Accepted - Erika/Grace
Your Nickname: Lindsay
Have you read and do you agree to the Code of Conduct?: Yes
How did you find us and decide to write with us? Friend
If you have written other characters here: No
If Yes, list them all:
Is this a Primary or Secondary Character?: Primary
Full Character Name: Talia Byrne
Character Birthday & Age: May 18, 1995, 14
City & Country of Birth: Westport, County Mayo, Ireland
Pureblood, Halfblood or Muggleborn: Muggleborn
House & Year: Fourth Year Hufflepuff
Wand: 10 ½ inch, Cedar and unicorn hair core.
Physical Description: Long auburn hair that tends to be wavy from her habit of twisting it up when wet and sticking pencils in it to keep it out of her way and dark green eyes. Of average height and build. Almost always looks slightly frazzled, like she is always rushing from place to place. Has pianist's fingers, though don't ask her why, she never played more than chopsticks on her grandmother's old upright piano.
Personality Description: Talia is a shy and quiet girl for the most part. She is very loving, her friends and family are everything to her. Though she does have the patented Irish Temper, it does tend to fizzle out quickly. She has the stubborn streak that generally goes hand in hand with such a temper. Because of her protective nature and her temper, watch out if you hurt one of her loved ones. Once you have managed to make it into her family (because her friends are her family to her), she is unwaveringly loyal... but she will only be a glutton for punishment for so long.
Strengths: Loyal and a hard worker.
Weaknesses: Let's face it, she's a klutz. There's a reason her parents didn't name her Grace. She is too hard on herself, a perfectionist and her own worst enemy when she’s trying to get every detail of homework and the like just so. Has troubles with numbers because of her attention issues and a slight touch of dyscalculia. Does not tend to do well in a crisis.
Quirks: Non-stop blushing. She has a near obsession with trees.
Habits: Biting or chewing on her bottom lip when concentrating or nervous. She talks with her hands, a lot, when she does actually talk. It's very rare to see her talking without moving her hands about.
Talents/Skills: She excels in herbology, a natural green thumb like her Grams. She’s also pretty decent with transfiguration.
History: The baby of the devout Wiccan family, her brother held nothing but disdain for the interloper in his life. One day when the kids were 10 and 7, Mam strapped them into pads and sent them outside to duke it out. Isaac was in training to be a boxer, following in his father’s footsteps, so he easily bested his sister. She didn’t let that stop her, though. She all but fell in love with sparring with her brother and takes up the job whenever she’s home. She tries to get practice in while she’s at school as well. Now she’s not sure which she enjoys more, the physical aspect of it or the witty repartee that they engage in.
If she wasn’t in the ring with Isaac, she was generally found up a tree. Her parents thought it odd that she could be such a menace to herself and everything fragile around her when on her own two feet, but when up in a tree she was perfectly at home. This earned her the hated nickname of “Monkey” from her brother, who only used it to rile her.
Talia, along with the rest of her family, was stunned when she received her letter from Hogwarts. Raised Wiccan, she had never thought that there were any other kind of witch. The fact that she was a wand wielding witch was another reason for her brother to dislike her. She attended as a proud Hufflepuff, pleased to be put into such a house. She keeps her head down at school, rarely getting into trouble and always with her nose in a book or up a tree. Her shyness keeps her from making friends easily, but the friends she makes she intends to keep for life.
Her summer between third and fourth year was ordinary for any teen, but has left her changed. She met Galen just days after she returned home for the summer holidays. He was a new comer to the gym where Isaac boxed. It was pretty much a whirlwind relationship, even though they were both fairly young- her 14 and him 15. Within days of meeting they had learned just about everything about each other. Talia wasn’t naïve enough to believe him to be her happily ever after, they were young after all, but that hadn’t stopped her from falling for him hard. It wasn’t until the very end of summer that they would be seen without each other. After being avoided for over a week, Talia sought him out to find him doing things that he shouldn’t have been doing with her best friend. It shattered her self esteem and her thoughts on loyalty were now in question. She’s trying her best to cope with everything, but for now that only means that she’s drawn deeper into her shell.
On a side note, of all of Talia’s family, she’s closest to her Grams, Reenie. The two have always been thick as thieves. Since their homes are within walking distance, it was a rare day that Talia would be at home in Ireland and not go visit her Grams and spend time out in her garden.
At Hogwarts her best class is Herbology by far. She almost lives for that class because it’s the one class she knows she can do without issue. She’s always been the unwilling teacher’s pet because she’s quiet, does what she’s supposed to, and works hard. Due to her clumsy tendencies, she’s not the greatest at casting spells. She knows the theory; it’s the practice that needs a bit of work. She tries not to let it discourage her and she works hard to fit in. Fitting in is the one thing that she really wants and that contributes to her loyalties when someone does consider her a friend. She had never really fit in in the muggle world, but she doesn’t feel she fits in at school in the wizarding world either. You’d think that after three years at Hogwarts she would have found her niche, but she’s still struggling to find it. Frustrations with that lead her to want to spend quite a bit of time alone, usually in study.
How Do You Fit Into Your House?: Look up 'loyal' in the dictionary and you'll see a picture of Talia. She is so loyal that half the time it could be considered a fault. She isn't afraid of hard work and does what it takes to get the job done and done well.
Writing Sample: Hours of stalking through the woods had had no effect on Talia’s temper. A fact that surprised even her. Unable to take the twittering birds and sunny skies any longer, she stormed off to her dorm room. Once there, Talia stood, looking around the room trying to decide what to do. Everything being so orderly and with the state of her temper, she couldn’t handle it.
First were the books. She pulled her arm along the book shelves, knocking them all to the floor. Second was the dresser top, not caring if one or two of her knick knacks broke. Then it was her dresser drawers. She didn’t pull all of the clothes out, but she did yank out all the drawers and swirl her hand around in them.
Taking a deep breath, she realized that the only thing all that accomplished was making a mess that she would have to clean later. She glared at the mess. She needed to DO something. She threw on her sports bra and yoga pants. Yanking on her hoodie, she made her way to the training room, wand in hand.
In the training room, Talia pointed her wand at one of the training dummies making a few alterations. It grew to seven feet tall, the base ballooning out with weight so it wouldn’t tip over. Once she had her giant punching and kicking target, she put her wand in her hoodie pocket and threw it across the room. She took the hair band from around her wrist and yanked her hair back into a pony tail, almost enjoying the pain that it caused.
Talia growled and started a combination of kicks and punches on the target. She easily started up a decent sweat. She let out another growl, wishing for once that her brother were around to spar with. Her Daidi had been a boxer in his younger years and had gotten Isaac into it as well. Mam had been known to strap them into pads and send them out back to spar when they started bickering too much. Having a sparring partner burned a lot more anger than a stupid, big, blue target.
She let out a frustrated cry at being unable to burn off her temper as quickly as she would have liked. She hated when she got so angry her hands shook uncontrollably, and that’s what they had been doing for a couple of hours now.
“Dúr, buachaillí dúr. An bhfuil nach fiú an trioblóid,” she growled out in Gaelic, accenting each word with a block, punch, or kick. Certainly she was right, stupid boys are not worth the trouble.
Sum up your character in one paragraph: Talia can be the best friend you have ever had, if you accept her as she is. She's shy so it does take her a bit to warm up to people. If anyone's in need of help, she'll do anything in her power to assist. She's never been scared of hard work and has no problem getting her hands dirty if that's what it takes. She's always been a tomboy, but is starting to come to terms with her feminine side after her summer fling with her now ex boyfriend.
Talia Byrne, 4th Year Hufflepuff