InsaneJournal

OUT OF CHARACTER:

Name: Brandi
Timezone: Central
AIM: brandied plum
E-mail: brandied.plum @ gmail
Availability for Playing: Very absurdly over-available.
Previous Role-Playing Experience: In addition to my other four characters here, lots.
Where did you find us?: Hiding in the tree house! Now it's my turn to hide and you find me!
Intended Journal: clear_faced

IN CHARACTER:

Full Name: Eloise Rebecca Midgen
Nicknames: It's ... really hard to nickname Eloise. El? Elo? If you want to try something, go for it.
Gender: Female
Age/DOB/Sign: 25 / January 1, 1981 / Capricorn
Blood Status: Halfblood
Sexual Orientation: Straight
Schooling: Hufflepuff, 1992 - 1996; Beauxbatons 1996 - 1999
Occupation: Translator in the Dept of International Magical Cooperation.
Residence: Her childhood home in Ashburton, Devon, England (when she moved back to England, her parents gave her the house, as they were remaining in France).
Wand Type: 9 in, apple, unicorn tail hair
Played-By: Emily VanCamp

Appearance: At Hogwarts, Eloise was known for just one feature: her horrible acne. She tried everything to rid herself of the horrible little bumps, even going so far at the beginning of her third year as to try to hex them off (which really only resulted in hexing her nose off. Madam Pomfrey got it fixed back in place, though everyone was convinced and, therefore, teased her that it got put back on crooked and off-centre). Of course, her face has cleared up now (and her nose is lovely, thank you), but everyone still knows her as the girl with the acne. Beyond that, she's a little petite at 5'2", with blonde hair and brown eyes. She's slim, which she attributes to spending her days running around after an energetic toddler.

Personality: Eloise is a bit of a worrier. Or maybe more than a bit. She has always been a bit of a worrier, worrying about her friends and family, but this seems to have gotten only worse since her daughter was born. The tiniest cough is surely a sign of some major disease, a scraped knee is nearly the end of the world. Her worrying carries over to friends and family, too, and she'll fuss over and mother them until they firmly tell her to Please Stop. Even before she was actually a mother, she was mothering her friends.

Even with her constant worries, Eloise is one of the sweetest people you will ever meet. She truly embodies the word "sweetheart" and very rarely has harsh words for anyone (her no-good ex-fiancé is the glaring exception to this rule: she has some very specific not-so-sweet words to describe him). She is, of course, prone to outbursts or a little bit of shouting when she's particularly stressed, but she is mostly just very sweet and soft-spoken.

Eloise suffers a bit from "once bitten, twice shy." After the disaster that was her relationship with her ex, she is a little wary of re-entering the dating world. As hard as it is to be a single working mother with no family around, she doesn't want to find a man just to be Vivi's father, and right now, she still just doesn't trust men to not all be like her ex.

History:

• Daughter: Vivienne Diana Midgen (halfblood, b. May 18, 2003)
  
• Ex-Fiancé and Baby-Daddy: Julien Bertrand (halfblood, Beaxubatons alum 1999); lying, cheating scumbag magical winemaker
  
  
• Father: Alexander Midgen (halfblood, Ravenclaw alum 1968); restauranteur
  
• Mother: Amélie Midgen née Dubois (muggleborn, Beauxbatons alumna 1968); magical beautician
  
• Brother: Lucien Midgen (halfblood, Gryffindor 1990 - 96; Beauxbatons 1996-97); Healer

Eloise Rebecca Midgen was one of the first babies born in 1981: born to Alexander and Amélie Midgen and rounding out the Midgen family of three into one of four in the wee hours of January 1, 1981. She was a happy baby, quite content to lie about in her crib and suck on her toes. Older brother Lucien was still little enough to be both fascinated by his little sister, and a little disgruntled that he got a sister instead of a brother. Eloise and Lucien were each other's frequent play-mate growing up, though they bickered frequently over toys and vied against each other for attention from their parents, and before long they had their own friends and played with each other less and less. But they were still close friends regardless.

In 1990, Lucien went off to Hogwarts, and although Eloise missed her brother terribly, she was glad to have her own friends to play with even more now than she had been before: at least now she still had playmates even with her brother gone. Of course, it wasn't long before Eloise joined Lucien at Hogwarts in 1992, though she was sorted into Hufflepuff while Lucien had been sent to Gryffindor. But still, Eloise was a friendly girl and she easily made friends in her new house.

Unfortunately, there were only two major things that Eloise was known for in her years at Hogwarts: the incident at the start of her third year (1994) when she tried to hex her acne off her face (and ended up hexing her nose off instead!), and the fact that at the start of her fifth year (1996), she and Lucien (starting his seventh year) were pulled out of Hogwarts by their parents, who were concerned by the unrest in wizarding UK, with the rumours of Voldemort's return and all, so the family moved to Amélie's hometown of Marseille, France, to wait out the war. Alexander left the restaurant he co-owned in Ashburton in the capable hands of his partner, and got a job in a Marseille restaurant, while Amélie was easily able to find work as a beautician. Lucien and Eloise were transferred to Beauxbatons for the remainder of their schooling.

Eloise was finishing up her sixth year of schooling, her second and Beauxbatons, when news came of Voldemort's downfall. By this point, Alexander and Amélie were quite settled in Marseille, and Lucien was training as a Healer in the local wizarding hospital, and with Eloise having only one year left at Beauxbatons, the Midgen family decided to remain in France for the foreseeable future. Though Eloise did miss her friends back at Hogwarts, she was a little glad to be surrounded by classmates who didn't tease her about her nose being crooked (it wasn't!). After she graduated from Beauxbatons in 1999, she decided to remain in France with her family, seeking work as a translator. She eventually settled into a governmental position, serving as a French/English translator in the French Ministry's Department of International Magical Cooperation.

Her post-school life wasn't entirely revolving around work, of course. In her last year at Beauxbatons, she began dating one of her year-mates, Julien Bertrand, and they continued dating after school, as she sought work as a translator and he started working in his family's winery. Eloise thought they had a wonderful relationship, especially since he never pressured her to sleep with him when she felt she wasn't ready. What she didn't realise was that every time they said goodnight with a kiss and a parting of the ways, she went home alone ... and he didn't. So when he proposed to her in July of 2002, she happily accepted and moved into his flat with him. In early September, Eloise came home from work early one day with a headache, and she found Julien on the sitting room sofa with one of her best friends. They got into a fight, in which Eloise learned exactly what her fiancé had been up to in the past three years while they'd been dating, and that he'd only proposed to her under the pressure of his parents. Eloise ended up throwing her ring back in his face and moving back in with her parents.

It was only a few weeks later that her life completely changed all over again: she discovered she was pregnant. After having found out about Julien's infidelity, she had absolutely no desire to allow him to be a part of their child's life, so she talked things over with her family and came to the decision to transfer to the British Ministry and return to England and her childhood home. Alexander's restaurant partner back in Ashburton had been maintaining their old house for them, so Alexander and Amélie signed the house over to Eloise, for her to move into. Eloise packed her bags and, without any word to Julien, left France to return to England seven years after having left.

Eloise settled into her new job in the British Ministry of Magic, still a translator in the Department of International Magical Cooperation, and she settled into the house that she had grown up in, as well. Being single, pregnant, and living so far from her family was difficult, but Eloise was as friendly as ever and strove to make friends at work. In late April, as she neared her due date, her parents came out to Ashburton to stay with Eloise until the baby, a little girl who she named Vivienne, was born on May 18th. Alexander and Amélie stuck around for a while after the baby was born, but once they returned to France, it was just Eloise and Vivi, alone in the house. Fortunately, the Ministry provided day care, so Eloise didn't need to rely on having a nanny or finding somewhere for Vivi to stay while she was at work all day. Her job also allowed her to sometimes work from home, so that she could spend more time with her daughter.

Connections:

• Jill Sloper: former roommate
  
• Emil Higgs, Sean Wood: former year/housemates
  
• Lena Wood: friend
  
• Jack Sloper: coworker in the Department of IMC

SAMPLES:

First Person: At least 100 words.

Third Person: At least 250 words.