Wand: 9 inch, phoenix-feather core, teak, pokey

Physical Description:
Niobe has light brown skin, large nose, and a big smile. Her black hair is rolled into locs that fall to her shoulders when she doesn't have them piled on top of her head wrapped in a scarf. She's of average height and has a curvy figure. People tend to disagree on whether she is pretty or not, but most agree that she's charming.

She speaks in a watered down Northern Irish accent, a bit diluted after spending a decade in London. She's a fast talker, but has learned when to stop jawing and listen for answers.

Niobe loves witchy fashion - layered robes on the short side, lush fabrics, tall boots, gloves and scarves. A little punk, a little leather, and she spends too much on designer clothes. Sometimes muggle attire is called for, but she's a witchy witch through and through.

Personality Description:
There's such a thing as justice and truth for their own sakes. Niobe takes her role as a journalist seriously, considering herself a modern soothsayer and an instrument of progress. The truth must out, she'll cry! When the ideal is everything, the means to achieving it cannot be compromised. The only thing that will sway her from the good is the call of adventure. Niobe is dangerously bold and takes needless risk - to be on top, to get to the bottom of things, to be first last and exclusive.

Niobe is considered a trusted journalist and maintains decent relations with the Ministry of Magic, in particular the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. Well, as well as can be expected. She's not prone to exaggeration and will play by their rules when possible, but she won't shy away from holding them to account with her quill.

In her personal life, Niobe's made a rash of questionable relationship choices - she likes a 'bad boy' more than is healthy. A foolish muggle-baiting arrest seems to have scared her out of that phase, but time will tell. Leading a logical, cautious life isn't nearly as exciting as the alternative.

She's generally easy to get along with, loves a laugh, and knows who she is. She'll stick up for the little guy, but sometimes she can't look past her own nose.

History:
Niobe grew up in Belfast with her parents and brother Pollux. Pollux is actually her first cousin; he was adopted when his parents passed away. They were close in age and consider themselves siblings. As a girl, Niobe was always courious and precocious and fumed in adolescent fury at the phrase, "we'll speak about it when you're older."

Their mother, a Barbadian from a mixed magical and muggle family, works in local magical government. Her father, a muggle-born Irishman wizard, is a cook. Niobe's mother moved from Barbados to Ireland in the 60s. Niobe grew up during The Troubles. The Belfast magical community was not completely protected from the strife, but had a greater freedom of movement and more security recourse as magic folk. And for the magical community a more complex threat came in the form of Voldemort's first reign of terror. Niobe doesn't remember much but she remembers very well the day a little baby brought down the Dark Lord, the same year as the Good Friday Agreement. It was the biggest party she'd ever see. Her mother cried with joy and fireworks filled the sky. Her older cousins told her everything.

At Hogwarts in 1981, Niobe was sorted into Gryffindor. She was a keen letter-writer and sent her parents detailed and exciting accounts of her life at school, sometimes embellished. She kept this up, along with a detailed journal, for all seven years. During her last year at Hogwarts, the Chamber of Secrets was opened again and Niobe's letters kept owls busy daily. She began circulating a pamphlet among her friends with all the details she could discover about the strange and terrifying events. She knew then what her lot in life would be: Getting to the Bottom of It All

She returned to Belfast after leaving Hogwarts in 1993 and immediately began at writing for a local wizarding newspaper, the Belfast Banshee.  She was 18 years old and not allowed very much responsibility.  And while her attention to detail was impeccable and she was bold in interviews, her copy was atrocious. Barely legible and drenching in the earnestness of the effort. She was smothered with local news and constantly chided for over-burdening the copy editors.

It was in 1996 when she finally got her break.  After owling spec articles to the Daily Prophet in London on almost a daily basis, asking to be published, it finally paid off: The Daily Prophet published two inches she had written on the collapse of the Brockdale Bridge.  Given an inch, Niobe took a mile.  She quit her job at the Banshee, floo'd to London and all but begged for a job with the Prophet.  The Editor-in-Chief, Barnabas Cuffe, was short-staffed, and it was this more than Niobe's skill that got her the job.

But once that she was finally in her element, she thrived. As the years passed she became one of the Daily Prophet's most valuable reporters. Her byline is common on some of wizarding Britain's most high profile stories.

In June 2008, Niobe got too close to a Runespoor on a rampage in Diagon Alley and the ring finger on her left hand was bitten off. It was never recovered.

On Halloween 2009, Niobe was arrested for muggle-baiting after a spree of ill-concieved shenanigans with then-boyfriend Dominik Wiedman.

Niobe was once romantically linked with the now infamous wizarding terrorist Cinead Tawse.

What is your occupation? How do you go about it? How did you get your current occupation? How does your past and abilities justify your current skills?:

Niobe Thursby is a Daily Prophet reporter.  She is mainly assigned to cover major events and to interview important people.  She is ravenous, and barely manages a personal life.  As a reporter, even when not on assignment, her ears are open for any bit of truth hiding in dark hovels or on the corners of people's mouths. 

Like most in her trade, she has a nimbly enchanted quill to record what's being said.  Hers is of the Verbatis make. (As opposed to Rita Skeeter's acid-tongued variety.) 

Niobe's articles can rarely be scrutinized for accuracy, but spelling and form is another matter entirely.  She holds her position because of her ability to get the story, not to make it pretty.  She owes much to the Daily Prophet's beleaguered editors.

Writing Sample:

• Niobe's locs are pulled back in what she hopes is a grown up, professional look.  She's only twenty-one years old and sitting in the office of the Daily Prophet's editor-in-chief, the truly frightening Barnabas Cuffe.  He looks distracted and annoyed and as he's opening his mouth to begin, Niobe interrupts.
  
  "Before you say anything!" she holds her finger up, almost to shush him from a distance, "Before you say anything, you need to know that my age is an asset.  I'm not seeing anyone, I don't go to the shows, all I do is write.  You can run me ragged and all you'll get from me is good reliable articles. On time. No family ties in London, no hobbies to speak of - I will live and breath the Daily Prophet."
  
  He opened his mouth again to speak, and pointed at the bit of parchment in front of him.  She interrupted again, now on her feet.
  
  "It's good, isn't it. Gets to the root of the matter.  That bridge collapsed on purpose.  That's a damn good article, Cuffe, and if you take me on, I'll get you even more.  I'll be in Brockdale within an hour and have copy back here before tea."
  
  He shifted in his seat and furrowed his brow, clearly annoyed at not being able to get a word in edgewise.  But she pressed ever on!
  
  "I know what  you're thinking! I know, I know, I know. Who the bloody hell is this Thursby person!? I'll tell you what, Cuffe, I'm the best thing that's ever happened to this newspaper.  The sky is falling and you're going to need me.  Sure, you've probably got some more qualified applicants with more experience.  But did you print their articles? Did any of them show up in Brockdale last night?"
  
  She paused a moment and looked at him.  His eye twitched.
  
  "No!" she shouted. She pounded her fist on his desk. "That's bloody right! Something happened in our beautiful country and who was on the scene getting to the grimy bottom of it? Thursby! Me, buddy boy!  I got the Daily Prophet the story for the morning edition and if you hire me on, you'll have a full feature article for the evening edition."
  
  He sighed and covered his eyes.
  
  "Time's a-wasting.  Just say the word, sir, just say I'm hired.  You won't regret it."
  
  "Fine."
  
  Sum up your character in one paragraph:
  [Niobe is driven, curious, experienced, and brash. She's a confident journalist and fearless and protective of her spot as one of the Daily Prophet's best reporters. She is in a constant battle with herself and her questionable wisdom. Niobe is devoted to the ideas of truth and justice, but struggles when the means may sully the ends.