Theta Pepper
 | |
| Theta Jemima Pepper-Gamp (Pepper) | |
|---|---|
| Biographical Information | |
| Born | 19 September 1990, 27 |
| City of Birth | Sandy, Bedfordshire, England |
| Current City | London, England |
| Residence | Moonstone Mews |
| Blood status | Half-blood |
| Physical Information | |
| Gender | Female |
| Height | 5'2" |
| Hair Colour | Dark Auburn |
| Eye Colour | Blue |
| Skin Colour | Pale |
| Relationships | |
| Father | Monty Pepper |
| Mother | Catherine Pepper |
| Siblings | |
| Extended Family | |
| |
| |
| Children | |
| Magical Characteristics | |
| Wand(s) | |
| |
| Patronus | Mouse |
| Education | |
| School | Hogwarts |
| House | Ravenclaw |
| Class of | 2009 |
| Occupation | |
| |
| Character Information | |
| Playby | Holly Grainger |
| Kit | |
Theta Pepper is a former Ravenclaw student who now works as an Unspeakable with her uncle, Francis Pepper, in the Time Turner Repair Workshop.
Despite her marriage to fellow unspeakable Hyperion Gamp in 2014, Theta is an independent, determined feminist, geek and quidditch enthusiast. Her self confidence issues are converted into determination for study and other hobbies, and although she makes friends with many, she feels no deep connection with one or two of them as she would like. Theta is a specialist in creating time turners.
Appearance
Theta Pepper is very short. At 5ft2, she has long given up on the prospect of growing any more. Her petite stature presents problems in a world meant for people at least a few inches taller than her, though she has become very adept with a wand to reach things, and is content to climb on the odd chair to reach.
Her hair is a dark auburn, a prevalent colour in her family. As a child she grew it as long as possible, parted down the middle and was very proud of its length and strength. As a teenage witch she grew to resent it, though was too scared to cut it should she dislike having short hair and it be years to grow it back without potions or charms. In her sixth year, Theta decided enough was enough during the Easter break, and cut her hair to above her shoulders and rejoiced. She still hid behind her fringe. She is now more open to styling it, though has preferred it long in recent years.
Theta's eyes are blue, and her skin is on the pale side. She tries to remember to wear make-up but forgets, not caring quite as much as she could about her appearance with motherhood. After all, she reasons, these same people see me every day, and her appearance does not impact her skill at work.
Personality
Others would describe Theta as sensible, practical and unflappable. She seemingly takes everything in her (short) stride, from standing before other unspeakables to present, or raising her wand to perform complicated transfiguration. Tending to be the one in the group who would speak sense in a crisis, Theta has been regarded by her colleagues as being the cool cucumber. In reality, its more because they're talking and she's been thinking.
Her outward personality has led her to be a confidant of friends who come to her for motherly advice. She dispenses, when she can, over cups of tea, kitchen tables rather than Hogwarts dormitory beds. Tolerant of many, it goes against her nature to put someone out. Secret champion of the minority.
In reality, Theta in prone to being chronically worried about everything, even the smallest details. She berates herself over the smallest of mistakes, lying awake at night digging up past choices and worrying needlessly. It doesn't help her that she is fiercely independent to be her own person.
Theta also keeps other things secret - from writing under a pseudonym as a teenager, to being in contact with her older cousin, who was responsible for the obliviation of her late aunt Claire Pepper, while keeping the rest of the family in the dark as to his whereabouts.
Early History
Theta is the first born of three girls to Octavius and Catherine Pepper. Her younger sisters are Zeta and Eta. None of the girls are actively overjoyed at the choice of naming after the greek alphabet…
Theta was a worrier as a child, though as her sisters arrived, she began to show responsible tendencies, keeping a watchful, responsible eye over the brood of sisters and cousins.
She enjoyed her time at Hogwarts particularly, and was glad she got to spend a year with Eta at school before leaving. In her seventh year, Theta studied runes, transfiguration, history of magic, arithmancy, charms and astronomy, which are considered a heavy workload. Theta relished the challenge (despite her personal worries - they convert into the need to strive and succeed and improve her marks) and they matched the requirements and best background for her preferred career.
The summer between sixth and seventh year, she spent time working at Scribbulus Writing Instruments, which was fine and gainful financially, but wasn't at all a choice for the long term. During the evenings she was looking after Francis, Ambrose and Tim as best she could, even if her cooking was decidedly hit and miss.
Theta always wanted to become her uncle's apprentice and learn to create time turners, though she knew a few family traditions were stacked against her - firstly, she is not a son, she is a niece, and secondly, she's female. In tradition, the Pepper men have been the time turner makers for the Ministry over generations. Strictly speaking it would be Ambrose up for consideration, or Tim, and Theta worried that Francis will prefer to wait for either of his two sons to become of age. She had trouble broaching the subject with him, and did all she could in the meantime to help her cause.
Should everything have fallen through, she would have settled with creating brooms - which leads to her hobbies.
Besides collecting clocks (which drives her family mad - they froze them all in her room when she was away at school), Theta follows the Holyhead Harpies religiously. As an all female team, they not only pander to her enjoyment of the sport as a witch, but also to her ideals as a feminist on the quiet. Her favourite players at present are Ginny Weasley, the seeker, and Alyson O'Sullivan, a chaser. Theta's own participation with the Ravenclaw team wasn't on a match with either, but she threw herself into it with all her heart and determination.
When not falling off brooms, Theta spent time with her tabby cat Oscar, who has been her companion since she began at school. Scrapbooking from newspapers is another geeky interest, not only cutting out the Holyhead Harpies mentions into one scrapbook, Theta follows stories on Muggles and Magic, inequality and letters. To a casual browser, it looks like Theta is an avid fan of a witch who regularly writes into the Prophet, Nicola Bourbaki.
The reality is that Theta is Nicola Bourbaki, who writes eloquently on a variety of current affairs reported in the Prophet. She adopted the pseudonym to be taken seriously and protect her identity as a student. The name is from Nicolas Bourbaki which was a collective pseudonym for a group of mathematicians who wrote a series of books on modern advanced mathematics.
Keeping up the pretence of being another person in public letters to a newspaper wasn't so hard until she began to receive letters directed at Nicola...
Exam Results
| OWL | NEWT | |
|---|---|---|
| Arithmancy | E | O |
| Astronomy | A | E |
| Charms | E | O |
| DADA | A | - |
| Herbology | A | - |
| History | E | E |
| Muggle St. | O | - |
| Potions | A | - |
| Runes | E | O |
| Transfiguration | O | O |
Unspeakable Trainee
Theta trained under her uncle, Francis Pepper, to create time turners for the Ministry. It's a family tradition and Theta excels at both the precision and the intricate charms. It requires a lot of concentration and traditionally, apprentices have been wizards. Theta was very proud to learn and studied hard from summer 2009. She quickly became proficient in much of the standard repairs and recalibrations and then learned how to create her own from scratch. It takes hours, and can go wrong.
During this time she started to go out with fellow unspeakable, Christopher Dant, from spell experimentation. The two were rather cute together and happy, but eventually the shine sort of wore off and the two drifted apart. Theta is still friendly with him, but she didn't necessarily feel she was going to set up for life with Chris.
Theta's beloved cat, Oscar also passed away which left Theta feeling pretty low. Her Ministry friends about her age invited her to move into Radford House with them for some company, and things improved for Theta.
Qualified Unspeakable
In 2011 Theta was allowed to drop the 'trainee' from her title and call herself an Unspeakable.
On October 31st 2012, she was involved in the investigation and resolution of the Futurist attack, with the day looping over and over reinforced Theta’s wish to continue studying time. She has continued to refine her craft with timeturners, following the family tradition, but has also dedicated time to the studies with the veil and its unique impact on time.
Theta continues to work with her uncle, Francis Pepper in the time workshop and has also published some papers in conjunction with other time research wixes based in foreign Ministries. She aspires one day to achieve an Order of Merlin or similar recognition internationally… if she can find the time… joking.. joking…
Marriage and Children
In 2012, Theta began a relationship with fellow potions unspeakable Hyperion Gamp. It had just been a late evening working in the Department but it led to something more. Theta was charmed by his gentlemanly ways, and he was somehow different around her. Their relationship deepened and on her discovery of the murkier side of Eradicate Lycanthropy Foundation. Theta convinced him to cut ties with the organisation altogether. It was difficult, and uncomfortable and she received unwanted attention from the more radical members of the group.
Theta moved out of Radford House to live with Perry in a very narrow townhouse in Diagon Alley, so narrow you literally couldn’t swing a cat. The couple would know, adopting two while there.
In late summer 2014 the pair married. The young family moved to a modest property in Moonstone Mews before celebrating the birth of their first, Jocasta in 2015, and then Theodora in 2016. The names of their daughters broke with tradition from both families, Theta and her sisters all named after the Greek alphabet and Hyperion’s after constellations. The names, Theta would explain, were both traditional wix names that could be shortened to something gender-neutral, Jo(e) and Theo.
Theta still continues to have an impressive collection of clocks, and following the Holyhead Harpies, but she has taken well to motherhood and her myriad of blood and in-law family members.
