of them. She's a spaz and she knows it, so she stays away from that kind of humiliation whenever possible. The things she can't help are bad enough.
Furthermore, her very traditional pureblooded upbringing means that, in certain situations, she acts more like an alien creature than a human being. There is still so much of the muggle world and culture that she can't even begin to wrap her head around, and she has been known to ask dumb questions on occasion (and then spend the rest of her life apologizing for them). Pop culture eludes her unless she has been given a very direct introduction to something. She has been sheltered, and sometimes her lack of experience really seems like an impairment. Ignorance is never her intention, but sometimes it can't be helped. She doesn't know how to just 'chill out' or 'go with the flow.' Sometimes she needs to be forcibly dragged and introduced to different things against her will. Though she can come off as antisocial at times, she really does appreciate efforts to include her and to bridge the gap between her world and the wider world. She just needs a little help sometimes.
History: Long, long ago, back when the entire state of Maine was just a forest by the sea, one of the earlier magical settlers, a heroic but dirt poor man called Enright with nothing but a mating pair of Hippogriff's to his name, flew his family over from Europe, cleared a chunk of that forest by the sea, and became the first breeder of hippogriffs on the North American continent. He'd cleared the trees himself. He'd put up the anti-muggle wards himself. He'd built his own cabin on the property, and erected a primitive paddock for his distinguished livestock. In the winding, unsettled woods of Maine, his family was the only family around, and it was his land to name – and so he did. Thus, the small, cloistered area that the man had cleared with blood, sweat, tears, and a fair bit of magic, became Hippogriff's Crossing.
It would be quite a few years before there were no longer any Hippogriffs in Hippogriff's Crossing. There just wasn't a huge market for Hippogriffs in the states. The location, however, was prime. It was completely warded off and separate from the rest of the world, with a strong, generations old overarching disillusionment charm on the property. There were acres and acres of land there that muggles did not even realize existed, so even when Maine became populated and known for its tourism, the entirety of Hippogriff's Crossing remained a muggle-free oasis. The ancestors of that first brave hippogriff riding pioneer eventually turned to the more genteel venture of breeding winged horses, and as the cultural climate of wizarding America developed, this would prove to be an excellent move.
Because of the accidental forethought of the first Enrights in America, the Enright family is currently the prime breeder, boarder, and provider of Winged Horses in the North Eastern United States, and the property, because of its size and lack of traceability, is home to a good majority of the nation's magical riding tournaments, horse shows, gymkhanas, and riding clinics. There are weddings and parties held there, people rent out the pastures for flying, and magical creature conferences of all sorts have taken place on the property. There is even an annual flying car show each summer, where test drives are popular. The Enright family employs stable hands, farriers, a veterinary healer, riding instructors, and groundskeepers. Where there was once a log cabin there are now two very large homes. Where there was once a primitive paddock there are now stables and riding rings and two-tiered stands for spectators. Where the woods were once the densest there are now riding trails in various levels of difficultly. Where there was once a worn out, poor, and desperate man making this dream happen, there is now the Enright family, one of the wealthier families in American magical society.
The patriarch of the family is Leland Enright Jr., who has lived on the property for his entire life. He married his wife, Eseld Prewett, after a courtship that began when she was visiting the states from her home in England. She wasn't fond of the idea of even visiting America initially, certain that it was primitive and far too liberal for her tastes, but she found the young Leland charming, and the muggle-free pseudo-city at his disposal even more so. She had no interest in severing her familial connections with the British Ministry of Magic, and would go on to become the British Ambassador to the United States' Ministry of Magic after she wedded Leland. They had their first child, Leland III, two years after they were first wed, and their second son, Christopher, three years later. It would be another five years before, in a fit of biological-clock induced desperation, they conceived their first female child. Anne Prewett Enright was born on August 4th, 1993, in her home in Maine. Her mother was ecstatic to finally have a girl, but that ecstasy must have been short lived, because three days later they'd hired a night nurse, and by the end of the week they had a full time nanny moving into a downstairs bedroom. She was loved, of course, but the two parents were at a very different place in their lives now than they had been when they'd had their sons, and refusing help just seemed foolish.
The little girl's early childhood could have been titled 'The Adventures of Annie and Nanny.” It would have been a story taking place in what was essentially an isolated snow globe filled with winged horses where she floated around aimlessly, conversing with various adults in the throes of doing their assortment of stable jobs. Although her parents were very hard working people and she often didn't get to see either one of them until dinnertime, there were many people around the place who didn't mind her questions or her “help” (which, coming from a small girl, wasn't always all that helpful), and though she saw very few children on a regular basis, she came to know and love her father's employees. By the time she was three she began riding lessons (which, for the first two years, took place exclusively on the ground). It was impossible not to become a horse lover when she was surrounded by the beautiful beasts every moment of every day, especially because each and every beloved adult who worked with the animals regularly modeled fearlessness, compassion, and love for the large and glorious creatures. They were her father's business and the source of her family's lavish lifestyle, but she loved them for their own sakes.
When she was five she swapped her beloved nanny for a governess, who taught her at home. A muggle education was absolutely out of the question, according to her parents. It was a combination of her mother's old fashioned, English pureblooded upbringing and her father's sheltered life in Hippogriff's Crossing that lead to this very firm decision. She took her regular lessons with the governess in the morning and early afternoon, had one or two other lessons in the late afternoon (usually riding, plus something her mother stuck her on to keep her busy), and then reunited with her parents in the evening for dinner. Her weekends were spent bugging the stable hands, sneaking her favorite horses treats, and currying horse bums until the winged creatures were nearly purring like cats. Summers were the best, though. That was when she was reunited with a younger, less stern nanny and got to go on adventures and day trips, and spent many a day splashing in the ocean and returning home with the sticky contents of her peach ice cream cone dripping down her arms and legs. Better yet, her brother Christopher was home from school in the summer, and while her parents always gave him a hard time, he was one of her favorite people on the planet.
Somehow, though, it wasn't good enough. Annie was a people-pleaser, and while she had many friends amongst her caregivers and her father's staff, the struggle to get her parents to notice her was (and still is) the central conceit of her young life. Her oldest brother, Lee, was her parents' pride and joy, and was a very successful student at the Salem Witches Institute of Magic. Her second oldest brother, Chris, was very different from Lee, and his generally dissenting attitude often garnered him negative attention, but attention all the same. Annie, however, was just Annie. When her mother commented on her, it was usually a teasing remark about the size of her nose or her lack of success in one endeavor or another. She wasn't particularly interested in Annie's horsemanship, though it was one of her daughter's passions. But when she did something noteworthy? The praise was like a shot of adrenaline right into her brain, and she lived for her mother's approval.
That was how she started drawing. Annie had always attended to detail in a major way – it was one of her cognitive strengths – so even her earliest colorings were quite lovely and harmonious in a way that not all young children's drawings are. Her people had fingers and eyelashes and necks – which isn't necessarily typical in all young children's artwork – and she was showered with all of the praise she could have ever hoped for. Her mother even took the initiative to frame some of her better drawings. She was hooked. What began as a method of getting positive attention from her parents slowly turned into a serious hobby, and the visual arts slowly became about as sacred to her as her horses. While equestrian tournaments and gymkhanas came with medals and trophies and titles, art was somehow more personal. Her mother still judged her – but her mother judged everything she did. She preferred her judgments to be positive, when she could swing it. As a result, drawing became a source of confidence, and a favorite hobby.
Annie's upbringing was definitely a sheltered one. Although the family had gone on trips from everywhere from Kennebunkport to the English countryside, her childhood included almost no major exposure to muggles. Everything she heard about them was second hand, and when she actually did encounter them she was so certain they'd be something thoroughly alien and strange that she didn't even notice that she was in their presence. That was not the only way in which she was sheltered. She didn't quite realize just how privileged she was compared to some, and she also hadn't spent any amount of time with children her own age. When she turned eleven and was extended an invitation to attend SWIM, she may as well have been presented with a portal onto another planet. Luckily, she got to go off to school with her beloved brother Christopher during her first year there, which made the transition from one planet to another slightly easier. Even so, from the moment of her arrival on the Junior campus, it was clear that she was weird.
It was perplexing. Nobody had ever suggested to her just how strange she was – but there were other kids socializing with such ease! They had interesting games and belongings that she'd never even imagined! Their wardrobes were diverse and interesting! She didn't know how to relate to these creatures! Some things were a little bit familiar at the school. They had stables, at least, though her precious horse Hexes wasn't there. It was a culture shock, to put it lightly, and for the first few weeks Annie was almost inconsolably homesick. She really wanted to make friends, but barely knew how. She was a girl who wore her emotions on her sleeve - it was difficult to convince people that the girl who was likely to start sniffling out of nowhere could make an acceptable playmate. It took some time before she was really comfortable and had people she could call her friends. Slowly she became indoctrinated into life at Salem. There were plenty of artistic people, and plenty of horse lovers, and she was able to learn about her friends' worlds. Before long she was borrowing their comfortable muggle-style clothes and listening to music she never realized existed. She quickly learned that she had to hide her expanding interests from her mother, lest she be called out for disrespecting her own rich magical heritage.
So some parts of her new life she kept a secret, like her interest in certain aspects of muggle culture. She had a secret wardrobe, for instance, consisting of the greatest inventions the world had ever known – blue jeans, hoodie sweatshirts, and low top sneakers. Although she was willing to oppose her mother in this way, in her heart of hearts she was still desperate to please her. She did well in school, if only because she hoped for some shred of recognition for it, and became an accomplished member of the school's equestrian team. By the time she was entering her junior year she'd been named the team captain, which is one of the accomplishments she is most proud of (even if she couldn't accept the position officially – she hopes she might pick the title back up next school year). At the same time, Annie found she was becoming more serious about her art, and found herself questioning which of her passions she should pursue. Her brother Chris, now living in Portland with his boyfriend and working as a nurse at St. Dymphna's, was encouraging her to consider pursuing admission to a muggle art school after finishing up at Salem, and she found the prospect tempting. Still, she felt conflicted.
When she heard news of the tournament, however, nothing else seemed important. It was every opportunity she'd ever wished for realized! All she wanted was to do something so phenomenal that she'd have no choice but to catch her parents' attention, and with all of the talk of champions and greatness, it seemed like just the thing! Her mother had attended Hogwarts, after all, so how could she say no to letting her daughter go and visit her alma mater in the pursuit of eternal glory? Needless to say, Annie spent all of the time leading up to the selection of the delegation actively overachieving (though when did she ever do anything else?) and trying to prove that she'd be good enough.
Classes: Core Classes No Charms No Herbology No Potions Transfiguration No | Electives No No Care of Magical Creatures No No
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Why Was The Student Allowed/Permitted To Attend The Tournament?: For all of her flaws, Annie is a high achiever in school and very seldom finds herself in trouble for any reason. She's well studied and capable and, when she set her mind on being included in the Salem delegation, she stepped up her game even further. Although she is not athletic in the conventional sense, she does have decent balance, core strength, and three-dimensional spatial intelligence, and has been through some riding injuries that might have turned the less dedicated off of the sport forever. Her strengths include her attention to detail and her functional retention, and her perfectionism is less of a problem when the goal is indisputable success. Most importantly, she wanted to be included with every fiber of her being, and that eagerness shone through when it was time to choose which students would be sent to Hogwarts. Her mother's role as a British Ambassador to the American Ministry may have had something to do with it, but Annie hasn't even begun to consider such an idea, and believes she was chosen on her own merits. She's not sure she's ever been prouder in her entire life – and she hasn't even been chosen as a school champion yet.
Writing Sample: n/a
Sum up your character in one paragraph: Annie Enright is a slightly neurotic perfectionist hailing from Hippogriff's Crossing, Maine, where she has been raised in a bubble of winged horses and mild pureblooded bigotry for the past sixteen years. She is both an artist and an equestrian, but spends most of her time agonizing over school work and trying to catch the attention of her aloof parents. She is somewhat uptight but, with the right sort of coaxing, can be convinced to relax and have fun for fun's sake. Her self esteem needs a lot of work, and she can be pushed to tears with remarkable ease, but at her core she is a girl caught between worlds who wants most of all to make everyone around her proud.