Full Character Name:Jeun Ji-HyunCharacter Birthday & Age: Born 25th May, 1993City & Country of Birth: Bristol, EnglandBlood Purity: MugglebornHouse & Year: Sixth year HufflepuffWand: Her second wand from Ollivander’s, it draws its power from a Phoenix feather core. It measures 10 ¼” and is made of walnut wood. Slightly springy, it excels at transfiguration.-Physical Description-With dark hair scraped away in what she calls a bun and other people describe as a mess, Ji-Hyun has a gift for almost always being in slight disarray, whether it’s mismatched socks, shirt missing a button, or something else entirely. It’s further proof, if any was needed, of the difficulty Ji-Hyun has with timekeeping and organisation, and while it’s rarely a matter of extreme severity, it’s enough that she rarely manages to look smart without intervention. It’s not to say that she doesn’t take some care with her appearance, and when the occasion calls for it, Ji-Hyun even enjoys dressing up. Not enough to want to do it every day, but enough.
While she's not short - maybe an inch below average for her age - there's something about the way Ji-Hyun stands, or maybe an air that she gives off, that makes people categorise her firmly as short. It’s an impression that is helped by looking cute more than anything else. Rounded cheeks and a guileless smile make her look younger than she is, and a favourite for cheek pinching; her response, usually eyes rounded in silent objection and a hand lifting to rub at the cheek a bit while she blushes, making it even more enjoyable.
But blushes are easy to provoke, appearing the moment she’s teased about anything, or if she accidentally makes eye contact while looking about, something that she does a lot. Her eyes either flit around the room, or across the face of the person she's talking to, and if they remain steady it's almost certainly because her attention has drifted inwards, and she’s paying none whatsoever to whatever she’s looking at. But when she is engaged, it's easy to tell, her focus remaining constant and her head bobbing along in agreement every few seconds in a way that can seem exaggerated to the point of mockery, although, of course, it isn’t.
Although she’ll never be on the Quidditch team, and really very strongly dislikes flying and would rather not go anywhere near a broom, Ji-Hyun can put on a surprising turn of speed when she wants to, something that has saved her from being late to classes more times than she would like. Her arrival in the doorway of the classroom, her uniform in typical disarray and a smile of relief on her face just as the bell goes, is a common one. Normally, however, she walks at a more normal pace, a walk that is slightly more bouncy than usual, although not much so.
-Personality Description-When people first encounter Ji-Hyun, they don’t so much notice her enthusiasm, which is near boundless, as have it rammed down their throats – not that she would ever dream of doing something like that literally. Everything she does, she approaches (or at least tries to approach) with a cheerful enthusiasm, unperturbed by setbacks and possessing an unusual determination to complete any task she’s given. No matter how ridiculous – or, in a few childhood instances, impossible – they might be.
Forever prepared to see the best in others, sometimes at her own expense, Ji-Hyun’s forgiving nature and optimism can make her seem more than a little naïve. While she isn’t precisely immature, the trust she places in other people and the assumption that they will do the right thing can make her seem childish, and being less than brilliant at reading people can make her seem more than a little dense. She’s slower to pick up on the mood of others and occasionally needing things to be spelled out for her when they might be obvious to someone else. It makes Ji-Hyun cautious when it comes to giving people advice, unless it’s about school work (although why anyone would approach her to ask for help with that is a mystery), because she can’t pick up on the subtleties of the problem and although she understands that people respond differently to how she would (obviously) on a theoretical level, she finds it difficult to reconcile her thoughts with that. She’s not awkward, not usually, but the subtleties of tone fly over her head, and usually it’s only after carefully recalling a conversation that she can pick up on subtext.
And boy, does she need those good intentions. It’s not that Ji-Hyun ever means to doodle during class, or start counting the flagstones in the middle of a conversation, but she never quite mastered the ability to focus on a task – any task – for longer than a couple of minutes. The teacher begins to talk, she listens attentively, and then she remembers that she forgot to send her sister a letter, or perhaps notices a bird fly past the window, or maybe remembers something that’s tangentially related to what they’re learning, and by the time she’s remembered that what she’s supposed to be thinking about is what the teacher’s saying, it’s halfway through the lesson and everyone else is industriously writing. It frustrates her, of course, but she’s used to it. And the disappointed looks she receives when she hands her work in half done, and the detentions that follow.
And although if you asked, you would just get a groan of frustration and a self-deprecating laugh, the constant orders to try harder and serious talks from… almost every figure of authority she’s encountered, really, have left Ji-Hyun with the conviction that she’s… well, not good enough. Because she tries, throws her all into everything, and when she gets called up for not putting enough effort in, it means her all isn’t sufficient. It’s not obvious, because Ji-Hyun’s optimism borders on the manic, but it’s still there, and even if she’s used to it and tries to use criticism to inspire her to work harder, her self-esteem is still fragile. She might not be good at reading people, but she’s not completely stupid either, and she’s well aware that her family baby her, and people tend to coddle her a little more than usual – she doesn’t mind, you understand, but sometimes she just wishes that they… wouldn’t.
It’s a shame, because despite while her grades, which range from Outstanding through to Troll and are most frequently Acceptable, might not give the impression of exceptional intelligence - or even average intelligence - Ji-Hyun is a bright spark in the dark cavern of the morons who make up the majority of Hogwarts’ population brilliant. If she could pay attention for long enough, frighteningly so, but as it is most people see only glimpses of it - that she can answer (almost) any question in Arithmancy without needing to work anything out on paper (and asking her to do that would probably result in a confused stare), or that sometimes when she’s called on in class, she can provide an answer that goes well above and beyond what was asked for, if only after the question has been repeated.
-History-As the youngest (and, even by the standards of small children, an exceptionally cute toddler) Ji-Hyun was the baby of the family, and even when her habit of dismantling household appliances began her family doted on her no less.
Oddly, her parents were less surprised when she started showing signs of magic – both of her siblings had already demonstrated magical ability, although they’d been a few years older when it first began. But with Ji-Hyun, the discovery was considerably more problematic, because unlike her older siblings, she was able to call on her magic at will. Rather than being limited to a few freak incidents, ones that could be dismissed as accidents or merely strange events, Ji-Hyun levitated her toys around her room, laughing as her parents tried to grab them and keep them on the ground, and had conversations with her toys – ones that stopped the moment anyone else was in the room.
With Ji-Hyun’s arrival, then, a few odd events became suddenly worrying and significant. Her parents, while suspicious of this mysterious force, were canny enough not to make the information public, well aware of the potential problems that telling someone else could hold. That wasn’t to say that they did nothing about it, searching furtively over the internet for a possible explanation, and on one dire occasion visiting a mystic, but their failed attempts to find an answer that wasn’t as arcane and bizarre as magic failed, and all three children were warned that their unusual abilities were absolutely secret from everyone, and that they must never use them outside of the house.
It was a warning that wasn’t totally followed, but for once, it was Ji-Hyun who kept her promise – even the odd events that marred her older siblings’ time at primary school didn’t blemish her record, and instead it was her inability to complete the work set and her (entirely unintentional) distracting behaviour in class that got her into trouble. But despite a patchy academic record, she enjoyed school and made friends swiftly thanks to her cheerful and open behaviour.
When Ji-Hyun was seven, an explanation was finally offered for why she and her older siblings could do certain unlikely things, as a letter was sent informing the family that her elder sister had been accepted into a school for witchcraft and wizardry. At first, it was described as ludicrous – although they had applied to mystics for an explanation of the phenomenon, they’d never taken any of the answers they’d received seriously, and the visits had merely been eliminating possibilities.
Although her parents were keen to see their children go to the establishments of education they were familiar with, Hogwarts’ ability to cater to their unusual talents convinced Ji-Hyun’s mother that it was the only reasonable option for her daughter’s education. But her father, mistrustful of the secrecy of Hogwarts and magic itself, insisted that she would attend a more normal school – and after all, hadn’t they been carefully saving so that their children would be educated in the private sector? The argument escalated, and as August began to near its end they were no closer to determining a final answer, stubbornness at least partially responsible for the lack of development.
It took another incident, although it was their son at the heart of it, to convince both parents that the best thing for their children’s future would be if they went to a school of magic.
But despite their best efforts, the argument had not gone unnoticed by the children. All three were well aware of what it was about, despite the older children also trying to conceal the disagreement from their little sister. Although she wasn't able to understand the causes of her father's concern, she was able to grasp well enough what the argument was about, and like her siblings, waited for the outcome with nervous anticipation. Their last minute trip to Diagon Alley was the happiest day of Ji-Hyun's summer - although not her parents.
The year was tense, her Father still unhappy at the loss of his daughter to the mistrusted world of magic, while both Ji-Hyun and her brother were desperate to find out more about the mysterious school that they would one day attend. Her older sister’s letters were fascinating, poured over and discussed at length by the two children when their parents weren’t around. But although they were sure they would one day pass into this other environment, they were still expected to excel in their current academic setting, not that Ji-Hyun did.
As the time approached where Ji-Hyun was due to receive her letter for Hogwarts, she became increasingly agitated, swinging between the conviction that she wouldn't receive the letter because she had the wrong kind of magic and boundless enthusiasm for the long awaited passage into the world of magic. When it did arrive, Ji-Hyun was ecstatic, looking forward to finally experiencing the world of magic first hand. She was both disappointed and relieved not to be sorted into the houses of either of her siblings, but the enthusiastic welcome she received from her house was a relief to her. Better educated on the wizarding world than most muggleborns, Ji-Hyun’s knowledge trailed behind that of those who had been brought up surrounded by magic, but as the year progressed, that gap began to close. Still suffering from most of the problems that had made her time at primary school difficult, even Ji-Hyun’s fascination with all things magical wasn’t enough to keep her focused in class, and her grades swung wildly between success and abject failure.
But despite that, Ji-Hyun loved Hogwarts, the mystery of the magical world and the building itself. Her new house, while apparently held in some contempt in various quarters, was welcoming, and she was relieved not to have been put in somewhere like Slytherin. Still, she wasn’t as much of a credit to her house as she would have liked, losing more points than she gained and continuing her poor homework record. It was a relief when the letter containing her grades for her OWL exams revealed that she had (barely) obtained the necessary grades to continue the subjects she wanted to.
-Classes-Core Classes
No
Charms
Defense Against the Dark Arts
No
No
Potions
Transfiguration
No | Electives
No
Arithmancy
Care of Magical Creatures
No
Muggle Studies
|
-How Do You Fit Into Your House?-It comes as a surprise to most to discover that Ji-Hyun is a Hufflepuff - her boisterousness is more commonly found among Gryffindors, and when someone’s known her for long enough, her intelligence would make it seem more likely that she’d be sorted into Ravenclaw. But although her teachers might contest this, she really does work hard, even if sometimes she’s working hard on listening to the teacher instead of, say, doodling. Or thinking about pudding, yum. And even if she has a sometimes peculiar way of going about it, she’s loyal to her friends, and would never break her word. Well, not deliberately.
-Writing Sample-See Alexandra Carstairs-Sum up your character in one paragraph- Irrepressibly cheerful and hopelessly optimistic, Ji-Hyun’s sunny personality is at once endearing and frustrating. Although she finds it difficult to concentrate, her stubborn optimism and intelligence prevent her grades from being abysmal, although they’re by no means as high as they could be. A muggleborn with a strong love of electronics, she is nevertheless fascinated by the magical world and all it has to offer. But although she laughs it off, she finds her difficulties with concentration incredibly frustrating, and the instinctive comparisons with older siblings have left her with the constant need to strive harder to be more like them.
Ji-Hyun Jeun: Sixth Year Hufflepuff