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Is this a Primary or Secondary Character?: Primary

Full Character Name: Alethea Demi Selwyn
Character Birthday & Age: June 10, 1970 / 38
City & Country of Birth: London, England
Blood Purity: Pureblood
Alma Mater: Hogwarts, Hufflepuff 1981-1988
Job/Position: Chairwitch of the Muggle-Worthy Excuse Committee

Wand: Willow with Phoenix Feather core, 9''. Supple with spiraled shaft. Bought at Olivander's when she was eleven.


Physical Description:

Alethea is 5'7'' tall and weights 127 pounds. She's brunette with wavy medium-lenght hair and hazel eyes. Her face is oval with classical traces, prominent nose and dreamy eyes that given the false impression that she's always distant or asleep.

Elegant and as serious as she can be at work, Thea wears classical suits, tailleurs, pencil skirts, tights and scarpins. Mostly she uses neutral coloured clothes and balances it with fine colourful accessories, jewelry or any other detail. Alethea has very good taste in fashion and often causes good impression.

She loves perfume and never go out without using a very pleasant one, but often ruins it with the smell of the cigarettes she smokes.

When hanging out with friends she dresses well too, but much more informal and cheerful. Sometimes she wears jeans and some pieces of muggle fashion brands. As Thea must keep up to date with the muggle world, and for that she reads muggle's newspapers and periodicals frequently, she doesn't mind keeping up with their style too.

Even aware that she's not exactly drop dead gorgeous and is now too close of the forty to try to deny it, Thea is pretty confident and flirty, unafraid of making approachment and independent enough to ask men out if she wants to. She treats her personal life with discretion and never mix it with her professional life - what she does inside the Ministry is strictly work, and what happens outside must stay outside, always.

Alethea prefer to be called by her first name every time it's possible and by Thea on intimacy. She speaks clearly and always looks directly in the eyes of anyone she's dealing with - wizards, muggles or creatures; authorities or subordinates; friends or enemies; and even known Legilimens, she almost invite them to make a trip on her mind. Especially when she's lying.

Alethea have to take care to not smile nor talk too much at important meetings.

At the Ministry she can often be spotted smoking at the Atrium or drinking tons of coffee. In her office she keeps muggle's bubble gums and is always chewing them compulsively while working alone, specially when she stays late at night. She can be compulsive with foods and drinks too, so she compensates working out at home (with muggle's equipments, the way she learnt when lived with them) and jogging.


Personality Description:

She knows how to impose respect without imposing fear and be serious at work without being arrogant. Alethea likes to give the final word about any matter, but is always open to hear and consider people's opinions. Even being a pureblood she's more connected to the muggle’s technologies than some muggleborns, because her work requires it and she just love doing so.

She appears to be strong, consistent, kind, cheerful, brave and shameless of speaking - a LOT - truthfully. In fact she loves this image and work hard to keep it, but it's not entirely truth.

Thea have a special talent in tell lies or just... Over elaborate the truth. She does that a lot at work as part of her duty, but ends up doing the same at some circumstances of her life, not to be mean, but to play a little with people and protect herself of awkward subjects. She always acts like she's absolute sincere through, and is able to argue and defend her fake ideas and stories til the end, which or convinces, or confuses people.

Her mind is very changeable, inconsistent and volatile with some matters. She thinks too much, is too curious and everything that caught her interest sounds legitimate and worthy... until not sound anymore. Alethea easily discards ideas, personal stuff and acquaintances. One day she's interested in painting and buys tons of inks and frames - other day she throw all away. One day she met a really handsome men, flirts and asks him out - other day she realizes he's not that handsome and cancel the date.

She is sure only about the things that remained through her life, like her work and beliefs.

She's working for the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes for twenty years, loving her duties, her office and everything she has lived and experienced because of it, even during the war. The Ministry came first, the rest she can manage somehow.

Her beliefs were built stronger since she was eleven. As the only daughter of a married couple of Death Eaters and living her childhood on the glorious days of Voldemort on the 70's - which made her parents be absent most of the time -; Alethea was not much of a sweet, faithful daughter. She hated to have her parents always out, she hated the gifts they gave her trying to compensate it, and most of all, she hated the Dark Arts they practiced, just to be a rebellious child.

But it was in Hogwarts that she understood what they'd done and passed to hate it with more property. They were still free to condemn her for be sorted into Hufflepuff instead of Slytherin, but soon after that Voldemort fell and they ended up in Azkaban. Alethea refused to go to her grandparent's house on holidays and only went there in Summer because she had nowhere else to go. They were pureblood purists too.

She saw the world being rebuilt on that time, some people moving on gladly, others fighting hard to get over, but everyone living on a way she had never seen before - breathing, loving and trying, everyday thankful for being alive and free. Alethea decided to be part of it and by the time she graduated, she broke all relations with her family and went live with a muggleborn friend.

Since then, she declares herself not a muggle-lover, but a freedom-lover.

So she tries to respect everyone, but find some hard time when dealing with purists because she can't just keep her mouth shut, so she argues with everything she disagrees; but much more passionate with them.

Alethea is the kind that have many friends, but none of them really know her, for she prefer to tell some elaborate stories instead of who she really is, what she really been through, how she really feel. It's the same for lovers - there is only one man that she felt really attached with and still see him sometimes, but imagine herself in a long-term relationship is something scary so she always run away before it starts to get serious.

Everything she does on her free time are in excess - hang out, smoke, drink, eat, flirt, talk, laugh, etc., so she avoid her coworkers company on that in order to preserve her image, but sometimes she fall in temptation. Still she's hard worker, competent and proud, so even if there are any rumours about her conduct, she keep her head raised and make double effort to prove that no matter what she does with her life, her work is still flawless and she is irreplaceable at the Department.

Thea regrets only about what she haven't done, but regrets deeply. The way she didn't had the guts to put her life in risk on the war to help more people is something that chases her.


History:

Alethea was born to Demetrios and Valerie Selwyn in 1970, the time of the first rise of Voldemort. As both of her parents were Death Eaters, they spent more time working to their Lord than taking care of their child. They've tried to compensate that though, but the girl was never bought by their expensive gifts and spoils.

She learnt too early to be independent and have her own opinion, even being a childish one. So at a young age she declared her hate to all her parent's beliefs and was punished as any misbehaved child, what didn't changed a thing. Alethea continued not hiding when displeased and Demetrios and Valerie continued to serve Voldemort above all things. It created an abyss between them, when father and mother began to just expect that phase to pass, and daughter began to hope to ran away someday.

But before that happens, she received a letter from Hogwarts and in September 1981 she went to the school and was sorted into Hufflepuff. That's when her parents declared their displeasure over her, having their only daughter in such a house. In fact, Valerie went there to try to bring her back home, but the girl refused and Dumbledore convinced (or just tired) her and the woman turned back alone.

Two months later Voldemort fell and Alethea saw the wizarding society on a perspective she never saw before. The overjoy of being again free was something contagious, that made her feel happy and alive in a way that she carries in her heart until today. By the time the other kids who also had Death Eaters parents started to talk about they being hunted and judged, the girl knew it would happen to her parents as well. She felt a little bad, but on her still childish point of view, that was the only way for they regret of what they've done. And she expected that, truly, but never came.

Alethea was a proud Hufflepuff since the beginning. She was already a sociable child with the others before Hogwarts - even the others being as stupid as their parents - but along with kids so alike, she started to bloom to be a kind, happy and playful person.

She lived those years with an eager to enjoy every moment at school, and learned to laugh even of the teenage conflicts, so common when living with another teens. She adored to stay up til late just talking with the girls about boys, annoying teachers and quidditch matches; walking through the castle at night just to feel the adrenalin of the possibility of getting caught; flirt with the older boys, especially with the team's captain and the prefects; etc. She just didn't became a prefect herself because she eventually was in the middle of some mess, but most of her grades were excellent.

All summers when she had to go to her grandparent's house was like the death of that life she was having. There was an abyss between them too, like there was between her and her parents, and she was sure of not being a welcomed guest. Sometimes she ran to some friend's house, and when got older, she started to go out on some muggle places seeking fun. She was very fond of her muggleborns friends and was fascinated with their world.

Sometimes her parents wrote clearly just to make she remember of them, and she replied with very few words. When Alethea graduate, she arranged an internship on the Ministry of Magic, on the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes, and moved with her muggleborn friend, Elizabeth. When it happened she finally wrote to her parents actually using tons of words to explain that she was heading to a very different path of her family. They've never replied.

Over the years she worked hard to maintain herself, and her effort was well seeing by her superiors. Gradually she raised her position in the Ministry, started to be better paid and went living alone when Beth got married. She lived free, appreciating her solitude and enjoying life experiences with the same old eager of living.

At June 1996 the Voldemort's return became known and she felt that like a terrible deja vù. She got promoted to the Office of Misinformation and started to work along with the muggle ministry in order to keep the Death Eater's attacks covered. For all over the war she had to face the most brutal murders and create excuses for them to be released on muggle's press and minister's announcements. Sometimes Alethea had to head to the crime scenes before any muggle notices and cast spells to repeal them, others she had to obliviate witnesses. That was crazy times for her.

On a softer side, however, she was living in the muggle London and working with the Prime Minister's Office, so she tried to enjoy that chance as much as she could. Especially when it came about the prime minister's assistant, Nicholas Lawrence. They had a passionate affair through all the time she stayed there, and even afraid of such intimacy they've built over the time, Alethea had to admit that she was in love with him. She never gave him hope, though. She knew a marriage would ruin everything, for no reason other than she was a loner.

In one of the Azkaban's mass breakouts her parents escaped and once after that she found Demetrios on a crime scene before anyone else arrive. They didn't said a word, but she let him walk away without ever mentioning it to anyone. She felt guilty, and even nowadays she asks herself why she did that.

When the Ministry were took by the Death Eaters she had to came back and deny any personal involvement with muggles. Alethea took that opportunity to resign, claiming mental exhaustion for living and working between them for so long time. That was a bitter lie to tell, but she did because she knew that for being a pureblood she wouldn't be arrested if affirming to had nothing to do with muggles, and if she had stayed at the Ministry, she would had to tell worst lies.

Alethea took advantage of her relative freedom to help hiding some muggleborn's family and protecting threatened politicians. But all that she did was in secrecy; she never was brave enough to let herself be hunted or actually join the Order of Phoenix, only offering them support on whatever she could do without being exposed. She regrets that attitude, for some people she knew she could had protected more ended up killed.

Their memories are the only ghost that haunts her. When Harry Potter won the war, her parents got caught and were sent to Azkaban again, and the only difference between the first and the second time is that she no longer had hopes of regrets or reconciliations.

She got her job back and rebuilt her life along with her friends. Sometimes she still goes to the muggle London on places she used to go when lived there. Nick is a special case. Every muggle involved with the war - except the prime minister - had to be obliviated, and she herself changed his memory in order to let him remember they've worked together in some not-so-special cases. So he thinks she works with Public Relations and travels a lot, and as she loves her work above all things (which is not entirely a lie) they could only see each other when she's in London.

Alethea prefer to keep the things that way, as she still don't feel ready for any serious relationship. She hang with other men, she knows he does the same with other women, and is more comfortable with that than she would be getting married. Because she knows no one would never understand that, Nicholas is kind of a little secret in her life, and it's to his arms she ran away when need some time to feel loved and cherished.

In 2005 she became the Chairwitch of the Muggle-Worthy Excuse Committee and that was pure glory on her life. Her work is a little harder now because she have to hid magical fatalities, accidents, creatures and huge places from more and more advanced muggle technology. Alethea gladly get up to date about those damn cellphones with cameras and the annoying Internet with it's searching websites displaying satellite photos to the world as quick as she could say "Shit!". But, besides she wishes all that technology to stop existing (or to be a muggle to enjoy instead of fight against), she misses have some wizard friends to talk about that interesting crazy stuff.

Some muggle's electronic equipaments can be found at her place and she keeps a personal cellphone to use when she goes to the muggle London.

Even with all the trouble getting worst, she aims to be promoted to Head of the Department as her next step.


Describe your job duties and how you go about them:

Alethea is the Chairwitch of the Muggle-Worthy Excuse Committee and her duty is to protect the State of Secrecy by hiding from the muggles some magical facts and things; that are more difficult to hid everyday because of the muggle's technology that spreads informations, photos and videos quickly around the world. She basically decides along with the committee how to manage with leaked information by creating and spreading lies, mites and urban legends. To that she has to be always up to date with muggles news and technology and have the right contacts with people working with muggles in press and magazines.

Elaborate on your expertise in your field:

She started on an internship twenty years ago. She got her experience with time, an undeniable talent to invent some lies and truly hearted dedication. On the second war against Voldemort she took an important role by working in the muggle Prime Minister's Office to prevent the Death Eater's attack to became public and often she had to play the role of Obliviator and Invisible charmer because of the amount of work these days. She stayed loyal to her own beliefs and resigned when the Death Eaters took the Ministry, passing to work in secrecy and alone (except when helping the Order of Phoenix) in order to protect muggleborns and muggle politicians she used to know on the work. When the war was over she came back with the same old passion and joy of working to the Ministry. Alethea is sociable, with a quick, open-mind that is able to follow all the new muggles technologies, which is extremely important to do her work.


Sum up your character in one paragraph:

Daughter of a Death Eater's couple, Alethea Selwyn never agreed with her parents ideals. She describes herself as a freedom-lover, instead of simply muggle-lover, and completely adores to work with them in their world; even her duty being to protect the State of Secrecy, inventing lies to the muggle's press about some magical fatalities and other things that cannot be entirely hid. She's serious while working and cheerful, open minded and flirty on her free time. Smiles easily, talks a lot, collect friends and affairs but the only company she truly enjoys on her intimate life is her own.