Alina Dalca-Pratt

Alina Kalyna Dalca-Pratt (Dalca)
Biographical Information
Born	1 June 1977, 41
City of Birth	Borșa, Romania
Blood status	Half-blood
Physical Information
Gender	Female
Height	5'3
Hair Colour	Blonde
Eye Colour	Blue
Relationships
Married: Edward Pratt (Divorced)
Magical Characteristics
Wand(s)
Procured from a local wand maker, it is a spruce wood wand with a dragon heartstring core. It is eleven inches long and springy. There are no decorations on the handle or the shaft. (Made by Unknown)
Education
School	Other School
Class of	1995
Classes Included
Occupation
Title: Chaser (Romanian National Team) Title: Assistant Coach Team: Chudley Cannons British and Irish Quidditch League Title: Planning Committee International Confederation of Wizards Quidditch Committee
Character Information
Playby	Megan Hilty
Biography Threads
Jessica

Attended Koldovstoretz (Russia). Alina has always been known for her directness and ambition. She is driven and made a name for herself in Eastern European Quidditch. After playing professionally for 15 years, she retired and found her next niche in coaching. She is a stern coach and expects perfection from her team. Some would have said she’d have stayed in Romania forever, preferring steadfastness over anything else, but after meeting the man of her dreams, it’s been like a whirlwind and her next adventure is in England, assistant coaching the Chudley Cannons and getting to know her new husband, a new country, and a new team.

Physical Description

Alina’s appearance is somewhat mystifying for her history. Her professional quidditch days do not show so much in favor of soft (and ample) curves. She is short, at only 5’3” and quite compact. It worked well for her time on the Transylvanian National Team, she was very fast and could easily avoid wide shots because of her small size. Despite being short, Alina is very strong, particularly in her legs. She is rarely seen without heels on (off the pitch, of course) and tries her best to remain kempt. She has strong facial features, a wide smile, and very blonde hair and blue eyes. Alina devotes time to keeping up her appearance and is familiar with a wide variety of spells and things to help maintain. She also likes bright colors, loud statements, and all the shiny things she did not get to have when she was younger/in school.

Personality Description

Alina’s personality is quite focused. She has a lot of drive and ambition and doesn’t take nonsense from people. Her opinion of herself is quite high (some call it prideful) and she knows what skills she has to offer, both on and off the pitch. Going to school during the Soviet era in Russia, without the access to Durmstrang that some others might have had, it was all about proving merit. While Alina’s classwork was never at the top, she immediately took to the pitch. She could show her drive and competitive nature for the best purpose. She likes precision and direct action. Alina is not someone who plays games with people, professionally or personally. It wastes time and Alina is not a fan of wasted time. This has made her quite adept at making quick decisions (though not rash ones), because if you don't seize an opportunity you never know when you'll get another one.

Additionally, she does not like being underestimated because of her height, so she developed a rather big personality off the pitch. Alina is loud and hardworking, but also passionate. Truth be told, Alina got away with a lot of skipped homework and failed assignments because of her skill on the pitch. As an adult, Alina developed strong leadership skills. Some might say she is harsh and has expectations that are far too high for her and other players. She did not tolerate losing. She still doesn’t, truth be told, and when challenges come up, Alina likes to take all things by the horns. She also isn’t a fan of frivolity. Well, she wasn’t. It seems life has taken a sort of turn, and Alina might just have to adjust to one of the first truly off the cuff decisions she’s ever made.

Off the pitch, Alina still retains her high expectations and desire for perfection. She is, however, more affectionate and warm toward people. She is a good team player, which extends to all aspects of her life. She is also just generally loud, and she likes to have things her way. She is always an asset (and annoyance) on the World Cup committee because of this. In downtime, Alina gets restless. It’s why she’s got two jobs and travels often for whatever it is she is needed to do. It is a rare moment indeed that she finds she isn’t busy.

History: Alina was born in Romania on the border of the Ukraine during the time of the USSR. Though she was far removed from the center of Romanian government or politics, it did not mean her life was not impacted by the changes. They would play more of a role as she aged. For the early part of her life she lived on a farm with her parents and siblings. She was always in the middle of the pack, so Alina did a lot to get attention. It was not necessarily always a good idea.

With so many children and few monetary resources, Alina was not afforded the chance to go to Durmstrang. It did not fit the ideals of newer organization in Romanian government (strongly tied to central Russian leadership). The old families had opportunities to outsource education to Durmstrang. For regular witches and wizards, there was a Russian school, Koldovstoretz ,suitable for the Dalca family. It was an eight year program, four years learning general magical skills and four years of training in specific disciplines for career success. Alina’s older siblings had gone and returned, proficient wizards and witches, and when it was Alina’s turn, she was nervous but happy to go. She got her locally made wand (they did not travel far) and inherited the books her family members used in order to go. Uniforms too, actually.

Education was standard and students were drilled daily to achieve proficiency. Everything was made to be efficient, uniform. Of course, deeper than that there was a sense of competitiveness. One of the only places it actively showed was on the quidditch pitch. It was the perfect mix to appease everyone: you could be the best while being a team. The school had several teams, as students were allowed to organize themselves – there were as many teams as were created. Alina began playing in her second year.

She didn’t start out amazing, but her focus and drive helped her practice – and find the best teachers. There was a general flying instructor to help, but the best knowledge was garnered from the other students. By her fifth year at school, Alina had risen well above the ranks. It was, actually where her future was marked. The rest of the (mostly) dissolving USSR was struggling, but Quidditch! That was something they could do – compete against other nations and win.

Alina was approached at 16 for one of the many Russian teams. It was a small break, but one she could make easily. School, while it had served her basic education, was not going to provide her anything else in the way of Quidditch, so Alina dropped out (against her family’s wishes) and began her career in quidditch. Generally, she did not get much play time in the beginning, despite her skill. She was very small, and though she was good for school, it was nothing compared to the national team players.

Alina took advantage of the opportunity to learn everything she could. She was eager and ambitious. Because she was small and fast though without the eyesight, it was immediately decided she was suitable for chasing. Quaffles could be cumbersome; if you were quick enough evasion could be easy. Alina took to the assignment and whenever she got the chance to play, she did the most she could to prove her abilities.

It took a little while, but Alina found her legs again and her confidence. She started to get more play time and after four years on the Russian team, and the reinstatement of the Romanian national team as a fixture of international quidditch (even if it was only in Eastern Europe at the time), she was invited to play for them. It would be closer to home, though she didn’t move back to the farm when she returned. She moved to Cluj-Napoca – not a huge city by any means, but much bigger than the farm.

She had a little flat, hardly ever lived in (because of schedules), but Alina maintained for the sake of having somewhere to go home to when they weren’t on the road. Over the years, she proved her mettle as a member of the national team, she was even in the first game they’d played outside of the country since before the 1960s: participation in the 1991 Quidditch World Cup. They lost, but it didn’t diminish the success of reentering the biggest competition in the world.

Alina played for the Romanian team for eleven years. There were many injuries, a lot of disappointments, many scandals, and also a lot of success. While they might not have won a World Cup, they had managed to be one of the fastest growing teams. Alina found herself, though no less in love with the game, not feeling up to playing that much anymore and spent much of her active time playing working with the newer players. It was natural, when she was 32 that she issued her retirement and announced her transition to assistant coaching.

It was big news in Romania, though probably not anywhere else. Alina was a decent player, she had a good record and scored many points – they even won more than a fair share of games too. Plus, Alina had cultivated a reputation for style at events in Eastern Europe, so she managed to find herself helping with the Quidditch World Cup when it was in season (it was a very good year for her last year).

Perhaps even better was meeting a certain gentleman. While Alina had always been sensible and steadfast, focused and direct, she didn’t really anticipate meeting someone and having everything… sort of fall into place faster than she could have expected. They were married within months of knowing one another and while he was in England for his job, Alina was closing loose ends on her part and preparing to join her new, charming husband. It was a bit of an upheaval, the sort that no one expected from Alina: but love was love, right?

She was scheduled to arrive for Christmas – a sort of gift! But, Alina managed to tie those ends fairly quickly and actually secure the perfect position in England! She knew her new husband would be so glad to see her early and she packed away everything she needed, dealt with the final closings on her flat and headed to England. It just seems like the right choice!

Current Job

Alina is an assistant coach for the Chudley Cannons. Her duties as an assistant coach are aligning her training techniques to the team’s larger strategy. She is also responsible for making coaching sessions and trainings on a schedule compatible with games and full team practices. At practice, she is primarily responsible for the chasers. Because of her extensive experience as a chaser, that is her area. She must work with the other assistant coaches and the head coach to ensure the team remains a team.

As some secondary work, Alina works with the Quidditch World Cup Committee, which is delegated certain responsibilities for planning the event. Alina focuses on fundraising and press (it was a strong point of hers). This takes up the second half of her year, although it usually means the regular season is somewhat over, so coaching duties are light. Because Alina likes to stay busy she needs a variety of things to do. She has amassed quite a network of people who will support quidditch – and as an extension, support her (it wasn’t a secret that putting a beautiful woman in the face of fundraising would only help).

Alina has been playing quidditch since the earliest she could. She excelled at it and it became her contribution, the way she could bring prestige to where she came from. After playing in the smaller league, she moved up to national Quiddtich for the Romanian team where she played Chaser for as long as she played. As she got older, she moved into more of a mentorship position on the team which translated to a coaching position. Although the Romanian team hadn't won any international titles, it has steadily improved over her time on the team (at reinstatement) and until today. Alina needed to move to England to be with her husband, so she used her contacts to secure her position with the Cannons.

For her work on the Quidditch world cup, Alina is a respected player who has participated in the event since she started playing. Additionally, she is an attractive female who can organize fundraising, which never hurts in raising money. She is also one of the many international voices on the committee.