Ariadne Gamp
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| Ariadne Clementine Gamp | |
|---|---|
| Biographical Information | |
| Born | 28 July 1993, 24 |
| City of Birth | London, England |
| Current City | London, England |
| Blood status | Half-blood |
| Also known as | Ari |
| Physical Information | |
| Gender | Female |
| Height | 5'4" |
| Hair Colour | Black |
| Eye Colour | Brown |
| Skin Colour | Tan |
| Relationships | |
| Father | Orion Gamp |
| Mother | Nadine Pinn |
| Siblings |
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| Extended Family | |
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| Magical Characteristics | |
| Wand(s) | |
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| Education | |
| School | Hogwarts |
| House | Gryffindor |
| Class of | 2011 |
| Occupation | |
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| Character Information | |
| Playby | Karla Crome |
| Kit | |
The adventurous Ariadne would have loved to grow up to be a pirate, but as that's not entirely sensible, she once would have settled with a job that would allow her to continue travelling the world as her father does.
Ari (as she prefers to be called) has instead decided to dedicate her career to following one of her loves in life, Quidditch. First, by reporting on it for the Daily Prophet under the guidance of Ginny Weasley, and most recently as commentator for the British and Irish League, under Lee Jordan's mentorship.
Physical
Ariadne is on the shorter side at 5'4" but doesn't let it stop her. Wearing bright colours with stripes she dresses like her personality, confident and bold. Her fashion roughly keeps up with trend, but if she sees something she really likes, she's going to wear it whatever.
Of mixed parentage, she takes after her mother considerably more in her appearance than her father. With a lean figure, Ariadne is athletic and energetic, with wide brown eyes and pale tan skin which deepens pleasingly under regular sunshine.
In her late teens and early twenties Ariadne became fond of straightening her hair, believing a more 'conventional' (read: white) hairstyle might help at the Daily Prophet. Her natural hair left to its own devices is tightly sprung and needs to be plaited into dreadlocks or pinned back so as not to engulf her. Ariadne is fond of the refined look of relaxing it, though in recent years she has begun to make peace with her natural curls, such are the conveniences of magic.
Ariadne feels the cold in winter more than some, and as such likes to layer up her clothes and has become a dab hand with warming charms. Whenever she can be away in warm, foreign climes, she prefers it.
She walks with short, purposeful strides and is often seen dashing between places or gabbling off at ten-to-the-dozen to a friend. Her hand gestures are large and expressive, and she speaks quickly and loudly. Though her accent is South English, she drops her consonants and speaks very informally to most people, other than when she's in trouble with her managers, or has encountered her pureblood paternal family (the Gamps), where she swaps into a much more reasoned way of speaking that slips up more often than not into her habitual slang.
Wand
Sycamore, 8 inches with dragon heartstring
The sycamore makes a questing wand, eager for new experience and losing brilliance if engaged in mundane activities. It is a quirk of these handsome wands that they may combust if allowed to become ‘bored,’ and many witches and wizards, settling down into middle age, are disconcerted to find their trusty wand bursting into flame in their hand as they ask it, one more time, to fetch their slippers.
As may be deduced, the sycamore’s ideal owner is curious, vital and adventurous, and when paired with such an owner, it demonstrates a capacity to learn and adapt that earns it a rightful place among the world’s most highly-prized wand woods.
As a rule, dragon heartstrings produce wands with the most power, and which are capable of the most flamboyant spells. Dragon wands tend to learn quicker than other types. While they can change allegiance if won from their original master, they always bond strongly with the current owner.
The dragon wand tends to be easiest to turn to the Dark Arts, though it will not incline that way of its own accord. It is also the most prone of the three cores to accidents, being somewhat temperamental. It also tends to be lethally hazardous if combined with certain woods, such as Cherry or Yew.
Personality
Ariadne was born under the sign of Leo. Her upbringing split between two families has helped her become more resilient and she has had to learn to be patient and diplomatic at times when her father and her mother rub each other the wrong way over matters. She enjoys attention, which was behind her wanting to spend more time with her father when her half sister was born, to be the only child again.
She is bold and talkative, which she gets from her father. Shadowing him on his travels for his job as she was brought up has given her a good, if not rather masculine approach on how to talk to absolute strangers and conduct herself in foreign lands. She's also seen the bad side too, where they've run into problems, and suffered nightmares and upset when it was a bit much for her.
At school she was a willing volunteer, and threw her energy behind everything social and to do with her house. She'd scale walls to prove a point if dared. She invented and lead chants for Gryffindor at matches, and for Hogwarts at the Tetrawizard Tournament. She'd have done more if she hadn't shouted her voice out first.
Instilled with a love of travel and investigation, Ariadne is overly curious about places, far more content to explore buildings and lands than to question someone on their own history. She enjoys tales from her mentors and friends about foreign travel or meeting different cultures, but forgets to ask them how they are or compliment them on a new haircut. She dreams a lot about travel.
As the years have gone by, Ariadne has discovered her energy and her humour can be attractive with the boys, and even to some girls. This completely threw her at first, and still does sometimes, because she tends to keep boys as friends, and nothing more. She naturally gets on better with boys than girls, but despite much speculation and some over-the-top flirting towards her, Ariadne has never had a romantic relationship with someone else. She's just never felt the need or interest.
Because of her confident stance, Ariadne can sometimes be over demanding on others, and overbearing. It can turn people off her, and against her if she tries to push them to do something they are dead set against. For the quietest of colleagues it can upset them, and Ariadne is at a loss as to what she's done wrong. Equally, if she is pushed to do something she doesn't want to do, her heels dig into the ground as if they were rooted to the spot and she can unleash a horrible string of words.
Favourites
- Quidditch
- Cloudy lemonade
- Sailing
- Travel
Name Meaning
Ariadne: Means "most holy", composed of the Cretan Greek elements αρι (ari) "most" and αδνος (adnos) "holy". In Greek mythology, Ariadne was the daughter of King Minos. She fell in love with Theseus and helped him to escape the Labyrinth and the Minotaur, but was later abandoned by him. Eventually she married the god Dionysus.
Childhood
Ariadne is the first born to her mother, Nadine, and the only child to her father, Orion. The couple were married while Ariadne was on the way, the Gamp family mostly intervening there to ask Orion to 'do right' of the witch who was expecting his first child.
When Ariadne was not long past her third birthday, her father strayed from her mother, which was sadly no great surprise to Nadine. He was lovely to her as it was, but they'd never intended to be together, both free souls who had enjoyed a very intense, fun relationship that had resulted in Ariadne, but otherwise would have been a long-distant memory.
The marriage was dissolved and Ariadne spent her childhood between both families, electing to spend more time with her father a few years after her half sister arrived, quietly preferring not to compete with another sibling and a step-father.
As a teenager, and in her holidays from Hogwarts she divides time between both families, her sister now old enough to attend Hogwarts too. They have a good relationship but Ariadne does not consider them to be the closest of siblings.
Home life as such was a little unsettled, but Ariadne has adjusted well since it has been the same since she was young. She and her father lived on a boat, which meant they can choose to moor anywhere around the coast. It suits his fancy to be able to travel, and write, as he writes travel guides for witches and wizards for a famous international publisher. His more serious, factual writing makes it through the edits, whereas his sillier observations on the world make it into Witch Weekly. Ariadne is both baffled and amused at his fanmail which stacks up at the WW offices until he retrieves it.
Her favourite times have been when she's been with her father as he works, during her summer. She almost considered giving up Hogwarts after her OWLs to join him full time, but father sat daughter down one night and said he would not hear of her throwing away an opportunity to open doors. NEWTs weren't the big end all, he knew - he had some, but the more important thing was he had some and it meant people gave you a second more of their time when they considered you for a job.
Also, he reasoned, neither of them would hear the end of it from Ariadne's grandfather, Mortimer, if they went swanning off round the world together and she neglected her studies. Ariadne found her grandparents on her father's side a bit intimidating, especially as her grandfather was an unspeakable. They were far more traditional, and she suspected he was a little disappointed his granddaughter was sorted into Gryffindor, when he was a Slytherin. Still, they always ensured she has the books she needed for school, when her father sometimes forgot.
Hogwarts
Bold, brave, confident, outspoken, Ariadne embraced being a Gryffindor and was fiercely proud. She asked the sorting hat if she'd fit and it agreed. Ariadne is a great friend and an ally for many. She will go the extra mile to help someone and her life is full of adventure.
At school Ariadne quickly cast aside her full name in preference of "Ari" or "Harry" as a nickname. Indulging in quidditch, she was a practical and useful member of the Gryffindor team for some games, but never overly shone. She was happiest if she took a boat out onto the lake, and if she did, she steeled herself with copious warming charms before she took a swim in the late spring and summer, where the water is still bitterly cold.
She made a great effort in her first year to find out the ins and outs of the castle, following other houses back to their common rooms just to find out where they were. It proved invaluable at times she was running late for lessons, to remember whether the secret passageway was open every second Wednesday of the month, or third.
Her academic performance was nothing to write home about, but she stayed out of running into trouble, and earned the odd house point every month. The Professors who taught her contributed a fair amount to how much effort she put in, for example, she found the wild Professor Kesali a bit of a hoot and was far more attentive in his lessons, than say in Transfiguration where they'd seen a few professors in recent years.
Amongst her house her name was known and she made efforts to try and learn a few of the new faces, but is not quite a big sister type, more of a big brother. She'd tease and cajole them and start the odd debate in the common room amongst her housemates, and if a fight broke out, she was more likely to jump straight into the middle of it than try and pull people apart from behind.
Her dorm mates found her a source of amusement and irritation at night because she talks in her sleep. Her worst house point loss was when she took a dare from a Slytherin in her third year and went into the forest without permission, and they set her up. Spitting feathers would have been one way to put it, but it was exactly what the Slytherin boy in question did when she found him later and hexed him.
Towards the end of her time, Ariadne was made Gryffindor prefect. Ariadne had taken an active part in all of Hogwarts life, for the past six years, including being part of the Hogwarts Quidditch team. She enjoyed helping the first years get to grip with being at Hogwarts. She also promoted team spirit within Gryffindor house, and rallied school support during the Tetrawizard.
Gryffindor Leo
This is a natural sign for Gryffindors, not least because the griffin is part lion. Gryffindors born under this sign are outgoing, friendly, affectionate, and likeable. They make friends easily and are crushed when their advances are rejected. Their romantic, chivalrous nature makes them perfect examples of all that is best in their House. However, they are also bossy, domineering, spendthrift, and overly dramatic (ever heard the phrase "drama queen?") They have sharp tempers and need to learn to direct their anger toward only needful causes. The natural creativity and flamboyance of Leo makes Gryffindors born under this sign good at most everything they attempt, provided they apply themselves to learning magic rather than using magic to hog the limelight.
Grades
- Astronomy - Acceptable Ariadne has a good working knowledge of the night sky, and has a particular knack for navigating using them
- Charms - Exceeds Expectations Ariadne particularly appears to enjoy practical and functional spells. Her results are often raw and sufficient, rather than refined which would earn her higher marks.
- Defence - Outstanding Gamp spent a proportion of her final term sitting regular detentions to focus her efforts, and as such raised her practical and theoretical knowledge to the required standard for her high examination result.
- Transfiguration - Acceptable Ariadne finds transfiguration more challenging, and should work hard on her final product
- Herbology - Exceeds Expectations Gamp thoroughly enjoys practical work over theory, and has a particular interest in hedgerow and marine studies
- Potions - Acceptable It is clear Gamp's interest in potions has diminished in the final year of OWL studies. Would not recommend she continues to study the subject after this year.
- History - Acceptable Following a great deal of hard study in her final term, Ariadne has achieved an acceptable grade in her OWL examination by the skin of her teeth.
- Arithmancy - Exceeds Expectations After a difficult start studying arithmancy, Ariadne now seems to be achieving a firmer grasp on the subject
For NEWTs, Ariadne studied Charms, Defense Against the Dark Arts, Herbology, Transfiguration and Arithmancy. By knuckling down in the last few months after the tragic and horrific acts of her paternal grandparents, Ariadne turned out an outstanding NEWT in charms, three exceeds expectations in Transfiguration, Defence and Arithmancy and an acceptable in Herbology. NEWT results
- Charms - Outstanding - Favourite! Kesali's a hoot
- Transfiguration - Acceptable - Tricky, but a worthy challenge
- Defence - Outstanding - Mad not to study it, nearly everyone does
- Arithmancy - Acceptable - Often hard, bit frustrating, and I'm somewhat regretting studying it
- Herbology - Exceeds Expectations - My favourite question is "is it edible?"
Daily Prophet
After leaving Hogwarts, Ariadne moved into a Diagon Alley flat with Nick Bevans and Virgil Carstairs. She went through a string of different jobs, ending up sacked or leaving for all manner of reasons, her heart not in any of them.
A chance encounter with the legendary Ginny Weasley led to the opportunity to be a trainee Quidditch Correspondent with the Daily Prophet, shadowing her all-time hero. This was not enough for her mother though, but in the eyes of her younger half sister she was doing great.
In 2012 she was caught up with the Muse scandal, and hoped she might make it as an investigative journalist, but ultimately Ariadne couldn’t turn her back on her deep love for quidditch. Gryffindor or not, getting into hot water and sticking her nose into business wasn’t quite her scene, but announcing what she saw was very much up her street.
Ariadne cut her teeth under Ginny at the Prophet, proud of getting even a few words in the sports columns at the start. The more she reported and attended matches in her capacity as a newspaper reporter, the more she got to know the movers and shakers, the players and the commentators.
While continuing to work for the Prophet, Ariadne supported her income picking up shifts at Death & Co. to help pay her share with Nick and Virgil in their Diagon Alley flat share. They both pulled in Ministry wages, and Virgil even covered the rent when he went away on sabbatical.
2014 was an important year for Ariadne - the Quidditch World cup in the Patagonian desert. Sixteen countries competed, with England, Scotland and Ireland not qualifying, but tiny Wales making the cut, managed by Gwenog Jones. Viktor Krum even came out of retirement at 38 for Bulgaria, and the Quidditch World went bonkers.
Commentating
Lee Jordan (now in his late thirties) who had started out commentating Hogwarts quidditch matches, and become the voice of Potterwatch during the war, was the most famous voice on the airwaves for quidditch commentary. Ariadne flocked like a moth from Ginny’s mentorship to his. Why worry about how many words she’d get cut to by the editor when she could say as much as she wanted on a magical microphone?
Ariadne got her break with Jordan’s support and is now the freshest face - and voice - commentating on quidditch matches up and down the country. Her voice is also broadcast on the Wireless live or in snippets later, and there’s been some minor media interest, especially as Ariadne still appears single - inviting the likes of Witch Weekly to speculate.
Ariadne has just been signed for her first full season commentating (the season starting Autumn 2017) and it feels like she’s finally getting her life together.
