Layla Styles

Layla Styles
Biographical Information
Born	7 March 1990, 28
City of Birth	Dublin, UK
Current City	London, UK
Residence	Dorothea's Apartments
Blood status	Muggle-born
Also known as	Lala
Physical Information
Gender	Female
Height	5'
Hair Colour	Originally Brown
Eye Colour	Brown
Skin Colour	Fair
Relationships
Father	Fergus McDermott
Mother	Michelle Styles
Dating: Jason Marren
Magical Characteristics
Wand(s)
10" springy Ebony wood, with a bent shaft and a Unicorn hair core
Special Abilities	Metamorphmagus
Education
School	Hogwarts
House	Slytherin
Class of	2008
Classes Included
Character Information
Playby	Emily Browning
Biography Network Threads
Amara

Layla, or Lala as she is more frequently called, is short, obsessed with the Internet, and constantly confused by the wizarding world. Although an artist by profession, she is sometimes forced to work more staid jobs to cover her bills, something that is made difficult by her wild mood swings and dislike of most of humanity. She's wild, rather loud and loves cats, clothes and the internet culture. She'll make you uncomfortable and regret nothing! Chances are, if she's angry, her hair will instantly turn a vivid red, right in front of your eyes.

History

Michelle Styles met Fergus McDermott at Glastonbury Festival on June 17th, 1989 while The Pixies were playing, and somehow, she danced her way into Fergus' arms and that was that. They fell in love on June 18th while “I’m Gonna Be” played. By November, Michelle had moved from London to Fergus' miniscule Dublin apartment, and they were expecting a child. By March the next year Michelle was at the hospital giving birth to an adorable baby girl.

Fergus was nowhere in sight.

Brokenhearted, trying to figure what what she could do in a foreign town, barely out of university and with a newborn child, Michelle was at her wits end and refused to see her own daughter for days after her birth. But when the baby was finally in her arms, after an emergency intervention by her mother, a strong-willed widow and ex-university professor, it all clicked into place. The little girl was perfect, and happily had almost nothing of her father in her. She'd be named Layla, because Michelle was certain that from that point onwards she'd have her on her knees, begging, before she'd go insane. And while the inspiration for her middle name, Eileen, was nowhere near appropriate for a young infant, it was one of Michelle's favorite songs and no one could do anything about it.

Once Michelle had found a job, life settled down easily, as it was agreed that her mother, Mary, would stay home with Layla, who was incredibly well-behaved, and had both women well-rested and brimming with happiness. Well, until Layla’s metamorphmagus abilities revealed themselves in spectacular fashion, her hair turning purple on her third birthday while Michelle played The Beatles's "Birthday.” Normally, any human being would panic. Michelle stared at her dumbfounded for a few moments, settling on blaming her hectic work schedule for the hallucination, but just as she’d decided that, Layla’s hair turned pink. So she laughed and urged her to do it again, which she did.

Of course, she hadn't considered the repercussions it could have if anybody were to witness it. A few hours later, when Layla was in bed and she’d had time to fully digest the information, she was unable to dispel images of her child being seized and locked away in some government facility for alien testing. Happily, Lala - the girl’s name for herself, which she infected the rest of her family with - understood "no", so the incidents were kept at home.

Other than that, however, her problems were few; she was curious and very active, always signing up for this after school activity or that club. Friendly and relatively obedient in school, apart from the few times she questioned her teachers, mostly, Lala was raising herself... She never asked for help, and once she was told something it did not need repeating. She did have a bit of a lazy streak, but if threatened with no play-time or unplugging the PC, it did the job.

At the age of eight, she started showing other abilities apart from her sudden changes in physical appearance, which was when Michelle started to get a little worried. Well, more than a little, because they seemed to be directly connected with her emotions, and the girl switched between emotions as quickly as her future career. After a few tense years, all was explained when she turned 11, and it transpired that Lala was a witch and there existed an entire magical world, kept secret from the muggles, something Michelle was more enthusiastic about than Layla.

Life at Hogwarts was generally awesome, if incredibly weird. She made friends just as easily as she had during her muggle schooling, and attempted to convert everyone to the wonders of muggle technology although it didn’t work properly in the magical environs of Hogwarts, just as much as all her friends attempted to explain the magical world to her. Of which she managed to grasp a little less than 20%. Fascinated with some subjects, like Care of Magical Creatures and Charms, Lala couldn’t bear the tedium of others, like History of Magic and Astronomy. Despite her hatred of those subjects, her interest in other areas of the magical world was great enough that she made it her mission to read the entire Hogwarts library, something she didn’t even come close to achieving. Despite that, the moment she arrived home on break, she'd hug and kiss her computer, crooning to the lovely Kitty (of course she named her computer - doesn’t everyone?) for at least an hour. Almost her entire Summer break would be spent locked inside and basically glued to her computer, attempting to catch up with everything she’d missed while away from it.

During her fourth year she started hanging out with what were best described as the delinquent element of the school, and she picked up some rather distasteful habits, making several poor life decisions and generally started on some things at an age that was definitely too young. However, she still managed to set some boundaries for herself, even if said boundaries were well past appropriate for her age, they at least ensured that she maintained average grades. And while her mother had picked up on her... experimenting, she had given Lala some cautionary looks but chose to remain silent. She knew her own daughter and she knew the only way she'd ever learn was if it hit her in the face. While Lala got a lot of slaps from life, she managed to pull herself along, somehow.

By her sixth year, she had grown more distant from her family becoming something of a punk herself. She had gotten herself into some situations (most things reminiscent of teenage rebellion, taken to far more worrying levels) that left her bitter, rather closed and blasé, beginning to use her sharp tongue as a defense mechanism. Despite that, she somehow maintained good relations with some of her professors, keeping a firm line between schoolwork and... everything else.

Beginning drawing at the tender age of three, by 16 she had finally made enough money from her summer jobs to get herself a graphics tablet and it was then she finally knew what she was going to do with her life.

At 17 she took a class in painting enchantment so she could begin to master her own style: a fusion of digital painting, printing and enchanting. She graduated from Hogwarts with mediocre grades, not the least bit interested in success, as it had literally no relevance to her future career, and soon after returning home, she packed her bags, hugged her mother and grandmother and took off for London, where she's currently struggling to make a living.

Basically incapable of holding a desk job and working after a set schedule, or responding to any sort of authority, she mostly gets by through freelancing her art. However, from time to time she is forced to take on a job to cover her bills. Thanks to her inconsistent income, she has the bad habit of showing up unannounced at her friends houses and demanding food to fill her aching belly when her fridge has been empty for too many days.