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Physical Description

Waker’s facial structure is unique, to say the least. She has a square-ish head, identical to her father's. No amount of puberty or minor weight fluctuation seems to curb the broadness of the girl’s face. Her jaw may be well-defined, but her cheeks are distinctly round and babyish, even at seventeen.

Waker’s blasé countenance comprised of swollen lips, a petite nose, and a clear-cut brown gaze. Her eyes and brows are both sharply-contoured compared to her doughy cherub's face, and are completed by a pair of smooth, hefty eyelids which often make Waker look drowsy or irritable. These features are framed by shoulder-length hair, which Waker is obsessive about trimming and styling so as to give the illusion of fuller locks. The girl will occasionally experiment with color, though never anything too drastic. Her natural shade is a dark honey blonde or very light medium brown, while her preferred shade is a somber chocolate.

At five-foot-nine, the girl stands somewhere between her average-sized male counterparts, and the ganglier of her female peers. While the rest of her body is finally beginning to catch up with her vertical growth, Waker has never possessed an overtly feminine figure, much to the distaste of her grandmother. What she lacks in chest and definable waist, she tends to make up for in lean muscle. Her figure is complimented by a natural olive complexion, courtesy of her mother’s gene pool.

Personality Description

Waker is definitely an academically inclined individual. While not ambitious to the point of ruthlessness, she does have enough scholastic drive to be competitive in a classroom environment. She is much better at being intellectual or analytical than she is at being emotionally straightforward. While Waker’s attention may wander a bit during particularly tedious or repetitive activities, she is not one to procrastinate. She rarely puts off homework until the last minute due to obsessive qualities instilled in her as a child.

Waker loathes being dependent on others. Group work and punishment are interchangeable for the girl. She would much rather do an assignment on her own, employing her own methods, pace, and opinions. Forking over control or settling for compromise is definitely not her strong suit. She is largely an introspective individual, and (perhaps unsurprisingly) does not trust easily.

As high-strung as Waker can be about her scholastic record, she aims for a more carefree exterior in other aspects of life. Generally this is more attainable in appearance than on the inside. While not her most obvious or dominant trait, Waker has an underlying impish quality that compliments her largely sardonic sense of humor. In general conversation, the girl is known to be roguishly evasive, mischievous, and, well, witchy (for lack of better term). She appreciates sharp-tongued speech and black humor as a general rule. She finds herself most drawn to people who are sarcastic and quick-witted.

When it comes to sharing feelings and extremely personal thoughts, Waker is a closed book. She uses sarcasm as defense mechanism in order to evade actual, substantial answers about her emotions. Try as she might to convey nonchalance, there is sometimes an underlying rigidness or reticence in her manner.

Friendships, as one might imagine, are not Waker’s forte. For someone who claims to dislike flighty and flimsy personalities, Waker can be painfully transient (and thus hypocritical). She does not become easily attached to or ingrained with anything. People should be wary of trusting the girl because she does not easily trust in return.

History

Waker is the only child of Joseph and Wendy Nolan, a pair of good-natured-if-bookish muggle pediatricians who met at a hospital in Bristol during a lengthy E.R. shift. Each timid and romantically inexperienced, Joe and Wendy exchanged friendly cafeteria chat for nearly two years before really getting to know one another more intimately. It was another two years before they exchanged wedding vows, and almost a decade of knowing one another before Waker was born. By then, they had opened a tiny children’s clinic in Colchester.

For a pair of educated adults who have devoted most of their lives to treating children, the doctors Nolan have always made for rather pitiable parents. It is not that they are unkind or ill-intentioned—on the contrary, they are both usually sweet and generous toward Waker— but that they have simply never had their priorities straight. Not instinctively maternal, Wendy often left Waker in the care of her mother-in-law when her daughter was only months old. Thus, Waker was raised on bottled milk and a snobbish old woman’s cynical bedtime tales.

While her parents continued their full-time occupations as selfless do-gooders for the population at large, Waker grew into a perpetually independent little girl. By five she had learned that snipping back at her grandmother was futile, and thus learned to tune out the old bat’s whining. She took to school and books like a fish to water, and the Wendy and Joe noticed just enough to congratulate themselves for passing on their academic interests. Regrettably for them, Waker has never had aspirations to devote her life’s work to other people.

Signs of magic began to creep in around the time Waker started kindergarten. The girl tried desperately to control the strange occurrences, at first believing them to be negative side effects of her occasionally wandering attention. By age eight, she knew that whatever was “wrong” was actually “special”. Still, she kept the evidence from her parents, grandmother, teachers, and peers… until the owl on her eleventh birthday.

Waker’s parents were uncertain about Hogwarts and magic, but they did see a benefit in sending their beloved only daughter away to be educated. A boarding institution would give her the attention she deserved, they reasoned-- and oddly enough, her grandmother agreed (under the delusion of sending Waker to a highly elite all-girl’s liberal arts school in Wales).  Waker had no intention of declining the invitation, no matter her family’s feelings, but it was convenient that they agreed.

The first year at Hogwarts not only brought out promising magical ability in the Nolan girl, but it also introduced her to a world that could be her own… one which allowed no grandmother’s snide remarks or parents’ sporadic suggestions and untimely counsel. Waker became slightly more outwardly confident than she had been in muggle school. She made a handful of acquaintances, and returned the next year with a positive mindset. Though littered with tension and sometimes exhausting academic rivalry, Waker enjoyed each year more than the prior. Her biggest feat was her very decent O.W.L. score report after fifth year exams. Now waiting to enter her seventh year, Waker is preparing herself for N.E.W.T.s, but is unsure of the career she wants to pursue. She would probably sorely benefit from a steady friendship or two, but has always managed to skirt extremely close-knit bonds in lieu of having to intensely trust people.


How Do You Fit Into Your House?
Waker is book-savvy, analytical, and relatively introspective. While part of her academic success is probably due to the effort she puts in, a large chunk of it certainly stems from the girl's intellectual nature. Waker will spend excessive amounts of time observing scenes from afar or completing tasks and puzzles by employing her own methods. This cerebral inclination can be crippling, however. Waker has neither a Hufflepuff's firm loyalty nor the social charisma oft associated with bold Gryffindors. Her stronger traits seem to be independence and awareness.

Writing Sample
Waker had just properly situated herself in her chair-- legs crossed, skirt smoothed, and hands clasped over her open day planner as she scanned instructions-- when a resonating, almost deafening sound interrupted her persnickety posture. The Ravenclaw popped up like a cat woken from its slumber, eyes too narrowing like a feline's as she intuitively raised her the backs of her hands to her face in self-defense. Peaking through her fingers, she was met with the least pleasant of persons in the world.

"Margaret," she snipped, refusing to call the girl Maggie. (Maybe she should have skipped first names all together and gone with Groust.) Waker lowered her hands slowly, feeling more foolish than a first year at the Sorting ceremony. She tried very hard to not let her cheeks turn any pinker than the December weather could logically explain. She gave her former friend and current list-topper of Waker's Most Wanted... Gone a once over, seeming really to stare past Maggie. And then averted her eyes all together. Maybe if she didn't look at her, the Hufflepuff would just disappear.

Wishful thinking.

Waker crossed her hands coolly over her planner, placidly smoothing out the page that had been crumpled in the process. She wouldn't let anyone believe that Maggie was getting under her skin. Only, it was probably painfully obvious to even the deaf and blind of Hogwarts. "You're hilarious, Margaret," she noted dryly, still avoiding the other girl's gaze. "But maybe you should enroll in remedial lessons because I was definitely here fir--"

Another loud thump left Waker's jaw slightly ajar. She watched incredulously as Margaret heaved her bag onto the table and proceeded to sprawl her things around in a way that made Waker think of tornadoes and clinically incurable levels of disorganization. The Ravenclaw's fists clenched and she had to move them to her lap to stop herself from picking up her wand. Temper, temper. Watch your temper. But the sign. Sign! The nerve of her! Waker would show her how to never forget someone's name. Beginning with the name Nolan.

Her eyes flitted shut almost drowsily, and then opened again with slow determination. She decided to mimic the Hufflepuff's brashness, and began to unpack her own books, parchment, and quills. She dipped a feathered writing instrument in fresh black ink, scrawled Waker Nolan across a square of parchment, and charmed it into a little globe to revolve over the table. "I'm not going anywhere. But if you're insisting on name tags for show-and-tell, I'd be happy to play along."

Waker was moments from tucking into her essay, Maggie or no Maggie, when her eyes met the spine of one of Hufflepuff's library books. "Is that...?" She furrowed the toffee arches that her were her eyebrows, and seemed to twitch uncomfortably as she stared at text in question. Anyone passing might have thought Waker was going to be ill. Her usually olive cheeks turned a sort of unbecoming pale yellow. She looked quickly from the book's title, to the list of references in her day planner, and back to the book. It was definitely one and the same as the title that Waker had thrice underlined in last week's class. There was no way she would be able to finish her essay without employing its vital quotes. Her naturally-swelled lips curled inward and she forced herself to look Maggie in the eye. "Where did you find that book?" She asked accusingly, as if the girl had stolen her firstborn.

Sum up your character in one paragraph.
Waker is independent and intelligent, but also mistrusting and somewhat hypocritical. She is a character caught in that awkward stage between adulthood and the tail-end of childhood. She wants very much to prove herself as an intellectually capable and worthy witch, someone who can match the success of her muggle parents on a wholly independent level. The problem with Waker is that she builds invisible walls around herself while simultaneously avoiding the preponderance of her own emotions. She spends too much time trying to prove herself as a mature, intellectual being and not enough time trying to bond with others. For someone so seemingly organized, she is not good at prioritizing the facets of her life. Waker does like to have fun, and if she could be more honest with herself, she might admit that close friendships and confidants are long overdue. She might also admit that being young holds a lot of value, both personal and universal, and it something she should not be so quick to escape. Waker's acquaintances beyond a strictly scholastic environment tend to be people whom the girl finds witty or clever.