Wand: 10 inch katsura wood wand with kappa bone core, acquired in Tokyo when Yuko visited her father before returning to the United Kingdom for schooling. A well-worn wand that is resistant to damage. If broken in any way, however, its brittle core would instantly render it useless. Especially good for charms and spells involving water.

Physical Description:
Koko is a small, energetically framed witch who at her full height approximates to about 5'1'' or slightly more. Sometimes she wears heels and sometimes she is forgiving to her tiny feet.

Her dress sense is contemporary, on par with muggle fashions and highlighted by the more outlandish trends of wizarding society - she likes to keep up to date, and does not believe in dressing her age. Koko likes leather jackets and sparkly t-shirts. But if she isn't going out for the day she will throw on her best yoga clothes (she does not practice yoga because she doesn't have the patience for it - she prefers kickboxing at the local gym The Whine Cellar).

When she smiles, she is approachable and cute. When she doesn't, unreadable. Koko has a very observant gaze and her body language is often playful, open. There is a forwardness about her that, if pressed by a more aggressive figure, retreats in a flash.

Personality Description:
Mercenary. Yuko likes to watch out for number one but she has no high ambitions and, having long resigned herself to never attaining glamorous heights, takes deep satisfaction in poking fun at those who occupy public attention. In her 20s it was a mostly resentful satisfaction. Nowadays it is perfunctory and she believes that she has crafted an art out of what she does at Witch Weekly.

Koko delights in the fact that few people, on first meeting, associate her with that of her pseudonym - Lil Snigger. She is cheerful and talkative and doesn't seem to pay much attention to details; which might explain the speculative nature of her writing!

Most days, when she isn't out needling interviewing eyewitnesses and extracting theories, Koko lives a fairly average lifestyle. She keeps late hours, wakes at noon, submits all her work at the last minute and every so often acquiesces to having a take-out picnic on her living room floor instead of cooking a healthy meal.


History:
Yuko Yukawa is the only child of Ichiro Yukawa and his British ex-wife, Nanoko Endo. The couple met in the late 1970s whilst Ichiro was travelling in the United Kingdom as part of his business and training as a wandmaker. Their marriage was punctuated by high points of passion, followed by long stretches of indifference and arguments. A year after Yuko was born however, Nanoka's mother passed away and she decided that she no longer wanted to live in Tokyo. The divorce officially came through two years after she had moved to London to live in what had been her mother's flat in Brixton.

Koko was a loved child. Growing up, it was not unusual for her mother - who now ran a private seamstress service - to take her out on little dates. The two would get dressed up and enjoy afternoons in book and candy shops. When her mother was working Koko often sat around the small flat, reading.

She read adventure stories and magazine articles and newspapers - whatever happened to be lying around. Her little mind soaked everything up.

HOGWARTS

At school, Koko was sorted into Slytherin, where she quickly made friends with people in her year. As she was not a pureblood, it was important for her to be friendly and to go along with whatever her other housemates were doing at the time. This often included making fun of Harry Potter and his friends, in her middle years.

She envied many of her classmates for their aristocratic pureblood lifestyles and developed the terrible but necessary skill of outwardly tolerating people one does not like. Koko kept a diary all through her years at Hogwarts, where she would write all about the goings-on of school. The scandals, bullying, relationships, games.

Everything was within reach but she felt like she was watching from afar.

In the end, however, when push came to shove, she was not a pureblood and she didn't identify with the idealogies behind the Dark Lord. Koko claims to have fought on the right side of the Battle of Hogwarts but she mostly hid from sight, afraid to pick a side.

ADULTHOOD

After Hogwarts, life settled down to a more stable and less exciting pace. It was really almost boring compared to the last seven years! Koko had no direction in life - she liked writing but didn't see a career in it, nor was she interested in a job that involved Charms or Astronomy (the only two subjects the Slytherin had ever excelled at).

For three or four years, she helped around with her mother's seamstress work whilst working as a freelance journalist. One or two articles a month, usually to tabloids, and the pay was not much. She began holding the odd part time job when she was in her 20s and decided that it was better to move out by herself.

Koko rented a studio apartment in the then-still-growing Hackney Wick district of London. She worked as a barista and a sales assistant at various shops, only really getting into her journalistic ambitions during her late 20s. By then she was beginning to acquire a name for herself: people recognised her dramatic writing tone, the ludicrous accusations and exaggerated romance.

They didn't care if it never turned out to be true. Koko knew that, like her, they simply enjoyed pretending that they were a part of a more scandalous and glamorous lifestyle... even if it was just for the five minutes it took to read her articles. Nowadays she earns enough to afford a small flat in Hiraeth Gardens.

Koko abandoned her pen name identity as Lil Snigger in 2011 after getting into trouble for publicising the identity of Feliks Spectre as the bastard child of the last Ira Almasy, a notorious criminal responsible for numerous deaths. She now writes under her own name.

Describe your job duties and how you go about them:
As a "reporter" for Witch Weekly, it is Lil Sniggers responsibility to sniff out a new and provoking story for the publication every single week. Many people avoid buying this magazine for the very reason that it features her name.

However, her superiors reason, more people buy it for that same reason. Koko has become a staple and she is aware that in order to keep up her readership she must continue to dig up stories to hold their attention.

She burns up her afternoons and evenings socialising with anything or anyone who can dish the dirt on society's toppers - this is sometimes tiresome but can also be a great laugh, depending on who her sources are.

Elaborate on your expertise in your field:
She has written for Witch Weekly all through her 20s, although she was eventually forced to abandon her pen name identity as entertaining after crossing ethical lines in journalism. She now writes as herself.

Sum up your character in one paragraph:
Koko Yukawa is a wily reporter and columnist at Witch Weekly, whose tendency to exaggerate has earned her no friends among the subjects of her journalistic scrutiny. She's a sardonic, self-interested person always on the look out for something scandalous to expose. Koko is dating Artemis Childs, an amoral Enchanter and Cursebreaker.

The Last Five Years...

Character History 2013 - 2017:
Koko has continued to work at Witch Weekly as a reporter and columnist in the last five years. Her "Ask Koko! column has gained readers over time, though whether her advice is taken seriously has yet to be seen. In terms of her social life, little has changed and she still leaves in Hiraeth Gardens. She has acquired two pet ferrets, Hiro and Risa. You may be able to find her taking them on walks in the building courtyard or at Regents Park.

To those at WW or in her friends circle, Koko is known to be in a casual romantic relationship with Artemis Childs - the pair frequent restaurants and cafes together, and Artemis often spends weekends at Hiraeth.