Accepted!- Niobe

About You, the Writer:We will never ask any member to disclose any personal information.
Your Nickname: (A moniker to identify you, the writer.
Can be your first name or a nickname.)Sissy
Have you read and do you agree to the Code of Conduct & Guidelines?:Yes.
How did you find us and decide to write with us?I was lonely, of course.  I googled Marauder Era for research purposes and randomly found a site called “Fire at Midnight” I think.  I was intrigued, but when I tried to apply it was closed to applications.  I saw in the chat box that “Mai” suggested folks might want to come here.  I followed the link.  When I arrived, CT and Ana were so friendly, funny and intelligent I decided I wanted to stay.
If you have written other characters here, list them all: This is my first character here.

Full Character Name: Izadora Franti
Character Birthday & Age:age 28, April 1,1980
City & Country of Birth: England, Lancashire, Blackpool
Pureblood, Halfblood or Muggleborn?: Pure
Alma Mater: Hogwarts/Slytherin
Occupation Ne’er-do-well (unemployed with a trust fund)

Type of Criminal: Dark Artist/Murderer/Briefly a Death Eater (she was 17 when the Dark Lord passed, but she definitely took the Mark and fought in the Final Battle…).

Allegiances / Loyalties / Political Faction: Her first allegiance is dead. She is newly back in the world, and her allegiance is now to herself… but she's lonely. She will probably glom onto whichever faction woos her first and be fiercely loyal.

Previous Convictions or Crimes?: If yes, please explain. Crimes (unproved) include murder (1) and torture (at least 4).  Convictions: Muggle Baiting (3 months served).

(Also described in lesser detail, in "history"). As revenge on a cloyingly sweet and disgustingly cute Muggle Girl Scout who simply would not leave Iza alone unless she bought cookies, Iza bought the Thin Mints but paid with Leprechaun gold.  The little girl was very excited over the gold, and very angry when she went to look for it later and it was gone.  Convinced Iza had stolen it back, the obnoxious little girl showed up at her door again, mouthed off and threatened to call the police.  

Because what she'd done with the Leprechaun money was against Wizard Law, and because Iza was already in trouble with her aunt for having vivisected the cat during a botched Charm experiment, Iza stunned the little girl.  Rather than waste a perfectly good subject (she liked to try out new spells on Muggles, particularly annoying, obnoxious Muggles), she stuffed the girl into the little tool shed behind her aunt's home for later use.  She'd already used the shed several times to torture neighborhood children, wiping their memories afterward and setting them back onto the streets and she had never been caught.  She was a bit rough with the girl, though, as the 'wounds' of her accusations were still fresh and Iza was particularly miffed with her.  A hex went awry.  She hid the body.  

Someone heard the screams, she was arrested on suspicion (the Ministry knew someone in the neighborhood had been torturing the locals) but she hid her wand.  Without the wand and without witnesses, the Ministry had no proof that she was the source of the other tortures.  After questioning the missing girl's mom (disguised as Muggle police), the Ministry did find enough evidence to charge her with Muggle baiting.  Though the mother didn't know it was Leprechaun gold, her description of the incident was enough to convict Iza.


What crimes might you commit in the future?  Discuss all possible: Torture and sadism are her M.O.  The murder was accidental and coincidental.  If she kills again, it will not be on purpose, though she does get carried away.  She might also commit murder in the future, if someone she loves asks her to do it as an ickle favor to her sweetie.  She would not decide on her own to do so, however.

Are you currently under pursuit by the Ministry of Magic?:  No.  

Wand Description: Birch, 11 inches, slightly bendy, hag’s hair core.

Physical Description: 5’1” in stocking feet, long blonde hair, grey eyes, attractive with a raffish smile.

Iza is deceptively sweet-looking: tiny, with a hint of exotic beauty.  At first glance, one trusts her, for she has an air of naïve innocence that causes soft-hearted folks to wish to take her under their wing.  This suits Iza just fine, as it served her well with her Auntie for many years.  It also assisted in the Ministry evaluation that she was mentally unbalanced: the inquisition was gullible: they designated her as harmless, but a possible danger to herself.

Though she has not yet used this innocent beauty to appeal to the opposite sex, she did used it as a young woman to lure unwitting children into the tool shed, so that she could “practice” on them.  She is not unaware of her physical charms and she is not above using them to achieve her desires.

She keeps her golden-blonde hair long and free—sometimes wearing it in a pony tail or clasped at the neck, but usually allows it to cascade down her back and over her creamy-white shoulders.  It’s an affectation—designed to appear innocent, of course, but she is prideful of her appearance.

She favors white linen, slippers and silk rather than taffeta and heels.  Her clothing is typically gauzy, flow-y and virginal-looking.

She keeps her voice soft, dreamy, nearly unsubstantial—unless she’s irritated or especially excited.  Unfortunately, she finds it out of her control to maintain the pleasant lilt and will sometimes screech or cackle without realizing it.

Despite this initial (and encouraged) impression of sweet innocence, Iza is no wilting flower.  Once she passes beyond the need to seduce a willing audience with her charms, her expressions will give her away: they are canny, conniving and sometimes mischievous.  Though she rarely sneers, one look into her eyes confirms that she is assessing people hungrily, determining how best to use them or whether to discard them as useless.  Once she discards them, they will wonder how they ever though she looked sweet, for the Devil is obvious in her expressions once she has decided she no longer needs them: cold and merciless without a conscience.

A stranger would do well to look into her eyes, first, before becoming smitten by her appearance.

Personality Description: Unstable, needy, aggressively possessive; easily angered but laughs easily too.  She is a strong-willed woman, yes, but once she's been won, she loses herself.

In many ways, Iza could be compared to a combination of the characters of Peeves the Poltergeist and Luna Lovegood (yes, go ahead and laugh: you know you want to).  She, herself, prefers to be likened to Bellatrix Lestrange, though she recognizes that a soft appearance has been vital to her survival and limits the obvious signs of dementia.  She’s aware that she doesn’t think quite like “respectable” people.  She simply doesn’t care.

With those she loves and trusts, she is more truly the person that she portrays to the world: she is thoughtful, loving and loyal.  She would willingly sacrifice herself to save the life of someone she cares about, and she is normally eager to please those friends.  Her vacant sweetness hides a cruel intelligence, however.  She understands that her ideas of morality do not match “respectable society” therefore she is cautious to whom she devotes herself.  People who share her views—those who encourage her to believe in herself and not to see herself as abnormal—are those with whom she will bond most readily.

In many ways, she’s childlike.  If just once, she was drawn to a person who did not have dark leanings, she would question herself and feel eager to change her views in order to please that person.  In some ways, her Aunt was one of those people.  Though Iza loved Nadine dearly, Nadine was never affectionate: she was aloof from Iza both as a child and as an adult.  Iza wanted to please her, however she received no positive reinforcement: only lessons and discipline.  Therefore, Iza often controlled herself for her aunt’s sake, but did not change her perception of herself.  It might have added a bit of guilt to her pleasure, but as I said: she is child-like.  Guilt increases pleasure.

She is aware intellectually that murder is wrong, however she does not see what happened to the Girl Scout as murder: it was an accident.  That is why she would never take it upon herself to intentionally commit murder: her aunt did have some affect on her.  She felt guilty when it happened and hid it, but only because she knew Nadine would be disappointed in her.  Iza felt no shame in the crime, only concern over her aunt’s reaction.  If she decided a murder was necessary, she would perform it without hesitation.

History:

Izadora Fronte was a fairly normal little girl, without serious Dark leanings.  She was bright and curious with a healthy sense of rebellion.

When she was six, one night after her parents were in bed, she took it upon herself to practice with her father’s wand.  She hid herself away in her closet, waving it about and muttering enchantments that she thought she had heard her parents say.  Her pet kitten was asleep in a pile of clothing on the floor of the closet (like most six-year-olds, Iza was anything but tidy).  With inspiration, she tried to turn the kitten yellow.  Not only did she fail, she was horrified to discover the kitten had stopped breathing.

Frantic, she tried spell after spell, literally hitting the kitten with the wand, attempting to undo the damage.  At long last, the kitten stirred.  Relieved and pleased, she hugged it and swore never again to experiment, tucking the kitten into her bed quietly and creeping into her parents’ darkened room to return her father’s wand and creep back into her bed herself.

Next morning, she discovered her parents dead in their sleep.

She tried everything she’d tried on the kitten, but to no avail: she could not remember the spell to resurrect them.  She didn’t even know which spell had killed them!  Bolts of enchantment, zipping through the thin wall that separated the back of her closet hiding place and her parents’ headboard on the other side…

Her grandfather’s sister, a spinster, took the little orphan in hand.  Moving into the Grand Manor, Iza was tight-lipped about the night her parents died.  She soon discovered that her aunt disapproved of curiosity and rebellion and had little empathy with small children.  Iza grew more distant, rather than sullen: the spell with which she’d inadvertently killed her parents haunted her, as did its counter.

Except that the counter was not a counter.  Within the month, it was evident to Nadine that the kitten had been resurrected as an Inferi.  Dark Magic indeed!  Beyond the knowledge or skill of a child, Nadine was uncertain whether to suspect the child had done it herself.  It was accidental, a million monkeys banging away at a million typewriters to create Shakespeare’s Sonnets… Iza couldn’t reproduce the spell because she did not perform it wittingly, nor would she have done so if she’d known how.

Except that the longer she was isolated and emotionally neglected in her aunt’s home, the more she longed for the days of security and warmth in her parents’ home.  She became obsessed—not only with finding the “death spell” but in duplicating the counter.  She didn’t care that the kitten wasn’t quite right after she’d brought him back: he was alive!

Somewhere along the way, Iza lost herself.  Her obsession with Dark Magic caused the Sorting Hat to place her in Slytherin, despite her family’s tradition of Ravenclaw.  This sorting caused her aunt to become even more suspicious and cold with her: she believed that the child needed discipline, an iron hand to guide her onto the right path.  She was very strict and stiff, feeling it her duty to mold Iza into the woman her parents would have expected.

Nadine found herself vexed at every turn: Iza simply would not give up her childish fixation with Dark magic.  During Christmas Holiday, the year Iza would graduate Hogwarts, Nadine discovered she’d taken the Dark Mark, when she brushed against her at the dinner table and she winced, drawing her arm away. Grabbing Iza’s arm in a vice-like grip, she jerked up her sleeve and stared, disgusted.  Iza was not allowed outside of the house for the entire holiday.  For Iza, the fear that her aunt would tell Dumbledore and she would be expelled from school was enough to cause her to remain meekly in her room.

Her aunt wasn’t heartless.  Her resolve was softened by Iza’s meek acceptance of her fate.  The girl feels remorse, she thought and promised not to inform the Headmaster if Iza would promise to think of Nadine first, and her family’s good name, before pursuing illegal activity.  Bursting into tears of love and gratitude, Iza had flung her arms around her old aunt, hugging her and promising.  Nadine, suddenly seeing that the child did love her, hugged her awkwardly back.  Perhaps I’ve done well.  Perhaps she cares…

This meeting of minds was short-lived, however, as the Final Battle caused Nadine to fear once again that Iza was besotted with the Dark.  She was, of course: despite her promise to her aunt, when the Death Eaters entered the grounds, she joined those Slytherins who stayed to fight… for the Dark Lord.  She would not admit this to Nadine and Nadine deluded herself into believing she had been true to her word.  Still… the old woman knew of no other way to try to protect Iza than to crack down on her even harder.

Iza was devastated when the Dark Lord died, but watching Bella fall… What was left of her sanity snapped.  After school, she took to mimicking Bella, torturing small animals and children for fun, feeling lost and alone without someone to guide her impulses.

After an incident at her family’s home in 1998 with a Muggle Girl Scout selling cookies, she was arrested and tried for murder and torture.  Oddly, no witness stepped forward.  Possibly, her Aunt Nadine passed over a bag of galleons.  Possibly.  Unable to convict her of more serious crimes, the Ministry settled for charges of Muggle Baiting (the little girl was at her home because she’d been paid for her cookies with Leprechaun gold and she returned later that evening, angry, convinced Iza had stolen the money back and threatening to call the police).  

After her brief stay in Azkaban, she was released into her elderly Aunt’s custody rather than her own recognizance because they considered her mentally unstable.  The old woman kept her comfortable but isolated until a few months ago when Aunt Nadine died (of natural causes: she was 112).  She had taken a page from Barty Crouch’s book and kept Iza charmed for nearly 9 years.  Now free of both the Ministry and her Aunt's oppression, Iza has set out into the world with reckless abandon.  Unfortunately, the world is a much-changed place from the one she knew at the end of Voldemort's reign of terror, and she's finding it a bit daunting, utterly alone.

Writing Sample:
Show your character in a scene that illustrates the best and worst aspects
of their personality. Include action, dialog and thought.  

Izzie stood at the fringe of the Forbidden Forest, her face turned toward the castle.  Almost, her lip trembled as she remembered its security, then the memory was blasted to shards as the image of the Dark Lord’s final moments were seared once again into her brain.  She closed her eyes against the pain, a tear passing unnoticed onto the bridge of her nose.  It did no good: she could still see his lifeless hulk and Hogwarts would forever be tainted in her thoughts.

A slight noise caught her attention: a twig breaking.  She whirled angrily and spied a tiny first-year, watching.  Izzie blinked, surprised: she thought she was alone.  Her stunned expression slowly melted into calculation… and delight.  ”Ahhhh… Ickle Firstie is curious,” she oozed sweetly, stepping toward the girl.  In her mind, she saw herself as sounding reassuring, even friendly.

Glancing up into Iza's eyes hopefully, the little girl's expression of trust shattered as she stepped backward, fear lighting her face.  ”What’s the matter with you?” Izzie snapped irritably, automatically flicking her wand from its hiding place in the folds of her robes.  ”Cat got your tongue?”  She cackled, holding her wand lazily in one hand and sliding a finger over it slowly, as if contemplating the proper hex to wipe the girl’s memory of her presence… but as painfully as possible…

The last thing Iza wanted was to be seen mourning her lost childhood.  This little imbecile thought she could spy on her?


Sum up your character in one paragraph:  She can be soft and pliable, sweet and gentle, but is literally dangerous to those she distrusts or dislikes.

Update:

Wands:  The wand in the above description belonged to Nadine-- Izadora's spinster aunt.  It was taken by Iza from the home when she ran for dear life after the Wards keeping her imprisoned and pliable for over eight years ended with Nadine's death.  The Birch wand is the one Iza is currently using-- not her own.  Hag's Hair core...  I did not fully acquaint myself with the list of wands available on the list at this site.  I have seen it listed elsewhere and thought it fitting to use it as a core for a shrewish old woman.  I'm not sure what attributes to give it.  Birch, however, is listed as good for Charms and Protective spells, which I imagine Nadine to have been particularly gifted at, to keep Iza in the house and the house Warded against intrusions... or escape.

If it is allowed to have a non-regulation core, I would say that the wand was passed down to Nadine from her own Spinster Auntie (her father's sister).  It works fairly well for Iza, but becomes balky when she attempts Dark Magic, mainly because her aunt was so vehemently opposed to her experimentation.  It works just fine for hexes-- especially those used as "punishment" such as stinging hexes... as I imagine Auntie Nadine was very good at those when Iza was a girl.

Iza's Wand:  Iza's wand was hidden after the Muggle girl died, because she suspected that Nadine would accuse her of the crime even if she didn't expect the Ministry to.  Like a little girl, Iza covered up her sins so that Nadine will not punish her for it.  This wand was never recovered and it's possible that the Ministry has forgotten about it... although some diligent Intern might find the reference when scouring the Archives on menial duty.  It was not officially taken from her, perhaps because the crimes she was convicted of were petty charges and Nadine's influence caused the PTBs to believe Iza was harmless if annoying.

If it is allowed, I would like to make Iza's personal wand-- which chose her when she was 11-- Dogwood.  Unfortunately, it's not listed.  It's representative of resurrection... which is the nature of her obsession with Dark Magic.  Probably Runespoor Fang core (for Dark Magic).  Brittle of course, knobby ("earthy and strong" is deep rooted in her personality beyond her psychosis-- a sort of "might have been" if she'd followed another path).

If it is illegal for Iza to own a wand, then it's likely that eventually someone will get around to noticing that Iza disappeared when Nadine died, wonder where she went, and wonder where Nadine's wand went... She's waving it around openly because she doesn't realize she might not be supposed to have it, but she's also not afraid for it to be taken because she has her own, even if she's reluctant to remove it from her hiding place.

If it isn't illegal for her to have a wand, she will eventually get around to retrieving her own wand, if she believes it is safe to do so.

If nobody in the Ministry has noticed Iza's wand situation, she might be convinced to part with it "for a good cause..." such as helping a friend who was "unjustly deprived" of a wand after having been put in Azkaban.  She would be eager to help, and like a child with too much candy, to share and to make a favorable impression on those she's drawn to...

((I intend to follow up on Iza and Nadine's history a little later, as time permits me to expand)).