Accepted! - KnoxAbout You, the Writer:Your Nickname: Elle
Have you read and do you agree to the Code of Conduct?: Yep!
How did you find us and decide to write with us? I was invited from SR and helped create AO.
If you have written other characters here, list them all: Fauna Blake
Full Character Name: Aileen Reid
Character Birthday & Age: 33 years old. Born October 7th, 1975.
City & Country of Birth: Edinburgh, Scotland.
Pureblood, Halfblood or Muggleborn?: Pureblood
Alma Mater: Hogwarts, Slytherin house.
Position at Hogwarts: Ancient Runes professor.
Wand:Ollivander’s wand: It’s made out of alder wood, with a phoenix feather core and a shaft decorated with, you guessed it, runes. The wand appears smooth, polished, and pliable.
Physical Description:Aileen was slender growing up, but now she has a curvier frame. Her good posture enhances her height, which is around 5’10’’. Her features are elegant, with high cheekbones, round blue eyes, and nicely arched eyebrows, all enhanced by natural-looking makeup. She keeps her long, blond hair pulled back from her face when she’s working.
Her style is professional, crisp, and sophisticated. Though her clothes aren’t colorful or daring, they are impeccably made. She never wears heels, and because she’s tall, she doesn’t need to. Aileen likes to keep up with current fashions, but she also sticks to classics, and scorns any clothing that is uncomfortable or impractical. She typically wears one piece of tasteful jewelry to complete her look.
She has been trained to keep her facial expressions carefully neutral. When she smiles or lets out a light laugh, it’s to be polite, not genuine. Her bearing is collected and she hardly ever seems to rush anywhere. If she’s angry or upset, she’ll touch her head and face a lot, as if to hide it from view. Her voice is normally calm, but lacks warmth.
Personality Description: Those who knew Aileen when she was younger might jump to say that she was a harsh and judgmental snob. She was. They might also say that she had prejudiced and selfish attitudes. She did. Over the years, however, she has finally grown up and mellowed. Unless provoked, she bites her tongue when an insulting comment threatens to escape and she tries her best not to sneer.
To the outside world, she projects a reserved, polite kind of charm, and appears not to anger or fluster easily. She carries herself well in many social situations and delights audiences with numerous anecdotes and stories. Her story-telling ability makes her a good teacher. People who meet her now, without any knowledge of her past, might assume that a bad thought has never entered her head.
Inwardly, Aileen has some lingering, prejudiced attitudes, which she tries to hide. A part of her still believes that those of mixed blood should not aim too high in society or be too ambitious, because they make her feel threatened. She doesn’t condone violence or mistreatment of muggleborns in any way, but she might subconsciously encourage pureblood students and expect more from them.
Though she can definitely hold a conversation, people will soon discover that she rarely reveals anything significant about herself. They might know all the facts, but she’s a closed book when it comes to her feelings and personal thoughts. Many friends have claimed to know her, when in actuality, she’s just become their confidant for secrets and gossip. She’s a very good listener and remembers details about others, which she can use to her advantage. At times she wants to let her guard down, but she never knows who to trust, and when she tries to express real concern for others, it comes across as stilted and forced.
Aileen expects to be respected, well liked, and valued, so if people don’t react accordingly she takes offense. As much as she is disgusted with pureblood society, she still clings to acceptance and misses the status and power. If she makes a mistake, she’ll rarely admit to it, and tends to solve her problems passive-aggressively. She’s an expert at self-delusion and believing that she has done no wrong, and she’ll go to great lengths to convince others of the same.
She can be guilty of apathy and self-centeredness. Though she does a lot to further herself, she doesn’t think enough about other people and their struggles. In times of personal and family crisis, she often assumes that there’s nothing she can do to change the situation, and ends up doing what is easiest and most convenient, rather than what is right and helpful.
History: Aileen was born in 1975, to Douglas and Cullodena Reid. She was the second oldest child and first daughter. Her older brother, Trevor, was two years older than her. She looked up to him the most; from the day she babbled out his name and stuck his toy cars in her ears, up till her late teens.
Her childhood was easy, spoiled, and sheltered from the war building outside. The family lived in Edinburgh, but her parents actually considered moving out of the UK all together so they could better ignore the bloodshed happening right under their noses. They were certainly anti-muggles and muggleborns, but the violence was too unpleasant, and they preferred their parties and wealth to politics of any kind. Nothing was worth threatening their comfortable existence.
In 1981, with Voldemort’s demise, her parents chose to pack up and move to London where they could continue status climbing. In 1982, when Aileen was about seven years old, her little brother Simon was born. She had absolutely no interest in the runt, who cried too much and pulled her hair.
In 1986 she followed Trevor and started school at Hogwarts, where she was sorted into Slytherin. There, she furthered her education in magic, snobbery, and mean-spiritedness. Aileen spent much of her time teasing her peers and the younger ones, singling out a few of the very odd or different students to torture daily. The rest of the time, she spent in the library. Aileen never would have admitted it, but for the briefest moment the sorting hat considered putting her in Ravenclaw. Unlike some of the other girls in her house, she cared about her studies and worked hard to prove herself. Though many of her professors didn’t like her personally, they saw a lot of potential in her.
When she became a seventh year in 1993, Simon was just entering Hogwarts as a Slytherin first year. He was an embarrassment to her and she did nothing to make his adjustment to school easier. In fact, with her constant teasing and condescension, she made her brother’s life much more difficult. This same year her parents had their fourth and last child. Her name was Abigail and her arrival came as quite the shock. Raising more than three children was the only area that her parents even tiptoed outside of the norm, and they weren’t very happy about it. Regardless, during Aileen’s last year, her parents encouraged her to focus less on school and more on her social standing. She followed their direction, studying boys with the same intensity that she used to give her schoolwork. Her teachers were disappointed, but couldn’t sway her. Her parents heartily approved and kept a close eye on her social circle to ensure that she spent time with the right sort.
After graduating, Aileen’s ‘job’ was to find a nice, rich, pureblood boy to marry. She was not without help. Her mother carted her off to charity drive, to afternoon tea, to evening soirees, until she found a young man by the name of Oscar Whitman. He was every girl’s dream: handsome, sophisticated, wealthy, and even kind. So it came as a huge surprise, to both Aileen and her parents, when she became horribly unhappy soon after they married.
He was certainly nice enough and devoted enough, but there was no spark. Aileen had enjoyed flirting with boys, letting them chase her, and never getting caught. She wasn’t ready to be a wife and deal with the expectations that came with it. Privately, she wanted independence, and something more challenging to occupy her time.
Rather than communicate with her new husband about any of her feelings, she spent as much time out of the house as she could, wandering the streets shopping or meeting with friends. During one of her trips she met another man, a wizard, and they had an affair. It was more of an escape for her than anything serious. However, she wasn’t careful about hiding it, and her husband soon found out. After less than a year of marriage, they ended up getting a quick divorce and hardly ever saw each other again.
It took a long time for her family to get over the shame. When they finally did, her mother tried ushering Aileen back into the courtship game. Aileen played along for a while, but then decided that she couldn’t deal with it anymore. Her parents became very angry about her behavior and stopped talking to her for months. The only person who kept in contact was Trevor, urging her to reconsider. She spent another year miserable, until by chance, she spotted an ad in the Daily Prophet.
Volunteers with special knowledge about runes were needed on an excavation in Egypt. Though Aileen hadn’t studied Ancient Runes for a few years, it had always been her best subject, and she’d missed the thrill of discovering new languages. So, on a whim, she revisited the place she’d been so familiar with in her youth- the library. After catching up on the latest journals and freshening up her translation skills, she sent in her volunteer application, expecting nothing to come of it. To her surprise, they accepted her, and she left for the three month long journey after sending a quick note to Trevor. Though the dust, heat, and food appealed little to her, she sucked it up and threw herself into the work, surprising the rest of the excavation team. When her first trip was over, she was asked to go on other expeditions as a volunteer, and eventually received pay for her work and recognition for her contributions to the field.
Aileen was more than happy to get away from London, her disapproving parents, and her interfering older brother. Not to mention, away from Voldemort, the Azkaban breakouts, and the violence and fear that permeated Wizarding society. While others fought, she studied in safer countries. On a trip to the Netherlands, she met a man named Arvid Winter, who was a respected ancient runes scholar and prolific writer. It didn’t take long for her apprenticeship with him to become a romance, but this time, they both felt something real. The only problem was that he came from very little money, and his family was said to have sympathetic leanings toward muggles and muggleborns. This never bothered her during their travels, but when she finally returned back home, she couldn’t ignore it any longer. The pressure from her parents and her friends was too much to bear, and Aileen ended the relationship before it could become more serious. Arvid was heartbroken. She regrets her rash actions to this day.
When she was around 25, she was offered a job at the Ministry as an Unspeakable. She gratefully accepted the position so she could take a break from traveling (and running into Arvid). After Voldemort was finally defeated it was safe to live in London once again. She did a lot of obscure research and translations, and though she was surrounded by people all day, she felt lonely. Her father and her two brothers worked at the Ministry as well, but Simon still resented her for her awful behavior towards him, while her father and Trevor strongly felt that she should be raising a family of her own instead of working. Douglas and Trevor both worked in the ‘International Magical Trading Standards Body’, under the Department of International Magical Cooperation.
A few years later, the Reid family began to unravel. Simon was bitten by a werewolf and had turned into one himself. This was too much for her parents and Trevor to handle, and so they shunned him from the family in disgust. He also lost his job as an Auror. Years after that, when Aileen was 29, the family completely fell apart. Abigail, the youngest, never received her Hogwarts letter, and her parents were forced to admit that she was a squib. They’d always hoped she was just a late bloomer, but this wasn’t the case. They reluctantly continued to raise her, as the idea of sending her off to live with muggles was too appalling to think about. For the first time, Aileen’s heart went out to her younger siblings. However, she did nothing to stop her family’s treatment of them, nor did she ever offer any help. Soon, she started traveling again and going on expeditions. She still had her job at the Ministry, but wanted to be more active in the field so she wouldn’t get bored or complacent.
Meanwhile, Trevor was getting involved with the Black Market trade, which he managed through his International Trades job. He and Aileen drifted further and further apart. Her parents ignored Trevor’s criminal activities, adamant that he could do no wrong, because he was the perfect son in all other ways. He had married well and was skilled at keeping up appearances. The younger children in the Reid family continue to pose problems. Simon, a registered werewolf, has stopped coming in for routine check-ups. Abigail has run away from home twice now.
Aileen does not show any intention of getting married or settling down like she’s supposed to. In fact, when she saw an opening for an Ancient Runes professor at Hogwarts, she jumped on the opportunity and applied. She was eager for another change, and hadn’t been getting along very well with the new Head of the Department of Mysteries, Analiza Snark. So, to her absolute shock, she was accepted for the job, and plans to start teaching in the Fall of 2008.
Aileen's home.Elaborate on your expertise in your field:NEWTS scores:
Ancient Runes: O
Arithmancy: E
Transfiguration: E
Potions: E
Astronomy: E
She has been published in many scholarly journals, and has ample experience in the field, especially in Egypt and the Netherlands. She worked under renowned scholar Arvid Winter for a few years. Her work as an Unspeakable has also honed her research skills, keeping her updated on the latest puzzles and tricky translations.
What is your teaching philosophy?:Aileen likes to make her subject more interesting through stories and history. She considers the background information to be as important as the literal translations. Her preferred method of teaching is to give her students the basic facts of the assignment, and then let them work it out on their own, only giving individual help when needed.
If particular students show promise, she rewards them with more positive attention. Aileen tends to ignore mediocre or poor students. If they need help, they have to ask for it. While she doesn’t take offense to those who fall asleep on their desks or daydream, she’ll have no sympathy if they fail the exams. She expects students to work quietly and purposefully, without disrupting others. Nothing annoys her more than excessive talking or tardiness.
Writing Sample:Aileen stood on the steps of her parent’s house, feeling like a child again. A child who had misbehaved, and who was about to make the situation much worse for herself.
She rang the doorbell for the second time and laced her fingers in front of her. A light and pleasant breeze rustled the treetops and made her long robes ripple, but she barely noticed it. Finally, when the tip of her finger was on the button again, the door opened to reveal an ancient house elf dressed in a clean, white smock.
“Hello Minky,” Aileen said, a touch of annoyance to her voice. “Did my mother forget-“
The door slammed in her face. No, her mother had not forgotten their appointment. To forget would mean to let go, and Cullodena Reid still held grudges from her nursery school days. Aileen was in for it now.
Without conscious thought, she smoothed down her neat hair and her carefully pressed lavender robes. The door opened a few seconds later and there was her mother, giving Aileen the eagle-eye inspection that she did every visit.
“Fix your necklace, dear,” Her mother said stiffly, standing aside to let her in. Aileen obediently shifted the chain so that the clasp was in the back and followed her to the sitting room. The remarks about her appearance made up only a small part of the larger battle, and Aileen never bothered to steal her mother’s petty joys. She did, however, remind herself to unclench her teeth before Cullodena turned to face her.
“Sit.” Aileen did.
There was no tea, no offer of refreshment, no tray of pastries levitated over to set on the coffee table in front of them. Aileen didn’t need to glance around the room, as nothing had been changed for years. The chandelier above twinkled brightly, not a single light dimmed. The heavy, velvet window curtains were tied gracefully to one side, which allowed the airy curtains behind them to let in sunlight. The smooth, wood surface of the furniture had so many grooves and flourishes that it must be impossible to clean, and yet, she knew that if she ran a finger along it there’d be no dust to speak of. And the couches. The stiff couches did not encourage relaxed, casual talks. Aileen thanked her good posture and avoided leaning back.
Cullodena sat opposite her, only the low table between them. Minky appeared beside the woman and placed a teacup in her hand, then glanced at Aileen and opened her mouth. Her mother discreetly shook her head. The house-elf bowed low, and then disappeared. Aileen raised an eyebrow.
“I’m sure you know why I’ve summoned you here,” her mother began, eyes narrowing. “However, your knowledge of how you’ve disappointed me doesn’t seem to have any bearing on your actions.”
Aileen crossed her legs. She glanced at the clock on the wall.
“Therefore, it is my duty, as your mother, to explain to you why you mustn’t take the position you were offered at Hogwarts. First, I must ask you. What do you expect to gain from such a profession?”
“Gain?” She replied innocently, just to infuriate her. “Why, I want to impart my knowledge to the children there, so that they may graduate with a sense of purpose in the world, and consider ancient runes the highest form of magic. Of course.”
Her mother’s cheeks flushed an angry pink and she set her teacup down. The charade was over.
“Listen to me, Aileen. I know you think you’ll make valuable connections there, and you might make
one, if you’re lucky. But have you seen the staff?” Cullodena leaned forward. “They’re all insane. Even that Onderdike woman resigned because she couldn’t stand the Headmaster’s methods. Which says a lot, because you know how those Divination professors are. I heard that the Potions professor blows up his own lab, on occasion. The only respectable person you’ll find, is-“
“Yes, I know,” Aileen interjected, waving her hand. “The Astronomy woman.”
“Precisely,” Her mother replied in a clipped tone, clearly not happy about being interrupted. “It’s time you put a stop to this hobby of yours, dear, because you’re not getting any younger. I highly doubt you’ll find an appropriate husband among the crackpot staff, or in the stacks of the libraries you love to visit, or while you’re off gallivanting in third-world countries!” She laughed sharply, without an ounce of humor.
Aileen had heard enough.
“I’m so sorry that you disapprove,” she said sarcastically, “but as you so kindly mentioned, I’m not a young woman anymore, and I can make my own decisions without your hand holding. You should realize by now that I’m not aiming to find anyone. It is not every woman’s life ambition to be married off and have children, just so they can live vicariously through them and make them miserable. No, I’d much rather deal with the crackpots, but thank you for your
concern.”
She rose then, her hands shaking with anger, and managed to call out for the family house-elf in a calmer voice. Minky appeared very quickly, with a look on her face that suggested she’d heard everything.
Aileen handed her a note and spoke in a whisper. “Give this to Abigail please, for me.”
With that, she ignored her mother, who looked as though she was about to form words again, and walked out.
Sum up your character in one paragraph:Aileen is extremely polite, cautious, and manipulative. She has a passion for her work and an ambition that could have never been fulfilled as a society wife. Though she acts calm and unruffled, there are two sides to her that constantly fight for dominance. One side is her childhood, her apathy and self-centeredness, and the strict values her parents passed down to her. She still seeks acceptance in their world. The other side is independent, concerned about the welfare of others, and rather regretful of her past actions (or lack there of).
Aileen Reid: Professor of Ancient Runes