Approved! - Kit
Your Nickname: Jessica
Have you read and do you agree to the Code of Conduct?: Yes
Are you over thirteen? Yes
How did you find us and decide to write with us? Other
If you have written other characters here: Yes
If Yes, list them all: Akiva Katz, Jordyn Dimbleby, Archer Radley, Josephine St. Just, Margo Amherst
Is this a Primary or Secondary Character?: Primary
Full Character Name: Coralie Piper Malkin
Character Birthday & Age: 25; July 14, 1985
City & Country of Birth: London, England
Blood Purity: Halfblood
Alma Mater: Hogwarts, Hufflepuff
Job/Position: Seamstress, Sales Girl, and Amateur Designer at Madam Malkin’s
Wand: 11 inch, Pear wood wand with a unicorn hair center. The stain is natural and it appears new, despite having been purchased when she was eleven.
Physical Description: Cora has always been told she has unique features. Often compared to a cat, her pinched nose and perpetually twisted into a playful looking pout lips are as expressive as her hair, which frames her heart shaped face. She constantly changes the color of her hair in different shades of brown and blonde, depending on what she feels like on any given morning. It’s almost always tussled, and there’s bound to be a quill somewhere in it, if it is at all tied back.
She stands on the smaller side of average at 5”4” and has a slender, but feminine build. Her style could be described as simple, preferring simple and feminine pieces that are durable and long lasting, but never out of style. Working in fashion has imbibed her with a certain sense of obligation to keep up with trends and never misrepresent her family’s livelihood.
She has no remarkable marks or body modifications, except for her pierced ears. She keeps a clean and kept appearance, though - notably, there's bound to be some lingering chalk dust on her somewhere and a measuring tape hanging about her neck at any given moment.
Personality Description: Coralie is the type of person who appreciates hard work, but for a purpose. She is industrious in her own right, particularly at the height of buying season, but understands and appreciates winding down and not getting obsessed with work. There’s a time for everything in her mind, and even in the confines of work, there is time for fun. It helps that she genuinely loves what she is doing, and is excited to help carry on the family legacy. In that regard, she is exceptionally loyal and would do anything to ensure she doesn’t disappoint her Great Grandmother, or anyone else in her family. She has a strong eye for details and is constantly looking to improve herself and business.
Her customer service is improving with more concentration on being professional. Cora has a tendency to treat everyone like a family member or a friend, flicking legs and manhandling when people are not standing the right way. She’s not outright rude, of course, just a bit rough around the edges. In speech, however, she is always polite and accommodating. She has a tendency to get tongue tied with the celebrities of the wizarding world, however. People from newspaper articles and magazine pages just seem so farfetched and outrageous to her that her normal awkwardness can, and is, multiplied tenfold by it.
In her personal life, Cora can be described as charmingly bubbly, but awkward. She likes people, really, but she can be the sort to say the wrong thing at the wrong time or make awkward phrases a very real experience for people. As a child, older ladies doted on her at her great grandmother’s shop, but now it’s changed a bit: past the age of doting. She tries to mold herself to the company she’s in – depending on if she’s fitting a student for their robes, or an older woman for a new ensemble – but it tends to just go backwards: usually ending in making a fool of herself.
There is a tinge of pessimism that runs through her, and it comes from self-doubt. She can fall into bouts of moodiness and critique on her work, good or bad, can swing her moods either way. She takes criticism with great difficulty and strives for perfection with her work. She has learned, over the years, to give herself some slack when dealing with others - since people are often unpredictable, but when it comes to what she produces, she hasn't learned that skill yet.
History: The Malkin family is not an outstanding one, even if it has a legacy. Madam Malkin’s has been around for decades, started by Cora’s great grandmother. The woman, bless her, is still running the business – tottering around in her mauve robes and thick glasses – ordering about her great granddaughter who has been the first in the line to show an interest in continuing the shop.
Her parents, for all of their care and love, were not artistic people by nature. Julius and Vivienne both work respectable jobs in the ministry, and they have three children, of which, Cora is the middle. She is flanked on both sides by brothers: Oliver is her elder brother: settled with a family, and Tristan is her younger brother, in his last year at Hogwarts. There is a 12 year age difference between the youngest and oldest, leaving Coralie woefully in the middle of brothers who didn’t much like one another, and she was peacekeeper.
It also meant that while her parents had their hands full with both of them (in much different ways), Cora was hoisted off on whoever could take care of her. It often fell to Mildred Malkin: her great grandmother who had a shop not too far off in Diagon Alley.
Cora loved being at Great Grandma’s shop. The Madam, as Cora affectionately called “Gramma,” was constantly creating little outfits for her great granddaughter, which Cora loved. She watched as Gramma pulled fabrics, draped them over the forms, and made incredible things. Often, as Cora got older, she’d attempt the same with her dolls – clumsily at first, until she could wield a needle with some level of finesse.
It would only get better, her Gramma assured her, when she could wield a wand. Cora couldn’t wait. Her older brother always had great stories from Hogwarts and she wanted to have them as well. Getting there, however, seemed to be an endless waiting game.
In 1992, at seven years old, Coralie travelled with Gramma to Paris for Wich Witch? It completely changed her life. A silly hobby of sewing doll clothes as a small child was turning into an obsession, and the fashion event changed her life. Coralie was enamored.
From that point, Cora wanted to know everything and started choosing to spend time at her Gramma’s, rather than just being babysat on her parents’ terms. She interacted with all sorts of people, including students going to Hogwarts and adults in droves. She became a people person quickly, and was a fast learner.
When she went to school, she was sorted into Hufflepuff. Amongst the loyal and hardworking, Cora flourished. She excelled in charms, transfiguration, and muggle studies with middling grades in most of her other subjects. Art fascinated her, and she joined the art club to keep up with her sketching and creations. Amongst students, she was known to be a good resource for fixing snagged robes (since most were purchased from her Gramma anyway), and had a sort of underground business in mending when she figured out students would actually pay to have their robes fixed like new.
During the summers, she stayed close to Gramma, and when she was old enough, began to work in the store. Unlike most first jobs, Cora loved working in the store. She had pocket money, she was learning a lot, and she spent the time around her family, helping make something work. Granted, business was tough through the war years, but Malkins was an institution, and unlike many other businesses that went out during the time, it seemed like despite danger, people still needed things, maybe in less quantity, but still needed them. It didn’t make life less scary, particularly as they watched the Alley thin out and some of the oldest institutions fall away, but after the war ended and the ash cleared away, it was like a new vigor was pushed into the Wizarding World.
Describe your job duties and how you go about them: Coralie is her Gramma's main shop girl. This involves being intimately familiar with the business in all aspects, from maintaining a budget and turning profits to picking the perfect lining for a lady's traveling cloak.
Cora has taken on more responsibilities on the business end of things in recent years, keeping track of purchases and making orders, but her Gramma is still, without a doubt, in charge. On any given day, she is ordering Cora around, and has provided her a number of tasks that she completes on a daily basis, including dealing with customers, making alterations and repairs, making sales records, and keeping up with the ordering.
In her free time (if there is any), Cora is just starting to branch into her own work: desiring to create her own line of robes. She is still very much an amateur, however, and this will take time.
Elaborate on your expertise in your field: Having practically grown up in Madam Malkin's, Coralie, in her opinion, is the only person who is qualified for this position.
She's apprenticed under her great grandmother for many years, and has her own talents that she cultivates with studying and hours on hours of hard work. She has a gift for colors and patterns, which helps her in her job with the clothes and the business end of things, and has the energy to do all jobs at the same time. She can sew by hand, as well as create with a wand, and is precise with an eye for details: necessary for business and fashion.
Writing Sample: N/A
Sum up your character in one paragraph: Cora is a quirky-faced, hardworking, Hufflepuff Alum with an eye for details and the love for her family and business to do great things. She’s bubbly and friendly, with a healthy side helping of awkward, but there is no doubt Cora tries. Her dream is to one day produce her own line of robes, like her Great Grandmother, but that’s a long way off, and she’s currently still content to be learning how to run a business like a champion.
Coralie Piper Malkin: Seamstress, Sales Girl, and Amateur Designer at Madam Malkin’s