Accepted!  -- Sparky

Your Nickname: Will (evilpizza)
Have you read and do you agree to the Code of Conduct?: Of course
How did you find us and decide to write with us? Because I love the place
If you have written other characters here: Yes
If Yes, list them all: Member Board
Is this a Primary or Secondary Character?: Primary

Full Character Name: Polly Esther Ligeia Canterbury
Character Birthday & Age: February 2nd 1993 (16)
City & Country of Birth: UK resident
Pureblood, Halfblood or Muggleborn: Pureblood
House & Year: Ravenclaw 6th Year

Wand: Almond, 13 in, Unicorn Hair.

The end tapers to a very sharp point, it could jab out an eyeball. The wood is bleached almond, nearly as white as Ligeia’s skin but cream colored. It feels unfinished, the wood rough like sandpaper.


Physical Description:

Ligeia is albinistic, meaning her body has no melanin pigment. Her bone china porcelain skin is whiter than the purest snow. Her hair is the same shade of ivory, young and vibrant hair that hugs her head. The irises of her eyes are purple, owning to the lack of pigment. Genetically she has faded blue eyes but the blood vessels underneath are visible, creating a mixture of lavender violet. If you stare close enough at her eyes you can discern individual streaks of crimson and sky.

Ligeia stands at average height for a girl that has recently become a woman. Her curves are generous, soft padding, owing to a diet used to rich food, rarely saying “no” to indulgence. Hers is a Rubenesque figure, harking back to the Baroque styles of feminine beauty not uncommon to oil paintings or frescoes. She is very cozy in her own voluptuous body. Ligeia carries herself with perfect poise and prim posture, moving like how a cloud glides across the moon in the night sky. Others may call her stately walking as “slow” but she finds no fault with her speed. The first rule for the movement of a lady is: “A proper lady never runs, she hastens.” She moves with purpose, never wasting a motion, lending to graceful wand gestures. She speaks softly yet lofty, often with poetic diction.

Ligeia’s primary color scheme is monochromatic, pitch black to shining white like her gleaming skin. Any shade plucked from the rainbow can easily contrast with her lack of pigmentation. Vivid colors do look stunning on her at the cost of Ligeia looking ghostly and ill, especially bright colors that use words such as “neon” or “electric” in their classification. If there is to be color, it must be bleached pastel tints no harsher than her complexion, like a sun-faded photograph. Thus her wardrobe is built with experimentation, mindful of the ambient light of the location and her chalky skin tone. The dominant shade for Ligeia is black, the base rule for clothing and makeup. She wears little in the way of facial paint because of her skin tone, accenting only her eyes and lips. She lines her lips with black lipstick or for nominal events, the faintest pink or lavender. Her eye shadow is also black or pastel, adding a haunting visage to her gothic beauty.

Her fashion sense is to say old fashioned, dresses one could identify from the Victorian and earlier periods (with the odd modern update) the era when a lady would never be caught in trousers. When not in the school skirt accessorized with intricately designed nylon stockings, her wardrobe consists of dresses plain and extravagant with similar elements; Lace, ribbon, bows, chokers, scarves, nylon, dainty gloves and capes. Her tailored clothing covers every curve, leaving little skin exposed.

Ligeia has certain disadvantages because of her albinism. Her skin offers no protection from the sun’s rays. She burns easily and accumulated skin damage from the radiation can be cancerous. For protection, lest her skin take a bruised pink tinge, she keeps her clothing cut long, with the full arm gloves used with any short sleeves. Before spending a day outside she applies concentrated sunscreen potion, causing her skin to glisten. Also when out of doors she is under a wide black parasol with arabesque fringe, a possession she is never far from. The parasol is enchanted to remain balanced at whatever angle it is rested at with the handle as the fulcrum. This frees her hands if she chose to sit down, for example. The shaft has other attachments; a clip where she can secure her wand and a case for her dark spectacles.

Because of the lack of pigment in her eyes, Ligeia has vision problems and is extremely photosensitive. She has reading spectacles for classes and homework but dislikes wearing them for long periods. The further away something is, the blurrier it becomes in her vision. She likes the detachment from the world her vision offers as she can focus on the things close to her as vague colored shapes populate the background. As mentioned her parasol includes a dark spectacles case. She needs to wear them most of time when outside during the day, even for a sky covered in stark grey clouds. From dusk and onwards to daybreak, there’s no need for them. Ligeia can be blinded for several minutes if her eyes adjusted for dimness are over stimulated with sudden bright light. She’s taken to squinting her eyes whenever she senses the level of light in the room will change.

Personality Description:

One expecting Ligeia to be maladjusted or gloomy because of her condition would be greatly surprised, finding a well humored (if darkly humored), educated, cultured lady of fine etiquette, as if she is the last descendant of some nobility. True, she knows her limitations in regards to solar radiation but her lifestyle deftly circumvents these issues. Her personality is built up from other elements, of which albinism has the most indirect if any influence. Her lifestyle is a throwback to the centuries of old, the kind of cultural isolation only possible in the secluded wizarding realm.

Ligeia likes being inside and engages in many indoor activities. When not working on schoolwork she is an avid reader, enlarging the books or using some other kind of magnification when reading. She maintains her clothing with smart needlework, working from the tiniest sliver to the larger knitting needles or crochet hooks. Her nimble fingers also lend to the ebonies and ivories of the keyboard. At home she spends time at a large organ, a beast of a machine with stops and pumps making sounds you would never find on a muggle pipe organ. At school she keeps a harpsichord, a more portable keyboard.

She is not averse to going outside, liking dusk and night the best for the lack of damaging sun. If you look for moonlight strolls in your dates Ligeia is your woman. In lieu of an owl familiar, Ligeia is accompanied when outside by her pet vulture, a bird confusingly named Buzzard, that perches on her shoulder with sharp talons. Buzzard isn’t well trained for post, only good for short distances where the letters are left with obvious puncture marks. He does not hunt for fresh meat, waiting for carrion or stealing the kills from owls. Outdoor activities besides the walks with bird include setting up a very antique and magic gimmicked view camera, complete with tripod, curtain and flash powder. She likes photography, as starring at a picture can show her things she can’t notice easily due to her pigment lacking induced myopia. That less then stellar eyesight makes one wonder why her second favorite activity is the sport of trick shooting with a modified crossbow. Whilst sniping, a near miss is as welcome as a bullesye. Ligeia has amazing stamina. She stays up late and rises early to appreciate the soothing nighttime where she can walk about unworried. With only an hour or two of sleep it seems she is completely rejuvenated.

Ligeia’s interests are creepy even for the most eccentric of wizards, taking delight in the motifs of the macabre, gothic, ruined and grotesque. She was the girl that had tea parties with dolls missing heads or arms, caught spiders in shoeboxes, tended thorny plants and in moments of thanatopsis reflected on what would be the most exciting ways to die. She is the girl that talks to ghosts, interested in the details of their deaths and former lives. Much of this is attributed to her favorite literature, classics of Romantic Horror and sorrow filled Tragedy. She finds beauty in ugliness or frightful sights. This makes her unafraid, even for the dangers the world presents to a woman with albinism. Her heart may chill with shock or surprise but Ligeia is largely unaffected by fear. She sees redemptive or romantic qualities in about anything, such as werewolves and vampires and even inferi and horcruxes. The idea of the Dark Arts is thrilling…although if hard pressed by her peers Ligeia will admit that some things in the world are truly deplorable.

Ligeia has highs and lows, a majority of her life in high. She’s cheerful and enthusiastic in contrast to her morbid fascinations. With sanguine smiles she finds amusement in each and every aspect of life, including the triumphs and tragedies of others. She lets relationships form over prolonged contact and discussion. Her dark views may be off putting but she is an overall good-natured conversationalist. The top thing to say about Ligeia is that she is content, comfortable with herself, her life and her standing, unshakeable self-esteem.

But Ligeia sometimes has lows, inevitable when she wraps herself in gloom and doom. At these times she lets emotions get the better of her, a cathartic release. She may isolate herself with not but her pet vulture for company to fully feel the chill. When divining the future she worries about what she will do, thinking that there’s little she can contribute to society and her current life as a student mainly expends resources. After some time in her aberrant funk she will soon return to her habitual perkiness. She blames the despair on her personal Pogrebin that she believes to follow her about. She hasn’t seen it but has seen similarly shaped stones on the ground when she thinks she is being watched.

It is more fitting to define Ligeia as a Traditionalist. Her blood is pure but knowing how an outsider can feel given her albinistic condition she is unconcerned about the blood or magic acuity of another, again harkening to her always seeing a silver lining. One has to try really really hard to keep Ligeia cross with them. Despite her open-mindedness she has grown up rather isolated in an (very fitting don’t you think?) ivory tower, raised only in the wizarding world. She’s never set foot in the muggle world, excluding going to King’s Cross for the school train but that doesn’t fully count as her escort is quick and her vision glosses over modern muggle life. Some of her favorite authors such as Edgar Allen Poe or Nathanial Hawthorne are muggle, however, and where she gets her antique misconceptions of the non-magic folk from; she thinks everyone still knows the art of proper letter writing and sit around the hearth for warmth after arriving home in their carriages or early model automobiles.

History:

Argyle Canterbury showed no signs of slowing down in his old age. A rich and eccentric Wizengamot member (so eccentric at times his sanity has been called into question), Argyle is known for the children and grandchildren that populate the earth from the “fruits of his labors” with previous wives married and divorced (Current RCMC head Griffon Manley is also one). In the late 80s he married wife number seven, Hannah Darrion. Hannah was from a line of women from different families - like the potions empire of the Darrion name or ludicrous wealth of the O’Doherty one, to name examples – that got the short end of the stick from traditional subservient views of women. Hannah was hoping Argyle would drop dead soon after the marriage but he’s still going strong, so an odd love developed between them.

The two girls born of this union are Polka-Dot Canterbury and Polly Esther Ligeia Canterbury (Argyle was reaching the end of his book of baby names by this point), born six years apart.

P.E. Ligeia’s birth on February 2nd was rather unique, as it came to be known that Argyle and Hannah where non-indicative carriers of the recessive albinism gene, a pairing that missed the mark on Polka-Dot (this means that any offspring of Argyle’s loins could also potentially be carriers, although it wouldn’t be seen in their offspring unless the probabilities timed perfectly with other carriers or albinoids). However Argyle was unconcerned about Ligeia’s condition. Accommodations to cover her weaknesses were quickly implemented, her parasol and sunglasses and nocturnal habits.

Much of the girls’ upbringing was done by the hands of Hannah, Argyle being busy at court. He was home half of all evenings and weekends, usually coming and going when the girls were asleep. Especially for Ligeia, this gave the impression of Argyle being a grandfather rather than her biological father. In some ways to make up for this, Argyle spoiled his children lavishly with presents and allowances when he could not come home and planned the livliest of outings during his time off. Ligeia was simply happy for the affection whether in the form of time together or a new shrunken head (she thinks Dot was worse off for the spoiling, for while Ligeia has an extensive wardrobe Polka-Dot could costume two stage plays, a musical, and an opera).

Ligeia soon learned what she was capable of. She remained indoors when Dot went outside to play. She was not discouraged, however, taking delight in the house full of oddities Argyle had collected over the years, including: an antique derraugerotype camera; an immense pipe organ that took a whole room with stops including Thunderclap, Horse Whinny, Cannon Blast, Crows, Waterfall, etc.; a customized crossbow (several holes and irremovable bolts still dot the walls of the house from Ligeia’s practice. Hannah was infuriated but Argyle approved, claiming it helped her focus her eyesight); shrunken heads; rattling mutated skeletons shipped from Egypt; and an immense library of old literature magical and muggle (although nothing muggle from the past centuries). Very much an indoor child, this wealth of curiosities shaped Ligeia into the open minded, bizarre enthusiast she is today. In fact, reading Poe’s short story “Ligeia” prompted her to prefer to be referred to by her middle name instead of the corny sounding “Polly Esther.”

The summer before she attended Hogwarts, the Canterburys vacationed in Greece. Along with her letter of acceptance to the school back home, she unexpectedly found what would become her pet. During a tracking of a manticore (how thrilling is that?!) Ligeia discovered an orphaned Griffon Vulture chick whose family was eaten by said manticore. Not knowing the proper name of the species, she called it “Buzzard.” She raised the chick and brought him home. By her second year at Hogwarts Buzzard was strong enough to fly. She brought him along but as he technically isn’t an owl, the authorized Hogwarts pet, he doesn’t roost in the castle. Ligeia trained him to remain outside, where he joins his mistress when she’s out of doors. Sometimes she tosses eyeballs and other cadaver tidbits out of a window in Ravenclaw Tower, treats for Buzzard to catch in flight.

Even for unusual tastes and appearances, Ligeia didn’t really stand out of place at Hogwarts. By her third year most everyone in her class had gotten used to her light aversion, although her morbid fascinations can still be polarizing. Ligeia took CoMC, Divination and Arithmancy as electives, although she later found Arithmancy to be boring, dropping it in her fourth year. Ligeia also eschewed consistent attendance in student clubs, finding solace with her own activities: the setting up of the view camera, target shooting at the distant boundaries of the grounds (using patented Terminal Terminating Bolts that disintegrate should they strike a human or creature. Makes the sport perfectly safe if that’s the ammo, although it’s still fairly frightening to those that accidently wind up in the line of fire). This isn’t to say she has been anti-social, as she finds joviality when talking to those alive…and dead! Ligeia has befriended about every ghost she’s met. She likes to hear the details of their past lives and how they died. She often goes out of her way to use the second floor girls’ bathroom haunted by Moaning Myrtle so they can gossip.

Her special blend of kookiness is apparent in each of her classes. She seems to have a charmed aura in CoMC, briefly taming the most dangerous beasts to her advances and letting all manner of creepy critters crawl across her skin. She excels at brewing poisons in Potions, bringing nearly dead plants back to life in Herbology, memorizing the bloodiest of wars and redcap attacks in HoM. Credit is shown where credit is due, and she’s thankful to those that have helped her excel in her classes. "Uncle Griffon," her half-brother, has been a resource for CoMC with back and forth letters. Her ghost friends are excellent references in HoM. Some are surprised that she didn’t continue HoM after her fifth year, but Ligeia says that once you’ve learned all the gruesome history the rest is boring drivel.

Ligeia is excited for the upcoming TWT (think of the terror involved given how the last one went!) and has deliberately avoided hearing too much about it so the surprises would be fresh.

How Do You Fit Into Your House?: Ligeia has a lifelong curiosity in the unusual, fitting for a Ravenclaw, an intellectual and cultural thirst for knowledge. However, like many things 'knowledge' is in the eye of the beholder. For Ligeia this is enthusiasm in the bizarre and decidedly dark, as she embraces things others do not while remaining approachable. She does possess some of the most prized qualities of the other houses, a Gryffindor fearlessness, a Slytherin refinement and a Hufflepuff friendliness; however, through and through she is a Ravenclaw, filling both examples of academia efficiency and eccentric kookiness.

Writing Sample: X

Sum up your character in one paragraph: P.E. Ligeia Canterbury is an albinistic 6th Year Ravenclaw like a throwback to historical nobility. She is as eccentric as they come in the wizarding world, old-fashioned in lifestyle and morbid in her fascinations. It's practically impossible to anger, scare or unnerve her and her seemingly innocent comments will have you scampering for a way to purge the horrid realization from your mind. Within this painting of gloom and goth you'll be surprised at her Romantically sunny disposition. Ligeia is outgoing and compassionate and will help you if possible...although don't linger on the thought too hard, or you might wonder why those cookies she gave you taste so strongly of almonds, or why she thinks having your finger nearly bitten off by her vulture Buzzard is a sign of good fortune.

Buzzard is the name of Ligeia's pet Griffon Vulture (an Old World vulture, in actuality the term Buzzard is used for some New World vultures and condors in America). She rescued him as a chick from a vacation in Greece tracking a manticore, the rest of his family had been eaten by said manticore. He is about 7 years old as Ligeia starts her sixth year, a young adult with fine white neck feathers and gray to black wing feathers. Older Griffon Vultures can have sandy feathers though Ligeia wishes this won't happen.

He is 40 in long (3.33 ft, 1.016 m), weighs 23 lbs (10.4 kg) and has a wingspan approaching 8 ft (2.4 m). Ligeia's shoulders are broad enough for him to perch on or he sits on her open parasol (which repairs itself after puncture).

Buzzard is a scavenger, feasting mostly on carrion. Ligeia saves him body parts, especially eyeballs, as choice tidbits. Buzzard also fights owls for their kills, grunting and hissing at them. He can deliver some mail but he has a horrible timeliness when compared to a post owl and the letters are often mangled in his claws. At Hogwarts, he's known for peering at anyone with a deathly steely glare and antagonizing the Whomping Willow. He roosts on the edge of the forrest or just outside the window of Ligeia's dorm-room.

Accepted! ~Elle

Character Name: Ligeia Canterbury
Title Applying For: Ravenclaw Prefect (6th year, female)
Link to Accepted Biography: Biography

What Experience has Prepared You For This Honor?: It’s true nobody, not even Ligeia herself, would have expected the aristocratic albinistic Ravenclaw to make Prefect someday. She didn’t seem the type to play politics or place herself in leadership roles at the center of attention. While she is friendly, there is something off putting about her…enthusiasms.

But she is really just a kooky individual, not at all deviant or delinquent. Ligeia believes in a time and place for everything and follows the rules, never breaking them.  There is the time to attend class, the time to work on assignments, and the time to respect curfew. Ligeia does love the nighttime, being almost livelier in the dark than she is during the day. But she does not wander out of bed, rather catching up on reading or grooming Buzzard at the window if she has a spell of insomnia. And while crossbow shooting sounds like a lethal sport, she is always careful to do it out of the way and with bolts that implode before they would actually kill anything.

But those are her habits. What does Ligeia actually bring to a prefect role that is useful? What of her personality?

Ligeia is compassionate, Romantically poised individual that sees redemptive qualities in everything, so she is quick to defend anyone bad-mouthed or put-down because of anything unusual about them, if she sees it happening. After all, she grew up with albinism and there’s nothing wrong with her (morbid fascinations excused from this argument). She greets everyone with a “Dear” honorific, happy to have them about. You could say she’s caring…but ‘altruistic’ is a better term to use. She’s generous with the benefits of her social standing although she may map her own views of the person onto them when being protective, not catching up on their actual wants or needs the first time through. But she would do anything for the dearest of friends.

Ligeia is a prime balance of the values of Ravenclaw: curiosity, independence, and eccentricity (that last one in spades). Like many Ravenclaws she’s a top student, maintaining good grades across a wide board of disciplines. Her drive for knowledge does veer into the hazy, controversial ground, but you can’t say that she acts like a dark wizard or is in any way corrupted. Knowledge on dark subjects? Yes. Dark individual? The trappings of one, but No.

What Do You Think the Most Important Aspect of This Job Is:? Ligeia finds satisfaction being part in the efficiency and running of the school. During her lowest of lows, she has always wondered about what kind of place she can have in the shrinking magical world, to be more than just a daughter of the upper crust. Being a prefect, and volunteering at St. Mungo’s—as it has been suggested she look into healing—have given her a different kind of satisfaction her usual hobbies don’t always fill.

She can be there for the younger students, in the excitement of things and influence the outcome. It’s true her methods are unconventional. Lot’s of reserve psychology (though this isn’t intentional), a hypothetical anti-perfect that sounds like a horrendous role model but with Ligeia behind the helm it somehow works. Catching culprits in the act she may at times seem encouraging, correcting their methods or extrapolating on the unforeseen, potentially lethal consequences of their actions as if that was their intended desire along and she wishes she could join in as well…terrors that leap to mind, and she hasn’t actually threatened you at all! When narrated this way by Ligeia, many would find it easier to repent then go down the path narrated before them.

She’s subtle, never harping, bullying or steamrolling others with Prefect power and benefits, never flashing the title. It’s easy to forget that she is a Prefect, even Ligeia needs to be reminded at times although she always catches herself. She’s energetic during nightly patrols owing to her stamina. Plus, Buzzard isn’t the most friendly thing to run across in the dark out of doors and his mistress is only ever a short distance way. Being “dead meat” may be a euphemism for being in trouble, but in a vulture’s eyes “dead meat” is dead meat.

Overall, while she isn’t a role model if you value the straight and narrow, she is a prime example of someone than can succeed while still being themselves. Perhaps that’s the greatest blessing Ligeia finds, helping other express their individuality even if it doesn’t align with hers. Are there other benefits of being a Prefect? Yes, but those are perks. Her heart is in the right place.

“Well of course it’s in the right place! I should know if I had decided to rip it out and store it in a jar somewhere.”

Tell a Story From Your Past That Has Proven Your Mettle:  She's too new for previous posts, but to use the events of the past...

Ligeia’s Third Year:

“I wouldn’t call it much of a trophy room if it only has victories,” Ligeia said to herself. The albinistic third year drifted through the halls like a ghost, carrying an antique view camera on a tripod. “No grandiose failures, no memorials? Not so much as even ‘dying out in a blaze of glory’ list, only mundane rewards.”

Things like past prefects, club presidents, quidditch captains, rewards for special services, cups!. Not even a memorial for poor dear Myrtle, her death had been swept under the rug during her day. She should mount a campaign to retroactively install a memorial. It would give Myrtle some comfort that the school remembered her not just as the ‘ghost that haunted the second floor loo.’

The quest was to research famous arithmancers for Arithmancy. She was beginning to regret taking the subject. A stiff upper lip for the rest of the year and then she may drop it. Not that Argyle would mind her dropping in the middle of the year but she didn’t want to go through the effort. Research in the library had given her a few names of Hogwarts graduates that had awards for Arithmancy-whichever. A daguerreotype of the reward with her report may earn bonus points…although it would be a chunky report.

Entering the Trophy Room, Ligeia propped the camera up in-frame, checking her flash powder and prepped slide. That was when she heard odd sounds behind her. It sounded like an unknown language.

Something too bright and lively was huddled in the corner. Atop a column of cloth sprouting various flowers there was a jack-o-lantern with leeks coming from the ears. And it was mumbling gibberish.

“Are you a fall festival display?” Ligeia asked.

That brought a rise to the effigy, revealed to be a student in flower covered robes, most of his head obscured with the pumpkin.

“Marvelous costume, though you’re a little late for Halloween.”

The boy tried walking closer but as he couldn’t see he bumped into a column. “Gyob sdfgo mopu hexy hexy…”

“Clearly you’ve been hexed,” said Ligeia, only catching the one word. “You may need to be dipped in herbicide if the nurse can’t get all of that off of you.” A sudden idea. “Oh! Just a moment, little pumpkin, they may want some kind of proof of what happened to you.” And a smile to herself that she would have a copy of the daguerreotype to remember this occasion. The tripod was rotated and Ligeia peered under the curtain. An upside-down view of the flora-afflicted student was in view.

“Turn a bit this way, that’s it,” Ligeia instructed. She emerged from under the curtain, held the tray for the flash powder aloft. “You’re fortunate that jack-o-lantern covers your eyes. I’ve been told this is blindly bright. Our house quidditch team claimed they couldn’t even practice after I took their group photo. Hold it steady…” She ducked under the curtain again.

“Say cheese and die!” said Ligeia, as the flash powder exploded with a BOOM! and the room was bathed in white so thick nothing was discernable for a moment. Ligeia emerged from the curtain, unaffected by the blinding flash. The tray was smoking from purple embers. She smothered the flames.

“Still a bit too powerful,” Ligeia admitted. “I’ve tried to get a portrait of Moaning Myrtle but the light bleaches her out of existence. But after all she is a ghost, transparency is a unique subject matter. Come along, little pumpkin.”

Ligeia grabbed the arm of the hexed boy who clung to her, other human contact. She tried to pull the pumpkin off his head but it was on there tight. His grip was very chilling, clammy and sweaty.”

“Short walk to the Hospital Wing. Don’t you worry, I shall wait by your beside and knit you a sweater so you can be warmer during your recovery. Though I’ll need your neck measurement and I don’t think it is this.” She tapped the pumpkin head. “I knitted a sweater for my cousin for his birthday but he said the collar was too tight, like ‘being choked by a lethifold’ although I believe that was meant to be hyperbole. And he said it had too many arms, but I countered the possibly that he might get afflicted with extra limbs someday and then where would he be? Naked in the snow probably, with nothing to cover his extra limbed torso. Then he asked where I was getting all of this from and I said I had foreseen his future in my first class project in Divination.”

“But my apologies!” Ligeia said, collecting the camera and tripod. “You are the unfortunate one here in need of assistance! You might be lucky, if it’s a serious condition you may be able to be excused from your next days of classes! Do you remember anything of what happened?”

“VIpn pwtgn hexy wemdo cvgt.”

“Well, at least you smell nice. If someone really wanted to hex you, you could have been drooling uncontrollably, have your limbs twisted backwards, body-binded, left an unresponsive pile of quivering flesh, multi-limbed like my cousin or even transfigured into a statue, and if that was the case people may not have noticed that you don’t belong here. So chip up! What have you to cry for? Smile!”

The jack-o-lantern was smiling, but not the boy underneath.

Since October 20, 2009...


Ligeia has finished work on this embroidered monogram, and soon the patch is present on all of her outfits, just above the chest where it would be visible. The fuzzy letters twitch slightly, the tendrils growing out turning from a blood red to a faded burgundy in time.

Special Title Request

Character Name: P. E. Ligeia Canterbury
Title Applying For: Hogwarts Player President
Character Biography: link

What Experience has Prepared You For This Honor?:
The Canterburys were once major patrons of the arts. Ligeia has enjoyed attending many a theatrical performance and is more knowledgable about classical form. She has plenty of ideas fort what to put into a show.

From being a prefect, Ligeia has gotten more nuanced with instructing and directing others.

What Do You Think the Most Important Aspect of This Job Is:?
Ligeia focuses more on the production side of things. Directing, organizing practices, overseeing design, etc. (and probably backing quite a bit out of her allowance). Rarely would she actually act in a performance.

Ligeia also keeps her eyes open for what others excell at. She has no qualms with staffing the club with those with keen interest in other roles, be it co-president or stage manager or choreographer.

Tell a Story From Your Past That Has Proven Your Mettle: 
((Cue up the addition of other characters))

"...It's one of my better drawings, actually. Quite good. In fact really good. Let me take that back. Hah, Potter, I have your favorite drawing..."

"Cut!" Ligeia descended from the director's chair where her parasol was perched on the corner. "Let's think about motive. O'Doherty, what do you think is going through Mr. Malfoy's head in this scene?"

"He, wants his drawing back?" Casey grumbled. "That doesn't even make any sense. Draco Malfoy didn't make elaborate crayon drawings in his spare time."

"You're thinking too much about the Malfoy everyone knows. You need to embrace the character that's designed for this play. What is this version of Draco Malfoy like? What does he want?"

"Attention from his father and a solo, apparently. But the script is all wrong. Why are Cho Cang and Lavender Brown's parts mixed up?"

"My fault, actually," a student spoke up. "Script copying error."

"Why is Dumbledore flirting with Umbridge?"

"Artistic license," Ligeia replied. "We could spend all day pulling apart the script where it detracts from history. But it's not supposed to be an authentic reenactment. We're taking the years at Hogwarts before the Second War and condensing it into something that can be viewed in two acts. And having a bit of fun with it. Though Papa Argyle says Lucius Malfoy did consider studying ballet at one point in his life."

The faint sound of 'Quibbler trollop' could be heard under Casey's coughing. A spotted haired Hufflepuff raised her hand.

"Yes dear."

"A-About the song you want me to sing," Obderedria began. "About Hermonie's lament at being so smart compared to everyone else that she has no friends."

"Have you memorized it?"

"Yes. But she swears. In the second chorus."

"It's not that much of a swear," Casey said. "In a different context the word actually means 'female dog.' "

"Can you say it in character, dear?" Ligeia asked.

Obderedria's face turned red and her eyes slid towards the door out of the classroom.

"If you're uncomfortable swearing we can get the word in another way." Ligeia rested her cheek on the back of her hand in contemplation. "Maybe I can take my stuffed Jarvey from home. Or we get a swear frog to do it." That last musing caused the boy at the prop table sorting red licorice from Honeydukes to knock a bundle to the floor.

"Why don't we take a break?" Ligeia said. "Remember to practice those stretches. 'Breaking a leg' is not meant to be taken that literally."