Your Nickname: Sunny
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: Bethan Ellis, Brynn Ellis, Evie Grimlish
Is this a Primary or Secondary Character?: Primary

Full Character Name: Poppy Emmeline Finnigan
Character Birthday & Age: August 22nd, 1995 (14)
City & Country of Birth: Colchester, Essex
Pureblood, Halfblood or Muggleborn: Halfblood
House & Year: Slytherin 4th year

Wand: Rigid elm, dragon heartstring core, 11 2/5ths inches

Physical Description:
Poppy Finnigan is tiny. It's the first thing people notice about her, and often the first thing that they comment upon, occasionally going as far as to sweep her off of the ground and jostle her into their arms like a sack of potatoes, which is not acceptable. She may be petite, but she is a human being, not a plaything. It's a combination of genetics and poor health that have kept the diminutive Slytherin so far below the five foot mark. Much of her family is short, but she is by far the smallest. She's a featherweight and has immense difficulty keeping meat on her bones, which frustrates her to no end. Knobby elbows and knees are just not attractive! Furthermore, she doesn't seem to be developing at the rate of the rest of her classmates, and it drives her mad. To hammer another nail into her coffin, she has a generally youthful face, which keeps even the most well meaning individuals from taking her seriously at first glance. Although she finds all of this very frustrating, she tends to use it as an excuse to present herself as larger than life. It's also a great bargaining chip when used to talk her daddy into buying her new heels. She needs them! For her handicap! Luckily, Daddy wants her to succeed in life, so she usually ends up walking a little taller in the shoes she so adores. She's still getting the hang of the taller ones.

Poppy's face is heart shaped, with a pointy, pronounced chin. She has a pair of brown, almond shaped eyes, which are constantly framed by dark and expressive eyebrows. At the center of her face is a particularly squat nose, rounded at the tip and with wide set nostrils. She has big lips and enormous smile lines, which add much character to her sprite-like face. Poppy's smile is one of her most notable features, after her size  - she can call her smile forth at any time, and it has been said that an exuberant, scrunchy-faced, straight-to-the-eyes smile like Poppy's could charm dragons. Sometimes it's sincere, sometimes less so, but it usually comes across as genuine. Although her skin does have a sort of warm, olive undertone, she is generally fairly pale. She likely has the propensity to tan, but hasn't yet traveled anywhere sunny enough to test out that hypothesis. The apples of her cheeks are somewhat pronounced and, if she's not careful about how she wears her hair, her ears can sometimes appear too large for her little face. Her hair is a dirty blonde, more or less golden and with notes of brown. Naturally, her hair has a bit of a wave to it, but she styles it so thoroughly that its natural appearance never really had a chance.  Overall, she comes across as incredibly youthful. Even so, she finds her inability to appear even a little bit older incredibly annoying. Who wants to date a girl who looks like she's ten?

Poppy doesn't dress like she's ten, however, She does all that she can to try and avoid looking like somebody's kid sister. As mentioned, this starts with her love of heels, but extends to a love of makeup and a keen interest in glamor charms. She's still a fledgling witch in every way, however, so many of her attempts to turn herself into a bombshell have gone terribly wrong. Poppy learned the hard way that, no matter what the sixth years tell you, 'Boobius Maximus' is not a real charm, and other charms that claim to do the same thing are really, really difficult - and not worth the humiliating trip to the hospital hut. Stuffing her bra is just a lot easier. All she wants to do is walk a little taller, look a little older, and force people, not only to notice her, but to respect her.

Personality Description:
Poppy likes attention. More than anything, she likes positive attention. If she can't get that, negative attention will often suffice. The diminutive Slytherin girl lives her life on stage, and every day when she meticulously dresses for success, she is preparing for another stellar performance. She thinks she knows what success looks and sounds like, so she works hard to try and emulate it while exerting the smallest amount effort possible. For her, dramatics are genuine. When she laughs louder than anyone at a moderately funny joke, she's doing it because that's how you act when you're the loudest and the most fun. When she makes a fuss over a ball of lint like the lint murdered her whole family, it's because she thinks it's the best way to handle a problem. If she is 'fake' then she has been fake for so long that she doesn't know how else to be. A more accurate description would be to say she's larger than life.

Poppy wants to be your best friend. She wants to be everyone's best friend. For the most part, she does a decent job. She is a smile-a-holic, and generally gives off a very friendly vibe. She is constantly using pet names, and it's hard to feel like a teenage outcast when you have a tiny, grinning sprite in your face gushing about you. She is not blind to the fact that being liked involves a give and take, so she is a purveyor of kindness and sunshine, flitting around making nice with everyone. She is very warm and interested in others, and loves having an audience when she's in the mood to talk about herself. Poppy loves talking, and she loves words – mostly, though, she loves the way she sounds saying words. She definitely possesses a certain sort of charisma. Additionally, her size makes her very approachable. Confidence goes along way, and she has enough to share with everybody.

She can, however, turn on a dime. While there are many people who find Poppy nice and fun to be around (which she prefers), there are always those who don't believe that anyone could really be that happy and friendly all of the time. Those people, and anyone who started off as a friend and managed to cross her, can expect to suffer one of several typical fates. The first is to simply be ignored. As someone who thrives on affection, withholding it is one of the most direct ways she knows to insult someone. Some may claim it doesn't bother them, but when she approaches your group of friends and beams and greets everyone but you, it's hard not to feel the brunt of it. More severely, however, is her tendency to subtly badmouth people. She loves dropping little barbs into her conversations, planting ideas about others without saying anything directly insulting. While being disliked does bother her, she'd rather rally her troupes and suck even more love out of them instead – and if she can socially blacklist someone in the process? Even better!

Poppy's mother likes to remind her that 'success is a choice,' and Poppy has come to believe that. She's very much into the act of prioritizing. It is very rare, for example, that she will actually prioritize school over, well... anything. There are a million things that come first that give off the impression that she has things together. While she's not a dreadful witch, her strengths definitely don't lie in academics. When she reads, it's far more likely to be magazines, plays, or the smuggled copies of the Slither Girls books that neither of her parents know about. Textbooks are for skimming and cramming. She does have a way of talking about subjects that sometimes makes it seem like she knows what she's talking about, which is a strategy she loves to employ in class. She is particularly fond of raising her hand during a lecture and spouting off a memorized footnote from somewhere. In fact, much of what she goes on about in normal conversation are just a series of memorized footnotes from other places in her life. She doesn't take kindly to being called an idiot, however, and is incredibly jealous of her more academic minded peers.

Luckily, Poppy doesn't have a staunchly academic career in mind for herself. As can be expected from someone who is unwilling to admit failure, Poppy has plans to pursue her strengths. She knows for sure that she wants to be famous, but the exact kind of famous she'd like to be is still up in the air. Her dramatic side wants to act, either finding a career on the stage or as a reader on one of her favorite radio dramas (her 'stories,' which she adores). Meanwhile, her verbose side wants to write, preferably for a popular magazine. Who needs an O in defense against the dark arts when you have the adoration of the public? She knows what her priorities are – or thinks she does.

It's hard not to look at Poppy and imagine she's overcompensating for something, however. Foremost is her size. Being small, and not as well developed as she'd like, Poppy struggles with never feeling truly pretty. She tries to act like a pretty girl in every way she knows how, but her scrawny body seems to taunt her. Additionally, she has been living with health problems for all of her life, which puts her at a disadvantage when it comes to anything physical or requiring exertion. Even stairs can be a struggle on a bad day. Sometimes the best way to counter those weaknesses is to point out her discomfort in the hope of finding some sympathy from her peers, while other times she insists on pushing through, as if sheer will can change the fact that she's stuck with a bum ticker. Having grown up with two cousins her age has also been difficult, since she's always had them around to compare herself to. She's jealous of everything those two bring to the table because she derives so much of her self worth from being the family's princess. The attention of her parents is particularly important to her, which becomes extra tricky because of her mother's flighty attitude toward parenthood.

Poppy works so hard seeking adoration that when she fails hard and cannot find a way to talk her way out of it, she's a wreck. She is usually so busy playing the role of the Pixie of Happiness that she doesn't acknowledge the part of her that depends on the affirmation of others to get by. There is something a little bit self destructive about that part of her. She is so thoroughly convinced that the key to happiness is the approval of others that she has the propensity to feel angry when she's outside of the spotlight. It's a sick, needy part of her that seeks to punish the people who are supposed to be loving her unconditionally. She would never, ever admit it, but there have been a few scattered instances during Poppy's youth when she has foregone taking her potions and then overexerted herself by running stairs just so her lips would go blue and the attention would be on her again. She knows what she means to her family, and she knows how to exploit that. It's a dangerous sort of secret, and it scares her.

Most of the time, however, Poppy Finnigan is a tiny, perky ray of sunshine in the otherwise dank dungeons of Hogwarts, making her way through these few mandatory years of education while hoping that a light might shine back.

History:
Ronan and Rosemary did not have any plans to get married. Sure, they were at the 'freely saying 'I love you' phase' of their relationship, but there was no picnic by moonlight, or trip to the top of the Eiffel Tower, or any other traditional engagement excursion planned for the couple – not until Rosie realized she was pregnant, anyway. Ronan, being a family man through and through, was quick to arrange an engagement, however, purchasing a simple sapphire engagement ring for his girlfriend with a pay advance. They were married quickly and simply, with very few frills. It wasn't what either of the two had in mind. Ronan was excited to become a parent, but Rosie was terrified. Even so, when she lost the baby in a late term miscarriage they were both devastated. It seemed like the two had been married so hastily for nothing, which left them both feeling lost, second guessing the whole life changing arrangement. They worked quickly to try and get pregnant again, to get back to the place they'd been before, where everything felt sudden but seemed to make sense. It took a little bit of time, and both newlyweds spent the entire pregnancy walking on eggshells, trying not to get too attached. They needed this baby. Their whole lives had changed in a drastic way, all for a child. In order to justify it, they needed that child to exist.

On August 22nd, 1995, when Poppy Emmeline Finnigan was born, still a few weeks early, the world rejoiced. Well, her family rejoiced. Not only was she a beautiful, perfect, tiny baby born in the wake of tragedy, but she was the first grandchild on her father's side of the family, and she was showered with love from her earliest days. She may as well have been a goddess from all of the attention that she received. She was a preemie, however, and sickly. The healers knew almost immediately that something was wrong with her heart, and one of her first experiences after birth involved being subjected to all of the  wandwork it took to try and repair the defect. It was a very tense time. The family did not want to lose another child, especially not the one who'd made it – the baby they'd all already seen and fallen in love with. She grew stronger, but she had many special needs. She was a fragile, delicate child. There was never a time when she was not in someone's arms. Relatives had to knit booties specifically to fit her impossibly tiny feet. From day one she was special.

As soon as three months had passed, her mother went back to work, regardless of the fact that her child was a very needy creature. The truth was, Rosie was going insane staying home with a baby, especially a baby who required so much attention. She'd always had her eye on her career, and even though she'd jumped into marriage for the sake of a baby, she wasn't quite ready to give up her deepest interests. At the same time, Ronan was in the middle of pursuing his lifelong dream, which was to eventually open his own restaurant with Jack, his best friend and brother-in-law, who was currently working as an auror. For Ronan, planning for that dream just meant continuing to work in kitchens throughout the magical and muggle worlds while he saved. Still, his baby was his first priority. The relatives were all still around, and there were volunteer babysitters coming from every corner of their lives. Jack's wife Holly, Rosie's sister, was a particular help during that time, even though she had only very recently given birth to a set of twins. Baby Poppy was never without a lap.

Without a doubt, Poppy grew up well loved, living the lifestyle of a princess. Her weak little heart still didn't function perfectly – had she been a muggle, she likely would not have survived infancy. The healers had been able to minimize the effects of the condition, but it was still a daily concern. Her blood-oxygen level was naturally lower than it should be, which meant that if anything disturbed it further, it was enough to knock her out. A simple chest cold could lead to all sorts of muscle aches, all over pain, and lethargy. There were constantly precautions taken to bundle her up, keep her dry, and keep her out of danger. Whenever she spent any time in St. Mungo's, usually with a chest infection or other respiratory illness, she was showered with poorly presents and exclamations about how brave and wonderful she was. It was a little bit outside of the norm, but everyone dealt with it, and she actually came to love the attention.

Most of the time, however, she was the queen of the castle within her own home. Since she was unable to exert herself to the extent that other small children could, she always had something quiet and pretty and fascinating to occupy her time. Her bedroom was like a wonderland of pink and excess. She couldn't get through the day without setting up an elaborate pretend tea service for herself while she lounged on a little chair dressed in a floppy dress up hat, flipping through the pages of a coloring book like a grown woman at the spa. She enjoyed playing like her mother, who she liked to watch get dressed up for work every morning. She particularly liked to walk around with a steno pad and order people around, and when a miniscule four year old with a steno pad tells you to get back to work, you hustle!

When Poppy was four, some dreams died and others became a reality. That was the year that Poppy's uncle, the auror, was critically injured in the war. Once he recovered, he had a new perspective on his life, and chose to pursue the old dreams of opening up a family friendly gastropub with Ronan. That was how Finnigan's Pub finally came to exist. It was a dream realized for the both of them. Ronan would be a part owner and executive chef.

One of the dearest traditions of Poppy's childhood was Sunday brunch at Finnigan's. Every aunt, uncle, cousin, and grandparent would attend, like a weekly family reunion. There was always good food and good company, and whenever someone couldn't make it, they were missed. Poppy was particularly fond of her time at the so called “kids table,” which always felt incredibly grown up. Every weekend, for as long as she could remember, there has been a booth in the back reserved for her, as well as her twin cousins Lindy and Quentin. The children essentially grew up together, and had all spent an eternity of Sundays being chided at to sit on their bottoms and eat their breakie. Poppy was particularly close with her female cousin, Lindy. There was a fair bit of jealousy, even despite their close friendship seeing as, when things became difficult, they were both more or less raised in a tangle of shared caregivers. They loved and fought like sisters from their earliest days.

While the twins grew up in Dorset with their parents and attended a muggle primary school, Poppy lived in Essex with her own parents and was taught in a very small wizarding co-op. While they weren't opposed to sending Poppy to a muggle school, they worried about her constantly, and knowing she was being taught by magic users who could safely handle any emergency put their minds at ease. Poppy did well at the small school program, since she thrived on attention and got it in droves.

While Poppy found success at school, other things in her life were growing more and more fractured, and she didn't even realize it. Ronan, who had always wanted to become a father and adored his daughter, had been eager to welcome more children into the world. Rosie wasn't quite as keen about having more children, but was willing to try for the sake of the marriage. So they tried. They tried, and tried, and tried and, when Poppy was seven, they finally had some luck. The luck was short lived however, because that brief pregnancy ended with the early loss of another child. That was Rosie's breaking point. She had gone through emotional upheaval too many times over the lives of children she wasn't even sure she wanted, and at that time it became abundantly clear that her priorities differed from Ronan's in an irreconcilable way. She wanted to focus on her career, but couldn't work the hours she liked or put in the kind of time she wanted to because she felt like a slave to a family that never felt like hers. Ronan, on the other hand, prioritized family above all else. Ultimately, that tragedy lead to another loss, when Ronan and Rosie decided to terminate their marriage. At seven, Poppy was just old enough to understand what was going on, but she still felt lost. Oblivious to the complex struggles her parents were facing, their divorce seemed to come out of the blue.

It was a lot of change at once. She was going to live with her daddy now, and only see mum sometimes. She felt the change most acutely at night, when her bedtime routine felt lopsided and incomplete. For a child who thrived on attention, the sudden abandonment was heartbreaking. Her father tried to remedy her heartbreak with lots of special one-on-one time and sleepovers with her relatives, which seemed to help for a little while. Her Auntie Effie (Ronan's younger sister) took a particularly active role at the time, as did her Aunt Holly. She had her choice of surrogate mums, but the one mum she really wanted was busier than ever, and had been reduced to a face in the floo at bedtime.

Things became challenging again when it came time for Poppy and her dad to move out of their old house. Luckily, they didn't have to go anywhere too foreign – they only moved into the flat above the pub, which seemed to simplify everything. To keep from disrupting her routine any further, Poppy continued attending the same little wizarding school program, content with the measure of stability that the familiarity afforded her. Once she was somewhat more settled she began to see her mum more. Sunday brunch continued as usual throughout the whole ordeal. The biggest complication that occurred during that rough time was a slightly long hospitalization that came on the heels of a small growth spurt, which required some tests and procedures to set her sick heart right again. Ultimately, everything settled down, but that whole period of time was incredibly tumultuous.  For being so strong throughout the whole ordeal, Poppy's daddy let her pick out a cream colored, long haired kitten with dark markings, who she called Precious. He became her familiar – another constant the little girl could count on despite all of the change.

After all of the chaos, a hush seemed to fall over the little family – things became routine again and Poppy felt comfortable in her own life once more. The next big change in her life came in the form of her Hogwarts acceptance letter, which was cause for plenty of attention and celebration. Poppy was excited to do something new, and hadn't quite realized just how different Hogwarts would be. After all, she was going with her cousins – it wasn't like she'd be entirely on her own! Hers was a quick sorting,  and she was placed into Slytherin almost immediately. Mum had been a Slytherin, too, and she was sure that Rosie would be pleased. In a rather serpentine way, she'd practically forgotten to be concerned about which house her cousins ended up in, so it took her a while to realize what a bummer it was when they ended up in separate houses. Then the bummers kept on coming. That first Sunday at school was the first Sunday ever without a brunch at Finnigan's, and Poppy couldn't help but to feel homesick. Add that to the fact that going to a real school was far different than her little co-op, and you had one tiny girl who was in over her head. She clung to the social aspect of school, however, which had always been her strength, and there she found her niche. She was hungry for success. What was the point of coming to Hogwarts if she didn't get to go home during Christmas break and brag to everyone in the family about how she was the smartest, prettiest, most popular girl in school?

So, she decided to follow the ages old philosophy of 'fake it 'til you make it' and approached her magical education in the same flighty but success-driven way she approached everything else in her life. Confidence and a big mouth did a lot for her reputation, even though she wasn't especially accomplished at anything. She was hungry for applause, and would do a lot to get it – but she constantly took the shortest route possible. Poppy also developed a reputation as a bit of a hypochondriac amongst her peers. Her classmates weren't so quick to believe every headache or muscle ache was real, even though they were legitimate symptoms of her condition. It was just easier to believe that the drama queen was faking it. Any issue she couldn't kill with kindness, however, she killed with venom, and that seemed to clear up most of the issues she encountered. Every school holiday to date she has felt confident going home and telling her family just what a success she has been, even when her cousins seem to suggest otherwise. This most recent Christmas had been no different, with Poppy boasting about her glamorous appearance at the Yule Ball and, suspiciously, not saying a word about her marks. Unfortunately, the dumb owl with her school report couldn't keep his hooting to himself and outed her. As it turns out, fourth year is difficult! Her goal for this second term? Either do better in classes to get her relatives off of her case, or remember to shut all of the windows the next time the owls are due to deliver her marks.... most likely the latter.

Classes:

Core Classes Astronomy Charms Defense Against the Dark Arts Herbology History of Magic Potions Transfiguration No

Electives No Arithmancy No No No

How Do You Fit Into Your House?:
Poppy Finnigan puts herself first. She likes to be the center of the universe, and so she does what she feels she must in order to attract the attention and adoration of others without breaking a sweat. Poppy handles social situations with finesse and, when things don't quite go her way, she has been known to employ underhanded methods to force things along. Sometimes that means the most subtle form of outright defamation, other times it means sacrificing her own health to draw concern. She can talk in circles for ages on topics she doesn't know the first thing about if it means getting her way.  She carefully hides her weaknesses, unless the best way to get things done is to exploit them. Plus, she has big dreams, and truly believes she'll be famous one day. Charming her way to the top? Sounds easy! Slytherin house was happy to have her.


Writing Sample:


Sum up your character in one paragraph:
Poppy Finnigan may physically be one of the smallest students in her year, but she makes up for her size with a larger than life personality and a dragon-charming smile. Her biggest ambition is to be well loved, and her personal quest is a search for kinship, for admiration, and for fame. She is hardly the most accomplished witch in her year, but what she lacks in booksmarts she makes up for in charisma. Born in the wake of tragedy as the chronically ill only child of divorced parents, Poppy is used to being treated like a princess. She gets jealous easily, but her first line of defense is always to kill with kindness, if possible. All she wants, at her core, is to be loved, and she's willing to go through great lengths to see it happen. When things are going well, however, she is a ray of sunshine in the otherwise dank dungeons of Slytherin House.