Lucrezia Agnese Di Luca: Potions Professor

Full Character Name: Lucrezia Agnese Di Luca
Character Birthday & Age: July 1st, 1975, 34 years old
City & Country of Birth: Oxfordshire, UK
Blood Purity: Halfblood
Alma Mater: Hogwarts, Slytherin
Job/Position: Potions Professor

Although Lucrezia’s line of work and her passion, at the same time, usually rely more on her hands than her wand, she has been raised to properly respect the artifact as an extension of herself. As such, her current wand is also the only one she has ever owned. Bought from Ollivander’s at the age of eleven, the wand is carved from a 12” long branch of English Oak and imbued with the core of a Phoenix Feather. Rigid, as all oaks are, the wood is smooth and even, while the shaft is modestly decorated with a couple of protective runes.

Albeit a British Sicilian, Ezia does not possess the mediterranean features of her mother’s ethnic origins. With pale skin and dark hazel eyes, as opposed to the olive skin and black eyes of her mother’s ancestors, Lucrezia is every bit her father’s spitting image. Her black raven hair, and slim, slightly upturned nose are the only aspects that remind of her mother.

Standing at 174 centimeters, with a small delicate frame and bone structure, Lucrezia has often been called unhealthily thin. However, on closer inspection, she has a lean muscle mass, toned and firm, partly owed to her healthy life habits and partly to her dedicated trips into the wilds of the world with the specific purpose of gathering the best ingredients. After all, every dedicated Potions Master should personally see to acquiring his or her own ingredients.

However physical her work may prove at times, she is still dedicated to exhibiting elegance and good taste in her outfit choices. She favors dark colors, specifically because of the nature of her work, but makes no sacrifices in the style department. Bold and chic, her outfits walk the border between high class and risqué. Her big eyes are always lined and smoky, and five days out of seven her plump lips will sport a shade of vibrant red or pink.

Most often than not Lucrezia is a woman of few words and the same goes for her body language. She is usually unimpressed with the world at large and leaves the impression of being constantly bored, but, when needed she can flash a bright charming smile. She’s rather quiet, not deeming to impart her opinions on those lesser than her, but, when she does speak her words are carefully chosen and spoken clearly and without rush. Except when she is teaching. While she will never actually shout, a small rise in her voice and the nuances of her tone will always be able to translate her displeasure.

Calm and collected are traits that best describe Ezia, although some might say that her calm is best described as disinterest, and that is also mostly true. While genuinely dispassionate in most aspects of one’s life and interest, it would be a grave mistake to judge her as placid or impassive. She is not laid-back or easy-going, but merely impervious to everything that does not concern her directly or interest her. Even in circumstances of conflict, most of the time she’ll give you a look that says you are a waste of oxygen and continue to ignore you. When roused, however, her fury is unstoppable and she will rain fire with a quick swish of her wand and few well placed words.

Outside of her profession, she will exhibit a dark sense of humor, easy banter and teasing and can actually appear sociable. Although a bit cold and rather judgmental on occasion, she will in fact attempt to make the best of a situation. That isn't to say that she actually enjoys inter-personal communication all that much. She is in fact a rather private person and while having a number of acquaintances, she can count her friends on the fingers of one hand. Or maybe half of them. A woman of few words, and even fewer when it comes to her personal life, she can, and will, share her rather rude opinions of those she considers below her to those she actually has a connection with. The few things that manage to truly affect Lucrezia in an obvious way are ignorance and lack of education. She believes knowledge in whatever form it may come is the true divider between classes. But it’s those that can afford and are offered an education but choose to slack or ignore their studies completely that she’s truly passionate in her contempt for.

However cold and snobbish - to most adults - or odious and spiteful - to most of her students - she may seem, there are few circumstances and people that get to see a different version of Lucrezia. With her family she is most loving and careful, always relaxed and smiling and in the midst of a highly intellectual discussion, usually centered around one of her passions, you can almost see the excitement in her eyes. And if you've ever been lucky enough to join her on a trek for rare ingredients, you know that without the deadly heels, biting tongue and the atrocious detentions she hands out she's an adventuress who thrives on the potential dangers of the quest for knowledge.

Born to an English gentleman and a beautiful young girl from the countryside of Sicily, Lucrezia was a child that was deeply loved by her parents and, initially, caused considerable scandal. The classic story of rich man falls in love with peasant girl may not have played out in so pompous and dramatic a fashion as in most romantic stories out there, but it definitely had its ups and downs. The first was that the union was deeply frowned upon by the families of both John and Giuliana, the English side protesting that he was marrying beneath him, and a muggleborn nonetheless, while Giuliana’s family had objected on the grounds that their daughter would be taken away to another country. However, the second both sets of parents had found themselves in the role of grandparents all tensions disappeared under the miracle of new life and the opportunity to spoil their granddaughter rotten.

She had a blessed childhood, growing up in a little village in Oxfordshire, split between her mother’s love for nature and her father’s love of books. Privately educated, during the day she studied under her father and her tutors and in the evening she’d ride with her mother and play on the large property. It was very early on that she’d given signs of a heightened olfactory senses, and with nature surrounding the manor, both father and mother, but especially Giuliana, decided to introduce the girl to Herbology. Her mother was the one that encouraged her passion for Potions and Herbology, while her father set to make a proper lady out of her.

It was right around the time she’d received her letter from Hogwarts that something changed for Ezia. Hogwarts was a new and terrifying experience for the young girl. She’d been raised in a small village where she’d known everyone from birth, her parents obviously, but also the help, the stable staff, and the villagers. Her childhood had been rather sheltered and almost all her relationships had been formed by her parents, so it was a rather rough first year torn between her love for all the new exciting subjects she was learning and the complete loneliness of being unable to form relations because of her own social insecurities.

It only got worse once she returned home to find her parents seemed to have.. forgotten her while she was away at the castle. Lucrezia suddenly felt unimportant and all alone, and it was then that she started to withdraw more into her studies, founding solace only into her cauldron and ingredients. She continued like so throughout her entire stay at Hogwarts, detached and isolated but accomplished as both a student and a young lady. It was only once she graduated and returned home with the mind of a young lady that she reconnected with her parents. But the damage was done, and she had more pressing matters than internal reflection. Her baby sister would be born soon, however, and the rift between Ezia and her parents would become bigger.

She only stayed home for another half year then left for an apprenticeship in Sicily, with the twin purpose of visiting her mother’s homeland and studying under a renowned Potions Master. She was a fast-learner and a stellar pupil, if only for her complete dedication to her tasks and the pleasure of learning more. Even after her apprenticeship was finished she chose to remain in Sicily, under her mother’s name, where her father’s family had joined her to avoid a country torn by war. While her parents and sister returned home as soon the war finished, she still avoided the UK, choosing instead to travel the world to study in countries all over the world, teach, and by twenty five, even publish a few of her findings.

She eventually returned to Britain at the age of thirty, not to Oxfordshire, but to a little house at the edge of St. Albans; close enough to London but far enough to avoid the crowds and noise of the big cities she so hated. She continued her research, and kept mostly to herself, but now that she was near London, the epicenter of wizarding aristocracy, John insisted she mingled with a few of her own every so often. In truth, her father hoped to see her married soon enough, and Lucrezia would have none of that. So, torn between the stifling tightness of noble society and the growing challenges of her studies, she escaped to Hogwarts as soon as she caught wind of a Potions opening.

Describe your job duties and how you go about them:
As a Potions Professor, Lucrezia’s job is to instill the knowledge and practice of potion making into her students. She is the sort of woman that believes Potions require not only dedication and practice but also an innate predilection towards the subject. And it is because of this that she teaches with a very firm hand. She is not only a very strict professor, but also very demanding. She does not tolerate tardiness, slacking, defiance but most of all ignorance and superficiality.

She balances her lessons with both theory and practical application, expecting her students to have prepared for the lesson in advance. She usually starts with a discussion on the properties of various potions or ingredients, continues with applied activities, including the brewing itself and ends the lesson by assigning essays on the subject discussed in class. She sometime strays from her usual lesson plans in the hopes of catching her students unprepared with various creative or classic methods such as: tests, lessons that are not covered by the curriculum, seemingly dangerous methods of testing and so forth.

She has her own methods, that are maybe deeply frowned upon by her peers, but have proven successful in most cases. For example: every promotion she will usually single out the best and the worst students, in the hopes of making examples of them for the rest of the class. While with the worst she will probably push very far from their comfort zones, she will not show any sort of favoritism to the best, by all means, instead she’ll push them even further. To stabilize her own hierarchy in the class, whenever potentially hazardous accidents happen she will not only reprimand the cause of the catastrophe but the entire table as a means to prove that in the field of Potions, attention to potentially dangerous outside factors is a must.

Elaborate on your expertise in your field:
From an early age Lucrezia has shown signs of having an enhanced sense of smell, which is why her parents thought it a great idea to put her through Herbology and Potions training even before she joined Hogwarts. And she was immediately taken with the subjects. She continued to study with a passion and as soon as she joined Hogwarts it was immediately clear that she was a gifted child. Her OWLs and NEWTs in both subjects stand proof of that.

It became immediately clear to her that she’d continue on the Potions path when she graduated and thus sought an apprenticeship in Sicily. However, her brief tutelage under one of the most sought after potioneers was still not enough, so she chose to remain with him even after her apprenticeship was finished, this time on more even grounds. Discussing, studying and researching together. When she was eventually ready to move on, she visited cities and villages all over the world with the sole purpose of refining her skills and deepen her knowledge.

She studied foreign potions and researched the methods of the civilized worlds in relation with the approaches of those witches and wizards of less evolved countries. While on her trip around the world she also studied potions, plants and ingredients native to the the different areas she was passing through and findings worth sharing, she published in various potions journals. On her longer stays in different cities or villages she collaborated with various master potioneers in their teachings.

Since she’s returned to Britain she has focused her studies on local poisons and their antidotes with a special interest in Atropa belladonna and its derivatives. She has also been recognized as a Potions Mistress in recent years.

A relatively cold and strict woman, Lucrezia has minimal concern for anything outside of her own areas of interest, primarily the art of potion making. While she does have a soft side, she is extremely private and it is shown to only a few; while performing her duties she is scrupulously formal. Unable to bide laziness or ignorance, and barely able to tolerate stupidity, she is unforgiving towards those who she sees to possess these qualities, and unlikely to change her opinion. She’s been raised in a relatively non-traditional family, an aristocrat father and a Sicilian country girl mother, but found the balance between her two very different ancestries.

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Lucrezia Agnese Di Luca: Potions Professor

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Lucrezia Agnese Di Luca: Potions Professor

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